Redwood National Forest, CA (10.29.13)

I have had a lower back problem for a while, and it has gotten worse in the last ten days.

For the last two mornings I was inspired to get out of bed and stand on the bedroom floor– meditating in the standing position– before doing anything else. My back is the most painful at this time.

I breathed through my feet and connected with Mother Earth, drawing her energy up my body while breathing consciously. Through a detailed, inwardly guided process, I felt my light body merging with the spirit of the forest and I experienced that the forest spirit healed areas in my light body. I spent 40 minutes on this yesterday and maybe 20 minutes today. I was guided to move in certain dance-like ways and also to make certain sounds. It reminded me of dances and chants of indigenous cultures, but I was not imitating them. Today I was approached by two beings that are in my drawing series called “Entering the Void with the Eyes Open”– Bear, and also a forest woman being that I don’t have a name for. At the end, of these meditations, my pain was significantly diminished, and I could move and walk without pain.

This morning, at the end of the meditation, I did the Inka Medicine Wheel breathing exercises that bring the heavens and Mother Earth together within me. It was perfect and beautiful.

I see that my “sacred ritual artwork” is feeding my coming into “ayni,” or right relationship with nature. My current drawing series involves connecting with the forest spirit and the series before that contains beings that are now coming to me.

I am ever so grateful for these experiences.

 

If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted like trees.

— Rainer Maria Rilke