Hosting with the elementals

[Ursula Hillbrand]

I would like to explore with you how elementals can help in hosted processes.

 

This goes back to an experience we witnessed during a practice day in the EC last year.

My dear colleague and mate Helen Titchen has already referred to that special day in an earlier blog post on natural ways of working.

 

So the idea of the campfire around which this day was organised, the topic on observing how nature does it, and how could we learn from her for our hosting work were one manifestation of something special occurring that day.

And then  I experienced a very concrete event later on:

It happened that in the morning I had a look in my garden for something organic I could bring to the group. It was the time of cherry blossom! This beautiful tree embraced me and led me to the idea of bringing a twig or two to our learning day.

I brought them in a vase, which found its space first before my feet in the circle while checking in, and later on the window sill.

 

There was a particular moment in a conversation during an open space, where some energy sparks just shooted over in light speed from the window on the other side of the room, to the group of three we were engaging in, and it was as if the inspiring ideas that actually came out of the mouths of us in that truly magical moments, were connected to or supported by the energy coming from the branches. Intuitively I immediately knew that that was so. It is hard to say, if the conversation attracted the sparks or the other way round. I am saying sparks, as that is the best way I can name what I sensed, there was no visual perception, although almost, it was more of an energetic sensing.

 

I have more and more the feeling that we are helped by the subtle world, if the conditions are right.

 

That is why I want to start a conversation and see if you also had some of these intuitions or experiences and what were the circumstances around those.

 

Looking forward to some interesting sharing!

 

Ursula

[Judy Wallace]

Is the presence of fear, the ‘fear being’, asking to be embraced in some way as part of a greater wholeness and potential as we host with the subtle?

Recently Ursula wrote in an AoH email about her experience in groups at the EC –

“For the moment I am in an observing space, trying not to analyse, just accept the loving radiance that so often occurs in our gatherings. The gratefulness and humility of people, the innovative sparks that seem to jump out of nowhere, and yet somewhere...the fear being, that often lingers around in the beginning of meetings in a new group before trust is being established, it just crumbles away after a while and even dissolves completely. We seem like being kissed by Grace.”

 

I read Ursula’s words after my experience in a small group circle practice of collective presencing. I was curious – the fear being seemed to be present there in some way.  Is there something more here to pay attention to?

In the small group at one point one person called us to sense into the ‘field’, into the middle.  Energetically I sensed a kind of hole, or a withholding, maybe doubt or fear, in one area on the other side of the group.  Are we as humans inviting the doubt / fear being to hold presence with us, and yet in this case it did not seem alive.  It felt very dead there, but still there. The rest of the group energy was present but not fully open or galvanized.  And then amazingly the person, where I sensed the holding back, or fear and lack of trust, tentatively offered an image that transformed the conversation and the space became fully alive.  In the process of fully presencing to this image and conversation I was not attentive then so much to the energy, but it was very different for sure.  And very quickly more images and possibilities were coming through others that built on the first. It was one of those generative moments that awakened the Circle Being.

 

From a hosting perspective, what is being asked by fear and doubt? to be named?  Or to simply be present and held?  Is the fear potentially an impetus for the human who longs to learn, to move beyond fear, to trust, to take a leap. Is that what happened?  And yet it seems best not to feed fear.  It seems that when fear is named it can grow.  Is the fear being, the individual and collective shadow, simply one of the energetic ingredients that are part of the fertile collective ground we are cultivating and we simply acknowledge that and be present to it?

 From Ursula’s experience it seems Grace and loving Radiance appear if we simply hold the space, and in time the trust will establish and the fear recedes or even dissolves.  I am guessing the ‘field’ where EC people gather is already quite fertile after all the previous hard work and cultivation.  So in the greater work, how can we be more present to this transmutation of fear into Grace?    Is Grace present all along and we simply have not seen / felt Her?   Is there a yet to be fully experienced wholeness here that is part of the human condition and our relationship with the unseen – to consciously embrace fear and Grace, shadow and light, the ugliness of pain and the beauty of joy?  As hosts we are called to be present, to hold steady the loom for weaving these threads, to create the space for the unmanifest potential to emerge. And also to collect the pieces and begin again when the gateways have not opened, to co-weave a slightly different energetic space and story, to embrace fear and Grace to call the wholeness back in.

 

 I am very much in the question and the practice here.  And it seems it is in the experience of being present with others.  It is in the hosting and in collective space itself, that the experience and the deep reflection following that more can be understood.  And I also see how the sharing of memory/experience of one can open a new space in me.  

May our exploration and stories continue.

 

 

 

[Carla Kimball]

I spent two months in a yurt at Axladitsa-Avatakia in Greece a couple of years ago.  It was an opportunity for me to completely unplug from my normal life and "listen to the butterflies".  Towards the end of my stay there I often found myself listening more to the natural world than to people. 

 

I can remember one incident during an Art of Protection gathering we were outdoors in the "sky space" and in deep conversation.  As one person in particular was speaking, I became aware of a large flock of blackbirds (50 or more) flying around in a spiral.  From my perspecitve,it looked a bit like a tornado of black birds flying over the speaker's head and caused me to really stop and pay attention, both to the birds and to what the speaker was saying. It wasn't until I noticed the birds that I recognized just how profound her words were. 

 

There were several other times when the natural world spoke and I realized that if only we could listen to that voice as well, we'd discover the deeper meaning residing within our human conversations. 

 

Thanks for starting this conversation!

 

Not sure if this is what you mean by "elementals" but thought I'd share it.

 

[Ursula Hillbrand]

Dear Carla,

This is beautiful. Experiences like these I was actually looking for.

Thank you. It is all about heightening our awareness and broadening our sensing, including synchronicity of events.

 

And again it is so very personal how we are growing in this.

I am planning a trip to Axladitsa late August, so I will look out for those birds.

Regards,

 

Ursula

Carla Kimball said:

I spent two months in a yurt at Axladitsa-Avatakia in Greece a couple of years ago.  It was an opportunity for me to completely unplug from my normal life and "listen to the butterflies".  Towards the end of my stay there I often found myself listening more to the natural world than to people. 

 

I can remember one incident during an Art of Protection gathering we were outdoors in the "sky space" and in deep conversation.  As one person in particular was speaking, I became aware of a large flock of blackbirds (50 or more) flying around in a spiral.  From my perspecitve,it looked a bit like a tornado of black birds flying over the speaker's head and caused me to really stop and pay attention, both to the birds and to what the speaker was saying. It wasn't until I noticed the birds that I recognized just how profound her words were. 

 

There were several other times when the natural world spoke and I realized that if only we could listen to that voice as well, we'd discover the deeper meaning residing within our human conversations. 

 

Thanks for starting this conversation!

 

Not sure if this is what you mean by "elementals" but thought I'd share it.

 

[Carla Kimball]

Ursula,

Ah... I wish I could go this year. 

 

While you are there, do look for the birds, and also listen to the wind, notice the scat left on paths by animals who share the land, listen to the river below the river in the rema (the ravine).  You might see a fox cross your path at just the right moment. Or a butterfly making its way up a cliff.  There's so much there by simply paying attention, which is easier than usual because we're not distracted by all the human noises that normally surround us.  At least that was the case when I was there. And, I found that when I returned to my normal life my ability to listen at that level stayed with me for a long time.  Now, alas, I'm fully distracted by life in general and often forget to tune in in this way.

 

Blessings,

Carla

 

[Ria Baeck]

How nice that two friends, across the ocean, connect in this way... I enjoy it!

[Narjara Thamiz Ribeiro]

Hey Ursula, I wanted to share an beautiful experience I had almost an year ago. I was getting married and my marriage was organized in an AoH way, in a beautiful place, close to the sea, with a circle of beloved people around us. We decided to make an spiritual ceremony between the both of us with the help of some friends. When we were exchanging our vows I evoked our spirits to be fully present, the angels and other beings of light to acknowledge and bless our relationship before God. And suddenly, when I was speaking a group of sparrows (birds), came flying in circle above our heads, and then left. It wasn't their time to come, but they did come, showing me we were being blessed, and the amazing ways nature and the subtle world can communicate with us. Love, Narjara

[Ursula Hillbrand]

Narjara, this is a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing. One way to look at it is like a manifestation of what can be evoked by clear intention. That would be my lesson in terms of what we can draw from it for AoH. Lovely. Warm greetings, Ursula