WHENUA: What the Rain Taught Us About Fertile Ground

On Sunday, I found myself on my knees in the rain, scattering powdered earth pigment into droplets clinging to the grass, then pressing paper into them to see what the rain and whenua would make with me.

At the other end of New Zealand, another woman - without knowing what I was doing - also begain working with colour in fat drops of water.

This is the beauty of Creative Communion, a place where we can all be exactly as we are, and make marks together, that end up with great personal meaning, often synchronistally in very unusual ways.

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I led a beautiful group on zoom in Septembers Creative Communion (these are held online monthly by me, and open worldwide)

WHENUA: Fertile Soil, was a creative practice in line with Te Koanga | Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere (and also in line with the Autumnal Equinox for our participants in the Northern Hemisphere)… for tending and honouring the depths of our beings. For recognising those sacred places within us, that enable the spring growth, that feed and nurture the roots and connections of our lifes unique eco-system.

In Te Ao Maori, Whenua is both land and placenta - That which supports life in the world, and in the womb. 

When planning these beautiful shared experiences, I allow nature to lead the direction.

I asked the Springtime for a message to build  Creative Communion WHENUA from, and the rain came in almost as a corrective: do not speak of fertile ground without remembering the waters that make fertility possible.

The rain came in as i started witness writing, as a deluge. I could not even finish the transmission until I had run for cover. It's message was clear:

"Do you know who I am?

You think of the whenua as doing all the work by itself, but it is the rain which brings life and sacred growths.

It is the water which flows through the Earth, in and of the Earth, that nourishes the fibers of its being and yours.

The waters are gentle and fierce.

They inhabit the whenua of your body and flow through both your veins and tissues and the soils.

A flood may wash away banks and cities and clear ways for new treasure deposits to be found and discovered.

It may softly quench your thirst and cleanse the body and spirit.

The spirit of the Earth relies on the water to flow.

It relies on the many waterways carrying deposits of things needed, and sometimes it carries spirit itself, for the stream of consciousness is not called so for nothing.

Without me there would not be life, growth, abundance and support.

Without me the world would be a desert, yet even in a desert there is oasis, so with your soul, water, soil, fire, earth, spirit, you cannot have one without the others, and often you forget this.

All creation came from these and returns to these in a cycle, like the rain."

There is no expectation when we enter Creative Communion. I for one, rarely make art within the space that looks like what you'd expect Art to be. 

Some work with their left hand, some work with tools like feathers that deliberately remove the finesse and control. We deliberately interrupt the practiced hand, and get super playful in our own styles.

You see, Creative Communion is about letting go of control. Softening, allowing your heart to make crazy marks that often don't look like anything until you look at it upside down or in a different way.

And then, there's the WITNESS. 

Every Creative Communion, I am just happily astounded by the deep wisdom that arrives through these marks we have made. Each person there, receives messages that sometimes change the entire way they look at the world. There have been tears of healing on more than one occasion.

This is a space for you to remember that there are more ways to access your knowing, your vision and your unique power in this world, than you have been taught.

Part of the Witness that came through me for this month was:

... and yes, that is a photo of me, pulling Rimu's fronds around me like hair, and talking to the tree like the wise friend he is. 

 

If you would like to join our next Creative Communion, you are more than welcome. Once a month. Live on Zoom. 11am NZST on a Sunday. All are welcome, there is no doctrine, just expansion and very special YOU-time. You can join us from anywhere in the world. Check the next event out here:

https://artalchemy.co.nz/collections/creative-communion