© Catherine Meeson 29.11.2015
Firstly, a little about why this work is important to me. I experienced what it was like to be uprooted throughout my whole childhood. From place to place, and then to a different country. I had to adapt and shift with every new location.  In my life experience often the only source of deep healing I could access  with unconditional holding came from the natural world. I always sought out nature to heal, I would walk and seek out what I could following the knowing of instinct without having the now proven findings of science to explain why it was good to do so.  Such findings include affects on all body systems, neurochemistry, biochemistry, hormones, brain wave state, mental emotional harmonisation, spiritual kinship with the community of and foundations for life. The earth was my friend, her life forms, the plants, animals, minerals and elements, my friends, my allies. At the age of 12 I had my first conservation planting experience and from there, the love steadily grew, the commitment to be a voice for the community of life and to build bridges of understanding and empathy and relation became a core element of who I was. Earth was my teacher my instincts and intuition my guides. So I vowed to serve however I could and this is crystallising into unique arts eco therapy approaches, blending a diverse field of multi disciplinary findings and lived experience through creative methodology and  transpersonal arts based research .

The great travesty of the 20th and early 21st centuries is that the collective carries wounded instincts and we are not largely allowed by our cultural models to live as natural human beings, for our created government and corporate legislations have bound us so tight we can barely breathe. People seeking to restore balance are prosecuted for daring to step outside of the control paradigm. Living off grid, walking the land; growing ones own food is not permitted in some places. Many are displaced from their ancestral homelands, the many being of all species. We are living in the era of  the mobilisation of all life and the era of the anthropocene where it is penned, that  humans have become as powerful, as major geological forces, leaving their imprint on the strata of future timelines.

Context aside. In term 4 my class expanded doubling in size, it is proving not just a creative outlet and nurturing space for the children, but a way to make friendships and build community as well, which is fantastic. I have penned a new sideline for Creative Therapeutic Encounters which is ‘ ‘Developing imagination and creativity whilst learning about ourselves and the world’.

Our theme this term, was Environment and pollution. My job is to guide the expression of feeling and thought and the embodiment in action by the children. We started with a site specific walk to immerse in the sense of place, of the sight sounds and the concept of an eco-system. Class room learning will only provide intellectual mental level connection, if at all. It will not inspire lifelong committed earthly citizens. So there is always an educational aspect to this work, but at a level they can understand. Eynesbury township is located  fringing on an  Old Greybox  forest, the trees  have sparse foliage and there are a few shrub type plants. Population is mostly birds, insects, and reptiles (one would guess) and maybe passing marsupials. No doubt there would have been many more species before settlement and the introduction of foxes and rabbits. The surrounding area was divided into farm land. 

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The children were asked to collect a gift that spoke to them from their nature walk. We used this as a starting point for reflection. We sketched out the basic concept of beginning middle and end following a stereotypical descent and rebirth sort of pattern, where the descent was the crisis and the rebirth the solution and celebration of new life.  The children became the land, the animals and the river and spoke from the perspective of their new identities. It is my hope this helps to increase awareness, empathy and relation to and with the world around them.

Richard Louve is a well known figure educating about the benefits of nature and the affect that a loss of that same connection is having on our kids  (If you  remove life forms  from the  community that supports them,  the community falls apart, community as in indigenous and systems thinking / ecosystem). Other prominent figures bringing much needed perspective to our western ways include Craig Chalquist, Amos Clifford and The Forest Therapy Association. There are many people in diverse fields of Eco Psychology such as Bill Plotkin, and many Indigenous practices and environmental ecological fields such as Spiritual and Deep Ecology rising up to remind us of what we so desperately need to remember, that our relation to earth goes way beyond economics, that economics really is an aberration and part of the problem of the consumptive mindset and base desires that is fast leading to the 6th great extinction. The same timeless utterances come down to us from the Ancients from practices such as Daoism, Buddhism and vanquished pagan and  global shamanic practises. It is the nature of life that the timeless wisdoms have to be rearticulated in every age and culture over time. Out task is how to carry this knowledge over to the laymen and women in a language they can understand, where they can get it at the embodied level.
Now I do not discuss these former things with the children. But they do find their way into other therapeutic and educational work I have been engaged in.
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Life in the Old Gum Valley- was the name of our play and it was a celebration of the life of the valley and what happens when something goes wrong. We wrote two simple songs together. I played guitar and  sang and the children played percussion instruments and also sang. In our play we also had a Park Ranger, an Aboriginal man as teacher to the ranger, a Villain and a Police women; we are connecting into the archetypal nature of these characters and what they hold / represent. (What I often refer to as Archetypal Alchemy- embodying the archetypes or archetypal energies to serve intention- explore, express, heal). The valley experienced a poacher stealing all the animals and polluting the waters. We explored what this would be like in song.
 
These people these people
They’re polluting our Lands
These people these people
They don’t understand
These people these people
They’re polluting our lands
It’s like we are living
In a fantasy land
 
I helped the children articulate and craft the song and suggested a melody, the words were all theirs.
Our villain was tracked down by the ranger and the Aboriginal man and arrested, the waters were cleared up, the animals returned and life restored to balance.

Our home is happy in the Old Gum Valley
The water is pure our home is safe
Our home is happy in The Old Gum Valley
The trees are moving Our home is improving
Our home is Happy in the Old Gum Valley
We’re all together and we’re safe again
Our home is Happy in the Old Gum valley x2
 
At this moment I can only share with you a picture of the masks some of the children wore. I am seeking permissions to use/ access some photos.

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The work was performed at the Rockbank End of Year Community Celebrations  at the Rockbank Community Hall to Rockbank Primary school and other members of the Philippino and Islander Communities, Community Gardens members and other groups associated with the Neighbourhood House programs by Melton City  council. We had a total of seven weeks to pull this off and we did it.
If this work interests you please enquire, I can facilitate and cater for Eco Arts programs for you or any other social justice /social welfare issues both creatively, and experientially with therapeutic  and educational benefits to enhance well being.

Triple Ecology Collective Associated Inc Victoria is planning the second Triple Ecology gathering in the Yarra Valley region to explore and deepen work along these themes. I will be offering a workshop there in April. Stay tuned for details and tickets in January.

Triple Ecology- Arts Activism- Healing the tree of Life Workshop with Catherine Meeson
Experiential multi modal, guided response, media and presence. Co creating a Healing Ecology.
I will also be hosting The Open Mic at the Event and the Creative Visioning Space.

Links of Interest
 
http://www.natureandforesttherapy.org/
http://richardlouv.com/
http://www.terrapsych.com/
http://www.animas.org/
http://www.childrenandnature.org/
 

Triple Ecology Gathering- Sonic Relations How sound is the world? Blog 21st August 2015

© Catherine Meeson words and pictures

A Sharing of Deep Sacred and Healing Ecologies at Kinglake April 24-26 2015

The Triple Ecology Gathering came about by a collective dreaming and happened to manifest  in direct alignment with some workshops I had been offering titled ‘Healing Persons Healing Communities Healing Planet- An Empathic Visionary Practice’. This also came close on the heals of finding the Be the Change Community and doing the Awakening the dreamer Changing the Dream Symposium leader training of Pachamama Alliance. At this time I started to see just how many others were saying the same things as I was and in what fields they were active and these fields had names. They were not just indigenous and tribal peoples, but scientists theologians, activists artists, every shade and colour of humanity one could think of. This was very heartening to me as I had felt very alone in my perspectives and work for a long time. I had been presenting workshops which deal with healing of person and planet through creative arts methods and incorporating a whole lot of spiritual wisdom and scientific perspective from an artists and healers orientation.

So the Triple Ecology Collective was dreamed into being by a small group of mostly women but a few gentleman and we began the work of event planning with a  focus on the three ecologies and also linking in to the global knowledge and lore commons around the triple theme in all its incarnations. On our first dreaming day in Warburton we planted our intention by the river with the trees as witness and the waters to hear our prayers. Our children played by the river, they who are the future  they for who we do this work, as well as the earth herself  and the whole life communities. To summarise- we defined the ecologies as-

DEEP ECOLOGY –IS DISSOLVING THE SEPARATION BETWEEN HUMAN AND NATURE

SACRED ECOLOGY –ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THE NATURAL WORLD  REQUIRES REVERENCE AND  UNDERSTANDING

HEALING ECOLOGY –TWO WAY EXPERIENCE OF HEALING BETWEEN HUMAN AND EARTH

Many people were invited to come camp out with us and host workshops along these themes. Our home ended up being Kinglake which was so devastatingly affected by fire in the black Saturday fires a few years back. Our site host lost his whole Wildnerness Park facilities and had to rebuild. The Trees spoke to us all weekend. The land has not fully recovered despite green shoots everywhere. The trees are amazing beings who must of screamed as their life force receded to the roots and the inner layers of their skins to hold on for dear life as the flames encircled and devoured their foliage to the very tree tops. There is a marked absence of bird life and song, even for autumn, I listened , there were a few birds but not  what one would expect from a lush forest. Tragic. So we were well placed to bring healing intent here to this land where over a hundred people and no doubt thousands of animals and plants lost their lives.. Please enjoy the photos of the space.

Some camped some cabined, and we had tipis for workshops as well as the main hall and the forest. We had a magnificent caterer Sun Hyland  who made absolutely divine food nourishing everyone. It was a weekend of linking head heart and hand, or the thought aspect, and the higher mind to the heart –compassion, to action and will being the  tangible means  of change making.

In alignment with this my offering was  from a Sonic Activists perspective.

Catherine Meeson is a multi modal artist/ musician trained healer and transpersonal therapist with a passion for arts eco activism. She uses creative arts therapy methods in workshops to explore person and place relations with an experiential focus using all sensory mechanisms. She has her own record label Sonic Sanctuary – for her Ambient electro acoustic folk rock and soundscape work. She is currently developing comprehensive course material in Sound Music and Healing field. 

‘Exploring knowledge gleaned from a lifetime of study and life experience in the field of sound music and health, Cath will explore Sonic and power relations (acoustic ecology) and how sound affects and reflects the health in ecosystems. It’s biological, Psychological and ecological impact.  This will be experiential and contemplative using sound, image, lecture and white board with process work. She is a ‘Sonics Educator and activist’ .

My presentation was educational and contemplative as I provide perspectives and then ask you to experience engage , contemplate and dialogue finding your own answers I provide the facts from a spiritual science and knowledge of the ancients perspective, also incorporating  conventional science  findings from the diverse sound studies field and music therapeutics. I covered the nature of sound- human and animal perception, sound levels and propagation, sonic behaviour in space, environs, Masura Emoto , Margaret Watts Hughes, Cymatics and the World Soundscape Project, Acoustic Ecology. Prayer intention, Sounds affect on matter, and sounds affect physiologically, psychologically emotionally spiritually and how it impacts behaviour and explorations of how sound mediates relations. And I posed the need for ‘a sonic ethics’, challenging things like the outdoor dance parties which take over natural spaces and bring high level sound systems in affecting all life around them. Such knowledge is the staple of my work and also getting incorporated into my Sound Music Health training, equipping you with the knowledge and information to be a voice and presence for healing, sanity and sanctuary.I assert that the world( as a larger collective entity of persons  and systems) is not very sound.

The Triple Ecology Collective also had the intention to establish a community of practice by networking all interested in this work and establishing a foundation for further events knowledge dissemination and training/ workshops etc.

We are about to begin working on our 2016 gathering and the Triple Ecology  Gathering is also taking root up north where persons are engaged with organising a Triple Ecology Gathering  of their own up Byron Way.

If anyone is  interested in my work I would be happy to come  and do a presentation as a consultant or workshop facilitator  and can tailor work specifically for your event. I offer half day training and weekend workshops. Please peruse my other blogs for more information about my work  and visit my music website below.

Next series of blogs a belated review  looking at Conference Earth Shaping the Future a two day event held last year at Deakin University. Cluster  a new facebook model for Do-gooders enabling social change and mass scale networking and directly engaged philanthropy, and Exploring Eco Spirituality- Faith Ethics and Professional Life with the Australian Earth Laws Alliance plus What Counts as a Good Life for the Planet, for cities and for individuals (notice the triple theme) an event held t St Pauls Cathedral as part of National Science Week a panel of theologians and academics for senior high school  students and community . Stay tuned for these.

Also visit my Youtube channel for examples of my music, performance art- sacred theatre and arts activism. I hope to branch into documentary making and video commentary later in the year as well as film making  and have a third album Contemplating Buddha due for release soon as well as a three act play By the Mandate of Heaven well under way.

LINKS
https://www.youtube.com/user/CatherineMeeson

 www.creativetherapeuticencounters.com.au

www.catherinemeeson.com
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The first photo demonstrates a  small tract of land that has been left relatively as it was according to local government. I do not know the expected life span of the Greybox species of tree ( 40-200?) or other local flora but most of the trees are small. I feel it is a place of constant renewal.

It is just down the road from a current work site in a  very scenic new building by an artificial lake.

My concern whilst acknowledging the intention to protect the land for ‘future generations’ is with Generations. What does it imply? In the minds of most people it is for their use or benefit, what we call the anthropocentric view. It is essential emphasis is given to the ‘future generations’ of plants and animals protecting their right to be; the self existent matrix of life present   the local eco system and the place itself. Including all the mineral ores, microbes and other such aspects that make up a whole.

We must start teaching our children that the world is not here to serve them. It is not here only for humans. We are not masters of the domain but  a part of it. A co-habitant. We occupy the same space as every other species and yet our actions, our lifestyles, indulgences and appetites are wiping them out.

It is tragic to lose the beauty of life. Whether one subscribes to views such as transmigration of souls, of  life forms  that allows for and accepts the movement of life between kingdoms and realms, or not, and gives a space for all souls all life forms to recycle. Loss is  loss and often unnecessary. The point for me is, the great beauty and diversity here now, of which we have lost so much already. The life that exists does so as part of an integrated whole. For complex systems to evolve and thrive takes the passage of long spans of geological time and the essential stability of conditions. Climate change is a constant , the tides of life on earth are always shifting, species always move, adapt mutate and settle new areas, emerging as new forms, but now we are taking over the earth there is very little space left to go that allows for this movement without a big cleanse. We have degraded our environments considerably, changing the very face of the earth ( clearing, mining, etc) and her innards (drilling, hydraulic fracturing, tapping the water tables, injecting nuclear waste and toxic chemicals for storage). New balance must be found and it will, it may not favour the human realms. Unless the human realms make  reparation efforts and become mass agents of re-genesis and bio-genesis.

QUESTION What does future generations mean to you?

I write this as I sit and ponder the future of my programs  combining the arts, therapies and activism. I am working on Eco arts Education. What ever workshops I do I try to weave in relational themes, environmental themes. I am not an exert but I do care and I do what I can. With the children it is crating awareness of life, through pictures, through songs, through reflecting on what they know about their world already and what they know of their body in space.  How it is all one big jigsaw puzzle. We work with imagery of forest, flower garden, birds, butterfly’s simple things which can carry stories  which reveal a state of awareness (or not) of the world around them. A couple of pictures of the children’s art is included.

Spirit of place musings. Eynesbury Grey box forest.

Most of the trees are young, I would be surprised if any were over fifty years. You can see the rate of growth and regeneration. Some elder trees are present but not many. This  was a land teeming with forest pre colonialism. The rate of growth does not seem to match the rate of decay. Yet there is a good presence of birds. It is dense but dispersed. It is a small pocket of land that just stands out starkly in the clear felled landscape all around it, that was originally back in the 1860’s onwards converted  farm land. So what has been allowed to remain is important, a green wedge a vital sanctuary for local species, a corridor. Yet how we think that narrow spans of green life, of  bio habitat are enough to ensure conservation of species is beyond me.

The place says help us to remain- help people to understand we exist too, if we are not regarded we cease to be. Life is to behold the majesty of creation, the diversity of forms- Speak for us. The same  message I get from land everywhere. Speak for us, speak for me. The winds share the mystery of the cycles of time, the forest holds the memory in tis dna, know the seasons, know the tides, understand the field of life. Relate, be with us.

I include pictures which demonstrate signage in the area. Talking about concepts like Our Home- a current future estate development a few minutes down the road. A place of displacement from over a hundred years ago for other species. A place that was cleared, a place that is now to be home to humans  and dogs and all their creations. Another showing bones, that speak the melody of the past, natural tree sculptures and other things.

Ask yourself What Does Conserved for Future generations really mean? What guarantees are there that people will honour their words when the bones tell us life goes in cycles, creatures come and go civilisations rise and fall. Decay is a certainty, growth a constant, yet some growth is out of control. Ponder. How might you make a difference and educate the future? What bones do you leave behind?

http://www.gondwananet.com/australian-gum-tree.html

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/determinations/greyboxgreygumwetFD.htm

We live in an age where ‘globalization’ is becoming the norm, and we are calling ourselves ‘global citizens’. Yet, among-st this amazing sense of expansion, we have a dissolution of relation because barriers, values and boarders have changed. We can now travel the seas from land to land, migrate co mingle- live in other countries. While we are benefiting from the great diversity of species, practices, cultures and ways, at the same time we are losing aspects of both our personal  and collective histories as we move from land to land. We are  also being affected in our body bio magnetically, as our roots sever in one place and need to be re established. Our roots and needs  are influenced by what we ingest as far as  food types that come from specific geographical regions, that the people have evolved with over thousands of years. This poses short term and inter generational concern  for migration. Of course these things always change with migrations, we’re got people from Africa moving to Australia, England to America, China to Canada, Alaska going to Europe and so on.  We take our foods with us, , we import/ export. What once contributed the stability of our foundation to planet, of our knowing and our place, in relation to the plants, the animals, the water, minerals and ores, the lay of the lands, all the old lores and ways of knowing what to do, all that is in danger of being lost completely as the elders are dying our who possess that knowledge. Much knowledge of the ancient ways has been lost to the progress of the technological era, but we fool ourselves if we think this age old knowledge is no longer relevant, we are but humans living in a larger domain of relations .

The old lore is being replaced by Industrialization, high science and abstraction, virtual reality and so forth and we are becoming increasingly disengaged from the body, disengaged from the senses and our ways of knowing. We are five minute microwavers and genetic modifiers. I am not saying that technology is bad and all of Industrialization is a bad practice, it’s that we need to  re- evaluate and take action on all the issues related of these things, with a great immediacy, in light of what we are now coming to know. And what we are now coming to know is that the relationship between all things are very delicately bound, that Indigenous people and all wisdom traditions teach us about the fragility of relationships and the sacredness of  relationship.

The workshops that I like to hold are nurturing an open arena of questioning, of discovery ,of reflection and realization, where processes are provided, and  prompts given  for you to explore this  intrinsic relation. The answers aren’t given. We explore symbolic  and symbiotic relations, through resonance, through empathy and through relation to, through contemplation. Using all of our senses, using the physicality of the body through movement, through touch. We’re using our sense of knowing and tapping ancient instinctual knowing through hearing and listening, exploring at deep levels. And then we are expressing vocally our inner worlds  through pictures and words, how we feel about these things. So  an ‘Environmentally Aware  Creative Arts Therapy’ is one that explores relationship between all things, between person and place, how the health  and state of one, affects the others, via the arts, via Creative process work/ or therapeutic practice. Vie embodied practice. We look at how we are using resources? What resources we are using?. We look at the whole concept of reduce reuse recycle and how we can be more ecologically aware? And  developing innovative practice that goes beyond the medical paradigm of a sick person in a normal society. Looking  at persons within cultures within society, within places. Because you can’t extract a human being from the context that they come from. If you take a person out of the place, the place is still going to travel with the person, in the form of customs, biology (i.e dna)  culture memory and associations.  If you put them in a new place they have got to learn to relate to that place;-  they don’t know ‘its ways and means’.

We adapt, but we don’t recognize the loss. We don’t take the time to acknowledge what it is, from where we come from, that helps to make us who we are. This loss includes the relation between a community , a community of life on all levels. The human, the animal, plant, mineral. Our definition of community has regressed in ‘concept and being’. It does not embody totality at all. We think loosely the community is the place where we live and the social structures available to our consumer mindset, or a community of interest. We need to bring those  four kingdoms back into alignment with  the natural order, as far as conducting ourselves within them.  Because unless we do conduct ourselves in a more appropriate manner all the castles are going to fall down and there won’t be a kingdom to support us, the foundation Yesod will not support us. Yesod will not support life because we have debased it. We fail to recognize the importance of foundation, Earth. And we fail to recognize that we are part of the earth. We are still embodied on form on earth. We are watery mass. We are air consumers, dependent upon right atmosphere. Our spirit, the spark of creators fire within, (the elusive creator). We have a role here as caretakers, we have a role here as incarnate beings to develop our souls, to yearn towards the greater path of enlightenment always in thought word and deed. What if this were taught in schools? Earth Ethics  101 in equal measure with math, English, the arts and sciences. We would grow a culture of care, of wisdom, of relation; such a culture would return the balance of life and restore the sanctity of all things. Sadly we are said to be living in the 6th great extinction event right now. (See http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/28/the-sixth-great-extinction-a-silent-extermination/ )

So an Environmentally Aware Creative Arts Therapy is a forum for exploring intrinsic relation, via creative process 21.2.2014, end voice transcript.

Transcript 2.

An ‘Environmentally Aware Creative Arts Therapy’ is one in which the relation between person and place is understood, because the people are part of a place and the place provides us with food, with the raw materials necessary to live a life, the ores, with the animals that we eat, the plants, and the medicines. All these things are part of place. The landmarks that inform our histories and mythologies of our events; all are intertwined. And now, in this age of mass migration, we don’t have our familiars anymore, those things that act as symbols as conveyors of information and wisdom, that have been staple for hundreds and also thousands of years.  We create suburb place names like Endeavour Springs where no watercourse lay. Without familiars we become lost in a foreign sea, and so what we are needing to do, is to re-establish that link between person and place . To rebuild re recognize and evolve our relationships.

An Environmentally Aware Creative Arts Therapy takes elements of the natural world around us and uses them as a guide to process, as a guide into those symbolic worlds, into the instinctive, into the genetic and ancestral memories, that we all carry. Into those areas of knowledge which are forbidden, in the shadow and  into the light. An  ‘Environmentally aware creative arts therapy considers our mode of living and then it questions the validity of our mode of living and the social norms,  do I need these things?. We aim to consider their life beyond ourselves?, What will happen to them, my tools, my resources after I have used them?. Is there a way I can do my journey and explore my process while minimizing my impact?. So what tools and resources can I use to achieve that goal? We do not have all the answers, we are endeavouring as well, and this work, this exploration is born out of the reflections of that endeavouring, or bringing to conscious awareness. If we do not ask , it is merely unconscious practice, it is ‘a norm’. But does the norm serve? How can it better be applied?.

As we are finding out  through many current fields of study, of both the arts/ humanities and sciences, the links between the many, many, levels of social environmental and economic functioning and the links between cultures and places are both growing and diminishing at the same time. New fields are growing, old ones are becoming  barren, yet what is becoming barren, is the statistically high probability of  the loss of thousands of years of ecological relation and symbiosis.  The product of aeons of growth.  Whilst things can change, ecology books, history books etc that inform us  about what was here;  what we are losing is really not beyond our control, our ability to intervene and create change. We can reflect, and take action upon, but it must be immediately. So my aim is to convey this stream of thought and to encourage as much conscious reflection in therapeutic practice as possible. Both site specifically, using elements of place to aid process work  and using those materials generated by humanity which we use in service of growth and healing.

This is of course ‘an ideal level’,. Unless one can make ones paper, or paints, the cost effectiveness and practicalities will be a  challenge at this time, so what we can do is look to, where and how things were produced that we use and their point of origin and their origins sources?. Raw materials  such as acrylics  are synthetics, paper is largely non sustainable forestry etc. ‘Creative Arts Therapies are supreme in adaptation, improvisation, and making do with what is available.’ It taps into our instinctual tool making ingenuity, our problem solving creative response. We all have these skills, but for many they just lay dormant.  The aim is to generate awareness, and do what we can,  not evoke guilt- to expand our caring, our therapeutic practice for the circle of life considering what will come after’.

An ‘Environmentally Aware Creative Arts Therapy’ also recognises that in healing, the role of the healer is not just to work with persons at the micro cosmic level; - we have community, communities of interest and of all life. Person within family, family within culture, culture within nation.  All of those levels are made up of complex relationships, the grand tapestry of earthly life, yet not confined to earth, they also be solar systemic, for the moon and sun and gravitational pull of the planets governs life on earth. They must be addressed, all of these relationships. We are not going to get results on a holistic scale, when we talk about a person’s being  mentally ill, bla bal, projecting “ it’s her, it’s him, it’s not us. , Where as, what is really going on is within  the whole.  We can no longer be isolationist or  reductionist. It’s the whole that needs healing, the cultures of denial, broken so progress can be made. It’s the whole that has problems, and we are aiming to heal this separation, aiming to heal the hurt of the collective. The hurt of the collective manifests as a symptomatology  in the individual. So by working on the individual, we heal the collective, by working on the environment, the foundation, and the structures inherent within it, we heal the circle. But in that, we must come to recognize that we are facets of brilliance that is an  individuated soul essence, and that there are forces of collectivism, that are the bedrock of civilization and without dealing with each of those areas; -  there will be no healing, we need to take a global holistic look.

Image google search  Attribution - freelyassociating.org360  the thinker

What is meant by Arts Eco Therapy? Creative Therapeutic Encounters use this term (it may have been used before, the author is not certain), to describe Arts Therapy based practises with a focus on Environment; - relation with and to the natural world.  So it is essentially any process engaged in or engaging with natural world systems, in an artistic, or creative capacity. It can include site specific work, going out into nature and assembling found object sculptures,  that are temporal or permanent. It can include stone, wood, earth, water, fire, air elements. There is an awareness of the objects one uses and leaves, with respect to the ability to bio-degrade . One often works in a semi ritualised context, ever mindful of the present and the focus of the moment. It can also be bridging elements of nature into spaces where it does not feature, such as the growing of seeds and tending of small community gardens, plants in nursing homes,  or the incorporation of objects into artwork and education in cross curricula in  schools, with tactile learning and sensing, and stimulating imagination and metaphoric thought.

By engaging with and  the sounds, smells, feeling  and tastes of the natural world, we learn by vibrational affinity and experience aspects of our own nature that may be dormant or little used,  those often silenced by mental activity, cultural conditioning, and choice. The dominant state of consciousness and activity of the forty hour work week in the urban domain often inhibits access to subtler states of awareness, intuition and empathy. It is important we connect in to deeper instinctual and ancestral forms of knowing, to experience kinship with all life.

Tactile sensing is often a neglected area of learning and knowing, one that once upon a time was much more the norm. Learning by doing,  the way of action, of body/ mind unity. Being and experiencing, rather than ingesting words and data from outside of one’s own localized consciousness. Nature based Creative Art Therapy processes are also a way of tapping the collective indigenous roots of a person’s heritage. All cultures have sacred practises and relationship with the earth, and all people cannot exist in health unless our environment, our earth, our air, fire, and water is pure. By interacting with nature and natural themes, we reinforce our positive animal nature, our instincts, our corporeality, whilst safely giving form to the inner worlds of soul. This does not mean regressing into primitive states, but sharpening our sensory apparatus and our instinctual wisdom, our body wisdom. This deep wisdom of the body and matter is often deliberately ignored at a conscious mental level, sometimes as a form of practise as in meditation and training, but often as a form of denial and ignorance.

The primary therapeutic element is always expression; expression in relation. Expression mobilizes the psycho spiritual force (also known as chi, subtle energy, life force, orgone, etc) which in ill health, trauma, or disease and distress often indicates a blockage in the human energy field.  There are no quick fixes in such work, there is only process. Patterns need to be mobilized and released, assisting them to shift and be re-patterned into a more desired state, or feeling outcome. Sometimes the trauma one works on is not localised but can have its origin in other life lifetimes.

This year I have been able to learn about a field called Acoustic Ecology, which has some similar philosophical leanings to Deep Ecology, another field I am also learning about, due to the fact that many authors are saying similar things to my own writing  in these fields.  Whilst we are considering the use of all the senses in learning and knowing, I feel it apt to mention Acoustic Ecology. Acoustic  Ecology is the study of the sound of place, from all domains, geophony, biophony and anthrophony (earth sounds, animal, sounds, manmade sounds). It explores the health of place by examining the  acoustic profile, which reveals a great deal about relationship and local ecology. Combining Art Therapy with Acoustic Ecology notions is a particular passion for me.  This focus is not new however, indigenous cultures have what is called Deep listening practises whereby, listening is a highly active meditative and contemplative practise whereby we learn  via sound about relation, to other. If we do not listen deeply we are only on the surface. One involves the listening to and perception of the health of local ecologies and earthly environments, the other involves the listening to and voicing of the persons creative response to health, healing and expression, in relation to all else.  So sound can be used as a doorway into greater realms of knowing, carrying immense archetypal  and relational information.

As genetic and ancestral light bearers, we enter and stand for all people in our timelines and can heal the pain of our ancestors as expressed and carried forth in the dna by evoking our I am presence, our higher Self, also known as the Overself , the forces of greater light and love, compassion and forgiveness, then we can bring about great change and healing.

At the Platypus festival this year I decided to host the making of a Community Mural. It was themed “Celebrate the River of Life”, ‘join in the making of a community mural to celebrate water, life, and the relationship between persons and the place they live. Also learn about the Earth charter & Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, and ways you can make a difference to your local environment. This was held on Saturday October 12th 12-4pm, at Big Red Reserve, Melton South. It was a free community give away.

This brings us back to the title of the blog, ‘Building Bridges with Arts Eco Therapy’.  The time in which we live means that many children often do not have a garden to play in, parents present to take them out into natural spaces due to the demands of living. Not many have access to local waterways and places of beauty or wildness. We must build bridges. Parks often only have play equipment and it is often synthetic, indigenous environments being re-visioned to our liking and resulting in loss of species.. There are fewer and fewer wild untainted spaces where children can explore as they once did, the wilds of nature getting to know the world around them and observe the cycles of nature, and the ways of birth and death in the animal and plant kingdoms. Fences and walls everywhere prevent clear unobstructed views. Walking is now a sacrificed pass time for many. Often where we walk the air is not clean, and there can be many sounds which drive us crazy. We must build bridges. Often the natural spaces are littered with human waste and contamination, which must not be turned away from, it is becoming epidemic and systemic to industrialised living. The sights available to us are not necessarily life enhancing, not are the materials of our living structures and the habits of our day. Therefore it is crucial to provide experiences where people can connect to this ancient instinctual part of self. We are bridging the selves of the past (historical epochs), the instinctual being, to the selves of the present with all the levels of sophisticated knowledge and technology we have adopted and developed. Both levels of self exist yet one dominates, increasingly the technological self, the mental self. We are becoming so abstracted into mind that we are not questioning our creations, and their ability to serve all life. Are they life enhancing of life detracting?   For whom ? We are forgetting the earth as we aspire to colonize other planets. These questions need to be asked. We should not embrace everything without question or challenge. We all have to find our own way and establish our own boundaries. And if we are not being taught in school and at home, these important life fundamentals we must teach ourselves. We must find our way, for the Way is no longer clear. Prohibition prevents passage, legislation restricts access, land is something one must have the rights to, being a human being does not necessarily give you these rights.  The United Nations declarations are ideals not practised in full .We must build bridges, bridges of understanding, of access, rights, potential, knowing, knowledge and compassion.

The symbology of the river of life is a perfect way to incorporate group experiential process and art therapy methods into community based action and festivities. By celebrating the connection between persons and where they live  through engagement with imagery, physical  objects/symbols ( wood, rocks, nests, feathers etc), pastel, crayon, paint, and pencil, seeds can be planted which can set a bench mark in the psyche, in the soul of perspective and vision that one can  come back to.  Such a seed was planted for me plating trees in year 6 of school (age 12), and picking up rubbish as a house captain. Having lost my country of origin and migrated to another country I am acutely aware of some of the issues faced by lack of roots and connection to place. Statistically many of the world’s people are migrants, all facing the dissolution of roots, as we move and shift for many reasons, it takes time to adapt to new places on all levels. We see the wanton destruction of our lands and resources and feel a collective despair and helplessness. This well of feeling needs to be mobilized for healing and rehabilitation.

Platypus festival is environmentally themed, run by a small Friends community group which has worked steadily over the last 6 years  on local environment waterway conservation and rehabilitation.  It is all volunteer. Through community generated action, local government, and water bodies have become more active in conservation.  If you plant it they will come. We need to be mindful of what we are planting. The Toolern is becoming a vital green wedge for the species that remain whom are affected by continued urbanisation and Industrialisation i.e., loss of habitat.  They cannot speak, and yet they do through lack of voice. They fade into memory. We can speak, we must care enough to care for them, and for the circle of life. Art Therapy activities can help nurture this caring and reverence for life, and for our precious planet.

By creating a platform of shared visioning of a community ‘River of life mural’, people participate and reflect on what they know, of their relation to.  It may be a subjective reflection or overtly expressed, in conversation and imagery.  The important thing is mobilising consciousness and awareness. They choose the plants and animals they want to include, bring them to life and give them a home. This subtle act may appear as only an art activity, to some, but requires a degree of presence, awareness and focus, reflection and exploration.  It is held site specifically so people are engaged with all senses in the theme. Motor control skill is needed for the activity, and there is no judgement of skill levels and capacity. It draws on a person’s capacity to synthesize and integrate and find a sense of place for their individual offering.

We had adults and children, working together and the end result pictured below is a vibrant mural which grew from one sheet, to twice the height, and was created by many contributors. I thank each person for their effort and hope it some small way it may be a pleasant memory of the Celebration of the River of Life. It may grow in awareness in the heart and mind to flower in some distant decade into many things. This is my hope, the mural is a starting activity but also a seed. It is both seed and fruit of the day.

The great sadness for me is to even call something Eco, as if it was something new, but it highlights the division in the mind and being state. Being is intrinsic and inclusive, is knows self and other yet does not see them as separate but as inter related in mutuality, we nurture the great awakening and realise we are the planters of seeds no matter our station in life. And that what we plant now matters for all time.

Warm regards for Ailsa Gaia   for her assistance on the day and being part of this event.