Discussion Questions for Clea Danaan's Sacred Land

"In this positive and practical handbook, Danaan shows how organic gardening can germinate environmental awareness and political change while feeding your spirit. You'll learn how to plan and plant your garden, create compost, save seeds, conserve and transmute water, connect with garden goddesses, and incorporate planetary energy in your garden." - From Llewellyn.com

Thinking of studying Sacred Land in a group? Or delving more deeply into your own intuitive organic gardening practices? Here are a few study and discussion questions to help you get started.

Discussion Questions for Sacred Land

Earth

1. What messages, sensations, and images do you receive when you "tune in" to the soil? Is doing a practice like this strange to you? What fears or concerns do you have about "talking" to dirt? 
2. What shifts for you when you consider a garden a co-creation with nature? What ideas germinate when you enter into such a relationship with the land?
3. Many people first notice nature spirits or the energy of the land through trees. What sacred experiences with trees have you had?
4. What can you do to increase the local and organic food you eat? As a group or a family, take it on as a project. If you already eat mostly organic and local, how can you help others do the same?

Air

1. Discuss your intentions for your home, garden, and community. How can you call on the power of air to bring these ideas into the world?
2. Do you fear insects? Why? Take some time to get to know them better. What teachings have bees, dragonflies, and even mosquitoes taught you?
3. What birds show up in your life regularly? Have they a message?

Fire

1. Everything we see, eat, touch, and hear exists because of the sun. What happens when you meditate on this idea for a few moments?
2. The fire goddess Chantico teaches us about pleasure and pain. When have you felt this keen edge? What has it taught you about life?
3. What does it mean to you to reclaim your passion? How can you begin to do this?

 

Water

1. We are emotional beings of water. As you read this chapter, what do you notice about your awareness of and relationship with water in your daily life?
2. If you are working with a group, practice transmutation (p 208).
3. What is your work as a sacred sister?

You will find more discussion questions at the end of Sacred Land, on page 229. 

Mountain Selkie Longing for the Sea

What do you long for? Desire, whether of a person, a special place, or a thing (chocolate!) is such a visceral thing, even when it's not sexual in nature. The current issue of SageWoman includes many wonderful articles written by Goddess-loving women about all kinds of desire. My own article in this issue is about my desire for two places: the Pacific Northwest and Colorado. I hope you'll enjoy it! You can find SageWoman at good bookstores and newsstands.

"I have learned to live at the base of the Rocky Mountains instead of the feet of Mount Baker. But I am like a selchie who leaves her watery home to live on dry land." - "The Resonance of Home" by Clea Danaan, SageWoman issue 77



Selkie by Forest Rogers

Attuning to the Moon for Global Awakening

There is a movement to change our Gregorian calendar to a 13 month calendar, adding another month (some call it Sol) in the middle of summer. Each month (moon phase) would be 28 days, with 29 days in December and an extra day in December every 4 years. Jose Arguelles, author of The Mayan Factor, argues that the only way we humans can move into a new solar age in 2012 is to change the way we relate to time and the earth by adopting this 13 month calendar.

I'm a positivist. I would like to believe that this is not the only way, especially since adopting wind power (and other crucial technologies) is going slowly, let alone changing our calendar. But I do think Arguelles and other time researchers have a point: we need to align with the real patterns of the Sun, moon, seasons and our bodies.

One way we can do this is to attune to our menstrual cycles as months. Whenever your cycle begins, mark it in your heart as a New Inner Moon. Celebrate the new moonth by pouring some blood on the earth in thanks. You can add it to your compost, or water it down and pour it around your plants. This is, by the way, the only technique I have found that keeps squirrels out of my strawberries. I simply pour my blood out of my Keeper Moon Cup onto the mulch around the berries, and the squirrels stay away. Amazing!

If you have stopped bleeding, you can of course still attune to the moon as your months. Take some time each new or full moon to sit outside at night and drink in her light. Feel yourself sitting on a planet. Know that you are a part of a great cosmic unfolding. We are all one.

I have a very hard time keeping track of the day of the week. I even have to ask my husband what year it is from time to time. Part of this is due to my being a mom and a right brained type person. But also perhaps I am slipping from the non-natural structures of the Gregorian calendar. I am moving into more natural time. I am tracking my moon blood and the moon, following the Sun as It moves along on its yearly travels, and I am feeling the rhythms of the earth deep beneath my feet.

May you walk in peace and great awakening. Aho.