last of the blackberries

And very sweet and juicy!

botanical garden iceland

grasagardur, Reykjavik

In the botanical gardens Laugadalur, Reykjavik, Iceland, a tropical greenhouse!

http://www.grasagardur.is/

glo

Solla's raw restaurant in Reykjavik.
http://www.glo.is/glorestauranticeland

land of fire and ice and geothermal strawberries

by Geysir

Thingvellir

What a fascinating country...only settled by humans in the 9th century, leaving disputes further south in Scandinavia and looking for new land to settle, the settlers brought their naimals. In this land fruit trees rarely grow, although now some talented individuals in modern times have found ways to grow apple trees.
(apple trees in Iceland and more apple trees in Iceland),  There are five types of berries in Iceland blueberries, bilberries, stone bramberries, wild strawberries and crowberries.  They can be picked mostly in August.  We had crowberries to eat.

stone bramberries

http://katopick.blogspot.com/2008/07/berry-picking-in-iceland.html

http://www.icelandnaturally.com/news/archive/nr/1386

Icelandic strawberries with skyr, lucuma, vanilla and cream

Some vegetables such as cabbage can also be grown and there are herbs such as thyme.  Nowadays salad vegetables, cucumbers and even strawberries are grown in greenhouses, heated geo-thermally and even, in some cases lit with geo-thermally powered lighting.  Even strawberries are grown in greenhouses.

 In these types of climate, grazing animals are what makes it all possible to get nutrition that would otherwise not be possible through utilising the nutrition in the grasses through their milk.  In Iceland skyr is one of the traditional fermented milk products, it is like a cross between a yogurt and a cream cheese and very delicious.   Traditionally eaten with cream and sugar, I have been eating it with cream, lucuma, and vanilla.

Now a revival in raw milk products seems to be beginning in Iceland.  The pastures are particularly nutritious thanks to the long hours of sunlight in the summer.  I have noticed  the grasses and other green plants are extra luminous here, as if they have stored the solar charge for emission later, they seem to glow even more than in England.  Icelandic wool makes beautiful clothing and handling wool in winter has traditionally been a source of vitamin D3 in northern climes, through the lanolin.  In fact even today some vitamin D3 supplements are derived from lanolin.

between Laugadalur and Reyjavik

My first impression on arriving was the incredible freshness of the air and then the pristine water - spring water coming out of the taps!  The hot tap water smells sulphurous (think boiled eggs!) and is from a different source to the cold water.  The emphasis has been so much more on  fire than ice, with lots of bathing in geothermal pools  This country is not really that cold.  Asking the people who live here, they say it isn't even that cold in winter; they must feel a bit like we do when asked about raw food lifestyle and 'don't you get cold in winter?' ! And of course the Icelanders have got their heating systems sorted out so that a lot of the time I have been boiling.  In winter even some of the pavements in Reyjhavik  are geothermally heated!

Geysir on the Golden Circle

Connection to te Earth and elements is very much through the water and the air rather than through for example fruit trees of course.  It's about getting in the geothermal water, drinking the fresh water and breathing in the air, listening to the wind.  In Laugadalur is the amazing 'swimming pool' where you can swim, soak in hot tubs or even in hot seawater mixed with mineral water.

The Earth is beautiful wherever you go, wherever it is unspoilt.  You can almost hear the Eddas in the wind, the Norse mythology that was documented here.  The Icelandic language is an old Norse, protected by the island situation.  My thinking has been very clear here and as well as enjoying the amazing scenery and geothermal water I have been able to write and think to my heart's desire.  Clarity of purpose in this wild pristine land.  The Icelanders I have asked have told me how much they like to live here.  What is it about being here I have asked...'everything' came the response.  'We use nature' someone explained to me, and they didn't mean use as consume, they were describing an alignment to the power of the Earth which is palpable in the air here.

reykjavik

We were lucky to have a day of blue skies and what a lovely city to spend time in.  There is a lively cafe culture and its a very peaceful relaxed and doable small capital city.  With only just over 100,000 inhabitants, it  is a small fraction of the size of the city I grew up in.

Reykjavik

Laugadalur

Kaffitar

golden circle in iceland

The Golden Circle is a tour of some of the spectacular natural wonders of Iceland easily accessible form Reykjavik.  

Thingvellir, is said to be the original site of the oldest existing parliament in the world. The Great Atlantic rift is clearly visible, a rift that is slowly pulling Iceland apart along the tectonic plates.  In stunning beautiful autumn colours, the vegetation was soft and spongy underfoot.

What a wonderful world we live in!

barefoot at Thingvellir

Geysir is a geothermal area where they are many hot springs and hot water runs across the ground.

Geysir

Gulfoss is Iceland's biggest waterfall.

Gulfoss waterfall

sunshine hormone d3

Above is a diagram of how D3 is formed in the human body from UVB radiation from the sun.  I have just been reading this fascinating article by Jeff Bowles about the strange history and fascinating promise of vitamin D

http://www.thoughtsforconsciousness.co.uk/the-strange-history-and-fantastic-promise-of-vitamin-d/

Whatever your take on this article, if you live in the northern hemisphere and away from the equator, it is worth asking the question at this time of the year, where you are obtaining adequate supplies of the hormone, aka, vitamin D3.

As the height of the sun lessens during winter in latitudes far from the equator, the angle of the sun's rays is too low to shine UVB onto our skins and produce the hormone vitamin D in this way.  The ensuing deficiency is now thought to be connected to a myriad of diseases and ailments.  The consumption of unpasteurised dairy products, where the D3 was undamaged by heating and also contact with the lanolin from handling sheep and their wool were examples of traditional ways of topping up with D3.  Nowadays for various reasons such as changed lifestyles  D3 deficiency can easily happen.  This can occur even in summer due to indoor living and it is also important to be aware that the darker your skin, the more sunshine is needed to produce D3 so the more likely you are to get deficient in northern latitudes.  Between September and March is the time in Britain when we cannot obtain D3 from sunlight.

Vitamin D3 is sometimes known as the sunshine vitamin and is documented to increase levels of happiness

We use a D3 supplement from Premier Research Labs who are renowned for their quality control  The D3 in it is derived from the lanolin of sheep's wool.  

sheltering the sophianic vision

crab nebula

http://gaiaspora.org/nousletter-inaugural-edition/    John Lash

The Gaian mystery schools are an event dreamed into the mind of the anthropos (humanity).  In the Wisdom Goddess Sophia's original design the anthropos was a creature with a genius ability to produce shelter.  From her anomalous condition (as an aeon materialised in the planet itself)  she adds another component to her dreaming.  She induces and reinforces our talent so we can materialise shelter for those who gather in the presence of the organic light.

http://www.metahistory.org/terma/Message2014.php

With the atmosphere now in a state of supersaturation, visualisation and materialisation become much easier for us.  Luminous epinoia is the is the power to materialise by the intent of imagination.  From the Coptic Gnostic materials: "at the time of the culmination of the work of the archons they will be defeated by that luminous child. "  The instrument of that defeat is the luminous epinoia.  Supersaturation is a supremely magical event equivalent to the application of divine pronoia on human scale.

The manifestation of these places of sanctuary is a shared focal point, wish , dream, ideal, adventure.  We can and must...

split solution

Teachers of the mysteries (Gnostics) told many many generations ago of a time that would come when there would be some kind of parting of the ways, some kind of split solution, in Greek, diorthosis.  This is not to be confused with some great day of judgement where are judged by some outside patriarchal authority figure.  This is more of a choice, whether we choose to engage with the source of our life on this planet, or make other plans....my paraphrasing.  While of course, there is a cosmic source or originator, on this planet our immediate source of physical life is the Earth herself, Gaia, known on the mysteries as Sophia.  The Sophianic vision story is the story about her and us, where we came from and where we are going. It's an open-ended story for us to actively participate in.  It does not tell us how to love, we are loving creatures by nature already, rather we bring our love to the story and then the magic begins.

Mythology brings us this story of bifurcation and also, strangely and helpfully science is bringing us a complementary message. Research into the brain over the last few decades is revealing more about the split sense of self within us.  It also signposts a fork in the road for humanity.  We have a choice about whether to follow a increasingly degenerating road, at odds with our environment and own sanity or take active steps to change the biochemical balance in our whole system so that our  DNA blueprint from divine intelligence can be read according to its full potential, affecting the development of our bodies and brains and even ultimately our sense of self.  Not only can this take us to revolutionary levels of  health and happiness (words that seem mild to describe what is possible!) but can also reveal what now are considered extraordinary abilities, faculties we see glimpses of in peak states.

Bifurcation might easily be interpreted as some humans go one way and the rest another way and indeed ultimately this might be the case.  But before that it seems to manifest as an extraordinary and intense internal split in our own psyches, also experienced by those around us.  Sometimes this can bring excruciating sensations into our relations with those close to us as sometimes they can seem with us and at other times they seem to be in another camp altogether.  The reality we live in is dual source, one is natural from the Earth herself and cosmic intelligence.  The other is artificial, unfeeling and having no real purpose only really capable of imitation.  Identifying and separating out the two in our awareness is a step in choosing which way we want to go.

Through various techniques such as entheogenic nutrition, attunement to nature and various shamanic practices it is possible even now, to experience something very different to what is considered a normal state of consciousness, a way of  being that feels, simply put, much nicer, more connected, more connected to the source of our lives.  Activities and goals of the the other unsatisfied and unsatisfiable state then may seem less attractive and less of interest. Instead desire may focus on being in that connected state more of the time and to a greater degree.  When we find out that ultimately we could live in that state sustainably, that this could be said to be the natural human state then it could be asked what else would we do?  So we have the parting of the ways.

There is a separation in the storyline now, whether to go with the ever more beautiful dream of a paradise on Earth or further develop the worn out gimmicks of the past in some kind of archontic (artificial and delusory) nightmare.  The chasm is widening and it is increasingly difficult to live in both.  Yet it is not so much about a choice of location (though of course being connected to the Earth and natural word is so part of it) or a choice of people to be with (although that will come into it), that would make it so simple  but about a choice in our way of being and what we are engaged with.  With the knowledge we now have the potential to live in the dream is greater than ever.  At the same time the antihuman nightmare seems to be reaching new levels of dementia and lack of feeling and human friendliness.  Patching up the problems that arise from this situation seems increasingly tiresome and ineffective.  Maybe its time to move attention elsewhere.  Although the manifestations of this anti-humanness seem very real and still in operation they are degenerating.  Although this makes them seem worse, as they struggle and fight for survival, ultimately they are losing force.  The elements of the paradisiacal dream are embryonic and require our imagination and faith, but they are growing, faster by the day.  There is an illusion of safety in the familiar but the life force is much stronger than any of our institutions, beliefs, sufferings, addictions and attachments.  The power of the archontic nightmare is largely in its capacity to distract us from the dream and the real power and magic that comes through connection to nature and the our planetary mother.

The shift in consciousness in question is not so much about increasing our awareness of what is going on in current reality but more a move into magical consciousness and a release in the power of  imagination to co-create a future of beauty, that we really want.

There are clues about the two senses of self that we experience in many places, from spiritual and mythological traditions to science.  In some spiritual traditions there is talk of a higher and lower self.  We hear about the nagual and tonal about mundane and magical states of consciousness.  In real sky astrology there is the endowment which is gifts from the entire human species versus the ego, there is the socially and culturally programmed mind and the natural genius mind.  There is a sense of suffering and victimhood as a human on this planet or there is a sense of human potential and the capacity for ecstatic bliss, we can be focussed on the past, or the future.

Research of recent decades is indicating that due to biochemical imbalance the left hemispheres of our brains fail to develop to their full potential causing a rift between the two hemispheres while the left is dominant (cerebral dominance)  keeping us perceptually in a mundane and limited sense of self.  The left hemisphere it seems has little sense of feeling and a reliance on conceptualisation and programming, while the right hemisphere retains full human cognitive capacities, latent, it can feel and it can feel pleasure and joy.  If the right hemisphere is stimulated or the left hemisphere calmed we are more likely to feel a sense of presence more than us. Only the right hemisphere responds to psychotropic plant medicines and substances.  The right hemisphere needs less sleep than then left so is more easily accessed during sleep deprivation or dreams at night. It might be imagined that in the right hemisphere state we know about this situation but in the left hemisphere state we are ignorant of the greater possibilities.  This is reflected in modern mythology in the story of the Andromedan doubles  where the control group of  doubles on M31 know about us but we don't know about them.  Both these narratives describe our experiences as humans in the dream and in the nightmare, waking or otherwise.
http://www.metahistory.org/dynamyth/translations/preface.php

Through understanding a little about this split sense of self and how it can be healed I think we will get more clues about how we can get into the state we truly want to be in.

footnote: archontic phenomena  are  artificial, deceptive, mimicing, which always lie and  do not deliver what is promised

planetary animal mother

To know the planetary animal mother is to love her supremely. To love her is to want to be with her all the time, and never turn away from gazing upon her face, embracing her body, feeling her breath in your lungs. To know who you love supremely ignites the desire to be in intimate physical contact with her body at every moment, and to do so you cannot live in a city. Once immersed in her natural beauty, how could you ever want to be elsewhere?

http://www.metahistory.org/terma/whatistheterma.php

on correction

coco de mer

Central to the Sophianic myth was an event called in Gnostic terminology the “correction” of the Earth goddess, a concept that verges toward teleology without predefining it. In Sophia’s correction, Gnostics imagined the realignment of life on our planet with the cosmic center, the source from which the earth goddess originated and emerged. This intriguing idea is found in Gnostic cosmological writings from Nag Hammadi, including the Apocryphon of John (cited below). Scholars sometimes translate the Greek diorthosis as redemption rather than correction, but the concept of correction taught in the Mysteries was utterly unlike the divinely insured redemption promised in salvationist religion." - From Not in His Image
http://www.metahistory.org/GAIA%20SOPHIA/FGSProgress.php

Gnostics taught that the human role in the transhuman designs of Sophia, the divinity embodied in the earth, was to assist her correction,
http://www.metahistory.org/Telestics/telesticsintro.php

That deviance into mindless robotics is the essence of Archontic influence: it is due to nothing original on the part of the alien parasites but merely the exaggeration of pre-existing tendencies in the psychosomatic structure of humanity — in the plasmata, modelled form of the Anthropos.

The power of the Authorities is a moral illusion enforced as a lie so transparent that it needs continuous application of brute force to be sustained. This lie is the opposite of the truth: only freedom to explore and express its natural tendencies will allow humanity to reach its true potential. This freedom is the true anarchy of life on earth. It is the basis of the confidence of the wisdom goddess Sophia, the foundation of her reliance on the species she designed.

The true anarchy of the human species is Sophia's guarantee of the success of the divine experiment she preconceived for the Anthropos, without setting a predetermined end to it. Gnosis today is the open source spirituality of imaginal and moral empowerment that optimizes the prospects for creative anarchy. Thus in Gnosis we can fulfill the Edenic promise of life on earth.

Organic Light, the living plasmatic luminosity of the galactic core, is the natural energy form of the Aeons or cosmic divinities. It is not electrical as such but carries a light electrical component.

http://www.metahistory.org/GAIA%20SOPHIA/TrueAnarchy.php

The Coco de Mer is the icon for the world dreaming of the Aeon Sophia as it came to be realized by her metamorphosis into the setting of the divine experiment she had previsioned in the Pleroma, the galactic core.

also http://www.metahistory.org/GAIA%20SOPHIA/sacredecology/CocoDeMer1.php

John Lamb Lash

carried by the wind

paragliding at Chale, white cliffs of Freshwater in distance

We unexpectedly had the amazing opportunity to paraglide in the Isle of Wight (http://www.paraglide.uk.com/) this summer. It was such a transformative experience I have not felt ready to put it into words until now.  We fly in our dreams and strangely, as a human, it feels completely natural to fly. Sometimes I talk about living life as if carried by the wind and here I was!  To soar like a bird and see the beauty of the Earth from the viewpoint that they do filled my dreams for the nights ad mornings afterwards.  Jumping off the cliff and submitting to the elements funnily enough felt so much less stressful than some of the stuff we face daily on the ground!  Yet we sometimes cling to the cliff with the illusion safety in familiarity, when in reality all this awaits us.

paragliding at Culver Down

And nearby is the exotic Ventnor Botanical Gardens which we visited around the same time.

http://foodforconsciousness.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ventnor-botanical-garden.html

changes with kate magic

I interview Kate about how we can make raw food work long term by considering the food groups, raw food for children, changes in the raw food scene over the years, and  how this way of eating helps you to be more balanced and able to act positively in the world.

from Kate's website www.rawliving.eu: Kate  has over two decades of experience of raw eating, and is raising her three sons on the raw diet. She is the author of four raw lifestyle books, and tours internationally giving talks and workshops on raw foods.
She is Creative Director of the Raw Living website which offers advice and information on the raw diet, as well as the biggest range of raw foods and superfoods products in Europe. She is driven by a passionate desire for change in this world. Everything she does is fuelled by her vision of humanity living together in peace and unity, and restoring our mother earth to a garden paradise. She believes raw foods and superfoods to be an important tool to unlocking our inner potential and empowering ourselves as individuals to create the cultural renaissance that is so urgently needed at this time.

festival of life

http://www.festivaloflife.net/
A very busy day including a  talk on kefir and fermented foods and selling fermented foods, jun, superfoods and a lot of books relating to food and neurochemistry which was a nice sign.  I approached the day with some foreboding, just the journey to London really. A friend had said well, watch the omens.  We set out from Somerset at dawn and dozing in the dar I had a vivid dream of being in  paradise on Earth, then I woke up in London.  After that auspicious start I actually had a wonderful day.  Festival of Life is a great event for connecting with both friends and acquaintances right back into the "olden days" of raw food and also new inspirational and young people. I met Charlot and Prem from Raw Ecstasy, with some of the most amazing raw gourmet food I have ever encountered.  This is their website: http://www.rawecstasy.co.uk/ I hope we will be stocking some of their snacks soon.

wild floral jun

This is our new jun, the traditional healing fermented beverage made with honey and herbs.  This variety was inspired by the profuse elderflowers in our neighbourhood this summer, childhood memories of drinking my Welsh father's traditional elder beer and Stephen Harrod Buhner's writings on sacred indigenous brews of these islands.  It includes heather, a traditional ingredient which becomes psychotropic upon fermentation.  The other ingredients are : spring water, wild poly floral honey,  Mayan lily, blue lily, sacred lotus, wild fennel, guayusa, Sage and lapsang souchong.  It's interesting that the guayusa feeds the jun culture itself, one of our main reasons for including it.

http://www.foodforconsciousness.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=51&products_id=295

pandas and biological diet

This beautiful red panda is living at Amazon World in the Isle of Wight, where we were this summer.  It's a little sad to see animals taken from the wild but at least they are protected in these environments and hopefully there are better things to come.  Red pandas aren't really related to giant pandas but they share something in common - their need to eat bamboo.  Unlike the giant black and white panda of China though they  eat other foods too. If giant pandas lose access to bamboo forests they cannot continue to live.  I often mention pandas when I do natural nutrition talks.  They are in a way an opposite extreme to humans.  Humans seem to be up for eating practically anything and, removed from what might be considered our natural habitats we have adapted to a diet far removed from the natural biological diet of our species. We have continued to survive and reproduce for generations in this manner.  The question begs to be asked, what is our optimal diet, and in terms of what?  Are we speaking about immediate health in terms of freedom from disease, strength and long life?  And what is the optimal diet for happiness?  How we would we eat in order to heighten our sensory and extrasensory perceptions, to engage the supernatural powers that are natural to us as humans, to feel a sense of connection to source?  I have a starter list here...always developing this theme..and no-one has the last word!

http://foodforconsciousness.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/recommended-raw-food-groups.html

More about bamboo eaters in this fascinating video here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p007zk1v

Amazon World is near the Arreton Valley, one of the sunniest places in Britain.

supermoon and perigee

At the ancient barrows at Priddy, Somerset.

wild beach and secret garden

Photographs from our recent excursion to the unspoilt terrain of the Isle of Wight.  This site, adjoining a very special house where we will soon be holding retreats, is a conservation area, wild and beautiful yet minutes from the comforts of civilisation.

fresh unspoilt terrain after rain moves some earth

wow :)

secret beach

secret garden 

view towards sea from main garden of Sunacres