Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Lily Yeh and The Barefoot Artists
She gave one of the most inspiring talks I've ever heard. If there had been a plane parked outside, I think everyone in the auditorium would have followed her anywhere!
"This internationally celebrated artist works to bring the transformative power of art to impoverished and war-torn communities around the world to foster community empowerment, improve the physical environment, promote economic development and preserve indigenous art and culture. She portrays a heart-breakingly beautiful project (described in Terry Tempest Williams' latest book Finding Beauty in a Broken World) exemplifying how art can begin to heal the environment as well as the hearts and minds of the traumatized people." (from the Bioneers website)
Monday, September 21, 2009
The Dream of the Cosmos: A Quest for the Soul by Anne Baring
Anne Baring has been working on her book, "The Dream of the Cosmos," for twenty years and is putting some chapters onto her website before it is published. The link above takes you to the chapters which are posted.
She co-authored, with Andrew Harvey "The Divine Feminine" and "The Mystic Vision" among other titles. This website holds many treasures , so enjoy exploring!
The Cult of Divine Birth by Marguerite Rigoglioso

Friday, August 28, 2009
More good mysteries...
His newest "Bone Rattler" series is a fascinating story, rooted in fact, about the overlap in the mid-1700s of the Iroquois and Scottish cultures in the new world.
Another mystery I really enjoyed reading is: "The Pale Blue Eye" by Louis Bayard. This is a beautifully written novel set during Edgar Allan Poe's brief time as a West Point cadet, and will keep you guessing up until the last page.
Being a Pilgrim: The Journey of Transformation, a Journey of Days
Using Jungian analyst Helen Luke’s notions of authentic living and Dante’s legendary myth of the maturing that waits like a dark kiss in midlife, this retreat will explore the inevitable call of always waking more deeply into life. No pre-reading or prior experience necessary, only a beginner’s mind and heart.
Friday, July 10, 2009
The Horse Boy
Just finished reading this and it is a real page turner and a beautiful, mysterious and moving true story. I highly recommend it!
Spirituality & Practice
Earthnews on the BBC
New Economics
Bernard Lietaur and the Future of Money - this is a must read! Lietaur is a Belgian economist and has a deep understanding of economics, its underlying structures and history and how it is all interconnected. His ideas are radical and yet they really make the most sense! His website has several white papers as well.
The Economics of Peace Conference - Praxis Peace Institute and RSF Social Finance - The challenge before us is to align the efforts and energies of the millions of individuals, businesses, and organizations that are working to transform our failing economy. "The Economics of Peace" Conference will provide a space for such independent networks and organizations to form deeper levels of collaboration and to begin describing the next economic paradigm. In essence, it will be a place for the imaginal cells of a movement to begin transforming economic relationships to better serve people and planet.
Riane Eisler and The Real Wealth of Nations - another whole systems thinker, Riane points the way to a sustainable and equitable economy that gives value to caring for our greatest economic assets: people and our natural environment.
Slow Money, Inquiries into the Nature of Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered by Woody Tasch. Woody's work has developed into an organization called Slow Money Alliance. They are having a national gathering in September.
Both Resurgence Magazine and Yes! Magazine have had recent issues devoted to new ideas, local economies and more....
BALLE - Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, the brainchild of Judy Wicks, founder of White Dog Café.
Also, look at: E.F. Schumacher Society, Time Banking, Berkshares, and Green For All, for even more innovative and wholistic perspectives.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Always something of interest...
InnerNet Weekly, Daily Good, Karma Tube and more: all are projects of CharityFocus!
Read the Spirit: you can read it on the web, but I recommend the enewsletter. "Read the Spirit" is an online home for readers who believe that diverse spiritual connections between people of faith build stronger communities. Their online magazine includes inspirational stories, fresh voices, reviews of books and films—and much more.
Orion Magazine E-update: scroll down the left column to sign up. This is a great way to be alerted to the current articles.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Inspiring magazines
Kosmos Journal is the leading international journal for planetary citizens committed to the birth and emergence of a new planetary culture and civilization. Embracing a comprehensive approach to change, its cutting edge writers address the many facets of individual, cultural and global transformation. Articles address diverse cultural values, new spirituality, global activism and global political, economic, social, institutions.
Yes! Magazine is an award-winning, ad-free, nonprofit publication that supports people’s active engagement in building a just and sustainable world.
ReVision Journal: For almost thirty years now ReVision has explored the transformative and consciousness-changing dimensions of leading-edge thinking. Since its inception Revision has been a vital forum, espe¬cially in the North American context, for the articulation of contemporary spirituality, transpersonal studies, and related new models in such fields as education, medicine, organization, social transfor¬mation, work, psychology, ecology, and gender.
3 important websites for info on safe products
Women's Voices for the Earth: Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) is a national organization that engages women to advocate for the right to live in a healthy environment. Find out about household cleaning products and personal care products that don't damage you, your children or the environment and much more!
Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by researchers at the Environmental Working Group. Look up an astonishing number of cosmetics, soaps, creams and shampoos and find out which ones use nontoxic ingredients.
Women's Health and the Environment: The Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) produced this website using the materials and wisdom of many individuals and organizations. CHE is a diverse partnership of individuals and organizations working collectively to advance knowledge and effective action to address growing concerns about the links between human health and environmental factors.
Women Transforming the World

WorldPulse: Global Issues Through the Eyes of Women - really fabulous online and print magazine. Dedicated to listening to and broadcasting the unheard voices and innovative solutions of women worldwide.
Women's Earth Alliance: Uniting Women for a Thriving Planet: Women’s Earth Alliance unites women on the front lines of environmental causes by coordinating resources, training and networks to support thriving women, communities and earth.
PeaceXPeace: Peace X Peace is a rapidly growing international organization that connects women across cultures for friendship, support, and action for peace. Our global community of women is building a more balanced, peaceful world where our lives, stories, and voices are valued and honored.
Women Make Movies: films by and about women. For example, The Sari Soldiers. Filmed over three years during the most historic and pivotal time in Nepal’s modern history, The Sari Soldiers is an extraordinary story of six women’s courageous efforts to shape Nepal’s future in the midst of an escalating civil war against Maoist insurgents, and the King’s crackdown on civil liberties.
3 lively environmental websites to track
Environmental Graffiti: an eclectic mix of the most bizarre, funny and interesting environmental news on the planet. We search the vast realms of the internet on behalf of all environmentalists who don’t take themselves too seriously and compile it into a daily blog.
World Changing: Change Your Thinking: Worldchanging.com is a nonprofit media organization headquartered in Seattle, WA, that comprises a global network of independent journalists, designers and thinkers. We cover the world’s most innovative solutions to the planet’s problems, and inspire readers around the world with stories of new tools, models and ideas for building a bright green future.
World Cat – the world's largest network of library content and services
Wow! This is really a book lovers dream!
WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. WorldCat grows every day thanks to the efforts of librarians and other information professionals.
You can search for popular books, music CDs and videos—all of the physical items you're used to getting from libraries. You can also discover many new kinds of digital content, such as downloadable audiobooks. You may also find article citations with links to their full text; authoritative research materials, such as documents and photos of local or historic significance; and digital versions of rare items that aren't available to the public. Because WorldCat libraries serve diverse communities in dozens of countries, resources are available in many languages.Also for book lovers: Bookfinder.com - BookFinder.com is a one-stop ecommerce search engine that searches over 150 million books for sale—new, used, rare, out-of-print, and textbooks.
3 websites to read often:
iJourney.org started when couple of folks got together to sit in silence, on Wednesdays in the Silicon Valley. Today, it offers a weekly mailing of inspired readings to 59,468 people. Wednesdays are a grassroots expression of spirituality, service and gratitude. It's in their living room, proposes no particular following and attracts a unique combination of people every week. Our general format is an hour of silent meditation, followed by another hour of sharing thoughts, and then a vegetarian dinner in silence. It was started by Nipun, Guri, and Harshida ("CF mom") in late 1996.
Conversations.org is a collection of in-depth interviews with artists from all walks of life. They also offer a monthly newsletter, Monthly Conversations, highlighting recent articles and a gift-economy print magazine. Another one of Nipun's projects!
Three new films not to miss!
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai – tells the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into The Green Belt Movement. Her understanding of our interconnectedness with the environment and her focus on simply telling people the truth about government and military corruption are truly an inspiration.
Food, Inc. – filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. There is also a book: Food, Inc.: How Industrial Food is making us sicker, fatter, and poorer and what you can do about it.
Dirt! The Movie – is an insightful and timely film that tells the story of the glorious and unappreciated material beneath our feet. One teaspoon of dirt contains a billion organisms working in remarkable balance to maintain and sustain a series of complex, thriving communities that impact our daily lives.
Inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, Dirt! The Movie takes a humorous and substantial look into the history and current state of the living organic matter that we come from and will later return to. An eclectic group of participants ranging from biologists to prisoners incarcerated on Rikers Island offer answers to problems and inspire us to clean up the mess that we’ve created. Dirt! The Movie will make you want to get dirty.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Mysteries...

If you like Sherlock Holmes, then you may enjoy this spin-off series by Laurie King. They are well done and take place in the early 1900s. The first one is called The Beekeeper's Apprentice. It is a good idea to read them in order but not absolutely necessary. A young woman, Mary Russell, meets Sherlock Holmes, they have an extraordinary meeting of minds and take off to solve various mysteries that take them all over the world.
Another good and very readable mystery author is Amanda Cross (pseudonym). Carolyn Gold Heilbrun was a literature professor at Columbia and her books always have a literary theme. They are very well written, witty, dry and addictive!
"The Coroner's Lunch" and "Thirty Three Teeth" by Colin Cotterill take place in Laos. The characters, the setting and Laotian history come alive in these beautifully written stories.
Friday, June 12, 2009
A Verb for Keeping Warm

They are open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 to 5. Located in the back parking lot area of:
Activspace Building
2703 7th St #147
Berkeley, CA
510-388-5110
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World, by Yang Erche Namu, Christine Mathieu
Friday, June 5, 2009
Secrets of the Dead: Amazon Warrior Women
This episode was shown on PBS and is available through Netflix.
"After unearthing evidence of a culture of ancient warrior women in the Russian steppes, Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball followed a trail of artifacts to a remote village in Western Mongolia, where her quest for a living link to a long-imagined tribe ended with a startling discovery. There, among the black-eyed Mongols, Davis-Kimball found a blond child, a 9-year-old girl named Meiramgul. Through DNA testing, Davis-Kimball finds that the DNA sequences of the warrior women and those from the girl of Mongolia are identical."
Interview with Jeannine Davis Kimball: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/previous_seasons/case_amazon/interview.html
Manjula's kitchen: Indian Vegetarian Recipes
Friday, May 29, 2009
The writings of Helen Luke
Helen Luke who was trained in the work of Carl Gustav Jung, came to live at Apple Farm in Three Rivers, Michigan in 1962. All of her books and writings, articles, and interviews are listed on the Apple Farm website along with several essays which can be downloaded. I highly recommend everything she has written and would be hard put to even list favorites. Her biography, Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made Of and the video "A Sense of the Sacred" are excellent. She possessed a deep understandings of symbolism and meaning and had a beautiful gift for expressing this with clarity and grace. Below are just a few more titles:
Dark Wood to White Rose: Journey and Transformation in Dante's Divine Comedy
The Inner Story: Myth and Symbol in the Bible and Literature
Kaleidoscope: The Way of Woman and Other Essays
Old Age: Journey into Simplicity
The Way of Woman: Awakening the Perennial Feminine (Book Review at http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com)
Woman Earth And Spirit: The Feminine in Symbol and Myth
Writings about Water
There are two articles from a Taoist perspective. Here is a short quote to whet your interest (and the source of this blog's title):
It is externalities that are caught up in all kinds of happenings–
The Tao itself is without mind.
Realizing this, one may put on
sleeves of light feathers and
be clothed in wind.
–Zhang Rong
Sophia and the Divine Feminine
The Mystery, Biography & Destiny of Mary Magdalene, The Most Holy Trinosophia and the New Revelation of the Divine Feminine, and The Sophia Teachings.
His work also includes several in-depth works involving esoteric astrology and a type of movement called Choreocosmos and much more.
Lithuanian Museum of Ancient Beekeeping
As of 2006, the museum consisted of six buildings, about 500 displays, and 25 sculptures. In addition to illustrating the history of beekeeping in Lithuania, some of the museum's wooden sculptures themselves contain beehives. The sculptures pay homage to the honeybee's place in worldwide mythology and folklore, including Egyptian and Native American figures as well as the Lithuanian god Babilas and goddess Austėja. They were carved by Teofilis Patiejūnas and Ipolitas Užkurnis.
The honeybee is a symbol of friendship in Lithuania; the word bičiulis is an affectionate form of address. In 2005 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko presented Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus with three beehives and bees, which were brought to the museum.
The museum is open from May to October. A Honey Harvest festival is held in August, and the museum features a "Honey Bar".
Peace Fleece
The Peace Fleece offices are in a barn on a sheep and horse farm in the small, rural town of Porter in the foothills of southwestern Maine. Peter Hagerty and his wife Marty Tracy started buying wool from the Soviet Union back in 1985 in hopes that through trade they could help diffuse the threat of nuclear war. Since then Peter has journeyed through eastern Europe, central Asia and the Middle East in search of farmers and shepherds who are willing to set aside historic enmities in exchange for opportunities leading to mutual understanding and economic interdependence.
Peace Fleece offers knitting yarn made from a blend of Russian, Romanian, American, Israeli and Palestinian wools as well as felting supplies, batts for quilters, Russian handpainted knitting needles and wooden buttons, patterns, knitting and felting kits and batting and raw fleeces for hand spinners.