The Free Radical

I eat a lot of purple. By now, you’ve probably gathered that during my forages through the forest I tend to favour flowers. The only seasonal fruits available at this time in the wild are rose hips and choke cherries. Not to worry though; Nature has my appetites satisfied with the ongoing proliferation of wildflowers.

This is Aster… or, “A star.” She is the birth flower for the month of September. She is the stalwart defender of true love… but counsels patience. Her centre is the masculine power of the yellow Sun, but her emanating rays are a delicate purple, gently transforming all in accordance with true (beyond the illusion) love.

“Astrologically– for I am a Star– you have successfully transitioned into the realm of lasting peace as of last night. Locally, there was a brief skirmish in the wee hours of the morning… flashes of insight, and much grumbling among historically warring factions. [We had a spectacular thunderstorm at about 2:00 am last night!]

“It is resolved… but I still endorse the need for patience. Big messes take time and effort to sort out and clean up. However, the way forward is known– assuredly. Focus individually on your own transformations, but always remember your profound interconnections. We all spring from the same root. Each of your unique concerns and challenges may serve to help each other along as they’re shared and discussed with an intent toward resolution.

“Keep your wits about you in this tumultuous time of transition.”

It took me awhile to identify Aster, as she wasn’t listed in my manual of Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Rockies… despite being rather ubiquitous in this area. This lovely little flower can be found everywhere along my chosen pathways. Even before positive identification, I had already developed a strong liking for her character and taste. (Yeah, sometimes I try unknown specimens in my search for the next seasonal delicacy– which breaks all of the rules for safe foraging. I’m such a rebel!) Asters have a great variance of flavours from one plant to another. They may taste like pine, dill, parsley or other mildly spicy combinations of culinary intrigue. I really like this little purple flower!

Today’s photo was actually taken from my front yard. The area depicted is where I take my daily forest walks. Today, our little town awoke to a very heavy and thick fog.

Today’s message is my own.

You never know what actually lies beyond the fog until it begins to lift. When it begins to break, it breaks and lifts rather quickly. As I’ve surveyed the landscape of current events over the past few days, there seems to be sharp rays of light piercing the endless obfuscations. The disinformation artists are beginning to look rather ridiculous. Fewer and fewer of our fellows are falling for the same old lies being recycled endlessly.

Yes, the fog is lifting… and will have difficulty settling in ever again. We’re starting to get it!

Clear skies; clear minds… glowing hearts.

Sometimes I just don’t know what to feel… or, er… how I feel about some of the things I encounter.

Though I move rather slowly through the forest, my general rule is to keep moving. That’s why I use my GoPro to shoot short film clips of these adventures. If I take the time to set up a proper fancy camera to get the “perfect” shot I will be harassed mercilessly by all the tiny flying critters. The best I can do currently is to take screen shots to lift stills from my GoPro footage… and sometimes they’re just not super-crisp… but you still get the picture.

I had noticed this spider web erected in a raspberry patch I frequent. Daily I would check to see who was on the menu. Finding this wasp fully cocooned but as yet uneaten was a bit unnerving. I haven’t met this particular spider face-to-face, but she must be a formidable creature! And dedicated readers of The Daily Forest report may recall that it was Wasp who originally initiated me into Forest Life with a quick sting to the back of my hand. The message today is predominantly about relationships.

“The entanglements are many-varied and convoluted,” explained Spider. “These webs of deception can be very difficult to detect… especially for the arrogant.

“Our energy– in this exchange– is predominantly feminine… but it has been manipulated by domineering masculine agendas. Those agendas are becoming as helpless and hapless as this wasp. Masculine machinations of conquest are finding fewer and fewer avenues of expression… becoming entrapped in their own bundles of lies. You are seeing it everywhere.

“There is a reset occurring among all relations at this time. Not a single relationship is the same today as it was yesterday. So very much is in flux. Do not be trapped by your own bad habits from the past. New webs are being woven… around you… between you… through you… and, most significantly, by you. Examine your needs carefully, and decide where conquest and domination rightfully belong… and stand clear from the repressed feminine as she awakens to full power!”

And I still don’t really know what to feel about that!

Gotta love the emerald green of glacial meltwater! It makes me ask “What is the value of such beauty?” The answer to this question can only be answered individually.

All rivers flow to the same destination… All roads lead to Mi-Fu (Mind Fusion)…

If you’ve ever gone fishing, perhaps you’ve caught a glimpse of that big wily ol’ fish cruising the deepest pools. The scars on his body attest to his hard-won wisdom. He’s an expert at removing live bait from fishermen’s hooks… without ever biting the hook. He might not know exactly what’s going on, but he recognizes a cunning trap when he sees one… and knows how to avoid it while still making the very best of the situation.

“Earth’s inexorable journey has momentarily paused in a pool of deep complexity. Clear and deliberate choices must be made, despite any residual murkiness.

“My advice for humanity is to go ahead and take the bait; claim the very nice things being offered… but always be wary of the hook and the line behind it. You will soon be offered golden opportunities, and you may rightly reap their obvious benefits, but there is absolutely no need to bite the hook. I gladly take what is offered, but thwart the dark intentions behind the offering. Such dark intentions simply do not suit me. Similarly, you may not wish to be someone else’s lunch… just yet.

“This time the ‘hook’ will be made from gold; it will glitter and sparkle. Do not be entranced… again. It is the same old barbed hook. Look instead at the beauty of the river; it too sparkles and glitters– with life. Where does value reside? You must decide.”

I would just add a couple of questions:

Are you finite or infinite?

Does value have any meaning apart from you?

The universe is asking each of us now to answer these for ourselves. Will you listen to the wily ol’ Piscean as we flow into Aquarius?

Sometimes I’m a bit stupid. For the past few days I had been lamenting the end of onion season. Of course, the reality is that onion season never really ends. It’s just that my preference is for consuming the flowers, the most flavourful part of the Wild Onion. I honestly had sort of forgotten that there’s still the bulb buried underground… which is in season pretty much always, even once the onion has completely gone to seed. Like I said, sometimes I’m a little bit stupid!

Wild Onion is rather smart. It nourishes the part of me that gets tired and bored with all of the sugary berries and blossoms. Onion’s savoury flavour feeds a deeper part of me… well below the surface.

“A facade is a facade, even if it’s a rather pretty one. True knowing demands a consistent ability to penetrate beyond appearances. We are all equipped to do so, should we so choose.

“Historically, modern human science chose a wrong turning at the outset, discarding its most precise and accurate measuring device: intuition. Your feelings are your greatest asset… but they are buried beneath the surface. It is always your own choice whether to keep them hidden or to unearth their sublime treasure.

“Science, in seeking an ever-elusive ‘objectivity,’ chose to disallow and banish intuition. Instead, science might have chosen to acknowledge the ever-subjective nature of all experience, and could have decided to build a very real ‘Science of Intuition.’

“Indeed, such an undertaking would have constituted a rational first step. Feelings exist outside of space and time; they are non-computational, non-linear, instantaneous and infallible.

“Feelings– or intuition– make energetic comparisons. Briefly, the energetic patterning of an external hypothesis is overlaid upon an inner reality. The inner reality is a totality (infinite); any hypothesis may be measured against it. The resultant feeling is accurate and precise in depicting all of the subtle nuances of resonance and/or dissonance. The full spectrum of human intuition is infinite.

“The decaying scientific paradigm has delegated intuition to a place of irrelevance. Feelings are labelled unscientific. As such, science may only move forward again once it acknowledges and fully grasps its most valuable tool. In the meantime, individuals are encouraged to establish their own ‘Science of Intuition.'”

Chatty little fella, eh? Think I’ll bite him in the bum!

Grasshopper season is well underway. As a little side note, it is dangerous to walk into a strong headwind during grasshopper season! You will be pelted… mercilessly. And if you’ve never had the unique experience of having a grasshopper cling to your bare flesh before, you just might freak out. It is a “creepy” sensation! (I’m quite used to it though.)

Yeah, that’s a pretty freaky looking grasshopper! I agree. I call him ProtoHopper. He’s like the ancient progenitor of the Grasshopper Nation. He shows up once in a while to facilitate memory retrieval from the most ancient past. The memory he sparked in me on this occasion even precedes this universe– it’s that old… Quite the leap!

His message was simple and succinct: “Remember your origins in the Multiverse.”

I remember a conversation… with God (don’t know what else to call him). It was basically my “briefing” before embarking on this adventure in our current universe. Apparently, I was given the very same instructions you were given… and we’ve all subsequently forgotten. The time for recalling the basics is here/now.

The full content of this memory is far too long to recount here, but it will be presented in the September Newsletter. (Don’t worry, the monthly Newsletter is free, and I even narrate the content to the accompaniment of music for your thorough enjoyment.) Besides, this memory is not a “Forest Report,” and so has no business appearing here. Sorry… and stayed tuned.

Ever since the summer solstice, when Dutch Creek flooded its banks, I’ve noticed that the River’s voice has remained gruff and loud. Each day as I approach the river valley I’m surprised by its still-excited tone.

In many, many places it has rerouted itself. As a result, much of the landscape it now devours is rough and pristine, not the smooth channels of decades of quiet deliberation as before. The River explains:

“There is a brand new emotional landscape within the Collective. New channels needed to be cut… away from old programs. Though all rivers inexorably flow to the very same ancient destination, how they get there has been upgraded. The pathways are exciting and new.

“Although the net result will be a marked reduction in erosive strife, there remains a period of unsettlement. New feelings, as experiments in creativity, require a period of adjustment in order to find their new course. Consequently, expect more than a few blustering voices to churn and mull over their own confusion… as the River’s Sacred Journey finally begins to settle down into the valleys and fissures of our most Ancient Purpose here– reawakened.

“Rest assured that deep pools of Silence underlie the cacophonous volley of empty words. You would do well to languish in the slow back-eddying pools of your deepest feelings/knowings, rather than careening along the surface of raw and frayed nerves.

“The newness will pass, and you will finally discern the very same River from whence you so long ago came… but now it flows ever-so-surely directly to its own Source. Do not lose yourselves in surface noise; dive below and swim…”

I can do that!

As raspberry season comes rapidly to a close I was beginning to wonder what wild treat might come next in the seasonal procession. Wild choke cherries are now coming ripe, but it is challenging to find outcroppings that are minimally bitter and/or astringent. I noticed that many of the wild rose bushes are sporting an abundance of soft ripe fruit. I usually don’t harvest rose hips until well into autumn, but they looked so good already I had to try them.

In certain isolated pockets they’re really quite excellent! And they will only improve as the season wears on, reaching their peak of flavour after the first heavy frost– hopefully, still some considerable time away.

Naturally, roses are associated with all matters of the heart… but perhaps it is less known that in a very literal sense the fruit of the Wild Rose is perfect heart medicine. I’ll let “Dr. Rose” explain:

“All ailments or disease are the results of only two possible conditions: nutritional deficiency or toxic overload. Singularly or in combination, these are the causative factors.

“The prevailing paradigm would have it that heart disease is primarily a condition of toxic excess of cholesterol. However, this is not a cause; it is an effect. The primary cause of heart disease is chronic vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C is a crucial component to the production and maintenance of collagen and related substances necessary for vascular health. Particularly the inner surface of blood vessels requires the continual replenishment of collagen-like substances in order to maintain functional elasticity.

“In the absence of adequate vitamin C, the liver is forced to produce excess cholesterol for deposit along the interior of arteries wherever deficiency has caused structural weakness. Attempting to limit blood cholesterol is counter-productive to this stopgap measure. The human body is perfectly capable of regulating blood cholesterol according to its immediate needs.

“The fruit of my productivity, rose hips, are rich in vitamin C and other heart-friendly compounds. By addressing this critical deficiency from the resplendence of my bounty, cholesterol will cease to be misperceived as the enemy of your heart.

“There are no natural enemies to the human heart…”

…except perhaps the befuddled human mind!

The fear of nature is endemic in our culture. It seems that whenever I attempt to explain to others what it is I “do,” there invariably follows the shocked and trembling voice which says “Aren’t you scared being by yourself in the wilderness?”

No! A thousand times no! Certainly, I can be startled… like when a grouse suddenly flies up inches from my face because I was about to step on her. But being actually heart-thumpingly scared while wandering these forest trails– never. If the true agenda of the natural world was to devour humans at every opportunity, we would have vanished from this place long ago.

Hawk has begun working very closely with me… and through me, with you too… if you’ll let her. She has not even a trace of fear in her. Sometimes it’s just hard to see her playfulness behind her stern gaze.

“How can any natural creature fear Nature?” she teases. “But, I suppose, that has been a problem among humans for quite some time already: you fear what you are! Nature has created you; Nature sustains you; Nature is your true nature. This fear… is a most peculiar thing!

“The Earth is at a moment of evolutionary crisis. Evolution is the natural life processes of the One Life. Fear is a preservation strategy… which utterly fails in the face of evolutionary pressure. Evolution is both Saviour and Destroyer; it is Destroyer to those who fear change; it is the Saving Grace to those willingly flying into the Unknown.

“Love the process; love the adventure of it! We all wish to know what comes next… and the only way to get there is by being there… and ‘there’ is here, amidst the swirling currents of change. Embrace these winds with outstretched wings and see to what heights courage may carry you!

“The Sun lights our way!”

Richard (Turkey Vulture) has passed along the New Vision to Hawk… and his other high flying cohorts.

“But Niels, how do you really know that that’s a hawk and not a vulture?” you might ask.

Once airborne, you will rarely– if ever– see Turkey Vulture flap his wings. He is an absolute master at detecting and riding thermal currents. What we see as a heat shimmer over pavement on a summer day is what Vulture’s excellent eyesight sees all the time. Hawk, however, has her keen eyes trained on the ground in search of prey. She will be observed to beat her wings occasionally while in flight, as she is not nearly as adept at finding up-currents.

And then there’s a bit of a backstory… Over the past week, on three separate occasions, I have witnessed Hawk flying up from the forest floor directly in front of me… to quickly disappear beyond the treetops. She is a much lighter brown than Turkey Vulture, and is almost always alone. Also this past week, I have been gifted with feathers from Raven and Grouse, conspicuously left on my personal trail.

And finally, yesterday I was no more than five minutes into my walk when I was greeted by another young hawk. I first recognized her by her voice. She “screeched” at me and circled above me for about ten minutes straight. At first I thought she might be trying to issue me a warning, but later I quickly realized that it was more of an exultation and an incitement to joy. The message comes collectively from the Masters of the Sky… as delivered by Hawk (who also bid me farewell at the end of yesterday’s walk).

“The New Vision gives way now for New Experience. It is as though we are coaxing and coaching our youngsters from the comforts of the nest. You do not remember what it is like to fly. Not much can prepare you for such New Experience except your trust in yourselves and an unflinching desire. We do not flinch… ever.

“Too often, you wish to proceed only once you’ve been thoroughly briefed in advance about what you are soon to experience. The New Adventure cannot be known in advance; it is that new. You cannot know anything of the exhilaration of flight until you are actually flying. You must choose to take the leap because there remains an essential part of your being that wishes to unfold… like a pair of wings… to carry you into New Frontiers.

“You are fully supported and encouraged… to join with us as Masters of the Sky.”

I also took this as a reminder that the Sky is fully a part of the Earth too!