Interview. Interiority. Bones. Violet!
Listening To Country. Potentiated Stillness. A Temple. An Artist.
A few weeks ago, Olivia Sprinkel from To Hear the Trees Speak, interviewed me about my work in Saltwater Songlines. About walking on Country and Listening to place. About this overused word; ‘embodiment’ and what that means anymore. About what the word, and its practice mean to me;
its genesis.
It was a wide reaching conversation. Provocative at times.
Disruptive to a paradigm.
I invite you to visit Olivia’s Substack to either listen, or watch.
Our chat was published a few days ago. I’d love to hear your experience of it.
Interiority - Potentiated Stillness
I see and hear so much of the “come over here, buy my thing, participate in my thing, read and watch and listen to, my thing”, (and yes, I am fully aware I have done something similar just above!).
As I lay in my bed, as I slowly walk, as I stand on my mat, I find myself drawn deeper and deeper into my own resonant field. Sure, I’ve been doing this for much of my life; introvert extremis. And yes, I am nearly 64 years old and part of my edges are dissolving back into Source.
But I really think a vital part of our medicine in this Now, is to enter the still potentiated field of Quiet. Our own vibratory Knowing. Consciousness, we are. Source, we be. Creative. Effulgent. Thrumming and ringing. Resonant.
So, I’m opening an invitation to you. To be still. And listen to your own Sound.
You are frequency and you are waveform . . . sentience. Awareness.
Temple of my Bones. A Fluid Template
If I am to invite the remineralisation of my spine, arcing through my limbs, I must weave that fluid field of how my bones first came into form; the spirals of embryology.
My bones. My architecture. Carriers of my vibration. Makers of my blood. Intent and will and direction made real. Precision. Penetration. Crystaline.
Clarity.
Crumbling.
Despite the fact that the common denominator of all scoliosis is osteopenia (yes, that is true), I had not expected that my bones might actually begin to return to their Source before the rest of me felt ready. I had not imagined that they might become dangerously osteoporotic. That the weave of my rib basket might begin to unravel. That my scoliosis might seemingly begin its journey of cliff-collapse.
But it has.
Along with my teeth, and my facial bones. My eating and primitive defense. My visible identity.
After the panic came the despair. The fear. The outright “No!!”
And then the galvanisation.
The yes.
The research. The assemblage of a Team.
The slow, the tentative, the return to Practice. Onto the mat and into the Temple; my Bones.
And what my bones asked of me is to trace their origin. Their spirals and arcs through which they first whispered and listened themselves into form.
My original Songlines. Streaming me here ~
Because when I do this, my bones remember their True Names. They re-call their original journey. Their primal lovemaking one to another (that’s called a “joint”). My bones remember how to reach and pull a pathway to my Midline;
My Spine.
My spine is not some floating thing in the middle of me. My Spine connects with and listens to, my limbs. River and tributaries. An ecosytem. Whole.
My Spine is a sentient antenna.
Recently, as part of this journey, I’ve begun to work with an old dance student, now an Ayurvedic Practitioner. Working in collaboration with an Ayurvedic Doctor in India (whose specialty is orthopedics), I am prescribed a medicine made from the ash of Conch shell. For my bones. She speaks the holy to me; the Conch, that which is blown and calls the Devoted to pray at the Temple. That, she reminds me, which resonates right through me, as Sea.
Which she knows I am.
In future posts I’ll write a little more about the embryologic spirals of the upper and the lower limb. About their relationship with the shoulder girdle and thoracic spine, and the pelvis and lumbar spine, respectively. About the ‘Figure of 8’ that arc-upon-arc that ripples up my spine, integrating all. About the applications of that on the mat (in yoga, in walking, in simple being!) I may even offer some classes, if there is enough interest (yes, you can express your interest now by emailing me, because I can assure you, I will only be doing this if there is the interest!). And yes, it will be online. Though please don’t ask me what it will look like at this stage. Because I do not know.
Violet Bond - an Australian Artist
Despite sometimes feeling the loud and the insistent and the intensifying of the Voices around us all, I feel so moved to share the work of a wonderful Artist with you. Her name is Violet Bond. She lives in remote Australia. She makes ‘environmental art’. Which means she lies naked, surrounded by bones in red dirt and mud, or wears a tall fire-crown seated in a ready-to-be-burnt outback landscape. Her work is sublime. She is the real deal.
You can also find her on Instagram @violetbond. Her interactive gallery.
Thank You
I am presently not “working”. And have not been able to actively “work” for about ten months now. If you would like to offer your loving support of myself, and my capacity to offer my work in both The Saltwater Songlines Project, and the Wild Yoga for Scoliosis and Bone Health Practicum, you can do so here. I truly thank you. Your support means everything to me.
Bless!
Narelle