Creative Sacred Living Magazine December 2014 | Page 56

over its body act as sensors, so that it can, in effect, “touch” from a distance.

Life.

After a long day of snow-shoeing my sense of life feels drained, very low in energy/chi, even despite practicing energy-enhancing Qi-gong along the way (I’m not by any means a master in the art yet).

Overall, as I undertake this trek, my sense of life is both enhanced and exhausted. My constitutional energy is put to the test, the body forces are working at their limit. However, the etheric energy of the forest is so resplendent that there is a constant influx of vitality. An interesting point to be made here is that in urban areas people have to enhance their life sense due to the lack of nature-borne vitality. In consideration of this, we can say, if asked what is truly the most valuable property in, say, New York, the answer is that Central Park has more worth that all the rest of Manhattan combined!

Migrating birds can detect and use magnetic fields of the Earth to navigate by. Is this so-called “magnetic field” actually part of the sense of life of the planet streaming forth? And are the birds, in a way, projecting their own sense of life outward to detect the Earth’s energy in this manner?

Wolves are known to stare into the eyes of their prey before opting to attack, reading in their potential prey the nature of their sense of life, their overall constitutional strength and condition of health.

Movement.

This sense of awareness of the body-in-motion enables us to know where any part of our body is even with eyes closed. It is a sense that can be refined and enhanced, as in the case of intricate choreography.

When projected outward, we can sense movement in others. One evening, as I was bent over a campfire, cooking a meal, I could sense something passing over above me. As I looked up I saw an owl flying in the trajectory I had been sensing. The owl, as we know is capable of flying quite silently. I did not hear its passage, nor could I see it in any wayArticle Submission, until after I looked up.

Unlike most media, Earth Vision and Insight21 seek to present answers, not just focus on the problems of the world. . . .

Dubbed “a modern Thoreau” by one reviewer, Josef Graf’s diverse background was bound to culminate in the Earth Vision and Insight21 projects. A split degree in Sociology/Ecology was followed by work as a trail guide, co-ordinator of a nature interpreting program, assistant to Native cultural enhancement, radio host, and Waldorf teacher. Add graduate study in the “university of wilderness” and two decades of anthroposophical research to penetrate to the heart of both human and wild natures, and spiritual ecology is born.

The EV and Insight projects raise awareness of our deeper connection with nature and spirit through both books and articles that address current environmental and social issues. If the first two volumes of the Earth Vision series - The Earth Vision travelogue and A Calendar of Nature and Soul - may be referred to as intuitive theses in spiritual ecology, then Gaia Sojourn represents an even broader foray. As well, the EV Gallery (now a free PDF ebook) serves up a body of images that convey both eco-spirituality and color theory,

while Hebert Returns to America is more of an art gallery hung off the wall.

Insight21 was launched to provide coverage for some of the most promising answers to social and ecological issues.