Re: from the Dove in the Stone to Web in the Sea

[Guest guest]

Sorry, I think the link corrupted. Maybe this will work. I know a

longer version of this story that I learned a long time ago at the

American Indian Program at Cornell. Gus-ta-hote is the first

story-teller in my version.

Eve

<http://www.mainlesson.com/

display.php?author=olcott & book=indian & story=rock>

[Guest guest]

Eve -

Thank you SO much for sharing about your " Dove " group...I was just about to

send you an e-mail to hear more about it...I'd love to start one here...

Blessings

Whitlow

from the Dove in the Stone to Web in the Sea

> Hello Jung-fire-sitters,

>

> Some of you may have been following my occasional posts about the study

> group that meets at my house on Thursday mornings from 10-12. We read

> Alice's The Dove in the Stone in the fall and now we've begun The Web

> in the Sea. The group is about 7 women, aged 40-80 on a bell-shaped

> curve. Each week we read a chapter - we find often find them worth

> rereading three or four times - there are so many profound little gems

> on each page. So we share our responses to the reading, and we do

> something creative: we built mandalas of beach stone, climbed up a

> mountain a bit and leaned against ancient oaks to see what they might

> say to us, and learned how to draw trees.

>

> Every member had a transformative experience of some kind during the

> months the group met. For me, it was my garden, which, between October

> and Christmas evolved from a neglected, overgrown jungle into something

> very wonderful with a stone and flower mandala at its center, and now

> the garden in the west

> <http://community.webshots.com/album/93262193ALTqgn/1>.

>

> When we began the new book, I wanted to do it ritually, so the first

> session of the second book was just like the first session of the first

> - we lit a candle and sat in silence, and then one by one, made an

> offering of a story. It was my intention that we would then choose

> stones from the bowl, arrange them on butcher paper, and draw, paint.

> or write around them. This time, though, there was only enough time for

> our stories and a close reading of the first chapter. I suggested that

> we take our stone, or stones, home, and listen for its story to share

> the following week.

>

> Well, those stones were full of stories! My own turned out to house a

> whole archipelago of Japanese islands (there is a terrible storm going

> on there now), or perhaps it was a cat with moving eyes (I recognized

> my cat who recently disappeared) or maybe it was the Iroquois spirit of

> the rock, Gus-ta-hote

> <http://www.mainlesson.com/

> display.php?author=olcott & book=indian & story=rock>. In any case, my

> stone suggested that the group begin a new, longer-term project this

> time around, making pouches in which to keep the story-stones. It even

> came up with a rough plan - to spend several weeks planning and

> collecting the materials from which the pouch would be made before

> beginning, and to begin the design with a circle with its center marked.

>

> So this is as far as we've come, and we're on the third chapter, about

> circumference and center.

>

> It never ceases to amaze me how these things unfold.

>

> Thanks, Alice, for the books and the gentle guidance. We are indeed

> blessed.

>

> Love, Eve

>

>

>

> " A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part

> limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and

> feelings, as something separated from the rest-- a kind of optical

> delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for

> us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few

> persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison

> by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures

> and the whole of nature in its beauty. " - Albert Einstein

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Eve,

I enjoyed your recent posts about your Dove group, Premlata,

necklace story and your garden. Thank you so much for sharing

the link to connect to the pictures. Now I can see what it all looks

like and it is very pretty. I printed the picture of your mandala

and went this AM in search of materials to make one. Thank you for

the idea. I found 4 pretty tiles at Home Depot. I bought a 16 "

concrete block. Did you chisel out spaces for your tiles. shells,

rocks, etc. or are they attached on top of the block. I had thought

about gluing mine on top. Just wondering what your technique was.

When I finish I will put it in my garden which is a statue of

Our Lady of Mercy which is in a corner flower bed across the back

yard. I'm always looking for blue flowers, I thought I saw in your

picture Agapantus. Another I like is Imperial Blue Plumbago. Please

continue to share with us.

Betty

[Guest guest]

Ooh, sounds beautiful!! I'm glad to hear about another garden!

My daughter made the stepping stone from a kit, but I think you could

do it yourself easily. You need a plastic flower pot bottom, some

concrete mix, and the stuff to make the design with, which you already

have. You get your design all ready and then you stick the shells and

tiles in when the concrete is still wet but beginning to set.

Agapantus, lily of the Nile, yes, there's a sort of purple one in the

corner. There's a lot of it in this part of California.

Could you tell from the pictures that I lined up the garden along

the axis of the mandala at the center of the whole garden? It's in the

west. When Premlata and I built the mandala garden we used a compass to

guide the arrangement of the stones (as well as letting them tell us

where they wanted to be). The dove group dedicated the whole garden to

Sophia at the close of the the first book.

Yesterday it rained buckets. Imagine how happy the garden is! And

today the birds discovered the new feeders. There were flocks of

finches, sparrows, an juncos and a little woodpecker with a tuft on his

head.

It is so magical I just about can't bear it.

Love, Eve

On Tuesday, February 3, 2004, at 01:11 PM, lsbeth2004 wrote:

> Eve,

> I enjoyed your recent posts about your Dove group, Premlata,

> necklace story and your garden. Thank you so much for sharing

> the link to connect to the pictures. Now I can see what it all looks

> like and it is very pretty. I printed the picture of your mandala

> and went this AM in search of materials to make one. Thank you for

> the idea. I found 4 pretty tiles at Home Depot. I bought a 16 "

> concrete block. Did you chisel out spaces for your tiles. shells,

> rocks, etc. or are they attached on top of the block. I had thought

> about gluing mine on top. Just wondering what your technique was.

> When I finish I will put it in my garden which is a statue of

> Our Lady of Mercy which is in a corner flower bed across the back

> yard. I'm always looking for blue flowers, I thought I saw in your

> picture Agapantus. Another I like is Imperial Blue Plumbago. Please

> continue to share with us.

> Betty

>

>

>

>

>

>

> " Our highest duty as human beings is to search out a means whereby

> beings may be freed from all kinds of unsatisfactory experience and

> suffering. "

>

> H.H. Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th. Dalai Lama

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Good idea! It is so much fun and, of course, the material itself is so

very animate, that the thing just takes off. It's the highlight of my

week!

Eve

On Monday, February 2, 2004, at 07:45 PM, Whitlow wrote:

> Eve -

> Thank you SO much for sharing about your " Dove " group...I was just

> about to

> send you an e-mail to hear more about it...I'd love to start one

> here...

> Blessings

> Whitlow

> from the Dove in the Stone to Web in the Sea

>

>

>> Hello Jung-fire-sitters,

>>

>> Some of you may have been following my occasional posts about the

>> study

>> group that meets at my house on Thursday mornings from 10-12. We read

>> Alice's The Dove in the Stone in the fall and now we've begun The Web

>> in the Sea. The group is about 7 women, aged 40-80 on a bell-shaped

>> curve. Each week we read a chapter - we find often find them worth

>> rereading three or four times - there are so many profound little gems

>> on each page. So we share our responses to the reading, and we do

>> something creative: we built mandalas of beach stone, climbed up a

>> mountain a bit and leaned against ancient oaks to see what they might

>> say to us, and learned how to draw trees.

>>

>> Every member had a transformative experience of some kind during the

>> months the group met. For me, it was my garden, which, between October

>> and Christmas evolved from a neglected, overgrown jungle into

>> something

>> very wonderful with a stone and flower mandala at its center, and now

>> the garden in the west

>> <http://community.webshots.com/album/93262193ALTqgn/1>.

>>

>> When we began the new book, I wanted to do it ritually, so the first

>> session of the second book was just like the first session of the

>> first

>> - we lit a candle and sat in silence, and then one by one, made an

>> offering of a story. It was my intention that we would then choose

>> stones from the bowl, arrange them on butcher paper, and draw, paint.

>> or write around them. This time, though, there was only enough time

>> for

>> our stories and a close reading of the first chapter. I suggested that

>> we take our stone, or stones, home, and listen for its story to share

>> the following week.

>>

>> Well, those stones were full of stories! My own turned out to house a

>> whole archipelago of Japanese islands (there is a terrible storm going

>> on there now), or perhaps it was a cat with moving eyes (I recognized

>> my cat who recently disappeared) or maybe it was the Iroquois spirit

>> of

>> the rock, Gus-ta-hote

>> <http://www.mainlesson.com/

>> display.php?author=olcott & book=indian & story=rock>. In any case, my

>> stone suggested that the group begin a new, longer-term project this

>> time around, making pouches in which to keep the story-stones. It even

>> came up with a rough plan - to spend several weeks planning and

>> collecting the materials from which the pouch would be made before

>> beginning, and to begin the design with a circle with its center

>> marked.

>>

>> So this is as far as we've come, and we're on the third chapter, about

>> circumference and center.

>>

>> It never ceases to amaze me how these things unfold.

>>

>> Thanks, Alice, for the books and the gentle guidance. We are indeed

>> blessed.

>>

>> Love, Eve

>>

>>

>>

>> " A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part

>> limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and

>> feelings, as something separated from the rest-- a kind of optical

>> delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for

>> us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few

>> persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this

>> prison

>> by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures

>> and the whole of nature in its beauty. " - Albert Einstein

>>

>>

>>

>>