Spirit in Agriculture – Part 2

I spend the next 9 years in academia and left wing politics; gradually, I grow tired of all the head/mental stuff – not enough physical, heart, and/or spirit. I’m also in a small radical action group: again, it’s all head. Two of us in the group decide to experiment with trying to live our politics/values in daily life – we leave academia to establish a commune – in Guatemala.  There I read The Magic of Findhorn and it blows my paradigm apart: what? nature spirits taking care of trees, plants, etc? My African memories come back – I remember how folks communed with spirits constantly.

Here in the rainforest of Guatemala, I live in the midst of trees: I talk to them and hug them. I try to feel the presence of nature spirits and sometimes I do – how to describe it? a sense of an other, a sacredness. Then I realize that I’m going through a paradigm shift:  I feel fundamentally different about the natural world – it is so much more complex than I ever imagined. There are all these physical life forms: bacteria & fungi, earthworms, mammals, etc. and then the spirits. How do they interact? What is my place in all this?

I read about paganism: how we humans have interacted with the spirit world through the ages and in various cultures. I now see fairies in a new light – perhaps they are real after all; and I remember the shamans in Africa – the intermediaries between humans and spirits. And I remember that FEELING – that in some way I was connecting to my primal roots.

So how do I manifest this new way of seeing the world? I now believe in spirits – so what? What has changed? I want some physical manifestation of how I am different. I vacillate: some days I feel it’s all in my head; at other times, I’m blissed out by my new understanding of reality.

The commune we are attempting to establish in Guatemala is not coming together: we are lonely and decide to go back to the mother culture. I’ve been gone for three year – how will I fit in?

I decide to join Sandhill farm/community; it is close to my twin dreams: an agricultural base with a communal setting (although there are only 3 folks here). What about spirit? That seems a private/individual matter here – so I don’t talk about it. Another dilemma: at Sandhill, we farm with tractors and machinery – do/can spirits coexist with this technology?