The last 3 months I have been living in this beautiful Japanese Zen house in the jungle—directly immersed in nature—next to a small waterfall, flowing river, and bamboo grove.
These months have been deeply grounding and it’s been a strong ‘root chakra’ house which has strengthened my roots into the core of the earth.
My soul has been calling for a descent, to honor the season of winter in my life and within; therefore this house and space has been a cave of incubation, deepening, and sinking deeper into Mother Earth.
I wanted a cave, a dark house to retreat to amidst these sunny and hot winter days here in Bali. I've yearned for the darkness of winter, and created that in this space...
Staying rooted for these months and not travelling was also very new for me, and it brought up a lot within to see the areas of resistance to settle, and it also allowed me the space to see deeper into my first few chakra’s and feel the emotional and energetic charges within these chakras that I wasn’t able to as deeply penetrate into while moving around a lot and travelling in these last few years.
To really go into these first 3 chakras and bring the light of awareness into the crevices that can only be accessed when one is rooted, still, and able and willing to bring greater presence and consciousness into these parts of ourselves that were often imprinted from childhood.
Expanding, purifying and strengthening the energetic base and foundation of our being that is connected to being rooted on the earth (ie fundamental feeling of stability, security and safety), and this process of bringing the beam of our consciousness into the more denser layers which is essential for true Spiritual growth, integration, maturity and wholeness.
This time in Bali has been like one long 3 month retreat living slowly, simply and deeply. We have really been living like monks or hermits in these past months, and had very little interaction with people here; aside from family and friends coming to visit us. There were a few experiences of meeting some of the distortions of the spiritual scene of Ubud that I will write an article about in the future.
I also realized how much I love to have a big space in which to invite my family and friends to come stay with us. I love having a guest bedroom in my home that is always available for friends and family to come. This makes me feel rich and abundant, knowing that I always have space to welcome my dear ones to wherever I am living on this Earth. I love having a spacious big home!
I love creating beautiful sacred spaces, with fresh flowers, crystals, sage, palo santo and alters. I realized how much love and devotion exists within me to serve others in a very human way with a house, beauty, nourishment and space that is filled with peace, presence, love and a strong coherent field of light and clarity. To create a beautiful room for someone else, is even more fulfilling then to create it for myself—this is what I realized.
I treasure the days sitting on the veranda deck outside at my writing desk and simply watching the rain pour down on the land. Witnessing thunderstorms, and getting goosebumps from the lightning that struck often close to our house—feeling the lightening energetically enter us as much as the land it strikes.
Watching the sunsets at night and seeing the whole sky illuminate in different spectrums of pink glory. Listening to geckos making their sounds at night in the house. Seeing snails in the sink, scorpions in the bathroom, butterfly’s and dragonfly’s flying into our home, along with other insects that we coinhabitated this house with. We even saw a snake in the bathroom one day when my brother visited!
It was magical watching fireflies at night outside the house that were trying to come into our window. They looked like little fairy’s twinkling around our sanctuary and some even made it into our bedroom as we fell a sleep at night.
Falling a sleep every night hearing the waterfall outside our house, some days trickling and other days roaring with power and immensity. Witnessing bats fly around in the sky outside our house at dusk. Feeling the moistness and freshness of the air at dawn. Making tea in the kitchen while seeing this incredibly beautiful green bamboo grove right outside our kitchen window and a river flowing…always hearing the birds chirping and singing.
When you live deeply rooted in nature, it changes the chemistry of our body. When you are living in attunement with nature, you are part of a greater field of intelligence, and the overall ecosystem that supports us all.
I was really able to see how isolated we have made ourselves from Mother Earth in our western world. Living in sterile environments, displaced, disconnected and concealed lives cut off the from the nourishment of the source of that which sustains us.
In the first few weeks of living in this house, and hearing the constant sound of water outside our house through the waterfall and river—it was a big process for me. Within a couple days of moving in, something within me couldn’t stand the constant ‘sound’ of water. I was surprised by this. I missed pure silence, and having the ability to have no stimulus around me.
Hearing the sounds of the water 24/7 was also rewiring my brain, and I felt something in my brain changing and reforming through it being synchronized to water and the sounds of nature.
After a month of moving through this resistance that I had to constantly being infiltrated with the sound of water outside our house, something shifted. The sound of the waterfall and river, transformed from resistance to acceptance and then appreciation.
It was a strong process of sitting with the resistance that arised, witnessing it, being with it, and allowing it to be transformed and melted.
To see how its possible to have so much resistance to something (so much that I thought I couldn’t stay in this house without pure silence), that can slowly change to full appreciation and love—nature did its work with me, and restructured the contours and synapses in my brain and body.
A reintegration into wild natural living, to really live in communion and connection with the Earth and jungle—with everything that entails…
This time of having a home and experiencing this very human aspect of living in a home, has also evoked different qualities of my being to come forth that haven’t simply been as present in these last years of much travel and movement.
For example, I started to brew my own healing teas with butterfly pea tea, lemon, anise, and lemon grass. I would bottle it and put it in the fridge to cool and enjoy drinking it after driving home from being in the city.
I loved creating my own potions and concoctions, and especially drinking butterfly pea tea as its colour when I add lemon (it changes from indigo blue to violet) is the same colour that I often see in my third eye—majestic purple—the colour of the crown chakra.
The mother of my friend in Malaysia gave me a big bag of butterfly pea flowers that were grown in her friends garden and harvested directly from the land. This quality of the medicine woman, witch, and Divine mother archetype was awakened and embodied in these months…
Lots of slow living, contemplation, reflection, integration and writing happened in this house. I am grateful for this house and everything it anchored and awakened within me in this time living here. 💜