A piece I wrote that explores the feng shui aspect of Body Poem, a modality I weave into my practice.
We have all, in Western society, grown up being taught that we are separate from the natural world and our environments, that nature is something we go out to, something we take from for our own enjoyment. We have been taught to objectify our environments as if they are separate entities, existing independently from us.
Our ancestors knew that there was no such thing as independence from the natural world and would never have made any decisions without consulting with the stars or the world around them. They understood that the very substance that makes up the world is what brought us into being and will continue to sustain us if we stay in harmony with it. Humans are the neural network of Mother Earth, our bodies are made of the same composition of earth and cosmos; alchemical systems composed of stardust, minerals, and 70% water. We live in a coherent world where the carbon dioxide that we breathe out gets absorbed by the trees that provide the oxygen we need for good health. Our ancestors understood that unless we consult with the natural world and continue to offer our thanks for what we receive we will fall into incoherence. Incoherence manifests as blockages through traumatic events both individual, collective, and inter-generational. The more this lives on in our bodies unresolved, the more it holds us back from trusting in the world around us. Trust in the self-organising intelligence of the natural world brings us back into coherence. Our ancestors understood the natural world to be another voice whom they could trust and to whom they would listen.
When we engage in Feng Shui Body Poem, whether it's connecting with the wider living system of mother nature or the room we are sitting in, we are inviting it to mirror back to us the deeper aspects of ourselves. We can harvest the voice of our environments and come to an understanding that the world we perceive outside of us is a reflection of our inner landscape. By coming into a felt sense of awareness of our environment and consulting with the natural world and sentient beings, we can be guided back into coherence. As we realise that the whole of the world lives through us we naturally start to treat ourselves and our environments with more kindness and respect.
The Feng Shui aspect of Body Poem reminds us that the way we shape our environments shapes our inner world and vice versa. Patriarchy has shaped the world into the shadow of taking. We now live in a world where we treat the earth as a resource rather than source, where we keep fracking for fuel for our never-ending fires. A world where we ‘other’ each other to the extent of competing over gender, race, sexuality, and religion. The birth of patriarchy created the division that has led us down the path of separation from nature and separation from our own bodies. Over time, patriarchy birthed a wounded child we call the narcissist, an individual so separate from the natural world that they developed a false sense of self through building a capitalist market for profit and material gain. Feng Shui Body Poem reminds us of the importance of staying in reciprocity with our environment, taking us out of the shadow of taking, which the abuse of patriarchy has pushed us into.
Feng Shui Body Poem bridges the gap between the personal and the collective. It harmonises and helps them to intersect, encouraging us to heal ourselves and the world in unison.