The Refreshment Center: The Sky Is A Neighborhood Part II: Permaculture, Heretics and Synchronicity

This is a follow-up to: The Sky Is A Neighborhood: Younger Dryas, Red Herrings and A Troubling Theory

The end of the Younger Dryas, about 11,500 years ago, was particularly abrupt. In Greenland, temperatures rose 10°C (18°F) in a decade.

"temperatures rose 10°C (18°F) in a decade."

It is that bit of data that has been keeping me up nights scratching my head and poring over as much data as I can find. Especially after learning about the work being done by Randall Carlson and Graham Hancock. I literally stumbled upon them discussing a theory during a random Joe Rogan podcast playing in the background. An interesting tale about synchronicity.

Permaculture, Heretics, and Synchronicity...Oh My!

My chronicle of synchronistic phenomenon began in a hotel room where I sequestered myself for six months. I was there trying to wrap my mind around Mike Ruppert's work in Crossing The Rubicon while continuing news analysis and diving into study of peak oil. Late that summer, I had viewed the documentary he starred in called Collapse. This sequestration lasted from late 2010 after the BP Oil Disaster through early 2011 just before Occupy.

I didn't find myself in this hotel by choice initially. My daughter, myself and my cat had to escape an abusive roommate's home. This was a person I did a great deal of research with, protested with, sat and watched Mike's documentary with and a person who understood immediately the gravity of the information. A great bell rang, my mind was blown and this ranked as my first, and thereafter most difficult spiritual epiphany: everything really IS connected. Let's just say he handled the information differently.

After a time, my daughter took the cat and moved in with friends. I stayed in the hotel going through what other friends have since gone through, a few referring to it as our 'peak oil awakening'. I'd found these friends online in an intimate group familiar with Ruppert's work and in turn, introduced me to the work of others in the same vein. We discussed concerns openly and their support and friendship has been singular. Invaluable conversations were had and through those connections I discovered people practicing and sharing permaculture data. After a little digging, I was delighted to find a community in southern Indiana which at one time had its own peak oil task force.

I no longer felt alone with this information and my curiosity had paid off. A huge weight was lifted. Now I had a goal to focus on, and solutions for others seeking to have less impact on the environment at the local level. This was a huge 'ah ha!' moment. It seemed so simple, so intuitive...and mirrored how my grandparents had lived. The kind of wisdom one feels in the bones; that 'something' I'd known all along and could finally put a finger on it. I felt blessedly sane and the nonsense of the world unfolded with clarity. Everything made sense.

___________

Incidentally - mustn’t it be a peculiarly beautiful feeling to hit bottom in reality at least once, where there is no going down any further, but only upward beckons at best? Where for once one stands before the whole height of reality? ~ Carl Jung; Red Book; Page 266

Heretics Unite (or Reunite?)

I should mention that before this awakening, I'd been engaged in some form of spiritual practice for years. Meditation, yoga, mindful walking, Buddhist studies, a little medicinal to keep the ol' mind limber, and other modes of healing that are personal to me. The theme throughout these chosen practices has always been Earth focused. Grounding is necessary medicine for a sun/moon in Gemini.

Oh, I know some may stop reading, drop their jaws or maybe rolling their eyes just now. That's okay. I'm used to controversy. I've always been the 'paisley sheep' in my family but I wasn't the only one. My twice great Aunt Nella was named one of the top 5 astrologers in the United States, was featured in Life magazine in 1946, and even had her own radio program. Like the title of this post and the previous [thanks Foo Fighters]: The sky is a neighborhood. I'm not ashamed to be familiar with mine.

Aunt Nella, 1921 Follies dancer

Aunt Nella, 1946 Life Magazine

After my sequestration I was invited to travel with a seasoned cameraman to cover Occupy camps on the west coast in December, 2011. I'd covered the movement on my blog and it caught attention from others in media. I landed a quick and dirty interview with Mike Ruppert while traveling near his then home, Sebastopol, CA. This was only possible because of the friendships I'd forged in the online group. A few texts, a phone call and it was set up.

Both elated and intimidated, this was a peak moment for me personally as well as a professional woman in media. It was difficult to imagine that in less than a year, I'd discovered Mike's work, went through personal hell and six months of exile ... to find myself at the doorstep to interview the man considered a mentor to many. I really couldn't make this shit up. Much of what happened after our interview, the travels during and after Occupy are going in a book I aim to finish this winter. The photo below: my copy of Crossing The Rubicon with Mike's personal signature; one of the dearest things I own.

I'll dedicate a post about my Aunt Nella in the future. She was a truly fascinating woman.

Fast Forward

This past winter I took a pet sitting job offered by a professor of deep ecology with a focus on the Vedics. Another wonderful person I would never have met if not for a permaculture community in my chosen hometown in southern Indiana. It was not unlike being sequestered again, almost a six month gig, but this space was more a spiritual retreat; a lovely home with diverse books from floor to ceiling, Hindu art and sculpture, all surrounded by beautifully designed permaculture gardens.

Heaven.

Hell's 'honey do' list of healing: get closure on a heart-wrenching break up of a six year intimate relationship with a man I called friend for 30 years. [He 'ghosted'. In hindsight, I should've had a wake]. My favorite artist passed away tragically, as did friend and mentor, Mike Ruppert three years before. Loss of a job I was great at then ending a 15 year friendship whose heel-dragging, drunken drama lost me my apartment. Add collective shock over the election result and bonus bizarre email from my ex-ghost's not-so-new, saccharine-passive aggro-abuse-apologist girlfriend the same week...

Stick a fork in me. I was DONE and fresh hell waited unless I got serious about my work.

I put a Taoist proverb into practice: "Let go or be dragged." I let it all go: not my circus, not my monkeys, and definitely not my neighborhood. I fought to wrench my sanity back once and wasn't about to apologize for evolving past my old unconscious collective. I had been given the gift of a blessedly quiet, private, comfortable and sacred space to do inner work. I buried myself in studies, avoided other people's hell as much as possible and recorded a few podcasts. Thank goddess for like-minded friends and a little medicinal to keep the 'ol mind limber.

Cue Joe Rogan

One day during this retreat I had my Youtube channel on random play, listening to older and posthumously released interviews with Michael Ruppert in the kitchen. I'd recently been given the title Administrator for his fan page and Archivist for the official page of Crossing The Rubicon. This honor was humbling, indeed. I needed Mike's sober words and thought perhaps he'd impart something unknown in newer, unreleased footage. I left the audio on in the background.

After lunch and a little medicinal ... I had my nose in a book by permaculture genius and neighbor, Peter Bane, called The Permaculture Handbook. Peter was also publisher of Permaculture Activist which is now Permaculture Design Mag. He and his partner Keith were the same people who helped design the lovely gardens I was tending during my retreat. The professor left a copy of Peter's book out to study but I'd not opened it for a stretch. It happened to be sitting on the table in front of me.

While reading a portion of an entry enclosed in a sidebar, I gravitated to the words 'intuitive with the landscape'. Interesting, I thought...I'll keep reading. No more than a minute after seeing the words on the page, I heard "intuitive with the landscape" aloud from the monitor. Granted, it took me a moment to realize this actually happened outside my head. To prove that my mind wasn't a little too limber, I walked over to the device and found Joe Rogan interviewing Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson.

I was familiar with Graham but I didn't know a thing about this Randall Carlson fellow. What happened was the video before it was Joe's interview with Mike Ruppert. It had finished while I was distracted at lunch and the queue jumped to the next Joe Rogan Experience with Graham and Randall. I decided this instantaneous synchronicity was a sign and I shouldn't ignore it.

My ass got 'intimate with the landscape' of the couch. I settled in to discover what this interview was all about. Three hours of utterly mind-blowing epiphanies and several F-bombs later, I was overwhelmed, inspired and knew that more people in permaculture had to see this. Interesting to note, Mike Ruppert interviewed Graham Hancock in March of 2013, a little over a year before he shed this mortal coil.

I'm constantly reminded of my favorite quote from his book, Crossing The Rubicon, which I am now honored to be working on archiving with updated footnotes and links:

"Miracles can happen without our permission."
Indeed. They do, Mike.