Preparation of EarthPainting in Sattva, Rishikesh, India

Silence, spaciousness and interconnection to Nature

No words can tell exactly my experience in Sattva (Rishikesh, India). Preparing the ceremony of EarthPainting has been above all an experience of love and sacred silence, that I cannot reduce in concepts and words. So I will share here some of my feelings.

Sattva was more that 7000 km from home but as soon as I arrived at the river that was flowing through the rocks, I was feeling at home. I began a long preparation to collect natural elements, to create organic pigments and handmade natural paintbrushes in sacred silence for days before the ritual.

I took time to connect deeply with the land of the Himalayas: it was like becoming a womb to receive its vibes in me. A deep connection happened when sunset was painting the valley behind the wise mountains with soft shades of pink and purple. I was contemplating the triangle of the mount in front of me in the twilight, it was located at the height of my third eye, and I felt it was raising my energy to the crown and to All that exists beyond forms. It was an invitation to synchronize my rythm to the beat of nature, to the breath of cosmos.

The little still voice in my consciousness was inviting me to surrender totally to the divine power of this yogic land.

Raise as this mountain, in stillness and love.

Observe, appreciate, experience the unity consciousness to whom you are belonging.

Find spaciousness in you to receive the beauty of the Himalayas within and let the vibrant life of the forests live in your cells.

Open yourself for the teachings of nature, for the supreme knowledge of life.

Let it transform you.

Just surrender. Trust.

More I was connecting with the spirits of the trees and collecting inspiring leaves, more I was aknowledging the codes of life force in all patterns. The same sap of life that was raising in the roots and barks was raising in me too. It was blissful to surrender to this awakening and to perceive all through this powerful subtle sense: the sap of life.

At Sattva I felt the blessing of the waters in many forms: the rush of a waterfall at night, the sacred flow of Mother Ganga, the gentle stream of Ula, the tears of bliss and compassion flowing on my cheeks; waters that were always in movement, in my hands and under my feets.

I felt the power of the earth in the wise rocks that were calling me at the Vashista Cave and at the Mother Cave. Earth that nourishes, sustains, harbors, allows, welcomes all life and makes it grow. Monkeys, cows, dogs, horses, butterflies, birds, dragonflies, all united in an unique field of love. I was grounded in my being, simply existing with nature. Preparing tools and colours and breathing in the semplicity of this practice, beyond thoughts. It was my yoga during the Sattva Summit. Sometimes a space of emptiness was opening up and I could stay there for a while, and feel a deep peace.

More I was silent, more I could hear the messages of nature and feel guided. It was like being rooted in spaciousness. I was discovering myself beyond doing, I was getting closer to mystery. Slowly I became spacious enough to really appreciate the pure and simple beauty of the nature around me, and I was ready to listen and to learn.

Be silent, be spacious, be still.

Be patient. Be simple.

Aknowledge the love all around you and be with it.

Stay in your essence.

Don’t search, but receive.

Discover. Accept. Welcome. Stay. Nourish. Be a loving womb.

Love. Trust. Truth.

Nature offered me a lot to collect. The most precious treasures have been a Divine Mother wood stick from the wise Boddhi tree, place of the morning puja, and a Kundalini raised snake paintbrush at the sacred river and an amazing golden spiral at the Mother Cave. If we don’t search and if we don’t have specific plans, a mysterious space can raise: a place for unity, for intercommunication beyond ideas. Gratefulness for these messages along the path.

By staying alone at the river in silence, to listen to Mother Earth, with fallen leaves in my hands, I realized that these leaves that had ended their cycle were simultaneously full of life for me, full of colours and potential. One cycle was finishing and a new one was opening. The morning after, Anandji, the spiritual master of Sattva, had invited us during a satsang to meditate on the knowledge of death as a great opportunity to live more fully. In the afternoon I’ve been in a profound meditation at the river on death and continuous changes, and at the same time I felt the miracle of life and beauty that was unfolding in front of me. Death and life always dancing together, in the waters, in my heart, in the sky, in all that exists. I remembered that the original vision of EarthPainting came to me from a place of loss, it was a gift of the aknowledge of death: my first daughter Emilie, born and died in the same day, offered me some months later, through a transpersonal breathing experience, the clear vision of EarthPainting ritual at the sacred river in India (read more about it here). And now I was here, manifestating my vision thanks to the cosmic mind, to synchronicities, to Anandji and all the sangha. Life and death, wisdom of the cycles and beyond all, one cosmic love that is guiding all.

Enter in communication with nature for me means first wait to be invited by the spirits of the land, open the heart and make space for their silent vibes. Once the contact is established, dive into my truth, trust and love and offer it to the elements, to the light and to the invisibile force that lies in the darkness.

There is no sacred sharing with nature without patience, humility, semplicity and silence. We cannot receive nothing if we are full of ourselves. I had to slow down a lot to resonate with the breath of the earth. It wasn’t about doing and creating, but about loving what was here around me, and through this experience feeling part of the field of existence.

I was in the diwali marigold, in the rocks, in the stream, in the leaves, as they were in me. Slowly, we were becoming something related, united, in my consciousness. Stepping into my cosmic nature was finally an experience of unity, wonder and innocence : like a child that looks at the dark space behind the stars and feels the pure pulsation of the Unmanifestated layer. Not just as the other side of the mirror, but as something into him that pulses in the mystery. No flow can exist without emptiness. No Shakti without Shiva. No Shiva without Shakti. No dance without stillness. No matter without emptiness. All united beyond duality.

If we deeply feel in love with the immanent divine beauty of Nature, we can access the secret beat of the unmanifestated womb. Both dimensions exist simultaneously in a simple rose petal, as in my infinite multidimensional presence.

Himalayan hills weren’t anymore a landscape but an united vibrant organism that I was talking with beyond words. Interbeing. With the rocks, the waters, the animals, the trees, the Sangha, we were all parts of an immense spiritual entity, the body of Gaia, that was breathing through us.

Life is sacred. Entering our sacredness is the only way to comunicate deeply with the intelligence of life and let this creative power show us the path, the only path that brings to infinite love.

By contemplating ad offering flowers to the sacred river, this blessing raised in me:

Flow in me, in my fluids, in my blood, in my feelings; I surrender to the flow of Life, I surrender to the Divine Mother and let her moving through me. I let go all that don’t serve my evolution. I release all the emotional residues, wounds and fears. Teach me the art of freedom and the supreme knowledge of love, nourish and bless my life. I am walking on the earth as a pilgrim, my heart is a temple, the sap of life is raising in me as an eternal spiral of growth. I am commited to growth, to love, to truth.

When you transform natural elements, you act as a chauldron, an alchemical womb in which all becomes powerfully magic. You enter your inner power of creating, through unity experience. Wood sticks become handmade paintbrushes, rocks become natural colours and food become powders. It is delighful to create unique ibridations between elements.

Eventually more that 25 handmade paintbrushes and tools born from wood, stick, ropes, leaves and ritual devotional flowers. All colours have been prepared with sacred waters from Mother Ganga.