Learning the art

[Rae'ya]

Argh, I know that feeling, and made worse by not knowing what caused it! It is remarkably off putting, so I look forward to your reply when you feel up to it.

99% of the time, when you lose a post at PF you just hit the little 'Restore Autosaved Content' button and it's back again, with maybe only the last few sentences gone. This time there was not Autosaved content. There are no expletives strong enough for this situation. Sometimes I just really, really hate computers.

Le sigh.

[Briton]

So I went out this morning at about 7am and stayed for an hour at a spot.

It was a complete failure in the sense that I thought it would be a spiffing idea to light a small "campfire" in the middle of the circle, just in front of me.

Not only was most of my time spent feeding it, but it smoked, and the smoke stayed low, and went everywhere. I can really recommend against lighting a fire in a close circle of trees with a closed canopy, there is no telling where the smoke will turn next and with a canopy, there is nothing drawing the heat (and smoke) upwards, I couldn't concentrate on the woodland around me and spent my hour teary-eyed for all the wrong reasons.

I'll try again Tuesday, hopefully with better success and no fire​.

[monsno_leedra]

Just an aside observation but seeing things in the smoke is a really common method I've experienced and have heard others speak of. Yes it can be a bit of a pain feeding a fire but sometimes it is the right thing at the right time. Figure smoke is also one method of "cleansing" depending upon what woods you use.

Not much different in usage but fog or heavy mist can also be used. There are spirit forms in my opinion that will use the smoke, fog, mist as a canvass and mold it. A form one minute then shift it the next at times to convey a whole story or conversation.

I know for me personally some of the deepest encounters i've had have occurred when the smoke has been so thick it burns the eyes or the mist / fog so heavy you can't see more than a few inches.

[Briton]

Just an aside observation but seeing things in the smoke is a really common method I've experienced and have heard others speak of. Yes it can be a bit of a pain feeding a fire but sometimes it is the right thing at the right time. Figure smoke is also one method of "cleansing" depending upon what woods you use.

I don't doubt this, but I was just trying to spend some time in the woods at different times of the day. It just wasn't the right time. I have had other times when I've lit a fire at dusk and sat there, by a felled tree I'm processing, and the silence is deafening. This was not one of those times. I was too close to it, it was too close to me, it was breezy in all directions and I just felt like a bit of an idiot at the end of the hour. The rest of the day was far more constructive, having set aside pieces of oak to use as shingles for my shrine. I think I may well have to have a different firepit site.

Not much different in usage but fog or heavy mist can also be used. There are spirit forms in my opinion that will use the smoke, fog, mist as a canvass and mold it. A form one minute then shift it the next at times to convey a whole story or conversation.

I know for me personally some of the deepest encounters I've had have occurred when the smoke has been so thick it burns the eyes or the mist / fog so heavy you can't see more than a few inches.

I don't know if this stuff is a little advanced yet, I feel I haven't really earnt their time. It's been a very neglected woodland, quite a small one, owned by different people just as an asset and never really valued other than by me as a child, but I was not very conscientious and I think it may take a while to get through to whatever spirits live there.

[monsno_leedra]

I don't doubt this, but I was just trying to spend some time in the woods at different times of the day. It just wasn't the right time. I have had other times when I've lit a fire at dusk and sat there, by a felled tree I'm processing, and the silence is deafening. This was not one of those times. I was too close to it, it was too close to me, it was breezy in all directions and I just felt like a bit of an idiot at the end of the hour. The rest of the day was far more constructive, having set aside pieces of oak to use as shingles for my shrine. I think I may well have to have a different firepit site.

Bolded mine.

Now that I can relate to. I've had times where I've gone into the woods to meditate or such and as soon as you enter things go wrong or you get this sense of it's not the right time. At times even to the point where you get a sense of "get out!" from everything around you. Many times a deathly quiet that settles in as it seems even the very air itself stops moving and doesn't want to do anything around you.

Ironically it seems, there are times where it's not when you are at a place but how you entered it. I used to watch bird paths and animal trials around where we used to live. At certain times you could see where the very way the creature's enter or exit or simply crossover varies. Not just by time of day but also seasonal as to how they move. Used to watch how they move when they're coming down from the mountains, how they move when they're coming up from the river, how they move during the rut season. I discovered if I moved from the same directions and such as they did it made a big difference in how the land seemed to respond.

I don't know if this stuff is a little advanced yet, I feel I haven't really earnt their time. It's been a very neglected woodland, quite a small one, owned by different people just as an asset and never really valued other than by me as a child, but I was not very conscientious and I think it may take a while to get through to whatever spirits live there.

This is a harder one to speak about. At times it seem's you have to earn their respect but other times it's more a matter of learning to listen and hear them. It's like people listen to the winds but I think only a few really hear it's song. Hard to describe as it does not touch us like listening to some song on the radio, yet it's a deeper and longer sound for me. Like what I used to hear people describe when they talk about falling in between two heartbeats.

That seems to be the issue most time for the areas I've gone to. It's not that they have to be awakened but more a matter of they are always there, always talking but you have to learn how to hear them. So you have to learn how to filter out the noise and clutter to hear them. Yet, for me anyway, what works in one place may or may not work somewhere else. So you have to take time and learn to hear the landscape, the creature's there and how to filter them out.