“Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.”
— Mary Oliver
Remember your place in wider webs of kinship
We are part of the dreaming Earth. The living world is calling us into relationship all the time, to become aware of our deep interconnectedness and shed the illusion of separation, to reweave our way into the web of life. Now louder than ever, "over and over announcing our place in the family of things" in the words of poet Mary Oliver.
During one of my forest therapy trainings me and some human kin lay down in a circle and listened to the Earth's dreaming and I could feel it rising through and within us like bright green blades of grass from a shining network of roots in the dark fertile soil, growing towards the light and being caressed by the wind.
The Earth's heartbeat our heartbeat, the Earth's breath our breath, like waves flowing through us, carrying, gently rocking, drops in the ocean, and rain rising and falling again like a blessing on the land. I felt how we all are part of this dreaming of the blessed Earth and hope like a warm radiance in my heart, glowing in all directions.
To live,
alone and free like a tree,
in siblinghood like a forest,
this is our yearning.
— Nâzım Hikmet
Earth Connection & Nature Mentoring
Receive guidance and support for the unfurling of your own Earth reconnection through mindfulness, embodiment, sensory awareness, “sit spot” practice, meditations, creative play, ancestral skills, animist philosophy, rituals, offerings and spiritual practices, tending relationships with local animals, plants and ecosystems, engaging with the hidden folk, faeries, elementals, nature and land spirits, and other ways to deepen your relationship with the more-than-human natural world.
Nature and Forest Therapy & Forest Bathing
Forest bathing, from Japanese shinrin-yoku, encompasses a variety of practices for consciously immersing in the atmosphere and sensory impressions of a forest or other natural environment - the birdsong and rustling of small beings, the smell of leaves and damp earth, the sight of branches swaying in the breeze and dappled light, the feeling of soft moss and rough bark under your fingertips…
Part of the growing field of nature therapy, forest bathing offers a myriad of benefits for emotional, mental, and physical health, restoration and wellbeing.
Through a relational approach it can also help us experience a felt sense of our human place in the interdependent ecosystems of the living world and to become more responsible, humble and reciprocal participants in these relationships. In my guided forest bathing walks I support you to slow down, relax, and explore your own connections with the “wood wide web” with mindfulness, curiosity, and open-heartedness.
Guided in-person walks for groups and one-to-one take place in the Vienna Woods. Please contact me if you want to be notified about in-person dates. For those in other places on this beautiful beloved planet online guidance and mentoring for your own forest bathing practices is available through my Earth Connection & Nature Mentoring sessions.
Plant and Animal Ally Connection
Each of us has affinities and kinships that extend far beyond other humans into the greater web of life. These relations are also present and available in the spirit realms and can be accessed in intuitive ways.
If you are seeking support for finding or deepening those affinities, these sessions are centered around a guided meditation or trance journey to facilitate your connection with a helpful ally from the more-than-human world (plant, animal, fungi, stone, elemental being,...).
You are warmly invited to book a free 20-30 minute consultation to answer any additional questions, clarify what you are looking for and find out whether one of my offers is a good fit for you.
Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
— David Wagoner
“This afternoon was truly very special for me. With her loving and joyful way Flora opens a space in which pleasant contentment and healing can arise. I am feeling much more calm and balanced now than I did before.”
– Heidi, Forest Bathing Walk Participant
“I really enjoyed exploring the meaningfulness of our deep connection to nature together in this group. I love the playful warm energy that Flora brought to the workshop. It was fun - we got to be starfish! - and at the same time grounding.”
– Dennis, “Earthly Eros” Workshop Participant