heart of nowhere meeting 7th december 11am till 1pm. Present, Ellen, Metta, Anya and Tessa:\
Note, people who have expressed an interest include swiss chris, cara, stefan, tiltingtim.\
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ellen:\
This meeting is about making nowhere more conscious, so that the event is peoples “time IN”, not peoples “time out”. to consider the spiritual or sacred side of things generally and holistically in the things we do at nowhere. We were interested in opening and closing ceremonies and i have a project which may be relevant to this heart of nowhere. Thats the context.\
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anya;\
wouldnt it be cool to pair up people, newbies with an “oldbie” as an integration process, when people first arrive?\
Like offering a potential guide or mentor. It would be a good idea whether or not its connected to Heart of Nowhere.\
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ellen:\
the temple burn has always moved me more then the man. something like that would be what we had in mind for this closing ceremony.\
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Anya:\
Floating Chinese lanterns, they form a beautiful long line in the air.\
will check ecological impact\
will check fire hazard potential\
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Tessa:\
so difficult to get around the fire problem. Previously had two ideas of how to create a central pathos for the community on the last night. \
1) draining the flag, or \
2) writing something and pouring water on it to wash it/drain it away.\
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metta:\
It would be great to consider the impermanence of our stay there, incorporating the physical elements of the space in the dissolution of what we create, like writing in the dirt or piles of rocks. Things which can be built and left, and will disintegrate over time as the land claims the space back.\
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anya:\
prayer wheels could be a great way to work together over the week. We could make them as part of a workshop process, and then spin them together.\
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ellen:\
It sounds like my original idea may be relevant;(the working title is «writing from the heart/sounding board»). I wanted to have a writing station in 4 corners of the site. Each one would be a small structure, and would have something like a box or a length of material. In the closing ceremony you incorporate the material produced over the week. (there is more detail about this idea on the wikki)\
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Tessa:\
its also nice to have a central space where people can share emotional experiences in real time\
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can we write it on something that is dissolvable, and have a huge wave of water falling over down on the thing.\
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Anya:\
the thing im most interested in is a permanent space for the duration of the festival\
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Tessa\
I would be interested in checking that space and taking responsibility for it a couple of times a day.\
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Ellen\
Me too.\
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Metta:\
really like the idea of the alter.\
important to have participation and investment from other people on site. that could be a great way to do it.\
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Ellem:\
1) could the middle of nowhere have that structure in it?\
2) Its important for me that whatever we do has humour; that we dont take ourselves too seriously.\
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ruby was not present, but sent ellen an email for us to read out. Some of the main points are here, but Ellen says she could also circulate it. Main points i caught are:\
1) re: sounding board; can we have a lantern at each station. Symbolically surrounding nowhere with light. Perhaps the lighting of that every evening can be combined with a meditation at each station. Only problem can foresee is mosquitos at sunset. \
2) THe beginning ceremony could incorporate Dance, costume, lighting the lamps, communal chanting or singing. \
3) the end ceremony could incorporate quite demonic/primal activity, and an element of silence afterwards for reflection. \
4) It would be great to have a group of volunteers in each country which would be responsible for keeping the stations alive and clean at the event, and conceiving of them in advance.\
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Tessa:\
so to summarise the main points of the meeting so far and our interests as a group:, we have an interest in some central place, and a presence at four corners encircling the site. At the start and the end of the event we have two ceremonies, but every evening, we also have a little lamplighter ceremony, where we start at the heart of nowhere, and then light the four corners and maybe the middle of nowhere, and then back to the heart of nowhere.\
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Ellen:\
The four corners are a good way to bring an element of community activity and warmth out into the camping.\
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Tessa:\
I am interested as a sort of ceremonialist in a Commitment booth, where people can commit to each other/themselves/objects/whtaever from the heart (genitals or wherever else) for as long and as short as they want, and in whatever ways seem appropriate for them.\
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Ellen:\
Another process which may be useful would be “awakening” ( note from tessa; think i got the name wrong) where you get to act out the worst parts of you in front of a group as a sort of raising of consciousness. Is there a way to extend it into a sacred practice? maybe that is a way to claim it as your own activity.\
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Tessa: other workshops, like swiss chris' om meditation, and yoga could be a part of the sacred space.\
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Next, people can think about the following bits, perhaps:\
anya: Opening ceremony. Setting intentions. Also research floating Chinese lanterns.\
tessa: central space with an alter/committment booth/alter (how to cope with stuff on the alter, could some people bring things over the week and someone else takes them home? Perhaps we generate stuff for the alter through workshops).\
ellen: Sounding board project. Also research decomposing materials, can we bury? can we burn? Can we dissolve stuff? Can the feeling of each station dictate the method that it disappears? \
Metta: to think about the closing ceremony\
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All agreed good initial meeting. Good feeling of trust, and potential for growth.\