A very Social setting...

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Greetings all, another splendid Moot! I don’t know about you but I really enjoyed the moot being at the village hall. It was more intimate, focused and much more social. We also enjoyed the use of the kitchen for hot drinks and we opened the Tantric Café for the first time, providing various snacks for donations.

Anyhoos, this month’s talk was presented my none other than me. It’s the first moot I’ve ever given and I have to admit, it was thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you for being a great bunch of listeners who gave me some great interaction. Also thanks to Steve the Stag, he locked horns with us and told us all about the astrological events that will take place over the following month – a new and regular contribution to the Moot.

The topic of the talk was about additives. I first described what I thought an additive is i.e. a product that’s sold to us by a corporation that uses marketing to appeal to our non-rational minds – often backed up by misleading and bad science… or words to that effect.

So first I discussed Fluoride and talked about how this toxic substance found its way, not only into our water supply, but also into orange juice, vegetables and toothpaste. I didn’t mention at the time but often toothpaste contains fluoride 1000 times more toxic than that found in our water. As a result all American toothpaste comes with the advisory that any child swallowing any amount of toothpaste should be admitted to hospital immediately. My main point however was to discuss how bad science, marketing (Edward Bernays!) and political influence pushed through a toxin for profit into our food supply.

I mentioned Edward Bernays just then because I think it’s important to find out a little about this genius. This film is about Bernays and gives us an insight into marketing and corporate control… the story starts by telling us about the,

...relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar. His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile. It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today's world.

Bernays was also the guy drafted in by the military and the Searle Corporation to market fluoride as a beneficial product.

The Century Of Self Part 1 (of 4) Happiness Machines - well worth the education.



I then went over Aspartame in the same vein before discussing pharmaceuticals, insulin in particular. We then discussed food and how many of the additives contribute to addictions – especially MSG.

For a bit of good insight into the addictive quality of additives have a quick watch of this short vid about MSG



For more info on Fluoride it's well worth having a look at this video, if only to demonstrate how big business essentially use marketing and politics to manipulate science and people...



And the same sort of thing for aspartame...



I brought up toilet paper and running shoes as well – both of which I view as additives i.e. things we believe we can’t do without, which we consume and consume and consume. Even moon cups we’re discussed which are a great way of breaking out of poisonous tampax styled sanitary products.

Martyn suggested that I maybe outline a day in the life of me! to demonstrate some of the ways in which I’ve been able to break away from some of the ‘additives’ that were in my life.

OK, well, in the morning I’ll get up and maybe go for a run. As part of my training I include a small element of barefoot running with the aim of ridding myself of running shoes by the end of the summer.
I’ll have a shower and will only use a couple of drops of diluted essential oil (I often have a oil/water mix in a small spray bottle). No shampoo, No soap. I’ll then shave. To date I get through maybe 10 bic style razors every 6 months or so but am currently looking for a old, serviceable cut throat razor. To shave I have a small bottle of almond oil, which I find better that olive oil because it’s lighter, with a few drops of tea tree and lavender essential oils. I use just maybe 5 drops or so and shave. Easy, and the oil keeps the blades sharp. As for the oils, I think I have a way of manufacturing my own nut oil and am hoping to work out how to make my own essential oils.
Breakfast. Fruit – maybe a banana, apple, orange and a few almonds.
Lunch. Crazy Salad. An anything salad, as long as it’s raw and vegan. I might have spinach leaves, celery, apple, banana, avocado, carrot, broccoli, pepper, onion etc – all with my own dressing. Dressing is normally something like olive oil, cider vinegar, mustard, maybe honey, maybe pepper, maybe chili oil… you get the picture.
Dinners - same sort of madness.
Drinking water is a pain. I have to stay hydrated so I mix up my sources – some tap, some bottled. I’m going to get myself a big old British Briefed ceramic water filter which will both will reduce some of the fluoride from tap water and also allow me to collect most of my water from a local spring. These filters are washable and last a long while but come at a price. I don’t know of any other way of avoiding fluoride in tap water without spending lots of money on kit to treat water using reverse osmosis, the only way to truly remove fluoride I think.
The only problem with filtering this way is that you wipe out some of the useful minerals that a healthy body needs and so in response to that I will be adding some types of dried seaweed to my diet. This will replace the missing minerals but is a short-term solution really.
As for food. I have different ways of getting food that’s either free, cheap and good quality. As the spring comes in I will be stomping about the wilds more and more in search of edible weeds. Most of these are true super foods – your ramsons, dandelions, nettles etc etc. Full of micro nutrients, anti oxidants, photo chemicals etc. We’ve also been given use of a large 750m2 plot to develop a permaculture site – so by the end of this year most of my food will be either picked or grown and picked by me. No chemicals, transportation, big business, processing etc. Raw, live food in abundance for everyone involved on the project and hopefully a surplus that can be passed onto others.
One last thing that I do – sprouting. You can sprout so much stuff and it changes a legume, nut or seed from a useless pile of starch to a living organism rich in amino acids, chlorophyll and enzymes that your body yums up. You can pretty much live off of these.

So that’s some of the things that I do and plan to do get out of the constant buying of products most of which appear to have harmful chemicals added to them, be it food, clothes or furniture. As we agreed at the Moot, the change happens in your own mind first. It did for me. And I’m not sure if these are the answers, but they are my answers that I have faith will lead me to a place of excellent health, a crystal clear mind, a greater spiritual connection and freedom from… all that other stuff.

I'll also add a quick intro to permaculture and a rather jazzy raw food documentary - it's very American but very much worth a watch to gain a deeper understanding about how nutrition is the magic red pill.

Establishing a Food Forest the Permaculture Way.
Geoof Lawton
(I've got copies of this full film if anybody would like one)




Oh, and for you runners... or anyone interested in natural walking...


Ha ha - can't stop adding stuff - Mick "The Barefoot Sensei" Dodge: Exuberant Animal

Location Location Location.

Guess what? We have a new Location!!! But first I want thank Caroline.

Last month we were honoured to have Caroline give as a talk about her experiences of the movement to revive the spiritual feminine in our fair land. She is a Priestess of Avalon and the Temple Artist at the Goddess Temple in Glastonbury. This amazing place is the first of it's kind in the UK for many years and is a registered place of worship. All the major festivals are celebrated here and they also run courses and have regular healing sessions. More information can be found at their website here.

The temple is open to the public, run by volunteers and donations and is a beautiful place for contemplation after a day on the Tor.
Caroline explained that reviving the sacred feminine and devising rituals has been largely a process of research coupled with intuition and trust. Rediscovering womanly power is a sacred duty for some and it can manifest at many levels of life from the household to the wild moors. For any women out there wishing to find out more and to connect with their own goddess power, Caroline will be hosting a women's meet in Avebury on Wednesday, 17th February at 7.30pm in the Social Centre. Minimum donation is £5 and expected finish time is around 10pm. If you want to know more about Caroline and the feminine wheel of the year then go to www.spinningthewheel.com.

This Month's and next Month's Moot will be held at the Social Centre (in front of the school and opposite the Church on the High St.). I'm also talking with three other parties who are keen to host the Moot in and close to Avebury. Over the years the Moot has been well placed in the Red Lion. But things change and it's time for the Moot to spread it's wings and venture into new locations.

This month we have a special guest speaker giving us rant on Additives... but not necessarily the ones you find in food, drinking water or diet sodas. Hmmm, interesting! See you at the Social Centre at 3pm Sunday.

Also, keep tuned for a new announcement soon... the Moot has gone techno and will soon have it's own Radio Station broadcasting to the world... and beeeeeyyyoooonnnndddd.

Lunar Eclipse

Happy New Years all. This Sunday we're still running the moot as usual - there may be one or two guest speakers but due to the time of year we'll be having one more relaxed one before we head full on into the new year.

Same time - 3pm Red Lion on Sunday.

x

Radio Broadcast - Labyrinthine Musings by The Inappropriate Shaman

Coooor blimey - it's all happening! Sunday night there's gonna be a radio interview - check this out.

Ever wondered what it's like to live in the middle of an enchanted stone circle and be a practising Shaman? Well you can find out on Sunday night - December 13th (her birthday) - when Shaman Sam guests on Johny Brown & Inga Tillere's Radio Joy.

Where she reports on her journeys into the Wyrd featuring Crow Pie, Druid's Knee, Liquid Lucy, Samhain soul flight and many other digressions. Frank Frenzy & Louise Luminous provide the hallucinatory soundscape to accompany these musings.

Watch LIVE at Radio Joy!

Review in yesterday's Guardian: "RADIO JOY lives up to its name. A place to find some thrilling art radio, the kind of thing that respects no boundaries and relishes the experimental"

See full review here at the Gaurdian

The show will be archived so LISTEN AGAIN at your leisure here: www.radiojoy.co.uk

And on a completely different note, a quick film about permaculture and how it's principles could change the world! I've landed lucky and am involved in a project in Calne which is looking at developing a site into a lovely permacultre experiment and so have started to discover little gems like this vid... enjoy!



Thanks Clay for sending me this.

Yule Feast!

Greetings Mooties, as per the Samhain edition of the Avebury Circular...

"The Yule Feast, now into it's seventh or so year, is a celebration of the Avebury Pagan community. The Yule Feast has been a welcome highlight in the colder months of the year for many of Avebury's regulars from every walk of life."

Sunday 20th December 6pm till 10.30pm
Location is Lockeridge, same as last year.
Sitting down for dinner is 7pm
Bring and Share (Food, Drink, Music and Stories)
Cost is a mere £4 at the door.

Peace.

December Moot - a chat by the fire.

Thank you Mooties - another splendid moot had by all. For a bit of a change we put questions into a 'hat' and then discussed each item as it was pulled out. We looked at how some of us placed more importance on the stones in Avebury, whilst others favoured the trees and wildlife. We questioned whether Paganism was just another form of religious control, talked about the pros and cons of guided meditation, about climate 'change' and even probed into the Angelic Reiki scene. And if that was not enough we also looked at: God and how 'he' might be included into one's spiritual path, how one might work with the Faeries, about vegetarianism and even about the possibility of recording future talks into podcasts... and much more.

Thank you everyone for turning up and for contributing to this month's moot - a blinder!

Some Videos and Links sprung to mind on some of the topics talked about.

The Author of the Vegetarian Myth (a challenging read for veggies like myself) - check Lierre Keith's site and read the first 20 pages of her thought provoking book here.
Here's a quick vid of her speaking as well.



The Anti Terrorist gives his spiritual take on life - sparked by the talk of life being a game that should be Played Well.
This is the fist part of a two parter - sometimes these lock up when you try and view them - simply reload browser and skip the first minute.



We mentioned Podcasts and also Neil Kramer so I'll point you towards his blog here.
He talks a lot about awakening of consciousness, imagination and transcending conspiracy... you can check out the talk below which was aired on Red Ice Creations a while back. Now Red Ice are cheeky and try and charge you for 2nd parters but you can find the rest of the talk on youtube



Finally, a nod towards Botany in a Day by Thomas J Elpel - a fantastic resource for you budding foragers.
Frank Cook (in the below vid) talks a lot about Elpels work...



Watch this space for a breakdown of Avebury during the Yule period... there's a lot happening.

Mellow Moot

This month's moot will be a more mellow affair with an opportunity for discussion on everything. It's been over a year since I started supporting the moot and during that time we've tried out a fair few things - different locations, types of speakers... all sorts. So now I'm keen to hear what else you'd like and to hear any ideas about anything moot related.

So we have a more relaxed affair for tomorrow and there's no speaker booked this time round - a more mellow pre yule warmer :) We might even venture into the famous realms of 'questions in a hat"... maybe :)