Pillar 09 of ten
The first thing you notice on land is the light: how it comes through the trees at seven in the morning, how a meadow holds the last of it, how dark the dark actually is when nobody has switched anything on. Light is the pillar for the sun, the fire, the lanterns, and the night we will protect.
The two moments the whole land turns toward. Sunrise is met in silence, usually with a sit or a slow movement practice. Sunset is met at the fire. Nothing is scheduled over either. They are the land’s oldest ceremony and they need no facilitator.
Fire is the centre of the night. A fire tended every evening the land is open, with someone responsible for it, where the day is talked through and the songs come out. Fire ceremonies at the seasons. A sauna heated by wood. Fire is also treated with the respect it demands: rules, water, a fire keeper.
Lanterns along the paths, candles at the altar, light installations at night, projections on the trees during gatherings. Warm, low, aimed down. Light art that makes you look up and see the branches, never light that hides the sky.
Most people have not seen a real night sky in years. The land will be a dark-sky place: no floodlights, no white LEDs, lanterns out by a set hour. On a clear night the main event is lying on your back in a field. That is a light the land has to protect, not produce.
In short
Words we use
Questions
Join the circle
If light is your pillar, say so in the note. The people who hold each pillar will hear from each other first.
