Your Placing In Nature – The Sacred Area – Sit spot

One of the most powerful things I have leart from the masters I have studied with is the concept of the sacred area or sit spot…

Really all this is is a place you can visit and spend some time there. It really good if you can go regularly, every day in a perfect world but what ever you can do is what you do. Going everyday is far more important that having the perfect place, so make it your garden, or a place you can walk or drive to in 5 to 10 minutes…

The whole point o finding a place and sitting there for 10 to 20 minute as often as you can (everyday would be perfect) is that you will get to know a single place better than anyone else will ever get to know it…

You will start to see patterns that get deeper and deeper the more you go there and watch. Its like layers of life will start to reveal themselves to you, or maybe you could look at it as putting together a big jigsaw puzzel and you get a few new pieces of the puzzel every day you sit there for the 10 to 20 minutes…

Like a jigsaw puzzel its not till you have all the pieces that the full impact of the picture presents or shows itself. that said the coolest part to me is that the puzz;e pieces never stop coming. So in a way the puzzel will never be complete there will always be some little mystery that needs to be solved, and the great thing is most of the myteries will get solved…

But again there will always be more new mysteries, it very cool, and there is a constant stream odf interesting things that turn up…

What I love about my sit spot is that my awareness keeps expanding as I get to konw different aspects of my place on the landscape, I get to cheeck in with that part quicker and quicker every visit, and every time I go I have time to investigate things I have not had time to look at or I start to notice subtler and subtler things that are happening around me…

On of my mentor talks about his sit spot and how he was forced to learn their by the man he was I guess apprenticing under, although he didnt really know it at the time, he just thought he was sitting out practicing camping and being asked questions by his neigbour…

But almost everyday after he had been to his sit spot, he got a call from his negbour askign what he noticed that day, he’d ask him about the things he kenew he would have noticed and at the end of the call he waould ask him questions about the things he knew were at the edge of his awareness, and tell him he’d ask hima bout it tomorrow and hang up…

What happened was that next time he went to his secret spot, he had a few questions to answer, and to answer them he had to be a little more aware that he was yesterday…

You may not have a mentor like he did growing up but you can become your own mentor and well get into that when I explain what journalling is…

Some other reason to sit somewhere your drawn to and like is that you will notice over time that your mind will begin to becoem more quiet, and from the place of a quiet mind, you will begin to see to notice to feel the ebb and flow of life around you…

The Forest Alarm System…

I had this response from one of the members of the forum, after wrtiting an article about bird language…

Ancient Wisdon No23 The Forset Alarm System

“Hey Julian. I just wanna say that the forest alarm system post you put up is great. I now walk through the woods in a totally different way, using my ears a whole lot more. I heard blackbird alarm calls in my garden the other day and immediately new something was up, as they have a nest with juveniles around. I looked accross to my shed, and sure enough there was a cat sat on the roof.”

So I thought I would add a little story about what happen on Saturday…

I was up early walking in the forest with my dogs, Rixa & Tahoe…

I’m currently training them how to follow behind me off the lead so they do not cause too much disturbance out in front of me as I move through the forest…

We came out onto a main pathway after moving through quite long grass, and I noticed a robin alarming in a tree, it was a few feet above my head, so I assumed he was alarming at my dogs, because I can usually walk under a singing robin in a tree and have it continue singing…

I stopped and listened for any other disturbance in the are abut heard nothing, and as I moved to continue deeper into the forest, a Buzzard gliding down from my left, down and along this main trail I was on and back up into the forest a few 100 feet away…

I don’t see buzzard in the forest as much as out in the open fields, but it was very close, and I susspect the Robin knew it was coming and that’s why the alarms…

So I shall be adding Buzzards to my list of animals that robins will talk about in this agitated manner…

If you have questions about the bird alarm system let me know its one of my favorite subjects…

Take Care

Walk in Awareness

P.S. If your looking for a local Bushcraft Group or want to start one, check out the forum at:

http://www.huntergathererschool.com/groups/

Poacher or Big Game Tracker, Perception Can Change Everything…

Shikari is a word that comes from the Indian Himalayas. It was and I hope still is a word used to describe someone who lived off the land…

It was later used to describe someone who was a big game tracker. Because as agriculture took hold, people who continued to live off the land got given a new name. “Poacher’s”. The way they lived had not changed, just the ownership of the forest. So from someone who had been respected, they became someone who was seen as trouble and were now stealing from the landowner…

To become respectable again and to earn a living these great trackers and survivalists began to lead the rich on hunting expeditions, and so regained the respect they once had from their tribes and people. They once again became known as Shikari…

A Shikari is some one who watches and observes, and can deduce many Things from the smallest of details. The scapes in the dirt to them would Speak volumes, the type of animal that made it its direction, its speed, the Time it passed. The list of information available become volumous as your Skill levels increase. But its like learning a language it takes time, and you First need to learn your ABC’s…

So the aim and vision of Hunter gatherer School is to mentor you to become a great Shikari. To develop awareness skills so advanced that the things you know will seem Like magic. Maybe people will think your psychic or that you have ESP (Extra Sensory Perception). But All that will be going on is you’ll be noticing things they have missed…

I have a quote in my mind, and I’m paraphrasing here. “Any technology that is advanced enough will seem like magic to anyone who does not understand it…”

When you have learned the skills that we teach here, what you will be able to do Will seem like magic…

Imagine yourself walking with a friend, you here a bird Alarm in the distance, and because of your training you know by the intensity and shape of that alarm, that it is a fox that has triggered that alarm. You turn to your friend who didn’t hear it and you say “lets stop here, and sit down, don’t make a sound and watch over there, there is a fox coming.” You point into the distance at a spot on the trail up ahead. You friend looks at you with a quizzical look but does what you say. one minute later, a fox pops out onto the trail, and then back into the forest. Your friend looks at you as if…… Whoa…

How do you explain it, it was obvious to you, but it seems like magic to them…

Developing your awareness is like having an advanced technology. And it will serve you wherever you are in the world. So Awareness is part of the School. It is the one thing, the one skill that will enhance all others. You might think that survival is all about building shelters, and finding water Making fire, and cooking plants to eat. Well it is, but only about 10%. The rest is The difference between subsistence survival, and living is absolute luxury…

The difference is wanting shelter, looking at you surroundings, smelling what’s on the wind, looking at the topology, and the animals in the area, and from all this information knowing in which directing your most Likely to find what you want.
Without awareness you’re stumbling in the dark, and learning by trial and error…

You don’t need to learn by trial & error, find your self someone who can mentor you in these skills & this knowledge, they will take you far along the path…

Take Care, Walk in Awareness

Ancient Wisdom: No.23 – The Forest Alarm Systems…

When you wander into the forest the fox and deer know where you are…

They know because the birds have a lot to say about you being there, and the fox & deer know what they are saying about you. They have heard it all their lives since they were cubs and fawns, & they listen out, especially for the unique signature of a human wandering in their territory…

The wisest of animals never need to set eyes on a human, & yet they always know where they are, because the birds act as their eyes and ears…

The language the birds use is very simple & easily learned, & when you start to understand the ripple of alarm you send out into the forest every time you move, you will start to notice the ripples the deer & fox send out too & which ripple through the forest towards you…

Because the birds talk about everyone not just humans…

They talk about the deer, they talk about the badger, they talk about the fox…

The ground dwelling birds have a great deal to say about the weasel and the cats that hunt them, & everyone has a lot to say about the owls and hawks, who will take any opportunity to make them lunch…

They have a lot to say about the magpies & crows who try to rob their nests in the spring, & other birds who try to steal their favorite feeding spot…

So before you enter a forest or step out into a clearing, stop and wait, listen for the ripples of alarm, and eventually you will get to know the ripple caused by a fox, the ripple of fear caused by a hawk or a weasel…

You will become accustomed to the more subtle ripple of annoyance caused by a deer grazing too close to the blackbird’s favourite feeding area or the domestic dog bumbling through its territory…

But start simple, get to know the robin that lives in your garden or on the little piece of waste ground you pass everyday. Or listen to the wren, they will teach you a great deal about what bird have to say about cats & humans…

It will not be long before you can tell the approach of a cat, or a fox or a human into your patch of the world…

I can get you far along the path of understanding bird alarm systems, but you don’t need me, just sit for 5 to 10 min every now and again where the robins and wrens are & eventually you will pick it up yourself…

Walk in Awareness