THE SEVEN DIRECTIONS: A BILL PLOTKIN OVERVIEW
If you are reading this, welcome to 2025 everyone! As our training program continues to grow, we are excited to share with you the fantastic news that in early autumn this year we will be launching our new Australia training.
Growth is something that we do mindfully at Seven Directions®, laying down solid foundations and building deep roots so that as we expand, this expansion is supported by the stability of deep and cultivated roots. it's easy in these times to get carried away with rapid growth; it’s exciting, seductive and sometimes compulsive, so we work hard to keep a grounded focus on how our work serves our communities best, and what place that work has in the wider world as conscious contributors to this human experience.
How we move in the world matters! The choices we make (or don’t make) matter, and living in a balanced, harmonious relationship with our main provider the Earth, also matters.
This week we want to share with you a new perspective on the Seven Directions and their meaning, coming from a nature based map inspired by the fantastic work of Bill Plotkin. (thanks to our graduate Yeshe for this signposting!)
We are already deeply aware of the meaning of the Seven Directions from the many wisdom traditions around the world who looked towards these directions as a map for navigating human existence. When we chose our name, we chose carefully and conscientiously about what we were calling in and why. Here's what Bill has to say about his perspective as guided by nature:
“North, south, east, west, up, down and center. These seven directions support us in fathoming the wholeness of anything that came out of the original wholeness called “nature” or “wilderness.””
When we begin to cultivate a deep abiding relationship with nature, recognising the patterns and cycles that exist on this earth, and exist within us as human beings living upon the earth, we can find a greater sense of knowledge and alignment and how we move in the world. Our ancestors had a much closer relationship with nature, their survival depended on it, but of course as we have evolved (devolved) we have lost that connection. Constant central heating and endless supply of electricity, home comforts we rely upon that don’t always serve us in the sharpening of mind, body and spirit, taking our food sources for granted and relying upon other people to provide it for us, and getting sucked into technology have disconnected us from this intimacy with the earth, her cycles and rhythms and her wisdom. We have become complacent!
The Sun Moon Dance, Mexico, Jan 2024.
When we come back into reverence for Nature, we come back into reverence for all beings who rely upon the Earth for sustenance which is basically all of us.
I'm Steph Magenta and I'm the founder of Seven Directions® Breathwork Facilitator Training. The School is my life’s passion and purpose, and my primary gene key even says “you are here to teach people how to breathe” - talk about destiny!
Those who step into our orbit, often do so as a ‘calling’, an inner knowing that yearns for different ways of working and being in relationship with self, with others and with the planet in this incredible times of rapid change. if we don't call ourselves back into alignment with the soul and spirit of who we are, we risk hurtling into oblivion, because “you cannot harm nature without harming yourself.” Let that land a moment. There is an indigenous saying that says ‘only when the last tree has gone, will we realise that we can't eat money’. so it's up to us as custodians of this beautiful earth to play our part. We like to think that the focus on the seven directions as a map for navigating our human experience, helps us remain mindful of the fact that healing practices do not, and should not, operate in a vacuum. We've come to believe that we are broken, but in actual fact it's our systems that are broken and the knockdown effect of that is that we've gradually comfort to think that we are too, but what if we're not. What if we are in fact these miraculous beings with huge brains capable of magnificent things. Surely all of that grey matter is there for a reason!
Can you go beyond your perceived individual experience and step into the collective. Can you recognise your brilliance and your potential and wake up from the dream that keeps us small and paralysed with fear.
“Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me..”
We would say that we are obliged to go beyond those self imposed limits into remembrance of who we are. We can learn from our ancestors and be humble before our descendants. So much is possible when we come into right relationship with nature.
Can you take a moment, take a breath, as we step into a new calendar year together and set your sails in the direction of peace, collaboration and community?
Can you take a breath with the eternal dancing Universe and welcome all of it in?
Can you remember in this moment, with the next breath, the truth of who you are?
The conscious evolution of our species depends on it…depends on us! For All Our Relations - and so it is.
