Nurturing Potential @ the Big Green Gathering
by
Maxwell
Steer
Imagine 12000+ people in peaceful
interaction on an ancient fenland farmstead where the fields stretch from the
Mendips to the Isle of Avalon across drainage channels peppered with willows.
Imagine that these people comprise children, women and men in equal numbers.
Imagine, if you will, that all of
them feel free to wander around this ancient landscape in the sun, without
inhibition yet without interfering with each other. Imagine that this site
contains areas devoted to ecology, country crafts, healing, earth energies,
entertainment and contemplation of spiritual issues. Imagine too that there is a
field for travellers, where the whole families set up camp with their wagons and
livestock and spend a few weeks without harassment.
If you can imagine all this, then
you will have the conditions of the Big Green Gathering as near as dammit.
It is as well
that it is largely ignored by the mainstream media because too much attention
would bring a sudden influx of 'tourists' and sensation-seekers which would
destroy the delicate balance of perception which the BGG exists to nourish.
Having had various connections
with the Big Green Gathering over the years I was surprised and delighted to be
asked to coordinate the Spirit Zone on this occasion. What does the public want
from a Spirit Zone? You could transpose this into the broader question: what are
people's needs in this area of life?
I often think the Greeks had the
right idea. In Athens the apostle Paul derided an altar dedicated To An Unknown
God - but actually that's how a lot of people first become aware that there is a
dimension in their life which is not being satisfied by doing, and begin,
infinitesimally slowly, to move towards the realisation that the central issue
of life is not what you do, but what you are. You cannot do peace,
you cannot even really bring peace, you can only be peace - or
not.
Our adjacent Healing and Earth
Energies Zones were full of people doing healing, and despite some
beautifully evocative structures by the Zones' coordinators the energy in these
fields, I felt, had a happening feel, there was a sense of people purposefully
engaged in doing and offering paths to self-development and wholeness. Since
those offering services were much keener to pitch their tents in these zones
than ours, they naturally created a more competitive atmosphere around them. By
contrast I felt that the Spirit Zone ended up seeming much more spacious and
laid-back. I take no particular credit for this, but with less competition for
space our pitches were much looser, with large Buddhafield and Hare Krishna cafe
tents, and even the Rainbow Circle area, a consortium of astrologers, had a more
easy-going feel.
In terms of pointers to the
future, I felt that our 'Confession and beyond ...' tent was an experiment well
worth repeating. It was the brainchild of Raga Woods, an eco-activist and
spiritual animateur. Attending various festivals she had been struck by people
wanting to release aspects of themselves in order to move on without engaging
formal therapy, and had come to realise that what many people are looking for
might, in old-fashioned language, be called absolution. She calls herself a 'low
priestess of the holy earth' to make clear that she makes no claims, other than
that of someone living in close contact with the land. Several people who
visited her told me that her quiet and Samaritan-like listening had helped them
to identify the self they had been searching for, and gave them courage to
discard unwanted patterns.
Perhaps maturity is accepting
that you can't change the world, you can't heal its pain, you can't even lower
the price of bread. So the most we can hope for is to interact constructively
with a few people along the way. And therefore making a space that facilitates
this process for other people is an effortless way of amplifying your own
positive karma. And as ever, in interactions with the public, when you get it
right people are extremely generous. My favourite compliment came from a black
girl who said 'I wish you was my Dad.'
Maxwell Steer is a composer and writer who became sensitized to the experiential affects of sound as a result of writing film scores. In 1981 he abandoned his conventional career (which had included posts as London Director of Music for the Royal Shakespeare Co, BBC Producer and Head of 20thC Studies at the Royal College of Music Junior Department) to pursue the integration of his musical and spiritual instincts and experiences.
For more information about Maxwell's work, try his website www.msteer.macunlimited.net/ or click on his address below for a more detailed biography and a great example of "nurturing potential in action".
Maxwell Steer, 125
Duck St, Tisbury SP3 6LJ, Wilts. 0-1747 870070, fax 871511
The Big Green Gathering
Its website http://www.big-green-gathering.com/ says “The Big Green Gathering is for people who care about health, the environment, sustainability, our children’s future and life in general. It is a celebration of our natural world and our place within it. As such it is a place for enjoyment, learning and fun.”