November 15-21

The Orcas Island Study Group has been meeting in the camp library on Wednesday evenings during the fall, winter and spring since the early 1970’s. The group’s meeting this last Wednesday, November 17, coincided with the anniversary of the founding of the Theosophical Society 135 years ago in New York City. To note the occasion, some excerpts from Henry Steele Olcott’s Old Diary Leaves were read, describing the events leading up to the founding of the Society. Olcott and H.P. Blavatsky are generally considered to be the two key founders of the Society.

An interesting historical footnote, given the many discussions that have taken place over the years on the distinction between ‘small t’ and ‘BIG T” theosophy, is that the name of the Society was chosen almost at random. According to Olcott,

The choice of a name for the Society was, of course, a question for grave discussion in Committee. Several were suggested, among them, if I recollect aright, the Egyptological, the Hermetic, the Rosicrucian, etc., but none seemed just the thing. At last, in turning over the leaves of the Dictionary, one of us came across the word “Theosophy,” whereupon, after discussion, we unanimously agreed that that was the best of all; since it both expressed the esoteric truth we wished to reach and covered the ground of Felt’s methods of occult scientific research. Some stupid story has gone about that, while the Committee were sitting, a strange Hindu walked into the room, threw a sealed packet upon the table and walked out again, or vanished, or something of the sort; the packet, when opened, being found to contain a complete draft of a Constitution and By-laws for the Society, which we at once adopted. This is sheer nonsense; nothing whatever of the sort occurred.
(Old Diary Leaves, Vol. 1, p. 132)

The rest of the study group’s evening was spent in discussion of the three objects of the Society. These objects are a succinct statement of the purposes of the TS and they have changed little since the early days of the Society. They are also prominent in helping to frame the vision, activities and programs for Indralaya. The three objects are:

1) To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color;

2) To encourage the comparative study of religion, science and philosophy; and,

3) To explore the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in the human being.


The Chickens Have Crossed The Road



After a great deal of thought and consideration, a decision was made at the October Board meeting to find new homes for the Indralaya chickens. This wasn’t easy to come to, as in the year and a half that they have been a presence in the garden, the 26 hens that lived there have contributed to camp life in interesting ways.

There were several factors that supported this difficult decision. For one, there were a lot of issues that came to the surface this past summer around the appropriate cleaning and use of the fresh eggs in the Indralaya kitchen, which is a commercial kitchen that is required to comply with a fairly strict regulatory framework around the use and consumption of eggs.

Even more significantly, as we looked down the road a few years, the future lives of the hens arose as a matter of concern. The typical hen lives for 12-15 years, but only lays eggs for three. Most who tend to and work with laying hens establish systems in which new chicks are raised and the existing flock is culled (i.e. selectively slaughtered) as the bird’s egg laying capacity wanes. This did not seem like an appropriate option for the Indralaya hens, so part of our decision was based in finding good homes for them while they are still in their productive egg-laying years.

Another element of the decision is that there will only be two of us living at camp during the off-season. The daily requirements of caring for the flock - they need to be fed, let out of their coop every morning and closed back in every night, eggs need to be gathered, etc - meant it would be impossible to leave camp even for a single night without finding someone to care for the hens.

In the wake of the Board’s decision, Leonie went to work and made some phone calls and found some good new homes for these former denizens of the coop at the top of the garden. Shandra Augenstein took eight of the birds and they now have a new home in the Doe Bay garden, while Kari Van Gelder took the rest of the flock. Kari, Ian and Margot will be keeping a few of the birds and placing the rest with families around the island. Kari also promised that their chickens would be available for visits to Indralaya in coming years so we haven’t seen the last of the chicken tractor!

Blow winds, and crack your cheeks!

The later part of the week was dominated by the arrival of winter weather on Orcas Island. Early in the week, the National Weather Service forecasts were predicting high winds and a steep drop in temperatures for the weekend - a dreaded ‘arctic express’ was expected to come roaring down the Fraser River Valley, across the Salish Sea, and through the San Juan Islands.

This meant, among other things, that it was time for the annual ritual of draining the water from the plumbing cabins and dining hall because the plumbing was not built to withstand severe or extended cold weather.

On Wednesday the winds began blowing. On Friday, they shifted around to the Northeast and the temperature began to drop dramatically as evening approached. Not only that, but just as the last glimmerings of sunlight were draining from the sky a light snow began to fall. We woke up to just over an inch of snow on the ground on Saturday morning. Not so much snow by Orcas Island standards, but accompanied throughout camp by sheets of ground ice that made walking up and down the hills a little bit tricky. Though little more snow fell over the weekend, the winds have stayed constant and temperatures are expected to continue to drop for the coming week as we head into Thanksgiving.