January 24-30

Topa Topa
(Did you know that pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them? Give it a try...)

We are in Ojai this week and staying at Krotona, a theosophical community and school that was established here in 1924. The above picture was taken from near the Krotona library, looking eastward over the grounds of Krotona towards Topa Topa bluff. We arrived on Saturday and have been enjoying our visit.

Signposts to the Past

In a recent walk around the Indralaya forest, a variety of artifacts revealed themselves.

These first two pictured items are remnants from the old yellow trail. My recollection is that this trail was originally established by Phyllis Roberts, though I’m not 100% certain of that. This was a long trail that ran in an east-west direction across the middle of the Indralaya forest, then down and around the waterfront to Inspiration Point and back up to the Grove.

This first trail marker is just north of and below the Grove.

The Yellow Trail was abandoned in the late 80’s and early 90’s after two severe winter storms brought down innumerable trees in the middle of the forest and made the trail impassable. Some efforts were made to clear it at the time, but there were those in camp who sensed that this section of Indralaya was closing itself off for some purpose different than human access and a decision was made to honor that perception.

This second trail marker is to the southwest of the Mossy Meadow trail. Near this marker is a lonely fence post that can be seen from the trail. This fence post is a remnant of the days before the south forty acres of the property were acquired. The first meetings at Indralaya were on the McClaren farm, which was approximately 30 acres in size. The south forty was acquired in the late 1940’s. Austin Bee (father of Helen and Carol Bee) was instrumental in this acquisition. Later, an additional eight acres were purchased, bringing Indralaya to its current 78 acre size. The eight acre parcel is on the western side of camp and is the location of our water source and water storage tanks B&C.

The old sign in this picture is a remnant of a series of descriptive signposts that were placed in different areas of the forest to provide information on different tree and plant species. Leonie’s recollection is that these signs were made by Jack Davis, Doreena Toomer’s father. This particular sign is a description of the Grand Fir that it rests against. The Grand Fir (Abies Grandis) is native to the Pacific Northwest.

January 17-23

This week’s “this week” is being posted from Portland, OR. We left Orcas on Saturday and are on our way to Ojai for a visit. It has been an intense few weeks setting up the Indralaya website for the 2011 programs and registration and getting the catalog completed. Online registration opened up on Friday and close to 40 registrations came in over the weekend.

Audrey

Petr

Petr Senkerick, Tom Long and Audrey Nedderman are taking care of camp while we are gone. Petr fixed an amazing vegan lunch for us in Spruce cabin on Saturday as we were preparing to leave. And Audrey did the dishes. Tom and Audrey were both on fellowship staff for extended periods last summer. Petr is a skilled craftsman and electrician who was on fellowship last summer and built the new woodsheds that can be found around camp.

Shared Housing

At the beginning of the week we noticed an unfamiliar, somewhat meandering pathway leading up to Kunz cabin from the waterfront. Upon examination, we realized it is a game trail, made by the daily passing of a family of otters who have taken up residence underneath the cabin. We were aware of the otters, as they had cohabited with Crystal Mossman, who lived there while serving as kitchen manager for the summer. It’s hard to miss their odor. We’ve now installed some otter eradication devices (bright construction lights actually) to try and coax the otters out from under the cabin.

otter meander

January 10-16

It was a full week at Indralaya as the new year begins to gather momentum. Final edits were made to the 2011 program catalog and it was sent to the printer on Friday. This coming week we will review the proof copy. Then it will go into production and should be in mailboxes soon.

The task of setting up the website for 2011 work parties, programs and registration is also well underway. Online registration for work parties is available now. Program registrations should be up and running by the end of the week. One program, the Sea Temple Retreat with R. J. Stewart, for which early registration was offered, is already full. It filled up within 72 hours of opening for registration on January 3.

Leonie has been busy with various contractors who are doing pieces of work around the place this winter. This week, Paul Groeninger, who put the front half of the roof on the RMC this past fall, returned and altered the roof line at the library entrance to make room for the fir tree that has such a presence there. Shelagh Levey generously donated the funds that made this work possible. Thank you Shelagh, for ‘walking the talk’ and protecting this well loved Indralaya tree.

new library roof line

We also spent our first night in the resident manager’s cottage (RMC). There has been a lot of unpacking. Some of our belongings have been in storage (thanks to my mother’s basement and attic!) since we left in 2006. On Sunday, the debris was sufficiently cleared away and there was room for our first waffle bash since returning to Orcas. Twelve guests came by our new old home, including Darla Eaton, who was here for a personal retreat.

In mid-week, the Winter issue of the Quest arrived. The Quest is the Theosophical Society members’ magazine. This issue includes an article I wrote and submitted during our time at Krotona, the theosophical community in Ojai, CA, where Leonie and I spent four months in early 2010.

The article is an exploration of the old story of the stone that the builder refuses, which later becomes the head cornerstone. This allegory points to the value hidden in things that we are oft times inclined to reject. The article explores the idea from early theosophical history that the Theosophical Society, which is certainly neglected, if not rejected by the contemporary world, was founded as a cornerstone for the future religion of humanity.

The magazine also included a call for Indralaya fellowship applicants. Along these lines, we had our first ever Skype interview with a person interested in being on fellowship. She is Lily Falconer, and during our conversation we agreed that she will be here for six weeks or so beginning in mid-June. Lily’s mom is Jody Falconer, a therapeutic touch coordinator and one of the presenters at last year’s Spiritual Landscape program.

Are you perhaps interested in serving on fellowship staff in 2011? Let us know!

fellowship staffers Vidya & Jonaa - June 2010

January 3-9

There was more winter snow over the weekend. The snow began falling early Sunday morning, just as dawn was breaking and continued into the late morning, when the clouds parted and the sun came out.

To form a nucleus of Universal Brotherhood

Since beginning this online journal (or blog) in late October, people from all over the world have checked in for a visit. Not surprisingly, over 90% of the visitors are from the U.S. and Canada. But there have also been people looking at the site from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Mexico, Germany, Brazil, India, Australia, the UK, United Arab Emirates, the Bahamas (hi Mary!) and elsewhere.

Last week there were fifteen hits from Russia. The site that was directing the Russian traffic to the blog was www.yandex.ru/. Everything on the yandex site is in Cyrillic, so I don’t know why they were coming to the indralaya blog site, but there was a word that looked a little bit like ‘horoscope’, so maybe it was some kind of metaphysical website that randomly selected ‘This week at Indralaya’ as their site of the week or something like that. Or maybe it was H.P. Blavatsky’s relatives, generations later, checking in on theosophical sites. In any case, it is fascinating to really see at first hand the wide reach of the internet.

Additions to the Fleet

Just before the New Year’s weekend, family week one co-leader and expert car guy Elliot Toler-Scott and I met in Seattle and went car shopping for camp. A few days later, we completed the purchase of two new vehicles. The first is a 2003 Tacoma Toyota pick-up, the other a 2004 Dodge Caravan mini-van. The Caravan will be used for trips to meet people at the ferry when a full sized van isn’t necessary. There are also several times a year, particularly at work parties, when two ferry shuttle vehicles are necessary. The pick-up is intended to be a work vehicle for which we anticipate a wide range of uses to complement the larger Chevy truck that camp has had for several years.

Sound, Stillness and the Awakening of Compassion

On Wednesday, Leonie spoke at the Orcas Study group.

In addition to leading the group through several exercises (beginning, of course, with humming), Leonie shared some engaging insights on sound that are found in the theosophical tradition.

Theosophy stresses the unity of all life, and when we talk of this unity, we say that all manifestation is made from the same “stuff”. This stuff is called akasha, sometimes called the Sounding Board of Nature. Akasha is the root of manifestation and its one quality is sound. Sound is thus a basic component of the universe. One could say that sound is the substratum of manifestation.

In H.P. Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine, she writes, somewhat poetically, that the construction of the Universe begins when perpetual Motion becomes Breath; from the Breath comes forth primordial Light, through whose radiance manifests the Eternal Thought concealed in darkness, and this becomes the Word (Mantra). It is that (the Mantra or Word) from which all this (the Universe) springs into being.

All together now: “AUMMMMMMMMMMMMM”

December 27 - January 2, 2011

The world seemed quiet and still on the first day of January

looking NE towards the town of Eastsound

Looking SE towards the mouth of East Sound

But there were also signs of heavy weather from weeks gone by:

overturned bench at Inspiration Point

This buoy, now tangled in some tree limbs, broke free from the dock anchor lines

New Look RMC

Renovations that began last summer during the Connections program are nearing completion. With a refreshed exterior and interior, the RMC, which also includes Indralaya's business office, looks like it is ready for another thirty five years of service.

Leonie and I brought up most of our belongings on New Year’s Eve and moved everything into the cabin on January 1 - just in time for the start of the new year. There are still a couple weeks to go before we’ll move in ourselves.

Steve Murphy came up to help us with the NY’s day move. Leonie’s sister Melanie, her friend Jim, as well as Tim Hulley and his friend Meg, all dropped by during the day too. Steve, Tim and I all share the same birthday - May 14 - as does Carol Bee. We half expected to see her as well!

Steve, Minor, Tim


Minor, Leonie, Melanie, Jim, Steve, Tim, Meg

Happy New Year One and All!