Monthly Archives: July 2012

Sheema Mukherjee

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sheema mukherjee on nandita's dreamOlympics dawns. I loved the bell ringing this morning. Also happy realising Sheema Mukherjee’s “Bending the Dark” was commissioned for the Olympics and Imagined Village will be performing it.

I’ve seen them perform the piece live and it was awesome. Eliza Carthy powerhouse on fiddle, Martin Carthy, Simon Emmerson et al… a wonderful blend of Indian raga, British folk, creative fusion and what can be imagined. My Goddess daughter Annie and I kept playing it as we drove up on Dartmoor. She adores it. “Songs from Nandita’s Dream” featuring Sheema is up.

The full album can be downloaded from CD Baby. Oh yes and Nandita’s Dream the book for 8-10 year olds (with a lot of grownups loving it too), is available on Amazon and Apple – ipad etc, next week. The music downloads too. It’s my Dad’s birthday today. Great to be with him and I’m loving the synchronicity of that with the Olympics. Such an expansive celebration!

Paintings for Nandita’s Dream

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Salassie Face - Nandita's DreamI am in awe of Dorrie Joy’s paintings. She is such a dreamer and manifester of beautiful beings with her art. So the children love the paintings she has given us for the Nandita’s Dream book. They want to know does Amon (the wise elder) have grandchildren. How does Tess (the green girl) merge with trees. Is this story true? I say what do you think? Some yes, some no.

Salassie talks about that at the end of the book. Michael asks “is this story true?”

“as true as any dream and our dreams make the world,” answers Salassie.

Salssie is the Rainbow Butterfly Man, the whistling shaman, the storyteller.

Here is a closeup of part of the painting.

CD of Songs for Nandita’s Dream

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nandita's dream CDWe’ve had glorious sun and an apricot sunset on Dartmoor. Butterflies and happy people. I’ve been enjoying singing Nandita’s Dream songs with some of the children who recorded in preparation for Black Umfolosi’s arrival and our celebration launch August 5th. The children’s voices are soaring.

I love that their voices are so individual and can listen to each other and sing beautifully together. The ebook and the CD downloads of music are due to launch at the end of this week both available on Amazon and itunes.

The Achuar and the Pachamama Alliance

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This is a beautiful photo of a beautiful man – an Achuar tribe shaman.Achuar Tribesman

I first met the Achuar tribe in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador when I was travelling with the Pachamama Alliance. The Achuar are guardians of millions of acres of pristine rainforest which they have been able to preserve with the support of people in different cultures. They are a dreaming culture and they reached out through dreams to those who are now their partners in the US who travelled to find them. Together they formed the Pachamama Alliance. Meanwhile the symposium that comes out of this work, based on sustainable environmental, spiritual and social approaches to life, is available in over 60 countries and is helping foster much that is new.

I love the way the Achuar are sustaining what they love and responding to change in positive ways. The Achuar have been creating new ways of life such as the the award winning ecolodge Kapawi and solar powered canoes.

The Long Dance Event

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Nandita's Dream Music CDThere is a dance event called The Long Dance run by The School of Movement Medicine formed by Susannah and Ya’Acov Darling Khan. It’s a giveaway. People are dancing for their dreams and to raise money for charities. This year the rain came down torrentially from above and along the ground. Teams of people dug trenches through the night to keep it from coming into the huge dance marquis and another team emptied the trenches with buckets by hand. The spirit and determination of these dancers was inspiring and moving. When I saw the trenches in the morning I was in awe and cried.

Later some very familiar music came on. Susannah was playing “Inside My Heart” which is Nandita’s Song from the Nandita’s Dream CD. I looked up and 150 people spontaneously reached for each other’s hands. They danced into a spiral singing and laughing along with Nandita and Black Umfolosi and Rainbow Children’s Choir to “trust inside your heart, there’s a guide inside your heart, ask and you will know, which way to go”. The joy was ecstatic. My heart was blooming like a flower.

Young Dartmoor Ponies

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Dartmoor Ponies, Nandita's DreamI’m sharing a photograph of a recently born Dartmoor foal with her mother, taken by Alice Carfrae. Several foals were born down by the house where I’m living on Dartmoor. I’ve noticed they often have a guardian horse with them too. Then they tend to join up with another mother and baby and eventually the larger herd. You can see the foals playing together or all lying down on their sides with their 4 legs straight out in front of them asleep while the herd grazes.

We have a rugged Dartmoor pony in the Nandita’s Dream book called Poppy. And Poppy walks with Nandita through a long winding tunnel in the dark as they head for the magical clearing in the rainforest, Watazee. It’s a preparation for Nandita’s epic climb to the crystal cave. Nandita has a lot of heart and so do the Dartmoor ponies. I love watching the young horses gallop flat out through the ferns, over the rocks and through the streams, enjoying their power, tossing their manes, sounding like thunder.

Nandita’s Heart Meditation

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Nandita's Dream - Heart MeditationJoyaa told me that she mentioned the Nandita’s Dream website to a mother who said she already knows about it. Her son is concerned about going to his next school and they play Nandita’s Heart meditation and he knows he can listen to his guidance.

That is really good for us to hear. Putting the mediation downloads on the website felt important.

They are called Tess Talks Trees (read by Melody aged 10) and Listening to My Heart (read by Rose aged 10). I wrote them with my back to Oz the tree in my garden and sitting in my yurt.

When we recorded Rose waved her arms around like a tree and acted out the journey which Nandita is taking you on and Melody lay down and listened to her heart and then said “You have the most beautiful voice in the world Rose.” It’s good to have feedback about what’s working. I hope to do more soon.

Storytelling – Nandita’s Dream

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Nandita's Dream Storytelling

Just to let you know that I have been thinking about the power of storytelling. It’s a way we create and manifest by sharing. Recently Jonathan Camp was telling me that India has statistically by far the greatest involvement in telling stories.

As Nandita is half Indian and half Scottish and her mother Sheema has come over from India in the story I

was really interested in that. Storytelling is such a great way to imagine, create, dream, share wisdom and tools of empowerment. Nandita’s Dream is an adventure of the heart and a quest to resolve difficulties in the waking world.

Sura Susso who plays kora on the Songs from Nandita’s Dream CD is by the way a Gambian Griot, kora player and storyteller and he joins us at Nandita Day on 5th August. His music is like liquid light. Magnificent.

Dorrie Joy – The Artist

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Dorrie Joy Artist - Nandita's DreamAt the children’s world music festival I was able to display some of the beautiful art by Dorrie Joy that goes with the Nandita’s Dream book (available soon) and the website. Dorrie Joy, a wonderful shamanic artist living on Dartmoor UK. Dorrie is a great dreamer and we had a wonderful time meditating and talking together as she brought in these paintings. She paints with anything – toes, brushes, fingers, you name it. I love working with Dorrie. She is totally inspirational.

The children wanted to know all about the paintings. They wanted to know about Nandita, Joe the drummer, Tess the green girl who merges with trees, Rai from Hawaii…There’s Salassie the rainbow shaman with butterfly wings and a crystal heart in his hand. There’s Melody the tall blue woman who sings everything alive.

The wind chant is her track on the Songs from Nandita’s Dream album. A young girl looked at Melody and said. “She’s so happy. If you were sad and went into your bedroom and saw her you couldn’t be sad anymore. Can you get a picture of her?” I’m on it.

One thing I realised a the festival. The children really get that this is their project. Every group that came through the door headed straight to the stall. I can’t wait to see what they do with it.