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From the felt sense of Being that Dorothy Maclean called the Living Silence, one can temporarily suspend belief or disbelief and open to the possibilities of attuning, or inter-being, with any being or aspect of creation.

I suggest that you commune with some aspect of Nature you love where you live, resting receptively and noting anything that comes to you. If you’ve tried this, I’m curious what you experienced: Did any feelings, impressions, words, songs or other expressions emerge from what was received and given in your exchange?

In the illustrated book The Findhorn Garden, one can read many communications Dorothy Maclean received from that she called “devas” of different plants, as well as from other natural forces and beings. In her introduction to these messages, Dorothy wrote:

Every plant does have a unique ensouling presence. These messages, however, have not been communicated by individual plants but rather by the overlighting intelligence and spirit–the deva–for each plant species. While the devas themselves are beyond form, yet are they responsible for the most precise and minute forms we behold in the plant kingdom, the wonderful exactness of each seed and leaf and blossom.

In her book, To Hear the Angels Sing: An Odyssey of Co-creation with the Devic Kingdom, Dorothy elaborates on her relationship with the devas, and offers more messages— verbal ‘translations’ of impressions she originally received nonverbally from these beings. She describes these inspired writings as being, in a sense, her art form. I’ve always felt warmly touched by a message from the Wild Violet Deva, excerpted here:

You find in us a power and authority as great as that of the large trees, although we are the smallest flower you have contacted. Yes, this is because we are wild, well-established, free to roam, not dependent on the whims of man… You cannot cease wondering at the power of my voice. I have found my niche, I am where God means me to be, and therefore I am as powerful as any in the land. I AM power– I, the synonym for shyness! Nothing in this world or the next can shake those who follow their ordained pattern and do God’s will unreservedly. Find and follow God’s will for you, and your voice will be power.

In 1980, Leslie and I arranged to bring Dorothy Maclean to our home town, Fayetteville, Arkansas. She spoke to over two hundred people in a theater then led a weekend workshop and taught attunement by practicing it with us and inviting our feedback afterwards.

First, we decided as a group to attune to several different aspects of Nature including, memorably, the devic Spirit of the Ozark bioregion. Dorothy helped us get in touch with the Living Silence by offering her Doorway Process, a guided relaxation and meditation on wonder, beauty and love. There was a lot of overlap in our experiences when we shared them after attuning. I wrote this prose poem about what our group sensed about the Ozarks back then:

My neck of the woods is an east-west-running plateau uplift older than the Appalachians, Rockies and Himalayas put together, set in the White River Valley watershed of the Boston Mountains of Northwest Arkansas within the vast climax oak forest of the Ozark bioregion.

My neck of the woods is a commonwealth of lichen, mosses, lush grasses, flowers of the forest that toil through rocky soil, flowers of the field embroidering these hills and hollers. Here I listen to crystalline silence in Winter, and sometimes hear songs of ones who have been on the wind.

My neck of the woods is a Woman, feminine with caves, groves and deep underground springs pumping ancient rain through the heart of Turtle Island.

The Whirlwind

In 1980, after Dorothy led a weekend workshop on attunement in our hometown, my wife Leslie and I had a number of dramatic experiences that strengthened our confidence in the validity of the process. These confirmative experiences helped us connect us more intimately with the beauty, power and love we feel in our beings and in the ancient Ozark bioregion. Here’s one that really got our attention:

Months after Dorothy’s visit, we sat at the edge of a two acre field we’d cleared for gardening in the hills near Kingston, Arkansas. We decided to practice attunement, and agreed to tune in to “The Spirit of the Wind.” We closed our eyes and drifted to a quiet place inside ourselves. Once more settled in, we briefly held a clear intention to contact that devic or energetic aspect of Nature, then resumed our immersion in silence.

I reopened my eyes first. Standing a few feet from us was a ten foot tall whirlwind. Astonished, I whispered “Look!” to Leslie, who opened her eyes and joined me in amazed contemplation. This beautiful windy anomaly stayed long enough to be well-witnessed, then it whisked away.

That whirlwind literally blew our minds! Open.

I journaled about the event soon after it happened to bring the reality of it home to myself more fully.

photo Leslie Oelsner

Most of my attunements have been more quietly inspiring. This month, I invite you to write about your experiences of communion with Nature, whether they be anomalies, synchronicities, epiphanies, or the ordinary daily miracles of natural beauty in your life.

Here is part of an attunement exercise in Dorothy Maclean’s book Memoirs of an Ordinary Mystic. Playing with it may help you cultivate attunement, and catalyze your writing process. In Dorothy’s words:

Finding the Doorway

1. Have a pen and paper, so that you can make notes. Settle into a comfortable position, and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths and settle more deeply into your own inner space.

2. Once you are feeling relaxed, begin to bring to mind memories of moments when you felt bigger than yourself, moments when you felt a sense of expansion into something greater than yourself. Recall moments of awe and wonder, of beauty and truth. It might be a moment of feeling awed by the majesty of nature… Relax and let these memories arise in you.

Now choose one of the memories to focus on, and give it all of your attention. Recall it vividly, in as much detail as possible, so that it comes alive for you in the present. As you do this, notice whether there is any particular feeling associated with the moment you are recalling. Does it register in any particular place in your body? What is it like? Is it a temperature or a sensation of some sort? Is there a vibration or a sense of color? Maybe a sound? Is there a feeling quality that you could give a name to? Notice what is true for you, without a need to understand it and without judgement. Just notice. Write down a few brief notes about what you discover.