Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 14: Day 12 "Learning To See"

Modern life is built on a truth and a lie.

Excerpt from Braiding SweetGrass, a beautiful book about indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teaching of plant. The land is the real teacher all we need its mindfulness.

It is surprising to me how much time giraffes spend down by the river. Like an artist I’m trying to see things differently. I look beyond them walking to a geometry.

The trick to transformational processes is how to interrupt and shape patterns, in order to do this you must look at the spaces between things. How everything is touching everything else in relation.

Down in the river the leopards continue their passions. I have not felt compelled to go and find them.

To go and seek them out now seems kind of impolite.

I’m developing a theory on why mystics went to nature. Imagine you are two people: a fanatic city dweller and a wild person. When the mystic goes to nature they find that wild person who knows a different rhythm. The one that gets attention becomes abiding.

Today my body was tired and I ebbed into a lower level of frequency.

In my masculine excitement I’m drawn to activity, but right now its the meditation that is calling me.

A side note on tracking. Right now it seems that all four of the prides of lions that frequent the Londolozi are on neighboring properties. There is an air of excitement about this at it means that they will be sure to return in a couple of days.

Learning to See: A many called Ken Tinley once taught my father how to see a tree. There is a difference between how something works and what it means.

“When you look at a tree, see the soil that holds it. Understand that soil feeds it and the tree also enriches the soil. It’s shade invites shade grass and its stem alkalizes fruit which bring in monkeys which cause leave to fall which cause antelope to browse below.

Wouldn’t it be interesting iff we all spent some time looking at nature this way. Or at your relationships or garden.

In native culture, ceremonies are a time to remember what we remember.

How something works and what it means are different things.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 13: Day 11 "Paradise Lost"

I suspect things get a little wierder from here. Or a little mysterious depending on how you look at it. The leopards are still mating up and down the river, as if living next door to a noisy couple.

I know I must resist to fall all the way into the poetic, but its difficult, everything is so beautiful.

Lourens van der Post- Story after the war. Van Der Post came to camp alone in this wild Eastern region.

In the heat of the day I was cooking my pap by the base of the tree with two dish towels drying on the branch. For a moment the site of them took me into a state of absolute clarity.

When was the last time you had that feeling?

Memories of growing up in a Shangaan village. Looking at the two dish towels I swear I was innocent again. The loss of innocence occurs the moment you become self-conscious.

One of the biggest differences between people and animals is that people behave differently in private whilst animals don’t. Shame happens when your feelings are not safe. Here though there is no one to judge or compare.

Clean Anger and Dirty Anger

Where your attention goes your life goes. After last 11 days I have been returning my attention back to nature, curiosity and being. I have changed and I so want this for you. To the felt presence of something great unfolding.

When we wake up in our lives, what do we wake up out of? The challenge is to discover your own limitations and belief. People attune to new possibilities.

Unless we keep reimagining the possibility of life we will keep teaching our children to do the wrong things.

Tonight I want you to turn off all the lights and light a fire. Ask yourself when did I feel most alive? How did I find the limit and go beyond it.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 12: Day 10 - "Wayfinding"

Thinking of loved ones across the world. This morning I walked down to the river and a cloud of orange butterflies encircled me. Above them an aura of dragonflies and then higher a martial eagle circling. For a moment I was enclosed in a concentric interlocking sequences

I was a world inside a world. Interdimensional and I was walking in nature.

Iron John: An adventurer goes out to find out why people disappear when they go into a forest. He finds a pool and at the bottom of it he finds a wild man. He captures the wild man and puts him in a cage. Our job is to break him out. With his freedom comes more vitality, more life.

I am involved now in purposeful action towards an unknown purpose. Maybe there is an island out there. The Polynesian Wayfinders would sit on the front of a canoe and without any navigational tools would feel for an island of water. Homing. Ultimately you must captain your own canoe towards it intuitively must be.

Sometimes you meet people who help you on the way. There was Ian Thomas who was Intense, disciplined and fit. He is a brilliant tracker, a natural teacher, formidable but open. It is within shared endeavor that we can go beyond ourselves. I like adventures where you can learn many things at once. It was as if you were at the doorway beyond comprehension.

The wild man inside of us is not a savage. So that we may understand the spirit of our gifts and our wounding so that we may bring them to the world with more light.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 11: Day 9 "Jurassic Park"

If you have ever wondered what’s it like living in a tree during 36 hours of rain…its pretty lousy. But truth be told I don’t mind. I feel closer to the animals and respect their resilience.

Neurosis is a substitute for suffering. Out here I feel alive, I feel like life is making me.

I have noticed that I spend a lot of time just sitting. Being is the frequency of nature. So in my world all is calm.

The Franciscan consciousness. A mystic deeply connected to nature. The contemplation of nature is to see that there is an intelligence running through all things. Letting it all be. The day just unfolds without my to do list.

Reverence cannot happen at high speed. It seems impossible to be both reverent and in a rush. The speed of modern life keeps us from deeply respecting it.

People think that rhinos may have been the birth of the mythology of the unicorn.

The feeling of being in another time has persisted. I guess I am 9 days away from modern life. I will not preach but prefer to speak to myself and the community is still to come.

We have forgotten how to live. Your phone is not making your life more convenient. Delete Netflix. Stop watching the news. Turn off your wifi. Go to places where there is no power. Focus on nature and community. Have ceremonies. Explore. Induce reverence for life.

Find the others who really want to live. Don’t fight the system, just abandon it.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 10: Day 8 "Thank God for the Spade"

My troubles all began with a frog. Actually it started when a grasshopper head butted me whilst using the toilet. I understand why people who live close to the earth belief in the changing moods of nature.

The elephant cow was unnerved by me, but I saw that she had run into a musty bull which was causing her agitation. At the last minute they crashed down the river bank instead of into me.

The temperature rose so much that it felt like I was at the devil’s for a barbecue. Then the wind came up and the temperature went from devil’s barbecue to Narnia within 6 hours. I felt like I was at sea in a storm.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 1: Introduction

What happens to your consciousness and being stripped away from modern life.

Why did all the mystics return to nature for extended periods?

What does the exploration of spirit look like in a completely natural environment?

What am I and What do I become?

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 2: Preparation

Boyd begins preparing for his immersion into the wilderness by spending the morning tracking a pride of lions which ends in an unusual encounter. Together with the increase in temperature at the end of the summer season Boyd contemplates the impact of the weather (hot and cold, dry and wet) on his time in the wilderness.

Boyd discusses books that he is considering taking out to the treehosue with him. Some titles include:

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

The Ivory Trail - Cecil Barnard and T. V. Bulpin

West with the Night - Beryl Markham

The Overstory - Richard Powers

St Francis of Assisi - Richard Rohr

Boyd tells the story of Shangaan tracker Winnis Mathebula and some of his ingenious bushcraft borne from a life of simplicity.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 3: Day 1

Boyd reflects on Day 1 of his 40 day, 40 night journey into the wilderness. He sets up camp at the Treehouse and takes us through his daily routine.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 4: Day 2 "A Somewhat Anxious Ape"

Sounds of silence and stillness.

Wind comes up, coffee undrinkable.

Hyenas arrive, sunrise meditation.

Giant baboon flood debris(Raymond).

Minimalise my emanation of physical output is the ground from which deeper changes can emerge.

Understanding and attuning to the frequencies of the animals days.

Emergence of anxiety - what are those old stories and how am I making sense of them.

Looking at my own patterns and how they keep me from deeper levels of presence.

Being alone is profoundly different to doing anything even with one other person.

Scope of this time where anxiety rises.

Thich Nhat Hanh book - FEAR.

Going on the experience to have the experience without trying to control.

Understanding the Bhudda beset by demons under the groves. Could this just be a mind not allowed to rest in itself?

Surrender is asking for more courage than action.

Why has the mystic and the natural world been intertwined with symbolic meaning and the path of awakening to a different way of perceiving life since the beginning of human experience?

From the 1st of April 2020, Boyd Varty from Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa realizes a life long dream as he goes into the wilderness alone for 40 days and 40 nights to try and answer that question from inside that experience.

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Episode 5: Day 3 "Watch Out For The Small Things"

Safety check.

Sat by the fire listening to night sounds.

Think of all the ones you love.

Book: Mike Boon - Zambezi. Arriving with humility to the greater rhythms of nature.

Rhino bull tracks: notice follow listen decipher. Level the scores with the rhino.

Buffalo bulls sleep in the river, genet cat investigating, mouse at the fire pit, kingfishers up and down the river. Flock of doves drinking at the same time in the evening. These are the rhythms and patterns of behavior. Developing an intimacy with my family place.

Then things went south... An unexpected encounter with an animal.