Odd question I know, but maybe someone here can offer suggestions?

I was born on chalk ground, and love the feel of it still, to walk those pale fields again, to pick up a flint in the furrows - wonderful  

Since then I've lived in various places, some better, some worse, but now we are probably living in our last place, Glastonbury . . .  and the ground is clay.

 

I just cannot seem to get used to it, to feel "at home" on it even after several years. The geology is clay, with clay underneath, and then lots more clay - right down to Jurassic and Triassic layers - but all clay. There is a lot of water round here too. There a re a few harder outcrops, small  hills, but they are the exception, not the rule, and mostly in private hands.

 

And I struggle to feel stable, to feel grounded.  It doesn't help that there isn't a single space or lane or tree that hasn't had a thousand different energies and chants and offerings left in it over the centuries. Too many people, lack of dry ground and field edges to walk, land owners who are- understandably perhaps - vigilant too keep out anyone who might start pitching a tent and causing them stress.

(That's a whole other thing I know, and I have sympathy for off-grid folks - but the subject raises hackles here among the farmers.)

 

So any thoughts or wise words would be welcomed - we have even got to thinking about moving, but most likely can't do that.

 

Thank you

PathWalker

)0(

Hi @PathWalker

 

This might sound somewhat erm, out of place?

Still, it was impossible to not think of Terry Pratchett and his little witch with a hat full of stars, born on chalk.

 

If it was only standing on chalk, I'd suggest to fill a 1x1m basin up with the stuff and do just that, stand on chalk, however, it strikes me that most likely won't cut it in your case - You mentioned walking on there, and somehow it seems (to me, I may be way off track here) you've got those geomantic soles, actually feeling several meters below ground.

 

The next thing that comes to mind is to draft up and execute a ritual to connect to the ground you have been born on, with the idea of "shall you be with me and carry my feet wherever I walk on this earth".

If ritualism ain't your style, the same can be done via repeated meditation.

I don't know that this will be helpful in how you feel about the clay or how you might draw up a ritual, but on the off chance you find the passing of time as awe inspiring as I do, it's something to think that that the mudstone bedrock that causes the Glastonbury clay was created around 200 million years ago by the warm, shallow sea that covered where you live. Regardless of whether that's at all helpful, since you already mentioned Jurassic… I hope you find a way to feel grounded and wish you all the best. 🙏🏽

Edited February 20, 20251 yr by Rose Lalonde

The way I feel grounded and connected is by establishing a relationship with the nature spirits in my area. I don’t know if that is relevant to your beliefs or practices, but it is what has helped me when I moved to a new place. To be honest though, I live a 3,5 hour drive from my childhood home, and it is the furthest away from ’home’ that I have ever lived. So I can’t say that the scenery is very different. However, the land spirits are of course different from every area and every forest, so I still have to explore and establish a bond with them. And by doing so, I feel much more rooted and grounded. I hope that helps and I wish you all the best! 

I'm going to suggest crystal gemstones to give grounding. Chalk is made from Calcium Carbonate and having actual chalk in your pocket or wearing, could get messy 😄 

 

Other Calcium Carbonates....

 

- Pearls

- Calcite

- Argonite

- Limestone

 

I find it grounding personally to have a tumble stone or a gem stone in my pocket, I change the stone to what I need at that time.

I feel this post so much. I moved far, far away from where I was born, from the dark forests where my grandmother lived and where I spent the summers. I could feel the nature spirits and magic there, and moving to another climate was and remains difficult. The seasons feel different, the sky looks different, and I miss the long, long dawn and dusk. I miss the deep forests, the rain in summer and the moist air of the forest. I learned to find magic everywhere and grow new roots. Taking long walks in all seasons helped me, getting to know about the plants and animals was important... but it's more difficult to feel the connection. By now, I have accepted it. 

 

Sorry, no real recommendation here but I'm interested in the ideas others have. I think that when I go home next time, I'll take some soil with me and spread it in our garden here. I'll also take some stones and shells from here and put them in my mother's garden to connect the places. 

Edited February 20, 20251 yr by Nemia

Thank you all - really helpful suggestions, and nice to know I'm not alone in feeling a certain displacement.

I'll be jotting down the suggestions for working through - and I bought a chunk of Agaronite/Argonite just a couple of weeks ago 

 

Hmmmm........... @PathWalker

Alla @Nemia, I am forever displaced as I have a multicultural background, so growing up in my homeland - my body loved the land, but I did not blend seamlessly into the culture. And so on this level - I never quite "fit".

Nowhere can ever feel like what your body was bioenergetically introduced to at birth and grew up on -

chemically, emotionally and energetically. So you must come to terms with feeling forever adrift on some level.

I was born in Kenya on the equator. My father was Kenyan 1 culture, my mother is Swiss, another completely different culture. We would regularly visit my Swiss family, a land quite different to where I live now - which is England, & different to Kenya where I was born. Absolutely everything is different. The soil - there is no red murrum soil on this continent - the flora and fauna, the smells & sounds, the light, the seasons, the microbes...

I suffer from seasonal affective disorder, because the light is so different - my body never adjusted.

And I secretly believe, that if I could go home to Kenya, and re-populate my gut with Kenyan microbes - half my health problems would disappear.

As has been suggested - having items that connect you to home, contemplating them & tuning into their energy can be helpful. I have a variety of these, including recordings of what an African day & night sound like.

In my spiritual practice - the places that I go to in my minds-eye (my sacred grove/temple, magical inner space etc.) are all lands from my childhood. These practices are so ingrained, that I walk around with my homeland in me.

It took many many years - to form a connection with my new home here. Countless hours getting used to what the soil looks and behaves like, what the local flora and fauna is and sounds like (nothing can replace the natural learning that came from observing wildlife & the land whilst I grew up. An experience that cannot be reproduced of course).

What comes to mind also is this:

Q: "What shall I do if I'm lost in the forest?..."

A: "Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you

Are not lost. Wherever you are is called 'Here',

And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,

Must ask permission to know it and be known.

The frost breaths, Listen... It answers -

I have made this place around you.

If you leave it, you may come back again saying 'Here'.

No two trees are the same to Raven.

No two branches are the same to Wren.

If what a tree or bush does is lost on you,

You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows

Where you are. You must let it find you."

~ David wagoner

Grounding with crystals is an interesting thing.

I have 2 particular pocket crystals:

1) A shard of Black Tourmaline for protection.

2) A heart shaped piece of Tiger Iron for grounding .

Tiger Iron is also for strength and resilience, and is a combination of Golden Tiger's eye, Red Jasper and Hematite - all 3 are grounding stones.

Hematite is rich in iron (Heam = Iron) and Red Murrum soil from my birth land, is red - because it has a high Iron and aluminium content. I've just discovered that Tourmaline has aluminium in it, & is peizoelectric and pyroelectric. Piezoelectricity can produce negative air ions. Now - I grew up in a negative air ion rich environment, because my childhood home was in the country surrounded by Savannah and patches of forest.

How interesting.....

You see the connections?

I mostly carry these pocket stones around when I'm feeling vulnerable/burned out/short on sleep/unwell etc.

AND - you CAN carry chalk in your pocket... if you keep it in a little zip lock baggie...

Then you could take it out when you're feeling weird and draw smiley faces on the pavement like kids do 🤪🙌.

Edited Wednesday at 07:09 AM2 days by Tanga