Conclave and the Rise of Ken
It has been a busy time for the Madre Grande Monastery. First of all, Amber and I attended our second annual conclave in the end of June. I remember last year's conclave and how we hiked through the mountain just to get there. Last year's was very eventful since it mostly focused on the absence of John, and how we would all pick up the slack. This year was more business as usual, simply reporting on our projects and reviewing finances.
Mostly what Amber and I had to report was on our San Diego Theosophy study group. It has had some different turns lately since we are no longer using the ULT location. Mostly we are using libraries and a Swedenborgian church, although the good news is we've been having good turn out and we have met some enthusiastic people. Hopefully we will have a more set location down the road.
Promptly after the conclave it was the rise of Ken Campos. I've gotten to know Ken quite well in the last year, and I am glad we were there for his final vows as he became a fully professed monk.
The 101
A short 2 weeks later I was back up to the monastery to enjoy Madre Grande 101. That's the nickname for a program they are running the second weekend of every month to try to orient or reorient friends and well wishers of the monastery as to its daily life and significance. I was helping by being the first participant.The first night was enjoyable hearing Sally and Marty explain the history. The main bullet point is that a lot of people have loved the land over the years, and it is sacred to many people for many different reasons.
Newfound belief in Christ Bugs
For karma yoga the next day, one of the chores was to help Marty try to persuade this new infestation of bugs in the crops to depart. There were questions as to what kind of bugs they actually were, and Monica offered that in her country of Romania they called them "Christ bugs". This led to a whole conversation as to what miraculous nature these bugs could possibly possess and maybe we should tread carefully. Monica further suggested that perhaps they were Christ bugs because they would forgive us if we tried to get them to leave, and so we were back to work.
Also during gardening I discovered seashells here and there. I began to collect them. When we were done I finally inquired what they were all about and it was explained to me that many years ago, when John Drais was still with us, he got a 'deal' on a truck full of kelp that they could use as fertilizer. The monastery land smelled for a long time and, as more permanent evidence, seashells that were caught in the seaweed were still spread throughout the garden.
Heart Spring
Another fun jaunt during Madre Grande 101 was that Monica, her son Martin, and I took a trip to the spring. As a bit of trivia, the mountain skyline looks like a woman curled up in fetal position (whom we call the Mother). It was explained to me that a freshwater spring is right where all the greenage is that would be her heart.
Halfway up the trail to find the spring, there sat Jonathan. We did not expect to see Jonathan, but there he was, sitting on a rock. I thought he was going to ask us a series of riddles so that we could pass, but instead he just joined us in going the rest of the way up. Up until now I still don't know why he was there, or what he was waiting for, but it will just have to go down as one of life's little mysteries.
All in all it has been a productive month, and we still have yet to go back to Wheaton for our visit during Summer National Gathering and visiting my family. Looking forward to that very soon.
As an added bonus song about gardening for you to enjoy: THIS!
I took a lot of photos too. Here are the rest of them.
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