This New Moon has a lot wrapped up into it this month. I find it interesting that Father’s Day always coincides with the Summer Solstice. And this year we are blessed with a New Moon in Gemini (my Sun Sign) at the same time.

It’s been a while since words have graced the page of my blog. I guess you can call this my “Return to Blogging”. Much has been accomplished over the past year since my last post, I am still riding with the tide and talking with films. Balancing life and career has been a challenge, I have taken on many jobs and projects and had victories and defeats. In September I started working at a camera, light and sound rentals and sales shop called ProVision. It has been the perfect part time job for me, the owners and the people that come into the shop everyday are a great resource of knowledge about the industry that I work in. I am still working on the documentary of the Pulling Together Canoe Journey of 2008. I worked very hard on the edit with my Editing Mentor Rob in the fall of 2008, and then I switched gears and produced the 2nd Raincity 72 Hour Noir Film Competition. In a three day period I helped inspire 18 teams of filmmakers create 18 short noir films. The outcome was fantastic. Over 300 noir film lovers came out to the Rio theatre in Vancouver on a Saturday afternoon to watch 24 short films in total. What an accomplishment for all of us involved!  Then we threw an award’s show that gave away over $8500 in cash and prizes to the winning teams. I challenged myself and a few other local actors during the awards show to create and perform a theatre production in between the screenings of the best short films. We did the best we could in the limited time we had and did I ever learn some good lessons. Maybe I will tell the whole story another time.

My main focus right now is to finish the Pulling Together documentary. No one has seen more than 4 minutes of footage from the over 50 hours that I shoot back in June of 2008. But with perseverance, courage and luck I will have a fine cut ready to submit to the Vancouver International Film Festival in three weeks time. Wish me luck, I will let you know when the screenings will be.

I had a really great Father’s day with my father Michael on Saturday. The two of us spent some time together and went to the driving range across the street from my apartment and hit a couple hundred golf balls. Even after 4 years of not golfing Mike was still able to remember the lessons he had taken years ago and pass some knowledge on to me. One of the things I admire about my father the most is his scientific, analytic mind. Years of working on a tugboat have sharpened his senses, studying tide tables and applying hundreds of horsepower to a log tow against the current have taught him a thing or two.  Golf came down to a few simple rules: place your club where you want it to hit the ball, anchor your hips when you swing, keep your eye on the ball and if you move your wrist at all during the swing it will affect your drive. At least I know where I my inquisitive mind from.

June 21st is the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice. I took the day to complete some small tasks and prepared myself for my very first sweat lodge. I just returned home from this incredible healing event. All I can say right now was that it was very good medicine as the Natives like to say. And it won’t be the last time that I do a sweat so I will surely write about the experience with my ancestors and the healing that needs to take place another time.

Water, we are sorry. Water, we love you. Water, we thank you. Water, we respect you.  This is the Water Prayer from Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese scientist who was the first to photograph the crystal properties of water. This prayer vibrates apology, love, gratitude and respect for our most precious resource on earth, water.

Consciousness of human beings all over the world is beginning to open to the vast potential and healing properties of Water. This consciousness has come to us as we realize that the Industrial Era has committed serious crimes against our elements, to our earth, to our air, through fire and to our water. Our waterways have become dumping grounds for trash, sewage and oil products. This seemed to be the easy way to deal with waste but now we are realizing how these actions are affecting our world and our health. Over population, consumption, waste and energy concerns are now driving humanity to find alternatives to the ways we live our lives because soon our lives may depend on alternatives.

In the past week I have had the honour of attending two sacred water ceremonies. It is amazing how synchronicities occur when you aligned with harmonious aspects in the universe. Last Saturday I met with a small group of people at Cates Park in Burrard Inlet and participated in a Water Blessing ceremony lead by a First Nations Elder named Dave Courchene Jr. Last night I sat in the United church on Oak Street with over 500 people and listened to Dr. Masaru Emoto himself speak of how the effects of words being placed on the bottles of water change the shape and vibration of the crystal structure of  water. Dr. Emoto was mentioned but not interviewed in one of my favorite Documentary/Dramas ever, “What The Bleep Do We Know?” In the scene the main character is running late and just misses her subway train. She notices on the wall of the subway that there are posters of water crystals photographed by Dr. Emoto. The shapes show how they are affected by the words placed on their containers. Words like ‘love’ and ‘harmony’ form beautiful structures, but words like ‘hate’ and ‘war’ form let’s say less than beautiful forms. A stranger then walks up to her and says, “Amazing how words have an effect on water, imagine how our own words affect us?”

The water ceremony at Cates Park had the greatest affect on me. Our small group gathered under a cluster of trees and Dave began to share with us the importance of each one of us being there that day. “We are going to pray to the spirit of the water today, and ask for forgiveness for what we and our ancestors have done to her.” Dave said with intent and passion, “We all have the power to heal the water that has been saturated with pollution. I look out at the harbour behind us and see boats and tankers all leaving waste in their wake. But today we will fill our small containers of water with light and love and then return her to the ocean.” Dave then began the prayer ceremony by smoking tobacco from a pipe and blessing the four corners of the earth. I brought a 1 litre container of water with me, I held it close to my body and began to pray. I prayed that everyone who was unconsciously polluting the waters would become conscious of their actions and recognize the wrongs being done. I prayed that the boating industry would come up with alternative fuel sources and that my family that works on the river and ocean make the changes needed to support cleaner water. I put all of these prayers into my 1 litre as all of the people around me put their prayers and light into theirs.

At the end of the prayer Dave asked us all to go down to the ocean only a few hundred metres away. He asked the women to pour their prayer water in first because the women were traditionally the protectors of the water. When the women were finished pouring their intent and love into the ocean I poured mine. The water left my container and joined the ocean. Dave assured us that our prayers would now reach people all over the world, the water would rain on people, people would swim in the water and people would drink the water. Our prayers would heard and felt.

In elementary school I am sure the teacher mentioned to us that our bodies are mostly made of water, around 70%, and we marveled at the thought of our water bodies.  The school systems now need to teach our children that our water needs to be protected and held sacred. Dr. Emoto has started a worldwide initiative to educated children about the properties of water. The Emoto Peace Project will distribute “The Message from Water” picture book to 650 million children worldwide in 45 languages for free to ensure that our future generations have a chance to live in peace and with clean drinking water.
Water ceremonies like this are now being conducted all over the world and the spiritually conscious people are spreading the word of light and love and water. Cleaning up the worlds water supply will not happen easily but once people reclaim their power and begin to become conscious of their right to clean water, the Governments and Corporations of the world will have no choice but to clean up their act. A new world is coming and it is filled with spirit, love and crystal clear water.

Water, we are sorry. Water, we love you. Water, we thank you. Water, we respect you.

Related links:
The Emoto Peace Project – http://www.emotoproject.org/english/about.html
Dave Courchene Jr. The Turtle Lodge – http://www.theturtlelodge.com/

Today is August 8th, 2008, 08/08/08. In Chinese numerology this is the luckiest day of the New Millennium and coincidentally the first day of the Beijing Olympic Summer games. This day also happens to fall on a waxing quarter moon (a square between the sun and the moon, known for creating challenging situations) and in between a total solar eclipse (August 1st) and a partial lunar eclipse (August 16th).  I have no doubt in my mind that the people of China will live up to the colossal expectations of the opening ceremonies at the “Birds Nest” National Stadium in Beijing, but I do doubt they will be able to silence the critics of human rights abuses and Totalitarian Dictatorship once the roar of the crowd dies down.

This year’s summer Olympics is a very polarized playing field. Much like the football matches that will be played in the Bird’s Nest, it is as if two sides are getting ready to do battle. In the one corner you have Materialism, Corporate Sponsorship, Censorship and Dictatorship, in the other you have Equal Liberties, Independent Media, Journalistic Freedom and Democracy. The tagline on the Olympic website is “One World, One Dream” but I have a feeling that the dream is only for the believers of the Chinese Government and not for the entire world.

As I listen to the radio here in Vancouver the debate is wide open about China and the Olympics. Questions are being asked like “should China have been give the chance to host the summer Olympics with the atrocious human rights record the country holds” or “can you separate ‘Sport’ from ‘Politics’ and just enjoy the games”. Then there is the issue of pollution that seems to be on everyone’s mind as we worry for the health of our athletes who deserve to be at the games and have worked tirelessly their whole lives to get to this event.  So over the next 16 days we will see if the “New Global Super Power” has enough strength to dazzle us with fireworks and acrobats and close the curtain on human rights.
I might have watched the opening ceremonies if it was on at a decent hour, but 4 am is a little too early for me to wake up. And to be honest all I would be able to think about while watching China in all its pride and glory is the detention and torture of Falun Gong practitioners or the Tiananmen Square massacre. I think the Corporate/IOC/Government machine may have gone too far this time in mixing sport, censorship and commercials for cars or breakfast cereal. At least we are able to debate the topic here and discuss the true importance and responsibility of hosting the Olympic flame because Vancouver will be the next city to do so. I hope that some good comes from the games for the people of China. It is a shame though that anyone caught protesting faces immediate imprisonment or the possibility of being exiled from the country.

Once the games are over in Beijing, the Olympic spotlight will be shifted to this fair city of ours and for the next 18 months Vancouver will be under the scrutiny of the global media in anticipation of the winter games in 2010.  Human rights on a smaller scale will be an issue and will thankfully be openly debated here. We face the epidemic of drugs, prostitution and homelessness that have taken over the Downtown Eastside, which apparently Olympic funding just can’t remedy. Our Provincial and Municipal leaders have proposed solutions but no concise plan has been executed yet.  I believe that there is something missing in our city, in our society and in our world. It is a sense of community and compassion, a sense of responsibility for ones actions and how we affect those around us. And more importantly, a sense of spirit.

Another much smaller, less publicized event will be taking place today on August 8th in North Vancouver and I will be attending. It also involves the lighting of a sacred flame, which an Anishnabe Elder named Dave Courchene Jr. calls the 8th fire. Dave is the creator of the Turtle Lodge on Sagkeeng First Nations territory outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was given the name Nii Gaani Aki Inini by his elders, which means Leading Earth Man. I was fortunate enough to meet Dave and see the documentary that focuses on him, his journey of discovery and visions and the manifestation of the Turtle Lodge. The message that he shares is that humanity is about to come to a fork in the road. The first path will lead to Materialism and Destruction that has been prophesized by Native American tribes for centuries. The second path will lead to a Spiritual Way upon which the native people will be standing and will open the door to a “New Earth” where peace and harmony rule and the damage done to the earth will be healed.
If the time of the prophecy is coming then we are about to witness the correction that Mother Earth is going to make to balance out our environment.  All of the prophesies point to the end of a great cycle in 2012, this is where Dave and many other native leaders will be waiting, making sure the 8th fire is burning strong for all to see. And once the corrections are made the fire will serve as a gathering point for the new community to meet.

It is very interesting to witness what is unfolding on this great earth of ours. On one side we have a new material leader emerging, their trumpets singing and fireworks exploding, heralding all to look and see. They are proclaiming to the world that they are worthy to host such a humanitarian event as if none of the past convictions or present pollutions hold any relevance. Then in every other corner of the earth there are small groups of people meeting to celebrate the true meaning of honouring the sacred, burning flame. They are having open conversations about what challenges face their communities, and they realize that the dreams we have belong to all people. China isn’t doing wrong for hosting the Olympics, it is doing wrong by not lettings its people speak. Hopefully one day the people of the East will live in peace and share the freedoms that we share, here in North America.

Links of interest:

http://en.beijing2008.cn/

http://www.theturtlelodge.com/

Well I am back from a little hiatus and much needed rest. My intention to write this blog in conjunction with the moon cycle is still here now I just have to match that intention with action. I started this blog only two months ago on the New Moon to symbolize a new beginning. 56 days have passed and a lot has happened in my life and career. I received a grant from the BC provincial government to make a documentary about the Pulling Together canoe journey (mentioned in the last entry) and traveled with the group of 200 Police and First Nations and my film crew. Now the challenge of editing the documentary is before me and I will post updates online as they happen.

Other than my work there is something more fascinating to write about today. In the next day an eclipse of the sun will cross over the northern hemisphere of our earth. Greenland, Northern Europe, Russia and China will have the spectacular view of a black disk sliding across the glowing sun, extinguishing the fire in the sky. Ancient cultures used to look at this phenomenon with fear, the sun represented life and in the middle of the day the lands turned black, silencing the birds and tricking them into an early nights nap. The Chinese would take to the street banging pots and pans and lighting off fireworks to scare away the evil spirits of the dark and banish the “Dragon” who devoured the sun.
Today we have much more important things to worry about other than evil spirits and Dragons. If the eclipse effected the traffic lights on every corner of the earth or delayed high speed Internet connections then people would take notice. But a solar eclipse is only witnessed by a small portion of the population and might get mentioned on the evening news as a snapshot or timelapse for people to watch while eating diner. Astrologers on the other hand watch for these events with great interest. The alignment of the sun, moon and earth is a rare but calculated occurrence. Everything in the solar system is cyclical and eclipses are no different. The cycle of an eclipse is called a Saros, and lasts 18 years, 11 days and 8 hours (approximately 6585⅓ days).  In 2026 the sun will again be eclipsed in the 9th degree of Leo.
So this new moon in Leo has great significance to us and our astrological charts. As we go through the motions on a Friday afternoon, think about the new possibilities that come to you in your life. Dream a little bigger and ask for a raise from your boss, be brave. Days like this only come around well once every 18 years, so live it to the fullest.

Pulling Together ~ A Sacred Journey
By Ryan Catherwood

Today I am back in the city. The journey I just went on is now in the past. A memory, an experience, a documented story that will live on long after my body is laid to rest and my soul returns to the Creator.

For 8 days I days I spent every waking hour with a group of over 200 people. We ate together, we sang together and we pulled together.

For the past 8 years Pulling Together has served a purpose of bringing First Nations people and Police Officers together to build a better understanding and communication between the two communities. Along side of them are the youth and Elders who witness, help facilitate and grow from the positive experiences that flourish from the yearly gathering. The vehicle that carries the participants of this journey is the canoe, an iconic symbol of Canadian heritage and the traditional transportation vessel of the First Nations people.

For thousands and thousands of years the Sto:lo, People of the River, used the Fraser River as their highway. There was no given name for the giant river that flows through most of British Columbia, each community claimed and took care of their section of the river that was occupied by their people. There has always been enough food for every feast and the river provided for us again this time like it has done since the beginning of time.

The group of pullers and canoes arrived in Hope, BC, a fitting name for the starting point of the journey, on June 24th. This years organizer John Davidson, a recently retired Inspector for the Abbotsford Police department, began the journey by calling a circle. This was the first of many called during our journey. Barb Higgins, our Sechelt First Nations Elder took the floor after John and said the first prayer to the family that had gathered once again for their yearly pilgrimage. While holding back tears of joy, Barb proclaimed to the group that she felt very lucky to be in the presence of such a strong and loving family. She could feel the compassionate energy of the group and was honoured to be there, to witness the healing that was destined to take place on the journey.

It is hard to explain what Pulling Together is really about. During the time that this extended family is together, miracles occur; peoples lives are impacted forever and all were connected with the spirit that is O Siem- we are all family. Ed Hill said it best, that when you hit that first stop light after leaving the group, BAAM, you get pulled back into the hustle and bustle of the real world. But when you are pulling a canoe and a seal pokes its head out of the water and looks at you or an eagle soars over head, none of the city stuff or time matters at all because of the connection to nature that we are all experiencing. So I guess if I had to sum up Pulling Together in one word it would be connection; connection to nature, connection to each other and connection to the Creator.

This was the second Pulling Together journey that I was able to experience myself,and even though I was directing a documentary this year I was able to get some time on the water pulling. On the fourth day Wes Nahanee, the skipper of the Urban Native Youth canoe Unya came up to me and said “Put your camera away I need an extra puller today.” I looked at my Producer Justin, who accompanied the crew on the journey and asked as if I was a kid asking my father if I could go outside and play, if I could go and pull for the day. He saw how important it was for me and I ran to the van to grab my life jacket and paddle. It didn’t help the crew that I was paddling that day but once again it helped me to move away from the seriousness of a film production and connect with the travelers of the journey.

There were so many amazing events that happened during this journey that I can’t even go into detail right now; so many ceremonies and smudging rituals, so many moments of fatigue and victory with my crew. So to hear the whole story you will have to wait for the documentary to be released and experience the journey for yourself.

All I can say is that by being a part of Pulling Together I learnt two very valuable lessons. When we all pull together and open our hearts and minds, our lives change for the greater good of all humanity. And when you turn your cell phone off and let your email inbox pile up, time ceases to exist. If only I could live that state forever…

The Calm Before The Storm

In astrology, the quarter moon challenges us here on earth because the sun sits at a right angle to the moon which is called a “square”. The most uncomplimentary angle because of its restriction of universal energetic flow, the waxing quarter moon challenges our new developments and puts our emotions to the test following each new moon. Most people hardly notice its effects because of the constant movement of the moon, but if you look closely at the stressed-out eyes of the person beside you in the Tim Hortons line up, you might start to see a trend.

We all face challenges in our lives on a daily basis, perhaps now more than ever. Personal, social and family related struggles are emphasized by the physical, mental, emotional and financial weights that hang around our necks. If we are lucky, we are spiritually grounded or in tune to our life purpose. The biggest challenge that we may face in the coming years is our spiritual evolution as we all confront the unseen or subconscious forces at work around us.

As a result of the self-created problems we face with climate change, the alarmingly steady increase in the cost of food and oil, and the economic effects of wars around the globe, the battle between our conscious and unconscious states has begun. The effects of a war half way around the world have now hit home and are whispering worried words to our subconscious. For anyone that is unsure of what I mean by “unconscious”, I am referring to the social conditioning that is ingrained in our being, and the programmed thought patterns that make us who we are as individuals. Rhonda Byrne would describe it as “the thoughts that we constantly think that bring about or attract what we manifest into reality”. When society as a whole is simultaneously worrying that gas prices are going to keep going up and wars are going to keep being waged, guess what happens? At the same time maybe this is a good thing… not high oil prices and war, but becoming conscious of our thoughts.

The challenge for us lucky individuals, who live in one of the safest countries in the world, is staying grounded while people around us, including the media, lose their heads. Once you get stuck on that treadmill, it is hard to lift your head up, take off the blinders and see what is going on outside of your own bubble. Consciousness is up to each and every one of us and once we become more conscious, then we will have the opportunity to change the screwed up system we live in. First, however, you have to make that choice.

One of my favorite movies is “The Matrix”. Thomas Anderson, aka Neo, is confronted early in the story by Morpheus, a warrior fighting for freedom and consciousness in the “real world”. Morpheus, who shares that name with the Greek god of dreams, tells Thomas about the cell that he is physically and unconsciously imprisoned in and gives him the key to discover the painful, yet enlightening, truth of his own existence. Thomas has to make a choice and he chooses to go tumbling down the rabbit hole. I do not have any magic blue pills to give away, but I’d like to ask that you consider taking off any blinders that you have on your own eyes and see your own consciousness and the consciousness of the world for what it really is.

The greatest challenge that confronts us once we start to ask these questions is redefining the world around us. This can be a painful path to follow because our relationships to the closest people in our lives are the first to go under the microscope and go through changes. Patience is the best prescription when working through this transition with loved ones and the level of success will be defined by you, the conscious one.

The challenge we face is choosing either to become conscious or continue to live life unconsciously.

Take a moment and ask yourself where you are right now, how you are feeling. Take control over your situation, your consciousness. Reflect on the joys of your life and what you will do to ride out any storm that comes your way. Enjoy the calm that some call chaos of this moment.

It is time to move from our minds and egos to our hearts and grounded feet. How else will we stay connected with the ground that we walk on and pave over?

Become conscious, stay grounded and stock your shelves so when your family comes over you have something to offer and be grateful for.

How I learned to ride with the tide.
By Ryan Catherwood

A new chapter in my life started in September of 2004. I had spent the summer on Employment Insurance after being laid off from my previous carpentry job. I was living at my mother’s apartment, sleeping each night on her couch. For six years, I had been living in Vancouver on my own, moving around nomadically, nesting in every beautiful and not so beautiful corner this city had to offer. But I was now 25, I hit the quarter century mark and I figured I better do something with my life and maybe make a little money so I could pursue my dream.

I grew up in the small town of Mission, BC, 60 kilometers east of Vancouver and a stones throw away from the Fraser River. My Grandfather was a water taxi operator and a sawmill owner. My father and uncles were also mill owners, water taxi operators and tugboat captains. I was a fairly shy and anxious boy growing up, keeping to myself most of the time, but I have many memories of beachcombing with Grandpa Doug when I was 11 or sorting logs at a logging camp up north with my father Michael at age 13. I guess I could say that the river has been and always will be in my blood.

So, after two months of searching for a new job I decided to do something that I had never done before but always had the opportunity to do. I was going to work on the mighty Fraser River as a deckhand on a tugboat. I started out training with my uncle Kelly who sorted logs into bundles at a local mill in Mission. He gave me my first pair of caulk boots (spiked boots that you wear to walk on logs) and amazed me with his own log walking abilities and agility. Kelly lived an active life, my gym teacher once told me how good of a rugby player he was back in the 70’s and 80’s and I saw pictures of him competing in log burling competitions. Kelly unfortunately lost his right leg in an accident in the early 90’s but in true Catherwood style, there he was walking logs in his caulk sneakers, carrying a 40 lb boom chain and carrying himself on one prosthetic leg. “If Kelly could work the river, so could I”, I thought to myself.

It was time for me to learn how to ride with the tide.

“The tide dictates everything that you do on the river,” my father told me as he trained me in the art of being a tugboat deckhand. Mike spent the last 25 years of his life on some kind of tugboat or other, learning the ways from the oldest, saltiest Sea Dawgs on the river and Pacific Ocean. “When you drop your pike pole in the water to fish out your chain or wire, don’t pull the pole to your chain against the current. Drop it in above the chain and let it drift down effortlessly. Don’t fight the Fraser, you can’t win. Work with the river.” Like the many masters that learned before me, the river started to share with me its secrets of resistance and letting go.

The best part about working on the river, besides the lessons that it taught, was the perspective. Most people drive over the river on a bridge in about 60 seconds, not thinking about the life that flows below. When you are on the water all you can do is look up an all around you. The wind flows differently, the water breaks at the bow, and the logs bob up and down like keys on a piano, lightly playing their song. One of the most beautiful moments I can remember on the water was in the spring, early one morning after sunrise. I was releasing a coupling chain so we could take a log boom away, a section of logs that were all cottonwood. Cottonwood still flowered while they were in the water after being cut. There glowing in the morning light, they shined and attracted bugs of all sort. I knelt down and reached into the cold water to undo the chain, looking up I saw 30 or 40 sparrows darting and dashing all around me, catching their flying fish.

The tide would also dictate the hours that we worked. If the tide turned at 3 am, you had to be yarding the tow at 2. Hustling from boom to boom, releasing and connecting each section, sometimes making tows 35 sections long. Every 6 hours the tide turned and we headed in the opposite direction or we bucked the tide moving at a very slow pace. The diesel engine roared, all 500 horses galloping. Outside the noise was muffled by the silence and the wind. One day while looking for a boom I came across a blue heron standing silently. I walked within 10 feet of her and she did not act alarmed at all, only vibrating a peace that nature and non-resistance can emit. I found that the water taught me the same patience that the heron showed me that day.

The tide turned in my life one year after working on the tugboats. I saved up enough money and received a grant to go back to film school for a second year to pursue my dream of becoming a filmmaker. I started to say goodbye to the floating highway and all the characters I met, vowing to return and tell the stories that the river holds. I stepped boldly into my new role as a student spending 5 or 6 days a week at school. I worked just as hard as I did towing logs. I told the stories of my recent adventures to my new friends, telling them about the “Zen Tugboat Movie” that I wanted to make. After I graduated I decided not to go back to the dangerous deckhand position, instead I started my own production company. I named it Ride With The Tide Productions. I wanted it to reflect what I experienced and learned from the river. In the past 2 years this business has taught me all about patience, faith, loyalty, trust and perseverance. I know I have much more to learn from the ebb and flow of life and business.

So today I start a new chapter of my life again, on a new moon none the less. Every week as the moon passes through it’s phases I will right about the thoughts and tales that cross my mind. There was nothing more important to write about in this first entry than how I learned to ride with the tide.