Journal October 28, 1973

{Note written when starting to copy this journal from handwritten pages to the computer on April 5, 2003.

I modified it slightly for a book on Wholeo, my whole self that I planned in 1978. A friend said I should rewrite it at least 10 times to bring it down to earth for the reader. Since I haven't polished it enough, I need you to reach far out and help ground it.

This comment is about building Wholeo and Bump at a site on the side of a hill (I called it Funka Ajar) on a ranch named Harmony in Forestville, California. It was very low-budget. This comment relates to the Ritual Spaces part of the story of Bump under Trips/Imagine/RitualSpaces/lostNfound/EIE/Bump.}

10/28/73

I was thinking today about a spiritual approach to building. I had wanted a Buckminster Fuller-designed, self-contained, mass-produced house that can plug in from the air anywhere, and be a public service like a telephone or a library book. Since I needed a temporary abode for a couple of years, last summer I got into construction.

I needed a waterproof workspace but there was a hankering after a pure simple life close to nature. Vague fantasies revolved around a small economical dome. I had a dome model, aluminum tubes, and polyurethane foam (both rigid panels and soft). Renting a plot of hillside with water running from a faucet in a wild canyon, I proceeded as follows. The steps are to camp, assemble, and create.

Camp on your spot

First, find your spot. Live there by camping. Get to know it so you, the building, and the place can grow together organically. It's a matter of spiritual vibrations or changes in the most basic units of life. You send out vibes of your wants, needs, and plans. You receive vibes of life, death, and the whole in progress. Design starts with the whole unconscious relationship. Months later you will find yourself hammering out shapes in accordance with thoughts germinated during camping. What you do will go smoothly, amazingly coming as if with a will of its own, which is only a reflection of joyful acceptance. You have started in the proper position. At the foundation, there is less chance to overlook anything.

Assemble building materials

Second, try to assemble any materials you may use way ahead of the time you may use them. Time is an important dimension. This is for the same spiritual relationship to occur between the new materials, you, and the place. I was doing this for five months before I saw the pattern. I found myself allowing strange new materials to rest unused near the building site. My buying trips were far in advance of construction even though I might have no exact plan of action.

The overall character of the building has formed spiritually during camping. As you begin to assemble materials you focus on particular aspects of the building and to to make specific plans. You draw pictures, write down measurements, and think of various materials in relationship to your budget. This includes some browsing around handy-woman stores. Let this planning be light and far in advance of action. File away the drawings and look at them later. Reconsider everything to allow spontaneous creation. Have faith that the solution is there but you relax into a leap to realize it. Following rigid plans is no fun, even though it aids mechanical success. I kept my plans tentative to allow the whole spiritual plan to "cure".

Create a ritual space

Thirdly, keep talking to your place, investing it with symbols of the highest truths your know. Continue to invoke the blessings of the Whole.

In my case this involved alignment with the four directions and the zodiac path. I screwed metal earth anchors down into the dirt in the bottom center and around the perimeter of the circular dome footprint. Connected to the anchors, I grounded copper wires radiating out from the center to each anchor. I saw them as transmitters and asked that they bring awareness of the whole into my sphere. The mystic witch mandala, a star pentagon of the aluminum dome frame, fit over my bed as a skylight. I fancied it aided recognition.

In this way, I hoped that although my building is opaque (so I can't see through it) and made of dead, hard materials, it would be transparent to my spiritual sense. While inside, I work to be completely, continuously connected to the outside. This dome is to be a vehicle for a perfect physical setting for the spirit in the whole. It seems like my skin, almost inside me. Could it be a manifestation of my aura?

Here's Caroling in the setting for these thoughts, with Wholeo in the background. She's looking toward Bump.

Back to Journal 1973. Forward to Journal Oct 1973-74.

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