Azul is an artist and activist who runs the platform, Souland: Making the World of Our Longing.
If 2018 was for SOULand about entering the tempering realm of Mass Extinction, Systemic Collapse and Grief Composting, 2019 is about Praising Anima Mundi, Making & Offering the World of our Longing and Welcoming the places of Deep Belonging.
Azul's work seeks to acknowledge and grieve the disappearance and extinction of different species, reconnect women to nature and their feminine energy through weaving and ceremony (e.g. wombelt), and conceiving of spaces where we can engage in these activities and make them more visible within cities (e.g. Earth Temples). She is active with the Extinction Rebellion movement in South Devon, which is an international movement calling for urgent action to address the climate emergency and reduce the risk of human extinction; and she is also a member of Transition Towns Totnes - the original town that started a global movement of communities taking practical action to transition to "post-oil" economies (growing food, alternative economies, clean energy, community-building etc.). Transition Towns represents people trying to create the "post-oil" economy. It includes off-grid communities as well as those that still draw from existing systems, but the identity people construct in these movements is one of straddling two realities - letting go of the old oppressive system and "birthing" a new one.
Reflections, impressions, inspirations flowing from the conversation...
Curiosity as an openness to not knowing
A need to find roots, to touch the earth before ascending into these unknown places of
endurance and abundance.
Staying, Offering, Weaving, longing to belong, leaning into whatever is showing up.
If the world as we know it is disappearing what are the multi-faceted other possibilities and the in between places that appear?
What are we humans in service of? Preparing to Go; it is not about negotiating and resisting; if we are to disappear what is the most beautiful way of being present?
Holding Space/Choosing/Invitations
Spirals of Growth and Change
How do we surface the Stories?
Journeying and Perception
Art and Ceremony; as an everyday experience
Contemporary Rituals