The Green Cathedral is a special name for the valley of the Ourche on Forge Neuve near ECOlonie. It is a sacred space where ' un-mundane' light, sound and smell encourage visitors to step over their shadows into the knowledge that there is much more....
This Green Cathedral could be called dedicated to Gaia. People can practically experience with body and mind the strong interconnectedness of life there. To feel this connectedness simply makes us realise that we live in the same space, as earthlings among earthlings.
The Green Cathedral at Forge Neuve
Activities
There are various activities that take place at Forge Neuve the Green Cathedral, both in the summer months and throughout the year.
The area was man-made and has been managed as a valuable heritage for just under a century. Foreign influences were warded off/reversed; it served to preserve its individuality. The slopes are covered with tall trees that seem to spend their lives growing quality timber for building cathedrals. You will find up to at least two or three hundred-year-old, 60-metre-high oaks.
They bring us to 'cathedral thinking', where the long-term is above settling for the short-term. Roman Krznaric writes about this in his book 'The Good Ancestor' to use the lines of time and empathy to empathise with the generations to come after us, even though we will never (learn to) know them.
The fur sandstone (formations) characteristic of the Vosges Mountains are home to many springs, the air is pure and the water clean. Innumerable amounts of lichen smile at you. Water comes in all shapes and forms; streams, brooks, waterfalls, ponds, water reflections and more. The Ourche is in the source region of the Saône and runs via the Rhône to the Mediterranean Sea. And with that, you could feel connected to all waters, because where is the flow?
Energetically, this valley of the Ourche gives a lot. The area is 'charged' and very inviting for rest and contemplation. You will find many places to settle down for a while.... You can experience a sense of oneness from silence and relaxation. Paradoxically, that is all it takes. Very simple and at the same time certainly not easy.
Because of all these elements present, it is a unique place to (learn to) understand other energies present, fellow earthlings, any nature beings and other energetic information of the landscape. From the most gross to the very subtle, everything is connected to everything, resonating and influencing each other. By focusing on an energetic essence, we don't have to get attached to (the) form(s) and are also allowed to get lost from time to time.
Marvel
Throughout the area, you will find intriguing appearances, from very small to imposingly large, that stimulate our senses. Curious we can enjoy this beauty, every place, every moment is new and different. Your heart can better understand the subtle beings here by transcending the thinking mind.
Dreaming - thinking – doing
By closing your outer eye and looking into transcendence from the inner eye, we open our imagination and inner creativity, inspiration and wisdom. The challenge then follows in action. Goethe said that what you dream of being able to do, you must go and do. For boldness possesses talent, power and magic.
The Green Cathedral invites you to let go and return to your still point within. Where you can become aware of the unity in all diversity. And you can find words to describe this and affirm/embody the truth in acts of positive power.
The Green Cathedral invites us to reconnect ourselves with everything around us and further explore this space together. It stimulates us to cathedral thinking and its conscious knock-on effects for yourself, for Gaia and our future. Allowing the programme in this sacred place to unfold further. Among others during workshops and the mythical magical walks, the barefoot path and explorations of the power places, the Gathering, Voice Liberation in Nature, In search of the Women of the Wood, Earth classes, sweat lodges and whatever else wants to develop here.
In all this, we seek the deepening contact with Gaia, listening to the energetic messages and the visible forms that can develop from them. As earthlings among earthlings, we want to explore and create our rightful place in the delicate fabric of our coexistence with those natural energies.