Soul Experiment Series: What the Aphid's Revealed

Comparison November 2012*:

20121103 Aphid infested kale plant

20121103 kale plant next to Aphid decimated one, no aphids in sight

Aphids are small amazing creatures that have a collective consciousness. They are most well known for sucking the life out of your plants and killing them. We did an experiment with the aphids. I had a plant indoors (American Watercress), it was sitting in the window and growing really well, I was looking forward to eating it and it giving me a tasty snack. A few days after I had brought it from the supermarket I noticed a couple of aphids on it. I was a little taken aback and awe struck about how an aphid could suddenly appear on a plant in my house ( I am still wondering about how this actually happened) Anyway over the next week the aphids took over and the plant was getting really hammered, eaten alive literally. I thought about many nasty ways to hurt the aphids and get rid of them. finally I put the plant outside and abandoned it thinking it was going to die. I checked it out a few days later and I was super surprised as suddenly the aphids had diminished in number. I felt sorry for the plant and somewhat guilty that I had just stuck it out in the cold so I brought it back in to see if it would grow again and heal.

I was telling our friends about this experience and in doing so had some really amazing revelations, the main one being that when it came down to it I was the Aphid. I was the one sucking the life out of things around me through my expectations and demands upon them. I was shocked and ashamed. But guess what? Some amazing things happened from just having this intellectual realisation! (Our friends were also telling us about goats and how accurately they reflect the soul condition of most humans on the plant at the moment - take, take, take, eat, eat, eat, constantly, they are never satisfied, never have had enough, greedy, wanting more, more, more, decimating everything that is in their environment and still eating. Like the aphids I also realised I am the goat - this is actually ironically funny in that my star sign is capricorn and I have always hated the fact that the symbol for that is a goat, but on this particular occasion ALL the associations lined right on up and I was horrifically amused, smile.)

When I realised this (I was mortified) I reflected upon what had happened with the watercress and the aphids: I had a demand and expectation that the plant would feed me, the aphids attacked, I unceremoniously and rather abruptly took the cress outside and abandoned it 'cos it was not going to give me what I wanted from it, the aphids diminished in number, the plant that had been attacked perked up and began living again - my expectations had gone down due to thinking it was not going to be able to feed me and as my expectations and demands on the cress ceased so did the attack. When I brought it back into the house out of guilt, it didn't thrive and it didn't heal very well.

I decided after realising that I was a goat/aphid, that I would choose to love the cress and feel love for it without the expectation of eating it, without the demand that it would feed me. I found a lovely little spot at the bottom of our garden tap where water collects and made it a little bed to live in, I literally told it out loud I would not eat it and that it could live out it's life as long as it liked in this nice moist spot, I also felt really sad that I had treated it so badly and apologised out loud form my heart. I am telling you it has gone from limp aphid attacked unhappy to thriving flourishing and happy. I am in awe of the power of my soul and at how similar to an aphid/goat I am - a demanding life sucker who expects to get everything I want immediately.

This was the cress after being outside a little while.
I will update this with a picture of the Cress now tomorrow.

Unfortunately I didn't document that one so you'll have to take my word for it, But I did take some pictures of a similar thing happening in our garden with aphids and the kale. (See top two images for best comparison of the kale up close).

20121008 can't really see the difference but the left hand plant is getting sucked by the
aphids the right hand side is pretty much untouched - a few bite marks only.

There were 3 kale plants and one got decimated and two were left with only a few bite marks pretty much untouched by the aphid colony. We found if you squashed or tried to kill the aphids it was as if every single aphid felt attacked and was terrified that you were going to kill them too, so they began cloning and clone they did till the entire plant was covered in this amazing collective organism. What was interesting is that one plant got entirely covered and attacked and the others didn't and they were right next to each other.

20121008 aphids up close

20121008 aphids on the stalk

 Then a month later the ladybirds moved in.

20121103 Ladybirds and Aphids

Honestly it is as if all aphids are one aphid.

Aside: I notice this sometimes with the sheep, one sheep makes a decision and all the sheep make the same decision almost simultaneously, like they have been told, they can be half a kilometre away from each other and yet they still make the same decision. I was told sheep are dumb, but honestly my experience of sheep is that they are highly intelligent. They have been dumbed down a lot due to domestication but gee whizz, sheep are smart, they are also athletic. We have one dude who easily high jumps the sheep yards without touching the top bar. I am telling you they are super duper cool! Just like aphids.

I think aphids are awesome and due to their helpfulness in highlighting some issues of love I need to look at I am even more grateful to them. I am also in awe of the precision and total perfectness of God's love, God's Laws and feedback system. I am still coming to terms with how powerful my soul is and how instantly animals and plants respond to the love or error that is within it!!

I encourage you to take notice of the living environment around you and the effect your soul (both loving and unloving) is having upon it! It is fascinating, revealing and you can learn so much about your self and God through the process!


*This happened last year, it has taken me some months to actually record it and post it.

Waterless Garden Project Update {Guest Post}

This is a 'guest blog post' written by Philippa and Lincon about the findings to date in the 'Waterless Garden Project' that they are leading at the Kyabra Learning Centre, Kentucky. There will be a day in the Waterless Garden on Saturday 16th February 2013, for anyone who would like to volunteer their time and give to the land. We feel it is exciting discovering what has been happening and observing the experiments Lincon and Philippa have undertaken so far. Hope you enjoy their discoveries...

The Food Forest Waterless Garden Experiment

By Philippa & Lincon

The Garden

Findings so far:

Of all the Waterless systems that we have created, we have found to date that the plastic lined system held more moisture than the others, due to the water storage capacity.

Given the unseasonal conditions we experienced, being very hot & dry, we have been impressed & amazed at the growth & effectiveness of all these systems.

Once planted, for the first four weeks we had no rain & 3 of those weeks were 30 degrees plus heat, enough to wilt the sturdiest of vegetables!

However, all the systems were still moist & growing well, but needed to be topped up with water given this lack of rain & heat. We both feel had we had the usual summer rainfall this perhaps would not have been necessary.

Over the first 9 weeks of the gardens life to date we have watered only twice. 

There has been some fixing up required where the kikuyu has come through the gaps where there was either not enough newspaper, the newspaper was not overlapped or the kikuyu in its bid for survival & desire to grow has travelled along under the newspaper & found a thinner spot of mulch to come through!

The harvest so far has included ‘whale’ size Zucchini of various colours, watermelons, sweet lettuces & cucumbers. 

The chillies are on the way, as are the eggplants!

There already appears to be creatures moving into the garden, we have seen lots of lizards, frogs & many six & eight legged wonders!

We have also noticed that it seems as though a creature of some sort has made a home in one of the mounds, but to date we have yet to sight it! We will keep you posted….

What’s Next:

We have two systems left to finish of the approximate 50 that we started with! Amazing, Thank You everyone for the gift of your time.

By the middle of this month we will have completed the top half & spread a mountain more mulch to finish the task!

Now that the ground has had time to fallow, we will be planting out with the native legumes & other native plants to create the beginnings of the forest canopy & under storey!

We have planted some legume seeds (soy & cow pea) to get the  nitrogen fixing plants underway.

We will be holding working bees to complete these jobs over the next few weeks.

We look forward to seeing how the experiments go, watching things grow & letting you all know about it.

Our plans for the lower half of the garden are next, we already have some ideas & will begin to plot them on paper.

Having spent more money on the top half than we originally anticipated, funds will be required before we can commence the second stage of the project.

Should you have a desire to donate to The Waterless Garden Project, the details are below:

Donations for the Waterless Garden Project:

Account Name: Lincon Treloar

Account:  9897348

BSB:  638 - 080