The Rookery - Day Twenty Three

The Soul Food Cafe and Heather Blakey somehow merge together. Soul Food is in its eighth year now. It is primarily a site to promote writing as a daily practice and it is full of tantalizing creative stimuli to tempt any writer or artist who is interested in perfecting the craft. An artist or writer can make use of Soul Food and never make contact with anyone on the site. All one needs is a visual diary or a journal to complete exercises in.

Initially Soul Food was primarily a resource, a place to provide creative stimuli but it quickly became clear that people who came through the door were not only seeking stimuli. They were seeking an audience. So Heather Blakey, who created the site, began to find ways for people to interact and publish online. She had run writing classes for years and believed that some of the magic of those classes could be recreated in a virtual setting.

A Guiding Myth

'Sing O Muse,
Sing to us of the glorious gods,
Who ruled the land and sea.
And tell us
Of the fair beauty of the goddesses
Who dwell in Eternal Olympus.'
'Sing to us, O Muse: Of Ages that has come to past,
Of those mighty warriors
Wielding their dreaded spears, From the lores Of our Timeless Myths.' - From Unknown Bard.

“When Lemuria perished by volcanic fires it left but scattered fragments to mark where once it spread. For us it will be enough to trace the Divine Wisdom from the beginnings…to carry on the teaching of the divine instructors.”

Gathered around a cradle, rocked beneath the shelter of the Himalayan peaks, the divine initiates, guardians of an ancient teaching, ancestral members of the divine sisterhood, gently prepare a girl baby for her earthly journey. This child is destined to protect the ancient teaching and bring it to humanity, wrapped in brown paper.

Silently, speaking only with actions, the sisterhood perform rituals, passed on by initiators before them, initiators whose strong hands carried the divine science safely through Lemurian fires and Atalantean floods.

A guardian, with long, luxuriant red hair, wrapped in a sapphire, brocade trimmed robe, steps forward and speaks.

“Lone Warrior Maiden. You must take this ancient teaching and go forth to a corner post of the old Lemuria, our homeland. The law we have given you will direct your life. All your actions must be in accordance with the law, which will in turn protect and preserve your destiny. You will be a member of an earth family, a citizen of the great universe, a part of the whole. You must not forget that you are a part of a circle and over time you will form a circle with other initiates who follow. You will find them in an eternal water garden.”

Soft red light, like that emanating from a legendary Lemurian sunset bathes the crade and infuses the baby with a gentle warmth that will linger, fills her with a dynamic life force.

Quietly the Goddess lays down gifts beside the cradle.

There is a stylus, tablets, a loom and golden thread to weave, to hold for others to follow, a mirror carved with the words ‘to thine self be true’, a golden badge of honour to preserve dignity and last but not least, a treasure box to store the treasures of life.

The Building of Soul Food

"A growing number of individuals and institutions recognize the importance of archiving and preserving the often transitory digital cultural artifacts that are distributed over the Web." A visit back in time, via the Way Back Machine, a machine that archives old internet pages and helps preserve our digital culture, reveals Soul Food's humble beginnings. The archives also show the foundation stones that were laid. It is no easy task to explain how Soul Food evolved.

As a child, under southern skies, my days were spent in imaginary worlds, soaked in mythos, reading, writing and riding on the back of the winged Pegasus. It was during those hours of solitary dreaming, within the safety of my private universe, that the seeds of the cyber writing sanctuary, The Soul Food Café, were sown.

The Soul Food Cafe as it exists today is a product of imagineering, born of a creative dreaming and dogged persistence. The fantasy world of Soul Food emerged as I strove to prove that it is enough to simply write. It sprang from a mission to make writing accessible to all who desire to write, from a need to break down the myth that the only real writer is the published author.

I entered the New World of cyber space when I pulled up my sleeves and applied the technology that computer geeks had invented. When I applied their tools to promote writing I observed an alchemical shift. The web became a calling and I created the kind of community that computer people like to talk of, but which is, in reality, as rare as hens teeth.

As time has passed The Soul Food Café has gained a life of its own. It has become a true oasis in a desert, a place where the tired and thirsty come to drink of the creative waters, sing their personal songs and, in so doing, re-invent themselves. The Soul Food Cafe has become a sanctuary, a delicious, divine release from reality, a place where the weary and the thirsty can feast upon myth and nourish creativity.

Within these magic, virtual, walls lies an atmospheric haven where fragile, sometimes timid writers can publish, share their knowing, express their deepest fears and reclaim their imagination. Within the fantasy world of Lemuria there is fellowship, yet, for so many, this world feels like it has been created especially for them, tailored to meet their individual needs, built so they can live out their private mythology in a private garden of Eden.

How did this transpire? At what moment did I transcend my dream and create a vibrant, safe, creative cyber community where the creative congregate?

I transcended my dream and began to live my vision at the moment when I claimed the Raven as a totem. Throughout time the Raven has carried the medicine of magic. Today the Raven is the courier that carries energy flow from my keyboard to the world beyond. It is the Raven who guides and directs me, who has named me and provided direction for my web design. Astride cyber waves we carry energy, seek energy, make links to rich powerhouses, tap gently on chamber doors and tempt more and more of the thirsty to come for a glimpse of the silken magic, mythos, ambience and mood that is so much a part of the Soul Food Cafe.

I transcended my dream when I reached within the deep loam of a powerful creative force known variously as Duende, Pakaramdam, Nommo, Mana, The Dreaming, or the Muse. I surpassed my wildest expectations when I felt the heat of this creative force conspire to build a magnetic doorway, whose energy draws kindred spirits to enter, seemingly by chance.

These days I look in wonder at what Soul Food is becoming. I now choose to soak myself in mythos, write, read and ride the wings of a blue-black, iridescent bird amid a flock. There is plenty of space out here in this exciting cyber world! You too can clamber astride the wings of this magical bird and share the fellowship. You too can reclaim your dreams within the safe, non-judgmental environment of Soul Food and, in so doing, actively live out your wildest creative vision.

Heather Blakey

Soul Food Is: A Cabinet of Curiosities

A cabinet of wondrous curios
A delightful collection
Objects,
Carefully placed
Lying, seeming unconnected
Next to each other
Evoking,
Triggering memories
Permitting the mind to
Wander to faraway places

Microscopes,
Scales, microtomes,
Drafting tools,
Cameras,
Magic lanterns
Antique candle powered projectors
Fine laboratory glassware
Vintage beakers, funnels, test tubes, crucibles,
Dessicating jars
And a one-off hand blown, baroque piece carefully stored

A pair of rare wax anatomical models
Crutches and callipers,
Arm braces,
Blood pressure meters
And first aid dummies
Antique botanical prints
Woolly mammoth hair
Coprolites,
Spiny trilobites,
Skulls, fish and ammonites stored in labelled draws.

Butterflies mounted in Petri dishes
An Atlantis Moth
Obscure,
Whimsical and wonderful
Packets of seed,
Very old taxidermy birds, in excellent condition
Hand-made pills,
Patent medicines and toiletries.
The scent of human breast milk, swamp water and sex
Stored in tiny laboratory vials

All combine to fill
A purveyors
wonder chamber of
creative stimuli

by Heather Blakey

Cabinets de Curiosities (Wunderkammer)

The Soul Food Cafe is the creation of Heather Blakey and exists because of her work over a nine year period. Over the years it has evolved and is now a complex site.

To navigate the halls of Soul Food is a challenge for the most daring. It has been known to take months to unearth some of the treasures that have been stacked into this treasure box. Despite best efforts the only GPS is intuition. It is simply a matter of exploring and discovering the depths of this place.

Ariadne was given a thread. To begin your journey take these threads and trust that you will reach the centre.

The 2008 AdventURE Calendar, like previous calendars is the work of Heather Blakey and her son Gregory. Greg is a talented graphic artist who is responsible for all the templates at Soul Food, while Heather is responsible for the creative stimuli and content. This year's calendar is a testimony to what can be achieved in an online setting. It crosses international and intergenerational boundaries with grace and reveals that everyone has star qualities and very unique voices.

If you are interested in working in the Soul Food Cafe check out the things that you need to do.

Artistic Midwife

Heather Blakey is an artistic midwife who works with artists and writers to assist in the delivery of their artistic hopes and dreams and to ensure that their creative projects are nourished and presented to a wide range of audiences. You can contact her at heatherblakey at fastmail dot fm