Lonely Planet Guide to Lemuria

Enchanteur is not always available and so community members at Soul Food have learned to take full advantage of times when she is willing to show folk around Lemuria.

E is currently taking newcomers, and long standing residents, on Walking Tours through the City of Ladies, the ancient city of Lemuria.

You would have to be a ninny to miss out on this opportunity.

Once upon a time there was a land called Lemuria.....a subterranean land that has lain sleeping since the world changed. Now the old realm has stirred and is closer to us than it has been for a very long time. le Enchanteur carries the seeds of potentiality and hope, gifted by the guardians of this old world. The seeds are very old but powerful still. All that is needed is to plant them within deep loam and they will flourish.

Within the womb of the Soul Food Cafe artists and writer's have planted seeds and  grown and become their authentic selves. Meet some of the Soul Food team and glean from their unique expertise.

What goes on in blogs with mythical names like Rainbow Beach, Mudjimba, Kerith, the Lemurian Abbey, the City of Ladies, the Hermitage, Riversleigh, the Calabar and Gypsy Camp? Plenty.

Lemuria is a fantasy realm which you enter through a magic portal not unlike that which took Alice in to Wonderland or the children in to Narnia. Lemuria is an artistic world. Pioneers have built this land and created an exciting artistic colony.

The doors are open so you can enter Lemuria without a guide and explore it by checking out the Lemurian Global Positioning Satellite and by navigating your way around the constellation of blogs which ARE Lemuria. Blogs such as the Lemurian Abbey have teams of people who are committed to visioning Lemuria into being.

Cora Zon describes being in Lemuria as being "like living in the Matrix. Entering through a portal you step into a alternative space where there are characters to interact with and places to go. It is also an environment with the capacity for growth. There is freedom to make choices to add to this construct, selecting items from the beauty of the physical world and combining it with your most fanciful, mythically-proportioned imaginations. When these ideas are posted online, others can actively engage with it, making it a wild and wonderful shared dream."

To actually participate you need to have established yourself on the Soul Food site. Entry to Lemurian blogs is strictly by invitation. When you are familiar with WordPress make contact with heatherblakey at fastmail dot fm. She is the mostly benevolent dictator who presides over the operation of Soul Food and Lemuria.

To wander with Enchanteur you need to have established yourself on the Pythian Games, Temple of Solace, Places of the Heart or Riversleigh blogs. Once it is clear that you understand the operation you are eligible to be invited to join the travellers who have opened up these exciting places. To reach join one of these blogs contact heatherblakey at fastmail dot fm

Here a group of hardy adventurers, wearing Enchanteur's magic glasses, sit for a photo shoot before heading into unchartered parts of Lemuria. They go where others fear to go and boldly inhabit this realm of imagination.

Lemuria can seem totally overwhelming if you enter it without a guide. However, if you have the time and you choose to wander and read you will find the most amazing writing and art housed in this artistic world. If you want to actually engage you have no choice but to establish yourself on the site.

Enter Enchanteur

le Enchanter, is Heather Blakey's alter ego and just between you and me she sometimes represents herself as the Amazon Queen and Baba Yaga. L'Enchanteur is a dazzling shape shifter who led a party of travellers through mystical doorways into the world of Lemuria. Pioneers discovered the Soul Food Silk Road and found places such as The House of the Serpents, the Lemurian Abbey, the Crest Hermitage, Duwamish Bay, the Lemurian Archipelago and the House of Baba Yaga.

Enchanteur often invites people to join her on one of her tours. She meets those who have been invited at the doorway and takes them on a personal, guided journey into Lemuria. Her journey is sometimes called the Journey of the Heart, the Heroine's Journey or the Road to Ithaka. You will find the original Journey of the Heart, a journey of exploration on the 2005 Advent Calendar.

L' Enchanteur's energy is magnetic and somehow she brings out the very best in the creatives who follow her faithfully to new and exciting destinations. Work with le Enchanteur and you will be enchanted, not only by the development of your own creative powers, but by the personal healing that takes place. As you come to know yourself you will slay the inner critic, discover your authentic voice and name yourself. You will learn, in time, that all you need to do is holler for one of l'Enchanteur's spirit guides and you will receive the support and encouragement you need.

You can come to Lemuria and make yourself at home at Riversleigh Manor which is an important hub for newcomers, a place where they can find their Lemurian legs or you can ask Enchanteur to come on her private guided tour. By the time you have done the journey you will be totally orientated and will no longer wonder what it is all about.

But remember, be warned, like Wonderland, it is a bit confusing and overwhelming at times. Oh! And it is utterly addictive!

Travel with Enchanteur and she will give you a bag filled with special talismans, including a packet of her dream seeds. She will open the door to your cage and insist you fly freely. She gives no flying instructions, but simply provides the wings.

To find out more about travelling with Enchanteur contact heatherblakey at fastmail dot fm with the subject line 'Travel with Enchanteur'

For the rest of the day I remained in quiet seclusion, sitting cross legged in front of the altar in my room. For a long time I looked and looked into the faces of my triptych of goddesses and saints - Kwan Yin, the Black Madonna and Tara - whole and holy images of female divinity.

Afternoon moved into evening and darkness slowly wrapped its arms around me, enfolding me within its shadows. A full moon shone its light through my opened window, casting a pathway through the void, beckoning to those who listened with the ear of their hearts to the yearnings calling from within. The moonlight's path seemed to end abruptly at my feet.

And then I knew that this was the threshold. The moon was to be my portal to a liminal space where finally my soul might learn to live and love and dance and laugh again. I closed my eyes and waited to be carried away.

It wasn't long, or maybe it was forever, before it felt as if my body was being lifted gently and carried away on a carpet of light. Cool night air brushed against my cheeks and played with locks of hair released from restraining bands. Finding it impossible to open my eyes I let myself sink deep into the lap of the tender force that carried me. Trust of the Unknown. Openness. Listening. Deep silence. These were the marks of my journey through the portal to a new land that lies just beyond the world we call the 'Real'.

So where was I headed for? The Unreal? Or was it perhaps that world that exists alongside the one we all know, but that can only be seen by those with eyes opened to the magical and mysterious wonders of another way of being?

The answer to this lay on the other side of the moon.
by Soul Sister

Head out on Caravanserai
and follow the footsteps of travellers who pioneered the Soul Food Silk Road and undertook and amazing Journey of the Heart

Lemuria is a land of mystery. For many centuries the idea of a lost continent, having once existed in the space now occupied by the Atlantic Ocean, was expressed frequently. Generally it is now considered to be merely a legend, without any scientific foundations. However it is almost certain that at one stage there was far more land than water

When you walk through the doorways and opt to engage in the Lemurian AdvenTURE Calendar
you enter another world - the world that once occupied this space.

Do you have a gift cupboard? Having one saves a lot of rushing around at Christmas and when you are going visiting. These days, rather than taking chocolates when I go to dinner I give things like magnets for my host's fridge.

Recently I gave a friend a Cafe Press Mug with le Enchanteur holding up the world and popped a bottle 'Rescue Remedy' inside. I am thinking of having some cups on hand that I can fill with shortbread or chocolates.