Attempting To Do...?

Our group of camels currently numbers eight.

Our charge is to create a facility and a process that will embody, and share, what we are calling "The Sacred Camel Gardens".

Commenced in early 2006 a small group of people have been working steadily to create the beginnings of The Sacred Camel Gardens, here in northern California.

The camels are living in an area of about 40 acres currently, with room to expand to about 100 acres overtime, if desired.

As you may know already, our camels are Bactrian camels. We like the Dromedary camels very much, but we happened to start out with a beautiful Bactrian bull and things just developed from there. We currently have some white ones, brown and tan ones and one "black" bull.

The Sacred Camel Gardens has emerged as a distinct project of the longer existing Fear-No-More Zoo and Gardens.

Both Fear-No-More Zoo and the Sacred Camel Gardens were founded by the Spiritual Teacher Adi Da Samraj, out of His love for animals, and His wish that human and non-human cultures become, eventually, one whole but very diverse culture founded in a unifying Spiritual Wisdom... for once and for all...

As of today, right now, we work humbly and simply to install the seed of this Vision of Adi Da's, such that it can grow, touch, inform and embrace all mortal beings within this world we call Earth.

Essentially it is about coming into the disposition of "fearing-no-more", embracing a deeply surrendered and Divinely contemplative existence of inter-connectedness and unity with all beings, and things, rather than living a life of intentional (or unintentional) separation from, and chronic fear toward, all beings. Sure, that's a bit of a mouthful, but if you play around with it a bit I think you might get a sense for it...

We have a Sacred Camel Gardens website under production, and will soon have it on-line. Until it's ready we'll keep it under wraps.

What we have ahead of us is a big undertaking. Fear-No-More Zoo itself is a big undertaking; add to it this further Vision that incorporates the camels and it gets even bigger.

So yes, we do need help. But we need good help of certain kinds right now. The big one being funding, but I won't go into that here, yet.

Eventually the Sacred Camel Gardens should, and will, be a self-sustaining enterprise, and it will also be able to support the rest of Fear-No-More Zoo.

Our plan is not the usual plan, because the camels themselves are part of the plan, and they influence and shape the plan... all of them as a group, and even each one individually.

Please keep reading the posts to find out more...

Rut Season

With Autumn upon us we'll need to separate our two young bulls, Everest and Jelly Baba. Everest is 2 years old and Jelly is a bit over 3 years now. It would probably be fine to let them run together for another winter season, but we're deciding on the side of caution. I don't want them fighting. Jelly just might become too much for the more mellow, and younger, Everest. Fights between camels are to be seriously avoided.

Since they moved into these large pastures, last November, the whole group of six have been running together, which has been great for them, and us. Now, with the bulls soon to be separated we'll have to decide which cows will keep company with which bull. As much as we can we'll take into account their individual friendships and characters as we decide.

The gates and fences have to be up to it as well, at least in the early days as we all get used to the new set-up.

Funding is always a challenge, as this is a non-profit project, 100% reliant upon donations by people who are behind what we are doing, or behind what we are attempting to do.

It'll be an interesting few days when we break the herd into two areas.

Camels on hilltop

Full of Feeling

Standing alone among a group of large camels in an open field.

Wandering around with them.

Being with them for hours.

Just standing, looking, looking, looking.

Camels stare away into infinity, in silence, standing or sitting, for hours on end.

When I'm with them I am soon doing the same, or similarly, as they do. A large part of what a camel is as a being, and a process, is found in this contemplative space that they hold.

They live profoundly full of feeling.

Another major part of who a camel is can be found within their emotional and social/cultural life.
Again, all the nuances of character and personality are discovered anew in each camel.

A camel's eyes communicate a depth of feeling and awareness.

When you've earned a camel's respect and trust you can feel it in your own body. It is energetic, and is that part of them that forms the herding bond. It is a tangible connection.

A couple of weeks ago six of the camels were congregated in a group, sitting about in the warm morning sun. About 20 feet away, also sitting calmly, was a lone coyote. It seemed as though the coyote was enjoying being around the camels as much as we do.

One day I watched a camel follow a mallard duck around the field as it sifted the grass looking for food... the camel had dropped her head to grass level and, walking a few feet behind the waddling duck, the two of them cruised about together, exchanging time and energy with each other, and learning who knows what about one another....

Camel&

The "&" in "Cameland" is everything about, beyond and to do with camels.

It is everything that camels have supported in human culture for millennia, both practical and spiritual.

And it is anything else you care to think about or imagine.

It is everything that the innocent camels have witnessed of the "ascent" of man through the ages, the changes in the land, the victories and the catastrophes, the winters and the summers, births and deaths...

Where desired, topics as varied as any throughout human history, and future, may be drawn upon in these blogs.

Camels are an archetype for the capacity to survive through hard times, whether crossing a desert of sand, or the deserts of culture, humanity and the heart... the ability to endure hardship with wisdom, calmness and class.

Little HiHo

Lounging

Camels I Know

Camels are beautiful animals.

Given the chance they are regal, proud, sensitive, gentle, fierce, playful, trustworthy. Treat them with respect and they will treat you with respect.

People often think of camels as cranky, smelly, spitting, biting and stubborn animals. They can definitely be this way too, but only as a result of wrong handling.

Every camel is an individual, and unique, character, as different as any human is from another human, and as similar. Each camel therefore should be related to uniquely in order to bring out the best in its character, rather than the worst.

In a herd situation camels expect the best from each other. This is how they ensure the herd's survival. Therefore, it is the responsibility of a good camel owner to serve as the herd leader and draw out of each of his camels the best they can be.

This first requires a process of getting to know each camel well, which involves real time spent with them... building a relationship and friendship of trust and respect.

Cradle of the Moon

Bright moonlight. Golden autumn grass. Open field. Deep blue sky arching. Camels nearby, munching, grunting, rumbling. Large, dark friends, seeing the world from a very different point of view than me... I want to understand them, to know them fully, how they see things, who they are...

The Sacred Camel Gardens is about life with camels, developing something unusual, the trials and successes, the births and deaths, challenges and fears, and the gifts that the camels continually share with us.

I am going to post things here regularly so you can stay up with the day-to-day of our creation of a camel ranch with a unique orientation. The posts that will collect here will also serve as a document of these early days of the Sacred Camel Herd of the spiritual teacher, Adi Da Samraj.

Bare with me while I learn how to do pics and other tech things to do with this blog.

So, welcome and hello.
Stuart

PS: There are two major groups of camels. The more commonly known are the one-humped, or Dromedary, camels out of Africa and the Middle East, and now wild in Australia also. And then there are the two-humped Bactrian camels of Asia. Understanding the utility of one hump on your back (if you're a camel) seems fairly straightforward. But to understand the purposes of having two humps takes some pondering...

Bright Moonlight

Bright moonlight. Golden autumn grass. Open field. Deep blue sky arching. Camels nearby, munching, grunting, rumbling. Large, dark friends, seeing the world from a very different point of view than me... I want to understand them, to know them fully, how they see things, who they are...

The Sacred Camel Gardens is about life with camels, developing something unusual, the trials and successes, the births and deaths, challenges and fears, and the gifts that the camels continually share with us.