Thoughts and photos!

Any of you that read my blog on a regular basis will know that I regularly spend time completely naked and barefoot out in nature. I live in a remote area surrounds by tens of square miles of open access land that is completely unpopulated which allows me this wonderful opportunity.

So why is it such an important part of my Druid life? As I have said before it is a way in which I find an intimate connection with the land and the nature that surrounds me, So where does this take me spiritually?

Half a lifetime ago I got involved in meditation. It was as a lay person within a Buddhist monastic order and I was encouraged to meditate on a daily basis. The monks and nuns of the order who befriended and mentored me were endlessly encouraging and supportive and I remember one to them saying to me that the sole aim of the spiritual life was to

“Allow the ego to erode away

not to grow a bigger and better one”

Notice the words, allow, erode. It’s not something that you do, it is something that you allow, an organic process, a natural progression if you work diligently. What I came to see through my years of practice was the truth of those words and that is what my nakedness helps me with.

Sometimes, but not always, when I am out in the wilds I find that I just dissolve into the wildness that surrounds round me and become an integral part of that wildness. Over the last four years I have been attempting to capture this in photo and film with varying levels of success.

So what is acceptable when it comes to depicting nudity? I posted this photo in an earlier blog and for me it shows that integration with the land that I am seeking.

Looking at this picture I am not the main subject but just part of the beauty that is the light, the trees and the general luminosity of the scene, in fact just part of nature itself.

So what prompted these thoughts?

This morning in the Guardian newspaper I read an article about the closure of a “clothing optional” ie. naturist beach in Australia and was somewhat saddened by what I read. It seems there have been various problems over the years that have no place in the naturists world.

I can only speak for my own legal system but in the UK nudity in a public place is not a crime but if you harass, deliberately alarm people or commit a sexual act in a place to which the public have access then this is an offence.

As someone bought up in the UK I have obviously been exposed to the values of this society and its conditioning but I was a teenager in the 1960’s when it was a time that the old order was being overturned and believe this is one reason why I do not necessarily follow the norm in many things. For example people within the UK generally have a pretty uncomfortable and hypocritical relationship with nudity. In the Victorian Era the middle classes even used to put stockings on the legs of table and yet the contemporary record show high levels of depravity behind closed doors and this seems to be perpetuated in a less obvious form into todays society although we are constantly warned about the accessibility and dangers of pornography on the internet. Conversely we have the absurd situation where it’s quite OK for me to show my nipples on social media but not acceptable for a woman to do the same. So where are the acceptable limits for you?

I previously posted this photo in a blog. The objective of this picture was to just show nature contemplating nature and again it seemed accepted as such by my readers.

But this photo, is exactly the same as the previous one but without being cropped and given a green cast in the editing. What thoughts come to mind for you? How acceptable do you find it?

So there are many questions raised in this blog. What is your point of view, what level and where is nudity acceptable to you, is there a place in your life for nakedness?