Talk for the newspaper Conjunction (Veznik) with Helena Petrovic from Gaia Collective, led by Daniela Knapic.
While
in the city of Pula, Istria, Croatia, known mainly for classes of Tai Chi and Chi Kung,
activities of Gaia Collective which operates on the 3rd floor of
DC Rojc, Pula, since 1999 , are much more numerous and more diverse. About them and about the community more we learn of its initiator, Helena Petrovic ...
-
I would like to emphasize that the Gaia Collective is an informal community
that crosses borders not only of Pula and Istria, but also Croatia. Our
aim is the improvement of the life quality, the development of consciousness
and creative potentials with an emphasis on precious roads such as Yoga, Tai Chi
Chuan, spiritual and therapeutic Dance methods, the Esoteric Art; then psycho-spiritual methods of self-development; Permaculture
and Geomancy as creative co-creation of man and the Universe ... Our
modes of action are diverse and on this issue we are flexible. We do
not cling exclusively to one activity, we believe that if one does not
work, it will work the other, there is always a solution. Currently, there is an accent on techniques that empower both individuals and
groups and awaken in the people an awareness of their strengths and
potentials. We are active since 1994 and the center Gaia Holistic since 2004. We
are organized horizontally within circles that cooperate and interact:
Gaia Holistic Center, Gaia Art Lab, Gaia Terra Viva and Gnosis Viva. Since I was the moving spirit of the story, I appeare in public mostly,
which does not mean that the contribution of all the other members is
the less valuable.
One of the most important goals is the developing of
a support network in all areas and stages of human life, especially at the local
community, and beyond ...
Yes, and we realize it slowly but surely. Within
the collective we already work with all age groups, 
ranging from creative
workshops for children to the psychological and physical support for the
people of the third age. Within
Essential Shakti Yoga, we are also available as educated doula-support for mothers before,
during and after childbirth. Gaia Terra Viva promotes the healthy
products at prices much cheaper than usual and thus join the project of
our colleagues, activists from other parts of Croatia, which aim is
to cut a vicious cycle in which all the rich eat healthier, and
the poor poorer . Also, the goal is to empower activist enterprises and mutual cooperation and exchange of products and services. In
addition to the inefficient social system that has an end in
itself and has lost the touch with the real needs of people, also
the relationship with the life-giving processes,
self-organization and mutual support, as well as the skills of
cooperation and sharing, are becoming a necessity if we want to survive not as a
nation, but as human kind.How did you come to that what are you doing today, what have you dealt with until you decided to do Taijiquan or Tai Chi, (Helena
Gaia is the founder of the Center Yuan Tong - Tai Chi Club Pula) and then
for everything else you today do?
- I have always been dissatisfied with the civilization in which I was incarnated, I didn't fit into this world with mistake. I left Pula during the high school, first in Porec, then in the United
States and then for years traveled or lived in different countries. I
finished high school in Sacramento, California, as the most promising
visual artist in generation, but instead of the art started my BA in
journalism in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The
circumstances have led me in a situations and among people with
different skills than formal, that I spontaneously absorbed, but truly
began to understand only many years later. After
a deep physical and emotional crisis at the beginning of the war, I
realized that for me the only way to stay on the Earth is creating the world
in what I'd like to live and so it went, step by step. The process of co-creation is what fulfills me today and I enjoy it. In
1995 we established family Agency Gaia Travel, through which a lot
of people pilgrimaged to India. At the same time I organized, in our house in Medulin, a Gnostic gatherings and numerous lectures and seminars. At these gatherings, we spontaneously shared the knowledge and experiences which, in the regular world, are very expensive. Basically,
I was very confused, but the doors were opened one after another, and
my only choice was either indefinitely experience convulsions on the doorstep
or go into the unknown. Until the establishment of Tai Chi Club Pula, I was doing the esoteric art and this is something that is slowly
coming back into my life again.
What attracted you to Taijiquan and Yoga?
-Hatha Yoga I started practicing in 1989 in Ljubljana and a traditional yoga was, and still is, my refuge. Today
I'm leading the yoga circles for women in all stages of life and behind me is a
long time of practice impeded by youthful vigor, and restless spirit. On the other hand, Taijiquan and Chinese martial arts, that I started to practice in 1992 in Padua, Italy, became my fate immediately. As
soon as I saw
Taijiquan form performed by my first teacher, suddenly I saw
the whole future time, and the club that I founded seven years later
and David Petrovic, who now runs the Center Yuan Tong - Tai Chi Pula,
currently one of the strongest centers of Taijiquan in Croatia. David
was the Croatian champion in Taijiquan, in the forms of bare hands and
with weapons, and now we are focused on working with children. I can
safely say that in the club already exercise several future champions. However, whether the children will chose the competitive aspects of skills is less important. What
is worth is that Chinese martial arts can, not only develop the maximum
of their ability, but also enrich the children's spirit, or at least,
to some extent protect it from the general degradation in society. Chinese Wushu which includes a huge number of Chinese martial arts is a sport of
the future and China is working that Taijiquan in the year 2024 becomes an
Olympic sport.
It is an undeniable merit of your Centre in popularizing these Chinese
skills in Pula and beyond, because when you started about them was known
little or nothing
...For
over 17 years we lead in DC Rojc, Pula, Istria, Croatia beginner and advanced courses of Taijiquan
for adults, bare hands and weapons forms, Taiji Qigong recreation. We work a lot with working people and the elderly,... last years with children, too. David
and I are the only Croatian certified instructors within the three
national Wushu Federations: Chinese, Italian and Croatian. We
cooperate with the town of Pula, as well as with the Pula's Gerontology Center. Over the years we worked with a lot of different organizations, institutions and enterprises. The basics of Tai Chi Chuan are very applicable and useful in a variety of professions. Often,
for example, I assist during the dance gatherings where I introduce the
universal principles of Tai Chi Chuan in the preparatory dance
exercises. I also started with OMMMotion Lab (Organic Medicine-Motion Method) which
contains a synthesis of the key elements of Tai Chi Chuan, Yoga, Shamanic Dances and my entire life experience.
Where in the beginning any difficulties, mistrust, as you waded through the initial resistance?
Beginnig was difficult, but today these barriers I see it as a necessary process of empowerment. Despite all difficulties, people came and practiced, and some of them regularly exercise today. Thanks to their confidence and perseverance center
has survived and to those first members I'm extremely grateful. Today, when China is working that traditional Taijiquan and knowledge of
the Chen family comes under the protection of UNESCO as world
intangible heritage, when the elementary knowledge in Taijiquan is a matter
of general culture, today I know that all of difficulties made sense.
Similarly
repeats with shamanic dances and other activities that I
just recently in Pula began to promote intensively, but today I am indifferent and less than ever I'm willing to compromise. The
resistance will exist until we break the ice ... if we break .... but
if not, I will continue to enjoy what I do as long as it
fulfilles me. My
responsibility is to clearly define myself, not to comfort with
anybody's expectations and the selection is made. I'd
rather work with five people who appreciate the transformative process through which
we are going together, then with 50 people coming for fashion.
Something that you lead in recent times are Trance Dance dance workshops, as well as workshops of family constellations ...
-I do shamanic dances, including the Trance Dance, and they came seemingly simple to me - dancing
for years through various dance practices. Shamanism
is not only the one of the pillars of Taoism, thus taijiquan, but is at the
core of all traditions with whom I met, so this our,
Balkan-Mediterranean. When
stripped away layers of cultural diversity, the shamanic
methods become very powerful tools for improving the quality of
all areas of life, from individual psycho-spiritual transformation to team building. The movement of the Spirit and neoshamanism brought me to the family constellation method. I'm
just finishing the third year of training, also assisted to one
of my mentors in Slovenia and through all realized, as many times before, that the Western world only re-discovered traditional
methods of system balancing that were used to be practiced in every
village . The
knowledge did not dissapeared completely, in a peculiar way it was stored by
the last krsniks in Istria and dragon people from the Balkans. Therefore, what I do is not a modern family constellation method, but for now I call
it The Family Tree Healing and Dynamic Harmonization, and in my work is included all that was present once within a healthy community: image, movement, rhythm, voice, sound, etc.
One thing that connects all the techniques offered by Gaia Collective
is "ecstasy", in terms of the state of fulfillment and balance that
every being strives ...
-Ecstasy is the natural human condition! Sometimes we can see how it is
spontaneously present in children when they play in the now-here
and traditional communities have always been aware of
the importance of ecstasy. Deeply
connected with nature, they have maintained the balance through stories,
music, singing, dancing and taking care of all the members. A healthy human being or a community deprived of possibility for natural ecstasy, has a pressing need to manifest itself, even through the dark ecstasy ... and
this is a feature of modern civilization,... destructive ecstasy, which
breaks away from the real life and destroyes it. One of the gateways of entering into the trance state are continuous, rhythmic
repetitions and, at first glance, there is no difference
between boring repetitive actions that people do every day (work,
Supermarket, TV, FB ...) and repetitive actions while eg. practice Tai Chi Chuan, Yoga or shamanic dances ... the real difference is qualitative and substantive. While
daily dark trans gradually and continuously sucks all the energy out of
a human beings, depriving them even of their humanity, the methods of positive
trance fullfill body with energy, awake hidden potentials, strengthen the heart
and enrich the spirit. Regular
practice of these and similar skills creates a cumulative effect, thus
enabling the transition from the dark state to a state of natural
ecstasy, in a completely different quality of life, in the life that naturally should be. Very often, spontaneous and abrupt transitions from dark to natural ecstasy, so-called moments
of awakening, result in chaos, anxiety and depression, because
awareness of the abyss between heaven and hell can be unbearably painful
for untrained and unprepared mind. Facilitate
the people's crossing the bridge of perception, in times when everything that they thought was important collapses, to help them discover and
develop their true talents and resources and thereby improve their
quality of life and contribute to the community, is my life's calling. From this perspective, it does not matter which method currently I use. I adapt my operations to the people, beings, communities and regions that I meet. I'm doing this because I strongly believe that the heaven on earth is
possible now-and-here, only the fraction of a second is sometimes
enough for a big turnaround. And vice versa, unfortunately. The choice and responsibility is the matter of individual decision of each conscious being.
