Sacred Earth; Tips & a Song
The Earth has brought me mystery, adventure, comfort, joy and ecstasy my whole life. She’s been a powerful presence, a stabilizer, and influencer of my mood, my spiritual expansion, and an eternal inspiration from the beauty of her plants, mountains, lakes, oceans, streams…and all living creatures. She’s given me a suit of clothes (this body) to mirror back her infinite power and grace.
We are all one, we the living energy made physical, thanks to our mother the Earth. The Earth provides the amazing, physical phenomenon of matter, imbued with a universal energy which catalyzes form, creativity, intelligence, and ultimately, death and rebirth. In the midst of such overwhelming splendor, complexity and miracles, humans are part of a beautiful web of consciousness.
THE FIRST EARTH DAY
The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970, a national event. I was a junior in high school and it was an absolutely exciting time for consciousness raising. Like many of my generation, I was wholeheartedly absorbed in increasing awareness about the environment, needless war, racism, feminism, and experimenting with some freedoms that were exploding wide open (sex, drugs and music).
Now, 54 years later, Earth Day is a global phenomenon, but the situation in 1970 didn’t seem as dire as it does today; back then there was hope and belief that there was time for change. We had a voice and there was a collective passion to raise our voices in the name of earth justice and all kinds of justice.
LIFE TODAY
Today, we all face, head-on, environmental toxicity and potentially life-threatening conditions related to our food, water, plastics, greed, weather, mass shootings, and downright ignorance. Despite the hopes of many, there has been a plague of toxic consciousness that has poisoned our beautiful, mysterious and infinitely miraculous Earth - as well as our minds.
I’d like to offer some suggestions on improving our relationship with Mother Earth and all her irreplaceable offspring. We certainly must continue to do the practical, daily things our local communities stress on Earth Day. As politicians, voters, manufacturers, farmers and corporations chug along the difficult path to awakening, how about we try on some of these practices below?
A SHAMANIC PERSPECTIVE
1. What we say and do puts out an energy into the world; notice your thoughts and know that you are not your thoughts or your conditioned responses. You are the watcher of those thoughts and responses. So when you see yourself saying or doing something you regret, own it. Awareness ushers in new behaviors.
2. Plants and trees are living beings. Before you pick a flower or mow your lawn, respectfully ask the plant spirits if you can enter their space. If you are putting weed killer on your grass or plants, you might want to consider the motivation behind your actions - and the potential consequences to the plants and animals that share the ground there.
3. Before you buy food or beverages, check the label to see how this product was prepared; what food did the animal or fish you’ll eat consume? Your physical body becomes what you eat. If you eat toxic food, your body will become toxic. If you eat animals that were treated cruelly, that energy will imprint on and fuel your body. Strive to eat organic, grass-fed, no hormones fed, naturally sweetened, and buy Non-GMO food.
4. Before you eat, bless your food and beverages with love and gratitude to energetically fertilize your body’s health and your spiritual consciousness.
5. Bless the ground when you walk on it, for it is alive and sacred. Bless the air with gratitude when you breathe it. Bless the sun, moon and stars for their affect on us. Bless the Earth for being your mother; Without her, you would be a dis-embodied spirit. That isn’t a bad thing, but you’d miss all the consciousness-raising lessons and sensory delights here on Earth School!
LISTEN TO THIS SONG
