Waking Up to the Sacred in Nature and Reclaiming Our Earth Soul

April 30th, 2017

By Christa Mackinnon

Guest writer for Wake Up World

“In the absence of the sacred, nothing is sacred. Everything is for sale.” ~ Oren R. Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Turtle clan

When writing my latest book, I was surprised how difficult I found it to write a ‘short chapter about nature and sacredness’ for a readership that would be mainly urban. Now that the indigenous movement against the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline brought the issue to the fore, I was reminded how urgently we need to re-connect with the sacred aspect of nature, not only because we face an ecological crisis and need to stand up in vast numbers to the ever increasing destruction of natural habitat and resources driven, but also because the separation from the nature aspect of ourselves, from our earth roots and souls, is contributing extensively to the dis-connection from our own wild nature and to our mental, emotional and physical suffering and dis-enchantment.

Indigenous views on the sacred in nature

One of the most important teachings, which we have been blessed with, is that people all over the world who are still rooted in Earth-based traditions have always maintained that being embedded in nature means being close to creation, the creator and the divine – that the sacred is directly experienced through creation and can be understood through observation and communication with the spirit(s) of nature.

Whilst we, in our so-called modern world have been for millennia led to believe that the divine is somewhere ‘out there’, indigenous teachers remind us that the sacred and divine is ‘right here’. The Aboriginal teacher and artist Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann expresses this when she writes that it is easy for her to experience God when she hunts, is in the bush or is amongst trees, as her people have been so aware of nature that it is natural for her to feel close to the creator. [1] And Carlos Perez Shuma, a Peruvian shaman, echoes this from the other side of the world when he says “… because in nature there is God and God talks to us in our visions.” [2]

CONTINUE READING:

Also by Christa Mackinnon:

• The Return of the Feminine Principle: A Question of ‘Thriving Life’ or ‘Destructive Death’
• What About the Feminine? How Patriarchal Value Systems Affect Consciousness

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