The Earth has a heartbeat. I feel it sometimes when I sit with ancient trees; my whole body relaxes in rhythm with her pulse. I’m invited to open and surrender to the bliss of the Earth’s embrace.
Everyone can tune in; it is our birthright. The Earth is mother to us all. She loves, nurtures and supports each one of her children. She is calling us, and it is important we heed the call. The stakes are so high now – literally life on Earth.
The times we are living through have long been prophesied by indigenous peoples around the world. Tibetans, Hopis, Mayans, Aborigines, Lakota, and many more native cultures speak of an era when life on Earth is threatened. Today, scientists around the world warn us against potential mass extinctions from climate change if we don’t find more sustainable ways to live. If we are going to survive, we must listen to the Earth Mother and allow her to be our guide.
At the same time, we must also heed the voices of the ones who, for the most part, have not been heard, honored, or valued during more than 2,000 years of patriarchy. This includes women, Muslims, people of color, the poor, and LGBT people. Perhaps most of all, it means giving our respect and attention to the Native Americans who have experienced much brutality over the past many hundreds of years and have never been given a voice in our Councils. To save life on Earth, a Hopi Prophecy states, “The last test of the Indian people will be to forgive the unforgivable.”
It’s a lot easier to forgive when those who inflicted the pain, or their heirs who benefit from the giant land and resource grab, are willing to listen and try to make amends. Let’s not let this burden of forgiveness rest solely on the shoulders of those who have been the most abused! If we stay present and witness old hurts, the pain can at last be released and transmuted. At the same time, let’s also forgive ourselves, our ancestors, and those who are still so misguided they are acting out of anger, hatred, scarcity, and fear. Of course, even as we hold the wounded ones in our love and forgiveness, we will do everything we can to stop harmful actions.
Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation, says, “In our Prophecies it is told that we are now at a crossroads: Either unite spiritually as a Global Nation, or be faced with chaos, disasters, diseases, and tears from our relatives’ eyes.” Each one of us has a part to play in this. As Chief Arvol says, “Did you think the Creator would create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible danger? Know that you yourself are essential to this World. Believe that! Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the soul of this World.”
The actions our individual loves lead us to will be different for each of us. Attending to our own hearts and minds, we can receive guidance for the best way to contribute. Sometimes it can be as simple as a nap, a kind word, a prayer, or singing a song. We may sign petitions, write letters, send money, or use our education, talents and skills to protect endangered people and environments. For some of us, sometimes, it might actually involve the enormous courage to stand up to the bullies the way the people at Standing Rock are now doing.
Fortunately, we have been well prepared for these times. For the past forty to fifty years, spiritual teachings previously reserved for the elite few have become available to many. We have learned meditation, yoga, hypnotherapy, massage, nonviolent communication, and other healing practices. Understanding of psychology, neurobiology, and environmental science has grown by quantum leaps. Indigenous peoples have shared some of their most sacred teachings. Never in recorded history has such a large population been gifted with so many tools to create enlightened awareness and a lifestyle in balance with the Earth.
Lee Brown of the Cherokee shared a teaching at the 1986 Continental Indigenous Council in Alaska. “The Creator gave each of us a responsibility that Indigenous peoples call the Guardianship.” Brown goes on to explain that the red people were given guardianship of Mother Earth. The yellow race was given guardianship of the wind, the black race water, and the white race fire.
It’s easy to see how each race has learned from its guardianship. The red, Native people have long traditions of living intimately in harmony with the Earth. The yellow, Asian race has explored breathing, meditation and yoga techniques that contribute to our spiritual advancement. The black race, given water which Carl Jung often refers to as a symbol for emotions, spirituality and the collective unconscious, carries heart and soul. White people, with our science, electricity, and invention, have obviously been all fired up for a very long time. Unfortunately, out of balance fire leads to horrors like nuclear bombs. In order to bring ourselves back to life-creating harmony, the white race must be tempered by the teachings and wisdom from the other races—-and from the divine feminine which has been suppressed and ignored.
The Earth is the ultimate divine feminine. She’s our Mother, our source of life, and full of creativity, beauty, humor, resilience and intelligence.
And she loves all of us, without exception. This we, too, must learn to do, braiding ourselves into one weave of diversity, beauty, color, strength, talent, and joy.
As I sit beneath an ancient tree-friend, smelling the damp mulch of the forest floor and feeling the heartbeat of the Earth Mother, my own heart swells with gratitude. I’m grateful to be alive, to be here, and to be part of these dynamic times. I feel starry energies rain down on me like cosmic dewdrops, filling me with grace. The spirit world is all around: ancestors, elementals, devas, star beings, and angels. We have so much help. I feel their delight and joy in my presence here at the base of this tree. They send sweet nectar down my juicy spine right into the ground, and I know we can feed the Earth with our love.