The Sacred Earth
by Flynn Johnson 

Awareness of the ecological crisis facing the world is growing, and with this growing awareness governments and people are taking the practical steps necessary to meet the challenge.  Alternative energy sources are being researched, energy conservation measures are being adopted, and alternative automobile fuels are being developed.  However, if these critical steps are to firmly take root in our society, they must be supported by a new way of perceiving humanity’s relationship with the Earth.  More than just technological fixes and adjustments are required to address the ecological crisis: a complete change of view or attitude towards the Earth is needed for the sake of future generations. The Earth can no longer be viewed merely as a resource or commodity existing solely for the benefit of human beings.  Our exclusively materialistic orientation must give way to a more expansive view of the Earth.

Since ancient times, the Earth has been viewed as Mother, the primordial maternal matrix from which all life comes into being.  The body of the Earth in her magnificent abundance nourishes and sustains all living beings.  Humans are dependent upon her abundance for food, water, and air, also for the materials of our homes, clothing, medicines, and the fuels that drive the engines of our economy.  In this tangible, physical sense, the Earth’s body becomes one with our body: we are one body.

Yet, the Earth is so much more.  Her majestic beauty and awesome power feed our souls and ignite our imaginations.  Our earliest human ancestors responded to these qualities of the Earth with respect and reverence. To them the Earth was sacred ground, and they sought to form relationships of communion with her and her life forms.  The sacramental bond established between them and the natural world was a primary factor in the development of art, song, dance, religious ritual, and the spiritual striving for illumination.  In this way, humanity’s relationship with the natural world played a major role in the evolution of human consciousness.

We can also see this sacred bond in our pre-Christian pagan tradition where the many gods and goddesses were worshipped at springs, oak groves, and other natural places.  Likewise, our Judeo-Christian tradition contains a mystical strand that praised the natural world as the handiwork of God.  Since time immemorial, men and women from all the world religions have sought a deeper connection with the divine in the wilds of forest, desert, and mountain tops.

Today, the sense of the natural world as a sacred landscape has largely been lost, and we suffer from this disconnection.  The anxiety, depression, and loneliness so prevalent in our modern world can in part be traced to this disconnection. We have lost a sense of being at home in the world, and with this loss, our souls are filled with longing.

Traditional indigenous peoples have always felt at home in the world.  They feel an intimate, interdependent relationship with nature.  This relationship is governed by harmony and balance, for they know that to violate this accord would place them in grave danger.  To cite one example, among the Okanagan people of British Columbia, the word for their tribe means “the ones who are dream and land together.”  Without this sense of being braided together with the Earth, to what they actually are, they would lose their place, and confusion would reign.

We have lost our place within the web of life, and much confusion reigns in our world.  If we are to bring ourselves back to sanity, we need to recover a sense of the sacredness of the Earth.  To do this we need to spend more time in nature and to allow our souls to respond to her rhythms and voices, her silences and storms.  Sojourning in nature over extended periods, especially alone, can heighten our capacity to hear and see and thereby to learn nature's ways of stillness, presence, and beauty.  As our souls awaken from the drugs of busyness and consumerism, our imaginations can expand to embrace all our relations, as the Lakota say, with care, reverence, and gratitude.  We can then feel our inherent unity and interdependence with the Earth.  We can come home.

Flynn Johnson is director of The School of Natural Wonder, which offers Vision Quests and rites of passage in Vermont and New Mexico.  He can be reached at 802 896-6271, or email: info@schoolofnaturalwonder.org, or visit www.questvision.org.  This monthly column is sponsored by the Windham Environmental Coalition.

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