Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
~ Arundhati Roy
Deep Forest in Sunlight – photo from bigstockphoto.com
The role of a contemporary shaman, as I see it, is to be a living testimony of the experiential awareness of the unity of all aspects of life. This implies contributing to the release of separation, and promoting our human sense of purpose through the acknowledgment of the wider reality in which we exist.
~ Franco Santoro
Grizzly Bear and Cub, Alaska – photo from bigstockphoto.com
The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is sacred and that we are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live his life for himself alone. We realize that all life is valuable and that we are united to all this life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship with the universe.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Winter Landscape – photo from bigstockphoto.com
To redeem life on Earth, to remember the Truth within existence, we need to remember that life is alive, that even as we try to control and dominate the planet, something deep and hidden is still interacting with us. We can call on these hidden feminine forces with their power to create and destroy. The Goddess both veils and unveils; her power can help change the illusions that are siphoning the light and lifeblood of humanity and the resources of the planet. A potent magic that can help reverse this process is right here, held and guarded in her primordial world.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Yellowstone National Park – photo by Sue Smith, bigstockphoto.com
It is when we look at all of life and we feel that sacred connection that we begin to change how we live in the world. As a result, it will begin to change how others live in the world.
~ Julia Butterfly Hill
Coastal Redwoods – photo from bigstockphoto.com
What is greater than us is the earth itself-life-and we are folded into it, a small part of it, and we have work to do. We need a new animism, a new pantheism, a new way of telling the oldest of stories. We could do worse than to return to the notion of the planet as the mother that birthed us. Those old stories have plenty to say about the fate of people who don’t respect their mothers.
~ Paul Kingsnorth
Banff National Park, Canadian Rockies – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Time and space. In the desert there is space. Space is the twin sister of time. If we have open space then we have open time to breathe, to dream, to dare, to play, to pray to move freely, so freely, in a world our minds have forgotten but our bodies remember. Time and space. This partnership is holy. In these redrock canyons, time creates space–an arch, an eye, this blue eye of sky. We remember why we love the desert; it is our tactile response to light, to silence, and to stillness.
~ Terry Tempest Williams, “Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert”
Sunrise in Hunts Mesa, Monument Valley, AZ – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Life and the material environment evolved tightly coupled together as a single entity. In other words, what we have is…a scenario, not a static place into which organisms fit themselves. The environment itself cannot realistically be viewed as a place but must more properly be viewed as an organism-a living field which itself adapts to changes or even initiates them.
~ James Lovelock
Winter Landscape in Sunset – photo from bigstockphoto.com
The answers we seek lie in nature-nature is always sharing her teachings with us. The answers also lie in our own inner wisdom. We must shift the focus of our energy from our heads to our hearts, where we can listen to this wisdom.
~ Sandra Ingerman
Dos Ojos Cave, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico – photo from bigstockphoto.com
An updated worldview is called for that places life as we know it as in, among and inseparable from Earth itself. Humans, for instance, do not live “on” the planet, they are the planet. The terms animate and inanimate no longer serve when we view earth as a living entity. Following on, planetary psychology accepts that earth as a living planet is conscious and accepts the responsibility to investigate just how human and other than human beings share in that one consciousness.
~ David J. Chalmers
Enchanted Trees – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Science can point out dangers, but science cannot turn the direction of minds and hearts. That is the province of spiritual powers within and without our very beginnings-powers that are the mysteries of life itself.
~ Oren Lyons
Monument Valley – photo from bigstockphoto.com
A Prayer For Your Wild Soul
Give yourself time to make a prayer that will become the prayer of your soul. Listen to your hungers. Give attention to the unexpected that lives around the rim of your life. Listen to your memory and to the inrush of your future, to the voice of those near you and those you have lost. Out of all that attention to your soul, make a prayer that is big enough for your wild soul, yet tender enough for your shy and awkward vulnerability; that has enough healing to gain the ointment of divine forgiveness for your wounds; truth enough and vigour to challenge your blindness and complacency; enough graciousness and vision to mirror your immortal beauty. Write a prayer that is worthy of the destiny to which you have been called.
~ John O’Donohue
Yosemite Valley, CA – photo by Gary Tognoni, bigstockphoto.com
Truth be told, the entire world is conscious. The whole Universe is made of consciousness or “God-stuff”, even supposedly inanimate objects like rocks. As more and more people break the shackles of the false selves and realize their true natures, interspecies communication, including both animal communication and plant communication, will become more and more common.
~ Makia Freeman
Fern on Maple Tree – Pacific Northwest, photo by Craig Chanowski, bigstockphoto.com
Fortunately, the ego-self can be re-trained, to develop a more inclusive identity. I am more than me. I am connected to you. I am a member of we…
We have to come to the realization that our original self includes the whole living world. That kind of empathy, based on a holistic worldview, is essential.
~ John Stanley and David Loy
African White Lion – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Exploration #6
Part of the emphasis here at Spirits of the Urban Sacred is to bring the presence of the Sacred more into awareness in everyday life. It’s a matter of paying attention to this aspect of reality and this week’s exploration focuses on a recognition that the essence of the Sacred is in everything you encounter in the course of your daily life. Everything around you is made of the same life force that moves in and through you, even though the physical forms that life force takes can be very different from yours. View More
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