The elder within us feels her interdependence with all life and how she is, in essence, summoned into existence through her relationships with all other beings. Her heart naturally breaks open over the suffering of the world, and she will go to whatever lengths necessary to protect life, especially at the species and habitat levels.
~ Geneen Marie Haugen
Yosemite in Winter – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Ritual for Honoring Objects
One of the primary rituals I do throughout every day is to bless, thank, and send love to all the objects I encounter in my daily life. As strange as this may sound, it’s important to remember that everything you encounter is comprised of particles, energy, and elements that are as alive as those that comprise your body, and that everything is sentient in its particular way. You have a living relationship with everything you encounter and the quality of your interactions has an impact.
Here’s an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to take in the ritual.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
Our time is hungry in spirit. In some unnoticed way we have managed to inflict severe surgery on ourselves. We have separated soul from experience, become utterly taken up with the outside world and allowed the interior life to shrink. Like a stream disappears underground, there remains on the surface only the slightest trickle. When we devote no time to the inner life, we lose the habit of soul. We become accustomed to keeping things at surface level. The deeper questions about who we are and what we are here for visit us less and less. If we allow time for soul, we will come to sense its dark and luminous depth. If we fail to acquaint ourselves with soul, we will remain strangers in our own lives.
~ John O’Donohue
Cardinal in Snow – photo from bigstockphoto.com
The light of the world knows that we are one, and works within this context. Through life’s essential unity it has direct access to all of life’s interconnections, which are an expression of that unity. The light itself is that unity: just as the light of our soul is present throughout our body and psyche, so is the light of the world present in every cell of creation, in every thought and every dream. It is present in each atom and in all the connections between the atoms. It is a living network of light that sustains all of life.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sunset, Saguaro National Park – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Deep Ecology is rooted in a perception of reality that goes beyond the scientific framework to an intuitive awareness of the oneness of all life, the interdependence of its multiple manifestations and its cycles of change and transformation. When the concept of the human spirit is understood in this sense, its mode of consciousness in which the individual feels connected to the cosmos as a whole, it becomes clear that ecological awareness is truly spiritual. Indeed the idea of the individual being linked to the cosmos is expressed in the Latin root of the word religion, religare (to bind strongly), as well as the Sanskrit yoga, which means union.
~ Fritjof Capra
Winter Brook – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Watching their cycles of growth, shedding of leaves, and re-flowering in the spring, people have long perceived trees as powerful symbols of life, death, and renewal. Since the beginning of time, humans have had a sense that trees are sentient beings just like us, that they can feel pain, that they bleed when they are hurt. Trees even look like us. People have a trunk; trees have arms. And so we innately feel a deep connection to them.
Many people say they can feel a tree’s vibrational energy when placing their hand upon its bark. With their deep roots, trees carry significant grounding energy. We naturally feel peace and serenity when walking in the shade of trees or on a forest trail.
~ Judith Shaw
Samanea Saman Tree Branches, Thailand – photo from bigstockphoto.com
Ritual for Creating A Home Altar
One of the ways that people in every setting can honor the sacred as part of daily living is to create an altar for their home. An altar need not be elaborate or expensive. It is a place in your home that you designate as a place of honor and respect, a place where you take the time to acknowledge the spirit of your home, thanking it for the gifts it offers you, and recognizing that it is part of the same life force as you.
Here’s an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the ritual.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
Honoring the Spaces You Enter Guided Meditation
Offering Blessings Guided Meditation
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