“I walk the earth with my feet deeply rooted in the soil. My heart beats in unison with the clouds, the thunder and the rain. As I give myself to the moment I become the tide that ebbs and flows. I am the sun that rises and the moon that dances with the stars in the night sky. I am the pain and suffering of our planet, choking on the poisons in the soil and sick from the polluted waters. I am the wind in the trees and yet my consciousness is also embedded in the eternal rocks. This morning whispered to me and my soul answered the calling by being present. When I am still and listen to the whispers of the inner worlds, the language can be heard, seen and tasted in every moment. An ancient language beyond this time and place. In this state, no separation exists. Everything is holy, everything is One.”
– Journal excerpt.
Within each of us is the nature soul, an aspect of ourselves that is rooted within the fabric of the living earth. The nature soul is an embodiment of the continual remembrance of our earthly mother. It is the inner silent witness to the earth’s sacred nature. It is a part of us that is the living connection to the soul of the earth, the animamundi as Carl Jung called it. It is the remembrance that we are a spark within Her soul and an inseparable part of Her being. This nature soul remembers its own essential nature, the sacred oneness of earth, the sacred wholeness underlying all creation. It is a living connection to the universal presence in all things great and small.
The nature soul is present in each of us. The heart of nature is alive inside of us because we are nature. This is the umbilicus that makes us human. We commune with this nature soul when we connect to the presence of intelligence in nature, when we go to nature in a sacred way. Through deep longing we can find the thread that leads us back to the source, where the nature soul lies present inside of us. When we lower our heads in humility to this inner presence we can invoke the potency and power of this ancient archetype and invoke the ancient language of the nature soul again.
In these days where ecological destruction cascades into apocalyptic scenarios of the collapse of entire ecosystems it has become more important than ever for us to reconnect with our nature souls, to enter into conversation with the wilderness within, to trace that thread of our nature back to its source. The connection to this thread of the sacred in nature is something that our indigenous ancestors took for granted in their daily lives which were so intimately close to the earth, but in today’s world we have entire generations who are lacking a sacred connection to nature, who have not been able to experience a fundamental initiation into the ways of the wilderness.
The Green Man
The nature soul is the archetype of the Green Man, that part of us who is wild, green, born from the earth. It is the wilderness within. This archetype stands at an ancient doorway of the inner worlds that leads us back to the sacred origin of creation. The archetype of the Green Man is our higher self reflected in nature, it is the part of us that is an earthling, a child of the earth, made from the very body of this green being that we live within.
Through love and attention we can grow this connection to our nature soul and invoke the reflection of the Green Man in this world. It happens when we are in the forest or on the mountain, but it can also happen by just simply sitting under a tree and being present. Establishing a connection with nature is an innate part of being human and She is present in every living thing, waiting to be seen, spoken to, listened to. And even in the complete absence of nature it can happen simply by facing the vast inner landscape of the wilderness inside ourselves. We need to fall in love with the earth again both inside ourselves and outside. We need to do this whilst at work, whilst in the midst of this civilisation and it’s madness, so that we can hold a certain note in the world. The nature soul needs to enter this world in the very places it has been most forgotten.
When we enter into a sacred relationship with nature, in a state of loving receptiveness, in a state of humility and respect, we create a living thread between our small self and the nature soul. This connection creates a certain quality of light inside us, it makes a place inside us where this light can be present. Just like in nature, this light touches seeds and awakens their potential to grow, so too does this soft light of nature touch something inside of us, nourish it and awaken its potential to grow. Nature wants to make this connection, it is the way that things are, the desire for growth, connection and unfolding of divine potential are Her ways. The tendrils of her longing to connect with us only need that fertile place in our hearts to take root and flourish.
When we make space for this light to be present inside of us then we become a place in this world where there can be an intercession of the divine, where the nature soul can be present in this world and can hold a certain note of the expression of divinity. The intercession of the divine needs conscious human beings to be the gateway through which the divine intercedes in this world of form. Said differently, the gods need our conscious participation in this world in order for them to be present within it. When we invoke the presence of the Green Man and create a connection to this ancient and primal aspect of our being we become a place where the gods, the divine intercession, can be in this world again.
It is especially vital that we remember the nature soul in these times of ecological devastation because it is only through remembrance of the nature soul that we will become conscious of the sacred possibilities for a future renewal of the earth. Only in this state of receptive consciousness will we be shown the seeds that are needed to rebirth this dying civilisation. It may be too late to stop the impending ecocide, but we can still nourish the seeds that will flourish in the future.
The remembrance of the nature soul gives us access to a living path which helps us find a way home again, back inside, back to the origins of life where we can begin again. The path is a spiralling perambulation in that it guides us towards our future spiritual practice, for a time that is yet to come when the earth will be renewed once again, but also it takes us back in time to the primordial moment of creation. By journeying inwards, into the depths of the earth whilst the outer world is in turmoil we return to the source of creation, to the nourishment of the fertile depths. We return to a place where stories of the future are being formed, stories that will show us how navigate these times. This is the circumambulation of the sacred and it leads us inwards again.
Dissolving the dark spell
This act of remembering the nature soul also has an obvious gift for the present: it is the one thing that can help us disentangle ourselves from the dark spell of materialism.
Our global culture is in the throes of a deep mental illness imaged as a spell that has fundamentally altered our collective perception of the divinity of life. This spell is insidious and all-pervasive. It has infiltrated nearly all aspects of our life. There are few places in the world today that are not infiltrated by this dark magic and yet we seem blind to its presence in the world.
This spell is like an underlying fracture in our collective human perception. It has changed our ability to see the pure light that rests inside matter. With less light, with the fracturing of the light, we see less clearly and it becomes more difficult to witness the true nature of creation.
The true nature of creation is that it is a living being and an embodied face of God.
The spell has had a negative effect on the innate connection to our nature soul and in so doing it has caused us to forget how to see the presence of God in our beloved Mother Earth. This has allowed humanity to treat the earth as a material object which exists to fulfil our desires for material goods. This means we have related to the earth without respecting her sacred nature and therefore our actions have desecrated the earth.
This spell on our consciousness continues to grow stronger too. There was a time when it appeared that there may be an opportunity for a shift in consciousness towards a more balanced world, but instead things have become far worse. The spell of materialism appears to have become an autonomous entity that is thriving and growing. The signs that this magic is reaching its death grip are being witnessed in ecological devastation of a scale that we are now calling “irreversible”. Now we live in the time of the Anthropocene, where our very presence on this planet is leading to its destruction. We have become the antithesis of life itself.
As the spell continues to desecrate the bonds of love that are woven between humanity and Mother Earth it is as though it looks for a place in the subtle realms where it it can become a permanent veil that will shadow and further fracture the light that flows between God and humanity. In this fatal game of smoke and mirrors the dark magic seems to be finding its death grip. It has almost permanently stamped its power upon the psyche of humanity, capturing the light, fragmenting it, changing how we hear and relate to that primordial note of creation. But our connection to the nature soul can reverse this dark magic, unravel it, dissolve its grip on our lives. If not collectively, then at least within small circles of conscious caretakers who will hold the light of the earth in their hearts, sing the songs of creation.
There was a time when every human being was conscious of the oneness of the earth, when we related to the earth as a living goddess, a sacred being who was the face of God. But we no longer have the daily practice of connecting to the sacred nature of life, the practice of morning prayer, of listening to the voices of the birds at dawn, the giving thanks for a new day; these are all rituals that nourish the soul of the earth. Humanity no longer nourishes these threads of love which allowed the earth to give birth to new life, to new undulations of the unfolding pattern of consciousness. Each one of us that makes place for witnessing the sacred in daily life holds a vital connection that is needed in these times. It does not need to become a recruitment campaign, it does not need to become a proselytizing, we don’t need any more people attempting to convince others of the truth. That is a fundamentalism that is not needed. It simply needs to be an awareness held silently in the heart and maintained every day through prayers of love and connection to the earth. This simple act can hold so much light for the soul of the world in these trying times.
“The songs of creation weave the threads of the sacred into existence. These threads are nurtured by our remembrance of the sacred nature of life, the remembrance that we are on this planet to be guardians of the earth.”
The sacred songs
Where once there were songs that brought the light in creation alive, the spell of materialism now drowns the song of the earth with its own dark lullaby. Our attention has been so utterly diverted from the sacred that we have forgotten the old instinctual song lines that brought life into existence.
The birds remember the songs and they greet the rising and setting sun with this remembrance every day. Their symphony of song, their prayer of remembrance at dawn, is their continual remembrance of the song that is at the heart of creation. But like the dissipating bird life, the songs of creation are receding into obscurity. Where there once was life, bright and abundant, now it feels like there is an absence of its presence. In nature where there once was a symphony of birdsong there is now a hollowness to their music that speaks of what has been lost.
The songlines of creation weave the threads of the sacred into existence. These threads are nurtured by our remembrance of the sacred nature of life, the remembrance that we are guardians of the earth. These are sacred threads of consciousness and wisdom that stretch far back into the original, primordial moment of creation. These are the golden threads of the unfolding of consciousness that have been nurtured by the mystics and shamans since the beginning of time. They know that these threads are the substance that holds the sacred balance of life intact. They understand that if these threads are not nurtured then the very fabric of creation is affected. This is because the life force that is continually being born into this world from the planes of light needs these threads to be present in order for it to root itself in this world. The sacred threads of creation are like an umbilicus that hold the light and bring it into this world of form, allow it to unfold in this world and nourish what is continually being born.
The songs are the prayers that incubate the transmission of the light in these golden threads and they nourish creation. Through these songs, the shamans and mystics know how to nurture these threads of light that emerge from the source of creation, they know how to build the light bodies in the subtle world that will allow the light to manifest in this world in a sacred manner, aligned with its true purpose. These subtle light bodies are woven from the threads that originate from the primal source of being stretching all the way back to the beginning of time. On a deep mystical level it is these threads, these songlines, nurtured and woven by the shaman and mystic, that hold all of life in balance.
There must always be a nurturing of the energies that emerge from the centre of creation. This is the primordial place where light enters this world of form and it is filled with divine potential, unaffected by the collective psyche of humanity. This is why it has always been such an important aspect of indigenous cultures that we are continually in conversation with the earth whose centre is the essence from which all life is born. The light that is born into creation is in need of nurturing, holding, allowing it to emerge into the world to its full potential. It must be allowed to stretch to the four corners of creation and be woven into all aspects of the world.
Apocalypse
If humanity continues to forget that the earth is sacred, that we are guardians of nature, then our current civilisation will simply come to an end. When humanity forgets its primary role of custodianship over nature then our beloved Mother Earth will forget us too. She will mimic us, forgetting her role as nurturing mother and she will reflect our own forgetfulness. The Mother Earth will turn into the dark goddess, Kali, violently aborting us from her holarchy. This is simply the natural order of life. By all accounts this is where we are now, our time has passed and we will witness the darkness of the earths psyche. As this happens, as the darkening unfolds, the forgetfulness deepens, our current civilisation will end and a new one will be born. But during the death of this current civilisation we are being given the seeds for the rebirth of the future.
The true meaning of the word apocalypse stems from the greek word apokálupsis, which means disclosure or revelation, because when a civilisation dies the mystic and shaman are given the seeds for the rebirth of a new beginning. They alone hold the answers to helping humanity avoid a deeper catastrophe, but they are also given the seeds for the rebirth of what has come to an end.
These times remind me of a prophecy I heard when meeting with Credo Mutwa, the high Sanusi and spiritual leader of the indigenous Zulu tribe of Southern Africa. We were speaking about the world and it’s uncertain future and he told me that he saw the African tribes leaving this earth to continue their evolution on another planet. He went on to explain that this world had become too desecrated for the African tribes to complete their soul work here. Their way of life was not respected, the simple fact that everyone was being forced to become a tax-paying, possession-owning consumer tore apart the very threads of community life. In the late 1990’s this seemed difficult to comprehend, but in these days of global ecocide I wonder whether this was a prophetic metaphor of the future he saw unfolding. If there are no cultures left to nurture and sustain the threads of the earth lore intact, then what hope is there for a sleeping humanity to remain harmoniously present in the global ecosystem?
The Anthropocene is our current era and it signals the time of the apocalypse. This is the time of revelation, the time to pack up our things, forget this culture of materialism and move inwards. As we move inwardly, spiral into ourselves more deeply and forget this world, there we will find the silence that rests at the centre of creation, where it is being born anew.
It is time, As Credo said, to leave this world and start anew elsewhere. That ‘elsewhere’ is within.
The Gift of our Nature Soul
Credo Mutwa was speaking about this other self that rests in the greenery of the forest, the gentle nature spirit inside of us that has not been given a place to be present in this world. It is our own indigenous way of knowing that looks into the eyes of the great Mother and feels the cry of deep pain in Her heart. As environmentalists we witness the outer destruction of ecosystems but as children of Mother Earth we can feel the inner desecration of Her being. It is a deep and terrible pain that has forced our nature soul deep into the recesses of our consciousness.
The nature soul needs to witness the desecration of the beloved earth, needs to be present and needs to feel the deep sense of loss at this time in human evolution. This is an act of witnessing, a vantage point from which we can be present with the beloved earth in her suffering. It is a compassionate act, an act of love, to be present and to witness whilst this civilisation comes to an end.
By invoking the presence of the nature soul to witness the end of an era, we are also pointing our inner compass back to where our soul originates, to the primordial garden where life is endlessly unfolding and renewing itself. We follow the longlines inward and we invoke the distant memory where the earth was a sacred goddess and humanity were devotees, implicitly conscious of our divine role.
Our ancestors knew. Their sacred ceremonies remembered. They taught each generation to relate to the earth in an act of love, head bowed in humility, honour and the deepest respect for that which is truly sacred. We all originate from this sacred tribe, we all know this nature soul in our hearts which recognises that life is a divine consciousness unfolding and reflecting upon itself, a consciousness that can only be called a supreme state of primordial love. Their wisdom taught us to act as children of the earth, caretakers of this Garden of Eden.
Only through this inner journey, the journey inside oneself where we return to our source, where we must confront the depth and extent of our complicity in the damage done to our beloved Mother Earth, only there do we find the light that is present inside us and return with it to offer it back to Mother Earth, for her sake.
I believe that when we remember the nature soul we are each given a gift that is a special secret held in Her heart. It is a memory that we are both mystic and shaman, both of this world and the transcendent spiritual realm. It is something with roots that grow back to the first moment of creation where our mother was a spark that emerged into the nothingness before time. In remembering there is awakening and in awakening there is a fertilization of the vision that was prophesied by ancient women, many moons ago, that a new “Unknown She” would rise up and return to walk and dance love back into the earth. It speaks to us as a motion in the fabric of the earth’s psyche, a murmuring that the shamans interpret in the winds and unravel in their songs, the dawn chorus of the birds that greet the sun with their prayers. It contains that same primordial spark of the first dance of existence. It is something so profoundly mysterious but utterly simple and unseen to those whose gaze is fixated on the material world.
And in this deeply significant time of transition, this time of immense ecological crisis, there is a brief moment of possibility for us to receive this gift, to learn to sing to our Mother Earth again. For to know this secret is to understand life’s potential for infinite renewal. It is the secret lore that our ancient ancestors held in their hearts. It reminds us that the present moment is a moment of potential, a small portal through which a new light can enter the world and illuminate the God-given possibilities of this time. This moment offers us a shamanic practice for bringing the light into the Earth. Our nature soul is this gift given back to us in this time of need.