There is a profound healing that occurs when we remember and connect with the consciousness of our only life support system.
I call this biomembering: bio (life) and membrum, meaning part of a group, a field, room, limb, organ or penis. It is the relationship between us and life, inside and out, physical, sexual and spiritual, as individuals and as a community. it is how we relate with Life.
SEPARATION
We are used to thinking of ourselves as solid separate individuals yet nothing could be further from the physical and energetic truth.
Our psychological viewpoint is now as antiquated as the flat earth theory. Our bodies are more than two thirds water and even our densest structures show fluidity at the cellular level. At the atomic level we are more space than matter. If we were to squeeze all the space out of our atoms we would be tiny, about the size of the head of a pin. We are not as solid as we think.
And as for separate, 99.9% of all our DNA is the same as every other human being. Only 0.1% of our DNA makes us appear separate from anyone else! And the majority of our DNA is the same as other animals, plants and even mushrooms, the oldest life form on this planet.
Consider the air you breathe, created from sunlight by every green leaf, flowing to you and out again, to be breathed in by other people and animals all over the earth and finally reabsorbed by those same plants and trees. The water that constitutes the majority of your body falls as rain and snow, seeps through the earth to rivers and groundwater where we harness it and drink it. Then it flows back out to sea to evaporate and cycle down again. This water flows through ALL living things.
BIOMIMICRY
In the search for life sustaining manufacturing, transportation and energy processes, biomimicry is leading the way.
There are new applications of nature's incredible structures and processes being found today as we desperately seek the means to continue our survival as a species. Life has already solved these problems in ways that are more elegant, non-polluting and better than anything we have come up with in our technological brilliance.
Methods of farming that are more productive and sustainable than our petrochemical farms. Animals that hold the keys to finding the medicines we need in the vast array of plants in the rainforests and oceans. Organic glues that work in water, fibers stronger than kevlar and iridescent paints without heavy metals and toxic pigments. Computers that are made of carbon not silica and process information with exquisitely diverse designs. These are just some of the wonders emerging from the union of our most advanced sciences with the greatest scientist of all, Mother Nature. I am hopeful and very inspired by the evolution of consciousness that is happening in these arenas.
ECO-PSYCHOLOGY
New fields of study including eco-psychology are merging environmental awareness with psychological healing.
When we really ponder the web of life, we realize we are so connected to each other and to all of life that there is only tragic consequences to think otherwise. We still have a long way to go to address the reductionism and adversarial attitudes of our times to restore the industrialized human psyche to its natural rightful relationship with this world. Or perhaps it is as close as a step through the doorway of the heart?
INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY
There is now a growing movement called industrial ecology, which recognizes that economics and ecosystems are essentially the same, using energy to transform raw materials into products.
Having sponsored industrial, business, cultural and religious values that saw the Earth as limitless, western society viewed the Earth as essentially there for our consumption. Now the full costs of what we have been doing to ourselves and the environment are being included in the economic process.
There are fresh incentives being formulated for businesses to go green, not just because it is the competitive thing to do and they could go to jail if they don't do it. It is also the right thing to do and consumers are responding. Now that's my version of sacred shopping! Some major American corporations are leading the way, consulting with biologists and environmental scientists to understand natural economics.
TERRA PSYCHOLOGY
Another emerging idea in the west, is that places have souls and that these energies infuse us and effect us.
Indigenous peoples have always appreciated this fact and garnered knowledge and wisdom to honor their relationships with the land. Places became healing centers and sacred sites whilst others were known to harbor evil spirits and avoided. Just because it was described as a subjective experience, in the past it was dismissed as superstition and judged uncivilized. It seems so ironic to me. We are the ones who had been living in denial of ancient truths.
Indigenous peoples practice sustainable agriculture, giving thanks for the bounty of the land with offerings as well as gardening organically. The best food I have ever eaten was simple vegetable soup, grown in Andean soil that had been farmed and prayed over for thousands of years. It tasted of a love so alive that reverent silence was the only possible response!
Breathing in the air and all its miasmas, we now see an epidemic of asthma and lack of ability to feel the depth of what is happening around us. Throwing away our topsoil with destructive farming practices, there is a pervasive emptiness in our culture. We saturate ourselves with impure waters and scour our world with toxic cleaning products whilst wondering at the prevalence of splits within our souls and psychotics gone crazy. Concrete and tar keep us separate from the substance of our support and just as widespread depression is a symptom of isolation.
Terrapsychology explores the ways we absorb the spiritual properties of the environment around us (whether we are aware of it or not) as our very souls and psyches are penetrated by the unhappiness or the delights of the spiritual consciousness of the places where we live. This is reflected in our feeling bodies as well as our physical bodies.
Is it any wonder that so many people feel afraid, as if there is vaguely (and at time not so vaguely) something wrong all the time. Constant concerns about personal safety or national security may just be appropriate given the way the Earth is responding to the way we have treated Her. With ever increasing frequencies of violent hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes, perhaps our psychological disturbances and spiritual agonies are not just ours alone. What if the pervasive feelings of conflict that beleaguer our hearts and relationships are also those of the souls of our own backyards, the very Earth we forgetfully walk upon every day, crying into us to make amends?
IT IS ALREADY TOO LATE
There is a wealth of information available about making eco-friendly choices and what can be done to arrest climate change. However recent findings say it is already too late.
At a high-level academic conference on global warming at Exeter University in England in December 2008, it was announced that carbon emissions in the last eight years have risen much faster than anyone thought possible, driven mainly by the coal-fueled economic boom in the developing world. The current situation is so bad that even the previous worst case scenarios are now considered gross underestimates. The forests and oceans are already saturated and cannot absorb the increasing CO2. We are in for major climate changes and soon.
We need a shift in consciousness and we need it fast. It is time to take full individual responsibility for every energy consuming choice we make and put utmost pressure on corporations and governments at all levels to respond NOW. Check out 350.org.
THE URGENT, LOVING RESPONSE
If we fully consider the implications of our radically changing Earth, it becomes obvious that we need to align with the spiritual consciousness of the planet in order to become the most adaptable and responsive creatures we can become in order to survive the coming changes. Under the pressure of the imminent, human beings have an amazing capacity to respond to crisis and I see evidence of that around me. The serious existential questions about "What I am I going to do with my life?" take on a whole new definition when considered in the light of our rapidly changing Home.
It has been my experience and those I am working with that the spiritual consciousness of life is just waiting for us to pay attention to it so that IT can bring us into greater alignment with what is natural, healthy and loving, under any conditions. It is the best guide you can have.
Life feels its way to creation so by remembering on a feeling level our original connection with our own soul and that of this world, we can come into relationship with the consciousness that provides for our every need and experience the most profound awakening to the illusion of separation. All we need to do is set our intentions, focus our attention deeply into the heart, relax and listen.
When we are ready, life is waiting for us to help resolve our deepest fears and greatest hopes. Imagine addressing your separation anxieties from this perspective. Imagine feeling safe in this world, deeply at peace with yourself and your life in amongst all this change. The bliss we seek is already here.
Life does have the answers we are searching for and our task is to ask the right questions and then pay attention, like a lover excitedly awaiting the arrival of her beloved. Relax, soften, become still ... and listen, with all your heart.
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