Mother Earth and Tending to the Earth
“Any illness that the western doctors are unable to handle,
that even traditional healers are unable to handle,
that medicine we call Mother Earth, can handle anything.”
-Baba Mandaza
By Rose Zimmerman
John Trudell a native american rights activist and prolific speaker and orator has often said in his talks that the earth will continue on. That is something that has always stuck with me since I have first heard it, the earth will continue on. It sort of instantly replaces the idea that the earth needs unruly inhabitants, and will merely do what it has to do to perpetuate the grandness of its ecosystem with the neighboring planets and cosmos. Once the sun has risen, we waltz around one star as if we’ve never seen another!
These days, stepping out onto this concrete laden dirt, I feel like I’m lifting and moving about with what’s left from a broken frame, like the fractured parts of the earth are creating fractures in my skeletal structure. The disconnect from what truly matters, and the incessant noise. The degradation and exploitation of the earth as a harrowing reflection of what’s left of the feminine. How did humanity go this far down the well of delusion, how quickly the violence consumes, how virulent, pervasive, and unforgiving.
And yet, how quickly the rustling leaves shimmer in the golden afternoon light, how peaceful the tree branches sway this way and that way without intervention. Respect and reverence for life never invades the beauty that surrounds us. How loud the birds chirping and calling out my window, now, today! Run through the streets with joy, launch this broken frame into the blazing Sun and feel its light surround and engulf my spirit. Then, bask in its rays all day like it was your last day on earth, taste the salt from the shores sprays and laugh at this great illusion of man, of being human.
“Over thousands of years patriarchy has eclipsed a clear seeing of the feminine
not only by women themselves but by all regardless of gender,
and the depth of the feminine has been lost, its like a ghost at the edges of our conscious mind,
alongside that the masculine has atrophied into acceptable social shapes,
that rarely allowed for vulnerability, access to sharing of emotion, and deeper feeling and intuition.”
-Thanissara
Media Library: Dive Deeper
Daily Practices and Inspirational Talks on Tending to the Earth
Mother Nature’s Message
Interview with Baba Mandaza & Thanissara
In this interview with Baba Mandaza Kandemwa Mhondoro, Traditional Healer and holder of lion, water and earth spirits. Baba Mandaza shares that “Spirit is calling everyone, everywhere.”
From Patriarchy to Pachamama:
Reclaiming participatory belonging within the sacred web of life
by Thanissara
Thanissara shares stories and insights about our sacred relationship to the Earth. “Pachamama, meaning world mother, earth mother, goddess, she is the goddess, she is the I am, the I am, she’s everywhere, every breath, every piece of food that we ingest to sustain our life, the water.”
Book: Sacred Economics
by Charles Eisenstein
Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme—but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.
Take Back the Earth
by John Trudell
John Trudell shares stories of empowerment from systems of oppression and violence, emphasizing how fragile our relationship with the earth is today. “They want to break our spirit, they will do everything and anything to break our spirit, our will to live. We must learn to resist, we must learn to see, we must learn to look, we must learn to step out of this reactionary-ism.”
Return to Earth ~ Working with the Six Elements
by Ayyā Santacittā
Ayyā Santacittā shares insights about our inter-connectedness with the whole planet, and adapting to challenges and finding new ways of doing things as we meet the new global era. “Earth bodies, this body and the body of the planet are one process.”
Spring is in the air, and the natural world is singing it’s tune of colors in bloom.
Big Bear Retreat Center wishes you a healthy joyful spring!
