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Dreaming the Earth
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A
meditation for communing with each kingdom of the natural world.
By Mara Freeman
"I am the wind that blows on the sea,
And I am the wave of the ocean"
--Amergin the Bard, Middle Irish
Celtic people have always had a profound awareness of kinship with the
living
world. We can learn from them how to return to a harmonious relationship
with
nature. The following meditation is particularly effective when practiced
outside on the grass.
* * *
Close your eyes and send your consciousness down through the room, down
through the floor of the building, and down, deep down, into the earth. Be
aware of
the mass of rock that lies beneath the soil-shale, quartz, sandstone,
granite; the black, white, and red-shot through with bands of minerals,
darkly
glittering; crystals that shine like stars within the stones ..Let your
consciousness become one with the mineral kingdom: You might choose to
become a
mountain
as old as the planet itself, once part of the seabed, thrown up by
unspeakable
forces now stilled, enormously, timelessly rooted in the earth, its head in
the stars...Or a minute grain of sand, one among trillions and trillions,
endlessly shifting, sifting, with the ocean
tides .Or become a stone. the stone people are alive - it's just that their
hearts beat slower than ours .
Now become aware of the plant kingdom: algae and seaweeds, forests of kelp,
grasses blowing in a savanna wind, yellow and orange lichens on a rock in a
wood, prickly pears, an oak wood, a rain forest blooming with delicate
orchids,
vines hanging with fruit . Become one with the plant kingdom now - soft
green
moss on a rock by a stream, a mountain strawberry, a wild rose.....what does
it
feel like to be blown softly by the wind..or to split your husk and feel
your
seeds fall to the ground? And now become aware of the animal kingdom..
listen
to the voices of the wild: the roar of the tiger, the belling of the
stag,
the howl of the wolf; the cries of owls and the tapping of woodpeckers, the
whirring of birds' wings, the padding of soft paws...become one now with the
animal kingdom, with the salmon leaping upstream, the fox gliding through
the
night, or the snake shedding its skin.feel what your new body is like and
what it
feels like to creep, walk, climb, run or fly in free motion..
And now become aware of the human kingdom .you are standing on two feet
.notice how different that feels: you can stand like a stone, grow like a
plant,
move like an animal, but you can now create with your mind and your hands
and
you can sing and dance and dream in your heart and make that dream real upon
the
earth .and when you are ready, slowly open your eyes and come back to the
room.
The next time you take a walk in nature, practice this kind of `floating
your
consciousness' into the different life forms you encounter, from a blade of
grass to a cloud in the sky. You will find this not only increases your
appreciation and gratitude for the extraordinary universe we live in but
also will
give you a sense of belonging, which acts as a wonderful antidote to the
loneliness that often accompanies urban life.
Mara Freeman, M.A., British author, lecturer, and storyteller, is an
ArchDruidess in the Druid Clan of Dana.