Befriending the Earth

“The universe we live in is not closed to us. We make all kinds of exchanges with it: physical, psychic and spiritual ones. Either consciously or unconsciously, we vibrate and breathe both with it and in it. But why then do humans so often feel like strangers here on earth? Because they are not aware of what they need to do for the earth to know them. The earth carries them and feeds them, but they come and go in every direction along its highways and byways without ever thinking about what they owe it.
Do you want the earth to get to know you, to be friends with you? When you go walking in nature, stop from time to time, bend down or sit on the ground, place your hand on it, stroke it and tell it, ‘O earth, my mother, how I appreciate your stability, your firmness and your generosity! By showing my respect, my gratitude and my love, I want to give back a little of all that you give me.’ And keep this contact with it for a moment.”

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov    Daily Meditations  

The photos in this post are of Stammer Park in Brighton, UK. Above is the Earthship which is the first carbon-free building to be built in the UK. I was there on a course called Nurture through Nature on Saturday so the Daily Meditation of yesterday was incredibly appropriate. I spent the day with a great group of people, walking, working and practicing mindfulness meditation in nature. The aim was to develop a greater connection with nature and the earth and it worked! I came home feeling really refreshed and recharged after a very stressful week at work.

The master has also explained how the earth is able to purify us through its ability to absorb and transform impurities. The following is from ‘A new Earth’:

The earth has the particular property of absorbing our impurities. It acts as a magnet to attract and soak up every kind of of dirt and impurity, and sends it down to be processed and transformed in its underground laboratories. You can see for yourselves how the earth absorbs and transforms all our waste and gives it back to us in the form of flowers and succulent fruits. This is why, whenever you feel weighed down by problems, anxieties or impurities, I advise you to give them to the earth. Make a little hole in the ground and put your fingers into it, then talk to the earth as to an intelligent, living being. asking it to relieve you of all that torments you. Say, ‘Oh Earth, my mother, you have given me all the elements of my physical body, and I thank you for them. And now I beg you to take away all the impurities that have been accumulating in me for years and to send them to your marvelous workshops and laboratories. Transform them into the purest elements and then send them back to me, so that I may accomplish my work in the world.’ To conclude you can recite the Cabbalistic formula I have already given you:

Taro-Tora-Tarota-Rotaro.

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov     A New Earth

For more on connecting with nature: The secret life of trees