Cosmology includes spiritual principles and practices from a broad range of disciplines: primal religions, shamans, eco-spiritualists, biologists, and mystical quantum physicists all of whom are integrally woven into the tapestry of understanding our connectedness with the Universe, planet Earth and all sentient beings.
Primal tribes have always revered the land as their source of plenty and abundance. Our ancestors have taught us varied and diverse lessons of the skies, the land and its people which today we accept as part of our evolutionary DNA. Earth is holy to all because it is the common ground which, at the most basic level, is the very source of life itself. And as common ground, it affords us a place to reach out, understand, and appreciate our interconnectedness and interdependence with one another.
Earth Teach Me to Remember
Earth teach me stillness, as the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering, as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility, as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me caring, as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage, as the tree which stands all alone.
Earth teach me limitation, as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom, as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation, as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration, as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself, as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness, as dry fields weep with rain.
Ute, North America
The very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So we’re all connected with each other biologically, to the Earth chemically, and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kind of cool. That makes me smile, and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we’re better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We’re in the universe and the universe is in us.
Neil de Grasse Tyson
Five Steps to Reawakening:
Surrender: We give up trying to force our will through the use of ego. We surrender to being a member in the whole community of life and accept its rights, privileges and responsibilities.
Decision: We decide to turn our life purpose and our ego will over to the Originating Mystery for the good of the interdependent whole.
Confession: We release our shame and guilt about our past actions, attitudes and thoughts replacing them with compassion, honor and respect for ourselves and others.
Restitution: We become willing to make amends for our ignorant actions to ourselves, all other species and Earth, herself.
Service: We are committed becoming an example of what it means to be a member in a planetary community recognizing our interconnectedness and interdependence.