Listening to the Earth
It is beautiful and powerful how places talk. They have a whole history, millennia of feet/creatures walking the Earth with their damage and their healing. Cycles of death and rebirth. It is incredible how we could ever think we own it, how dare we say ‘this is our land’, as if we had rights over it. We build, then tear down, without ever asking the land. And yet the land is quiet, and takes the abuse, it stands still, pleasing us (most of the time). It has seen generations and generations of fools and wizards claim it as their own, and she is still there. Unbothered? Holy.
My mind is building this thought now of how certain parts of the land let themselves be tamed, not opposing too much resistance: cities for example. But then some others (cliff edges, mountains..) they are the spikey edges of the lands personality, too wild to conquer, too unpredictable to even bother. How can we conquer land if we will always be subject to the weather? That will always conquer us, we are completely at the mercy of it. High winds, high tides, torrencial rains, the beating sun, tsunamis.. It is the Earth’s weapon, her Mars, her way of actioning. When I said earlier: it pleases us. Yes, she does, but she also gets bored of our god complex and strikes down with full force every now and again. “Do you actually think you are in charge?” she screams destroying houses, bridges, families, anything on her way..
So what happened first I wonder? Did we get in her way? The reactions, ‘natural disasters’… (I don’t love this phrase, it seems too human sided). Did all of this already happen and we just got in the way? Did we build our homes, set up our families, in places we shouldn’t have? Was this already the way of the world?
Or did we claim ownership of something that wasn’t ours and she told us: ‘oh no, fuck no, this is mine’. She didn’t want to have to react but she did, we claimed ownership and pissed her off.
I sense the answer is both, that she reacts to us but also acts on her own accord, that both ends of the spectrum are true. As a cyclical creature it is in her nature to destroy and create, to express herself, her femininity, her power. Because where the land splits open we now have a gorge and where the fury of a volcano comes to surface we now have fertile soil.
However, it is also a reaction, an ancient protest, a refusal to subdue. The ultimate display of power. Tender the land, chant to it, before you destroy it. Work with her not against her.
The lake is crystal clear so you can see. The water will reflect all you ought to be.
The wind carries the song of a thousand years, open your heart and listen my dear.
The earth we walk, so many have treadded. It sinks with the weight of pain unbeared.
Fire rages and shows the anger, but letting it burn is not the answer.
All elements must coexist in balance, spirit/humanity being the fifth one. Once we realise we are part of something bigger we can flow into harmony.
It is stillness that must be reached, to really hear the roar of the sea; the whistle of the wind; the hum of the rocks and the crackling of the fire. What is it saying? What song does it carry? Listen, in stillness, slowly revealing the answer.
I sense now how the wind, the snow, the sea.. are almost like ‘demigods’ of the 4 elements. The main 4 elements just exist, they just are. And then the ‘demigods’ do the work, they give it movement, history, they carry the messages, in the form, in the shape of an element. It is an interesting thought to imagine the journey to becoming an element, let’s say AIR: the path to becoming the purest expression of it. How it would journey through breezes, wind, storms: land storms and sea storms.. It would inevitably touch other elements too as it is all too interconnected: storms with sideways rain or those furious winds that just spin in circles, picking up dust, sand or anything that was previously grounded. Tornados, cyclones, almost self destructive, but not quite.
Conversation with The Earth’s Consiousness
