Communing with Nature

Chapter 1

"Nature seemed to me full of wonders,
and I wanted to steep myself in them.
Every stone, every plant, every single thing
seemed alive and indescribably marvelous.
I immersed myself in nature
crawled, as it were,
into the very essence of nature."
C.G. Jung Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Making Tea

March 16, 1997. My plan for this particular morning is to prepare for my upcoming "Nature and Psyche" workshop in Florida. I wake up early with the following dream: I'm observing an outdoor nature workshop. The participants are standing in a circle in an open grassy area which is itself encircled by majestic old oak trees. In silent ceremony, the workshop leader goes around placing what appears to be a medicine bag, a pouch in which talismans are placed, around the neck of each participant. I 'm startled when I recognize that the pouches are actually tea bags. At that startled moment of recognition, I wake up feeling bewildered. Reflecting on the dream, I remain mystified until my thoughts land on what you do with tea bags. Ah ha! I go to my copy of Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary and look up the word steep.

From the dictionary, I read the following definitions of the word steep: 1. to soak in, to soften, to cleanse, to extract some constituent. 2. to drench, saturate, imbue (to impregnate or inspire). 3. to immerse in with some pervading, absorbing or stupefying (the power to overwhelm with amazement, astound, astonish) influence or agency: an incident steeped in mystery.

By exploring the definitions of the word steep, the message of the dream became amazingly clear. My dream had given me a wonderful metaphor for participating in nature activities. You, the participant, are the tea bag. Your skin is the permeable membrane. You are to be immersed in nature and soak it in. You will be softened, cleansed. You will become imbued, impregnated, and inspired by mother nature. Immersing yourself in the all-pervading presence of nature serves as the catalyzing power to influence you in astounding ways, to overwhelm you with amazement. You will have incidents of being steeped in mystery.

The making of tea is a process of physical transformation. Unless the teabag is immersed in water, nothing happens. Without participating in the activities, without immersing yourself in the physical presence of nature, nothing will happen. There will be no transformation. You may learn about the process, you may have read the cookbook, but you will produce no meals. I myself have read self-help books and skipped over the activities.

To be transformed, you must take yourself in your permeable membrane outdoors and soak it in. You will need to plan special occasions to go outside and do the activities. Experiment with them. Repeat the ones that work for you. Try them in many combinations, in many seasons, in many places, in many moods, in small doses and large. My greatest hope would be that the essence of these activities becomes habitual, enabling you to benefit from a more harmonious relationship with nature. Immersed in the fluid presence of nature, you will become affluent, enriched by her many gifts. You will awaken into the fullness of Life. So be it.

from Chapter 10
Landscapes as Mirrors for
Self-Understanding
Sky

"The Sky is the daily bread of the eyes."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Most of us live in cities where the view of the heavens is blocked by ceilings, city lights by night, and smog by day. However, these practical barriers do not provide sufficient explanation as to why so many people spend little or no time contemplating the vast reaches of the sky. Stargazing may not be a popular activity for many because it can be profoundly disturbing as well as profoundly inspiring. Blasé Pascal experienced it this way, "The eternal silence of these spaces strikes me with terror . . . When I consider the short extent of my life swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the small space that I fill or even see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces unknown to me and which know me not, I am terrified and astounded to find myself here and not there." In moments like this, illusions that have provided us with a comforting sense of self-importance can be shattered in ways that make us feel as insignificant as a speck of dust.

The story of Galileo provides us with an excellent example of how we resist having our self-importance shattered. For centuries, Western Civilization lived securely within a worldview that placed the earth at the center of the universe with all the heavenly bodies moving about it in perfect circular orbits. When Galileo pointed his telescope towards the night sky, he found evidence to support the Copernican theory that the sun, not the earth, was at the center. However, this theory was unacceptable to church doctrine which required humans to be at the center of God’s creation. When Galileo persisted and published his ideas, in 1633 the Catholic Church sentenced the almost 70-year-old Galileo to prison for life. The Church also required that he sign a document disclaiming any belief in the Copernican point of view. If he had refused, he probably would have been burned at the stake as was Giordona Bruno in 1600.

While our beliefs about our place in the universe generate much discussion and controversy, few, if any, would dispute the claim that the sky is a source of awe and wonder. We’ve been fascinated with the heavens from the beginning. Our oldest written records, including petroglyphs, cave drawings and clay tablet inscriptions contain references to lunar cycles, constellations, comets, and eclipses. Our earliest civilizations, whether the Babylonians in Mesopotamia or the Maya and Aztec in the Americas, developed surprisingly accurate calendars based on their sophisticated knowledge of the seasonal movements of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. This knowledge was linked to the earth for practical applications in agriculture and navigation.

Some of our first great architectural structures were linked to the heavens. In the 1960’s, astronomer Gerald Hawkins found evidence to suggest that Stonehenge was a complex observatory that could be used to predict solar and lunar eclipses. Another megalithic circle at Callanish on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland was situated in the surrounding landscape so that it served as a vast lunar calendar. The Incas in South America laid out their civilization with its Sun Temple at the center. There were 328 straight lines, called "ceques," which radiated out from this center. Many of the alignments of these ceques, which matched the number of days in their calendar, were discovered to have astrological significance.

Peoples everywhere on our planet, whether Eskimo, Bushmen, Navaho, or Greek, have believed throughout their history in a multitude of sky spirits and deities. The tremendous number and variety of myths and folklore generated by our encounters with what nature presents to us from above seem as boundless as the heavens themselves.

Stargazing provides us with an opportunity to experience nature on its grandest scale. Let’s look at what is so unique and special about directing our gaze towards the sky. The immensity of the view provides the awe-inspiring and humbling impact that can send powerful currents of reli