WEAVING THE CONNECTIONS
The Newsletter of the Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine
Volume 9 Spring 2004 Number 4
By Loving Even As I Love
Eleanor Rae
At the urging of a dear friend, I am sharing with you two experiences, both of which occurred in the early ‘70’s during my communion reflections at daily liturgy (at that time I was working in religious education at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Ridgefield, Connecticut). On these occasions, I heard two very strong messages. The first was: "Make Me a people." This thoroughly mystified me. It had always been my understanding that it was only the Holy One who formed a community for Him/Herself. As I pondered the meaning of these words over the next several weeks, I then received a second message: "By loving even as I love." Instead of giving clarity, this second experience served only to deepen my mystification. I had always envisioned divine love to be perfect, while human love as only capable of being imperfect. Once, however, I was able (after many years) to give up that particular idea of perfection, I began to understand the meaning of the words I had received: We can approach a level of the kind of love given by the Divine, not through perfection, but through expansiveness and abundance. The Holy One’s love for people extends beyond the human; it includes the whole of creation. This is the love we are called to give in this precise moment in time within our Universe.
That type of love is now more critical than ever. A recent study was published in the Independent in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2004. This study, lead by Jeremy Thomas from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Dorset, involved about 20,000 naturalists who inspected the entire British landscape to compile three atlases of native birds, butterflies and wild plants. The study "revealed the strongest evidence yet that we are on the verge of a mass extinction of global wildlife—the sixth mass extinction in the history of life on Earth." The difference between the preceding extinctions and this one is that this time humans are the cause. But this also means that we have the power to turn the process around, a very large undertaking, but one that can be accomplished if each of us is willing to do her or his part.
Many may already have been doing all they can for the healing of the Earth. But if you are a person who has not yet and/or don’t know where to begin, may I offer a suggestion. Do make a covenant with another creature—living or "non-living." You can begin by going outdoors—if this is at all possible. Whatever your chosen place, let your spirit be open to hear the "voice" of another creature. Receptivity is the key. The "other" will somehow show itself to you. (For a detailed explanation for undertaking this ritualistic experience, please see Thinking Like A Mountain by Joanna Macy and John Seed). After this "showing," you may want to covenant—to enter into a special relationship with this creature.
May this be the beginning of a very rich relationship for both you and the creature, and of the making of a holy people by loving as the Divine loves.
Earth is my Home
Gene Marshall
The term "bioregional" points to human beings living in committed relationships to local regions of the natural planet.
A person or a group enters into the bioregional family of society builders when that person or group subscribes wholeheartedly to these simple statements:
Earth is my home. I am an Earthling.
A continent of Earth is my home.
A region of Earth is my home.
This fresh sense of home is simple, but it has implications:
The United States, Canada, or Mexico or some other nation is not my home; it is just my nation.
My state or province is not my home; it is just my state or province.
My zip-code district is not my home; it is just my zip-code district.
Western civilization is not my home. No civilization is my home; it is just my civilization.
If you are a tribal person, your tribe is not your home; it is just your tribe.
Tribal people have been bioregionalists compared to civilized people, but they are not bioregionalists because they are tribal. They are bioregionalists because they have honored all the living and inanimate beings in a specific region of the planet.
When we apply the bioregional sense of home to envisioning the future of human society, we do not see tribes or civilizations. We see a planetary confederation of semi-autonomous Earth-regions.
When we apply the bioregional sense of home to envisioning the future of political and economic systems, we do not see a global economy ruled by wealth and unrefereed by local regions of people. We see popular consensus-building beginning in each local region and extending into an Earth-sensitive governance of the entire economic playing field for all players across the whole planet.
When we apply the bioregional sense of home to envisioning the future of human cultures, we do not see planet-wide uniformities conceived by product advertisers. We see local families of plants, animals, and humans forming unique expressions of aliveness in each region of the planet.
Such a vision is basically simple, but it has far-reaching implications. It means shutting down in our own minds the dream of building a better civilization or the dream of returning to a new sort of tribal life. It means dreaming a new dream. This new dream is not something grandly idealistic; it is a realistic direction for avoiding untenable ecological disaster. While we may learn many lessons from a thousand centuries of tribal society and sixty centuries of civilization, we must now create something new. We must see both civilizational hierarchy and tribal intimacy as obsolete patterns of living that are no longer appropriate for the real situation in which we dwell. We must dream a new dream. Bioregionalsim is a name for that dream.
Gene Marshall, with his wife Joyce, is an active bioregionalist in the Upper Blackland Prairie. He may be reached at: jgmarshall@cableone.net. (A version of this article first appeared in the winter 2004 newsletter of the North American Coalition for Christianity and Ecology: "Earthkeeping News".)
Meditation—The Power of Green
Susanne Schaup
How can we understand what our senses fail to grasp? How is it that viridity is rooted in the sun? What makes Green bright and luminous in the cycle of being?
We took the natural verdure for granted. To our way of thinking, greenness was so ordinary, inexhaustible, and permanently available, we gave no thought to the consequences when we started to destroy it. Today, viridity, the Green of nature, has become most precious to us. It refreshes our eyes, it composes the air we breathe, it keeps the moisture in the ground, so that the soil does not dry out and is not blown away by the wind. Life-enhancing Green, so agreeable to the heart and the imagination. Heart meditations are based on the color of Green, to relieve sorrow, to take away pressure, to translate heaviness and oppression into a livable quality, some small greening hope. What else is hope but a certainty deep down in the heart that there will be an answer, that there will be ways and means, that life is stronger than death? There is a power hidden in viridity, the indefatigable, inexhaustible force of life pulsating in all things. It preserves the world, it maintains the planets in their orbits, it makes the electrons dance around the nucleus. It makes the blood circulate in our veins and turns every day into a new beginning. With every sunrise life, light and hope return. This is how Green is rooted in the sun, because nature requires the light of the sun to put on greenness, just as we need the warmth of the sun to overcome the dark, to think vibrant thoughts, to feel joy.
It is the power of Green that surrounds us tenderly, that opens the door to love. The power of Green is the power that does not violate, but convinces; the gentle force that splits the rock, because the living growth is stronger than insensible mater. In everyday life, we often neglect the power of Green, because our hearts are not in our daily pursuits. In our everyday life we are often insensitive to the divine mysteries, even in hours of joy and celebration, hours which have become rare and often do not deserve the name of a feast. And yet—when I look at the green leaflets unfolding in a glazed pot on the window sill, the power of Green is just as tangible as on a green meadow or in the fragrant woods. It is always there, even if I cannot feel it, when my heart is numb and my eyes are dull. God’s mysteries surround me at all times, in every leaf and blade of grass, in a laughing eye, in a word of love or a silent gesture of tenderness. There is not end to it, when I think about it. One mystery is woven into another, one spark of Green kindles another. I have a part in everything, and everything is part of me.
I often think that I am lonely, yet I am not. The love which I do not feel, the greening power which I cannot grasp still sustain me. It shaped my body and mind, it gave me the strength to pursue the work I am meant to do, so that love may be increased in the world. If I grow strong in the power of Green, I know that I can never be lonely. The sluggish heart, the paralyzed will the broken courage, the fear of love—all these evaporate in the sign of Green, absorbed as by the rays of the sun. I was not daring enough—as a woman, as a man. I was stingy with my viridity, until I realized that the treasure cannot increase unless it is given away.
Descend on us, greening power of life, pervade our whole being. Make us ready to receive your abundance, here in this world, in our everyday lives, as the nun Hildegard received it in the cell of a convent and wherever she went.
This meditation is taken from: Sophia: Aspects of the Divine Feminine: Past & Present (York Beach, ME: Nicolas-Hays, Inc., 1997). The graphic is by Hildegard of Bingen, The Universe, Scivias, Vision 1,3: plate 4, Salzburg, Otto Muller Verlag 1987 (8th edition). This is one of her most famous and most mysterious visions. The core shows an act of sexual penetration. Clearly, the creation of the universe is not the work of a lonely Godfather, but of the loving interpenetration of male and female energy, p. 90.
Associates of C:WED:
Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., founder
Giles E. Rae, publisher
Anne Andersson, editor
Representatives at the United Nations:
New York: Rosalyn Dischiavo
Lina Gupta, Ph.D.
Alayne O’Reilly, Ph.D.
Vienna: Susanne Schaup, Ph.D.
Mission Statement
The Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine is dedicated to exploring the parallels that exist between the imaging and treatment of women and of the Earth, and how our images of the Divine are related to these parallels.
We began by exploring these relationships within the context of our own tradition--the Christian. While we continue our exploration in this tradition, we have also engaged people of other traditions such as the Buddhist, Goddess, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish and Muslim. Our work is made available through talks, workshops, writings and retreats. The immediate purpose of the Center is educational, while the ultimate goal is the healing of the Creation.
The founder of C:WED is Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., author of Women, the Earth, the Divine, President Emerita of the North American Coalition for Christianity and Ecology and founder of the United Nations Earth Values Caucus.
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Bringing the Church Back Down to Earth:
How Progressive Christians Embrace Ecology
Jointly sponsored by the North American Coalition for Christianity and Ecology and the Center for Progressive Christianity, this conference will be held at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, on June 25-27. Through lectures, workshops, music, art and worship, the conference will explore themes related to: 1) how the churches can care for the Earth, 2) how our relationship to the land shapes our relationship to the Sacred, 3) how we can make sustainable decisions in a consumer society, 4) how justice for people and justice for the Earth are connected, and 5) what new metaphors of a sustainable Earth the churches need.
Speakers include: Dr. John Cobb, founding co-director of the Center for Process Theology and emeritus professor at the Claremont School of Theology and Graduate School, author of Christ in a Pluralistic Age, God and the Word, For the Common Good and Reclaiming the Church; Dr. Sallie McFague, retired Carpenter Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School, author of Models of God, The Body of God, Super Natural Christians, and Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril; Dr. Christine Smith, professor of preaching and worship at United Theological Seminary, author of Risking the Terror: Resurrection in this Life, Preaching as Weeping, Confessions, and Resistance, and editor of "Preaching Justice"
To register, please send an e-mail to eudyson@att.net requesting registration information for the conference.