Quoting Thomas Berry in his new book The Dream of the Earth, ”The Universe, Earth, life, and consciousness are all violent processes.”
Over the last months, this has been confirmed for me in my mother’s illness; in the loss of a friend’s brother through a heart attack; 60,000 humans dead in Armenia, with no count given of plants, insects, and animals.
Over the centuries, we have been afflicted with earthquakes and volcanoes, a plague that almost eradicated European population. The average life span in this hemisphere some 600 years ago was 25-30 years (40 was very old). And when we look at it, creatures on the Earth survive by killing and eating other living beings.
As humans we are part of this chain of violence.
Thomas Berry also sees the Earth as an enchanting place. He feels we are gaining a deeper knowledge of the Earth, and through it, awareness of its wonder and majesty. In this ”wonderment”, we are becoming aware of our place in the Earth, we are Earth conscious of itself. In this consciousness of itself, we are the Earth’s ability to celebrate and be enchanted in its own wonder and magic.
This violent/enchantment idea struck me deeply when I read Berry’s book this past month. In my mother’s illness I have had an incredibly enchanting experience. My own time being with her, caring for her, has been deep and sacred; in both the experience of the violence of the illness and in the enchantment of our connectedness. So has the time spent with my brothers and sisters in caring together for this person so key in our very existence. It has also kindled a deeper connection with the sacred piece of land where I was born and raised – the pond, the woods, the fields. They have shared incredible strength and presence.
I ask myself sometimes, is there a way we can inflict each other with enchantment? I believe we can, and I feel it is by being supportive of each other when we seek to be enchanted by this incredible Earth of ours. Over these last two months, it has been those around me that have made it possible for me to open up to the enchantment of an otherwise violent time. It is not in the culture that I found this support. My wife and children, friends who put up with being ”stood up” and rescheduled several times, people who did not question my priorities that put getting ”things done” somewhere on the back burner; and the support of these woods here on Enright Avenue that I did not visit for a week at a time. It is not in in the culture to support this enchanting time.
With all of this support and enchantment however, I still come back to ”doing”, sometimes not connecting with people, and still having to struggle to allow myself 15 minutes to a half hour in the woods each day.
It permeates almost all of us. The majority of people in our workshops love spending time conscious of the Earth around them, but can not allow themselves 10 minutes a day to be in a place that is sacred to them. Does this sound familiar? Why? It is countercultural.
With this need for support in mind, IMAGO has developed a presentation/workshop called In Communion With the Earth. Our goal is to provide a rationale for being more in touch with the Earth, as well as support in doing so. This is a ”traveling” program which can last from 50 minutes to two days.
If you are part of a group or organization that might learn and gain support from a workshop or presentation about the Earth, preserving the Earth, caring for the Earth, please call us and we will send you a brochure on In Communion With the Earth. We are also doing a workshop on January 27, 28, and 29, called In Communion With the Earth and All its Species, which should be a delightful weekend, giving us time to connect with the Earth around us.
And I invite you to join me, either here in the woods around Enright Avenue or in your own sacred place, from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. each evening (well, at least most evenings), and maybe be enchanted together.
rjamesschenk.org 