Self and nature are one

Reverence

Today I saw a white blossoming scotch broom along the side of the road. I was struck with the sensation of deep reverence, I stopped all other feelings and thoughts and allowed that feeling to grow until it was all that was present within me.
Reverence is what guides the animist, the more we allow it to grow and be present within us the more we allow the totality of existence to be us.
Long ago I sat on the edge of a cliff allowing that feeling to fully encompass me for the first time. That night I told one of my first spiritual teachers of my experience and his words still echo in my mind, "You are in awe of it because you are the awe of it."

Reverence is defined as,

1. A feeling of profound awe and respect and often love; veneration. See Synonyms at honor.
2. An act showing respect, especially a bow or curtsy.
3. The state of being revered.
4. Reverence Used as a form of address for certain members of the Christian clergy: Your Reverence.
tr.v. rev·er·enced, rev·er·enc·ing, rev·er·enc·es
To consider or treat with profound awe and respect; venerate.

What keeps us from feeling reverence? That profound love, awe and respect? The simple site of the white scotch broom was enough to knock me out of my daily trance of work, worry, stress an fear, it made me give a prayer of gratitude to the whole, it removed the entitled delusion that I deserve more then what this moment has to offer the small self. The humility I had be lacking in the presence of such profound beauty was regained.
In these moments where I feel almost thrust to the ground in awe, respect, and love, I ask for more of this feeling with in me, I ask that all that prevents this feeling to be removed from within me so I can walk in reverence, and allow my self to be the awe of it all.
I am grateful for this day.

Animist land stewardship

What does it mean to be a land steward as an animist? To define stewardship, it is a trusted position of care. A covenant is made between the land and a human, a cultivation of the awareness that the land and the human are one, not separate entities. A synergy based on trust, and care, knowing that care of the land is care of that which is our larger ecological self.
I've spoken in the past about the utilitarian relational dynamic verses the animist relational dynamic. The utilitarian dynamic cultivates a relationship of low synergy, we use that which is not ourself for our benefit and our benefit alone. An animist dynamic cultivates a humble sense of self within the whole starting with where one stands, enhancing synergy with place cultivating health within the individual the land and the whole. Animist stewards are the land in stewardship of itself. The land caring for its own needs which is inclusive of the persons that are itself.
What does this look like in action?
It looks like care, beauty and health. Land stewardship increases the fertility of the land, the fecundity, the biodiversity is increased. It takes work and a shift in how we live our lives in western society. We do not take with out giving something back, we as land stewards integrate our life with the life of the land itself, it sustains us through our sustaining of it for there is no separation anymore.
This means our communion and spiritual work is not just ritual and spiritual sentiment, but work. It is cutting, clearing, cleaning, planting, controlling invasive species, feeding, composting. It is bioremediation, an act of healing and repair. It is care for the soil, it's the cleaning and prevention of pollution, it's planting a sacred circle of trees and not throwing beer cans in it.
If the land I our larger body how do we care for it and beautify it? How do we treat it?
One does not have to own land to be a steward either... Over the last year I was privileged to come to know two witches who focus on biotegional craft ways. They had moved into a home that was surrounded by a beautiful swamp. They spent hour upon hour, day upon day, pulling out garbage dumped all over the land and swamp, listening closely to the genius loci and establishing a relationship of health and magic in a place that was just used and abused for years and years by countless people. They had no investment or feeling of permanence there and recently moved out, but they knew it was the right thing to do. They became stewards of the land. It was beautiful to witness... It is an honor to know land stewards who commune with the land through their labor as well as their spirits.

I've been delighted over the years to have visited several homesteads and land trusts, ecovillages and permaculture farms, and I have seen stewardship in action. I would encourage anyone desiring to be a land steward to do the same, to learn from those that are doing the WORK. All over the world there are sustainable living and permaculture courses going on, where the education is spreading seeds of change, healing the rift between land and humans. This is beautiful... And I am grateful to see these changes happen.

Primordial

This picture of a ancient German shamaness reminded me today of past lessons, and of an old inspiring quote from Weston La Barre. "The ancestor of the gods was the shaman", this idea has always really struck me rather hard. In a time where we are seeking our own relationships with spirit and the land, it's a wonderful reminder that we can establish through our relationships the same synergy with spirit and nature that so many have before us. We need nothing between us and spirit but our own awareness. The ecstatic experience and the awareness of oneness that comes from that state allowed for relationships with spirit to and nature to synergize.
I recall a ceremony many years ago I led with the largest group I had ever done, the size of the group required I work fast, the feeling I often got at that time was of being guided in every way by the spirit of the whole, my body was moved, my thoughts and feelings moved by that great "whole". Before me appeared a sun like image of a white light with rainbow like lightning serpents as the suns radiance, and a voice within me said "You are that which guides you." until it was my voice repeating this.
I can see that from this vantage point those shamans that came before knew this as well. It is easy to see how we are the ancestors of the gods.