Write to Empower Archives - Earths Day

Earth’s Day

Earth Day is only celebrated on one day in April. Every day, however, is Earth Day. The bounties of Mother Earth’s produce and daily sensory messages we receive are a few of her gifts. In classical Greek mythology, Gaia was the Earth Goddess. She was the first to create form out of chaos. She then gave birth to the sky, mountains, rivers, oceans, and all living things on the planet. The words matter, matrix, and material come from “mater” - Latin for "mother".  For millennia we have referred to our planet as "Mother Earth" and "Mother Nature".  

Seismic activity has increased 500% in the past decade. Reports of powerful quakes, hurricanes, and typhoons are the results of this increase in activity. What does this mean to us? We are connected, very deeply, to our earth and maybe she is responding to the energies within each and every one of us. When we stop to listen, the planet becomes a mirror for our awakening as authentic and whole humans. Now more than ever the Mother Earth is our teacher. We can listen closely to what she is trying to tell us. Watch her events, and seek out the mirror for our own body, our multi-dimensional faces. What is she reflecting? When we work with the messages we receive from nature we learn a great deal about ourselves, and about our relationships. With this awareness and self-knowledge we can walk into new dreams for ourselves, for each other and the planet.

Mother Nature’s power is awesome to behold. Iceland’s volcano has a surreal element. We can observe the eruption close up without noxious fumes poisoning our bodies, human habitation is not threatened, and the volcano is erupting on ice. However, this channeled power brought Europe to a standstill, planes couldn’t fly, and there was no business as usual. Imagine this volcano as a symbol of our repressed emotional life finally erupting as fire coming through the long frozen landscape. When we relive the same events over and over and they bubble up to the top inappropriately, we are repressing our feelings. We are literally buried under ice, and frozen in time. Unless given freedom of expression our emotions can become a wild primal force that must erupt eventually. However, when we burst open our emotional life we let out what we can no longer carry. We are then able to flow with the changing times, which means living more in the moment. We then have choices how we live our lives. We can live as a force of nature that doesn’t have to become a volcano to create change.

Having been a family therapist for years, and having done plenty of therapy, I thought I was thoroughly in touch with my emotions. Certainly on a basic level I was aware of what I was feeling. Often though I would suppress my feelings without realizing I was stuffing them. Through recovery I am more in touch with what’s underneath the mantle of surface emotions. I am also learning that I can express my feelings by thoroughly feeling them instead of causing eruptions externally or internally. Along with the pain of remembering myself, I also experience great joy. I am birthing a new self which is more in touch with feelings, more loving than I thought possible. For me Iceland’s volcano is my externally manifested birth canal. What comes down the birth canal is up to me to dream-up, and spirit to fulfill. My visions and dreams take form according to where my consciousness is at in each moment. I am creating inside me a “New Earth” and a “New Heaven” with all I touch.

This week’s exercise has 3 parts. The first part is to watch this video. The 2^nd part is to write about your feelings or connection with the volcano. How does it feel to see Mother Earth’s insides pouring out? Do you identify with the volcano, the lava, or the ash blasting? The 3^rd part of the exercise is to write about the new earth you are birthing now. Maybe today your extreme emotions imitate a volcano? Maybe today there is only smoldering inside, because your lava’s fire has cleared away the forest floor for new growth? Maybe you are a pyroclastic flow throwing ash in the air to obscure what you are dreaming- up right now?  Maybe you are the lava roasting and melting everything in its path? Today’s the day to give birth to one thing about yourself that you truly admire.

http://tinyurl.com/ykakrmn

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Copyright April 26, 2010 Mari Selby