Trusting Earth's intelligence (video)

Have you been experiencing days when many different sensations move through you? Does this mirror how, on so many levels, we are living in times of when every set of circumstances are transient at all levels?

For those of us who are sensitive to these movements, this eruptive quality of consciousness is mirrored at all levels of the cosmos—inner and outer. There have been literal eruptions (the volcanic eruptions at Togna and Costa Rica) and the eruptive impacts of our social divisions. At an inner level, we also feel the fearful instability of the shifting sands of everything we thought was certain for most of our lives.

In these days, I have been going to the mountain and reaching to Earth. I have sat in Her bower, I have felt the power of Her constellation that is eruptive, dangerous, abundant and nourishing—all in the same moment. I went seeking reassurance and solace because the reality crafted by the human mind offers little solace these days.

In this video I share is my personal practice. I invoked Earth in the ancient wisdom of the Atharva Veda, the more than 8000 year old compilation of invocations that signals the embodied dance I practice. The oldest hymn to Earth is here, holding a moving acknowledgement of Earth’s intelligence, Her unfolding movement as Truth and Her infinite abundance. The ancients also recognise Her ferocity, not separate from anything, not punishing, not moral, but simply Her nature.

In embodying this invocation I found Earth in my own body and consciousness because we are of Her consciousness. Rather than looking for solutions externally, I sensed Her pulsation in me as naturally as the trees around me, as the kangaroos grazing, the birds singing the Dusk into manifestation and the ants tickling my toes. And somehow I felt solace in moving a Truth that had no words, no solutions or promises, but was an intimate and beauteous movement in the moment. That was Her presence in me and my presence in Her—and this was more intimate than anything anyone could tell me to comfort me in these times.

I hope this practice will bring you some solace, intimacy and beauty in these times of volatility within and without.

The Atharva Veda text and translation:

Satyam Brihad Rtam Ugram

Existence, Vastness, Truth as the unfolding movement, Fierce

Diksha Tapas Brahma Yagna

Intention, attention, sacred, offering (sacrifice)—

Prithvi dhaarayanti

These sustain (align with/hold up) Earth.

San no bhutasya bhavasya patni

May she who is the consort of past and future (one beyond Time)

Urum lokam prithvi nah krunethu.

Render abundant (wide, expansive) this world for us.