3-4-2011 Weekly Message – The Re-enchantment of Nature

 

As I explained in last week’s message my background or ancestry has a lot of Native American and Celtic roots.  I was always raised to recognize the spirits in the woods and when I’ve done lectures in the great outdoors at night I will point out to the listeners all the little sparkling lights that come down to join us out of curiosity just to see what is going on.  My family was Christian and of course God and Jesus were taught.  The spirit that God put into each living thing was also taught.  I was taught to respect that spirit in each thing and I was also taught to draw energy when I needed from the sun, the wind, the trees, the water flowing.  I guess that is why in olden times the natural world has always been perceived as enchanted.  True, ancient civilizations tried to worship the creation and didn’t recognize the one ‘creator’.  The Greeks and Romans are an example.  They invented a pantheon of gods behind the unfolding of world events believing that the events were directed and influenced by invisible forces.  As a result there was an idea implanted in many indigenous societies that the course of natural events could be influenced by human prayer, ritual and even sacrifice.

 

In the western world mainly Europe and the USA, over the past 3000 years the physical world as most people see it has been gradually divested of spirit.  According to the Global Shift by Edmund Bourne, there are three major historical developments that have caused this:

 

·        The spread of Christianity (100AD to present):  God came to be seen as transcendent, existing above and beyond the natural world.  Attributing spiritual forces to nature was considered a serious heresy by the Catholic Church.

 

·        The scientific Revolution (1600 AD to present): The outer world came to be seen as totally objective, devoid of meaning and purpose.  Meaning and purpose were understood to reside solely in the human mind, which was seen as a detached witness set apart from nature.

 

·        The technological revolution (1800 Ad to present): The material world came to be reviewed as a resource to be exploited.  Human fulfillment was to be found through adaption to and mastery over nature and the material world.

 

So this disenchantment of the outer world coincided with the emergence of the modern ‘self’ and the idea that an individual is free to determine and shape his or her own destiny.  Nature became a neutral object to observe and analyze and record and explain.  On the positive side this has resulted in a lot of scientific and technological advancements.  On the negative side it has led to humanity being alienated and disenchanted with the outer world.  It takes away the meaning and purpose of life and sometimes leaves life feeling pointless.   It has also left the world vulnerable to being exploited for purely materialistic gain and being rapidly destroyed in the process.  To borrow from Richard Tarnas’ words, nothing is immune. 

 

Majestic vistas of nature, great works of art, revered music, eloquent language, the beauty of the human body, distant lands and cultures, extraordinary moments in history, the arousal of deep human emotion: all become advertising tools to manipulate consumer response.

 

The soul of the world is being extinguished.  Good news is: This crisis in humanity’s conception of itself and the earth is now bringing forth responses on many fronts.  If we look past the negative things going on like the economic chaos, we can see a new world view is emerging, the essence of which points to a re-enchantment of the outer world but this re-enchantment is entirely different than it was in the mythologies that existed in prescientific and indigenous societies.  What is coming about now is the conception that the Cosmos (or Universe) is fundamentally conscious and that some kind of purposeful intelligence has guided the formation and evolution of the universe.  This is all very exciting and good.  It is like everything is ‘coming together as it should and will do so for everyone if we accept this change.

 

I want to continue talking more about this Cosmos consciousness and witnesses for it such as synchronicity and paranormal events.  Right now though, I need to quit as I have grown very tired.  Let us continue on this topic next week.

 

Blessings, Rev. Sharra