issue 17: Earth & Sky
It is the greatest love story ever told, but it comes not without the pain of separation. In many cultures around the world, we find remarkably similar themes of an original union between the feminine Earth and masculine Sky. They held one another in such a tight embrace, no light could enter between them and the children they bore together could not thrive in the stifling darkness. It was only through their forced separation that the possibility of life on earth, in the waters, and air that formed between them was made possible.
In the Māori creation myth, it was their son Tāne Mahuta, lord of the forest, who was able to push his parents apart which allowed for all life on earth to come into being. Tāne also had a direct hand in creation as he fashioned the first human from clay and breathed life into her. To further bring order and balance, he adorned the heavens with the sun, moon and stars. He assisted also in the development of humanity by bringing baskets of knowledge, wisdom and understanding down from the sky to human beings. This origin story of our world speaks to the intimate relationship between earth, sky and humanity along with all other living beings experiencing life between the two as the beneficiaries of that original love. It emphasizes also the special love and kinship trees and humanity have for one another.
In this love-themed issue of The Community Garden, we explore the interwoven relationships of all life on earth extending into the sky and reflecting back to us as our own collective consciousness from the "Noosphere", an interconnected web of shared mind that exists just beyond the Ionosphere as a kind of global neural network of Earth herself to which we all contribute and receive information from. As a consideration for small community solutions, I briefly introduce the ancient science and art of Geomancy in which a skilled practitioner who maintains a deep attunement with Earth and Sky can read land features and celestial alignments to aid the inhabitants in finding best locations or correcting negative aspects of lands they may already reside on. Geomancy, in its various forms, has a long history in China as Feng Shui, India as Ramal Shastra, Ifa in Nigeria, ilm al-raml (the science of sand) in the Arab world, is related to Songlines in Aboriginal Australia, known by various names and different forms of practice throughout Europe and really anywhere we find temples, stone formations and ritual mounds. Geomancy (along with related modalities) is an enduring practice that confirms our fundamental interconnectedness with the earth and sky whether we consciously sense it or not. Included also is a sweet assortment celebrating the human spirit, the magic that can arise from spontaneous creative collaboration and a few bittersweet pieces related to ecological awareness as well as some nutty humor. At the heart of all of it is the binding impulse of love that compels each of us to make our unique contributions to the whole, to "follow our bliss" as Joseph Campbell would say and, in the sentiment of the poet of eternal love Rumi, to seek that which is seeking you.
Here's to the Love that ignites purpose and passion within us, that keeps it all together even when things seems to be hopelessly divided and which ultimately heals when things do come apart!
In Truth, Beauty and Goodness,
B. Monique
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