Exercises

 

Earth Mother, Mother Earth Sacred Connection, After learning so much about Mother Earth, it is irresistible to find ways to gain a better connection with her. Understanding her history in religion and science is the first step. But once this understanding is accomplished, exercises, practices, and daily rituals will help you connect with the Earth Mother spirit. Some of the best ways to do this are found in the historic religious cultures. James G. Frazer’s books The Golden Bough (1981) and The Worship Of Nature (1926) are great guides to learning from ancient cultures. Furthermore, there are countless books about the ways of the Native Americans who also have ways to connect with nature. Studying the ways of local natives in your own region would be most beneficial.

If you are not the religious type, but still want to develop a relationship with the Earth Mother, there are more modern sources which have less religious connotations. Loren Cruden wrote a book called The Spirit Of Place: A Workbook For Sacred Alignment (1995) in which she begins by stating, “All of Earth’s life is interconnected and sacred.” To develop a connection with the Earth, Cruden gives weekly exercises. Some of the primary teachings that must be understood before anything is practiced are the sacred four directions East, South, West, and North as well as the seasons, which can be coupled with the directions, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. In The Spirit Of Place (1995) by Loren Cruden she explains how there can be four basic steps to achieving a connection with the Mother Earth. But she also advises that these steps be taken slowly, week by week, for an entire year. This is a very involved and intense way to make sacred space and create a connection with Mother Earth. Not everyone wants to make such a commitment. Regardless, there are lessons to be learned from Cruden’s book such as the importance of mindful breathing and meditation. She also discusses purification and grounding.

The idea of totem animals, totem plants, and totem minerals should be understood. These totem creatures are developed so that you can connect with the Earth Mother in a more intimate way. Trying to focus of the huge concept of the Earth Mother is mind boggling, but focusing on one animal, one plant, and one mineral is much easier for one mind to grasp at first. Once you have gained an understanding of one of these principles, you may go on to another until you have a broad understanding of individual aspects of the Earth Mother. Cultures in the past have picked animals, plants, and minerals that are found near to where they spend most of their time, because observation will help the process of understanding. Though a book might help you understand an animal, plant, or mineral, a book alone will not allow you to truly connect with the Earth Mother. Conversely, if you have no written knowledge of an animal, plant, or mineral but you meditate, watch, listen to, and learn from that being, then you very well may be able to connect to the Earth Mother in your own way.

If you feel you need a bit of guidance, the book The Tracker (1978) by Tom Brown Jr. and William Jon Watkins might help. This is a true story and first person account of two men and their journeys searching for the secrets of animals and of the Earth Mother. It also teaches the most “fundamental principles of how to track.” This book could be coupled with other, more technical identification books, to help you connect with the Earth Mother through animals. Likewise, if plants call out to you then the book Secrets From The Lives Of Trees (1991) by Jeffrey Goelitz might help you communicate with trees. In this book he writes about his own experience meditating and communicating with different trees. Meditation helps people enter the natural peaceful state of mind, which is required to communicate with other beings in nature. For some people, such communication may flow easily and natural, while others may need to meditate in natural settings often. Still, personal experience and practice will serve you better than any written words.

A connection with the Earth cannot be taught with words on paper, but can be learned only from the Earth Mother herself or from her messengers which can take any form, even yourself. Therefore, here is some humble advice from me to you: simply search for your own path. One suggestion to do this is to go into nature and just sit there. Ground yourself and relax every muscle in your body while staying alert and ready to absorb. Watch everything around you. Do this with more than just your eyes, try to feel the emotions of the world, listen to every sound, and smell every scent. If you feel that you have done the Earth Mother wrong and want to feel redeemed, a ritual may be in order, not for her to forgive you, but for you to forgive yourself and put your mind to rest. Offerings of food, drink, or minerals are a good way to feel close and on good terms with the Mother Earth. Another type of offering is burning an herb such as pine, cedar, sage, sweetgrass, or copal. Each of these have been given special properties and purposes, so pick whichever herb calls out to you. Likewise in the next step, connect with totems. Most people find that there is an animal they relate to best or feel that they already understand a little. Often people find it easier to pick a totem animal before trying to relate to plants or minerals.

Above all, listen to the Mother Earth. She is always singing her great secrets if only we will listen to her. She is always calling to us, begging us to hear her voice. Yet, her words do not always fall into our ears, but into all of our senses, not just our five known senses, but into every feeling and emotion which we can or cannot describe. Learn Mother Earth’s language and listen to it in every moment of every day. Feel her wisdom, always. Be with her in everything you do. She can be with you always, because she is you, and you are her.

Native American culture has a strong connection to the Earth mother. Through plant, animal, and mineral totem, sacred interconnected to gaia is discovered. In Loren Cruden book The Spirit of Place, and also the book Secrets from the Lives of Trees, tree communication and connection to the Earth mother are discussed.