A fish cannot drown in water,
A bird does not fall in air.
In the fire of creation,
God doesn’t vanish:
The fire brightens.
Each creature God made
Must live in its own true nature;
How could I resist my nature,
That lives for oneness with God?
….Mechthild of Magdeburg
we are tribal…..deeply rooted and in sync with the messiness we create…..we feel we are on an isolated island, concerned with our little messes……yet, the shape of all things spoons together relentlessly…..may we find the luminous under each other’s wings……
God redeems humanity, but nature needs to be redeemed by human alchemists, who are able to induce the process of transformation, which alone is capable of liberating the light imprisoned in physical creation…..Stephen Hoeller
Humanity’s most urgent and life-enhancing project, especially in the early 21st century, is to care for the soul of the world, the anima mundi, which we might also call the soul of the Earth or the soul of the more-than-human community. A thing’s ultimate place is its place in the great scheme of things, its quintessential place in the world or the Universe. Soul is the place that most centrally and comprehensively identifies a thing- a thing’s truest place, the very core or heart of a thing’s identity, its decisive meaning or significance, its purpose, its raison d’etre. Or, in a more poetic vein but with the same meaning, soul has been said to be ‘the largest conversation you’re capable of having with the world, the truth at the center of the image you were born with, the shape that waits in the seed of you to grow and spread its branches against a future sky, or your individual puzzle piece in the Great Mystery. The journey to self-knowledge that we each must take- the conscious discovery of our ultimate individual place- is the prerequisite to full human consciousness, to the full savoring of the grandeur of this world, to the privilege of fully participating in life, and to the responsibility of contributing something sacred and essential to this world…..Bill Plotkin
