Sandra Ingerman's Blog

“Heal the Earth to Heal Yourself” is a title of Peggy Wheeler’s article about the Gaia Principle on Examiner.com. It just about says it all, but — who is Gaia, and why heal the Earth itself, or herself, as we are fond of saying? Just think of the planet as a sentient being… and don’t do anything to her that you wouldn’t do to your mother.

Wheeler is a spiritual counselor, Reiki Master, Reconnective Healer, and the developer of a new healing modality called Anam Healing, which is based on the awesome power of universal love. She maintains that we can’t heal ourselves without healing the earth, and there’s no time like the present. Reminding us that the urgency we feel about the need to heal the earth is nothing new, she cites examples of the voices that have spoken out over the centuries, from nameless masses of indigenous peoples, who had lived in harmony with nature, to influential individuals like Hildegard von Bingen. Wheeler offers several suggestions for do-it-now actions we can take. She says,

People who strive to live in balance with the natural world, and who vow to live as stewards for our beautiful life-giving planet, are the wisest and most spiritual of all.

In Bolivia, the big Earth Day event is the First People’s World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth’s Rights, a grass-roots response to the violations planetary integrity that go on everywhere. One of the attendees, there to also report on the conference, is Michael Stone, host of KVMR’s Conversations. He tells us these good folks are working on a Declaration of Rights for our mom the Earth! The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change thinks this is a great and timely idea, noting:

The 20th century has been the century of the human rights. First, with the approval of the civil and political rights in 1948, and second, with the approval of the economical, social and cultural rights in 1966. Now, the 21th century has to become the century of the Rights of Mother Earth and all natural beings.

At the Metapsychology website, Russ Seidel reviews Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood. Most of the characters in her novel belong to God’s Gardeners, a group that tries to hang onto sanity in an increasingly technologically corrupted world. It’s a post-apocalyptic dystopia story, and the talks given by Adam One to the members are very instructional. Even better are the songs interspersed throughout. This book cannot be appreciated fully unless the audio version is heard! These neo-tribalists have invented their own holidays, such as the Feast of Serpent Wisdom, along with a whole slew of rituals, practices, and saints (Peter Matthiessen, Karen Silkwood, and Rachel Carson, to name but a few.) In fact, you too can “enroll a Saint,” and benefit non-profit environmental organizations at the same time. Yes, The Year of the Flood is nominally science fiction, but when we’ve got corporations selling stuff that makes us sick, and then selling us the cure, it’s not that far from present reality.

Source: “Heal the earth to heal yourself,” Examiner.com 04/06/10
Source: “LA Eclectic Spirituality Examiner’s Articles,” Examiner.com
Source: “Rights of Mother Earth,” MotherEarthRights.org, 02/21/10
Source: “Review – The Year of the Flood,” Metapsychology, 04/06/10
Source: “Enroll a Saint,” YearOfTheFlood.com
Image by alicepopkorn, used under its Creative Commons license.