Sitting at my altar the other day, contemplating the wars that are escalating all over the world, I realized, yet again, that peace can only be found through the land. This is true because peace can only be found when we completely inhabit our full, real self—the self who is part of everything and not separate from anything.
I’m understanding lately that each of us has an etheric thread that goes from our belly down into the depths of the earth. I see this thread as a rich, red-purple color. It connects us to the deep pulse of the land that irresistibly courses through nature and all beings, including ourselves. When our thread is linked up this way, we are held within the land’s peace.
We can feel this peace when we’re calmly meditating. Equally, we can feel it when we’re delighting in the morning songs of the birds, or even shrieking as we splash in a cold mountain stream. We are not required to hold ourselves composed and aloof. Instead, we are called to participate with the green world of nature, moment to moment. Our peace is founded upon our enduring link with the sacred land and all of our human and non-human companions, through our red-purple thread.
We are also continually warmed and washed by the white light of heaven. The old alchemists might have said that this white light turns to golden light as it circulates within us. But we can manifest that gold only when we bring the red-purple thread of our earth connection up from the land and fully into our being. We thereby let the light of the Earth meet and merge with the light of Heaven.
We’re seeing, all around the world, what happens when humans are focused only on the white light from above. If that white light doesn’t harmonize with the juicy, deep rhythms of the land, we become agitated, ungrounded, and confused—and very easily enticed into war.
The spiritual task of each one of us, then, is to modulate the dazzling white light of heaven with the red-purple light of the earth’s deep pulse. We do this through the thread that falls from our belly—our sacred bowl—down into the land, and constantly, faithfully draws up the vital essence of who are really are. When we receive heaven’s white light into our fertile, welcoming red-purple bowl, we redeem it into gold. Only then can this heavenly light usefully inspire and illuminate us in the direction of peace.
Our warring world arises from ancient conflicts that have deep roots in racism, colonialism, and patriarchy. Much deprivation and injustice must be healed. Enormous cruelty toward both human and non-human beings must be ameliorated. And we desperately need wiser political and religious leaders who are truly committed to compassion and peace.
And also—the door to a peaceful world will open much more easily as each of us falls, willingly, over and over, into the deepest essence of the earth, and, through our belly-thread, graces our own being with the land’s peace. As we do this, the Garden that is our true inheritance will be renewed and will bloom again. I hope to meet you there soon.
