Earth-Centered Practices and Ceremonies

The Green Heart within each one of us resonates with and augments the vibrant Green Heart of Gaia. I’m using the term “Gaia” here to designate the vast, purposive, homeostatic, ever-evolving planetary organism that enfolds and embodies the Earth on all levels. Gaia encompasses all human and non-human beings, all planetary processes and elemental forces, every natural ecosystem and human community. Everything is part of Gaia. The heart of each human being is part of Gaia’s heart. Therefore, every human heart must be attuned to the Earth’s organic Green-Heart field, in order to fully express its real nature.

Gaia is constantly playing a symphony of life and diversity, of birth, growth and change, of death and rebirth, of returns and regeneration. If our heart defines itself only with reference to the human-created world, and is oriented only to loving and caring for human beings, it is participating merely in one narrow subset of the symphony’s music. We could say that the human-centered heart is responding to Gaia like a little toy piano—the one in the old Peanuts comic strip comes to mind. But our heart has a much larger and deeper capacity to join in with our planet’s entire orchestra and make its music even more beautiful. We wouldn’t assent to remaining like children playing toy pianos if we really knew what the full beingness of our heart could express and co-create. [Read more…] about Foundations of Green Heart Magic

We normally think of our hearts as “belonging” to us. And yes, our heart is undeniably part of our physical body, as a muscle ceaselessly pumping our blood around, and literally keeping us alive.

On the emotional level, we are told early and often that our hearts “belong” to romantic love.
This begins as the simple, adolescent love of infatuation, which, ideally, matures into more nuanced, balanced love for a partner and for families and friends. [Read more…] about Whose Heart Is It?

A few years ago, on a late summer’s day, I was hiking in the nearby mountains. The multitude of wildflowers that had been blooming all summer were now going to seed, and all the seed-eating birds were taking full advantage. At the edge of a meadow, I caught sight of some gawky young house finches. They were flying around, sampling seeds and displaying the general goofiness typical of recently-fledged birds. Suddenly one of them left its perch and flew briskly toward a tall, upright flower stalk crowned with a big puffy seed head. When it landed, the entire stalk bent over to the ground, and the surprised bird literally fell off, upside down onto the grass. Flailing its little wings, it righted itself and indignantly flew away. And I practically fell on the ground too, from laughing so hard. [Read more…] about Our Kids’ Green Hearts