Two ways of looking at our relationship with the natural world. One from a pagan, one from a Christian hermit.
A wildwood mystic is “….One who speaks for the tree roots and stone. Who speaks with the tree roots’ and stones’ voices. One who speaks as the grass and rivers. Who speaks as field and woods and hills and valleys and salt marshes and waves and tides. Yet who speaks as what is close to home. With the mouse’s voice or the seagull’s or the fox’s or the badger’s. One who speaks in cadences that go beyond the darkness and beyond stars, encompassing what is immeasurable. One whose entire being vibrates to the spirits’ words in nature, like a reed at dawn in a pool where trout swim.”
Rae Beth in The Hedge Witch’s Way
“The very nature of your solitude involves you in union with the prayers of the wind in the trees, the movement of the stars, the feeding of the birds in the fields, the building of the anthills. You witness the creator and attend to him in all his creation.”
Thomas Merton OCSO (order of Cistercians of the strict obeservance)
Two traditions, one message.
2 comments:
I love this and find much knowledge in the comparison-
Thank you for sharing.
When I think of what too many of us are doing to the planet, I dread finding out what some of the plants and critters are praying for. I hope they're more forgiving than humans are.
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