JUST OUT OF SIGHT

Immanence; from the Latin in manere – “to remain within” – usually refers to theories in philosophy, metaphysics, or theology of the presence of the divine. Often it seems to be understood that what we would call the spiritual world and the physical world overlap in some way. Or perhaps as Tom Cowan suggests in Yearning for the Wind, that the soul or spirit of Creation is all around us. And that if we are very, very lucky we can sense the soul that we inhabit and that surrounds us.

I believe I have experienced immanence. But, it’s almost always been when I’m outside. I get this feeling when I’m near old trees, standing on good fertile earth, or braced against the wind on an overlook at the coast that someone or something is trying to speak to me. Just out of range or just beyond the ability of my physical ears to hear or my eyes to see. If I could just get “inside” the tree, become one with earth, or spread myself out on the wind maybe I could finally understand what the whispers almost to soft to hear or finally see the shadow at the edge my vision, but it disappears when I try to look at it.

God/dess I love the coast. Not the beach, the cliffs. Sky above, fire born rock under your feet, waves breaking on the cliffs, the wind so loud in your ears it blows everything else away. Maybe the mist drenching the cliffs is just mist and maybe, must maybe it’s a doorway into the Otherworld.