We seek renewed reverence for the biosphere as the ultimate context for human existence....

Earth is Our Real Body

by Bill Cahalan

In a way, soil is Earth's skin, the water cycle her bloodstream, and air her breath. The sun is like her heart, evaporating water and generating the weather.

We are actually made of soil, water, air, and energy from sunlight. The Earth, in capturing sunlight and recycling these elements between plants, animals, microbes, land, atmosphere, and bodies of water, operates as a huge living body with its own sort of intelligence. It regulates its own temperature, oxygen levels, etc., much like our own human body controls temperature and rebuilds its parts constantly.

We can learn to naturally shift toward a more ecologically-balanced and satisfying lifestyle by paying respectful attention every day to our constant connections with our larger earth body. This can lead to a feeling of belonging and thankfulness, to an improved sense of vitality and energy. It can increase our awareness that earth health and personal health go together.

Without even going outdoors, sit in a comfortable chair and relax. Feel your body settling into the chair and automatically adjusting to earth's gravitational embrace. Maybe you can faintly feel your blood's pulsing in your neck or fingertips. Enjoy this automatic cycling, knowing that it is actually part of the larger water and mineral cycles of your bioregion. Just as our blood nourishes us, water is the blood of the earth.

Notice your breathing. Like blood pulsing, breathing is mostly automatic, an enjoyable and natural, taken-for-granted life process. Know that all the oxygen You take in is a gift of green plants, given off by them as they breathe in the carbon dioxide which we and otheranimals have exhaled. As water is earth's blood, so air is the breath of our larger earth body.

Now feel your own energy, your muscle tone, slight movement, or felt readiness to move. Know and appreciate the source of this energy, which is the sun. This energy is released from our food (all coming from plants and animals) with each heartbeat and each breath. You can see why Native Americans have spoken of earth as Mother, and of Father Sun. The marriage between the two is essential for life.

Now use your energy to stand and walk around the room. See the sunlight in the room, which is present even if the day is cloudy. Let your breathing regulate its own pace and depth. Look at your green houseplants. Know that all the materials your house is made of came from and will return to the earth, as will you and I.

Look at your refrigerator and stove. Think of your furnace, electric lights, and appliances. Most of these are fueled by gas or coal -- fossilized plants releasing their sunlight energy and returning their long-stored carbon and sulphur to the air. World oil, gas, and coal supplies are rapidly burning out: More importantly, burning them as fast as industrial countries are is causing global temperature increases and other weather changes.

How can we begin to change the way we heat and light our houses so that we are in better balance with mother earth? People are currently trying many different ways of doing this. Energy-efficient houses often include solar sun spaces and wood-burning stoves for heating [where appropriate], improved insulation to cut back gas heating demands, photovoltaic cells for pollution-free conversion of sunlight to electricity, and several other small scale, low pollution technologies which do not deplete non-renewable earth resources.

Again, the first step to even caring about such possibilities is to begin to remember, savor, and enjoy all the ways we are connected to the earth especially within the land community right where you are. It is possible to gradually regain the sense of wonder and love which we lost since people moved into or became dependent on cities, and enclosed themselves within a humanly-built environment. More and more, machines and "middle-men" such as gas stations and grocery stores have brought us our food, fuel, and other necessities without our ever soiling our hands or making any earth contact.

Consciously or unconsciously, it is part of our human nature, it is in our very bones, to live every day in close, healthy exchange with the local land community. Don't worry about the "ecological crisis". Just slow down, pay attention, give thanks for your life within this larger life, and take some small step today toward living in balance with your "real body."

Bill Cahalan, Ph.D, a member of the board of the Universal Pantheist Society, is a clinical psychologist involved in both psychotherapy and ecological education.

For more information about Pantheism, or questions about this website please contact Harold Wood at ups@pantheist.net

Pantheism \Pan"the*ism\, n. [Pan- + theism.]

Any doctrine, philosophy, or religious practice that holds universe [cosmos], taken or conceived of as the totality of forces and/or matter, is synonymous with the theological principle of God.

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