Here we are, gathered together in our love for our home, this beautiful planet Earth. Most of the time, we are in our minds, thinking about all we have to do, about all the hurts we are experiencing, about how we don’t have enough, or how we aren’t enough. Today, we are going to shift our awareness from who we are and what our Mother, the Earth, needs from us: to thank her for all she provides and to offer ourselves as helpers in the great task of repairing the world.
Sit quietly and connect to whatever nature is around you. Can you hear the wind rustling the leaves in the trees outside your home? Do you smell the flowers on your altar? Can you feel your cat curled up on the couch near you? Notice whatever sounds and sensations are around you.
Now, turning your attention from outside, come in to your center, to the heart chakra. Breathe gently in and out of your heart. Rest here as you start your journey deep into the earth.
A long time ago, the ancient peoples of the earth lived in harmony with the earth. They knew that Earth was a living, breathing being, just as they were. The world was not separated into the sacred and secular; all life and all creation were sacred. Then, hundreds of years ago, the industrial revolution swung into high gear and we started treating Earth badly; we heedlessly dumped pollutants of all types into her soil, her waters, her mantle of sky. We raped her forests, killed off many of the species that made up her animal and mineral kingdoms.
Breathe in the sorrow of what we have done to Earth. Connect to her suffering. Feel her pain.
In Judasim, there is a concept called tikkun olam, which means “repairing the world.” In the mystical tradition of the Kabbalah, God made the world but didn’t complete it. It was left one step away from divinity so that human beings could complete creation. But instead of taking responsibility for the world, humans insisted on the right to eat from every tree in the Garden. This made the work of tikkun much harder, and so every human being is called to do the work of healing and returning the soul to the world.
To repair the world, we have to first repair our consciousness so that we can see the world and each other as Source intended. Breathe in a strong intention to be of service in helping to repair the world.
How can we help repair the world if we are not standing firmly upon the earth? Often in meditation we focus upward to commune with Spirit, raising our energy up to and out the crown of the head. Today we travel in the other direction. It’s in the lower chakras of the feet and the toes, and below, that we need to tap into and connect with Earth’s energy.
The Earth Star chakra is below our feet, about 12-18 inches down into the Earth. It is through that chakra that we put down roots into the earth’s core. This is the key doorway that allows us to receive energy from the Earth and to be supported by it.
The chakras in the center of the sole of each foot allow energy to flow in and out the feet. Your Earth Star is a large wheel of energy, or a sphere. Visualize a cord of energy, like the roots of a tree, going down from the bottom of your feet and connecting to your Earth star.
Feel your connection to the earth. Ground your energy by plugging into the Earth Star. Below the crust of the earth, deep down in Earth’s core, below the shifting tectonic plates, beneath the floor of the mighty oceans.
Ask Mother Earth to help you stay grounded and stable. Talk to her. Thank her. Honor her. Promise to help her by remembering to water your plants, hugs trees, listening to the messages she sends to you through the natural world. Remember this space, and tune into it whenever you get ungrounded, flighty, too much in your head.
Go into the darkness of the earth, its rich, nourishing soil, to reconnect with the parts of yourself you have tried to hide. Bow low before the powerful dark energies you have split off from. Now that you have your roots planted in this nourishing earth, now that you are stable in your grounding, you can acknowledge what you have tried to hide, to ignore, to pretend wasn’t who you are.
You are light and dark, yin and yang, earth and sky, male and female. You are one with it all. There is only One. You are whole, and holy. From this place of Oneness, you are now ready to repair the world.
May every day be Earth Day.