Church of the Earth

"Even before I could speak, I remember crawling through blueberry patches in the wild meadows on our hillsides. I quickly discovered Nature was filled with Spirit; I never saw any separation between Spirit and Nature. Much later I discovered our culture taught there was supposed to be some kind of separation - that God, Spirit and Nature were supposed to be divided and different. However, at my early age it seemed absolutely obvious that the church of the Earth was the greatest church of all; that the temple of the forest was the supreme temple. When I went to the sanctuary of the mountain, I found Earth's natural altar - Great Spirit's real shrine. Years later I discovered that this path of going into Nature, bonding deeply with it, and seeing Spirit within Nature - God, Goddess, and Great Spirit - was humanity's most ancient, most primordial path of spiritual cultivation and realization."

- John P. Milton, Sky Above, Earth Below  

"Some keep the Sabbath going to Church,
I keep it staying at Home -
With a bobolink for a Chorister,
And an Orchard, for a Dome."
-  Emily Dickinson, No. 324, St. 1, 1862   

"We men of Earth have here the stuff
Of Paradise - we have enough!
We need no other stones to build
The Temple of the Unfulfilled -
No other ivory for the doors -
No other marble for the floors -
No other cedar for the beam
And dome of man's immortal dream.

Here on the paths of every-day -
Here on the common human way
Is all the stuff the gods would take
To build a Heaven, to mold and make
New Edens. Ours is the stuff sublime
To build Eternity in time!" 
-  Edwin Markham, Earth is Enough




"Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow;
you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall."
-  Anne Dillard


Spirit in the Garden
 
Nature Mysticism

 
I enjoy sitting by the ponds in our back yard.  There are two ditch ponds on our property.  Depending upon the time of day, I can choose a pond that takes advantage of the shade and lighting on the pond surface.  After a busy summer morning of gardening, it is a peaceful and restful time to sit quietly by these ponds.