EARTH MESSAGES
My own total and unfettered participation in the process of pilgrimage has brought me many wonderful gifts. Besides a quickening of personal spiritual growth, I have had the remarkable experience of receiving numerous communications from a spirit (or angel or deva) of the Earth. I am referring to the capacity of the Earth to communicate directly and conceptually with human beings. For some people this idea may seem incredible. Occasionally, when I discuss the matter, people wonder if I have lost my mind. I respond by saying no, I have not lost but rather gained my mind. I am being literal and precise in saying this because I am indicating that I have gained access to a fuller range of my inherent mental capacities and thereby have re-cognized something that was common knowledge to many cultures of antiquity. This is the ability to communicate with living, nonhuman entities, of which the Earth is the oldest and wisest. Ancient and traditional cultures throughout the world have spoken of these matters, of seers and shamans communing with the spirits of mountains and springs, rocks and trees, and of receiving teachings from these spirits for the benefit of people.
This ability to commune with spirits and unseen forces of the living earth does not have to be developed, for it already exists. It needs only to be discovered and used. Consider the analogy of a television set receiving a broadcast. The program is being transmitted but cannot be viewed until the television is turned on and tuned in. It is similar with the human mind and the ‘broadcast frequencies’ of the living Earth. We must turn on a part of our minds that we have not used before in order to more consciously receive the Earth's communications. The possibility of doing so is a less radical idea than it may at first appear. A large number of scientific studies indicate that nearly all humans use no more than 15 percent of their inherent mental faculties. Contained within the remaining 85 percent are thought to be extraordinary perceptual capacities. My personal experience tells me that among those unused mental capacities is the near-magical ability to communicate with the spirits of the living Earth.
The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung was fascinated by this idea of humans communing with the natural world. Following a lifetime of research on the subject he wrote:
As scientific understanding has grown, so our world has become dehumanized. Man feels himself isolated in the cosmos because he is no longer involved in nature and has lost his emotional unconscious identity with natural phenomena...no voices now speak to man from stones, plants and animals, nor does he speak to them believing they can hear. His contact with nature has gone, and with it the profound emotional energy that this connection supplied...primitive man was much more governed by his instincts than are his "rational" modern descendants, who have learned to "control" themselves. In this civilizing process, we have increasingly divided our consciousness from the deeper instinctive strata of the human psyche, and even ultimately from the somatic (bodily felt and known) basis of psychic phenomenon. Fortunately we have not lost these basic instinctive strata; they remain part of the unconscious, even though they may express themselves only in the form of dream images. (2)
My own experiences validate Jung’s words. The Earth will speak to anyone who is willing and able to listen. Many times, particularly while meditating at the sacred sites, I have received communications from the spirits of the Earth. These communications have come as distinct voices speaking in my mind or as visions of stunning visual clarity. I perceive these words and pictures as being telepathically transmitted into my mind; on no occasion were they the result of my own linear thought process. I was merely participating as a receiver. But these events in no way imply that I am gifted or special. It has happened to me so often only because I have visited so many power places and have come to them with an open heart and mind.
Let me be honest and direct about this matter. The visionary material communicated to me is supremely relevant to the social and environmental issues of our present times. I see no purpose, and only a great deal of harm, in not admitting the truth regarding the rapidly worsening condition of both natural ecosystems and human institutions. Our planet and our people are beset with many serious problems. We must do something about the situation, and we must do it soon. But, what are we to do? Where are we to look for answers? It is evident that almost no one has much faith any longer in the mainstream structures of social influence, management and control - the political, religious and academic. These structures carry no torch of inspiration, offer no undeniable fountain of wisdom, and offer no leadership towards an ecologically sustainable future.
Sadly, we are a global superculture devoid of direction and leadership. Magic is afoot, however. God or spirit - call it whatever you will - is currently giving birth to seeds of leadership and direction that will blossom magnificently in the near future. The information within these pages is one small part of such direction and leadership. The primary message of this book is that the sacred sites have a spiritual power; that this power magically transforms hearts and minds; and that such transformation is a key to resolving both our personal problems and those of the planet.
The visionary communications I received were conceptually concerned with three general subject areas. First, in the early years of my long pilgrimage, the communications were concerned mostly with how different power places have different types of energies and thereby influence people in various ways. I learned that the different energetic characteristics of the sacred sites had been recognized by ancient peoples, and that this knowledge was encoded, sometimes metaphorically, in the myths and legends told about the sites. I learned that certain power places affect men more strongly while women resonate with others and that the stimulating effects of a power place may either begin while one is at the site or it may manifest weeks after one has departed.
Second, while visiting a category of power places which I call oracular sites, I began to receive information regarding the future. The word oracular comes from oracle, which means to see into the future. In many areas of the world ancient legends speak of certain geographical locations that have the magical capacity to induce prophetic insight in sensitive people. The Greek oracle site of Delphi is a well-known example. My studies of archaeology, mythology and ancient pilgrimage traditions had alerted me to the locations of these oracle sites around the world, and I oriented my travels toward them. After visiting many of them I became aware that the particular power or presence of these sites somehow awakened and catalyzed the psychic ability of precognition. They assisted me peering into the future. At these oracular power points I experienced visionary communications that dealt with events I believe will occur beginning with the dawn of the new century.
This visionary material was at times highly inspiring and at other times frightening. I perceived images of a time when peace had come to our world, when hunger and disease had been eliminated, and when the environment was healthy and strong. I also received pictures of a time of crisis prior to the age of global peace. These visions indicated that a dramatic increase in many of the problems we are experiencing today will soon occur. Widespread famine, terrorism, environmental degradation, and socioeconomic collapse will sweep across the world with a momentum of destruction that may decimate great numbers of people. The visions indicated that these hardships will confront the human species well into the twenty-first century, until the crisis finally awakens people to the necessity of loving and serving the Earth and all of life.
Third, I received visionary material concerning the importance of coming into a spiritual relationship with the Earth. I experienced a profound love for and oneness with the Earth, and a knowing that my own work in life was to serve and protect the Earth with all my heart. At numerous sacred sites I received information about specific ways to nurture and heal the Earth. Upon Mt. Hesperus, a Native American pilgrimage site located in Colorado, I was shown a wonderful technique for doing Planetary Acupuncture. This simple meditation technique is explained later in this book and also on my web site.
I am well aware that certain portions of the teachings I received from the Earth may seem incredible. They certainly were to me at first. At times I was extremely skeptical of my own perceptions. With effort, I tried to listen with an open mind, free of preconceived ideas about what was and was not possible. Sometimes it was necessary to remind myself that I wasn't the only person who had ever spoken about a living Earth or who had sensed the charged energies at particular places. People all over the world, in hundreds of different cultures, spanning many thousands of years, had found and venerated these sites, as evidenced by their great pilgrimage temples. Certainly all of those people over all of those years couldn't all be wrong. Additionally, I couldn't ignore the fact that many of the greatest religious figures of human history had considered certain places to be special. Moses experienced divine revelation upon Mount Sinai, Mohammed upon Mount Hara, Christ in a cave at Quarantana and Buddha beneath the Bodhi Tree. Remembering these stories defused my skepticism and validated my experiences.
