In our spiritual work we tend to focus more on raising our consciousness to be one with the higher realms rather than one with the earth. We so often think of the earth as being in some way secondary to the “heavens,” that expanding our awareness into the higher realms is somehow better than “lowering” it into the earth. However, expanding our awareness into the higher realms while ignoring the earth, or thinking of the earth as secondary, is a mistake. We can’t be truly and completely aware without including all manifestation, and that includes the physical realm, our mother earth. In other words, to become completely aware and conscious, we mustn’t reject anything, including the earth.
Not only aren’t we completely and truly conscious without including the earth and its energies, practically speaking, we need our awareness to be grounded in the earth in order to be able to expand into the higher realms. If you think of a tree, most trees cannot have the high branches without deep and/or extensive roots. Like the tree then, we must deepen our roots in order to grow our branches. In order to be complete, the expansion of our awareness must evolve in both directions, not only upward. In short, for total awareness, we must reject nothing. We must embrace the earth as well as the heavens.
Ignoring the earth in lieu of the higher realms for our spiritual growth is to ignore the fact that we are one body with the earth. Our physical body is made from the earth. We share the same elements. Each bit of food that we chew comes from the earth and then transforms into our own physical body. With each foot on the ground, with each drink of water and breath of oxygen that we breathe, we draw the life force from the earth that feeds us the vital energy that we need to function. In sharing the same elements as the earth, we share the same elements as every life form in it, the animals, the insects, the plants, the rocks and the soil. In that way, our physical body is just one part of a living being. We are the earth.
BECOME ONE WITH THE HEAVENS
Our physical body, sometimes called “the food body,” is directly connected with our emotional, psychic and spiritual bodies. Our thoughts, which are largely a function of our physical brain, determine our emotions. The mental, astral, and other etheric bodies are vibrationally connected with and influenced by our physical body. (They, in turn, influence our physical body.) Energy workers are intimately familiar with this connection and work with the etheric bodies to influence the physical.
This essential balance between the etheric bodies and the earth body is not only important for our spiritual growth, then, but also for our physical wellness. If we want to be healed and whole, we need to include the earth in this process. Just as you cannot completely heal one part of the physical body without including the larger body as a whole, the deepest healing comes from also including the larger earth body (and connected etheric bodies) in this process. Not only can we draw on the earth’s energies for our healing, but mother earth, herself, can provide the “medicine” we need for our healing in the form of herbs and plants, water, rocks, and sunshine. If we were alien from our earth, these things would not work.
YOUR WELL-BEING IS DIRECTLY CONNECTED WITH THE EARTH
Tree Meditation for Expanded Consciousness
There are many practices we can do that will enhance our connection with our mother earth and gain us the benefits of better health and higher wisdom. This Tree Meditation is a highly effective method to use for grounding, relaxation, healing, and expansion into the higher realms of consciousness.
1 Visualize yourself as a tree. Feel as if roots begin to grow down from the bottom of each foot into the earth. With each in-breath, feel as if these roots grow ever more deeply into the earth. Relax the back of your knees, the small of your back, your belly, your shoulders and jaw as you do this. As you continue, imagine feeling the vitality of the earth flowing up into your body. The more that this vital earth energy flows upward into your body, the more your feel your physical, mental, emotional bodies being charged with strength, vibrancy and dynamism. Keep breathing with long, deep breaths to help accelerate this process.
2 Next imagine that this vital earth energy now flows into your heart chakra in the middle of your chest. The more that this vital earth energy flows into your heart chakra, the more you feel your heart expanding into love, love that doesn’t threaten, but feels infinitely accepting, safe, warm and comforting. As you continue to breathe with long, deep breaths, imagine that with every breath your heart opens more and more, connecting your with the earth and all of life.
3 Then, hold your arms up at least shoulder high as if they are the branches of your tree-body. Feel as if this vibrant earth energy now flows upward into your arms, out of the center of your palms and out through each finger. Again, use long, deep, breathing to assist you in this process (this will help open the healing centers of your hands).
4 Now, imagine that from your heart center, this dynamic, earth energy continues to flow upward through the center of your body, through your throat chakra, up through your head and out from the center of your crown. (This will help open your upper throat, third eye (ajna) and crown chakras.) Visualize the earth energy that flows upward from your head to be the growing branches of your tree. With each long, deep, breath, imagine your braches growing ever upward into the sky above. As you do this, continue to relax your body, especially your shoulders, neck, jaw, eyes, ears, forehead and top of your head.
5 Now your tree is complete, drawing from the earth to shoot upward into the heavens. To continue growing into the heavens, keep drawing the vital energy from the earth through your roots. Perfectly balanced, there is now no limit to your growth.
PRODUCTS YOU CAN SELL
There are many products that we can carry in our stores to help increase earth awareness for our customers. We can carry products that not only bring them healing from the earth, but at the same time remind them to honor their essential connection and become more active caretakers of our earth. We can carry jewelry that is earth oriented, perhaps with tree, flower, or animal imagery. Signage can be placed near these jewelry items that reminds the customer of their connection with these beings. Rocks, crystals and gems can not only be carried our stores, but we can include point of purchase information not only about their healing properties, but also reminding the customer that they are part of the earth as are we, and it is because of our essential oneness that we can use them for our healing. So, too, can we do this with healing herbs and other earth-based medicinals, including CBD. We can carry both children and adult books that address our connection with Mother Earth, placing them near our jewelry, stone, herb and medicinal products. Signage and/or books that address climate change are greatly needed now; pointing out that to destroy or fail to take care of our earth is to fail to take care of our own body. After all, if mother earth perishes, so, too, do we.
To take care of our Earth is to take care of our own body, so be a caretaker!
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Author: Uma Silbey
Uma Silbey was one of the first to pioneer crystals, gemstones, and ‘energy’ information to the world through her jewelry designs, books, and music. Besides running her jewelry company since the late ‘70s, Uma has authored six books, including her latest The Ultimate Guide to Crystals and Stones, available through New Leaf Distributing Co. She has also recorded 18 albums of meditation music and guided visualization, and twice has been considered for a Grammy nomination, including her latest Altered States. Visit her website for blogs, articles, music, and newsletters.
Website: http://www.umasilbey.com/
