AustinGranny.com - Spirituality and Nature

Creating Sacred Space (connect to the sacred in our lives... pay attention)
from Axle Noden

Landscape is created from the balanced, clear and quiet part of our being.

Engage the five senses:

allow less room for worries/fears
live in the present moment: key element to developing a contemplative life.

Develop physical relationships: balance these elements

Heaven/ceiling: something overhead
Earth/floor: supportive, underneath
Human/walls: mediate between heaven and earth

Earth: supportive, structural
Water: clarity, purity
Fire: plants are expression of fire of the sun (color has energetic properties)
Air: movement, vibration
Space: tension of background/foreground, form and void

Metaphysical relationships:

The Absolute: eternal/enduring (ie. mountain, rocks)
The Manifest: fleeting/ephemeral (ie. morning dew on grass)
The Connection: links the two together (ie. flowing water, pathway, bridge)

...these notes are from the Spirituality Series part 3 at the Wildflower Center
presented by Joe Barry of Seton Cove on July 27, 2005

When you show your face
even the stones begin to dance with joy.
The reflection of your face turns the water
into a golden shimmer
and softens even the fire into a tender glow.
— Rumi

Prayer of the Four Directions
...we gathered at sundown around the spring in the center of the courtyard
at the Wildflower Center to recite this Native American prayer/poem together.
My soul was stilled when I awoke in the morning and it has remained so.

(Face the North)
Oh Great Spirit of the North,
we come to you and ask for the strength and the power
to bear what is cold and harsh in life.
We come like the buffalo
ready to receive the winds that truly can be overwhelming at times.
Whatever is cold and uncertain in our life,
we ask you to give us the strength to bear it.
Do not let the winter blow us away.
Oh Spirit of Life, and Spirit of the North, we ask you for strength and for warmth.

(Face the East)
Oh Great Spirit of the East,
we turn to you where the sun comes up,
from where the power of light and refreshment come.
Everything that is born comes up in this direction -
the birth of the babies, the birth of the puppies,
the birth of ideas and the birth of friendship.
Let there be the light. Oh Spirit of the East,
let the color of fresh rising in our life be glory to you.

(Face the South)
Oh Great Spirit of the South,
spirit of all that is warm and gentle and refreshing,
we ask you to give us this spirit of growth, of fertility, of gentleness.
Caress us with a cool breeze when the days are hot.
Give us seeds that the flowers, trees and fruits of the earth may grow.
Give us the warmth of good friendships.
Oh Spirit of the South, send the warmth and the growth of your blessings.

(Face the West)
Oh Great Spirit of the West,
where the sun goes down each day to come up the next,
we turn to you in praise of sunsets and in thanksgiving for changes.
You are the great colored sunset of the red, which illuminates us.
You are the powerful cycle which pulls us to transformation.
We ask for the blessings of the sunset.
Keep us open to life's changes.
Oh Spirit of the West,
when it is time for us to go into the earth, do not desert us,
but receive us in the arms of our loved ones.

Diann Neu

The natural world is our bible.
We don't have chapters and verse;
We have trees and fish and animals.
— John Mohawk