Book Corner: Sacred Earth. Sacred Soul. Sacred YOU
As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m listening to Sacred Earth. Sacred Soul by John Philip Newell, read by Angus King in a delightful Irish brogue. The premise of the book is that all of nature and humanity are sacred. This is an ancient Celtic view which originally blended well with Christ’s teachings, but through the infusion of Roman Christianity was lost. It did not serve the Roman Empire for people to believe that nature and individuals are sacred. You don’t have the right to dominate the Earth or people if they are sacred.
The idea that we and nature are sacred is like a fire that catches hold in the human mind and spirit. The Roman-influenced church had to snuff out the idea, and they banished those who taught it. Why? Because the belief that something sacred is to be found in every person, creature, and all of creation is dangerous to those who seek power. Eventually, it burns down dictatorships, empires, and kingdoms. Look no further than the Founding Fathers of the United States of America who believed that it was self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. The revolutionized the world.
For as long as I can remember, I have been taught that human life is sacred. I learned this in church, from my parents and from Scripture. As a little girl, my mother taught me that everything has a spirit – the rocks, the trees, the earth and animals. Everything is filled with the Spirit of God.
In the book Sacred Earth. Sacred Soul, each chapter covers a different Celtic philosopher. In the chapter about Irish philosopher John Scotus Eriugena, this section especially resonated as a deep truth:
“Eriugena said that the whole of the natural world is like a sacred text and that includes the creatures and our creatureliness…” (Sacred Earth. Sacred Soul)
“Eriugena teaches that there are two books through which God is speaking. The first is the small book – physically little. This is the book of Holy Scripture. The second is the Big Book – the living text of the universe which includes the great luminaries of the heavens – the sun, moon, and stars, the earth, sea and sky. The creatures of all these realms and the multiplicity of life forms that grow from the ground.
“We need to read both books, he says – the sacred text of scripture and the sacred text of the universe. If we read only the little book, we will miss the vastness and wildness of the utterance – everything vibrating with the sound of the divine.
“If we read only the Big Book, we are in danger of missing the intimacy of the voice. For the book of scripture calls us to faithfulness in relationship: including faithfulness to strangers, refugees, widows and the poorest among us.
“Everything is sacred, says Eriugena. But we live in a state of forgetfulness of what is deepest in us and in everything that has being. The more we forget our true identity, the less we treat one another as sacred. We suffer from ‘soul forgetfulness.’
“But ‘Christ,’ he says ‘is our memory, our epiphany.’ He comes to show us what we have forgotten: that we are bearers of the Divine Flow. He reawakens us to our true nature, and to the true nature of the earth – that we and all things are in essence sacred. In the Celtic world, Christ is come not to reveal a foreign truth but to disclose the deepest truth of our being. The word revelation is derived from the Latin revelare – which means to ‘lift the veil.’ Christ is viewed as lifting the veil so we may see again who we are – made of God and that we may know again the sacred nature of the earth and everything that has being. Eriugena looks for the divine life everywhere and in everyone.” Sacred Earth. Sacred Soul.
Sacred Earth. Sacred Soul., John Philip Newell
This quote summarizes well what I am trying to do here at Creation Girl. I’m learning to read from the “Big Book of the Universe” … to see God in all of nature, to hear His voice, and to know Him better through His divine creations. This site is about sharing the insights as I do this.
The Celtic beliefs explored in Sacred Earth. Sacred Soul, and Eriugena’s section in particular, reminds me of one of my favorite witnesses and testimonies of Jesus Christ.
“And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of Him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of Him: That He lives! For we saw Him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that He is the Only Begotten of the Father— That by Him, and through Him, and of Him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.“
Joseph Smith, Jr. and Sidney Rigdon
Doctrine & Covenants 76:22-24
I hope as you read the articles, essays and insights I share here at Creation Girl, you will come to know our Creator, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ – the one who came to unveil and remind us of our divine identity as the sons and daughters of God.
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