Earthrise
  by William Edelen

On April 22 we set aside one day to celebrate what should be celebrated all year long -- Earth Day.

EARTHRISE...what a breathtaking symbol of a new spiritual consciousness. Apollo 10 astronauts photographed the magnificent and awesome splendor of Earth...rising...above the horizon of the moon. It was a spectacular view...a symbol of wholeness...a symbol of the mandala. Pictures of this great Goddess, Earth, triggered a shift in the collective psyche of millions. After seeing EARTHRISE in these glorious photographs, we have seen with our own eyes that there is only ONE reality; that we are in the stars and in the heavens...that we ARE the stars...we ARE the heavens...NOW.

We are ONE with the Great Goddess, the sacred Earth, and we are one with the furthest star in the furthest galaxy. We sense, we feel, that somehow in some way, we are all together "dancing to a whispered voice overheard by the soul."

Millions today are moving away from the dead forms and defunct symbols of the dogmas and doctrines of religious orthodoxy to the beauty and revelation of direct experience. Leading this resurrection of spirituality out of the tombs of the religious establishments are the women who are discovering their orientation to the divine principle of the Goddess, this divine Goddess we call Earth.

This resurrection movement begins with reaffirmation of the Earth as a living, breathing, entity. Mother Earth, Gaia, the sacred Goddess, the Greeks called her. Maka Wakan, the sacred Earth, as the American Sioux thought of her. From the soil of this basic premise will flower the birth of spirit, a new consciousness, that includes, combines, and makes whole as ONE everything that is a part of this sacred Goddess. Every four legged and two legged animal...every winged one of the sky and fish of the sea...every grass of the showery summers and the flowers of the rainy springs...every grain of sand and drop of water...every rock, mineral and crystal...every bud, leaf and snowflake...all is ONE and all is divine and offers thanksgiving to our great Mother Goddess Earth for her support and sustenance. A new consciousness, not any theological "belief," is at the heart of this resurrection of spirituality.

In his autobiography, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, spoke bluntly:

"The bible contains no reference to the earth in terms of a conservation ethic. Wild life and wilderness are apart from man and inferior. The Christian and Jew had no relation to the earth, the air, the waters or wild life. He could without fear poison the waters, pollute the air, level the forests and despoil the land.

"All he wanted was to be "saved." The bible and Christianity conditioned men to be vandals, converting everything from alligator skins to mountain ranges to blue waters into dollars. Men took the wealth and left only the ashes. The American Indian, on the other hand, had an oriental reverence for the land and its life. In the East of Buddhism and Taoism, the Earth and wilderness is thought of as an expression of the unity and harmony of the universe, and all life is linked together."

EARTHRISE...this great Goddess Earth...rising above the horizon of the moon...can be a brilliant and glorious symbol of a new consciousness.

Send us an Email

Or write to us at:
Freethinkers of Colorado Springs
P.O. Box 62946
Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2946
Phone: 719-594-4506