The Mantle of the Universe

The Mantle of the Universe

"You never enjoy the world aright,
till the sea itself flowth in your veins,
till you are clothed with the heavens,
and crowned with the stars."
   ____ Thomas Traherne, "Centuries"


   To re-experience the integration of ourselves with nature, we have to take ourselves out of our four walls and set our life-story in the context of nature's terms. This means becoming especially aware of one area of the natural world - an area that is our listening place, an area where we tune out of the old broadcasts of our separateness and return to the original station of the universal belonging. In that place we enter into a new relationship with nature, conducting a dialogue of one with the other, in which both parties speak and both listen to the other.

   In this communion, a further state of belonging may be experienced - initially just in brief glimpses, then sometimes for longer and longer periods. It is the condition that poet and mystic Thomas Traherne speaks of above: the temporary loss of our sense of identity, a softening of the hard boundaries that separate us from the tree and the animal, from the earth and the sunset. In this condition, we experience ourselves as no different from nature or anything within it. We come into true relationship with nature in such moments, which strip away our hubris, our control, and our feelings of separation and bring us once more under the mantle of the universe.

"Sit in nature and just be with it, without judgment or mental comment. Let your attention be drawn to one feature around you. Be present to it as though it were another being: listen and speak; speak and listen. Finally, experience that feature and yourself occupying the same space, breathing the same air. Just be. Slowly reverse the steps above until you are fully restored to your own body and consciousness again."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]