In The Great Work, Thomas Berry speaks of the intimacy the indigenous people had with the land, each part of nature was experienced as a personal other. I have always been drawn to the beauty of nature, lured deeper into the land and its mysteries though the textures and luminous presence of beauty. The beauty of the land was the deciding factor for me in choosing a college, and later in making my way across the country to the mountains of Colorado and eventually to the lush terrain of northern California.
Beauty has always nourished me, soothing and comforting as my eyes gaze over an undulating landscape, follow the flight of a soaring hawk, or rest in the peace of a snowy night. Berry speaks of women carrying the nourishing aspect of the Great Mother, bringing awareness of a nourishing universe. The Mother, Mirra Alfaasa, who was the living embodiment of the Great Mother, devoted her life to an exploration of cellular matter through her experience of the numinous presence within the cells.
By delving into her own body, she forged a link to the aliveness within matter that the indigenous people experienced. As I have deepened in my own experience of my body as living matter alive with consciousness these past 25 years, my experience of the numinous presence within the living landscape surrounding me has grown. I feel each tree, each plant, each breath of the wind as the beautiful other. The more tangible my own inner landscape becomes as sacred matter, as I feel my blood in contrast to the cells of my bones, the fluidity of my organs floating in the sea of my torso, the more intimately I know the living Earth as well.
In the Navajo Way there is a line the world is restored in Beauty. This recognition of the Earth as sacred is the return of beauty to the world, our own recognition that beauty resides in matter. Our embrace of our own cells, our cellular world as sacred body, is the emergence of the feminine that we have been awaiting. The tangible embrace of this worldview restores beauty and nourishment to our parched cells, awakening the luscious presence of Beauty sleeping in matter, reviving our bodies and the Earth. The world is restored in Beauty. The interiority of every living other in our external landscape is sacred. Our bodies are sacred. All our relations are sacred.
For the original longer version of this essay on my Writings page: //http://sabrinapage.com/wordpress/moved-by-beauty/
The Nature of Us – Sabrina Page has an MA in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness, a background in movement and dance, focused on embodiment. She has been deeply influenced by her connection with nature, shaped by playing in woods and water growing up. Sabrina’s writing explores the earth community, love, body, embodiment, interconnection, our planetary moment, music – and the creativity and possibilities inherent in being human.