Go to the seas and listen with heart and mind; go to the mountains, sit by a tree, and listen with heart and mind; walk in the valleys with the winds caressing your soul, and listen with heart and mind; lie by a river with its soothing lullaby, and listen with heart and mind; skip a stone in childlike innocence across the mirror surface of a lake, and listen with heart and mind; feel the fire of the sun on your face, and listen with heart and mind; let the moonlight blanket you with its beauty, and listen with heart and mind; stand and gaze at the night sky with its star-studded tapestry, and listen with heart and mind to the sound of angels; and let the rain cleanse you of pain and suffering, and listen with heart and mind. Rev. Dr. JC Husfelt
“In Scandinavia, nature is peopled by powers in human shape. Up from the earth and out from the hills, elf and dwarf peer forth, a host of giants bellow from the mountains, from the sea answer Ran’s daughters, those enticing and hardhearted wave maidens, with their cruel mother, and at home in the hall of the deep, sits venerable Ægir. Over the heavens go sun and moon; some indeed declare that the two drive in chariots with steeds harnessed to their carts; the sun is chased by two wolves eager to swallow its shining body. Of the sun and the moon, it is said, both that they were given and taken in marriage, and that they have left offspring.”[i]
Have you ever taken the time to go out into nature, away from human encroachment, and just sat on the earth and felt the beauty and love surrounding you? Have you taken the time to see elf and dwarf peer forth from field and stone? Have you ever considered that you have no other reason than to just be part of and in partnership with nature; no smart phones or tablets, no hiking from point to point, but just you, and the Great Mother—Freyja, seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, and even tasting the essence of the kingdom of nature?
Earth is a paradise of wonders all wrapped up in myriad colors. It is alive with a consciousness that responds to all the things that call it home. I believe in a partnership with the earth and feel at one with it. I do not believe in being superior to nature, acting as its steward, but instead acting as one with nature and in partnership with the earth in cocreating a paradisiacal state of life for all life.
When was the last time you viewed the miracle of sunrise; the wonder of sunset; the magical rise of the moon in its fullness, reminding you of the interpenetration of light within dark? Have you ever been in awe of the darkness of a new moon, knowing that all growth is born out of darkness? When are you going to awaken to the paradise spread before you—the kingdom of Óðinn as Allfather?
When I talk about Mother Nature, I’m referring not only to the earth but also to the whole of the seen and unseen universe. Mother Nature is wondrous, magical, and a miracle of creation. The universe as Mother Nature is a great concept to embrace. It expands our concern and consciousness for the well-being of all things out to the stars. This takes the religious philosophical concept of the kingdom of Óðinn from just being earthbound out to the stars—the totality of the universe!
Having our heart and nature as one essence is essential for our well-being of body, mind, and spirit. Our heart will assist us in connecting with nature, and nature will help us be connected to our heart—a blending of both. We may metaphorically consider Yggdrasill the heart of the earth and the heart of heaven, pumping the lifeblood of creation through all things of existence.
[i] Vilhelm Grönbech, The Culture of the Teutons, 129.