Full Description
Early man ran with the animals, lived with the animals, and was one with the wild symphony of the natural world--a time fondly remembered as the Garden of Eden, or Idunn as it is known in Norse mythology. But as humanity shifted from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one of farming and cities, embracing the modern worldview of man's superiority over nature, we began ignoring our innate connection with the Earth. Now we are waking up to what we've lost, yearning to heal our relationship with the Earth and rekindle the oneness with nature.
Drawing on the work of Felicitas Goodman, Thomas Berry, Ervin Laszlo, and other important voices calling for recognition of our connection with all life, author Nicholas Brink shows how ecstatic trance can return us to profound union with our Great Mother, the Earth.
Sharing personal trance experiences of healing, spiritual connection, and divination, Brink shows how these practices enable us to create personal rituals to maintain oneness with all life. He reveals the spiritual power of being one with your environment and experiencing the spirits of everything around you. And, as we reconnect with the spirit of the Earth, we can once again experience the world not only as alive but also enchanted.
Contents
Prologue The Meaning of Life by Gary Gripp
Acknowledgments
Introduction To Save the Earth Is to Save Ourselves
1 Becoming One with the Great Mother
2 Strengthening Our Unity with the Earth 20
3 The Ecstatic Postures 34
4 Spirit Guides
5 Shape-Shifting
6 The Seven Directions
7 Becoming an Elder
8 Grieving For and Healing the Earth
9 Reconnecting with Our Mother, the Earth
10 Rituals That Cultivate Our Sense of Oneness
Epilogue Reclaiming the Hunter-Gatherer Ways
Appendix of Ecstatic Postures
Notes
Bibliography
Index
