Talking With Nature - A Course in Mysticism - 2

Lesson 2:

In the last section you learned what nature spirits are. In this lesson we will elaborate a bit more before getting back out into nature.

Here's a general list of many different kinds of nature spirits and how they seem to relate to us.

Rock, Stone, Crystal Energy

Rock, stone and crystal energy may seem slow-moving but aware. Think of rocks and minerals as living energies whose lives are so slow that we barely notice the change in them. They can often hold special qualities or groups of qualities. It has been said that crystals, for example, tend to amplify the energies around them in specific ways. Crystals vibrate at different frequencies that can sometimes be heard by people. I know of people who can literally hear the tones of crystals in the room with them.

Other minerals carry energies that seem to enhance certain aspects of our own energies. For example, Hematite seems to be a good stone for bringing our energies back to this physical plane. Hematites are great for grounding us when we tend to lift off and their dense flavour seems to act as a buffer or layer of protection around someone wearing it. When I do healing on a person wearing hematite, I find that it can be difficult to work through the dense energy. When they remove the hematite, the healing energy seems to take right off.

I find the energy of rocks and the earth to be sustaining and stabilizing. I feel at home when standing on old rock, like the ancient stone you find in the Canadian Shield.

I can't forget though, that while the energy may seem slow, there is a vibrancy, an aliveness about rock energy that moves more quickly than light.

Tree Energy

Many small children, when exploring the world around them, playact to get a feel for the energies. I can recall vague flashes of childhood recollections of times when I pretended I was tree. For that long instant, I was a tree. I have heard that there is a doorway into the consciousness of tree that arches from the ground to about 18 inches up on one side of the trunk. Stories have been written about entering other realms through doorways such as these.

Seth speaks a bit about the consciousness of life in Nature:

"The tree is of course dissociated in one manner. In some ways its living forces and consciousness are kept to a minimum. It is in a state of drowsiness on the one hand, and on the other hand it focuses the usable portion of its energy into being a tree. The state of consciousness involved here is dull as compared to the highly differentiated human ability in many ways... They feel their growing. They listen to their growing as you listen to your own heartbeat. They experience this oneness with their own growth, and they also experience pain. The pain however while definite, unpleasant and sometimes agonizing, is not of an emotional nature in the same way that you might experience pain. In some ways it is even a deeper thing... it is as if your breath were to be suddenly cut off... Rocks are far from lifeless... Your tree lives through its inner senses, experiencing many sensations and reacting to many stimuli of which you are unaware. Minute earth tremors, even the motion of small ants about its lower trunk, are recognized and experienced by tree consciousness. Such invisibilities as humidity, radioactivity and all electrical earthly values, are felt as quite real things by your tree and recognized as being separate from the tree itself. A tree knows a human being also. Not only for example by the weight of a boy upon its branches, but by the vibrations in the air as adults pass, which hit the tree's trunk at varying distances, and even by such things as voices... The tree does not even build up an image of man. The tree builds up a composite sensation which represents say an individual man. And the same tree will recognize the same man who passes it by each day."

I have found tree energy to be old and wise. Each species of tree seems to carry certain qualities that are inherent in it. Different people who feel the energy of that species of tree may describe the sensations differently but are tending to feel the same essential energies. Oak, for example, feels strong, powerful and even mystical in its ancient wisdom. Willow energy flows with a more graceful and feminine feel to it, and that's not just because of its overall physical appearance.

Plant Energy

Differing plants also carry differing tones. Bach and other great healers recognized this and found that the energies of certain plants tended to resonate well to help restore patterns that needed healing in our own energy fields. Thus the Bach Flower remedies came into existence.

My experience of plant and flower energy is that it tends to be a lighter, bouncier and even more playful energy than tree energy. This is how I perceived buttercup one lovely summer's day:

Play with us. We dance in the sunshine in a summer field, day after day and you don't see us. Come! Play with us!

Indoor Plants

Indoor plants tend harmonize more with the people and energies of their home. They not only hold the energies of their own natures, they also tend to pick up the energies of the home where they live, the conditions they live in and the energies of how much value their owners place on them.

I know a woman with a large plant that had outgrown the aquarium in her home that it shares with the fish. This plant is so closely in tune with this woman's energies that it visibly moves towards her when she walks into the room. When she leaves the room, or when someone else walks in, it visibly withdraws.

Farm Crops and Gardens

Garden crops seem to have a special affinity to the farmers and gardeners who work with them.

Animals and Birds

I have found that animal energy tends to seem more serious than plant energy. As the other energies of nature, they seem to have characteristics that we can use to enhance our spirituality. For example, hawk expressed itself this way to me:

My energy soars on the thermals, takes note of the little things, sees with wide vision, clear vision and takes action with power and strength and beauty. I am hawk. Be like me. Let your energy fly on the thermals, see with acuity and with freshness and allow your beauty to be expressed by taking swift, secure action based on your greater vision.

Work Animals

Work animals can be compared in a way to garden or farm crops. Many seem to be happy to be of service when allowed to express their full nature.

Pets

Pets have a very special relationship with people. In time to come we may not need pets because the qualities they give us will be supplied by ourselves ... companionship, unqualified love and acceptance, good humour, lots of energy. But for now, they happily serve as a reminder of these qualities.

They can also be a true mirror of our emotional and physical state. It is natural for the atmosphere surrounding our personalities to affect them. When we are happy and balanced, we have happy and healthy pets. Their gift to us is enormous.

Insects

My experience of insects is they know nothing of free will but they do possess intelligence. Baby flies even like to play.

One woman described her experience with her son this way:

"My four year old and I were outside this afternoon rooting around in the flower beds cleaning things out for winter. He was so enthralled by the falling leaves and the fact that the trees would "sleep" all winter then wake up and grow leaves again in spring. We planted bulbs and pulled out dead plants and weeds side by side. This kind of time is rare for us as my older son usually demands so much attention that sometimes the younger one gets left out. As we sat there together in the sun, he casually told me that the plants and trees talk to him as do many of the animals around him.

"He says that they "sparkle" and ask him to come and play with them and take care of them. He says that the plants tell him when they want water and to be honest I know that all summer long he has been carrying around a watering can almost as big as he is and seemed to know when the ground was dry. He asked me to watch the ants with him and the two of us lay on our stomachs on the ground beside an ant hill and watched them scurry around carrying things. He tells me that the ants don't talk to him but he knows that they "feel" scared all the time. It is kind of interesting because animals are most definitely drawn to him and we have seen that on so many occasions. He says that it is because he understands what they are saying to him and knows what they want and need.

"We laughed and held hands and played around the trees and he told me that the trees thought that it was a joyful day because we were singing with them. I tend to agree, it was a joyful day for me too."

Working with these energies:

The best place to start is to be as clear and open as possible. Learning to relax is a big part of that. These steps can give you an example to work with, or you can investigate or explore your own.

1. Find a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down.

2. Take a deep breath in.

3. Draw the breath right down into your stomach, so that your stomach rises on the in breath. This fills your lungs more completely than shallow chest breathing.

4. Focus on the breath and let it out smoothly and naturally.

5. Feel any tension in your body drain out with the out breath.

6. Take another breath in when your natural inclination is to breathe in. Do not force it. If you've ever watched an animal breathe, you'll notice that none of the breaths are forced, they just come and go with ease.

7. On the in breath, feel the air fill your lungs and imagine the fresh oxygen travelling from your lungs throughout your body.

8. Do this for several breaths. As you do this, call your energies back that are scattered out in the universe.

9. End when you feel refreshed. Try to hold some of this relaxed state for a while, and throughout the day, recall often what this state felt like so that you can easily duplicate it again.

As you go through your day you may find that the thoughts and feelings, the events and circumstances that you experience during your day, add debris to your energy field. Your boundaries become less clearly defined and your energy becomes muddier.

Hawthorn gave us this simple exercise. I call it 'Listening to the Song of your Being'. It can be done at any time and in a few moments, leaving your energy sparkling and clean. Keep keep it handy because you will be using it in this lesson when you go out into nature.

1. Find a comfortable position. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath in. Feel any tension in your body drain out with your breath. Call your energies back that are scattered out in the universe.

2. Now, imagine that you can feel the essence of who you are, deep within the inside of your body. Imagine that there is a dot of light or you could imagine it as a sound like a hum, in the very centre of you and that this represents the source of your power. Imagine it in any place you want. It can be in the centre of your body, your head, your abdomen - anywhere you imagine it to be.

3. This is the source of who you are. Through this source, the essence of who you are - this joyful, loving, playful creative and divine energy - pours into you at a rate faster than you could ever need. This is an unlimited amount of energy from your own source available to you at all times.

4. Take care to notice this song's or this feeling tone's qualities. If it is light, what does the light look like? Is it glowing or sparkling? Does it shimmer? Does it beam radiance? Does it hold any other colours than white? If it is a hum, what does this hum or sound seem to be like? Do you notice any changes in your body along with it? Notice it carefully and imagine it as clearly as you can in your mind's eye or mind's ear. Notice as well how it feels. For many, it feels like a deep profound sense of appreciation - a gratitude for existence that is deeply felt.

5. Feel this Song of Your Being or imagine it to expand slowly outwards in all directions. Watch it expand until this whole sphere of beautiful energy - light or sound - encompasses your entire body. It goes beyond your head and feet. Play gently with the size of this Song around you, drawing in and moving out the dimensions of it to a place that is comfortable. It may be right up against your skin one time and the next time you may find you want to fill a room or a house. Also become aware of any body sensations that accompany this space - tingling, warmth, gentle pressure - and know that these body sensations can let you know when you are in this clear and open space.

6. Breathe deeply, in and out, and hold the image of it surrounding you as you do. Realize as you do that anything that does not clearly reflect or resonate with this Song of who you are disappears from your energy field. It filters out what does not belong to you and allows you to interact with life from your true self.

Enjoy this image. This beauty and clarity and compassion and love is who you are.

Exercise:

Sit or stand with the tree you chose in the first lesson. Stay with it for 15 minutes as a minimum.

While you are with the tree, evoke that same sense of love and affection as you did before, without holding any expectation of any results at all. It seems that it can take time for a tree to notice that you intend contact in any meaningful way. Without knowing it, most people who sit in the shade of a tree do so to feel better.

Now run through the exercise that Hawthorn gave you to the end of step 5.

What this exercise supposedly does is bring you deeply back to your core self. Your core self is the wise inner you who has never lost intimate contact with nature and has never forgotten your oneness with all things. The more able you are to move into this centre of yourself, this Song of your Being, the more able you may be to harmonize your energies with the energies of nature.

You can do this as often as you want through the day. If you do not already use exercises such as this through your day, I'd suggest you practice it often. You can adjust it to do it anytime you like: at stoplights, when waiting in lines, when sitting to eat a meal or at any other time you think of.

The more often you practice this, the quicker you will find this inner song, and the more you will want to experience it. After a time, you may even find a feeling of bliss accompanying it, that you can recapture with just the recollection.

Journal:

In your notebook, jot down how this felt to you when you did it the first time.

What this was like for me:

The first time I tried anything like this, I was told it was a "feeling-tone" and wondered just what the heck a feeling-tone was. Or where it was. Or what it felt like. But once I started thinking of it as a hum or a bell sounding from my centre it helped me get a sense of it. In some eastern meditation practices people are taught to focus their attention on a place deep in the belly and most who do this meditation report that after a while they can actually feel the 'hara'. Knowing that others were sensing this helped me.

It also helped to remember how I felt when I was a kid. My sister had a certain flavour - a certain Judy-ness that was unmistakably her. The same could go for me. So I could see my song as my very Janet-ness.

Questions others have asked:

Q. I feel rotten today. How can I evoke a feeling of love when I feel sick?

A. Try recalling how it felt to be in the company of someone you love or loved dearly. If you find that sort of love too complicated or judgmental, try imagining that you hold a new-born baby in your arms. This baby doesn't care a whit about what you look like, what your problems are. It's just a brand-new little person who relaxes, fully trusting, in your arms. Impossible not to love. If you can capture that feeling for a moment, then allow yourself the luxury of resting in it for a while.

Q. What if I don't get a sense of my core self at all?

A. You will in time. Play with it without worrying about results. You will discover that you knew it all along.

As with the rest of this course, everything here is optional. Do what is right for you at your own pace.

References and further reading:

Seth, the Early Sessions Book 1, by Jane Roberts, ISBN: 9780965285506

Back to Introduction

Lesson 3 ‐>

Spirit Messages on my website.
A-Little-Birdie-Told-Me, Meditations From Nature

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