This was initially posted on July 9, 2018
Nurture life.
Stroll in love and sweetness.
Belief the data that comes via the physique.
Converse the reality about battle, ache, and struggling.
Take solely what you want.
Take into consideration the implications of your actions for seven generations.
Method the taking of life with nice restraint.
Observe nice generosity.
Restore the net
In Rebirth of the Goddess, I provided 9 Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality as a substitute for the Ten Commandments. The 9 Touchstones are meant to tell all {our relationships}, whether or not private, communal, social, or political.
The second touchstone, “Stroll in love and sweetness,” derives from the perception that love and sweetness are the good items of bounteous earth. Only in the near past at a gathering of the Inexperienced Get together Greece, one in every of our representatives in Parliament, Giorgos Dimaras, mentioned to me, “All of it begins with love.” He understands that our Inexperienced Get together ideas of environmental sustainability, social justice, no violence, and participatory democracy are rooted within the prior worth of affection. If we don’t love nature, then why would we care about saving it? If we don’t love others, why would we care about injustice and struggling? If we don’t love the world, why would we care about creating peace on earth? If we do love others, why would we care about creating methods to make sure that everybody’s voice is heard in our households, communities, and societies?
It uncommon to listen to love spoken about in a political context. We’ve got realized that love belongs within the realm of the private or the religious, however definitely not in political realm the place “exhausting” selections need to be made. We’ve got been informed that politics should be based mostly in motive, not emotion. I’m wondering if our Inexperienced Get together consultant would dare to say “all of it begins with love” in Parliament. And if he did, who would hear?
Some imagine love is a strictly human feeling, however most of us know that animals love and reply to like. Those that converse to crops, together with many conventional farmers, in addition to city and suburban gardeners, know that crops additionally reply to like. It’s more and more understood that the cells of our our bodies reply to the acutely aware and unconscious emotions and ideas we have now about our our bodies. A few of us have been taught to suppose romantic love is crucial type of love. However different types of love, together with mom love and the love of associates, are equally helpful and sometimes extra sustaining.
Magnificence is an advanced situation in trendy societies as a result of we have now been taught that feminine magnificence is to be judged by a magnificence customary in opposition to which most of us are discovered wanting. “5’2” and eyes of blue” was the sweetness customary in my youth, whereas at the moment the best is tremendous skinny and androgynous. It doesn’t matter what the present customary, most of us fail to measure up. A few of us come nearer than others. Darkish pores and skin has not often been considered as probably the most stunning.
The Navajo Magnificence Approach has nothing to do with magnificence requirements. When the Navajos converse of strolling in magnificence, they consult with a approach of being on the planet wherein one takes time to understand the fantastic thing about each dwelling factor in its uniqueness. A tall redwood tree is gorgeous, however simply as stunning are the ferns that develop and its ft, and the moss that grows on its bark. A toddler is gorgeous in innocence, and an elder is gorgeous in knowledge. The spring flowers are stunning, however so is the extra barren winter panorama.
After we stroll in magnificence we additionally wish to create stunning issues. We would like our properties and workplaces to be stunning, we would like our streets and neighborhood areas to be stunning, we would like the world to be stunning. Considered one of my Cretan associates, Nikos Markakis, was fond of claiming, “Folks by no means created something as stunning as nature.” I imagine he was proper. The one issues which might be really ugly in our world are created by folks: decaying cities, oceans crammed with rubbish, the devastation of battle. After we stroll the sweetness approach, we’re impressed to create magnificence throughout us.
Generally we reply to magnificence by greedy. We are saying, “I wish to have that.” “Or can I’ve that?” Simply this morning once I was appreciating blue corn flowers rising in an untended space in entrance of the home I used to be renting, I considered choosing them. As a substitute, I made a decision to go away them the place they have been, hoping I might see them in the identical place one other day. Love is the suitable response to the notion of magnificence. And generally one of the simplest ways to like is solely to understand.
It goes with out saying that the world can be very completely different if all of us walked in love and sweetness daily and in each approach. We’d not tolerate the violation of magnificence. We’d not tolerate the violation of affection. We’d not tolerate the violation of life.
Additionally see: Ethics of Goddess Faith: Therapeutic the World and Nurture Life: Ethics of Goddess Spirituality
