What is Becoming?
Intimacy with nature – earth-based religion
The following is a response to an e-mail about Becoming The Land.
Hi Sue,
Ah, you picked my most difficult experience to describe. Everything has a certain texture. Now we normally think of that word in reference to touching with our hand. So if you touch Levi jeans they have a different texture than a wool sweater. That’s easy, right? Well, think of touching in a different way. When you touch with the hand you normally have to extend it. In a way, all of your senses have the ability to touch, but they are just different ways of touching. When you smell a rose there is a part of you that is extending out to make contact, to touch. And in that touching/smelling, the more your mind is at rest and the more you open up to the scent, the more you become that rose. The scent is a doorway into becoming the rose. You can become a river by moving into its sound and the play of light on it, and even its smell. The senses are just the first step of becoming because really in its purest form everything is music, even you.
And everything within you is mirrored in the world around you, natural and unnatural. But the world of trees, rocks, water, and animals tends to bring us closer to the essence of life, Takuskan, That which gives movement to all life.
And so in opening ourselves up to the music of the earth we open to our own core and truth. And not always an ecstatic upbeat movement. For nature too can sometimes connect us with our anger and our sadness, but in a purifying and cleansing way if we open to the music that it awakens within us. So Becoming The Land is going into The Little Grand Canyon along Sycamore creek and taking in the music of nature in all its limitless forms and in someways letting it speak to us as the images of a dream will speak to you and then moving even beyond that to where you are extending yourself out as much as possible, becoming . . . both within and without and what you become ultimately is Present.
Now that may not make much sense for you, but if it speaks to a part of you it doesn’t have to make sense. On a practical level, what it means, is I pick you up at the bottom of the mountain where I live, about thirty minutes out of Sedona. We ride in a four-wheel-drive to The Little Grand Canyon where we hike down to the bottom, about fifteen minutes, and we spend several hours becoming present. But the fact is, we can do whatever you want and spend more time there. So take another good look at my site. You’ll get even a better sense of who I am and what I do, particularly in the Soul Journey sections. I can also do just straight guided tours. The Shamanic Counseling is the inner counterpart to Becoming The Land. I do a deep sounding of your own inner landscape so that you may reclaim your own music/truth. Price varies with the length of time. The way I work is whoever books a tour first on a given day, that is what I will be doing that day. I just require a small deposit for no- shows. But if you let me know in advance it is refundable. Sometimes others of like mind will join us. Let me know what your plans are and feel free to call me if you need to talk to a live person.
