...we may find ourselves moved by the wisdom traditions of native peoples and mystical voices in our own religions, hearkening to their teachings as to some half-forgotten song that reminds us again that our world is a sacred whole in which we have a sacred mission.
--Joanna Macy, Coming Back to Life
In this time of ecological and cultural upheaval, the world needs an image that can bring together people of all faiths and cultures, honoring diversity and at the same time expressing a unity that everyone can embrace. Perhaps that image is The Tree of Life. In its current scientific role, it was conceived by Charles Darwin as a model for understanding evolution. Expanded through genetic science, this model of the tree of life demonstrates that the one thing we all have in common is the precious and incredible gift of life. We are all, every creature and plant and microorganism, made of the same DNA and live on a branch of the same phylogenetic tree, arising from the same ancient progenitor.
The Tree of Life includes all religions as it does all species. It is an image of the mystery that lies at the heart of every religion and in the heart of each beloved being. It tells us life is sacred. Not just our own individual lives, or that of our tribe or community or nation, but all of life, all our brother and sister species and us. I even imagine that when life is discovered on another planet, it will be found to be built upon the very same spiraling DNA molecule that structures life on earth. The infinitely dividing roots and branches of the Tree of Life reflect the great mystery that binds all things, that sings in our blood and in the galaxies, that twists the DNA helix, that sparks between neurons, that is crucified in the tension between opposites, between life going onward and extinction, between despair and love of life.
--Molly Brown
Creating Earth-Centered Community Ritual (full pdf text here)
Randy Morris, Ph.D., Antioch University Seattle, January 2011
Abstract
The intention of this essay is to lay the groundwork for creating large-scale earth-centered community rituals that can further the aims of the Great Turning. The dynamics of the spiritual crisis of the 21st century provides the context for the necessity of these kinds of ceremonies, understood as global initiatory rites of passage for the entire human species as it attempts to move through the Great Turning. The work of Thomas Berry provides the means to understand how earth-centered ritual accesses "the dream of the earth", understood as the intelligence that moves through the universe. This genetic guidance is grounded in our interdependency with all of life, and is accessible through the dynamics of the deep imagination and the perceptual capacities of the human heart. An example of a large-scale earth-centered community ritual is analyzed as a way to understand what it takes to design and implement a global initiatory rite of passage. "A Celebration of the Tree of Life in the Time of the Great Turning" took place on November 6, 2010. Video excerpts of this event can be found (here). Its success illustrates the hunger for these kinds of rituals, a newly constellated archetypal urge to join with the human family and all the beings of the earth to acknowledge the suffering of the planet and celebrate the joy of being alive in this most auspicious time in the life of our species.