Eco-Spirituality: Nurturing the Bond with Nature

Humans have an innate connection to nature that goes back to the origins of our species. For most of human existence, we lived intertwined with the natural world around us – dependent on it for food, water, shelter, and even our spiritual fulfillment. However, in the modern world with increasing urbanization and technology, many of us have become disconnected from nature.

Reestablishing and nurturing our bond with the natural world has benefits not just for the planet but for our mental, emotional, and even spiritual health.

Loving nature and investing in its well-being is a powerful form of self-care.

The Spiritual Implications of Environmental Decline

The environmental crisis we currently face – climate change, pollution, species extinction – has profound spiritual implications. Many philosophical and religious traditions stress humanity’s responsibility as stewards of the natural world. Losing touch with nature means losing touch with a deeper purpose and source of life itself. Several thinkers have examined the parallels between mistreatment of the environment and spiritual impoverishment:

Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest and self-described “geologian” highlighted that the root of environmental decline lies in the human soul becoming distanced and alienated from the natural world[1]. Implicit in the Judeo-Christian tradition is the view of nature as something to be dominated and controlled, rather than revered and preserved. This pathological relationship is at the root of the ecological catastrophe we now face globally. Reconnecting spiritually with nature can help heal both the planet and humanity’s psyche.

Buddhist author Joanna Macy has developed the concept of “The Great Turning” – describing the shift in consciousness needed to transition to a life-sustaining society[2]. Moving from industrial growth at all costs to environmental sustainability requires a spiritual revolution as much as a technological or economic one. Seeing nature as sacred and interconnected with humanity can inspire the level of activism and policy changes needed.

Pope Francis in his seminal encyclical Laudato Si’ makes an emphatic call to “Hear the Cry of the Earth and Cry of the Poor”[3]. Uncurbed consumerism and development harms marginalized communities and destroys ecosystems, violating social justice and intergenerational ethics. Saint Francis of Assisi is upheld as an example of spiritual deep ecology – viewing all beings as part of God’s creation and deserving of compassion.

Eco-Spirituality and Oneness with Nature:

At its core, an ecological spirituality sees all life on Earth is interconnected and interdependent. It involves moving from a mindset of domination and separation towards reverence, love and a feeling of “belonging” with the web of life. An intuitive awareness of deep unity with plants, animals, ecosystems transcends narrow anthropocentrism.

Several overlapping worldviews and movements promote this shift:

• Deep Ecology – Coined by philosopher Arne Naess in 1972. It holds that all organisms on Earth have intrinsic worth and humans have no right to reduce biodiversity or natural complexity based on shallow utilitarian motives. Achieving well-being for all life requires a radical transformation of consciousness and society[4].
• Spiritual Ecology – Associated with figures like Thomas Berry and Joanna Macy, it examines the spiritual roots of environmental decline in modernity and calls for reimagining our bond with the Earth. It connects ecology with religious insight from diverse faiths[5].
• Nature Religion or Earth-Based Spirituality – These include neo-pagan revivals of ancient practices drawing from Celtic, Native American and Goddess spiritualities. They have emerged as a response to disenchantment with mainstream religions and utilize ritual and altered states in nature to get closer to its innate divinity[6][7].
• EcoFeminism – Combines environmentalism with a critique of the domination and exploitation of women with that of nature by patriarchal systems. Healing must come through reclaiming the qualities of nurturing, care, symbiosis common to feminine and ecological principles[8].

Practices for Bonding with Nature

Beyond shifts in ideology, there are many methods and activities for practically deepening our ties with the natural world[9]:

• Time in wilderness – Seeking solitude amidst pristine forests, mountains and rivers kindles awe at Creation beyond human agency. Wildness stirs humility and integration with the whole. Vision quests and pilgrimages fuse physical challenge with spiritual opening.
• Gardening / Farming – Tending the soil and reaping nature’s bounty connects us viscerally to life’s regenerative cycles. From farms to city windowsills, nurturing plants grounds us with the Earth while receiving their gifts.
• Tree Wisdom – Ancient cultures worldwide communed with majestic trees which can live for millennia absorbing the Earth’s rhythms. Sitting with an elder tree opens inner wisdom and past-life insight even today. Trees teach non-doing presence.
• Animal Encounters – Caring for pets to communing with wildlife, contact with animals reminds us we co-inhabit this planet as fellow embodied souls. Watching even urban squirrels mirrors our restless minds till we recognize our shared sentience with our furry cousins.
• Eco-Ritual – Ceremonies harmonized with natural cycles of seasons, moon and sun align us with deeper cosmic patterns. Ancient festivals like Beltane or modern rituals around solstices utilize altars, dance, music and intention setting within nature’s mandala.
• Sustainable Living – Aligning everyday lifestyle choices around ecology – from diet to transport – is a tangible spiritual practice expressing non-harm to the Earth. Even basic acts like recycling reshape habits of consumption oriented around biodiversity and minimal waste.
• Nature Based Arts – Channeling creativity from and towards subtle essence of Nature – in music, poetry, painting, sculpture and other media – allow artist and audience alike to enter a reverential space beyond ego. Art can articulates the mysteries which language cannot frame.

Spending time in nature is a holistic approach to enhancing life quality. It nurtures the body, calms the mind, uplifts the spirit, and strengthens our bond with the natural world.

Challenges in Practicing Eco-Spirituality

Despite the profound rationale behind ecological spirituality, practicing it consistently poses obstacles we must acknowledge[10]:

• Technological Immersion – Overexposure to screens, media, artificial gadgets and processed foods makes us lose sensory attunement to the rhythms of dawnlight, seasons, wildlife and our native place on Earth we evolved alongside. Unplugging from devices into direct nature is truly countercultural today.
• Urbanization & Indoor Living – With over 50% of humanity living in cities dependent on electricity, plumbing and technology for basic life, connecting practically with wilderness or post-pastoral farms requires intention and leisure. City parks while accessible don’t expose us enough to ecology.
• Disenchantment of Nature – The dominance of the scientific worldview demystifies nature, teaching us to perceive it as unconscious matter arbitrarily evolved over aeons, rather than Mother Earth ensouled with spiritual purpose and agency. Re-enchanting our ontology to view existence itself as sacred is demanding.
• Individualistic Culture – Modernity privileges individual ego, rights and self-interested progress over communing as inter-beings through empathy, symbiosis and nurturing collective threads with fellow species. A culture of hyper-individualism leaves little tacit incentive to invest in ecological practice.
• Consumer Values – Nature in mainstream discourse is viewed mostly through a consumerist lens as “resources” for human enjoyment rather than entities with intrinsic worth and rights to exist for their own purpose. Shaking anthropocentrism means confronting industries profiting from animal exploitation or habitat destruction.

Integrating Eco-Spirituality into Society

With its challengess notwithstanding, infusing eco-awareness into public imagination and institutions is vital. Some directions include[11]:

• Policy Reform & Legal Rights – Expanding legal rights and protections for natural resources, endangered species and traditional community lands preserves biodiversity and cultural wisdom interlinked with ecology. Policies limiting industrial carbon/toxins, mandated eco-education, promoting renewable energy and microgrids empower systemic transition.
• Mainstream Green Culture – Public green spaces, wildlife conservation centres, sustainability centered media, renewable materials for housing/transport infrastructure and promoting nature-based recreation create more avenues to engage larger society with ecological values beyond paper statutes or online debate alone.
• Interfaith Environmental Action – With global spiritual movements representing faiths followed by billions, religions can powerfully impact mass consciousness. Climate activism interfaith coalitions like GreenFaith, Interfaith Power & Light, multifaith youth movements and indigenous spiritual elders lead the movement for eco-social values.
• Rewilding Ancient Traditions – Reviving redesigned native rituals and earth-honoring ceremonies from our ancestors – Celts, Aboriginals, Native Americans, Druids, Goddess worship – enhance access for modern people to connect viscerally to the sentience of rivers, forests, mountains and diverse life who call these sites home since antiquity.
• Mainstream Education Reform – Rethinking pedagogy in schools to include ecological arts, hands-on sustainability practices like school gardens, field trips to wilderness and farms give young minds life-long nature attunement missed by urbanized generations before them. Sculpting curricula around ecology and stewardship principles nurtures youth who can lead the next wave of activism.

Connecting with nature is a powerful and transformative practice that can lead to a happier, more sustainable life.

In Conclusion: Awakening Planetary Consciousness

The multiple dangers of climate instability, mass extinction and environmental injustice are no longer debatable but beg a shift to an ecocentric sensibility and practice. Within indigenous, Eastern, neo-pagan and post-Christian voices, ecological spirituality offers hope for humanity to rediscover reverence and kinship with Nature – both ending the destructive patterns threatening planetary life as well as our inner telos calling us to transcend anthropocentrism.

Simple sense-opening practices in farming, foraging, ritual, artisanry, retreat and activism engage more citizens in an awakening reflecting tenets of Deep Ecology or Spiritual Ecology – where humanity embraces a caretaker role on behalf of the planet. Only soul force combining empirical facts, cultural creativity and spiritual empathy with the web of life can midwife the Great Turning now unfolding across local and global communities.

The revolution in human consciousness to align technology and economy with ecology is no quick fix but a long arc journey summoning our species’ collective wisdom. Yet as soil, oceans, forests daily communicate their pain as sensitive super-organisms, the Earth seems to be nudging humanity to walk this road less traveled.

Answering this call to tend the garden is no mere environment-saving externality, but a mystical adventure promises to unleash meaning, unity and evolutionary purpose once believed banished from our postmodern lives. 

When sections of society awaken to breathe with mountains, commune with rivers as living waters and covenant with wildlife as partners on this barely explored sphere in the cosmos, they plant seeds for the generations to wholly redefine culture on a planetary scale as conscious beings called to Listen to the Earth – not just with arguments, statistics or policies agitating within anthropic frames – but with healing empathy reaching across species lines acknowledging we swim in One Love.

References: 

[1] KIMURA, Takeshi. “The Cosmology of Peace and Father Thomas Berry’s “Great Work”.” The Japanese Journal of American Studies 20 (2009): 175-192.

[2] Power, Clare. Transition: a force in the Great Turning?. Diss. University of Western Sydney (Australia), 2015.

[3] Van Tine, Robin. “Reflections, analysis, and significance for human ecology of Pope Francis’s encyclical letter’Laudato si”: On care for our common home.” Human Ecology Review 23.1 (2017): 141-177.

[4] Drengson, Alan. “An ecophilosophy approach, the deep ecology movement and diverse ecosophies.” The Trumpeter 14.3 (1997).

[5] thomasberry. “Thomas Berry, Dreamer of the Earth: The Spiritual Ecology of the Father of Environmentalism.” Thomas Berry, Thomas Berry, 28 Nov. 2020, thomasberry.org/thomas-berry-dreamer-of-the-earth-the-spiritual-ecology-of-the-father-of-enviro nmentalism/.

[6] Taylor, Bron. “Earth and nature-based spirituality (part I): From deep ecology to radical environmentalism.” Religion 31.2 (2001): 175-193.

[7] Taylor, Bron. “Earth and nature-based spirituality (Part II): From Earth first! and bioregionalism to scientific paganism and the New Age.” Religion 31.3 (2001): 225-245.

[8] Gaard, Greta, ed. Ecofeminism. Vol. 21. Temple University Press, 1993.

[9] Barrable, Alexia et al. “Enhancing Nature Connection and Positive Affect in Children through Mindful Engagement with Natural Environments.” International journal of environmental research and public health vol. 18,9 4785. 30 Apr. 2021, doi:10.3390/ijerph18094785

[10] Robina-Ramírez, Rafael et al. “The Challenge of Greening Religious Schools by Improving the Environmental Competencies of Teachers.” Frontiers in psychology vol. 11 520. 24 Mar. 2020, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00520

[11] CROWE, Jessica. “Transforming environmental attitudes and behaviours through eco-spirituality and religion.” International Electronic Journal of Environmental Education 3.1 (2013): 75-88.