To learn from the wisdom of a mountain, from fire, from water, is quite different from learning in text books. Learning to “listen” to the beings who are so much older than we are, and to discern what is being offered, is a crucial remembering for our times.
Even for Indigenous peoples, who are and have been in continuous relationship with sacred mountains and the waters connecting them, many have been intentionally disconnected from their sacred places. Most of us are even further disconnected, though our ancestors used to be in more fundamental relationships of honor with the elements that make up creation.
Mountain asceticism, a spiritual practice of living in mountains where deities reside, was known across cultures, from Hindu yogis, to Christian hermits, to the Japanese Yamabushi tradition, to be a training ground for spiritual awakening, both through being in space set apart, and through direct connection to the elements. A Sanskrit word for God, Bhagavan, exemplifies this fundamental honoring, as it is made of a letter or phrase from each of the the five elements of the Universe, (Earth, Space, Air, Fire, Water), and represents the divine’s role as the source and sustainer of the Universe.
Now we must begin again to practice aligning with the land in an open-hearted way, whereby we each tune in and adjust, in relation to the whole of Earth, spirit and one another.
Reflections from some of our advisors and co-creators:
“Long leaf pines are going extinct, but we live in a big forest of them. We witness their dependence on fire. The fire melts the resin on their pine cones to release their seeds. When I have sat with them while fasting, I see how our sacred fire does that for us too. Fire melts our residue. As we sit with the fire, it melts what we have covered ourselves with, and releases our seeds – our gifts. We learn just by sitting with each element, each being. As Orland said once ‘walking to the river is a school’. Once I was open to that statement, then all these other things came into place as far as how I can live my life.
So that I could inquire into – ‘how might we know a place?’, and ask: ‘What do you call yourself? How do I hold you, pray for you? How am I to be here, to best caretake this sacred creation? How do I open to the healing so that I can invite the mystery, feel gratitude for the ancestors who have loved us here, and become the song that welcomes others who are seeking, too?”
“In my time in India … and the sacred headwaters of the Ganges – the making of a pilgrimage to that source is always a ritual for the people who consider it the source of all spiritual wisdom and nourishment.
The fire is not just for creativity but also for dissolution. It plays a big part in transition from life to death…helping us walk through that gate of renewal. And always reminds us of that unity, of life and death, this cycle. … So the fire is not just for life, for creativity, but the whole thing is a vehicle for the spirit to go through different transitions, different forms, even different epochs of civilization.
But always, even for us in Japan, a pilgrimage is to the headwaters. Whenever humans went out of control it was because they lost relationship to the fire, and the people then had to send out from their communities, from small to big, from village to the national level – the Chief – who had to go on a pilgrimage to the water source … in order to maintain proper relationship.
Up to 150 yrs ago we had this role, [“Oshi”], in society, who was like a middle man between the pilgrims and the sacred headwater sites… These were not professional priests or monks but people who were there as portals to properly introduce and orient people to these places. … One of the forms Jubilee College might take is to nurture and cultivate those middle men for this period of the world we are in.”
Earth needs to be here; we need to be here. Here is your will-ingness to invest cosmic time in the earth, as seeds of futures.
Next, the water comes in. The relational process of a circulation of dreams, aspirations, appreciations, to fill in all the gaps… reciprocity, connection, relationship. Water is wiser than many of the Universities of our age. A feeling of truthfulness towards ourselves and the world.
Then the air imaginations get awakened. What if what is moving through me has a connection to someone else? Invisible guidance and intuitions come as to the purpose of my life.
Then the fire… how does the future come in? In great memory of the primordial substance that Earth is releasing now – star wisdom – which brings in time as a beginning.”
“The school that is being created here is the school that we need as Indigenous folk. …The spiritual side of what fire and water actually are and how to discipline yourself enough to actually talk to them… Opening ourselves to receive such messages and direct communications. In the right environment, rather than with the constant pressures of society. It is why we are building round houses, to create spaces to get outside of the mainstream. That’s how I see Jubilee College, building that container where people can really think about and feel into that.”
“The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.”
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
“To make sacred is to pay attention.”
~ Orland Bishop