With SpiritQuest coming up in a couple of weeks, it is the time we get those calls with people's concerns about camping. It seems that many of us have become so isolated from the Mother with our framed houses and concrete, that the concept of sleeping out doors on the ground can be disconcerting.
However, there is an energetic relationship between you and Mother Earth that nourishes the human body and spirit in profound ways. In 7 Steps to Healing, I share with readers that Black Elk, a very powerful Sioux medicine man used to send someone, who had asked for healing, outside with a mattress to sleep under a tree for four days, before he would do any healing work. Clearly, he understood that in order for a human to become truly healthy, they need to be in sync with the natural rhythms of the Mother.
It is a common misunderstanding that earth is a thing we live on to be used to serve our needs. Earth is as alive as we are and we are living in symbiotic relationship with her. When we lose touch with that awareness, we begin living on top of her instead of with her. When this happens we can easily lose touch with our natural rhythms and cycles. Symptoms of being out of sync with our natural cycles, also known as circadian rhythms, include stress, physical tension, emotional frustration, depression... and all of these can contribute to ongoing illness. On-going illness of this type is called a Circadian Rhythm Disorder.
Sleeping on the Mother is one way to bring your own circadian rhythms into balance and one of the greatest gifts you can give your body if you are in the process of healing. In circadian balance, you strengthen yourself both physically and emotionally. Yes, emotionally too, because you are exposing yourself to negative ions—those molecules in nature that naturally relieve us from stress and emotional discomfort.
So why sleep with the Mother rather than just sit with her and walk on her. Now here is where the magic lies. How do you suppose sleeping with the Mother might effect your dream-time? How might it influence your mystical relationship with creation? Oh, it does—very much so! People at SpiritQuest often report heightened dream and visionary states. Now, of course, we are also in sacred space, which immensely enhances our ability to access the mystical realms. However, I can tell you from my own experience, some profound mystical experiences in my life occurred when I was traveling alone, camping, and sleeping on the Mother.
Now that summer here, perhaps you will try it out for yourself. Consider, grabbing your sleeping bag or some blankets (and if your hips are as tender as mine, get yourself a cushy inflatable mattress) and sleep under the stars in the loving arms of Mother Earth. Then write me, and tell me what mystical awareness was revealed to you, as you slept with the Mother!
In my heart and songs,
Reverend Misa
