Walking the Land: How to Have a Positive Relationship With Mother Earth

Copyright 2011 Eileen Nauman
All Rights Reserved

Many have asked me what a connection to Mother Earth means. Keep in mind I was raised in Native American traditions (Eastern Cherokee) via my father. I’m 1/8 E. Cherokee. So many people have been DISCONNECTED from Mother Earth. You see, when we’re born, our root chakra has sent two red “roots” down each leg, through our feet and deep into “Mom.” We are grounded. We are attached. When we’re grounded we can ‘hear’ Mom a lot better than when we’re ungrounded. Children of Europe and North America, unfortunately, are ungrounded around age seven and remain untethered from our Mother, the Earth. When you are disconnected, you have no sense, no awareness and no communication. And when this happens, it creates a terrible environment. In humans, they have carelessly traumatized the planet they live upon. There is no respect, no care and no communication. I hope by writing and sharing this blog with you, that it might encourage you to become reconnected.

To understand what I’m talking about, there’s two types of grounding. The first is that our astral body, which is our emotional body, is completely “locked in” to our physical body. Frequently, when we experience threat, violence or trauma (or PTSD), our astral body unlocks and floats partially out of the crown chakra at the top of our head. It does this to stop experiencing the pain and suffering. So, first, you must get BACK into your body and stay there.

GROUNDING TECHNIQUE #2:

This is a technique you can use when out working with Walking the Land. Or, let’s say, in prayer. Or doing something sacred (it can be in a church, out on the land, at a sacred area, a medicine wheel, a sweat lodge, etc. You visualize and do this technique any time you feel it’s needed

I was taught by Oh Shinnah Fast Wolf, medicine woman, this breathing technique. I was taught to close my eyes, be relaxed, take three deep breaths in my nose and out my mouth. Once I was in this relaxed state of being, I would then visualize thick, strong tree roots twining around my ankles and feet and then extending at least a hundred feet or more, into Mother Earth.

The other thing to make sure you do is keep your knees ‘soft’ if you’re ‘running energy’–if you lock them up and they’re rigid; then the small chakras at the knees lock down too the energy flow is either partially shut down or fully shut down as a result.

SOME OTHER DOs AND DON’Ts ABOUT  RUNNING ENERGY:

1. Don’t do it if you’re tired, out-of-focus, unable to concentrate clearly and with laser-like focus.
2. Do be in a ‘good mood’.
3. Don’t do this when you’re angry, feeling vindictive, upset, want revenge, or any other nasty emotion.
4. Do be in a quiet room or area where you can’t be disturbed.
5. Do put a DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door where you are doing this so that the kids, dogs or spouse will not blunder in on you while you’re doing this.
6. Do take the phone off the hook.
7. Do take time out daily (even 15 minutes) to devote to this discipline. The more you do it, the better you’ll get and the more quickly it will “oil” those “rusty” psychic valves that you’re trying to pry open and use in your head :-). Practice makes perfect.

ENERGY AROUND US IS NEUTRAL–BUT WE ARE NOT

This is an important item to never forget and ties in above with the Do’s and Don’ts’. Energy outside of us is NEUTRAL. It bears us no ill will. It is what it is: energy. It is there for our use or abuse. Of course, there’s a record kept of how we use it, too…..and there’s a learning curve on handling energy of any kind on any dimensional level, anyway.

As the energy flows through you, understand that none of us are perfect. Some of us have flaws. Some of us have blocks. Some have certain issues, prejudice, pride, ego issues, angers, hatreds, likes, dislikes and so on. We ALL have some of these. To say we don’t is denial. Anyone who wants to run energy had best own up to their “warts” first before doing it; otherwise, we are like a loose cannon on the deck and we can do harm as a result, not the result we really wanted.

That is another reason NOT to use your own personal vital force/auric energy–because we are not perfect, we send imperfect energy that has ‘expression’ to it. It is far wiser, cleaner and safer to ‘step aside’ or ‘get out of the way’ (the conduit/open pipe way of running energy) so that this neutral energy can come through without us putting a ‘spin’ on it one way or another.

Giving of our own personal energy isn’t necessarily bad or wrong, or right or good. The person doing it, hopefully, is aware of their emotional and mental state when doing it. And the reason they are doing it. Energy when given from ourselves, personally, always has a personal stamp and ‘flavor’ to it–it is us….in our entirety. If we send someone love, and it is done with exactly that intent, then it arrives like that to the other person. Of course, that person may or may not accept your ‘gift’. That’s another article for another time.

Prayer is personal energy. Prayer may have a selfish or loving ‘spin’ to it….it just depends upon whose praying…and for what…and why. Every thought we think, every emotion we feel, is also energy expression. In our vernacular, we call them ‘thought forms’ but that is sort of a misnomer, because there are ’emotion forms’ too. Thought is being used to include our emotions/desires/feelings here, as well, so you’re not completely confused by this labeling procedure.

By understanding what surrounds and flow in and around all of us, this wonderful, useful energy, we can begin to appreciate what it brings to our dinner table. There are many other types of energy out there; but before you do anything with any of them, you have to be GROUNDED. Get in your body, first. Then everything else will fall into place after that.

So now, you are “connected,” in the two ways that you need in order to be in touch with Mom Earth. Let’s move on and take an overview look at human patterns for the last two hundred or so years.

Humans, since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (approximately 1750) has poisoned the air, water and soil of countries around the world. What people didn’t realize is that Mom Earth is a sentient, awake being. She’s as real as you and I. So, she looks different than us. So what? And at some point, when we humans begin to poison her too much (toxic waste dumps, putting uranium/plutonium beneath her skin in caves far below the surface), then she’s going to pull thing to a roaring halt.

Mom Earth is our mother. We live on her. We should respect her as the parent she is to us, her children. Yet, the human children have been nothing but cruel and disrespectful to her for hundreds of years. The Industrial Revolution forward to today, is poisoning her on every level. And she’s had enough. She’s REACTING to what we’re doing to her.

So, let’s get a new mind set, shall we? Let’s first of all realize she is ALIVE. She provides everything for us. Why would we want to continually maim, exploit and poison her? Why? When she dies, we die. And she isn’t about to die because of what we’re doing…she’ll get rid of us, instead. We’re like a virus to her. And her temperature has risen (just like a fever in a human, she now has a fever because of us, the virus, has infected her with toxins, pollution and poisons). Now, her immune system is reacting, and we are getting global warming. You kill a virus by raising the heat/temperature so high that it gets rid of it. Then the temperature comes down and the planet, in this case, is well once more. And rid of the virus known as humans in the end.

This may seem harsh, but it’s metaphorically happening right now. You can argue about greenhouse gases all you want. The bottom line is that the world is hot and getting hotter. Mom Earth as a FEVER. And fever can also be seen as nuclear radiation. And we caused it by our disregard, selfishness and disrespect.

Let’s talk about a POSITIVE and HEALTHY connection with Mom Earth. I’ve already shown you how you, as an individual, connect with her. Now, we’re going to widen this into other activities. There’s a million ways to do this, but let’s look at local things YOU can do. Let me share with you what I do (not saying you have to do this, but to give you an idea). Every day, without fail, when I get up, I mentally say good morning to Mom Earth. I go outside, face the East direction, sing my personal song to her and give a handful of cornmeal as a gift to her. I mentally tell her I love her. I walk through my daily life in a state of gratefulness to Mom Earth. I know without her, I would cease to exist.

If you’re not into this, that’s fine. There’s other things you can do. We have two large compost bins. We recycle all our food. Nothing goes to waste. There is no GMO foods on our property, nor will I support them. We have an organic garden. The compost goes into the garden and enriches the soil and makes the plants very happy. We do not pour oil on the ground if we change oil in our car. We bought a Toyota Prius in 2007 so that we could help end air pollution. We do not burn waste in a burn barrel and pollute the air. We recycle like crazy. Waste not, want not. Going “green” means you care about the health of Mother Earth.

We don’t kill anything. The ants on our property are part of the fabric of Mom Earth and where we live. I mentally ask them NOT to come in the house. Outside, the ants clean up the top of the earth. They are little garbage cans in and of themselves. And, when the fruit comes in, for example, I’ll take an apricot, thank the tree for making it, and slice it up and gently lay the tiny bits of fresh fruit on the ant hill. I talk to them, tell them how grateful I am that they are here, cleaning up the land where we live. And I humbly thank them. Our harvester ants just love this! When our apple tree comes in, I go over and gush all over my tree with joy over her gifts of red fruit. I then ask her for one of her fruits for our ant friends. I cut up the apple into very thin slices and equally give each ant hill about 1/3 of the apple. By the next morning, the fruit is gone. I feel good that I can share with my ant friends. They’re important to all of us.

I go out daily with a handful of yellow cornmeal. I go down to Oak Creek and take a pinch and throw it in the water, thanking the spirit of this water for her bounty. For without water, we would die. I take the rest of the cornmeal and pray over it and give it to Mom Earth. I thank her for taking care of us, for loving us and I tell her how much we love her.

When I go for a walk with our dog Cody, I again send a prayer to “all our relations” that surround us. I tell them how grateful and humble I am to share energy, place and space with them. I ask Great Spirit to bless them all. I thank Mom Earth for her love of us and ask that Great Spirit send her healing and loving energy. I thank Father sky and the cloud spirits for bring rain to our area and thank him for the gorgeous sunsets I photograph almost nightly. I pray for the people of the world that they will wake up and realize that Mom Earth is truly, our mother. And to treat her as such.

It doesn’t hurt to have a daily ritual in that you are grateful for what you have, gracious in letting “all our relations” know how you feel. Your ritual can come out of your own background, beliefs and experiences. For example, during the winter, we feed our birds. We’re fortunate enough to be able to buy birdseed for them. That is part of our daily ritual in the winter.

Here is one of our lizard friends, a banded Gecko who lives in and around our large, wooden drop box.

When the dog is shedding in the spring, I comb him and keep all this fine, soft golden hair. I then sit it out in round balls here and there so the birds can come down and take strands to weave into their nests that they’re building.

Living in high desert, snakes of all kinds live with us. When we first came to Arizona, we bought a “snake handling” bag and a gentle “jaws” and hook. We would get the green rattler coming through our area. When I would see one, I would tell Dave and he would get the snake kit out. I would mentally send a signal to the snake that it had to move on. If it didn’t, Dave would pick it up with the jaws and gently place it into the snake bagger. We’d then drive 2-3 miles out into the desert where no people lived and set the snake free.

And of course, we have lots of gorgeous, nonpoisonous snakes too. I dearly love having them around because they eat insects, mice and pack rats. There’s a natural balance in the area where you live. And we respect ours. Bull snakes, who are nonpoisonous, are natural predators to rattlesnakes. They can kill and eat them. So can King snakes. And in our area, we have more Bull snakes than rattlers. And we have two Bull snakes that live on our property and I’m VERY happy they are here.

As said, I go down to Oak Creek daily and thank her for her water. During the late Winter and early Spring, I ask that she not flood us out. She could, but never has. In 1993 we had what the county called the “fifty year flood.” Our neighbors above us (and at the same elevation we were) had three feet of water outside their house and two feet inside). And yet, the spirit of Oak Creek spared us. She flooded people out down below us, too. I thanked her with all my heart for keeping us dry. That was quite a night. But because we have a RELATIONSHIP with this creek spirit, she accepted my plea to not flood us out.

We don’t kill anything. Growing up, my father killed deer, duck and fished to put food on our table. And every time someone was killed, it was prayed over and thanked for giving its life so that we could continue to live. Every part of that deer was used. Nothing was thrown away or wasted. I try not to kill anything. Sometimes, I step on something and then I feel terrible because I didn’t see it. I offer up a prayer (mentally) asking the Great Spirit to bless this being and release him or her to go over the Rainbow.

If I see dead animals or birds along the road as I drive, I say the same prayer asking for a release of that being….for it is my brother or sister.

When I am at the ocean, I always bring a pocketful of crystals to her. I love the ocean! I wade out to waist deep and Mom Ocean comes and slides her watery hand into my pocket and takes all the crystals!! She loves them. And I stand there and laugh for sheer joy to feel her love of me. I watch the waves turn and then come toward me and they embrace me like her arms. I’m so deeply appreciative of her. No matter where I go in the world, I have a pouch of cornmeal on me and a few small quartz crystals as gifts for all my relations.

You can see that I have a living, ongoing, daily relationship/dialog with everything that lives with us where we live. I know the birds, the four-leggeds, the lizards, the ants, the snakes, and so many others. I’m aware of their flow, their lives and I have great joy and connection with all of them. I revel in the clouds going across the sky. I love to watch them form and change. As a child I remember I would spend hours on my back in the grass looking up at the cloud spirits, talking with them, laughing and watching them ‘play’ with me. I still do to this day. I thank Father Sky and the cloud spirits daily for the beautiful sunsets I get to photograph almost nightly. They are SUCH a testament to Mother Earth’s incredible heart and beauty. I just feel so humbled to see it. To absorb her paint brush strokes of color in the cloud spirits who dance and sing in her honor.

And so can you. It’s simply a matter of paying attention to who is living in and around your home. I was taught that “all my relations” were my relatives. And that we were, in effect, one huge, interesting family! And of course, you’re not going to kill a member of your family. You love your family. You want to get along with them. You want to enjoy them and vice-versa. At least, that is MY reality. I feel so very fortunate to have been raised in this way. As a result, I never disconnected from Mo Earth. I never left my body. My connection with Mother Earth is strong and unbreakable.

Look at your own life. Are you connected? How are you connected? Do you want to be MORE connected? It’s all possible. I have, in my life, been in so many dangerous and life-threatening situations that I know, without a doubt, that Mom Earth saved me from either serious injury or death. I don’t make this statement lightly and it’s one that I really want you to consider. I’ve seen other people who have also had a strong, loving connection with Mom Earth, and they relate similar stories of being ‘saved,’ when others around them died or were badly injured.

Although I can’t prove this, I KNOW in my heart that those who are grounded and connected with Mom Earth, who love her and are respectful of her, she will protect them. There is anecdotal evidence of this, but no cold, hard scientific fact. It’s something I’ve personally experienced and know that she will always protect me until the day I’m supposed to pass over. And I know she will watch over you and your family. She can move the winds that carry poison away from you. She can bring the rain when you need the water. She can make food grow that isn’t supposed too because she loves you. There are so many positive and healthy reasons to be connected and in a dialog with Mother Earth. You can show your love and respect in so many ways on a daily basis.

Put another way, I would ask the question: If you could have a PLANET who cares and loves you, who would protect you from everything that could possibly hurt you, would you not cultivate a relationship with this being? For me, the answer is: of course. But I love Mom Earth because she’s so beautiful that it makes me weep for pure joy and gratefulness that I get to experience her with my eyes and heart.

Why not try to create a living connection with Mother Earth? It can’t hurt anything and will help everything. But don’t take my word for it. Go try it out. See if it works for you. When we have connection with all things in the web of life, we are part of a greater whole that is stunning, amazing, wondrous, healing, uplifting and joyful. I have that connection and so can you. Just follow your own inner voice, your intuition and be creative. See what happens. And then let me know! I always love stories about people reconnect with Mom. They’re always positive and beautiful.