What Does It Mean To ‘Believe’ in the Earth?

Believing in the earth is not about assigning yourself to a particular set of cultural rules or historical rituals. It is not about ‘growing into’ or taking on board an existing communal belief system.

It is about whether or not you decide to take on board some basic realities and find fulfilment in the fact that you belong to them and are an important part of them. As with your friends or your family, you then try to celebrate that relationship and live your life in respect of it.

The crucial point about this is that it is far more real to us and to our nature than any belief system we may evolve culturally. It comes from what I will refer to as our ‘natural purpose’.

All living beings have a natural purpose. We all have an inbuilt drive in us. We all have natural tasks we feel we need to complete and roles we feel we need to play. Nature builds these instincts into our collective conscious. We are rewarded with a sense of fulfilment, of physical or mental contentment.

Why does nature do this? For the survival and growth of life itself. For that is what we are - vessels for the continuation of Life itself, evolved over time into our current form through circumstance and the processes of trial and error.

The most basic forms of Life on earth have always have always been driven by this. Likewise with every plant, every fish, every reptile, every bird, every animal and every human. How that affects and drives the ‘vessel’ becomes more and more recognisable to us as we move up the contemporary food chain.

Daffodils open up to the suns energy. Sharks live for the kill. Iguanas bask happily in the morning sun. The Albatross loves to fly. Caribou live for the herd. Humans are consumed by sex. All of these are necessary for the survival and growth of each species, and of Life itself.

Obviously this has a huge impact on evolved human consciousness and culture. We are territorial and communal. We are, by our nature, omnivores. We invest in our offspring. We are affectionate. We are inquisitive and experimental. We have hierarchies, leaders and followers, male and female ‘roles’. All human cultures are built on these natural traits.

And so, when the wildebeest sits content with its herd on the opens plains of the African Savannah, its belly full from grazing, its eyes watching out for its young as they play, we can see how in fulfilling its natural purpose, it has found a sense of peace and purpose. Its brain or its body does not need any more to feel satisfied.

Not so with the human. We are unique (rather than ‘advanced’ or ‘progressive’) as our specific intelligence and abilities add an extra dimension to these evolved traits. We have a need to know; a need to explain; a need to understand. It is a natural trait that aids all living beings in the game of survival, but our intelligence and our abilities allow us to explore and express these in uniquely human ways.

Whether this is a blessing or a curse is open to debate. These are not absolutely necessary for our survival or indeed (when you consider the wildebeest) our personal contentment. Our natural purpose is such that we can find contentment as part of a community, raising our young, living in peace where possible. But our ability to ponder and our need to understand drive us to other things.

Where did we come from? What is our purpose? What created us? How did it all begin? These questions naturally have formed the basis of all belief systems dotted throughout the Human Experience.

You can almost imagine our earliest ancestors pondering such things and attempting to explain them with reference to the world around them as they knew it. Epic tales were weaved. Rituals were performed. Wise people emerged. Institutions were formed. Monuments were erected.

This cultures that it creates is something quite brilliant. Just as with the evolution of the first animals or the first birds, it adds another layer to the grand systems of life.

But our culture and our generation must decide how we will answer these burning questions with reference to the world as we know it. We do not need origin tales to explain the world. Our wise men can answer more clearly the questions of where, what and why. We now know the beautiful reality of our natural purpose, and we can feel content in fulfilling it.

But we will always have that burning need to believe in the idea that we are part of something greater than ourselves; something that we belong to; something that we are an important part of. Something that was here long before us that we lived among and contributed to, and that will live on long after we have returned to the earth.

This could be a football team, a family, a city or a nation. All can and do suffice.

But nothing is more pure, more epic, more relevant or more real than the earth itself. Know that you are a part of the earth. That’s its elements and its systems flow in your veins. That you have a natural purpose, however that may inform your inner self or your daily life. That you belong. That you can be inspired by the earth, its physical landscapes and its living systems.

We can feel everything the wildebeest does; that contentment; that sense of purpose performed - and we can satisfy our need to know without inventing stories - it is real.

Believing in the earth is knowing that we understand and accept the reality of what we are and what we belong to, celebrating it, respecting it, safe in the knowledge that when we die, our bodies will remain as an important part of its grand systems.

This belief system does not necessarily require rituals, institutions, wise men or even a standard mythology. It is both individual and communal all at once. As I said in response to a previous post, ‘Imagine instead what it feels like to sit with a group of friends on the edge of the Grand Canyon at sunset, admiring the greatness in front of you and feeling like you belong. That’s the kind of belief system I am aiming at here.’

What this offers the individual, the human community and human culture I will deal with in the next post on this thread.