In response to my first meditation on Kali and the virus, I received the following thoughtful essay from Kristal Parks (responding to “Coronavirus and Kali: Desentimentalizing Our View of Mother Earth”) called “Coronavirus from the Earth’s Point of View.”
She has given us permission to share her thoughts:
My life has been informed and shaped from my studies as a biologist, my years of living as a hermit in a forest and time spent with Indigenous communities. I tend to want to see happenings from the point of view of Mother Earth and Her critters: the 4 legged, finned, feathered, creepy crawlers and rooted ones. They are, for me, my elders and teachers.
So, at the risk of being tarred and feathered, I’d like to offer the following point of view vis-a- vis the Coronavirus.
I don’t think she risks being tarred and feathered by the readers of our Daily Meditations.
I start with the awareness that the Earth is a living, dynamic organism. And like all living things, seeks to rid itself of anything harmful and threatening to its wellbeing. There is nothing more threatening to Mother Earth than us, we human beings.
Here we find a direct link between the virus and the regular themes of the sacredness of the Earth found in our DMs.
I wish to suggest that the Coronavirus and other very threatening viruses (like Ebola and the Swine flu virus), are the Earth’s way of trying to rid herself of the parasite that is killing her… US! These viruses are canaries in the mine shaft. And perhaps they are more friend than foe.
I don’t think pandemics will end until we stop what we are doing that is destroying the Earth, our home. So besides taking precautions to protect ourselves (wash our hands, cough into a Kleenex, etc.), I suggest we also take a very deep look at what is making Mother Earth mad as hell, and do all we can to change that.
This would seem to be the agenda of Kali, Cailleach (Hag), and the Black Madonna as we recognized in yesterday’s DM.
So, when things settle down and kids go back to school and restaurants open again, I hope we won’t go back to life “as usual,” doing the same old, same old stuff that is driving ourselves, and all life, to extinction. Let’s listen to the clarion call of sentinel Coronavirus and make all the changes we need to. Now.
I couldn’t agree more. There may well be something much more foundational happening in this entire emergency. A wake-up call from the Great Mother, from Mother Earth herself, to move beyond the systems and thinking we are now engaged in to a deeper way of living on and with the Earth. A spiritual awakening that takes us beyond the narcissism so prevalent in our educational, economic, political, media, religious systems and battles to more beautiful ways of living on this planet. Together.
See Matthew Fox, “Mother Earth is Dying,” in The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 11-18.
See Richard Hendrick’s poem “Lockdown” (read in today’s video) here: https://www.a-spiritual-journey-of-healing.com/coronavirus-prayer-poem.html
Banner Image: “Pollution” by Jay Parker on Flickr
Queries for Contemplation
Do you feel Mother Earth may be wanting to throw us off the earth as a virus against her creation? What can we do about that?
Recommended Reading
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.
11 thoughts on “Kali and Coronavirus, continued”
I also see a direct correlation between the Biblical phrase the “wrath of God” and sowing and reaping. Destruction reaps destruction. God will not be mocked by persistent human behavior stemming from ignorance.
Dear Martha,
Thank you for writing and bringing up the wrath of God from the early books of the Bible. If we find the wrath and fury of Kali important, what do we make of the Biblical patriarchal God who carries out wars and retribution? Perhaps we should take another look at the early attributes of God that we have so often dismissed as ancient projection.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
Thank You, Mr. Fox, for sharing!
All this is very important today. I also come to this conclusion that Mother-Earth want to wake us up and she send to us, as we say in Russia, “last chinese warning”. I hope that we will change the way of our civilization. I believe, we can do it because there are such people like You! Thank You for wisdom and encouragement! God be with You, Mr. Fox!
Thanks to DM-s team! What you do is very meaningful!
Dear Andrey,
Thank you for writing and your expressions of gratitude. It seems from your comment that Russia is also feeling the importance of change and the impact of the virus. WIthout the “social distancing” that national boundaries create, we might all wake up together and change our ways. Your message brings hope.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
Mother Gaia loves us. She gifted us with Her very body : this beautiful jewel of a planet to call home & decorated with the most staggering beauty She could imagine.
When she looked down , She saw her children squabbling & arguing over stupid things like * who has less melanin? *who has more oil ? Young children are wont to do this, as any human parent can attest.
Her children even created this thing they called “money ”
( which is an illusory construct & doesn’t even exist) Then they argued about that too & who had more of this illusion which they created. Sadly, her children even killed each other 💔 over this.
Then the unruly children turned on Mother Gaia and attacked Her very body by extracting the oil which is Her life blood. They dug deep in Her body and mined her coal, and her diamonds. That was not enough. They raped their own Mother by forcing themselves on Her and injecting toxic fluid-laden semen into her very body in a process they named fracking. When their Mother Gaia gasped , they captured her breath as the gas she emitted and sold it.
Her children hunted Her other creatures for sport. They extincted other creatures the Mother made for them as companions to accompany Her human children on their journey. The children created toxins and spread them over Her body in the hopes of growing more. Always more. Never enough.
So , distressed at her children’s antics, and like every loving parent, Mother Gaia knew She must do something. Something that would unify her children. Something to make the squabbling stop. Something that would get all of Her children’s attention simultaneously. Something Her children had never seen before. Something the children could not overpower, in fact something they could not even see. SOMETHING TO FORCE A STOP TO THEIR EGREGIOUS BEHAVIOR. An invisible something that would bring her children back in line. THE CORONAVIRUS.
Then , She sent us to our respective rooms for a time-out to think about our behavior with respect to others and to Her: QUARANTINE.
And still, despite our naughtiness, each night she wraps Her beloved children in her mantle of stars and rocks us to sleep like the loving Mother she is. Mother Gaia loves us.
Such a beautiful story of how God/Mother loves us! This speaks to me more than the Angry Father God of the Bible.
Dear Roberta,
This is a very powerful piece of writing. By putting our ecological crisis in terms of a story, it brings the crisis closer to home. I hope you are sharing this widely. You might want to share it in the Creation Spirituality Communities newsletter which is gathering essays about the corona virus at this moment. The email address for this is: newsletter@cscommunities.org. You can also seek them out on their website: http://www.cscommunities.org.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
Thank you so much for your Daily Meditations. They are so beautiful. I loved Kristal Parks response today. It feels so true what she said. What a beautiful way she is speaking up for Mother Earth. I am a daily meditator and this same message came to me a few weeks ago. I pray we can all spiritually wake up and hear our beloved Earth speak to us and honor her and create beautiful ways of living together. Bless you. Much love, Sharon
Dear Sharon,
Thank you for writing and affirming Kristal Park’s honoring of Mother Earth and all her creatures. Several scientific reports about the COVID-19 now say that “a non-pathogene version of the virus jumped from an animal host into humans and then evolved to is current pathogenic state within the human populations.” http://www.sciencedaily.com If researh proves this to be true, we would need to thank the animal world for shaking us awake and giving us this opportunity to slow down, appreciate Earth, and take care of one another Wisdom of the most specific sort.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team
Yes, yes, yes!! I am soooo glad someone said this outloud; I have been thinking this for days.
Carolyn,
Now you khow that you are carrying wisdom shared by many others. Keep holding that revelation. We need a throng to hold it so we can get through this learning the lessons we need to learn.
Gail Sofia Ransom
For the Daily Meditation Team