To All My Relations
Like a mosaic of concentric circles, we exist within multiple layers of relationships
There are many different kinds of trees in the forest,
but underground, their roots hold hands.-Indigenous Wisdom
My children recently marked Earth Day at school, an event centred around sustainability and environmentalism. From what I gathered, I think the focus of discussion was on reducing energy consumption in our daily lives. A relevant topic, but missing something more meaningful.
Our relationship to every other living being should be approached with a little more reverence than counting kilowatts and carbon emissions, and I think it unfortunate that much of the public conversation around environmentalism is reduced to such metrics. The ecological, societal, and political crises we presently face share a common denominator: a crisis of meaning.
Who are we, and what are we doing here in the world?
Without a centre, nothing can hold, and we’re left with the extremities.
Haven’t you noticed that it feels lately as though people are a little more on edge?
While a discussion of the historical roots of the crisis of meaning is beyond the scope of this piece, the phrase “disenchantment of the world” conveys much to mull over. Taken in one sense, it is the progressive eradication of superstition by reason. In another, it is the loss of a meaningful relationship with the cosmos, in the sense that natural phenomena can be understood to convey meaning beyond the particular thing at hand, a meaning of an ultimately metaphysical nature. Creation points to the Creator.
Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day are signs for those of understanding. (Qur’an 3:190)
As the world became disenchanted, things were reduced to the sum of their parts, whereas a symbolic worldview takes them as something more. It is important to note here that a disenchanted mind might read symbolic as just a symbol, as though it were arbitrary and artificial. What is meant instead by symbol is “a means of rising up to the knowledge of divine truths, which is precisely the essential function which we have recognized in symbolism”, writes Guénon in Symbols of Sacred Science. Symbolism is not merely sentimental, and the natural world is imbued with symbolism that beckons contemplation.
So what might be symbolic about Earth Day? For one, it symbolizes our interconnectedness. While on the surface, we each go about our day independently, underneath, our roots are intertwined in a complex web of relationships. Therapists love to talk about the family of origin because we recognize the role these early relationships have in shaping the psyche. Our ‘selves’ do not arise in isolation, rather we are shaped by relationships, and continue to be throughout our lives. This is why becoming a parent is often so transformative.
Like a mosaic of concentric circles, we exist within multiple layers of relationships. Beyond our immediate relations, we each carry something of our ancestry and are simultaneously moulded by the contemporary cultural milieu in which we grow.
Our need to breathe, eat, sleep, rest, and digest remind us we are in no way divorced from nature. Rather, we are inseparably connected. As they say, you are what you eat.
This interconnectedness is beautifully evoked in the Indigenous phrase all my relations. It is not merely a descriptive statement, but a prescriptive one; a moral obligation to relate in a dignified and compassionate manner.
Act as though you are connected, because in reality, you are
Perhaps this is the prescription we need to heal from disenchantment.
May we heal together.
Sincerely,
Henrik Vierula
