THE SOUL OF THE WORLD
The Greek philosopher, Plato, was the first to describe the world “as a living being, endowed with a soul and intelligence.” “Each thing, contemporary psychologist, James Hillman, said, “Each thing, has a spark of soul at its core . . . the anima mundi, the soul of the world, animates her images and affects our imagination. The soul of the thing coalesces with ours.”
By Soul, I’m talking about that inner sense, that spark of eternal energy or light of creation, that lies hidden, and “combines” within the human psyche and with all of life. Ancient Hindu philosophy holds that all of life on earth, the woods, rivers, mountains and animals, have what is called atman, a Sanskrit word meaning “breath” or “soul”, and is defined as the “innermost essence of each thing.” An essence that sustains life.
The soul is not limited to humanity. It’s an underlying ingredient that allows for all things to have an internal dimension; no matter what shape it takes, no matter how simple or complex a system it is, it still has a hidden inner world. Through soul, all of life, including our living, breathing Earth, takes on a form, an essence, and enters our awareness. Every plant, every stone, every grain of sand, is alive. When we meet things on a soul level, the source of life itself, we shift our consciousness. Boundaries wash away AND we fall in love as the whole world comes alive. We awaken our heart to consider, that everything in our natural world is permeated with life, intelligence, and soul.
At this deep level of thinking, there is no separation of mind and matter. We begin to build a bridge between what we see and ourselves. There is a joining, a union it’s a merging of consciousness, of self-awareness, through which reality is now seen, through a new, wider lens, luring us into life itself.
The language of the soul is often symbolic. The soul speaks to us through reflective thought, dreams, feelings, sensations, and images. It communicates through a method of attentive or perceptive imagination, which allows material that is out of our conscious awareness to become more easily available.
Unlike your senses of hearing, smell, taste, and touch, the perceptive imagination, unlike fantasy or day dreaming, senses things that are hidden from our typical senses, but present in the inner world, where the sacred resides where we find our soul, and the soul of the world where we discover meaning, possibilities, and what it means to be truly human.
Perceptive imagination gives us eyes to see the soul. If we listen, if we carefully observe, we begin to hear the soul’s voice. We create a bridge from our rational mind to our inner world, and, then, to the soul of the outer world. We can experience nature’s relationships beyond the rational mind, in the imaginal realm, where we can invite our consciousness to perceive the creative life energy of the landscapes of which we are a part. Our relationships, our conversations with these sparks of light, to these living images, is where we find soul.
Don’t try to force the soul to make an appearance; don’t expect an exchange of words as we know language; be open to conversation coming in many forms; just invite it into the light of your soul and maintain your observation. Within the light, boundaries cease to exist. Little by little, things begin to shift, to merge, and connect with you. Don’t judge, question, or contradict. It’s a new way of dialoguing. Just be present, listen, and observe. Interactions can be subtle or on a sensory level. Remember, it’s a soul-to-soul communication.
When we perceive nature as soulless, as not having life, nature becomes a distant part of our experiences, our lives become nothing more than a series of events. We imprison and alienate bits and pieces of our soul, until we don’t hear it anymore. We lose connection with a deeper and vital part of ourselves.
Imaginal-to-soul experiences unlock the door toward becoming our true selves, that amazing true self you were put on this Earth to be. We evolve not only in our consciousness and self-knowledge, but also in our lives. Imaginal experiences open up our minds to be able to see things that we were blind to before. We no longer see ourselves as separate from, or superior to, everything and everyone else.
When we direct our heart energy, and, when we direct our consciousness, to seek that spark of soul, the life essence, which exists in all things, then we begin to see the world differently. In a more evolved awareness, we re-connect to a place of communion, where we connect to a part of ourselves, that we are otherwise not connected to. We go through a subtle but profound change that allows our inner knowing to emerge. We begin to hear our soul, we begin to see soulful life within nature; we begin to see nature’s soul reveal itself.
These new realities engrave an everlasting relationship in the deep soul of our being. We witness and start to understand, the soul’s visible expression of relevance, of creativity, of beauty, and discover the different types of intelligence within all things. We perceive the inner qualities of life, and we return value, soul value, to the thing we are observing.
When we imagine, when we give loving attention to our inner lives, to the souls given to each thing, we stir our heart to answer back, we awaken love, we excite feelings, we revitalize the center of our souls and who we are as individuals. We shift our value system from being human centered to ecocentric, in which humanity and Earth are connected and inseparable. We come out of it with a new sensitivity; boundaries dissolve. The distinction between humans, nature, and society washes away.
It’s absolutely awe-inspiring to think about the entire world being alive with the living energy of soul. A world where everything is closely intertwined and connected all humans to each other, and all of us to nature and to the Earth. It makes meaning possible; it gives everyday experiences a fuller, richer significance.
When our minds are open to this kind of participation, we are not taking a step backwards into pre-modern thought; rather, we are recognizing the division in modern society between our inner and outer worlds, between the natural world and ourselves. When we give nature back its original wholeness nature attends to our soul, and reciprocally, we nourish the soul of the world.
So, I ask you: Do you perceive and value things by only their outer natures? Or by their inner natures, their soul qualities the inner light they bring into your world?
