Finding the Sacred In Nature

By Rick Theile

“In the absence of the sacred, nothing is sacred—everything is for sale.”

~Oren Lyons

What do I mean when I say, “Finding the sacred in Nature”? It is an experience few know and, some want to know, but don’t know how to experience it. They look or search for this sacredness outwardly while in Nature, instead of looking inwardly, within the silent, invisible self. They hope Nature will provide them with her secrets, providing them with knowledge and understanding of why they are here, and their purpose in life. Finding the sacred in Nature is the experience of being one with Nature—having a deep connection and reverence for what Nature is. It is this connection with all life and its magical wonders and beauty that cannot be explained, only experienced in oneness with all things.

Experiencing the sacred does not have to be in Nature, it can be done anywhere. But Nature can be the perfect teacher, if we are willing to tune in and listen in silence, and by being in the present moment.

The late Dr. Wayne Dyer reminds us of the amazing wonders of Nature in these two lines:

“A little seedling has treeness in it when it is put into the ground.

You can’t see treeness, you can’t see the tree. Yet you know it is in there.”

Growing up I lived in the relatively small City of San Leandro (a population of 29,000), that connects to the metropolitan City of Oakland to the north, the city of Hayward to the south, the San Francisco Bay to the west, and the East Bay foothills to the east. In our youth, my (slightly) older brother and our friends would spend many adventures in the foothills, only a couple of blocks away from our house. I would come home with poison oak too many times to count. Although I dreaded this affliction, it never stopped me from going into Nature.

From the beginning, I was highly influenced by watching television shows like Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and other westerns, and in the movie theaters, watching movies that were related to the outdoors and anything Nature—always dreaming about living in Nature. As a young boy, and as an adult, I was active in the outdoors, doing things like horseback riding, camping, hunting, fishing, rafting, canoeing, skin diving, scuba diving, and backpacking. At age 18, I got my private pilot’s license. For a time, I owned horses that changed my life, and I developed a special relationship with those incredible animals.

Some things I did not learn from my adventures being in Nature was the concept and understanding of our relationship with Nature and having a respect for Nature, or the idea of the oneness with Nature—with all life. This idea of being Sacred was an unknown concept in our culture, for most Americans. No one taught us at home or in the schools to respect Nature. It was not being shown on television nor talked about in our government with the exception of the Smoky the Bear’s slogan, “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.”

It would be much later that I would discover individuals like John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, John James Audubon, David Suzuki, David Attenborough, and other Naturalists paved the way towards influencing me, and others, in our understanding of the natural world. I began gaining knowledge that Nature was more than just something to be used for the benefit of mankind—Nature being a living entity—the natural world being life that sustains all life. Artist’s paintings of Nature and Nature photographers, such as Ansel Adams influenced my appreciation of the stunning beauty of our natural surroundings.

It is sad to say, that the Native Peoples of North America were not, and should have been, a part of this influence in our relationship with Nature. We have chosen to ignore their very existence due to ignorance, and hatred of these first peoples.

When we had lost this connection with the natural world many centuries ago, the indigenous peoples of the lands were still living it in their traditional ways. During the period of the colonization of European settlers to America, these newcomers eventually banned such practices by the native people of their traditional ways of life in an attempt to destroy these cultures. These original peoples were part of the land—it was a place where their ancestors resided, it was a place they had a spiritual connection with. They had a deep respect and connection with all life around them. Their attempts to hold on to their traditions and ways of life became nearly impossible with the devastating impact the European Colonists had on them, through the genocide, forced removal from their lands, forced assimilation and horrific atrocities perpetrated against these peoples. For the most part, these indigenous peoples were not considered essential sources for the understanding of Nature—they were deemed to be inhuman savages—even unworthy of life itself by many—they were expendable. But on the contrary, they had a far better understanding of the natural world than most non-natives as they still do today.

We once were all indigenous to a land, and lived in a very primitive way—we depended on Nature to sustain us. Nature is in all of us, but most have forgotten this relationship, choosing ownership of land, choosing to conquer and control the natural world, choosing materialism over Nature, choosing consumerism over Nature. Knowingly or unknowingly or out of ignorance, we have become enemies of the natural world, destroying our own planet earth for the sake of progress. This place we call home may become uninhabitable to many life forms through our thoughtlessness to our planet and to all life. If we don’t act immediately on how we see and understand our role we must play, and the responsibility we have to the planet, we will likely suffer the consequences of our actions.

In today’s civilization, we have been consumed by, and lost our souls in consumerism and materialistic mentality, drawing us further and further away from the truth of our real dependence on the natural world. We continue to strip natural resources from the land without considering the consequences of our actions. Overpopulation is putting tremendous stress on our world, with an estimate of 9 billion people inhabiting our small planet by 2050. We continue to allow industry and corporations to pollute our air, water, and land with dangerous toxins impacting the health and safety to humans, animals, plants and trees—basically all life on our planet. We continue fighting wars that are not only devastating to human life, but to all life. And now, we are facing climate change that will most likely impact life as we know it for all time.

We need to relearn these valuable lessons concerning our relationship with Nature and the respect that should be given to all life we share the planet with—about life and our dependence on the Earth. We have forgotten our teaching from our ancestors from long ago. But there is still hope.

As Chief Oren Lyons tells us during an interview,

“…And to Learn you have to have teachers. And who is your teacher? And the teacher is Nature, the Earth. You learn, you learn, and you learn how to get along. You learn how to be respectful. And so, from what I see and from what I know in my travels, it is the indigenous people, have about the best understanding of this. And I would say, that is probably the biggest loss I see in Humanity now, is loss

of understanding, of relationship. They don’t understand the relationship. How do you polish it, how do you keep it fresh?”…

Oren Lyons continues to talk about doing this with ceremonies, with prayer, with dance and song (Lyons is referring to these practices by indigenous peoples). He then continues,

“…Most important here is understanding how closely we are related to the Earth, and that we are part of the Earth, and we’re part of Nature. Nature is us, basically. We always talk about environment, something like, it is over there, or it is a category or something. No, we are in the middle of it, we affect it, we survive in it. We are part of the Earth. Once people understand that, that would be very helpful because they would be more careful about things. And so the question of recognizing where we are and who we are, why we call the Earth our Mother, is simple, because of respect. Everybody respects the Mother…”

To be clear, I am not saying we should take rituals, ceremonies, prayers, dances, and songs from the traditional native cultures, but indigenous peoples can provide guidance about the beliefs and principles behind those rituals and ceremonies.

Getting non-natives to understand this relationship to Nature, to respect her, to show reverence to her as the traditional indigenous peoples continue to do, can be difficult in our materialistic and synthetic world. Especially when we see Nature as a place to conquer, to overcome its power over us, to see her as our ultimate playground, a place for recreation, or merely an object to exploit. This also applies to sites or areas considered Sacred by a Native Peoples for thousands of years.

It took me a long time to learn this idea of Nature being sacred. When I began reading about Native Americans and other indigenous cultures, these concepts began flowing in my consciousness, and slowly I began seeing this sacredness in Nature and in all life. I began sensing this sacredness when I was in Hawai’i and through the Hawaiian Native people and their rich and beautiful culture.

When I first experienced a deepened awareness in Nature when my dog Shiloh and I went into the wilderness alone back in 2009. Our first trip was in the first part of June, and we had spent seven days at Kennedy Lake in the Emigrant Wilderness, California. This experience was the first run at being alone, and I went through a learning curve and the adjustments required with being alone. I was floundering through this experience but saw it as a learning experience of trial and error. And once I began asking, “what are the lessons I can learn from this experience?” The answers appeared, and I was able to focus on the planning of my next trip in the wilderness.

We left for our next trip at the end of August. Once again our destination was to Kennedy Lake for a three week stay. I had a friend come with us for the first six days, and after she had left, Shiloh and I would spend eighteen days alone. Our experience there felt more natural since it was a familiar place to us, but in the back of my mind, I was questioning myself if I could do it alone for the full eighteen days.

Throughout those eighteen days, Shiloh and I explored this small alpine valley, with the small lake lying at the southern end, a calming stream lazily meandering through the boggy meadow, and steep mountains surrounding us in every direction giving the area a majestic feeling of immense proportions. It was our garden of paradise. Most of the time we were there, we were utterly alone, giving us a sense of peace, quietness, and solitude.

Close to camp there was a spring at the northern end of the meadow (one of many in the area), where we gathered our drinking water that was. It was a short walk from our camp, and I never minded the peaceful walk once or sometimes twice a day with Shiloh by my side. On some afternoons, I would fill the water containers and then Shiloh and I would just sit on the wet grass next to the spring that overlooked the beautiful lush green meadow, the lake in the distance, mirroring the reflections of the nearby mountains, and the mountain peaks stretching high into the sky. I experienced with quiet observation and the awareness of our place in Nature. In these moments, I experienced Nature and connected with her at a deep level than I ever had before—I was touched by her in a very profound way. I remember saying to Shiloh, “We are Home.” On one occasion sitting by the spring, Shiloh and I were visited by a Ground Squirrel, and all three of us enjoyed those moments together. Shiloh usually chases these critters, but not today.

I have to attribute this awareness with Nature, a connectedness with the natural world, to my studies in bushcraft and survival skills. I have also gained a better understanding and relationship with Nature through the Native American’s and First Nations of Canada’s knowledge and relationship they have with Nature. These native cultures had taught me to show respect, and reverence with Nature and to all life. I began seeing Nature as a living, breathing Being—a source of all life on our planet and beyond. My relationship with Nature became more than a thing to use for my benefit or enjoyment, it was living organisms to be respected and shown reverence to. While learning more about the many indigenous cultures in the world and their relationship with Nature (with Mother Earth), I began understanding and feeling the special sacredness of our planet and the universe.

When most of us are in Nature or backpacking in the wild, we tend to bring our mental baggage, and the presence of companions provides us few moments, if any, to really be in and experience Nature’s wonders. We see, but don’t see, we hear, but don’t hear, we smell, but don’t smell, we touch but don’t touch, and we may taste, but don’t taste. What I mean by this is that we don’t experience Nature, we are not in tune with the present moment, and are not truly aware of what is all around us. Our minds are consumed with thoughts we should have left at home, more than the experience of Being in Nature.

It is unfortunate that only a few non-natives have discovered this truth. Most still see Nature as a place for recreation, a place to conquer, or worse, a place to exploit natural resources for profit. It is slowly getting better with more non-natives seeing Nature as a sacred Being and how they understand and define their definition as being sacred. Does it align with how Native people see it? Probably not. This is why I believe we can learn so much from native peoples and their relationship with Nature.

I am deeply concerned about the damage being done to our planet; the raping, pillaging, polluting of the air, water, and land by our governments and large corporations, and now the effects of climate change caused by all major industrialized countries. Will we change how we see, think, and relate to our Mother Earth before it is too late?

I believe we must begin to change our paradigm with how we relate to our only home. This does not simply mean going totally green and renewable, although that would make a difference. This means seeing all life as sacred, and having a deep respect and reverence for Nature. Since the modern-day world has been so disconnected from the natural world for so long, we must gain that wisdom and knowledge from indigenous peoples who still live their traditional ways. This is not to say the indigenous people need to share their sacred rituals, dances, songs and ceremonies to the seekers of this wisdom in relating to the land. This would create a whole set of new problems with non-natives copying these practices that native peoples have been doing for thousands of years, with no understanding of the purpose or reason why. The seeker must find their own way and understanding of the sacred through their own experiences in Nature, and I believe, learning and understanding the relationship indigenous peoples have with Nature can help one on their spiritual path and developing a deeper understanding and connection with Nature.

Not long ago I was watching the movie, The Day The Earth Stood Still (the 2008 version). Keanu Reeves portrays Klaatu, the extraterrestrialvisitor who came to save the Earth from the human species. The female scientist who developed a relationship with the alien asked him why did he come? What was his purpose? His response was “This planet is dying; the human race is killing it. If the Earth dies, you die. If you (the human race) die, the Earth survives.” Another line from a fellow alien who had lived on Earth for 70 years, told Klaatu, “This is hostile territory. I’m afraid they are not a reasonable race… Any attempt to intercede with them would be futile. They are destructive, and won’t change…”

This is something we need to think about as a people and stewards of our planet if we want to survive this madness and destruction we have created.

I have been writing about this for some time now, trying to get people to rethink their relationship with the Earth—our only home—and all life we share this planet with. If we continue on this destructive path, the human race will become extinct, and we will take many species of animals, and other forms of life with us. And as Klaatu said, the Earth does not need us. With the impact of climate change at our doorstep, we continue to do the same thing—we do nothing to make our planet a cleaner and healthier place to live for all life. Either way, the Earth will survive, but we may not.

We are not separate from Nature, we are part of Nature. We are the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land that gives us our foundation for life. We are the gift of life as are all the plants, trees, and animals we share our beautiful Earth with—we are all connected, all one with this sacred life force.

The simple practice of experiencing silent observation and awareness with no judgment or labeling, and spending time alone in Nature in reflection, Nature will respond by beginning to show herself to you, in her beauty, magic, and awe-inspiring wonder.

Nature is the miracles of all life,

All life is the miracles of Nature.

Be one with Nature because we are all a part of Nature.

~Rick Theile

I have been living in Nature with my two dogs, Takota and Nanook (Native American Indian Dogs, or NAIDS for short) for over a year and a half in tents. We spent the winter this year in Idaho, again in a tent. In the summer months of 2018, we spent most of the time in the backcountry and wilderness areas of Idaho, enjoying the quiet solitude of Nature. We began this journey back in October of 2017 from Northern California.

Even living in Nature 24/7, from time to time I have my moments getting lost in my thoughts, taking me away from those magical experiences Nature provides to us. And I have to remind myself where I am on occasion. In this writing and my writings about my experiences with my canine companions in Nature, it helps me come back to this special place, we call our home.

In May of 2019, we are breaking our winter camp and we are headed once again to parts of beautiful Idaho, known and unknown, letting the winds take us to new adventures and experiences in Nature.