By Donald Nichol
Editor’s Note: This blog post is an excerpt from Donald Nichol’s new book, Trees,Earth’s Guardians:How Trees can Help Save the Planet, published by Lorian Press.
British scientist James Lovelock’s Gaia theory posits that the Earth functions as a single, self-regulating life-form to control global temperature, atmospheric content, ocean salinity and other factors necessary to maintain stable conditions suitable for life to persist and survive—a system similar to that of any living organism that regulates its body temperature, blood salinity, etc., in order to maintain homeostasis. For example, even though the sun’s energy has increased by about 30 percent over the last four billion years, the planet has responded as a whole to maintain surface temperatures at stable, habitable levels.
The existence of a planetary homeostasis assisted through the agency of living forms had been previously observed in the field of biogeochemistry, and is being investigated also in Earth System Science and other fields. Many of the Earth’s processes, essential for maintaining conditions that support life, depend on the interaction of living forms (microorganisms, plants and animals) with mineral elements. Evidence indicates that these living environmental processes provide a responsive, global control system that regulates Earth’s biosphere, even when terrestrial or external events arise to threaten it. Whenever an imbalance begins to occur in the biosphere, one or more of the planet’s living systems is triggered to increase or decrease its activities in response and thus to bring about balance. Needless to say, foremost among the planet’s living systems of regulation are its trees and forests, which need to be preserved in sufficient numbers if they are to adequately fulfill this vital role.
It is interesting to note that the more science advances in its understanding of the natural world, the more its views begin to reflect the world-view of aboriginal peoples. It is their belief that a Supreme Power or Great Spirit created Mother Earth as a living planet, and that all aspects of it are forms of life that share in its Life-force.
The concept that the Earth is a living planet is gaining wider acceptance today. But what is the nature of such a form of life? As David Spangler writes in his book Partnering with Earth: “Our own body has such regulatory systems as well, which serve to keep us within a particular temperature range and which adjust various other chemical and hormonal balances within our bodies. But we experience ourselves as much more than just the sum total of their operation. We experience will, purpose, the capacity to imagine and to think, the felt sense of an identity. We experience a self that is more than the simple totality of bodily processes.
“Gaia is a living soul, a planetary spirit, holding in itself resources of will and purpose that foster the evolution of life and consciousness within and upon its planetary body. The nature of this spirit and its level of consciousness may be beyond our capacity to fully understand, but on the other hand, it is a sentient field within which we participate.”
Within Gaia’s earth-body, the devas are the intermediaries that perform all its regulatory activities; for their work lies not only with the various lives of nature, but also with the life forces of the Earth as a whole. It is a work that involves great planetary and cosmic energies. There is no better example of these global activities than the work they become involved with each year towards the end of December.
During the time that marks the close of one year and the birth of another, there is a great surge in the activities within the Deva realm. Each year, around the time of Advent, there is a global renewal process that begins with a tremendous outflow of energies from the center of the Earth to its circumference. These cleansing, purifying and creative forces are part of a planetary process that helps prepare the Earth for a huge inflow of new life energies from the Cosmos that enter towards the end of December. As this cosmic outpouring enters into the life of the Earth and nature, dynamic energies of life are released that will eventually cause the planet to burst into blossom in the spring. Hierarchies of devas facilitate these global processes by controlling, balancing and distributing the energies involved.
In ancient times, all religions were aligned with the activities of the natural world and recognized this cosmic event—now known in the west as Christmas—to be an important time of the year and celebrated it with special ceremonies. These ceremonies, which are still part of organized religions today (although not recognized as such), were crafted to coincide with the various stages of this planetary renewal of life and were performed to provide human assistance as well as to celebrate them.
Christmas and Santa
In the western world, Christmas is associated with northern cultures and there is a reason for this. For many great ages, the north has been the center receiving this annual influx of new life. The south, on the other hand, has been the recipient of balancing energies that are important to provide a deepening of this life into form. The northern hemisphere holds certain “inner channels” that receive the inflow of these creative energies that help shape the evolution of both nature and man. It is a process that involves hosts of devas to receive and distribute these energies—a flood of new life that enters at the north and then flows southward to impregnate the entire planet towards the end of each year.
The myth of Santa Claus, associated with this time, is a kind of folk legend that has emerged out of ancient customs and myths that predate Christianity. The modern version seems to be a mixture of the Norse and German pagan festival of Yule, the 270 A.D. figure of St. Nicholas the Generous, Father Christmas of Britain, and in the Netherlands, Sinterklaas, which became anglicized into Santa Claus after crossing the Atlantic. Eventually the date was moved to December 25th to coincide with Christ Mass. Its current North American form emerged from the classic 1882 children’s poem, “The Night Before Christmas” by American writer Clement Moore, in which he created a delightful mix of all these elements. But the reason these seasonal folk celebrations have persisted, while continually adapting new forms, is because they are rooted in a deeper reality.
One can find evidence of that reality in the various components that are part of these customs and celebrations today. St. Nicholas of Myra, the bringer of gifts, is possibly the most common human personification of Christmas. It was said that he went about at night dressed in his red bishop’s cloak depositing coins in the shoes of poor children, who would leave them out for that purpose. Children are usually a part of this festival as they represent mankind’s new life and hope for the future. Both St. Nicholas and Father Christmas are often depicted in a red or green cloak, carrying a sack of gifts and a small evergreen tree. Why a tree? Or, for that matter, why do we have Christmas trees? From earliest times, the tree has been a universal symbol of life and renewal. The tree of life at this time is the Christmas tree, a northern conifer filled with light and surrounded with gifts for all and holding a promise of good things to come.
The magical ride of Santa Claus is a wonderful metaphor for this yearly renewal of planetary life. The jolly old elf, a generous and joy-filled nature being that dwells at the north pole with an army of elven helpers, sweeps out of the north at Christmas time carrying with him a bounty of gifts that he then distributes to the entire world. It is a mythic folk tale that reflects and celebrates the annual outflow of cosmic life energies from the northern hemisphere into the rest of the planet—a gift of fresh new life for the Earth.
The Lorian blog is taking a break until 2020. We are grateful for your ongoing readership and support. Happy Holidays!