The Earth Has A Soul by Meredith Sabini

Sue Cartwright • 6 October 2023

Living a natural and more simple life nourishes the soil of the soul

C G Jung on Nature by Meredith Sabini - Book Review by Sue Cartwright, Spiral Leaf

Growing up at the end of the nineteenth century, Carl Jung came to realise that the union of Nature and Spirit might offer to heal the disenchantment of the age. It was a time when philosophic connections were being broken apart by the new Darwinian science as 'religious belief systems were let loose from their moorings and drifted about in a sea of doubt.'

The consensus at the time was that science could take the place of divinity but Jung lamented this departure from reality, emphasising 'how important it is for us to remember what it is in the history of human kind we have lost.'

Jung's inclination to look at all sides of an issue became a life-long labour of love to discover the original unity of Nature with the spirits that reside within matter. His findings help us to understand the connection so that we can repair our wounded relationship with the natural world and challenge our limited conventional notions of what Nature is.

In this wonderful book, Earth Has A Soul, Meredith Sabini presents a rich selection of excerpts and quotes from Jung's publications, letters, interviews and speeches where he examines the natural mind informed by 'the accumulated wisdom of our species through our collective evolutionary experience.'

Jung was deeply concerned about the loss of our connection with Nature. He reminds us that Nature is not only matter but also spirit, and that by associating Nature with matter in a purely materialistic context, the profound emotional meaning of being human in this beautiful natural world is lost to us.

For Jung, the word 'matter' remains 'a dry, inhuman and purely intellectual concept' leading to a complete misunderstanding and depreciation of what it means to live a healthy, conscientious and fulfilling life on Earth.

Nature is not matter only, she is also spirit. Spirit seems to be the inside of things, the soul of objects.

Jung's appreciation for the spirit of Nature started at a very young age. He remembers lying in a pram in the shadow of a tree with an 'indescribable feeling of wellbeing.' His mother's connection with 'animals, trees, mountains, meadows and running water' gave him 'a sense of security and the conviction that here was solid ground on which one could stand.'

Jung's profound connection with Nature continued throughout his life. He preferred to live in modest harmony on his land where he developed 'a feeling of kinship with all things.' He called his country place (the tower at Bollingen) his 'island of peace.' With no electricity or running water, Jung liked to light his lamps, pump water from the well, chop wood for the fire and cook his own food.

Jung travelled around the world to learn about native cultures. He found men 'still in full possession of their animal instincts with an ability to converse with their inner soul.' In contrast to the modern idea of man's psyche being the epitome of all that is subjective and subject to the will, native people saw it as something 'objective, self-subsistent and living it's own life.'

Do you think that somewhere we are not Nature, that we are different from Nature? No, we are in Nature and think exacly like Nature.

Jung observed that losing our spiritual values to one-sided rationalism resulted in a disintegration of moral tradition, and a worldwide disorientation and dissociation. We only have to look around us today to see how this forced disconnect from the hand that feeds us continues to have a devastating impact on our planet and our evolutionaory development in terms of human consciousness.

Without a relationship with Nature, our lives deteriorate into 'a pointless striving for material possessions' which reinforces a lack of individual responsibility. This disconnect between our spiritual selves and Natural Law is something that cannot be sustained in the long run.

The key message in this book is that if human lives are to account for anything, we need to 'realign human consciousness with the profound consciousness of Nature.' Only then will we achieve peace, health and fulfilment as we reconcile the conflict between our natural instincts and our cultural mind.

Jung proved that by living a more simple and natural life, we bring meaning and purpose into our lives. He shows us that when we allow Nature to affect us - to nourish and sustain us - we become whole again and we are healed.

Sue Cartwright

Spiral Leaf

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The Earth Has A Soul - CG Jung on Nature, Technology and Modern Life by Meredith Sabini

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for you, for me and for Mother Nature