Page 116 - ECOlogic Book

Talks are underway as well in Washington and at the International Joint
Commission to deal with the problem of Hormone Disruptors. The ethical
aspects of our commercial activities that have been ignored in our ravenous
quest for “progress” are finally being considered. Legislators are asking: “Is
it right to change Earth’s atmosphere? Is it right to alter the chemical
environment in the womb of every unborn child?” 140

Whatever that “element”, or, as Starhawk says, the “fifth sacred thing” is,
maybe it can take us where we need to go. Can we humble ourselves before
it, attune our hearts to its message, and open our minds to understand it,
and strengthen our bodies for whatever it may require of us? And can we
begin to listen again to the other elements as well?

Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Are the elements demanding our attention? Are
they saying, “Look here! I’m powerful and you’d better not forget it!” Are
they Earth’s way of saying “Enough, already! Stop messing up my systems!
Pay attention! Cut it out!”

What would happen, I wonder, if, in addition to protocols and mandates,
great numbers of people began again to honor the Earth, the Air, the Fire,
the Water, and the fifth element, our deep creativity? What if our daily lives
included ceremonies in their honor as they did in former times? Would the
elements notice what we’re doing? Would they be able to say, “Well look at
that! They’re getting the hang of it again. They know we’re here, and they
actually appreciate us, as they used to!”

The elements, - not the ones in the periodic table, but the ones known to
every primal culture the world over – these archetypes of the natural world
are speaking powerfully to us. They are linked with the four “hinges” of the
year, the Solstices and the Equinoxes. They’re linked as well to the four
directions, earth with north, air with east, fire with south, and water with
west. Perhaps these elements are part of our genetic coding, aspects of how
we orient ourselves in our planet, four legs under the table of our identity.
And perhaps we cannot easily relegate them to times past and ancient
history. Perhaps they are still speaking to us, as is the fifth element, the
spiral of our creativity, so powerfully that we must pay attention. What are
the messages these four (and the fifth) elements are telling us?

140 Colborn, Theo, et. al., Our Stolen Future, (Dutton, Penguin Group, New York, N.Y., a996, P. 247).

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