The Circle of Knowing is an illustration of the many, simultaneous sources of wisdom available to people to engage and transform the world.  Each wisdom body provides a necessary ingredient to Heal the planet.

These four sources are developed and familiar in practice:

• Mental Wisdom gives us the science to explain how human action impacts the environment; mind
• Emotional Wisdom motivates people to care and take responsibility for cleaning up nature; heart
• Body Wisdom draws attention to the very real effects of stress, the starvation and disease that spread in urban settings, and the necessity of living life in nature’s rhythms; body
• Spiritual Wisdom teaches us we are all interconnected and with compassion we must extend ourselves to help people in need and repair the places they live; spirit

But one part is often missing Earth Wisdom, soul. When all means of knowing coexist they activate each other’s full power, but without the full circle the Deep Healing of places in our world is eclipsed. We believe Earth Wisdom is the forgotten wisdom of our Western experience and world.

Earth Wisdom attunes us the subtle world of a place. Once we recognize the subtle patterns of healing native to a particular landscape, we can apply that teaching to heal the suffering imprinted on a place, and in our larger community; soul.

The Ainu of ancient Japan had the word iworu, meaning “field.” This field is comprised of the ecosystem, spirit world, and mythic story—they were inseparable. The world was a circular interchange of earthly places and people expressed in the interaction of matter, spirit, and soul.

We Westerners are still trying to remember our forgotten language to describe this level of reality.  Words are a conjuring of sorts. It is said naming calls something into existence, but perhaps in the naming we shapeshift so we can see and experience our world more fully. Possibly the naming brings us into existence!

Here are some words to moisten our mouths to the field where human soul and world-soul meet: inscape, the between, liminality, imaginal, threshold…

There are more I know. If you have other words to share with me please email me –I am always on the hunt for words that hold the story of where soul and world-soul touch: drmaila@ altarplaces.com.