Winter's Peace
sermon for NIUU December 2, 2018

The peaceful and quiet times of wintertime are a great time to get in touch with Mother Nature, the spirit of our planet, Gaia.

Winter is upon is in many ways.

First of all, Samhain, the thin time of transition
   is now behind us by more than a month,
       more than a moon cycle.

Even though we don't do so accurately,
   measuring time by months, by moon cycles,
      is a kind of homage to our mother earth, Gaia.

In truth, each solar cycle, each year of our lives,
   is composed of about 13 lunar cycles, or months.

In other words, a year is 13 months long,
   so the number 13 is a sacred number to Gaia.

It's my opinion that powerful patriarchs
    have tried to make 13 a bad or unlucky number
         in order to defame Gaia, their mother and ours.

Earth's slightly tilted axis provides us with 4 seasons,
    and the numerological significance of 4
         is the same as 13.

Thinking of our present experience of the seasons,
   Autumn seems already behind us.

Trees are bare.

Nights and sometimes days are cold.

The Winter Solstice is now only a few weeks away.

Winter is coming!

Those are not dreadful words
   for those who truly understand,
       despite the feelings they invoke
             for people who hate winter
                  or who are fans of the Game of Thrones. :-)

As the seasons change, the wheel turns,
   and earth centered spirituality enables us
         to participate in the turning of the wheel.

Ritual is not required, just the recognition
    that life includes change like the change of season,
         and sometimes time moves in circles
              as well as moving along a line.

Gaia's time encompasses both
     the circles
          and the lines of time.

As an example of the circles of Gaia's time,
   we can think of the seasons,
       marked by the equinoxes and solstices,
           celebrations of the transitions of the seasons.

The transition we will soon celebrate
    is the Winter Solstice.

The sun will appear to stand still in the sky,
   in terms of apparent movement to North or South,
      and soon the days will begin to grow longer.

Now that I live north of 45 degrees,
     I'm thankful to see that transition.

When I lived in Texas, I was sad to see it.

It meant that Summer was coming again
   with all its heat, humidity and southern misery.

It's a new experience for me to welcome the coming
            of Spring and Summer.

In the North it means that we might not freeze
    in an endless winter,
          as in the South the Summer Solstice means
             that we might not melt in an endless summer
                  - so long as climate change
                        does not get completely out of hand.

The Solstice seasonal transitions bring hope
     in terms of the short term future.

Just as the coldest days of winter begin,
     the days begin to get longer,
          reminding us that the season of cold and quiet
               will not last forever.

Cycles of time can remind us
     that this too shall pass.

Linear time can do the same thing
     in a different way.

As examples of time along a line, or linear time,
    we have our own lives
        and the life of Gaia herself.

There is a beginning point and an ending point.

What happens between those points
     happens along the line of time,
         and what we do while moving on that line
              is what counts most for our lives.

We can take comfort while we live in time
    from the line of time and the cycle of time.

Both can teach us that nothing lasts forever.

That could make us sad,
     but if the things we are seeing are not all good,
          it can remind us to take hope:

This, too, shall pass.

Like all gods and goddesses, Gaia is a metaphor
     first and foremost. 

She represents the Living Earth,
     not just all her children, all living things,
          but the planet herself, Mother Earth, if you will,
                or Mother Nature.

Like the Force in Star Wars,
her life is formed by the living things that inhabit her,
            and she returns that life to them
as they are formed and developed within her sphere.

To those who contemplate Earth centered tradition,
   her consciousness can be an important experience.

In turn, the consciousness of Gaia
   brings us to a third kind of time,
       neither linear nor circular.

It occurs within both linear and circular time.

What I'm talking about is the "right" time.

For anything we want to think or talk about or do,
    there is a right time.

Even ethical considerations must take the right time,
    or timing, into account.

An action that would be very wrong right now
    might be very right at another time,
         the right time or appropriate time for it.

Our time today is the right time
     for a new relationship with our Mother Earth,
         Gaia.

The Gaia hypothesis says that
    the biosphere, all living things on earth,
        can be likened to a single living organism.

A more esoteric development of that theory
   says that the mind of each sentient being on earth
       forms a single brain cell of Gaia, of Mother Earth,
            so that we ourselves as a sentient whole
                 form her consciousness.

The Jesuit theologian and scientist,
   Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
      wrote about the noosphere,
          the sphere of collective consciousness
              that surrounds and unites our planet.

In many ways, the internet has provided
      a new meaning for Teilhard's noosphere.

Likewise, the emerging awareness
     of humanity  as a whole
         gives us another possible meaning
             - and a description of the metaphor
                    of Gaia's mind,
                        the consciousness of the planet.

This theory of a universal consciousness of earth
    is an emerging one.

I respond to it more emotionally than rationally.

And yet...
     and yet...
           from it I draw hope in my heart.

Our present rightward political swing
    all over the planet
         may be nothing more than a blip
            in the movement toward our coming together
                into a single mind of compassion and care.

We are on the knife's edge of a choice 
     of life or death,
         hope or grief
               for ourselves
                    and our emerging living awareness
                         of the world in which we all live.

The pictures of Earth from space
     have given us a sense
          that we are all in this thing together.

It is my hope
    that our sense of togetherness
          may come to lead our way of understanding
               ourselves and our world.

As we all commune with nature
     and find peace in the quiet and calm of Winter,
          I hope we can all take refuge from the struggles
               of moving forward into mutual caring
                   instead of backward into selfishness.

Maybe we need a new version of the hymn,
    "In the Garden:"

It's one of those hymns that I call
    an oldie but a goodie.

As it has long stood, it is a bit too maudlin
        for my tastes,
               but I want to make my own attempt
                       at reclaiming it.

I hope some of us will find my version meaningful,
     especially those of us who find ourselves
          communing with Mother Nature,
               communing with the Goddess Gaia
                      in any season,
                           even in the peace of Wintertime.

No matter what we may think
    of the god, gods or goddesses of funny mentalism,
        we can still find meaning
               by understanding them all as metaphors
                       of transcendant realities.

... And so, speaking of Gaia,

"I come to the garden alone,
    while the dew is still on the roses.
         And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
              Our Mother Earth discloses:
 
And She walks with me and she talks with me,
      And She tells me I am her own,
            And the joy we share as we tarry there,
                   None other has ever known!"

Amen!

Blessed Be!