Various indigenous groups in the Americas felt a bond with nature. For the Inca, for example, certain mountains and rivers were deities. God was something that could be touched, even climbed upon. There existed belief that all humans have an animal double. Man and animal were connected in such a way that if one were to die, then the other –perhaps a great distance away- would also perish. This was useful for explaining unexpected demise. It also meant that hunting was a ceremonial activity because killing an animal for food was also ending a human’s life.
Yet death was not just the end of life. Observation of nature led to cyclical worldviews. If a forest burned, the ashes became nutrients in the ground which, with time, would become a new forest. Nature was regeneration and while death was an end, it was also a beginning.
Today nature feels far. Most major religions are observed in symbolic buildings and the deities and prophets are abstract beings. Our contact with them often comes through ambiguously written and highly interpretable words that may have been translated multiple times. We cannot go outside and make contact with god with our hands.
In many ways nature has been relegated to science. Science tells us that the earth is divided into southern and northern hemispheres. It also informs us that the summer solstice is the moment when the earth’s tilt is such as to aim a particular hemisphere most directly at the sun. This translates into the star that heats our lives being at its highest point in the sky. Here in the city of Boston, this will occur today at exactly 6:09pm.
Although not in the same terms, the Inca made similar calculations and celebrated the knowledge with the Inti Raymi. This year’s solstice has arrived to Massachusetts accompanied by conspicuously present unrelenting heat. It’s as if nature is reminding us that she is there. What will you be doing at 6:09pm?
Yet death was not just the end of life. Observation of nature led to cyclical worldviews. If a forest burned, the ashes became nutrients in the ground which, with time, would become a new forest. Nature was regeneration and while death was an end, it was also a beginning.
Today nature feels far. Most major religions are observed in symbolic buildings and the deities and prophets are abstract beings. Our contact with them often comes through ambiguously written and highly interpretable words that may have been translated multiple times. We cannot go outside and make contact with god with our hands.
In many ways nature has been relegated to science. Science tells us that the earth is divided into southern and northern hemispheres. It also informs us that the summer solstice is the moment when the earth’s tilt is such as to aim a particular hemisphere most directly at the sun. This translates into the star that heats our lives being at its highest point in the sky. Here in the city of Boston, this will occur today at exactly 6:09pm.
Although not in the same terms, the Inca made similar calculations and celebrated the knowledge with the Inti Raymi. This year’s solstice has arrived to Massachusetts accompanied by conspicuously present unrelenting heat. It’s as if nature is reminding us that she is there. What will you be doing at 6:09pm?
