I’m a clinical psychologist with a second doctorate in ministry, an ordained interfaith minister, and a writer, but mostly, I’m a mystic. I always have been. I was born a mystic. I’ve been writing about conscious aging as a mystical experience for over a decade, but more recently, I’ve come to see that the mystical awareness of life is now critical to our survival in this climate apocalypse. Deeply troubled by the accelerating climate crisis, I wrote, Mystical Activism: Transforming a World in Crisis (with a forward by Matthew Fox) that comes out in February. And one more thing: with three adult children and seven grandchildren, climate change is not an academic topic for me. I am scared for their future as I’m sure you are for your loved ones. I am also scared for the human family and for life itself.
 
Introduction

I have been gathering climate change articles for the past several years but my deep dive into this fast-moving literature has recently become extremely disturbing. As a result, this is the most difficult but important paper I have ever written (indeed, this is my fifth or sixth revision because it’s that important to me).

A sustainability leadership professor from the University of Cumbria (UK), Jem Bendell tells us that, at the current pace of runaway global warming, we can no longer assume that humans will figure out a way to avert environmental and societal collapse within the next ten years. Bendell states, “…the evidence is mounting that the impacts will be catastrophic to our livelihoods and the societies that we live within…when I say starvation, destruction, migration, disease and war, I mean in your own life.” While some have argued that Bendell’s words are extreme or irresponsible, few disagree about the severity, pace or consequences of global warming. And our growing horror has led to what a condition known variously as “climate despair,” “climate anxiety” or “climate grief” – the fear that that we’re all going to die from this ecological nightmare – and I think many of us know exactly what this syndrome feels like. Even more alarming, the “first responders of this environmental 911,” the climate scientists themselves, are experiencing debilitating levels shock, anger, grief, depression and despair over their own findings and those of the scientific community at large. Scientists are truly the canaries in the environmental coal mine.

But what do we do? How do we respond? What can we do? In this crisis, we are all novices, experts, seekers and activists. And we all have something to offer. For my part, I want to describe the importance of our inborn mystical nature and its potential for responding meaningfully to this Earth crisis and invite you to awaken the experience of mystical consciousness to guide and sustain your life and climate activism. This is not about being heroic, and it’s not “woo woo,” it’s about being deeply grounded in who and where we really are and why we are here at this time in history. Let’s start with the concept of Mystical Activism.
 
The Emerging Voices of Mystical Activism

Matthew Fox and Creation Spirituality have always been deeply rooted in the mystical experience of Creation and our transformation from mystics, who experience the world as sacred, to prophets who defend it as holy ground. Fox now brings these mystical themes to the immense crisis of climate change, telling us, “An absence of the sense of the sacred is the basic flaw in many of our efforts at ecologically or environmentally adjusting our human presence to the natural world…” Fox adds, “More than ever, then, we need to stop and sit and be present to the Via Positiva to allow our love for the world and the world’s love for us to be deeply felt. This can carry us beyond nationhood and ethnic or racial or religious smallness into the much bigger world of creation itself. Love will be the source of our energy and of our imaginations that will render us effective agents for deeper change. Not superficial change, but a change that begins and ends with the reverence and gratitude we all carry in our hearts toward the universe that has birthed us. With that kind of deeper perspective, our prophetic callings stand a better chance of effective results.” That is a beautiful description of Mystical Activism.

Fox is hardly alone in this call to sacred awareness. Joanna Macy, a long time Earth activist and climate prophet, says, “While the truth that we are headed toward extinction is a terrible shock, it has the potential to quicken our collective awakening, powering a profound transformation of our world. This transformation begins within.” And now listen carefully to her next words for they are profoundly mystical, “We need to know ourselves, not only as individuals, but as co-creators within a deeply ensouled web of life where all is conscious. Once we align with the reality and depth intelligence of consciousness itself, we connect with a spiritual and moral power that gifts intuitive wisdom, guidance, and courage…In essence, we are awakening into the profound intimacy of all things, where we directly know that all beings, nature, the earth, and the cosmos are a part of ourselves.” This, too, is Mystical Activism – an awareness of the deep unity of conscious being.

Another eloquent voice of Mystical Activism is Kristal Parks, a long-time peace activist and mystic, who writes, “Mystical activism is intoxicated with life, in humble harmony with nature and empowered by the creative energy of the galaxies. It’s motivated by adoration and love to act on behalf of all beings.” And she adds, “…a new kind of human being is required, one that consents to being a partner in an evolutionary leap beyond our wildest imagination, a leap beyond war and violence. This challenging task beckoning to us requires a profound healing and transformation at the deepest core of ourselves and our social structures and institutions.” To me, it is absolutely clear now that we must take this leap.

Lastly, we turn to cultural historian, Thomas Berry, a profound and visionary thinker on ecological spirituality, the universe story and, by implication, Mystical Activism. He writes, “Perhaps a new revelatory experience is taking place, an experience wherein human consciousness awakens to the grandeur and sacred quality of the Earth process. Humanity has seldom participated in such a vision since shamanic times, but in such a renewal lies our hope for the future for ourselves and for the entire planet on which we live.” Berry’s words are a prophetic, elegant, and sublime description of the essence of Mystical Activism.
 
What is Mystical Activism?

Let me now define what I mean by Mystical Activism. The word mysticism simply refers to the firsthand experience of the divine. It’s not weird or far out. We’ve all had big or little mystical experiences, like the stunned amazement of meeting our newborn child for the first time, standing in silent awe gazing up at ancient redwoods, feeling the palpable holiness of a sacred place, or simply being deeply present at the passing of a loved one. In these moments, the mind stops its chatter, perception heightens, and we subtly experience the sacred Presence that pervades Creation. It’s a breakthrough of the divine into personal awareness. Mystical consciousness arises from this same awakened, thought-free, sacred awareness, only now we learn to experience it intentionally. In its fullness, mystical consciousness unveils the exquisitely beautiful, infinitely precious, and timeless reality known as Creation. Permeated by the divine, everything is perceived as sacred, including us, for the Beloved has become the world and everything in it. This awakening of perception leads naturally to Mystical Activism for we act now from a conscious unity with Creation and instinctively strive to protect her. In the process, we experience the kind of world we want to live in. This is “mysticism in action!” Failing to see the sacred nature of reality, on the other hand, we’ll go on desecrating Creation, exploiting her as an endless supply of raw materials, a cash cow of new consumer products, or a garbage dump for toxic waste and discarded packaging.

Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist and religious scholar, implicitly describes the awakening of Mystical Activism in this way, “This is Eden. When you see the kingdom spread upon the earth, the old way of living in the world is annihilated. That is the end of the world. The end of the world is not an event to come, it is an event of psychological transformation, of visionary transformation. You see not a world of solid things but a world of radiance.” Mystical Activism involves this same transfiguring perception of “reality,” revealing a pristine, love-filled, immanently conscious, and incredibly beautiful place called Creation. Awakening the paradigm-shifting power of sacred perception, we find Eden once again, becoming mystics in our transformed experience and prophets in our defense of the sacred. This transformation can provide the source and ultimate meaning of our work
 
The First Step: Falling in Love with Creation Again

How do we awaken our Mystical Activism? In my writing, I have presented numerous exercises on the mystical experience of Heaven on Earth that culminate in Mystical Activism, but here is a new and simple one that we might call, Falling in Love with Creation Again. It is based on the realization that nature makes us mystics and mystics always return to nature for healing, transformed perception, inspiration and courage, because it’s a return our divine home. The exercise focuses on two very short poems that reflect the mystical perception of the world as original blessing. Listen carefully and let them awaken a memory of your own mystical experience of Creation.

 
Ah to be alive
            On a mid-September morn
            Fording a stream
            Barefoot, pants rolled up
            Holding boots, pack on,
            Sunshine, ice in the shallows,
            Northern rockies.

Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters
stones turn underfoot, small and hard on toes
            cold nose dripping
            singing inside
            creek music, heart music,
            smell of sun on gravel.

            I pledge allegiance.
I pledge allegiance to the soil
            of Turtle Island
            one ecosystem
            in diversity
            under the sun –

With joyful interpenetration for all
            Gary Snyder

Do you see how the poet moves from mystic to prophet, from the mystical celebration of the sensory world to a pledge of allegiance to her very existence? This next poem confirms this mystical commitment.

Wherever you are is home
And the earth is paradise
Wherever you set your feet is holy land…
You don’t live off it like a parasite.
You live in it, and it in you,
Or you don’t survive.
And that is the only worship of God there is.
            Wilfred Pelletier and Ted Poole
 
Now, take a moment to remember a time when you felt this kind of sensory connection with Creation, a time when nothing mattered but wonder, beauty and awakened perception. Do this silently for 60 seconds to bring your memory back to life inside you and just dwell in the memory for a minute. Now write about your experience of Creation and the deepest feelings you experienced. When you’re done, understand that the world offers you such awakened perception every single day. It’s why we are fighting to save the Earth.
 
Final Words and a Prayer

I want to close this article with simple words and a prayer.
 
From Joanna Macy, “This is the most exquisite moment on Earth. We all need to fall in love again with what is…Is anything sweeter than being with the mother in her suffering?”
 
And here is a prayer for mystical activists.
 
Divine Consciousness of Life, Earth and Cosmos, God of all names and none, holy Presence dwelling in every creature, we come to you on our knees, in guilt and shame, in sorrow and dread, admitting horrific crimes against Creation. Listening to Earth’s dying cries, we acknowledge our sins of arrogance, apathy, selfishness, plunder and rape. Our “stewardship” of Creation has been a tragic joke. In failure and profound remorse, we humbly seek forgiveness and guidance – we have completely lost our way and stand to lose so much more.

            We know you, Divine One. We share your Being and Consciousness. We are you when we cease pretending to be someone else, someone separate and superior, someone in charge. In abject surrender, in ego-shattering fear and grief, in naked helplessness, we seek the only path home: we return to you. As the fires and storms of human foolishness consume our grandiosity and our world, we ask you to receive us, Divine One, help us return to Creation.

            Born of Earth, we can live nowhere else. We are the latest blossom of your enchantingly beautiful, infinitely mysterious, love-drenched creativity – the 14-billion-year evolution of yourself – and our home is here. Can a fish live out of water? Can a bird fly with no air? Can humans survive the cold toxic radiation of space? Desperate plans, false solutions, more foolishness. 

            But what can we do? Divine One, what do you need from us? Even as we ask, words burst from sacred consciousness:

“Be still. Be silent. Stop talking. Turn off TV and cell phone. Go outside. Open wide your eyes. I shine before you as Creation: vibrant, colorful, alive; the symphony of your life and destiny. Look intensely. Look without thought. Open your senses: seasons of Earth, power of wind, greenness of plant, wetness of rain, warmth of sun, smell of soil, abundance of life, chatter of bird and squirrel, busyness of ant and worm, darkness of night, love-making everywhere, all rising in the holiness of Creation. You don’t have to figure this out because you are Creation. Let the one you were born to be take you home. Creation will heal you, then your tenderness, joy, and adoration will heal Creation.”

May the Earth bless and keep us,
May truth lead the way,
May the ancestors see our efforts,
May peace finally stay.

May the heart inform our journey,
May Creation bring us home,
May our lives be deeply planted,
And may we know we’re not alone.
 
You can learn more about John’s work at www.johnrobinson.org.