Listening to the Stars

The stars saved his life. Ecological philosopher Derrick Jensen experienced repeated childhood abuse and pointedly says, “I did not die because they [the stars] spoke to me.”^[1] He describes going outside at night, laying on the grass, looking up, and giving his emotions to the stars, “In return the stars gave me understanding. They said to me . . . This is not your fault. You will survive. We love you. You are good.”^[2] Listening to the hopeful message of the stars provided Jensen with the fortitude and courage to continue living.

A psychological materialist might say that Jensen’s listening to the stars is a personal projection brought on by trauma. That is one possibility, but there are other interpretations of his experience. Alternatively, listening to the SONG of life acknowledges many perspectives of listening. These perspectives include fifty-four sensory capacities of humans in addition to the five senses, thinking processes of interpretation and understanding, the faculty of intuition, and the mystical and transcendental dimensions of experience as well as scientific materialism. Jensen’s star message can be interpreted through the lens of all of these listening perspectives.

Stars are one type of element found in the natural world and are composed of mostly hydrogen and helium that produce light and heat. There are many other elements ^[3] found in nature that we can listen to.

Periodic Table of Elements

As of this writing, the modern periodic table, managed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, contains one hundred and eighteen elements.^[4] Each element is defined by its own atomic mass, state, electron configuration, electronegativity, atomic radius, density, and so forth. I will not be discussing listening to all one-hundred and eighteen individual chemical elements of the periodic table. Rather, my focus is on listening to four major elements (combinations of elements from the periodic table) found in most cultures in the world since ancient times. These are the elements of earth, air, water, and fire.

Elementals in Wisdom Systems

Elements of earth, air, water, and fire appear in many wisdom systems throughout history. The quartet of elementals appears in ancient India, Hellenistic Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Middle Ages.^[5] To illustrate, I briefly describe several examples of how these four elements are configured in different wisdom systems. The four directions of the medicine wheel of many North American Indigenous tribes are often associated with the four elements.^[6] There are three astrological signs for each element in the modern astrology system, and other astrological systems include Hindu, Mayan, Aztec, Tibetan, Arab, Hebrew, Egyptian, and Chinese.^[7] The spiritual Wiccan system includes a pentad with four elements (plus an additional fifth element of spirit or space).^[8] Finally, the Chinese system of Feng Shui employs four elements (plus metal as a fifth element) as a way of, “. . . selecting and designing the most conducive and healthy environment to live and work to enhance good health and longevity.”^[9] Given the pervasiveness of elements in nature and the multiple cultural meanings of these elements, how do we understand listening to the elements of earth, air, water, and fire?

Elements as Separate and Holistic

In the upcoming sections, I describe listening to the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water separately for the sake of clarity. However, it is imperative to be mindful of the lived experience of listening to these elements as a holistic system. The elements in nature do not exist as separate things. Each element exists in a complex system of interrelationships within its ecosystem.

For instance, a simple rock (earth element) may contain part of many other minerals and living things like lichen which, “. . . mine minerals from the rock . . . they [the lichen] physically break up the surface by the force of their growth . . . [and] they deploy . . . powerful acids and mineral-binding compounds to dissolve and digest the rock.”^[10] When a rock is being weathered by a lichen, it is difficult to say “this part is rock” and “this part is lichen.” The rock and lichen exist together in an intimate dance as a holistic system. They are also part of a larger system of soil, air, plants, and animals in their immediate locale.

As humans, we arbitrarily demark the boundaries of natural objects and their ecosystems, but the larger reality is that everything in nature is one gigantic system.^[11] It appears, at least on a quantum level, that everything in nature is interconnected in one undivided whole.^[12]

A second example of illustrating the interrelated nature of the elements is to imagine a sunset at the beach. How might we listen to a sunset? Consider . . . feet sink into the sand and are caressed by the waves. A fiery sky mixes with air particles to create a grand visual display across the horizon. The airy breeze sweeps across naked skin. All elements contribute to a sensorial holistic experience of “being on the beach at sunset.” The elements are not separate from each other, even though we may talk about them as different things for the sake of clarity. The naturalist John Muir captured this principle of the interrelatedness of the natural world when he wrote, “When we try to pick out anything [any single object in nature] by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”^[13]

To better understand the idea of elements as separate and whole, I describe the principle of the “figure-ground” relationship from Gestalt psychology.^[14] Gestalt is a German word with an approximate English translation of “complete pattern-configuration.”^[15] The whole or gestalt comprises three perceptual phenomena. These three perceptions are the thing (figure), the context (ground), and the relationship between the figure and ground that gives rise to the perception of a gestalt. The elements of earth, air, wind, and fire are the things or figures, and the context in which the elements exist in the natural world is the ground. In listening, we discover the gestalt relationship between the elements and their ecosystem.

To illustrate the figure-ground gestalt relationship I quote from the Russian novelist Dostoevsky:

Love all of God’s creation, both the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love animals, love plants, love each thing. If you love each thing, you will perceive the mystery of God in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin tirelessly to perceive more and more of it every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an entire, universal love.^[16]

In this passage, there is movement from the whole (“all of God’s creation,” which includes all the elements) as a gestalt to the micro (the “grain of sand”). There is a return from loving each thing in nature (each figure in the ground of creation) to the mystery of God in all things, moving from the micro thing to the macro gestalt. When I add the word “listening” to the word “love” in the passage, and I re-read the passage, I find that Dostoevsky beautifully captures the essence of listening to the SONG of life as gestalt. As I proceed into the section on listening to the elements in a linear fashion (due to the constraints of the written form), let us be mindful that listening involves our whole being and that the gestalt experience is an essential part of listening to the SONG of life.

Indigenous and Cosmological Perspectives on Listening to the Elementals

Derrick Jensen’s Listening to the Land consists of twenty-four interviews exploring what it means to listen to the land.^[17] I extract portions of these interviews to highlight listening to the elements and conclude with a holistic orientation of listening to nature.

Navaho and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams provides insight into listening to the land, “It may be our task now, as it has always been, is to listen. Simply that. If we really listen, the land will tell us what it wants and tell us how we can live more responsibly.”^[18] For many modern-day individuals, the advice to “listen to the land” sounds unscientific, but for Indigenous peoples worldwide, it is probable and realistic.

Jeannette Armstrong is a traditional Okanagan who writes, teaches, and works for Indigenous sovereignty and land rights. Armstrong says that listening to the land is not a metaphor, “It’s how the world is . . . [we need to be] listening to the other [the land] as it has its say, reveals its intents, expresses its experience, and does all this on its own terms.”^[19] Armstrong believes that humans need to learn how to enter into a relationship with the land by listening to the land and not treating the land solely as an object for economic or political purposes. The following ethnography explores the idea of Indigenous listening to the land in further detail.

Donal Carbaugh’s ethnographic account of the North American Montana tribe called the Nizitapi (“the real people” or Blackfeet) describes a unique way of listening to the land.^[20] For the Nizitapi, listening is a way to, “DWELL-in-the-World” of interconnected things animated by spirits. Listening is a practice, a “Way of DOING something . . . people can become attuned to this world . . . feel (and see) the interconnectedness of things . . .” ^[21] Listening is also a “Way of BEING . . . a way of dwelling, doing, and feeling that are activated in, and by those very places.”^[22] Listening to the land is a common, normal, and accepted part of Nizitapi culture. Moving beyond the Indigenous tribes of Navaho, Okanagan, and Niizitapi, what might a cosmological view of listening to the land and, more broadly, all the elements look like?

Thomas Berry is a Catholic priest, historian, and scholar of world religions who self-identifies as a “Geologian.” Berry’s cosmological understanding of the universe describes the ending of the Cenozoic era and the beginning of the Ecozoic era in which the universe is viewed as:

. . . subjects to be communed with, not objects to be exploited. Everything has its own voice . . . [there is] a celebratory aspect; the sun shines, the flowers bloom, the birds sing, the trees blossom, the fish swim . . . [and humans respond with] a sense of awe and wonder at the majesty of it all . . .”^[23]

Berry’s cosmological view of the universe suggests that we can listen to the voices of the elements.

Environmental social activists Joanna Macy and Molly Brown echo Berry’s cosmological perspective when calling our time the “Great Turning” of a global transition from ego to soul-centric awareness.^[24] Similarly, Professor David Korten characterizes the “Great Turning” as a time of global transition from empire to earth community.^[25] All three perspectives, Berry, Macy and Molly, and Korten, and the previous Indigenous perspectives on listening to the land, point to a renewed understanding of nature as alive, soulful, and earthy. This understanding affirms humanity’s natural ability to listen to nature because of our inherent interconnectedness with the natural world.

Interconnected Listening to the Life of the Elements

Poet, teacher, and storyteller Mark Nepo reminds us that, “We are so close to the Earth that we often forget–it is alive. And the language of its aliveness is what we call nature. When we listen to nature, we are listening to the Earth.”^[26] Not only is the earth alive according to Charles Eisenstein,^[27] all of nature, the elements, animals, plants, planets, galaxies, and cosmos are “sentient beings.” Eisenstein writes, “We are not separate from nature; that what we do to the world, we do to ourselves . . .”^[28] This worldview highlights the interrelated nature of all existence, and that “. . . purpose, consciousness, and intelligence are innate properties of matter and the universe.”^[29]

Eisenstein’s worldview is readily verifiable according to theologian Catherine Keller. In an interview with Derrick Jensen, Keller says, by looking at, “. . . the permeability of your personal boundaries . . . Everything that takes part in your experience is part of you.”^[30] Also in an interview with Jensen, Peter Berg, activist, writer, and ecologist, echoes the same idea, “Wherever you live, the place where you live is alive, and you are part of the life of that place.”^[31] Berg originated the word “bioregion,” describing the interdependence of nature (plants, animals, elements, and humans) in a given geographical locale.

Essentially, all of the elements are part of us. Elementals are not the whole of us since we also have, for example, memories, thoughts, and feelings. However, our listening brings an awareness of the elements into our lives in a way that we can sense, feel, and understand. In indigenous cultures, “. . . everything that exists is alive and has a spirit. . .We have the capacity to tap into our spiritual nature and communicate with ‘the spirit that lives in all things’ in nature [including the elementals].”^[32]

Our relatedness to the elemental world is beautifully and poetically expressed by Anwar Fazal’s poem-prayer:

We all drink from one water/We all breathe from one air/We rise from one ocean/And we live under one sky . . . We are all brothers and sisters/Only one family, only one earth/Together we live/And together we die/Remember/We are one . . .^[33]

Given that we are interconnected with the elemental world of nature, however one wants to name it (e.g., spirit, energy, electromagnetic forces, quantum entanglement), how are we to listen and relate to the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water? In the next sections, I develop ideas and practices for listening to the elements of earth, air, wind, and fire.