“I feel carried away and possessed by an unutterable rapture over the divine spectacle of heavenly harmony.”

German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws, the “harmonic law”, on this day in 1618

“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”

From Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

“Our bodies produce a constant rhythm, which may explain why some small children and animals sleep better next to a ticking clock or metronome. Perhaps Shakespeare’s poetry is so timeless partly because its iambic pentameter mimics the steady beat of our own hearts: ba-thump, ba-thump, ba-thump.
Put your ear next to someone’s heart and listen to the pace of life. Listen to an animal’s heartbeat sometime, and hear the amazing rush of passion and blood within, so similar to our own heartbeats and yet so different. Watch the seasons, the heartbeat of the earth.
There is music all around us, within us.”

From Earth Bound: Meditations For All Seasons by Brian Nelson

“The word cunning is closely associated with the fox. Cunning, like foxes and women, has been given a bad rap. Many have twisted the word’s sacred origins into something manipulative and conniving. But the word cunning arrives from an older Middle English word “ken,” a range of knowledge or sight. A cunning person understands that deep internal sight and wide-range vision leads to building an authentic life. Excavate your deep knowing and trust its messages. This is the way our soul-sight grows sharp, and your instincts return to the untamed power with which you were born. Sharpen your cunning to cut away what no longer serves. No matter your gender, your life deserves the fierce protection that feminine discernment can bring.”

Angi Sullins

“God is not so much a being
as the word we use when confronted
with the totality of all being,
the unimaginable ultimacy of the universe,
and the mystery of love
at work in the human heart.”

Cliff Reed, retired Unitarian minister, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“The felling of trees and the destruction of wild green places is always a sorrow. When green life is cleared for housing or landfill sites, we feel strong resentment. Human beings have been clearing the earth for agriculture and habitation from early times. Desertification began to replace habitation long ago.

It is easy to wax sentimental about the loss of particular trees and green places, but the war on the green world is now a world issue, as tree cover shrinks from year to year. It is not primarily our own human survival that is at issue, but that of the many species that rely upon the green world for their livelihood and habitat and the complex food chains that stem from the plants and the soil. For humans and their fellow creatures, it is a question of whether our descendants will have sufficient vegetation to sustain the continuance of life.”

From The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year by Caitlin Matthews

“More sports teams are named after animals than anything else. The panther, the manta ray, and the shark lend their symbolic power to the teams; even the oriole, the blue jay, and the gopher conjure a regional pride that helps a team win for its hometown. These animals are totems.

Many people identify with a particular animal, but adopting a totem animal is different. Your totem animal is a creature whose grace, power, or mystery gives you the ability to keep going. There’s no need to trudge through this world with only your own strength. Try connecting, even if only through the power of imagination, to the qualities of an animal you call sacred.”

From Earth Bound: Daily Meditations For All Seasons by Brian Nelson

“We pray for a keener delight in the world around us.
Delight in its loveliness, its colours, its scents and sounds.
Delight in the fascinating structure of nature and of the human form.
Delight in the saga of the past, in story, song and movement, in art and science, and in good work well done.
Delight in the present moment in all its richness.”

Frank Walker, retired Unitarian minister, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941), Bengali polymath, born on this day

“Sometimes entering the sacred grove
is easy as closing the eyes while you sit
in a chair at home and let someone
lead you there, their voice a path you follow
to a ring of trees with roots entwined.
A sun-bright meadow in the middle.
A group of other willing hearts
who form a circle with you. How did it
ever feel far away when the sacred grove
is as close as breath, close as imagination,
real as an openness to wonder. I was there,
just this morning, my hands flat on the earth,
sky reaching in through my crown. I was there,
even as I sat in my office chair, I was there.
My hands held the hands of strangers
beside me. Alone in my room, I was there.
And after knowing the sacred grove breath-close,
all day I find it everywhere.”

In the Sacred Grove by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Image: Sacred Grove (1882) by Arnold Böcklin