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The Rediscovery of Wisdom
11. The Rediscovery of Wisdom
Now that we have some knowledge of the age of the earth and universe and
know something of the long story of its unfolding to become what we know
today, we can discern what the universe has been up to, its powers and patterns
of unfolding. These powers can be thought of as a way of describing the wisdom
of the earth.
The human figure, emerging within the Celtic knot, is an image of wisdom.
Her Greek name is Sophia. We can draw on early wisdom traditions as a source
of insight into the wisdom of the earth and cosmos. They may help awaken
us to the largely forgotten knowledge of the earth's wisdom and our wisdom
as self-aware forms of the earth. Were invited to a desperately needed participatory
knowledge derived from recognizing, as was known in the past, the earth and
universe as a teacher of wisdom, as a sacred text. Wisdom says in Proverbs
8:32-36:
So now, O children, listen to me
Instruction and wisdom do not reject!
Happy the man who obeys me, and happy those who keep my ways,
Happy the man watching daily at my gates, waiting at my door posts;
For he who finds me finds life, and wins favor from the Lord;
But he who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death.
Rainer Maria Rilke wrote: "Each thing, each stone, blossom, child
is held in place. Only we in our arrogance, push out beyond what we each
belong to for some empty freedom. If we surrendered to earth's intelligence
we could rise up, rooted like trees."