Richard Tarnas on listening to the voice of nature

The following is from a session in the Mothership Earth Summit 2023 with Richard Tarnas on March 20, 2023. Richard says we seem to be living at the end of an era. He sees a striking resemblance between fundamental collective transformation and what takes place in individual initiatory rites of passage. Richard Tarnas talks about accessing deeper sources through which we can perhaps better understand our time and find new grounds for action.

42:26 >>Richard Tarnas: I want to share with you his [Knud Rasmussen‘s] account…of an actual initiation that was recorded…just so we can get a sense for…what we’re talking about here. … Rasmussen…had conversations with a number of shamans as he was moving through the northern part of the continent. And one of these shamans told him the story of his own initiation when he was a young boy. … He was…placed in a small iglo…and…was left there for 30 days…

44:02 >>Eskimo: I died a number of times during those 30 days, but I learned and found what can be learned and found only in the silence away from the multitude in the depths. I heard the voice of nature itself speak to me – and it spoke with the voice of a gentle motherly solicitude and affection, or it sounded sometimes like children’s voices, or sometimes like falling snow – and what it said was, do not be afraid of the universe.

44:39 >>Richard Tarnas: This discovery that the young boy went through of finding this kind of…absolute security inside…made possible his return to his community with a wisdom and an assurance…so that he could help others from that inner place.