Nature Tug-of-war

Nature—our word for that fountainhead of all that exists, all the wonder and beauty and deep mystery and inconceivable power . . .

In every corner of the world, awestruck humans throughout history—and prehistory—have responded to the great wonder of it all by looking for its Author.  And so have gods of all names and descriptions been invoked, as often as not Nature itself being given the role.  Whether divinely created or Divine Creator, we have (almost) always seen the infinitude of mysteries and glories that we call Nature through a spiritual lens.

Even now, at the level of the individual human, the contemplation of Nature has probably led more people to a belief in God than any other single catalyst.

And, at least for me, nothing so much tempts me to a belief in such a thing as Satan as what we humans have done to “Nature”—and to each other, since the two are indissolubly linked.

It is so easy to see it all as some titanic tug-of-war, with the forces of creativity, beauty, complexity, balance, productivity, abundance, health, and life being under attack by the forces of destruction, ugliness, waste, selfishness, cruelty, limitation, deprivation, greed, ignorance, apathy, disease, dependence, death. 

And the distressing, depressing part is that, at this moment in history, the satanic side seems to have the clear upper hand.  And all the best efforts of all the best-intentioned among us are as so many ineffectual fingers in the failing dyke.

Are we really in the midst of the Kali Yuga?

Can we really take solace in the Akashic Record?

Is there really any valve in action?  In prayer?

Is it our karmic duty to fight against the stream, no matter how hopeless it looks?  Or is it just as well to resign ourselves to drift with the current of selfishness and so become part of the Juggernaut, rolling along ever faster and heavier, crushing out whatever diminishing pockets of health, uniqueness, independence, and beauty might still be left.