What If It’s Both?

What if the world is both a measurable, finite, material thing that obeys physical laws, and a sacred mythical wonderland peopled with spirits, angels, gods and goddesses?

Why not? And how wonderful would it be?

Shamans, so it is said, have one foot in each world, ordinary reality and non-ordinary reality (ORspace and NORspace, to those in the know). They zig-zag along a path, picking and choosing where to place their feet depending on the needs of the tribe or clan, the family, the land, the patient, or the non-human intelligences that surround us like air. Sometimes you need an antibiotic, sometimes you need to dance. Sometimes you need internet access, sometimes you need not to have an oil pipeline cut through your sacred land.

Zig or zag, it’s all reality, ordinary or not.

What if the stuff we can’t see with our normal vision or detect with any conventional device, like Dark Matter and Dark Energy for example, is actually magic of some kind? We have spent about 400 years divorcing ourselves from magic, wonder, spirits, divine entities, and the consciousness of Nature. The eradication of magical thought is nearly complete in the mainstream – except for the proliferation and wild popularity of sci-fi and fantasy television series, books, and movies about people who have magical powers, make regular spiritual contacts, or live in fantastical futuristic utopias.

Huh. Think maybe there’s something missing from people’s lives? IDK …

Religion is dying (thank god, whichever one you want) but spirituality is on the rise. Bubba Jesus is being supplanted by Black Jesus, and it’s about damn time. People are looking for real connection, starved for connection in fact. We evolved to be part of a collective, not part of a bunch of individuals. So many people say they have a desire to be part of something bigger than they are – well, yeah, a collective would be a good start. Organized religion is not a collective; it’s largely become a machine for turning out guilt and taking in money. A collective is like-minded people coming together in service to a greater good. Yeah, religion can be like that, but it oh so very rarely ever is. Especially the modern Evangelical movement, which I can’t even. No really.

I love it when I hear sounds I can’t identify, and my mind makes them into strange music. Or when “my eyes play tricks on me” and I think I see something, but when I look again it’s gone (I have trained myself not to look again anymore, I just smile and know magic is afoot).

Coincidences. Angel numbers. Synchronicities. Feeling. Knowing. All the things we can’t explain.

How do animals know when their humans are on their way home? You tell me. My mom’s dog always knew. They just do. They feel the feels somehow, even when it’s totally random. They just know. Same stuff. Dark Energy, Angels, hardly different. Call it what you will, it’s uncanny and cool and real and very much part of ordinary life in ORspace.

Non-human communication is real, too. Animals and humans are communicating more than ever. We know that crows know words and can count to four. Whales have an alphabet and scientists have decoded several words. Approximately. This is another extraordinary part of ordinary life in ORspace.

Plants know when you mean them harm, and send out alarm frequencies immediately. They can feel your intentions toward them. I try hard to always think kind thoughts toward my plants. There are songs to sing to all the herbs in my herb garden before harvesting any leaves. I learned these songs from the Basil Deva and the Thyme Deva and the Rosemary Deva … They are sweet little simple songs, and it’s a small way to honor them and thank them for their nourishment, and this is how we roll in our little part of ORspace.

You don’t have to choose. Zig and zag. Find the answer that suits the moment and the situation. Live in glorious ambiguity. Life is more than matter and measurement.

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