NATURE AS MIRROR

The idea behind this book is that nature is a mirror, reflecting back at us our own soul, the fractures and chasms within our own psyche. If we can understand this, then nature also becomes a powerful healing tool, our teacher as well as our provider. This is a handbook to help us use nature's own natural cycles and patterns to heal our own souls. Also, unless and until we develop an intimate sense of our union with nature, the deep ecology of Arne Naess, we will continue to work against the natural environment, with all that this implies in environmental destruction. If we do not heal our relationship with nature it will destroy us. In astrology and dream symbolism water represents the soul and emotions. By trying to control water levels we 'tamp down' our own souls. We cannot heal our own dis-ease and sickness until we understand that what we do to the earth we ultimately do to ourselves. The world's soul fights back. And because trees maintain the planet's water cycles, and have a clearly cyclical pattern of life, it is fitting that Sorrell uses the powerful imagery of the tree to explain our own journey of healing at a psycho-spiritual level. The tree becomes a model, a template, as it journeys through its own seasons and cycle. She explains in detail how these can be used as a mirror of our own inner and outer processes, as a living map for our own soul journeys. In separate chapters she describes the various processes in the natural cycle of nature, of rebirth, blossoming, ripening, the stripping of autumn or fall, and so into the 'long wait' of the dark of winter, always relating these to our own journey of spiritual development and healing. Encapsulated within the 'long wait' is the wilderness, to which four chapters are devoted. Here is the greatest opportunity for soul work, often with the need for spiritual guidance, about which the outside material world can be most negative. Within this wilderness experience Sorrell describes the three vital strands of reflection, contemplation and aspiration. Time for reflection is one of the greatest losses of our time. It integrates past with present, and helps the synthesis of heart, mind, spirit and soul. It should be an integral part of our daily routine. Reflection should be followed by contemplation, perhaps through holding an object, letting our senses interact with it, being receptive to what it has to offer, allowing a stream of consciousness that can heal, enrich and enlighten. The final strand within the wilderness is aspiration. We all need visions and goals; we all need to aspire to the highest we can reach. Our unlived life has a powerful hold on us and feeling unfulfilled feeds our anxiety of death. Gaining wisdom through this threefold process in the wilderness, we learn the art of just 'being', we come to know where we are in our own inner creative process, but we can also use this wisdom in the world to help others. And so we go back to our rebirth as the cycle starts again. But before we can enter this cycle in the first place, we need to find our own inner place of healing, our own inner light. Everything needed for sustaining our existence is within us, but we gather stuff around us to which we become attached. We are spiritual beings having an earthly experience, not the other way around. We need to find again our heart centre, our own rooted-ness. Psychologists understand the importance of 'authentic mirroring' in childhood development. Sorrell describes her own lack of parental mirroring and uses her own resultant struggles of soul and spirit and mind, her unconscious painful feelings as they are mirrored back at her from nature, to lend support to her ideas throughout the book. Whilst this is a very personal account of Sorrell's own psycho-spiritual healing journey it is definitely not 'misery memoir'. Rather she is able to share and empathise with the reader through sensitive and perceptive observations how her own experiences with nature have helped her make sense of her own often painful journey, using the powerful metaphor of the tree (and sometimes the acorn and apple). I for one through my own life struggles found that I could readily relate to much of what she says. This will be a useful tool for psychotherapists to share and work through with their patients. This is also a practical book, as each stage in the cyclical healing process is supported with simple exercises of reflection, meditation and visualisation. Some of these need daily practice; those to help us just 'be' need practising several times a day. In addition Sorrell encourages the use of writing, drawing and colouring after these exercises to ground the insights obtained. I liked the rich metaphorical treatment. By understanding the different stages of our mental pain within the context of the natural cycle of the life of the tree, we are able to live through those stages and anticipate the next stage of the healing cycle more readily, less painfully. It is a pity that the copy-editing has let this book down somewhat but this should not be allowed to detract from the perception and value of the message imparted. Errors can be corrected in the next edition. The book closes with a fascinating transcript of a dream the author had during the writing of the book. She dreamt she went to heaven to see that which had shaped her and found that God was a tree. The material world exiles nature as our greatest teacher, but reconnection with nature brings us back in touch with presence, God or spirituality. This book provides the cyclical template to help us find our own healed and healing place within the biosphere.