By Elodia Thallon

”Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through everywhere.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Natha’s annual Midsummer Camp in Bornholm began with a lecture on ‘The mystery of God manifested in Nature’. This lecture served as the basis for my experiences during this camp, opening me up to a world of revelation through the contemplation of Nature. In this lecture, Mihai called Nature “the fingerprint of God”. He emphasized the importance Nature plays in the spiritual life of the human being, explaining that “by observing Nature, we can transform much more quickly” and “nature is the most powerful anti-ego we know”. His words had profound effects on me, opening my eyes and my heart to this amazing natural world which surrounds us all the time, but which I’m often too busy to acknowledge, let alone contemplate. The contemplation of Nature is a gateway to the human soul and during this camp in Bornholm I was able to begin to understand this through direct experience.

Often I’m too engrossed in my indoor 10” screen world to remember Nature and her importance in my life, being unable to ‘justify’ spending time with her when too many other things have higher priority. From my experiences now in Bornholm, I can see how I avoid my Self by avoiding Nature. By ignoring Nature, we ignore the very essence of who we are and sadly I see this is the general tendency amongst our ‘civilised’ society these days. We’re so busy in our all important lives that we forget about Her, forgetting about ourselves in the process. To quote Mihai: “Going away from Nature is the human being’s moving away from God.” It is clearly an escape mechanism, because to acknowledge Her and to know Her means to acknowledge and know the most intimate aspect of our beings and to admit that there is more to life than the hustle and bustle of the materialistic world. However, the balance will be righted – naturally – and Mihai made this very clear in his lecture when he said that, “Nature has its own rhythms and we can just observe and know these rhythms to come close to God, or else the law of action and reaction will put us back in touch with Nature.” So, one way or another we simply cannot avoid the truth in the end..

On our walks through the flourishing foliage of the green paths and dales of Bornholm, I reawakened my love for Nature and began to see Her from the perspective of the soul. I started to learn the real meaning of contemplation, taking the beautiful environment into my heart and feeling how God is present in every cell of every living organism. This contemplation of Nature is actually extremely easy, as She is simply bursting with so much life and vitality, so much vibrancy and beauty, how could God not exist here!

One evening, sitting on the beach at sunset, I had a deeper realization of what Nature means to me.  I felt how Nature is the centre. She is completely centred in Herself and it is around Her that everything moves. She is the Supreme Self, Atman, in manifestation, and completely at peace. In her peaceful existence, Nature is perfectly reflecting my state. When I contemplate Nature I am shown clearly how I am in that moment, She is the perfect mirror of my state of consciousness. Though there is no physical mirror, that is the interesting thing, because the mirroring process goes on inside of me. I realized then that Nature is just like my spiritual guide, who is tirelessly showing me who I am, even if I am unaware of this process. Her omnipotence humbles me and reminds me of the true meaning of my life, while helping me to surpass my limitations and expand beyond my ego-imposed boundaries. Indeed, as Mihai said, ‘One of the great teachers we have in life is Nature’.

We meditated in the mid-afternoon sun on the theme of ‘the Divine manifestation as revealed by Nature’.  Perched high on the rocks, the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks below combined with the heat of the sun beating down upon us, the solid earth beneath our bodies, and the soft breeze caressing our faces gave me a moment of completeness in which I felt I was one with All and could distinctly perceive the foundation of all that exists in manifestation, being made up of the five building blocks of Creation – the tattvas.

The highlight of this camp was the moment of Summer Solstice, celebrated with 2 triangulation meditations in spiral formation. These special meditations have now become a tradition for our school, being practiced every year in celebration of the moment of Summer Solstice. The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year. From here on, the sun is in descent, and the light slowly decreases. Yet, it is only for the uninitiated ones that the recession of the light means the growing of darkness. For the initiates, the light does not disappear, it is simply resorbed back from where it came, moving from the outside-manifest into the inside-transcendent. Up until the Summer Solstice we experience life intensely in the outside – now we gather all these experiences into ourselves, distilling them into their essence, becoming aware of the fundamental transformations which have occurred within us, while crystallizing them.

In the triangulation meditation, the spiral which we formed was itself a part of a larger formation – this formation was made up of three similar spirals, meditating in unison, in different countries, making together the shape of a huge equilateral triangle. The reason for meditating in triangulation is that the equilateral triangle is a natural and harmonious geometric shape which increases the power which is created by its points. Any array of forces which is arranged in such a triangle will be naturally amplified, and the bigger the triangle – the greater the factor of amplification. This is one of the reasons for the mysterious power of the pyramids – each side of the pyramid is an equilateral triangle. In such a meditation, two of the points send positive energy to a third point which receives it. Due to the effect of triangulation, the effects are greatly increased and can be felt in all the points of the triangle.   

The first triangle’s points were at Stonehenge, Bornholm and Italy. The second was formed by Stonehenge, and places in Germany and France. The first spiral took place as the morning glory of the rising sun lit up the world, covering the Creation in its golden amber hue. This meditation marked the moment of sunrise in Stonehenge. The second meditation was aligned with the astrological moment of Summer Solstice which began at 7am. The place in which we did this meditation in Bornholm is an ancient site called Louisenlund. The ancient inhabitants of the Island recognized the remarkableness of this place due to its powerful energetic field, and have increased this positive field by erecting stones in that area, serving as focal points for the earth energy and as lighting rods for the cosmic energy – transforming the place into a site of esoteric worship. During these spiral meditations I had a very strong perception of the circuit of energy moving through the triangle of which I was a part. From Bornholm we were emissive, meaning that we were part of the formation that was emitting energy, sending it to the others in Stonehenge who were receiving the energy. In particular, I perceived this energetic flow in my heart and I felt how all of us in the triangles were connected through our hearts. I felt a powerful state of love emanating from my being, which was then directed towards the others and in turn this energy came back to me, fulfilling me immensely. I felt the souls of the nations which participated in the triangles and how our effort benefited the awakening of the souls of these nations. The energy within the perimeter of the triangle was amplified, positively influencing all those present in this area. During the spirals I became aware of the presence of subtle entities, drawn to us by all the positive spiritual energy emanating from the meditation. The force idea of the meditations was the triumph of love and spirituality on this planet and indeed I felt that these special solstice meditations marked a moment of victory for love and spirituality on planet Earth.

For me, these three days on the magical island of Bornholm are a spiritual highlight in my life so far, marking a kind of personal victory for me, a victory of spiritual transformation and awakening to higher aspects of my reality. My heart is fuller and my soul more awakened by the all-powerful, ever-present Mother Nature.