"Come to the mountains, get their good tidings..."
~John Muir
Sacred Mountains & Our Sacred Living Universe
In a startling revelation, insightful quantum physicists have concluded what indigenous people, mystics and sages of all ages have always known. Though baffled by the inexplicable experimental evidence, these physicists have concluded; The universe is a conscious living entity. In fact, repeated experimentation indicates unequivocally that atoms themselves must have consciousness.
We live in a mindboggling multidimensional reality of which the rational mind is incapable of comprehending. Seemingly comprehensible only to those living in deep harmony with nature, and the sages and mystics. As the nature mystic Jesus said, “For those with eyes to see and ears to hear.”
“In the oldest religion, everything was alive,
not supernaturally but naturally alive.
There were only deeper and deeper streams of life,
vibrations of life more and more vast.
So rocks were alive,
but a mountain had a deeper, vaster life than a rock,
and it was much harder for a human to bring their spirit,
or energy, into contact with the life of a mountain
than it was to come into contact with the rock,
and so they drew strength from the mountain,
as from a great standing well of life.
And they had to put forth
a great religious effort."
~D.H. Lawrence
Machapuchare
The immanent presence of Maha Shiva
Throughout recorded history humans have had mystical relationships with Sacred Mountains. From Mt. Olympus in Greece, the home of the Greek Gods, to Mt. Sinai in Egypt, of Moses and the Burning Bush, I AM Who I AM. From Mt Ida in Turkey, abode of the Mother Goddess, to the Four Sacred Mountains of the Navaho in the United States, humans have always had a sacred relationship with certain mountain landscapes.
Mt. Sinai
“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."
~ Isaiah 55
The famous yogi Ramana Maharishi (1879-1950) spent his entire adult life in the presence of Arunachala, a sacred mountain he said was the embodiment of the Lord Shiva. Maharishi was considered a truly enlightened human by the spiritual community and human potential researchers; it is said that he was taught by the mountain itself.
Arunachala
The immanent expression of Shiva
And so, it is throughout history that people came to know certain mountains were the embodiment of the Gods and Goddesses, the immanent expression of transcendent beings,* that silently call us into their presence to get their teachings and blessings.
~The Epiphany~
The Sun’s brilliance
cast the shadow of a breast,
stimulating yet satisfying
all maternal cravings.
For it was the Mountain as
the Mother of all existence.
And as artesian waters flow deep,
so too, is my love for the Mountain,
the Brilliance and the Shadows
she does cast.
~R. Silver 1975
This short poem, The Epiphany, streamed into a 21 year-old Rich Silver, U of Earth Founder, as he sat along Chico Creek in Northern California at the end of a 7 day fast, leaving him deeply peaceful and enchanted. Bewildered by its meaning, he wrote it down.
Five years later while wandering in a snowstorm near the park that was soon to be his second ranger assignment, Plumas Eureka State Park, he had a mysterious “out of body experience” of being held to the breast of the Great Mother, the Mother of All Existence, healing the deep wounds of his childhood.
Unknown to him at the time, he was in the presence of a sacred mother goddess landform.** This would be the first of many numinous experiences in a lifelong intimate relationship between the ranger and the breast shaped mountain that called him. She would reveal herself to him over time as the embodiment of Prakriti, Cosmic Mother Nature. The Sacred Mother Goddess Mountain that guides and looks down on the University of Earth campus.
Mt Washington
The immanent expression of the Great Mother Prakriti:
Cosmic Mother Nature
“Let us remember the archetypal 'Origin of Mountains.' When the Planetary Creator toiled over the formation of the earth, He gave attention to fertile plains which could provide people with a quiet agriculture. But the Mother of the World said, ‘Verily, people will find bread and trade in the plains, but when gold will pollute the plains whither shall go the pure in spirit to gather strength? Either let them have wings, or let them have mountains, in order to escape from gold.’ And the Creator answered, ‘It is too early to give wings to people, they would carry death and destruction. But let us give them mountains. Even if some be afraid of them, for others they will be salvation.’ Thus there are two kinds of people—people of the plains and people of the mountains.” ~El Morya,The Secrets of Agni Yoga
"In and around the mountains your authority returns to you,
your authority returns to you."
~Tewa Peublo Prayer
* Transcendence & Immanence , Spirit & Matter or Interior & Exterior are two primary aspects of “The Divine” perceivable by humans.
**Native American ecophilosopher, Dolores LaChappell Ph.D., states where three peaks come together with a breast shaped peak in the center this is a mother goddess landform (1). The three peaks, Mt. Elwell, Mt Washington, and Eureka Peak overlooking University of Earth campus form a powerful Mountain Goddess Landform, anchoring the three primary archetypes of the Divine Feminine, The Maiden, The Mother & The Crone. Visitors can take the Triple Goddess Vista Trail to view this striking sacred landscape.
1. See Earth Wisdom, 1978, Dolores LaChappell,