The Wild Reed: In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree

Monday, October 09, 2023

In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree

Yesterday, Sunday, October 8, I visited the Prayer Tree, a very special place of spiritual connection and renewal for me.

This particular tree grows beside Minnehaha Creek, not far from where I lived in south Minneapolis from 2012–2018.

When I was doing my chaplain residency at Abbott Northwestern Hospital (2017–2018), I would pause at this tree each morning and afternoon as I walked to and from my bus stop on nearby Chicago Ave.

My time at what I came to call the Prayer Tree was a beautiful and powerful way to prepare me for my chaplaincy work . . . as well as to begin and end my work day. It became for me a holy place, and remains so to this day.

This really shouldn’t be surprising, given that, as my friend McAuley once pointed out to me, the Prayer Tree serves as a beautiful representation of the axis mundi – the cosmic axis, the center of the world. Often symbolized by a tree, the axis mundi, as both a celestial and geographic pillar, serves as a point of connection between sky (heaven) and earth, the higher and lower realms of consciousness, and the four compass directions.

As a representation of the axis mundi, the Prayer Tree serves as a rich symbol of groundedness, connection, and unity. I experience all of these qualities whenever I’m there.

Since moving to the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis in October 2019, I don’t often get to visit and spend time at the Prayer Tree, which made my time there yesterday all the more special.

The “great unraveling”

I felt compelled to go there for reasons most clearly articulated by Dahr Jamail in the article he has published today, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, at Common Dreams. The focus of Jamail’s piece is on the significance of Indigenous wisdom during the times we are currently living through, times that Jamail calls the “great unraveling.” Jamail has recently launched a podcast entitled Holding the Fire: Indigenous Voices on the Great Unraveling in which he “presents the perspectives of Indigenous communities from around the world, as all of us, humans and more than humans alike, reckon with the consequences of a global, industrial society built on growth, extraction, and colonialism.”

The words of Dahr Jamail resonate with me as for quite some time now I’ve maintained that humanity is on the threshold of a new level of consciousness. In metaphysical and spiritual terms, I believe that the Divine Presence at the heart of all things is calling us to move towards what can be understood as “planetary consciousness,” a greater awareness of our interconnectedness with one another, with other forms of life, and indeed with the planet itself as a living entity.

I believe that, collectively, humanity has evolved sufficiently to now engage in this fundamental shift in consciousness. It’s a shift – a movement, a journey – from greed to justice, from apathy to compassion, from mindless consumption to sustainability, from fear to love.

Yet I must admit that in the past few years my belief and trust in humanity’s capacity to embody such a shift in consciousness has been shaken. There seems to be a strong and terrible resistance to this shift by powerful entities and individuals. Like Jamail and many others, I too am horrified, outraged, and heartbroken by what is happening in the world in relation to this resistance. Jamail sums it up well: “Those in power are unable or unwilling to alter our current course, where the destruction of nature, the pursuit of resources and profit, and the disregard for life are leading us to ruin.”

Continues Jamail in his piece at Common Dreams:

Given the severity and acceleration of climate breakdown, we are in an unprecedented time of crisis. We are living amid Earth’s hottest year ever recorded. While it has been known for a long time the Arctic sea ice is melting rapidly, recent data show sea ice in the Antarctic, which scientists believed would be shielded from climate impacts for decades, at dramatic all-time lows. New Orleans, situated on the banks of the once-mighty Mississippi River, is facing a drinking water crisis caused by unusually low flows due to drought, allowing saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico.

Extinctions, wildfires, droughts, floods, instability of crops, and ever-increasing numbers of climate refugees have become the norm.

Meanwhile, fascism is on the rise around the world, and wealth disparity between the haves and the have-nots, already at record levels, increases daily. All of this environmental and social breakdown is happening against the backdrop of inept, dysfunctional governments that are largely incapable of dealing with this polycrisis.

The violent events this past weekend in Israel and Gaza weighed also on my heart during my visit to the Prayer Tree on Sunday.

Great Spirit,

I pray for the fearful and broken world of humanity.
I pray that all may seek and find deep within,
the flame-like seed of compassion

May this compassion be lovingly cultivated
by each one of us so that it blooms
as desires and actions for justice,
community, and a sustainable world
for all living things.

And may the fragrance of this blossoming
be recognized and celebrated
as peace in our lives
and in the world.

Amen.

– Michael Bayly

Pausing, aligning, transforming

While at the Prayer Tree I very intentionally allowed myself a “sacred pause” so as to align with the sustaining and transforming energy of the sacred within and around me; with what Marianne Williamson has called the “Living Light.” I trust that when I am in such alignment I am not only one with the peace of God that dwells deep within me, but also reminded that I am called to be the Light.

I also trust that at this deep level of my being, where I am one with God, I am also one with the world and everyone and everything in it. This is because the Divine Presence within all things is, in the words of Matthew Fox, “the pattern that connects.” Because of this, Henri Nouwen was able to write: “In the depths of my being, I meet my fellow humans with whom I share [all things].”

Thus when I embody the peace and light of God within me, I trust that in some beautiful and mysterious way I am making a difference in the world and in the lives of others. When I change myself – or rather, when I open myself to God's transforming presence – the world is changed and transformed too, as at that deep level of oneness with God, I am one with the world and with others. It’s a very mystical understanding of things, to be sure. But then for some time now, I’ve understood my spiritual path to be that of the mystico/prophetic tradition as described by theologian Albert Nolan in his book Jesus Today: A Spirituality of Radical Freedom.

And so in closing, let me say that for me it’s become very important to regularly create quiet time and space to visualize and experience my oneness with God and thus all things; and to trust that such an intentional practice cultivates balance and peace not just within my life but throughout the plane of experience we all share.

You are one Self,
complete and healed and whole,
with power to lift the veil
of darkness from the world.

. . . You will learn that peace is part of you,
and requires only that you be there
to embrace any situation in which you are.
And finally you will learn
that there is no limit to where you are,
so that your peace is everywhere,
as are you.