Gazing Below

returning to the ground and how connecting to soil brings us back to ourselves.

Mariam Sitchinava

This week I’m sharing some vulnerable reflections on soil, fertility, and regeneration.

“Of course, my flesh reaches for the earth. That is where it belongs.”
Circe, Madeleine Miller

This week began with millions of people staring at the sky to watch a full solar eclipse that crossed the US and Mexico. For centuries, humans have looked to the sky for hope and solution, but also as a guide to understand ourselves here on Earth. Space is the “new frontier”, and escape route, a place to colonise, whenever we have to look beyond, we look above. We look to “God” up there, we wait for the Universe to “do its thing”, and in many religious beliefs, we aim for the great beyond: Heaven. As Sophie Strand writes: We are ground people worshipping the sky.

Let’s take a minute to absorb this sentence:

We are ground people worshipping the sky.

I have talked extensively about the sky, from Cosmic Awe to Space Feminisms, and I believe that exploring space with intention and without a coloniser-extractive mind can be a beautiful way to reconnect with our life here on Earth, but ultimately, our home, our reality, is here, on the ground.