Our Connection to Mother Earth

By Matt Palmer

In one of the more peculiar accounts we have in scripture, Enoch received a pointed message with the Earth herself. Moses 7 records:

“And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying, Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face?” (Moses 7:48).

There are a few points we can glean from this that teach us something about the Earth that I will discuss below. The scriptures show us some intimate ways we are connected to this Earth and her importance in the plan of salvation for God’s children. I invite you to consider that connection as you read what follows. 

First, the Earth is a living, sentient being, capable of communicating with God’s children. We know this from the very fact that she was able to give Enoch this message. She likewise recognized herself as an individual distinct from others. She is not inanimate, and her voice and consciousness are not merely symbolic or anthropomorphic. 

Next, the Earth is a female spirit. She calls herself “the mother of men,” which is specifically gendered language. This is keeping with the pattern of creating things as male and female.

The Earth is an emotional being. She feels pain and pleasure. She told Enoch she is pained and felt weary. She also looked forward to a day of rest and sanctification. Among those emotions is a sense of love and concern for those that inhabit her. She refers to the inhabitants of the world as her children. She is wearied by their wickedness. She further pines for righteousness to abide on her face.

I would also add that the Earth’s stated weariness may lend credence to the idea that this Earth has been inhabited prior to the time of Adam. Enoch’s day was less than a thousand years after Adam. By that time, we find the Earth rather burned out by the wickedness she had experienced. If Adam was the beginning of her journey, she was just getting started. However, her weariness would be more understandable if Adam and Eve were the beginning of the final cycle prior to her sanctification. The earth has a plan for glorification and sanctification much like we do. She has purpose. She was created in one state, fell to a lower state, and she will undergo changes to higher forms of glory. She knows her Creator will yet sanctify her. Consider the 10^th Article of Faith, which states that “Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.” The Earth will be transfigured like Christ was upon the Mount. (D&C 63:20-21). Ultimately, the Earth will receive a celestial glory. (D&C 88:17-18). The purpose behind the creation of the Earth was for it to ultimately receive a celestial glory and become a habitation for those of God’s children who receive of a celestial glory. (D&C 88:19-20). 

Through all of this there is a sense that we are intimately connected with the earth, both physically and spiritually. Consider that one purpose of unglorified telestial life was to further the progression of God’s children by gaining experience in these particular bodies and this particular state of consciousness. I have written elsewhere that the emphasis Latter-day Saints place on the acquisition of a mortal body is excessive. The common saying in LDS culture is that God’s children came to earth, “to get a body.” However, this obscures certain truths. It would be more accurate to say that life on this earth is about gaining experience in a certain type of body. We already had spirit bodies prior to birth in an unglorified telestial state. And it is not the final state of existence for anyone to house their spirit in an unglorified telestial body. At the end of this creation, each person is ultimately assigned to a glorified body fitting of the kingdom they were willing to receive. (D&C 76:50-113). These mortal telestial bodies are more of a means to end, as glorified bodies are what we ultimately seek for ourselves. 

The unglorified bodies we currently inhabit are intended to die and return to the earth from which they are made. When Adam fell, God told him, “[i]n the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:19). This connects us physically to the Earth in a very real way. These bodies are made up of her elements, her dust. We control these bodies. Our agency determines whether these bodies will be defiled or used for holier ends. In these lives, we take up small pieces of this Earth and raise or lower the vibrational quality of the elements according to our thoughts and actions. Later, we die, and those elements return to Earth to be recycled. In that sense, our lives and agency have a direct, physical impact upon the Earth. This process may be amplified when taking into account man’s unique ability to form the elements according to his desire through his industry or other processes. 

The Earth’s ascension process likewise is connected to the ascension of the children of God who inhabit it. The Lord describes the transfiguration of humans and the earth as concurrent and connected: “he that endureth in faith and doeth my will, the same shall overcome, and shall receive an inheritance upon the earth when the day of transfiguration shall come; when the earth shall be transfigured, even according to the pattern which was shown unto mine apostles upon the mount.” (D&C 63:20-21). The Lord said that the Earth “must needs be sanctified from all unrighteousness, that it may be prepared for the celestial glory; for after it hath filled the measure of its creation, it shall be crowned with glory, even with the presence of God the Father.” (D&C 88:18-19). Note what follows: “that bodies who are of the celestial kingdom may possess it forever and ever; for, for this intent was it made and created, and for this intent are they sanctified.” (D&C 88:20). The earth and those who inhabit it appear to undergo these changes together. I conjecture that the terrestrial and celestial bodies we inherit may yet be made from the elements of this same Earth after she undergoes her own change. 

The means by which the Earth will attain celestial glory sounds similar to that of a person. “[T]he earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom, for it filleth the measure of its creation, and transgresseth not the law—wherefore, it shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened, and the righteous shall inherit it.” (D&C 88:25-26). The Lord then compares this process to those that ultimately inherit the Earth. “For notwithstanding they die, they also shall rise again, a spiritual body.” (D&C 88:27). 

It seems the ultimate fate of the Earth is bound up with those who choose to embrace the celestial law, as she has chosen to embrace the celestial law that governs her type of being and informs the measure of her creation. I have no doubt that as one who embraces the celestial law mother Earth is filled with a sense of love and compassion for other of God’s creations. However, she has been run down with man’s wickedness, and this has affected her intensely. As the day of man’s preaching comes to a pause, she prepares to join with the Lord in preaching a testimony to the world of vast paroxysms of destruction and natural upheaval. (D&C 88:87-91). 

Perhaps we would do well to reciprocate the love this our Mother Earth has shown us and to explore our God-given connection to her. She has not transgressed the celestial law given to her by the Elohim. She is a sensitive and loving spirit, and the place from which Christ will reign for a thousand years. She is the place we hope to inherit if we ourselves will accept the celestial law given to us. You may have sensed her peaceful spirit at times expressing that love, and you may choose to seek it out at the Lord’s direction. I believe that connection has been revealed to us in latter-day scripture because there is a source of strength and a manifestation of God’s love in our connection to her. I think we would be wise to make use of the revelation and connection God has made available to us with this our mother Earth.