Entangled Creation
Sherri Mitchell explains in “Indigenous Prophecy and Mother Earth” that the Wabanaki people of the US Northeastern Woodlands frame their eco-choices with stories and words affirming: “the deep interrelatedness of the sacred and the secular. Our traditional societies are rooted in one inseparable reality that acknowledges the inviolability of all aspects of creation."
“Time does not exist as separate epochs unfolding in linear fashion, but as one movement unfolding in all directions simultaneously. [We realize that we cannot separate ourselves from those who have come before us or those who will follow, because we all exist together in this one moment. The harm experienced by our ancestors is felt in our bodies today, and the harm we create today will be experienced by our future generations tomorrow.]”
Pause and ponder . . . This is not the view of past, present, and future but of time as a flow of consciousness embracing reality. This sense of time challenges the historical view rooted in Christian cultures with a compelling awareness of our belonging in nature’s time. Might we find our deepest roots in this sacred time and also in the universe that we know scientifically?
Mitchell urges all humans to embrace with traditional Wabanaki the awareness that: “We are all inextricably linked through these shared experiences that cross time. Our sense of responsibility for the coming generations is reflected in this awareness. It is this way of life that has allowed us to exist in a balanced relationship with our local ecosystems for more than ten thousand years. And it is this sacred way of life that can bring humanity back into alignment with a future that not only ensures human survival on Earth but also nurtures a mended relationship between human beings and all other life.”
Three scientists awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics have verified that “unseen particles, such as photons or tiny bits of matter, can be linked, or ‘entangled,’ with each other even when they are separated by large distances.”[1] As physics professor Daniel Kabat explains, “We’re used to thinking that information about an object—say that a glass is half full—is somehow contained within the object.” But entanglement reveals that objects “only exist in relation to other objects, and moreover these relationships are encoded in a wave function that stands outside the tangible physical universe.”[2]
Pause once more . . .
Might the fact of quantum entanglement be reflected in Wabanaki time? Might both indigenous prophecy and scientific reality now require that we embrace the natural evolving process of our living world—on Earth in an entangled universe with all its creative eco-choices?
Wakanabi prophecy challenges us to accept that: “the great pull of the universe is
is a desire to live in harmony with the Creator, which is expressed most effectively
in our own lives by living harmoniously with the rest of creation.”[3]
How might we respond?
