John Muir

Sylvia Warren

Professor Nichols

Thoreau, Wilderness, and American Nature Writing

May 11, 2009

A New Vision: John Muir’s Religious Redefinition and Departure from Figurative Blindness

John Muir is renowned as one of the greatest influencers on the environmentalist movement. He was an astute botanist, mechanic, traveler, and advocate for the preservation of nature. Muir attained his appreciation of wilderness through his complete envelopment in it. His devotion to nature redefined how people perceived its meaning; Muir believed that nature was spiritual and had the healing effects traditionally associated with Christianity. Muir came to this belief through a machinery accident that temporarily left him blinded in both eyes. His loss of vision, and its subsequent return, was a catalyst for his full absorption into nature. However, it took his actual experiences in nature to fully relieve him of his blindness, for while his physical visual faculties were restored, Muir remained symbolically blind to his own identity and values until he realized the spirituality of nature. Therefore, by pushing himself into the unknown and thus essentially blinding himself, Muir clarified his identity by redefining and embracing his spiritual sight.

A skilled mechanic, Muir spent much of his youth designing and constructing various contraptions. In 1867, however, Muir’s attempt to repair an industrial belt went awry when “his file slipped and punctured the cornea of his right eye. The shock blinded his left eye as well” (Austin 7). In a letter to his friend Jeanne Carr, Muir writes, “When I received my blow I could not feel any pain or faintness because the tremendous thought glared full on me that my right eye was lost. I could gladly have died on the spot, because I did not feel that I could have heart to look at any flower again” (Gisel 45). In the aftermath of his injury, Muir’s interest and appreciation of nature evolved into complete obsession. He decided that once his sight was predominantly returned, he would go on a thousand-mile walk from Louisville, Kentucky, to Savannah, Georgia, and then across Florida to the Gulf of Mexico (Austin 8). In his book The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, Muir writes about his decision to leave the University of Wisconsin to pursue a different type of education. He writes, “Anyhow I wandered away on a glorious botanical and geological excursion, which has lasted nearly fifty years and is not yet completed, always happy and free, poor and rich, without thought of a diploma or of making a name, urged on and on through endless, inspiring, Godful beauty” (Muir 142). Such an intense journey mirrors Muir’s deep need to fully experience nature. This journey was a hiatus from his life in the industrial community, which consequently was the lifestyle that caused his physical, as well as figurative, blindness. Muir felt that his life was incomplete and there was more to experience outside of the symbolic walls of urban life. As Michael P. Branch writes,

The young Muir had begun to worry that professional and financial circumstances might compel him, he wrote, ‘to abandon the profession of my choice, and to take up the business of an inventor.’ […] He was painfully aware of the imminent danger ‘of becoming so successful that my botanical and geographical studies might be interrupted.’ (Branch xxvii)

Therefore, Muir was not satisfied with solely making his life in an urban environment; within him, there was a feeling that something was missing, a void that caused symbolic blindness toward his values and his path in life.

In order to fill this void, Muir began his transition to a life immersed in the natural environment. After his accident, Muir felt initial despair at the prospect of not being able to fully experience nature and subsequently confined to city life for the rest of his life. His letters with Carr illustrate these feelings: “The sunshine and the winds are working in all the gardens of God, but I—I am lost. I am shut in darkness. My hard, toil-tempered muscles have disappeared, and I am feeble and tremulous as an ever-sick woman” (Gisel 44). The possibility of never experiencing another life, one that perhaps could have been the answer to his uncertainties, disheartened Muir greatly. Yet Carr provided sympathies that aided Muir’s mental recovery. In a letter, she writes, “Dear John, I have often in my heart wondered what God was training you for. He gave you the eye within the eye, to see in all natural objects the realized ideas of His mind. He gave you pure tastes and the steady preference of whatsoever is most lovely and excellent” (Gisel 43). This letter articulates Carr’s belief that the eyes are not the only method of sight. Instead, Carr believes that Muir has the ability to see nature in unconventional forms and hence can translate this sight into a new perspective on his own life. Carr contributed greatly to Muir’s belief in the spirituality of nature; her encouragement for him to see nature through all his senses allowed him to further understand his identity. Furthermore, Carr’s feminine influence gave Muir the ability to challenge stereotypical gender roles that hindered his true desire to experience nature.

Traditionally, nature is associated with the feminine and industrialism is associated with the masculine. Men were expected to be the providers for their families and thus have an occupation with a steady income. Muir defied this categorization by literally going into the feminized wilderness and away from his traditional masculine duties. His correspondence with Carr influenced Muir’s value reconstruction regarding his spirituality and his relationship with nature. As Michael P. Cohen writes, “It is hard not to believe that Jeanne Carr helped him to realize this truth about himself […] If he had fallen away from society and his social duties, she had provided the apple, or even taught him to eat it” (Cohen 13). Carr’s feminine influence pushed Muir into a new direction regarding how he viewed the natural world. Her belief in nature’s spirituality influenced his own perspective and caused him to challenge society’s typical definitions of wilderness. Cohen writes, “The oldest sin […] against the God which society had invented to enforce its rules: this was the desire for knowledge, the desire to eat from the trees and worship them. If it was a woman’s sin, so be it […] An acceptance of Nature on her own terms involved the acceptance of Man’s rightful place in Nature” (Cohen 14). Muir’s evolving spirituality redefined the traditional Garden of Eden philosophy. He desired to learn from nature, not avoid it. Muir made nature the basis of his spirituality: it has the power to heal, enrich, and inspire. By attributing such grand spiritual importance to nature, Muir redefined his own self in terms of traditional gender roles. To Muir, nature held the highest importance and it synergized his identity instead of dividing it along traditional masculine and feminine lines.

Muir’s new spirituality and evolving sense of self came through his travels all over the globe. Though questioned over his decision to journey instead of occupying a traditional masculine role, Muir remained resolute in the importance of understanding nature in order to understand one’s self. As Richard Cartwright Austin writes, “During the summer and fall of 1871 Muir came to a sense of himself and his vocation. He ceased worrying about proving his usefulness to society […] Shedding the pressure from his family to enter a profession, he planned instead to follow where his communion with nature led him” (Austin 12). Muir’s rebirth into the natural world shows his belief that nature is a part of himself, despite its typical associations with femininity. In letter from Muir to his brother, he writes, “I will follow my instincts, be myself for good or ill, and see what will be the upshot. As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche […] and get as near the heart of the world as I can” (Austin 13). Just as Muir redefined spirituality by linking it with nature, so he redefined his identity by inextricably connecting it with this spiritual environment, not with a stereotypical gender role.

Muir desired to gain empiric, as well as spiritual, knowledge from nature. An avid botanist, Muir gradually turned his attention to geology and began to study glacial formations. While in Little Yosemite at Washburn Valley Lake, Muir wrote in his journal, “‘Rock is not light, not heavy, not transparent, not opaque, but every pore gushes, glows like a thought with immortal life!’” (Cohen 36). Muir’s interpretation of geology reflects the theme of redefinition that is clear in all other areas of his life. Just as he broke away from the constraints of traditional society, traditional manhood, and traditional religion, so he challenged the traditional ideas of the world’s workings. In his book My First Summer in the Sierra, Muir writes about how blinded visitors to the Yosemite are to the land’s beauty. He recounts,

It seems strange that visitors to Yosemite should be so little influenced by its novel grandeur, as if their eyes were bandaged and their ears stopped. Most of those I saw yesterday were looking down as if wholly unconscious of anything going on about them, while the sublime rocks were trembling with the tones of the mighty chanting congregation of waters gathered from all the mountains round about, making music that might draw angels out of heaven. (Muir 263)

These two passages articulate the synergy that Muir attributed to the world. Not only is the natural world awe-inspiring with its magnificence, but the smaller interworkings within the earth are equally as inspiring. Cohen writes, “Muir had also been following a path which led him into a more and more simplified ecological system. He had […] simplified his life by simplifying his environment […] The Sierra itself demanded to be considered in its full and divine light, which was geological” (Cohen 37). Muir’s interpretation of geology, therefore, extends to his interpretation of the world and also of himself. Muir believed in the vast community of all elements of nature; just as his travels broke geographical boundaries, he believed that the boundaries established between mankind and nature should be taken down.

Muir’s redefinition of spirituality is especially startling due to his religious upbringing. His father was a very religious man and made his children memorize Scriptures in the Bible (Austin 19). However, Muir associated traditional Christianity with the hypocritical justification of man’s cruelties. As Austin writes, “Experiences of love and beauty, which his mother, his older sisters, and the natural world provided him, contrasted sharply with the violent, oppressive relationships which his father and his school characterized, patterns which society appeared to endorse” (Austin 19). Before his redefinition of spirituality in terms of nature, Muir associated religion with boundaries and hierarchies. Yet once he traveled into the wilderness and fully became connected with it, he essentially threw out the type of religion that his father imparted upon him. Muir’s departure from his father’s religion mirrors his departure from civilization into the wilderness. Referencing Muir’s journal he kept while journeying to the Gulf of Mexico, Donald Worster writes, “He has freed himself from all career anxieties, all family obligations […] [the] journal can be read […] as an escape from traditional Christianity, which has long constrained his feelings within conventional biblical doctrines” (Worster 10). Muir abandoned traditional religious conventions through his belief in nature’s spirituality, yet there were still pious aspects of his new religion. For Muir, the traditional God had become Nature and every entity within it.

Muir believed in the religious aspects of nature, but also believed in the equality between all entities in nature’s dominion. The significance of Muir’s environmental religion lies in its predominant tangibility. The tree bark that Muir was able to touch held religious aspects, as did the water he drank and the wildlife he sketched. Of course there are intangible aspects to nature, as well. Muir could not touch the rocks deep within the earth, nor actively feel their tectonic movement. Yet his study of glaciers gave him understanding of these processes, and to Muir, such workings held spiritual value equal to the tangible elements present above ground. In a letter to Jeanne Carr, Muir writes,

‘Do behold the King in his glory, King Sequoia! Behold! Behold! Seems all I can say. Some time ago I left all for Sequoia and have been and am at his feet, fasting and praying for light, for is he not the greatest light in the woods, in the world? […] I’m in the woods, woods, woods, and they are in me-ee-ee. The King tree and I have sworn eternal love—sworn it without swearing, and I’ve taken the sacrament with Douglas squirrel, drank Sequoia wine, Sequoia blood, and with its rosy purple drops I am writing this woody gospel letter.’ (Gisel 120)

This passage clearly articulates Muir’s new religion. It is the religion of the earth, not of an intangible or damning God. God is present in the natural world and therefore can be actively seen and felt. Muir writes that he fasts and prays for the light of the King Sequoia, which, in its immense and awe-inspiring structure, is his object of spiritual devotion. He emphasizes his unity with nature by writing “I’m in the woods, woods, woods, and they are in me-ee-ee,” illustrating his belief that mankind should become one with the wild to experience true spirituality and true sight (Gisel 120).

In a further articulation of nature’s spirituality, Muir writes, “Independence in nowhere sweeter than in Yosemite. People who come here ought to abandon and forget all that is called business and duty, etc.; they should forget their individual existences, should forget they are born […] They should come like thirsty sponges to imbibe without rule” (Austin 17). Thus, Muir believes that mankind must give up their belief of entitlement over the land. They are one with nature and must learn from it; therefore, the human belief of inherent control over the land is null. Austin writes, “Muir reversed the common perception of natural hierarchies. He found life and spirit in rocks, as opposed to the material nature of ‘higher’ beings, particularly people. Humanity was not superior to other species; before God such ranking was meaningless” (Austin 19). Rejecting the social and religious hierarchies that society advocated caused Muir to clearly understand his own person. Instead of having hierarchies define him, his denouncement of them caused genuine self-identification—Muir found that his communion with nature gave him truer, sharper sight than he had ever had prior to his accident.

Muir’s beliefs led to his strong conviction for the necessity for environmental preservation. To him, it was inconceivable that the land would go unprotected and thus be ruined by mankind’s negligence and disrespect. Though Muir was not involved in politics for the majority of his life, he was adamant about saving the Yosemite Valley from human tampering. He proposed to make a Yosemite National Park so that the detrimental human and sheep interactions would cease. In his essay “Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park,” Muir writes, “Unless reserved or protected the whole region will soon or late be devastated by lumbermen and sheepmen, and so of course be made unfit for use as a pleasure ground […] All that is accessible and destructible is being rapidly destroyed” (Muir 700). Muir believed that human destruction of the natural world was essentially destroying the beauty of God’s creation. In his environmental spirituality, such acts were blasphemous. Muir’s environmental advocacy caught the attention of many influential people, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, who came to visit Muir in Yosemite. He recounts his attempts to take Emerson with him up into the mountains, despite Emerson’s age and failing health. Muir writes, “I said, […] ‘The mountains are calling; run away, and let plans and parties and dragging lowland duties all ‘gang tapsal-teerie.’ […] Up there lies a new heaven and a new earth; let us go to the show’” (Muir 787). Muir encouraged environmental preservation through attempts to open people’s eyes to the true beauty of the world. The new sight he gained, therefore, was to be transposed onto others. Seeing the value of nature would allow people to gain new sight into their own characters, as Muir did.

Muir had high hopes for Emerson’s ability to see nature’s spirituality, though he was disappointed Emerson could not experience full immersion into the wilderness. However, despite Emerson’s inability to go on intense camping trips with him, Muir believed that Emerson valued the environment in a comparable manner. The two men stayed in contact while Muir remained in the forests, and Emerson encouraged his cause and invited him to visit him in Massachusetts when he finally returned to civilization. Yet Muir writes, “But there remained many a forest to wander through, many a mountain and glacier to cross […] It was seventeen years after our parting on the Wawona ridge that I stood beside his grave […] He had gone to higher Sierras, and, as I fancied, was again waving his hand in friendly recognition” (Muir 789). Thus, the spirituality of nature extends to Muir’s conception of heaven, further illustrating his redefinition of traditional religious beliefs. Muir’s new sight into religion, his surroundings, and himself extends to his political views, as well. He does not separate his political desire to preserve with his spiritual belief in the value of nature. The link between the two constitutes Muir’s vision about the respect and unity that mankind must give to nature in order to gain insight into one’s personal values.

The final preservation cause that Muir fought for was his attempt to save Hetch Hetchy Valley from being dammed. Of the possibility of the Valley being destroyed, Muir writes, “this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite National Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the uplifting joy and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being dammed and made into a reservoir […] thus flooding it from wall to wall and burying its gardens and groves one or two hundred feet deep” (Muir 814). Muir advocated preserving Hetch Hetchy Valley because of its spiritual benefits. Such beauty, Muir believed, gives people “joy and peace and health”; destroying this beauty, therefore, destroys mankind. Preservation would allow people to reap the spiritual benefits of nature, opening their eyes to its beauty and its healing effects. Muir goes on to write, “Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man” (Muir 817). Muir equates the spiritual qualities of Hetch Hetchy with a religious structure, illustrating Muir’s belief that a spiritual connection with nature has the power to heal symbolic blindness toward one’s identity, religious beliefs, and political beliefs.

When Muir regained his sight, his dedication to genuinely experiencing and preserving the natural world eliminated the figurative blindness he had toward his personal values. His connection with nature showed him what God, beauty, and truth truly were. Furthermore, Muir’s spiritual union with nature allowed him to understand his priorities in life. Rather than settling into a stereotypical masculine role, Muir’s love for the natural world propelled him into the feminized wilderness, ultimately clarifying his identity, not confusing it. His new sight made the social and gender boundaries, as well as geographical boundaries, fall away, which mirrors Muir’s entire vision about the unity and equality of the world. Therefore, Muir’s advocacy for preservation was his desire to preserve the environment, his religion, and the integrity of mankind.

Works Cited

Austin, Richard Cartwright. Baptized into Wilderness: A Christian Perspective on John Muir. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1987.

Branch, Michael P., ed. John Muir’s Last Journey: South to the Amazon and East to Africa. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2001.

Cohen, Michael P. The Pathless Way: John Muir and American Wilderness. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1984.

Gisel, Bonnie Johanna, ed. Kindred and Related Spirits: The Letters of John Muir and Jeanne C. Carr. Salt Lake City: U of Utah P, 2001.

Muir, John. The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1913.

--- “My First Summer in the Sierra.” Nature Writings. Ed. William Cronon. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1997.

---“Features of the Proposed Yosemite National Park.” Nature Writings. Ed. William Cronon. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1997.

---“Hetch Hetchy.” Nature Writings. Ed. William Cronon. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1997.

Worster, Donald. “John Muir and the Modern Passion for Nature.” Environmental History. 10.1: 2005, 8-19.