"Because they did not know God, therefore, in their error, they worshipped every creature as divine, namely the Sun, the Moon and stars, thunder, birds, even four-legged animals, even the toad. They also had forests, fields and bodies of water, which they held so sacred that they neither chopped wood nor dared to cultivate fields or fish in them." ~ Peter of Dusburg, Chronicon Terrae Prussiae, iii, 5, 53.
THE 4TH GATE OF GRIEF
Check out this podcast conversation we recorded with the lovely Leilani Navar of the Turning Season's Podcast.
In this weeks podcast episode we have Skye and Miraz joining us. We go deep into a number of themes exploring the culture of separation that plagues the collective sphere we all find ourselves in, the re-orientation of our perception to animistic worldviews, their many years in the amazon jungle studying amazonian shamanism, the frameworks that the indigneous shipibo people passed onto them to assist in the relating with a living breathing jungle, and extrapolating from that, a living breathing planet, and how this path interrelates into the work that they’re currently doing, known as deep ecology, aka, the work that reconnects.
I can still remember the exact moment I spotted Lilikoi's tendriled, amethyst body in a sea of lush green forest... her celestial scent mingled with the heady humus of the jungle floor...
I've noticed a lot of cicadas around at the moment and I came across a number of dead and dying ones on a recent walk through the forest. A lifelong lover of these wild, chorusing beings... I gently and reverently cupped one in the palm of my hand as it beat it's wings for the last time and then curled it's tiny legs inward, passing quietly from this form. Savoring the sweet intimacy of the moment, I laid it gently back on the ground and sat near it's resting place in the dappled green light of the leaf-filtered sun... humus scented air and the not-too-distant call of a lyrebird...
I spent most of my last days of this year sitting by a creek or at the feet of giants in silence... letting the land strip away my human story and remembering my life as dragonfly kissing the water... as echidna moving through the underbrush, nose in the fragrant loamy soil... as cicada, old skin still attached to the bark of my transformational perch- chorusing the sunset... as lyrebird warbling and dancing in the undergrowth... as Mountain Ash, straight and silver barked with feet in the earth and crown in the heavens...
In its essence, The Work that Reconnects (sometimes called Deep Ecology or Active Hope) is an attempt to address the crisis of perception, otherwise known the delusion of a separate self, that is believed to be at the core of the ecological, social, and economic troubles we are currently facing. In this way, it aims to help facilitate the realization of what Thich Nhat Hanh calls ‘Interbeing’.
"Our ancestry streches back through the life forms and into the stars, back into the beginnings of the primeval fireball. This universe is a single multiform energetic unfolding of matter, mind, intelligence and life." -Brian Swimme
"At every level, from atoms and molecules to cells, organs, and organisms, complex wholes arise bringing new capacities into existence. At each level, the whole acts through its parts to achieve more than we could ever imagine from examining the parts alone. So what new capacities emerge when groups of people act together to form larger systems? 'Joanna Macy"
Toolkit for Empowerment, Connection & Conscious Action
Land Based Herbal Apothecary & Learning Center
The healing power of nature
Glimpses of a Creative Universe, by Christopher Chase...
The official blog of Tom Brown, jr.
Spiritual journeys in tending the living earth, permaculture, and nature-inspired arts
Deep Earth Dreaming 