I don't disagree, necessarily. It's more about what I choose to focus on. Hard not to see dark times ahead, but all the more reason to strive to plant seeds of light that will ripen when we come out the other side, whatever that looks like. In the meantime, still in Planetary Hospice, which I wrote about 10 years ago, which if you've ever done hospice means dwelling on and caring for life in each moment, and finding immense joy in that w/o being freaked out by death and impermanence. Buddhism is all about the same. But also, I would add, the deeper the humility that you cultivate in service to life, the more you appreciate and even embrace the uncertainty in all this. "I think. Therefore I am, I think." Right? All we know for sure is all we can see right now - and that is enough to know, and to engage in appropriately responsive activities. And I assure you that there are millions of us around the world working towards solutions -- on the land. I saw it with my own eyes while I was in Montana working on bison issues. There are great changes afoot. Hardly anybody seems to focus on that, though. We're caught staring at the horizon like deers in the headlights. Science porn. I mean that - how much do you really need to know in order to take appropriate actions, to change your ways in relation to the land and to the planet?? It's called shared responsibility. It needs to be exercised by everyone in every community, coming back in proper relationship with and through one another, in our families, in our communities. It is happening, just not fast enough and still with too much headwind resistance.
Here's my favorite astrologer's (Ang Stoic) take, focused on the waxing conjunction of Neptune and Saturn in Pisces: "In this crucible of cosmic forces, we are called to transcend the pain, to find meaning in the suffering, and to forge a new reality that honors both the Saturnine principles of structure and the Neptunian ideals of unity and compassion. The time for evasion is over; the moment for radical transformation is now, and it demands of us an unwavering commitment to truth, justice, and the healing of our world."
Wow Zhiwa, I was hooked on every word! This feels to me like one of your most powerful Gaian transmissions to date -- clear and direct, and infinitely loving and humourous. Thank you for weaving together so many strands with such clarity -- and leaving me feeling like we can do this!
Thanks, Matt! I was definitely thinking of you when I was composing this. I think it is the clearest I've been about how the scientific-materialist worldview is used to contain all of our movements, and why we need to get out of that confining box - separate and apart from the fact that it's a myth. Cheers.
"As it turns out, our psyches are embedded in Gaia’s Psychosphere, just as our bodies are embedded in Her biosphere. When we entrain our minds in synch with Her natural rhythms, with the immense power of intention, we open up a feedback loop by which Gaia can express Her agency through our intuitive senses, giving rise to the phenomenon of inspiration. As I always try to tell anyone who has the ears to listen, every idea I’ve had in the last dozen years has come through me, from Gaia, not from me."
I'm still reading this, but I'm pausing for a moment to comment.
I'm really enjoying the essay, by the way!
"Trying to solve a crisis of relationship with political solutions is like a social worker trying to fix a dysfunctional family dynamic with better toys, appliances, and a new car. 'Surely, there must be a technological fix here!'
What is the relationship at issue with the climate crisis? It is the relationship between us all - meaning those who are part of the economic system - and a living planet that we and all living beings are integrally part of, not apart from. To address that dysfunctional relationship collectively, we have to change it at the level of where we live - the ecosystems and bioregions that we interact with from within. Local solutions, in other words, that are people-driven."
We're overwhelmingly mostly on the same page, but I'm thinking by the term "politics" you mean the broken, ugly thing which passes for "politics" in our dominant culture today.
I don't mean that by "politics". To me, politics means decision making in groups, in all of its aspects and rich context (so it includes media and education in important ways (there is no non-political version of either of these). Groups can be within government (the state) our outside of it. Outside of the state any group of people can form a group and decide how they will decide together.
So, to me, there are *only* political solutions to the horrible mess we're all in. So we're here talking about a floating signifier: "politics".
Totally agree, James -- I was referring to what passes for politics today, and I see the opposite of that happening in places like UK w/Indra Adnan's Alternative Politics. Good point. I'll make a note to be more clear about use of that term in the future.
Thanks for your response, Tham Zhiwa (How's that pronounced?)
I'm actually a poet philosopher attempting to use poetry-philosophy to radically re-imagine what "politics" can mean for us, in order to liberate us from the sham of "politics" in a cage. My method resonates a great deal with your Gaian somatic phenomenology. In fact, I strongly suspect they are one and the same. Inspiration ... breathing together, a conspiracy of awakening magic!
It's a curious thing, Tham Zhiwa. I know there is aliveness magic in this world which is wondrous beyond all imagining. And yet I'm hearing of water temps having been measured off the coast of Florida which are scalding like a hot tub, over a hundred degrees F! And then there is this from Patrick Mazza of The Raven: https://theraven.substack.com/p/in-a-world-of-troubles-confronting
Collapse of our present global civilization in the near term seems inevitable -- baked into the cake... by now. Today, in fact, I made the crossing to thinking it inevitable in the near term. So ... we're all in deep shit!
Here's some contextualizing (in the form of a sort of prose poem I published at Deep Transformation Network just before learning of your essay there).:
Politics (Sometimes it is necessary to wander)
"Not all those who wander are lost" - Bilbo Baggins
At its best, wandering may be an accord with paradox, a willingness for the world's infinite particulars to be refracted into ten thousand contextualized meanings, none necessarily less true than the others--, even in contradiction.
One can wander with one's feet, an amble, saunter or stroll without any preconceived destination. An improvisation. An inquiry. A dance. Some aliveness.
And one can amble this way in thought and through the many-faceted prism of language and perception.
The best use of poetry and philosophy is wandering. And there can be no wandering without an assent to the possibility of becoming lost. There is no real thought without risk. Dawn may come and swallow dusk. Or the reverse. One never knows how it will turn out. Pack sandwiches and apples.
No word tends so strongly as "politics" to put an end to ambling. It's a frozen, hardened, heavy, opaque word, in that it tends to lack translucence. Light does not move with or through it so easily for us. We think we know what it means. But we don't even know how to get lost with it. To get lost with it is a learned skill. Half of the skill development here is simply not knowing.
Imagine for a moment that you don't really know what politics is. That's a start.
What politics actually is and what it is imagined to be are radically different things.
Not that it is a thing, such as an object -- hardened, encrusted, heavy, opaque, like death itself. Unmoving, unable to wander. Lacking aliveness. Going nowhere.
Personified politics is a half awake, half blind man in a prison cell which isn't locked. He never checks to see if the door will swing. (It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.)
Oh, wait, no. It don't mean a thing if it swings upon trying.
The old Indian man trapped an elephant this way. First with a heavy chain, then with a heavy rope, then a light rope. The elephant circumambulated the stake at the center. Then the old Indian man used a light thread, the sort one would use to sew on a botton. But round and round the elephant went. So the old Indian man took away even the thread, but still the elephant circled his stake. The elephant was sleepwalking!
Such is our common relationship to "politics". Politics hasn't had a fresh breath in millennia. He wanders round in circles, going nowhere.
We have forgotten that every politics is an ethos.
We have bought the lie that all things are public or private.
Nothing is shared. We enclosed the elephant and pulled the iron bar door behind us.
Bread and water and circuses.
How are we to begin to get properly lost?
A sign hangs over the prison gate, reading "Public & Private".
In the darkest hour of night I showed up and altered that sign.
Now it reads "Public, Private, Communal".
Now the communal has a voice! The door swings open. The prisoners are as free as they wish to be.
An ethos has an idea, a story, a direction to wander in, something worth committing to -- freedom.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one word.
I don't disagree, necessarily. It's more about what I choose to focus on. Hard not to see dark times ahead, but all the more reason to strive to plant seeds of light that will ripen when we come out the other side, whatever that looks like. In the meantime, still in Planetary Hospice, which I wrote about 10 years ago, which if you've ever done hospice means dwelling on and caring for life in each moment, and finding immense joy in that w/o being freaked out by death and impermanence. Buddhism is all about the same. But also, I would add, the deeper the humility that you cultivate in service to life, the more you appreciate and even embrace the uncertainty in all this. "I think. Therefore I am, I think." Right? All we know for sure is all we can see right now - and that is enough to know, and to engage in appropriately responsive activities. And I assure you that there are millions of us around the world working towards solutions -- on the land. I saw it with my own eyes while I was in Montana working on bison issues. There are great changes afoot. Hardly anybody seems to focus on that, though. We're caught staring at the horizon like deers in the headlights. Science porn. I mean that - how much do you really need to know in order to take appropriate actions, to change your ways in relation to the land and to the planet?? It's called shared responsibility. It needs to be exercised by everyone in every community, coming back in proper relationship with and through one another, in our families, in our communities. It is happening, just not fast enough and still with too much headwind resistance.
Here's my favorite astrologer's (Ang Stoic) take, focused on the waxing conjunction of Neptune and Saturn in Pisces: "In this crucible of cosmic forces, we are called to transcend the pain, to find meaning in the suffering, and to forge a new reality that honors both the Saturnine principles of structure and the Neptunian ideals of unity and compassion. The time for evasion is over; the moment for radical transformation is now, and it demands of us an unwavering commitment to truth, justice, and the healing of our world."
Wow Zhiwa, I was hooked on every word! This feels to me like one of your most powerful Gaian transmissions to date -- clear and direct, and infinitely loving and humourous. Thank you for weaving together so many strands with such clarity -- and leaving me feeling like we can do this!
Thanks, Matt! I was definitely thinking of you when I was composing this. I think it is the clearest I've been about how the scientific-materialist worldview is used to contain all of our movements, and why we need to get out of that confining box - separate and apart from the fact that it's a myth. Cheers.
Mwe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrgjF9xLaGg&t=435s
"As it turns out, our psyches are embedded in Gaia’s Psychosphere, just as our bodies are embedded in Her biosphere. When we entrain our minds in synch with Her natural rhythms, with the immense power of intention, we open up a feedback loop by which Gaia can express Her agency through our intuitive senses, giving rise to the phenomenon of inspiration. As I always try to tell anyone who has the ears to listen, every idea I’ve had in the last dozen years has come through me, from Gaia, not from me."
Yes. Me too!
https://theheronhouse.substack.com/p/the-instrument-of-dowsing
I'm still reading this, but I'm pausing for a moment to comment.
I'm really enjoying the essay, by the way!
"Trying to solve a crisis of relationship with political solutions is like a social worker trying to fix a dysfunctional family dynamic with better toys, appliances, and a new car. 'Surely, there must be a technological fix here!'
What is the relationship at issue with the climate crisis? It is the relationship between us all - meaning those who are part of the economic system - and a living planet that we and all living beings are integrally part of, not apart from. To address that dysfunctional relationship collectively, we have to change it at the level of where we live - the ecosystems and bioregions that we interact with from within. Local solutions, in other words, that are people-driven."
We're overwhelmingly mostly on the same page, but I'm thinking by the term "politics" you mean the broken, ugly thing which passes for "politics" in our dominant culture today.
I don't mean that by "politics". To me, politics means decision making in groups, in all of its aspects and rich context (so it includes media and education in important ways (there is no non-political version of either of these). Groups can be within government (the state) our outside of it. Outside of the state any group of people can form a group and decide how they will decide together.
So, to me, there are *only* political solutions to the horrible mess we're all in. So we're here talking about a floating signifier: "politics".
Totally agree, James -- I was referring to what passes for politics today, and I see the opposite of that happening in places like UK w/Indra Adnan's Alternative Politics. Good point. I'll make a note to be more clear about use of that term in the future.
Thanks for your response, Tham Zhiwa (How's that pronounced?)
I'm actually a poet philosopher attempting to use poetry-philosophy to radically re-imagine what "politics" can mean for us, in order to liberate us from the sham of "politics" in a cage. My method resonates a great deal with your Gaian somatic phenomenology. In fact, I strongly suspect they are one and the same. Inspiration ... breathing together, a conspiracy of awakening magic!
It is always good to know I'm not insane! ; )
It's a curious thing, Tham Zhiwa. I know there is aliveness magic in this world which is wondrous beyond all imagining. And yet I'm hearing of water temps having been measured off the coast of Florida which are scalding like a hot tub, over a hundred degrees F! And then there is this from Patrick Mazza of The Raven: https://theraven.substack.com/p/in-a-world-of-troubles-confronting
Collapse of our present global civilization in the near term seems inevitable -- baked into the cake... by now. Today, in fact, I made the crossing to thinking it inevitable in the near term. So ... we're all in deep shit!
Here's some contextualizing (in the form of a sort of prose poem I published at Deep Transformation Network just before learning of your essay there).:
Politics (Sometimes it is necessary to wander)
"Not all those who wander are lost" - Bilbo Baggins
At its best, wandering may be an accord with paradox, a willingness for the world's infinite particulars to be refracted into ten thousand contextualized meanings, none necessarily less true than the others--, even in contradiction.
One can wander with one's feet, an amble, saunter or stroll without any preconceived destination. An improvisation. An inquiry. A dance. Some aliveness.
And one can amble this way in thought and through the many-faceted prism of language and perception.
The best use of poetry and philosophy is wandering. And there can be no wandering without an assent to the possibility of becoming lost. There is no real thought without risk. Dawn may come and swallow dusk. Or the reverse. One never knows how it will turn out. Pack sandwiches and apples.
No word tends so strongly as "politics" to put an end to ambling. It's a frozen, hardened, heavy, opaque word, in that it tends to lack translucence. Light does not move with or through it so easily for us. We think we know what it means. But we don't even know how to get lost with it. To get lost with it is a learned skill. Half of the skill development here is simply not knowing.
Imagine for a moment that you don't really know what politics is. That's a start.
What politics actually is and what it is imagined to be are radically different things.
Not that it is a thing, such as an object -- hardened, encrusted, heavy, opaque, like death itself. Unmoving, unable to wander. Lacking aliveness. Going nowhere.
Personified politics is a half awake, half blind man in a prison cell which isn't locked. He never checks to see if the door will swing. (It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.)
Oh, wait, no. It don't mean a thing if it swings upon trying.
The old Indian man trapped an elephant this way. First with a heavy chain, then with a heavy rope, then a light rope. The elephant circumambulated the stake at the center. Then the old Indian man used a light thread, the sort one would use to sew on a botton. But round and round the elephant went. So the old Indian man took away even the thread, but still the elephant circled his stake. The elephant was sleepwalking!
Such is our common relationship to "politics". Politics hasn't had a fresh breath in millennia. He wanders round in circles, going nowhere.
We have forgotten that every politics is an ethos.
We have bought the lie that all things are public or private.
Nothing is shared. We enclosed the elephant and pulled the iron bar door behind us.
Bread and water and circuses.
How are we to begin to get properly lost?
A sign hangs over the prison gate, reading "Public & Private".
In the darkest hour of night I showed up and altered that sign.
Now it reads "Public, Private, Communal".
Now the communal has a voice! The door swings open. The prisoners are as free as they wish to be.
An ethos has an idea, a story, a direction to wander in, something worth committing to -- freedom.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg