Gaia's Blog

Celebrating Earth's Wholeness and Our Own.

The Path Forward

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Path ForwardAs the days shorten and the fruitful darkness of winter approaches, Gaia’s Blog is entering a time of renewal and growing relevance. My own thinking about Gaia and humanity—where we are now, and where we need to go—has become clearer and more incisive. And also more hopeful—which might be surprising, considering the state of the world right now.

Here’s the hope: How can we possibly go wrong by allying ourselves with Mother Earth, with the vast reality of Gaia? With our home planet’s deep, unstoppable regenerative force? In the short term—well, things might get pretty dicey before they get better. The human world and the natural world are both presently suffering widespread, grievous losses, and, given their tragic momentum, the losses and the suffering will probably continue for a while yet. [Read more…] about The Path Forward

Doing Useful Magic Today

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“Magic” has come to mean many things, from Rumpelstiltskin spinning straw into gold, to an illusionist pulling coins out of someone’s ear, to invoking the “parking space fairy” when we drive into the city.

But I’m talking here about real, consequential magic that we can practice right now. This magic has to do with cultivating ways to link up, courteously and creatively, with the entire spectrum of life on earth, from the physical to the spiritual.

Working optimistic, heart-full magic to connect harmoniously with the natural world, and with our own true nature, is a crucial skill. It’s an essential part of getting back into good relationship with the earth, ourselves, and one another. Drawing on the following basic principles, we can all begin to use magic to make us better people and the world a better place. [Read more…] about Doing Useful Magic Today

How to Really Help the Earth

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“The Earth asks more of us than gratitude.”
–Robin Wall Kimmerer*

A few years ago, I was in a workshop for social and environmental activists at a beautiful retreat center in the northwest New Mexico desert. At one point the leaders instructed us all to go outdoors and speak our pain and frustration into the land.

A workshop attendee draped in beads and scarves spoke up. “Yes,” she knowingly proclaimed, “Mother Earth can take our garbage. So let’s give it all to her and let her turn it into compost.”

As one of the few locals in the workshop, I was consumed by a burst of rage. “No!” I shouted. “The land here has been suffering from human actions for 500 years already! First the Spanish settlers with their sheep; then the Anglo cattle ranchers, along with loggers and miners; and now the frackers and developers. And we think we can give the Earth yet more of our toxins, and, not only that, proclaim that that’s actually good for Her?!” [Read more…] about How to Really Help the Earth

Awakening to Earth: Religion, Atheism, and the Green Path

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I’ve been reading lately about various polls that question Americans about their religious affiliation. Evidently, the number of people who say they have “no religion”—that is, they don’t associate with Christianity, Judaism, or any other mainstream religion—has been steadily growing, and now constitutes up to a third of the respondents. These people—the so-called “none’s”—when offered alternatives, choose to call themselves atheists or agnostics, which, of course, is bemoaned by the leaders and practitioners of America’s recognized faiths.

What strikes me about all this is that apparently our choice here is seen, by the pollsters and probably by most of society at large, as either mainstream religion or zero religion. [Read more…] about Awakening to Earth: Religion, Atheism, and the Green Path

Foundations of Green Heart Magic

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The Green Heart within each one of us resonates with and augments the vibrant Green Heart of Gaia. I’m using the term “Gaia” here to designate the vast, purposive, homeostatic, ever-evolving planetary organism that enfolds and embodies the Earth on all levels. Gaia encompasses all human and non-human beings, all planetary processes and elemental forces, every natural ecosystem and human community. Everything is part of Gaia. The heart of each human being is part of Gaia’s heart. Therefore, every human heart must be attuned to the Earth’s organic Green-Heart field, in order to fully express its real nature.

Gaia is constantly playing a symphony of life and diversity, of birth, growth and change, of death and rebirth, of returns and regeneration. If our heart defines itself only with reference to the human-created world, and is oriented only to loving and caring for human beings, it is participating merely in one narrow subset of the symphony’s music. We could say that the human-centered heart is responding to Gaia like a little toy piano—the one in the old Peanuts comic strip comes to mind. But our heart has a much larger and deeper capacity to join in with our planet’s entire orchestra and make its music even more beautiful. We wouldn’t assent to remaining like children playing toy pianos if we really knew what the full beingness of our heart could express and co-create. [Read more…] about Foundations of Green Heart Magic