REMEMBERING THE CONNECTION

The study of deep ecology is something I have just started, so you can expect more personal impressions on this page in the future. For now, I'll share the lessons :) It makes perfect sense for nature oriented pagans to get back 'down to earth'. I strongly believe we knew all of the below, and it does not take learning, but mere remembering our roots. Sorcy SummerWind

TERRIBLY SMART

'Owl is very smart, isn't he?' pondered Pooh. 'Yes, terribly smart' answered Piglet. 'That must be why he never understands anything' said Pooh. From the Tao of Pooh

DEEP ECOLOGY - LESSON #1

The Deep Ecology Self-Discovery Trail Let wilderness wisdom, balance and beauty improve your relationships These exercises come from: Project NatureConnect Institute of Global Education In Association with the United Nations Office of Public Information. P. O. Box 1605 Friday Harbor, WA 98250 Like turning on a light, the purpose of this deep ecology trail is similar to teaching a blind person to know the color green. The trail invites you to psychologically make sense of your life through 48 naturally inherited senses. Society has made you blind to them. Since early childhood, you have probably learned that you have 5 natural senses with which to think and relate. This restrictive notion prevents you from thinking and relating sensibly and sensitively. It results in runaway personal and global troubles. We can't resolve our vast problems with half vast thinking. Wilderness uses at least 53 intelligent sensitivities to produce its interspecies wisdom, balance and beauty. We are part of nature and Earth, we contain this multisensory intelligence. If you have ever sensed hunger, you know it is real. You also know it is not one of your 5 senses. Think about that. Nature's sensitive ways do not produce violent, addictive or abusive behavior. Our separation from nature has torn us from nature's nurturance. Without it, we lose our ability to build sensible relationships. This loss diminishes our wisdom to the point that we seldom acknowledge it is sensible to reconnect with nature and rejuvenate our innate natural intelligence. We have been taught that we can't think and relate like Earth and nature work. The psychological deep ecology blending of mind and nature on this trail teaches us that we can, and how we can. The trail enables you to make conscious contact with an essence of Earth. DISCOVERY TRAIL STATION 1 of 18 SENSITIVITY: If you find the information on a page disturbing, do not continue until you can identify personal experiences or comfortable ways of thinking that validate the information. For information only, a variety of conflicting reactions to the trail are presented at the bottom of each station. Reflect how you feel and continue accordingly. I recognize that to become more whole, we must unify the detached parts of ourselves and the world. I'm interested in unifying psychology and ecology, mind and nature. To dive into full depths of knowledge, we need an exceptional truth in our lives that we can trust. It must get us past our nature sensory blindness. What is the greatest truth in your life that you can trust? (Hint: it is neither God, honesty nor love). One reason we have our runaway personal, social and global troubles is that most people cannot respond to this question accurately. Because of our mature disconnected education, the answer we come up with is usually incorrect. This results from thinking with only 13% of our mentality. Over 97% of the people who respond to the above question agree that the answer they find on the following pages is more accurate than the answer they presently harbor. Write down your best response to the above question and compare it to the answer in the page that follows. A common reaction: I am not interested in exploring the greatest truth in my life that I can trust because I already know it.

LESSON #2

The greatest truth in your life that you can trust is that you are reading these words at this moment: that you can see their form and color, or touch the screen or paper they are on, or sense the seat you may be sitting on, or feel the glasses on your nose, or your fingers on the keyboard, or be aware of air entering your nostrils and lungs, or love the cat on your lap. What you experience in each immediate instant of your life is called your felt sense moment. It is the greatest truth in your life that you can trust because: 1. It exists, its more than a story. You can validate, repeat and test it in this moment, or the next moment. 2. It may be sensed, you can deeply register it in many ways. 3. It is not limited to just being a story or a thought, false or true, about the past or future. 4. It is not limited to being produced by a person. 5. It is the only time that webstrings exist 6. It is as real as real gets. The felt sense moment is: the only time you are empowered to choose what the next moment will become for yourself. an essence of freedom and your destiny. the only moment that all of nature exists and that you can relate to nature. the only moment that your many natural senses function. the only time you can love, nurture, feel, touch, taste, smell, see, and hear. the only time you can make conscious sensory contact with webstrings. The only time you can discover subconscious thoughts and feelings. Even what has happened in the past or what may happen in the future is a story that you are only conscious of in the felt sense moment. Felt sense moments are your personal experiences. If you can't trust your experiences, what can you trust? Isn't it true that in the felt sense moment is when you can experience God, honesty and love?

LESSON #3

What we experience in the felt sense moment is a hot topic that involves critical thinking. Psychologically and physiologically, a human being's inner nature consists of a variety of distinct natural attraction sensations. We call them either senses, loves, sensory faculties, needs, instincts or webstrings. They smolder within us. They ignite into our consciousness when fueled by nurturing contact with their origins in nature. The natural senses include different webstring sensations like color, temperature, thirst, language, smell, taste, consciousness, sex, excretion, belonging, distance, pain, community, nurturing, trust, form, fear, reason, music, motion and touch. Each is a special sensory signal and natural attribute. Each offers a unique message, feeling and wisdom. Natural senses are webstring attractions that are an essence of our life experience. If you don't believe they are attractions, ask yourself, "Which one of these senses would I want to lose?" Do I actually want to risk dying of dehydration because my sense of thirst did not intelligently attract me to drink water? Do I want to lose my sense of pain so I can stupidly bang my finger off with a hammer and not know it?" Six Burning Questions: Can you think critically? Do you really trust your experiences, your felt sense moments? Have you ever sensed thirst in a felt sense moment? How could you sense thirst if we only have 5 senses and thirst is not one them? Thirst tells you you need water. Then you can then think of a way of getting some. Can you think with your 18th sense if you don't experience it or know what it is? Doesn't non-sense thinking produce our personal, social and global disorders?

And more Thoughts and Insights

The deep ecology course addresses the central issue of our time. In light of our knowledge today, what is the appropriate relationship of the human being to the earth? That this relationship must change is clear since human-caused trends cannot continue. Two primary indicators, western consumption and worldwide population, illustrate this point. Industrial countries account for about 20% of the world's population. But their citizens consume about 65% of all resources consumed, and are responsible for about 75% of all polluting wastes. The United States accounts for 5% of the world's population but consumes 25% of the world's resources. Thus, consumption in the US is a direct cause of environmental degradation around the world. The goal of raising the world's standard of living to ours is not only unrealistic, but if attained would accelerate the deterioration of the earth's life-support systems. In the case of population, the numbers speak for themselves. In 1900, the world's population was 1.5 billion; in 1960 3.0 billion, in 1995 5.8 billion. The projected number for the year 2000 is 6 billion and for 2050 11.3 billion. The rate of increase during the twentieth century (about fourfold) cannot continue. In fact, many experts believe the current population exceeds the carrying capacity of the earth (for humans only, remember -- doesn't mean the earth will dies, only possibly us). These indicator trends reflect human values and habits. As individuals, we have little direct control over values and habits affecting worldwide population. For the most part, they are addressed at the national and international levels. We do, however, have control over our consumption -- a direct reflection of how we view the earth. If we view the earth as only a collection of natural resources to be consumed for our needs and comfort, continued deterioration is assured. On the other hand, if the earth inspires us with awe as an intricate life-support system for all species, it will be treated accordingly. Deep ecology is about examining our values and attitudes toward the earth, our fellow species, and our own habits. Subject: Deep Ecology: a definition The term "deep ecology" was coined in 1973 by Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer, Arne Naess. Today it describes an approach by which humans look deeply at their relationship with the earth and the interconnectedness of everything on it. Arne Naess was concerned with environmental efforts intended primarily to make the earth a healthy place for human beings. He felt this anthropocentric (human centered) view was arrogant and tended to alienate human beings from other species. In contrast, deep ecology emphasizes the intrinsic value of all species, and from an ecocentric perspective sees the human being as one part of an interdependent ecosystem. Deep ecology is an evolving movement and is no longer associated solely with Arne Naess. Some recommended texts to begin understanding the movement are: Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century by George Sessions (1995) Simple in Means, Rich in Ends by Bill Devall (1988) Listening to the Land by Derrick Jensen (1995) Sand Country Almanac by Aldo Leopold (1949) -- first attempt at an ecosystem land ethic and a classic in deep ecology reading Subject: What Do We Believe Now About Ecology? We obviously have a disdain for nature in western culture. Consider the acres of farmland paved over for highways, fruit orchards converted to parking lots, shopping centers, and factories, and the air despoiled by our modes of transportation. How did we get this way -- living in a world in which concrete rules? Warwick Fox in the Ecologist says that we have three basic cultural assumptions that underlay our beliefs about ecology. 1. Man is the measure of all things. The boundaries between man and nature are sharp and distinct. The nonhuman world is subservient to the human world. The nonhuman world's value is gauged by its usefulness to man. 2. In the classical Greek and Cartesian versions of the universe, the world is comprehensible only when it is divided and labeled and looked at in parts. Nature is inert. Trees are static, and rocks are dead. 3. Economic growth is unquestioned. Wilderness is managed, mined, and logged. Nature becomes an economic resource. Growth and development are our primary concerns. These underlying assumptions have led us to believe that if we "fixed" things like air pollution here and treated this oil spill there and saved this owl here, we were saving the earth. We have treated environmental problems as thought they were something separate and apart from each other, manageable, and reformable. We have acted as if we are "stewards," caretakers to the earth. Ecologists have, for the most part, worked within the political system and the usual way of thinking, never questioning economic growth, just questioning the problems themselves. Peter Berg, director of the Planet Drum Foundation in San Francisco likens the environmental movement to a hospital that has only an emergency room -- no maternity care, no pediatric clinic, no promising therapy, "just mangled trauma cases." Christian stewardship as stated in the Bible still regards the earth as something for humans to use, although it promotes responsibility towards nature. The New Age version of stewardship is to exploit the earth, seeing it as a spaceship that sustains us. Common among many attitudes about nature is implicit faith in science and technology. Naess says: "technology is more helpless than ever because the technology produced doesn't fulfill basic human needs, such as meaningful work in a meaningful environment...Our culture is the only one in the history of mankind in which the culture has adjusted itself to the technology, rather than vice versa. In traditional Chinese cultural, the bureaucracy opposed the use of inventions that were not in harmony with the general cultural aim of the nation... Here, we have the motto, 'You can't stop progress." Naess says we need more science, a thousand times more to predict the negative consequences of our acts accurately to convince politicians and government officials of what certain growth will eventually cause to happen. Subject: What Deep Ecology Believes According the Arne Naess, "the essence of deep ecology is to ask deeper questions. The adjective 'deep' stresses that we ask why and how where others do not. We question our society's underlying assumptions. We ask which society, which education, which form of religion, is beneficial for all life on the planet as a whole, and then we ask further what we need to do to make the necessary changes." Warwick Fox has articulated some of the social, political, and economic concepts associated with deep ecology; a just and sustainable society; frugality; dwelling in place or developing a sense of place; cultural and biological diversity; local autonomy and decentralization; renewable energy; and appropriate technology. To live by these principles, one would have to assume a smaller-scale, slower-paced lifestyle attuned to the rhythms of nature, not to those of commerce or clockwork. Warwick views the three underlying assumptions of deep ecology (as opposed to those held by western society presently) as: 1. Human beings are just one species among others in the community of nature, and they are not separate from their environment. All living things are intrinsically equal. 2. Everything is connected, and the interrelationships are constantly changing The world is dynamic, fluid, and interdependent. As in the new physics, observers affect what they observe. The natural world is pantheistic, and the proper metaphors are biological rather than mechanistic [earth is not a spaceship, it is a world tree, for instance or a great mother]. 3. Instead of economic growth, this view assumes ecological sustainability and requires a long-term view, as well as understanding of such ecological concepts as diversity and symbiosis. Many deep ecologists favor vast *unmanaged* wilderness rather than developed wilderness areas. Not only is untamed wilderness valuable in itself, they maintain -- some species can flourish only when undisturbed -- but it is valuable for spiritual reasons as well. As Thoreau put it, "In wildness is the preservation of the world." There are inconsistencies in the deep ecology perspective, however. For example, to say that all living beings are equal contradicts the premise that the universe is diverse and interrelated. A good deal of controversy surrounds this idea of biocentric equality. Much of it has to do with theory versus practice in situations where values conflict. Warwick quotes Alan Watts as saying that he's a vegetarian because "cows scream louder than carrots." Arne Naess says that every life form in principle has the right to live and blossom, but when hiking in the mountains he makes value choices, stepping on more common arctic plants to avoid the less common and beautiful ones. In practice, says Naess, we do make value judgments and have to as a part of living. Since the ideas of deep ecology spring from the spiritual insights or philosophical views of individuals, its interpretations can be as numerous and diverse as the people writing about it. Subject: Deep Ecology: Spiritual Connection The central motivation in the lives of most proponents of deep ecology is a spiritual connection with nature. Fritjof Capra has said, "In my view the Western version of mystical awareness, our version of Buddhism and Taoism, will now be ecological awareness." Arne Naess also makes the point that "deep ecology has a religious component, fundamental institutions that everyone must cultivate if he or she is to have a life based on value and not function like a computer." John Muir, who is best known for championing the preservation of the redwoods in the 1800s, once lay down on a glacier-polished boulder one day so he could think like a glacier, thereby formulating his glacial theory of how the Sierra Nevada formed. Muir had found a path to spiritual growth in nature. "I only went for a walk, and finally concluded to stay until sundown," he wrote, "for going out, I discovered, was actually going in." Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, also acknowledged the spiritual power in nature. She wrote: "If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life." Carson also maintained that we, as humans, have a moral obligation to nature. "We CANNOT do what we do," she said. "We have no religious or ethical justification for behaving as we do toward nature." Her argument was not calculated or reasonable in the usual sense, saying that if we continue poisoning nature, we will be less healthy and have fewer resources and so on. She is saying that we're simply not permitted to behave in such a way. Naess himself a mountaineer and philosopher developed his deep love of the mountains and a closeness to nature as a child when he would spend summers in a cottage in the high mountains of his native Norway. Says Naess, "I never have the feeling that nature is something to be dominated or conquered: it is something with which we coexist." A philosophy professor for over 40 years and an authority on Ghandi, he left the academic world in 1969 to devote himself to the environmental movement. "I did not do it for fun. I think social movements are boring. I would rather be in nature, but I think we must all somehow contribute to saving a little of what is left of this planet -- this is the last century in which we will have a chance." (Let's hope not :) As pagans (and especially if one wants to call oneself "Druid"), we need to find a better and more validating way of connecting with the earth. Thinking about these things deeply and consciously can only change one's life for the better. Deep Ecology isn't a lesson in ecology; it's a lesson in living, thinking, and worshiping. John Seed, founder and director of the Rainforest Information Centers, makes explicit his spiritual connection with nature: "[the statement] I am protecting the rainforest develops into 'I am part of the rainforest protecting myself. I am that part of the rainforest recently emerged into thinking.' This change in perspective is more than intellectual... There is no difference between living and lifeless. Every atom in the human body existed before organic life emerged 4,000 million years ago. One may even remember one's previous existence as minerals, as lava, as rocks... We are the rocks dancing." This sort of pantheistic, intimate embrace of nature harkens back to so-called primitive societies, where nature did have faces, animals were totems, and rocks had character. Gary Snyder in The Old Ways advises us to cultivate patience and attention so that we may relearn some of the wisdom our ancestors practiced in their daily lives. Part of that wisdom is to know the place you inhabit, to develop "a much deeper knowledge and self-sufficiency related to the plants, animals, weather patterns, the lore of the place... first and foremost, I think, to know plants." Snyder wants us to regain "the capacity to hear the song of Gaea at THAT SPOT." Cultivating a deep ecological consciousness, then, may be the first step toward healing our relationship with nature and recovering the wisdom we need in order to live in harmony with nature. But how to we translate this experiential, spiritual insights into action in our everyday lives?

These are some deep ecology living goals from founder Arne Naess: 1. use of simple means; avoid unnecessary and complicated means to reach a goal or end 2. avoid activities that have no intrinsic value 3. anticonsumerism and minimalizing personal property 4. cherish old and worn; stop loving things just because they are new 5. appreciate the goods you have 6. act rather than simply be busy; make your life one of intrinsic value 7. appreciate cultural and ethnical differences without feeling that they are a threat 8. appreciate and choose meaningful work instead of simply making a living 9. cultivate life in a community rather than just in a society 10. espouse vegetarianism More Conscious Living Arne Naess goes on to make these further suggestions about living a life of deep ecology: 1. Appreciate and participate in primary production -- small scale agriculture, forestry, fishing. In other words, buy from the source -- eggs, meat from the farm, veggies and fruit from farmers' markets or whole foods markets. Refuse to buy into the corporate farming business that pollutes the land with hog farms and chicken batteries and pumps hormones into beef. Our farmers markets here in Charleston are delightful. There's music and laughter as well as fresh foods, eggs, baked goods, herbs, flowers. I don't go enough. My ex-mother-in-law had a freezer. Every fall she would buy half a cow from a farmer and have it butchered and wrapped. When it was just the girls and I, I bought a hind quarter. Lots of steaks and roasts for pennies compared to the grocery store, and we knew where the cows were raised, what they ate, etc. It takes some looking around. I miss living rural because fresh eggs are so wonderful and chickens are so easy to keep. I don't think I have the stamina to raise goats and milk twice a day anymore :) 2. Efforts to satisfy vital needs rather than desires. Resisting the urge to "go shopping" as a diversion or therapy. [Sorcy and I could use a little help here :)] Reducing the sheer number of possessions, favoring, old, well worn, much used and cared for things. These are two tough things I am working on. I'm really doing well with the shopping thing. I just refuse to do it unless it's necessary. Christmas is a bit of a dilemma this year because I'm trying to limit and scale down. Others' expectations just can't fit into the picture. I am not giving each of my kids several hundred dollars I don't have which they don't even need just because it's what I've done in the past. I'm planning to bake, and I bought pretty but inexpensive little baskets for friends in which I'm putting scented votives, cocoa mix, candy, and fresh baked sweet bread. Anyone else want to share their ideas for the season? As far as possessions -- I sold or gave away so much stuff when I moved two years ago, and I still have lots of stuff I need to purge. All this life change isn't easy, by golly But I feel that if I am claiming to be a Druid, I need to live a lifestyle that fits the title. According the Arne Naess, "the essence of deep ecology is to ask deeper questions. The adjective 'deep' stresses that we ask why and how where others do not. We question our society's underlying assumptions. We ask which society, which education, which form of religion, is beneficial for all life on the planet as a whole, and then we ask further what we need to do to make the necessary changes." Warwick Fox has articulated some of the social, political, and economic concepts associated with deep ecology; a just and sustainable society; frugality; dwelling in place or developing a sense of place; cultural and biological diversity; local autonomy and decentralization; renewable energy; and appropriate technology. To live by these principles, one would have to assume a smaller-scale, slower-paced lifestyle attuned to the rhythms of nature, not to those of commerce or clockwork. Warwick views the three underlying assumptions of deep ecology (as opposed to those held by western society presently) as: 1. Human beings are just one species among others in the community of nature, and they are not separate from their environment. All living things are intrinsically equal. 2. Everything is connected, and the interrelationships are constantly changing The world is dynamic, fluid, and interdependent. As in the new physics, observers affect what they observe. The natural world is pantheistic, and the proper metaphors are biological rather than mechanistic [earth is not a spaceship, it is a world tree, for instance or a great mother]. 3. Instead of economic growth, this view assumes ecological sustainability and requires a long-term view, as well as understanding of such ecological concepts as diversity and symbiosis. Many deep ecologists favor vast *unmanaged* wilderness rather than developed wilderness areas. Not only is untamed wilderness valuable in itself, they maintain -- some species can flourish only when undisturbed -- but it is valuable for spiritual reasons as well. As Thoreau put it, "In wildness is the preservation of the world." There are inconsistencies in the deep ecology perspective, however. For example, to say that all living beings are equal contradicts the premise that the universe is diverse and interrelated. A good deal of controversy surrounds this idea of biocentric equality. Much of it has to do with theory versus practice in situations where values conflict. Warwick quotes Alan Watts as saying that he's a vegetarian because "cows scream louder than carrots." Arne Naess says that every life form in principle has the right to live and blossom, but when hiking in the mountains he makes value choices, stepping on more common arctic plants to avoid the less common and beautiful ones. In practice, says Naess, we do make value judgments and have to as a part of living. Since the ideas of deep ecology spring from the spiritual insights or philosophical views of individuals, its interpretations can be as numerous and diverse as the people writing about it.