It is the year 2017. We are living in, unarguably, a very complex and interesting time. For better or worse we are witnessing a great turning in the relationship between the human animal and the biosphere. The effects of our consumptive way of life are no longer possible to ignore. Our culture needs to either move away from the illusion that we are somehow separate from and superior to the rest of the biosphere or it seems likely we will perish taking many other species down with us. Politics, on the world stage, are moving in the direction of fascism and buffoonery as those in power scramble to hold on to the fantasy of control. The seas are rising, the ice caps are melting, the rainforests are disappearing, biodiversity is vanishing, once fertile lands are becoming arid, and potable water and the very air we breathe are becoming toxic.

On a collective and subconscious level, it seems like the minds of modernized people are gearing up for an oncoming apocalypse. The end of times narrative has risen in popularity without much analysis as to why we are all so interested in the end of the world. If we are not to kid ourselves it is because now, more than ever, we are realizing the destructive capabilities of the capitalist narrative that the Earth is here for us to consume. I believe the books and films about various apocalypses, catastrophic weather events, zombies, post-nuclear fantasies, are a result of the visibility of the damage we have caused. We are processing our fears through the cultural avenue of art . But let us not forget the word apocalypse, from the ancient Greek apokalypsis, means to uncover. Approaching the concept of apocalypse from this angle switches the meaning from a change to be feared to a change that we should welcome. It is time that we lift the cultural veil and look to both past and future for guidance. Make an apocalypse is just the thing we need.

In his book Earth in Mind, author and professor David W. Orr, in discussing myths of modern human culture writes “A third myth is that knowledge, and by implication human goodness, is increasing. An information explosion, by which I mean a rapid increase of data, words, and paper is taking place. But this explosion should not be mistaken for an increase in knowledge and wisdom, which cannot be measured so easily. What can be said truthfully is that some knowledge is increasing while other kinds of knowledge are being lost.” It is this vanishing knowledge, knowledge of place and relationship, knowledge of a deep ecology, that interests me. I believe it is the loss of this knowledge, knowledge that our ancestors gained over thousands and thousands of years of experimentation, that may be the key to saving us from ourselves.

In times such as these it can be hard to remember the deep well of wisdom that belongs to humanity. There are those among us who have not yet forgotten the truths of older way of knowing. The wise voices, the ones we should be hearing the most of, are either being suppressed or not being given the attention that they deserve. However, the very fact that these voices are still out there, acknowledging the reality of our perilous existence, should give us a glimmer of hope. There are people out there who recognize that our technologies cannot save us from ourselves and instead of more intervention what is needed is less impact, less consumption. Business as usual cannot carry on, regardless of technological fixes. It is too late for electric cars and solar panels to save us. What is needed is a major shift in cultural consciousness, one that truly recognizes a place of kinship in the ecology of the world. We are not the stewards or care takers of the Earth and in fact, the Earth doesn’t need us to survive. We, however, need the Earth.

One component of the work I have done for my ILC is watching videos of talks given by people with wise voices. I recognize and embrace the hypocrisy of discussing the dangers of technology, while using the internet to further explore the ideas of the thinkers who influence my world view. Sadly these voices of reason and wisdom are harder and harder to find. Do to cultural fragmentation it is harder to find elders, storytellers, and healers to gain wisdom and insight from. One of the positive uses of technology is that it enables us to still seek out people who are fulfilling these roles. This post is my attempt at sharing some sources I have found valuable with whoever happens to read this. I will be posting a handful of videos that I have watched and gained insight form, followed by a quote from each talk that I found particularly striking.

“When we marvel at that blue marble, in all of its delicacy and frailty, and resolve to save the planet, we cast ourselves in a very specific role. That role is of a parent, the parent of the earth, but the opposite is the case, as every traditional society that sees the earth as a mother knows. It is we humans who are fragile and vulnerable and the earth that is hardy, and powerful, and holding us in its hands. In pragmatic terms our challenge is less to save the earth from ourselves and more to save ourselves from an earth, that if pushed to far, has ample power to rock, burn, and shake us off completely. That knowledge should inform all we do, especially the decision about whether or not to gamble on high tech fixes and tamper with the earth’s climate systems.”

“When I settled up in the hills, the most friendly beings were the rattlesnakes, and the pack rats, and the wild things, the bees and the hummingbirds. With just a little bit of showing that I didn’t mean harm, it was really wonderful, the animals and birds and things were ready to be friends of mine. And so those are my longest friends in the more than 32 years I’ve been there, so when I wrote the book I wanted to pay notice to them and in a way too, to help protect their lives because they’re the ones who get crushed under the bulldozers and so I wanted other people to understand that these creatures want to be connected with us and that they, in a sense, are part of us and that they can really give us sustenance and hope when nothing else in the human world can.”

“Carl Jung believed that at the core of each life is a question that that life, that person must pursue and is fortunate if he or she discovers it. Well I know what the question was, and I became aware of it in my mid 40’s, but it probably started with my birth and I am glad for this moment with you to be able to share it. The question was “How to be fully present to my world?” Present enough to enjoy it and be useful while at the same time knowing that my species, we human species, are progressively destroying this world. Wow, that splits you right down the middle and puts you back together again over and over again. It has asked me to keep my eyes and heart open to what I see happening. To unblock the feedback loops and help others to do it to, to speak the truth.”

“It would seem that we are living in a world of increasing wounds and I know that in my work, which involves trying to invite people to come yet closer to their animal bodies and to identify more fully with their own animality, and wake up their animal senses, and wake up within their skin, and begin thinking with their senses, and thinking with their whole skin awake and feel out those forms of reason or reflection that are appropriate to a full bodied creature inhabiting this living, breathing mysterium we call Earth.”

“When we get to thinking of everything in terms of survival and profit value, as we do, then the shapes of scratches on the floor cease to have magic and most things in fact cease to have magic. So therefore, in the course of nature, once we have ceased to see magic in the world anymore we are no longer fulfilling nature’s game of being aware of itself. There’s no point in it anymore, and so we die, and so something else comes to birth which gets an entirely new view. It is not, therefore, natural for us to wish to prolong life indefinitely, but we live in a culture where it has been rubbed into us, in every conceivable way, that to die is a terrible thing and that is a terrible disease from which our culture in particular suffers.”