*Green Fire's topics - tribe.net

Deep Ecology with Joanna Macy

2007-02-17T12:15:18Z

A weekend of Deep Ecology with Joanna Macy

"The Dharma and the Great Turning"

10th - 12th August 2007

Joanna will be joining us on the 11th of August to discuss the Dharma and the Great Turning - the transition from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining society, a revolution affecting every aspect of our lives. On the 12th there will be the opportunity to continue discussing the themes and issues raised, to meditate together, and to spend time in nature

For more info please see www.thedharmahouse.com

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Save The Planet!

2007-01-23T05:07:04Z

The March For Peace In Washington D.C. - This Weekend
Check out this cool site to find out all about it.
www.unitedforpeace.org/

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Homeopathic Life and Wholistic Healing

2007-01-12T19:14:42Z

I thought this tribe would be of interest to those who come here...

Please join if it looks of interest to you. I think it's a vital part of Spirituality and Healing and hope that it can serve as a compliment to wonderful sites like this one! The site is dedicated to learning about any type of wholistic healing with an emphasis on natural herbs and their benefits / health risks / how to grow and prepare them. Also included is crystals, hypnosis, dreams and anything of the like.
I look forward to learning and sharing with you.

Peace and Love,

Katrina

tribes.tribe.net/naturopathicsway

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DARE TO LET GO

2006-12-14T07:27:21Z

DARE TO LET GO
In the practice of meditation, the way to be daring, the way to leap, is to
disown your thoughts, to step beyond your hope and fear, the ups and downs
of your thinking process. You can just be, just let yourself be, without
holding on to the constant reference points that mind manufactures. You do
not have to get rid of your thoughts. They are a natural process; they are
fine; let them be as well. But let yourself go out with the breath, let it
dissolve. See what happens. When you let yourself go in that way, you
develop trust in the strength of your being and trust in your ability to
open and extend yourself to others. You realize that you are rich and
resourceful enough to give selflessly to others, and as well, you find that
you have tremendous willingness to do so.

From "Renunciation and Daring," in SHAMBHALA: THE SACRED PATH OF THE
WARRIOR, the Shambhala Library Edition, pages 63 to 64.

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Singin Praises!

2006-12-01T09:33:06Z

Glory Be man! Lets cellebrate mother earth... we are part of it for sure. Take care of her.

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Roblito Community Center for Cultural Exchange

2006-09-17T05:31:40Z

Roblito is a village of 250 people in Central Mexico. Its name means "Little Oak."

Over the past six years, I have returned to Roblito several times and each time is a joyful, inspiring experience.

Developing the Roblito Community Center for Cultural Exchange is the vision that gives my life the most sense of direction, and I've just created a tribe to share it with you: tribes.tribe.net/roblito

The vision is to form a circle of people focused on creating a summer camp-like environment each winter in Roblito, that would develop methods for community building and permaculture. I have access to a large house and lots of land and feel that this is a safe place for people of all ages. We will provide opportunities for both locals and travelers to experience different ways of being that nurture relationships and build skills, empower them to share what they learn.

This project requires people with these skills, or a desire to learn: communications, media, video, sewing, planting, growing, building (domes, cob, straw bail), loving, listening, hugging, playing, painting (faces/murals), surfing, sea kayaking, bike touring/ repair, dentistry, nutrition, yoga, Spanish, English, stilt walking, hoopin', bamboo, computers, counseling, cooking, water resources management, solar/wind power, simple living.

Roblito is already an ecovillage compared to the way most of us live. The plan is to develop a free education center there where everyone is a student and a teacher. The people of Roblito are open to this, because they trust me. This is a rare opportunity. These are very special people. You can learn more about them here: www.solomax.com/roblito.html

In the new year, I plan to return to Roblito and invite you take part in developing this project, which is egalitarian, non-profit, and all-volunteer.

Looking forward to playing with you,

-Cor
www.actionheronetwork.net

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Todays 13moon mantra

2006-08-18T18:27:53Z

I dissolve in order to influence
Releasing wisdom
I seal the process of free will
With the spectral tone of liberation
I am guided by my own power doubled

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Photos of Earthaven eco-village

2006-08-07T15:06:33Z

A day at Earthaven, NC

What a beautiful way to live: http://actionhero.smugmug.com/gallery/1632017/8

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The Great Teachings Are the Same

2006-08-04T22:09:57Z

The Great Teachings Are the Same
By Alain Burrese
The recent ethnic-religious riot in Indonesia between the Muslims and Christians reminds me of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, who said, "We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God, as the Catholics and Protestants do. We do not want that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth. But we never quarrel about God. We do not want that."

It seems as though mankind has fought and quarreled over whose beliefs about a set doctrine of religious teachings are actually the "truth" for as long as these doctrines have existed. It's been a turf war over God if you will. The irony of this is that the fighting, whether verbal or physical, goes against the very teachings that these combatants profess to follow.

I wonder if the Muslims that were destroying things in the riot have read the Hadith, the traditional accounts of Muhammad's sayings and actions. Muhammad stated, "I am the closest of all people to Jesus, son of Mary, in this world and the Hereafter; for all prophets are brothers, with different mothers but one religion." While talking to one of the Jewish faith, Muhammad also praised Moses. What do you think Muhammad would think of these recent riots? This hatred and violence would disgust the Prophet who once said, "The most odious of men to God is the one who is most quarrelsome."

Many teachings have been reworked so that followers worship certain figures rather than follow the guidelines taught by the great visionaries. It is much easier to worship Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, and so forth, than it is to live by the guidelines they established. I do not wish to single out one religion, for the trouble is that many religions insist upon pointing out the other's differences, calling them faults, without acknowledging their own. Appallingly, members of one faith often engage in violent and destructive actions toward others solely because of a difference in faith or opinion. It's like a friend of mine says, "It's not God I have a problem with, it's all His fan clubs."

Rather than squabble over differences, we should all look at wise teachings from any source and use them to better ourselves. I have to agree with the eighteenth-century Japanese Zen poet Ryokan, "When we see clearly, the great teachings are the same."

Personally, I consider myself spiritual and not religious. I have chosen to follow the path of the warrior, placing emphasis on the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit. My spiritual teachings have come from a multitude of sources, and I continue to learn and apply spiritual lessons into my daily living. The spiritual path, like the path of the warrior, is lifelong, and mastery is simply continuing to stay on the path. Each of us must choose our own course, and we must have tolerance for those who travel alternate routes.

I would like to encourage everyone to read the next few passages with an open mind. Do not dwell on who said the words, but think of the meaning behind them. Envision a community, a country, better yet, our world with everyone following these simple guidelines. Euphoric? Yes, but like John Lennon and Martin Luther King, I can dream.

From Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching we learn that simplicity, patience, and compassion are our three greatest treasures, and that peace should be our highest value. We learn that happiness comes from doing for others and wealth comes from giving to others. And finally, "Love the world as yourself; then you can care for all things."

From the Dhammapada, an anthology of statements of Buddha's teachings, we are reminded of similar principles, "Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy." Buddha also taught that the master harms no living thing, and again we hear a similar theme, "See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?"

Again, from the Hadith, we hear Muhammad's words, "There is a reward for your treatment of every living thing." Muhammad also encouraged people to give ungrudgingly and to not withhold, and taught that "None of you is a believer until you like for others what you like for yourself."

Finally, one of the most known sayings of Jesus, who offered us such a benevolent code of morals. Known as the "Golden Rule," it echoes the earlier writings of Lao-tzu and Buddha, just as Muhammad's words later do. Such a simple rule on paper, so why don't we follow it? "Do unto others as you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31)

This was originally published in the February 12, 1997 issue of the Korea Herald.

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Grandfather

2006-08-04T22:06:51Z

Grandpa, some ninety plus years, sat feebly on the patio bench. He didn't move, just sat with his head down staring at his hands. When I sat down beside him he didn't acknowledge my presence and the longer I sat I wondered if he was OK. Finally, not really wanting to disturb him but wanting to check on him at the same time, I asked him if he was OK. He raised his head and looked at me and smiled. "Yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking," he said in a clear strong voice. "I didn't mean to disturb you, Grandpa, but you were just sitting here staring at your hands and I wanted to make sure you were OK," I explained to him.

Have you ever looked at your hands," he asked. "I mean really looked at your hands?"

I slowly opened my hands and stared down at them. I turned them over, palms up and then palms down. No, I guess I had never really looked at my hands as I tried to figure out the point he was making. Grandpa smiled and related this story:
"Stop and think for a moment about the hands you have, how they have served you well throughout your years. These hands, though wrinkled, shriveled and weak have been the tools I have used all my life to reach out and grab and embrace life.

They braced and caught my fall when as a toddler I crashed upon the floor. They put food in my mouth and clothes on my back.
As a child my Mother taught me to fold them in prayer. They tied my shoes and pulled on my boots. They held my rifle and wiped my tears when I went off to war.
They have been dirty, scraped and raw, swollen and bent.
They were uneasy and clumsy when I tried to hold my newborn son.
Decorated with my wedding band they showed the world that I was married and loved someone special.
They wrote the letters home and trembled and shook when I buried my Parents and Spouse and walked my Daughter down the aisle.

Yet, they were strong and sure when I dug my buddy out of a foxhole and lifted a plow off of my best friend's foot.

They have held children, consoled neighbors, and shook in fists of anger when I didn't understand.

They have covered my face, combed my hair, and washed and cleansed the rest of my body.

They have been sticky and wet, bent and broken, dried and raw
And to this day when not much of anything else of me works real well these hands hold me up, lay me down, and again continue to fold in prayer.

These hands are the mark of where I've been and the ruggedness of my life.

But more importantly it will be these hands that the Goddess will reach out and take when she leads me home.

And with my hands sHe will lift me to Her side and there I will use these hands to touch her face

I will never look at my hands the same again. But I remember when the Goddess reached out and took my Grandpa's hands and led him home.

When my hands are hurt or sore or when I stroke the face of my children and wife I think of Grandpa. I know he has been stroked and caressed and held by the hands of the Goddess. I, too, want to touch the face of the Goddess and feel Her hands upon my face.

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The "ME" AND THE FREEDOM FROM IT

2006-08-03T14:02:19Z

THE 'ME' AND THE FREEDOM FROM IT
When a street man thinks and says:
-"I am here and this is mine."
And another street man also thinks and says:
-"I am here too, and this is mine."
Then they start fighting each other with words or with their fists and feet or with some other kind of weapons to obtain what they wanted.
These are the activities of the "me". They might not realize this.

When an educated man thinks and says:
-"It's me. This is my philosophy and it is the excellent solution for the serious problems we now have. It is the best. No other philosophy can compare to it."
And another educated man thinks and says the similar things.
Then they disagree about their opponent's philosophy and start fighting each other with words and some supporting powers from each side. They might fight each other to death.
These are the activities of the "me", they both might not realize this.

When a leader of a religion or a man of that religion thinks and says:
-"I am a follower of this path. This is my faith and this is my God. My God is the best and the Supreme One, no other God can compare to him."
And another leader or a man of another religion thinks and says the similar things.
Then they start fighting against each other for their own faith with words about the different methods they practice or the supernatural states they have achieved, and/or with some supporting powers behind their backs.
These are the activities of the "me". They might not realize this.

All of these are the walls that have divided the human beings as a whole. When this "me" exists, there is no love or compassion at all, even when it seems that they show their love, their compassion to a "lower" person.
In short, the "me" is the thoughts themselves, the one sided views, the experiences, the past, the known, the greed, the desire, the anger, the hatred, the arrogance, the superior or inferior feeling to others...

If one would like to be in the Land of Truth, he should learn and understand completely of himself which is the "me". He needs to identify his own "me" first. This means he must recognize it, examines it, traces it, and face it in all of its activities.
When this is done, he is beyond it. This is called self-knowledge or "the freedom from the "me". This is the first and last step to the True Freedom.

ChonTri

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International Pagan Friendship Join in the Adventure of Awakening Gaia

2006-08-01T17:43:47Z

Author: Singing Crow

A year ago I was finishing the final semester at my university, contemplating the endless web of possibilities that lay before me. This was a time when knowing where to go and what to do was quite difficult. For me, it was pure chaos, but the reason for this confusion was because something amazing happened in my life: during my last years of study: I had found the Goddess and the Horned God alive in all of Nature and within me. Thus, everything had changed: my goals, my opinions, my entire world paradigm. The more I researched and learned about the sacred feminine and about Magick, the more I saw that I would never be able to live in the plastic existence I was expected to enter after university. Then something unexpected happened.

While browsing the Internet for various job options I came upon something that surprised me: international work through TEFL, teaching English as a foreign language. All over the planet there are schools and training centers where applicants with either a college degree (in any field) or several years of professional work experience can enroll in teacher-training courses, usually around one month in duration. Some schools are better than others, and a decent school will have positive accounts from its graduates. Uncertain of what I would do in the United States or to what purpose I would do it, I decided for the uncertain; I decided for adventure: I decided to teach abroad.

The city I chose to train in was Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic, and I think it was one of the best decisions of my life. The city is alive with history and culture; the city weaves an enchantment around its guests (if they are bold enough to embrace it) in a continuous trail of captivating treasures of art and wild parties. If you have any interest in historical European architecture (Prague has buildings from almost every era), theatre, great beer, symphony, or wonderful operas, then Prague is the city to come to. The month of training was very challenging—I won’t lie—but that time was a great learning experience. And after I completed the course I found a job teaching in the city of Liberec, an hour north of Prague, where I’ve been living to this day. Now what does this have to do with Pagans accelerating the Awakening of Gaia? Everything. Let me tell you the other story, the adventure behind the adventure, a spiritual awakening that became not only individual but collective.

Before I flew over, I sent an e-mail to another Pagan English teacher in Prague, a teacher from England who was also on Witchvox (and who is now a good friend). We had a good chat online, and that was all that I knew of the Pagan community in the Czech Republic. But it wasn’t until I moved to Europe that I met my friend Eurik, a Czech Pagan, that I learned how vast and vibrant the community of Czech Pagans really is. Through travels to teahouses, adventures in the mountains, and hilarious parties, I was introduced to some of the most wonderful, colorful people I have ever met.

Only 17 years ago, the present-day Czech Republic was Communist Czechoslovakia, and any kind of religion was by and large illegal—or at least well suppressed. Thus, the Czechs have had to start from scratch in building a community around the Goddess. But a warmer and stronger community I have rarely ever seen. My friends Eurik, Baraka, and Zahrada (“Garden” in Czech) are in their 20s and have risen to the occasion of providing leadership and organization for the growing Pagan community in their country. It has been so refreshing for me, after seeing and hearing so much about the hierarchical desires for domination by some Pagans in the States, to see my friends rising to a strong yet totally non-authoritarian leadership role. This way of being has deeply inspired me. My friend Zahrada has written one of the first original books on Wicca in Czech by a Czech author, and my buddy Eurik has made a Web site giving detailed information on rituals and methods of working Magick for Czech-speaking Internet users. Their efforts have inspired many Czechs, young and old, to explore and experience the power and the beauty of the God and the Goddess. I believe that these actions are nothing less than a historical contribution to the healing of our planet.

(One little point, though, please don’t go abroad as a “master” to make sure the world is following the “right way,” whatever people may think that is! This world has enough self-styled gurus; what it needs is friends. Plus, good connections are never guaranteed; that depends entirely on how open and friendly you are.) Strong life experience is cherished by us younger Pagans, however, and if one travels to exchange stories and humbly impart some of knowledge that one has picked up in life, well, that would be tremendously helpful. Humility is one of the most important lessons that I have learned; there is always a piece of knowledge that is new around the corner yet to be learned.

So allow me to present something of a list of the individual opportunities, as well as benefits for global unity, that await any Pagan brave enough and adventurous enough to try the experience of teaching abroad. First, and perhaps foremost, living abroad will almost surely open one’s mind to the broad and diverse panorama of cultures and ways of life across our planet. I remember in the United States, when I encountered things in the system that I couldn’t stand, older people often told me, “That’s just the way it is.¨ Nothing could be further from the truth—the world is what you make of it. I now know this personally from my own experiences. There is a multitude of different lifestyles and cultures across our planet and a vast array of Magickal methods and histories. For example, my friend Cody, a Czech Ceremonial Magician and fellow Chaos Wizard, told of the ways in which Czech Magi had to practice and research in secret during Communist times. This was an inspiration to me, as I’ll soon be returning to—what I consider—the semi-Fascist views of the United States Establishment, concerning religious and psychedelic freedom. It is small thinking not to struggle and overcome “laws¨ that oppress Human Rights; this I have learned in my travels.

I also believe that this kind of experience makes an individual stronger, psychologically and spiritually. The mental securities of a well-known home region that have upheld one’s reality vanish; all the little things that one takes for granted suddenly become sorely missed. Alone in a new world, one must reach for the strength of the Goddess in ways that I believe can’t be found in one’s own hometown. This adventure is not for the weak, but it is good, for when one must seek the subtle strength of the God and the Goddess, they will answer one—but not in ways that one can predict or control. To survive on a soul level, one must find the Spirit within—and come to know that It has always been there, waiting to nourish one.

Many of us may find that purchasing books on the Goddess, Magick, and/or mysticism is a relatively easy thing to do, but finding the time to read through each of them can be very challenging in the time-consuming bustle of our current society. It is common, especially for those who become Pagan in an environment rich in research, such as at college, to end up with far more material than we can read. Sound familiar?

As far as books go, I strongly encourage any adventuring Pagans to bring more than you think you can read, for two reasons. In some countries, especially those with a primary language that is not commonly taught in English-speaking countries, there can come times of isolation, especially in the long, cold sleep of winter, when you will find time to read more than you could have thought possible. My example is from living in the Czech Republic, and although I visited friends in Prague almost every weekend and hit the pubs with buddies in Liberec quite often, there was still a plethora of loose time in which I had few souls to talk with. In these times I decided to pull out all those books that I had wanted to read for so long and simply sat down and read them. To this day it still amazes me how much I have read and learned. It was almost as though I had an additional year of university, but this time with the focus entirely on Pagan mythology, Ethnobotany and Magick.

The other reason to bring extra books of the Pagan genre is the general void of material in many countries, especially post-Communist and the so-called “developing” countries. On one of my many relaxing ventures to the pub with my students (yes, it may shock you in the United States, but having a few beers with one’s students is accepted here. It is also a smart idea, a lot of fun, and fantastic speaking practice.) I found that several of them had an interest in Magick and esoteric traditions. I’ve been able to lend out several books to them, and so far the feedback and appreciation from my students and friends has been great.

We Pagans have no “one true holy book” to lean on as a crutch; we’ve got to do our own research and investigation through a myriad of different approaches and ideas. I have come to find the exchange of ideas and material between my friends, both in the States and here in Europe, to be invaluable for expanding my ideas and approaches to doing Magick. Now that I’ve seen that there is a general wealth of information on Magick and mysticism in the primary English-speaking countries (if you disagree, come over to Central/Eastern Europe and try to find any variety of books on Wicca!) I would love to see a batch of educated Pagans traveling the globe, distributing literature and collecting it in turn.

Another point of advantage in this venture—one that I love— is the vantage point that can be attained for deciding on a future direction of career. While finishing my degree back in the United States, I felt rather hemmed in as far as options went. Getting out gave me two things: perspective and confidence. I couldn’t have seen the forest for the trees, but living abroad gave me a vista from which I could see a great variety of possible careers that not only appealed to my interests but also would benefit the planetary collective.

One lesson I learned from teaching abroad is this: with determination and courage you can work anywhere. And I am not just saying that. The only thing that can limit us is ourselves. I found myself saying, “I’m teaching English in the center of Europe, exploring cities and castles, meeting fantastic people, learning more about Wicca and Magick than I could have believed … . How is this possible?” It was possible simply because I enrolled in a teaching school, got accepted, bought a ticket, flew over, and grabbed the best job that was available. It’s merely a matter of extending your hand and taking the opportunity. This year has been a life lesson in the existential limitlessness of possibility that awaits us every moment of our lives. It has also been pure inspiration for my Magick. The Four Laws of the Magus—“To Know, to Will, to Dare and to Be Silent”—have unfoldws before my very eyes. We truly are our only limit. I personally think it is difficult to see the limitlessness of our wills without leaving one’s hometown.

This next point will appeal to you philosophers out there. Living in a different country, a different continent (in so many ways a different world) will stretch the fabric of what we consider to be reality. Many times I have been blessed with moments of total reconsideration of how I define my existence and the possibilities of my role as a part of this world, as a petal in the flower of Gaia. All the things that I was brought up to believe, all the little dogmatic catch phrases, the endless streams of advertisements and federally funded thought-control have come to lose all their meaning for me. We are often so easily enslaved by the convenience-driven prejudices in Western society, but jumping out of that world, I flipped all those mind-prisons on their heads. If you feel a strong need to completely reconsider who you are, what you are doing, and why, then I further encourage some time spent abroad, making contacts with open and philosophically nourishing people around the world.

There is one point of protest against this trend of employment that should be dealt with, that point being Globalism. Many of us have done research on the harm being caused to the environment and to the people living in third world countries at the hands of predominantly English-speaking corporations. I struggled with this phenomenon for many months, wondering if I was contributing to the disappearance of cultures across the globe. Then I saw that it is only from idle obedience to the consumerist lifestyle, devoid of first-hand global experience that allows this trend. By living abroad, one takes in the education of real-life experiences crucial to contributing to the current conversation concerning Globalism. Living around the world is investing in the world, seeing it as home instead of as “other” countries from which “resources” are taken.

As this essay is being written and as it is being read, Pagans from around the world are making the first small steps of establishing bonds of surprisingly powerful friendship. From all corners of the globe Pagans of broad and diverse ethnicities are meeting and exchanging ideas, stories, and experiences. This opportunity has come about through the global demand for native English speakers to teach the language in all corners of the world. I can definitely see English becoming an international language of the Pagan community; the existence of Witchvox on a global scale already has been an enormous contributing factor to this development. Now that doesn’t mean English has to be the only language. Whether an international language erases cultures or not … well, that’s up to you. English is being taught internationally; it is happening. Whether or not it leads to a disappearance of diversity is in the hands of every citizen of the planet. It doesn’t have to lead to this loss. But I do believe that sitting on one’s backside, refusing to travel in the name of preserving cultures, is a bit of a Luddite solution to the loss of global diversity. My experiences have led me to appreciate the diverse cultures and approaches to Magick without wanting to melt them together into one blob.

It is important to note that this working is directed in a spirit of communication, not assimilation. One of the reasons many of us have embraced Pagan paths is because Pagans probably will be the last people to proselytize others. I believe that this lack of pressure to “convert” makes being in the company of Witches quite wonderful. At the same time, our planet is teeming with adventurous young mystics who are searching for information and seeking dialogue about the beauty and mystery of Gaia. In that spirit of communication, we can become the Mothers and Fathers of Global Dialogue. We can replace the current model of close-minded debate that enforces brutal competition between governments and corporations at the cost of the environment and our freedoms.

If we can foster these friendships, then foreign countries will no longer be so “foreign.” It’s pretty hard to support war or economic sanctions on a country full of your friends. As Pagans we can play a key role in diminishing the dominating society’s vision of the “other” and show that a world full of strangers is but a world full of potential friends. We can open the vision of the planet, dissolve the scourge of the “us versus them” mentality, and replace it with the mutually beneficial glories of cooperation. We can create a collective awakening of consciousness between all the diverse races and ethnicities of humanity and between all the beings who call planet Earth home.

As I conclude this essay, it is necessary to include that many of these opportunities to create nourishing, international bonds between Pagans on a global scale have been made possible only through the vision and hard work of the people who have created and funded the Internet site we are currently using: Witchvox. It was through Witchvox that I met my good friend Eurik and through him established awesome connections in the Czech Pagan community. Without the efforts of Wren, Fritz and the others who built this site and the hundreds of international Pagans who contributed financially to the support and expansion of this site, I would not have had the life-changing experience that I did. Thank you; you will always be remembered.

So in the end, if you’ve come to believe that there is no more adventure to be found on our little planet, if you’re not willing to settle for an immediate jump into the Ken-and-Barbie existence after completing college, if you need to make an exit from the oppression of the mindless, rat-in-the-maze, American work environment, if you want to be challenged and strengthened, and if you want to make friends a world away, then just get online, find a good TEFL school in a country you’ve always dreamed of visiting, enroll and—Go. May the Goddess and the God be with you as you enter into the adventure of awakening Gaia.

ABOUT...

Singing Crow

Location: Spokane, Washington

Bio: Author's Bio:
Singing Crow is a writer, poet, historian and philosopher, recently having graduated university with a Bachelor¡¦s Degree in English Literature. A student of Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Terence McKenna, a novice Shaman, follower of Shiva and Odin, Chaos Wizard and all-around Wiccan. July 2006 he will return to the West Coast to activate the Awakening of Gaia through creating bonds of friendship and unity between Pagans, Environmentalists and Legalization activists. A friendly, yet desperate, young man he is eager find work in the States with any suggestions or offers from fellow Pagans quite welcome! ƒº Visit his profile and poetry at Witchvox: Singing Crow, Spokane, Washington.

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THE LEAP OF DARING

2006-08-01T14:32:29Z

In order to overcome selfishness, it is necessary to be daring. It is as
though you were dressed in your swimsuit, standing on the diving board with
a pool in front of you, and you ask yourself: "Now what?" The obvious
answer is: "Jump." That is daring. You might wonder if you will sink or
hurt yourself if you jump. You might. There is no insurance, but it is
worthwhile jumping to find out what will happen. The student warrior has to
jump. We are so accustomed to accepting what is bad for us and rejecting
what is good for us. We are attracted to our cocoons, our selfishness, and
we are afraid of selflessness, stepping beyond ourselves. So in order to
overcome our hesitation about giving up our privacy, and in order to commit
ourselves to others' welfare, some kind of leap is necessary.

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Life Changing Tips For Boomers: Rewire Your Brain To Control Your Emotions, and Make Positive Life Choices

2006-08-01T06:46:52Z

Life Changing Tips For Boomers: Rewire Your Brain To Control Your Emotions, and Make Positive Life Choices
By Karen Sherman, Ph.D.

Do You Seem to Get Caught Up in the Same Old Reactions?
Have you ever blown up at your spouse only to realize-after the smoke cleared-that you might have over-reacted just a tad? Maybe you learn that you haven't been invited to your uncle's friend's sister's birthday party and you behave as if it's the slight of the century.

Sometimes even the most minor snafu can send us storming out of the room, slamming down a phone, or just shutting down entirely. It's like we just can't help it-the reaction is as automatic as a mallet to the knee.

Science Reveals It May Not Be Your Fault
New research indicates that these habitual, knee-jerk responses go way back to our childhood. As youngsters, we learned to adapt to our families' idiosyncrasies as a way of survival. Psychologists used to refer to these coping mechanisms as our baggage-but what science has now shown us is that these responses are actually hard-wired into our brains. And because our responses are so ingrained, they have become our filtering system for future incidents. In other words, if something happens today that the brain reads as being similar to something that happened in the past, it will respond as if it were the first time, even though you may be in your 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and beyond.

Bringing This to Life
================
For example, let's say a child comes from a home where the parents fight frequently. That child is going to associate yelling with bad feelings. In later years, if his spouse raises her voice, he's likely to shut down like when he was a kid-metaphorically running to his room, closing the door, and essentially blocking out the noise.

Does this mean if you come from a family of yellers you're doomed to hide under your bed every time someone raises a voice? Luckily, recent research indicates that the brain continues to grow throughout our lives-and old patterns can be released as new ones are formed in your boomer years..

Help Is On the Way
================
The way to managing your anger and knee jerk reactions is to establish new connections by refocusing your attention to a different outcome or possibility. But, before you can foster these new connections in your brain, you have to be aware of the old brain triggers.
When I try and distinguish whether someone's reaction is a past association, I look to see if their reaction to the situation is automatic and intense. Additionally, when I try and offer an alternative to why they're behaving that way, the person is resistant and reluctant to consider any other view or interpretation of the situation-other than their own.

In my practice, I work extensively with clients to help them rewire and rewrite their lives. Here is an easy exercise to get you started on rewiring your brain to control your anger and over-reactions that will bring about positive changes in your life-today!

1. Thinking of Alternatives:
======================
a. When you're projecting your past experience onto a present one, try and imagine alternative ways to handle the situation. For example, let's say you have lunch plans with a friend-who cancels at the last minute. Immediately, you feel an overwhelming sense of hurt and rejection. Which is how you always feel in similar situations-indicating-voila-a past pattern! Be conscious of this and take a step back to recognize it.
b. Then, approach the situation from an entirely different perspective. Maybe you use humor to deflect the bad feelings, thinking to yourself, "Gee, I guess it's my deodorant." Or, you choose the direct approach and ask your friend if you've done something to upset her. Or, you take the practical route and figure your friend just overbooked, overextended, or over-promised-and give her a get-out-of-jail-free card. (Hint: If you have difficulty coming up with alternative ways to handle the situation, think about how someone else - your mother, a childhood friend, an admired acquaintance - might handle the same situation.)

2. Plugging in New Choices:
=======================
a. Now, replay the actual situation as vividly as possible-the phone ringing, the sound of your friend's voice, the awkward goodbyes-and imagine yourself carrying out one of your new solutions. Maybe you decide that being understanding of your friend's busy schedule is the best choice.
b. Replay the phone call and plug in your new behavior, the understanding you, rather than playing out your old behavior of feeling rejected and hurt.
Making it Last
Before long, you will begin to see a slight shift in how you feel. By doing this exercise again and again, you will refocus your attention on a new outcome. This will rewire your brain and make a new neural connection-a connection to positive change!

Finally, a psychologist who goes that extra mile and cares about the people she helps. Whether Karen Sherman, Ph.D. is giving a speech, offering a teleseminar, or offering a workshop - she's helping people become aware of their choices and connect to their full potential. Let Karen help you learn to make positive life choices both personally and in your relationships by signing up for her free newsletter at

http://www.drkarensherman.com/newsletter.htm
.
http://www.pioneerthinking.com/ks_boomers.html

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Honoring Mother Earth by Mimi Doe

2006-08-01T06:38:30Z

Honoring Mother Earth
The celebration of Earth Day can help our children understand their place in the circle of life.

"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in."

—Rachel Carson, naturalist and author

Trusting that all life is connected gives our children meaning in a complex and confusing world. It grounds them when they feel tossed and battered by external events. A marvelous and available way to educate children to the purposes of living things is to expose them to nature. Earth Day, celebrated on April 22, is a wonderful occasion to begin.

Children come to us with their senses already turned on. They explore a caterpillar by touching it gently against their cheek, trying to find its eyes, sniffing it to see if it has a smell. All we need to do is expose them to more of the great outdoors and encourage their exploration and "at-oneness" with living creatures. It all sounds great, but it's not that simple. As children's days become full of plans, classes, school, and friendships, they slowly drift away from their rich relationship with nature. I was approached during the break of a recent talk I gave by a mother of three who yearned for her kids to maintain their connection with the natural world. She said, "I always took my kids to the playground, on hikes in the woods, or just outside to play with the dog. Now there is no time for them to be outdoors unless it's in organized sports."

Here are some ways to reinforce children's connections to nature and the earth:

Create your own Earth Day ritual. You and your child might write a letter to Mother Earth, pledging to do one special activity to help her. If possible, use the back of a piece of abandoned birch bark or on recycled newsprint. Take a hike together and find a place in nature that feels powerful for you, then pause and write your letter there.

Establish an "I discovered" event that honors a new nature discovery made by your child. It can be spotting a bee hive, a bird's nest, a special constellation, a flower growing in an odd spot, a wonderfully shaped tree branch, a snake skin that's been shed. Create a drawing of the sighting, and display it proudly on your refrigerator until the next sighting. Then paste into a scrapbook.

Start an under-the-sink earthworm farm to compost kitchen waste. It's not hard to do, and it creates great compost for plants. It's also a wonderful science fair project and a way of seeing these creatures as helpful rather than yucky. A mother shared the following story about her 5-year-old daughter: "Jessie has always loved worms. She would bring used coffee grounds outside and dump them in the soil where 'a worm family could use them.' She even gave them names and would rescue them when she found them on sidewalks." For worm-container basics, click on this compost resource site.

Plant a tree to replenish the earth. I recently visited a huge weeping willow my brother had planted 30 years ago at our old home. I recalled every detail of that long-ago day and felt a strong connection with the graceful beauty of that tree. If tree planting isn't feasible where you live, consider donating to a tree-planting organization. Plant-It 2000 is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to planting, maintaining, and protecting as many indigenous trees as possible worldwide. Find out more at www.Plantit2000.com.

Nature restores our sense of peace and allows us to feel life touching us--it soothes and nourishes our spirits and sometimes frightens us with its power. We make this gift available to our children as we teach them to become respectful of the earth, to walk with awareness, to recycle, and to leave no destructive record of their visit. The natural world is our perpetual, yet ever-changing link with the universe. God, nature, and child all share the same space, connected in the powerful web of life. All parts of the web have importance and purpose. Celebrate Earth Day as an opportunity to become reacquainted with our glorious Mother Earth. You and your child will be blessed by the effort.

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Are You Plugged-IN to your Soul-Source?

2006-07-31T01:22:08Z

Being disconnected from the Internet symbolizes for me how we can become disconnected from a more important source, our Soul-Source (or you may call this your divine self, inner knowledege, God-power, higher awareness, or something else). We have all experienced feeling disconnected from our Soul-Source. These are the times when we experience sadness, loneliness, depression, etc.

Our Soul-Source is from where we draw our strengths and where we “re-remember” what the purpose or path we have chosen to follow as we live out our lives. When this connection is broken or severed we feel tired and sluggish and can become quite ill, also prone to accidents. Everything takes effort and even minor problems feel like major challenges. Is it time for you to reconnect with your Soul-Source and recharge yourself? Here are some ways to help you do just that!

Prayer

Daily Meditation

Align Your Chakras

Listen To Your Intuition

Connect With Your Angels

Ground Your Energies - Grow Deep Roots

Introduce Yourself To Your Higher Self

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WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT ?

2006-07-25T17:56:40Z

Many mystical and magical practices are supposed to help us
attain that wonderful state of enlightenment. Gurus have
long offered us descriptions of enlightenment, speaking of
that timeless time and spaceless place where all things
become clear. It all sounds wonderful.

But what is enlightenment, really? What does it mean to us
in an everyday sort of way? Is it just the continuous
acquisition of spiritual knowledge? Is it the seeking of
spiritual experiences? How do we know when we are
enlightened?

Based on our knowledge and experience we define
enlightenment as "understanding the meaning or significance
or interrelationship between one's various knowledge
pieces." In other words, it's not just enough to have
knowledge. You have to know how to use your knowledge as
well.

Enlightenment seems to be journey in which we seek to know
more together or simultaneously. It's the ability to hold
several things in our attention at once. For instance, one
esoteric exercise calls for to hold two events in our minds
simultaneously: the first event is one in which someone has
offended us with their behavior; the second is of an event
in which we have behaved in the same way toward someone
else.

If we can hold these two events simultaneously in
consciousness then we reach a certain level of
enlightenment. That is, we are able to see both the
perspective of the offender and the one who is offended. At
that point, a doorway opens and we are no longer offended
because we understand the perspective of the offender.

This is just one example of "knowing together" our knowledge
pieces. It demonstrates the unique effect of holding two or
more pieces of knowledge in consciousness at the same time.
Usually we swing like a pendulum between two knowledge
pieces. For instance, we may swing between understanding the
offender and feeling offended. It's not until we can feel
both the understanding and offense together that we can move
into a third place of peace.

So enlightenment asks us to know more. Whenever you desire
deeper understanding of something in your life, see if you
can pull together different aspects of your knowledge and
see what happens when you see all of those pieces at once.
What kind of picture do they form?

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Shamanic Healing

2006-07-04T02:22:06Z

Shamanic Healing
By Christa Muths

Shamanism is humanity's oldest and most enduring spiritual practice. There is evidence of the relationship with Spirit from the very origins of the human race, expressed through ceremony as a way of maintaining a union with Creation. Placing the flowers on the graves of our Neanderthal ancestors or paintings upon cave walls to totem animal's knowledge, all this is a reflection of our own desire for personal and conscious union with the All-That-Is and of our spiritual quest as being an innate human drive.

Inherent with the Shamanic world view is the understanding of each person's own unique and autonomous path to reach their own purpose and truth. Being free of dogma and doctrine and organized spiritual institutions, shamanism enable and supports us to find and walk upon our own destiny. This recognition of the individual's right and responsibility of ones own awakening and fulfillment is but one of the very specific elements of Shamanism which establishes it as a viable means of meeting today's desire of an honest and authentic approach to self realization and ones integration in society.

Shamanism as a whole is humanity's spiritual inheritance and contribution to the collective unconscious of our species and therefore it provides a firm and proven system of knowledge regarding the relationship between Nature, Cosmos and Humanity.

Shamanism worldwide gives us a compendium of ceremonies, dances, songs, approaches to spirit, meditations and rituals not only to keep the connection between our soul and All-That-Is open but to develop and grow.

Shamanic healing is a multiple connection between ourselves, the shaman, nature, cosmos and spirit. It always aims to integrate our whole being within our universe. Many diseases and an feeling of being unwell are due to an separated connection between the soul of the individum and it’s spiritual home, a disconnection between ones inner and outer worlds.

Shamanism does not dwell on past events: there is only a vast, awesome, ever-moving, great moment of now, where there is no separate past, present or future. It is the aim of the shaman to help a person to connect to this inner integration.

Methods, tools, medicines and symbology will vary from culture to culture but all forms of shamanism intend to connect people to their own spiritual path. Most cultures use the following shamanic techniques:

Finding power animal(s):
Getting in touch with our animal connections and finding the power of the animal kingdom which support us in our lives struggle.

Soul retrieval:
We are often alienated from our spiritual source and have a strong feeling of a loss of soul, which is often linked to traumatic events in our life. Through a soul retrieval ceremony we can re-unite with our soul and feel a very strong unification with our Spirit and Being.

Shamanic extraction:
The old cultures believed in malevolent spirits who were out to harm us and found their way into our body. Through Shamanic extraction we can change malevolent images and concepts we harbour and we are able to leave our being and consciousness and we feel lighter and united with our total being.

Shamanic divination:
Learning to look into the past, present and future from different dimension, a way to become a seer.

Shamanic healing journey:
We will go on a shamanic journey to find all the healing power within us to overcome obstacles and clear our own pathway.

Shamanic drumming:
Scientific research has proven that shamanic drumming relaxes the cardio vascular and activates the lymph system. Sound and rhythm also connect with our Soul and Spirit. The drumming is also a way to help us to find clarity and an inner strength in our path.

Christa Muths is international acclaimed author of books on healing, colour therapy and symbolism. She is the founder and principal of espacio, an institute established to provide training in holistic studies. She has been trained as a shaman in Mexico, Peru, Italy and is member of the International Foundation of Shamanic Studies. She holds courses worldwide and enjoys travelling and learning from different cultures. Her scientific background and enthusiasm to learn and explore new approaches provide her with a knowledge and experience that combines the science of mind with the science of emotion and spirit and soul. You can contact Christa and visit her website, www.Espacio-Time.com

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Encourage Others

2006-06-12T02:00:28Z

A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?"

Soen replied, "Encourage others."

The concept here is that if you act to encourage someone else it will become harder to think about being discouraged. Our problems or discouragement become less when we extend our hand to help others.

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The Tao of Womanhood: Nature's Wisdom for Today's Women By Diane Dreher

2006-05-18T19:35:39Z

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diane Dreher is professor of English at Santa Clara University in California, where she teaches literature and creative writing. Her publications include Dominion and Defiance: Father and Daughter in Shakespeare (University of Kentucky Press, 1986) and The Tao of Inner Peace (HarperCollins, 1981).
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Hold to your heart
The wisdom of Tao
Because through it
We discover
Our own answers,
Learn the ways
Of power and peace,
And find the greatest treasure
Under heaven.
(Tao Te Ching, 62)
For over two thousand years, artists and innovators in many fields have been inspired by the Tao Te Ching. Translated more often than any book but the Bible, this ancient Chinese classic of eighty-one lyric poems has endured because its message of harmony and dynamic growth is as real today as it was twenty-five centuries ago.

The Tao Te Ching was written by the philosopher Lao-tzu during the warring states period in ancient China, about 530 B.C. Seeking alternatives to conflict and chaos, Lao-tzu found inspiration walking in the woods, observing the lessons in a mountain stream, a grove of bamboo, and the cycle of changing seasons. By studying nature's patterns, he found an enduring philosophy of power and peace that can transform challenge into opportunity.

THE TAO'S WISDOM FOR WOMEN

The wisdom of the Tao is especially relevant to today's women, who find themselves pulled in many directions at once. The tempo of life in today's industrialized societies leaves many of us feeling frantic, disconnected, and exhausted, because we've replaced natural patterns with mechanical efficiency and bottom-line economics. Recent cultural changes have left women's lives fraught with paradox. Presented with new professional responsibilities as well as traditional role expectations, women are expected to be beautiful and required to be strong, like a fine piece of Chinese embroidery with its shining silk threads sewn into intricate and demanding patterns.

Following the Tao helps women move from frantic reaction to focused action. Returning to the wisdom of nature, they can rediscover more of their own nature in the process. For the ebb and flow of the tides, the phases of the moon, the changing seasons--all are variations on the cycles that occur not only in the natural world but in individuals, families, and relationships.

The wisdom of the Tao is both poetic and highly practical. Instead of offering women another list of ``shoulds,'' which they have in excess, it emphasizes wholeness and integrity, reminding women that they are more than the roles they play: more than mother, daughter, sister, student, girlfriend, wife, career woman, or grandmother. Such roles are static and reductive. Like the palette of an Impressionist painter, any woman's life is a subtle blending of colors, of sunlight and shadow, as naturally varied as the patterns in a living landscape. By following the Tao, each woman can become the artist of her own life, developing greater resourcefulness, creating a vision of womanhood uniquely her own.

THE WISDOM OF YIN AND YANG

Traditionally, women have shaped their lives around relationships and interdependence, while men have valued power and abstract principles. Over the centuries, women's concern with relationships has been both a chronic weakness and an enduring strength, contributing to the care and nurturing of generations, while depriving women as individuals. When taken to extremes, this concern produces overly compliant women who never think for themselves. Although caring for others is essential to life, perpetual self-sacrifice becomes pathological and self-destructive.

While the currents of life today pull women between opposing impulses of nurturing and assertiveness, the Tao upholds a dynamic lesson of harmony, describing all of nature--including human nature--as composed of both the compassionate, nurturing energies of yin and the forceful, assertive energies of yang. Following the Tao prevents us from falling into the false dilemma of choosing either yin or yang by reminding us that a complete life must include both. Instead of exhausting our energies by conforming to limited stereotypes or single-mindedly rebelling against them, trying too hard to be either ``feminine'' or ``strong,'' we can transcend domination by either extreme. The Tao's vision of wholeness includes polarities in dynamic balance--public and private, active and contemplative. In a balanced life, these opposites alternate as naturally as breathing in and breathing out.

THE WISDOM OF SIMPLICITY

The Tao tells us:

Only remember this:
Keep your life simple,
Your heart pure
As raw silk,
Remain whole
As uncarved wood,
Overcome
Incessant striving,
Return to center.
(Tao, 19)

The power of simplicity resonates throughout the Tao and the traditions of the East. Asian art conveys a mood of serenity with its generous use of open space. The clear, uncluttered background is as important as the image itself. In the expansive sky above a painting of Mount Fuji or the wide margins in graceful calligraphy is what the Japanese call yohaku, which means literally ``white space,'' an area deliberately left open for observers to enter.

Yohaku in our lives is the space for contemplation, when we slow down to listen to our hearts. To experience the contemplative power of yohaku, we must simplify, clearing away clutter to create margins for ourselves.

Spending time simply relaxing seems almost unthinkable for some people, who feel compelled to purchase their contemplative time on expensive vacations where they can watch the beauty of a sunset, reflect, and share private moments with those they love. But sunsets, solitude, and those we love are available to us every day. Don't let your days be held hostage by the demands of others. Set aside time for yourself: to reflect on your life, to follow your own inner rhythms. Give yourself wider margins between errands and appointments. Take regular yohaku breaks with someone you love. Go for walks, slow down, and enjoy the natural rhythm of walking.

For centuries, artists and innovators have known the inspiration that comes with open time, the ``incubation'' stage crucial to any creative process. When we've come to an impasse, often the best thing we can do is take a break, go for a walk, take a nap, and let the insights come. Thomas Edison kept a cot in his laboratory and took naps when he needed new insight. Henry David Thoreau wrote from his cabin in the woods, ``There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hands. I love a broad margin to my life.''Virginia Woolf said all women need a room of their own where they can think, write, and renew themselves. Anne Morrow Lindbergh spent time by herself at a small beach cottage, recording her lessons of peace and renewal in Gift From the Sea.

Take your cue from these creative people. Leave yourself room for inspiration, the quiet moments that lead to new possibilities. As the Tao affirms:

The woman who listens
To her own quiet wisdom
Creates harmony
In her world.
(Tao, 45)

THE WISDOM OF NATURAL CYCLES

The Tao reminds us to become more aware of the energy cycles within and around us:

Ten thousand things move around you.
In detachment, perceive the cycles.
Watch each return to the source.
Returning to the source is harmony
With the way of nature.
Knowing the cycles brings wisdom.
Not knowing brings confusion.
(Tao, 16)

Raking leaves one crisp autumn day put me back in touch with the lesson of cycles and seasons. The fallen leaves were scattered on the grass in mosaic patterns of red, green, and gold. Some leaves were yellow tipped with red, like fire. Others were solid red or butter yellow, so perfect I wanted to pick them up and take them inside. As I raked, more leaves circled down from the trees. They were maple leaves, five-pointed, like bright stars falling to earth.

I raked the colorful leaves into compost piles at the side of the yard, where they would turn rusty brown, be broken down by the elements, and return to the earth to nourish a new burst of life in the spring. The bright provision of green leaves would, in turn, be transformed into another shower of red and gold next fall. Like a familiar refrain in the symphony of nature, the days and weeks go by, the seasons come round again, and the cycle continues.

It is written in Ecclesiastes, ``To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.'' We each have our daily cycles, circadian rhythms, in which our energy ebbs and flows with predictable regularity. Some of us are morning people, beginning the day with a rush of active yang energy. Others are more yin, more contemplative in the morning, working up to a season of yang as the day moves on. Some people are more animated at night, while others withdraw at sundown into the quieter rhythms of yin.

You can bring greater harmony to your life by honoring your daily cycles. Your most energetic period is your ``prime time,'' when you are most focused and productive. Ideally, this should be when you do the important things, relegating routine chores to your low-energy periods. But most people don't do this. They go through the mail when they arrive at work, squandering their peak energy hours on mindless tasks and interruptions and beginning the important work as their energy starts to fade.

Many people get so caught up in work they neglect their lives. Some couples come and go like sleepwalkers, their ardor dimmed by dull routine. Each morning they gulp their coffee and dash off in different directions. They come to life at work, then return home in hollow-eyed exhaustion to share the dregs of the day with each other. Relationships are living things, with energy cycles that need cultivation. Remember to spend some of your prime time with the ones you love.

THE SEASONS OF OUR LIVES

Each life has its own cycles: times of initiation, growth, fruition, and contemplation. Developmental psychologists have described the chronological seasons: the reckless vitality of youth when we dare to reach out in pursuit of our dreams; the full lives of adulthood, when many of those dreams become reality, bringing more complications than we could imagine; the bittersweet season of middle adulthood when we pause to take stock, experiencing both harvest and loss. Finally, there is winter, the season of late adulthood, with its own deep lessons of identity and meaning.

Yet beyond chronology, each life has its own cycles of growth, challenge, and renewal. We all march to different rhythms, ripening at our own pace. Measuring ourselves by others' standards is both unnatural and unwise. Some women are early bloomers, coming into their own in a sunny adolescence, while others, still lost in the fog, take much longer. In the natural world, each living thing has its own cycle, each flower its own season--the daffodils and lilacs of early spring, the roses of summer, the chrysanthemums of autumn.

TO EVERY ENDEAVOR THERE IS A SEASON

The seasons of life repeat themselves with each new relationship or project. Some are annuals, a new job or relationship that begins with a burst of energy, then fades after one short season. Others are perennials, enriching our lives with many cycles of renewal. Wisdom involves recognition and cultivation.

Every long-term relationship or career needs cultivation to create new seasons of renewal. If you've been coasting in your job, taking it for granted, don't wait until your energies go stale. Learn a new skill. Take on a new project. Join a professional organization. Explore ways to renew your relationship. Don't just do chores together. Break away from routine. Share something you both believe in--help preserve the environment, support the arts, or build houses together for Habitat for Humanity. And remember to play together regularly. Pack a picnic next weekend and go exploring. Take a hike in the woods or a walk on the pier. Cultivate your relationship with a new sense of discovery.

You can bring greater power and peace into your life by recognizing the four seasons in every experience and following their lessons.

SPRING: A TIME OF NEW BEGINNINGS

Beginning a new project or relationship fills us with the energy of spring. It makes us feel young again, with what the Buddhists call ``beginner's mind'': the wonder, anxiety, and power that come when we reach out for new possibilities.

Beginning something new can fill you with youthful vitality, but it can also lead to youthful impetuousness. The excitement of newness often keeps people from thinking things through. They leap into commitments with romantic abandon, whether the experience is a relationship, an expensive purchase, or a career move. The gift of new beginnings is their power to renew you. The lesson of beginnings is discernment. Remember to look beyond your initial enthusiasm long enough to ask whether this new beginning is really right for you.

SUMMER: A TIME TO CULTIVATE

When we find ourselves in the middle of a project, the next stage, the season of summer, brings different challenges. All projects take time to grow. They need cultivation. The lesson here is patience. We need to persevere and trust the process. If you become impatient before you see results, you're not alone. It takes time to establish new habits, just as it takes time for the vegetables I plant each spring to grow and ripen.

The key is to persevere while you cultivate your garden--or your new project. Research has shown that it takes at least thirty days to make any new behavior a part of your life. If you can persevere for thirty days, you'll build an inner momentum that will move you toward your goal.

AUTUMN: A TIME TO HARVEST

The stage of completion, or autumn, is the season of harvest, a time to gather in the fruits of our labors. The lesson here is timing. Some of us become impatient, rushing to finish our projects too soon, picking our fruit before it's ripe. Other people can't bear to finish things. They miss the time of harvest because of insecurity, letting the fruit stay on the vine until it rots.

Autumn is the season of harvest, both within and around us. One of its gifts is always greater insight into ourselves. When approaching the end of a project, ask yourself: Am I finished? Is the time ripe for harvest? How do I know?

If you're in doubt, consider the evidence. Ask someone you trust for advice. Watch how this person handles endings. Or sign up for a course in time management. Awareness is power. As you learn to balance your natural tendencies, you'll complete your projects with precision and grace.

WINTER: A TIME TO REFLECT

The season of winter, the time after a project has ended, offers us a chance to slow down and reflect on what we've learned. But many people never do this. At the end of any experience, some women feel the equivalent of postpartum depression. Something that has filled their lives with significance is suddenly gone, so they rush to fill the emptiness.

Many of us don't feel right unless we're constantly in motion. Pushed along by our noisy, busy culture, we are in such a hurry at the end of something that we rush to fill the gap with something else. Becoming more mindful during our winter seasons--reflecting upon our feelings, our dreams, and the patterns of our lives--will help us make wiser choices in the future. At the end of any experience, remember to ask yourself: What did I learn from the process? How can I apply this lesson next time?

Whether the lesson is balancing the polarities of yin and yang, seeking renewal through contemplation, or recognizing the four seasons in every experience, the path of the Tao is a process of illumination and empowerment. As you see the larger patterns in your life, reflecting upon the beauty around you, the gifts and lessons of each day, you will become more centered, more focused, more aware of your own possibilities. As the Tao reminds us, each day, each moment, is the beginning of a pattern much larger than itself:

A tree that grows beyond your reach
Springs from a tiny seed.
A building more than nine stories high
Begins with a handful of earth.
A journey of a thousand miles
Begins with a single step.
(Tao, 64)

Your choices, the daily details of your life, are stepping-stones on the path to greater power and peace, a path that is highly personal, yet part of our evolving vision of human possibilities. Moving forward on the journey, you add your own story to this collective vision, creating new patterns of joy and meaning to heal and transform our world.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adapted from The Tao of Womanhood: Ten Lessons for Power and Peace by Diane Dreher (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1998) and used by permission of William Morrow & Co. The Tao of Womanhood is also available on Dove Audio cassette.
1.This passage is from my own poetic translation. All future references to the Tao Te Ching are from my version and will be identified by chapter number for easy comparison with other translations. When Tao is italicized, it refers to the Tao Te Ching. Otherwise, it refers to the teachings of Taoism or the life force described in the Tao Te Ching. The author and publisher are grateful to HarperCollins Publishers for granting permission to include poetic translations of Tao chapters 16 and 64, previously published in The Tao of Personal Leadership by Diane Dreher (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1996).

2. Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), 22. See also Nancy Chodorow, ``Family Structure and Feminine Personality,'' in M.Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, eds., Woman, Culture, and Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 43-66.

3. Henry David Thoreau, The Variorum Walden, ed. Walter Harding (New York: Washington Square Press, 1962), 83.

4. A number of sequential patterns are proposed as paradigms of human development. See, for example, Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society, 2d ed. (1950; reprint, New York: W.W. Norton, 1963) and Adulthood (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978); Daniel J. Levinson, The Seasons of a Man's Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978); Daniel J. and Judy D. Levinson, The Seasons of a Woman's Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996); Gilligan, In a Different Voice; as well as Gail Sheehy's Passages (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1976), The Silent Passage (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), and New Passages (New York: Random House, 1995).

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The Tao of Inner Peace By Diane Dreher - Book review

2006-05-18T19:29:40Z

"Why did the ancients cherish the Tao?
Because through it
We may find a world of peace,
Leaving behind a world of cares,
And hold the greatest treasure under heaven."
(Tao Te Ching 62)
For centuries people have found inner peace by following the Tao Te Ching. Translated more than any book but the Bible, Lao Tzu's volume of five thousand words has helped men and women live through turbulent times by revealing the deep source of peace within. As we face the challenges and rapid changes of our time, the enduring wisdom of Tao has become more relevant than ever.

Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching over twenty-five centuries ago as a handbook for leaders. In ancient China, to lead wisely meant to live wisely, to seek personal balance and integration with the cycles of nature. Lao Tzu's teachings assume special importance to us today as we seek peace of mind for ourselves and new patterns of peace for our world. While searching for harmony in everything from holistic health, psychology, and physics to ecology, politics, the workplace, our homes, relationships, and the patterns of our lives, many of us are discovering valuable insights in the ancient way of Tao.

Peace, Lao Tzu realized, is an inside job. Only when we find peace within ourselves can we see more clearly, act more effectively, cooperating with the energies within and around us to build a more peaceful world. The Tao Te Ching teaches that our actions have far-reaching consequences, underscoring the importance of balance and the intimate relationship between ourselves and our environment.

Peace Begins Within

We can begin to transform our world by first transforming ourselves. This cannot be accomplished by merely reading or thinking about peace. Living the Tao is more than an intellectual exercise. It is the path with heart.

The Chinese character x_ n means both mind and heart, the source of all thought, feeling, and motivation. Following the Tao, there is no inner split, no agonizing struggle between head and heart, no discord or division in spirit. For, quite simply, when we are divided within ourselves, we cannot be at peace.

Instead of waiting for the right guru or political leader to bring us the peace we seek, the Tao asks us to take responsibility for our lives, to follow its mindful blend of action and contemplation. Through a shift of attitude, we can begin to experience greater peace right now.

Self-assessment

Let's begin by identifying any areas of our lives where we're not at peace. Do you feel out of harmony in any of these areas:

your health? your career? your relationships? your family? your finances? your world? yourself? The Path with Heart

The next step is responding compassionately. If discord and division have brought you pain in any area of your life, compassion for yourself initiates a healing process. This means accepting your feelings, even "negative" feelings, acknowledging what you feel right now, not smiling and pretending things are OK if they're not. Denying our feelings only divides us from ourselves. Emotional honesty brings greater insight.

Focus on Your Feelings

As strange as it seems, many of us get so busy, we lose touch with our feelings. Or we try to force ourselves to feel what we "should" feel, our hearts and minds going off in different directions. This builds up tremendous internal tension and undermines our peace.

Take a moment to ask yourself, "Where am I not at peace?" Focus on this area. Whatever situation or feelings come up, acknowledge them. Take another deep breath and focus on what you feel. Then breathe in compassion for yourself. Love yourself whatever you're feeling whether it is pain, frustration, exhaustion, anger, or disappointment. Breathe into your feelings and slowly surround yourself with the warm, healing light of love. Say to yourself silently, "I love and accept myself right now." After acknowledging where you are not at peace, gently shift your attention to what peace feels like. The simplest way is to breathe out tension and breathe in peace.

Breathe in Peace

Relax, take a deep breath, and say to yourself as you breathe in, "Breathe in Peace." Remember the last time you felt a deep sense of peace and oneness. Let that feeling flow through your body. Breathe out any fear, confusion, insecurity, or whatever is troubling you. When you feel relaxed, affirm, "I choose to live in Peace." Your conscious choice opens up new possibilities for a more peaceful life. As you draw upon the infinite source of peace within, new insights will come to you, perhaps now, perhaps later. But know that with these simple steps you have already begun a powerful process of renewal.

The Tao of Self-Acceptance

Many of us are not at peace because at some deep level, we do not accept ourselves. While trying to fit someone else's expectations, we go against the grain, defying our own nature. The natural wisdom of Tao calls us back to ourselves. In the natural world everything is valuable, everything has its place. Only human beings suffer from low self-esteem. A rose, a daisy, a lark, a squirrel--each manifests its potential differently, yet beautifully. Each form has its own expression, each flower its own fragrance, each bird its own song.

Personal Exercise

Too often we feel inferior because we don't fit some stereotype. Greater peace comes when we embrace our own uniqueness.

Ask yourself: what makes me different from other people I know? What is my special contribution to this life?

Are you happier taking a quiet walk by yourself or joining a bustling crowd? Do you express yourself with pencils, paints, words, or colorful yarns? Are you a practical person, proud of your home repairs and building projects? Are you musical? Mathematical? An athlete? A gourmet cook? What is your special gift? We each have some talent that makes us unique. What is yours? Acknowledge and nurture that part of yourself with a special activity this week.

The Tao of Personal Balance

We can bring greater peace to our lives by maintaining our own personal balance. Each day we meet our physical needs: eating and sleeping at regular intervals. People who follow the Tao also make time for spiritual renewal. If we neglect our bodies, they become imbalanced and break down. If we neglect our spiritual needs, we become emotionally imbalanced and our world breaks down in continual conflict.

There are many ways to nurture our spirits from traditional religious practice to regular meditation, devotional reading, or quiet walks in nature. Some people find spiritual renewal weaving tapestries, singing, or working in their gardens. What nourishes you? Remember to nurture your spirit this way on a regular basis.

Most spiritual practice takes us away from the noisy, busy outside world, returning us to the center of peace deep within us. Moments of reflection enable our roots to go deep to the source, drawing upon the infinite power and wisdom of Tao. This month, remember to give yourself the gift of peace by following your favorite spiritual practice, cultivating periods of contemplation, and taking short "inner peace breaks," to breathe in peace and listen to your heart.

Seeking the Silence

Taking time for contemplation may seem like self-indulgence when we're caught up in a busy rush of activities. Yet it's one of the most responsible things we can do. When we're confused and uncentered, we make foolish choices, over commit ourselves, and project inner conflicts into the world around us. When we're at peace with ourselves, we can see more clearly, act more effectively, bring greater harmony to our relationships and greater peace to our world.

The early Taoists revered tortoises because they know when to withdraw unto themselves, when to restore their energy. Thus, they live to an advanced age. Believed to have mysterious powers, tortoise shells were used in divination, inspiring the hexagram patterns of the I Ching. We can cultivate inner peace by following the lesson of the tortoise, setting aside brief periods for peace and renewal.

For most of us this means seeking out times of silence. Gandhi kept a day of silence once a week. No matter what happened or who came to visit, he would spend that day quietly, communicating to others only in writing. Most of us are unable to maintain an entire day of silence, but we can establish regular periods of meditation.

There are many forms of meditation from zazen to raja yoga, vipassana insight meditation, the relaxation response, and the Catholic tradition of centering prayer. Some forms are described in my book, The Tao of Inner Peace; others are explored on this web site. In every form of meditation I've practiced, slow, conscious breathing focuses our energy. The mind slows down and channels deep beneath the noise and surface clutter of our lives. After meditation, we emerge renewed and refreshed, our tension released, our hearts and minds at peace.

You can begin by choosing a meditative practice and setting aside as little as fifteen minutes a day, extending that time to suit your needs. Many people meditate the first thing each morning, others do it at the end of the day. Give yourself a daily gift of peace by beginning a regular practice of meditation. You'll notice a subtle difference in your life as you gradually become more balanced, more at peace with yourself and your world

Inner Peace Breaks

When you're stuck in traffic, caught up in commitments, or when frantic people in your midst take out their impatience on you, you usually can't stop what you're doing and go off to meditate. But you can give yourself an inner peace break.

Take a deep breath, breathing into your hara or center, the part of your body just below your navel. Then let it out, releasing all the tension you've collected. Take another deep breath and say to yourself, "Breathe in Peace." Gently exhale, feeling more at peace with yourself and your world. Listening to Your Heart: Making Mindful Choices

In the way of Tao, "less is more." Following the Tao means making choices mindfully and following them with heart rather than cluttering up our lives with overcrowded schedules and mindless routines. One pathway to greater mindfulness is to ask yourself these questions before making another commitment:

How do I feel about it? Is it necessary? Is it healthy? Will it bring greater peace to my life or the planet? During this busy season, remember that "less is more." Let your heart guide you to choices you can embrace with joy and wholeheartedness.

My wish for you during the holidays and throughout the new year is the gift of greater mindfulness and renewal as together we discover new levels of peace to bless our lives, our loved ones, and this beautiful planet we call home.

================================================================

Adapted from The Tao of Inner Peace © Diane Dreher. 1990, 2000. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc. 2000. Used by permission.

The Tao of Inner Peace, Part 1

How did you begin your search for peace? I began mine with political activism in the sixties. My college friends and I marched, protested, and worked for social change. For a while, I felt personally empowered by the protests. We saw ourselves on the evening news and felt we were making a difference. In time our country even pulled out of Vietnam. But by the mid-seventies, most of us were exhausted and disillusioned. Placing all our hopes in some distant cause, we had ignored our personal needs. Many of us even wondered who we were.

So we plunged into the human potential movement, seeking solace in encounter groups, hot tubs, bodywork, and a colorful procession of gurus. The Maharishi, Maharaji, Bhagwan, and Werner Erhard all sold their own brands of inner peace. Blocking out the conflict around me, I went from Gestalt groups to gurus to physical therapies. Hundreds of classes, workshops, and self-help books later, I was a certified massage practitioner, teaching yoga at a holistic health center in northern California. I got my Ph.D. in English and began my career in college teaching. My friends and I tried very hard to be peaceful. But something was missing. The conflict remained.

Most people are still at war with themselves and one another. We run through days of competition, confrontation, and mounting frustration, driven by the fear that we're "not good enough." At home and on the job, our lives are filled with stress. Our economy is troubled, our future uncertain, and the divorce rate has never been higher. Caught in a struggle between our ideals and grim necessity, we wrestle with the contradiction between what we are and what we "should" be. We live in the richest nation in the world, yet we are chronically insecure and defensive. Every day assaults us with new crises and conflicts on the evening news.

My personal search led to the Tao Te Ching, which offers a simple yet comprehensive vision of personal and planetary peace. In the Tao inner and outer peace are intrinsically related, as we are related to everything in our world.

Instead of waiting for the right guru or political leader to bring us the answer, the Tao asks us to take responsibility for our lives, to follow its path of action and contemplation. Through a shift of attitude, we can begin to experience greater peace right now. By seeing the larger patterns, we can take effective action, moving beyond competition to cooperation, harmonizing with the natural principles underlying all existence from the smallest cell to the largest social organism.

The Tao of Inner Peace, Part 2

Self-assessment

Let's begin by identifying any areas of our lives where we're not at peace. Do any of these statements sound familiar?

I'm not at peace in my body. It breaks down, knots up in tension, keeps me awake at night, aches, limps, gets into accidents, develops false growths, overeats, craves drugs or alcohol, feels awkward, fat, thin, old, weak, or powerless.

I'm not at peace in my career. It's filled with stress, tension, disappointment, problems, obnoxious people, impossible deadlines. I feel nervous, insecure, angry, closed in, held down, trapped, fearful, unhappy.

I'm not at peace in my relationships. I feel angry, resentful, jealous, fearful, anxious, insecure, bored, trapped, limited, manipulated, dominated, misunderstood, unable to communicate honestly with people I care about.

I'm not at peace in my family. I feel guilty, resentful, angry, bored, restless, exhausted, trapped, sabotaged, manipulated, overburdened with obligations. I cannot be myself with them.

I'm not at peace in my finances. I feel poor, anxious, resentful, limited, overwhelmed by bills and obligations. There's never enough to do what I want. I'm fearful of not having enough or guilty about what I have.

I'm not at peace with myself. I feel frustrated, guilty, confused. My life is filled with conflict. I never do what I want. I'm afraid to try. I procrastinate. I spend all my time pleasing others. I never accomplish anything. I'm often depressed. My life is filled with compulsive working, eating, shopping, drinking, or drugs. I'm not good enough.

I'm not at peace with my world. I feel nervous, anxious, guilty, depressed when I think about the future. I'm afraid of criminals, fascists, or communists. I have nightmares about war. I'm afraid of tomorrow because we're killing ourselves with pollution. There's nothing I can do. I hide behind cynicism or numbness. I feel powerless to change my world or my life.

The Tao of Inner Peace, Part 3
Becoming a Tao Person

Whatever the conflict in our lives, the first step on the path of peace is to shift our attitudes. According to the Tao, what matters is not the situation, but the way we perceive it.

A Tao person is someone who recognizes and works with the patterns of nature. Whatever our religious background or national origin, we become Tao people when we learn to think holistically, seeing our part in the unity of life, respecting the natural cycles within and around us.

Tao people are natural problem solvers. While others often fear conflict and change, a Tao person realizes that conflict is natural, that life constantly evolves through cycles of change. Non-Tao people perceive the world through a reductive dualism that makes them cling to the status quo. Tao people realize life has many options. Creative and resourceful, they flow with change, seeing beyond problems to solutions. One with Tao, they promote greater peace in their world.

Resolving Conflict with the Tao

When we're not one with Tao, we often become defensive, turning problems into blaming games.

I worked for a year during college as a medical receptionist. One day while the office was filled with patients, workmen were laying carpets in the examining rooms.

The phone rang incessantly, patients came and went, when suddenly I smelled smoke. The workmen had gone to lunch, leaving a hot iron plugged in, burning down into the floorboard. I ran into the room, pulled the plug, set the iron upright, and returned to my desk.

Then the commotion began. The doctor smelled smoke and began shouting at the nurses, who shouted at the office assistants. I watched as their faces grew red, their voices strident and defensive. "Whose fault was it?" they shrieked. "Who should have checked the examining rooms?"

I wondered to myself, what difference does it make whose fault it was? The point was to solve the problem.

The Tao Te Ching teaches that

"Wise people seek solutions;
The ignorant only cast blame."
(Tao Te Ching 79)

In far too many conflicts, both interpersonal and international, people become so busy blaming others and defending their egos that they forget to solve the problem, which in this case was as simple as pulling the plug.

The Tao of Inner Peace, Part 4

Breathe in Peace

We've all been one with Tao, experiencing a deep sense of peace in meditation, communion with nature, or someone we love. When was the last time you had such an experience?

When confronting conflict, we can find peace within by recalling this feeling and concentrating on our breathing.

Relax, take a deep breath, and say to yourself as you breathe in, "Breathe in Peace." Breathe in that sense of peace and oneness. Let it flow through your body. Breathe out any negative emotion: fear, confusion, insecurity, whatever is troubling you. When you feel relaxed, affirm "I live in Peace." Then examine the conflict. What would create greater harmony? What would a Tao person do? See yourself as that person, doing whatever it is you need to do. Get a clear vision of the process and feel at peace with the outcome. Affirm to yourself again, "I live in Peace." Now apply your vision and take action, drawing upon the infinite source of peace within. Avoiding the False Dilemma

For centuries Taoists have seen life as the creative synthesis of two opposing forces, yin and yang. In the Tao Te Ching, all existence is created by this dynamic opposition:

"All life embodies yin
And embraces yang,
Through their union
Achieving harmony."
(Tao Te Ching 42)

Recognizing this principle keeps us from falling into the false dilemma that narrows our choices to either/or: right or wrong, us or them, win or lose, all or nothing.

But all too often our vision is narrowed by the dualism so pervasive in western culture. Our options limited by linear reductionism, we perceive reality as two opposite points on a line. Unable to find a synthesis or consider other alternatives, non-Tao people become trapped in the false dilemma of either/or.

The Tao of Inner Peace, Part 5

When I was a junior in college, my boyfriend offered me a marriage proposal which contained the false dilemma. He was a senior, concerned about his career. "If you love me," he said, "you'll drop out of school and work so I can go to grad school."

How could he ask me this, I wondered. Of course I loved him but I wanted to go to grad school too. Did I have to choose between love and my vocation?

We argued. Love, he said, meant caring about his future, our future together. He wanted to become a college professor. "You're being selfish," he said.

I refused to drop out of school and was angry at him for asking me to. How could he discount my ideals? I wanted to contribute something to the world.

Heartbroken, we each considered the other impossibly selfish, and we broke up. In our immaturity, we overlooked the other options. He could have worked for a year and saved his money. We could have gone to grad school together, working part time, getting student loans or scholarships.

As it happened, we both got Ph.D.s and became college professors. Sometimes I see his name in the alumni bulletin. But long ago our lives took different directions because we were blinded by the false dilemma.

Personal Exercise

If you find yourself wrestling with a painful internal conflict, step back. Don't get caught in the false dilemma.

Look beyond the conflict. Ask yourself, "What would I really like to do?" Then think of all the possible ways to get there. Brainstorm with a friend who will write down your answers without comment. Later you can decide which ones win work for you. Or take out a piece of paper and write down your goal and all the possible options-no matter how outrageous. Free yourself to see the infinite possibilities that he before you. Then review your answers, accepting some possibilities, discarding others. Make an action plan. Whenever you face a false dilemma, look beyond it. There are always more than two alternatives. Throw off the blinders of custom to reveal the creative wisdom of Tao.

The Tao of Inner Peace, Part 6
The Strength of Bamboo

The Tao guides us with lessons from nature. For centuries, Chinese calligraphers have painted bamboo as a spiritual exercise. Bamboo is graceful, upright, and strong. Hollow inside, receptive, and humble, it bends with the wind but does not break.

Flexible, resourceful, open to new possibilities, people of Tao are strong in any situation. Avoiding pride and rigidity, they adjust to life's changes, harmonizing in their own patterns of growth. Non-Tao people only resist. The Tao Te Ching tells us:

"At birth all people are soft and yielding.
At death they are hard and stiff.
All green plants are tender and yielding.
At death they are brittle and dry.
When hard and rigid,
We consort with death.
When soft and flexible,
We affirm greater life."
(Tao Te Ching 76)

The most devastating experience many people face is being fired or laid off. A non-Tao person is often destroyed, unable to move forward, to overcome the shame and confusion. Many have fallen into severe depression, have even committed suicide.

The man or woman of Tao sees crisis as an opportunity. Like the bamboo, Tao people bend and grow, adjusting to the winds of change. They look within, take stock of their lives, and set new goals,

In 1986 a group of women were laid off when Bendel's, a New York specialty shop, was bought out by a large chain. People at Bendel's had been proud of their work, their reputation for creativity and resourcefulness. Some had worked there for thirty years and Bendel's had become another family

Losing this was a profound shock, yet within months these women began new ventures. Buyers Joy DaRos and Yelena Dieterichs opened successful boutiques, catalogue editor Pat Tennant became director of Monarch Catalogues, merchandising director Jean Rosenberg opened three designer shops, and Bendel's president Geraldine Stutz became publisher and president of Panache Press, a division of Random House. Instead of succumbing to despair, these women took stock of their lives, set new goals, and followed their dreams.

A Tao Question

Is a crisis in your life actually an opportunity to follow through on an unrealized dream? Take some time by yourself. Look within, and you will know.

There's an old saying, "When one door closes, another opens." Tao people recognize that door because they're open to new possibilities.

Opportunities often appear when we follow our natural curiosity. When I was a grad student at UCLA I noticed a new restaurant opening in my neighborhood, "Colonel Beauregard's New Orleans Restaurant and Gumbo Shop." Intrigued, I walked across the street and looked in the window. The owner peered out at me, asking if I wanted a job. I didn't. I was a research assistant at UCLA, but to make up for my curiosity I signed his register and promised I'd be back to try the food.

Weeks later, the UCLA budget was cut and all the research assistants suddenly laid off. My friend Janette and I were sitting in my apartment wondering what to do when the phone rang. It was the owner of Colonel Beauregard's asking when I'd like to come to work.

Two days later I was the cashier, enjoying a job that gave me the income I needed, a free Creole dinner five nights a week, and a pleasant diversion from my studies. Following my curiosity had led me into a new opportunity at just the right time.

The Tao encourages us to be spontaneous, to follow our natural inclinations, to keep on learning, and to watch the changing patterns within and around us. Remember, nothing in the universe stands still. We are evolving souls.

Dr. Diane Dreher is a writer, educator, and consultant specializing in new paradigms of peace, balance, and personal empowerment. She is the author of The Tao of Personal Leadership (HarperCollins, 1996), The Tao of Womanhood (William Morrow, 1998), and The Tao of Inner Peace, which has just been released by Penguin/Putnam in a new 21st century edition. Diane lived in the Far East in early childhood and has studied Eastern philosophy most of her life. She has a Ph.D. in English from UCLA, credentials in spiritual counseling and holistic health, and trains in aikido. Her newest book, Inner Gardening, coming out in May 2001 from HarperCollins, focuses on the tradition of gardening as spiritual practice.

Diane has received fellowships from the Mellon, Graves, and Danforth Foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities. A popular speaker and workshop leader, she gives talks and workshops on leadership, balance, and personal growth to business and community groups throughout North America. Diane teaches literature and creative writing at Santa Clara University and makes her home in the San Francisco Bay area. http://www-acc.scu.edu/~ddreher

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Earth Day is Everyday By Cosette Paneque

2006-04-18T17:34:18Z

For modern Pagans, Earth Day is everyday. As practitioners of nature-based spirituality, NeoPagans are committed to protecting our beloved Mother Earth. As Pagan parents, we have a responsibility to raise environmentally conscious children so that they can continue working towards a healthy planet for the generations to come.

The best long-term protection of the environment is to raise kids who will automatically take care of it. Many of the lessons are unspoken. Trying to teach children the importance of recycling is futile if you don’t recycle. Telling them water conservation is important while you let the hot water run continuously for 20 minutes while you do the dishes is pointless. Environmental conservation is not a “do as I say, not as I do” issue. The best way to teach them is through our living model.

Being environmentally conscious does not mean giving up all your possessions, going to live in a hut on an organic farm where you till the soil with your bare hands, eat only what you raise, wear home-spun clothing, and ride a bike to work. Environmental consciousness involves an awareness of our role as part of the earth. It’s about what we take and what we give and it’s the little, daily things that really matter.

Children love to explore so visit parks, beaches, gardens, and other natural places. Teach them about your native flora and local wildlife. Take them to museums, aquariums, zoos, and other places where they can come face to face with plants and animals. Make sure to visit the endangered animals and talk to your children about the importance of species preservation. Take up outdoor hobbies such as bird watching, hiking, and canoeing. Instill in your children love and respect for nature.

Back home, teach your kids those easy, but important little lessons that will save you money and create good lifelong habits for environmental citizens--reduce, reuse and recycle. Remember, this starts with you.

Reduce your use of resources. Turn off appliances that aren’t being used. This includes lights, computers, television sets, and video game consoles. Don’t let the water run while you’re washing dishes and teach kids to turn off the tap while brushing their teeth. Repair leaky faucets. Take shorter showers. Water your lawn early in the day or late in the evening to avoid evaporation. When shopping, buy green when you can and reduce waste by buying what you need and buying things that don’t have a lot of wasteful packaging. Walk, ride a bike, take the bus, or carpool when possible.

Reuse as much as you can. If you take your groceries home in plastic shopping bags, use them for other things like trash or take them back to the store on your next trip. Clean and save the plastic containers and glass jars that bring condiments like butter and jam. Use them to store other items or for creative projects. Don’t throw away clothes that are older or no longer fit. Try to repair, sell, or donate them.

Recycling is an easy way to teach our children good environmental habits. Recycle as much as you can – paper, plastics, glass, newspaper. Place your recycling bins where your child can reach them. If he/she has a hard time remembering what goes where, place a sign on each bin. A drawing or photograph works great with small kids.

If you have a backyard, create a natural environment that you and your children will love spending time in. Plant trees or start a garden. Encourage birds to visit your yard with birdfeeders and a fountain. Have meals and hold as many of your rituals as you can outside. Encourage your children to turn off the video games and play outside.

Consider participating in events that call for environmental awareness and responsibility. I’m not saying that you should tie yourself to a tree, but participating in a peaceful demonstration, fundraiser, or neighborhood cleanup shows children that there are many ways to be involved and that we are part of a caring community that has a right to be heard.

Turn your kid into an adoptive parent. For about $40, you can adopt a whale and receive a photo, biography, certificate of adoption, and even a cd of whale calls. You can also adopt horses, dolphins, tigers, and any other animal you want. You can also adopt a highway or a minefield (to help clear minefields and aid survivors of minefield explosions). The possibilities are endless and this is a great way to make your child feel directly involved with his/her favorite animal, tree, or place.

As NeoPagans, we seek to attune ourselves with the earth’s natural cycles. We understand that all life on this planet is important and interconnected. That we know the earth is sacred naturally leads us to seek to protect it. It’s important that we teach our children about Gaia, our greatest mother, not only at special times of celebration like Sabbats, but every day. Instilling in them a sense of reverence for Her, will help ensure a healthier environmental future.

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/pagan_parenting/115883

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In celebration of Earth Day, AlterNet wants to know: who are your enviro-heroes?

2006-04-18T17:14:22Z

Who Are Your Eco-Heroes?
http://alternet.org/heroes

Vanity Fair's current "green" issue unfortunately focuses on the
rich, celebrity and white male parts of the environmental movement,
and almost completely misses its large, colorful grassroots.

In celebration of Earth Day, AlterNet wants to know: who are
your enviro-heroes? Who's working to make a difference from
the ground up? Who's out in the field, in neglected communities
that need it most?

Visit http://alternet.org/heroes to nominate your heroes. We'll
compile the nominees and you can vote for your favorites later
this week.

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RACE FOR THE RAINFOREST

2006-04-18T16:40:07Z

Race for the Rainforest

Every time anyone clicks on, .0003 acres are saved. Plus it's a pyramid thing: invite your friends and each friend's .0003 is added to yours. http://rainforest.care2.com

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EARTH DAY RESOURCES AND LINKS

2006-04-18T16:30:11Z

Are you looking for answers to your questions about the environment and ways to get involved in healing Mother Earth? The list of resources and reviews below will give you a place to start. They were sent to us by a number of different people, and we at The Witches' Voice thank all of you for taking the time to write in and share your knowledge.

This list is by no means complete. If you have a resource you would like to see added to the list, please email Diotima and include a short review of the resource.

The strongest magick that which is followed by action in the world. Whether you commit to increasing your personal recycling efforts, send a check to an environmental organization, or become an environmental activist in your community, we urge you to ground the magick you do to heal the Earth this Earth Day by following it up with action. Then let us know about your efforts so we can keep the WitchVox community informed!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

Organizations:

The Earth Day Network

Earth Day Network is the coordinating body of worldwide Earth Day activities. Their goal is to promote a healthy environment and a peaceful, just, sustainable world by organizing events, activities, and annual campaigns. Lots of resources, a daily newsletter and all the latest news. www.earthday.net

ICORE, The International Consortium on Religion and Ecology

ICORE is an organization those of you who enjoy interfaith work should consider joining It is an ecumenical and interfaith non-profit organization that helps individuals and interfaith based organizations learn about and participate in the environmental movement. www.caringforcreation.net

Greenpeace

Greepeace is probably the best-known environmental activist organization in the world. They've been doing this work for over 25 years now. 'Nuff said. www.greenpeace.org

Bioneers

"It's all alive. It's all intelligent. It's all connected. It's all relatives." Barbara suggested this site to us. Thanks, Barbara! www.bioneers.org

Friends of the Earth

Friends of the Earth is a national environmental organization dedicated to preserving the health and diversity of the planet for future generations. As the largest international environmental network in the world with affiliates in 63 countries, Friends of the Earth empowers citizens to have an influential voice in decisions affecting their environment. www.foe.org

Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet

Mothers & Others, a national nonprofit education organization, works to promote consumer choices which are safe and ecologically sustainable for this generation and the next. By providing strategies that can reduce individual and community consumption of natural resources, and by mobilizing consumers to seek sustainable choices, they aim to effect lasting protection of public health and the environment. Diotima thinks their Green Guide is one of the most valuable environmental publications out there.www.mothers.org

The Nature Conservancy
http://www.nature.org/

This international organization protects the earth by setting up privately run nature preserves. Currently, they manage over 11 million acres in the US alone. They use a non-confrontational approach, and have several different ways people can help (including volunteer opportunities).

Wildlife Rescue

Wildlife Rescue is a non-profit organization that helps to educate communities about wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. This site was suggested to us by Denise of Snapdragon Gifts. Snapdragon's website. has a ton of other environmental resources listed. Thanks, Denise! www.batnet.com/wildlife

Books:

Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti-Environmental Rhetoric Threatens Our Future by Anne H. Ehrlich and Paul R. Ehrlich. Island Press, 1996

There's a lot of squabbling in the media over who's right about various environmental issues ranging from global warming to ozone depletion. For every scientist that says there is a problem, you'll hear another scientist loudly proclaiming the opposite. The reason for this is that the media thrives on opposition and will search high and low to find people with differing points of view. Unfortunately, this leaves us with the impression that there is no consensus within the scientific community. Often, that isn't true. Anne and Paul Erhlich give us a unique insight into the scientific process and the current state of environmental science in a highly readable book that addresses the layperson without talking down to them.

The Unsettlling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry. Sierra Club Books, 1977.

Diotima sez:
Wendell Berry has long been one of my favorite writers. This lucid explanation of the nature of agribusiness and its effect on our earth and society is still pertinent a quarter of a century later. He is an insightful and poetic writer, but don't take my word for it—here's a quote from the book:
"If we are to have a culture as resilient and competent in the face of necessity as it needs to be, then it must somehow involve within itself a ceremonious generosity toward the wilderness of natural force and instinct. The farm must yield a place to the forest, not as a wood lot, or even as a necessary agricultural principle, but as a sacred grove—a place where the Creation is let alone, to serve as instruction, example, refuge; a place for people to go, free of work and presumption, to let themselves alone."

How To Shit In the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art by Kathleen Meyer. Ten Speed Press, 1994

Here's an essential guide for hikers and backcountry travelers. In the author's own words:

For the Novice, the Seasoned, and the Planet
This book grew, rather organically, out of my first years of guiding whitewater rafting trips in the 1970's. My aim was twofold: first, to offer badly needed succor to backcountry travelers struggling with things like balance, bugs, embarrassment, and yellowing tennis shoes (I often encountered neophyte rafters who without the bathroom door to close and lock behind them opted for a week of cramps and constipation); and second, to provide practical and environmental methods for keeping wild places pristine, esthetically and bacterially.

Today, in heavily trafficked river corridors, "packing it out"Öyes, poop!Öis required. And a growing number of regulatory agencies that oversee other high-use areas (trekking trails, climbing routes, beaches frequented by sea kayakers) are encouraging or instituting pack-it-out programs. The rest of the world's wild landsÖand the health of these ever-shrinking placesÖremains dependent on the sojourner's mastery of environmentally sound "one-sit-hole" burials. If you plan on straying far from your urban flush commode, plan also on a degree in higher learning in the disposal of your own poop.

The information in How to Shit in the Woods draws heavily on worst-experience stories, my own and those of many others. We're all in this together.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. First released in 1962, with several anniversary editions.

The classic work on environmental defense, this was the book that helped to get the use of DDT banned in the US, get the Environmental Protection Agency founded, and triggered the conservation efforts that have brought some species of raptorial birds (such as eagles and hawks) back from extinction. A must for anyone thinking of becoming an ecologist. Be forewarned, this book is not a happy read, especially for anyone who feels a strong tie with birds.

Clean and Green : The Complete Guide to Non-Toxic and Environmentally Safe Housekeeping by Annie Berthold-Bond. Ceres Press, 1994

Just what it says it is....:-)

Email Discussion Lists

Greenmagic

A list for the discussion of environmental issues from a Pagan perspective. To subscribe, email Greenmagic-subscribe@egroups.com or go to www.egroups.com/group/Greenmagic

Green Shopping—Goods and Services:

Pagan Owned Businesses:

Connie Cunningham Designs

Connie Cunningham is a landscape designer specializing in creating earth-friendly landscapes for homes and businesses in the Midwest.

Her goal is to create landscapes that are visually exciting and environmentally sound. This is accomplished by repairing the soils, utilizing native plants, and mixing in traditional Midwest styles. www.geocities.com/cunningham_flower

Pagan Recommended Businesses:

Gardens Alive!

www.gardens-alive.com
5100 Schenley Place, Lawrenceburg, IN 47025
(812) 537-8650
Diotima's favorite resource for environmentally responsible gardening products as well as plenty of information on organic gardening.

Real Goods

www.realgoods.com
200 Clara Ave., Ukiah, CA 95482
(800) 762-7325
The source for solar energy information, as well as plenty of environmentally friendly products.

Gardener's Supply

www.gardeners.com
128 Intervale Rd., Burlington, VT 05401
(800) 836-1700

Rhonda wrote us to say:
"There is a wonderful company in Burlington, Vermont, which carries a good number of earth friendly products for the garden. I have been ordering from Gardener's Supply for many years, and have found their products to be good quality, reasonably priced, and effective. Although not all their products are organic, many of them are. They carry organic fertilizers for lawns, flowers & vegetables, compost bins and starter mixes, earth friendly pest control supplies, and lots of wonderful tools. They also have an online newsletter you can subscribe to for free. I like this company because it carries products for gardeners of all types ? serious, grow-your-own-food people, backyard putterers, or people who have windowboxes or patio container gardens."

Thanks, Rhonda!

Equal Exchange

www.equalexchange.com

Denise from Snapdragon Gifts wrote us to say:
"For the past two decades Latin American coffee growers have been cutting down shade trees so they can boost production, thanks to the development of high-yield hybrids that don't need shade. This leaves migrating songbirds with nowhere to nest and contributes to their rapidly declining numbers. If this concerns you, try the shade grown, organic gormet coffee offered by these fine folk. (They also guarantee a fair price to the farmers - good weather or bad). A tasty jolt without the guilt - perfect."

Thanks, Denise!

Aurora sent us a whole bunch of resources:

The Gallery of Environmentally Preferred Goods

Created by MIT's Technology, Business and Environment Program, this site provides a searchable database of green products. (For reviews but not online purchasing.) http://tbe.mit.edu/gallery

The Ethical Shopper

Offering responsible household products for sale online. www.ethicalshopper.com

The Green Marketplace

Offering environmentally friendly products for sale online. www.greenmarketplace.com

Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star Program

The US Environmental Protection Agency Energy Star site-helps educate about and locate energy-saving household appliances, home electronics, etc. www.epa.gov/energystar

Gaiam

This company offers "gifts gentle on the earth", that include such things as solar powered electronics, composters, clothes made with "green cotton" all natural cotton that is pesticide free and finished without chemicals. Of special note to ladies: organic cotton tampons-100 percent cotton, bleached with hydrogen peroxide, free of surfactants, fragrances, rayon, waxes and absorbancy enhancers. www.gaiam.com or its catalogue at: www.harmonydirect.com (800-869-3446)

Honda

Don't forget to consider environmentally safe cars, the next time you go car shopping. Honda is offering a hybrid car that gets 61 miles to the gallon. A hybrid car has an electric engine, that uses gas to recharge the battery while the car is running. Honda offers a two-seater called the Insight. The Insight is due at local dealerships any day now. Toyota offers a four-seater hybrid called the Prius, which has yet to make it to America. GM, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler are also developing hybrid or 100 percent electric vehicles, which should be coming out sometime in the future. www.honda.com

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Earth Day

2006-04-18T16:09:52Z

Earth Day 2006

Join us is celebrating the top 13 articles from your 'Healing Planet Earth' section here at Witchvox.

Where the Christians Go Wrong and Why the Pagans Don’t Get It by H. Byron Ballard
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usnc&c=earth&id=9172

Every Day is Earth Day by Peg Aloi
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usma&c=earth&id=4238

From the Waterfront... by Caroline Kenner
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usmd&c=earth&id=4239

Night Vision: Where Did the Stars Go? by Peg Aloi
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usma&c=earth&id=6263

Pagans and the Environment: Leaders or Laggards? by H. Byron Ballard
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usnc&c=earth&id=4234

How 'Earth-Based' Does a Pagan Have to Be? by Oceana
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usmi&c=earth&id=9124

Ongoing Honoring of the Earth by The Coven Scribe
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usmd&c=earth&id=4235

Healing the Universe by Karl Lembke
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usca&c=earth&id=4237

Putting the 'Earth' Back in Earth Faith: Simple Ideas for the Modern Pagan by Mickie Mueller
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usmo&c=earth&id=9174

Looking Down the Barrel of a Loaded Gaia: Why Doesn’t Someone Do Something? by Seichimat
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=ustx&c=earth&id=9141

Confessions of a Dirt Worshipper by Diotima Mantineia
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usnc&c=earth&id=8358

Every Earthen Day by Earthen Spirituality Project and Women's Center
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usnm&c=earth&id=8426

The Spiritual Heart of Activism by Earthen Spirituality Project and Women's Center
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usnm&c=earth&id=8352

http://witchesvoice.com/

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Why Gaia is Wreaking Revenge on Our Abuse of the Environment

2006-01-23T05:17:26Z

Published on Monday, January 16, 2006 by the Independent / UK
Why Gaia is Wreaking Revenge on Our Abuse of the Environment
by Michael McCarthy

With anyone else, you would not really take it seriously: the proposition that because of climate change, human society as we know it on this planet may already be condemned, whatever we do. It would seem not just radical, but outlandish, mere hyperbole. And we react against it instinctively: it seems simply too sombre to be countenanced.
Also See:
Environment in Crisis: 'We Are Past the Point of No Return'

But James Lovelock, the celebrated environmental scientist, has a unique perspective on the fate of the Earth. Thirty years ago he conceived the idea that the planet was special in a way no one had ever considered before: that it regulated itself, chemically and atmospherically, to keep itself fit for life, as if it were a great super-organism; as if, in fact, it were alive.

The complex mechanism he put forward for this might have remained in the pages of arcane geophysical journals had he continued to refer to it as "the biocybernetic universal system tendency".

But his neighbour in the village of Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Golding (who wrote Lord of The Flies), suggested he christen it after the Greek goddess of the Earth; and Gaia was born.

Gaia has made Professor Lovelock world famous, but at first his fame was in an entirely unexpected quarter. Research scientists, who were his original target audience, virtually ignored his theory.

To his surprise, it was the burgeoning New Age and environmental movements who took it up - the generation who had just seen the first pictures of the Earth taken by the Apollo astronauts, the shimmering pastel-blue sphere hanging in infinite black space, fragile and vulnerable, but our only home. They seized on his metaphor of a reinvented Mother Earth, who needed to be revered and respected - or else.

It has been only gradually that the scientific establishment has become convinced of the essential truth of the theory, that the Earth possesses a planetary control system, founded on the interaction of living organisms with their environment, which has operated for billions of years to allow life to exist, by regulating the temperature, the chemical composition of the atmosphere, even the salinity of the seas.

But accepted it is, and now (under the term Earth System Science) it has been subsumed into the scientific mainstream; two years ago, for example, Nature, the world's premier scientific journal, gave Professor Lovelock two pages to sum up recent developments in it.

Yet now too, by a savage irony, it is Gaia that lies behind his profound pessimism about how climate change will affect us all. For the planetary control system, he believes, which has always worked in our favour, will now work against us. It has been made up of a host of positive feedback mechanisms; now, as the temperature starts to rise abnormally because of human activity, these will turn harmful in their effect, and put the situation beyond our control.

To give just a single example out of very many: the ice of the Arctic Ocean is now melting so fast it is likely to be gone in a few decades at most. Concerns are already acute about, for example, what that will mean for polar bears, who need the ice to live and hunt.

But there is more. For when the ice has vanished, there will be a dark ocean that absorbs the sun's heat, instead of an icy surface that reflects 90 per cent of it back into space; and so the planet will get even hotter still.

Professor Lovelock visualises it all in the title of his new book, The Revenge of Gaia. Now 86, but looking and sounding 20 years younger, he is by nature an optimistic man with a ready grin, and it felt somewhat unreal to talk calmly to him in his Cornish mill house last week, with a coffee cup to hand and birds on the feeder outside the study window, about such a dark future. You had to pinch yourself.

He too saw the strangeness of it. "I'm usually a cheerful sod, so I'm not happy about writing doom books," he said. "But I don't see any easy way out."

His predictions are simply based on the inevitable nature of the Gaian system.

"If on Mars, which is a dead planet, you doubled the CO2, you could predict accurately what the temperature would rise to," he said.

"On the Earth, you can't do it, because the biota [the ensemble of life forms] reacts. As soon as you pump up the temperature, everything changes. And at the moment the system is amplifying change. "So our problem is that anything we do, like increasing the carbon dioxide, mucking about with the land, destroying forests, farming too much, things like that - they don't just produce a linear increase in temperature, they produce an amplified increase in temperature.

"And it's worse than that. Because as you approach one of the tipping points, the thresholds, the extent of amplification rapidly increases and tends towards infinity.

"The analogy I use is, it's as if we were in a pleasure boat above the Niagara Falls. You're all right as long as the engines are going, and you can get out of it. But if the engines fail, you're drawn towards the edge faster and faster, and there's no hope of getting back once you've gone over - then you're going down.

"And the uprise is just like that, the steep jump of temperature on Earth. It is exactly like the drop in the Falls."

Professor Lovelock's unique viewpoint is that he is just not looking at this or that aspect of the Earth's climate, as are other scientists; he is looking at the whole planet in terms of a different discipline, control theory.

"Most scientists are not trained in control theory. They follow Descartes, and they think that everything can be explained if you take it down to its atoms, and then build it up again.

"Control theory looks at it in a very different way. You look at whole systems and how do they work. Gaia is very much about control theory. And that's why I spot all these positive feedbacks."

I asked him how he would sum up the message of his new book. He said simply: "It's a wake-up call.''

© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0116-05.htm

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The Earth is About to Catch a Morbid Fever That May Last as Long as 100,000 Yrs.

2006-01-23T05:15:57Z

Published on Monday, January 16, 2006 by the Independent
The Earth is About to Catch a Morbid Fever That May Last as Long as 100,000 Years
Each nation must find the best use of its resources to sustain civilization for as long as they can

by James Lovelock

Imagine a young policewoman delighted in the fulfilment of her vocation; then imagine her having to tell a family whose child had strayed that he had been found dead, murdered in a nearby wood. Or think of a young physician newly appointed who has to tell you that the biopsy revealed invasion by an aggressive metastasising tumour. Doctors and the police know that many accept the simple awful truth with dignity but others try in vain to deny it.

Whatever the response, the bringers of such bad news rarely become hardened to their task and some dread it. We have relieved judges of the awesome responsibility of passing the death sentence, but at least they had some comfort from its frequent moral justification. Physicians and the police have no escape from their duty.

This article is the most difficult I have written and for the same reasons. My Gaia theory sees the Earth behaving as if it were alive, and clearly anything alive can enjoy good health, or suffer disease. Gaia has made me a planetary physician and I take my profession seriously, and now I, too, have to bring bad news.

The climate centres around the world, which are the equivalent of the pathology lab of a hospital, have reported the Earth's physical condition, and the climate specialists see it as seriously ill, and soon to pass into a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years. I have to tell you, as members of the Earth's family and an intimate part of it, that you and especially civilization are in grave danger.

Our planet has kept itself healthy and fit for life, just like an animal does, for most of the more than three billion years of its existence. It was ill luck that we started polluting at a time when the sun is too hot for comfort. We have given Gaia a fever and soon her condition will worsen to a state like a coma. She has been there before and recovered, but it took more than 100,000 years. We are responsible and will suffer the consequences: as the century progresses, the temperature will rise 8 degrees centigrade in temperate regions and 5 degrees in the tropics.

Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert, and will no longer serve for regulation; this adds to the 40 percent of the Earth's surface we have depleted to feed ourselves.

Curiously, aerosol pollution of the northern hemisphere reduces global warming by reflecting sunlight back to space. This "global dimming" is transient and could disappear in a few days like the smoke that it is, leaving us fully exposed to the heat of the global greenhouse. We are in a fool's climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.

By failing to see that the Earth regulates its climate and composition, we have blundered into trying to do it ourselves, acting as if we were in charge. By doing this, we condemn ourselves to the worst form of slavery. If we chose to be the stewards of the Earth, then we are responsible for keeping the atmosphere, the ocean and the land surface right for life. A task we would soon find impossible - and something before we treated Gaia so badly, she had freely done for us.

To understand how impossible it is, think about how you would regulate your own temperature or the composition of your blood. Those with failing kidneys know the never-ending daily difficulty of adjusting water, salt and protein intake. The technological fix of dialysis helps, but is no replacement for living healthy kidneys.

My new book, "The Revenge of Gaia" expands these thoughts, but you still may ask why science took so long to recognize the true nature of the Earth. I think it is because Darwin's vision was so good and clear that it has taken until now to digest it. In his time, little was known about the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, and there would have been little reason for him to wonder if organisms changed their environment as well as adapting to it.

Had it been known then that life and the environment are closely coupled, Darwin would have seen that evolution involved not just the organisms, but the whole planetary surface. We might then have looked upon the Earth as if it were alive, and known that we cannot pollute the air or use the Earth's skin - its forest and ocean ecosystems - as a mere source of products to feed ourselves and furnish our homes. We would have felt instinctively that those ecosystems must be left untouched because they were part of the living Earth.

So what should we do? First, we have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act; and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can. Civilization is energy-intensive and we cannot turn it off without crashing, so we need the security of a powered descent. On these British Isles, we are used to thinking of all humanity and not just ourselves; environmental change is global, but we have to deal with the consequences here in the UK.

Unfortunately our nation is now so urbanized as to be like a large city and we have only a small acreage of agriculture and forestry. We are dependent on the trading world for sustenance; climate change will deny us regular supplies of food and fuel from overseas.

We could grow enough to feed ourselves on the diet of the Second World War, but the notion that there is land to spare to grow biofuels, or be the site of wind farms, is ludicrous. We will do our best to survive, but sadly I cannot see the United States or the emerging economies of China and India cutting back in time, and they are the main source of emissions. The worst will happen and survivors will have to adapt to a hell of a climate.

Perhaps the saddest thing is that Gaia will lose as much or more than we do. Not only will wildlife and whole ecosystems go extinct, but in human civilization the planet has a precious resource. We are not merely a disease; we are, through our intelligence and communication, the nervous system of the planet. Through us, Gaia has seen herself from space, and begins to know her place in the universe.

We should be the heart and mind of the Earth, not its malady. So let us be brave and cease thinking of human needs and rights alone, and see that we have harmed the living Earth and need to make our peace with Gaia. We must do it while we are still strong enough to negotiate, and not a broken rabble led by brutal war lords. Most of all, we should remember that we are a part of it, and it is indeed our home.

James Lovelock is an independent environmental scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society. "The Revenge of Gaia," scheduled for release February 2, 2006, is published by Penguin.

© 2006 The Independent

###

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Happy New Years - 2006

2006-01-01T11:08:53Z

i would like to wish everyone in Greenfire Tribe and our sister site http://www.greenfireministry.org/ a happy and prosperous 2006 !!

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

Coven for Earth Healing

2005-12-14T01:55:56Z

I am a minister of Love and Unity, A Priestess of the Mayan Time shift and Earth grid technician. I am looking for people who are willing to join together in conscious cocreation of a stabilized earth grid. This is for serious lightworkers only.
Please msg me for more information.

Love, joy and harmony be revealed to you,
*lady jasmine*

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Food Crisis Feared as Fertile Land Runs Out

2005-12-06T21:41:53Z

Food Crisis Feared as Fertile Land Runs Out
Maps show 40% of Earth's land is used for agriculture
Growing human 'footprint' a risk to the environment

by Kate Ravilious

New maps show that the Earth is rapidly running out of fertile land and that food production will soon be unable to keep up with the world's burgeoning population. The maps reveal that more than one third of the world's land is being used to grow crops or graze cattle.

The real question is, how can we continue to produce food from the land while preventing negative environmental consequences such as deforestation, water pollution and soil erosion?

Dr. Navin Ramankutty, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison combined satellite land cover images with agricultural census data from every country in the world to create detailed maps of global land use. Each grid square was 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) across and showed the most prevalent land use in that square, such as forest, grassland or ice.

"In the act of making these maps we are asking: where is the human footprint on the Earth?" said Amato Evan, a member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison research team presenting its results this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

The current map shows a snapshot of global land use for the year 2000, but the scientists also have land use data going back to 1700, showing how things have changed.

"The maps show, very strikingly, that a large part of our planet (roughly 40%) is being used for either growing crops or grazing cattle," said Dr Navin Ramankutty, a member of the Wisconsin-Madison team. By comparison, only 7% of the world's land was being used for agriculture in 1700.

The Amazon basin has seen some of the greatest changes in recent times, with huge swaths of the rainforest being felled to grow soya beans.

"One of the major changes we see is the fast expansion of soybeans in Brazil and Argentina, grown for export to China and the EU," said Dr Ramankutty.

This agricultural expansion has come at the expense of tropical forests in both countries.

Meanwhile, intensive farming practices mean that cropland areas have decreased slightly in the US and Europe and the land is being gobbled up by urbanisation.

The research indicates that there is now little room for further agricultural expansion.

"Except for Latin America and Africa, all the places in the world where we could grow crops are already being cultivated. The remaining places are either too cold or too dry to grow crops," said Dr Ramankutty.

By continuing to monitor changes in land use the scientists hope that they will be able to highlight problems and help find solutions.

"The real question is, how can we continue to produce food from the land while preventing negative environmental consequences such as deforestation, water pollution and soil erosion?" said Dr Ramankutty.

The next phase of the project is to build an internet-based databank - called the Earth Collaboratory - that would draw on the knowledge of scientists around the world, local environmentalists and members of the general public.

Jonathan Foley, director of the Wisconsin-Madison research team, said: "[The Collaboratory] will truly be a brave new experiment that effectively bridges science, decision-making and real-world environmental practice - collectively envisioning a new way to live sustainably."

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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In Memory - Skye Luna pt 2 / A letter to My Daughter

2005-12-06T20:12:17Z

A Letter To My Daughter

Author: Wren
Posted: April 30th. 1998
Times Viewed: 19,227

I took part in a very powerful "rite of passage" when I was 15 years old. Truth be told, I didn't even realize it at the time. After all, I was 15, in the throes of intense teenage angst over something or another and absorbed in wondering just what this nasty old world was going to throw at me next.

So, I did the one thing that I always did when my life got like this. I headed off into the woods. O.K., it was really a swamp in the middle of the woods, but it was always my special place.

I enjoy the implicit order found in swamps. Beneath the water swim the frogs and tadpoles, turtles and crayfish. On the surface, little 'skimmers' glide on the surface with all the grace of the greatest Olympic figure skater. Birds hop along the banks looking for that one otherwise preoccupied tasty morsel and the bees hum as they flit from creamy white lotus to deep purple iris looking for the magickal ingredient that allows them to bring sweetness into the world.

As I sat on the old tree stump, I began to think. And when I begin to think, I begin to write. That day I wrote a powerful rite of passage ritual that would take another twenty years to come full circle.

Perhaps you might consider this as a rite of passage for your own family. The kids are never going to believe you were really once their age anyway and so this may a real eye opener for them! At the least they will know that you were thinking of them, wanted them, welcomed them into your life.

Sitting on the old tree stump, 15 years old and thinking about life, I wrote a letter to my daughter.

Looking back on that day now, I seem to remember a strange silence fell over the swamp. The air was thick and warm and eerily heavy. And that's when I saw her there...

I saw her clearly within my mind-all dark brown hair and bright green eyes-at about the same age that I was then. She seemed to be looking straight ahead into what would be her future. I recognized her immediately. I knew that this young girl would one day be my daughter.

She had an expectant look upon her face-as if she was waiting for something to happen. And I suddenly wanted to give her some words of advice. And I wanted to do it while I could still remember what it was like to be 15...

So I wrote...

To My Daughter,

"I saw you today. Standing there waiting for your future to begin. I want to tell you so much. About my life, about your life, about us. But I don't know what that will be right now. We'll have to write that part together someday."

"I wonder if you will love the same things that I do. The wild places, the animal kindred, the magick of life. I will take you to these places and show you these things and I hope that when you are troubled that you will find a place like this for yourself."

"There is so much to learn from nature. And from within Her cycles of life, death and rebirth, we can learn a lot about ourselves. That is why I come here. I hope that some beautiful summer day that you will find this place, too."

"And perhaps you will also see your own daughter there. And then you will want to tell her how much you promise to care for her and protect her and teach her...how you will always be proud of her when she follows her own heart and that you will promise to stand by her when she needs a hand to hold."

But most of all, you will want to tell her how much that you will love her... I know. Because that is what I want to tell you."

"I love you, daughter..."

As I closed my notebook, the world seemed to shift and the bees once again were humming and the skimmers were dancing their little circle dance upon the water. And then I did what any 15 year old would do. I went home and went about the business of trying to survive my Monday morning math test.

I did survive that math test and many more over the years. I graduated high school, went to college (briefly!), dated and eventually got married. I also continued to write.

When I discovered that I was pregnant, I knew that the baby would be a girl. No doubt in my mind. I had seen her. I didn't even pick out a boy name. I also knew that this would be my only child. That was okay, too. Somewhere we had made a promise-her and I-that this was how it would be.

The first time that the nurses brought my daughter, Skye, to me, I found myself looking for...something.

I counted toes and fingers (We mothers all do this...). I looked at the color of her wispy hair under the wee sack bonnet. But there was something else still..."

She was lying on her stomach along the length of my own when Skye did that "something." She pushed upwards with her two little stick arms, raised her head and looked me straight in the eyes...An electric thrill rippled through my entire body. We were together again.

I'm not sure that anyone ever believed me when I told them the story. Newborns simply do NOT do push-ups while lying on their mother's stomach and they most certainly do not focus their eyes on anything yet...But that is indeed what happened. A promise had been kept...

The years passed and Skye grew to be beautiful, witty and strong. We went for long walks in the woods and she helped me to harvest wild herbs. We talked about anything and everything-more like lifelong friends than like mother and daughter. In fact, folks often thought that we were sisters. Perhaps once upon another lifetime, we were.

And on Skye's 15th birthday, I gave her the letter that I had written for her more than twenty years before while sitting on an old tree stump in a swamp listening to bees.

I don't know if it helped her to survive being 15 with teenage angst over something or another or wondering what the nasty old world would throw at her next. I don't know if she still has it tucked away somewhere. I don't know if she even remembers the letter.

But from that day in the swamp to the day of her birth through the day of her 15th birthday and up to this very minute, she has always known this one thing...

"I love you, daughter".

Wren Walker

Postscript: On December 27, 1999, Skye was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She underwent surgery on January 3, 2000 and the lab results show that she has a mid grade mixed glioma (grade III anaplastic oligoastrocytoma), a malignant form of primary brain cancer. There is no cure.

Brain cancer research is very limited as only about 18, 000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed yearly with this disease. It is considered an 'orphan disease' and one that drug companies view as financially not worth their research investment monies. Research is currently being conducted through clinical trials at various hospitals. These clinical trials focus on radiation and chemotherapy treatments that extend the lifespan of brain cancer victims. Skye optimistically trusts that these trials (which she is a candidate for) will offer her a window of hope while she -and the thousands like her-wait for a cure.

We have introduced this ribbon to raise awareness for those who currently live with the diagnosis of primary brain cancer and to support the brain cancer research that will someday allow them to simply live.

posted in *Green Fire - 1 reply

In Memory - Skye Luna

2005-12-06T20:07:33Z

In Memory - Skye Luna

Wren's beautiful and magickal daughter Skye passed over today at 12:10 EST, just one day shy of her 34th birthday. Skye battled a brain tumor for nearly 6 years, but after two major brain surgeries and way to much chemo and radiation, her options had simply run out. Two months ago 'IT' started advancing again. Skye suffered little and worked some very powerful crossover magick with her mother in her final hour. Skye is survived by her loving husband and life partner for the past 14 years, Rob (pictured just below). Her life will be celebrated this week with family and friends.

Wren will be staying up in N.H. for the next several days to finalize things both physically and magically - I take this opportunity to point you to a piece that Wren wrote back in 1998 entitled 'A letter to my daughter'

In respect to Wren and for the first time in 8 years, Wren's Nest will be closed to new articles for the remainder of the week, but you are welcome to POST your thoughts HERE.

Over the past several weeks, fans of Wren's Nest have experienced several lapses in the posting of news, this is due to Wren's near weekly flights to New Hampshire. - We profoundly thank Christina for her help with the news during this period. We also thank Peg, Steve and the Aubin family for their in person support over these past weeks .

We thank all of you that worked your magick for Skye these past 6 years. We hope to post some remembrances from those that knew her well over the next couple of days.

Rest ye well beautiful one, you have changed our lives forever - We will never allow your light to fade.

In your service,

Fritz Jung
The Witches' Voice Inc.
Dec. 5th., 2005

Postscript: Wren posted this 6 years ago...

On December 27, 1999, Skye was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She underwent surgery on January 3, 2000 and the lab results show that she has a mid grade mixed glioma (grade III anaplastic oligoastrocytoma), a malignant form of primary brain cancer. There is no cure.

Brain cancer research is very limited as only about 18,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed yearly with this disease. It is considered an 'orphan disease' and one that drug companies view as financially not worth their research investment monies. Research is currently being conducted through clinical trials at various hospitals. These clinical trials focus on radiation and chemotherapy treatments that extend the lifespan of brain cancer victims. Skye optimistically trusts that these trials (which she is a candidate for) will offer her a window of hope while she -and the thousands like her-wait for a cure.

We have introduced this ribbon to raise awareness for those who currently live with the diagnosis of primary brain cancer and to support the brain cancer research that will someday allow them to simply live.
www.witchesvoice.com

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

Help Stop Child Abuse

2005-11-29T04:33:06Z

Help Stop Child Abuse

There has been a very scary rise in the amount of child abuse cases as of late and I fear that it is only a matter of time before this affects the Pagan community. It has already reared its ugly head all over the world and to say that it has not already affected us would be a bold lie. As parents, teachers, mentors, and neighbors we are the ones who should be there to care for our young and to protect them from pain. Do not turn a blind eye to it; we must face this and get rid of it as quickly as it has come into our lives.

The Internet has been used more and more to begin these crimes. Through chat rooms and websites predators are meeting young people and luring them into these situations. We must be aware of what is happening on the Internet, we must attack the very thing that is hiding them. If you are reading this essay then you have a computer with Internet access and you have a way to help.

Statistics say that over 5% of people in the Pagan community have doctorates, which means that we are highly educated people. By teaching others we not only do a service to those we teach, we also help to spread that knowledge around. But with all this knowledge and open-mindedness I have found that if you try to openly discuss child abuse the conversation turns sour. Some begin to turn a blind eye to it or deny that it is an epidemic in the community. It always seems to be these same people that say, “I never thought it would happen here”.

This type of closed-mindedness is what is helping to hide these abusers. Their own families will protect them or hide them so that they cannot be brought to justice. But this does not help out anyone. It seems that most people are just as happy to ignore it when it happens; as a society we have a mindset that we must butt out and not get involved in someone else’s business. This must end now if we are to fight this problem.

Raising awareness of it is a huge step forward and the Pagan community must not allow themselves to be mired down in ignorance. There are many things that you must do to help your children, not only of your flesh but also of your community. Learn all that you can about it in your area. Check with your local law enforcement agencies to get a list of the known abusers in your neighborhood. This will empower you, and let you know more about the people who are living next door to you.

There are a lot of resources on the Internet as well that you can access. One site offers ways for you to report abuse and information on protecting children: http://www.asacp.org/index.php. This site has a lot of resources and I recommend it to anyone who is seeking more information to help protect children from abuse. A huge part of this effort is reporting it if you see it, or suspect it is happening. You do not need to be a nosy neighbor, or an investigator - the people who help the most are the ones who care enough to say, “This is wrong and I am going to do something about it.”

Education is still the key part of this. Know the laws of your area and know the laws of the United States so that you can report it when those laws are violated. Each of us knows the difference between right and wrong. But children need our help and our guidance; they are still new to the world and are innocent to its evils. As such we must do whatever we can to help them to learn. No child should have to suffer, or live in fear or pain. Life is much too precious and short to live that way.

Knowledge is the key to this; I cannot stress that enough. The people that are committing this abuse do not want to be found, they want you to remain ignorant to it or turn a blind eye to it. To find out about laws in your area try this resource: http://lp.findlaw.com/ or search the Internet for your local website which will have your state laws on them. Find out all that you can and tell others about your findings. By sharing the knowledge with others it will help to break away the barriers that these predators hide behind. Only by unmasking them can we help to make it safer for our children to live happy and healthy. You can also go to the FBI homepage and find information or report any information anonymously that you may have: http://www.fbi.gov/. This resource, when used with the many others, can really help to make a difference.

The worst thing you can do is nothing at all. If you find abuse being done in your communities speak out against it. If you find abuse being done in a chat room or a website that contains graphic imagery of it being done, report it immediately either to the FBI website or the ASACP website. These are two organizations that have already been doing a lot to help stop this from happening to more children but they need your help and your knowledge; they cannot be everywhere all the time, so we must do what we can to help bring an end to the epidemic.

The first law of Wicca that I learned was, “An ye harm none do as thou wilt.” I feel that as Pagans we need to also help those who cannot help themselves and keep harm from befalling innocent lives. Send out you energies to those that are being hurt, and those that are healing from hurt that they have suffered. Do your best to help make not only the communities you live in safer, but the rest of the world as well.

Footnotes:
www.fbi.gov
www.asacp.org
www.lp.findlaw.com

posted in *Green Fire - 1 reply

The 10 Commandments of Mother Earth

2005-08-24T23:39:02Z

The Ten Commandments
of Mother Earth

I. Thou shalt love and honour the Earth
for it blesses thy life and governs thy survival.

II. Thou shalt keep each day sacred to the Earth
and celebrate the turning of its seasons.

III. Thou shalt not hold thyself above other
living things nor drive them to extinction.

IV. Thou shalt give thanks for thy food,
to the creatures and plants that nourish thee.

V. Thou shalt educate thy offspring for multitudes
of people are a blessing unto the Earth
when we live in harmony.

VI. Thou shall not kill, nor waste Earth's
riches upon weapons of war.

VII. Thou shalt not pursue profit at the Earth's
expense but strive to restore its damaged majesty.

VIII. Thou shalt not hide from thyself or others the
consequences of thy actions upon the Earth.

IX. Thou shalt not steal from future generations
by impoverishing or poisoning the Earth.

X. Thou shalt consume material goods in moderation
so all may share the Earth's bounty.

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

I will be offline for a month as i will be moving

2005-07-17T20:41:31Z

My new Mailing address

Steve Finken
212 E. 4th Street
Loveland, Colorado 80537
Phone# 970-391-5032

until i get reconnected i wont be able to read my aol email( AOL is being blocked at work )...so email me at hawkincolorado@gmail.com i'll be able to read email at work on my laptop.

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

What's going to happen as we start running out of cheap gas to guzzle?

2005-07-05T04:18:14Z

What's going to happen as we start running out of cheap gas to guzzle?

A few weeks ago, the price of oil ratcheted above fifty-five dollars a barrel, which is about twenty dollars a barrel more than a year ago. The next day, the oil story was buried on page six of the New York Times business section. Apparently, the price of oil is not considered significant news, even when it goes up five bucks a barrel in the span of ten days. That same day, the stock market shot up more than a hundred points because, CNN said, government data showed no signs of inflation. Note to clueless nation: Call planet Earth.
Carl Jung, one of the fathers of psychology, famously remarked that "people cannot stand too much reality." What you're about to read may challenge your assumptions about the kind of world we live in, and especially the kind of world into which events are propelling us. We are in for a rough ride through uncharted territory.

It has been very hard for Americans -- lost in dark raptures of nonstop infotainment, recreational shopping and compulsive motoring -- to make sense of the gathering forces that will fundamentally alter the terms of everyday life in our technological society. Even after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, America is still sleepwalking into the future. I call this coming time the Long Emergency.

Most immediately we face the end of the cheap-fossil-fuel era. It is no exaggeration to state that reliable supplies of cheap oil and natural gas underlie everything we identify as the necessities of modern life -- not to mention all of its comforts and luxuries: central heating, air conditioning, cars, airplanes, electric lights, inexpensive clothing, recorded music, movies, hip-replacement surgery, national defense -- you name it.

The few Americans who are even aware that there is a gathering global-energy predicament usually misunderstand the core of the argument. That argument states that we don't have to run out of oil to start having severe problems with industrial civilization and its dependent systems. We only have to slip over the all-time production peak and begin a slide down the arc of steady depletion.

The term "global oil-production peak" means that a turning point will come when the world produces the most oil it will ever produce in a given year and, after that, yearly production will inexorably decline. It is usually represented graphically in a bell curve. The peak is the top of the curve, the halfway point of the world's all-time total endowment, meaning half the world's oil will be left. That seems like a lot of oil, and it is, but there's a big catch: It's the half that is much more difficult to extract, far more costly to get, of much poorer quality and located mostly in places where the people hate us. A substantial amount of it will never be extracted.

The United States passed its own oil peak -- about 11 million barrels a day -- in 1970, and since then production has dropped steadily. In 2004 it ran just above 5 million barrels a day (we get a tad more from natural-gas condensates). Yet we consume roughly 20 million barrels a day now. That means we have to import about two-thirds of our oil, and the ratio will continue to worsen.

The U.S. peak in 1970 brought on a portentous change in geoeconomic power. Within a few years, foreign producers, chiefly OPEC, were setting the price of oil, and this in turn led to the oil crises of the 1970s. In response, frantic development of non-OPEC oil, especially the North Sea fields of England and Norway, essentially saved the West's ass for about two decades. Since 1999, these fields have entered depletion. Meanwhile, worldwide discovery of new oil has steadily declined to insignificant levels in 2003 and 2004.

Some "cornucopians" claim that the Earth has something like a creamy nougat center of "abiotic" oil that will naturally replenish the great oil fields of the world. The facts speak differently. There has been no replacement whatsoever of oil already extracted from the fields of America or any other place.

Now we are faced with the global oil-production peak. The best estimates of when this will actually happen have been somewhere between now and 2010. In 2004, however, after demand from burgeoning China and India shot up, and revelations that Shell Oil wildly misstated its reserves, and Saudi Arabia proved incapable of goosing up its production despite promises to do so, the most knowledgeable experts revised their predictions and now concur that 2005 is apt to be the year of all-time global peak production.

It will change everything about how we live.

To aggravate matters, American natural-gas production is also declining, at five percent a year, despite frenetic new drilling, and with the potential of much steeper declines ahead. Because of the oil crises of the 1970s, the nuclear-plant disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl and the acid-rain problem, the U.S. chose to make gas its first choice for electric-power generation. The result was that just about every power plant built after 1980 has to run on gas. Half the homes in America are heated with gas. To further complicate matters, gas isn't easy to import. Here in North America, it is distributed through a vast pipeline network. Gas imported from overseas would have to be compressed at minus-260 degrees Fahrenheit in pressurized tanker ships and unloaded (re-gasified) at special terminals, of which few exist in America. Moreover, the first attempts to site new terminals have met furious opposition because they are such ripe targets for terrorism.

Some other things about the global energy predicament are poorly understood by the public and even our leaders. This is going to be a permanent energy crisis, and these energy problems will synergize with the disruptions of climate change, epidemic disease and population overshoot to produce higher orders of trouble.

We will have to accommodate ourselves to fundamentally changed conditions.

No combination of alternative fuels will allow us to run American life the way we have been used to running it, or even a substantial fraction of it. The wonders of steady technological progress achieved through the reign of cheap oil have lulled us into a kind of Jiminy Cricket syndrome, leading many Americans to believe that anything we wish for hard enough will come true. These days, even people who ought to know better are wishing ardently for a seamless transition from fossil fuels to their putative replacements.

The widely touted "hydrogen economy" is a particularly cruel hoax. We are not going to replace the U.S. automobile and truck fleet with vehicles run on fuel cells. For one thing, the current generation of fuel cells is largely designed to run on hydrogen obtained from natural gas. The other way to get hydrogen in the quantities wished for would be electrolysis of water using power from hundreds of nuclear plants. Apart from the dim prospect of our building that many nuclear plants soon enough, there are also numerous severe problems with hydrogen's nature as an element that present forbidding obstacles to its use as a replacement for oil and gas, especially in storage and transport.

Wishful notions about rescuing our way of life with "renewables" are also unrealistic. Solar-electric systems and wind turbines face not only the enormous problem of scale but the fact that the components require substantial amounts of energy to manufacture and the probability that they can't be manufactured at all without the underlying support platform of a fossil-fuel economy. We will surely use solar and wind technology to generate some electricity for a period ahead but probably at a very local and small scale.

Virtually all "biomass" schemes for using plants to create liquid fuels cannot be scaled up to even a fraction of the level at which things are currently run. What's more, these schemes are predicated on using oil and gas "inputs" (fertilizers, weed-killers) to grow the biomass crops that would be converted into ethanol or bio-diesel fuels. This is a net energy loser -- you might as well just burn the inputs and not bother with the biomass products. Proposals to distill trash and waste into oil by means of thermal depolymerization depend on the huge waste stream produced by a cheap oil and gas economy in the first place.

Coal is far less versatile than oil and gas, extant in less abundant supplies than many people assume and fraught with huge ecological drawbacks -- as a contributor to greenhouse "global warming" gases and many health and toxicity issues ranging from widespread mercury poisoning to acid rain. You can make synthetic oil from coal, but the only time this was tried on a large scale was by the Nazis under wartime conditions, using impressive amounts of slave labor.

If we wish to keep the lights on in America after 2020, we may indeed have to resort to nuclear power, with all its practical problems and eco-conundrums. Under optimal conditions, it could take ten years to get a new generation of nuclear power plants into operation, and the price may be beyond our means. Uranium is also a resource in finite supply. We are no closer to the more difficult project of atomic fusion, by the way, than we were in the 1970s.

The upshot of all this is that we are entering a historical period of potentially great instability, turbulence and hardship. Obviously, geopolitical maneuvering around the world's richest energy regions has already led to war and promises more international military conflict. Since the Middle East contains two-thirds of the world's remaining oil supplies, the U.S. has attempted desperately to stabilize the region by, in effect, opening a big police station in Iraq. The intent was not just to secure Iraq's oil but to modify and influence the behavior of neighboring states around the Persian Gulf, especially Iran and Saudi Arabia. The results have been far from entirely positive, and our future prospects in that part of the world are not something we can feel altogether confident about.

And then there is the issue of China, which, in 2004, became the world's second-greatest consumer of oil, surpassing Japan. China's surging industrial growth has made it increasingly dependent on the imports we are counting on. If China wanted to, it could easily walk into some of these places -- the Middle East, former Soviet republics in central Asia -- and extend its hegemony by force. Is America prepared to contest for this oil in an Asian land war with the Chinese army? I doubt it. Nor can the U.S. military occupy regions of the Eastern Hemisphere indefinitely, or hope to secure either the terrain or the oil infrastructure of one distant, unfriendly country after another. A likely scenario is that the U.S. could exhaust and bankrupt itself trying to do this, and be forced to withdraw back into our own hemisphere, having lost access to most of the world's remaining oil in the process.

We know that our national leaders are hardly uninformed about this predicament. President George W. Bush has been briefed on the dangers of the oil-peak situation as long ago as before the 2000 election and repeatedly since then. In March, the Department of Energy released a report that officially acknowledges for the first time that peak oil is for real and states plainly that "the world has never faced a problem like this. Without massive mitigation more than a decade before the fact, the problem will be pervasive and will not be temporary."

Most of all, the Long Emergency will require us to make other arrangements for the way we live in the United States. America is in a special predicament due to a set of unfortunate choices we made as a society in the twentieth century. Perhaps the worst was to let our towns and cities rot away and to replace them with suburbia, which had the additional side effect of trashing a lot of the best farmland in America. Suburbia will come to be regarded as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world. It has a tragic destiny. The psychology of previous investment suggests that we will defend our drive-in utopia long after it has become a terrible liability.

Before long, the suburbs will fail us in practical terms. We made the ongoing development of housing subdivisions, highway strips, fried-food shacks and shopping malls the basis of our economy, and when we have to stop making more of those things, the bottom will fall out.

The circumstances of the Long Emergency will require us to downscale and re-scale virtually everything we do and how we do it, from the kind of communities we physically inhabit to the way we grow our food to the way we work and trade the products of our work. Our lives will become profoundly and intensely local. Daily life will be far less about mobility and much more about staying where you are. Anything organized on the large scale, whether it is government or a corporate business enterprise such as Wal-Mart, will wither as the cheap energy props that support bigness fall away. The turbulence of the Long Emergency will produce a lot of economic losers, and many of these will be members of an angry and aggrieved former middle class.

Food production is going to be an enormous problem in the Long Emergency. As industrial agriculture fails due to a scarcity of oil- and gas-based inputs, we will certainly have to grow more of our food closer to where we live, and do it on a smaller scale. The American economy of the mid-twenty-first century may actually center on agriculture, not information, not high tech, not "services" like real estate sales or hawking cheeseburgers to tourists. Farming. This is no doubt a startling, radical idea, and it raises extremely difficult questions about the reallocation of land and the nature of work. The relentless subdividing of land in the late twentieth century has destroyed the contiguity and integrity of the rural landscape in most places. The process of readjustment is apt to be disorderly and improvisational. Food production will necessarily be much more labor-intensive than it has been for decades. We can anticipate the re-formation of a native-born American farm-laboring class. It will be composed largely of the aforementioned economic losers who had to relinquish their grip on the American dream. These masses of disentitled people may enter into quasi-feudal social relations with those who own land in exchange for food and physical security. But their sense of grievance will remain fresh, and if mistreated they may simply seize that land.

The way that commerce is currently organized in America will not survive far into the Long Emergency. Wal-Mart's "warehouse on wheels" won't be such a bargain in a non-cheap-oil economy. The national chain stores' 12,000-mile manufacturing supply lines could easily be interrupted by military contests over oil and by internal conflict in the nations that have been supplying us with ultra-cheap manufactured goods, because they, too, will be struggling with similar issues of energy famine and all the disorders that go with it.

As these things occur, America will have to make other arrangements for the manufacture, distribution and sale of ordinary goods. They will probably be made on a "cottage industry" basis rather than the factory system we once had, since the scale of available energy will be much lower -- and we are not going to replay the twentieth century. Tens of thousands of the common products we enjoy today, from paints to pharmaceuticals, are made out of oil. They will become increasingly scarce or unavailable. The selling of things will have to be reorganized at the local scale. It will have to be based on moving merchandise shorter distances. It is almost certain to result in higher costs for the things we buy and far fewer choices.

The automobile will be a diminished presence in our lives, to say the least. With gasoline in short supply, not to mention tax revenue, our roads will surely suffer. The interstate highway system is more delicate than the public realizes. If the "level of service" (as traffic engineers call it) is not maintained to the highest degree, problems multiply and escalate quickly. The system does not tolerate partial failure. The interstates are either in excellent condition, or they quickly fall apart.

America today has a railroad system that the Bulgarians would be ashamed of. Neither of the two major presidential candidates in 2004 mentioned railroads, but if we don't refurbish our rail system, then there may be no long-range travel or transport of goods at all a few decades from now. The commercial aviation industry, already on its knees financially, is likely to vanish. The sheer cost of maintaining gigantic airports may not justify the operation of a much-reduced air-travel fleet. Railroads are far more energy efficient than cars, trucks or airplanes, and they can be run on anything from wood to electricity. The rail-bed infrastructure is also far more economical to maintain than our highway network.

The successful regions in the twenty-first century will be the ones surrounded by viable farming hinterlands that can reconstitute locally sustainable economies on an armature of civic cohesion. Small towns and smaller cities have better prospects than the big cities, which will probably have to contract substantially. The process will be painful and tumultuous. In many American cities, such as Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis, that process is already well advanced. Others have further to fall. New York and Chicago face extraordinary difficulties, being oversupplied with gigantic buildings out of scale with the reality of declining energy supplies. Their former agricultural hinterlands have long been paved over. They will be encysted in a surrounding fabric of necrotic suburbia that will only amplify and reinforce the cities' problems. Still, our cities occupy important sites. Some kind of urban entities will exist where they are in the future, but probably not the colossi of twentieth-century industrialism.

Some regions of the country will do better than others in the Long Emergency. The Southwest will suffer in proportion to the degree that it prospered during the cheap-oil blowout of the late twentieth century. I predict that Sunbelt states like Arizona and Nevada will become significantly depopulated, since the region will be short of water as well as gasoline and natural gas. Imagine Phoenix without cheap air conditioning.

I'm not optimistic about the Southeast, either, for different reasons. I think it will be subject to substantial levels of violence as the grievances of the formerly middle class boil over and collide with the delusions of Pentecostal Christian extremism. The latent encoded behavior of Southern culture includes an outsized notion of individualism and the belief that firearms ought to be used in the defense of it. This is a poor recipe for civic cohesion.

The Mountain States and Great Plains will face an array of problems, from poor farming potential to water shortages to population loss. The Pacific Northwest, New England and the Upper Midwest have somewhat better prospects. I regard them as less likely to fall into lawlessness, anarchy or despotism and more likely to salvage the bits and pieces of our best social traditions and keep them in operation at some level.

These are daunting and even dreadful prospects. The Long Emergency is going to be a tremendous trauma for the human race. We will not believe that this is happening to us, that 200 years of modernity can be brought to its knees by a world-wide power shortage. The survivors will have to cultivate a religion of hope -- that is, a deep and comprehensive belief that humanity is worth carrying on. If there is any positive side to stark changes coming our way, it may be in the benefits of close communal relations, of having to really work intimately (and physically) with our neighbors, to be part of an enterprise that really matters and to be fully engaged in meaningful social enactments instead of being merely entertained to avoid boredom. Years from now, when we hear singing at all, we will hear ourselves, and we will sing with our whole hearts.

Adapted from The Long Emergency, 2005, by James Howard Kunstler, and reprinted with permission of the publisher, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

Three Reasons to Start a Garden

2005-07-04T23:46:46Z

Three Reasons to Start a Garden

For some, gardening is a great way to connect with the earth, reduce stress, increase creativity and promote relaxation. Three good reasons you should get down and dirty in a garden:

1) Gardening is therapeutic. It even has a name: horticultural therapy. People with all types of health conditions, schoolchildren, even prison inmates, are encouraged to learn about new plants and envision creative ways to arrange them in the ground as a way to provide a sense of accomplishment and improve self-image.

2) Gardening is spiritual. Aside from delighting your senses with color, texture and smell, gardening enables you to connect with nature. Digging your hands through the soil and handling delicate plants can feed the soul.

3) Gardening is exercise. Gardening is a moderate-level activity that improves flexibility through bending and stretching, and has been shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. However, don't let it replace your regular aerobic exercise (like walking) - do both, for maximum benefits.

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

Making Connections: Eight Ways to Connect

2005-07-04T23:43:53Z

Making Connections: Eight Ways to Connect

Feeling whole and connected to the Earth and others takes effort, but it is rewarding work. By bringing your focus outside of yourself, you will learn to reach out to people and to the world around you in positive ways. Giving of yourself, from spending time with friends and those in need to taking care of the environment or a companion animal also promotes positive interaction. Here are eight steps to help you get connected:

1) Nature and Earth
If you think of nature as a hostile force that is separate from yourself, you will go through life unnecessarily afraid and cut off from one of the great sources of spiritual nourishment. Whether you connect with nature on wilderness trips or lunch breaks in a city park, you can always slow down and observe the infinite variety of her ways. One way to connect with nature is through plants: gardening, collecting plants from the wild, growing cactuses and flowering bulbs, and having unusual and useful plants in and around the home can all help promote connectedness with nature. Plants can enrich your daily life, bring comfort and joy, and remind you that however you think of yourself, you are also part of the natural world.

2) Animals
Research shows that people who have pets have less illness than people who do not. Pet owners also recover faster from serious illness and tend to be happier. Ex-prisoners who form relationships with pets have lower recidivism rates than those who do not. While pets can and inevitably will bring owners great joy, they are a responsibility: they demand a certain level of attention and care. However, the rewards that pets give in return are often too great to be measured. Loving and caring for a pet is a great way to learn how to love and care for other humans and nature.

3) Family
We are not meant to be alone - we are meant to be parts of bigger families, bands, and tribes. Human beings want and need the intimate support of a real family. Unfortunately, the nuclear family of our modern society is contracted. It is hard not to look at the “extended families” of some cultures with wistful longing, if not outright envy. Where I live, in southern Arizona, the Hispanic population seems way ahead of the rest of us in providing for the needs of family. In many Hispanic families the old people, even when infirm, continue to be valued members and live at home. Don’t settle for nuclear family contraction. Extend!

4) Community
Community is the sense of living and working together for common goals. We are naturally communal beings and derive great satisfaction from the experience of belonging to a group with a common purpose. The strength and comfort of community come from the principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Our society often fails to provide for this need, and unless we work to create community, it does not happen, or does so in unhealthy ways.
You can define community any way you want. It may be your neighborhood, your sports team, your environmental action group, your church, your social club. What makes it work is what you bring to it and the role you let it play in your life. This kind of connectedness gives us the power to improve our lives and make the world a better place.

5) Serving
Selfless service means giving of yourself to help others with no thought of return. Many religious traditions extol the ideal of selfless service as one of the great aids to dismantling the ego cage and restructuring personality. Each day provides countless opportunities to practice putting others’ interests ahead of your own, such as giving of your time, energy and presence to reduce the suffering or increase the happiness of others. The goal is not to acquire spiritual merit, increase your chances of going to heaven, or earn the admiration of the community. Instead, service is a way of acknowledging that we are all one and that the happiness of each is connected to the happiness of all. The more you can experience the interconnectedness of all beings, the healthier you will be.

6) Loving
To love is to experience connection in its highest, purest form. Humans tend to confuse loving with other feelings that take us back into the world of separateness and fragmentation. Popular songs today seem to be mostly about the joys and pains of romantic love, not about loving as connection, which is something altogether different. Learning to love takes practice and time, especially in a culture that is focused so intensely on romantic love.
In intimate relationships that work, the in-love state is replaced by mutual loving. That can happen only if both partners are mature and committed to a life together. Many people today have no idea what to do when they fall out of love with their partners; they think it means there is no possibility of continuing the relationship, which is why divorce rates are now so high.
Realizing that you have within you a limitless source of love that can benefit everyone and everything will help you form the best and strongest connections of your life.

7) Touching
Human beings need to touch and be touched. A great deal of animal and human research shows that individuals deprived of physical contact are insecure, poorly adjusted, and more prone to illness. Some cross-cultural research suggests that sexually repressed and touch-deprived societies are much more given to violence. Our own society, unfortunately, is in that category. Touching is an easy connection to make because it feels so good. Please do more of it.

8) Higher powers
One reason the 12-step programs work as treatments for addiction is that they encourage connection to a power greater than yourself. It does not matter much how you conceive of that higher power; what matters is the sense of connection to it. It can be the father-god of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ, the Compassionate Buddha, the Great Spirit, the Goddess, pure, undifferentiated Consciousness, or simply the Mystery. You are free to choose the way you conceive of the universe and your place in it. People who experience themselves as part of and supported by something larger than themselves are less fearful and more healthy than people who view the world through the bars of an ego cage, seeing the world as separate from themselves, and as being disconnected.
http://www.drweil.com/u/Article/M125/

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The MDI Air Car

2005-07-04T22:37:45Z

Welcome to the future!

After twelve years of reserch and development, Guy Negre has developed an engine that could become one of the biggest technological advances of this century. Its application to CAT vehicles gives them significant economical and environmental advantages. With the incorporation of bi-energy (compressed air + fuel) the CAT Vehicles have increased their driving range to close to 2000 km with zero pollution in cities and considerably reduced pollution outside urban areas.
As well, the application of the MDI engine in other areas, outside the automotive sector, opens a multitude of possibilities in nautical fields, co-generation, auxiliary engines, electric generators groups, etc. Compressed air is a new viable form of power that allows the accumulation and transport of energy. MDI is very close to initiating the production of a series of engines and vehicles. The company is financed by the sale of manufacturing licences and patents all over the world.

http://www.theaircar.com/

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the Witch Vox: Neo Pagan News - new look version 9.0

2005-07-04T22:12:38Z

New Look, New Countries, Pagan Painters and Your Writings !

Welcome to Witchvox v.9.0 - Over the past few months we been ticking off dozens of items on that 'to do' list. Long over due, was a face lift for the front page. - The goals were many and included; feature more sections/info without sacrificing load time, soften up the harshness of the overall look, get MORE content 'above the fold', get a powerful anchor image back, and set ourselves up for exciting future features. - We had countless grandiose ideas for this upgrade but many of them will have to wait for v9.1 - Expect to see more valuable content and some pre-Samhain treats portal'd on to this page in the near future.

This weeks update [see below] is extensive and features a new piece by Kerr, major festival reviews and several inspirational writings from the Pagan communities.

Dio and Runewolf have been working faithfully on an ever growing number of essay and article submissions. - Their dedication to this community project is inspiring and we thank them for this. - Essay/Article submissions are running 3 times that of last year, so if you have posted one, kindly note that we are working on it.

Pagan Art and Artists: Since our launch back in '97 we have featured stunning Pagan Art and Photographs right here on our busiest page. A long over due section specifically FOR Pagan Art and Artists is finally underway. - Keep the faith PAs ... We are getting there. - In the meantime we are honored to offer a gallery of just some of the amazing work of Jessica Galbreth. Your art is almost as beautiful as you are Jess!

Witches of the World: Recent email requests have inspired us to create country profile pages for Latvia, Bermuda, Afghanistan, Bulgaria and Pakistan. Hail and Welcome! [http://www.witchvox.com/xvn.html]

Wren and I would like to congratulate Monica on yesterday's birth of Nathan Keith Rouff . There is new love in the air!

Thank you all for continuing to make Witchvox a valuable stop on the Pagan Web.

In your service,

Fritz Jung
Email: One of the Sheep at...
[ http://www.witchvox.com/twv/staff_eform.html?id=3 ]
The Witches' Voice Inc.

PS: If you are one that just can't handle change - you can still access the old look and feel [http://www.witchvox.com/2004.html]

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True Love is Like a Ghost

2005-07-04T21:55:45Z

True Love is Like a Ghost-
many have talked about it and few have seen

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how dreams are a gateway to the spiritual realm

2005-07-04T21:32:36Z

FINDING MY RELIGION
Reverend Jeremy Taylor on how dreams are a gateway to the spiritual realm
I have this dream from time to time. Maybe you do, too. I'm nearing the end of my final term in college, and suddenly I realize there's this class I've totally neglected. The final exam is happening the next day, and I'm completely unprepared. I start to panic. Then, just before all hell breaks loose, I wake up.
What does it mean? You might think of it as a standard anxiety dream. Dream expert Jeremy Taylor, however, has another interpretation. Taylor, a Unitarian Universalist minister, says this dream, common in Western societies, reflects a profound spiritual longing, a desire for direct knowledge about the deeper meaning of life that's gone unfulfilled.
"Think of that forgotten class as something called What's Really Going on Here Anyway? 101" he says. "After a lifetime of trying to get answers to life's big questions, like whether or not there's a God, we have a tendency to give up looking. We assume the questions aren't answerable, so why waste our time? Then this dream comes along to remind us that despite the frustration, we are unconsciously still compelled to find those answers."
Taylor believes dreams are windows into the spiritual realm; they are our way of connecting with divine consciousness. He's written several books on the subject, including "The Living Labyrinth: Universal Themes in Myths, Dreams and the Symbolism of Waking Life."

When we look at our dreams, there's a tendency to see them in psychological terms. How do you make a connection between dreams and spirituality?
All of the world's major religions speak in one voice on this question. They tell us that human beings are in more direct communion with the divine in our dreams than during any other state of consciousness. There is, in other words, an ancient, archetypal connection between dreaming and communion with whatever language a tradition uses to describe the divine, whether it's God, the goddess, the ancestors, the spirits or what have you. In addition to that, there's a sense [in religious traditions] of the dream world as being a means of access to the nonmaterial plane.
What do you mean by "the nonmaterial plane"?
The world we live in while awake, particularly those of us in industrial societies, is defined by rationalist materialism. The dream world, although it makes reference to that material world, constantly proposes ways to view it from a different, nonmaterial perspective. Most anthropologists conclude that the standard beliefs of any religion, such as a belief in life after death, were all stimulated by universal dream experiences, like when we dream about people who have recently died. So, there is this sense that when we wake up and remember a dream, we are catching a glimpse of a world that we don't see as clearly when we are awake.
Some spiritual traditions see the dream world as the "real" world and the waking world as an illusion. Do you agree?
There is something to that view. Clearly, it is waking consciousness -- not the dream world -- that is discontinuous and unreliable. Nobody, no matter how well motivated or trained, can maintain waking, conscious awareness for more than, say, 50 to 60 hours. The dream world, on the other hand, shows every sign of being unbroken, continuous and reliable. We know this from word-association tests and even slips of the tongue that reveal unconscious thoughts while we're awake. In that sense, dreams are influencing our waking perceptions and behavior, and they tell a nonrational but continuous story about the deeper meaning of people's lives.
What sorts of spiritual messages are we getting through our dreams?
I would say the primary message is that each human being is being admonished in the dream world to behave in the waking world in concert with who they really are, rather than who they think they are, or who they think they ought to be. Saint Augustine said, "Thank God I am not responsible for who I am in my dreams." But, actually, that's not how it works. You are responsible for who you are in your dreams.
What about when we do horrible things in our dreams, like killing people? Are you saying that's who we really are?
It's important to remember that dreams are symbolic. The greatest problem in understanding our dreams is mistaken literalism. To read this stuff literally is to invite disaster. To read it symbolically is to invite tremendous individual and collective transformation.
Let me give you an example: When a person dreams about his or her own death, it's almost always seen as terrible news from the dreamer's point of view. However, in my experience -- and I've been looking at this for more than 40 years -- such dreams are the single most reliable metaphor for profound psychospiritual growth in a person's life. It is as though the person is engaged in a process of growth that is so profound that only their death is an adequate metaphor for the process of change that they're engaged in.
So, what does that say to you?
It says to me that the dreamer is always uniquely blind to the deeper symbolic meanings of his or her dream experiences.
Does that mean that in order to understand our dreams, we need someone else to interpret them?
Well, I'm really not a big fan of dream interpretation, because it fosters a kind of hierarchical dependence. Dream interpreters tend to tell other people what their dreams mean, and in that sense the better the dream interpreter is, the more dangerous he or she becomes. If you are right about what other people's dreams mean, then you are in a position to pick up their puppet strings and yank them any way you want.
So, how are we supposed to understand what we're dreaming about?
It's an ironic situation, but the dreamer is the only one who can say with any certainty what the deeper meaning of his or her dreams may be. Yet, in solitude, without the help of others, that person is going to regularly miss the deeper symbolic significance of what's going on. So the point is to get some help, but not too much!
Carl Jung said that universal archetypes give birth to the symbols we find in dreams. If what you're saying about dreams being a window into the spiritual realm is true, do you also believe that religions come from a universal source?
Yes, and that's the reason I am a Unitarian Universalist.
Were you raised in that tradition?
No, I was pretty much raised as an atheist. My parents were modern intellectuals, very committed to social justice, and not very interested in religion. My grandmother was concerned for my soul and engineered for me to go off and have a run at Episcopalianism. I was interested, and I certainly liked the singing. But when I asked what seemed to be perfectly natural questions about the faith that I was being asked to follow, I was chastised rather than answered.
You were chastised by your parents?
No, by the priests. And I said, "Well, this sucks. You know, maybe my parents are right." So I went through my youth with this sense of social justice being the deepest paradigm of meaning that I could find, while having a feeling like it was not the final answer that it claimed to be.
How did you get interested in dreams?
Eventually, I began to notice not only that dreams are inspirations for creative life and interesting puzzles to be solved but also that they provided access to a world of meaning that was even greater than the tactics of nonviolent social change. I began studying mythology out of tremendous interest in how it is that people could believe this stuff literally. And I discovered that all religions affirm the value of social justice as a reflection of other deeper values.
So, you found your answer about the meaning of life?
Well, I wouldn't exactly put it that way, but I do believe all human beings are hardwired, as it were, to long for transcendent meaning. That longing is part of who we are, individually and collectively.
You've written that the major religions tend to disparage the importance of dream work in spiritual life. Why is that?
If work with actual dreams were not disparaged or forbidden [by the major religions], it would then not only become likely, it would also be inevitable that at some point, someone -- the scruffier and the more malcontent the better -- could speak up in the back of any congregation -- any Friday night, any Sunday morning, whatever -- and say, "I had a dream, and God told me to tell you to do x" -- all wear funny hats, or whatever. And the funny-hat heresy would be off and running, because no merely human authority in any pulpit would be able to stand against the strength of the tradition of God communicating with people directly in their dreams.
So, in order to preserve what our Presbyterian brothers and sisters like to call "decency and good order," in order to prevent this chaotic prophetic voice from disturbing everything, it becomes politically and sociologically necessary to forbid dream work.
Are you saying that pastors, rabbis and imams are actually saying to their congregations, "We're not going to talk about dreams?"
They say what Professor Marvel says in "The Wizard of Oz." In other words, "Don't pay any attention to that man behind the curtain," because the man behind the curtain is running the whole show. And if the man behind the curtain is running the whole show, then the impressive rabbi or imam or priest or minister certainly has a diminished role to play. Suddenly, it's harder to get people to tithe. Suddenly, religion becomes a much more voluntary activity rather than a compulsory activity, which is, again, one of the reasons for my continued loyalty to the Unitarian Universalist tradition, despite all of the things that are wrong with it.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/archive/2005/06/27/findrelig.DTL

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12 Ways To Unleash The Courage Within By Gabriel Daniels

2005-07-04T21:22:45Z

12 Ways To Unleash The Courage Within
By Gabriel Daniels
What you are about to learn are very powerful ways to help you get from where you are to where you want to go. When you consistently apply the principles below, you will notice a dramatic and positive change in your life.
Before we move on, though, I d like to explain why I use the word "unleash." I am convinced that courage is already within us all and only needs to be "unleashed." There's a part of us that knows this–whether or not we readily admit it. We only need to accept this fact.
For many years, we have been taught by society, and sadly, even by our well-meaning relatives or friends, why we should not do something, or why we should not pursue a particular goal. They try to discourage us in a number of ways. Sometimes, it may not be that they don't believe in us or our ideas, but that they feel that if they were to pursue the idea/goal themselves, they wouldn't have the courage to do it–they would be too afraid.
In other words, they pass on their fears to us unconsciously (and unintentionally). Unfortunately, we end up making fewer attempts as a result. And the less we attempt to do something because of fear (the fears others programmed into us) the less our minds believe that courage is already within us. And the less our minds believe that courage is already within us, the more it becomes true (a reality) for us.
In my previous article, "Run Freely (A Lesson About Courage)," http://www.trans4mind.com/counterpoint/daniels.shtml I shared with you an important lesson I learned, through observation, many years ago–and that is: Courage has always been inside of us from the time we were children. (And since we were all children at one time, courage is inside "all" of us.)
Courage is not something that comes from outside of us (although external factors or influences can help in drawing that courage out, or can help in getting us to be more in touch with that courage–and that's what I would like to share with you in the principles below), because absolute courage (or fearlessness) is the very nature of our "spirit" (at least here in the physical world–I say "physical" because in the physical world, nothing can harm a spirit... and another reason I stress "physical" is because others may say, "The devil is a spirit. Why, then, does the devil fear God?").
I love the quote I read in one of Wayne Dyer's books years ago. The quote was actually by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin... and it goes like this:

"We are not human beings
having a spiritual experience.
We are spiritual beings
having a human experience."
I figured, that's probably why kids (especially those at an early age) are so courageous (and less self-conscious). They are more in touch with that "spirit" part of themselves.
In fact, I believe that through the years, as people grow up towards adulthood, they have gotten less and less in touch with that "spirit" part of themselves due to the many self-created (or imaginary) fears–or due to fears that have been passed on to them by others (or society). These fears started to gradually cover up their fearless nature–their very essence or core–just like mold gradually covers up a piece of fresh bread left out in the open.
Keeping the above in mind, here, then, are 12 ways to unleash the courage within:
1. Reinforce in your being the conviction that you are a "fearless" spirit in a physical body. It's your true nature. It's your very essence. Accept this fact and your life will change in positive ways.

"Detach yourself from the fear of the body, and the mind,
clinging instead to the fearlessness of the spirit."
~Chin-Ning Chu~

"It is in your power to discover that who you really are
has nothing to fear, but that you make yourself fearful
each time you look outside of yourself for some power
to make you feel fearless."
~Vernon Howard~
2. Simply attempt. JUST DO IT. Avoid overanalyzing (which usually results in procrastination). Once you've decided to do something, just do it (avoid delaying unnecessarily).
Over time, this reinforces the feeling of courage in your nervous system. You'll be more and more in touch with the courageous part of yourself. And as a result, taking action (without hesitating) will feel more natural to you.
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare,
it is because we do not dare that things are difficult."
~Seneca~

"Do it like there's no one watching,
do it like you don't need the money,
do it like you just can't lose, JUST DO IT."
~Nike Ad~
In other words, do your best not to give fear (or excuses) a chance to creep in. Why? Because when that happens, the following is what normally results (as Seneca's quote explains):

"A man who suffers before it is necessary
suffers more than is necessary."
Also, as Publilius Syrus' quote explains:

"Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back."
3. Give yourself permission to be courageous (avoid allowing yourself to be cowardly). And avoid giving others (or anything) permission to make you feel fearful. The key word here is "permission."
Understanding this principle and applying it in your daily life will empower you in ways you may not have imagined before. It puts you in a powerful position because it gives you control (in other words, you won't be just a mindless punching bag to others). You are able to "consciously" decide whether or not someone will influence you in a negative way. As a result, you'll be more at ease in dealing with others, no matter who they are.
You see, the reason some people are bullied is because "they permit it." They give permission to the bully to bully them. But the moment they no longer give permission to the bully to mistreat them, the bully loses his/her power. (There's an excellent section on this concept of permission in Gerry Spence's book, How To Argue And Win Every Time.)

"No one can make you feel inferior without your permission."
~Eleanor Roosevelt~

"Starting now, never again permit hard or disapproving
facial expressions to intimidate you."
~Vernon Howard~
4. Reinforce the belief that the only power others have is the power you give them.
Their power comes from you. In fact, it is your gift to them. Their power is merely your "perception" of their power (in other words, the source of their power is in your mind). And you have a choice at any moment how much power you will give them.
This very powerful principle can be applied to fears/anxieties you may have when dealing with others. As you regularly apply this principle, you'll be more at ease when dealing with anyone, even authority figures or influential people. Also, with this knowledge, it will be in your power to give "less" or "no" power to those who like to abuse it (ex. bullies or difficult people in general).
This empowers you, and reinforces your courage at the same time, because you are in a position to make a "conscious" decision (just like principle #3 above). People won't be able to abuse power because their power comes from you in the first place. At any moment, you can easily take back any power you've already given them... "just by deciding." (Again, there's an excellent section/chapter on this principle in Gerry Spence's book, How To Argue And Win Every Time.)

"No human being has any authority over you.
Your life belongs to you and to you alone. No scowling face
or irritated manner, no challenging posture or threatening tone
has any power to make you feel nervous or anxious,
frightened or angry. This is a fact; and anyone who is tired
of letting someone else tell them how to feel can use this
self-liberating principle to win true and lasting independence.
Your true nature answers to no man."
~Vernon Howard~

"No one can make you happy or sad or excited
or angry unless you give them that power over your life.
Decide right now to only give your power to those things,
circumstances, and people that support you
in getting what you want."
~Marshall Sylver~

"Don't let the negativity given to you by the world disempower you.
Instead give to yourself that which empowers you."
~Les Brown~
5. Reinforce the belief that the only power "anything" has is the power you give it.
The power that events and experiences have over you will depend on the meaning you give them. (Two people can go through similar experiences but will respond in completely different ways, depending on what meaning they give those experiences.)
Again, just like principles 3 and 4 above, applying this principle will empower you because you will have the ability to make a "conscious" decision (it gives you the power of choice you get to choose how you will perceive or interpret any event, experience, etc.).

"Nothing has any power over me other than that
which I give it through my conscious thoughts."
~Anthony Robbins~

"If you are distressed by anything external,
the pain is not due to the thing itself
but to your own estimate of it; and this
you have the power to revoke at any moment."
~Marcus Aurelius~

"Nothing has any power except the power that you give it."
~Marshall Sylver~
6. Apply the "calmness linked to fear" technique (a powerful technique that can help you remain calm in situations that would normally trigger fear/anxiety).
Imagine one of your biggest fears, whatever it is (a situation, a thing, a specific person, a type of person, etc.). Then imagine or visualize yourself being calm–being relaxed. (Do this in "associated" mode–meaning, you are seeing things in your surroundings from inside your own body...and not watching yourself as an actor on a movie screen.)
For example, if one of your biggest fears is having confrontations with certain types of people (e.g. bullies or difficult people), imagine the bully in front of you (you can do this with your eyes open or closed–whatever is more comfortable for you), yelling at you–at the top of his/her voice, insulting you, putting you down, "commanding" you (like a dictator) to do things, etc. (imagine the worst case scenario). And while the bully is doing these things to you, "consciously" relax your body.
Be aware of any tension in your body, then think "relax." Be aware of your breathing to make sure it's not shallow or too fast. Breathe naturally... in a relaxed manner. Feel your body becoming more and more relaxed as you imagine the bully doing his/her all to shake your foundation.
You could even smile... and I mean actually smile... or smile inside... while you're looking straight at him/her (as if you were saying to him/her, "Who are you trying to fool?" ). Or even laugh inside... while you're looking at him/her. Whatever it takes for you to reach an empowering state a calm or relaxed state.
The goal of this exercise is to link/associate the feeling of "calmness" or "being relaxed" with that particular fear (in this case, the bully) you're imagining.
If you do this exercise effectively (by the way, you can do it as many times as needed–although I've found that one or two sessions usually does the trick), when you are put in a situation where you have to face that particular fear (e.g. the bully), you will feel calm or relaxed. Or, at the very least, the fear (or anxiety) you normally would have felt will have decreased dramatically to the point where it no longer bothers or paralyzes you.
7. Constantly work on increasing your self-awareness–your self-knowledge.
As some would say: Know thyself. The more you know about yourself (your strengths, weaknesses, fears, beliefs, goals, motives, etc.), the calmer, more confident, and more courageous you'll be.

"When two people meet, the prize always goes to the one
with the most self-insight. He will be calmer,
more confident, more at ease with the other."
~Vernon Howard~

"He who knows much about others may be learned,
but he who understands himself is more intelligent.
He who controls others may be powerful, but
he who has mastered himself is mightier still."
~Lao-Tzu~
8. Make a list of the following, and review regularly, or once in a while (depending on the need), to serve as empowering reminders:
Your past successes/victories
Risks you've taken in the past
Your past courageous acts
By reminding yourself of past victories, courageous acts, etc., it helps empower you in the present moment. Basically, what you're saying to yourself, as you face the present challenge, is, "I've succeeded many times before, therefore I can do it again." Or, "I've been victorious many times in the past, therefore I can be victorious again."
9. Surround yourself with others who help uplift your spirit.
Avoid associating with those who like to bring you down or belittle your ideas (either because they don't believe in you or your ideas–or because they know they would be fearful in the same situation... and they want you to feel the same way so they won't be alone in feeling that way). In other words, choose your environment (which includes the people who surround you on a regular basis) wisely.
Remember: Courage is contagious. And so is cowardice.

"We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people
that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves
and live our lives with authenticity."
~Barbara De Angelis~

"To succeed in life, you have to forget about most people.
If you want to rise to the top, you have to disregard the opinions,
reactions, and warnings of others."
~Ken Roberts~
10. Get used to dealing with the unexpected (or uncertainty).
In other words, don't wait until you have all the answers, or until you know it all, before taking any action. Don't wait until all conditions are perfect before taking the necessary steps you know you should take.
By mastering this skill, you ll be able to go out there in the world with courage and confidence, taking one action after another, no matter what the conditions may be. You ll be so used to dealing with the unexpected (having the ability to handle anything that comes your way) that even during times when you are not quite 100% prepared, you ll feel confident in taking action.

"The number one characteristic of students who later become
heads of companies is the ability to withstand uncertainty."
~David A. Thomas, Dean, Cornell Business School~

"It is the individual's ability to deal with the unexpected that
characterizes the difference between success and failure."
~Ross Perot~
The following quotes explain why it's usually not a good idea to wait until all conditions are perfect before taking action:

"If you wait until the wind and the weather are just right,
you will never plant anything and never harvest anything."
~Ecclesiastes 11:4 (Good News Bible)~

"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections
must be first overcome."
~Samuel Johnson~
11. Simply decide that fear will not get in your way no matter what.
If you happen to feel fear, for whatever reason, do what you have to do anyway. Act in spite of fear. You don't have to wait until the fear is gone. Like Susan Jeffers's book suggests: Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway.

"In spite of fear, do what you have to do."
~Chin-Ning Chu~

"Courage is acting in spite of fear."
~Howard W. Hunter~
12. Apply the "I have nothing to prove" or "I don't have to prove anything" attitude.
Avoid feeling the need to prove yourself to anyone. Just be your natural self. Express your true self. In fact, always make it your goal to express, not impress. When you're focused on expressing, you'll be more at ease.

"Your true nature never needs to anxiously prove itself to others,
but lives in calm command, like a popular king."
~Vernon Howard~

"The real acid test of courage is to be just your honest self
when everybody is trying to be like somebody else."
~Andrew Jensen~

"The time men spend in trying to impress others, they could spend
in doing the things by which others would be impressed."
~Frank Romer~

"Naturalness is the easiest thing in the world to acquire, if you will
forget yourself forget about the impression you are trying to make."
~Dale Carnegie~

"This above all: to thine own self be true."
~William Shakespeare~
[In addition to the 12 principles above, read my article, How To Be Confident And Relaxed When Speaking Before A Group Of People (Powerful Tips To Help You Become A Highly Effective Speaker/Presenter). You'll find that many of the principles in that article can be applied to life in general.]
I would like to end this article with a beautiful story I read many years ago.
Michaelangelo, the world famous painter, sculptor, and architect was once asked how he could carve such magnificent statues. And he answered, "The perfect statue is already there within the block of marble. I simply chip away the excess."
And so it is with courage. It's already there within you. You only need to create or devise ways (like the ones I shared with you above) to chip away–or get rid of–any unnecessary fears, worries, apprehensions, etc., so that the courage within you will be unleashed more fully.
Gabriel Daniels publishes 'Confidence & Courage Tips... To Help You Realize Your Dreams.' For tips, strategies, stories, quotes and more... to empower and inspire you to take action, so you can get what you want out of life, visit his website at:

http://confidencetips.blogspot.com/

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

THANKS TO GOD AND GODDESS

2005-07-04T21:20:13Z

THANKS TO GOD AND GODDESS

I pray that this will bless you as it blessed me.

Hello God and Goddess,
I called tonight
To talk a little while
I need a friend who'll listen
To my anxiety and trial.
You see, I can't quite make it
Through a day just on my own...
I need your love to guide me,
So I'll never feel alone.
I want to ask you please to keep
My family safe and sound.
Come and fill their lives with confidence
For whatever fate they're bound.
Give me faith, dear God and Goddess, to face
Each hour throughout the day,
And not to worry over things
I can't change in any way.
I thank you God and Goddess for being home
And listening to my call,
For giving me such good advice
When I stumble and fall.
Your number, God and Goddess, is the only one
That answers every time.
I never get a busy signal,
Never had to pay a dime.
So thank you, God and Goddess, for listening
To my troubles and my sorrow.
Good night, God and Goddess, I love You too,
And I'll call again tomorrow! ********************
The man whispered, "God and Goddess, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang.

But, the man did not hear. So the man yelled, "God and Goddess, speak to me"
and the thunder rolled across the sky.

But, the man did not listen. The man looked around and said, "God and Goddess let me see you." And a star shined brightly.

But the man did not see. And, the man shouted, "God and Goddess show me a miracle." And, a life was born.

But, the man did not notice. So, the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God and Goddess, and let me know you are here." Whereupon, God and Goddess reached down and touched the man. But, the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.

I found this to be a great reminder that God and Goddess is always around us in the
little and simple things that we take for granted ... even in our electronic
age .. so I would like to add one more:

The man cried, "God and Goddess, I need your help!" And an e-mail arrived reaching out with good news and encouragement.

But, the man deleted it and continued crying ... Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way that you expect.

My instructions were to send this to people that I wanted God to bless and I
picked you all.

Have A Happy Day!

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

who am I ?

2005-07-04T21:16:02Z

Who am I?
You are a spirit, eternal and free. You are temporarily in a body to remember you are beyond a body, just as a caterpillar must one day become a butterfly. The experiences you have in your life are inviting you to recognize this. That is why everything you do to honor yourself takes you one step forward to reaching your divine potential.
How do you create a more prosperous life? By changing your thoughts. Life is not something that happens to you outside of yourself. Life is the process that allows the experiences of life to manifest.
We are the create everything in our lives. We create life through our thought system. Our minds are like DVD players; our thoughts are the film and the world is the screen onto which we play it. Be vigilant about what you think about on a constant basis. Are you in a negative or positive mode?
When you desire to change something in your life, you need to focus on what you desire, because what you focus on expands, like a seed that is planted in the universe.
If you are not inspired to recreate yourself today you will experience tomorrow much more of the same experiences you had yesterday. The future is a reflection of what we are feeding the universe today with our thoughts and actions.
To change the future, you must change yourself in the present moment. It is in the present moment that all change occurs. You are a divine creator!

www.mymailout.net/MyMailout...dingPage.aspx

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

Happy 4th of JUly

2005-07-04T14:50:35Z

I want to wish everyone in Greenfire a relaxing holiday

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

The Pagan Unity Campaign (PUC)

2005-06-29T18:25:59Z

The Pagan Unity Campaign (PUC)

Author: Rev. Mia Sykes nee Lady Starfyre Nemorensis
Posted: June 26th. 2005
Times Viewed: 606

There is an unfortunate disparity among American Pagans today. Whether it is something as integral as the definition of Paganism, or the lack of knowledge about claimed traditions, it causes a rift between us all. It is important that we unify and find a common ground on which to stand if we are to present to the country and the government a front that is practicable and respectable. Only if we come together as Pagans and make our voices heard can we expect the government to take us seriously as a religious group. There is no hubris in demanding acceptance as a faith; rather, if we hesitate, we simply perpetuate the public’s perception of us as a cult, or worse.

The question is, invariably, what can we as Pagans do to in order to achieve equanimity in the treatment of our faith in comparison with those more accepted in America today? How can we notify the government that we are a strong and reasonable force, a viable religion, and that we are as important to them as any other constituent? It appears that our battle is a difficult one, but it is not impossible if we all take responsibility to make a difference. But how can one person make a difference?

Many Pagans have asked themselves this question, and it is through this questioning that the Pagan Unity Campaign (PUC) was born. PUC’s purpose is a vital one. Created as a grassroots organization by Storm Bear Williams, it is now headed by activist and writer Ginger Strivelli, as acting President. Its mission is straightforward: We are to encourage the return to the initial goal of our government with regards to freedom of all religions, as evidenced by former President John Adam’s proclamation in the Treaty of Tripoli, “The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a Mohammedan nation.”

The quote is a definitive and indisputable statement, and appears to be forgotten or disregarded in the minds of today’s Administration. It was signed by many of the Nation's founders, and it is a sad testament for our country that rather than move forward in acceptance and equal rights, we have appeared to step backwards into prejudice and censure. From the outcry from the religious right over keeping “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance (a phrase which was inserted in the 1950’s by the McCarthy administration during the Red Scare, with the mentality that only monotheists were good Americans) to the Faith-Based Initiatives program and the disparaging remarks made by Director Jim Towey regarding Pagans and his belief that they do not offer any charitable programs and are incapable of the love needed to do so, the government in 2005 has given strong evidence that it will support those who are of Christian, Jewish and Islamic faith, or of a faith that is acceptable solely due to name recognition (i.e., Buddhism or Hinduism), while those who are of a belief system that differs from these are dismissed as inconsequential.

The Faith-Based Initiative program is especially alarming in its prejudice. In fact, Jim Towey’s remarks are exceptionally inflammatory and degrading. In response to a question posed by a Pagan American, which was “Do you feel that Pagan faith based groups should be given the same considerations as any other group that seeks aid?”, the Director of the program carelessly responded, “I haven't run into a Pagan faith-based group yet, much less a Pagan group that cares for the poor! Once you make it clear to any applicant that public money must go to public purposes and can’t be used to promote ideology, the fringe groups lose interest. Helping the poor is tough work and only those with loving hearts seem drawn to it.”

It is because of prejudice and ignorance like this that our mission is critical, and that we as Pagans must take steps to rectify the ignorance and the lack of knowledge surrounding our various beliefs; we must notify our government that we are many and we are unified.

This is the goal of the Pagan Unity Campaign, as evidenced in its mission statement:

The mission of the Pagan Unity Campaign (PUC) is to unify the many diverse branches of Paganism in America. A lofty goal that has been tried many times before and not succeeded. However, we are not attempting to unify Pagans under a religious umbrella, but we want Pagans to come together under the banner of Freedom.

To underscore our goal and our issues, we drafted and signed the Pagan Bill Of Rights; a document based on secular rights that all Pagans should have access to, but all too often are denied.

It is our hope that we can all agree that unifying on this one, single position; the Pagan Bill Of Rights, would be a powerful first step. If we are successful here, the next issue will be easier.

The organization of PUC is straightforward and similar to any other not-for-profit organization: There is a President who has several assistants, a Vice President, and state and regional representatives. All have designated duties involving their assigned and/or elected positions, and there is a Yahoo staff group established in which representatives notify others in the PUC staff of pressing issues and the action taken by themselves and the community. All are expected to contribute and forward the PUC mission in the community, and to represent the organization to the public in the best light possible. All positions are filled by volunteers.
Additionally, there is a Yahoo group for any who wish to become members or who desire to participate more fully in PUC activities, which can be accessed at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PUCPAC/?yguid=162129234. You must be a member to access the boards.

PUC originated and sustained several campaigns, all of which have had the successful outcome of bringing to the attention of our elected officials the fact that many of their constituents are of a faith they may not consider respectable or acceptable and, in fact, which may contradict aspects of their own faiths. PUC also presents a united Pagan front; by identifying ourselves as Pagans (rather than Wiccan, Asatru, Kemetic, Strega, etc.), we manage to accomplish the goal of a strong presentation of Pagan support. There is both strength and respectability in numbers, and together we demand that respect from our government by taking part in PUC’s activities.

There are three major campaigns which PUC sponsors: So Vote It Be, which is a push to encourage Pagans of all faiths to vote, without any pressure to vote for a particular candidate (we are a nonpartisan group); IAM, which is an annual campaign in which Pagans are encouraged to contact their elected representatives on the summer solstice by postcard; and the birthday card campaign, in which Pagans are asked to mail birthday cards to their elected state and federal officials. Since their inception, all campaigns have been successful, and grow in response each year. Additionally, PUC staffers are constantly on the watch for any religious and applicable news in their area, and contact local media when necessary, typically by letter writing, and alert members to how they can help make a difference.

PUC recently sponsored the IAM4 campaign, in its fourth successful year, its initial inception being February 9, 2001. The purpose behind it was to bring the government’s attention to the fact that there are many Pagans in this country; we hold a myriad of jobs and, most importantly, we are voters.

Unfortunately, there is a negative stereotype associated with those of the Pagan faith, mostly caused by media (film, books, etc.) that perpetuate the image of Witches as either people who can do Hollywood magic and/or slovenly people wearing black or too much eye makeup, and who behave in a manner considered outrageous by society. Of course, these stereotypes are far from the truth of the majority of Pagans and their behavior. Most are citizens like any other, going about their daily business and enjoying life. The only difference between them and their neighbor is their faith. It is imperative that this stereotype be dismissed as the propaganda and misinformation that it is, and be replaced with the reality of Pagans in America today.

This is a simple message, but many times those are the most effective. It is our hope that those in a position of power and who have the ability to initiate change will take the initiative to support those of faiths not considered to be mainstream. One person can make a difference in this country, as long as they take the initiative to do so. You can be that person and join the ranks of activists who fight for that which they hold dear and believe is their inarguable right to freedom of religion.

Proof of this is seen in the letter which I received from Director Towey. Following his statement mentioned earlier, I wrote to him concerning his position regarding Pagans. I received this in response:

I meant no ill will to any individual or group in my response to the question I was asked. People with loving hearts can come from many different faiths and backgrounds, and indeed, many who volunteer to help others or donate to charities may not be motivated by faith at all. That is the beauty of our country and the richness of pluralism. President Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative seeks to mobilize “armies of compassion” so that the homeless are housed, the addicted are treated, the hungry are fed, and others in need are assisted. While there has been much progress made in America in alleviating poverty and loneliness, much remains to be done and I remain committed to this effort.

If a simple letter can elicit such a reaction, how much more could a surfeit of postcards sent to all of the elected officials in our states and in Washington, DC?

PUC’s website is www.paganunitycampaign.org , and you can find your state or regional representative there if you have any questions regarding the campaign or if you would like to learn more about this exciting and innovative organization. If you would be interested in any of the state or regional openings at this time, please contact PUC’s President, Ginger Strivelli, at ginger@paganunitycampaign.org .

ABOUT...

Rev. Mia Sykes nee Lady Starfyre Nemorensis

Location: Laurel, Maryland

Website: http://geocities.yahoo.com/high_priestess_starfyre

Bio: Rev. Mia Sykes (Lady Starfyre Nemorensis) is a graduate of the New Seminary in New York (2001). She is the High Priestess of the Silver Melody Coven, and a Dianic Wiccan.

Starfyre is the Maryland representative for the Pagan Unity Campaign (PUC) and Alternative Religions Network, as well as the Vice President (Membership) of PUC. She is an Associate Faculty member with the New Seminary, a Reiki Master and spiritual counselor and performs weddings in the DC, VA and MD areas.

Publications include The Wheel of the Year: Death and Bereavement in the Pagan Community, Death and Bereavement in the World Religions (as Rev. Mia Reeves), and several articles and editorials.

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

greefire announcement

2005-06-27T00:28:02Z

Greetings Green Fire Members & friends of Darlene Loyd

On Earth Day, Green Fire's founder/president and author - Darlene Loyd - sent out an announcement with a link to download a free copy of her ebook to Green Fire members. http://www.treasurex.net/ebook.htm

Many responded wondering when the printed version would be available through the publishers. We are happy to announce that "Generation X: A Hidden Treasure on a Lost Planet" is now available for purchase for $16.99. To order your copy go to http://www.treasurex.net

Please forward this announcement to kin & tribe everywhere....

In Lake'ch
The Green Fire Matrix Forums Team
http://www.greenfireministry.org

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

A CALL TO COUNCIL

2005-06-26T23:48:37Z

Greetings Green Fire Earth Stewards

Green Fire has formed strategic alliance with The ONE Project and the following is an announcement of a very important gathering that is happening in Mt. Shasta:

.: A Call to Council :.
An eCommunity Networking event
Fri. July 1st - Sun. July 3rd
Mt. Shasta, CA
http://www.acall2council.org

This call goes out to all tribal activated community networkers and
creative family of visionaries!

The Shasta family is hosting a community networking event at Stewart Mineral Springs on July 1-3 2005 and we're excited to invite YOU to bring your piece of the cosmic puzzle. As we draw together many aspects of ourselves to share insights and info, we'll have opportunity to connect, share, hang out and
generally schmooze in a myriad of funkified ways. There will be a variety of speakers, focusgroups and, for our delectation, amazing electronic and LIVE music. There will be a chillspace / healing lounge with bodyworx and light therapies; lovely aromas and medicines of the earth, marvellous stones and of course the astounding light workers and healers that are their friends!! The Buddha Belly kitchen will be offering up
organic eats and exquisite elixirs.

The main theme of .: A Call to Council :. is to create an ongoing interactive forum that allows us to get away to a peaceful serene environment outside of the technosphere where we can connect our galactic tribal dots together and seed the new vision of sustainable community. These 'seed' events will be happening
every season, progressing into a full-on eCommunity gathering, housing every aspect of community. All of our ideas, our networks, our creative sparks, our expertise, our experience will all be imprinted into this seed, which will then grow through our own experiential evolution as we witness the co-creative
unfoldment of this vision of sustainable community.

We are sending the call out to all folks that are aligned with this vision to come and commune in a beautiful space and share our connections, our resources and our enthusiasm in order to start bringing together all the elements that will be involved in manifesting The Great Work. With all the core pieces brought together, we will get down, council up, and create the interactive solution to connect all our resources and imagineer what it is we want to see in The Big Picture and the future of our world. Undoubtedly, YOU are one of those core pieces, so we invite you to come and get down!

Come and bring your piece of the underground movement...

Whats up for this weekend>? *NETWORKING*
We are bringing together a wide group of creative, galactivated, virtual & sustainable movers and shakers and some of the groovyest sounds around ranging from Acoustic Spoken word to LIVE & Tribal electronica.

.: Some of the themes of the focus groups will be :.
13 Moon calendar movement
Green eco-sustainability - The New College
eCommunity-building
Activated social community networking
- Darlene & Green Fire Stewards - greenfireministry.org
- Jair - Imaginify.org
- Miquael Gaio - Transcendigital.org
- Anna - PlaNetwork.net
- Dominic - In My Village
- Audette Sophia - networking interactivations healing arts
- Ambe Ray - creative flow yoga & guided group activations
& more, so stay tuned in and turned on!
---------------------------------------------------
All musicians & Dj's are NOT listed or confirmed at this moment, sorry!
Gates open fri evening & close sun morning.....

Hamsa Lila - (World Trance Groove) Friday Night
Acacia - (SF based Jam band)
Gypsy Moon (Oregon)
Grey Area ? (Mt Shasta)
Tandava - (CCC/SF)
Dirk - (CCC/SF)
Jerome - (Lo Pro Sac/SF)
Chris - (Lo Pro/SF)
Audette Sophia- song/spoken word performance
Shakatura - (Ceiba)
Mercury - (Shasta/Sedona)
Jubal - (Shasta)
Nep~tune (spiritual technology, Beat church S.F.)
Kitty-D (kittyology, Beat Church S.F.)
Goldilox (Brass Tax, SF)
Jackaranda (SF/ Seattle)
Anna & Shakina (Marin/ SF)
Matt Rickman - (Neuromorphic Recs - Sac)
Jonah - (Neuromorphic Recs - Sac)
Danny - (Moontribe - Arcata)
Waater - (Environmental Structures - Sea)
Brian - (Marin/SF)
El PapaChango - (El Circo - SF)
Mozaic (Moontribe)

...& many others, including YOU, so please bring your instruments,
your voice, your song and your dance! There will be live music & spoken
word, leading into downtempo, breakbeats, house, exp treats & Psy Trance...

There are mineral baths, a large sauna, fresh cold springs & massage
available. Purification Ceremony held on Saturday afternoon.

Cabins, Motel & Apt units available for rent but are filling up quickly
so please call ahead for reservations 530 938 2222. Go to
www.stewartmineralsprings.com then click directions or info needed.

****ASOLUTELY NO FIRES $500 fine strickly enforced****

This is a leave no trace event so please pack out what you pack in, And
please NO DOGS....Thank you

We are asking for a suggested $21-33$ donation to help keep these events
alive & growing,
http://www.acall2council.org

In Lake'ch
Green Fire

http://greenfireministry.org/members/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=87&

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

Earth-Based Pagans and Ecology by geascian

2005-05-11T19:51:27Z

Earth-Based Pagans and Ecology

by geascian

We have been asked to consider why we, as Pagans, are not more overtly environmentally focused, and whether or not this indicates a level of hypocrisy in the Pagan community. Well apart from the observation that not all paths that are generally lumped together under the label “Pagan” consider them selves to be “Earth-Based, ” we need to consider exactly what “Earth-Based” means in this context.

A good working definition is provided by the Pagan Federation in the UK: “Love for and Kinship with Nature. Reverence for the life force and its ever-renewing cycles of life and death.”

Now the important thing to note here is that it is expressed as a being “Love for” and “Kinship with” nature. It also mentions that there needs to be a reverence for the cycles involved. Others may well have a different definition of what it means to be “Earth-Based, ” but generally the vast majority that I have come across, expressed by serious Pagans, tend to have a very similar feel to them. This reverence for nature includes, I suggest, an understanding of the fact that change is a fundamental part of nature; the cycles we talk about are not static cycles endlessly repeating the same orbit but dynamic ones where each journey round the cycle is subtly different to all the others that have gone before or those that are yet to come. These sort of dynamic cycles are seen frequently in nature. The phenomena of dynamic systems “following” a strange attractor, part of the theory behind chaotic systems, is particularly prevalent in the natural environment where many environmental systems including weather systems are fundamentally based on these ever-changing cycles.

For me being a Pagan, an Earth-Based Pagan, means embracing this fact of change and accepting that the environment is not only subject to change but that change is a natural, and indeed, fundamental part of the Earth.

Others sometimes talk about looking back to the “old” people who lived in harmony with the Earth. It is suggested that, “They never impacted the environment the way we do today; they understood the Earth.”

Understood they may have done but lived in harmony? I don’t think so! Right from the start our earliest ancestors impacted their environment. Most of the forests in Northern Europe were cut or burnt down by the time the Iron Age ended, and recent research based on analysis of Antarctic ice cores suggests that prehistoric farming prevented an Ice Age by raising the global temperature by something like two degrees.

These people lived with the Earth on a day-to-day basis and yes understood in their very bones the cycles of the Earth and the web of life, but they wouldn’t have understood the suggestion that they shouldn’t do anything to impact the environment. They lived in the environment and were part of that environment and were intimately part of the process of change.

So what does this say to Pagans today? How should we interpret “Earth-Based” and how should it inform our actions?

Well, we need to accept that the Earth and its environment will change and that we are going to be part of that change. That doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we like to the Earth and its environment because being Pagan brings with it other things that should inform how we look at and interact with our environment.

Many Pagans, myself included, have a sense of the deity that is broadly one of an immanent deity. That is to say that the deity, life force or whatever you wish to call it, is seen as completely within and constrained by creation. An immanent deity would be thought of as being part of creation in a literal sense, that is to say that every part of creation is part of the deity and that the deity is found in everything that has been created.

This has a profound impact on how we should see our interaction with the environment. If we harm the environment, the Earth, we are in a very real way harming ourselves. Now that is not always something that shouldn’t happen; there are occasions where what looks like harm can in fact be beneficial. Most people would accept the harm caused by an operation to fix a broken leg for example, as they understand that the harm caused will prevent, or correct a greater harm.

What it does tell us, however, is that we are not the external agents of change who impose our will on an unwilling Earth and that require Eco-Warriors or Environmental activists to defend the defenseless Earth, but rather an organic part of the Earth and its environment. Agents of change yes, but no more or less that any of the other agents of change present in the universe and the Earth or indeed the natural propensity of everything to undergo change.

We also, as Pagans, accept the concept that we need to be, and are, responsible for our actions. The three-fold law embodies this concept, and even if you don’t feel happy with the three-fold law of return most would happily accept that actions produce reactions. In our dealings with the Earth this principle also applies both on the local scale and on the global. Everything we do will impact the Earth and the environment and all of these impacts cause change. Some of this change we can predict some we can’t, but most often we simply never ask ourselves what change will result from our actions and how that change will come back to impact us.

One of the factors complicating any attempt to decide what the likely outcome of any of our actions will be is the “fractal” and “chaotic” nature of our environment. There is a well-known example of this, where a butterfly in New York manages to cause a storm over London. Deciding exactly what actions will result in positive results and which won’t simply isn’t as simple as many would like to think. For a Pagan, the decision to undertake a particular action, or support a particular environmental cause is made all the more difficult by the unpredictability of nature.

As I see it this embedding in the very Earth itself, the acceptance of some form of a law of return, accepting responsibility for our actions and the difficulty in predicting the outcome of our attempts to influence the global environment leads me, at least, to a view that rather than the noisy, visibly active, single-issue environmental activist or the thoughtful writer of articles for Pagan journals, for a lot of Pagans being “Earth-Based” means being sensitive to their activities, small and large, and how they might impact, as unpredictable as that might be. Not necessarily thinking deeply all the time about their actions and possible consequences but quietly aware of their part in the grand web. No single large-scale project, reducing CO2 emissions, stopping use of CFCs or any other large decision will correct the damage that has been done or undo the changes already underway. But many small changes, culturally sensitive and totally embedded in the ecology of the Earth and its web of existence, by everybody, has the potential to radically impact on the future development of the environment and whole Earth eco-systems.

These personal and local actions can, and given a chance will, have a massive global impact. It doesn’t take governments to pass laws or activists to protest noisily to cut CO2 emissions; it takes us to decide to walk a little more, buy locally produced goods or turn our heating down a degree. This is the basis of the advice “think globally, act locally, ” and is probably one of the best expressions of the environmentalism of a truly “embedded” Pagan that I can think of.

Using disposable tableware at the Pagan picnic may seem to be less than environmentally friendly but its impact may well be less than the impact of repeated use of powerful chemicals used in cleaning the traditional tableware. Not having an environmental focus for your meeting might seem strange but if the people there understand and feel their place in the Earth and live their environmentalism, then such a deliberate focus is not only unnecessary but wouldn’t even be considered.

Is this hypocrisy? Hardly!

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

The feminine divine

2005-05-11T05:23:29Z

Apr. 28, 2005 23:05 | Updated May. 1, 2005 10:22
The feminine divine
By MEREDITH PRICE

Worshipping the goddess. 'The history of the goddess is never discussed here because it's taboo, and very few people even know about it,' Iris Yotvat
Photo: Meredith Price

The scent of sage fills the air as a light breeze blows through the leaves of nearby palm trees. Somewhere in the distance, a tractor is plowing a field. The chirp of an occasional bird breaks the calm hush for a moment. A bag of instruments is passed around, and a shrine with Neolithic goddess figurines, babushkas, photographs of goddess statues, and a ceramic plate painted with a spiral design is quietly constructed.

Thirteen Israeli men and women are seated in a circle around the artifacts. The earth below is the archeological site of a civilization over 8,000 years old. A few hundred meters away, one of the oldest known wells, now-covered, marks the spot where the people of the Yarmukian society once came to fill buckets of fresh water for pottery, drinking and bathing.

We are in Kibbutz Sha'ar Hagolan, south of Lake Kinneret, but the modern blessing ceremony some Israeli women have invented might have origins much older than was previously imagined.

They have chosen this place to conduct their ritual because of the goddess figurines recently found in this area. Iris Yotvat, one of the leaders of the goddess spirituality movement in Israel and a former movie star, leads the group in songs and prayers. As a chalice filled with water passes from hand to hand, each person places a few drops on their skin and thanks Mother Earth for her blessings. Some of the women remind everyone that we were not here first, and we will not be here last. A thin bundle of smoking sage, tightly bound with white string, is passed around for meditation and cleansing.

After each person says his or her blessings and thoughts, Yotvat begins to sing to the beat of a slow drum. Tambourines, flutes, shakers and darbukas join in the songs of praise to the Great Mother, the creator of life.

For many of the men and women seated here, the power of the circle represents a sacred space. It provides a medium for group meditation and unity. It relates to the moon and the ancient symbol of eternity, where time has no end and no beginning.

The goddess worshipers believe that a divine goddess was praised thousands of years ago, when agricultural societies lived in relative peace, and that the loss of that feminine spirit is part of what ails our modern culture.

Despite their marginality, their convictions are supported by a growing body of archeological evidence and by many biblical scholars. Many of those who believe in a divine feminine recently united in the Negev desert for a Shakti festival to learn more about ancient goddess figurines and how they connect to their lives today.

Some of the seminars and lectures at the festival included contemporary findings, especially those goddess figurines discovered within Israel, such as the ones Dr. Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University recently uncovered at Kibbutz Sha'ar Hagolan.

ELEVEN YEARS ago, Garfinkel and his archeological team began excavations on a small plot of land on the kibbutz. They discovered evidence of an advanced civilization in the Neolithic period, when humanity transitioned from nomadic hunters and gatherers to agricultural farmers and domesticators.

Their dig produced evidence of a street network, houses, courtyards and a well. They found large amounts of pottery and goddess figurines, indicating a technologically innovative society. The artistic, herring-bone design found on much of the pottery is also carved on the goddess figurines. Garfinkel believes it was a symbol the Yarmukians, so named for their proximity to the Yarmuk River, probably also tattooed on their bodies.

Continued from page 1 of 4)
Goddess figurines have been found throughout the Middle East, but the Yarmukian site yielded 350, while the dig excavated only 1 percent of the actual size of the ancient city. The high number of figurines and their identical features – the long head, the diagonal, grooved eyes, the prominent nose, earrings, the seated position with the left hand supporting the breasts and the right hand on the hip – led Garfinkel to conclude that it is unlikely that these objects functioned as toys.

"When it comes to interpretation, your imagination is as good as mine," says Garfinkel. "But these figurines were not Barbie dolls or art. The fact that they are all the same indicates some sort of ritual or religious function," he explains.

It is difficult to say with any certainty whether or not the Yarmukians were worshiping goddesses because we have no written evidence about their system of beliefs, but many archeologists speculate that the goddess figurines represented fertility. As the Yarmukians were exchanging their nomadic lifestyle for a more permanent, agricultural existence, their dependence on livestock and crops greatly increased.

According to Professor Moshe Stekelis of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the first researcher at Sha'ar Hagolan in the 1940s, "almost all scholars agree that Neolithic female figurines are the prototype of the Mother-goddess, representing fertility in all its aspects – human, animal and vegetal. Neolithic figurines like the Yarmukian were also, it may be surmised, used as amulets for fertility, protection against evil, relief in child-bearing and in the cult of the dead."

BUT NO matter what the purpose or function of the goddess figurines once was, some contemporary women have found in them a justification and inspiration for their modern beliefs.
As Sandra Scham, the editor of Near Eastern Archeology, recently pointed out, Asherah, the wife or consort of Yahweh, is referenced over 40 times in the Old Testament, but she was relentlessly attacked by the authors of biblical texts.

In the biblical text, Asa, the king of Judah (911-870 BCE) is commended for revoking the privileges of performing official duties from his mother Ma'acah after "she had an abominable image made for Asherah (I Kings, 15.13, II Chronicles 15.6). The long-reigning Manasseh of Judah (698-642 BCE) is denounced for doing "what was evil in the sight of the Lord" by "making an Asherah" (II Kings 21.7), and Josiah (639-609 BCE) is praised for destroying offerings made to Asherah at the temple in Jerusalem and for the demolition of a shrine where women "did the weaving for Asherah" (II Kings 23).

But "ultimately, the campaign to eliminate the goddess has failed," writes Scham, due to the increasing archeological evidence, not only of the goddess presence, but also of her importance.

Most biblical scholars agree that Asherah was the Caananite goddess and consort of El, as evidenced through ancient inscriptions found in Sinai. She disappeared after the fall of Judah and the exile in Babylon, purportedly condemned by a patriarchal, established religion that feared the power and equality of women.

According to Marija Gimbutas, a well-known archeologist who specialized in goddess art, figurines and mythology in European prehistory, a peaceful, sedentary culture with highly developed agricultural systems and great architectural, ceramic and sculptural traditions was invaded by warring tribes. These repeated incursions slowly shifted the equilibrium between men and women into a predominantly patriarchal society

BUT THESE archeologically-based ideas threaten the basis of traditional religious beliefs, especially in Israel, where a predominantly Jewish population worships one God.

"Discussing the goddess and blessing the goddess here is not like anywhere else because Judaism is so strong, and Judaism sees it as worshiping another god," says actress Yotvat, who returned to Israel 15 years ago from Berkeley, California, where goddess worship has a strong following.

"The history of the goddess is never discussed here because it's taboo, and very few people even know about it," says Yotvat. She believes that society is against getting in touch with the feminine because giving power to women is scary for men, who resist relinquishing their own power and fear domination.

"It's not about the power of one over another," says Yotvat. "It's about partnership and bringing peace, and being close to nature and respecting Mother Earth."

Yotvat has seen a tremendous explosion in the interest of the goddess and the feminine side of divinity over the last few years in Israel. Women from all walks of life are starting to attend women's circles to learn more about themselves and how they can achieve harmony in their own lives by listening to their inner cycles.

Elana Elan began studying the healing powers of the goddess after she found out she had cancer.

"I started feeling feminine healing after I made changes in my life and began listening to my own body and living by the principles of my own cycles," she says. For the last few years, Elan has dedicated herself to teaching other women how to awaken the goddess within, and she is seeing great results.

"There is a goddess in every woman and a god in every man," she says. "Society needs to make a change in the direction of peace and love to bring back the balance between the feminine and the masculine that has been lost."

For Elan, the effects of the historical persecution of the goddess can still be felt in the war and violence so prevalent in today's world. "Our bodies remember the past. We need to heal our old wounds and remember that we have access to softness and wisdom if we seek it."

The ceremonies and rituals thanking Mother Earth – the great goddess – are Elan's way of exploring and inventing her own spirituality, but her beliefs are firmly rooted in the past.

"This is bigger than my personal story. This is the most ancient religion, where balance and peace existed. My vision is to bring it back to this world," she says.

AT LEAST one rabbi in Israel agrees. Ohad Ezrahi, the founder of HaMakom, a place of Jewish worship in the Judean Desert and the author of Who is Afraid of Lillith?, recently started a Jewish Renewal Movement, in which holidays are more deeply connected to nature and Mother Earth. His congregation of around 600 members celebrates Judaism in a sensual way, through dance and song.

But his new vision, far from being accepted by his former community, ostracized him. At 18, he joined a haredi yeshiva in Jerusalem and shortly after became a Belzer hassid; the Belzer Rebbe took him under his wing and became his personal mentor.

A few years later, after delving into Kabbala, he decided that teaching in the haredi yeshivot was too oppressive for him.

"Seven or eight years ago, I was an Orthodox rabbi. I realized something was wrong with the traditional beliefs, but I committed social suicide by saying so," he explains. Ezrahi was ordained as a rabbi and spiritual leader by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi.

We are trying to bring back the balance by learning to respect the differences between the masculine and the feminine and celebrating them," says Ezrahi. "The ancient Israelites worshiped Asherah [the goddess] and our God. It was obvious to the people that there was a feminine aspect to divinity."

The metaphor he gives for understanding his interpretation of Judaism is that of a creative, living religion that cannot be treated like a museum.

"We have inherited the house of our ancestors and we love it and we want to live there, but to make it comfortable, we break down some walls and we open some windows. We bring in new furniture and we suit it to our own needs," he explains. In order to understand where we are today, we must first understand our roots.

Although the goddess movement is still small in Israel, Ezrahi has seen a dramatic change in the spiritual scene here over the last few years.

"More and more people are realizing that there is something wrong with the traditional vision. If women were more involved in the peace process, it would be different," he says.

A WEEK before Pessah at this year's fourth annual Shakti festival, over 400 women gathered in the Negev to celebrate the spirit of the goddess within and learn more about the origins of the divine feminine.

One ceremony at Shakti honored women over 50 and thanked them for their contribution to society.

"For us, age is a gift. We asked these women to tell us what wisdom they have gained, and how they can initiate us in their understanding," says Elan. "After they spoke, each one received a flower from a nine-year-old girl to honor them."

At the fire ceremony, a huge bonfire in the desert provided the perfect place to dance, sing, connect to nature and release any past pain and anger.

"People danced and sang, and some people lay down on the ground to feel the earth below them," says Elan.

For the Pessah Seder, many of the Israeli women involved in the goddess movement celebrated in alternative ways.

"We went out to the woods to be close to nature," says Elan. "On Friday night, we went to the beach and brought food and some inspirational qualities of Pessah. We read the Haggada from a point of view that respects women and celebrated in a goddess way."

Being outside and close to nature, far away from the lights and noise of big cities, is an important part of reconnecting to the feminine spirit for all of the goddess worshipers. It provides silence for meditation and tangible communication with the earth.

And back at Sha'ar Hagolan, as the space of the small, sacred circle created by a contemporary group of Israeli men and women begins to break apart and the slow rhythm of the musical instruments lulls to a stop, they hope that regardless of who or what society worshiped in the past, blessing the great goddess of the present will return the world to a state of balance and peace.

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EDITORIAL : Bush carves up the backcountry

2005-05-10T05:54:15Z

EDITORIAL
Bush carves up the backcountry

Monday, May 9, 2005

BY SHREDDING wilderness protections, President Bush is earning a new title in the West: Chainsaw in Chief.

His forestry team wants to junk a uniform policy banning roads on 32 million acres of federal backcountry and ask state governors to draw their own maps instead.

The Bush team is selling it as a local-control gesture to end a pile of lawsuits. But it's also an open invitation to gut a 2001 roadless rule adopted by President Clinton after much study and debate.

For the record, California isn't likely to suffer harm. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pledged to stick with the existing roadless rules in giving Washington his advice. Some 4.4 million acres of untouched land should remain off limits to timber, mining and oil-drilling activities that rely on roads. Mark Rey, the undersecretary of agriculture in charge of the U.S. Forest Service, indicated the present roadless policy will likely remain.

But the rest of the West could be in for change. States with the biggest tracts of roadless wilderness, such as Alaska and Idaho, are eager to dump the bans and allow roads that will spur timber-cutting and mineral exploration. Other governors in Washington and New Mexico want no part of road-building. Each will have to make a case and hope Bush officials agree in any final decision.

Instead of firm consensus barring new roads, Bush officials want to slip in a loose-fit set of rules. It's a situation tailor-made for commercial interests to bring pressure on friendly politicians in each state capital. Money, jobs, domestic production: The industry arguments will all be made again. While the White House retains final control, it has moved the messy public fighting over roadless rules to each governor's office.

What's at stake is more than a political process. The country's wildest reaches, so far untouched by industry, are in jeopardy. President Bush is making his mark on the outdoors in the worst way.

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New Rule Opens National Forest to Roads

2005-05-10T05:45:37Z

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer Fri May 6,12:00 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The last 58.5 million acres of untouched national forests, which
President Clinton had set aside for protection, were opened to possible logging, mining and other commercial uses by the Bush administration on Thursday.

New rules from the U.S. Forest Service cover some of the most pristine federal land in 38 states and Puerto Rico. Ninety-seven percent of it is in 12 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Governors can submit petitions within 18 months to stop road building on some of the 34.3 million acres where it would now be permitted or request that new forest management plans be written to allow the construction on some of the other 24.2 million acres.

Many officials made it clear much of the land will remain untouched.

"We have no plans to build roads in the roadless areas of the national forests in California. ... Areas are roadless here for a reason," said Matt Mathes, a regional spokesman for the Forest Service in the state.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said his agency, which includes the Forest Service, will work closely with governors "to meet the needs of our local communities while protecting and restoring the health and natural beauty of our national forests."

Democrats questioned why governors were getting so much power over land use.

"Trees, wildlife and fish don't respect state boundaries, and I don't think decisions about management of roadless areas — or other parts of the national forests — should be based on those lines, either," said Rep. Mark Udall (news, bio, voting record), D-Colo.

Eight days before leaving office in 2001, Clinton acted to take decisions about roadless forest land away from local federal managers. Environmentalists said the managers often were too close to logging companies and other developers.

"Any short-term economic gain that would result from turning over these areas to corporate special interests is significantly outweighed by the economic benefit of keeping them intact," said Steve Smith, The Wilderness Society's assistant regional director for Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.

The Forest Service will have final say over the governors' petitions. But the agency is creating an advisory committee to help put the rule in place.

The agency said petitions from the states could be based on requests to protect public health and safety; reduce wildfire risks; conserve wildlife habitat; maintain dams, utilities or other public works; or ensure that people have road access to their private property.

With the federal courts deeply involved since Clinton's action, the fate of the regulations is in doubt. For example, on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit heard arguments from environmental groups that are appealing a Wyoming judge's ruling overturning Clinton's move.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Clinton's rule. Many of the same issues apply in both cases.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees forest policy, said the new rule would cut away the legal uncertainty by getting states on the side of the federal government.

He emphasized that the rule probably would not lead to a big spurt of road building. "We've only been constructing a few miles of road each year," he said.

Jim Angell, a lawyer with the Earthjustice law firm, said plaintiffs already are lining up to challenge the changes announced Thursday.

___

On the Net:

Forest Service: http://www.roadless.fs.fed.us

In this photo released by the Heritage Forest Campaign, Fish Creek, bottom center, in Idaho's Clearwater National Forest, is surrounded by a U.S. Forest Service-designated inventoried roadless area in 2003, according to the Heritage Forest Campaign. The Bush administration, in one of its biggest decisions on environmental issues, moved Thursday, May 5, 2005, to open up nearly a third of all remote national forest lands, like the Fish Creek area, to road building, logging and other commercialventures. (AP Photo/Heritage Forests Campaign, Chuck Pezeshki, File)

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Homemade healing: Classes teach about the power of herbs By Amy Flowers Umble

2005-05-10T05:32:47Z

Homemade healing: Classes teach about the power of herbs

By AMY FLOWERS UMBLE

Date published: 4/6/2005

In the kitchen of the Dorothy Hart Community Center, four women watch a pot of boiling water and crack witch jokes.

But there are no bat wings or frog eyes boiling in oil. The pot doesn't contain a magic potion or an evil spell.

Just a salve that can make you feel calm and happy while easing your aching muscles.

The ladies, three students and a teacher, are taking part in a series of four classes on herbal remedies offered through the Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation Department. Classes include oils and lotions, salves and bathes, tinctures and liniments, and syrups and lozenges. Anyone can sign up at any time during the series.

"I've always gone into those natural bath stores and thought, 'There's got to be an easy way to make this, because it's so expensive,'" said Machelle Miller, who re-cently moved to Fredericksburg.

Already interested in herbs, Miller was looking for new friends and a hobby when she met JoAnna Cassidy-Farrell, a certified herbal consultant with the Natural Path store on Lafayette Boulevard.

Miller learned Cassidy-Farrell would be teaching the classes and signed up through Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation.

"I highly recommend this class," she said on the second night.

Miller loves learning about the medicinal uses for herbs. She was concerned about giving her young niece cough medicine that contains alcohol and "plenty of big words" on the ingredients list.

Cassidy-Farrell showed Miller and the other students how to make a simple version of the Vick's Vaporub out of petroleum jelly and eucalyptus oil.

"Vaseline, essential oil drops, and you've got yourself a homemade medicine, real quick," Cassidy-Farrell said.

Most of the remedies were not quite so easy, with ingredients that were harder to find. But Cassidy-Farrell showed the students how to make balms at home on a stove with a glass measuring cup and a pot. She told them how they could find beeswax and herbs around town.

Cassidy-Farrell also listened as the women talked about remedies they needed: help for pained ankles, stress relief for a work meeting, advice for a mother's hip problems.

To Cassidy-Farrell, that's what herbal medicine is all about.

"I don't feel like doctors can spend quality time with their patients," she said. "I don't feel like it's their fault. I feel like it's the insurance companies'. And I don't feel like doctors go for mind, body, soul. I think you need to listen to your patient."

Cassidy-Farrell, who graduated from Sacred Traditions in Charlottesville, became interested in herbs while working at an animal hospital.

"We weren't looking for a cure. We were just trying to put a Band-Aid on it," she said.

She investigated herbal medicine and found it could treat "everything from toe fungus to depression to cancer." So she signed up for Dreamtime Herbal School in Sperryville. She spent three years on a waiting list before attending the school. Halfway through the five-year program, the school moved to Charlottesville and changed its name to Sacred Traditions.

After graduating in 2003, Cassidy-Farrell started working at Natural Path, a natural health store that she says is finding more business.

"As Fredericksburg is growing and as people's minds are growing we are growing quickly," Cassidy-Farrell said. "We stay busy here."

As business grew, Cassidy-Farrell wanted to help people learn to use herbs in their every day lives. So she created her four-part classes. She's taught them at both Natural Path and Fredericksburg Parks and Recreation, and she hopes to take the classes to Spotsylvania and Stafford counties' parks and rec departments.

"I'm always giving classes," Cassidy-Farrell said.

To get in touch with her, call Natural Path at 891-6200.

To reach AMY FLOWERS UMBLE: 540/374-5000, ext. 5764 aumble@freelancestar.com

Date published: 4/6/2005

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Beyond Mere Sentiment: Reclaiming Mother's Day By Sia

2005-05-10T04:59:19Z

Beyond Mere Sentiment: Reclaiming Mother's Day

Author: Sia

What are we Pagans to make of Mother’s Day? On the surface it looks like just another commercially inspired holiday composed of greeting cards, insipid sentiments and gifts. But it didn’t start out that way and it can mean a great deal more.

The Radical Origins of Mother’s Day:

In an article written for WorkingForChange.com, Gev Parish notes:

Julia Ward Howe called for the establishment of Mother's Day in 1870. Her gesture was intended not as a sentimental tribute to those who bear children, but as a call for women to wage a general strike to end war. (1)

Julia, a poet and suffragist, began her work to honor mothers as a radical act. We tend to forget that mothers are, and always have been, politically and socially active. Throughout history, they have used the wisdom they gained as mothers to think of future generations and work for the good of all. (2)

Real Life Moms:

Motherhood’s a tough gig.

To be a mother is to cry and rage and worry and work till you want to drop. And most women do this without any help from any darn village.

Motherhood is both mind numbing and inspiring, frustrating and fulfilling. It’s a job worth doing and it takes a great deal of strength, wisdom, and self esteem to do it well.

The many images of the Great Mother (http://www.mothergoddess.com/completelist.htm ) give us a sense of this. Her secret is contained within a paradox of seeming contradictions. She is both and equally, Kuan Yin and Kali, Isis and Morrigan, Aphrodite and Hecate, Lakshmi and Durga, Freya and Ha Hai-i Wuhti. In other, psychologically profound myths, she is portrayed as Medea, (http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/medea.html ) who destroyed her children in a fit of rage, and Lysistrata, (http://www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/aristophanes_005.html) who organized other mothers, stopped a war and saved two cities in the process. To see only one, sweet side of a mother is to ignore the complex, empowering truth
of Her; a truth we can’t afford to miss.

Real mothers sometimes want to punch a wall. Instead they give hugs. They also teach, encourage, praise, and protect, and they do this creatively, day after day, no matter what. No wonder they simplified this holiday – it’s too hard to get all of that in one greeting card.

Mothers do this demanding, rewarding, and difficult work for their children.They also do it for our community as a whole, and our future. They do it without much (real, meaningful) support from either their culture or their government. Let’s honor that when we honor them.

Mother’s Day could be a good time to start reaching out and creating that village in our neighborhoods, in a way that works for us. We have to do that for ourselves, because no one is going to do it for us.

Then let’s do what we can to make the world a better, safer place for moms and children, everywhere.

A Note To Pagan Moms:

Please remember that if you do not take care of yourself, you are no good to anyone else. Your children look to you for an example of what it means to become a happy, healthy human being. No one wants a Martyr Mom. No adult wants the guilt engendered from extreme sacrifice on their behalf, and no child wants bitterness, victim hood, and regret as their heritage.

Empowering, Not Idealizing, Mothers:

This day can be empowering. It can remind our mothers to honor their spirit, their time, their bodies, their energy, and their minds. May they cherish their own dreams, as well as the dreams of their children. And may they ask for help, demand respect, model patience, good boundaries, and kindness, and expect the same in return. They deserve it.

The Red and the White:

Another woman, Anna Jarvis, is usually credited with creating the official Mother’s Day. The media paints her (when it mentions her at all) as some pious, Victorian snob. The truth is quite different. According to the Women’s History Project, (http://www.nwhp.org/events/moms-day/history-of-moms-day.html) she wanted to honor her mother, (also named Anna Jarvis) who “as a young Appalachian homemaker, organized "Mother's Work Days" to improve the sanitation and avert deaths from disease-bearing insects and seepage of polluted water.” This is powerful stuff, especially when you consider the role of water in the worship of the Mother Goddess. The Mystica website (http://www.themystica.org/) notes that:

Seas, fountains, ponds, and wells were always thought as feminine symbols….. Such passages….were often thought as leading to the underground womb…and water, like love, was (is) essential to the life forces of fertility and creativity,
without which the psychic world as well as the material world would become an arid desert, the waste land.

As a tribute to her mother, Anna Jarvis offered flowers at rallies. She chose carnations, her mother’s favorite flower. She used white carnations to represent the sweetness, purity, and endurance of motherly love. Over time, red carnations came to signify that one's mother is living, while white carnations came to mean one's mother has died. Consider using these colors in your Mother Goddess rituals this season.

Both Howe and Jarvis wanted to honor mothers but that was not their only goal. Both women – and this is important – sought honor the voices and the power of mothers. As the old phrase says: “In an age when women were told to sit down and be quiet, they did neither.”

Older Versions of Mother’s Day:

It is thought that some of the earliest historical Mother's Day celebrations occurred in ancient Greece to honor Rhea, (http://www.goddessmyths.com/Paintings%201999-2000.html) who is both a moon and bird Goddess. Originally from ancient Crete, she was known and celebrated in both Rome and Greece as the mother of the ancient Gods. Her festival was celebrated in the spring.

In England, the annual celebration is known as Mothering Sunday. (http://englishculture.allinfoabout.com/features/mothering-sunday.html) As the English Culture website notes:

In the old days, servants would be given time-off and worshippers would present offerings to their Mother Church. It was an especially important day in the calendars of apprentices, farm labourers and girls in service, because it meant that they could return home and share a meal with their parents. (2)

This holiday was sometimes the only time that workers could return home and see
their families. No wonder it was so important.

Sadly, Mother's Day in America soon became an enormously commercial holiday. Disillusioned, Miss Jarvis spent the rest of her life trying to reverse what she played such a major role in creating.

Reclaiming Mother’s Day:

Consider also this question on Mother’s Day: What would the world be like if we treated children and families as if they really mattered?

Some people think it would look a lot like Sweden. (http://members.aol.com/JehanaS/c_basics/c_9dys.html) I can tell you one thing; it would look a lot different than it does now.

If you would like to honor your mother and all mothers, including the Mother Goddess, you might wish to wear a red or a white carnation to honor those women who inspire you.

At the same time, why not do something positive for your neighborhood or the World Family on this day? Mother’s Day can be a day of action. Whatever your cause, you’ll find events and marches on this day. After all, what better day could there be to fight City Hall than the day dedicated to the original Uppity Woman?

You might also choose to do something sacred-silly with your friends and family. Design your own rituals to honor this day in a way that is meaningful to you. If the day is about rest, then rest. You earned it. It can also be a day of simple fun instead of overspending - you decide.

Try something radical or different – it doesn’t matter what it is, just spread your wings. Speak out, act up, find healing, take a class, or go on a hike and say “hi” to Momma Gaia. She might have something to say to you.

Use this day to tell your truth and compose your life. Tell your family story (the real one) . Make plans beyond this year; think two years, five years, ten years in advance. It’s your life to create, after all. And then calendar some time for yourself, not just once a year, but on a regular basis.

Below is a list of books and websites that celebrate motherhood and tell the truth about it at the same time. Many contain essays by mothers themselves. May these inspire and support you on your path.

Telling the Truth:

Our mothers are asked to measure up to an impossible, ridiculous ideal. This “Mommy Myth” effectively keeps them locked in place, and unable to be themselves for fear of looking like a bad mother. It does not allow them to tell the truth about their lives, both the good and the bad, to each other. Instead it forces them to be isolated, guilt ridden and powerless and it keeps their partners, their children, and the culture from seeing them truly, as women and as people.

As a result of this myth, motherhood often comes as a great shock to many women, because they have never known what it really means to be a mom, how false the ideal is, or how little real help there is out there for them as mothers, once they begin this great work.

So, let’s allow our mothers to step down off that pedestal. Once they get their feet on firm ground, there’s no telling how far they can go.

Dysfunctional Family Feud:

Families, as John Bradshaw says, are a bloody business. For some of us, this holiday is an awful mix of obligations, expectations, resentments (spoken and unspoken) blame, disappointment and guilt.

It’s as if someone mixed the gunpowder of anger with the sugar of denial and served it disguised to us as wholesome food. It’s no wonder then, that any mention of family makes some people want to explode and others, ill.

So let’s be honest. Some of us came from horribly dysfunctional families. Some have suffered neglect and others have survived sexual, emotional, or physical abuse. Some have spent years trying to work out what went wrong, and wondered if it was something they did. (It wasn’t) .

Many of those harmed have found healing and forgiveness over time, often through the use of ritual, private therapy and support groups. Others are still struggling with this burden. Sadly, many Pagans carry this dysfunctional family energy into their groups and circles and cause destruction there. (http://members.aol.com/JehanaS/c_basics/c_9dys.html
). But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can come to terms with our childhood and stop the cycle of pain. It begins with facing the facts and telling the truth. It takes courage and commitment and support. But it’s possible.

Some of us went on to become parents and passed these problems on to our own children. Some of us overcame our traumas and become wonderful, nurturing parents.

Healthy and unhealthy families exist in the Pagan community. It’s time we told the truth about that.

Below is a list of books and websites that tell the truth about families and healing. May these help you along the road as you find your own way, both as parent and child.

The Creatrix: An Archetype for All of Us:

Some of us don’t have children (either by choice or by chance) so we honor the Creatrix.

The Creatrix is connected to Gaia. She creates her own life as well as great friendships, arts and crafts, loving homes, beauty, peace, prosperity, and opportunities. She empowers friends and family and is, herself, empowered. She cares for other and she protects those who cannot protect themselves. She is a mistress of learning, knowledge, and culture. She has many forms including that of Artemis, Hestia, Athena, and Bridget. She can stand alone or with a partner. It’s her choice. We know her by the blessings that flow from her hand and the ideas that come from her mind and heart. This form of creation is worth knowing and honoring, as well.

Let us now honor the full power of the Mother Goddess and the Creatrix on Mother’s
Day and make it our own.

Goddess Bless,

Sia

Footnotes:
(1) In The Name of Womanhood and Humanity by Gev Parish ( http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=14930)

(2) Women of Achievement website – ( http://www.undelete.org/woa/woa.html) This site contains 25, 000 women’s stories throughout history. Don’t let anyone tell you that women (and mothers) didn’t make a difference.

(3) The site goes on to say: "Another popular ceremony on this day was church-clipping…..worship by forming a circle and walking round the building holding hands. It has been suggested that this custom was pagan in origin but it seems more likely it was a symbolic act of friendship and love." (Writer’s note: I think it was both)

"In a revival of a ceremony dating from Tudor times, young people still receive flowers and Simnel cakes at a service in the Chapel Royal at the Tower of London. These cakes were once baked by daughters throughout England - the name coming from the Latin simila, meaning 'fine flour' - who would also decorate their mother's homes with violets, primroses, daffodils and other spring flowers. They would often prepare egg custard, comfits, lambs' tails, white sugar sweets, fig pies and wafers, and give their mothers nosegays of wild flowers that had been blessed in church."

Recommended Reading for Mothers:

Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race and Themselves edited by Camile Peri and Kate Moses

Hip Momma’s Survival Guide by Ariel Gore and Ellen Forney

Mother Leads Best: 50 Women Who Are Changing the Way Organizations Define Leadership by Moe Grzelakowski

Mothers Who Think: Tales of Reallife Parenthood edited by Camile Peri and Kate Moses. Taken from the Salon.com column of the same name.

Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety by Judith Warner

The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Use Smarter by Katherine Ellison

The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Hurt Women by Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels

The Price of Motherhood: Why The Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued by Ann Crittenden

The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars: Who Decides What Makes A Good Mother by Miriam Peskowitz

The Second Shift by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Recommended Reading for Adults Recovering from Dysfunctional Families

Adult Children of Alcoholics by Janet Woititz

Codependent No More: How To Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring For Yourself by Melody Beatie

Bradshaw on The Family by John Bradshaw
(This book explains a dysfunctional family is, how it works, how each person is awarded a “role” in the family, and how these roles effect us in later life)

Family Secrets: The Path to Self-Acceptance and Reunion by John Bradshaw

Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child by John Bradshaw

Life and How to Survive It by Robin Skinner and John Cleese

Revolution from Within by Gloria Steinem

The Family and How To Survive It by Robin Skinner and John Cleese

Why People Don’t Heal, and How They Can by Carolyn Myss

Recommended Websites:

The Circle of Life: 13 Archetypes for Every Woman by Elizabeth Davis and Carol Leonard ( http://www.birth-sex.com/matriarch)

Spiral Steps Website – Support Groups for Pagans. ( http://www.spiralsteps.org/)

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Building Community to Prevent Abuse by Crystal

2005-05-10T04:54:08Z

Building Community to Prevent Abuse

Author: Crystal

Lack of structure in the Pagan community has been a blessing and a curse. I have found a lot of freedom within our community to decide what is right for me but at what cost to the Pagan community at large? I ponder that question when I go to large Pagan circles, where I see the lack of education or guidance among some of the youth who don't understand that being a Witch has nothing to do with wearing black and where I see people who claim to be what they are not. It makes me think about the prices we pay for such freedoms. One of the downsides to having this type of freedom is the misinterpretations of what this belief system really stands for and the abuse that can follow.

Abuse comes in many different forms in every community. In my quest within Pagan society I have seen a lot of separatism, prejudice and abuse of authority, including false claims to levels of authority not yet earned, especially that of High Priest/Priestess.

For a religion that embraces many different paths, prejudice still enters this community. Some people feel that their tradition, or even their religion, is superior. This bias is frequently against Christianity as well. There are many judgments based on different perceptions of what people think a Pagan or Wiccan should be or do.

But more troublesome is the misrepresentation of Pagan leadership. And one of the down sides to a lack of formal structure is the lack of regulatory guidelines for clergy or Pagan leadership. Anyone can claim to be a High Priestess/Priest, teacher, spiritual counselor, etc, and there is no means of holding those individuals to guidelines that are acceptable within the Pagan community. Furthermore there is no way for anyone to find out if this person has earned the position they claim to hold. Many times individuals are put in a position where they must choose a spiritual leader or coven blindly with no means of looking into the qualifications of the leader or group.

Structure does not solve everything, and even religious traditions with structure still experience abuse, although some structure can provide a resource for people to go to when abuse occurs, or to check prior to getting involved with certain leaders or groups. That in itself might deter some of the current clergy abuse in the Pagan community.

I think many times abuse within our community is swept under the rug because there is no place where reports of abuse can be given. As a result many covens and groups disband within two years of working together and many people are pulled into abusive or unhealthy coven or leadership situations.

In order to deter and curb some of the abuse within our community we have to stop saying it is okay and shut the door to such abuse. We have to decide if being Pagan or Wiccan means no authority or regulations. We have to decide if giving up some of those freedoms we enjoy is worth it for the greater good.

As it stands today there is no agency or resource to which abuse by a Pagan or Wiccan leader can be reported. Let's stop for a minute and take that even a step further. Does that add to the separation and judgment within our community? There is no common thread that weaves the Pagan community at large together. There is no authority, no regulation, no real community at large. We are separated into our religion, tradition, coven, tribe, local community, family or as a solitary on this path.

So with no real sense of community, what are we working towards and who cares if abuse happens?

If I am operating in a small picture of my individual path without recognizing the interwoven threads that make up the community, then I am not focused on preventing or reporting abuse, separation and prejudice, nor am I focused on the community.

We Pagans must come together. We must take a stand. We must organize for the sake of the youngsters and people coming into this path looking for guidance and leadership amongst a sea of Pagans who may or may not have the knowledge they claim. We must do what we can to prevent these predators from thinking this is an open field for abuse, lies, deception or manipulation without repercussions. We have to care enough to do something.

Once we come together as a community we can organize a common resource to guide people on how to report abuse, and give them choices. Some cases of abuse are definitely worthy of legal reporting, such as physical and sexual matters.

In addition to creating a resource to support the reporting of abuse, we can also use this resource to educate the community at large on what abuse means and what to look for. It can also give information on how to get out of abusive situations with covens, groups or leaders if someone finds themselves already in an unhealthy position. We can then take this information and publish it in many different mediums to get the word out.

It is a fine line between creating support within the Pagan community and attempting to turn it into organized religion. I am not advocating organization of the Pagan religions, just looking at the underutilized power we have to regulate some of the serious abuse concerns within our community. We as Pagans need to come together and decide what level of involvement we want in creating a productive community.

In the end we have these expectations of Pagan clergy and leaders but nothing to back it up. We have these invisible lines that we don't want crossed but won't do the work to make the lines visible and enforceable. We want the benefits of being recognized as a legal religion or spiritual path but don't consider our community important enough to follow through with assisting in protecting it. If we don't take it seriously then who will? Do we expect others to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves?

I think the first step in protecting against abuse is to stand up and be heard, not only outside of the Pagan community but within our community by our own people. Once we stand up we need to stay standing. This isn't an issue with a quick fix or one that should just be the topic of the month. It is an issue that takes consistent passion and attention so that others can see how important it really is. The key word in preventing abuse is action. We need community building, education against abuse and guidelines against abusive or harmful behavior.

Website: http://www.touchofamethyst.com

Author's Profile:

Bio: I am a 28-year-old Pagan mother, been married for six years and I am very close to my family and my parents. I work full-time in the drug and alcohol treatment field. I have been a practicing Pagan for about three
years. I consider myself to be an eclectic Wiccan/Pagan. I try not to limit or label myself. My passions in life are my family, enjoying a good book, learning what life has to offer, connecting with my spiritual self, giving back to my community and spending time with good friends.

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Overcoming Abuse Through Understanding Power By Elizabeth Sterling

2005-05-10T04:48:10Z

Overcoming Abuse Through Understanding Power

Author: Elizabeth Sterling

One of the greatest things that we can do to help stop abuse in all its many guises is to understand power. Power is something that magickal people should be well acquainted with. Unfortunately, many of us don't really understand power. Some of us fear it. Some are addicted to it. But power, like energy, is neither positive nor negative. It simply is. The value of it is in its use.

Power is the use of energy, ability and potential to accomplish some end. As magickal people we recognize power in ourselves and others when we acknowledge that it is possible to use the abundance of energy in and around us for a myriad of purposes. Ability may be a skill such as typing, or it may be a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Potential is that innate possibility of something happening. One could say that power is magick and vice versa, but the two are not necessarily synonymous. Power can be used in even the most mundane ways.

Most situations of abuse between people come from one person asserting power over another person. This in and of itself is not enough, however. The person who is being abused needs to give up their power, as well. This giving up power is rarely done knowingly. It is most often an automatic reaction bred of cultural or personal experiences. The abuser, too, may not realize that they are taking anything away from the abused person. They may see themselves as simply “standing for what they believe” or “taking what is their own.” In short, both parties are generally acting out completely unconsciously.

In order to break patterns of abuse, it is necessary for each person to come to grips with their own power and with the power of the other people around them. The first lesson is that each person has power over their own choices. There is no such thing as being “forced” into anything. Someone may put undue pressure on another to do something, but the one who does that thing weighs the options and makes a choice.

Here is an extreme example: I might be under attack, and I might face a choice between keeping silent and being killed. I don't want to keep silent, but I'd rather be silent than dead. So I choose silence, but I recognize that I choose it. Now, I have not given up any power unknowingly, and I may already be thinking about how I am going to get from there to safety. I have retained my personal power because I was able to recognize the choice for what it was.

In the case of a person who is trying to stop being a victim, this first lesson leads to many others. Having regained a sense of personal power, the ex-victim can now look at choices from a position of internal safety. An abuser may want to cause hurt, but the abused person who understands that they really do have choices can plot the path out of the abusive relationship and move onward. The person who has experienced abuse in the past and is working to avoid falling into the same situation again can evaluate interactions with other people in terms of the power dynamic. They can recognize the signs of individuals who try to usurp power in a relationship, and they can choose to confront their behavior or steer clear of those people.

In the case of the abuser, this same lesson applies. When a person who has habitually abused another person or persons realizes that they are essentially sucking power and will out of their victims, they can begin to understand how to change their behavior. A first step for the abuser might be to evaluate why they find themselves taking other people's power from them. It may be because their power was taken by someone else, or even because they continue to hand over their power to outsiders. This person can begin to grasp how they feel when they lose their power, and then compare that with how they feel when they steal someone else's power. Once the patterns and the feelings are explored, the person can practice recognizing the power of choice that others hold.

In many cases, the abuser/abused relationship is convoluted because each person takes turns being destructive to the other. The concepts of power transference are especially relevant to these situations, because both people need to work on both sides of holding their own power – i.e. not giving away power or stripping the other person of theirs.

When trying to come to grips with all of this power exchange, it is very useful to look at the players in any interaction as being dominant, submissive, or neutral. A neutral role would be where both people present their desires while still granting the other full room to make their own choice without undue influence. In the vast majority of cases, individuals will take either the dominant or submissive roles in every interaction. In specific pairings it is common for one of the two to be habitually dominant, even in apparently healthy relationships. The goal in overcoming abuse, however, is to strive for a balance, either by the individuals taking mutually agreed upon turns in dominance or by both individuals taking a neutral stand.

Role-play can be a very helpful tool in learning new ways to deal with power exchanges. By intentionally choosing to be dominant or submissive in a safe and non-threatening environment, a person or a couple can dig deeper into what makes them choose to give up or usurp power in ordinary situations. By switching roles it is also possible to create better empathy and more accurate recognition of danger signs in oneself and in others when the power balance is getting out of hand in real life.

For safety's sake, when working through role-playing, it is important to have some sort of code word or signal to insure that the play does not go too far. Every person has limits, but few actually know their limits before they reach them. In many cases, especially in the early stages of healing the wounds involved in abusive relationships, it is possible to hit those limits both quickly and unintentionally. It is a good idea to plan ahead for how you will come down from such a situation. Make sure that role-playing participants know that they are in a safe place and that if they must break the play they can cry, scream, be silent, or deal with their internal turmoil in any way that does not harm another person or animal.

Be sure, as well, to have a time afterward, whether things went well or not, to discuss how each participant felt throughout the role-play and what they learned. Realize that sometimes people will need quite a bit of time to fully integrate the experience, so having two discussions – one right after and one a few days later – may be a good idea.

Another exercise for exploring power is through fiction. If a person can write a story about abusive interactions and then re-write the same incident with healthy interactions, they can consider their own decision making process as it relates to those sorts of situations. Often, a first attempt at re-writing the story will seem bland or somehow off. This is a sure sign that the person writing is not really comfortable with balancing power in situations like the one they are writing about. This is where help from a counselor, mentor, priest/ess or other Pagan clergy member can really make the difference. Ask why the story doesn't seem right. Ask what makes for healthy and unhealthy relationships. Ask how the characters in the story are giving up their power, taking other people's power, or sharing their power. As the writer develops better versions of their “healthy interaction” stories, they will also be developing a selection of scripts that they can use to help turn bad interactions around in real life.

If a member of a magickal group is trying to overcome patterns of abuse, the group can use the exercises described here as part of a magickal working. The person working on healing can write a dramatic ritual which takes the whole group through the process of role-play and power exchange, only using the archetypes of myth and legend rather than the workaday world. In such a ritual, either the high priest/ess or specific members of the group should be on the periphery of the ritual to help contain the action, and stop or redirect any part of the ritual that seems to become overwhelming for any of the participants.

This type of ritual can be helpful for people who least expect it. Members of the group who at first thought they were simply supporting their circle-mate through a difficult time may discover that they, too, come away with a completely different view of office politics, marital dynamics, and countless other interpersonal experiences.

Part of the faith of most Pagans is that we are not powerless. We do not wait for others to save us from our doom, but choose instead to stand firm and save ourselves with the many tools and skills that we have gained and have been given. We often speak of “empowerment” or “power over” and “power through” in magickal circles. As a means to improving our relationships, experimenting with all sides of power in inter-human interactions gives us a deeper connection with the meanings behind the terms.

By exploring interactions through careful thought, role-play and fiction we can begin to change our behavior and reprogram our automatic responses. The end goal is to eliminate abuse and “power over” completely.

Visit Elizabeth Sterlings website : http://livingspaces.blogspot.com/

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You CAN"T Make Up for the Sins of Yesterday

2005-04-26T02:42:53Z

YOU CAN'T Make Up for the Sins of Yesterday ================================================== For those of us who have had a lot of practice making resolutions or goals, the "manana plan" is quite familiar. How many times have we said to ourselves, "Oh, I won't make the goal I set for myself today because I want to do [fill in the blank] instead, but I'll make up for it tomorrow by doing twice as much"? If you've tried making up for yesterday's sins, which means "missing the mark," by working doubly hard today, you know that it doesn't work for very long. Inevitably, we get caught up in juggling the debts of many yesterdays past and get lost in the mix. Or sometimes we accumulate so many debts from yesterday that it will take all of today plus a million tomorrows to make up the difference. At that point, most of us give up on our aims and goals. Ultimately, we are faced with such an impossible load of "makeup" work that we lack the will power to get it done. Many religious and metaphysical practices talk about this phenomenon. For example, the Bible talks about "our daily bread." What does our daily bread mean? It means that we must take each day as its own day, with its own realizations, achievements and inspirations. We can't live on yesterday's bread, but must create today's bread afresh each day. It is said that every single day is a microcosm of our lives. In each day, we can choose to move toward our aim or to be distracted by outside influences and people. When we are busy, it seems like all the days flow together and a single day doesn't seem all that important. But when we consider that each day is a miniature model of our entire lives, we can begin to see the importance of each day. The decisions we make today can drastically shape the direction and force of our lives. There's another factor that is important to consider here. If we agree that the each day must be lived as an independent unit, then we realize that guilt, revenge, regret and like feelings have no place in our lives. Sure, someone may have wronged us yesterday, but will we use that as an excuse to distract us from our aim today? Or perhaps we didn't achieve all we set out to do today -- will we allow ourselves to lose force over that tomorrow and further deter us from our aims? When we think about the progression of days in this way, we begin to see that nothing that happened yesterday is reason enough to distract us from today. And should we miss the mark today, tomorrow is always a brand new microcosm of our lives to be explored, lived, and loved! Have fun in your today!

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Rights and Responsibilities of the Pagani Upon Earth

2005-04-24T20:22:12Z

Rights and Responsibilities of the Pagani Upon Earth

Article by KestreLinden StarsTrail

The beauteous wisdom of the blessed Lady Kali consoles my soul in such times as these, when much of humankind has forgotten that we all come from and are sustained by one being larger than any one of us alone: our beloved Earth home. It is from the Earth that our kind and all others were created and it is from the Earth that we all continue to draw that which sustains life. As such, every being that exists upon the Earth is related as members of one family sharing this Earth home. We Pagans recognize our brothers and sisters in the plants, in the animals, in the elements, and in each other.

Yet we humans have managed to convince ourselves otherwise, to the point where many of us no longer even remember that we are all of this Earth. We no longer connect the food on our plates with the animals and plants that come from this Earth. We no longer remember that we used to make, with our own hands, each and every object that we needed, or if we could not make or find or grow these objects, then we did without.

Now we live in an age in which we can simply go to the store and buy all manner of goods, without regards to where these things come from and what resources are transformed in their making. Kali reminds me not to worry so much about the darkness and destruction that our humankind is doing, that the Earth will heal itself after we humans have destroyed ourselves, that one day our galaxy will no longer even exist. She tells me, “Do not worry, dear one. In the end, what will it all truly matter?”

Lady Kali’s blessed wisdom comforts me, but, as a self-proclaimed Pagan, I am also called to answer for myself as a sentient and free being upon this Earth. I am called to take action, to do something, anything that I can, to change our human destiny as it currently stands. The Earth will restore itself once we are gone. Humans will not last forever upon this planet, just as all life forms eventually fade away or transform into something new. Yet I recognize my existence here as a Pagan human.

Of all life forms upon this planet, only we humans have the ability to choose our own fate, along with the fate of all other life upon Earth. Only our human social systems allow for the individuation and perceived autonomy from the interconnected communities of life, from the Earth family, that create this destructive reality. Only our human systems function on a linear consumption pattern of imbalance that defies the natural cyclical workings of our Earth home that have managed to sustain a multitude of life forms for ages.

We have made a mess that we collectively choose to sweep under the rug rather than clean. We cannot prevent the destruction that has already begun, that was set in place before all of us entered our current physical formations, but this does not mean that there is nothing at all to be done or that we should simply stand by and watch what unfolds with only tears to offer the Earth.

We, as Pagans, claim the right to choose our own personal spiritual paths, and in doing so, we acknowledge the responsibility for each of our personal choices. My right to be Pagan and my personal responsibility for my choices awakens my being from its consumer stupor and calls me to action. I will not stand by quietly while my home is destroyed. None of us can create the needed change alone, but all of us doing our part to help change something is certainly better than just giving up in futility. If the Earth’s healing isn’t furthered by us Pagans, then we are passing our responsibility on to others and might as well pass along our right to be what we choose. Claim your right to be Pagan and your responsibility to be aware of your impact upon the Earth

Many Pagans accept such responsibility under various teachings, of which the Rede is generally well-known: “An it harm none, do as ye will.” To do as ye will suggests personal actions, but our inactions must also be considered. Perhaps we are each not the giant corporation that allows poisonous chemicals to be dumped into our waterways or that clear-cuts the forests to make way for homogeneous paperwood plantations, but by standing by and allowing them to take these actions by our inactions, we are doing just as much harm as they. Active violence is when we take part in hurting others. Passive violence is when our lack of action allows violence to be done upon others. Both create harm and both fall under personal responsibility.

But what do we do? Where do we start? There is so much to be done. There is so much to change. It can be overwhelming to the point where many of us break down in sadness and frustration. We wail to our Gods of the foulness of those who care not for the Earth, of those who would waste our precious home and all its life-sustaining gifts, but we fail to make a dent into this vast dilemma. We perceive that there is just too much to change, too much to be done, that the problem is too complex for any one of us to make a difference. It is this view that keeps so many of us from ever starting, from even trying, to create change. We say, “In the end, what will it all matter?”

Yet we are of a faith that teaches that we create our own reality through will. Let us will to begin, here and now, to be the change we wish to see on this Earth, to borrow the words of Gandhi. Let us begin to acknowledge our personal responsibility for our actions and inactions. I do not claim to have all the answers, but if you are willing to claim your rights and responsibilities as a Pagan human, I offer to you three concrete ways to begin this change in your life. Focus on one small change at a time, as you can, and transform it into a change in lifestyle. Do more as you become able rather than despairing about all that you cannot yet do. As each one of us makes our own claims to personal responsibility, more and more ripples of change will spread. Our waves of the same frequency will amplify each other until the change is being experienced loud and clear.

First, educate yourself about your world. Learn about the science, the history, the societies, the cultures, the politics that shape our realities. Our environment is not just some wilderness “out there.” Our environment is wherever we find ourselves. It surrounds us each and every moment.

Three pillars support what our environment consists of: ecology, economy, and culture. Ecology translates from the Greek oikos and logos as the “logic or reason of the home.” It is the underlying basis of the systems of the Earth home. It is the essential nature of the Earth and how it functions. Economy, from the Greek oikonomia, is the “management of the home.” Economy is how humans allocate the resources, the gifts, provided by ecology. In turn, how we manage these gifts affects ecologic health.

The third leg of this cauldron is culture, from the Latin coltere, “to till or cultivate.” Culture is the definitively human aspect of this tale. We are part of the ecology, because ecology is the sum total of the workings of this Earth, but human culture plays a role that no other species can, that of free-willed sentience coupled with the perception of many that we are not a part of the Earth family, that we are all alone, separate from the Earth and each other. It is our modern human culture, our language, our society, our institutions that create this sense of disconnection and the resulting environmental discord. We can consciously choose to accept this modern culture as is or we can act upon our call to make it better.

Connect the interplay of economics, culture, and ecology with the realities before you. Realize that actions in one realm affect realities in the others. Understand that by changing culture, we can change the economy that affects the ecology. Rearrange these three words in the previous sentence in any manner possible. Working to obtain health and balance in any realm will translate into health and balance in the others. Pagans know that we heal ourselves by healing the Earth. Everything is interconnected.

Open your eyes and absorb, analyze, discuss, dialogue and share with each other what you find. Reject the popular mentality of dichotomy, of “us” versus “them.” This is not a battle between “right” and “left, ” “liberal” and “conservative, ” or “Paganism” and “Monotheism.” Fundamentalists who await the rapture and beckon it on with Earthly consumption and destruction do exist, but the majority of the monotheistically-inclined do not want to see their home trashed any more than you or me. Many are called to claim their responsibility as stewards of this Earth garden. Many realize that their God expects them to treat with respect the gifts they have been given. Neither of our respective groups is better than another, and we need each other if any of us are to see concrete change in how our home is managed.

Second, after you begin your ecoliterate education, claim your right and responsibility as a citizen of whatever nation and locale in which you reside to participate in the political system regularly. Register to vote and then follow up by actually voting. Communicate with your representatives; let them know whether or not they are meeting your expectations. Become aware of your local political scene. We are all affected by what happens on the national and state levels, but what affects us most directly are the day-to-day decisions made by our local representatives. These are the people who decide whether or not to sell the plot of land with the 500-year-old trees on it to a company who wants to build over them, whether or not our communities should ban the herbicides that foul our waterways just so we won’t have dandelions in our public lawns. These are also the representatives that you can have direct, face-to-face contact with. Let them know how you want your community to be run. If you like what they do, let them know they have your vote. Then vote!

I have met too many Pagans in my life who do not vote. They tell me, “What will it change? What’s the point?” or “I don’t see a reason to choose the lesser of two evils.” When we do not vote, we are rejecting our personal responsibility to voice to our representatives what we want them to do as our representatives. I personally abhor the political party system of my own country, for I think it feeds the guise of dichotomy and distracts people from actual issues, but in the absence of any immediate complete political overhaul, I choose to work my change from within the system. I ask you to join me in making our voices heard. Claim your right, claim your responsibility, and get out there and do something.

Rather than saying that no candidates want what you want, keep up your education and learn which ones do. They are out there and they need your support. If you still absolutely detest the “Republicratic” options, help out the third parties with their work on acquiring instant runoff voting, a constitutionally protected voting system that ensures a winning candidate will receive an absolute majority of votes rather than a simple plurality by allowing voters to rank their candidates in order of preference.

The third, and in my opinion, the most important and the easiest way, involves an action that most of us do every day, often several times a day. Conscientiously choose where your money is spent and what you support through your economic actions. I would argue that we can affect more collective change with our dollars than with our votes. Companies that want our hard-earned money will often listen to us, even when our public officials will not. Politicians sometimes have conflicting interests competing for their attention. Most companies usually have only one goal: obtaining money. With this goal in mind, we can collectively achieve change at the corporate level by only supporting those companies that act as responsible organizations that also depend upon the Earth home for existence. Remember that when we enact change in one realm, we enact change in all.

A major problem with the current interplay of economics and ecology stems from the fact that nature is cyclical, whereas modern industrial systems function linearly. Corporations extract resources and process them into products and excess waste. Consumers buy these products and discard more waste in the process of consumption. Healthy systems on Earth are kept in check by balance, but economic health is currently based upon the principle of limitless growth. In nature, systems are designed to provide feedback loops that keep limitless growth in check. In the human economy, humans must step up and provide this feedback. In doing so, limitless growth that results in economic crashes and instability is replaced by healthy, long-term economic viability.

For those of us who do not directly work in the business world, our action needs to be focused on our consumer decisions. We need to consider all of the costs that current business models do not when we choose what we support with our purchasing decisions. We need to consider the deeper cost of buying cheaper, ecologically-damaging products rather than those that are healthier but cost more at the cash register. Corporations only consider factors like labor and raw materials to calculate prices and profits. They do not consider the cost of environmental damage and public health issues caused by unhealthy practices. In their ledger books, they do not account for the cost of lost soil quality from the overuse of pesticides or the damaged watersheds that have been overburdened with these chemicals. They do not account for the air pollution released in the manufacturing of these chemicals, or the destruction of the health of wildlife or the farmers who grow our food, or we who eat it. The corporations that sell us products are not held accountable for their destruction so long as we continue to buy their products.

When choosing what you buy and considering whether to choose a more expensive, ecologically-healthy alternative, keep in mind the costs of environmental decontamination, the healthcare costs of cancer, asthma, and allergies. Consider the costs of farm subsidies, the costs of pesticide regulation and testing, of hazardous waste disposal. These costs are passed on to the general public, to you and me. We can choose to pay a little extra for a healthier product when we go to the store, or we can choose to pay it later with ours and the Earth’s well-being. Consider the source of your laundry detergent, of your toilet paper, of your fuel. Do they come from renewable or non-renewable sources? Do you even know? Consider the balance of the cost at the cash register with the cost to our Earth and our selves.

We Pagans recognize and accept our personal responsibility for our actions and inactions. We are awake and aware of our interconnectedness with our Earth family. We will not passively watch our home be destroyed. We will help to create the dialogue that needs to be shared with our human brothers and sisters. We will join our actions together to create balance in our cultures, in our economies, and in our ecology.

It took more than one generation to reach the dismal state we’ve gotten ourselves to, and it will take more than one generation to begin our collective emergence from this dark period in our history. Our faith will sustain us during these times of despair. Our faith tells us that we create our reality, that we are each in control of our destiny, and that we are all of this Earth. Pagans are awakening across the entire globe and claiming their personal responsibility to change. By coming together, it will be done. Keep the faith. Know your work will reap its harvest, so long as we do not give up, but it will not come overnight. As Starhawk has said, “Perhaps the road to those changes needed to pass through the terrain of the interior and transform our cultural imagery as well as our economic system and national policy. Maybe, in fact, deep transformation of society could only come from an underlying transformation of culture” (Starhawk 6).

We as Pagans are undergoing this change of culture both in the spiritual realm with our explorations of ritual and belief and in the physical realm with our awareness of our personal responsibility for our impact upon the Earth. We will need both spiritual and physical change to achieve lasting results. “Our return to this simple spiritual insight is crucial to resolving our environmental crisis. Technical fixes are inadequate — the Earth is not a machine whose parts simply need occasional replacement or tuning” (Hayden 38). The physical fix alone will not be enough, as it is not a matter of whether or not humankind possesses the technology to fix its problems, because we smart-thinking beings certainly do. It is a matter of whether or not humankind possesses the perception of the world required to bring about change and balance. As Pagans, I have the faith that we do possess this perception. Let’s act now and balance our spiritual actions with our physical actions to create the change we wish to see in the world.

Let us dance upon the Earth in celebration as Pagani. We are here to revel in the ecstasy and joy of life upon Earth, and we are here to claim our sentient responsibility to care for the blessings we have been given. And in the end, when I as I know myself now am dead and gone, along with the rest of humankind, our Earth, and our galaxy as we know it, when none of this will matter any longer, I will at least know that I lived up to my chosen beliefs. I will dance gladly at Lady Kali’s side in the revels of destruction and creation. Pagans understand that the universe consists of many cycles, that what is created and destroyed will be recycled into the new existence. With all of us claiming our Pagan responsibilities, the energy that will go forth into the next galaxy’s creation will have been composted and transformed from the energy of righteousness that we will spread upon the Earth. Be proud, dear Pagans, of who we are. Awaken to your destiny. Claim the name you have chosen and join me in my beauteous dance upon this Earth.

Footnotes:
Selected Bibliography:

Capra, F. 1996. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. Anchor Books: New York.

Hayden, T. 1996. Recovering Earth’s Lost Gospel. Earth Island Journal 12 (1) :38-39.

Hollender, Jeffrey. November 2004. If Business Has Become More Responsible Where’s That Better World? The Non-Toxic Times.

Starhawk. 1989. The Spiral Dance: The Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. 2nd ed. Harper San Francisco: San Francisco.

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Looking Down the Barrel of a Loaded Gaia: Why Doesn’t Someone Do Something?

2005-04-24T03:39:00Z

Looking Down the Barrel of a Loaded Gaia: Why Doesn’t Someone Do Something?

Article by Seichimat

During the early eighties the world worked towards unity. With a passion we collected canned goods for starving Somalians. Every bite of food, whether it was that horrible orange rice from the week-old leftover tin or tuna noodle casserole, was consumed with the adage, “Be thankful you have it, you could be a starving Somalian.” Clothing was passed family to family to family. I cringe today seeing pictures of a nine-year-old me, wearing something that had likely been worn by at least three owners not of my family or genre before it came into my possession. It belonged in an antique shop, not on my shoulders.

Cookie swaps, toys for tots, Girl Scouts, Adopt-a-Highway and paper drives. We did them all. What happened? Why did we lose interest?

They are EVERYWHERE. They are outside of my local grocery store collecting for starving Cubans, on the television selling sponsorships to feed South African children - and their children’s children in turn. They sit at stoplights holding cardboard signs scrawled in sharpie marker: Gulf War Veteran - Homeless: Please Help. Busses drop off inner city children to ring doorbells in suburbia to sell candles and scented soaps to earn a new bike.

Girl Scouts in wealthy suburban neighborhoods don’t just sell cookies; they sell candy, nuts and magazine subscriptions. Not door to door like we did, but seated at card tables in front of grocery stores, earning money so their parents don’t have to shell out for airfare to the next jamboree in Hawaii. Toys for Tots doesn’t want gently used any more. They want new, unwrapped and of at least a twenty dollar monetary value. I can’t tell anymore. Are we conserving the earth, or the more directly measurable resource of liquid cash assets?

Being Pagan, I try. I do. I don’t run my dishwasher unless it’s brimming full, even if it takes weeks. I take short showers. I don’t use disposable towels for cleaning - or disposable dishes for that matter. I run my errands in one trip, rather that using the car multiple times in a day. I use products that are cruelty-free and chemically minimalist whenever possible. I have discovered that most things can be cleaned as well if not better by steamy hot water than ammonia and chlorine. These aren’t things that I do for one day a year; they are things I do every day. Upon further examination can I say my motivations are expressly for the conservation of the earth?

No.

My motivation is the same base motive that those product-peddling sponsorship drives come in droves over. It is fiscally to my benefit to conserve resources that cost me money. Water, gas, paper towels - even a newspaper is money down the drain when I can look up the same information on the net at a fraction of the charge. I also don’t have to pay additional money to put it in a barrel to be taken away by a big green truck.

What happens to the newspaper that I don’t buy? What happens to the steak in the market that I pass over to reach towards the more environmentally friendly products that coincidentally cost less and last longer? My deepest fear. They are either purchased, and/or disposed of, usually by someone who doesn’t give the end outcome a second thought, because they can afford it.

The money they saved by fund raising to send their thirteen-year-old to cheerleading camp covers their opportunity cost, and they can eat pre-packaged cake.

So what as communities can we do? Boycotting products is recommended, but with so many eager consumers lining up to purchase shortcut solutions, how does withholding our dollar affect the consumer structure as a whole? Large-scale protests of negligent producers have become cheap advertising. Instead of harming big business, we bring their names to the front pages and living rooms of the world. “Hey honey, didn’t we see *nest-lea* on the talk box last night?”

When even disaster relief funds discourage donating time or product, but instead proclaim that cash is the most easily applied gift, what’s a Pagan to do?

We live in a society where many pride themselves on the luxury of wastefulness. Fortunes are made on this principle. Disposable income is at an all time high, and in turn so are disposable products. Time, money, effort and elbow grease are things that have become available to the highest bidder, and for some sadistic reason we bend ourselves over backwards on a daily basis to scrape together enough to put in our bid.

What I do is small and within my own community. My immediate circles. My children see that foods can be made by hand or grown rather than purchased in a drive-through or brought to the door for the passing of a buck. I talk about - all right, proselytize - and even brag to whoever will listen that sinks and bathrooms are no match against my scrub brush and scalding water.

If we are going to increase our value of what we have deemed commodity Earth, we need to return to the mentality of waste not, want not. Value is no longer deemed by minimizing our opportunity cost, but by the social reinforcement we gain through spending. The personal satisfaction gained via creation through personal effort has been forgotten and replaced by the “status quo” pre-potted geraniums purchased at the Acme.

To spend your own time and energy saves resources, both financial and environmental. You can contribute in ways that don’t involve getting out your checkbook. Destructive action is rarely economically sound action. When we save a dollar we can also save a tree, a gallon of gas and the waste products its burning spews into our air, or a few feet of landfill space. We can also get back that pesky redemption fee on that six-pack of Cokes.

What of the Earth as more than a natural resource to be broken down and sold? What does she think of her parasitic passengers? Are the melting ice caps signs of our neglectful and selfish relationship or simply the natural cleansing process of a planet that has been recycling itself longer than we have been in existence to document? Will we harvest the forests and tap the wells until our captive mother rises up against us? We adore the analogies of the archetypally vainglorious Atlanteans and Lemurians, tossed into a fomented sea by violently bucking islands. Could we be the next society to fade into myth and legend for our cultivated luxury of laziness?

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Warriors for Gaia by Red Ni'Tahoma

2005-04-24T03:34:29Z

Warriors for Gaia

Article by Red Ni'Tahoma

A long, long time ago in a small town in Pennsylvania, I sat and dreamed about a world where people respected the environment. Where buildings were built with the understanding of drainage on the land and how it affected surrounding bodies of water. Where roads were created so as not to disturb migrating wildlife, and to bypass biologically sensitive areas. And most of all, that this planet was not ours to plunder and use as we saw fit without thought to the planet’s health, and ultimately our own.

I was 16 and it became my personal calling to be a Warrior for Gaia, writing letters, campaigning to save the rainforests and doing whatever I could to try and preserve her body for the future of all generations. It was a pastime I took very seriously. The bulk of my reading were ecology-oriented books or magazines. Much of the art I produced during that time period was sent in to contests looking for logos for Earth Day events or campaigns. Looking back on this now, 10 years later, it brings both a smile and a tear to my eye. That at one time I had so much blind enthusiasm for something was wonderful. That I no longer have it pains me.

Pennsylvania is not a liberal state, and so a great many of my battles were uphill when I spoke with individuals about the necessity for clean water or air. My attempts to promote recycling were laughed at as a waste of time. But I continued on, deciding that my small actions would make a difference in some way although I might not know how. I recycled everything that could conceivably be recycled. I bought second-hand clothing that looked nice for work and for school. I ate organic fruits, vegetables when I could, and tried to make sure that my eggs and meats were free range (a difficult thing to acquire back then) . My convictions became deep enough that I decided as a true Warrior for Gaia, it should become my career. And so I enrolled at beautiful Seattle University on the West Coast, my idealism and enthusiasm wrapped tightly around me.

The college taught all of the ~ologies there were to learn concerning the environment, everything from clouds to combines, streams to flow carts. Seattle University did a great credit to the earth in being one of the first to promote interdisciplinary study concerning the environment. They were strong advocates of teaching economic, politics and theology along with zoology. I was truly blessed to be taught to see through another’s eyes in concerns to our world and the various attitudes towards it. But in the long run, this was probably the start of my downturn.

As we studied, we saw in philosophy that there were some individuals that felt nothing else mattered but their own personal happiness. Existentialists and objectivists would be hard to reach unless you learned to see from their viewpoint, that there is no meaning to being here aside from making the most for one ’s self. Others felt there was no good use of the natural world except for the acquisition of wealth. And despite learning their language of dollar signs and stock tickers, there was no approaching them to gain their understanding on the need for conservation, even if for the purpose of prolonging their income flow. We often saw small gains in talking with farmers, as the health of their land was of vital importance in continuing their way of life. And through all of this I kept doing everything I could. I still wrote the occasional letters when time allowed. I attended lectures to learn more about the latest developments in environmental science and biology so I could be more educated about my subject. But in the midst of this was a growing doubt I couldn’t put my finger on.

Finally around year three of my college career, reality dumped in my lap the simple fact that there are people out there that no matter what I did or said would never care. I had no words that could turn their hearts, no pictures or facts and figures that could make them reconsider. And a part of me died, because I believe I had failed my goddess and myself. I lost faith, and walked away from my degree and eventually from the Pacific Northwest that I adored.

It has taken me years to see that I still use those skills I learned there to explain to people why it is necessary to protect our planet. Those things taught me in sociology and psychology help me every day to have compassion and empathy for other beings. And I now know others watch my actions and see what I do, how I act, and change a bit due to their interaction with me. From the formerly devout Republican and capitalist that learned to treasure his garden of organic tomatoes and compost bin to the young children who followed the example of putting aluminum cans in the recycle bin upon watching me pick them up, I could see my silent actions and words changing behaviors in ways protest signs and letters never had.

After all this time I see that I have lived the teachings I picked up there despite my supposed break from them, and that in my way of living I have inspired possibly dozens of others to grow closer to the earth and try and protect her. Even those who formerly laughed at promoting a clean environment have found themselves also eventually taking up changes in their life that aid the planet the longer they are in contact with me. Without knowing it, I have walked the path as Gaia’s Warrior all these years. It is now with renewed enthusiasm and a bit more realism and wisdom that I have renewed my vow and been open and vocal -quietly- about my beliefs. I am highly visible in my actions that aid her. I offer information at all times when curiosity is shown.

I will never be the research scientist in the headlines that changes the outlook of thousands with her discoveries, as I once thought I would be. Instead…I pick the recyclables out of the trash can at work and move them over to the recycle bin 3 feet away while in open view of my coworkers. Others see this, and they follow. I grow a garden of organic produce, or buy from organic markets when I can because it’s healthier. Others see the pride with which I talk about my little growing plants, and the delicious tomatoes I bring in, and quite often will quickly follow suit! Many people that I formerly would have thought unreachable saw through my actions –and not my preaching- that it benefited not just the planet, but one’s health and soul to do these things. It was amusing to watch the change that came over those around me when they began to pick up these traits. The most triumphant moment was when a formerly careless coworker threw her can away, stopped, backed up with a noise of alarm, and removed it from the trash can to put it in the proper recycle bin. And all this without me saying a word about the good it did the earth for her to do so.

It is written that ones every word and action should be a prayer. When you love something and learn how to care for it, it shows in your every action and word the depth of your feelings. Perhaps you felt as I did, that there is no hope. I invite you now to also be a Warrior of Gaia and to understand that it is not in the forthright battles of letters and protests that we will truly win. There is no need for shouted anthems, or angry red paint on posters. It will be in our demeanor, in being the walking prayer. Express your love and joy for the planet however you will, and you will find it far easier than supposed.

A blessed Earth Day to you all, and remember your Mother who’s body nourishes and houses you without expectation of the favor returned.

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Where the Christians Go Wrong and Why the Pagans Don’t Get It by H. Byron Ballard

2005-04-24T03:26:31Z

Where the Christians Go Wrong and Why the Pagans Don’t Get It

Article by H. Byron Ballard

O, Gods, is it Earth Day Again?

Caring for Creation--sounds simple and good, doesn’t it? A day-long workshop, naturally positioned on Earth Day and sponsored by a progressive coalition of churches. If it’s so good, why does my stomach hurt?

I have polished one of my favorite soapboxes and it is sturdy and clean, ready for my annual Earth Day address. I believe I have made my point that the single-day annual celebration of Earth Day is not enough and possibly falls into the too-little-too-late category. Well-meaning, yes. Decidedly better than nothing. But as a Pagan--an Earth Religionist, a spiritual naturalist, a Witch--every day is Earth Day. Though it reads like a bumper sticker, how could it be otherwise?

Several years ago, I nursed a fantasy that Pagans could show some leadership in the dominant culture around environmental and eco-justice issues. My rallying cries went largely unheeded through several turnings of the Wheel. Get out of that computer chair and spend some quality time outside! Hug a tree! Join a local interfaith group and preach that biosphere gospel!

Though my grandfather was, I am not an effective preacher. My words blew away on the smoggy wind: too extreme for Christians, of little interest to Pagans. We continue to argue endlessly on thousands of Pagan websites about how vital our religions are and how misunderstood. We have an opinion about everything and are happy to send that opinion into cyberspace at the touch of a key. But go outside? Leave the relative safety of our online communities and try to forge real bonds with people in our own neighborhoods? Too, too scary.

Do Pagans pick up roadside litter? Sometimes. Grow gardens? Yes. Write letters to the editors about global warming or mountain-top removal? Occasionally. But step forward to offer our way of being present in the biosphere as one healthy alternative to the current paradigm? Rarely. Perhaps we are bashful or camera-shy or tired of knocking on closed doors. I don’t know. Jesse Wolf Hardin pens eloquent essays on living in this web of being. Starhawk keeps hammering away at eco-justice cases. Some important and highly visible Pagans have come forward to speak on behalf of Earth and I am grateful for that. What I was asking for and what I continue to ask for is this: direct involvement in your community in interfaith matters of ecology. Look at the problems in your own backyard and be vocal about how your approach of honoring the Earth is something other religions could learn from. There I’ve said it. Again.

But now it may be too late for us to take real leadership because even the evangelical Christians are speaking out on behalf of stewardship of God’s creation. Liberal Christians and Jews are worshipping with Earth-focused liturgy, bringing dirt and animals and whale song into their houses of worship. They are digging into their own rich traditions and finding ways to return to their Garden. And they don’t need any help from us, thank you very much. Well, not much help.

This is how I found myself on an interfaith committee planning a day-long workshop for Earth Day. It’s called “From Crisis to Community” and is being held in the First Baptist Church in my town. On the surface it sounds so simple. Knock that old “dominion” language on the head and get back to Eden. The Lord gave us a fabulous garden and we got ourselves kicked out of it.

The early meetings were very informative but somehow frustrating. We held one of them in the local Unitarian Universalist church and we started to iron out who and what we were and what we wanted to accomplish with this event. One of the project leaders had created a Power Point presentation on the Noah story and it was decided that this would be the focus of the opening plenary session. Then there would be a panel discussion by a scientist and by religious leaders from their varying faith perspectives. (Yes, this is how we really talk in the interfaith world.) I was asked to speak for Pagans and would be joining a Presbyterian minister, a rabbi and a scientist on the panel. So far, so good. I was allotted five minutes to plead the Earth’s case and then defend my position, trying to skirt the issue of whether or not Pagans are morally bankrupt airheads who wear funny clothes and won’t allow Christians to pray in school. But I digress.

As the ideas for workshops started flowing from this creative group, I started noticing a theme. Because we were trying to appeal to the widest variety of Christians available in our region, we had to keep our focus on taking care of God’s gift to us and not fall into the error of thinking that the planet was God. Of course, they didn’t say it quite that way. But I got the point nonetheless.

I left that meeting wondering what exactly I was supposed to be doing to help this event. Was I window dressing, a token? Probably. Was there anything in this workshop for my faith community? Probably not. Did that matter? Again, no. It started to dawn on me--have I mentioned I’m sometimes a little slow?--that this event was coordinated by the NC Council of Churches and that many of the committee members’ idea of interfaith was Protestant and Catholic Christians and a couple of Jews. They simply didn’t know what to do with people who worship the Earth, not as creation but as creator. They didn’t know anyone who thought that way: doesn’t everyone have a Creator God who is separate from His creations? A loving Potter with strong but gentle hands?

So I mulled all this around in my pointy little head for a couple of days and then wrote a long entry in my personal journal about it. After swallowing hard and girding my loins, I sent the following email to the good-hearted, kind coordinators of this event:

Good evening, gentles.

I have done a lot of thinking since our meeting and I want to share some of thoughts/concerns with you about our Caring for Creation group and our event on Earth Day.

First I want to thank both of you for inviting me to participate and encouraging me to do so. I am very happy to be working with both of you on such an important endeavor.

I believe the event we are planning for Earth Day should quite properly target Christian denominations, Jews and Unitarians and that we should be honest about who our audience is. I believe it is vital for those groups to begin to see their place in and responsibility for "creation"--this is laudable. The programming so far completely and clearly speaks to that audience in a way that they can grasp, in ways that will move them and inspire them.

It became clearer to me last night, however, that this is not a truly interfaith event. While the committee may welcome the participation of those of us outside this target audience, they are not comfortable with the degree of "interfaith" that that requires.

We are not creating an event for non-Abrahamics, nor for Earth religionists. And this is perfectly alright. As a program of the NC Council of Churches, what we are doing--at least initially--should be directed to that specific audience. If our target audience is mainline Protestant churches and our goal is to bring them some awareness about eco-justice issues, that is a worthy goal. Let Earth religionists of all stripes help in whatever way we can but know that this day is not for us. Most of us worship the biosphere not as a creation of Deity but as Deity Herself and every moment of every day we mourn what our species is doing to Her.

I made this journal entry this morning while sitting at my altar:

‘...very different views of "creation": can you imagine that when you look out the window what you see is the literal body of Jesus and we are giving him poison to drink and feces to eat? We are cutting chunks from his flesh and breaking his limbs. Because he is a god, he doesn't die--he continuously suffers the agony of our ignorance and carelessness. This gives you a rough approximation of how Earth religionists/Pagans, indigenous tribal peoples feel about the biosphere. It is as though we have to watch "The Passion of the Christ" every time we go out, every time we listen to the news…’

This is a very long note and I have tried to be clear about my concerns and intent. I love what we are doing and think it is vitally important but we are deluding ourselves if we think it should be or can be fully interfaith at this point in the group's growth. And that's okay.

They took it with good grace and have worked hard to be more inclusive in the program. We still have some stumbling blocks because we are trying so hard to appeal to so many people and to be as inoffensive as possible to all of them. They asked me to help with the creation of one of the afternoon sessions of the workshop. And the local daily paper did a good article on its Religion page last week, in which I was among the people quoted, though some members of the committee worried that some people would be discouraged from attending the workshop because a Pagan was part of it.

They are doing their best, this committee of mostly white, mostly Protestant Christians, to move forward in the change of consciousness required to “save the Earth”. I have to respect them for it, even as I wish they could go further and deeper. I want to see them reconnected with Nature in a way their history and traditions have opposed for centuries but this is a good first step for many of them. I want them to realize the connection between the oppression of nature and women and people of color and address that. I come from a tradition that doesn’t proselytize and yet I want to teach them what we know about the Web of All Being, about the sweetness and sometimes terror of living life as a thinking animal in a complex world.

And I still nurse the fantasy that some day there will be so many Pagans and non-Abrahamics sitting on committees like this that we won’t assume that using a story from Genesis is appropriate in a multifaith setting. Step out, friends, take a chance. Work with your neighbors, regardless of their spiritual tradition, to create an Earth-honoring paradigm that will be inherited by our children.

Okay, I’m off the soapbox now. I’ll put it away until next year. Thanks for listening. Again.

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Giving Back To Gaia: Source and Solution, Mission and Magic

2005-04-23T14:42:57Z

Giving Back To Gaia: Source and Solution, Mission and Magic

by Earthen Spirituality Project and Women's Center

Make no mistake about it, the most effective environmental activism is inspired, fed and sustained by spiritual sensibility and magical practice! Every legislated environmental gain remains subject to both the whims of the electorate and the manipulations of the corporate paradigm, therefore any lasting healing or return to balance depends upon a revival of Earth-consciousness and nature-honoring values, species-inclusive ritual, spell and prayer. This is our calling, the calling of all fully aware and deeply empathic beings, and of those of us devoted to a magical life.

On the other hand, it would be negligent to profess a nature religion or look to terrestrial spirits without giving back to Earth. And the most powerful religiosity or practice is inevitably rooted in and pledged to purpose and place... not only in the human and more-than-human history of the land where the practices are based, but also in the instructive inspirited Earth and needs of the ecosystem. When one considers the polluting of the oceans and air, the greenhouse effect and paving over of habitat, genetic engineering and nuclear proliferation, the only truly survivable religiosity or magickal tradition may in the long run be those that provide more than mere lip service to an idolized Gaia, God or Goddess.... and more than an obligatory nod of the intellect to an objectified “environment.” It falls on our community and traditions to continuously awaken a connection in us so intense and immediate that it demands our immediate attention, participation and reciprocity... insisting that we celebrate, stand up for and give back to the inspirited natural world that is our native matrix, the source of our sentience, our sensibilities, and our very lives. It’s true whether personal, social or environmental: commitment and followthrough are the other half of magic.

I share with Witchvox’s Diotima the belief that our power must be grounded in the soil, in real earth and substantive reciprocal action. And likewise, that any social or environmental activism would greatly benefit from being sanctified and empowered through magickal and spiritual intention. Can magicians do everything from home that the planet needs? Not entirely. But magical rituals, spells and guided intent can lead to more people awakening to Gaia’s need, taking a stand, linking arms in protest, greening their lives, planting trees and gardens..... and the next step is for us to gather and collaborate in ways that make the cause of Mother Earth and the community of Pagans and magicians inseparable again. Like the great whales we call out to one another in what ecomusicologist Charlie Kheel coined “deep ecohology, ” casting our voices out into the universe and reading the echoes in return.

To put it simply, no religion or magickal tradition worth its salt should be able to ignore the devolution of human spirit in the face of materialistic and mechanistic culture, the destruction of the last old growth forests or the extirpation and extinction of countless species. And at the same time, no environmental movement can possibly hold back the forces of self-alienation and global degradation without tapping the reservoirs of the emotional and spiritual energies within, without an intentional alliance with evolving Earth and Spirit by whatever name and form we know it, and those subtle and ceremonial ways of stirring and influencing the world.

Our work is clearly to act out as much as to incant and envision. The following suggestions are expanded from one of my contributions to Oberon Zell-Ravenheart’s practical follow up to the Grimoire For The Apprentice Wizard:

* We tend to only restore or protect that which we are close to and familiar with, whether we’re talking about a belief, a family member or the hallowed ground we love. Therefore circle for ritual outdoors whenever the weather permits, even if it’s not as convenent as alternating between friends’ or members’ living rooms. Secluded beaches, state park groves, streamside areas or even grassy backyards will help keep us intimate with the world of nature and spirit, help us hear insights and instructions beyond the limits of our own clever heads... and make our intentions and spells both more empowered and heard.

* We can’t focus just on what’s wrong. It’s equally important to envision the world we should have, and then make commitments to help make that a reality.

* Get familiar with the economic and political trends, and study the ecology of your immediate home. Notice things how much packaging you use and dispose of, and your family’s monthly water use. Imagine how much pollution is created in the stuff we own, the plastic that comes from oil drained from despoiled wild places , the poisons left over from the manufacture of each part, the leveling of mountains for the copper wires... so that with every consumer and lifestyle choice we can accurately weigh both the costs and benefits.

* Familarize yourself with the bioregion surrounding you, asking questions like: What trees and plants in your area are native, and which are invaders or transplants? What old trees in the neighborhood are in danger from widening road projects? What can you do to encourage wildlife? What species of animals are native to the area, and which are in danger of being killed off or driven out? What changes can you make around your home that can help accomodate neighborhood wildlife (such as erecting bird houses, letting the grass grow high, planting shrubs for cover and plants that animals like to eat) ?

* If you are part of a coven or circle, consider dedicating a percentage of rituals to Gaia, with a pledge to give back to her for all she provides including our very lives. Gather monthly for group walks in the nearest natural environment, silently taking in the lessons and proddings of the inspirited world, asking how to best help. And gather twice a month if at all possible, to do focused activism to stop the latest travesty, to clean and restore a section of a local stream, to plant indigenous plants in an area park, or to join in doing public education and outreach.

* Have one articulate member of your coven, circle or practice group volunteer to be represent your feelings and concerns at public conferences and legislative hearings.

* Form practice groups outside our immediate families, circles and clans in order to gather and potluck, while researching the most immediate threats to the ecology and community we belong to, and initiating campaigns to resist destruction and encourage things like open space.

* If you can find any local or national environmental groups you can believe in and trust the integrity of, join them individually and as a group, getting locally active on the important issues. If you can’t find a group you can feel good about, then start a new one!

* Protest what can’t be affected any other way (it’s a day off of work, and can be a great party as well!) .

* Give presentations at local schools, and instigate ecological youth activities that are both useful and fun. Find an alternative language for talking about what matters, that doesn’t freak out the parents and teachers.

* Find a language of inclusion and concern that will allow you to build alliances with Christian and other religious conservationists (for ideas, check out any of the books by Episcopalian priest and ecstatic Earth lover Mathew Fox) . No matter how potent the efforts of our community, we can’t pull this off without enlisting those outside our belief systems.

* Experiment melding guerilla theatre, visionary eco-art, and concerts of music that blend the call of the Earth with the rhythms of the heart and the colors of the mind.

* Seek to pool resources to purchase wild land for both ecosystem restoration and community rituals and gatherings.

* Place protective covenants on any rural land owned within the community.

* Even small unpaved areas like scenic strips, parks and vacant lots are habitat for a wide selection of plants and animals, as well as magical places for wondering children to play... so try to identify those that can benefit from your protection and care.

* Put together work parties to make anywhere we have an outdoor event look healthier, wilder and more beautiful than before we gathered there. Plant native trees and shrubs, spread wildflower seeds, gather your trash and that of others.

* Join the “adopt a highway median” program, and plant, dedicate and tend it as a sacred oasis of spirit and wildness.

* A community garden is a chance not only to share in some fine organic produce grown with love, but also to grow community or circle solidarity.

* For each stone, crystal, feather or other natural power object you ever bring home for your practice or altar, take and give something significant back to the place where it came from.

* Remember that it’s important you do everything you can for the Earth no matter win or lose. The power for us comes from our heroic and creative effort, and every little healing is well received by a conscious Gaia. Plus the fact is that with Spirit’s help, and if we really try hard enough, we are each capable of the most vital and profound miracles.

I confess I speak of the inseparability of Earth and Spirit with the adamant lyricism and prolific exclamation marks of a zealot. It is a certainty as deep as the marrow of my bones, as the circling of the Earth until the final burning out of the sun. It feels like a molecular knowing, the self knowledge of carbon and atom, of flesh before thought, of animating Spirit before there were any words for it or any lips and jaws from which to speak. Truths from a time of unquestioned belonging, and long before existential doubt and insecurity contributed to a science of soulless self replication and a retreat into intellection, the officiation of systematic destruction, the trivialization of ancient ways of seeing and being, the genocide of tribes and races and “nonutilitarian” species. If I’ve been given to anything it is to a purpose that neither begins nor ends with us, an ecology of spirit manifest through ritual caring and acknowledging, through hands-on assistance and risk taking action.

Such belief and application minces no words and wastes no effort. Everything becomes deliberate, because everything matters– as surely as slamming cell doors and banging judge’s gavels, as gutted coyotes on a ranchers fence and the pups that cry out for their deboweled and desecrated mother. As much as a gulp of clean air, to a hacking urban dweller or a swimmer long underwater. As the falling of the last redwood in a particular California grove, and the dandelion shoot poking its insistent head up through the cracks in a suburban sidewalk. As much as any suffering. As much as hope.... as much as home.

Entering what are likely the last generations with any chance to turning things around, the manifest intensity of our calling can seem almost unbearable. Visionaries and clan shamans have always been called upon to interpret and sing the tribe through the ordeals that both threaten and strengthen them. Brujas and warriors have always had to deal with the continued survival of their culture and the existential reality of their own mortal demise. Yet never before have they needed to deal with the human caused extinction of thousands of other species, the toxification of the entire environment, the potential disappearance of humanity itself and the almost universal abandonment of Earthen spirituality and personal honor.

Once we not only recognize but experience ourselves as inseparable parts of of the organic whole, it’s no longer possible to make excuses for indulgent or destructive lifestyles nor to accept the dispiriting domestication or extinction of other life forms. When we feel the Earth as an integral and continuous part of ourselves, we no longer protect the dying rain forests as a botanical source for medicines or as a “scenic resource”– as something other than us. We know them, deeply and completely, as our lungs, and that to save them is to save ourselves. As they are the lungs, we are the conscience. The birds are more than food for our plates or a feast for our eyes: they are our wings! We feel the portentous vibrations from the core of the Earth-body through root and worm. We feel the winds of change through our extended fingers, through our swaying, leaf-tipped branches.

Protecting and restoring nature is serious business, but it should be a joyful undertaking too. If we fight to save wild nature without recognizing the wild nature within ourselves, we lose our birthright to participate in the dance. We may feel like dispossessed refugees of corporate capitalism, but we are still an indigenous people. Celebrating the feast days of our ancestors not only connects us to the ancient traditions of our indigenous heritage, these celebrations mark seasonal rotations in patterns over time. They connect us to our present environments by observing universal passages of fertility, life and death. Through ritual we suspend self-conscious rationality in order to rely on the true reality of our senses, get in the groove, and ride the perfect wave that is the ever spiraling dance of life.

Dreamwork is in progress. Indigenous prophets have come out of seclusion. The Tarot is well worn, the runes cast upon sometimes barren ground. Even the most pragmatic of wilderness defenders have come to recognize the elements of destiny and magic in their work. They proceed, humbly yet insistently, with little time for prediction. Whether we are truly saving the life of the planet or merely validating our own existence, either way our choice should be the same. In our focused and serviceful magic practices, are found the source of our most magical beings.... and in our efforts to preserve wild nature we will have preserved the seeds of a wilder tribe.

I’ll close with a poem from our GaiaTribe album “The Enchantment, ” one I’ve chanted alongside numerous heartful world beat bands. Imagine wisps of sage and copal, the dimming of the lights in the room, a steady building drum beat.... and the casting of a circle that includes all life, all possibility.

The Enchanted Loom

It’s said there are invisible threads of energy binding all the wizards and shamans of the world to one another.... and something connects each of us as well: the empathics and sensitives who dwell on the edge, who hear the calling, and keep the pledge. Practitioners of authenticity and wholeness, reinhabiting sacred self and sacred land. Seekers of significance and purpose, the last to give up the ancient ways, and the first to explore the new. Those its said may cry too hard, or laugh too loud.... that dare to care, so much! Each an integral component, of a lineage of place holders: unbridled children and wizened elders, willful wilders, wiccans and wizards on whose souls rest the responsibility to invoke a new/old Earth, an Earth once again green and growing, dynamic and diverse, feral and free. Our shared ministry is this most insistent calling. And our liturgy.... is our love. Conservationists, restorationists and healers. Teachers, activists and defenders. Artists, ritualists and celebrants– all rare conduits of clarity in an age of blinding noise and neon. We’re the reinhabitants of Ectopia and Katuah, the verdant Northeast and the mountains and deserts of the mystical Southwest, of watersheds and wildernesses, sacred groves and organic farms. In tryst with rivers and forests, promised to a particular valley, or courting all the Earth in a gypsy’s search for home. We’re returning to an older way of being as well, to the great mystery– humbled by our place in the awesome harmonic Whole. We’re determined to dance out our individual dances, never losing step with that greater choreography of which we are a part. Like the fabled Alice, we each pursue furtive magic through the openings in the roots of trees and the imaginations of children. Getting down on our hands and knees, we make our way back to that Gaian Wonderland we can never really leave.

I’m excited! The energy is incredible. The transition, no matter how bright, demands that we look! Unwavering vision. Unwavering intent. I’m excited! Because I sense more acutely than ever our connection to one another, and to those spirits and life forms we call “other.” It’s not really a thread that connects us after all, you know– but strands of a miraculous web. We can feel each other from great distances, through its delicate vibrations. We have only to reach out now, along these fibers, over roaring rivers, underneath a canopy of trees, in order to touch the source.... through the warp and weft of interconnected consciousness. Though we may live and work in different places, we are but one tribe, with a single unified cause. Champions of sentience and sacrament, bodily extensions and voluntary agents of holy Gaian will.

The whispering river and the rustling of the leaves are this inspirited Whole, trying to get our attention. Gaia, The Earth, is speaking to us through the voices of all creation. Yes, I’m excited! I stand as if barefoot, out of breath, staring wide-eyed at the wonder of the magic exploding before us. I’m thrilled to witness this re-becoming, this song... as we’re each reintegrated into the living, breathing flux, each made to feel we belong. I’m thrilled, because as loving and responsive care-takers, we’re fulfilling our true evolutionary role, redeeming our species as well as our selves by standing up for that which we stand upon.

No, we humans are not the brain of Gaia, the divine director– the anointed weaver that sets design rules for the patterns in rock, the flow of fire, the perfect twists in peach-colored sea shell. But we are the voluntary magic that fills the enchanted loom, reaching out in our efforts to restore the planet. Reaching out for each other. Reaching down deep again with our splayed toes, our anxious probing roots.... embracing the innermost heart of the Mother Earth, and thereby reaching out, out– until the sun is encircled.

-written by Jesse Wolf Hardin, Codirector, ESP and SMWC

ABOUT...

Earthen Spirituality Project and Women's Center

Location: Gila Wilderness, New Mexico

Website: http://www.earthenspirituality.org

Bio: Jesse Wolf Hardin is a teacher of Earth-centered spirituality and nature magick, living seven river crossings from a road in an ancient place of power. His latest effort isGaia Eros: Connecting With The Magic and Spirit Of Nature (New Page 2004) , a book acclaimed by Starhawk as "a must-read for those who want to worship nature not as an abstraction but in ways sensual, practical, and transformative.” When not presenting at conferences and festivals he can be found hosting seekers for retreats, quests, events, workshops and resident internships at their enchanted wilderness sanctuary: The Earthen Spirituality Project and Sweet Medicine Women’s Center, Box 820, Reserve, NM 87830 .

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

Skiing green on Colorado's slopes

2005-04-22T19:03:48Z

Skiing green on Colorado's slopes

Energy-saving steps vital to industry's future, says Aspen Skiing Co.

By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News
March 19, 2005

ASPEN - Imagine 1.3 million skiers and snowboarders schussing down the slopes, each hauling a 17-pound sack of coal.

The Aspen Skiing Co. operates a four- mountain ski resort, 15 restaurants and two hotels. Last year, the energy needed to keep it all humming released nearly 28,000 tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air, according to the company.

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If each of the Aspen Skiing Company's 1.3 million annual visitors had to shoulder an equal share of the carbon in those emissions, it would amount to about 17 pounds of coal per skier and snowboarder.

"People need to know - whether they are skiing or commuting to work or flying to Europe - what that means in terms of emissions, and this makes it tangible," said Auden Schendler, director of environmental affairs at the Aspen Skiing Co.

In the grand scheme of things, ski resorts are not major contributors to the global buildup of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse" gases linked to climate change.

But since skiing has no future without cold winter weather and snow, few industries have more to lose if dire climate-warming predictions prove true.

That's why Aspen Skiing Co. decided to set an example for the rest of the ski industry, said company President and Chief Executive Officer Pat O'Donnell.

In 2001, Aspen became the first U.S. ski resort to announce a climate-change policy that includes a commitment to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions 10 percent by 2010, based on a 1999 baseline.

In case you've never skied Aspen, there are no belching smokestacks on the hillsides.

When company officials talk about cutting emissions, they really mean conserving electricity so less coal has to be burned at power plants.

The company also strives for increased use of alternative-energy sources such as wind, and cutbacks on gasoline, diesel fuel and natural gas.

Each year, it publishes a report that details energy consumption during the previous year and progress toward the 10 percent reduction.

Several energy efficiency and alternative-energy projects have been completed or are underway at Aspen.

They include:

• An onslope micro-hydroelectric system that uses the Snowmass snowmaking system to channel spring runoff through a turbine, generating electricity. The first of its kind in the ski industry, the pilot project is expected to produce enough energy to power 40 homes this spring.

• Two buildings that have achieved energy-efficiency certification through the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. The buildings are the Sundeck Restaurant atop Aspen Mountain and the new Snowmass Golf Clubhouse.

• Extensive lighting and compressor retrofits. In the parking garage beneath the company-owned Little Nell Hotel, for example, 110 metal halide lamps were swapped for energy-efficient T-8 fluorescent fixtures. The change prevents the emission of 150 tons of carbon dioxide each year and saves $10,600 annually, according to the company. Lights also were switched in the hotel kitchen.

• The company buys 5 percent of its electricity from renewable sources - mainly wind farms - each year.

• It uses 260,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel for its snowcats each year, reducing air pollution. The fuel mix contains conventional diesel and fuel made from soybean oil.

Charter for Sustainable Slopes

Now the company's leaders are no ski-slope Pollyannas, hoping to save the world by changing a few light bulbs. They realize that their efforts alone will not measurably reduce the explosive global rise of heat-trapping greenhouse gases produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels.

"It's a small, small, small, borderline-irrelevant piece of the (global) puzzle," Schendler said of the energy-saving measures.

"But it's done in good faith, and it gives us credibility when we talk to Congress and to the governor, which we do," he said.

And Aspen is not alone in its green pursuits.

In 2000, ski areas across the country adopted an environmental charter commonly known as the Sustainable Slopes program. It proclaimed climate change a potential threat to the industry and identified voluntary steps - energy conservation, waste reduction and public education - that participating ski areas can pursue.

To date, 177 resorts have endorsed the charter, said Geraldine Link, director of public policy at the Lakewood-based National Ski Areas Association. The group represents 326 ski resorts.

Seventy-one of the resorts have signed letters endorsing the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act, which would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from industrial smokestacks.

"Our view is that if we're going to ask other people to make changes, we have to make changes ourselves," Link said. "And for our effort to be credible, we have to be the most sustainable operations we can be."

But a 2004 study by two public policy analysts found that, in many cases, participation in the Sustainable Slopes Program was more show than substance.

Participating ski areas "appear to be displaying rather opportunistic behavior, expecting to improve their 'green' reputation" without reducing environmental impacts, Jorge Rivera and Peter de Leon wrote in The Policy Studies Journal.

The practice they describe is sometimes called "greenwashing."

"The vast majority of the Sustainable Slopes program is, I believe, abused by the ski industry as a green-marketing tool," said Jeff Berman, executive director of Colorado Wild, a Durango-based conservation group that publishes an annual environmental scorecard on Western ski resorts.

'We're not a land trust'

Not so, Link said.

Electricity-conservation efforts under the Sustainable Slopes program have saved the equivalent to 90.2 million pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions, she said. Thirty of the participating resorts now purchase "green energy" sources such as wind and solar.

"Since when is that green-washing?" she said.

"And just for your background, the scorecard is developed by a group of environmental activists who sue ski areas," she said. "That's what they do for a living. They are not neutral. They're not objective."

Despite its reputation as an environmental leader, the Aspen Skiing Co. is moving ahead with plans for a new $400 million Base Village at Snowmass.

The development includes 349 condominiums, 246 hotel rooms and 64,000 square feet of new shops and restaurants.

Plans for the new village, proposed by Canada's Intrawest Corp. and Aspen Skiing Co., were approved by Snowmass Village voters last month.

If energy conservation is such a high priority for the company, why not adopt a zero-growth policy and make do with existing facilities?

"We're not an environmental group or a land trust," O'Donnell said.

"I run a for-profit company. My challenge is to find a balance between economic viability and environmental sustainability," said O'Donnell, former president and chief executive officer of the Patagonia clothing company.

Skier visits at Snowmass have been declining for several years. Snowmass needs a revitalized base village with plenty of "support amenities" to compete with other resorts, O'Donnell said.

"I can't let Snowmass die."

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

Change in the air - part 3: Heating up the high country

2005-04-22T18:59:54Z

Change in the air, part 4: Heating up the high country

Look ahead to the end of this century and climate change could dramatically alter the state's signature Rockies. Blame it on global warming, scientists say.

By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News
April 20, 2005

CHANGE IN THE AIR: FOURTH IN AN OCCASIONAL SERIES ABOUT HIGH-ALTITUDE RESEARCH IN COLORADO

CRESTED BUTTE - Physicist-turned-ecologist John Harte says he's glimpsed the future of Colorado's high country under global warming, and it's not a pretty sight.

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Sagebrush will drive out wildflowers as the state's prized alpine meadows dry up, the ski industry will founder within 50 years, and property values in mountain resort towns will plummet, Harte predicts.

The Berkeley, Calif., researcher has spent the past 14 years using electric heaters to simulate a warmer world on a hillside meadow at 9,600 feet in Gothic. The former mining town is several miles north of Crested Butte, designated the Wildflower Capital of Colorado by the state legislature.

Harte's climate-manipulation experiment was the first to use overhead heaters to mimic some of the expected effects of global warming on a natural ecosystem. The heaters have been operating continuously - 24 hours a day, year-round - since January 1991.

"Places like this will look much more like the sagebrush meadows around Gunnison," Harte said during a visit to his research plots at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic.

"We're talking about a completely different future for this region," Harte said as he hiked up a hillside cloaked in a riotous, multihued tangle of blooming wildflowers. "I hope I'm wrong."

Some climatologists and Colorado ski industry officials dismiss Harte's bleak outlook. And the folks at the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival aren't rushing to rename the event in honor of the hardy sagebrush shrub.

But key findings of Harte's federally funded meadow experiment - earlier springtime snowmelt, drier summer soils and sagebrush encroachment into alpine meadows - are viewed as likely scenarios in several studies of the potential impacts of global warming on the Rocky Mountain region.

The most comprehensive study to date is the 240-page Rocky Mountain/Great Basin Regional Climate-Change Assessment, prepared for the U.S. government. More than 125 researchers - including climatologists, hydrologists and ecologists - contributed to the report.

In it, scientists looked at the likely impacts of various future climate scenarios, based largely on the projections of two computerized climate simulations called general circulation models.

Both models predicted a surge in regional temperatures that would trigger transforming changes by 2100. The impacts, according to the study's authors, could plausibly include:

• Big reductions in the mountain snowpacks that provide most of the region's water. As temperatures increase, fall and early winter precipitation will likely continue as rain later in the year. Spring melting would start earlier.

"Marked temperature rise and winter precipitation changing to rain would likely reduce the magnitude and season length of snowpacks, even to the point of eliminating them" in some parts of the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin region.

• Significant summer drying and reduced soil moisture in Colorado's mountain forests, along with lower summer flows in rivers and streams. "Only those (plant) species that could disperse upward in elevation will be able to secure the necessary cooler, wetter conditions . . . Some native species would be lost."

• An earlier wildfire season, more droughts, more large-scale insect outbreaks in forests.

• Reduced habitat for native cold-water fish such as the cutthroat trout. The problem would be exacerbated by competition from nonnative fish species, which typically can tolerate higher temperatures.

"There is a distinct prospect of extinction among some cold-water endemic fish species which are already threatened or endangered."

• Shorter ski seasons and a higher snow line, placing low-elevation resorts at risk. "All analyses based on significantly higher temperatures project reduction or disappearance of skiing" in the region, according to the report.

Glimpse of warmer world

During the 20th century, the global average surface temperature increased about a degree, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The panel was established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations in 1988. Hundreds of researchers around the world contribute to its periodic assessments.

Some of the 20th century warming probably was due to natural climate variability. But most of the observed warming in the past 50 years likely occurred because of the human-caused increase in heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases such as carbon dioxide, the climate panel concluded in 2001.

Later that year, a National Academy of Sciences report endorsed that intergovernmental panel finding, saying that it "accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community on this issue."

"Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise," according to the academy report, requested by the White House.

"Human-induced warming and associated sea level rises are expected to continue through the 21st century," the panel wrote.

Historian Naomi Oreskes analyzed more than 900 climate-related research papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 1993 and 2003. She summarized her findings late last year in the journal Science.

"There is a scientific consensus on the reality of anthropogenic (human caused) climate change," the University of California at San Diego researcher wrote. "Climate scientists have repeatedly tried to make this clear. It is time for the rest of us to listen."

The world is warming.

And Colorado has not escaped the trend.

The state's average annual temperature increased 1.5 degrees during the past century, according to research meteorologist Martin Hoerling of the Climate Diagnostics Center in Boulder.

Six of Colorado's 10 warmest years occurred since 1981, according to temperature records from the National Climatic Data Center.

If atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases continue to increase as projected - due mainly to the burning of fossil fuels - the planet is expected to warm another 2.5 to 10.4 degrees by 2100, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Most continents would warm more rapidly than the global average. North America could see warming in the range of 6.3 to 13.5 degrees by 2100 under high-emissions scenarios, according to panel.

The two computer models used in the 2003 Rocky Mountains/Great Basin assessment, known informally as the Hadley and the Canadian models, projected regional warming of 4.5 to 14.4 degrees by 2100.

More up-to-date models now call for somewhat less Western warming by century's end - somewhere in the range of 3.6 to 10.8 degrees, said Daniel Cayan, director of the climate research division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.

But some scientists view these climate projections as little more than high-tech guesswork. One prominent critic once compared general circulation models to Ouija boards.

Colorado State Climatologist Roger Pielke Sr. says the models are incomplete and unreliable, especially when used to forecast climate change at the regional level.

"My feeling is that the climate system is so complex that we can't predict with skill what will happen in the future," Pielke said.

"There's general acceptance that humans are altering the climate system," he said. "And I think we should probably control CO2 (carbon dioxide). But to try to base it on these models is not solid. It's not good science.

"This report grossly overstates our ability to confidently predict regional climate change and therefore the impacts that are inferred from that," Pielke said of the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin regional assessment. "It gives the illusion of authority and scientific accuracy."

Utah State University ecologist Frederic Wagner, co-coordinator of the regional assessment, called Pielke a maverick who is "almost ideologically committed" to criticizing global climate models.

"I think he's irrational on this whole subject," Wagner said. "I know he's a man with some credentials and qualifications, but I don't know anybody else who takes the stand that Pielke does."

In response, Pielke pointed to a November 2001 policy statement on climate change from the American Association of State Climatologists. "Climate predictions have not demonstrated skill in projecting future variability and changes in such important climate conditions as growing season, drought, flood-producing rainfall, heat waves, tropical cyclones and winter storms," it states in part.

Big changes on horizon

Boulder climatologist Linda Mearns served on the six-person Assessment Team that oversaw the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin report.

Mearns is a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, known as NCAR. She is a lead author of two chapters in the next intergovernmental panel assessments, scheduled for publication in 2007.

Climate models are not crystal balls. The scenarios outlined in the regional assessment present a range of "plausible futures," not hard-and-fast predictions, she said.

"I wouldn't necessarily disagree with Roger that we really don't know the details about what will happen, let's say, in the Front Range," Mearns said. "It's true. We don't know the details . . . But that doesn't mean we know nothing."

Astronomers don't need the Hubble Space Telescope to see giant craters on the moon's surface. And climate modelers don't need to resolve the finest regional details to spot some of the big changes on the horizon, Mearns said.

If the explosive increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gases continues unchecked, warming will accelerate, leading to far-reaching changes in the Colorado Rockies, she said.

The climate models, despite their shortcomings, help researchers and potentially affected parties - water managers, foresters, fisheries, farmers and ranchers, ski industry officials and others - explore the range of potential impacts, Mearns said.

Critical snowpack at risk

The Rocky Mountain/Great Basin region was home to eight of the nation's 10 fastest-growing states between 1995 and 2000. Colorado's current population of 4.6 million is expected to swell to 7.2 million by 2030, a 56.5 percent increase.

Residents in this region, which ranges from semi-arid to arid, derive 85 percent of their water from surface sources, and 85 percent of that surface water comes from snowpack runoff.

Any climate changes affecting either water availability or the timing of snowmelt runoff could have profound social, economic and ecological repercussions.

And the ripple effects would be felt far beyond the Rockies and the Great Basin. Snowpacks in the region form the headwaters of the Columbia, Missouri, Colorado, Rio Grande, Platte and Arkansas rivers, providing water for millions of people living hundreds of miles downstream.

Western snowpacks are expected to decrease as the climate warms - even though some models forecast a slight increase in annual precipitation - for two reasons.

First, warmer temperatures will result in more of the the precipitation falling as rain rather than snow, pushing the snow line higher. Second, the snowpack will develop later in the year and melt earlier in the spring, according to Climate Change Impacts on the United States, a 2000 report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Denver climatologist Gregory McCabe was the lead author of a snowpack study cited in that 2000 report, which is known as the national assessment. McCabe and colleague David Wolock used the Hadley and Canadian computer models to examine likely changes in snowpack in the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Northwest by 2100.

The models suggested that the Southern Rockies, including southern Colorado, could see a 55 to 98 percent reduction in April 1 snowpack by 2100.

The outlook for the Central Rockies, including the northern Colorado mountains, was less clear. One model showed no significant snowpack change, while the other pointed to a 75 percent reduction.

But like Pielke, McCabe questions the reliability of forecasts based on global climate models.

"They show some pretty drastic changes, but you have to realize that there's a lot of uncertainty with those projections," said McCabe, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist.

Altering water resources

As the snowpack shrinks, peak runoff will arrive earlier and earlier. Winter and early spring floods could become more common, straining reservoir capacity in the West at a time when public antipathy to building dams makes the construction of new ones "an unlikely solution," according to the regional assessment.

Denver Water serves 1.2 million customers. The utility draws roughly half its water from the South Platte River watershed and half from the headwaters of the Colorado River.

It relies on a network of pipelines, canals and reservoirs to transport and store mountain runoff.

If climate change causes snowmelt to run off the mountains earlier and quicker than it does today, the flows could overwhelm those canals and pipelines, said Marc Waage, a water resource engineer at Denver Water.

"We'd lose water that we would be able to deliver today because the snow now melts at a slower rate," Waage said.

A shift to an earlier runoff peak could also throw a monkey wrench into the state's Byzantine water-rights system, which is based on the assumption of a static climate.

"There are water-right decrees with fixed dates in them for when they can start to divert water out of the river or put that water into storage," Waage said. "If the whole runoff cycle is shifted earlier in the year, how will the administration of these water rights be affected?"

Next year, Denver Water will update its Integrated Resources Plan, the utility's long-range water supply and conservation document. For the first time, it will include an assessment of the possible effects of climate change on the Denver Water system.

"We're quite concerned about it," Waage said.

"We've already got our hands full with trying to provide enough water to the region to keep up with population growth," he said. "To add the additional problem of climate change just exacerbates an already difficult situation."

Earlier spring runoff

Reduced snowpacks and an earlier peak in springtime runoff have already been observed in some parts of the West, most notably in the Pacific Northwest and lower elevations in California's Sierra Nevada. But it is unclear if those changes, which span several decades, are tied to natural climate variability or greenhouse-induced warming, the Scripps Institution's Cayan said.

In Colorado, statewide April 1 snowpacks have been below average 14 of the last 19 years. But again, natural climate variability could explain it.

In general, the higher altitudes and colder temperatures of the Colorado Rockies should provide a buffer against some of the snowpack and runoff changes.

For now.

But in a 2004 paper in the journal Climatic Change, California climatologists used computer models to look at likely future changes in the timing of snowmelt runoff in western North America.

The biggest shifts are expected in the Pacific Northwest, the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, according to the paper by Iris Stewart and two colleagues, Michael Dettinger and Cayan.

In the Colorado Rockies, springtime runoff is expected to peak two to five weeks earlier by 2100, according to the study.

An earlier runoff peak would result in lower summer flows. That means less water for fish as well as urban lawns and irrigated farmland. Agriculture uses about 80 percent of Western water and relies heavily on summer irrigation.

More rain would help, but that doesn't appear to be in the cards.

The two computer models used in the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin regional assessment did, in fact, call for big annual increases in precipitation - a jump of anywhere from 54 to 184 percent.

But most of the current models show little or no change in annual precipitation for the West in the coming century, Cayan said.

For example, the latest National Center for Atmospheric Research model calls for a "slight annual increase" in precipitation over the Colorado Rockies by 2100, said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the Boulder lab.

Experts say river and stream levels could drop in the summer even if the Western climate gets a bit wetter.

How is that possible?

Higher temperatures will evaporate more water, negating the effects of any extra rain in all but the wettest scenarios.

In a study of the Colorado River Basin, California researchers Peter Gleick and Linda Nash calculated that if temperatures warm 7.2 degrees, a 15 to 20 percent annual precipitation increase would be needed just to maintain current streamflow levels, due to losses from evaporation.

Threat to meadows

In the high country, alpine meadows and tundra will be among the ecosystems most vulnerable to future warming, according to several key reports:

• Rocky Mountain meadows are "likely to face extreme stress and disappear in some places," said one assessment.

• "Unique natural systems such as prairie wetlands, alpine tundra and cold-water ecosystems will be at risk, and effective adaptation is unlikely," according to another.

"Effective adaptation is unlikely" is another way of saying that mountaintop tundra will vanish because it cannot migrate to higher altitudes to escape warming.

On Colorado's highest peaks, the alpine tundra community is a ground-hugging mix of grasses, sedge, wildflowers and other forbs, moss, lichen and low shrubs such as dwarf willow and birch.

In general, the trees in Colorado's mountain forests are expected to shift to higher elevations as the climate warms.

As the tree line moves up, much of the state's tundra is expected to disappear, said Ron Neilson, a U.S. Forest Service bioclimatologist who uses computer models to study likely vegetation changes in a warming world.

"Basically, the forests go off the top of the mountains," Neilson said.

Park subject to change

Colorado State University researchers estimated that the tree line in Rocky Mountain National Park could rise 244 feet for every degree of warming. At that rate, 5 degrees of warming would force the tree line 1,220 feet higher.

The park, which draws about 3 million visitors each year, straddles the Continental Divide and boasts more than 110 peaks higher than 10,000 feet. More than 100 square miles of the park lie above timberline - a stark landscape of rock, ice and alpine tundra.

According to CSU estimates, a 3.6-degree rise would eliminate about 20 percent of the park's tundra. More than half of it would disappear if the climate warms by 5.4 degrees, and all of it would vanish if the temperature climbs 9 to 10.8 degrees.

The tree-line shifts would likely occur over several centuries. Long before the conifers completed their upslope march, the tundra would be invaded from below by grasses and other rapidly colonizing plants, according to the Colorado State study.

But U.S. Geological Survey ecologist Thomas Stohlgren, co-coordinator of the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin regional assessment, rejects the vanishing tundra scenarios.

"The tundra isn't going to disappear," he said. "The extent might change, but it will survive.

"There are some really big believers in rapid change, and there are others who believe that it might not be so rapid, or that there might be some mitigating circumstances," he said.

"I'm in the latter group. I'm in the group that believes there is more uncertainty."

The Rocky Mountain National Park study concluded that warming would harm creatures that rely on tundra, such as the white-tailed ptarmigan. Yellow-bellied marmots and pikas also could be impacted.

At lower elevations, warmer temperatures would likely reduce winter mortality among young elk in the park, exacerbating an existing overpopulation problem. Aspen, willow and other elk foods would likely suffer.

The Colorado State-led study said warming could help efforts to boost the number of native greenback cutthroat trout in the park's waters, allowing them to spawn earlier and in streams that currently are too cold for breeding.

But the authors of the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin report concluded that, regionwide, warming is likely to reduce habitat available to cold-water fish such as trout. Warm-water species such as minnows and suckers would likely benefit.

The lynx and the Uncompahgre fritillary butterfly are two other Colorado-dwelling creatures considered especially sensitive to climate warming.

Sagebrush future?

Below the tundra, in Colorado's high-elevation forests, alpine meadows could face threats from shrubs creeping upslope. Warmer, drier summers would favor the upward expansion of shrubby plants with tap roots that can probe for deep soil moisture.

Such as sagebrush.

Because shrubs like sagebrush have much shorter life spans than most trees, sagebrush encroachment could occur relatively quickly, serving as one of the "early indicators of climate change" in the region, according to the regional assessment.

Which brings us back to John Harte, a professor of environmental science at the University of California at Berkeley, and his experimental Gothic plots.

For 14 years, Harte has continuously warmed five 330-square-foot plots, resulting in a 3- to 4-degree increase in soil temperature. That's roughly what would be expected by 2040, he says, if current trends in the emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases continue.

Five nearby control plots remain unheated.

The meadow project is funded by the National Science Foundation, which pays the $300 monthly electricity bill, among other things.

In the heated plots, spring snows melt up to two weeks earlier than in the control plots, Harte explained to a visitor last summer. Soils near the surface are drier, favoring deep-rooted plants.

Wildflowers - the Crested Butte area has more than 100 species of them - generally have shallow roots and have not fared well in Harte's plots.

The result: Sagebrush is taking over the heated plots.

"At some point, we're going to lose the diversity of wildflowers we see in the meadows" around Colorado mountain resort towns like Crested Butte, Vail, Aspen and Telluride, said University of Maryland ecologist David Inouye.

Inouye has monitored the blooming of Gothic-area wildflowers each year since 1973, when he first visited the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory as a graduate student.

"This place may become a base camp for people working at higher altitudes, where the wildflowers have shifted up to," Inouye said while checking one of his monitoring plots near the Gothic lab last summer.

"The meadows may shift up until they reach the top of the mountain and get pushed off the mountain and disappear.

"So I enjoy it while I can. Because it may not last."

Story by Jim Erickson • Photos by Judy Walgren • Rocky Mountain News

ericksonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5129

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Change in the air - part 3: Bleak forcast for Ski Industry

2005-04-22T18:53:00Z

Change in the air, part 3: Bleak forecast for ski industry

Warmer temps may put resorts in deep freeze

By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News
March 19, 2005

Third in an occasional series about high-elevation research in Colorado.

ASPEN - Colorado's $2 billion ski industry could be dead by 2050 unless radical steps are taken to address global warming and save the state's prized champagne powder.

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This is not a line from the latest Hollywood disaster flick about the impending climate apocalypse. And it's not the Chicken Little ravings of some kook on late-night talk radio.

This gloomy pronouncement comes from an executive at the Aspen Skiing Co., operators of a four-mountain ski mecca in one of the world's best-known and poshest destination resorts.

"Things look bleak," said Auden Schendler, the company's director of environmental affairs.

The most likely scenario for Colorado's 25 ski resorts, unless global emissions of heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases are reined in: "Gone in 2050 . . . Maybe - good case scenario - gone by 2100," he said.

Schendler's pessimism is based on numerous climate-change studies that predict declining mountain snowpacks in coming decades as the West warms.

"Most analyses project a decline, if not total demise, of downhill skiing by the mid or latter part of the 21st century," proclaims the federally funded Rocky Mountain/Great Basin Regional Climate-Change Assessment, a 240-page study produced by more than 125 researchers.

But uncertainty about the amount of warming, the reliability of computerized climate models used in such studies - and especially about how precipitation patterns will change in the Colorado Rockies - leaves plenty of room for speculation.

In the Colorado ski industry, opinions about the likely impacts of climate change run the gamut, and some observers reject Schendler's views as overly negative and unjustified.

Even so, few in the industry dismiss the climate-change issue completely.

Warming on radar screen

"Climate change is a potential risk in our industry. It's on all our radar screens," said Bill Jensen, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Vail Resorts.

"But I'm not as pessimistic as Auden," he said. "I think we'll be able to adapt."

Jensen envisions scenarios in which Colorado ski resorts could benefit from a few degrees of warming.

Schendler's boss at Aspen, President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick O'Donnell, called climate change "the most pressing issue facing the ski industry today."

But O'Donnell said he remains optimistic that global greenhouse emissions will be curtailed and the warming problem controlled.

And Aspen Skiing Co. is moving ahead with plans for a $400 million revamping of the Base Village at Snowmass, which suggests the resort's owners remain upbeat about the future of Colorado skiing.

Scientists acknowledge the limits of the computer models used to project future climate at the regional level. But despite the unknowns, certain changes seem unavoidable if warming continues, they say.

In the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin Regional Climate-Change Assessment, scientists concluded that some outdoor recreational activities, such as fishing and golf, could benefit because warmer temperatures would extend the summer season and make winters milder.

But downhill skiing would likely suffer, according to the study, released with little fanfare in February two years ago and published by the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Likely major effects on the Colorado ski industry would include a shorter ski season and increased reliance on artificial snowmaking. The season would be squeezed at both ends, fall and spring, and attempts to make up for a natural-snow deficit with man-made snow could backfire due to warmer temperatures.

Models: variable, warmer

The two computerized climate models used in the regional assessment, known informally as the Hadley and Canadian models, project a 4.5- to 14.4-degree warming in the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin by 2100.

But most of the latest models suggest the West will warm between 3.6 and 10.8 degrees by 2100 as levels of heat-trapping gases continue to rise, according to Daniel Cayan, director of the climate research division at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.

Even 4 degrees of warming in the Colorado mountains could have a "huge impact" on the ski industry, said Aspen's O'Donnell. The company attracts 1.3 million visitors each winter to its four mountains: Snowmass, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands and Buttermilk.

The most damaging blow might be struck in the fall, when Colorado ski areas spray tons of artificial snow in a race to build the base layers needed to ensure a November opening.

Aspen starts blowing artificial snow in mid-October, using "every available hour" to lay down that base, O'Donnell said. Early-season conditions are critical, in part, because many out-of-staters make their winter vacation reservations based on late-November snow reports in the West.

"If somebody condensed my snowmaking period by a week or two, we'd have a real problem," O'Donnell said.

Warmer fall temperatures would hurt in several ways.

First, if mountain precipitation changes from rain to snow later in the season, there will be less natural snow on the ground.

Second, warmer temperatures could reduce the period when artificial snow can be made.

Third, making snow when temperatures approach the freezing point is costly, inefficient and produces inferior snow.

"What snowmaking allows us to do is to get open earlier, consistently, than we ever did before in the old days just relying totally on Mother Nature," O'Donnell said.

"It brings more cash flow in and gets more people interested," he said. "But if you haven't got the temperature, you can't make the snow."

Cutting the profit margin

In a good year, Aspen operates for about 140 days. It takes about 100 days to pay the resort's expenses, so all the profits come during the last 30 to 40 days - in March and part of April, O'Donnell said.

If climate warming starts compressing the Colorado ski season on both ends, he said, "It's going to be an economic disaster."

Last year, the four Aspen mountains spent $600,000 on snowmaking, including $388,000 for electricity and $115,530 for water. High-pressure spray guns made about 650 acre-feet of artificial snow, enough to cover one square mile to a depth of a foot.

The snowmaking campaign consumed 162.4 million gallons of water. That's enough water to supply the needs of nearly 1,000 Denver Water customers for a year. And it's more than three times the amount of water Aspen Skiing Co. used last year in its lodges, restaurants and hotels.

The optimum temperature for making artificial snow is 15 degrees, Schendler said. As the temperature rises, more compressed air and water must be forced up to the spray guns, increasing electricity costs and water consumption while producing heavier, lower-quality snow.

Snowmaking can continue up to 28 or 29 degrees, O'Donnell said. But the Aspen Skiing Co. avoids doing it, when possible, because it's so expensive. If climate change pushes fall temperatures near the upper limit of snowmaking, costs would skyrocket, he said.

Snowmaking more expensive

And then there's the question of water availability. Ski areas can't assume they will be able to get all the water they would need to expand snowmaking operations.

At Snowmass, for example, water use has been the subject of bitter conflicts - including several lawsuits - dating to 1978. Water used for snowmaking at Snowmass comes from Snowmass Creek, a tributary of the Roaring Fork River, which flows into the Colorado River.

A court ruling already limits the amount of water the ski area can pump from the creek, and it forces Snowmass to quit making snow each winter on Dec. 31.

Colorado's current population of 4.6 million is expected to swell to 7.2 million by 2030, a 55.5 percent increase. In the coming decades, competition for Colorado's water will intensify and water costs are likely to rise.

So water could cost more at a time when ski areas will need more of it for snowmaking. The seemingly inevitable result: increased operating costs.

"Let's be realistic about it. Those extra operating costs, in some form or another - at least a portion of it - are going to get passed on to the consumer," O'Donnell said. "You could end up pricing yourself out of business."

An Aspen four-mountain daily lift ticket costs $74. Vail charges $77.

Colorado typically leads the nation in annual skier visits, with an average of 11.5 million skiers per year, according to Colorado Ski Country USA, a nonprofit trade organization representing 24 of the state's 25 ski resorts.

But the annual number of Colorado skier visits has grown less than 1 percent since the 1993-94 season. It hit a high of 11,979,719 visits in 1997-98 and a low of 10,892,263 visits the following year.

The high cost of lift tickets may be partly responsible for that slow growth, and climate warming could add to the problem, said ecologist Frederic Wagner of Utah State University, co-coordinator of the Rocky Mountain/Great Basin regional climate assessment.

"If skiing is now at the expense level where it's shutting off moderate-income people - and I don't know that that is the case; this is a hypothetical - then they're going to get fewer and fewer people coming out to ski," Wagner said.

Downhill skiing contributes $2 billion to $2.5 billion to the Colorado economy annually, according to Colorado Ski Country USA.

"I can't say that this is absolute certainty, nor put a probability figure on it, but I think it's a distinct possibility that we're going to lose the snowpacks in the West and with that the ski industry," Wagner said.

Wetter may not be better

Most of the latest climate models show little or no change in annual precipitation for the West in the coming century, Cayan said.

The latest version of the Community Climate Systems Model from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, for example, calls for a "slight annual increase" in precipitation over the Colorado Rockies by 2100, said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the lab.

But no one knows for sure what will happen.

And even if it does get wetter here, warmer temperatures would likely reduce the length of the ski season because much of the extra mountain precipitation would fall as rain in autumn and spring.

The snow line would rise and the lowest-elevation Western resorts would be hurt first.

"The survival probability of lower-elevation resorts would still be low," despite an annual precipitation increase, according to the regional assessment.

But Vail's Jensen said Washington state's loss could be Colorado's gain.

The high elevations of many Colorado ski resorts could act as a temporary buffer against the damaging effects of climate warming, he said.

Think of warming temperatures as a rising sea that will inundate the lowest-elevation resorts first. If that's how it plays out, then ski areas in Europe, New England, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest and even California's Sierra Nevada will be under water long before the high-altitude Colorado resorts.

As conditions deteriorate at lower elevations, skiers may seek higher ground in Colorado, Jensen said. During the next several decades, the Colorado ski industry could benefit, he said.

"What do you think the chances of us having snow in 40 years are, compared to Snoqualmie Summit, outside of Seattle, or ski areas that are outside of Boston that are at 1,200 feet?" Jensen said.

The Summit at Snoqualmie, a ski resort 52 miles east of Seattle in the Cascades, has elevations ranging from 2,610 feet to 5,420 feet above sea level. The resort has been closed most of the 2004-05 season because of lack of snow, and it received 8.5 inches of rain in a four-day period in January.

The base elevation of Vail ski resort is at 8,120 feet and the summit is at 11,570 feet.

"The base elevations of the Colorado resorts give us an advantage - certainly in the near term, if you define the near term as the next 50 years," Jensen said.

Warming controls destiny

In fact, a temperature increase of 4 degrees could result in higher snowfall totals during the coldest winter months at Vail and other Colorado resorts, said Jensen, who has worked in the industry for 31 years. Vail receives an average of 346 inches of snow per year.

Average low temperatures on Vail Mountain in December, January and February were 6.6 degrees, 6 degrees, 7.5 degrees, respectively, between 1973 and 2003.

When the temperature dips below 10 degrees or so at Vail, storms don't deliver much snow, Jensen said. If it warmed 4 degrees during those months, mid-winter skiing conditions could improve, he said.

"I would probably argue from a ski resort's perspective - a selfish ski resort's perspective - that it actually would lead to more snow in Colorado, because many times we're too cold to have it snow any significant amounts," he said.

But in the long run, significant warming would have "tremendously negative" effects on the industry, Aspen's O'Donnell said.

The solution is to cut global emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases that climate scientists say are warming the Earth.

"But it's out of our control," O'Donnell said. "The worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases is controlling our destiny."

ericksonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5129

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Change in the air - part 2: Going, Going, Gone

2005-04-22T18:47:55Z

Change in the air - part 2: Going, going, gone?

Front Range glaciers declining; researchers point to a warming world

By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News
October 26, 2004

ARAPAHO GLACIER - "And Men shall fashion Glaciers into Greenness and harvest April rivers in the Autumn." - Inscription beneath a mural in the Colorado Capitol

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The state's largest glacier is shrinking fast, and University of Colorado researchers suspect global warming is playing a role.

The surface of the 62-acre Arapaho Glacier along the Continental Divide west of Boulder has dropped 100 to 130 feet since 1960, according to recent CU reports.

A third CU analysis concludes that the surface of the 25-acre Arikaree Glacier, about five miles north of the Arapaho, has also sunk some 66 feet since 1965.

The three reports are the first to document significant present-day declines in Colorado's pint-size Front Range glaciers, which are clustered along the Continental Divide from Rocky Mountain National Park south to Interstate 70.

Marc Piscotty © News
Graduate student Fabian Walter, who is working with glaciologist Tad Pfeffer, of the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, climbs Arapaho Glacier near Nederland carrying parts of a device used to measure the glacier's depth. One study suggests the surface of the glacier has dropped as much as 130 feet since 1960.

"We can argue about the rate of decline, but I think we can say confidently that both of them are losing ice - and they've been losing it fairly seriously," said CU hydrologist Nel Caine, author of the Arikaree report.

CU researchers say there is no reason to believe that other Front Range glaciers aren't experiencing similar declines. Some of them could be gone in a few decades.

Just two years ago, at the height of Colorado's multiyear drought, two year-round ice patches along the Continental Divide disgorged ancient bison horns that have been radiocarbon dated between 2,090 and 2,280 years old.

The animal remains suggest that, in some cases, ice along the divide has retreated to levels unseen since before the time of Christ.

"Over the last couple of decades, and especially over the last 10 years, we have entered a period of warming and retreat that is as great, or greater, than any we know of since the end of the last ice age" 10,000 years ago, said glaciologist Tad Pfeffer, of CU's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, or INSTAAR.

"The Front Range glaciers and snowfields could be gone in a couple of decades," Pfeffer said.

"Are we directly responsible for this? Is this the smoking gun that says this is caused by fossil-fuel emissions? That's a harder question to answer," he said.

Change in the high country

Water managers say the loss of the state's 14 named mountain glaciers and the hundreds of unnamed year-round snow patches along the Continental Divide would have little effect on municipal water supplies, since their contribution is small.

But the loss of glaciers and the so-called perennial snowfields would redefine places such as Rocky Mountain National Park. It would reduce habitat for fish that rely on late-summer runoff from glacial sources. Some alpine plants and high-altitude forests also could suffer.

And the extinction of the alpine ice would cut deeper, beyond what can be measured in tourist dollars or acre-feet of water. Those scattered scraps of flowing mountaintop ice are remnants of the last ice age, the last links to a vanished time, when mammoths roamed the landscape.

"Compare these mountains to a really dry mountain range in New Mexico or Arizona or Nevada. They're very different places," Pfeffer said. "And to the extent that we care about the landscape that we live in, that matters."

"Aesthetically and emotionally, they're worth a lot," he said.

Diminishing glaciers

Mountain glaciers have been retreating worldwide for a century, and there's no end in sight.

The declines are viewed by many scientists as strong evidence that global warming - caused, in part, by the buildup of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases emitted when fossil fuels are burned - is reshaping the natural world.

During the past 40 years, the total volume of mountain glaciers around the globe has declined by about 10 percent, according to INSTAAR glaciologist Mark Dyurgerov.

The losses have been especially severe in Alaska, the Alps, the Himalayas and the Andes.

Western U.S. glaciers also have suffered, especially in places such as Glacier National Park.

U.S. Geological Survey maps show 1,700 glaciers or perennial mountain ice patches in the West. Most are in Washington, Montana and Wyoming, but 34 are listed in Colorado.

The only known growing glacier in the contiguous United States was, until recent weeks, inside Mount St. Helens, said Portland State University glaciologist Andrew Fountain. Now that one is shrinking, too, he said.

Courtesy of the Center for Mountain Archeology/Special to the News
1898: A photo of the Arapaho Glacier, taken by R.S. Brackett of the University of Colorado. Archival photos point to a tremendous loss of ice between 1898 and 1960.

2004: Boulder geologist and archaeologist Jim Benedict took this photo in virtually the same spot. "This poor thing has taken a beating, no question," he says.

While glaciologists have flocked to remote mountain glaciers to document their decline, Colorado's glaciers have been largely overlooked. There have been few systematic, long-term monitoring studies here, in part because the puny Front Range ice slabs barely qualify as glaciers.

Surprisingly little work has been done on the status of the glaciers in Rocky Mountain National Park, home to about half the Colorado glaciers named on U.S. Geological Survey maps. Park officials blame tight research budgets.

One unfinished U.S. Geological Survey study of the park's Andrews Glacier, however, suggests it has retreated a bit since 1991.

And Fountain recently embarked - with funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation - on a multiyear study of Western glaciers, including some in Rocky Mountain National Park.

He said the park's glaciers appear to be "holding steady," but that early assessment is based mainly on a review of archival glacier photographs.

Warming's effects disputed

INSTAAR researchers Caine, Pfeffer and Dyurgerov are among the few who have made an effort to study the local glaciers in detail.

Pfeffer compared the Arapaho Glacier's current surface elevation with measurements made in 1960 and determined that the ice surface has dropped 100 feet.

Caine has measured May-through-October runoff at Arikaree Glacier weekly since 1981. Combining his runoff records with data from two nearby weather stations, he calculated that the Arikaree has lost up to 66 feet in depth since 1965.

Dyurgerov used 2003 Arapaho Glacier measurements, weather records and some of Caine's Arikaree data to calculate a loss of about 130 feet at Arapaho Glacier since 1960.

Though the INSTAAR researchers are convinced the losses are real, they can't say for sure why the changes are happening.

But given the condition of mountain glaciers worldwide, it seems likely that global climate change is playing some role, Pfeffer and Dyurgerov said.

"We know the temperature is rising globally, and we know that glacial volumes are shrinking globally," Pfeffer said.

"My feeling is that global warming is probably involved.

"But I can't point at Arapaho - by itself, in isolation - and say this is evidence of global warming. You just can't do that.

"You have to look at these things in aggregate."

Boulder geologist and archaeologist Jim Benedict says it would be "bad science" to blame global warming for any of the Arapaho decline.

Benedict began photographing Arapaho Glacier annually in 1980. When he compares his pictures with an 1898 archival photograph taken by CU's R.S. Brackett, it's clear to him that "this poor thing has taken a beating, no question."

Archival photos reveal that the Arapaho lost a tremendous amount of ice between 1898 and 1960. The losses since then are less obvious in the photos, although the CU reports suggest declines are continuing.

Dyurgerov's "mass balance study" concludes that the Arapaho actually gained ice and snow from 1969 to 1975, but has been declining since 1976, with sharp drops during the current multiyear drought.

"We're losing this glacier," Benedict said as he mounted his Hasselblad camera on a tripod at the Arapaho Col overlook during an early September hike to the glacier. "It used to be big and convex. Now it's little, shrinking and sad."

Due to local peculiarities of weather and topography, however, the Front Range glaciers don't behave like typical mountain glaciers. So assumptions about the effects of global climate change simply don't apply here, he said.

"It's more difficult to interpret the effects of climate change here than it is in other places, because things are complex here, not straightforward," Benedict said.

State's temperature up

So why then are the Arapaho and Arikaree glaciers shrinking?

Are the declines simply a reaction to local and regional conditions, or is global climate change involved?

In general, mountain glaciers are considered sensitive indicators of temperature change: They advance when it gets colder and they retreat when it warms.

During the 20th century, the global average surface temperature increased by about 1 degree, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The IPCC was established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations in 1988 and includes hundreds of climate researchers from around the world.

Some of that warming is likely due to natural climate variability.

But most of the observed warming during the past 50 years is probably the result of human activities, the IPCC concluded in 2001.

And Colorado has not escaped the warming trend.

The state's average annual temperature has increased 1.5 degrees during the past century, according to research meteorologist Martin Hoerling, of the U.S. Climate Diagnostics Center in Boulder.

Six of Colorado's 10 warmest years have occurred since 1981, according to temperature records from the National Climate Data Center.

"It's hard to pooh-pooh it and say that it doesn't look like a trend," said Assistant State Climatologist Nolan Doesken. "One can argue why it's there, but it's hard to deny that it's there."

Colorado contradiction

In some mountainous regions, including the Himalayas, Andes and Alps, the warming of recent decades is more pronounced at higher altitudes. But for reasons that remain unclear, that does not appear to be the case - at least not yet - along Colorado's Front Range, said Henry Diaz, another Climate Diagnostics Center meteorologist.

Marc Piscotty © News
Mark Parsons, right, of Boulder, a research assistant at the University of Colorado, tugs an ice-penetrating radar device, dubbed the "Wright Flyer," along the surface of the Arapaho Glacier. The contraption sends radar pulses through the ice to the bedrock below. The time it takes the pulses to bounce back to the receiver above lets researchers know the depth of the ice.

"In Colorado, there isn't any clear signal as far as (warming) differences between the elevations," Diaz said.

Weather data from CU's Mountain Research Station on Niwot Ridge, several miles northwest of Nederland, demonstrate that the warming picture is a bit muddled along the Front Range.

In 1951, CU biologist John Marr established weather stations at various elevations on the ridge to help clarify the Front Range ecology. Conditions at four of the stations - known as A-1, B-1, C-1 and D-1 - have been continuously monitored since 1953.

The C-1 station is in subalpine forest at an elevation of 9,973 feet.

Between 1976 and 2000, the average annual air temperature there increased by about 3 degrees, according to Mark Losleben, manager of the Mountain Climate Program at Niwot Ridge.

But the weather records from the highest station, D-1, tell a different story.

D-1 is in alpine tundra at 12,339 feet, roughly the same elevation as Arapaho Glacier.

The D-1 station has the longest unbroken high-altitude weather record in North America.

At D-1, which is about five miles north of Arapaho Glacier, near Arikaree Glacier, there's been no statistically significant temperature change since 1953, Losleben said.

During that span, annual precipitation has increased by nearly half an inch a year at D-1.

State Climatologist Roger Pielke Sr. and colleagues at Colorado State University have suggested that increased cropland irrigation and irrigated landscaping along the Front Range has boosted the amount of cool, wet air flowing into the mountains in recent decades.

Moister air and an accompanying increase in mountain cloudiness could be holding temperatures in check at places such as Niwot Ridge, Pielke and his colleagues have suggested.

So, if the average annual temperature at D-1 hasn't changed and precipitation is up, why are the Arapaho and Arikaree glaciers retreating?

Pfeffer suspects it's because the summer melting season is starting earlier and lasting longer.

Caine wonders if more and more dust is being blown into the high country, darkening the glacial ice and causing increased melting.

But no one knows for sure why it's happening.

"That's a puzzle," Caine said. "And it will probably remain a puzzle."

The long age of ice

During the Pleistocene Epoch, from 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago, the Front Range was lined with rivers of ice that flowed down mountain valleys as far east as present-day Nederland, Georgetown, Allenspark, Fairplay and nearly to Estes Park.

The Cache la Poudre Glacier, northwest of present-day Fort Collins, was the region's largest.

It sprawled nearly 30 miles from its source in the southern Medicine Bow Mountains and was up to 2,000 feet thick, according to Richard Madole, of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Scattered scraps of glacial ice persist today because west winds blow snow over the Continental Divide. In many cases, the snow collects in high, sheltered, bowl-shaped rock basins called cirques.

Over time, the snow is compressed into granules called firn, then pressure welds the granules into glacial ice.

The Arapaho is Colorado's largest survivor and the southernmost active glacier in the Rockies, according to INSTAAR researchers.

It is a cirque glacier, a tongue of ice and snow that creeps down the Silver Lake Valley at 3 to 6 feet a year.

But if the melting continues at its current rate, when will Arapaho Glacier disappear?

That depends on the thickness of the remaining ice slab, which has never been precisely measured.

To probe the depths of the Arapaho ice, seven researchers from INSTAAR and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder recently backpacked into the glacier - a six-mile round-trip hike - lugging a 170-pound portable radar system.

Affectionately known as the Wright Flyer, the radar contraption looks like a cross between the famous Kitty Hawk biplane and a high-tech dog sled.

Like a giant Lego toy, the Flyer's wobbly 12-foot framework is pieced together from segments of plastic PVC tubing. The frame rests on two cross-country skis, so it can be hauled back and forth across the glacier.

A radar transmitter, receiver and batteries are strapped to the frame, and fiber-optic cables send a digitized signal to a laptop computer.

The transmitter sends radar pulses through the ice to bedrock.

The time it takes for that signal to bounce back to the receiver - measured in milliseconds - tells researchers the depth of the ice.

Boulder geophysicist Ted Scambos supervised the effort, as several graduate student "Sherpas" lugged the Flyer across slushy snow, beneath towering walls and spires of ancient gray gneiss and granite.

The radar reflection appeared to show an ice/rock boundary at a depth of about 150 feet.

But the result was deemed inconclusive, and Pfeffer suspects the true depth is less. A previous attempt to probe the glacier with radar, conducted by the same group in 2002, yielded a depth of 73 feet.

"I'm not happy with either one of those numbers," Pfeffer said after the trip.

The Boulder researchers are planning a return visit, possibly next month.

If 150 feet is in the ballpark, then Arapaho Glacier has lost at least 40 percent of its thickness since 1960. It would last another 60 years or so if melting continues at its current rate.

But if the slab is just 73 feet thick, the glacier could be gone in half that time.

If the latter measure is accurate, Arapaho Glacier, a final vestige of the last ice age, could be gone from the face of Colorado within 30 years.

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Change in the air - part 1: Pollutants raining down on Rockies

2005-04-22T18:44:00Z

Nitrogen buildup putting national park's ecosystem at risk - and it could get worse, research shows

By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News
August 30, 2004

CHANGE IN THE AIR: FIRST IN AN OCCASIONAL SERIES ABOUT HIGH-ALTITUDE RESEARCH IN COLORADO

ESTES PARK - Airborne pollutants from Front Range tailpipes, smokestacks, crop fields and feedlots are damaging the prized mountaintop ecosystems of Rocky Mountain National Park.

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If unchecked, the creeping accumulation of urban nitrogen compounds could acidify park waters and soils, posing a threat to fish, forests and vast expanses of rolling alpine tundra, National Park Service air-quality officials have concluded after reviewing more than 20 years of research.

As it is, the Park Service has concluded that a crucial threshold called a "critical load" has been crossed and that harmful changes are occurring. When plants and soil are saturated by a pollutant, runoff is next.

"When the fish are floating belly up, it's too late," said Christine Shaver, chief of the federal agency's air resources division. "We want to find some way to see if we can halt or reverse the harm we're seeing now, before it gets to that point," she said.

For two decades, park researchers have watched with alarm as levels of nitrogen compounds from Front Range auto exhaust, coal-fired power plants, gas and oil wells, crop fertilizers and livestock manure inched higher and higher.

Now, for the first time in its history, the Park Service will use the concept of critical loads to argue for reductions in emissions affecting a national park, Shaver said.

Last month, the Park Service began meeting with state health officials to look for solutions to the problem, which is known as nitrogen deposition.

One idea being floated by the Park Service is to add nitrogen deposition to ozone- and haze-reduction programs already in the works at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

If Colorado officials don't respond, the Park Service could ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force the state to take action.

"It is our responsibility - under our own statutory mandates - to preserve our resources unimpaired for future generations," Shaver said.

Established by Congress in 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park straddles the Continental Divide and is visited by more than 3 million people each year.

The 415-square-mile park boasts more than 110 peaks higher than 10,000 feet. More than 100 square miles of the park lie above tree line - a landscape of granite, ice and alpine tundra.

Periodic easterly upslope winds have been dumping urban nitrogen compounds onto the park for decades, where they fall in snow and rain, said Jill Baron, an ecosystems ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Fort Collins.

If the problem continues to grow, researchers fear nitrogen pollution will mimic the effects of acid rain, which has killed forests and sterilized waterways in the eastern United States, central Europe and Scandinavia.

Pollution hits tipping point

Baron and her colleagues have monitored precipitation and surface water chemistry, weather and stream flow in the park's Loch Vale watershed since 1982. The Loch Vale study is one of the longest-running and most closely monitored studies of subalpine forest in the United States.

All of the changes detected to date are subtle responses to the fertilizing effects of nitrogen compounds.

Ammonium nitrate is a common crop fertilizer. It's also the explosive Timothy McVeigh used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Ammonium and nitrate are two of the nitrogen compounds raining down on the Rockies. In the Loch Vale watershed, which hugs the east flank of the Continental Divide south of Bear Lake, the fertilizers have:

• altered the growth of 300- to 700-year-old Engelmann spruce trees;

• caused formerly rare types of algae to bloom in previously limpid alpine lakes;

• changed soil chemistry;

• flushed excess nitrogen into the streams.

These changes are imperceptible to the passing hiker, but park officials say they're consequential because the agency has a mandate to preserve wild places in a natural and unimpaired state.

"Natural is not treating those trees like a tree farm, where you dump extra nitrogen on them and they grow better," said Park Service ecologist Tamara Blett.

Nitrogen deposition has been increasing in the park by about 2 percent a year for the last two decades.

The current annual nitrogen deposition level in the park is about 3.92 pounds per acre. That's about 15 times higher than preindustrial levels, according to a fact sheet the Park Service began distributing at the Beaver Meadows visitor center.

The current levels of nitrogen exceed the critical load - the tipping point at which a pollutant begins to damage ecosystems, according to the Park Service.

Once that threshold is passed, plants and soils reach saturation. The excess pours into waterways.

Based on evidence from other parts of the world plagued by acid rain, the next step will be acidification of the park's highest-altitude streams.

Computer models suggest it won't happen for another decade or so, Baron said. But once it does, dead trout are sure to follow, she said.

Acids also can rob nutrients from the soils, weakening trees and making them susceptible to disease and insect attacks.

"It hasn't happened yet. Nevertheless, it's coming," said Baron, who heads the Loch Vale project. "We're at the beginning of a trajectory of change that will only get worse and worse.

"And if we keep increasing emissions, we will see acidification, we will see dead fish," Baron said.

'Place that inspires millions'

Park Service officials are still trying to nail down the exact nitrogen deposition level that constitutes a critical load for Rocky Mountain National Park.

In coming months, they will settle on a specific number, then use it to push for emissions reductions, Shaver said.

Vickie Patton, a senior attorney at the Boulder office of Environmental Defense, praised Park Service officials for using the critical-load approach because "it brings to bear the very best science available to inform public policy action."

But she said the Park Service is not moving fast enough or pushing hard enough to address nitrogen problems in the park.

Under the federal Clean Air Act, the Park Service is charged with an "affirmative responsibility" to protect places like Rocky Mountain National Park from the harmful effects of air pollution, Patton said.

"The Park Service can and should do more," Patton said. "We're talking about the crown jewel of Colorado and a place that inspires millions of Americans."

Douglas Benevento, executive director of the state health department, said his agency wants to help solve the park's nitrogen deposition problem.

But it might not be prudent to fold nitrogen deposition into the ozone and haze reduction programs, as Shaver suggested, he said.

It might make more sense to begin by measuring the effect those programs - along with the introduction of cleaner-burning gasoline recently mandated by the EPA - will have on nitrogen emissions along the Front Range, he said.

"We need to pinpoint where we're at now, and then from there determine if more needs to be done," Benevento said.

And though park researchers contend that Front Range nitrogen emissions are the main culprit, Benevento said he's not convinced.

"If we were to cut by half everything along the Front Range, I'm not sure that would solve any problem that exists at Rocky Mountain National Park," he said.

Westerly winds blow pollutants into Colorado from West Coast states and beyond, he said.

"There are a lot of out-of-state sources that we need to factor into this - California would be a good place to start - to try to determine what a solution would look like," he said.

Vehicle exhaust top offender

In addition to identifying the pollutants' origin, the Park Service and regulatory agencies need to get specific about the emissions sources that are to blame, said Frank Prager, managing director of environmental energy for Xcel Energy.

Xcel operates three coal-fired power plants in the Denver area and several others around the state.

Between 1995 and 2002, the company reduced nitrogen oxide emissions from its Colorado plants 27 percent by installing so-called low-NOx combustion technology, Prager said. The improvements cost $31.2 million and cut nitrogen oxide emissions by about 14,500 tons per year.

"If additional power plant reductions are necessary and required under the Clean Air Act to address this concern, we will be there, as we always have been," Prager said.

"But we want to make sure that the things we're going to be doing are actually going to result in preserving the park for future generations."

Baron and her colleagues believe the main source of the nitrogen compounds reaching Rocky Mountain National Park is the South Platte River Basin, home to about 2.9 million Coloradans - about two-thirds of the state's population.

Vehicle emissions account for 45 percent of the basin's nitrogen emissions, according to a new study by Baron and other researchers at Colorado State University's Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory.

Coal-fired power plants and other "point sources" of nitrogen emissions are responsible for about 34 percent of the nitrogen emissions.

Nitrogen compounds from synthetic crop fertilizers and ammonia from manure in feedlots account for 11 and 10 percent of the emissions, respectively. Winds scour the gases and particles off the crop fields and feedlots and blow them into the mountains.

Emissions still on upswing

By analyzing layers of sediment in high-altitude Rocky Mountain National Park lakes, researchers have concluded that nitrogen levels began to soar around 1950. The types of algae in the sediments remained essentially unchanged for the 14,000 years preceding 1950, then abruptly shifted in an apparent response to added nitrogen.

The widespread application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers on irrigated cropland began in the late 1950s in the South Platte Basin. While the acreage devoted to crops has decreased by about 2 percent in eastern Colorado since 1950, irrigated acres increased by about 73 percent during that span, Baron and her colleagues found.

The rise in acreage devoted to irrigated corn and alfalfa hay accompanied an increasing demand for livestock feed in eastern Colorado over the last half century. During that time, the South Platte Basin became a national center for feedlot operations.

By 1995, the basin was home to 1.3 million cattle, 278,000 hogs, 327,000 sheep and 2.9 million chickens. More than half of those cattle are in Weld County.

Until the 1960s, the South Platte River Basin's economy was dominated by agriculture, and the region had about 800,000 residents. The population jumped from 1.9 million to 2.9 million between 1980 and 2000, with most of the growth along the urban corridor stretching from Denver and its suburbs north to Fort Collins.

As the basin's population grew, so did emissions of nitrogen oxides from vehicles, factories and coal- fired power plants. Urban and industrial processes replaced agriculture as the leading sources of nitrogen emissions, according to Baron and her colleagues.

Nitrogen emissions are still increasing in most of the 16 counties in the basin, they found.

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Gaia in Greek Mythology

2005-04-22T05:33:55Z

Gaia

Gaia, known as Earth or Mother Earth (the Greek common noun for "land" is ge or ga). She was an early earth goddess and it is written that Gaia was born from Chaos, the great void of emptiness within the universe, and with her came Eros. She gave birth to Pontus (the Sea) and Uranus (the Sky). This was achieved parthenogenetically (without male intervention). Other versions say that Gaia had as siblings Tartarus (the lowest part of the earth, below Hades itself) and Eros, and without a mate, gave birth to Uranus (Sky), Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea).

Gaia took as her husband Uranus, who was also her son, and their offspring included the Titans, six sons and six daughters. She gave birth to the Cyclopes and to three monsters that became known as the "Hecatonchires". The spirits of punishment known as the Erinyes were also offspring of Gaia and Uranus. The Gigantes, finally, were conceived after Uranus had been castrated by his son Cronus, and his blood fell to earth from the open wound.

To protect her children from her husband, (the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, as he was fearful of their great strength), Gaia hid them all within herself. One version says that Uranus was aghast at the sight of his offspring so he hid them away in Tartarus, which are the bowels of the earth. Gaia herself found her offspring uncomfortable and at times painful, when the discomfort became to much to bear she asked her youngest son Cronus to help her. She asked him to castrate Uranus, thus severing the union between the Earth and Sky, and also to prevent more monstrous offspring. To help Cronus achieve his goal Gaia produced an adamantine sickle to serve as the weapon. Cronus hid until Uranus came to lay with Gaia and as Uranus drew near, Cronus struck with the sickle, cutting the genitalia from Uranus. Blood fell from the severed genitals and came in contact with the earth and from that union was born the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants and the Meliae (Nymphs of the manna ash trees).

After the separation of the Earth from the Sky, Gaia gave birth to other offspring, these being fathered by Pontus. Their names were the sea-god Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia. In other versions Gaia had offspring to her brother Tartarus; they were Echidna and Typhon, the later being an enemy of Zeus. Apollo killed Typhon when he took control of the oracle at Delphi, which Gaia originally provided, and then the "Sibyl" sang the oracle in Gaia's shrine.

It was Gaia who saved Zeus from being swallowed by Cronus, after Zeus had been born, Gaia helped Rhea to wrap a stone in swaddling clothes, this was to trick Cronus in to thinking it was Zeus, because Cronus had been informed that one of his children would depose him, and so to get rid of his children he had swallowed them, Gaia's trick worked and Zeus was then taken to Crete.

Gaia being the primordial element from which all the gods originated was worshiped throughout Greece, but later she went into decline and was supplanted by other gods. In Roman mythology she was known as Tellus or Terra.

Other names:
Gaea
Ge

Pronunciation:
jee'-uh

Etymology:
Earth

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THE MEDICINE WHEEL OF PLANT USES - Part 1

2005-04-22T05:19:33Z

THE MEDICINE WHEEL OF PLANT USES
(Part One)

There is so much to learn about herbs and healing. How can we assure ourselves of our own competence? How can we feel safe in our recommendations? How can we know which herb is best to use for a particular person? Do we need a system of diagnosis interlocked with categories of herbs? (For instance, the four-humor theory that categorizes illnesses and herbs according to the humors, or the Ayurvedic system that divides people into three types and selects herbs accordingly.) These are questions that have concerned healers for thousands of years and still concern us today.

I do not think the answer lies in a license. I don't think the answer is to study more, read more books or go to school, if what happens is that one picks up a dogma, and sticks to that. Neither license nor dogma guarantee that what we tell others to do for the sake of health will be safe or effective.

The answer lies in our commitment to ourselves as whole human beings and our commitment to ease the suffering of others, in truth and beauty, in change, in compassion. When we commit to the wholeness in ourselves, we become open to the wholeness of all life, especially the wholeness of the green nations. Science divides things into parts so we can comprehend them. Art and nature teach us wholeness.

Yes, the final say on how to use them is the plants themselves. The ultimate authority in herbal medicine is not a teacher, nor a book. The information you can trust is "from the horse's mouth", in this case, the plant's mouth.

Learning to understand the language of the plants (some say the songs of the plants) is a long study, and it is not as easy to teach as scientific facts. Paradoxically, the rudiments of this language are easily learned and rapidly applied. Hearing the language of the plants requires hearing with the inner ears, looking with the inner eyes, and using the senses of taste and smell and touch.

The Medicine Wheel of Plant Uses is a teaching tool I created to help us understand the language of the plants. It gives us a system by which to understand the different properties of plants. It provides us with confidence that we are hearing them correctly. Like all medicine wheels, it is a multi-purpose tool, and there are many lessons to be learned from it, but let us start with the title.

First: I must admit to overstatement. This wheel does not include all possible uses for plants. Furthermore, it narrowly focuses on flowering plants, excluding mosses, ferns, mushrooms, yeasts, and other primitive plants. Dye plants, commercially useful plants, lumber plants, basketry plants - in fact any plants not consumed by humans - are not included. I might, more truthfully, have entitled it the "Medicine Wheel of Uses for Flowering Plants You Can Put in Your Mouth."

Second: What is a medicine wheel? It is not a round drugstore or a wagon full of medicine. It is a sacred pattern, a kind of mandala. My native American teachers use medicine wheels to help students remember the lessons. When they say "medicine," they mean power or energy, not a drug or a strong plant (unless they are discussing peyote, a very strong plant, which is not referred to by name, but as "medicine").

Third: And a wheel? Well, a wheel is a circle in motion. Although this medicine wheel is a circle on a piece of paper, we must remember that it moves. Or, more precisely, the plants move around the medicine wheel. What makes them move? The four moving questions:

1. What part of the plant is meant?
2. When is that part harvested?
3. How is that part prepared?
4. How much is consumed?

So I could have, less poetically, called my teaching tool "A Diagram of the Moving Power of Flowering Plants You Can Put in Your Mouth."

When we look at any medicine wheel, we notice that it is divided into the four directions: East at the right, South at the bottom, West at the left, and North at the top. Each direction is associated with many symbols, and those symbols change according to the culture and homeland of the teacher and student. In this particular medicine wheel, the directions are associated with tastes and with symbols that work for me. If they are different from the associations that you normally use, I hope you will be willing to work with my choices, as changing them would change the integrity of the wheel as a teaching tool.

Taste is one of the oldest senses. It is strongly linked with smell. In terms of recognizing plants, taste is one of the most dependable clues. The shape of a plant may change throughout its growing season, or life. But the taste (and the smell) remains remarkably consistent and clear.

Though we can distinguish thousands of tastes (and smells), there are not a lot of words for tastes in English. The tongue is said to be able to distinguish sweet, sour, salty and bitter. To these we could add tastes that are also sensations, such as hot, sour, astringent, burning and sticky. And tastes that are colors such as green. Japanese includes two interesting taste words: shibui, the taste of nut skins or an unripe persimmon, and egui, the taste of raw asparagus, amaranth, and Jerusalem artichoke. And then there are spicy tastes and pungent tastes and resinous tastes and aromatic tastes and terrible tastes (fetid, rank, rancid, rotten, mouldy, burnt). Important: Tastes and smells which are disgusting or strange are a potent indication that the plant is not good to put into your mouth. So don't. And if you already have, spit it out. Immediately. Thanks.

In this medicine wheel, we will work with four primary tastes (blandly sweet, salty, horribly bitter, and aromatic) and four secondary tastes (fruity, green, edibly bitter, and spicy).

The taste of the East, place of newness, is sweet and bland. Mother's milk is sweet and bland. The cereal crops (wheat, rice, corn) are sweet and bland. The East is Food, and it connects to the realm of the herbivores. The plants of the East give us NOURISHMENT.

Salty is the taste of the South, place of sweat and blood. Seaweed and miso are salty, just as amniotic fluid is salty. The South is Tonics, and it connects to the realm of the ocean. The plants of the South are a TURN ON.

In the West, place of death and the ancestors, the taste is intensely bitter, horribly bitter, inedibly bitter - a bitter that increases even after you spit it out. Bitter as gall. Medicinal drugs are bitter. Poisons are bitter. The West connects to the realm of the mushrooms, those non-flowering plants that live on dead and decaying matter. The plants of the West can CHANGE YOUR MIND.

And in the North, place of deepness and clarity, the taste is aromatic. Here are the herbs you buy at the grocery store; most of them are in the mint family. These are the herbs your mother uses, the seasoning herbs, the ones loaded with aromatic oils. The realm of the oils connects to the North. And the plants of the North give us WISDOM.

In the following four articles, we will look deeply at each of the directions, its taste, the Goddesses who guard it, the realms it opens, and the lessons each has to teach us.

THE FOUR MOVING QUESTIONS:

The answers to these questions will change where a plant appears on the medicine wheel.

1. What part?

The leaves and berries of Phytolacca americana (poke) can be eaten, the roots and seeds are used cautiously as medicines but are considered poisonous. The petioles of rhubarb are eaten, but the leaves and roots are not. Burdock root is sweet, the leaves are incredibly bitter. One of my pet peeves: Herbals that tell me to use a particular plant but give no clue as to the part of the plant I should use.

2. When harvested?

The amount and type of constituents in a plant differs at different times of the year. Perennial roots store winter food in the form of carbohydrates. Dig poke roots in the fall after the first frosts (cold weather concentrates the carbohydrates into the roots) and tincture it immediately in 100 proof vodka, and the alkaloids will be buffered by the sugars and starches (which precipitate out and must be shaken from the bottom up into the liquid before use). Roots dug in the spring will have a higher percentage of alkaloid, and may be more poisonous or more medicinal, depending on the plant. Even rhubarb changes as it grows (oxalates concentrate in it throughout the growing season), so it usually harvested only in the late spring, early summer.

3. How prepared?

If you harvest the right part of the rhubarb in the right season, but serve it raw instead of cooked, it would be unpalatable. If you harvest poke leaves at the right time (early spring), you could still poison yourself, unless you cook them in three changes of water.

Different methods of preparation draw out different constituents from plants and move their position on the medicine wheel. If sugar cane is prepared by refining all the minerals out of it, it moves from the east to the west; it no longer nutritive, but now poisonous.

Water is the universal solvent, so many herbs are dried and used as teas or infusions. Minerals, vitamins, sugars, starches, hormones, tannins, volatile oils, and some alkaloids (caffeine, for instance) dissolve well in water, given sufficient time or high enough heat. Fresh herbs are the best sources of volatile oils and are best made into teas. Dried herbs are better sources of nutrients and medicinal properties and are best made into infusions.

Alcohol will dissolve and extract resins, oils, and alkaloids. It does not extract nutrients such as vitamins or minerals, but it does extract sugars, starches, and hormones.

Vinegar is the best menstruum for dissolving minerals out of plants. Apple cider vinegar - pasteurized, please - is my favorite choice.

Fats and oils extract the oily and resinous properties of an herb, many of which are strongly antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic, and wound-healing.

Traditional Chinese Medicine has many methods of preparation, and even the manner in which the herb is cut for drying is considered critical to the medicine. In addition to the commonly available forms of herbs (teas, tinctures, ointments, capsules), they also roast herbs, smoke herbs, fry herbs, and cook them with honey.

4. How much to take?

At last, a wonderful rhubarb pie! But better not eat more than one piece, or you'll be on the toilet all night.

* Plants of the East can generally be eaten in any quantity, even daily if necessary.

* Plants of the West need to be used in tiny amounts and rarely.

* Those from the South and North are used moderately, to correct and enliven the diet.

The closer to the west the plant lies, the more critical the question of dose becomes. The difference between one cup of coffee and two is not so great, but the difference between one cup of digitalis and two is. The difference between 10 and 20 drops of most herbal tinctures is inconsequential, but the difference between 10 and 20 milligrams of a drug may be the difference between life and death. The question of dose is one that is hotly contested among herbalists, and, of course, the answers to the first three questions change the potency of the preparation and thus the answer to the fourth question.

The difference between an herbal tea and an herbal infusion, or "standard brew" as Juliette de Bairacli Levy styles it, was for me, the difference between dabbling in herbs and using them effectively. So please pay attention here. This is important.

To make an infusion:

- Place one ounce dried herb in a quart jar and fill it to the top with boiling water.

- Screw a tight lid onto it and allow it to sit, just like that, for at least 4 hours. (Can you hear the minerals dissolving, ever so slowly?)

- When your infusion is done, strain the plant material out, returning it to the earth, and drink the liquid, hot or cold or at room temperature.

- What you don't consume after straining is best kept in the refrigerator. Drink it within 48 hours.

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax: 1-845-246-8081

Visit Susun Weed at: www.susunweed.com and www.ash-tree-publishing.com
For permission to reprint this article, contact us at: susunweed@hvc.rr.com

Vibrant, passionate, and involved, Susun Weed has garnered an international reputation for her groundbreaking lectures, teachings, and writings on health and nutrition. She challenges conventional medical approaches with humor, insight, and her vast encyclopedic knowledge of herbal medicine. Unabashedly pro-woman, her animated and enthusiastic lectures are engaging and often profoundly provocative.

Susun is one of America's best-known authorities on herbal medicine and natural approaches to women's health. Her four best-selling books are recommended by expert herbalists and well-known physicians and are used and cherished by millions of women around the world. Learn more at www.susunweed.com

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Earth Day emphasis on electronic waste

2005-04-22T05:16:04Z

SAN FRANCISCO - When Earth Day dawned in 1970, optimistic environmentalists predicted emerging technologies would help reduce the nation’s reliance on coal, oil, insecticides and other pollutants.

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But 35 years later, a big part of the problem appears to be technology itself.

Tons of computers, monitors, televisions and other electronic gizmos that contain hazardous chemicals, or “e-waste,” may be poisoning people and ground water. Activists say the nation’s biggest environmental problem may be the smallest devices, and this week they’re launching campaigns to increase awareness about recycling cell phones, music players, handheld gaming consoles and other electronics.

Frequently, smaller portable gadgets have batteries that are prohibitively expensive to replace. So consumers in affluent countries simply toss them in the trash.

Disposable but not environmental
“They’re small and lightweight, and the electronics industry markets them as disposable. Whenever you upgrade your (wireless) service, you can get a new flip phone for $50 and they never tell you to recycle the old one,” said Kimberlee Dinn, campaign director for Washington, D.C.-based Earthworks, a nonprofit that studies the environmental impact of mining, digging and drilling natural resources.

Environmentalists are particularly bothered by the recycling and reuse policies of cell phone manufacturers and distributors and of Apple Computer Inc., maker of the iPod digital music player.

The biggest offenders are cell phones, said Dinn, because they pose a hazardous “double whammy” to the environment.

To build them, gold and other metals must be extracted from mines in western states, in Peru, Turkey, Tanzania and other countries. The Environmental Protection Agency ranks hard-rock mining as the nation’s leading toxic polluter.

Then, at the end of their life cycles, many phones end up in landfills, where they may leak lead and other heavy metals that could pollute nearby ground water.

Low recycling rate for cell phones
Americans have about 500 million obsolete, broken or otherwise unused cell phones, and about 130 million more are added each year — the equivalent of 65,000 tons of waste, according to the EPA.

Less than 2 percent are recycled — usually refurbished and resold to consumers in Latin America and Asia, or disassembled for gold and other parts, according to Earthworks.

It’s unclear what happens to the remaining 98 percent or more of cell phones, said Dinn, whose organization is launching a recycling campaign to coincide with Friday’s Earth Day activities in Washington, Philadelphia, Seattle, New Orleans and other cities.

Activists are asking consumers to download and print postage-paid labels and send unused phones to the Atlanta-based recycling organization CollectiveGood. The goal is to collect at least 1 million cell phones this year.

“We think a majority of those phones are waiting around in people’s desk drawers,” said Dinn, who came up with 30 unused cell phones in a recent sweep of the group’s eight-person office.

Environmentalists are encouraged by legislation passed by the European Union. Starting in July 2006, new cell phones sold in any EU country may not contain lead or several other toxins. Also in July 2006, California will require all cell phone retailers to have an in-store recycling program.

But cell phone initiatives may not be enough to stem overall e-waste.

U.S. consumers retire or replace roughly 133,000 personal computers per day, according to research firm Gartner Inc. According to a study commissioned by San Jose-based Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, roughly half of all U.S. households have working but unused consumer electronics products.

Apple latest target
After a campaign that resulted in significant improvements to the recycling program of Dell Inc., many e-waste activists are focusing on Apple.

Environmentalists planned a news conference Thursday near Apple’s Cupertino headquarters to coincide with the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

CEO Steve Jobs and Apple board members, including former Vice President Al Gore Jr., have each received at least 400 faxes about the company’s contribution to e-waste, said Robin Schneider, executive director of the Austin, Texas-based Texas Campaign for the Environment. The group is asking Apple to reduce or eliminate recycling fees for consumers and build in-store recycling centers.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said the company would not comment on environmentalists’ yearlong campaign.

Apple charges most American consumers $30 to recycle unused or broken computers and laptops. And though Apple doesn’t have a specific iPod recycling program, a service promoted by its corporate Web site sells consumers shipping labels and packaging materials for sending equipment to recycling vendors.

In January, Apple agreed to help sponsor an industry initiative launched by eBay Inc. and Intel Corp., that created an informational Web site to help motivate Americans to resell, donate or recycle used gadgets. Gateway Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Ingram Micro Inc. are also participating, as well as the U.S. Postal Service, which in some cases will help deliver PCs to eBay drop-off locations or recycling centers.

The popularity of the iPod and iPod Mini — as well as more affordable gadgets such as the pack-of-gum-sized $99 iPod Shuffle — makes Apple an obvious target for environmentalists’ scorn. Apple shipped 5.3 million iPods last quarter, a nearly sevenfold increase from the same period last year.

“We’d like nothing better for Earth Day than for Steve Jobs to say he’s agreed to producer takeback recycling,” Schneider said.

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Gaia Theory: Science of the Living Earth By David Orrell

2005-04-22T05:08:12Z

Gaia Theory: Science of the Living Earth
David Orrell

Here is a brief introduction to Gaia theory, as developed by Lovelock, Margulis and others.

In the early 1960's, James Lovelock was invited by NASA to participate in the scientific research for evidence of life on Mars. His job was to design instruments, capable of detecting the presence of life, which could be sent on a spacecraft to Mars. This wasn't straightforward, since it was hard to know what to test for: any life forms on Mars may be radically different from those on Earth.

This led him to think about what constitutes life, and how it can be detected. He decided that the most general characteristic of life was that it takes in energy and matter and discards waste products. He also reasoned that organisms would use the planet's atmosphere as a medium for this cyclic exchange, just as we breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. He speculated that life would therefore leave a detectable chemical signature on the Martian atmosphere. Maybe it could be detected from Earth, so it wouldn't even be necessary to send a spaceship.

To test his idea, he and a colleague, Dian Hitchcock, began to analyse the chemical makeup of Mars, and compare it with that of the Earth. The results showed a strong contrast. The atmosphere of Mars, like Venus, was about 95% carbon dioxide, with some oxygen and no methane. The Earth was 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and a relatively large amount of methane. Mars was chemically dead; all the reactions that were going to take place had already done so. The Earth, however, was far from chemical equilibrium. For example, methane and oxygen will react with each other very easily, and yet they are both present in the atmosphere. Lovelock concluded that for this to be the case the gases must be in constant circulation, and that the pump driving this circulation was life.

Lovelock began to look back at the history of life's interaction with the atmosphere. He noted that about three billion years ago, bacteria and photosynthetic algae started to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, producing oxygen as a waste product. Over enormous time periods, this process changed the chemical content of the atmosphere - to the point where organisms began to suffer from oxygen poisoning! The situation was only relieved with the advent of organisms powered by aerobic consumption.

It was life processes, the cumulative actions of countless organisms, that were controlling the atmosphere. And viewed from outer space, the mass effect of these processes was that the Earth itself appeared as a living entity - especially in comparison with its dead neighbours. Lovelock had a sudden realisation that the Earth could best be described as a kind of super-organism:

"For me, the personal revelation of Gaia came quite suddenly - like a flash of enlightenment. I was in a small room on the top floor of a building at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It was the autumn of 1965 ... and I was talking with a colleague, Dian Hitchcock, about a paper we were preparing ... It was at that moment that I glimpsed Gaia. An awesome thought came to me. The Earth's atmosphere was an extraordinary and unstable mixture of gases, yet I knew that it was constant in composition over quite long periods of time. Could it be that life on Earth not only made the atmosphere, but also regulated it - keeping it at a constant composition, and at a level favourable for organisms?" (1991)

On a stroll with his novelist neighbour William Golding, Lovelock described his idea, and asked advice for a name. Golding suggested Gaia, after the Greek Earth Goddess. The Gaia Hypothesis was born.

In 1979, Lovelock wrote the book "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth", which developed his ideas. He stated that:

"... the physical and chemical condition of the surface of the Earth, of the atmosphere, and of the oceans has been and is actively made fit and comfortable by the presence of life itself. This is in contrast to the conventional wisdom which held that life adapted to the planetary conditions as it and they evolved their separate ways."

Key to Lovelock's idea was his observation that the planet is self-regulating. He knew, for example, that the heat of the sun has increased by 25% since life began on Earth, yet the temperature has remained more or less constant. However he didn't know precisely what mechanisms were behind the regulation. It was when he began to collaborate with the American microbiologist Lynn Margulis that the full theory began to take shape. Margulis was studying the processes by which living organisms produce and remove gases from the atmosphere. In particular she was examining the role of microbes which live in the Earth's soil. Working together, they
managed to uncover a number of feedback loops which could act as regulatory influences.

An example is the carbon dioxide cycle. Volcanoes constantly produce massive quantities of carbon dioxide. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, it tends to warm the planet. If left unchecked, it would make the Earth too warm to support life. While plants and animals take in and expel carbon dioxide through life processes such as photosynthesis, respiration and decay, these processes remain in balance and don't affect the net amount of the gas. Therefore there must be another mechanism.

One process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere is rock weathering, where rainwater and carbon dioxide combine with rocks to form carbonates. Lovelock, Margulis and others discovered that the process is greatly accelerated by the presence of soil bacteria. The carbonates are washed away into the ocean, where microscopic algae use them to make tiny shells. When the algae die, their shells sink to the bottom of the ocean, forming limestone sediments. Limestone is so heavy that it gradually sinks underneath the Earth's mantle, where it melts. Eventually some of the carbon dioxide contained in the limestone will be fed back into the atmosphere through another volcano.

Since the soil bacteria are more active in high temperatures, the removal of carbon dioxide is accelerated when the planet is hot. This has the effect of cooling the planet. Therefore the whole massive cycle forms a feedback loop. Lovelock and Margulis identified a number of other feedback loops which operate in a similar way. An interesting feature of these loops is that, like the carbon dioxide cycle, they often combine living and non-living components.

The importance of biological processes on the planet was pointed out by the Russian scientist Vernadsky, who as early as 1929 said:

"Life appears as a great, permanent and continuous infringer on the chemical 'dead-hardness' of our planet's surface ... Life therefore is not an external and accidental development on the terrestrial surface. Rather, it is intimately related to the constitution of the Earth's crust, forms part of its mechanism, and performs in this mechanism functions of paramount importance, without which it would not be able to exist." (1929)

Vernadsky showed, for example, that living organisms are the primary transformer of solar energy to chemical energy, and stressed the importance of biotransport systems. An example of a biotransport system is birds which feed on marine life, hence transferring an enormous amount of matter from the oceans back to the land. In order to understand how the planet works, one has to take into account the effect of life - exactly what Lovelock says.

The Gaia Hypothesis immediately created a lot of interest. The idea that the Earth was alive had been expressed several times before, but it gained special resonance in the early 60's because of the space flights which allowed the Earth to be viewed for the first time as a complete entity from outer space. In a way these photographs were to the Gaia idea what computers were to chaos theory; they allowed one to see what was going on, and therefore brought the subject alive to a great many people.

The intellectual climate was also becoming amenable. A lot of work was being done at that time on self-organising systems. Ilya Prirogine had been studying systems far from thermal or chemical equilibrium which nevertheless showed a high degree of order, for example the Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction which produces amazing periodic oscillations. He realised that there was a close association between self-organisation at states far from equilibrium, and the nonlinearity of the system. This tied in well with Lovelock's observation that the Earth is chemically far from equilibrium, and the nonlinearity of the feedback loops such as the carbon dioxide cycle.

Meanwhile the Chilean neuroscientists Maturana and Varela were developing their autopoietic (literally self-making) definition of life. There is no single definition of life that is accepted by all fields, however one of the most successful has been their definition, which states that living beings produce, by their own rules, the components, including their own boundary, that specify it and realise it as a concrete unit in space and time (Maturana and Varela 1987). What is important in this definition is not so much the material structure of life as the process, organisation and set of relations between the components. Life is a network which constantly makes itself. The simplest autopoietic system is the living cell. For something to be alive by this definition, there is no requirement that it grow or reproduce or pass on DNA. Since, as Vernadsky observed, 99.9% of the different molecules on Earth have been created in the life process of Earth, the Earth would seem to qualify as a self-making organism.

While the Gaia Hypothesis attracted a lot of interest, it also received a great deal of criticism. Lovelock had attached great weight to the idea that the Earth seemed to regulate itself. Some took this to imply that the Earth was behaving with a sense of purpose, that it was a teleological being.

Teleology, from the Greek word telos (purpose), asserts that there is an element of purpose or design behind the workings of nature. It is part of a very old debate between mechanists who believe that nature essentially behaves like a machine, and vitalists who believe there is a non-causal life force. Critics thought Lovelock was saying that the planet had a life force which was actively controlling the climate and so on. However this wasn't Lovelock's intention. He stated that 'Neither Lynn Margulis nor I have ever proposed that planetary self-regulation is purposeful ... Yet we have met persistent, almost dogmatic, criticism that our hypothesis is teleological.' (1991)

Another loudly voiced objection was that Gaia had evolved without any recourse to natural selection - an impossibility, according to the Darwinists. If the Earth is alive, where is its Selfish Gene, and who will it pass it onto?

As a response to these criticisms, Lovelock, together with Andrew Watson, developed the Daisyworld model - an imaginary planet, which maintains conditions for its survival simply by following its own natural processes. This simple model has since become an integral part of the debate about the Gaia Hypothesis.

The Daisyworld planet contains only two species of life: light daisies and dark daisies. Light daisies tend to reflect light, which has a cooling effect, while dark ones absorb radiation, and therefore warm the planet. Growth of the daisies depends on the present population, the natural death rate, the available space and the temperature (the equations that Lovelock used to model them were based on the dynamics of real daisy growth). The planet revolves around a sun, from which it absorbs energy at a rate which depends on the sun's luminosity and the albedo of the planet. It also radiates heat out to the universe, at a rate determined by the Stefan-Boltzmann Law.

Interestingly, when the model is run with the sun's luminosity gradually increasing, the population of the light and dark daisies adjust themselves naturally so as to keep the temperature constant at the optimal level for daisy growth. Daisyworld is an example of a self-regulating system. Feedback loops between the daisies and the planet temperature, contained in the equations relating growth rate to albedo, somehow conspire to maintain the conditions suitable for life.

Daisyworld is only a kind of thought experiment, but demonstrates the principle of self-regulation very convincingly. It's a viable ecosystem which regulates its temperature, without any recourse to selection or teleology.

One of the main ideas to come out of the Daisyworld model is that the species in an ecosystem can be concerned with nothing more than their own survival, yet as a consequence of their actions they help not only themselves but the whole system. We could say that the self-regulation is an emergent property of the system. There isn't any need for the white and black daisies to get together and agree quotas for each other's populations, and fix growth rates and argue over how much land should be left uncovered. They just do their own thing and the planet takes care of itself. All that is needed is that the daisies give positive and negative feedback to the temperature, and they are happiest at a particular temperature, so they tend to keep the planet around that temperature. They make the planet suit them. Daisyworld addresses the dichotomy that exists between the reductionist approach, which attempts to understand systems by breaking them down to their smallest components, and the holistic approach which views systems as complete entities that must be understood in their entirety.

A consequence of the Daisyworld model is that it has opened people's eyes to similar systems. An example is the salinity of the oceans, as described by Hinkle [see Bunyard, 1996]. Living organisms maintain a salinity which is roughly equal to that of the oceans. Previously it was thought that this was because natural selection tended to assist those organisms which were in balance with their surroundings. The question remained, why has the ocean managed to maintain a constant level of salinity? The ocean's present salinity is around 3.4%. If it were to go much above 4%, then basic cell functions such as the maintenance of membrane potential would fail. There would be mass extinctions of life in the oceans. And yet there is no evidence of such extinctions in the last 500 million years. This is quite strange, because salt is constantly being deposited in the oceans through the weathering of rocks, yet its concentration is only 10% of saturation levels. Furthermore, there has been a multitude of cataclysmic events such as meteorite impacts, periods of glaciation and so on which one might expect to abruptly alter salinity. Indeed, attempts to model the salinity regulation using chemistry or physics have failed. So what is regulating the oceans?

From Daisyworld we might predict that the answer is the organisms that live in the oceans. In fact, bacteria play a particularly important role in the running of the oceans (as in most life processes). Although they constitute only 10-40% of the ocean biomass, their high surface area to volume ratio means that they make up 70-90% of the biologically active surface area. And they all pump salt. Looking at the problem from the point of view of Gaia Theory breaks down the barriers between what we have traditionally seen as living and non-living systems.

Daisyworld and the Gaia Hypothesis are controversial because they touch on the definition of what constitutes life. If we think that life is about the selfish gene, competition, and survival of the fittest, then it is hard to see where the Earth fits in. However, it isn't necessary to think that the Earth is alive in order to appreciate that it is a highly complex system. And, if we say it is alive, why is that so threatening? No one doubts that plants are alive, but they don't do anything nearly as complicated as the Earth does.

Of course, plants are clearly individuals, which go through specific lifecycles. Paradoxically, the organisms which behave most like the Earth are the very smallest - the bacteria. They are potentially immortal, in that they can reproduce for ever. They happily swap genes back and forth. They tend to form communities, such as bacterial mats. Viewed as a single superorganism, they run most of the planet.

Gaia theory has already had a huge impact on science, and has changed the way we view our place in the world. By making us more aware of the damage we are doing to the eco-system, it may also help us to survive. One of the lessons of Daisyworld is that, due to the effect known as hysteresis, damage once done is very difficult to undo. Our experiment with global warming cannot be halted when we are uncomfortable with the effects; by then it may be too late. And once a species is extinct, it cannot be restored. We are just one part of a larger system, and are reliant on that system for our continued existence. We harm it at our peril.

References

Abraham, R.H. 1994. Chaos, Gaia, Eros. Harper Collins.

Bunyard, P. 1996. Gaia in Action: Science of the Living Earth. Floris Books.

Lovelock, J.E. 1979. Gala: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford University Press.

Lovelock, J.E. 1991. Healing Gaia. Harmony Books.

Lovelock, J.E. 1992. A numerical model for biodiversity. Phil. Trails. R. Soc. Load. B 338: 383-391.

Margulis, L. and Sagan, D. 1997. Slanted Truths: Essays on Gaia, Evolution and Symbiosis. New York.

Maturana, H.R. and F.J. Varela. 1987. The Tree of Knowledge. Shambala.

Watson, A.J. and J.E. Lovelock. 1983. Biological homeostasis of the global environment: the parable of Daisyworld. Tellus 35B:284.

Vernadsky, V.I. 1929. La Biosphere. Felix Alcan.

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Believing the Earth is alive may be scientific as well as spiritual

2005-04-22T05:06:32Z

Believing the Earth is alive may be scientific as well as spiritual

It's not exactly a new idea, or even one that has been taken seriously by most of the scientific community, but I still find it interesting, especially when taken from a Pagan point of view.
This idea was originally put forth by James Lovelock in the 1960s, and he published a book on the theory titled, "Gaia - A New Look at Life on Earth". He suggested that the Earth is alive, as a single organism. The flowing water, shifting land masses, and even the myriad of smaller living creatures (including us humans) are actually all parts of a larger living body. Much like how our own cells are part of our bodies, yet they are alive in their own right as well.

Pshaw, you say. The Earth is made up mostly of rock and other inanimate material. How could it possibly be alive? But think of a Tree

Much of what you see in a tree is actually dead. The outer bark and the inner wood of the trunk is all dead material. Only the new wood just under the bark is alive, and the leaves of course. You wouldn't think twice that a tree is a living being, would you?
I'll admit that the geological, biological concepts that make up this theory are complex, and beyond my complete understanding. But the general hypothesis seems simple enough. The central fact of the Gaia Hypothesis is that the planet regulates itself. The temperature and concentration of various gasses are constantly adjusting to keep levels at optimum for the sustaining of life. This form of homeostasis is a key feature when defining life.

Whether the Gaia Hypothesis is good science or just a wild idea, I really couldn't say. But I feel that it blends nicely with my own spiritual beliefs about the sacredness of our Mother Earth.

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The Gaia Hypothesis

2005-04-22T05:03:48Z

The last half of the 20th century witnessed incredible leaps in our understanding of planet Earth. Beyond the technological achievements, these decades have produced a substantial body of evidence in support of a revolutionary hypothesis, first posed by Alfred Wegener in the early 1900s, that the continents move around the planet, like ice cubes in a glass. The theory of plate tectonics, as it is now known, embodies a century or more of scientific research, bringing together the efforts of oceanographers, geophysicists, climatologists, palenotologists and more. It represents to my mind what the scientific method is all about and provides an awesome example of how science works.

Another example of how science works is a revolutionary hypothesis first proposed by an atmospheric chemist the the late 70s. This hypothesis, known as the Gaia Hypothesis, states that the Earth is alive. While perhaps agreeable to many an artistic or spiritual soul, the very statement of the hypothesis rankled some scientists. Still, two decades later, the Gaia Hypothesis is still with us.

Whether the Gaia Hypothesis will stand the test of time is uncertain. But its impact on how we think of our planet, how we view the processes that create our atmosphere and climate and oceans and even the mountains is unmistakable.

I think you will find it fascinating. Herein is described one of the more controversial scientific hypotheses of our time, the Gaia Hypothesis.

What is Gaia?
The Gaia Hypothesis proposes that our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival. Formulated by James Lovelock in the mid-1960s and published in a book in 1979, this controversial idea has spawned several interesting ideas and many new areas of research. While this hypothesis is by no means substantiated, it provides many useful lessons about the interaction of physical, chemical, geological, and biological processes on Earth. Thus, it is a good starting point for our study of oceanography, providing a broad overview of the kinds of processes that will interest us throughout the semester.

Throughout history, the concept of Mother Earth has been a part of human culture in one form or another. Everybody has heard of Mother Earth, but have you ever stopped to think who (or what) Mother Earth is? Consider these explanations.

The Hopi name for Mother Earth is Tapuat (meaning mother and child), symbolized by a form of concentric circles or squares, as shown below. These forms symbolize the cycle of life, the rebirth of the spirit, its earthly path, and, possibly, its return to the spiritual domain. The lines and passages within the "maze" represent the universal plan of the Creator and the path that man must follow to seek enlightenment.

A more imposing definition of Mother Earth might be found in the Hindu goddess Kali. She is the Cosmic Power, representing all of the good and all of the bad in the Universe, combining the absolute power of destruction with the precious motherly gift of creation. It is said that Kali creates, preserves, destroys. Also known as the Black One, her name means "The Ferry across the Ocean of Existence."

The ancient Greeks called their Earth goddess Ge or Gaia. Gaia embodies the idea of a Mother Earth, the source of the living and non-living entities that make up the Earth. Like Kali, Gaia was gentle, feminine and nurturing, but also ruthlessly cruel to any who crossed her. Note that the prefix "ge" in the words geology and geography is taken from the Greek root for Earth.

James Lovelock has taken the idea of Mother Earth one step further and given it a modern scientific twist. (Are our modern Mother Earth "hypotheses" any more refined than ancient Mother Earth myths?). Lovelock defines Gaia "as a complex entity involving the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet." Through Gaia, the Earth sustains a kind of homeostasis, the maintenance of relatively constant conditions.

The truly startling component of the Gaia hypothesis is the idea that the Earth is a single living entity. This idea is certainly not new. James Hutton (1726-1797), the father of geology, once described the Earth as a kind of superorganism. And right before Lovelock, Lewis Thomas, a medical doctor and skilled writer, penned these words in his famous collection of essays, The Lives of a Cell:

Viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about the earth, catching the breath, is that it is alive. The photographs show the dry, pounded surface of the moon in the foreground, dry as an old bone. Aloft, floating free beneath the moist, gleaming, membrane of bright blue sky, is the rising earth, the only exuberant thing in this part of the cosmos. If you could look long enough, you would see the swirling of the great drifts of white cloud, covering and uncovering the half-hidden masses of land. If you had been looking for a very long, geologic time, you could have seen the continents themselves in motion, drifting apart on their crustal plates, held afloat by the fire beneath. It has the organized, self-contained look of a live creature, full of information, marvelously skilled in handling the sun.

Thomas goes even one step further when he writes: "I have been trying to think of the earth as a kind of organism, but it is a no go...it is most like a single cell."

Whether the Earth is a cell, an organism, or a superorganism is largely a matter of semantics, and a topic that I will leave to the more philosophically minded. The key point here is the hypothesis that the Earth acts as a single system - it is a coherent, self-regulated, assemblage of physical, chemical, geological, and biological forces that interact to maintain a unified whole balanced between the input of energy from the sun and the thermal sink of energy into space.

In its most basic configuration, the Earth acts to regulate flows of energy and recycling of materials. The input of energy from the sun occurs at a constant rate and for all practical purposes is unlimited. This energy is captured by the Earth as heat or photosynthetic processes, and returned to space as long-wave radiation. On the other hand, the mass of the Earth, its material possessions, are limited (except for the occasional input of mass provided as meteors strike the planet). Thus, while energy flows through the Earth (sun to Earth to space), matter cycles within the Earth.

The idea of the Earth acting as a single system as put forth in the Gaia hypothesis has stimulated a new awareness of the connectedness of all things on our planet and the impact that man has on global processes. No longer can we think of separate components or parts of the Earth as distinct. No longer can we think of man's actions in one part of the planet as independent. Everything that happens on the planet - the deforestation/reforestation of trees, the increase/decrease of emissions of carbon dioxide, the removal or planting of croplands - all have an affect on our planet. The most difficult part of this idea is how to qualify these effects, i.e. to determine whether these effects are positive or negative. If the Earth is indeed self-regulating, then it will adjust to the impacts of man. However, as we will see, these adjustments may act to exclude man, much as the introduction of oxygen into the atmosphere by photosynthetic bacteria acted to exclude anaerobic bacteria. This is the crux of the Gaia hypothesis.

How Does Gaia Work?
James Lovelock, in collaboration with another eminent scientist, the microbiologist Lynn Margulis, first explained the Gaia hypothesis as such: "Life, or the biosphere, regulates or maintains the climate and the atmospheric composition at an optimum for itself." Inherent in this explanation is the idea that biosphere, the atmosphere, the lithosphere and the hydrosphere are in some kind of balance -- that they maintain a homeostatic condition. This homeostasis is much like the internal maintenance of our own bodies; processes within our body insure a constant temperature, blood pH, electrochemical balance, etc. The inner workings of Gaia, therefore, can be viewed as a study of the physiology of the Earth, where the oceans and rivers are the Earth's blood, the atmosphere is the Earth's lungs, the land is the Earth's bones, and the living organisms are the Earth's senses. Lovelock calls this the science of geophysiology - the physiology of the Earth (or any other planet).

Viewed from this angle, there are certain predictions and experiments that can be performed to refute or lend evidence to the Gaia hypothesis. In fact, it was the search for life on Mars that led to Lovelock's early ideas about the existence of Gaia. As part of a NASA team formed in 1965 to look for life on other planets, Lovelock was asked to propose hypotheses that would demonstrate whether life existed on a planet or not. One of these hypotheses was the idea that gases in an atmosphere on a "dead" planet would be in chemical equilibrium, that is, all the possible chemical reactions that could have happened would have happened and the gases of the atmosphere would be relatively inert. On the other hand, if life existed on the planet, gases in the atmosphere would not be in balance, and chemical reactions would be actively occurring.

Venus
N (<2%) CO2 (95%)
No oxygen
atmosphere in
chemical equilibrium

Earth
N (77%), CO2( 0.03%)
21% Oxygen
atmosphere not in
chemical equilibrium

Mars
N (<3%) CO2 (95%)
No oxygen
atmosphere in
chemical equilibrium

When they looked at the gaseous composition of Mars and Venus, they saw that the atmosphere was largely composed of the generally unreactive gas carbon dioxide. According to their hypothesis, both these planets would be dead. However, when they looked at Earth, they saw that the atmosphere was an unusual and unstable mixture of many gases. Thus, life was expected to be present on Earth (which we all know is true).

While perhaps not so dramatic, this example should give you some idea of how science works and how the Gaia hypothesis came into being (see handout). The fact that the gaseous composition of the Earth was not in chemical equilibrium, yet appeared to be maintained in a constant state, suggested some form of planetary regulation for the planet's atmosphere. Lovelock initially suggested that life itself maintained the composition of the atmosphere, but has broadened the concept to include the whole system of the climate, the rocks, the air, and the oceans as a self-regulating process.

To understand how the Earth might be living, let's take a look at what defines life. Physicists define life as a system of locally reduced entropy (life is the battle against entropy). Molecular biologists view life as replicating strands of DNA that compete for survival and evolve to optimize their survival in changing surroundings. Physiologists might view life as a biochemical system that us able to use energy from external sources to grow and reproduce. According to Lovelock, the geophysiologist sees life as a system open to the flux of matter and energy but that maintains an internal steady-state.

[updated 1999] Modern biology texts often provide the best descriptions of what defines like. Before you proceed, take a few moments to review the characteristics of living matter that I have summarized on a separate page.

One useful analogy that has been proposed for understanding Gaia is the California redwood tree, Sequoia gigantea. These trees which stand in great groves along the northern coast of California and elsewhere can stand as high as 300 feet and weigh as much as 2000 tons. Some of them are more than 3000 years old.

Redwood trees are like Gaia because 97% of their tissues are dead. The wood of the trunk and the bark of the tree are dead. Only a small rim of cells along the periphery of the trunk is living. The trunk of the tree is similar to the Earth's lithosphere with a thin layer of living organisms spread across its surface. The bark, like the atmosphere, protects the living tissues, and allows for the exchange of biologically important gases, such as carbon dioxide and oxygen.

There is no doubt in my mind that a redwood tree is a living entity. Would you just call the outer layer the redwood tree and the rest of it dead wood? The same holds true for Gaia. While much of the Earth may be considered "non-living", the fact that all of these non-living parts are involved to some extent in living processes suggests that the whole Earth is alive, just like a redwood tree.

To better understand how the Earth functions physiologically, let's look at one example that has recently been proposed as evidence of Gaia. Let's compare mechanisms of temperature regulation in our bodies and on Earth.

All of us know that our body temperatures are maintained pretty close to 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C). The maintenance of this body temperature is the result of feedbacks between the brain and various organs and systems of the body. Our bodies have developed different responses to increases or decreases in our core temperature. If it is too cold, our bodies produce heat by shivering; if it is too warm, our bodies sweat and remove heat through evaporation. Of course, humans have extended their ability to survive in extremes of temperatures by inventing clothing that insulates, heats, and even cools our bodies. Such clothing has allowed humans to explore the coldest waters of the polar oceans or the hottest regions of the world's deserts.

On Earth, temperature is regulated in a similar, albeit, more complicated fashion. We will examine how the sun warms the Earth in more detail in a later lecture, but for now we can gain some understanding by just considering the effects of the Earth's albedo. Albedo refers to the color of a planet and its ability to absorb or reflect light. Probably most of you have experienced the difference in temperature between a black asphalt street and a white sidewalk; the Earth's temperature regulation works in much the same way. Dark areas, such as mountains in summer, forests, or even the ocean, tend to absorb heat energy from the sun. Light areas, such as deserts, cloudy areas, or the polar ice caps tend to reflect the sun's energy away from the Earth.

As you can imagine, the albedo of the Earth is not constant. What kinds of changes occur over the Earth's surface that would affect the Earth's albedo?

One possible means by which global temperature is regulated is by clouds. If there are more clouds, more sunlight is reflected away from the earth, and the earth cools. If there are less clouds, more sunlight is able to reach the surface of the Earth and the earth warms. What factors control the abundance of clouds?

There are many factors that affect cloud cover over the planet. The interaction of the atmosphere with the ocean is one major factor. Think of how fog forms along the coast during early summer and you'll get the idea. Other factors, such as the rain shadow effect and weather fronts contribute to cloud cover over the planet.

Given that the oceans cover two-thirds of the Earth's surface, it stands to reason that anything that contributes to the formation of clouds over the ocean will have a major impact on the Earth's temperature. One such mechanism proposed in the last couple decades is the release of cloud-condensation nuclei (or CCN's) by marine phytoplankton, particularly coccolithophorids. Coccolithophorids are well-known for their beautiful calcareous skeletons that make up the White Cliffs of Dover in England.

Clouds form when water vapor in the atmosphere condenses or freezes. However, for clouds to form, a particle or "nucleus" must be present to "gather up" the water into a droplet. These particles, called cloud-condensation nuclei, are the tiny particles in the atmosphere that lead to the formation of clouds. Water vapor condenses around these particles and clouds are formed.

One substance that can act as a CCN is dimethyl sulphide, or DMS. It has been known for quite some time that certain algae or phytoplankton (plant plankton that live in the ocean) release trace quantities of DMS. Production of DMS by phytoplankton may be sufficient to cause the formation of clouds, and recent research has been directed towards quantifying the amounts of DMS released into the atmosphere by organisms living in the sea.

Where this process becomes interesting for Gaia is the possibility that phytoplankton can control the temperature of the Earth by regulating the amount of cloud cover over the oceans. Imagine that! Phytoplankton, tiny single-celled plants in the sea, have their fingers on the Earth's thermostat! When the sun is shining brightly, phytoplankton grow rapidly (they're plants, remember?) and produce DMS, which leads to clouds. After a while, the increase in clouds lowers the temperature of the Earth, but it also blocks the sunlight to the phytoplankton. As a result, the phytoplankton grow more slowly, less clouds are formed, and the temperature of the Earth rises. The cycle continues to repeat in a self-regulating and balanced manner.

While much more research is needed, there is some evidence that phytoplankton could control the formation of clouds and the Earth's temperature to some degree. Regardless of whether this mechanism bears the test of time, it does give us pause to think of how living organisms and the Earth itself may interact with each other. It should make us sit and wonder how such a mechanism evolved. For sure, the idea that the whole Earth - the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere - works together in a harmonious fashion has great intellectual, philosophical, and poetical appeal, if nothing else!

What Does Gaia Predict?
If indeed the Earth is a living organism and the sum of its biological, geological, chemical, and hydrological processes act in concert, what then might we expect of such an organism? How should such an organism act?

We've already mentioned the maintenance of non-equilibrium conditions in the atmosphere as one characteristic of a Gaian planet. We also looked at how organisms such as phytoplankton can transfer chemicals such as DMS into the atmosphere and thus, participate in the cycling of elements within the planet. Organisms are a vital part of all chemical cycles and I would like to introduce to you here the concept of biogeochemical cycles.

By their very nature (and as the name implies) biogeochemical cycles are a mechanism by which the Earth's elements are transformed and carried (in the physical sense) around the Earth. Because the Earth's mass (and material elements) are fixed, the Earth must recycle elements to make them available for other processes. Otherwise, the whole system would run down and the Earth would be just like the moon.

The most common biogeochemical cycles are the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and the sulfur cycle. Living organisms are a vital part of these cycles. Tremendous masses of material are consumed, transformed, transported, and recycled by the actions of living organisms. In fact, the deposition of sediments in shallow waters is responsible for the uplifting of coastal shores.

Planetary processes governed by living organisms lend credence to the Gaia hypothesis, but they do not prove her existence. If, after a number of decades, a large body of evidence develops that supports the hypothesis that our planet is a living, self-regulating organism, then the Gaia hypothesis may be upgraded to a theory, much like the theory of gravity. Until then, Gaia is an idea that stimulates our thinking and generates scientific research that helps us better understand our planet and how it works.

As one last look at what Gaia might predict, I would like to offer an idea of my own. One of the biggest criticisms against the idea that Gaia is a "living" organism is the inability of the planet to reproduce. Certainly one of the hallmarks of living organisms is their ability to replicate and pass on their genetic information to succeeding generations. In the case of Gaia, this does not appear to be true, or does it?

I would like to propose that man himself is the means by which Gaia will reproduce. Man's exploration of space, his interest in colonizing other planets, and the large body of sci-fi literature that describes terraforming, lend strong evidence to the idea that Gaia is planning to reproduce. Imagine that man colonizes another planet. Imagine that the planet slowly begins to transform; the atmosphere changes, perhaps leading to the formation of ice caps; plants grow, creating clouds and changing the planet's albedo. No longer will this planet be a static, forbidden place. It will be transformed into a place of beauty -- a living, breathing, evolving entity. This indeed is the power of Gaia, and one of the more fascinating and compelling reasons to consider her existence!

Finally, beyond the scientific importance of what we have discussed here, we might do well to consider some of the more poetical thoughts of the originator of the theory. At the end of Chapter 1 in his first book, Lovelock writes:

"If Gaia exists, the relationship between her and man, a dominant animal species in the complex living system, and the possibly shifting balance of power between them, are questions of obvious importance...The Gaia hypothesis is for those who like to walk or simply stand and stare, to wonder about the Earth and the life it bears, and to speculate about the consequences of our own presence here. It is an alternative to that pessimistic view which sees nature as a primitive force to be subdued and conquered. It is also an alternative to that equally depressing picture of our planet as a demented spaceship, forever traveling, driverless and purposeless, around an inner circle of the sun."

Update Summer 1999
I first heard of the Gaia Hypothesis as a graduate student at the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1980s. Having taken a couple courses in Systems Ecology from Dr. James Kremer, I was more than accepting of the idea that systems have emergent properties that cannot be discerned from their individual components. Within that context, the Gaia Hypothesis made sense to me, perhaps more philosophical scientific, but sense, nonetheless.

Since the time of writing these notes in the summer of 1996 (just before I started teaching at Fullerton College), I have learned a lot more about the Gaia Hypothesis, both from the WWW and from conversations with Tom Morris, who teaches planetary biology at Fullerton College and hosts the Planetary Biology Home Page. It has also become somewhat of a theme of mine throughout all of my oceanography classes, not so much the hypothesis, but the idea that physical, geological, chemical and biological processes are interdependent, something that fits quite well with Gaian Theory.

Here then are a few more things that I have learned in the past three years that may further elucidate and validate this important idea.

The Many Faces of Gaia

One of the more interesting extensions of the Gaia Hypothesis has been its transformation from one hypothesis to multiple hypotheses. This is not uncommon in scientific work and it generally represents a healthy and lively application of the scientific method. This divergence of views arises as a result of the different approaches of individual scientists and their beliefs, in the sense of their view of what a body of evidence supports or doesn't support.

Recognition of the many Gaia hypotheses evolved from a symposium on the Gaia Hypothesis held in 1988. A group of geophysicists and others came together to discuss the hypothesis, an event in itself that helped fuel its acceptance. While there were (and still are) many detractors, Gaia did appear to gain a toehold with general acceptance of the idea that life at least influences planetary processes.

Certainly no one could argue against the evidence that dramatic changes occurred in Earth's early atmosphere as a result of the evolution of photosynthetic organisms approximately 3.5 billion years ago. The resulting oxygen holocaust, which established present-day oxygen concentrations about 2.5 billion years ago, radically changed physical, geological, chemical and biological processes on our planet. Rust is one good example of chemical alterations brought about by oxygen. A good biological example is the appearance of oxygen-breathing organisms, or aerobes, and the confinement (in a figurative sense) of non-oxygen breathing organisms, or anaerobes, to swamps and bogs and places deep in the Earth.

The idea that life influences planetary processes (i.e. has a substantial effect on abiotic processes) has become known as the weak (or influential) Gaia hypothesis. This hypothesis is generally supported by scientists today and, in fact, is probably most responsible for stimulating continued research on Gaia. Even the most conservative scientists agree that research on the way in which living organisms interact with non-living processes may yield useful information. Much of our modern-day climate research is based, to some degree, on this idea.

As a result of defining a weak Gaia hypothesis, the original Gaia hypothesis (i.e. that life controls planetary processes) became known as the strong (or optimizing) Gaia hypothesis. Few scientists are willing to support this hypothesis.

One of the reasons that the Gaia Hypothesis sparked such debate in scientific circles has to do with scientists' ability to test hypotheses. As we learned earlier, the traditional scientific method relies on refuting a hypothesis, proving it wrong, as the means for eliminating possible explanations. This method of falsifying a hypothesis was proposed by the Austrian-born Karl Popper in a 1934 publication called Logik Der Forschung or The Logic of Scientific Discovery. (Popper passed away in 1994 but he is still considered one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th Century. The single largest complaint lodged against the strong Gaia hypothesis is that experiments can't be designed to refute it (or test it at all, for that matter.)

Without going into all the details, suffice it to say that those arguments are valid. The strong Gaia hypotheis states that life creates conditions on Earth to suit itself. Life created the planet Earth, not the other way around. As we explore the solar system and galaxies beyond, it may one day be possible to design an experiment to test whether life indeed manipulates planetary processes for its own purposes or whether life is just an evolutionary processes that occurs in response to changes in the non-living world.

Additional Reading:
To read more about the Gaia Hypothesis and related topics, check out these publications:

Turney, Jon. Lovelock & Gaia: Signs of Life. Columbia University Press. 2003
J. E. Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, Oxford University Press, 1979
James Lovelock, Healing Gaia: Practical Medicine for the Planet, Harmony Books, 1991;
Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell, Bantam Books, 1974.
The Gaia hypothesis: can it be tested? in Reviews of Geophysics 27:2, 223-235, 1989

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A Gaian Ethic

2005-04-15T04:58:28Z

They come together, these sacred leaders and seers, to feel their way toward a new spirituality, one that takes in some major pieces left out of religions for the last couple millennia - the earth, the feminine and the idea of universality, meaning I am not identified just with "my" religion, but see all humanity as very much belonging to the same spirituality.

Sound like some New Age neo-pagans? No, it's the people of Jewish renewal - and Saturday night at Ashland High School's theater, they asked themselves and members of other religions to talk about a "new cosmology needed for planetary healing" and also to do a candid report card on "what's not working" with their own religion and how it could change.

The main engine of Jewish renewal over the last half century, 80-year old Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi ("Reb Zalman") was candid, calling for a secular, not supernatural ethic. The earth is teaching us, he says. The cosmos is the body of God. We are becoming Gaian citizens (Gaia is the ancient Greek goddess of Earth).

"The only way we can get it together is together," he says. We're all cells in the totality of one body. Ram Dass and Timothy Leary gave us a gift - of losing our narrow, provincial experience, something Reb Zalman confirmed with his first LSD journey, he says, "seeing religion from the inside," seeing that every tradition has these "heart filled" visions.

Reb Zalman calls it a Gaian ethic. It's what's going to heal us. "What has happened is that we've been broken apart," he says, referring to the whole of humanity. Our social fibers have been shredded, we're in exile and we have things like nuclear families, single mothers, bastard children (no mother would use that word). "It's like a bad immune system," he says.

He's speaking gently, warmly, smiling in his white beard, saying so many new and radical ideas that you have to glance at your neighbor and suggest, did he really say that? But here he is, a respected patriarch of the Jewish community for many decades, the spiritual father of Ashland's Havurah, crying out for a new person on the earth - and modeling that person.

Patriarch, smchmatriarch. He relinquishes all father-right. We need matriarchs, not patriarchs, he says. The era of religious triumphalism is over. Wow, you don't need that term defined for you. You can feel it. Religious pride, the sense that you, in your major, organized religion, with a billion adherents, are chosen and have the inerrant word of God in your book.

And sitting on your pillow, meditating (alone), that's not going to make the necessary changes for the world, either, he says. How about more blessing of one another and of other and of the planet?

This man has to be the Martin Luther of the Judaic faith and he's not just nailing some theses on the door of his own temple, but of every temple.

Anne Bartlett has a hammer, too. She's the one who led her flock into creation of the downtown labyrinth, next to her church, Trinity Episcopal. We are hard-wired before birth, she says, for relationship with "Other," which means other people and God, this within a cosmos that she defines as "an ordered luminous web of interconnections, infused with divine purpose and plan," something that isn't about living in different, competing religions.

We (Christians), she says, have been in trouble with this triumphalism thing since Constantine opened up an era of genocide in the name of religion and "trampled on the souls of others," something that's not over yet. Christians, she notes, need to start listening, forgiving and practicing some humility. To big laughter and applause, she quotes Desmond Tutu, who said, hey, God is not a Christian.

What is God? "God is a mystery - and we need to understand Her as best we can," she says. Any Christian minister who writes a Good Friday sermon, should be required to run it by a rabbi first, she adds - to much laughter. Our hope, she concludes, is that God can be trusted to being new spiritual life out of a global situation of death and despair.

Sound dark and negative? It wasn't. You had to be there. The crowd (sold out) was loving it - and approaching it as a serious and menacing planetary crisis that we have the power to change, rather like citizens gathered to deal with a flood or plague. This is real. We're in trouble. It's especially grim now, in a nation pumped up about saving the world from evil, violent terrorists, all of whom just happen to be of a different religion.

"We've got to try and stop the spiritual blindness," says Agnes Baker Pilgrim, the local Takelma elder. We've got a journey to make, one of only 18 inches, from head to heart, so we can take on a role given us by the Creator, the care of all creatures created before us. She says it simply: think of community first - and the generations ahead of us.

We're not here to have a lot of material gain, power and prestige, but to learn the lesson of love, says Dr. Krishna, a Hindu. Love must come with respect or love is false love. We're speaking in the elemental building blocks of consciousness and values here, but it's so rare that we hear these things in this jingoistic consumer culture, that they sound novel, almost radical.

It's difficult to hold to the universal view that we're one planet and we are not alone, say Ashland's Tibetan Buddhist lamas, Yeshe and Pema. We have many lives to get it right and we do so by living simply, practicing contentment and harming no being. Calm down, says Pema, stay in the present, rest in the openness of your mind, don't be tyrannized by the compulsion to think and "all should go smoothly on the spiritual journey and you need not panic."

What we're being presented with here is the greatest sociological transformation ever known, one in which the economy can become a satellite to the "soul of the culture," instead of the other way round, says author-philosopher Jean Houston, now of Ashland. The "reset button of history" has been hit and we face the most profound task of any people who have ever lived.

You talk to people about this stuff and they all say they know it's happening. Life is a lot different than it was, say, at the end of the last century - and 9/11 plus the disputed 2000 election, while not earth-shattering in themselves, were two huge body blows that put all this on the table and greatly accelerated the process.

The sponsor of the weekend, Havurah's Rabbi David Zaslow owns that the direction pointed out by Reb Zalman, and followed by his own flock, is mystical, a loaded word that means, "It's not enough to serve and worship God. Renewal is the understanding that God resides in every one of us as a direct experience of the divine, a direct encounter."

The ecstatic experience of the divine, brought in by dance, song, prayer (and an inclusive view of world as cosmos) holds firm to the cultural identity, while letting go of what's dysfunctional in the religion - usually the negative role of women and outsiders and the lack of connection to nature. The emerging new trinity, Zaslow says, is self, Gaia (nature) and God - and you can't have one without the other.

posted in *Green Fire - 2 replies

wispers

2005-04-11T02:03:31Z

Whispers
The man whispered, "God and Goddess, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But, the man did not hear.
So the man yelled, "God and Goddess, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But, the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said, "God and Goddess let me see you." And a star shined brightly. But the man did not see.
And, the man shouted, "God and Goddess show me a miracle." And, a life was born. But, the man did not notice.
So, the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God and Goddess, and let me know you are here." Whereupon, God and Goddess reached down and touched the man. But, the man brushed the butterfly away, and walked on.
I found this to be a great reminder that God and Goddess are always around us in the little and simple things that we take for granted......even in our electronic age.
So I would like to add one more:
The man cried, "God and Goddess, I need your help!" And an e-mail arrived reaching out with good news and encouragement. But, the man deleted it and continued crying...........
Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way that you expect.
Expect the unexpected..............

posted in *Green Fire - 1 reply

Organic Chairs

2005-04-11T00:52:54Z

Pull up an organic chair and sink into living 'green'
By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
First came organic food. Then, organic clothing. And now — better sit down — organic furniture.

Furnature's organic Anna Chair costs $2,872.

That's right, upholstered furniture and bedding free of common furniture, fabric and agricultural chemicals — from formaldehyde to chemical fire retardants. All the stuffing, upholstery fibers and wood in the furniture are certified to be chemical-free. (Related: Organic 'Furnature')

Only a handful of companies make it. One of them, Furnature, in Watertown, Mass., recently opened one of the first retail showrooms dedicated to organic furniture.

It doesn't come cheap. Some of Furnature's organic couches sell for nearly $4,000. A handmade organic hemp couch from rival Bean Products fetches $5,200.

Organic furniture origins
Some common products used to make organic furniture:
Organic cotton Upholstery
Natural rubber Mattress and sofa stuffing
Non-aromatic wood Frames
Pure wool Natural flame-retardant in place of chemicals
Organic hemp Upholstery and padding
Electrically tempered steel coils Made without oil, plastic or chemical coatings
Source: USA TODAY research

While organic furniture sales are just a fraction of the $12 billion organic industry, the growth potential is enormous. Sales of organic mattresses and pillows, which topped $1 million last year, are expected to grow nearly 15% annually during the next five years, the Organic Trade Association estimates.

Just as organic food has become acceptable to the mainstream, organic furniture "may be seen as normal in 20 years," says Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association.

What has changed most during the past few years is who buys it. Five years ago, 99% of the organic furniture sold by Furnature was to people with chemical allergies. Today, 70% of the sales are to consumers who want a "green" lifestyle, says Barry Shapiro, co-founder.

Even Whole Foods, the natural and organic foods retailing giant, would consider carrying some organic furniture in the "Whole Home" department of its new flagship megastore in Austin that takes the Whole Foods concept beyond a supermarket, says spokeswoman Kate Lowery.

The Whole Home department carries items such as towels, sheets and pillows. Carrying organic furniture is possible, Lowery says, because, "It sounds like it goes along with expanding the lifestyle beyond food."

Two of the bigger makers of organic furniture are seeing fast growth. Furnature sold more than $1 million in handmade organic furniture and more than $5 million in organic mattresses last year, Shapiro says. Sales are growing 20% annually, he says. Bean Products is even getting requests from some corporate clients for organic furniture, says founder Chuck Blumenthal.

If the major furniture makers were willing to make organic furniture, the prices could be halved, he says.

Why organic? "We're living in chemical soup," Blumenthal says. "People do not want toxic stuff in their lives."

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Green Fire's Website up and Running

2005-03-30T05:47:18Z

In Lake'ch Green Fire Tribe members!

I would like to invite all of you to Green Fire's website and get the forums going! It has taken almost a year to get this website up and the last few months have been intense trying to get the forums up.

http://www.greenfireministry.org

It is important that our ministry show high membership before we begin our grant writing campaign so please network this link to all kin.

http://www.greenfireministry.org

Be sure to check out Green Fire's programs and developing projects. These 8 programs are structured to be able to fund multiple projects so while browsing keep in mind that this is your ministry and therefore your non-profit sanctuary.

http://www.greenfireministry.org/Programs.htm

For anyone with kids we are starting our Earth Scouts Troop 13:20 under the Children's Program and kicking it off by participation in the World Wildlife Fund Pennies for the Planet campaign. As a cyber troop we can involve our kids in many of the awesome projects going on during the turning of the ages!

http://www.greenfireministry.org/earthscouts.htm

Green Fire is a deep ecology/mayan calendar based ministry and we have our gatherings on the CaLahun (crystal) day of the wavespell. Green Fire daykeeps both Long Count and Dreamspell Count so no matter what side of the Tzolkin your on please bring your majikal presence to the Green Fire.

http://www.greenfireministry.org/Gatherings.htm

I am still trying to get a better member form but for now just register with your e-mails.

http://greenfireministry.org/members/index.php?option=com_smf_registration&task=register&Itemid=95

Once you are logged in be sure to check out the "Matrix Home" in the upper left main menu.

This organization is like fresh snow that needs our hand/foot prints as well as our bodies to make snow angel impressions in!

Namaste :-)

Darlene

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies

10 Rules for being Human

2005-03-03T02:01:32Z

> 1. You will receive a body. You may like it or
> hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire
> period.
>
> 2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a
> full-time informal school called "Life.
> "
>
> 3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth
> is a process of trial, error, and
> experimentation. The "failed"
> experiments are as much a part of the process as
> the experiments that ultimately "work.
> "
>
> 4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned.
> A lesson will be presented to you in various
> forms until you have learned it. When you have
> learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
>
> 5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no
> part of life that doesn't contain its lessons.
> If you are alive, that means there are still
> lessons to be learned.
>
> 6. "There" is no better place than
> "here." When your "there"
> has become a "here," you will simply
> obtain another "there" that will again
> look better than "here."
>
> 7. Other people are merely mirror of you. You
> cannot love or hate something about another
> person unless it reflects to you something you
> love or hate about yourself.
>
> 8. What you make of your life is up to you. You
> have all the tools and resources you need. What
> you do with them is up to you. The choice is
> yours.
>
> 9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to
> life's questions lie within you. All you need to
> do is look, listen, and trust.
>
> 10. You will forget all this. Isn't That
> Fascinating?
> Everything in Your Outer Life Happens
> Inside First Did you know that everything
> physical in your life is just a reflection of
> everything going on inside you? Your physical
> life is an "expression" or "
> pressing outward" of your inner landscape.
> Some people call this process "out-
> picturing." It is the process of taking
> your inner thoughts and feelings and making them
> real. If you are avoiding someone and hoping
> with all your heart that you do not run into
> that person, guess what? Chances are that you
> will see that person. Why? Because it is an
> expression of the film that you have been
> playing over and over in your mind.
> So if you have a recurring problem on the
> physical plane, do not try to fix it with
> physical solution. You won't get anywhere fast
> and it is hard work! Work on your inner
> landscape instead. Take a look inside. What are
> your thoughts? What are your feelings? What are
> you chewing on inside? What are you obsessing
> about? When you catch yourself obsessing about
> something, just smile and say to yourself, "
> You"re doing that thing you do again!"
> Keep catching yourself at your own game. Once
> you get through the initial anger and
> frustration, you will find yourself amused at
> how often your mind will return to the same
> subject. Then the feeling goes from obsession to
> humor. Once you can see the humor in the
> situation, your outer situation will change.
> When you can laugh at yourself, everything in
> your outer environment automatically fixes
> itself. You won't have to lift a finger.
> Fascinating, isn't it?
>
> You may reprint, copy or distribute complete
> copies of "Real Magick" provided this
> copyright notice and link to http://www.
> shamanschool.com is included.

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Tell us a story

2005-01-31T05:00:31Z

about how Green Fire came into being. i am with a 13:20 community in BC.

www.tribalharmonix.org

posted in *Green Fire - 2 replies

How does earth feel about all this?

2005-01-31T04:41:15Z

As we stand on her surface and sink beneath it and vaporize into air...is earth always in equanimity with it all?

I do feel part of the air, more so than the earth...

earth and water...fire and air...electicity and vibration...

I am a thought composed of many...if I were the earth, what would I think?

What would you?

Bella

posted in *Green Fire - 1 reply

Green Fire Tribe

2004-04-12T03:29:24Z

Namaste

Networking and connecting with Tribe is what Green Fire is all about - Tribe.net is perfect for building and cross polinating the Earth Tribe.

In Lake'ch
greenfire

posted in *Green Fire - 0 replies