Pantheism means “All (pan-) is God (theos)”. Pantheism is the belief that God/dess is not remote or separate from nature, but immanent within it. Read more
Pantheism means “All (pan-) is God (theos)”. Pantheism is the belief that God/dess is not remote or separate from nature, but immanent within it. Read more
The re-enchantment of the world refers to the return of a sense of mystery to the world or to a sense of our participation in that mystery through our non-intellective, imaginative faculties. Re-enchantment is a countercultural response to a reductionist and positivistic science which views nature (including human beings) as mechanism and a capitalism which reduces nature (including human beings) to commodity and resource. Read more
One of the insights of deep ecology is that we humans are members of a vast more-than-human community. Deep ecology calls us to a new humility in the face of this fact, challenging us to abandon our anthropocentric perspective. Read more
Nature religionists perceive nature as both sacred and interconnected. By “sacred”, we mean that nature has intrinsic value apart from its utility as a resource for human beings. By “interconnected”, we mean that our very being is determined by our ecology, by the material and cultural environment which we share with all other living beings. We are immersed in a web of life which is our true community. Read more
Having just talked about ecofeminism, I think now might be a good time to pause and and tell a story. The Wasteland in the Grail Myth This story comes from the Arthurian Grail mythos. You’ve probably heard of the search for the Holy Grail undertaken by King Arthur’s knights. One of the scenes which recurs in several versions of that story is the chapter about the Fisher King and the Grail Castle. If you are familiar with the Arthurian Grail... Read more
Ecofeminism is a part of the broader feminist spirituality movement, which emerged with “second-wave feminism” in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as some consciousness-raising groups developed into feminist spirituality groups. What ecofeminism adds to this discussion is the idea that the oppression of women and the abuse of the environment are related phenomena, both arising from patriarchal power structures of hierarchy and domination. Read more
Much of modern psychology assumes a divide between inner reality (mind) and outer reality (nature). The central problem of ecopsychology is to overcome this divide. The human mind does not stand wholly apart from the natural world, but is deeply rooted in and intertwined with it. Ecopsychology sees the human psyche as a phenomenon of nature, an aspect of the larger "psyche" of nature or "soul of the world" (anima mundi). By ignoring this relationship between the mind and nature, modern psychology helps to perpetuate the Western industrial world's destructive state of estrangement from its Earth home, which has disastrous consequences for both our psyches and for the environment. Ecopsychologists maintain that the pursuit of mental and emotional well-being, on the one hand, and environmental health, on the other, are closely intertwined tasks -- indeed, they are inseparable. Read more
Neo-animism represents a challenge to Western discourse which divides the world into subjects and objects, culture and nature. Neo-animism breaks down the conceptual barrier between the "cultural" (i.e., human) and the "natural" (i.e., other-than-human). Thus animists are those who encounter other-than-human beings as cultural persons. Neo-animism is not about the projection of consciousness or agency onto "inanimate" objects (the concept of "projection" presumes a subject-object dualism), but about respect and reciprocity within a community that transcends the subject-object dichotomy. Read more