Resources & Reviews
From Vol. 1, No. 1, Winter 2002/2003
Eastern Old Growth Clearinghouse - A project of Appalachia - Science in the Public Interest, Wild Earth, and Yggdrasil Institute. It’s directed by Mary Byrd Davis editor of Eastern Old- Growth Forests: Prospects for Rediscovery and Recovery (Island Press, 1996). PO Box 131, Georgetown, KY 40324; www.old-growth.org.
Redefining Progress - What’s your ecological footprint? Also info, links, & projects on sustainability. Contact: 1904 Franklin St., 6th Fl., Oakland, CA 94612; 510-444-3041; www.redefiningprogress.org.
neRAGE - Northeast Resistance Against Genetic Engineering. Vermont-based activist group fighting GE through education and actions. Contact: 1118 Mapple Hill Rd., Plainfield, VT 05667; 802-454-7138; www.neRAGE.org.
The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods National group, excellent information/links, comprehensive e-mailings. Contact: PO Box 55699, Seattle, WA 98155; 425-771-4049; www.thecampaign.org.
True Food Now - Greenpeace project - supermarket campaign, comprehensive listing of GE/non-GE foods at www.truefoodnow.org, compiled primarily from direct communication with food producers; phone: 1-800-326-0959.
The Northern Forest Forum - If you want to know what’s happening in the northern forest region (ME, NH, VT, NY) this is the publication to get. Contributors include folks who have been on the front lines of the forest movement in the northeast for years. Quarterly, tabloid format. $15/yr. Contact: Northern Forest Forum, POB 6, Lancaster, NH 03584.
White Mountain National Forest Quarterly - Published by the Forest Service. Provides complete schedule of proposed actions. If you want to know what’s going on in the Whites so you can make your voice heard, get on the mailing list. Free. Contact: WMNF Supervisor’s Office, 719 Main St., Laconia, NH 03246; 603-528- 8769.
Wild Matters - Radical, eclectic, refreshingly honest, and always fun. Great monthly publication from Vermont. Published by Food & Water, edited by Michael Colby. $25/yr. Contact: PO Box 543, Montpelier, VT 05601; 802-229-6222; www.wildmatters.org.
The Heron Dance - Beautiful and colorful quarterly magazine. Subtitled: “Wild Nature Watercolors and General Unadulterated Thought”. Interviews, poems, inspirational quotes and passages. An unusual publication perfect for that quiet moment when you want to relax and contemplate nature — human and otherwise. $15/yr. Contact: 52 Seymour St., Middlebury, VT 05753; 888-304-3766; www.herondance.org.
The Return of the Light: Twelve tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice, Carolyn McVickar Edwards, Marlowe & Co., 2000 - For thousands of years people on every continent honored the Winter Solstice. In fact, the universality of the celebration made it the perfect choice for Christmas. Here are stories from many traditions to savor and to read aloud, myths explaining the darkness and heralding “the return of the light”. Includes Norse and Inuit stories and stories from India, Uganda, Italy, and more.
Kindred Spirits by Jesse Wolf Hardin, Swan•Raven & Co., 2001 - The most recent book by Gaian Voice contributor. Gorgeous, soft- cover, coffee-table format illustrated with Wolf’s amazing drawings. Moving and inspired essays and stories explore the wonders of the Earth. Examples: “Condor at the Western Gate”, “The Howl”, “Pan & the Green Man”, “The Burden Basket”, “Salmon”. A wonderful gift for any Earth lover. Available from the author (see “Contributors” address), $20.00 plus postage.
From Volume 1, No. 3, Fall 2003
The Lost Language of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2002)
The kinds of healing that have been generated out of a universe- as-machine model are showing the same negative and long-lasting environmental impacts that are being found with other reductionist technologies. . . . Modern scientists and medical practitioners . . . have initiated catastrophic changes throughout the living, holistic, life-form that is our planet. . . . Continuing scientific efforts to create substances that bacteria cannot develop resistance to are, perhaps, the most dangerous actions now occurring on Earth. . . . Just because medicine is intended to alleviate human suffering does not mean we are exempt from the environmental consequences of using it. . . . We need to explore the development of a system of healing that is based on the capacity of human beings to have empathy for all living things. . ..
- Stephen Harrod Buhner
As a lover and student of herbs, I was immediately drawn to this book, subtitled: The Ecological Importance of Plant Medicines to Life on Earth. And I was hooked by the very first sentence, “I was eight the first time I tasted wild water.” Immediately I was a child, hiking with my father. I have memories of many hikes and all of them involved water. Lucy Brook, the Swift River, small rivulets in spring. And I remember leaning over a clear pool, cupping my hands and drinking the cool, clear water. I remember the smell of the soil, the water like liquid crystal, how it enhanced the colors of the rocks. And, yes, I remember the sweet, musty taste.
So I bought the book and cried my way through the first chapter; Buhner’s memories awakening my own. A kindred spirit had written this book. Like me, he mourns for the wildness we have lost -- and are losing. In the second chapter, “Two Wounds”, Buhner explores what he calls “the exterior and interior wounds that come from no longer sharing soul essence with the world around us”. The exterior wound is what we see: rainforest destruction, clearcutting and the loss of ancient trees, desecration of the water and air. Destruction, Buhner explains, that has been talked about so much it’s easy to forget that there is a feeling to it: “A feeling before words, before thinking. A simple, deep response from somewhere inside us recognizing damage to the fabric of life.” The interior wound occurs “in the landscape of the human psyche and heart”, a result of the energy that goes into repressing the feelings the destruction of Gaia naturally engender in each of us.
But there is more to this book than eloquent mourning for a lost way of being. There are chapters on the devastating impacts on the environment of “technological medicine”, and chapters on the awesome powers of plants, not just as healers, but as living beings participating in the life of Earth, interacting with their environment. Buhner uses quotes and poems throughout, and also includes techniques for restoring our emotional connection to the Earth, what Edward O. Wilson calls “biophilia”. This is a book that engages both mind and heart, and touches the soul.
Spirit of Place - Sig Lonegren can be contacted through his web site: www.geomancy.org
The Chalice Well: www.chalicewell.org.uk
Earth Light: The Magazine of Spiritual Ecology - Quarterly magazine that “celebrates the sacred living Earth and the awe-inspiring 13-billion-year unfolding story of the Universe.” Excellent Gaian publication. Recent contributors have included Vandana Shiva, Starhawk, Jesse Wolf Hardin, Tom Atlee, and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Covers “hard” topics like politics and economics from an Earth-based, deep-ecology perspective. $24/year; 111 Faimount Ave., Oakland, CA 94611; www.earthlight.org.
Mother Jones - Not exactly an unknown magazine, Mother Jones is definitely worth reading for in-depth reports on important issues. Especially check out the Sept/Oct 200 issue for excellent coverage of Bush’s undoing of 30 years of environmental work. Generally available on the newstand, but if not: 731 Market St., Ste. 600, San Francisco, CA 94103; www.motherjones.com.
Institute of Noetic Sciences - Organization that integrates science, consciousness, and spirit. Noetic comes from the Greek word nous, which means intuitive mind or ways of knowing. Leading edge research and excellent quarterly publication, Shift. I’ve been a member for over 20 years and can’t imagine letting my membership lapse. Shift is a gorgeous, well-researched, accessible quarterly publication. Membership: $35/year. Contact IONS at: 101 San Antonio Rd., Petaluma, CA 94952; www.noetic.org.
From Volume 2, No. 1 & 2, 2004
The Burning Times by Jeanne Kalogridis; Published by Scribner Paperback Fiction, Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2002
The Burning Times takes place in 1357 in medieval France during the Inquisition, a period of history that I take personally. There’s something deep within me that remembers and painful though it is, I want those memories for they tell me something about myself and what those of us who love the Earth are up against, even today.
The heroine is Sybille, a young woman with the gift of Touch and Sight raised on the surface to be a pious Christian and in secret initiated into the ways of the Goddess by her paternal grandmother, Noni. It is night as the tale begins and Sybille, known at this time in her life as Mother Marie Francoise, the much-loved abbess of the Sisters of Saint Francis of the Queen of Heaven, is galloping on the road to Carcassonne, pursued by officials of the Inquisition. Her intention is not to escape but to allow herself to be captured for that is her Fate and the Goddess’s will. We learn Sybille’s story as she “confesses” to the scribe, Brother Michel.
Sybille was born in 1335, in the middle of a raging summer storm. She emerged from the womb with a caul over her face, a sign that she was blessed by the Goddess. Her parents, as well as her grandmother, are members of what Noni calls the Race, people gifted with one or more of the three Talents: Sight, Touch, Dreaming. Many of those accused of heresy and burned at the stake were members of the Race which the Inquisition threatens with extinction. Noni is a very powerful healer and seer and knows that the continued existence of the Race will one day be in her granddaughter’s hands. Sybille’s father is a member of the Circle that meets every full moon in the olive grove, sacred during the day to Mary, mother of Christ, and in the evenings to the Goddess whom they call Diana. Sybille’s mother, on the other hand, is afraid of her heritage and has embraced the rigid Christian doctrines making her a danger to her daughter and mother-in-law.
These were times when villagers, young and old alike, gathered together in the town square to picnic and play while “heretics” were burned at the stake. Times when the dreaded plague and the Hundred Year’s War ravaged cities and countryside alike, leaving the stench of death — and fear — in their wake. Times when anything unexplained was attributed to witches in league with the Devil. As Sybille’s story unfolds, the reader is transported effortlessly to this painful period in our not-so-distant past that saw so many good women and men brutally tortured and killed. More than once I felt myself in another time with tears running down my cheeks. So skilled is Kalogridis at recreating the horrors of the Inquisition that I was tempted to put the book down. But the story is so compelling I could not. Don’t you either — for the tale is rich with magic and mystery, love and destiny. Your hope will be restored as Sybille discovers and masters her special gifts, aided first by Noni and later by others, and ultimately accepts her Fate, to be burned at the stake as a witch, in order to save her Beloved, Lord to her Lady, with whom she is destined to make the sacred marriage to ensure that the ways of the Goddess are not lost forever.
The story of Sybille is fiction, but I believe some version has occurred over and over through the ages, including our own. Like Sybille, we are called to face our deepest fears. And today the stakes are very high indeed, for the Earth is threatened and it requires the purest love untainted by fear (or any negative emotion) to save Her.
The Hundredth Woman by Kate Green, iUniverse, Inc., 2003
Last fall I was asked to interview author Kate Green about her first book, The Hundredth Woman. I’ve conducted many interviews over the years but never one with a writer of fiction. Weaving women’s history from the witch hunting craze in Europe with the lives of three modern day women, Kate has created an action-packed adventure sure to entertain. But The Hundredth Woman is more than “just” fiction because the world she writes about is our world, the trials and tribulations of the characters are ours as well, and their process of awakening and growth can be ours, too. Kate asks, “What if women hold the key to our future?” By the end of the book, it’s clear that we do.
Without giving too much away, can you describe the book’s main characters?
KG: Clarissa is a Cherokee environmental activist and single mother in the city facing racial difficulties as well as being bombarded with wisdom from her grandmother. Serena is a cranky, eccentric, brilliant older woman who lives in a shack although she’s a multimillionaire. Morgan, the most stable figure in the book, is in private practice as a therapist. Her life is good but it doesn’t feel right because she wants to be absolutely involved in her life purpose and she knows she hasn’t found it.
All the characters seem to be looking for something that will help them become more whole.
KG: True. Serena has the burning need to find the daughter she abandoned at birth. Clarissa has to stop the nuclear waste dump from destroying her town. All three have an aching need to do something but none of them believes they have what it takes to do it.
How did the book come to you?
KG: Brigid, who’s a characther from the past, enters the story after the book is well underway through a dream Morgan has. That dream about Brigid and the experience Morgan had of Brigid’s life was my first experience with the book. And it was very powerful.
Did you have that dream yourself?
KG: Yes. I immediately got up from the dream and started writing stream of consciousness. When I look back at that first draft of the dream it doesn’t even make sense. Yet when I showed it to a house guest who was here at the time her eyes were streaming with tears when she finished reading it.
There were times as I read the book that I felt as though you were channeling from some universal source and the dream was one of them.
KG: Years of listening to women in my practice as they speak about the deepest matters of their souls had a big role to play in that. I also believe there are truths that live inside us, running the show for good and for ill but when we bring them to consciousness they can no longer run us. The witch burnings in Europe, for example, weren’t really about witches, they were about gender. Eighty percent of the people killed, and some estimates run as high as 800,000, were women. There were villages where every female was killed. I have yet to meet a woman who couldn’t trace some of her fears or blocks back to the burning times. That’s why it was so important to give women’s history air time in the book, so women could breathe into that horror, embrace the beauty and strength of those women, and move on.
In the book there is a sense of urgency.
KG: We’re not going to survive as a species without women getting a lot stronger a lot faster. That’s one of the major reasons I wrote the book. We need more women in places of power, and we need more women to come home to themselves. We each have a role.
The Hundredth Woman can be ordered directly from the author at www.hundredthwoman.com or from Amazon.com
Talking Leaves: A Journal of our Evolving Ecological Culture Published by the Lost Valley Educational Center in Dexter, Oregon, Talking Leaves brings together practical information, personal stories, local and global perspectives, insight, and inspiration. The theme for the latest issue (Fall/Winter 2003/2004) is “Voices of the Earth: People in Harmony” and contains interviews with Pete Seeger and Mickey Hart. Since Lost Valley is both an intentional community and an educational center, you’ll also find articles related to building community, ecological issues and politics, book and CD reviews, and more. Contact: Lost Valley Educational Center, 81868 Lost Valley Lane, Dexter, OR 97431; www.lostvalley.org.
BIONEERS is an educational nonprofit that strengthens and expands networks of practical visionaries working on behalf of people and the Earth. Projects include Bioneers Radio Series, Young Eco-Hero Award, and an annual conference. This year’s conference is called “Revolution from the Heart of Nature” and takes place October 14-17 in San Rafael, CA. For more info: 1-877-246-6337 (toll free); www.bioneers.org.
Healing the War Between the Genders: the Power of the Soul-Centered Relationship by Linda Marks is a beautifully written and wonderfully practical book that will help anyone gain a greater understanding of themselves and those they love. Healing includes personal stories from Linda’s practice, as well as exercises you can do alone and with your partner. Highly recommended for all human beings! To order send check (made out to) Linda Marks, 3 Central Avenue, Newton, MA 02460. For more info: www.heartpowerpress.com. Cost: $20.00 plus shipping: $3.00/media mail, $5.00/priority.
From Volume 2, No. 3, 2004
Coming Back to Life, Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World by Joanna Macy & Molly Young Brown, New Society Publishers, 1998, $16.95 paper
Coming Back to Life is an excellent tool for healing the often paralyzing inertia and despair that is the natural response to the overwhelming issues we face. This book represents the continuation of Macy’s Despair and Empowerment work that grew from her belief that the destruction of Gaia is the deepest source of anxiety at this moment in time. In the Preface, Macy describes Coming Back to Life as a “guidebook” that “maps ways into the vitality and determination we each possess to take part in the healing of our world”.
The authors describe the present moment in time as the Great Turning – the essential transition from the Industrial Growth Society to a Life-Sustaining Society. The shift has already begun in three basic areas: “holding actions” in defense of life on Earth; increased understanding of the dynamics of the Industrial Growth Society; and a shift in perceptions of reality on all levels. However, as the authors point out, the greatest danger we face may not be the ecological crisis, but apathy, “the deadening of mind and heart”.
From this point on every aspect of pain, fear, despair, guilt . . . are dealt with head-on and with great compassion. Because regardless of the how much we may suffer, in order to heal we must face and move through them all. Coming Back to Life includes exercises for individuals and groups as well as meditations, all designed to open our hearts and reconnect with Gaia and each other for our mutual healing.
The Great Work, Our Way Into the Future by Thomas Berry, Bell Tower, 1999, $23.00 hardcover
Thomas Berry is without a doubt one of the great men of our times and I am honored to know him. A priest, cultural historian, founder of the History of Religions Program at Fordham University and the Riverdale Center of Religious Research, Berry’s work is both deep and accessible, grounded in science as well as the Great Mystery. In Chapter 1 Berry writes, “History is governed by those overarching movements that give shape and meaning to life by relating the human venture to the larger destinies of the universe. . . . The Great Work now . . . is to carry out the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner. . . . Such a transition has no historical parallel since the geobiological transition that took place 67 million years ago when the period of the dinosaurs was terminated and a new biological age began.” Because we are alive now, this is our work. With chapters titled, “The Wild and the Sacred”, “The Viable Human”, “Ecological Geography”, “The Corporation Story”, and “Re-inventing the Human”, The Great Work informs, awakens, and inspires. We have no choice but to accept the task before us and trust that “those powers that assign our role must in the same act bestow upon us the ability to fulfill this role. We must believe that we are cared for and guided by these same powers that bring us into being.” All of Berry’s books, especially The Dream of the Earth and The Universe Story (written with Brian Swimme), are highly recommended. The Great Work is a good place to start.
Gaia Eros, Reconnecting to the Magic and Spirit of Nature by Jesse Wolf Hardin, New Page Books, 2004, $14.99 paper
Gaian Voices contributor Jesse Wolf Hardin has done it again. I promise that this latest book of essays and beautiful line art will awaken and inspire your spirit. No one writes about Gaia and her deep, primal, sensual essence like Wolf. You will find no judgment, no ego, no self-consciousness here, just pure unadulterated love, passion and compassion for Gaia and all her creatures. Essays include “The Song of Gaia: The Living Earth as Source and Mentor”, “Coming to Our Senses”, “Intimate Relationship: With Self, Others, Earth, and Spirit”, “Gaia Eros: Sacred Sexuality, Sacred Earth”, “Lessons of the Furry Buddhas”, “Kitchen Rites: The Magic and Sacrament of Food”, “A Wizard’s Counsel”. You will also be treated to two interviews with Wolf, “Under the Juniper Tree” with Maya, an intern at the Earthen Spirituality Project, and “The Return Home” with Derrick Jensen. Described by Starhawk as “A must read for those who want to worship Nature not as an abstraction but in ways sensual, practical, and transformative”.
GaiaTribe, the Enchantment, ($15.00) a new CD from the Earthen Spirituality Project offers “Earth & Spirit rhythms and melodies, insights and invocations connecting us deeper to both the Living World and our own authentic, enlivened selves.” Featuring Loba and Jesse Wolf Hardin, Jenny Bird and Joanne Rand, the Stone Biscuit Band, poet Barbara Mor. Flutes, drums, rivers and birdsong, Wolf’s lyrical spoken voice, guitar . . . a rich and moving experience. To order the CD or Gaia Eros contact ESP: www.animacenter.org.
Blue Gold, The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Marlow & Tony Clark, The New Press, 2002
Water Follies, Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters by Robert Glennon, Island Press, 2002
“The Water Thieves” by John Luoma, The Ecologist, March 2004
Yes! Magazine’s Winter 2004 (Whose Water?) Contains many excellent articles and an extensive resource list of organizations working at various levels on water and watershed issues.
“Bottled-water biz all wet, say critics” by Joan Lowy, Scripps Howard News Service, March 26, 2002
From Volume 2, No. 4 2004
Turning to One Another by Margaret J. Wheatley, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2002.
Subtitled “Simple conversations to restore hope to the future”, this is a practical and inspiring book designed to encourage “simple, honest, human conversation . . . where we each have a chance to speak, we each feel heard, and we each listen well”. Don’t be put off by how basic that sounds. Once you start reading, you’ll realize how crazy and complicated simple conversing has become these days. “Once a simple process becomes a technique,” Wheately writes, “it can only grow more complex and difficult. It never becomes simpler. It becomes the specialized knowledge of a few experts, and everyone else becomes dependent on them. We forget that we ever knew how to do things like conversation, planning, or thinking. Instead, we become meek students of difficult methods”. Full of profound yet -- you guessed it -- simple insights, resources, and beauty.
Toward Freedom - News you won’t find anywhere else! Nominated this year for an Utne Independent Press Award for general excellence. In publication for 52 years, prints under-reported news from around the world. PO Box 468, Burlington, VT 05402; www.towardfreedom.com
The Judevine Mountain Emailite - “A Cyberzine journal of politics and opinion” put out by Vermont poet David Budbill. Definitely worth checking out. Current issue in memory of David Dellinger. (www.davidbudbill.com)
Reclaim Democracy.Org - Works to restore democratic authority over corporations and revive grassroots democracy. Good links page. (www.reclaimdemocracy.org)
Small Planet Institute - Founded by Frances Moore Lappe´ and Anna Lappe´ “to bring to light the emergence of living democracy, a rewarding, inclusive, learned practice that creates communities that work for all.” Resources include books, articles, workshops, and events. Great website. (www.smallplanetinstitute.org)
POCLAD - Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy) - Founded in 1994 by Richard Grossman and other activists, educators, writers, etc. to research and educate on issues related to corporate power and control of our lives. Offers publications, workshops, including the Democracy School, and the Campaign to Abolish Corporate Personhood. (www.poclad.org)
Democracy Now! - National, daily, independent, and award-winning news programs airing on over 225 stations (radio, satellite, etc.) in North America. Transcripts of shows available online. (www.democracynow.org)
LOCAL/Saco Valley Green Group - Working in the Saco Valley region of New Hampshire and Western Maine “to create a more ecologically and socially sustainable community and world”. Meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month at the Conway Public Library (downstairs) at 6:30. Recently published: “Green Guide” to the Saco Valley (on-line, too), sponsors a film series and discussions. For more info: PO Box 2183, North Conway, NH 03860; www.svgg.org.
Bioregional Info - Bioregional Congress: history, articles, links, next gathering: www.bioregionalcongress.org
All-Species Info - www.allspecies.org
From Volume 3, No. 1 & 2, 2005
Developing Ecological Consciousness by Christopher Uhl, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004
Christopher Uhl is a professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University. This book grew out of his desire to inspire his students to not only care about the environment in a personal way, but to feel empowered to make a difference despite the litany of environmental woes discussed in the classroom. Teachings, he knew, awaken the head. But it would take practices to awaken the heart. “We are”, he writes, “spirit beings -- with the capacity for love, forgiveness, compassion, grief, hope, wonder, intuition, despair, insight, joy, celebration -- searching for meaning in a universe imbued with mystery. . . . In the end, it is not new laws or more efficient solar cells that will play the leading role in solving humankind’s environmental and social problems; it is our awakened and caring hearts.”
The book is divided into three parts: “Earth, Our Home”, “Assessing the Health of Earth”, and “Healing Ourselves, Healing Earth”. Taking his cue from people like Thomas Berry, Ernest Callenbach, Joanna Macy, Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan, Matthew Fox, David Suzuki, and others, Uhl does an excellent job of integrating information and inspiration. Each section also includes questions for reflection and specific practices designed to help the reader see the world with new eyes. Highly recommended.
“Creating a sustainable society hinges on whether people who have met their material needs can now craft a simpler, more satisfying new way of life. Healing and wisdom will ultimately come through the reforging of connections -- namely, our connections to our bodies, the natural world, and our home places. Sustainability is, ultimately, about loving -- loving the Earth and loving life. So, that’s it: We are all here on Earth to learn to be good lovers! May we awaken!” - Christopher Uhl
The Earth Path by Starhawk, HarperSanFrancisco, 2004
Starhawk has done it again! In the tradition of her classic, The Spiral Dance, this latest book, subtitled “Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature” weaves the threads of spirituality, activism, love of Earth, ritual, and personal stories into a whole that is full and satisfying.
The book begins with the telling of the fire protection ritual Starhawk and her neighbors in the coastal mountains of northern California created a few years ago because “the land told us to do so”. They’ve also created a rain return ritual for the same reason. Heeding the voices of our places and creatively responding to its needs is one of the most powerful acts we can undertake. The Earth, Gaia, thirsts for this -- and so do we: “[L]listening to the Earth, doing the rituals the land asks us for, giving back what we are asked for, will also bring us healing, expanded awareness, and intensified life.”
One of the most interesting -- and shortest -- chapters of the book is “Creation: What Every Pagan Should Know About Evolution”. After a brief overview of conventional views of evolution -- literal Biblical interpretation on the one hand and “social Darwinism” or “survival of the fittest” on the other hand -- she introduces the idea of what might be called “Gaian evolution”, which she describes as a “shift in focus from the individual to the ecosystem, the whole.” “Evolution,” she explains, “becomes the story of how the planet herself comes alive.” And then she takes it a step further, imbuing Earth with consciousness: “a vast ocean of awareness in which we swim, always communicating, always present.”
Subsequent chapters focus on “Observation” (including several exercises to awaken our “subtle senses” and help us be fully present and aware) and “The Circle of Life” (“In the Goddess tradition, all ritual takes place within a magic circle. . . . The circle is the pattern of the whole, the schematic diagram that lets us know if something is complete.”). Next comes “a journey through the elements of life”: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and The Center, “the point where the elements connect and transform, where that ethereal fifth sacred thing we call ‘spirit’ arises.”
“Magical consciousness,” Starhawk explains, “is pattern-thinking, thinking that can comprehend not just separate parts, but wholes in relation to other wholes.” The Earth Path reveals a thoughtful, courageous woman who is growing in wisdom and compassion -- for herself and the rest of us, in all our imperfections. You don’t have to be Pagan to appreciate Starhawk’s latest book. Highly recommended!
From Volume 3, No. 3 & 4, 2005
PaGaian Cosmology by Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D., iUniverse, 2005
PaGaian Cosmology, subtitled Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, is a wonderful new book. PaGaian, Livingstone explains, “expresses a reclaiming of the term ‘Pagan’ as meaning a person who dwells in the ‘country’, yet with ‘Gaian’ spliced in, it expresses a renewed and contemporary understanding of that ‘country’”. What I love about this book is exactly that -- the integration of Gaia and cosmology into Earth-based spirituality, which I feel is lacking in many more traditional Pagan/Goddess approaches. The elements are there, of course, and the connection to the Earth, but that sense of expansion, of deep belonging, and the magnificence of the New Story (to quote Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, both of whom have greatly influenced Livingstone) which brings in the Universe and the Cosmos is often missing. As Livingstone expresses in the Introduction, “Plants grow better with a depth of soil. So it is with humans: a perception of the organic depth of being, inclusive of Origins of the Universe, enables a being to flourish.”
The research and experiences that inform this book took place over a period of years and involved the author as well as a core group of women who helped create and participate in rituals which, Livingstone suggests, “may be the human conscious response to the announcements of the Universe -- an act of conscious participation . . . a human-size replication of the Drama, the Dynamic we find ourselves in.”
The first three chapters lay some groundwork, helping the reader to understand and connect with Gaia, Gaia Theory, Cosmogenesis (the unfolding of the Universe which is ongoing and in which everything/everyone participates), Goddess religion and “Re-Storying Goddess”. Chapter Four, “Cosmogenesis and the Female Metaphor” is a pivotal chapter in which Livingstone translates the more scientific language of cosmogenesis into a poetic and metaphorical Goddess-inspired story. I remember years ago being so enthralled with the way Thomas Berry expressed himself in The Dream of the Earth that I read it out loud just to hear the words. Then it struck me that not everyone would necessarily get what he was saying. What to me read like poetry would perhaps need to be translated into a more metaphorical language to reach more people. A great job, indeed!
The rest of the book is devoted to ritual, starting with the “PaGaian Wheel of the Year” (Livingstone uses southern hemisphere dates so Samhain, for instance, is April 30) and moving into “celebrating the creative dynamic”. Livingstone has evolved the rituals and “scripts” over the years “as a means to embody this Wholly Creative Dynamic -- to get with Gaia’s ‘plot’ as I see it.” They can be used as is, adapted a bit, or seen as merely suggestive -- a guideline for your own creativity. I usually resist ritual scripts, but I like that Livingstone has integrated Gaian sensibilities, so they resonate.
The book concludes with nine appendices which include “Thomas Berry’s Twelve Principles of a Functional Cosmology”, “Teachings for Sabbat Rituals”, and a great Winter Solstice song, “PaGaian Joy to the World” sung to the tune of “Joy to the World” (“Joy to the World, the Light returns, Let All receive Her Love.”
PaGaian Cosmology is a deep, awesome book. There’s nothing quite like it, at least not that I’ve seen. It’s well-researched and footnoted as well as accessible, fun, and inspiring. I highly recommend it! Available through booksellers or from iUniverse: www.iuniverse.com; 1-800-288-4677.
The End of Fossil Energy and The Last Chance for Sustainability by John G. Howe, McIntire, 2005
I came across this book sitting on a counter in the deli where I work. As it happens, John Howe lives next to one of my coworkers and when I expressed interest she gave me a copy. The book is a great resource. Only 164 pages but chock full of energy information including a look at each oil producing country’s current state of affairs (past peak, before peak, production amounts, etc.), an extensive list and review of the newest books on peak oil and the energy crisis, alternative energy sources and their limitations, peak oil and energy focused web sites. (I had no idea there were so many!)
The heart of the book is Howe’s “model for an energy-sustainable future” -- and how to get there from here. “The higher we are on the Hubbert’s Peak of energy consumption,” he explains, “the farther we have to descend.” The United States has a long descent. He begins by listing petroleum alternatives -- hydroelectric, solar, wind, bioenergy, tidal/geothermal, muscle power, and nuclear -- which he admits is problematic and not as sustainable as proponents would have us believe; he doesn’t phase it out, but he doesn’t add more either. There isn’t space here to outline his whole plan but some pieces include: decentralizing energy so that eventually all homes power themselves (no central grid to connect to) starting with new homes and over time retrofitting existing homes; drastically downscaling travel and movement of goods; solar powered vehicles; electric rail and so on.
How realistic Howe’s plan? It’s hard to say. If we started implementation immediately, the transition from a petroleum-based culture to a sustainable culture seems possible. But, as Howe states, “Twenty more years of our unchecked, gross energy consumption will preclude any quality of life for our children.” And we may not have tthat long.
Order from Howe Engineering Company, 298 McIntire Road, Waterford, ME 04088 or through the publisher: www.mcintirepublishing.com.
From Volume 4, No. 3 & 4, 2006
The Secret Teachings of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner, Bear & Co., 2004
This is the book Stephen Harrod Buhner was working on when I interviewed him for the Summer 2004 issue (Vol. 2, No. 4). At that time he talked about biognosis, or understanding the plant’s point of view, seeing the world from the perspective of the plant. Well, that’s what this book is about -- reawakening our innate, human ability to communicate directly with plants.
Generally it’s believed that knowledge of the healing plants grew over time thanks to trial and error and a certain amount of luck, with each generation teaching the next and so on. And this happened, for sure. But it’s not the whole story. What if our ancient ancestors got their plant knowledge from the plants themselves? What if, instead of seeing if something worked, or carefully tasting a small portion to see what happened, healers opened their minds and hearts and spirits to the plant and then knew, for example, if a plant would cure a headache or prevent infection or dispel sadness or kill parasites? A caveat: I don’t want to misinterpret what Stephen does in this book. Yes, plants can be our allies. They nourish, heal, soothe, and cheer us. But this book isn’t about making herbal prescriptions. It’s about communication and partnership and wholeness. The plant, after all, exists in its own right, has its own world view, quite apart from humans. When you approach a plant with love and curiosity and a genuine desire to know the plant for itself, it changes the relationship. Instead of “resource” the plant is a being with its own wisdom and meaning and purpose.
I’ve often said that the best plants for healing are those that grow where we live. Not that I shouldn’t use herbs from Colorado, just that those growing here in the White Mountains are more attuned to my body. Learning about local healing plants is a skill I guarantee will become increasingly valued as the years pass and society as we know it responds to the changing climate and economy. And plants change. Is the echinacea in my garden exactly the same as echinacea in the west or as the echinacea that grew fifty years ago? Probably not. Like everything else, plants evolve and change. Knowing plants intimately will enable us to pick up subtle but important differences from place to place, from decade to decade.
This is a deep book and it approaches its subject from many levels. There’s plenty of hard science, especially in Part One, “Of Nature and the Heart”, which should satisfy a reader’s need for logic or proof that direct communication is possible and real. There are also stories, poems, and exercises. And there’s a section on “depth diagnosis” and healing. You can read this book from cover to cover but I see its value more as a companion. If you love plants and want to deepen your relationship with them, and ultimately with the Earth, this book won’t spend much time on the shelf.
The Great Turning by David C. Korten, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006
The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by the author of When Corporations Ruled the World is an important book. Korten uses the ideas and sensibilities of Thomas Berry, Riane Eisler, and Joanna Macy (to whom, among others, the book is dedicated) as the foundation for discussions on where we are, how we got here, where we need to be going, and how we can get there. The ideas in this book are not new to me but they will be to many. What I like about the book is that Korten paints a relatively complete picture of our situation and grounds everything in the Earth. We have a choice, Korten explains, to continue living the story of Empire or to turn to the emerging story of Earth Community. Obviously Empire isn’t working, not for most people and certainly not for the Earth. Yet the vision of Earth Community can seem like a pipe dream.
Part 1, “Choosing Our Future”, contains the obligatory litany of what’s wrong. Korten also incorporates the work of values researcher Paul Ray and author Sherry Anderson, who estimate that about 26 percent of adult Americans can be categorized as cultural creatives, people who see “the possibility of creating inclusive, life-affirming societies”. I’m not sure whether I should be pleased or depressed about the percentage but it’s a start and it doesn’t reflect the fact that in other countries, particularly in the South, there seems to be a greater awareness of and resistance to Empire. Korten’s book, however, focuses on the United States.
Part II, “Sorrows of Empire” traces human history from the hunter-gatherer lifestyles, through the Goddess civilizations, the ancient empires of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, to the modern empires of western Europe and North America. It’s quite a romp, and Korten does a great job of synthesizing. By the time you’ve worked your way through Part III, “America, the Unfinished Project” you’ll have a clear sense, not only of where we went wrong, but why it’s so hard for people in this country wake up and act. “The imperial stories of the New Right,” Korten explains, “are contemporary versions of narratives that can be traced back to the empires of ancient times. . . . As these stories become embedded in the culture, they diminish our collective sense of human possibility, undermine our commitment to public-interest politics, and limit political debate . . . . Stories are the key. To redirect the course of humanity, change the stories by which we live.”
And so that’s what the rest of the book is about – changing the stories from empire to Earth Community. Again, the ideas aren’t new. From the early 1980s writers and activists, myself included, have put forth visions of a life-affirming, vibrant future and outlined strategies to get there, many of which are in The Great Turning as well; particularly the idea of “living economies”. But Korten does an excellent job of reaffirming and updating. Moreover, while the optimism of books written twenty or more years ago may seem a bit unrealistic in light of current events, Korten insists that “peace and justice for all and a sustainable relationship to the planet are within our reach”.
From Volume 5, No. 1 & 2, 2007
Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community by Thomas Berry, edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker, Sierra Club Books, 2006
This is wonderful collection of essays by Thomas Berry. As the Editor’s Preface recounts, Thomas “has lived through nine decades of the twentieth century and witnessed the explosion of technology from the first automobile and airplane to the spread of radio, television, and computers.” The first series of essays, which includes (among others) “Our Way into the Future: A Communion of Subjects”, “The Place of the Human”, and “Earth as Sacred Community”, looks at the ecological and spiritual crisis we face. “The Nation-State in the Twenty-first Century”, “The Petrochemical Age”, “Global Warming” and “Legal Conditions for Earth Survival” focus on specific challenges we must deal with immediately. And the last three essays, “The Epic of Evolution”, “Catching the Power of the Wind” (not about wind power!), and “Evening Thoughts” put everything in a larger, Gaian, perspective. I also love the Appendices – “Twelve Principles for Understanding the Universe” and “Ten Principles for Jurisprudence Revision”. I especially love this: “Human rights do not cancel out the rights of other modes of being to exist in their natural state. Human property rights are not absolute.”
Thomas’s writing is a unique blend of hard facts and science, an impeccable and insightful understanding of history and cultures, including religions, and an all-encompassing spirituality that includes “all modes of being” from the tiniest bacteria on Earth to the most far-reaching stars and planets in the cosmos. Throughout it all his compassion for and love of Earth and humans, despite our destructive behaviors, shines through. Ever hopeful, ever brilliant, Thomas Berry is one of the great thinkers of our time. I am honored to know him and am grateful for and blessed by his support over the years of my books and this newsletter. Whether you are a fan already or new to his work, I highly recommend Evening Thoughts. It will become a treasured part of your library.
EarthLight: Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age edited by Cindy Spring and Anthony Manousos, Friends Bulletin, 2007
Gaian Voices readers may remember the magazine EarthLight which ceased publication a couple of years ago. This new book is an anthology of the best of EarthLight. The book’s essays, interviews, poems, photos, graphics, and quotes are organized into seven main sections, which are also Earth Light Principles: Conscious Evolution, Sacred Relationship, Collective Wisdom, Mutual Learning, Conscious Choice, Inclusivity, and Celebration. Included among the more than 50 contributors are: K. Lauren de Boer (editor of EarthLight), Joanna Macy, Thomas Berry, Pattiann Rogers, John Seed, Brenda Peterson, J. Ruth Gendler, Terry Tempest Williams, Brian Swimme, Gary Snyder, Freeman House, and Jesse Wolf Hardin (graphics), among many others. Another inspirational and highly recommended book. Available from EarthLight, 111 Fairmont Ave., Oakland, CA 94611, www.earthlight.org. Books cost $20.00 each.
The Wisdom of Small Farms and Local Food: Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic and Sustainable Agriculture by John E. Carroll, University of New Hampshire, 2005
John Carroll, Ph.D., is a Professor of Environmental Conservation at UNH where he teaches and does research on ecological ethics and values, land ethics and agrarian values, and applied environmental philosophy. He is the author of several books including Sustainability and Spirituality (State University of New York Press, 2004). This book integrates all of Carroll’s passions while focusing on the importance of local food, produced in an ecologically sustainable manner, for local people. Taking inspiration from Aldo Leopold, as the title suggests, and Carroll’s many years of research into the subject, this book details the advantages of sustainable agriculture over industrial agriculture. The book contains four chapters focused on agriculture in states with land grant universities (Wisconsin, Iowa, Maine, and Vermont). While not for everyone, this book will be welcomed by those interested in small-scale agriculture, local food, and sustainability. It contains many examples of what works in the four profiled states, plenty of factual information, and a healthy dose of philosophy (and beautiful graphics!). Available from the author at UNH, Dept. of Natural Resources, Durham, NH 03824, $15.00 plus $5.00 postage.
Jan Novotka - Music for the Planet and Soul.
Jan Novotka has released four CDs of Eco-Spiritual music: Melodies of the Universe (songs and chants), In the Name of All That Is, Together in the Great Work, and Ever Ancient, Ever New. Her sound ranges from chants and rounds to folksy tunes. Jan, who sings vocals and plays the guitar, is accompanied by other voices and, depending on the cut, piano, keyboard, drums, celtic harp, bass, etc. I especially enjoyed Together in the Great Work, which seems to have been inspired by the work of Thomas Berry. If you and your family enjoy listening to inspirational, sacred music, if you love to sing along, check out Jan’s CDs. Jan also offers concerts and workshops. Contact info: www.JanNovotka.com; or write to 421 17th Avenue, Scranton, PA 18504.
Climate Crisis Coalition
The Climate Crisis Coalition (CCC) was founded three years ago by Ross Gelbspan (author of Boiling Point), Connie Hogarth, Ted Glick, and Father Paul Mayer. While there’s lots of information on climate change available on the web, and plenty of organizations working on the issue, my personal favorite is the CCC for the quality and quantity, of information, and the potential effectiveness of its projects. Go to their website and request their daily or weekly bulletins. I get the weekly one because it’s about all I can handle. It contains the links to the week’s most important articles, activities, and news, both good and bad (though it’s mostly bad, unfortunately).
I’m especially intrigued by a new project in the works, Earth Circles, described as small groups meeting to help people come to grips with the depressing realities of climate change, gain a sense of empowerment, and identify specific possibilities for action. I will be talking to the project’s coordinator in the next few days to learn some specifics and to find out how to bring an Earth Circle to my home place. I was pleased to read about the idea because it’s something I’ve been feeling a need for but didn’t know quite where to start. Contact info: www.climatecrisiscoalition.org; PO Box 125, So. Lee, MA 01260; 413-243-5665.
From Volume 6, No. 1 & 2, 2008
Note: While the events described below have come and gone, the organizations continue to offer events and retreats. So contact them for their most recent happenings.
Sage Mountain – PO Box 420, E. Barre, VT 05649; 802-479-9825; www.sagemountain.com. Herbalist Rosemary Gladstar opened the Sage Mountain Retreat Center in 1987, each year offering classes and workshops to the general public and hosting larger events. The most recent newsletter announced that 2008 will be the last year of classes. (Though the larger events and herbal gatherings, along with Rosemary’s home study course, the Science and Art of Herbalism, will still be offered.) Sage Mountain is a beautiful place with gardens, some with magical stone castles for the “little people”, trails, and acres and acres of wilderness. Major events this year: The 21st Annual New England Women’s Herbal Conference: Honoring the Wisdom of Our Ancestors, August 22-24, and Sacred Teachings of the Plants: Exploring the Heart of Green Medicine, September 19-21. Early registration is recommended for both events. Sage Mountain welcomes visitors on weekends, call first.
World Fellowship Center (WFC) – PO Box 2280, Conway, NH 03818; 603-447-2280; www.worldfellowship.org. From its beautiful and private location in the White Mountains, WFC offers workshops and educational programs that promote peace, social justice, respect for diversity, and global understanding. Founded in 1941 as a “camp with a conscience” WFC especially welcomes families for in addition to scheduled events, their 455 acres has frontage on Whitten Pond, a mile-long, crystal clear pond perfect for swimming and canoeing. There are nature trails, a playground, basketball and volleyball courts, and a soccer field. Large organic gardens provide well for their wholesome, mostly vegetarian meals. This summer’s diverse lineup includes a 5-day Photography Workshop, a Mt. Chocorua Writing Retreat, a Clamshell Alliance Reunion, Soccer Week, and numerous 2-3 day events focusing on Latin America, Electoral Politics, Yoga, the Cooperative Movement, and Choral Singing. Check it out!
Nurture Through Nature (NTN) – Denmark, ME; 207-452-2929; ntnretreat@yahoo.com; www.ntnretreats.com. Founded in 1999 by Jen Deraspe, a Licensed Maine Guide, group facilitator, and university educator, NTN offers holistic canoe trips for women, mind-body-spirit retreats, wellness weekends, events and workshops, and “custom getaways”. Totally off-grid, NTN is located on 33 acres on the side of Pleasant Mountain in Maine with views of the White Mountains. Each building on the site has been crafted with love and attention and ultimate care for the Earth. Guests may camp or stay in a cozy, solar powered, wood heated cabin. Check out the website for current offerings.
Anima Center: The Wild Women’s Gathering, May 22-27 – Begun by Loba in 2000, this event focuses on the primitive experience – intensive rewilding of the self in relation with the land and each other. Learn basic skills with Loba and Kiva such as wild medicines, wild foods gathering, and fire-pit cooking. There will be ample time for discussion, dreaming, taking wilderness hikes, and mud baths next to the river. “Expect to get dirty, have fun, and get in touch with your wilder, awakened, and most original self.”
Anima Center: Woman Spirit Gathering, June 12-17 – Each Summer sisters of all ages are invited to a 6-day gathering in New Mexico’s enchanted Gila mountains. Come join us as we explore the depths of selfhood and sisterhood in a truly sacred place of power. Woman Spirit Gathering is a unique opportunity to delve into, express, and share with others the experience of woman-spirit in a wholly natural and fully wondrous place. Expect a cozy gathering in cabins and tents, with sharing and teaching circles where we learn new ways of nurturing ourselves as well as others. For women who give most of their attention all year long to taking care of a family, a business, or both – always putting everyone else first – this can be the perfect balance and medicine. Come prepared to indulge in scrumptious meals we’ll enjoy preparing together, and for a luxury of personal time spent walking through the woods and in front of a crackling fire with intriguing new friends. We’re looking forward to it already!
For more info on these events and others offered at the Anima Center: Box 688, Reserve, NM 87830; www.animacenter.org.
From Volume 6, No. 3 & 4, 2008
McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld by Misha Glenny, Knopf (USA), 2008
Reviewed by Sally Chappell
Armchair travel may have a renewed appeal these days with the increased cost of fuel. If you venture to tour the world with Misha Glenny in his new book, McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld, beware the effects of an emotional jet lag that may leave you exhausted. This is a book about the global reach of criminal corporations and their similarity to legal counterparts such as McDonald’s.
The tour starts in the Balkans and Eastern Europe when the break-up of the Soviet Union provided an opportunity to exploit the bewilderment of people who had had the economic rug pulled out from under them. From there the story deals with gold, diamonds, money and banks linking Russia and Israel, India and Dubai of the United Arab Emirates, and Brazil and Nigeria with a stopover in South Africa. Drugs and cybercrime are the occasions for visits to British Columbia, Brazil and Colombia. Finally we settle onto Asian soil with a look at Japan and the place described as being the future of organized crime: China.
As we in the developed world eagerly anticipate a “green economy”, Glenny convincingly warns about the obstacles facing governments today. He writes, “The trade in labor is huge, and because it is largely illegal, only criminal entrepreneurs can operate it. In recent years, there has been a steady downward pressure on the illegal global labor market and the wages itinerant laborers can command in many parts of the world. This is just the very beginning of a phenomenon that will grow ever more influential in the decades to come in all aspects of the global economy. This is China. The sea of cheap surplus labor that waits patiently in the Chinese countryside is seeping out into the wider world.”
The present financial meltdown, stunning in its scope, leaves us wondering, how can this be happening? Why can’t democratic governments bring corporations under control? Glenny may have given readers a preview of the current situation when he postulated the following:
“In the late 1980s, the West began to liberalize its financial markets. For some years, large corporations had argued with governments that they needed to move money around the world faster and in much greater quantities in order to take full advantage of its value as they expanded global operations. Their requests were greeted with skepticism until they found steadfast allies in the governments of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. By the late 1980s, the most powerful capitalist economies had lifted the bureaucratic barriers that blocked the free movement of capital between them. The sovereign control of money flowing in and out of individual countries, one of the keystones of the nation-state, was abandoned. Corporations may have retained a symbolic association with a particular country and a residual affection, but they now strove to be present and rooted wherever it was profitable to be so. Globalization had begun in earnest.
‘Among the global crime fraternity, champagne corks were popping. Western governments were vague about the implications of the liberalization, and they established only primitive mechanisms to regulate this massive surge in the movement of capital. The exponential growth of organized crime triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of dozens of transitional and failing states was given a further fillip and indeed became inextricably bound up with globalization–it was here in the huge reservoirs of the international banking system that the liquid assets of the corporate and criminal worlds mixed and mingled. Very quickly it became impossible to separate the two. While crime groups big and small took full advantage of the globalization of finance, they were not required to explain their actions before an antitrust commission, nor did they have to abide by the rules of the World Trade Organization and its predecessor.
Something was very new and very different in the world–money was being shifted about with an unimagined ease, and nobody was keeping track of it. Fraud and organized crime were in the vanguard of the brave new world of globalization. Technology and deregulation had changed the global financial markets beyond recognition.”
Misha Glenny paints a picture in words that reminds me of Picasso’s Guernica in its implications. I am thankful for the awareness this brings notwithstanding the distress I felt as his words sank in. For example, he describes whole villages in China employed in underground factories producing fake American cigarettes, mostly for the domestic Chinese market but some ending up in container ships bound for the USA and other countries. If China, a police state, cannot control these enterprises, then where can they be controlled? Can we trust labels? According to Glenny, some products labeled “Made in China” are actually produced in North Korea.
“Buy local” means more than shopping in our own communities. It means knowing the producer. It also means repressing (yes, repressing) our appetites for luxuries, time saving gadgets, fast food or fast anything. Misha Glenny has courageously written a book about the exploitation of human desperation, vice and fear. When we cultivate hope, virtue, and courage in ourselves and others, we find the antidote to the poisoning of the world.
Resources for a Gaian Economy
As I look over the various articles in this issue I realize there are no specific examples of the kinds of enterprises working to create a Gaian Economy. So I’ve decided to include a few resources that can help fill the gap and a short list of models that work. Typing any of these into a search engine will provide lots of examples and additional information. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions, ideas, or just want to chat about what’s going on. Here’s the list:
- Community currency
- Community-based revolving loan funds (CBRLF)
- Land trusts (conservation, housing, forest, agricultural, etc.)
- Local/regional credit unions
- Worker-owned businesses
- Co-ops of all sorts
- Community supported agriculture (CSA) along with local farms and dairies
- Incubators for small businesses and nonprofits
- Flexible manufacturing networks
Books
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben, Holt Paperbacks, 2007
Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute, 2008
Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy by Hazel Henderson, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2006 (and any of Hazel’s books)
Looking Forward: Participatory Economics for the Twenty First Century by Michael Albert & Robin Hahnel, South End Press, 1991
Putting Power in its Place: Create Community Control! by Judith Plant & Christopher Plant, New Society Publishers, 1992
Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher, Harper & Row, 1973
Chaos or Community? Seeking Solutions, Not Scapegoats for Bad Economics by Holly Sklar, South End Press, 1995
Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision by Kirkpatrick Sale, Sierra Club Books, 1985
For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future by Herman E. Daly & John B. Cobb, Jr., Beacon Press, 1989
The Great Work: Our Way Into the Future by Thomas Berry, Bell Tower, 1999
Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered (1988) & Invested in the Common Good (1995), both by Susan Meeker-Lowry, New Society Publishers
Organizations
E. F. Schumacher Society - One stop shop for info and implementation of local currencies, community land trusts, CSA. Offers publications, workshops, training seminars, and more. 140 Jug End Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230; www.smallisbeautiful.org
Ithaca Hours - Largest local currency model in US with over 900 members. Technical assistance, information, links. PO Box 6731, Ithaca, NY 14851; www.ithacahours.org
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies - Network of sustainable businesses committed to building local economies and transforming the community economic development field. 60 local networks across US and Canada. 165 11th St., San Francisco, CA 94103
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative - Since 1984, inspiring example of what neighborhoods can do when people care and are committed. Urban-based community development and planning organization with land trust. 540 Dudley St., Roxbury, MA 02119; www.dsni.org
Institute for Community Economics - Developed community land trust model in 1960s and continues to provide information, technical assistance, and financing. 57 School Street, Springfield, MA 01105; www.iceclt.org
Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD) - Works to “contest the authority of corporations to govern”. Workshops, trainings, seminars, publications. www.poclad.org
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) - Multifaceted organization. For this issue check out link on Corporations vs Democracy, Asserting the People’s Rights. www.wilpf.org
The Freecycle Network - Started in 2003 in Tucson, AZ, there are now over 4,500 groups across the globe. You post what you have to give or what you want. Local groups are moderated by local volunteers. I belong to the Bridgton, ME group. Find a group near you: www.freecycle.org.
From Volume 7, No. 1 & 2, 2009
Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World by Wendy Johnson, Bantam Books, 2008
Over thirty years ago, Wendy Johnson started gardening at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in San Francisco. The story she tells of planting corn in the introduction had me hooked immediately: “I was working by myself in the upper garden rapt with concentration” planting a 65 foot row of corn, marked by a string to keep the row straight. Working on her hands and knees, she’d dug a three-inch-deep furrow and dropped a corn kernel every two inches, leaving the furrow uncovered in case she ran out of seed. When she was finished, she stood up only to see that a “rotund Steller’s jay” had followed her progress, gobbling up the kernels as she went. “And,” she wrote “my life as a gardener cracked open and took root. What I realized that summer day was fundamental. Gardening is about awareness and relationship – consequential relationship. It’s also about taking a stand, and standing by your principles. At the same time, it’s about giving up control and learning from your mistakes. This hasn’t been an easy lesson for me.”
Indeed. Here was a woman who knew what gardening was about. Yes, it’s important to know about of the specifics of plants and their needs, of soil and compost, of friendly and not-so-friendly insects, and what to do when unwelcome fungi or diseases make themselves known. But above all, gardening is about relationship and it is most certainly about giving up control. And for me, too, this has not been an easy lesson. In fact, each year I learn a new and different version of it.
After a couple of years at Tassajara, Johnson moved to Green Gulch Farm in Marin County where she gardened for twenty-five years, “settling my life, practicing Zen, and deepening my understanding of the Earth under my fingernails.” Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate will teach you some of the specifics, with sections on soil, tending the garden, weeds, pests, and so on, though if you’re a beginning gardener you’ll probably want a more conventional gardening book. Plus Johnson’s experiences take place in California which is different than, say, where I garden in Fryeburg, ME.
To me, the real value of this book is its perspective and the consciousness with regard to the whole of the garden, which is more than the sum total of soil, worms, plants, sun, and water. The garden is the Earth in microcosm and gardening can change how you are in the world if you allow it. As a Buddhist, Johnson brings a unique perspective to the hard work of gardening and the wonder of the harvest. And even when explaining about basic biological processes such photosynthesis, Johnson manages to infuse a sense of spirit and wonder and the words read like poetry.
For long weeks after I had finished reading Gardening . . ., it sat in a readily accessible place in my home and almost every day I’d pick it up, let it open to where ever it wanted, and read. It didn’t matter what the subject happened to be or if I had already read it ten times. It was fresh and new and always offered new insights. If you’re a gardener, this book is a must. And if you’re not, and you read it anyway, chances are you’ll find yourself digging in the soil eager to participate with the green world around you.
I’m a Medicine Woman, Too! written & illustrated by Jesse Wolf Hardin, Sweet Medicine Publishing, 2008
I’m a Medicine Woman, Too! is a beautiful new children’s book inspired by the Hardins’ young daughter, Rhiannon, a child who loves plants and animals and the magical canyon that is her home. She dreams of becoming a Medicine Woman like Mama Kiva and Mama Loba and the other strong women who visit and teach at Anima and despairs of ever living up to these gifted women of power. As the story progresses, Rhiannon learns that not only is she special right now, just as she is, but being a Medicine Woman isn’t something you become, but who you are. In addition to telling a sweet story, the book is a wonderful opportunity to teach young children about common plants and herbs and the importance of being true to yourself. And Wolf, an amazing artist, outdid himself on the illustrations, which are drop-dead gorgeous. The drawings of herbs are true-to-life, so can be used for identification and a section in the back offers information on all herbs depicted within the book (as well as questions to inspire discussion). There are 35 full-color illustrations, several on pages without words that are suitable for framing, though I’d want to order two books if I was going to do this. Intended for ages 3 to 12, but perfect for adults who love sweet stories & beautiful illustrations. 40 pages. Cost: $15.00 - $30.00 sliding scale, plus $7.00 shipping. Order on line (www.animacenter.org) or by mail: Box 688, Reserve, NM 87830.
