Nature Spirituality

Spinoza is one of the most controversial and debated philosophers in the last few centuries. This video attempts to give a very general overview of his perspective on God as well as some ways that it can be interpreted.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/14826516

video _from youtube or invidious

Invidious link

In her recent collection of essays, Vesper Flights, English naturalist Helen MacDonald observes that awareness of the specific plants and animals in the natural world around you increasingly means “opening yourself to constant grief.” She is not alone in noticing the rising tide of grief that comes with awareness of climate change and its accompanying environmental devastation. The question of what to do with this climate grief is gaining momentum, because one of the increasingly salient features of our existence right now is the pain of watching the world burn. I am interested in the spiritual consequences of this grief and the possibility (and even necessity) of mourning as a spiritual practice in a largely secular context. MacDonald herself does not identify as religious, but she remarks that, when writing about environmental grief, she “kept trying to find the right words to describe certain experiences and failing.” Her “secular lexicon didn’t capture what they were like.”^1^ Spiritual discourse has the resources for touching this aspect of our present experience, and I argue that this discourse can and should be available, irrespective of whether one personally believes that spirituality and theology refer to metaphysical realities.

Drawing on the work of a small but growing number of scholars exploring the spiritual dimensions of climate change, I suggest that climate grief is a phenomenon with spiritual significance, and that mourning as a spiritual (but potentially secular) practice is a necessary step for honoring and dealing with “solastalgia.” Glenn Albrecht, an Australian of Sri Lankan and European descent, coined this neologism to capture the inchoate negative feelings that emerge as we observe the destruction of the world around us. A combination of solace, desolation, and nostalgia, solastalgia is “an intense desire for the place where one is a resident to be maintained in a state that continues to give comfort or solace,” as well as the “pain or distress” that results from watching that solace disappear and “the sense of desolation connected to the present state of one’s home and territory.” Albrecht’s neologism came in part from the consideration that, for many Indigenous people, the scientific terms “ecology” and “ecosystem” “fail to capture the emotional and cultural dimensions of the human relationship to land.” He wanted to avoid the neocolonization of reading bioscientific terms into Indigenous systems.^2^

I agree with Lisa Sideris and other scholars writing about human emotional responses to the continuing destruction of life on Earth: neither blind optimism nor paralytic despair is the appropriate reaction to the state of affairs that has led to solastalgia. Rather, it is time to mourn. Paradoxically, this mourning, which may at first glance seem to be a giving-up, is an essential step toward transformation.

A Buddhist teacher shares their thoughts on shitposting, internet trolls, and nonduality.

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The depth psychology of C. G. Jung provides a set of concepts for exploring the spiritual aspect of nature. According to this view, spiritual experiences occur when basic patterns or archetypes within the psyche are projected onto natural environments. Implications of this viewpoint for natural resource management and research are discussed.

Treesearch archive / Archive of article (PDF)

We have erected a monument to commemorate the funeral of a species. It symbolizes our sorrow. We grieve because no living man will see again the onrushing phalanx of victorious birds, sweeping a path for spring across the March skies, chasing the defeated winter from all the woods and prairies of Wisconsin.

Men still live who, in their youth, remember pigeons. Trees still live who, in their youth, were shaken by a living wind. But a decade hence only the oldest oaks will remember, and at long last only the hills will know.

The Placebo Magick Podcast explores imaginative self-care and spiritual practice for skeptics. Remember: Magick is a metaphor, and metaphor is magickal!

Matt Christman of Chapo Traphouse, Time for my Stories, and Cush Vlogs, talks to us about discovering spirituality within the Black Iron Prison of this world, art and politics, reclaiming what it means to be human, the courage to be authentic, how we are currently living in Gnostic times, religion for the 21st Century, transcendence, and so much more.

This is part of our ongoing bonus "Black Iron Prison" series where we speak to thinkers outside of the Gnostic world about Gnostic themes in their work and in art, society, and in the world.

The Grandmothers Wisdom Project is inspired by thirteen elder women known as the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. We are committed to supporting all people reclaiming their relationship to Mother Earth, calling for a profound transformation in the heart, mind, and spirit.

The Grandmothers Wisdom Project is an Earth-based community actively building a bridge to support the living legacy of ancient traditions that gives us deeper insight into the mystery of life and the importance of honoring the connection that exists among all beings, nature and the cosmos.

We are a collective of women devoted to the restoration and continuation of the feminine spirit regarding peace, justice, human rights, indigenous rights, environmental protection, and the health and welfare of children and the elderly, for today and the generations to come.

A tune for Samhain.

“Today, far from Druidry seeming like some arcane fringe activity, its preoccupations are now centre-stage. They address the most urgent and important issue of our time: how we galvanize all of our potential – practical, creative, intellectual, and spiritual – to protect and restore the Earth.

They address directly the gaze of Greta Thunberg and her generation – our children and grand-children – to say: we are committed to our love of Nature to the fullest extent, with all of our being – all looking towards the same horizon: a world in which every human being has enough to lead a happy, healthy and fulfilling life without suffering injustice, without terrible inequalities between rich and poor, without the destruction of habitats and species, without the pollution of our skies and seas.” Philip Carr-Gomm

Druidry appeals in particular to people who have become disenchanted with much of conventional religious practice, and who are seeking a sense of spiritual connection with the land, and with their ancestors. In today’s fast-moving and environmentally-threatened world, they are looking for a sense of rootedness in Time and in Place, and for a sense of reverence for the Earth."