#017 We are already home

History is not a human thing. Our true history is part of the deep story of something bigger. To some original cultures, the color red is used to refer to native indigenous people. Today we will talk about the story of the mother of all of us, the Red Earth. Earth is our compass to synchronicities, the connection with the archetype of the Navigator. Unlearning and relearning to trust in the flow in order to evolve, today I invite you to learn about deep time and to have a conversation with the ones that lived before you in Gaia, our planet. I recommend you to go out if possible to put your feet on the ground.  

Our self-reflection of the day:

What is the form my service will take?

Gaia Theory

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Gaia as “the global ecosystem, understood to function in the manner of a vast self-regulating organism, in the context of which all living things collectively define and maintain the conditions conducive for life on earth”. James Lovelock, a British independent scientist, environmentalist, and futurist was the first to use the term (ancient Greek for Earth) in this way, in 1972, the year that he proposed The Gaia Hypothesis, suggesting that living organisms on the planet interact with their surrounding inorganic environment to form a synergetic and self-regulating system that created, and now maintains, the climate and biochemical conditions that make life on Earth possible. Celebrating 50 years, The Gaia Theory demands a consciousness shift from science: our blue planet is not a floating rock in space, but a sentient living organism. Earth is a living being.

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.

Deep ecology

The term originated also in 1972 with Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, who developed a platform of eight organizing principles for the deep ecology social movement. According to the Britannica dictionary, Deep Ecology is an environmental philosophy and social movement based on the belief that humans must radically change their relationship to nature: from one that values nature solely for its usefulness to human beings to one that recognizes that nature has an inherent value. Deep ecology distinguishes itself from other types of environmentalism by making broader and more philosophical claims about metaphysics, epistemology, and social justice.

The eight points of the platform for deep ecology posit:

1. “The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in themselves…. These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes.”

2. “Richness and diversity…contribute to the realization of these values and are also values in themselves.”

3. “Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs.”

4. “Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.”

5. “The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease.”

6. “Policies must therefore be changed…[to] affect basic economic, technological, and ideological structures.…”

7. “The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality…rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living.…”

8. “Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to participate in the attempt to implement the necessary changes.”

Deep Time

John McPhee introduced the term referring to geologic time. He is an American writer considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. Observing the temporality of our planet we remind that we had arrived, while the planet is living and making life for billions of years. As said by my friend Lua Couto, founder of Futuro Possivel, “act your age” takes on another dimension when we feel that we are part of a stream of life that began over 3 billion years ago.

Joanna Macy, an American environmental activist and a Buddhist philosopher of ecology, also uses the term Deep Time to refer to the practice of using guided meditation to visualize one's ancestors and descendants. She criticizes the short-term thinking that keeps us in a constant hurry state. In the collection of writings "A Wild Love for World" (2020), leading spiritual teachers, deep ecologists, and diverse writers and activists explore the major facets of Macy’s lifework.

“Being fully present to fear, to gratitude, to all that is—this is the practice of mutual belonging. As living members of the living body of Earth, we are grounded in that kind of belonging. Even when faced with cataclysmic changes, nothing can ever separate us from Earth. We are already home.”

Deep Time Walk

Now go out with the award-winning Deep Time Walk App. A ground-breaking tool that enables to experience a walking audio history of the living Earth. As you walk through time, the dramatized audio narrative combines scientific evidence with poetry to tell the story of Earth’s formation, providing a unique and educational perspective of deep time. Sensitively designed and engineered by a team of experts using appropriate technology*, the experience encourages you to focus away from the digital screen and connect with the natural world around you.

I did the Deep Time Walk right before we started this cycle, in one of the parks in Amsterdam. I even mentioned it in our first edition. Now I invite you to do the same as I am also planning to go for a walk to enjoy the sunny day. See you tomorrow.

Guided by the synchronicities that help us to evolve,

Gustavo Nogueira de Menezes
NS1.34.12.06, Saturday 4 June 2022
Kin 017 Red Self-Existent Earth