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Spirituality, Mind-Body, Gender, Ecology, Ageing, Peace, Scrapbook (in English and Korean)
2019/02/06
A Quest for Meaning Film
A Quest for Meaning Film
February 24, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEmhr-jQzow
The exclusive stream of A Quest for Meaning has EXPIRED, but there are still ways to access this film. A Quest for Meaning is most impactful when experienced together, host or find a film screening for your community.
You can also follow A Quest for Meaning on Facebook for continued updates.
Visit the Mercola Video Library
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
“A Quest for Meaning” follows two childhood friends as they travel the globe in search for the meaning of life
Questions about the collective beliefs that have shaped Western civilization are investigated, as are the changes in consciousness we now see as more people are becoming inspired to live more in harmony with the natural world
For many, the way to reconnect with nature is through food — planting, tending, harvesting and eating what they’ve grown. Or, at the very least, knowing where the food comes from and how it was grown
A finite world cannot accommodate infinite consumption. The current system must be replaced with a new system that takes only that which is required, and returns to the earth something that supports the continued cycle of growth
Modern science tells us we’re not only interdependent with nature here on planet Earth, but we’re also interdependent with Universe as a whole. Quantum mechanics also tells us that there’s no way of breaking this unity
==============
By Dr. Mercola
The film, “A Quest for Meaning” follows two childhood friends as they travel the globe in search for the meaning of life. Questions about the collective beliefs that have shaped Western civilization are investigated, as are the changes in consciousness we now see as more and more people are becoming inspired to live more in harmony with themselves, each other, and the natural world.
Where do we, as humans, belong, if we’re not part of the natural world? And if we’re part of the natural world, how can we survive its destruction?
The American Dream Needs an Overhaul
Marc, a bottled water salesman in New York City, was living the American dream. His job — convincing Americans that bottled water was a worthy luxury — paid well; he had everything he thought he wanted. After a 10-year separation, Nathanaël (the film’s director and cameraman) visits Marc in New York City. Thinking Marc seemed a bit out of place in this “high-life,” Nathanaël left him with several environmental documentaries “to shake him up a little bit.”
Marc admits he had no intention of watching any of them. But, as fate would have it, a broken foot left him with little else to do. Right after that, the financial meltdown of 2008 hit and, along with the rest of us, he realized that the greed of a few had placed the future of the entire planet in jeopardy. “I was now convinced that the system was incapable of providing a solution to the problems it had created,” he says. “And as a water salesman in Manhattan, I was also part of the problem.”
To ward off cynicism and depression, Marc left everything behind and began to search for the answers to his questions. On the way, he convinced Nathanaël to join him and record their travels, and together they set off on a journey that shook the foundations of their beliefs and the principles by which they lived.
Without Nature, There Is No Life
In the film, their journey takes them to India, where locals have managed to revitalize the economy following the closing of mines by investing in agricultural education and tools. As followers of Gandhi, they promote the concept of “swaraj,” which is the idea that you are responsible for yourself and the world around you. You must be a good steward. To learn more about Gandhi and his views on economy, they attend a seminar on “Gandhi and Globalization” held by Dr. Vandana Shiva.
Originally trained as a physicist, Shiva became involved in a movement to protect the forests of the Himalayas. She began writing about ecological problems, and the rest, as they say, is history. Shiva is now one of the most well-recognized faces of the organic farming movement.
“Things are changing,” she says, “but they’re changing in the wrong direction because the most prominent change is driven by giant corporations [that] are turning everything into a commodity. There’s no people, no nature, no culture, no values. The change we need is a change that helps us recognize that if we continue on this present path … humanity will annihilate the conditions for its living on this planet.”
As noted by Shiva, large corporations are very good at eliminating small farmers, but they have no viable plan for how to feed the world once all small farmers are gone. “Recognition that nature is the condition of our being alive is the shift we need to make. We have to stop thinking about nature as wilderness, and think of it as the condition for life,” she says.
For many, the way they reconnect with nature is through food — planting, tending, harvesting and eating what they’ve grown. Or, at the very least, it’s knowing where the food comes from and how it was grown, “making sure nature’s contribution has not been abused by corporate greed.” In other words, it’s about making sure the food you buy has not been genetically engineered (GE) or doused with chemicals that destroy the environment and harm wildlife and the farmers themselves.
One of the most harmful effects of GE seeds is often overlooked. By making seed sharing illegal, large GE seed corporations have made farmers completely dependent on their GE seeds — and the chemicals designed to accompany them.
The financial strain has led to an epidemic of farmer suicides in India, as crop failures can quickly lead to financial ruin, burying the farmers in debt they cannot pay off. Historically, you could always trade seeds with your neighbors, but patented seeds must be bought anew each year, and prices just keep going up.
Creating a Cyclical Economy
As noted in the film, “You cannot have unlimited economic growth on a limited planet. You cannot have infinite growth in a finite world.” The current system cannot be fixed; it must be replaced with a new system that takes only that which is required, and returns to the earth something that supports the continued cycle of growth.
Shiva notes that nowadays we hear a lot about “green consumerism,” but what needs to be questioned is the very idea of consumerism itself. “The reduction of our identities to that of consumers is part of the problem,” she says. “Recovery of our identities — as creators, users and makers of things — is part of the solution.” Part of this also involves regaining respect for physical work, which you gain when working in the fields or in your garden, growing your food.
The common view that corporations are our sole means of support is equally fallacious. We don’t need corporations to live, eat and put a roof over our head. Nature — fields, forests, plants, rivers, rain — and human communities working together, are what provide lasting security and generate livelihood. “Money is just a means of exchange, it’s not real security. So, people don’t need to fear.”
Shiva adds:
“Overall, my vision of another economy is, in every place, people producing in sustainable ways, generating livelihoods and meeting their needs. Decentralized economies everywhere … [not this] crazy world where everything has to be manufactured in China, and everywhere else people sit unemployed.
And because they’re unemployed and have no money, the only place they can shop is at a Walmart, because they bring their stuff from China and sell cheap. What we need is a shift from this idea of false cheapness that has a very high cost for the planet and people, to an idea of authentic affordability [with] low cost for the planet and low cost for the people.”
‘Reformatting the Hard Drive’
While Marc set out to make a film about alternative lifestyles, just a few days at Shiva’s ashram completely changed how he viewed the world. “It completely reformatted my hard drive,” he says. “Blinded by progress and technology, [the Western world] has completely lost touch with the essential things in life.” These essentials include not only respect for the natural world, but also the spiritual world.
An Indian yoga teacher stresses the idea that modern science and spiritual science are not mutually exclusive, but need to be balanced because, while you can buy the things you need, you cannot buy happiness. That you must find and generate from within, and there are spiritual principles, spiritual sciences, that can help you find what you’re looking for.
From India, the journey continues to France, where they interview a farmer who again stresses the importance of reconnecting with nature. They also talk to a sociologist who reviews the history of human connection to nature. While man’s fate used to be closely intertwined with nature and hinged on the ability to live in harmony with natural laws, over time we learned to dominate nature, and our dominance eventually led to our becoming disconnected from it.
Connecting Mind-Body-Spirit — Becoming a Human Being Rather Than Being a Human Doer
In Mexico, the pair investigate Central American culture and spirituality, and talk to a medicine man who points out that societal change always begins with individual change. We have become indoctrinated by corporate advertising and have largely forgotten how to think properly. For example, if you do not want to be ill, you must stop thinking about how to treat disease and start thinking about what it takes to be healthy. Thoughts are a creative force, so be mindful of where you place your focus.
The investigation into consciousness and self-awareness continues in Guatemala, where they speak to Chaty Secaira, a meditation instructor and mystic, about the nature of reality. “We see only one side of creation,” she says. “We see only what is visible. But there’s a whole other side that is invisible, that can only be seen with the eyes of the soul. You have to open your heart and open your mind in order to allow this level of perception.”
Meditation is one way of connecting with your authentic self and the invisible part of creation, and the filmmakers set out on a rigorous spiritual program of meditation and fasting in the Guatemalan jungle. “Inside every person, there is some of [the] divine element,” Secaira says. “Our mission is to unify ourselves with this divine element.”
Science Confirms Our Interdependence
Back in San Francisco, the pair follow the path of reason, searching for answers in modern science. Astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan agrees to answer a few of their questions. “Twentieth-century science has only just discovered, or rediscovered, what Buddhism has been telling us for 2,500 years, namely the concept of interdependence,” Thuan says. “Everything is connected.”
Ever since the 1950s, scientists have increasingly been confronted with evidence that we are “made of stardust; we are children of the stars.” The atoms that make up your body “are made from the nuclear reactions of the stars.” According to Thuan, “If it weren’t for the stars, we wouldn’t even exist.” What this means is that we’re not only interdependent with nature here on planet Earth, we’re also interdependent with the universe as a whole.
Quantum mechanics also tells us that there’s no way of breaking this intrinsic unity. Once two particles have interacted, you cannot break their connection. Separate them by millions of light years, and they still respond in tandem; what happens to one happens to the other — instantaneously, and without any information transfer between them.
In other words, there is only one thing in this universe, and we are all “it.” “The conclusion I draw from this is that science is not the only way to observe reality,” Thuan says. “There are other windows into reality.”
The Root of the Problem
Cassandra Vieten, director of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, adds, “Many of the problems we face … are grounded in limitations in our human consciousness.” While egotism is rampant, we’ve not taken it to the next logical step, which is to realize that self-preservation demands that we include everyone, not just a few that we deem worthy.
“Inequity of resources, violence, war, climate change — they spring from the way we view the world,” Vieten says. She also points out that we typically don’t realize we’re looking at the world through our own filter, our own world view; we simply believe we’re seeing the truth. One of the things contemplative practices such as meditation allows us to do is recognize that “thoughts are just thoughts, beliefs are just beliefs, and they’re not truly who we are. They’re just … working hypotheses.”
She gives the following example: During meditation, you may come to realize that you view the world as a dangerous place, and that this view has colored your actions since childhood. This insight then offers you the opportunity to choose to see differently; to shift your world view. What if the world isn’t a dangerous place? Then what would I see, think and do?
This kind of self-awareness automatically leads to shifts in thought patterns and behavior. Values change, and along with it, your relationship to yourself and others change too. “Listening to Cassandra … I realized the beliefs I had built my life on had totally collapsed during this trip,” Marc says.
“They had been replaced by new hypotheses, like the gut feeling that the world is not just made of matter, [and] that chasing after money and social status leads us away from what is really important.” However, the world around him didn’t conform to these new ways of looking at the world. Everywhere he looked, he saw messages “inciting people to consume and pollute.”
How Collective Beliefs Take Shape
The next stop on their journey is a visit to Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., who discusses how collective beliefs emerge and take shape. In a nutshell, there are three perennial questions that drive collective world views:
When the population accepts the answers to these questions provided by some authority, that authority by default becomes the “truth provider” to all other worldly questions as well. The church was the truth provider for a long time, and the spiritual reality was paramount. Once science began providing the answers, the spiritual world was relegated to the proverbial broom closet.
Science said, you don’t need spirituality because the world is just a big machine. There’s no evidence “spirit” is anywhere to be found. We got here through random mutations, and there’s no purpose for our being here since the whole of creation was a big accident. To top it off, we were given the evolutionary theory of “survival of the fittest.” It’s a tough, mean world out there and you have to fight to survive. So, life became all about the struggle to get to the top and stay there. The world of today is the end result of these beliefs.
Fortunately, these beliefs are now changing. We’re starting to see that we got here through adaptive mutations — the ability of an organism to adapt to its environment. Since we’re an interdependent part of nature, it becomes obvious that, as creative thinkers, we are here to create and maintain harmony, and that the only way we can survive is through cooperation. Competition and separatism is what’s killing us, both individually and as a collective.
We still live in an oligarchy where a few people make a lot of important decisions, most if not all of which are driven by capitalism. These rulers naturally promote their own continuation, but their days are numbered. Slowly but surely, we’re starting to transition into a whole new world view built on cooperation and interdependence. It’s up to you to be this change. As Marc says, “To change the world, you have to change your vision of it. And in order for this change to take place, we are all called to evolve.”
About the Filmmakers
I believe in bringing quality to my readers, which is why I wanted to share some information about the creators, Marc De La Ménardière and Nathanaël Coste, from "A Quest for Meaning." We sat down to learn a little more about what goes in to making these films. Thank you to De La Ménardière and Coste for sharing with us.
What was your inspiration for making this film?
A Quest for Meaning is first and foremost the story of two childhood friends who meet again after 10 years. Marc exports bottled water from New York, whereas Nathanaël works in water collective management. After the 2008 economic crisis and a documentary therapy, Marc realizes that he is also a part of the problem.
Where do the proceeds to your film go?
Proceeds will help to continue distributing the film and to finance the production of other independent films full of meaning.
February 24, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEmhr-jQzow
The exclusive stream of A Quest for Meaning has EXPIRED, but there are still ways to access this film. A Quest for Meaning is most impactful when experienced together, host or find a film screening for your community.
You can also follow A Quest for Meaning on Facebook for continued updates.
Visit the Mercola Video Library
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
“A Quest for Meaning” follows two childhood friends as they travel the globe in search for the meaning of life
Questions about the collective beliefs that have shaped Western civilization are investigated, as are the changes in consciousness we now see as more people are becoming inspired to live more in harmony with the natural world
For many, the way to reconnect with nature is through food — planting, tending, harvesting and eating what they’ve grown. Or, at the very least, knowing where the food comes from and how it was grown
A finite world cannot accommodate infinite consumption. The current system must be replaced with a new system that takes only that which is required, and returns to the earth something that supports the continued cycle of growth
Modern science tells us we’re not only interdependent with nature here on planet Earth, but we’re also interdependent with Universe as a whole. Quantum mechanics also tells us that there’s no way of breaking this unity
==============
By Dr. Mercola
The film, “A Quest for Meaning” follows two childhood friends as they travel the globe in search for the meaning of life. Questions about the collective beliefs that have shaped Western civilization are investigated, as are the changes in consciousness we now see as more and more people are becoming inspired to live more in harmony with themselves, each other, and the natural world.
Where do we, as humans, belong, if we’re not part of the natural world? And if we’re part of the natural world, how can we survive its destruction?
The American Dream Needs an Overhaul
Marc, a bottled water salesman in New York City, was living the American dream. His job — convincing Americans that bottled water was a worthy luxury — paid well; he had everything he thought he wanted. After a 10-year separation, Nathanaël (the film’s director and cameraman) visits Marc in New York City. Thinking Marc seemed a bit out of place in this “high-life,” Nathanaël left him with several environmental documentaries “to shake him up a little bit.”
Marc admits he had no intention of watching any of them. But, as fate would have it, a broken foot left him with little else to do. Right after that, the financial meltdown of 2008 hit and, along with the rest of us, he realized that the greed of a few had placed the future of the entire planet in jeopardy. “I was now convinced that the system was incapable of providing a solution to the problems it had created,” he says. “And as a water salesman in Manhattan, I was also part of the problem.”
To ward off cynicism and depression, Marc left everything behind and began to search for the answers to his questions. On the way, he convinced Nathanaël to join him and record their travels, and together they set off on a journey that shook the foundations of their beliefs and the principles by which they lived.
Without Nature, There Is No Life
In the film, their journey takes them to India, where locals have managed to revitalize the economy following the closing of mines by investing in agricultural education and tools. As followers of Gandhi, they promote the concept of “swaraj,” which is the idea that you are responsible for yourself and the world around you. You must be a good steward. To learn more about Gandhi and his views on economy, they attend a seminar on “Gandhi and Globalization” held by Dr. Vandana Shiva.
Originally trained as a physicist, Shiva became involved in a movement to protect the forests of the Himalayas. She began writing about ecological problems, and the rest, as they say, is history. Shiva is now one of the most well-recognized faces of the organic farming movement.
“Things are changing,” she says, “but they’re changing in the wrong direction because the most prominent change is driven by giant corporations [that] are turning everything into a commodity. There’s no people, no nature, no culture, no values. The change we need is a change that helps us recognize that if we continue on this present path … humanity will annihilate the conditions for its living on this planet.”
As noted by Shiva, large corporations are very good at eliminating small farmers, but they have no viable plan for how to feed the world once all small farmers are gone. “Recognition that nature is the condition of our being alive is the shift we need to make. We have to stop thinking about nature as wilderness, and think of it as the condition for life,” she says.
For many, the way they reconnect with nature is through food — planting, tending, harvesting and eating what they’ve grown. Or, at the very least, it’s knowing where the food comes from and how it was grown, “making sure nature’s contribution has not been abused by corporate greed.” In other words, it’s about making sure the food you buy has not been genetically engineered (GE) or doused with chemicals that destroy the environment and harm wildlife and the farmers themselves.
One of the most harmful effects of GE seeds is often overlooked. By making seed sharing illegal, large GE seed corporations have made farmers completely dependent on their GE seeds — and the chemicals designed to accompany them.
The financial strain has led to an epidemic of farmer suicides in India, as crop failures can quickly lead to financial ruin, burying the farmers in debt they cannot pay off. Historically, you could always trade seeds with your neighbors, but patented seeds must be bought anew each year, and prices just keep going up.
Creating a Cyclical Economy
As noted in the film, “You cannot have unlimited economic growth on a limited planet. You cannot have infinite growth in a finite world.” The current system cannot be fixed; it must be replaced with a new system that takes only that which is required, and returns to the earth something that supports the continued cycle of growth.
Shiva notes that nowadays we hear a lot about “green consumerism,” but what needs to be questioned is the very idea of consumerism itself. “The reduction of our identities to that of consumers is part of the problem,” she says. “Recovery of our identities — as creators, users and makers of things — is part of the solution.” Part of this also involves regaining respect for physical work, which you gain when working in the fields or in your garden, growing your food.
The common view that corporations are our sole means of support is equally fallacious. We don’t need corporations to live, eat and put a roof over our head. Nature — fields, forests, plants, rivers, rain — and human communities working together, are what provide lasting security and generate livelihood. “Money is just a means of exchange, it’s not real security. So, people don’t need to fear.”
Shiva adds:
“Overall, my vision of another economy is, in every place, people producing in sustainable ways, generating livelihoods and meeting their needs. Decentralized economies everywhere … [not this] crazy world where everything has to be manufactured in China, and everywhere else people sit unemployed.
And because they’re unemployed and have no money, the only place they can shop is at a Walmart, because they bring their stuff from China and sell cheap. What we need is a shift from this idea of false cheapness that has a very high cost for the planet and people, to an idea of authentic affordability [with] low cost for the planet and low cost for the people.”
‘Reformatting the Hard Drive’
While Marc set out to make a film about alternative lifestyles, just a few days at Shiva’s ashram completely changed how he viewed the world. “It completely reformatted my hard drive,” he says. “Blinded by progress and technology, [the Western world] has completely lost touch with the essential things in life.” These essentials include not only respect for the natural world, but also the spiritual world.
An Indian yoga teacher stresses the idea that modern science and spiritual science are not mutually exclusive, but need to be balanced because, while you can buy the things you need, you cannot buy happiness. That you must find and generate from within, and there are spiritual principles, spiritual sciences, that can help you find what you’re looking for.
From India, the journey continues to France, where they interview a farmer who again stresses the importance of reconnecting with nature. They also talk to a sociologist who reviews the history of human connection to nature. While man’s fate used to be closely intertwined with nature and hinged on the ability to live in harmony with natural laws, over time we learned to dominate nature, and our dominance eventually led to our becoming disconnected from it.
Connecting Mind-Body-Spirit — Becoming a Human Being Rather Than Being a Human Doer
In Mexico, the pair investigate Central American culture and spirituality, and talk to a medicine man who points out that societal change always begins with individual change. We have become indoctrinated by corporate advertising and have largely forgotten how to think properly. For example, if you do not want to be ill, you must stop thinking about how to treat disease and start thinking about what it takes to be healthy. Thoughts are a creative force, so be mindful of where you place your focus.
The investigation into consciousness and self-awareness continues in Guatemala, where they speak to Chaty Secaira, a meditation instructor and mystic, about the nature of reality. “We see only one side of creation,” she says. “We see only what is visible. But there’s a whole other side that is invisible, that can only be seen with the eyes of the soul. You have to open your heart and open your mind in order to allow this level of perception.”
Meditation is one way of connecting with your authentic self and the invisible part of creation, and the filmmakers set out on a rigorous spiritual program of meditation and fasting in the Guatemalan jungle. “Inside every person, there is some of [the] divine element,” Secaira says. “Our mission is to unify ourselves with this divine element.”
Science Confirms Our Interdependence
Back in San Francisco, the pair follow the path of reason, searching for answers in modern science. Astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan agrees to answer a few of their questions. “Twentieth-century science has only just discovered, or rediscovered, what Buddhism has been telling us for 2,500 years, namely the concept of interdependence,” Thuan says. “Everything is connected.”
Ever since the 1950s, scientists have increasingly been confronted with evidence that we are “made of stardust; we are children of the stars.” The atoms that make up your body “are made from the nuclear reactions of the stars.” According to Thuan, “If it weren’t for the stars, we wouldn’t even exist.” What this means is that we’re not only interdependent with nature here on planet Earth, we’re also interdependent with the universe as a whole.
Quantum mechanics also tells us that there’s no way of breaking this intrinsic unity. Once two particles have interacted, you cannot break their connection. Separate them by millions of light years, and they still respond in tandem; what happens to one happens to the other — instantaneously, and without any information transfer between them.
In other words, there is only one thing in this universe, and we are all “it.” “The conclusion I draw from this is that science is not the only way to observe reality,” Thuan says. “There are other windows into reality.”
The Root of the Problem
Cassandra Vieten, director of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, adds, “Many of the problems we face … are grounded in limitations in our human consciousness.” While egotism is rampant, we’ve not taken it to the next logical step, which is to realize that self-preservation demands that we include everyone, not just a few that we deem worthy.
“Inequity of resources, violence, war, climate change — they spring from the way we view the world,” Vieten says. She also points out that we typically don’t realize we’re looking at the world through our own filter, our own world view; we simply believe we’re seeing the truth. One of the things contemplative practices such as meditation allows us to do is recognize that “thoughts are just thoughts, beliefs are just beliefs, and they’re not truly who we are. They’re just … working hypotheses.”
She gives the following example: During meditation, you may come to realize that you view the world as a dangerous place, and that this view has colored your actions since childhood. This insight then offers you the opportunity to choose to see differently; to shift your world view. What if the world isn’t a dangerous place? Then what would I see, think and do?
This kind of self-awareness automatically leads to shifts in thought patterns and behavior. Values change, and along with it, your relationship to yourself and others change too. “Listening to Cassandra … I realized the beliefs I had built my life on had totally collapsed during this trip,” Marc says.
“They had been replaced by new hypotheses, like the gut feeling that the world is not just made of matter, [and] that chasing after money and social status leads us away from what is really important.” However, the world around him didn’t conform to these new ways of looking at the world. Everywhere he looked, he saw messages “inciting people to consume and pollute.”
How Collective Beliefs Take Shape
The next stop on their journey is a visit to Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., who discusses how collective beliefs emerge and take shape. In a nutshell, there are three perennial questions that drive collective world views:
- How did we get here?
- Why are we here?
- How do we make the best of it?
When the population accepts the answers to these questions provided by some authority, that authority by default becomes the “truth provider” to all other worldly questions as well. The church was the truth provider for a long time, and the spiritual reality was paramount. Once science began providing the answers, the spiritual world was relegated to the proverbial broom closet.
Science said, you don’t need spirituality because the world is just a big machine. There’s no evidence “spirit” is anywhere to be found. We got here through random mutations, and there’s no purpose for our being here since the whole of creation was a big accident. To top it off, we were given the evolutionary theory of “survival of the fittest.” It’s a tough, mean world out there and you have to fight to survive. So, life became all about the struggle to get to the top and stay there. The world of today is the end result of these beliefs.
Fortunately, these beliefs are now changing. We’re starting to see that we got here through adaptive mutations — the ability of an organism to adapt to its environment. Since we’re an interdependent part of nature, it becomes obvious that, as creative thinkers, we are here to create and maintain harmony, and that the only way we can survive is through cooperation. Competition and separatism is what’s killing us, both individually and as a collective.
We still live in an oligarchy where a few people make a lot of important decisions, most if not all of which are driven by capitalism. These rulers naturally promote their own continuation, but their days are numbered. Slowly but surely, we’re starting to transition into a whole new world view built on cooperation and interdependence. It’s up to you to be this change. As Marc says, “To change the world, you have to change your vision of it. And in order for this change to take place, we are all called to evolve.”
About the Filmmakers
I believe in bringing quality to my readers, which is why I wanted to share some information about the creators, Marc De La Ménardière and Nathanaël Coste, from "A Quest for Meaning." We sat down to learn a little more about what goes in to making these films. Thank you to De La Ménardière and Coste for sharing with us.
What was your inspiration for making this film?
A Quest for Meaning is first and foremost the story of two childhood friends who meet again after 10 years. Marc exports bottled water from New York, whereas Nathanaël works in water collective management. After the 2008 economic crisis and a documentary therapy, Marc realizes that he is also a part of the problem.
Where do the proceeds to your film go?
Proceeds will help to continue distributing the film and to finance the production of other independent films full of meaning.
2019/02/03
5 Reasons Why the Time is Now to Take a Permaculture Design Certification - Transformational Times
5 Reasons Why the Time is Now to Take a Permaculture Design Certification - Transformational Times
5 Reasons Why the Time is Now to Take a Permaculture Design Certification
Posted by Bryan Arturo
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PERMACULTURE
There’s no need to panic about the state of our planet when there are so many solutions to shift the direction of our global society. With that said, now is the time to empower yourself with these solutions to take lead in your own life and in your community to facilitate restoring the damage we have […]OLDER NEWER
There’s no need to panic about the state of our planet when there are so many solutions to shift the direction of our global society. With that said, now is the time to empower yourself with these solutions to take lead in your own life and in your community to facilitate restoring the damage we have done to our planet and secure a healthy sense of place on earth for our children.
You can step up to the plate by taking a Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) that will allow you to reimagine the relationships we have with everything around us.
Taking time to observe patterns allows us to design with a holistic mindset leading to life-saving and wealth-creating solutions like bringing fertility back into the degrading soil of the earth and restoring our parched rivers, lakes and streams.
Permaculture is an ethics-based design method that can be applied to all aspects of our lives and our society. It’s a return back to the basics, how ancient farmers and villagers used to thrive but reapplied to modern context.
My PDC at VerdEnergia
I recently took my Permaculture Design Certification at VerdEnergia and it inspired me to return to my favorite permaculture farm, East End Eden and settle down. I lived a nomadic lifestyle over the past 3 years, exploring permaculture projects and indigenous communities while connecting with my intrinsic gifts. All of the inner and outer exploration made me ready to commit myself to a place and a community.Now I realize that in order to make a long-lasting impact I need to ground and dig my roots into a specific land and community.
Here are my top five reasons why the time is now to take a PDC:
Gaining practical tools to combat climate change immediately.
A PDC gives you an easy-to-digest understanding of how to go beyond sustainability to literally regenerate the planet’s resources. This theory has been applied for decades within the grassroots permaculture movement. There is classroom time to explore what kinds of energy, water food, housing, waste and social systems are typically implemented at all scales. This means that you will be able to identify, utilize and communicate the best systems to use. These solutions can be implemented at any scale, from your daily life habits, to a city balcony to a massive farm aiming to feed the masses a nutrient-diverse diet rather than pure corn.
Seeing land as canvas for creativity.
Understanding the aspects of land to look for when redesigning or even purchasing that parcel is empowering. My parent’s backyard never looked so exciting now that I can clearly see the potential for long-term food to grow through agroforestry. During a PDC, you get to work in groups to map out a local site, choose the most beneficial way to transform it and then present your professional design to the teachers for feedback. Permaculture values creativity and art so your work becomes rewarding and lights people up with inspiration.
Cob bench at Rancho Mastatal, Costa Rica.
Seeing the earth with new eyes.
A Permaculture Design Certification is an internationally recognized certification showing that you completed the 72-hour curriculum as created by Bill Mollison, one of the major pioneers of the permaculture movement. This certification will not prepare you to immediately go out and sell land design services. A PDC is the first step in an important life-long journey to see the world in a completely new way and dare to redesign it to support the coexistence of our species and the planet. The actual certification is a badge of honor that could score you a spot in some of the best apprenticeship programs or permaculture projects to apply what you learned and teach others.
Photo from Paititi Institute.
The great potential to birth new projects and collaborations.
PDCs are typically 2-3 weeks long where you removed from your daily routine to learn and play with 10+ other passionate allies. Building community and nurturing relationships is not only a key aspect to the regeneration of the earth but it also can result in more support for your vision and life purpose. It may feel like a vacation, but this group educational process lends itself to collaboration and is likely to birth exciting new projects. PDCs tend to create friends for life.
Turn apathy and grief into inspiration and optimism.
For those who chose not to have a blind eye to climate change and the unsustainable organization of our economies, there may be grief. It’s normal to feel confused or isolated when opening up to this understanding that we are in the midst of a global crisis. Instead of drowning in the increasingly terrifying news of pollution, disaster and war there are movements to join that are working towards shifting our values and empowering us to restructure our society. Permaculture provides specific efficiency principles to keep in mind when designing, managing your time, growing your business or simply living your daily life. Students leave with a positive outlook on the state of the environment with an immediate solutions-based perspective. We are capable of lifting each other up and realizing the future we want to live in right now.
The actual curriculum typically dives into permaculture ethics, principles, design, soil health, water retention, plants, energy, waste management, construction and social systems. If the masses saw the world through a permaculture lens they would see the abundant, food-secure future. Our structures will be built to work with instead of against nature and produce energy renewably.
We will restore forests and stabilize the climate while living fulfilling and meaningful lives.
The farm that I chose to live at is having PDC in Ojai, California of Southern California focusing on a major challenge in California: drought.One of the largest contributors to drought is the mismanagement of rainwater and small shifts in the landscape could mean rivers and streams flowing year round in the state where 70% of the US’s food comes from. Visit me at East End Eden during our Permaculture Design Course in Ojai, CA!
Sign Up Today on their NuMundo page
TAGS: CaliforniaConnor JonesDroughtEast End EdenOjaipermaculturePermaculture CoursePermaculture Design Certification
About Bryan Arturo
Bryan is a community organizer who activates projects around the world reconnecting people with nature and their hearts.…
5 Reasons Why the Time is Now to Take a Permaculture Design Certification
Posted by Bryan Arturo
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PERMACULTURE
There’s no need to panic about the state of our planet when there are so many solutions to shift the direction of our global society. With that said, now is the time to empower yourself with these solutions to take lead in your own life and in your community to facilitate restoring the damage we have […]OLDER NEWER
There’s no need to panic about the state of our planet when there are so many solutions to shift the direction of our global society. With that said, now is the time to empower yourself with these solutions to take lead in your own life and in your community to facilitate restoring the damage we have done to our planet and secure a healthy sense of place on earth for our children.
You can step up to the plate by taking a Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) that will allow you to reimagine the relationships we have with everything around us.
Taking time to observe patterns allows us to design with a holistic mindset leading to life-saving and wealth-creating solutions like bringing fertility back into the degrading soil of the earth and restoring our parched rivers, lakes and streams.
Permaculture is an ethics-based design method that can be applied to all aspects of our lives and our society. It’s a return back to the basics, how ancient farmers and villagers used to thrive but reapplied to modern context.
My PDC at VerdEnergia
I recently took my Permaculture Design Certification at VerdEnergia and it inspired me to return to my favorite permaculture farm, East End Eden and settle down. I lived a nomadic lifestyle over the past 3 years, exploring permaculture projects and indigenous communities while connecting with my intrinsic gifts. All of the inner and outer exploration made me ready to commit myself to a place and a community.Now I realize that in order to make a long-lasting impact I need to ground and dig my roots into a specific land and community.
Here are my top five reasons why the time is now to take a PDC:
Gaining practical tools to combat climate change immediately.
A PDC gives you an easy-to-digest understanding of how to go beyond sustainability to literally regenerate the planet’s resources. This theory has been applied for decades within the grassroots permaculture movement. There is classroom time to explore what kinds of energy, water food, housing, waste and social systems are typically implemented at all scales. This means that you will be able to identify, utilize and communicate the best systems to use. These solutions can be implemented at any scale, from your daily life habits, to a city balcony to a massive farm aiming to feed the masses a nutrient-diverse diet rather than pure corn.
Seeing land as canvas for creativity.
Understanding the aspects of land to look for when redesigning or even purchasing that parcel is empowering. My parent’s backyard never looked so exciting now that I can clearly see the potential for long-term food to grow through agroforestry. During a PDC, you get to work in groups to map out a local site, choose the most beneficial way to transform it and then present your professional design to the teachers for feedback. Permaculture values creativity and art so your work becomes rewarding and lights people up with inspiration.
Cob bench at Rancho Mastatal, Costa Rica.
Seeing the earth with new eyes.
A Permaculture Design Certification is an internationally recognized certification showing that you completed the 72-hour curriculum as created by Bill Mollison, one of the major pioneers of the permaculture movement. This certification will not prepare you to immediately go out and sell land design services. A PDC is the first step in an important life-long journey to see the world in a completely new way and dare to redesign it to support the coexistence of our species and the planet. The actual certification is a badge of honor that could score you a spot in some of the best apprenticeship programs or permaculture projects to apply what you learned and teach others.
Photo from Paititi Institute.
The great potential to birth new projects and collaborations.
PDCs are typically 2-3 weeks long where you removed from your daily routine to learn and play with 10+ other passionate allies. Building community and nurturing relationships is not only a key aspect to the regeneration of the earth but it also can result in more support for your vision and life purpose. It may feel like a vacation, but this group educational process lends itself to collaboration and is likely to birth exciting new projects. PDCs tend to create friends for life.
Turn apathy and grief into inspiration and optimism.
For those who chose not to have a blind eye to climate change and the unsustainable organization of our economies, there may be grief. It’s normal to feel confused or isolated when opening up to this understanding that we are in the midst of a global crisis. Instead of drowning in the increasingly terrifying news of pollution, disaster and war there are movements to join that are working towards shifting our values and empowering us to restructure our society. Permaculture provides specific efficiency principles to keep in mind when designing, managing your time, growing your business or simply living your daily life. Students leave with a positive outlook on the state of the environment with an immediate solutions-based perspective. We are capable of lifting each other up and realizing the future we want to live in right now.
The actual curriculum typically dives into permaculture ethics, principles, design, soil health, water retention, plants, energy, waste management, construction and social systems. If the masses saw the world through a permaculture lens they would see the abundant, food-secure future. Our structures will be built to work with instead of against nature and produce energy renewably.
We will restore forests and stabilize the climate while living fulfilling and meaningful lives.
The farm that I chose to live at is having PDC in Ojai, California of Southern California focusing on a major challenge in California: drought.One of the largest contributors to drought is the mismanagement of rainwater and small shifts in the landscape could mean rivers and streams flowing year round in the state where 70% of the US’s food comes from. Visit me at East End Eden during our Permaculture Design Course in Ojai, CA!
Sign Up Today on their NuMundo page
TAGS: CaliforniaConnor JonesDroughtEast End EdenOjaipermaculturePermaculture CoursePermaculture Design Certification
About Bryan Arturo
Bryan is a community organizer who activates projects around the world reconnecting people with nature and their hearts.…
Permaculture feeds and empowers refugees in Uganda
Permaculture feeds and empowers refugees in Uganda
Permaculture feeds and empowers refugees in Uganda
01/18/2019
under Agriculture, Community, Eco-Inspiration, Features, Interviews
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by Teresa Bergen
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Refugees arrive at Palabek refugee camp in Northern Uganda with the clothes on their back and what little they carried. New arrivals, many from South Sudan, receive a tarp, tent poles, a water can, a cooking pot and a ration card for enough food to make starvation a slower process. While aid agencies swarm Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 26 percent of the world’s refugee population, few make their desired impact. But African Women Rising (AWR) is having startling success. The organization educates women and girls in Northern Uganda, schooling them in literacy, micro-finance and agriculture. Within Palabek, the nonprofit’s lessons in permaculture may make the difference between people surviving the camp and eventually thriving in a new home or not.
Seeds and tools
Permaculture is small-scale agriculture designed to be sustainable and self-sufficient. AWR developed the permagarden program at Palabek “as an antidote to the widespread seeds and tools offerings of most NGOs, especially in refugee settings,” said founders Linda and Tom Cole. “There’s a seldom-challenged maxim within the humanitarian sector that if you provide a refugee with some packets of seeds and a few tools, she might translate that into a regular supply of food for the family.”
But the Coles have seen this approach fail, primarily because of poor soil fertility and lack of water. Instead, AWR provides a deeper agricultural education for refugees. “It focuses on building understanding around the basic principles of water and soil biology, and then uses a design framework to help the farmer understand the best way to capture rainwater and enrich the soil using locally available — and often waste — materials such as manure, wood ash, tree leaves and charcoal dust.”
Related: Nonprofit teaches communities how to build homes out of straw, clay and soil
When AWR started at Palabek, they trained about 20 people. Now, more than 6,000 South Sudanese refugee families cultivate vegetables here. The permagardeners at Palabek learn to harvest water and capture waste streams to enhance the fertility and productivity of their 30m by 30m plots. They manage existing trees, plant new ones and cultivate living fences and biomass plantings that provide materials for building, pest remedies, dry season nutrition and medicine. “This helps reduce pressures on the environment — such as the collection of fuelwood, gathering of wild foods, burning of charcoal — that will continue to worsen as time goes on, exacerbating tensions between host communities and refugees,” the Coles told Inhabitat. “Strengthening the ecological base of food systems also reduces vulnerability across time by shoring up resilience in the face of climate instability and extreme weather events.”
Permagardening is not a magic solution. The refugees don’t learn it in a day. Instead, refugee farmers participate in a series of trainings throughout the growing season. Local field staff called communitymobilizers regularly monitor the gardens and troubleshoot problems as necessary.
Why women?
The Coles founded their nonprofit in 2006 to empower African women rebuilding their lives after war. “AWR’s vision is to build social, economic and political equality for women and girls in Africa,” the Coles said. The small-but-mighty nonprofit’s programs help Northern Ugandan women to improve their lives through increased food production, natural resource management, financial security and education.
Women traditionally care for children and keep households going, and therefore carry heavy post-war burdens. As Ugandan women try to feed families, they contend with financial lack and environmental challenges including deforestation, drought, erosion, water shortages and climate change.
AWR works with the most vulnerable of vulnerable women: widows, formerly abducted women and girls, ex-combatants, girl mothers, orphans, those who are HIV-positive and grandmothers taking care of orphans, all of whom earn less than a dollar a day. Most have had little or no formal education and are stigmatized for their disadvantages.
AWR is adamant about the women themselves being actively involved in decision-making. Before launching programs, AWR partners with community-based groups to find out what the women themselves want and need, then make plans to carry that out. “There was broad consensus that education, savings and agricultureshould be the foundation of recovery,” Linda and Tom said. Once programs are up and running, community mobilizers meet weekly with program participants to monitor progress.
Money is power, and so is literacy
In addition to agricultural projects, AWR is the major player in adult literacy in Northern Uganda. AWR runs 34 literacy centers serving more than 2,000 adults in Northern Uganda. With literacy comes power. Nearly 50 students and staff members at the centers, dismayed by a lack of trustworthy candidates, have run for public office. Two-thirds won.
AWR also runs a micro-finance program that teaches financial literacy to women. Participants learn record keeping, basic business skills and strategies for saving money, and they gain access to capital. “AWR groups saved more than $1 million last year,” the founders said. “Groups are on track to save more than $2 million this year, $0.50 to $0.75 at a time.”
Related: The farmers growing food across frigid northern latitudes
Within the refugee camp at Palabek, the rows of vegetables thriving in the permagardens are a welcome contrast to the bleak expanse of red dirt and a rationed diet of maize, beans, oil, sugar and salt. The permagardens also provide a symbol of hope for the future. “Most refugees arriving in Palabek have lost many of the friends and family structures that were relied upon previously for social support,” the Coles told Inhabitat. “Apart from providing food for the family and some residual income, the most profound effect of AWR’s programs is to help rebuild those layers of social capital. Extra food to provide to neighbors. Some small money for school fees or church offerings. Female mentors and role models.”
They hope to have the same success in the intense poverty and displacement of the refugee camp as they’ve had throughout post-war Northern Uganda. “AWR began its work in one of the most aid-dependent areas of the world. We have the long-term goal of shifting this paradigm from complete dependency to one of engagement and personal capacity.”
If you are interested in supporting AWR in its efforts, donations can be made here.
+ African Women Rising
Photography by Brian Hodges Photography, Thomas Cole and Macduff Everton via AWR
Permaculture in New Zealand - Home
Permaculture in New Zealand - Home
Our Story: The Oldest National Permaculture Organisation in the World
PERMACULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND·THURSDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 2018
Permaculture in New Zealand is the oldest national permaculture organisation in the world. We are a registered charitable trust and rely on membership subscriptions, donations and proceeds from events for our income.
OUR VISION
Permaculture is a well recognised and highly respected design approach with a growing number of practitioners who are at the cutting edge of thinking in their respective fields. To support this, Permaculture in New Zealand is a rapidly expanding and highly regarded network of permaculture practitioners and teachers that offers inspiration, support and information sharing to its members and the public, serviced by a small and effective council that acts to protect the integrity of the permaculture brand within New Zealand and that provides advocacy on a national level.
OUR MISSION
To promote the development and practice of permaculture in Aotearoa/New Zealand by:
Providing effective networking and information sharing
Endorsing permaculture teachers, awarding diplomas and supporting the development of different permaculture education pathways
Advocating for policy changes where these are important for the permaculture movement
Promoting permaculture through media and events and by proactively supporting better public understanding of permaculture
OUR VALUES
The fundamental permaculture ethics are: Earth care; People care; Fair share.
Permaculture in New Zealand recognises He Whakaputanga and is committed to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. To achieve these, we operate with:
Respect and valuing of diversity:
Co-operation, working as a team Integrity and authenticity Valuing the contributions of young and old
Decision making congruent with a purpose:
Consensus processes Transparency and accountability Clear, direct communication Enjoyment and fulfillment
Willingness to change and evolve:
Permission to challenge and preparedness to be challenged Nurturing and supportive Commitment to continued learning
The day to day affairs of Permaculture in New Zealand are run by the National Council. The council meets remotely on the third Wednesday of every month at 8pm, and meets face to face 4 times a year, including one meeting at the AGM.
Our Story: The Oldest National Permaculture Organisation in the World
PERMACULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND·THURSDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 2018
Permaculture in New Zealand is the oldest national permaculture organisation in the world. We are a registered charitable trust and rely on membership subscriptions, donations and proceeds from events for our income.
OUR VISION
Permaculture is a well recognised and highly respected design approach with a growing number of practitioners who are at the cutting edge of thinking in their respective fields. To support this, Permaculture in New Zealand is a rapidly expanding and highly regarded network of permaculture practitioners and teachers that offers inspiration, support and information sharing to its members and the public, serviced by a small and effective council that acts to protect the integrity of the permaculture brand within New Zealand and that provides advocacy on a national level.
OUR MISSION
To promote the development and practice of permaculture in Aotearoa/New Zealand by:
Providing effective networking and information sharing
Endorsing permaculture teachers, awarding diplomas and supporting the development of different permaculture education pathways
Advocating for policy changes where these are important for the permaculture movement
Promoting permaculture through media and events and by proactively supporting better public understanding of permaculture
OUR VALUES
The fundamental permaculture ethics are: Earth care; People care; Fair share.
Permaculture in New Zealand recognises He Whakaputanga and is committed to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. To achieve these, we operate with:
Respect and valuing of diversity:
Co-operation, working as a team Integrity and authenticity Valuing the contributions of young and old
Decision making congruent with a purpose:
Consensus processes Transparency and accountability Clear, direct communication Enjoyment and fulfillment
Willingness to change and evolve:
Permission to challenge and preparedness to be challenged Nurturing and supportive Commitment to continued learning
The day to day affairs of Permaculture in New Zealand are run by the National Council. The council meets remotely on the third Wednesday of every month at 8pm, and meets face to face 4 times a year, including one meeting at the AGM.
Starhawk - Wikipedia feminist Neopaganismand ecofeminism. book The Spiral Dance(1979)
Starhawk - Wikipedia
Starhawk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Starhawk at a Sicilian workshop
Born
Miriam Simos
June 17, 1951 (age 67)
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Education Trained with Victor Andersonand Zsuzsanna Budapest
Alma mater UCLA, B.A.
Antioch University West, M.A.
Notable work The Spiral Dance
Spouse(s) David Miller
Awards Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award
Website starhawk.org
Women and Spirituality Trilogy
Films
Goddess Remembered (1989)
The Burning Times (1990)
Full Circle (1993)
People
Donna Read, director
Starhawk
Feminism portal
Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American writer, teacher and activist.[1] She is known as a theorist of feminist Neopaganismand ecofeminism.[2] She is a columnist for Beliefnet.com and for On Faith, the Newsweek/Washington Post online forum on religion.
Beliefs[edit]
"'What do we do...those of us who do believe the earth is sacred, who do believe that we have a responsibility to care for the living systems that sustain us, and who do believe that we have a responsibility to take care of each other?'"[5] Starhawk believes that the Earth is a living entity, and that faith-based activism can reconnect oneself to basic human needs. She posits core religious values of community and self-sacrifice as important to eco-pagan movements, as well as the broader environmental justice movement.
Starhawk advocates combining social justice issues with a nature-based spirituality that begins with spending time in the natural world, saying that doing so "...can open up your understanding on deeper and more subtle levels where the natural world will speak to you."[6] Starhawk's activism is deeply rooted in an anti-war philosophy, as she believes that war teaches one to see people culturally different than themselves as inhuman and dangerous.[7] Starhawk has written extensively on activism, including advice for activist organizers, examinations of white privilege within radical communities, and calls for an intersectionality of fighting oppression that includes spirituality, eco-consciousness, and sexual and gender liberation.[8]
Feminism[edit]
Starhawk's feminism and spirituality are closely interconnected, and her belief that feminism should challenge power structures denotes her intersectional approach.[9]Her ecofeminism links life-giving Mother Nature with the life-giving of women through birth, as well as the link between ecological destruction and patriarchal oppression under male-dominated Western political economies. She calls for a reconceptualization of the way we think about power that is different from what she posits as our typical understanding of 'power over' others, and believes that patriarchal systems of oppression are dying out and will be replaced by more egalitarian structures that have existed previously with many women in positions of power, including as priestesses, poets, healers, singers, and seers. Such matrilineal lineages, she argues, have been erased from history because of their "political implications."
Starhawk argues that our patriarchal culture of domination has confused the erotic with domination and violence.[10] Sexuality, she says, "...is sacred because through it we make a connection with another self — but it is misused and perverted when it becomes an arena of power-over, a means of treating another — or oneself — as an object."[11] Such analyses of gendered power relations are explored in her books Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising (2003) and Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery (1998). In the latter, Starhawk links the rise of kinship to patriarchal domination, and traces a psychology of liberation in analyzing an oppressor she argues is embedded deeply in all of us, the 'Self-hater.'[12] Again, Starhawk is interested in how such oppressions can be reformed into new sources of power, particularly amongst women, that arise innately and reject dominion over others.
Starhawk's feminist writings have been used to analyze the differences between mainstream rhetoric and feminist rhetoric, particularly in relation to her motive of writing rhetoric as revealing immanent truths rather than being utilized for persuasion.[13] This latter purpose of mainstream rhetoric is viewed by Starhawk as adhering to patriarchal logic, and her vision of 'empowered action' – which involves rejecting the tenets of the oppressive system and then openly challenging them – attempts to transform persuasive mainstream rhetoric to immanent feminist rhetoric.
Projects[edit]
In 1979, partly to commemorate the publication of The Spiral Dance, Starhawk and her friends staged a public celebration of the Neopagan holiday of Samhain(Halloween) incorporating an actual spiral dance. This group became the Reclaiming Collective, and their annual Spiral Dance ritual now draws hundreds of participants.
Starhawk continues to work with Reclaiming, a tradition of Witchcraft that she co-founded. This now international organization offers classes, workshops, camps, and public rituals in earth-based spirituality, with the goal to "unify spirit and politics".
She also works internationally as a trainer in nonviolence and direct action, and as an activist within the peace movement, women's movement, environmental movement, and anti-globalization movement. She travels and teaches widely in North America, Europe and the Middle East, giving lectures and workshops.
She was influential in the decision by the Unitarian Universalist Association to include earth-centered traditions among their sources of faith. She led numerous workshops for, and was an active member of The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS), an interest group of Unitarians honoring goddess-based, earth-centered, tribal, and pagan spiritual paths.[14]
Starhawk has taught in several San Francisco Bay Area colleges and universities, including John F. Kennedy University, Antioch University West, the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names University, and Wisdom University. She is presently adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is currently affiliated with United for Peace and Justice, the RANT trainers' collective, Earth Activist Training, and other groups.
Works[edit]
Starhawk has written a number of books, and has also contributed works in other media. Her works have appeared in translation in Spanish, French, German, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Greek, Japanese, and Burmese.
Non-fiction[edit]
The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess(1979, 1989, 1999)
Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics (1982, 1988, 1997)
Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery (1988)
Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising (2003)
The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature (2004)
The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups (2011)
As co-author[edit]
With M. Macha Nightmare and the Reclaiming Collective: The Pagan Book of Living and Dying: Practical Rituals, Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations on Crossing Over (1997)
With Anne Hill and Diane Baker: Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition (1998)
With Hilary Valentine: The Twelve Wild Swans: A Journey Into Magic, Healing, and Action (2000)
Fiction[edit]
The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993)
Walking to Mercury (1997) (prequel to The Fifth Sacred Thing)
The Last Wild Witch (2009) (children's book)
City of Refuge (2015) (sequel to The Fifth Sacred Thing)
Other media[edit]
Starhawk has contributed to films:
Signs Out of Time: The Story of Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas
Goddess Remembered
The Burning Times
Full Circle
Permaculture: The Growing Edge (2010)
United Natures (2013) directed by Peter Charles Downey
She participated in the Reclaiming CDs Chants: Ritual Music, and recorded the guided meditation Way to the Well.
On YouTube Starhawk speaks on spirituality and activism at UUA. She also wrote the call-to-action for the women's peace organization Code Pink.
Personal life[edit]
Starhawk married Edwin Rahsman in 1977. They subsequently divorced. She is currently married to David Miller, and they live in San Francisco. Starhawk also resides partly in Sonoma, California.[15]
Starhawk identifies as bisexual, and has also commented that her sexuality is fluidand "has something to do with a deep reluctance to be pinned down."[16] Her writing and activism promotes equality for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
See also[edit]
Anarchism portal
Reclaiming (Neopaganism)
References[edit]
Salomonsen, Jone (2002). Enchanted Feminism: The Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-22392-X
Vale, V. and John Sulak (2001). Modern Pagans. (Interview with Starhawk). San Francisco: Re/Search Publications. ISBN 1-889307-10-6
Notes[edit]
^ Starhawk (2002). Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising. New Society Publishers.
^ Blumberg, Antonia (December 11, 2013). "Celebrate The Winter Solstice With Los Angeles' Own Eco-Pagans". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
^ "Watkins' Spiritual 100 List for 2012 - Watkins MIND BODY SPIRIT Magazine". Watkinsbooks.com. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
^ Video on YouTube
^ "Starhawk's Tangled Web." http://www.starhawk.org/.
^ Blumberg, Antonia (December 11, 2013). "Celebrate The Winter Solstice With Los Angeles' Own Eco-Pagans". The Huffington Post.
^ "Feminist, Earth-based Spirituality and Ecofeminism," in Healing the Wounds by Judith Plant
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 5, 2014. Retrieved May 13,2014.
^ Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion (1979) by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow
^ The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess (1979) by Starhawk
^ Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics (1982) by Starhawk
^ Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery (1988) by Starhawk
^ Foss, Sonja K., and Cindy L. Griffin. "A Feminist Perspective on Rhetorical Theory: Toward a Clarification of Boundaries." Western Journal of Communication 56.4 (1992): 330–49. Print.
^ [1] Archived May 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
^ Berta, Marilyn (August 15, 2012). "We Are Sacred As The Earth: An Interview With Earth Activist Starhawk" treehugger.
^ Tucker, Naomi (1995). Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions. Routledge. p. 328.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Starhawk
Starhawk – Official site
Reclaiming Collective
Earth Activist Training
Starhawk's On Faith column
Interview with Starhawk from Modern Pagans
2003 Interview on Spirituality and Activism on YouTube
Starhawk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Starhawk at a Sicilian workshop
Born
Miriam Simos
June 17, 1951 (age 67)
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Education Trained with Victor Andersonand Zsuzsanna Budapest
Alma mater UCLA, B.A.
Antioch University West, M.A.
Notable work The Spiral Dance
Spouse(s) David Miller
Awards Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award
Website starhawk.org
Women and Spirituality Trilogy
Films
Goddess Remembered (1989)
The Burning Times (1990)
Full Circle (1993)
People
Donna Read, director
Starhawk
Feminism portalStarhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American writer, teacher and activist.[1] She is known as a theorist of feminist Neopaganismand ecofeminism.[2] She is a columnist for Beliefnet.com and for On Faith, the Newsweek/Washington Post online forum on religion.
Starhawk's book The Spiral Dance(1979) was one of the main inspirations behind the Goddess movement. In 2012, she was listed in Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People.[3]
Contents
1Early life
2The Spiral Dance
3Beliefs
4Feminism
5Projects
6Works
6.1Non-fiction
6.1.1As co-author
6.2Fiction
6.3Other media
7Personal life
8See also
9References
10Notes
11External links
Early life[edit]
Starhawk was born in 1951 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her father Jack Simos, died when she was five. Her mother, Bertha Claire Goldfarb Simos, was a professor of social work at UCLA. Both her parents were the children of Jewish immigrants from Russia.
In high school she and fellow feminist Christina Hoff Sommers were best friends.[4]Starhawk received a BA in Fine Arts from UCLA. In 1973, while she was a graduate student in film there, she won the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award for her novel, A Weight of Gold, a story about Venice, California, where she then lived. She received an MA in Psychology, with a concentration in feminist therapy, from Antioch University West in 1982.
The Spiral Dance[edit]
Main article: The Spiral Dance
Following her years at UCLA, after a failed attempt to become a fiction writer in New York City, Starhawk returned to California. She became active in the Neopagan community in the San Francisco Bay Area, and trained with Victor Anderson, founder of the Feri Tradition of witchcraft, and with Zsuzsanna Budapest, a feminist separatist involved in Dianic Wicca.
She wrote a book, The Spiral Dance, on Goddess religion, which she finished in 1977 but was unable to publish at first. Feminist religious scholar Carol P. Christincluded an article on witchcraft and the Goddess movement in the anthology Womanspirit Rising (1979). Christ put Starhawk in touch with an editor at Harper & Row, who eventually published the book.
First published in 1979, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess became a best-selling book about Neopagan belief and practice. A 10th-anniversary edition was published in 1989, followed by a 20th-anniversary edition in 1999. The original text of The Spiral Dance was left largely intact for these editions, expanded primarily by introductions and commentaries reflecting on the book's origins, the rituals described, and the evolution of the author's beliefs and practices. Since its publication, The Spiral Dance has become a classic resource on Wicca and modern witchcraft, spiritual feminism, the Goddess movement, and ecofeminism. The work is distinguished by its visionary mysticism, "broad philosophy of harmony with nature," and ecstatic consciousness.
Contents
1Early life
2The Spiral Dance
3Beliefs
4Feminism
5Projects
6Works
6.1Non-fiction
6.1.1As co-author
6.2Fiction
6.3Other media
7Personal life
8See also
9References
10Notes
11External links
Early life[edit]
Starhawk was born in 1951 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her father Jack Simos, died when she was five. Her mother, Bertha Claire Goldfarb Simos, was a professor of social work at UCLA. Both her parents were the children of Jewish immigrants from Russia.
In high school she and fellow feminist Christina Hoff Sommers were best friends.[4]Starhawk received a BA in Fine Arts from UCLA. In 1973, while she was a graduate student in film there, she won the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award for her novel, A Weight of Gold, a story about Venice, California, where she then lived. She received an MA in Psychology, with a concentration in feminist therapy, from Antioch University West in 1982.
The Spiral Dance[edit]
Main article: The Spiral Dance
Following her years at UCLA, after a failed attempt to become a fiction writer in New York City, Starhawk returned to California. She became active in the Neopagan community in the San Francisco Bay Area, and trained with Victor Anderson, founder of the Feri Tradition of witchcraft, and with Zsuzsanna Budapest, a feminist separatist involved in Dianic Wicca.
She wrote a book, The Spiral Dance, on Goddess religion, which she finished in 1977 but was unable to publish at first. Feminist religious scholar Carol P. Christincluded an article on witchcraft and the Goddess movement in the anthology Womanspirit Rising (1979). Christ put Starhawk in touch with an editor at Harper & Row, who eventually published the book.
First published in 1979, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess became a best-selling book about Neopagan belief and practice. A 10th-anniversary edition was published in 1989, followed by a 20th-anniversary edition in 1999. The original text of The Spiral Dance was left largely intact for these editions, expanded primarily by introductions and commentaries reflecting on the book's origins, the rituals described, and the evolution of the author's beliefs and practices. Since its publication, The Spiral Dance has become a classic resource on Wicca and modern witchcraft, spiritual feminism, the Goddess movement, and ecofeminism. The work is distinguished by its visionary mysticism, "broad philosophy of harmony with nature," and ecstatic consciousness.
Beliefs[edit]
"'What do we do...those of us who do believe the earth is sacred, who do believe that we have a responsibility to care for the living systems that sustain us, and who do believe that we have a responsibility to take care of each other?'"[5] Starhawk believes that the Earth is a living entity, and that faith-based activism can reconnect oneself to basic human needs. She posits core religious values of community and self-sacrifice as important to eco-pagan movements, as well as the broader environmental justice movement.
Starhawk advocates combining social justice issues with a nature-based spirituality that begins with spending time in the natural world, saying that doing so "...can open up your understanding on deeper and more subtle levels where the natural world will speak to you."[6] Starhawk's activism is deeply rooted in an anti-war philosophy, as she believes that war teaches one to see people culturally different than themselves as inhuman and dangerous.[7] Starhawk has written extensively on activism, including advice for activist organizers, examinations of white privilege within radical communities, and calls for an intersectionality of fighting oppression that includes spirituality, eco-consciousness, and sexual and gender liberation.[8]
Feminism[edit]
Starhawk's feminism and spirituality are closely interconnected, and her belief that feminism should challenge power structures denotes her intersectional approach.[9]Her ecofeminism links life-giving Mother Nature with the life-giving of women through birth, as well as the link between ecological destruction and patriarchal oppression under male-dominated Western political economies. She calls for a reconceptualization of the way we think about power that is different from what she posits as our typical understanding of 'power over' others, and believes that patriarchal systems of oppression are dying out and will be replaced by more egalitarian structures that have existed previously with many women in positions of power, including as priestesses, poets, healers, singers, and seers. Such matrilineal lineages, she argues, have been erased from history because of their "political implications."
Starhawk argues that our patriarchal culture of domination has confused the erotic with domination and violence.[10] Sexuality, she says, "...is sacred because through it we make a connection with another self — but it is misused and perverted when it becomes an arena of power-over, a means of treating another — or oneself — as an object."[11] Such analyses of gendered power relations are explored in her books Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising (2003) and Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery (1998). In the latter, Starhawk links the rise of kinship to patriarchal domination, and traces a psychology of liberation in analyzing an oppressor she argues is embedded deeply in all of us, the 'Self-hater.'[12] Again, Starhawk is interested in how such oppressions can be reformed into new sources of power, particularly amongst women, that arise innately and reject dominion over others.
Starhawk's feminist writings have been used to analyze the differences between mainstream rhetoric and feminist rhetoric, particularly in relation to her motive of writing rhetoric as revealing immanent truths rather than being utilized for persuasion.[13] This latter purpose of mainstream rhetoric is viewed by Starhawk as adhering to patriarchal logic, and her vision of 'empowered action' – which involves rejecting the tenets of the oppressive system and then openly challenging them – attempts to transform persuasive mainstream rhetoric to immanent feminist rhetoric.
Projects[edit]
In 1979, partly to commemorate the publication of The Spiral Dance, Starhawk and her friends staged a public celebration of the Neopagan holiday of Samhain(Halloween) incorporating an actual spiral dance. This group became the Reclaiming Collective, and their annual Spiral Dance ritual now draws hundreds of participants.
Starhawk continues to work with Reclaiming, a tradition of Witchcraft that she co-founded. This now international organization offers classes, workshops, camps, and public rituals in earth-based spirituality, with the goal to "unify spirit and politics".
She also works internationally as a trainer in nonviolence and direct action, and as an activist within the peace movement, women's movement, environmental movement, and anti-globalization movement. She travels and teaches widely in North America, Europe and the Middle East, giving lectures and workshops.
She was influential in the decision by the Unitarian Universalist Association to include earth-centered traditions among their sources of faith. She led numerous workshops for, and was an active member of The Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans (CUUPS), an interest group of Unitarians honoring goddess-based, earth-centered, tribal, and pagan spiritual paths.[14]
Starhawk has taught in several San Francisco Bay Area colleges and universities, including John F. Kennedy University, Antioch University West, the Institute of Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names University, and Wisdom University. She is presently adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is currently affiliated with United for Peace and Justice, the RANT trainers' collective, Earth Activist Training, and other groups.
Works[edit]
Starhawk has written a number of books, and has also contributed works in other media. Her works have appeared in translation in Spanish, French, German, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Greek, Japanese, and Burmese.
Non-fiction[edit]
The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess(1979, 1989, 1999)
Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics (1982, 1988, 1997)
Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery (1988)
Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising (2003)
The Earth Path: Grounding Your Spirit in the Rhythms of Nature (2004)
The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups (2011)
As co-author[edit]
With M. Macha Nightmare and the Reclaiming Collective: The Pagan Book of Living and Dying: Practical Rituals, Prayers, Blessings, and Meditations on Crossing Over (1997)
With Anne Hill and Diane Baker: Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition (1998)
With Hilary Valentine: The Twelve Wild Swans: A Journey Into Magic, Healing, and Action (2000)
Fiction[edit]
The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993)
Walking to Mercury (1997) (prequel to The Fifth Sacred Thing)
The Last Wild Witch (2009) (children's book)
City of Refuge (2015) (sequel to The Fifth Sacred Thing)
Other media[edit]
Starhawk has contributed to films:
Signs Out of Time: The Story of Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas
Goddess Remembered
The Burning Times
Full Circle
Permaculture: The Growing Edge (2010)
United Natures (2013) directed by Peter Charles Downey
She participated in the Reclaiming CDs Chants: Ritual Music, and recorded the guided meditation Way to the Well.
On YouTube Starhawk speaks on spirituality and activism at UUA. She also wrote the call-to-action for the women's peace organization Code Pink.
Personal life[edit]
Starhawk married Edwin Rahsman in 1977. They subsequently divorced. She is currently married to David Miller, and they live in San Francisco. Starhawk also resides partly in Sonoma, California.[15]
Starhawk identifies as bisexual, and has also commented that her sexuality is fluidand "has something to do with a deep reluctance to be pinned down."[16] Her writing and activism promotes equality for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
See also[edit]
Anarchism portalReclaiming (Neopaganism)
References[edit]
Salomonsen, Jone (2002). Enchanted Feminism: The Reclaiming Witches of San Francisco. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-22392-X
Vale, V. and John Sulak (2001). Modern Pagans. (Interview with Starhawk). San Francisco: Re/Search Publications. ISBN 1-889307-10-6
Notes[edit]
^ Starhawk (2002). Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising. New Society Publishers.
^ Blumberg, Antonia (December 11, 2013). "Celebrate The Winter Solstice With Los Angeles' Own Eco-Pagans". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
^ "Watkins' Spiritual 100 List for 2012 - Watkins MIND BODY SPIRIT Magazine". Watkinsbooks.com. Retrieved 2016-11-08.
^ Video on YouTube
^ "Starhawk's Tangled Web." http://www.starhawk.org/.
^ Blumberg, Antonia (December 11, 2013). "Celebrate The Winter Solstice With Los Angeles' Own Eco-Pagans". The Huffington Post.
^ "Feminist, Earth-based Spirituality and Ecofeminism," in Healing the Wounds by Judith Plant
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 5, 2014. Retrieved May 13,2014.
^ Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion (1979) by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow
^ The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess (1979) by Starhawk
^ Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics (1982) by Starhawk
^ Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery (1988) by Starhawk
^ Foss, Sonja K., and Cindy L. Griffin. "A Feminist Perspective on Rhetorical Theory: Toward a Clarification of Boundaries." Western Journal of Communication 56.4 (1992): 330–49. Print.
^ [1] Archived May 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
^ Berta, Marilyn (August 15, 2012). "We Are Sacred As The Earth: An Interview With Earth Activist Starhawk" treehugger.
^ Tucker, Naomi (1995). Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions. Routledge. p. 328.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: StarhawkStarhawk – Official site
Reclaiming Collective
Earth Activist Training
Starhawk's On Faith column
Interview with Starhawk from Modern Pagans
2003 Interview on Spirituality and Activism on YouTube
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