Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
when he said that “Modern man talks of the battle with nature, forgetting that if he ever
won the battle he would find himself on the losing side.” We are living through a world-
wide crisis of our own making: the crisis of 'global change'.
Many green thinkers agree that this mechanistic world-view has brought us to the
brink of a catastrophe so great that our very civilisation is threatened, and that we ur-
gently need to make peace with nature by rediscovering and embodying a world-view
that reconnects us with a deep sense of participating in a cosmos suffused with intelli-
gence, beauty, intrinsic value and profound meaning, as I had discovered at Rushbeds
Wood. In this topic we shall try to explore this participatory understanding using insights
from Gaia theory, holistic science and deep ecology. In particular, we will ask to what
extent it is possible to use recent scientific discoveries about the Earth to develop a deep
reverence for our planet home so that we can then engage in actions consistent with this
reverence, for science is a dangerous gift unless it can be brought into contact with the
wisdom that resides in the sensual, intuitive and ethical aspects of our natures. As we
shall see, it is only when these other ways of knowing complement our rational approach
to the world that we can truly experience the living intelligence of nature.
Rediscovering Animism
The experiences of wholeness into which I had stumbled whilst living and working with
muntjac were healing and full of significance, but my confidence in them had been al-
most totally undermined by the mechanistic views so eloquently articulated by Monod
and Russell. I left the university with my doctorate, but also with a great deal of unease.
Were Monod and Russell right, or was there anything of genuine value in the diverse life
and intelligence that I had sensed in Rushbeds Wood and its inhabitants? And if what I
had experienced was indeed real, could it ever become part of science?
For most non-Western cultures, such experiences of the living qualities of nature are
a source of direct, reliable knowledge. For them, nature is truly alive, and every entity
within it is endowed with agency, intelligence, and wisdom; qualities which in the West,
when they are recognised at all, have commonly been referred to as
'soul
'. For tradition-
al cultures, rocks are considered to be the elders of the Earth; they are the keepers of the
oldest memories and are sought out for their tranquil, wise counsel. High mountains are
the abode of powerful beings, and are climbed only at the risk of gravely offending their
more-than-human inhabitants. Forests are living entities, and must be consulted before a
hunt by the shamans of the tribe, who have direct, intuitive connection with the great be-
ing of the forest. The American philosopher and cultural ecologist David Abram makes
the point that many traditional peoples knew their natural surroundings as so intensely
