XYLOMORPHOGENISIS

WOOD WIZARD SPEAKS

Magic is in the air as I walk out though the cool crisp late winter air. Spring feels just around the corner, but there is still a sharp nip to the Appalachian air as I wander among the strange sights of a xylomorphogenetic experiment...the wizardry of my host is apparent, as is the experimental air. Spirals and twists are grown into the saplings , right angles, here, and a growing chair there...
My mind flows along the pulsing possibilities...grow your own house! Art and a magnificent scale!

All of this remembered as I sit around the hearth here at the ETC rapping with Kurt, Nathan and Wade about the potentials of living art...
Kurt is fired up, and perhaps we will catch the winds and fly away on this one...

Towards Ecosophy

Just a quick drop on systems languages and the ubiquity of ecosystem in our evolving lexicon:

Ecosophy is a term coined by various people seemingly simultaneously. I am most familiar and resonant with the definition offered by Felix Guitarri, appearing in wikipedia. Guitarri (who co-wrote with Gilles Delueze A Thousand Plateaus, Capitalism and Schizophrenia, and other pivotal works of French pomo babble), calls for a new"discipline" (for lack of a better word, perhaps un-discipline would be more suitable) that integrates mental, social, and environmental ecologies with discerning languages and a relational ontology.

So, in this way it seems possible to integrate systemic thinking into political, business, psychology and other human affairs without compromising the integrity of "ecosystem" as it pertains to our home planet and the various regions that comprise it.

I for one am happy to see ecosystem leaking into pejorative language. We will have to, as always, take a few steps further to continue pulling society onwards in its spiral evolution towards harmony with mother earth...but for now take solace that the memes embedded in ecology are rapidly replicating in mainstream society, creating the nemawashi (small meticulous steps needed for large change) that is needed for the evolutionary shift of consciousness needed to synchronize human activity with gaiapoiesis. (conscious act of acting in harmony with mother earth were humans are a creative keystone species in the global "ecosystem")

We might consider, as the language that brought us where we are gets gobbled up and churned into the common zietgiest, pushing the linguistic envelope further to create more discernment of the various levels of systemic understanding embedded in bioregionalism and the world view stemming from ecology and systems thinking.
The more we craft and discern, the sharper/softer our own thinking/feeling can become, and the easier the transition for others into a ecological consciousness will be.

YEE HAW

Spiritual Ecology

With the arrival of our Christian guests here at the Ecovillage Training Center, I am busy (on a Sunday) studying what biblical texts I have available and their scholarly implications to environmental ethics. In some ways I feel a very strong resonance with parts of the Christian tradition. I have had several mystical experience with the Mother Mary and Jesus helping me through difficult times. That said, I do not, strictly speaking, consider myself a Christain. However, I do live in a culture created on the foundation of a Judeo-Christian worldview, and respect and honor the Christian Tradition.

All of that by way of introduction to my research into the roots of Christian Environmentalism.
The movement towards embracing our earth and accepting stewardship is becoming stronger in the Christian Tradition.
Examples:
An interfaith group called Interfaith Power and Light based in Iowa has created a movement called cool congregations teaching ecocogy and giving tools to lower the ecological footprint of congregations around the country.
A group of nuns as a Fransiscan Monestary is practicing permaculture re-designing the grounds in "alignment with ecological principles" and teaching permaculture to its flock
and the list goes on. The Vatican added environmental sin to the deadly sins the other day as well http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/13/new.sins/index.html?iref=mpst
Better lae than never, a close friend of mine said upon seeing this article...True story...
I also hope, as exemplified by The Franciscan Nuns I talked about above, that the Vatican also follows up with some positive solutions to go with the threat of eternal hellfire and damnation for polluting our mother earth.

It is not my point here to discern between individual sets of the Christain Tradition. It is to applaud our Christian Brothers and Sisters in their efforts, and encourage more interfaith dialog and collaboration. Love they neighbor is a central tenant to the Christian Tradition....and tending the Garden and Stewarding the Earth are both clear and unambiguous directions to caring for people and earth.

It is my sincere hope that the movement of the Christian "Right" in America and the Roman Catholic church towards developing a strong environmental ethic is reflective of a greater shift towards integration, inclusion, diversity and other key values for a thriving post-modern culture grounded in health and abundance here on Gaia, and not simply a reactionary public relations move.

Apocalypse Now!

You know the end of the world (or something like it) is coming when both MTV and a Christian Evangelical TV station are doing documentaries on Permaculture and the Ecovillage movement...
Change is in the air.

"The explication:
The word “apocalypse” literally means “revelation” —
information or understanding that is received from a spiritual source.

The implication:
In common usage, the term “apocalypse” implies a clash of opposing forces
that heralds the end of an epoch of human history and presages the beginning of a new and
different world."

Taken from the essay Post-Apocalyptic Paganism by Dale C Gorwin

Here at the Ecovillage Training Center we have had a Gigantic! productions, crew filming for a True Life documentary on moving to an off the grid ecovillage, (following Jessi and I here from her parents house in NJ), as well as a pending interview with a Christian broadcasting company doing a series on green living.

Why all this attention and what does it all mean?
The Permaculture and Ecovillage movements have been hard at work grounding and manifesting ecological and social healing for years...Recent developments in the media and geopolitical affairs have suddenly shifted public awareness to the need for positive solutions. Al Gore, Paul Hawkin and others have been actively raising awareness, and hollywood and the media in general are starting to pay more and more attention...
Seeing the Christian right shift and start to move towards lessoning ecological footprints in congregations (cool congregations)
is a huge tipping point as critical issues like Peak Oil, Climate Change, War, and economic upheaval are all start to become glaringly obvious to anyone paying attention.
People who have been working on solutions, activists and communities like The Farm are being turned to to offer help...And not a moment too soon...and hopefully not a moment too late.

The time for great change has come, and resources to help us enact the change in ourselves and in our communities are available all over the net, in books, and held in the wisdom of elders all over the planet.

Over the next few months as I am working on my own projects resonant with this cultural transformation, I hope to compile and share all the resources and learnings I have come across in the actively emerging Gaiascape here in Middle Tennessee.





Technorati Tags: The Farm, Peak Oil, MTV, Climate Change

Coming soon

Soon to come,
links to and from www.thefarm.org and several of the blogs of Ecovillage Training Center staff, as well as a col laboratory ETC blog for project updates and more.

Settling in at the Ecovillage

This post comes by way of breaking a spell of writers block with a quick check in...
After a simultaneously quick and slow trip down the Appalachian's the Nemawashi pod has landed with a little fan fare and excitement at the Ecovillage Training Center.
Turns out that through a connection here, and a twist of fate there, MTV is doing a documentary on off the grid living, and decided that a couple and a friend moving to an ecovillage in rural Tennesee would make a good segment.
Settling in with cameras was a new experience, but the crew seem genuine and intelligent, and interested in the myriad of projects starting, finishing, or languishing around the ETC.
New interesting ideas and faces have swirled through my emerging thoughtscape...I explored Xylomorphogenisis (the training/cultivation of trees in different shaped) as an art and potential construction technique with a wood wizard in Floyd.
Hopefuly I will get to spend a little more time exploring the intricacies and applications of Xylomorphogenisis in a later post. For now I am goign to ground back into the realities of spring planting, planing, and preperations for the coming season....so much to do!