Cultivating Active Hope Through Deep Ecology (& the Work that Reconnects)
The world is not a problem to be solved; it is a living being to which we belong. The world is part of our own self and we are a part of its suffering wholeness. Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the deepest part of our separateness from creation lies in our forgetfulness of its sacred nature, which is also our own sacred nature.”
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Do you care deeply for Earth and feel a sense of courage, passion, motivation and curiousity about what are the possibilities for change in the way we relate to and care for our Earth?
Are you keen to cultivate a sense of hope and take hopeful action within your community?
Are you sometimes feeling stuck with your next right step in how to care for and contribute to earth and her human and other than human beings
Are you sometimes feeling a sense of powerlessness/hopelessness, a sense of ambivalence? Or fear, rage, grief over what has happened or what you worry will happen in your community in terms of fires, floods, land clearing?
Are you maybe feeling a sense of isolation or separation in experiencing some or all of the above and you’re craving a safe space to be held by a community of like hearted souls?
If you are, Deep Ecology/Active Hope is a place of belonging for you- just like it is for me. I have felt all of the above and when I landed with Deep Ecology and Active Hope I found it to be so nourishing for my soul. I am keen to be part of a restorative and regenerative community of practice, a place where we feel our deep belonging to earth and where we can share our love and care for earth, our grief and fear, and cultivate the ability to have Active Hope, to take hopeful action without knowing the outcome.
It is easy these days to feel stuck in an ambivalent/numbed out ‘business as usual’ or ‘doom and gloom’ mindset, as described by Joanna Macy, but Active Hope/Deep Ecology can give us the opportunity to participate in the Great Turning, the transition to a life-sustaining society, where we might feel able to:
- take action to protect part of our Earth,
- create new ways of living in harmony with our Earth or
- support a shift in consciousness/values so we can do more of the first two.
Deep Ecology / Active Hope, Soulcraft practices and a Rekindling Kinnection retreat with Aunty Rhonda and her daughter Arly supported me immensely to reconnect deeply with caring for earth.
One way we can actively cultivate hope is through the four Active Hope spiral practices of:
- gratitude,
- honouring our pain,
- seeing with new eyes (and deeply connecting with the wild restorative and regenerative aspects of nature) and then
- going forth, choosing the next right hopeful step to move forward…
These 4 practices and finding more ways to be in right relationship with nature has been really refreshing in finding a new sense of purpose and it was just what I needed after a period of burnout and being caught between the ambivalent / numbing mindsets of ‘business as usual’ (head in the sand) or ‘gloom and doom’.
Deep Ecology has arisen from an ancient understanding of our deep ‘Interbeing’, interconnectedness and belonging with all beings on earth and from the understanding of Buddhist philosophy of ways to handle the suffering of life…I feel like I am a life-long student of both of these.
Community of Practice:
My heart and soul’s longing and intention is to be part of a community of practice who are passionate about growing and healing, who want to understand their own inner ecosystem of parts and Self, and understand how their Ecological Self is deeply connected to the larger ecosystem in which they live and are part of on this Earth.
I’m curious to explore the Deep Ecology, Work that Reconnects and Active Hope practices here in community in Hobart and online. I’m also curious about bringing the wisdom of Internal Family Systems and the archetypes of the Ecological Self as described in Wild Mind and Nature and the Human Soul by Bill Plotkin to grow and develop our ecological Self / Soul to act from love, passionate motivation and wisdom not from fear, grief, anger or a numb place.
By refreshing our sense of belonging in the world, we widen the web of relationships that nourishes us and protects us from burnout.”
Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone Active Hope
I am longing for more intentional community gatherings with Ceremony/Ritual that include:
- accessing the four ways of learning / experiencing the world: to know sense, feel , and imagine
- understanding our own ancestral roots and our connection to /deep belonging to Earth
- the Active Hope / Deep Ecology / The Work that Reconnects Spiral and practices to collectively express our fear, grief and rage, to feel it to heal it and cultivate Active Hope
- Soulcraft Practices and Wild Mind/Nature and the Human Soul practices by Bill Plotkin and Animus Valley to deepen our connection with nature as we connect with our inner nature
- Embodied movement, creative expression, visualisation, connection with nature
In an Active Hope / Deep Ecology Gathering we will do a variety of practices each month that are encompassed within the Active Hope Spiral:
- Gratitude
- Honouring Our Pain
- Seeing With New Eyes
- Going Forth (with Active Hope)
In a safe space we will be invited to experience some of the following practices to bring relief and healing to our parts who feel for the earth, allowing them to feel seen. heard, understood and supported:
- Mindfulness & Visualisation
- Embodied Movement, Somatic Awareness
- Creative Expression, Intuitive Drawing and Journalling
- Community & Connection
- Deep Heartfelt Sharing in Circle/Council
- Laughter and Joy
Sara creates a space…to remember that you belong as your unique self perfectly imperfect. … living a life in connection with soul and heart.”
Louise K.
Community of Practice Details:
Active Hope /Deep Ecology community of practice Monthly Gathering:
In Person: Every third Wednesday of the month, starting 20th August 6pm at Tas Ethical 86 Hampden Rd Battery Point (90 mins).
$20-30 sliding scale donation going to Bush Heritage Australia
Numbers are limited.
Please register and ask for more information here: saraphillipstas@gmail.com
Weekend Workshops
Date/Day/Times: TBA
Mentor/Coaching/Counselling 1:1: Please ask for more information here: saraphillipsnsw@gmail.com
Recommended Resources:
- Active Hope Online Course: (Free or by Donation) https://activehope.training/
- Deep Ecology: https://www.deepecology.org.au/
- John Seed: https://johnseed.net/ and Rainforest Information Centre: https://www.rainforestinformationcentre.org/
- The Work That Reconnects: https://workthatreconnects.org/
- Joanna Macy: https://www.joannamacy.net/main
- Joanna Macy on Great Turning: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=282479709766094
- Psychology for A Safe Climate Resources List: https://www.psychologyforasafeclimate.org/resources/
- Articles / Publications on Eco-Anxiety and Eco-Distress: https://www.psychologyforasafeclimate.org/professional-resources/
More Testimonials here
More on Deep Ecology:
In my recent experiences with Deep Ecology and Active Hope (online and weekend workshops with John Seed) and Psychology For A Safe Climate workshops it is clear to me that it is essential that we understand what holds us back in fear, in apathy, in numbing and in DEADENING our response to what is happening around us.
We need to know, now more than ever, how to honour our pain, grief, fear and rage at what is happening in the world, while we also learn how to connect to and cultivate our hope, joy, our love, care and connection, our passion and our motivation to ENLIVEN our response to life and what is happening here on Earth. We need to connect with Self, connect with our Community, listen to the Great Mystery and Nature, and learn how to care for our Earth.
It is time to take another look at ourselves – to re-enliven our sense of what it is to be human, to breathe new life into ancient intuitions of who we are, and to learn again to celebrate, as we once did, our instinctive affinity with the Earth community in which we are rooted.”
Bill Plotkin Wild Mind
Cultivating hope is a thinking process not a felt process (Brene Brown) and it is a part of IFS and Deep Ecology, where both have a focus on creating hope in the inner and outer ecosystems. These modalities/philosophies are the best ways I know to heal and grow through emotions such as fear, rage, grief, numbing for personal issues and for the collective issues of eco-anxiety and eco-distress.
once we realize that the nature within and the nature without are continuous, then we too may share and manifest the exquisite beauty and effortless grace associated with the natural world”
John Seed
The refusal to feel takes a heavy toll. Not only is there an impoverishment of our emotional and sensory life, flowers are dimmer and less fragrant, our loves less ecstaticâ but this psychic numbing also impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more creative uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for fresh visions and strategies.”
Joanna Macy
Deep Ecology is about holding two opposing truths at the same time, grief and hope, fear and joy, so that we can begin to find new ways of being in community and in this world with new ways of thinking about and valuing our beautiful planet (Joanna Macy refers to this as the Great Turning) as we take action to protect the ecosystems around us.
If the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater than their fear.”
Joanna Macy
We belong to Earth like a child belongs to a grandmother ( I learnt this while on a Rekindling Kinnection retreat this year with Aunty Rhonda and her daughter Arly). Can we love and respect Earth as if she was our grandmother, can we listen and learn from her? All earth based cultures over time and all religions/spiritual practices have recognised the importance of caring for Earth so she can care for us and this only changed very, very recently (Joanna Macy in her book Coming Back to Life).
To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe — to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it — is a wonder beyond words.”
Joanna Macy
We need to understand our rightful place in the wider ecosystem of earth….and understand our larger Self, our ecological Self, and we can do this with ceremony, community and connection. We are part of larger systems, and if we heal our own inner ecosystem then we can have a role in a larger ecosystem to heal and evolve, to support our communities to grow, heal and evolve?
when you experience Self, you naturally feel more connected to humanity in general and also to something larger and more encompassing, the earth, the universe, the big Self. And you will also discover other qualities rising up in you like joy, equanimity, forgiveness, perspective, and playfulness”.
Richard Schwartz in No Bad Parts
Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life on whose behalf we can act. We belong to this world and we are here to play our part.”
https://www.activehope.info/
In an Active Hope / Deep Ecology Gathering we will participate in practices that encompass the 4 parts of the Active Hope Spiral:
- Gratitude
- Honouring Our Pain
- Seeing With New Eyes
- Going Forth (with Active Hope)
Active Hope is not wishful thinking.
Joanna Macy
Active Hope is not waiting to be rescued . . . .
by some savior.
Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life
on whose behalf we can act.
We belong to this world.
The web of life is calling us forth at this time.
We’ve come a long way and are here to play our part.
With Active Hope we realize that there are adventures in store,
strengths to discover, and comrades to link arms with.
Active Hope is a readiness to discover the strengths
in ourselves and in others;
a readiness to discover the reasons for hope
and the occasions for love.
A readiness to discover the size and strength of our hearts,
our quickness of mind, our steadiness of purpose,
our own authority, our love for life,
the liveliness of our curiosity,
the unsuspected deep well of patience and diligence,
the keenness of our senses, and our capacity to lead.
None of these can be discovered in an armchair or without risk.”
Recommended Resources:
- Active Hope Online Course: (Free or by Donation) https://activehope.training/
- Deep Ecology: https://www.deepecology.org.au/
- John Seed: https://johnseed.net/ and Rainforest Information Centre: https://www.rainforestinformationcentre.org/
- The Work That Reconnects: https://workthatreconnects.org/
- Joanna Macy: https://www.joannamacy.net/main
- Joanna Macy on Great Turning: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=282479709766094
- Psychology for A Safe Climate Resources List: https://www.psychologyforasafeclimate.org/resources/
- Articles / Publications on Eco-Anxiety and Eco-Distress: https://www.psychologyforasafeclimate.org/professional-resources/
If we want to continue to enjoy our rivers – to swim in them, walk beside them, even drink their water – we have to adopt the non-dual perspective. We have to meditate on being the river so that we can experience, within ourselves, the fears and hopes of the river. If we cannot feel the rivers, the mountains, the air, the animals, and other people from within their own perspective, the rivers will die and we will lose our chance for peace.”
Thich Nhat Hanh Peace In Every Step
All photos unless otherwise stated are by Sara Phillips 2023
