We must remember how to relate to the earth as our kin.
Our ancestors taught that the earth and humanity are one. All of nature—humans, plants, animals, rocks, trees, oceans, sky—is interconnected. In this way, we participate in nature’s expression and co-create the earth. In other words, we are the earth, and the earth is us. The ancestors also understood our most refined human capacity to be our ability to steward the earth—to hold it together with empathy, respect, awe, and praise.
The greatest threat to the environment is our belief that we are separate from nature. When we regard nature as separate from us, we abuse, exploit, and attempt to dominate the land. This misunderstanding, which is relatively recent in human history, has led to crisis and suffering that adversely affects our environment, hearts and minds, and diminishes us as human beings. It is a crisis of alienation, a collective wound, and a loss felt by our souls.
We are all stakeholders in the outcome of climate crisis, and in order to survive as a planet and a species, individuals and communities need to integrate the wisdom of our ancestors.
Shamans say that we can dream a new earth into existence. We can embrace the unifying threads of the natural world to form an intimate and soulful relationship with the earth. The shamanic worldview is a strategy for hope, optimism, and survival.
We invite you to break the cycle of suffering by remembering our interconnection with the living planet. We invite you to dream a new earth into being. To redefine what it means to be human and to truly belong to the earth.