Learning objectives
- to invest in a loving and listening relationship with Land and kin, and
- to prepare for long-term, large-scale change by deModernizing and participating in the cosmological transition underway.
Overview
We explore this question: What do designers of climate change adaptations need to know about practices for living the cosmology of the Land?
The Space Between refers to a political transition zone in the pluriverse where Sojourners can disinvest from Modernity/coloniality (see Chapter 3) as they engage in a learning journey about designing local climate change adaptations based on Indigenous conditions for cultural continuity. Chapter 4 contributes to this learning journey by focusing on the process of deModernizing, which includes
- recovering from cosmological destitution and Modern diseases such as oppression, greed, intolerance, intentional ignorance;
- becoming ecocentric is a way of inhabiting Land differently by nurturing a loving listening relationship with Land and kin and learning how to live in symbiotic relationality with all Beings;
- becoming agentic for ecojustice and climate justice with the goal of emancipating Land and Climate from human domination; and
- reTurning to regenerative cultures in spiraling time.
DeModernizing prepares us for the large-scale, long-term cosmological transition that is underway. Exploring Earth-centred philosophies and practices is a way to participate in this transition from monotheistic religions to Spiritual-but-not-religious to loving earth-centred philosophies and practices (Ruether, 2008; Mercadante, 2020). DeModernizing, like decoloniality and disinvesting, is committed to restructuring relations to nondomination.
Cosmological transitions occurred in past climate change events, so it should not come as a surprise that a cosmological transition is occurring in the current climate change event. The cosmological transition currently underway is a movement toward nondual Earth-centered practices and philosophies (e.g., elementalism, paganism, animism, shamanism, the Great Mother, Daoism). It begins by rejecting anthropocentrism inherent in Abrahamic religions.
Suggested reading
- Albrecht. G. (2019). Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World. Cornell University Press. Website Psychoterratica. https://glennaalbrecht.wordpress.com/