Ayahuasca as Treatment Modality

The Ayahuasca Ceremony as a Viable Treatment Modality
by Mel Falck, Appalachian State University

The ayahuasca ceremony is an ancient shamanic custom that is gaining popularity and acceptance amongst many in the western world. Some are turning towards this sacramental ritual in order to acquire healing, wisdom, and insight, in the hopes of obtaining some glimmer of hope and respite from a culture that seems to alienate us from ourselves, our communities, and our planet. This paper explores the potentiality for healing that this sacred and ancient ceremony offers to modern day humans.

Continue Reading →

Articles, Spirituality Shortlink

Going Coastal

a poem by Ceó Ruairc

When days turn brilliant and cool
and the forest breathes
with footprints seldom seen
when these dark trails
are mostly mine

I will rest immersed
in piles of Maple leaves
sleep in this amber glow
until Squirrel stops scolding
and even Wren becomes brave

I will dream as I bathe
in her melodious song
as wild Wolves return
a flow of grey
whispers in the woods
running

I will watch Salmon struggle home
from their ocean run
as glistening Bears dine
on river-gifts
and the great rains come

I will give thanks
for the unfathomable
connection of it all
this balance of give and take
death and birth
summer fruits fading
into rich black earth

I will burst open
with the sweet grief
of knowing
my smallness in this world
then slowly trace
a sinuous path home

Returning
I will step lightly
silent as the moon
golden leaves in my pockets
chlorophyll in my veins
fragrant as the earth

Naturalist/poet, Ceó Ruaírc writes from wild places, inspired by wolf song, coastal storms, and the tenacity of trees.

Poetry and Prose Shortlink

Martin Jordan

This never-more-relevant quote from the late Martin Jordan, much beloved in the EP community, from Ecotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, the book he co-edited with Joe Hinds in 2016.

“Counselling and psychotherapy cannot fully alleviate the [patient’s] symptoms unless they can treat the cause (the political and historical constellations that shape the era), and yet that cause is the exact subject psychology is not allowed to address… the critiques put forward by ecopsychology and ecotherapy, of dominant social norms which are inherently destructive to the environment and also destructive to thehuman race, are attempting to place counselling and psychotherapy within a wider cultural and political sphere where nature and the environment play a central role in mental health and well-being.”

Books, Quotes Shortlink

Creating a Safe Environment for our Birds

Boris Smokrovic

This piece was submitted by “Sally Writes” after reading a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggesting that humans are pushing the 6th great extinction. She wrote, “Part of this is overpopulation and overconsumption, but part is accidental. One area where we’re harming the environment is with our windows, which kill millions of birds each year. As the Content Manager for a small window cleaning service, I felt it important we cover this topic.”

Birds, like all other creatures on this planet, are essential to the natural balance of the ecosystem. They pollinate our plants to enable fertilization and reproduction. They give trees the chance to colonize new areas by assuming an active role in successful seed dispersal and regeneration. They transport the nutrients found in soil from one place to another and play a hugely important role in agricultural systems by regulating the number of pests.

Continue Reading →

Articles Shortlink

The Green Gathering 2018

The Green Gathering is an extraordinary event that happens over several days every year in the UK. When I lived in England I attended with my partner and co-founder at riverOcean, Clive Pepe.  We went in style with the full-sized yurt we used for our community festivals, and loved every minute of it. The all-solar-powered gathering is set in a beautiful meadow, like an intimate “Green” Woodstock with the creativity of a super-mellow verdant Burning Man, complete with wonderful music, outstanding networking, hanging out, and friend-making opportunities, and free classes in everything from permaculture to bronze-casting. You can still snab a Early Bird ticket for 2018 – only £90 from the Bristol Ticket Shop.

Check out their website for more information.

At the 2017 UK Festival Awards, the Green Gathering was awarded with the Greener Festival Award for outstanding commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating positive social impact.

Events Shortlink

A Research Request

A research request from Eric Windhorst, PhD candidate and Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at Brock University:

Are you a gifted adult who loves nature? Eric Windhorst is recruiting participants to his PhD research study which is exploring how gifted adults experience ecological self (nature connection)—and how this experience relates to mental health and environmental behaviour. Eric is currently seeking out gifted men in particular.

Contributing to the study will involve participating in two, one-on-one interviews with Eric. Each of the two interviews will be approximately one hour in length and can be conducted over Skype.

Study participation is open to all individuals over the age of 25 that self-identify as gifted.

If you’re interested in contributing to the study, or want to learn more about it, feel free to reach out to Eric directly (ew14ft@brocku.ca).

Research Shortlink

Support Orion!

Orion is one of my favorite magazines. It’s an extraordinarily beautiful and well-put-together quarterly publication celebrating Nature and Culture, featuring stunning photography and articles about subjects I want to know more about by authors I am stimulated & inspired by.

They carry absolutely no advertising; their income is entirely subscription-based, which is an incredibly challenging economic model to sustain. So when they ran a Kickstarter campaign last month asking for help producing a special 35th Anniversary issue, I was more than happy to support them.

To give you as taste, here’s a little excerpt from from the current issue – Stellar, about Stellar Jays, by Peter Friederici.

Their Kickstarter campaign is still going, although they have reached their immediate goal. Given that a magazine of this caliber & integrity will need our ongoing support if it is to survive and thrive, I urge you too to contribute generously.

 

 

Reviews Shortlink

Interview with Mary Jayne Rust

This fabulous interview of UK ecopsychologist Mary Jayne Rust by ecotherapist Linda Buzzell aired on the Ecopsychology Voices series produced by Carol Koziol, founder of the Canadian Ecopsychology Network.

Media Shortlink

Seven Days of Beauty

Regular contributor Jamie McHugh created Seven Days of Beauty, a series of seven short videos originally dedicated to the healing of post-election trauma and distress but just as relevant today. Thank you, Jamie, for sharing it with us here on Gatherings.

Ecotherapy, Media Shortlink

Waterfall Teachings

John Scull, one of the key co-founders of this Journal and ICE (the International Community for Ecopsychology), posted an ode to waterfalls – “the immensely powerful and beautiful shape water takes for a moment in its journey downstream” – on the ICE blog.

Reflection Shortlink

Vhembe, Sacred Vestige

Submitted by Charlotte von Fritschen 

I have returned, feeling different in my skin, after a short but enlivening visit to a few remote villages in Vhembe, Limpopo. Time seemed slower there, given a certain rhythm by the pounding of grain in preparation for dinner, or the many steps taken to the forest to fetch wood. It is worlds apart from the South Africa I thought I knew: Cape Town; and I learned a lot from their way of life – I believe we all could.

The Vhavenda tribes inhabit the Soutpansberg mountains, nestled in lush Afromontane enclaves, situated in the northern most subtropical part of South Africa. Vhembe, formally Venda, was declared self-governing in 1973 and independent in 1979 by the South African government. Edward Lahiff reflects on how the enclosure of the region allowed for the preservation of many traditional ways of life in his book, An Apartheid Oasis?: Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods in Venda. We were led by Jeffrey Rink, an ecopsychologist from Cape Town who had long since fallen head over ‘hills’, those beautiful green mountains, and in awe of the cultural and spiritual wealth of the tribes.

Continue Reading →

Reflection Shortlink

Download During Meditation

“Download” During Meditation (PDF 74K)
Submitted by Kathleen Pait

During an immersive group meditation, I experienced an out-of-body sensation that cast me above the group, away from the building, and out of Earth’s atmosphere, where I was presented information from a more evolved being on the current climate problems humanity faces. The following is my recollection of the event, although suffice it to say that words could never adequately convey the soul of the wisdom…

 

Reflection Shortlink

If Women Rose Rooted

If Women Rose Rooted: A Journey to Authenticity and Belonging
by Sharon Backie

A Book Review, by Marilyn Steele

Last week I visited a favorite “soul’s place of resurrection”, hiking the Tennessee Valley trail in Marin County to the beach. Author Sharon Blackie defines such a place as one where a soul is happiest on earth and, at the same time, most in touch with all that is eternal.

It was a magical, breathtaking clear sky day where I watched a blue heron stand poised, present, patient at the edge of the blackwater pond spotted with bright green islands of plants. The water broke and rippled as an otter, sleek and shiny, playfully surfaced and dove over and over again in joy.

At the beach, strings of brown pelicans streamed across the water along with smaller black seabirds and sharp winged white birds which just skimmed the waves, chittering and chirping. On the way back, a black snake slithered across my path and into the grass.

What gifts did I carry home with me? Heron medicine. The example of dignity, determination, grace, balance, standing steady as she waited for just the right opportunity to plunge. The reminder to play, have fun, be curious like otter. And of course Snake. Ancient wisdom, prophecy, death and rebirth, transformation, the weaving path of the wild and sacred Feminine. So many messengers on the path showing “This way, this way.”

Continue Reading →

Books Shortlink

Re-Humanizing Nature

Re-Humanizing Nature (PDF, 123K) by Ian Johnstone

“The meaning of things lies not in things themselves, but in our attitudes to them.”
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Australian Ian Johnstone’s long (24 pages), thoughtful article utilizes the language of poetry (and excerpts from the best of nature writing) in an impassioned plea for :re-humanizing” nature. Written in 2014, Johnstone’s argument is about the dehumanization that an exclusively scientific perception and language has wrought, and the many ways he sees for re-humanizing our relationship with the natural world – a topic as relevant now as it was then.

Articles Shortlink

Transpersonal Narratives in Eco-Psychology

Announcing Transpersonal Narratives in Eco-Psychology – an upcoming CONFER event happening 24-26 November, 2017 at the Eden project in Cornwall.

It’s priced to be accessible to all. Many of our friends and colleagues will be there, and the sessions sound brilliant!

Events Shortlink