Gaia and a Gaian Society: An Essay

The following post is an adaptation of an essay I wrote in the Fall 0f 1999 looking ahead to the coming millennium.


We find ourselves at a critical crossroads as a species. Our destiny and the destiny of the Earth(Gaia) have become intimately intertwined. The well-being of Gaia and the well-being of humankind are inextricably wedded together. Moreover, our lives and the meaning of our lives depend upon learning the sacred wisdom of Gaia, of learning how to dance in step with her vast and complex ecological patterns.

What is called for is nothing less than a mythic and ethical reawakening. What is called for is a radical new vision: a Gaian Society.

The word Gaia originates from the Greek and refers to the Earth in all its inherent powers of birth, regeneration and transformation. Gaia is the Primal Female and Mother from which all life and its creative force are derived. We know for instance that our remote ancestors before the dawn of a patriarchal mode of human social arrangement were deeply embedded in a sacred reverence for the Earth and her numerous mythic manifestations. To be Gaian is to see with a mythic imagination our true oneness with Earth. We are Gaians as inhabitants, dwellers on Earth. We are Gaians when we turn our hearts towards Gaia as symbol of the source of our lives and our fundamental creativity as a species.

Gaia is not only an idea, she is also a living reality that surrounds us. Gaia is a great and deep source: she is the womb, our original home and the mother of our existence. She is most certainly supportive of life in its diverse forms. She is symbolic of genuine diversity-within unity(wholeness)- a great dialogue of voices.

To truly see Gaia as womb is to tap the powers of myth and poetic vision. The mythic imagination in its various forms and its poetry are modes of thought and discourse allowing us to relate to that which we cannot name. Earth as Gaia becomes real again. She is reborn again as a living organism. This living reality is the functioning of the Earth in its myriad, complex cycles, ecosystems, habitats, geochemical processes, organisms and the numerous human cultures.

A Gaian society is now only a vision. It is deeply personal and is a philosophical life. The purpose of that life is to foster a relinking to our source through a movement of thought and action. The emergence of such a world culture must begin in our hearts. Action, of course, has its place. But action must be informed by a guiding ethic- a Gaian ethos. It is no longer enough for human beings to survive in isolated aesthetic islands or to pursue the accumulation of power. What has happened is that action has become increasingly divorced from ethical reflection. What works, what is efficient or expedient seems to be the guiding rule. We move forward faster and faster, but know not where we are headed nor why. In any case, the present social context in which we act is radically separated from the ethical-ecological sphere. We need, therefore, a renewal of thought and open discourse. Along with this we need to confront the various constraints and limitations on thought and action. Gaia presents us with a concrete and living context in which we can confront these real limits.

Albert Camus, the French writer, distilled philosophy down to the basic question: "to live or not to live". The world for him had no intrinsic meaning. He seems to have viewed it as an absurd arena wherein we acted and reacted, in which we passed our lives and then we exited it finally. No more. And yet Camus deeply felt, I believe, that at least life could be given value and that an ethical response was mandated by our humanity.

For the vast number of people, especially living in the so-called developed nations a spiritual or sacred grounding has completely eroded away. The current modern "scientific method" indifferent to moral value and itself a shifting ground cannot provide us with spiritual guidance. Essentially then we have lost our faith and we suffer from something that alludes us.

If the existence of the world( Earth) has no purpose or value intrinsic to itself, then we are faced with what Camus rightly called the absurd. Camus, however, struggled mightily with this question and found that what was ultimately significant, even in an apparently meaningless and valueless world, was that in order for human beings to remain human they had to inform their actions in the world with meaning. It is also my belief that Camus was pointing towards the ethical as a process and a search, personal as well as social, that in the end defines us and grounds our actions in the world. To operate outside of an ethical context is to finally and irrevocably abdicate our humanity. This I know is very difficult for our modern ears to hear and our minds to comprehend. We have become clearly accustomed to separating the ought from the sheer is of being. But the why of what we do in long run does arise in our consciousness and demands an answer. Otherwise our activity has no lasting value and instead we become like the machines we invent.

Gaia in another deeper sense is a different language, an alternate narrative. Ultimately Gaia is us. The Earth can never be anything but womb and mother if our humanity is to remain intact. And this simply means that forms of exploitation without ecological repair and renewal wounds us deeply. Even with the certainty of total annihilation by self-destruction, a natural catastrophe such as a collision with an extraterrestial object or a more slow, but sure, passing away of our species in the fullness of time, we still need to give an answer for our existence. The meaning of our lives personally and collectively lies and always will lie within the domain of our imagination.



The deepest purpose( if I may use the term) and meaning behind the idea of a Gaian Society is a yes to ourselves in our miraculous diverse existence and a yes to relationship and connection. Thought informs discourse; discourse develops and feeds back upon thought. We learn from each other. The past and present merge. History, art, science and myth converge. Our scholars searching the past begin to realize that what they find is artifact and the meaning they give to what they discover is always personal. When we look into the past or at the world in the present we see ourselves and we discover Gaia, our true home.

What is Vermont Dialogue?

The Vermont Dialogue blog is all about creating a safe space for exploring how we may use dialogue as a way of finding our individual voices to tell our stories to one another- to say what we feel, think, believe, hope and envision for ourselves and in relationship with others. In short, it is great human conversation. This type of dialogue is what I like to call narrative dialogue which is a special sharing of meanings(stories) that blend together to create a better and a more meaningful world for all.

Future postings will include short essays, poetry, on-going conversations(dialogue) and so forth. I'm looking forward to lively exchanges and unique voices. It all starts with the question that resounds deep within the heart and longs to be asked. It requires a listening heart to hear and respond.

And so we begin...the journey.