by Molly Brown
Recorded by MB
When the Deep Times team learned that the Work That Reconnects Network was planning a Gaian Gathering the first week in November 2023, we decided to fill the March 2024 issue of Deep Times with edited transcriptions of the talks and presentations, as well as some of the poetry or videos offered there. And here is the result!
Our editorial team thoroughly enjoyed reviewing the presentations and editing the transcripts to offer you the highlights of the resplendent Gaian Gathering, which was attended by well over six hundred people from around the world. We included a selection of the keynote speakers and a couple of the other presentations that we could readily translate into written form. There were many more inspiring practice sessions and participant-centered discussions that didn’t lend themselves to the journal format.
We hope that the articles herein will whet your appetite for viewing the full presentation videos now available on the Work That Reconnects Network website. Here’s the link, which will be also found after each edited transcription.
Leading our Gratitude section, Mary Oak reflects on her experience as a participant in the Gaian Gathering in “Preparing for the Gaianthropocene. ” In “Joanna at the Gaian Gathering,” Linda Seeley tells about Joanna Macy’s joyful response to and delightful participation in the Gathering. Marc Decitre recounts “An Early History of the Work,” focused here on its initial roots.
Bruna Buch leads the section on Honoring Our Pain for the World with a passionate poem in Portuguese and English, “Do que a sua dor é capaz?” Journalist Dahr Jamail shares his personal journey with the Work That Reconnects in “Honoring Our Pain, Seeing with New Eyes” and Hector Aristizabel, Uri Noy Meir, and Ilaria Olimpico share their process in “Creating the Bestiary for the Gaian Gathering” along with the video they curated together.
Our extensive section on Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes begins with Lyla June Johnston’s exploration “Weaving Ancient Wisdom into Our Current Lifeways–Becoming Allies through Self-Healing.” Next is Bayo Akomolafe’s poem, “I am an ongoing-ness without a name,” followed by his Deep Time exploration, “Time Marronage.” Gretchen Sleicher shares on video her haunting song, “The Other Side.” Deep Ecologist John Seed speaks about “Deep Ecology and the Conservation of Nature” and Adrián Villaseñor Galarza offers “Pachasophical Explorations & The Great, Golden Turning” (isn’t Pachasophical a wonderful word?).
In Going Forth, Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe) shares “The Power and Pleasure of Omnibeneficence” (imagine what that word means!). Two long-time nuclear abolitionists, Kathleen Sullivan and Linda Seeley uplift the vital role of “Nuclear Guardianship” in protecting life on Earth. And Nina Simons, co-evolver of Bioneers, closes this section with “Turning Vision into Action.”
The Evolving Edge features excellent guidance for facilitators from Belinda Griswold in “Undoing Oppression and Cultural Appropriation.” The Network section offers the story of “Planning the Gaian Gathering.”
Resources include a review of Jo delAmor’s new book, Raising Children in the Midst of Global Crisis. “Words that Reconnect and Leverage Shifts in Consciousness” introduces Valia Papoutsaki’s project collecting and curating powerful new words for the Great Turning.
