By Andreas Weber, Hildegard Kurt
In KOSMOS JOURNAL

“On a profound level, nature is threatened by ignoring the principles of fertile, imaginative interpenetration, which shape existence. The real opportunity of the ‘Anthropocene’ is to create a new bios for our thinking—an Enlivenment.”

By Robin Wall Kimmerer, PhD
KOSMOS JOURNAL, SPRING | SUMMER 2016

“The development goals rightly recognize that constantly accelerating consumption is one of the greatest dangers we face, especially since we know that consumption is tightly tied to climate change. Traditional ecological knowledge offers insights for what sustainable consumption might look like, through the indigenous canon of principles and practices that govern consumption known as The Honorable Harvest. They are ‘rules’ of sorts that govern our taking, so that the world is as rich for the seventh generation as it is for us.

The Honorable Harvest is a covenant of reciprocity between humans and the living world. The protocols offer inspiration for how we might walk gently on the Earth while, at the same time, satisfying human needs. It is a practice with great relevance for our time; it is both ancient and urgent.

The guidelines for the Honorable Harvest were taught to me by generous teachers while respectfully picking medicines or berries, but it applies to every exchange between people and the Earth, to everything we consume.”

By Daniel Wahl
KOSMOS JOURNAL, SPRING | SUMMER 2016

“This is the spirit of Daniel’s book: At every turn, it invites us to consider a bigger picture—to see ourselves not as individuals but as living in a pattern of relationship with others; and to see that pattern of relationship not as separate from but as part of the wider living systems of nature; and to see these patterns not as stable structures but as constantly evolving, emerging processes that stretch over generations, over aeons, over centuries.

At the same time, Daniel invites us to focus on our own actions, our own lives, the ‘tentative commitments’ we can make, are making, in the face of the great challenges we face. The reader looking for answers will find them here in abundance: frameworks for grappling with the big picture like the World Systems Model and the Three Horizons, and principles for effective action from diverse disciplines ranging from ecoliteracy to permaculture, biomimicry to mindfulness, all combined in the idea of design as the discipline where theory meets practice. The sages of effective action are all richly present and referenced. Shining examples, including from Daniel’s own wide experience, are much in evidence and back up his belief that “a profound cultural transformation is already on its way.”

featured image | Great Blue Heron

An excerpt from Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It, by David Fleming

Asterisks* point to other entries in the dictionary.

Encounter. The act of recognising something – a person, a *practice, a *system – on its own terms; the particular character and wholeness of the other is acknowledged; *judgment and opinion about him/her/it are set in a *relevant context, rather than in the context of universal *general principle or immoveable *mindset.

To acknowledge the wholeness of a system – a woodland, a person, a planet, nature – means being aware that you are in the presence of something which has business and an agenda of its own, and which cannot be tamed by your understanding.

By Nitin Das, Healing Forest

What makes you Rich or Poor?

This film was shot in the beautiful but less known Sangti Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, India. The intention of this short film is to make people think about the difference between leading a rich life and having a lot of money.

I am working on a film project called ‘Healing Forest’. It’s a journey to explore the healing powers of nature and find a deeper relationship with forests. Healing Forest is a project to help people reconnect with nature and discover the meaning of true wealth. In a world suffering from consumerism and materialism, our aim is simple – Helping people heal. Helping forests heal.

by J. E. Williams, Kosmos Journal, Spring | Summer 2015

Traditional cultures “are what shaped us and caused us to be what we are now,” writes Jared Diamond in The World Until Yesterday.1 All the necessities of modern living—electricity, store-bought food, pharmaceuticals, cars and planes—are relatively new. But much of yesterday is still with us, and we might take a lesson from those traditional cultures that remain indigenous to relearn how to live harmoniously with each other and the natural environment of which we are a part.