Oneness, Domination, Difference
By Mark Longhurst, via Ordinary Mystic
Mystics talk about oneness a lot. Classic definitions of divine encounter often circle towards language of union. There’s a long tradition in Christian mysticism (see John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila) of what’s called spousal mysticism. This refers to those spiritual lovers that find such delight in divine love that the only language appropriate to…
Sky Above, Soil Below
Where is the collective transformation we are waiting for? Each day we see news about the suffering endured by people fleeing their homelands or we hear the latest climate reports, and we feel frustrated, angry, or sad. We also read about scientific breakthroughs - powerful telescopes and microscopes that reveal 'new stories' about our origins and even our consciousness. Yet, these marvels don't…
Ecosystem Restoration Camps
By John D. Liu, via Permaculture
International filmmaker John D. Liu describes a vision of how Ecosystem Restoration Camps can train people to regenerate land degraded by humans anywhere in the world.
Editor’s note | Kosmos endorses the critical work of John Liu and the Ecosystem Restoration Camps. In this article John uses an 'envisioning' technique to create a picture of what is…
Charles Eisenstein
Charles Eisenstein is a speaker and writer focusing on themes of human culture and identity. He is the author of several books, including Sacred Economics, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, and Climate: A New Story. His background includes a degree in mathematics and philosophy from Yale, a decade in Taiwan as a translator, and stints as a college instructor, a yoga teacher,…
The Habits of Schooling
...One part of me was urging the other part of me to get up, go to the professor, and seek clarity. The more fearful side of myself was anxious about being judged a fraud for being accepted to grad school at all; apprehensive of being yelled at or belittled.
Confessions of a Recovering Catholic
Mother’s Day 1972: It was my First Communion and, like all good Catholic girls, I was decked out in my white dress and veil, hands folded in prayer, and head bowed as a sign of my unworthiness. I stepped forward to receive my first taste of the consecrated host, and I was forever changed.
The Migrant Quilt
Each quilt represents countless lives lost on border ground, a hundred-mile strip of geography spanning two countries. The interstitial border region has morphed into a distinct culture of its own and the quilts, with their binational contributors, fly its flag.
Social Breakdown and Initiation
By Charles Eisenstein and Orland Bishop
Orland: ...A 'right' is not just for me. It's an acknowledgement that the framework that gives me access to my own potential is the same framework that gives access to someone else's potential. So this is the idea of civility. Civility is the framework that allows people to communicate in ways that allows the collective potential to be realized and achieved.
Change the Worldview, Change the World
Gender, like race, is a social construction, which is to say, a story. And the stories of sexism and racism that have cast such a pall over our history and our present illustrate the power of worldview and narrative in generating and maintaining systemic oppression.