The process of ‘othering’ has allowed humans to treat Nature as a mere object instead of a living organism with its own organizing intelligence. Philosopher and author Charles Eisenstein refers to this as the myth of separation which underlies our modern civilization (1). He blames this dualistic view for setting people against each other, but also turning Nature into something we want to control, dominate and dissect. The age of enlightenment or reason, borne from the cultural and industrial revolutions, catapulted our consciousness into overvaluing of left-brain rational consciousness and moved us away from embodied awareness and resonance with all living things.

Carl Jung recognized that ‘We are Nature’ - that the natural world is important for the development of consciousness and wholeness (2). “He linked the loss of our mystical identity and the de-spiritualization of nature with the atrophy of our phylogenetic roots, or survival instincts, which have fallen back into the unconscious psyche.” (3) Jung stated that in the “civilization process, we have increasingly divided our consciousness from the deeper instinctive strata of the human psyche.” (4) Eisenstein’s myth of separation parallels Jung’s view of modern mans’ alienation from our two-million-year-old archaic original nature when we lived in a more participatory process with nature.
 
“African and other indigenous belief systems see the human psyche as whole and nondualistic, both containing and being embedded in relationships with others—people, ancestors, descendants, society, animals, nature, the cosmos as well as the spiritual and transpersonal realms. This fundamental interconnectedness between self and others, broadens the idea of what it means to be a human being—in contrast to the Western individualistic view. This holistic view is captured in the South African concept of Ubuntu, meaning a person is only a person through others, giving priority to the interdependence of relationships as an embodiment of our humanity. It is precisely this interconnected relationship with nature that many of us have lost.” (3)
 
Image credit: “Spiral Matrix’ - Sam Brown - https://www.fineartnewmexico.com/sam-brown
 
Sources:
(1) https://charleseisenstein.org/video/separation-vs-interbeing/
(2) Sabini, Meredith, ed. 2002. The Earth Has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C. G. Jung.
Berkeley: North Atlantic books.
(3) Denise Grobbelaar (2020) The White Lion as Symbol of the Archetype of the Self and the Cannibalization of the Self in Canned Hunting, Jung Journal, 14:2, 11-29,
DOI: 10.1080/19342039.2020.1742550Grobbelaar
(4) Jung, C. G., and Marie-Louise von Franz. 1964. Man and His Symbols. New York: Dell
Publishing Co. p. 36.

I post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica
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Pachamama is the Great Earth Mother. As supreme and eternal goddess she represents both the living earth (physical planet) and the Universal Feminine Energy - the cosmic matrix of all life. ‘Pacha’ is an archaic Quechua word meaning universe, world, time and space. Pachamama is an ever-present, independent and self-sufficient goddess with the creative power to sustain life on this earth, but is also seen as the personification of nature.  
 
Pachamama plays a pivotal role in the religious beliefs of the indigenous people of the Andes including Peru, Argentina and Bolivia. Pachamama is often portrayed as a benevolent wise woman (sometimes pregnant) in her gentle and conciliatory aspect, other times she is depicted as a huge dragon, representing the Andean mountains.
 
Pachamama is regarded as Mother who begets life, nourishes and protects all life on earth.  As an ancient Earth Mother and fertility goddess, she oversees planting and harvesting and is responsible for the well-being of plants and animals. When she feels disrespected - abuse of lands, neglect of plants and suffering of animals as a direct result of humanity’s disregard for the planet – she punishes.  The Andean People believe that earthquakes, landslides and lightning are Pachamama’s show of displeasure at the disrespectful attitude of human beings.
 
Animal totems associated with Pachamana are the Snake (or Serpent in the form of a Dragon), Puma and Condor.  Condor is symbolic of Pachamama as Crone or as Janai Pacha (the Sky). In Andean myth, Condor oversees the flow of the life, birth and death of galaxies. Condor is the voice of the Great Mystery, our messenger from the Cosmos.  The symbolism of Condor is purification, death, rebirth and new vision.  What new vision may emerge from this ‘Great Pause’?
 
Andean people believe we are entering the age of the Puma people who will bring balance and purpose to everything they do as they don’t distinguish between the spiritual and everyday life. The teachings of the Puma concern developing personal power- without ego, walking with faith, courage and clear, firm personal beliefs. The message is to stop procrastinating and to take important tasks in hand.
 
Image credit: Verena Wild
 
A social media post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica
 
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The saying “This land is me” reflects the idea of continuance between humans and nature which is the core of the dreamtime mythology of the Australian Aborigines. This embedded ecological awareness of origin-in-the-sentient-land (earth as mother) and the connection to other life forms as sentient beings and kin is a custodial ethic - a template for how to live in accord with nature based on reverence, responsibility, reciprocity and respect.
 
Dreamtime is a sacred 'once upon a time', when all life began and is often referred to as the 'time before time'. Ancestral beings ‘born out of their own Eternity’ emerged from the earth and created everything that is.  These ancestors were human, animals, landforms, elements and organisms.  The Australian Aborigines speak of jiva or guruwari, a seed power lodged in earth, containing the memory of its origin and which is a vibrational residue, or symbolic footprint, of all original beings who actioned the creation of our world. The shape and energy of a place, its mountains, rivers, and forests, echo the events that created it and are referred to as the "Dreaming" of a place, which is sacred. Dreamtime is seen as a ‘beginning that never ended’ and takes place on a continuum of past, present and future. During expanded states of consciousness one may become attuned to the inner dreaming of the Earth.
 
Mary Graham (1999, p. 105) identified two basic precepts central to this worldview which, at its heart, is an ethic of how to be in the world. Firstly, the land is the law and, secondly, you are not alone in the world because you are connected to others, including the land. The land is ‘The Teacher’, teaching humans’ relatedness and caring for something beyond ourselves. The fundamental reciprocity between people and land means there is mutual support for the healthy functioning of each other.  In this sacred web of connections each person has numerous relationships with other beings: human, ancestral, mythical, and land-based. In this system’s view of consciousness a person’s sense of self is contextualized within the larger ecological whole which consist of the many voices and collective wisdom of different beings.
 
“The land is a sacred entity, not property or real estate; it is the great mother of all humanity. The Dreaming is a combination of meaning (about life and all reality), and an action guide to living. The two most important kinds of relationship in life are, firstly, those between land and people and, secondly, those amongst people themselves, the second being always contingent upon the first. The land, and how we treat it, is what determines our human-ness. Because land is sacred and must be looked after, the relation between people and land becomes the template for society and social relations. Therefore all meaning comes from land.” (Graham, 1999, p.106)
 
Source: Sepie, A.J. More than Stories, More than Myths: Animal/Human/Nature(s) in Traditional Ecological Worldviews. Humanities 2017, 6, 78.
Art credit:        Chern’ee Sutton      https://www.cherneesutton.com.au/
 
A social media post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica
 
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​ “A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive …” (Albert Einstein, 1946)
 
In the early 1970’s James Lovelock proposed the ‘Gaia’ hypothesis. He argued that earth is a dynamic self-regulating system where all life is interrelated, interacting through complex feedback loops. Life on earth is “a network of inseparable patterns of relationships” (Capra, 1975). Recent scientific discoveries support this view of ecological interdependence and nature as a unified whole. Our ancestors recognized this unity in their reverence of nature.
 
Jung saw our relationship with nature as fundamental to the development of consciousness and wholeness.  “Our ancient contact with nature has gone and with it has gone a profound mental energy that this symbolic action supplied. Thunder is no longer the voice of an angry god . . . No river contains a spirit . . . no snake the embodiment of wisdom, no mountain cave the home of a great demon. No voices now speak to man from stones, plants and animals, nor does he speak to them thinking they can hear. His contact with nature has gone, and with it has gone the profound emotional energy that this symbolic connection supplied.” (Jung and Von Franz 1964, 85)
 
The exploitation of natural systems has destabilized the fundamental biochemistry of our planet, similar to the process in a human body when invaded by a virus. The Earth is a living system whose wellbeing depends on the health of its wetlands, forests, flowers, bees, rivers, mountains, seas, moon and sun.  The sum total of our biology is connected to nature, to the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.  Indeed, we are nature, in that we are microcosmic expressions of the complex web of life. Perceiving ourselves as separate from nature carelessly damages our planet, our home, our original mother – for ourselves and all future generations!  The survival of our species is dependent on maintaining a healthy relationship with nature which is our ‘mother’ or ‘womb’ (the original meanings of the word ‘matrix’, from which the word ‘matter’ is derived).
 
Photo credit: Frida Kahlo
“The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth, Myself, Diego and Senor Xoloti”, 1949

A social media post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica
 
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