PaGaian with Socialist characteristics.

Posted on November 11, 2020 by malpagaia

This story describes how International Socialism and a program of World Socialist Revolution as defined and advocated by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), is not only compatible with my spiritual practice, but actually compliments it. I hope that my story can be of some value to other – especially younger, political students who might be struggling to relate the cultivation of their political consciousness with a spiritual consciousness.

Subsequent to becoming relatively privileged Australian pensioners enjoying what my partner and I now regard to be a modest yet comfortable standard of living, I am pleased to say that I have at last been able to concentrate more on cultivating my political consciousness. Consequently, I am now well and truly convinced that Socialism should be our next logical, global socio-economic form of governance and productivity. Moreover, that there is indeed only one viable form of Socialism – that which is informed by the scientific analysis of Karl Marx and the political leadership of Leon Trotsky. Socialism according to the teachings of Marx and Trotsky takes the form of a revolutionary International Socialism, a global form of governance and productivity that has yet to be made fully manifest and put to the test by us humans. The reason for this having become my preferred political perspective, is that it fully met my most essential search criteria, namely that of having to be compatible with my well cultivated world view, a very down to earth spiritual practice and last but not least, my personal values.

While I was much inspired by my partner and some of her highly recommended hard copy reading, eventually it was my online search that enabled me to find a political program and party advocating and preparing for a World Socialist Revolution – the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and its associated international branches of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP). Together the ICFI/SEP program and party informs and prepares what it refers to as the ‘international working class’ for a world socialist revolution. This it does very effectively via the pages of its own daily online publication – the World Socialist Website WSWS.org.

When defining the political and intellectual foundations and motivations of the World Socialist Website – 1998, point three places an emphasis on –

“the revival of a genuine socialist political culture within the working class as an essential intellectual and, one might add, “spiritual” premise of a new international revolutionary movement.”

It is this ‘spiritual premise’ that was and still is of particular interest to me. My world view, spiritual practice and personal values inform and convince me that for a world socialist revolution to succeed, it must have both political and spiritual components. I believe it is safe to assume that our human ancestors became spiritual creatures long before we became political creatures and it might well be argued that had we not become spiritual, it is most unlikely that we would have moved on to become political. Be that as it may, another reason for my conviction in this regard is that during the launching of the ICFI in 1938, my nowadays primary political mentor Leon Trotsky made it clear that –

“We are not a party like other parties. … Our aim is the full material and spiritual liberation of the toilers and exploited through the socialist revolution. Nobody will prepare it and nobody will guide it but ourselves.”

And, as my nowadays primary spiritual mentor Thomas Berry put it in his 1996 essay entitled ‘An Ecologically Sensitive Spirituality’ –

“In reality, every being has the right to be, the right to habitat, and the right to fulfil its role in the great community of existence.”

It was in fact my own personal spiritual journey and liberation that eventually inspired me to search for and find a compatible political story cum party. Subsequently, my partner Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. and I are both registered, paid up members of the Sydney NSW Australia branch of the SEP. Glenys also happens to be the author of ‘PaGaian Cosmology‘ (2005), a book based on her doctoral thesis, that expresses an earth based spiritual practice that celebrates earth’s seasonal moments and our human relatedness to them, using female metaphor. Glenys begins the Preface of her book with an explanation of the term ‘PaGaian’ –

“It expresses a reclaiming of the term Pagan as meaning a person who dwells in country, yet with Gaian spliced in, it expresses a renewed and contemporary understanding of that country. Gaia is a name for humanity’s habitat, an ancient yet new name which I understand to include whole Earth and Cosmos – there is no seam separating Earth from her context. And Pagan religious tradition offers a spiritual practice of celebrating Earth-Sun creativity manifest in this habitat. The cosmology described in this book makes a start on bringing all of this together..”

Why Socialism, or to be more precise, why International Socialism? Clearly the year 2020 with its Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed Capitalism as being a fundamentally flawed socio-economic system. Capitalism is a profit driven socio-economic system that has long since increased its emphasis on the accumulation of privately owned property and wealth, to the detriment of it being able to provide even the most basic social and cultural needs of a vast majority of the human population. Moreover, the science of physics informs us that every single atom throughout the entire universe is moving in the direction of ‘maximising manifestation’ (Vladimir Vernadsky ‘The Biosphere’ 1921), in other words, every atom including all those that we humans are made of, constantly move in the direction of making progress, toward an improved more advanced condition. Just as our progress from pre human to the earliest nomadic forms of human existence such as hunter gatherer, through to the socio-economic forms of feudalism and capitalism, so too at the species level we humans must now move beyond a dysfunctional capitalism toward a more sophisticated, science based socio-economic form of governance and productivity. My sincere hope is that as part of our ongoing human development, International Socialism will eventually be made manifest throughout the entire planet in the form of regional Federations of united socialist states.

Why PaGaian? Because it is a daily practice and a seasonal celebration of our relatedness to self, to other and to all that is. PaGaian Cosmology celebrates the interaction between us humans and our planetary – Gaian, environment, it is a personal, cosmic and seamless relationship cum celebration, poetically expressed, particularly during Earth Gaia’s seasonal moments, the annual cycle of eight solstice, equinox and quarter point moments, moments in space time that can be trusted, even worshipped. Hence the splicing of the words Pagan and Gaian to form PaGaian, it connects and celebrates the dialectical wisdom of our ancestors – the stories of old, with a contemporary scientific understanding of our place in space time – stories that are new and still unfolding.

Until now, I have deliberately avoided using the word religion because many people find it difficult to distinguish between religion and spirituality. As I suggested above, spiritual consciousness not only preceded and paved the way for the development of political consciousness, I believe it also preceded and paved the way for religion and religious practice. An easy way to distinguish between religion and spirituality is to relate religion to belonging and answers and spirituality to being and questioning. I hope that this story demonstrates that not only can we cultivate our political and spiritual consciousness simultaneously, but more importantly, it is most unwise to be cultivating one without the other.

Beltane 2020, – Southern Hemisphere.

Socialism with Chinese capitalist characteristics.

Posted on October 25, 2020 by malpagaia

‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ is probably more accurately stated as Socialism with Chinese capitalist characteristics. While it might well be argued that China is a good example of how socialism can provide superior socio-economic forms of governance and productivity to that of capitalism and why socialism should eventually replace capitalism throughout the entire planet, ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ continues to be socialism confined to a single nation state – albeit a very big one. While ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ clearly demonstrates a greater emphasis on meeting the social and cultural needs of its population than that of any other so called major state power, China nevertheless has transitioned to a market economy, and thereby into capitalism. China continues to exploit its working class and nowadays it defends the interests of an increasing capitalist class and their private property relations. While it is probably true that many Chinese workers – especially rural workers, are being lifted out of poverty at a faster rate than anywhere else on the planet, the emergence of a very wealthy Chinese capitalist class and thereby increasing social inequality is also happening at a pace. Socialism with Chinese capitalist characteristics depends on a relatively authoritarian, bureaucratic socio-economic form of governance and productivity and hence does not meet the criteria required of genuine international socialism as advocated by Marx and Trotsky, in fact it is influenced by and aligned to the form of nationalist socialism advocated by Stalin and Mao.

Be this as it may, as indicated above China is probably the best example the world now has of a ‘major state power’ that is at least placing a significant emphasis on meeting the social and cultural needs of its population. China also has a relatively more sophisticated approach to foreign affairs and international development than any of the other so called ‘major state powers’, particularly the US and it’s so called allies.

‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ – stripped of its capitalist remnants and authoritarian bureaucracy, is an example of what could be achieved via a world socialist revolution as advocated by Marx and Trotsky – an ‘International Socialism’ – a democratic form of governance of the people by the people for the people, At least China can help us stretch our imagination about the formation and development of ‘Federations of United Socialist States’ throughout the entire planet being described as – ‘International Socialism with Asian characteristics, ..European characteristics, ..American characteristics, ..African characteristics, Oceanic characteristics etc:

We can at least thank China for what it is demonstrating to us by way of preparing for a world socialist revolution and while we are at it, we should also think carefully about why some of the other so called major powers – particularly the US and it’s allies, are feeling so threatened by what China is doing.

A Collapsing World.

Posted on October 19, 2020 by malpagaia

“This used to be an area of old ice,” says Polarstern captain Thomas Wunderlich. Now, however, in just a few days the Polarstern was able to advance practically unhindered to the North Pole. Since the 1980s, Arctic ice coverage has decreased by roughly half. The remaining ice is thin and thawing. The expedition has documented a collapsing world’ –WSWS.org 19/10/2020.

What a mess we have made of our life giving Biosphere in general and our human social circumstances in particular. Just imagine how much better off we might be if and when we replace what have now become mostly dysfunctional, profit driven, capitalist socio-economic forms of governance and productivity with a more sophisticated science based international socialism. International socialism in the form of democratic Federations of United Socialist States throughout the entire planet would necessarily replace capitalism’s emphasis on the accumulation of privately owned property and material wealth, with an emphasis on meeting the ecological, social and cultural needs of the Biosphere in general and human society in particular.

For human development to proceed, it must be sufficiently compatible with the natural evolution of our Biosphere’s life supporting ecosystems. Thanks to scientific understanding it is now well argued that the less compatible human development becomes with natural evolution, the sooner we are going to become an extinct species.

The science of physics also informs us that every single atom throughout space time is and always has been moving in the direction of maximising manifestation cum complexity (Vladimir Vernadsky – ‘The Biosphere’ 1927). So too human imagination and development, including the development of our socio-economic forms of governance and political consciousness. Hence for human development to proceed, it can and should be argued that – among other things, our political consciousness must also be compatible with the natural evolution of the Biosphere in general.

In these days of relatively quick and user friendly search engines, I for one have only been able to find one political program and party that I can regard as being compatible with the evolution of the Biosphere and the continuation of human development, namely the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and its international branches of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), a self proclaimed program and party of world socialist revolution. The ICFI/SEP demonstrates a very disciplined, long term commitment to the replacement of international capitalism with international socialism. The ICFI/SEP program and party of world socialist revolution now enables us humans to not only rescue our ‘collapsing world’, but to take our next evolutionary step by preparing to manifest it through a world socialist revolution.

Revolutionary Surveillance.

Posted on April 25, 2020 by malpagaia

“In this world, at this point, no political revolution is sustainable if it is not also a spiritual revolution – a complete ontological birth of new beings out of old. Equally, no spiritual activity deserves respect if it is not at the same time a politically responsible, i.e; responsive, activity… The only meaningful political direction left now is synonymous with the only meaningful spiritual direction left now: towards the conscious re-fusion of the spirit and the flesh… This time it will be a global consciousness of our global oneness, and it will realize itself on a very sophisticated technological stage; with perhaps a total merger of psychic and electronic activity.”

(‘The Great Cosmic Mother’ – Barbara Mor 1987 p:418)

When considering the ramifications of the AI enabled mass surveillance of world populations – similar to the app now being developed on behalf of the Australian government to track cases of the COVID-19 pandemic, we should keep in mind the fact that such technology is for the most part designed, built, operated and maintained by waged and salaried workers, better thought of in the context of international socialism as a working class IT productive force. With this in mind and in the context of what might be in the best interest of the international working class as a whole, it is reasonable to assume that such surveillance technology – in theory at least, could work equally well on behalf of populations being enabled to survey future socialist governments as it now does for capitalist governments surveying their populations for purposes of control and exploitation. The said same surveillance technology used to monitor populations and vice versa governments, could enable more sophisticated socio-economic forms of governance and productivity based on better informed and less policed populations throughout the entire planet. Just imagine having a socialist government provided app that enables the general public to participate in more frequent feedback and referendums for the purpose of ensuring that their government remains focused on meeting all of the population’s social and cultural needs etc:

We are not a party like other parties. … Our aim is the full material and spiritual liberation of the toilers and exploited through the socialist revolution. Nobody will prepare it and nobody will guide it but ourselves.

(Leon Trotsky 1938)

Why a new normal must be a better normal.

Posted on April 8, 2020 by malpagaia

Now that political leaders have decided to put most of the world population under house arrest supposedly for our own good to protect us from the coronavirus COVID-19, they have in effect achieved a new and unprecedented level of power and control over the rest of us. Politicians tell us that their new measures of control and surveillance are only temporary and that they will be lifted or at least appropriately regulated as soon as the virus is defeated. Be this as it may, the precedent has been set and it is probably enough to make some of our more dictatorial politicians wet themselves with excitement.

The story of international rulership has changed significantly and we -the world population, must change with it, otherwise the new (post COVID-19) normal could be significantly worse that the old (pre COVID-19) normal – with a capitalist form of socio-economic governance and productivity that is clearly not good enough to protect us from the emergence of such pandemics in the first place.

Closing state and regional borders, restricting our movement and interaction with each other, bringing non essential industry and commerce to a standstill, compensating financial institutions to a great extent and individuals to a lesser extent, our politicians will claim to be putting our safety and well being first and foremost and that we should therefor trust them. The thing is, if we couldn’t trust them before COVID-19 why should we trust them now and into the future when they will have experienced having more authoritarian control over us than at any previous time in modern history.

Now that we are well into a coronavirus – COVID-19, pandemic and judging by the ad hoc panic like responses of most governments, surely it has never been more obvious why and how capitalist forms of governance and productivity inevitably fail to provide the most basic ecological, social and cultural needs of the vast majority of life on planet Earth. In short, it is because capitalism now places far too much emphasis on profit and the accumulation of privately owned wealth, it is a social dynamic that is clearly out of control.

Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic the international ruling class and their political servants are already revealing their profit driven priorities – ‘The choice, according to the Economist, is clear. The consequences of a prolonged regime of factory shutdowns and social distancing are, from a sober-minded business point of view, too terrible to contemplate: “Markets would tumble and investments be delayed. The capacity of the economy would wither as innovation stalled and skills decayed. Eventually, even if many people are dying, the cost of distancing could outweigh the benefits.” [Emphasis added] WSWS.org 6th April 2020. Because capitalism places so much emphasis on the accumulation of privately owned wealth, it has inevitably morphed into being a totally dysfunctional social dynamic that must be replaced with a more sophisticated, scientific and sustainable socio-economic form of governance and productivity. So, how do we – the vast >99% majority of the world population, now change our story so that a post COVID-19 world is an improvement on where we are now? With this question in mind I was recently inspired by a discussion between Yuval Noah Harari and Amanpour & Co’ on CNN, it was based on the theme – ‘life after COVID-19’, here is a pertinent quote from it –

‘When people are told the scientific facts, and when people trust public authorities to tell them these facts, citizens can do the right thing even without a Big Brother watching over their shoulders. A self-motivated and well-informed population is usually far more powerful and effective than a policed, ignorant population.’

So, what will it take for the human population to do away with ‘Big Brother’ like regimes and be able to trust our political leaders to give the ecological needs of our planet and the social and cultural needs of us humans a higher priority than that of private property and the accumulation of privately owned wealth? My short answer is – nothing less than a world socialist revolution. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only exposed the inability of capitalism to provide our basic social and cultural needs, it also reveals to the human productive force – better thought of as the waged and salaried working class, what potential power and influence it can have on our future well being. The so called ruling class is best thought of as those who own and pay the wages and salaries of the productive force. To all intents and purposes, in the context of world socialist revolution, unless one owns the means of production and enough privately owned wealth to be listed among the wealthiest <1% of the world population, one might as well regard oneself as being one of the >99% working class.

For reasons that should by now be obvious, the working class can rest assured that the ruling class will not transform let alone replace capitalism, nor will they reduce let alone stop their exploitation of natural resources – including that of human labour, without a fight. The ruling class and their capitalist systems of governance and productivity will have to be overthrown. The only force capable of this is the international working class, the force that does all the work. The waged and salaried working class designs, builds, operates, maintains, protects and defends everything. Moreover, nowadays working class taxes are being used to bail out and rescue failed international corporations and banks, this is a warped kind of socialism. Hence the ruling class cannot survive without the working class, whereas the working class can not only survive without the ruling class, it has the potential to actually realise it’s full potential and thrive without them.

A political program and party of world socialist revolution not only exists but is also well prepared to lead the working class in the fight to rid our world of the ruling class and capitalism. Thanks to this program rank and file committees of workers and students are organising themselves from the ground up, independent of main stream politics and unions that are subservient to the corporations. To join this preparation for world socialist revolution and a better post COVID-19 normal, contact the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and its Socialist Equality Party (SEP) or the International Youth and Students for Socialist Equality (IYSSE) via the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS.org)

NB: better still if you are eligible to vote in the 2020 US Presidential elections, you could support and vote for the SEP candidates – Joseph Kishore for President and Norissa Santa Cruz for Vice President and thereby help get the revolution underway.

CLIMATE – Change the story.

Posted on January 7, 2020 by malpagaia

‘A major human adaptation has been the creation of stories (beliefs) that trigger and guide emotions; the emotions are real, the actions are real, but the stories are only coded devices to attach motive force to action.’

JAMES KEYE – Politics & Emotion

The human species has long since become an inventive story telling productive force, a capacity that for better and for worse has given us an enormous advantage over all other species that inhabit planet Earth. However, as our scientific story of biology informs us, in essence we continue to be no more or less natural than any other species on planet Earth, all of whom are thereby subject to the natural checks and balances of planet Earth’s primary productive force, also storied by the scientific story of geophysics as the biosphere.

The human productive force is now artificially disrupting the Earth’s atmosphere to the point where global weather patterns are producing more intense climate variations, resulting in more severe droughts, floods and wildfires. The observable, measurable and thereby scientific rate of ‘climate change’ – particularly that of measuring the average surface temperature of planet Earth, is a relatively recent phenomenon that can be storied as a predictable response on the part of planet Earth’s biosphere to a disruption of it by a lesser – albeit significant, human productive force. It can also be storied that the capacity of the human productive force to artificially alter the planet’s atmosphere is now being subjected to the sort of natural checks and balances that have consistently taken place throughout planet Earth’s biosphere for millennia. Planet Earth’s capacity to respond to significant disruptions to the biosphere has evidently survived the test of time – about 4.5 billion years of time. We humans now have good reason to story planet Earth as simply doing what she has always done, she is responding in this case to a human induced artificial disruption of the atmosphere in particular and thereby Earth’s biosphere as a whole.

In the context of our human disruption of the biosphere, according to some of the more reputable scientific storying of the atmosphere eg; The Woods Hole Research Institute, we now only have three realistic options left ie; mitigation, adaptation and suffering. While we already participate in all three options to some extent, each depends upon the other, for example, the extent to which we experience the ‘suffering’ option depends entirely on the extent to which we act on the other two options.

*Such climate related damage, loss and suffering is now (Jan 2020) being felt on a new and more terrifying scale throughout SE Australia.*

*Unusual refugees escaping wildfire on a beach in SE Australia Jan 2020.*

Planet Earth’s biosphere as a whole is the primary productive force that has enabled the seasonal cycle of life and death to flourish for billions of years, it should therefore be regarded – even celebrated, as being the essential pre-requisite for the emergence and continued development of our human productive force. Conversely, our effort to dominate planet Earth’s productive force for material gain is proving to be a serious human mistake, a mistake made possible only through some of the tall stories we have invented to convince, motivate and justify such stupidity.

If we are to better understand and manage the relationship between our human productive force in the context of planet Earth’s primary productive force – the biosphere, then some of us may need to change our stories, especially our most influential religious, scientific and political stories.

For better and for worse all three religious, scientific and political stories influence each other to some extent. For example, the more influential religious and political stories that persuade – even convince, many of us that the human productive force is superior to and should have ‘dominion over’, the natural resources of the biosphere, while such hubris has indeed inspired many a great invention, such stories are now proving to be delusional life destroying stories. Particularly misleading can be such religious, scientific and political stories that persuade some of us humans to regard certain artefacts and entities as sacred – even sacrosanct, including the artefacts of deity, money, private property and wealth. The time has arrived when we need to question our most influential religious, scientific and political stories, with a view to replacing them with stories that will help us to avoid destroying ourselves and possibly the entire planet.

I know that this is easier said than done, requiring as it does some serious attention and rigour, but my advice is that we look for religious, scientific and political stories that are at least compatible with the health of our biosphere and less contradictory with each other. For example, rather than being confined to some imagined, theist pie in the sky superstition, it is easy enough to find animist type religious stories and or spiritual practices that are more down to Earth, observable and thereby more available to our physical senses, even measurable.

Lucky me, I have ‘PaGaian Cosmology’ authored by my partner Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. in 2005. PaGaian Cosmology is an Earth based spiritual story and practice that celebrates the Earth, Sun and Moon relationship, a relationship that enables and sustains planet Earth’s biosphere. PaGaian Cosmology is a spiritual practice based on scientific observation, with no need for superstition. Human induced or otherwise and irrespective of what happens to our weather patterns, the Earth, Sun and Moon relationship enable a cosmic seasonal wheel of the year comprised of solstice and equinox moments that are fixed, observable, measurable and consistently determined by the angle of Earth’s axis and the rate of Earth’s rotation around the sun. This cosmic wheel of the year together with our Moon’s equally consistent 28 day cycle of waxing and waning, makes for an awesome phenomenon and story that is not only critical for the health of our biosphere, it is also worthy of our admiration and celebration.

Given that we are all now participating in an information technology (IT) revolution that is in turn enabling the development of artificial intelligence (AI), the search for and choice of scientific stories is all the more critical and deserving of careful scrutiny and some rigour. The inevitable and relatively rapid advance of IT and AI is already having a huge impact on our human well-being. For better and for worse, scientific research and development is often influenced by our religious and political stories with a view to exploiting planet Earth’s natural resources including the human productive force – waged labour. To the extent that the scientific story is being influenced by religious and political stories, makes the task of finding scientific stories that are more compatible and less contradictory even more challenging. My thoughts on the search for scientific stories that can have a positive influence on the wellbeing of life in general and us humans in particular, is that they should at least have been subjected to serious peer group review and thereby able to demonstrate a level of scientific integrity that can be trusted and valued.

While the world wide web and its variety of search engines now make it possible for us to do more thorough searches for the best of scientific stories, it should also be their compatibility with our personal world view and values that ultimately lead us to decide to what extent we are prepared to be influenced by the story of science.

‘Climate change, and other manifestations of environmental degradation, are the product of a social and economic system that is incapable of organizing global production in a rational and scientific manner, on the basis of social need—including the need for a healthy environment—rather than the endless accumulation of personal wealth.’

(WSWS.org ‘Perspective’ 3^rd Jan 2020).

Given that we are now confronted with the twin threats of catastrophic climate change, and war between nuclear armed states, looking for a political story that is capable of mitigating these threats and thereby worthy of adopting and being influenced by, is probably our most urgent and challenging search.

As a species we obviously have the capacity to move beyond the fear based, antagonistic nationalist programs that place such a disproportionate emphasis on protecting and defending the accumulation of privately owned wealth within their respective nation states. Most of our religious and scientific stories including the sacred, the good and the bad, are not constrained by nation state boundaries. Unfortunately, this cannot be said for our political stories, most if not all of which are deliberately confined to looking after the interests of their respective nation state, particularly the ruling elite of the nation state.

My own life experience includes having sailed around the world in the British merchant navy (1965-67), having been a forest overseer in Victoria (1976-90) and having had my mind properly adjusted while living and working among the traditional aboriginal Anangu owners of Uluru in Central Australia for eight years (1990-98). Following my introduction to a more indigenous and traditional Australia, I was motivated to study for and gain a Master of Applied Science (Social Ecology) with Distinction (University of Western Sydney 1999-2003) – in a somewhat vain effort to cross the cultural bridge between an indigenous and a colonised Australia. For me this is still a work in progress.

On the strength of what I now regard as a relatively privileged life experience, I eventually found a political story that genuinely cares about and places an emphasis on the wellbeing of planet Earth and the human as a whole. After several years of searching and frustration and having almost given up on politics – particularly the Australian variety, I found the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) through its Sydney NSW Australia branch of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP). What attracted me most was a political story whose founder Leon Trotsky made it clear in 1938, that his programme and party was different to any other in that ‘the aim of our party is the full material and spiritual liberation of the toilers and the exploited’. At last I had found a political story and party that placed a deliberate and genuine emphasis on our human wellbeing, by uniting and liberating the human productive force to achieve its full potential ‘throughout the entire planet’. If you have not already done so, I can highly recommend you visit the World Socialist Web Site – WSWS.org, where you will find a relatively rare political story that is indeed compatible with the well being of the biosphere in general and us humans in particular.

‘For peoples, generally, their story of the universe is their primary source of intelligibility and value. The deepest crises experienced by any society are those moments of change when the story becomes inadequate for meeting the survival demands of a present situation.’

(THOMAS BERRY, The Dream of the Earth).

malpataffy,

Southern Summer 2020.

Deeper Down Under

Posted on June 6, 2015 by malpagaia

Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park is a World Heritage Area listed for both it’s natural and cultural values, yet many living outside Australia still only know it by its European name – Ayers Rock. Here, even during a brief stay of only a few days, visitors can and do experience a profound sense of being in a sacred place. For the Anangu traditional owners of Uluru and for others who are fortunate enough to live in its presence, and who choose to dwell there in a receptive manner, it can be a place for deepening awareness of the manta – the Earth, as sacred.

Most of Uluru’s quartz-like mass is buried to a depth of almost 6 kilometres beneath the surface of the desert. It’s awesome above ground appearance presents less than one percent of its total mass, but is nevertheless unlike any other natural feature throughout the vast landscape of Central Australia. Located about 400 kilometres South West of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory it is not an easy place to get to. From any major Australian city it requires either several days travel by road or a flight, usually via Alice Springs, then onto the Yulara tourist resort situated just 30 kilometres from the great monolith.

I was fortunate enough to be one of those piranpa – non-Anangu, ‘whitefellas’ – who got to live at Mititjulu, a community that emerged in response to Uluru’s growing popularity as a tourist attraction. As an employee of the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service I lived close enough to be able to see Uluru from our kitchen window and I drove alongside it to work most mornings for about five years. I lost count of the number of times I climbed Uluru, in the course of my work. On one occasion I climbed it during the light of a full moon, looking for so-called ‘new age’ trespassers, but I soon lost any desire of meeting let alone apprehending trespassers: being on top of Uluru that night was as close as I could imagine to actually walking on the moon itself. On other occasions, as part of a rescue training program I landed on and took off from a helipad on top of Uluru, and once I accepted an invitation to fly with the camera crew that filmed a Qantas promotion, wherein one of their commercial passenger jets does a tight and dramatic turn over the top of Uluru. These were amazing and unusual interactions for anyone to have with Australia’s most popular icon.

One evening while on what we called the sunset patrol, I had a most exhilarating interaction with another species. The last tourist had long since reached the bottom of ‘the climb’ and headed off to one of the sunset viewing areas or back to Yulara and I was alone on top of Uluru watching Sun slowly disappear behind Kata Tjuta – “the Olgas” as they are named by Europeans, about 30 kilometres to the West. I first heard the flapping of its wings then a few seconds later it took my breath away and my knees began to shake, I was being circled and focused on by the greatest of Central Australia’s hunters walawuru – the wedge-tailed eagle. It had swept up from a gorge behind me and as it circled directly above me it came close enough for me to see the brown of its eyes. I dropped onto my knees as if wanting to worship such an awesome creature, but it was more a case of deep respect, as well as the awe and a tinge of fear that I felt. I also thought that being there in walawuru’s domain after sunset was not what the great eagle wanted. Some months later a similar, more awesome interaction took place between walawuru and I. On this occasion I was sitting, again alone at the top of Uluru and watching Sun setting – Earth turning: walawuru circled, without moving in for closer scrutiny, and this time I didn’t feel unwelcome – it felt like an amicable interaction.

These walawuru and other air-borne Uluru experiences were for me, doorways into gaining a far more embodied and profound consciousness of the other-than-human. There was also an opening to a particular cave at the base of Uluru wherein much awaited me: a remembering of my childhood ways of knowing and being – a remembering of the sense that everything belonged to me and anything was possible. I found there what I called my ‘Selfplace’. Nowadays I reflect on that time and space as my desert pilgrimage, the beginning of a new way of relating to other and all- that-is.

After living at Uluru for five years as Park Manager, I left that position and was able to enjoy the relative freedom of a less formal and demanding role as Senior Project Officer on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands, about 300 kilometres south of Uluru. During the following three years on these AP lands I was able to ritualise my return visits to Uluru and seriously cultivate a deeper relationship with what I now understand to be one of Gaia’s most sacred places.

These ritualised return visits to Uluru in general, and to my chosen cave in particular, were for me the beginning of a lengthy and intense process of remembering how to listen to the manta – to Earth, and it is where I found my ‘Story Stone’. Ngayulu puli tjukur(pa) – ‘My Story Stone’, appeared to me decades after my Welsh mother Dilys first introduced me to stone consciousness using fossils on Penarth beach – my favourite childhood playground. I received my Story Stone as an act of generosity made available to me by the subtle realms of a cosmic consciousness. I share this story in the belief that the first act of ngapartji-ngapartji (Pitjantjatjara for a deep reciprocity) is that of receiving.

The experiences with my Story Stone were instrumental in leading me to find both the strangest, and the most beautiful, attractors in my life: the first – my strange attractor – was my arrival at the University of Western Sydney, where I was able to make some sense of the cultural interface from which I was emerging. There I met my beloved Glenys Livingstone – my beautiful attractor: together we are greatly inspired to carefully listen to teachers such as Thomas Berry when he says –

“The dawn and sunset are moments when the numinous source of all existence is experienced with special sensitivity. …Living things come into being, flourish then fade from the scene. This ever-renewing sequence of sunrise and sunset, of seasonal succession, constitutes a pattern of life, a great liturgy, a celebration of existence” (1999:177-78).

My Story Stone and the tjukurpa – the religious philosophy of Central Australia, opened new ways of knowing and being for me. It continues to be a great source of wisdom and guidance, as I deepen with my beloved, into our ‘PaGaian Cosmology’ a new and homely Earth based Goddess religion. The Central Australian religious observances have been described as showing

“ a generous diversity in their outward patterns from group to group, and from person to person. More importantly, the very nature of the religious beliefs prevented the rise of that particular kind of religious fanaticism which could have swept a small, but well organised body of men into a position of authoritarian power over a large community.”

(Strehlow 1978:47).

Such religious practice of the people of this Land inspires me, and undergirds my observance of the seasonal celebrations of my own ancestors – re-created in this place.

Our time to celebrate Eostar – Spring Equinox approaches. It is the season for a particular kind of “deepening down under”. As my beloved Glenys would say –

“This is the time of Spring’s return… The story of Old tells us that Persephone beloved daughter, returns from Her journey to the underworld. Demeter stretches out her arms – to receive and rejoice. The beloved One, the Lost One, returns with new Wisdom from the depths”

(Livingstone 2005:210).

References:

The Great Work (Thomas Berry 1999).

Central Australian Religion (T.G.H. Strehlow 1978).

Pitjantjatjara / Yankunytjatjra to English Dictionary

(Cliff Goddard 1992).

Uluru (Ayers Rock –Mount Olga) National Park

Plan of Management 1991.

PaGaian Cosmology (Glenys Livingstone 2005).

Permaculture is Revolutionary.

Posted on September 23, 2014 by malpagaia

“A permaculture way of life empowers us to take responsibility for our own welfare, provides endless opportunities for creativity and innovation, and connects us to nature and community in ways that makes sense of the world around us.

We generally don’t articulate permaculture as a political strategy or movement but reflecting the principle of multiple functions, permaculture strategies have powerful political impacts that have several advantages over conventional political action that focuses on getting those in power to pull the right levers.”

(David Holmgren 2013)

While I have known about the concept of permaculture and have been positively influenced by some of its practitioners for several decades, it is not until now that I have come to more fully appreciate its value to our planet in general and to us humans in particular.

From my PaGaian perspective, permaculture is a very significant Spiritical – spiritual and political, activity that is already providing a growing number of people with daily improvement to the quality of their lives. I find the three ethics at the centre of permacultures twelve design principles namely ‘earth care’, ‘people care’ and ‘fair share’, to be spiritually, politically and ecologically compatible.

While the number of practitioners is still relatively small and growing, if and when the twelve principles of permaculture are practiced by a large enough critical mass of humanity, then we could eventually find ourselves enjoying an ecologically sound and socially just global economy. Permaculture really is a social revolutionary struggle worth participating in.

No matter where one is placed on the socio-economic ladder, no matter what religious or political persuasion one is currently being influenced by, we can and should seriously consider joining the permaculture community, learning its twelve design principles and applying them daily to the best of our ability.

Permaculture is clearly already one of very few viable, sensible livelihood options remaining open to us during what is shaping up to be a geopolitically dangerous, ecologically devastating and socio-economically difficult period for most if not all working families.

Take a few minutes to visit permacultureprinciples.com and see for yourself what it might do for you and your relationship with all-that-is.

As with our spiritual vision, so too with our ecological and social visions, they are planetary by nature and PaGaian by name.

(Livingstone & Seaborne – Southern Spring 2014)

Spiritical Revolution.

Posted on September 12, 2014 by malpagaia

Spiritical is my new PaGaian word for expressing a revolution that is simultaneously spiritual, political, personal, planetary and permanent. Following is why and how I conjured the word up.

And so, we can make no separation between “spirituality” and “politics.” We are this world, we cannot leave it. We can only work to transform it as we transform ourselves, in acts of evolution and revolution.

(Barbara Mor 1987)

… wherein we humans no longer primarily engage in more talk and analysis, but we dare to attend sincerely and primarily to the complexity of actual relationship with, and comprehension of, our embodied engagement with our Earth-Universe-Gaian context.

(Glenys Livingstone 2005)

The criticism of religion disillusions man, so that he will think, act, and fashion his reality like a man who has discarded his illusions and regained his senses, so that he will move around himself as his own true Sun. Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.

(Karl Marx 1844)

Pondering on these quotes I am much inspired by the authors insight and poetic expression of spiritual and political revolution. From my PaGaian perspective there is only one revolution that I regard as literally permanent, namely that of planet Earth around its Sun. If for no other reason than that I can literally observe and feel the effect of this phenomenal relationship as the Sun appears to rise and set each day and as my place on planet Earth – whenever and wherever that may be, responds seasonally to their movement to and from our PaGaian Winter and Summer solstice celebrations – our Planetary holy moments. For me the Earth Sun relationship is a religious phenomenon that is fundamental to our very existence – as in a binding, connecting, definition and sense of the word religion. This fundamental Earth, Sun relationship enables me to experience a connectedness and belonging to what I occasionally refer to as my Self Place, a place where I can be anywhere and at anytime. As a PaGaian who regularly participates in ritual seasonal celebration, I include the apparent coming and going or waxing and waning, of the Moon – not just for good monthly measure.

With this fundamental Earth, Sun and Moon relationship in mind, how might I interpret Karl Marx saying that “Religion is only the illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself”? Again from my PaGaian perspective this quote provides me with a very convincing source of inspiration for spiritual and political revolutionary change. Karl Marx was evidently very objective and scientific about his understanding of the socio- economic circumstances of his epoch and he clearly wanted society to be under no illusion as to the true nature of these circumstances and the negative impact it was having on the livelihood of working families.

In the context of Marx’s symbolic expression it is worth remembering the illusion that the Sun rotated around the Earth was the result of long-held religious dogma not seriously questioned until Copernicus produced his heliocentric model of the universe late in the 15^thcentury. Consequently, thanks to such radical science we humans are no longer captivated by the illusion that the Sun rotates around the Earth, now knowing that it is in fact the Earth that rotates around the Sun. The same can be said about Marx’s “…illusory Sun which revolves around man as long as he does not revolve around himself.” It too is the consequence of a religious illusion resulting from long-term fear inducing dogma, principles, laws and teachings used by the ruling classes to maintain their power, wealth and control over the rest of us.

Unfortunately most of us continue to be deluded by an all-pervasive ruling class that uses its religious, political, economic and military dominance to induce fear, divide, conquer and thereby control almost everything we learn about and do. To resist and overcome this perverse control over our lives requires the kind of spiritual and political revolution that first and foremost is capable of Self empowering one’s own mind so that eventually we might come to help radically change our collective consciousness and the socio economic circumstances of most if not all humankind. This level of change requires nothing less than a simultaneously permanent, personal, planetary, spiritual and political revolution.

Such an ongoing revolutionary struggle is a necessary pre-requisite to doing as Mor, Livingstone and Marx suggest, that is learning how to transform ourselves in acts of evolution and revolution, attend to our relationship with other and thereby revolving around our own true Sun – our own true Self. How might we do this? Especially during adverse socio-economic circumstances…

Humans are not objects to be manipulated or enslaved by some external force or influence. We are all unique, individual subjects with a mind of our own. We need to pay careful attention to the stories going on between our ears because it is our primary story has the greatest influence on our personal values and behaviour. We need to think of our mind as the foundation of our most precious attributes, our imagination, our world-view, our faith and our passion. We should be very particular about who and or what we exercise our precious faith in and maybe even become passionate about.

Given the all-pervasive divide and conquer strategies used by the ruling classes of imperialist warfare states, a growing number of us now – more than ever, need to avail ourselves of information that will enable us to protect ourselves from these ruling class induced illusions and fear. More of us may then unite within a growing community of like-minded individuals already participating in and preparing for a broader planetary, spiritual, political and non-violent, revolution, a revolution that could eventually change our planetary habitat and its human community for the better.

Be it religious, political, economic or ecological information, the guiding principle for determining whether or not information is useful to us and our spiritual and political revolution is whether or not it advocates or at least recognizes that we are in relationship with Self, Other – including the other than human, and all-that-is? This is not difficult to determine, most information will speak for itself in this regard.

Thankfully as it happens, we are in the midst of a technological information sharing revolution, swimming in what could be described as an environment of information overload. Consequently it is very useful to know that some sources of information are considerably better than others and that we must be very careful about what information we take in, retain and allow to influence our Self place. There is one primary story and source of information that we are all entitled to learn from, rely on and be influenced by, namely the evolutionary story of the Universe. Particularly as it has been given to us by the late Thomas Berry, a truly Spiritical, revolutionary Passionist priest.

The newly energizing Earth community needs a mystique that will provide the high exaltation appropriate to the existence of such a stupendous universe and such a glorious planet as that on which we live. This can be found in celebrating not simply the seasonal sequence but also the irreversible transformational sequence, as this has taken place in the evolutionary story of the universe.

(Thomas Berry 2006)

As with our spiritual vision, so too with our ecological and social visions, they are planetary by nature and PaGaian by name.

(Livingstone & Seaborne 2014)

Southern Spring 2014.

Socialism from my PaGaian perspective.

Posted on September 4, 2014 by malpagaia

Several decades before I did any serious thinking about politics, I had already well and truly made up my mind about religion in general and my chosen spiritual practice in particular. Prior to meeting each other, my beloved GlenYs Livingstone and I were greatly influenced by the late Thomas Berry – a self-described ‘geologian’, and his ‘Twelve principles of a functional cosmology’. Principle number two is particularly relevant to how and why I now regard politics in general and socialism in particular from my PaGaian perspective.

“The universe is a unity, an interacting and genetically related community of beings bound together in an inseparable relationship in space and time. The unity of the planet Earth is especially clear; each being of the planet is profoundly implicated in the existence and functioning of every other being of the planet”.

Evening Thoughts, Thomas Berry (SF: Sierra Club Books, 2006)

Thanks to the so-called IT – information technology, revolution and our ability to know what is happening throughout the planet more or less as and when it happens, the influence of major international financial institutions and their subordinate political leaders on the quality of life for all of humanity has increased proportionately. While this rapidly developing technological advantage is benefitting a very small minority – probably less than 0.01%, of the planet’s total population, the vast majority of humanity is experiencing a rapidly diminishing quality of life. It is this increasingly oppressive socio-economic burden often being violently imposed on ordinary working families that eventually had me searching for a political story that might be compatible with Berry’s unifying second principle in general and my spiritual practice – PaGaian Cosmology, in particular.

Here I should let the author of PaGaian Cosmology, my beloved GlenYs Livingstone PhD, explain why she chose the name ‘PaGaian’ –

“The term “PaGaian”… expresses a reclaiming of the term “Pagan” as meaning a person who dwells in “country”, yet with “Gaian” spliced in, it expresses a renewed and contemporary understanding of that “country”. “Gaia” is a name for humanity’s Habitat, an ancient yet new name, which I understand to include whole Earth and Cosmos – there is no seam separating Earth from Her context. And Pagan religious tradition offers a spiritual practice of celebrating Earth-Sun Creativity manifest in this Habitat.”

Preface | PaGaian Cosmology.webloc

As indicated in the above quotes, PaGaian Cosmology could well be described as a philosophical and or ecological spiritual practice. Moreover, it is a practice based on a sense of place that is at the same time personal, cosmic and indigenous – or native, to planet Earth. PaGaian Cosmology is by design and intention an organic – as distinct from theocratic, spiritual practice. Given the rapidly deteriorating economic and social circumstances being experienced by most of my fellow human beings this was a very important distinction for me to keep in mind when considering what if any political story might be compatible with my world view and spiritual practice.

Within the last decade the GFC – Global Financial Crash, of 2008, the subsequent austerity measures imposed on working families, the numerous occupy movements, imperialist invasions and a plethora of insurrections, I came to regard politics in general and our Australian Westminster system of governance in particular as being totally incapable of improving the economic and social circumstances of most and therefore probably any of humanity. My lack of confidence in politics in general and in Australian political parties in particular did bother me from time to time. I could probably have lived indefinitely with my political indifference but I chose not to. I eventually decided to look deeper into the story of politics after one of many whinges to my partner and subsequently being encouraged by her to read some of Barbara Mor’s work on the subject – Mor is a modern-day feminist scholar who’s political story I found to be very thought-provoking and inspiring, particularly this paragraph –

‘The Great Cosmic Mother’ – Barbara Mor 1987).

So my search for a political story began by taking the hint from Mor that the merging of a political and spiritual revolution could take place on ‘a very sophisticated technological stage’… It wasn’t long before the World Wide Web and the likes of Google and Wikipedia led me to what I regarded as a plausible political story, a story that was also compatible with my world view and spiritual practice. It was at WSWS.org – the ‘World Socialist Web Site’ where I came across two key words ie; ‘internationalism’ and ‘equality’. If a political story was going to be both compatible with my spiritual practice and plausible in the context of changing the economic and social circumstances for most if not all of humanity, it had to at least meet these two essential criteria.

WSWS.org led me deeper into the political thinking and leadership of those who I now regard as our foremost political thinkers and leaders namely, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky and Luxemburg. It is their individual political rigour that impresses me most, but underpinning their scholarly approach to politics is a very evident sense of caring for their fellow beings. What I found within the WSWS.org political story as it relates to Leon Trotsky in particular is well expressed by David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of WSWS.org –

“A study of Trotsky’s writings is essential not only for an understanding of the politics of the twentieth century, but also for the purpose of orienting oneself politically in the very complex world of the twenty-first century… Trotsky provided a timeless demonstration of the power of ideas and ideals that correspond to and articulate the progressive strivings of humanity.”

(‘In Defence of Leon Trotsky’ – David North, Mehring Books 2013 p7)

The political rigour and discipline of Marx and Trotsky et al; appears to be an ongoing tradition among the journalists working for WSWS.org. For me, their political story telling is among the bravest, most honest and caring that I have ever read. Take the story of Yuri Primakov for example, he is the 87-year-old son of Markovitch Primakov a hero of the 1917 October Revolution, Yuri among other grandchildren of the revolution was recently interviewed by a WSWS.org journalist –

“They didn’t care about money and they truly believed in communism. They were convinced that they had to fight for the betterment of humankind, not just for the improvement of their own material position. If you compare that to the elites today, who don’t give a damn about the people and are interested only in the market rates of their companies on the stock exchange, then you can see what degradation has taken place.”

Were it not for this underlying sense of caring for the well-being of humanity and their strong commitment toward replacing the current profit driven systems of governance with an international socialism to meet the needs of most if not all humanity, I would find the often brutal honesty of WSWS.org political reporting to be depressing. Thankfully I don’t, on the contrary, nowadays the ICFI/SEP/WSWS.org is my chosen source of political information.

As indicated above, my world view and spiritual practice draws on a contemporary philosophical understanding of our place in the cosmos, as well as our newly emerging scientific understanding of how ‘each being of the planet is profoundly implicated in the existence and functioning of every other being of the planet’. As such I am now also confident that PaGaian Cosmology is a spiritual practice that does what Trotsky recommended we do in that it takes ‘the best possible tools of the latest technology’ –

“Spiritual culture is just as contradictory as material culture. And just as from the arsenals and warehouses of material culture we put into circulation not the bow and arrow, not stone tools or bronze age tools, but we take the best possible tools of the latest technology, – we must approach spiritual culture in just the same way”.

(‘Socialism & Culture’ – LeonTrotsky 1927)

Trotsky’s conception of Marxism as the ‘science of perspective’ also gives me confidence in arguing that my world view and spiritual practice is compatible with a classical Marxist international revolutionary Socialism –

As philosophy finds its material weapon in the proletariat, so the proletariat finds its spiritual weapon in philosophy… It is, therefore, the task of history, once the other-world of truth has vanished, to establish the truth of this world. It is the immediate task of philosophy, which is in the service of history, to unmask self-estrangement in its unholy forms once the holy form of human self-estrangement has been unmasked. Thus, the criticism of Heaven turns into the criticism of Earth, the criticism of religion into the criticism of law, and the criticism of theology into the criticism of politics.

(Karl Marx 1844)

This is how Marx perceives and reveals to us a careful and most valuable understanding of spirituality, philosophy, history and politics. This is the kind of scientific rigour that has enabled me to build on and make progress from Thomas Berry’s Unifying principle, then to GlenYs Livingstone’s PaGaian Cosmology and eventually to Leon Trotsky’s concept of an international revolutionary socialism.

As with our spiritual vision, so too with our ecological and social visions, they are planetary by nature and PaGaian by name.

(Livingstone & Seaborne 2014)

Southern Spring 2014.

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