"The Deep Ecology of Our Intimacy"

In the late 90's I lived on a beautiful piece of Mother Earth called Earthlands, which at the time was an environmental education and retreat facility, as well as an intentional community of sorts. Here I discovered the philosophies of Arne Naess, John Seed and Joanna Macy's "Deep Ecology" and "Despair and Empowerment" work; as well as breathwork, deep healing, a host of ecological learnings and personal transformation and empowerment. In my time there I facilitated, organized, participated in or was otherwise somehow involved in over 100 workshops of all sorts. After leaving Earthlands I lived on the road for 2 years, visited several communities, fell in and out of love and began to explore a whole new realm of ideas around relationships, basically looking hard at current societal expectations and exploring new paradigm ideas. This lead me to a fabulous gathering in Oregon, hosted by "the Network For a New Culture", called "Summer Camp". Here the focus was on human relationships, whereas at Earthlands it was more about our relationship to the earth and ourselves. What an amazing combination I thought! At Summer Camp I really missed the Deep Ecology work and the group processes designed to bring inner, and therefore, universal planetary healing. At Summer Camp it's about the here and now of our interpersonal human relationships, what we are doing today, how we are defining intimacy and what we can do from the perspective of our intimate relationships to create a world free of violence.

I see this retreat I am inviting you to as a merging together of the Deep Ecology work I did at Earthlands and the human relationship work done at Summer Camp, as well as my own personal studies and explorations in this area. A merging together of the two camps, of my two families, of two ideas and ways of practice, of two lifetimes. It is my hope that this merging will spring forth a whole new realm of explorations and foster deep friendships.

For those of you not familiar with the Deep Ecology philosophy here is a brief:

"Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess (b. 1912) coined the term "Deep Ecology" in 1972 to express the ideas that nature has intrinsic value, namely, value apart from its usefulness to human beings, and that all life forms should be allowed to flourish and fulfill their evolutionary destinies. The term has since come to signify both its advocates' deeply felt spiritual connections to the earth's living systems and ethical obligations to protect them, as well as the global environmental movement that bears its name. Naess and most deep ecologists, however, trace their perspective to personal experiences of connection to and wholeness in wild nature, experiences which are the ground of their intuitive, affective perception of the sacredness and interconnection of all life. Those who have experienced such a transformation of consciousness (experiencing what is sometimes called one's "ecological self" in these movements) view the self not as separate from and superior to all else, but rather as a small part of the entire cosmos. From such experience flows the conclusion that all life and even ecosystems themselves have inherent or intrinsic value - that is, value independently of whether they are useful to humans."

Check out these websites for more info:

www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/welcome.htm, council of all beings D&E work, John Seed
www.churchofdeepecology.org, quick, clear intro to deep ecology
www.joannamacy.net, deep ecology, despair and empowerment
www.earthstory.org - the east coast gathering which happens at Earthlands and comes from a perspective of Deep Ecology.

The Bisbee Marquee - a comprehensive Bisbee site
Retreat Coaches Network and www.artrageouscamp.com ...for more info on Margie