Something I've spent a lot of time thinking about over the past couple of years is the true meaning of ecology and the true of meaning of being 'at home'. I've pondered it, agonised over it, I've even written an MA dissertation about it!
We generally think of an ecologist as someone who cares for the natural world, someone who has an ethical concern for all the living creatures on the planet, and indeed, the planet itself as a living organism that can support and sustain all the life upon it. How different is this from the idea, purported by all the dominant discourses - patriarchal religions, Cartesian (and post-Cartesian) philosophy, and materialstic science - that the earth is simply dead matter, there for the explotative benefit of man with his supposedly superior mind. So why, on earth, are we humans constantly seeking to reconnect to its animate beauty, its plants, its animals, birds and insects, its rocks, its landscapes. Perhaps because the so called 'natural' world is, in an obviously real and embodied sense, our true and sustainable home.
The word ecology comes from the root word 'eco' an abbreviated form of the Greek word oikos which means 'home'. In fact this word can mean either a human home, a temple, or the home of the gods, or the astrological 'house', the natural home of a planet (as god or goddess). The word 'oikos' is a deeply spiritual word which resonates an energy of desire, the desire to reconnect to one's home, to reconnect to one's roots, the building of homes, the building of sacred temples. At a very profound level then ecology involves the spiritual practice of making a home, and of being at home as an expression of finding a suitable home for the soul.
We perhaps tend to think of ecology in a rather limited way, as 'the study of' our relationship to our environment. However, when we explore the second part of the word, -logy, we realise that the root word logos actually means more than just the study of something. The word logos is full of mystery and creative potency. 'In the beginning was the Logos and the Logos was God', as the first line of the gospel of John testifies. So ecology is really about the mystery of home, and the mystery of our connection to our spiritual home. As we search for our home in this world, we are also, in a very real way, searching for our spiritual home.
Existential philosopher Martin Heidegger described authenticity as the experience of being 'at home' in one's own being, and that authenticity exists in the human condition only as rare, but profoundly enlightened moments among a vast sea of inauthentic experience when we feel cast adrift from the experience of being at home. The authenticity of being 'at home' he described as an experience of 'dwelling'.
The commonality of responses among participants on the course this week to the question, 'what does home mean to you?' has been very interesting. A place of peace, connection, serenity, joy, love, warmth, a place to return to, the place to get sustenance and nourishment; time and again, the answers seemed to echo each other. Almost everyone connected the experience of being 'at home' to being in nature, to being surrounded by the natural beauty of the world around them. It would seem that home is very often experienced as a return to the natural world, a return to our own lost connection to the natural world and the divinity implicit within it. So really the only differences exist in terms of the interpretations how we have allowed our experience of feeling 'at home' to be violated. We all have our stories and we have defined ourselves by those stories. Whether we were abandoned, abused, controlled, smothered by love or denied love, we have become addicted to those very same violations of our authentic experience of home and have defined and limited ourselves by them. We give so much energy to those stories of the violation, of how we have lost connection to the sustainable source of our being, that we attract more of the same, in different guises perhaps - but with essentially the same thread of addiction.
It occurs to me that we have forgotten to honour our sacred connection to 'home' in much the same way that we, as a society, have forgotten to honour the earth, the natural world around us, our planet, our environment, our ancestry, our cultural traditions. Several people this week have bemoaned the state of their home - that it doesn't feel like home, that it's a mess, that it's too small, too big, too impersonal. Yet our relationship to our home may, in some important sense, reflect our relationship to ourselves - so by honouring our home, we are implicitly honouring ourselves. By honouring our environment, we are honouring ourselves; by honouring our family, our roots, our community, society at large, we are honouring ourselves. For we cannot help but dwell in each one of these, whether we like or not. So we can resent it, blame it, reject it, but we can never escape it, any more than we can escape ourselves. So if you dream of living in a beautiful place that satisfies all your desires as to what a home should be, begin by honouring the place where you are right now, beginning by engaging with the place you currently call home, as you would engage a sacred place. Create a sacred relationship with your home now and you forge a connection with your spiritual home now. From that place of connection, you hold the power of manifestation in your hands. Build your temple here and build it now - don't dream of it in some far off place, because if you do it will remain in that far off place forever.
Ecology, the mystery of home, is the mystery of where we belong, it is the mystery of who we are and it is the mystery of here and now. I actually like to think of ecology as the honouring or blessing of home. Be grateful for your home, be grateful for where you are right now. You could not be in a better place.
Love John x
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