Advent is all about pregnancy. And if any religion honors pregnancy, it would be Goddess spirituality, don’t you think? If I could go back to myself, circa seven years ago, I might say this: “Enjoy your first Advent as a Catholic. But keep it grounded. Anchor it in the good earth, the silence of the soil, the pulsing heartbeat within all living flesh. The only Advent worth celebrating is an earthy Advent, just as the only spirituality worth practicing is an earthy spirituality.”
Faith, Fern and Compass Pro: (Protected Content)
We discuss Bill Plotkin’s work as a depth psychologist and wilderness guide exploring the stages of a soul-centered, ecocentric life. We delve into the world of archetypes to discover the deepest impulses of the human psyche that move us through childhood, adolescence, adulthood and elderhood, and the challenges of trying to live a soul-centric life in an egocentric world.
Place is about community and change. Some places lead to collective action, either because they allow people to gather and protest together, or because they represent a struggle. When urban planning is done right, it can create opportunities rather than isolation. Public spaces like plazas and parks draw a diverse range of people, giving us opportunities to meet other people in our communities. Planners can involve the whole community in the design of communal places, and when they do, civic participation rises. Ask people to take responsibility for planning community spaces, and we do that in ways that make community more sustainable.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Faith, Fern and Compass Pro: (Protected Content)
We celebrate our 50th episode with in-depth coverage of how we’re all going to die! After unraveling the Mayan prophecies about December 21, 2012, we turn our attention to the coming technological singularity and speculate about what a world ruled by super-computers and nanobots will look like. We check in with a NASA scientist to find out if Planet X is still on schedule to crash into the earth next month, and whether or not solar flares and geomagnetic pole shifts might make Apple’s new Maps app even more useless. In our Pro extension, we get real with some of the actual predictions coming from astrophysicists about the Big Bang, Big Bounce and Big Freeze, and we end with the heart-warming holiday message that we’re unlikely to be special and unique snowflakes after all.
Faith, Fern and Compass Pro: (Protected Content)
We catch up on stories from earlier in the season with the latest developments. Great news on the Colorado River Delta gives us something to celebrate, as a decade’s long tragedy gets turned into a success story of water security and international cooperation. We revisit our conversation on placemaking with a discussion of the role of nature and wilderness in literature. And we wrap things up with post-election coverage of the impending fiscal cliff and what a second term for Obama means for the environment.
It’s hard to be grateful for the blessings in our lives when I’m so frightened about how we, as a culture, over-consume those very blessings. For me, it is a challenge to remain anchored enough in gratitude that I can consciously make choices consistent with my desire to live a sustainable, rather than hyper-consumptive, life. The temptation of the fear is a temptation to despair. And I suspect that many Americans, and perhaps folks from other parts of the planet, have already succumbed to that temptation. When we stare into the horrifying implications of climate change, the reaction of dread and anxiety that we feel is, in my opinion, very much related to the old Hebrew idea of “the fear of the Lord.” It is a fear we feel because we know in our guts we’ve done something wrong. So what do we do now?
Faith, Fern and Compass Pro: (Protected Content)
We explore the dark underbelly of this quintessential American harvest festival. Is the classic turkey dinner really a kind of animal sacrifice, symbolic of soldiers returning from war to be dismembered and cannibalized to nourish the homeland? Does the all-American obsession with football speak to our history of colonialism and military conflict? Is Black Friday just another shopping day, or is the consumerism that drives mobs into violent frenzies an inevitable result of our culture’s subconscious desire for blood sacrifice? What does our modern Thanksgiving holiday have in common with the ancient Aztec creation stories in which the gods themselves must sacrifice their flesh and blood to appease a ravenous earth? We investigate the disturbing underpinnings of this American holiday of gratitude and friendship.
