Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] For the survival thread...

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: <permed@nor.com.au>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] For the survival thread...
  • Date: Wed, 6 Nov 02 10:16:49 -0000

Russ wrote:
>I know that, when I used to teach PDCs, the notion expressed in Mark's
>piece about "what the land wants to be", which suggests that the land
>is not only conscious but has desires, would have been viewed with
>very little credibility by most students.
>
Depends on context - how it's said - could simply be another way of
"Listening to the Land" - this BTW is the title of a manual for community
environmental monitoring used by Regional Organisation of Councils around
Australia written by Terry White (initial editor of Permaculture
International Journal). I don't think anyone using this manual baulks at
the title thinking it implies the land can talk and chatter..... and
what about the Gaia hypothesis - that the Earth is a living being in it's
own right - this 'woo-woo' concept came from science itself.

I think that 'listening' to "what the land wants to be" is a valid
approach, an essential tool in design and a true art which engages both
intuition and intellectual process.

IMO there's too much of a spiritual cringe in pc, the bagging of
biodynamics etc. Yet strangely it was through my pc teaching that the
pagan within was awakened - largely from teaching the stuff on patterns
in nature and human culture which aroused my curiosity to research my own
cultural pre-christian roots of the Celts, bards and druids and to bring
head and heart, intellect and intuition, rational and spiritual into
comfortable balance. It's interesting that when one delves into the roots
of modern science one finds a point where astrologoy and astronomy,
esoteric numerology and hard mathematics were integrated sciences, that
Pythagoras discovered 'Py' from his spiritual or esoteric understanding
of numbers....

Science is it's own religion with a blind faith vested only and
exclusively in the repeatable and easily quantifiable and has astutely
ignored the variable or whatever doesn't fit it's conceptual, rational
box at a given point in time - it has only been with the emergemce of
chaos thinking that some scientists have embraced the 'unknown'.

Intuition plays a big role in design though it cannot be measured
scientifically. The original PDC Handbook (1985) written by Bill M,
Andrew Jeeves and Reny Slay included in "design process" a section on
experiential - intuition, visualisation, zazen, and other techniques to
tap into the unmeasurable, unquantifiable qualities of the site/land,
mainly perceived by activating 'right brain' faculties. It's an
impoverished design that doesn't acknowledge Sense of Place which
inherently includes opening one's self to Spirit of Place.
Conversly just working exclusivly the intuitive (and esoteric) without
having practical knowledge and skills can be a recipe for disaster or
ill-conceived actions - there needs to be a respectful balance.

I liked what Scott said - and yes when we are dealing with nature and
whole systems the spiritual is there embodied in the practical and
touches those who are open and receptive without having to teach it with
a name or dogma.
Robyn





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page