The Climate Strike—Where the Via Creativa and Via Transformativa Converge

In my video yesterday I urged people to march on Friday at the worldwide Climate Strike event envisioned by the contemporary prophet, sixteen year old Greta Thunberg. In May 1.4 million kids walked out of school to awaken adults about their passion to combat climate change.  Tomorrow, Friday September 20, will be, according to Bill McKibben, the “biggest day of climate action in the planet’s history.”  Big trade unions, workers at Amazon headquarters, college students and senior citizens are planning to join this action.  Intergenerational wisdom on the march!  Try to make it yourself, and if you can’t, urge others to attend. 

How does this action for Eco-Justice echo the meditations we have been sharing since Mother’s Day?  First, recall that the reason we launched on Mother’s Day was two-fold: First, to honor our Mother Earth from whom all life derives and by whom we are fed daily and nourished and enriched not only physically but spiritually.  Second, because it is time to honor the Divine Feminine that has too long been sidelined by our patriarchal institutions and ambitions that have unlashed the reptilian brain of extracting wealth from the earth at any price.  The result has been the rape of Mother Earth and the setting on fire of Mother Earth and flooding and huge migrations and all the suffering that comes with climate change.

For the last two months we have been laying out the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality as the pattern for our mystical and prophetic journeys.  In this case, our love of Mother Earth (the Via Positiva) and awareness of her suffering (the Via Negativa).

 What emerges next is the Via Creativa wherein we can imagine a healthier Mother Earth.  Taking that holy Imagination into action is the Via Transformativa—exactly what Greta Thunberg is inviting us to do. 

Just as Gandhi organized the angry Indian citizens to march to the sea to gather salt and to take up the spinning wheel to make one’s own clothes to stand up nonviolently to the British Empire, and just as MLK Jr. and his cohorts organized many, many people of all ages to stand up to segregation by filling jails, marching and the rest, so too is Greta Thunberg inviting all of us of whatever age to march and be counted.

These acts are all Social Art—gathering people to express themselves clearly and unambiguously.

This moment is when the rubber of the Via Creativa meets the road of the Via Transformativa.

See: Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jen Listug, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
Banner Image: “Fridays for the Future.” Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

For Contemplation and Practice

Here is a practice:

Study this brilliant article about today’s Climate Strike and why we ought to participate, young and old alike: Why Should You Climate Strike This Friday, September 20?

Join a march near you.  See globalclimatestrike.net.  Notice as you march with others and with other generations which of the Four Paths you undergo along the way  (hint: it may prove to be all four).

Recommended Reading

Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action

By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.” 
~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope
“The creation of the Order of the Sacred Earth is a magnificent step forward for humanity.”  ~~ Andrew Harvey, author of Way of Passion and The Hope.

Learn More