In 2017, Skylar Wilson, Jennifer Listug and I launched the Order of the Sacred Earth and brought together a number of authors to respond to our opening essays in a book that put forward our vision of OSE. The book is called Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action.
We invited David Korten to offer a Foreword to the book and here is part of what he had to say.
“I promise to be the best lover and defender of Mother Earth that I can be.” Might this sacred pledge required of those who join the Order of the Sacred Earth save humanity and our Earth Mother? It is surely worth a try.
Individually, we are powerless against the forces of death wrought by human greed and violence in humanity’s ultimately self-destructive war against life. Only by acting together as lovers and defenders of our Earth mother, will life prevail.
If you are drawn to this book, you likely know that our human relationship to Earth is in urgent need of serious healing. Eco-anxiety—a chronic fear of environmental doom—is surfacing as a reality-based, pervasive psychological malady.
I now commonly encounter people asking the ultimate question—has the relationship between Earth and humans already passed beyond the point of no return?
The essays and reflections that Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson and Jennifer Listug bring together in this book hold true to their promise to prospective members of the Order of the Sacred Earth of an open, creative process of inquiry, love, and action. But the diversity of perspectives can be confusing. As I read the book, I found myself asking, “What’s the point? Out of these readings, what am I expected to believe or do?”
Given rapidly growing climate instability, species extinction, and depletion of soils, fresh water, forests, and fisheries, there is good reason to believe it has. If we accept that conclusion, however, we turn our fear into a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more responsible choice is to act with urgency, wisdom, courage, and love as mystic warriors in the cause of life and living Earth….
Yet by the time I reached the end, I had begun to see the wisdom of the open, emergent process that Matt, Skylar, and Jennifer are advancing. They are inviting all seekers of peace, truth, love, and healing—irrespective of past loyalties and affiliations—to join in the common cause of healing Earth guided by an emergent understanding of what Matt calls Creation Spirituality.
I have long felt an affinity with Creation Spirituality. Only as I read this book, however, did I begin to grasp the deep significance of the joining of these two words…. The two words, Creation Spirituality, help us to find common ground as spiritual activists.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jennifer Listug, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action, pp. viif.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: Drought, hurricane, wildfire, and rising seas: Earth in distress and out of balance. Images from Pixabay; collage by Phila Hoopes.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you sense with David Korten that spiritual activists can be buttressed by a consciousness that recognizes the sacredness of creation along with the demand to act and to act together? How does that translate into the upcoming November elections?
Recommended Reading
Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“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.
7 thoughts on “David Korten’s Foreword to <i>Order of the Sacred Earth</i>”
Matthew, Today you tell us that you invited David Korten to offer a Foreword to the book, ORDER OF THE SACRED EARTH, and here is part of what he had to say: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of Mother Earth that I can be.” Many however, feel that the relationship between Earth and humans has already passed the point of no return. Given rapidly growing climate instability, species extinction, and depletion of soils, fresh water, forests, and fisheries, there is good reason to believe it has. The question that I ask is: “Will we still do everything in our power to save our earth-home?” It is my hope that we will. We have made such great strides in ending the Vietnam War, civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights–through protesting. Why can’t there be a grass roots group that could help organize rallies and demonstrations to protest the lack of what is being done in view of the problem of climate change? We need a consciousness that recognizes the sacredness of creation along with the demand to act and to act together! And we need to vote in November elections to make our wills known to the powers that be.
Please, a subject like this does NOT need a musical background to make it hard to get the starkness of the words spoken. Is it too much to expect the listener to focus on the dedication required to meet the challenge of saving the earth and its life?
Thank you for bringing to our attention our connection to the Earth & one another and giving us hope. Here is a similar inexpressible animation/art/music form: Princess Mononoke..,
“Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible”
St. Francis of Assisi
“Mother-Father who birth’s Unity! You vibrate life into form in each new instant. Hear the Sound that birthed a all others, in this way the Name is hallowed in silence. Desire with and through us the rule of universal fruitfulness onto Earth. Help us love beyond our ideals and sprout acts of compassion for all creatures. Birth in us, for us, the possible: each only-human step toward home lit up. Compost our inner, stolen fruit as we forgive others the spoils of their trespassing. Deceived neither by the outer nor the inner–free us to walk your path with joy. From you is born all ruling will,, the power and life to do, the song that beautifies all–from age to age it renews. Truly–power to these statements–may they be the ground from which all my actions grow: Sealed in trust and faith. from: “Giving Thanks With the Aramaic Jesus,” by Tom Leonhardt. soon to be republished.
One of the ways we can act together is through our mindfully made food choices. Two good books by authors on this subject are: Glenn Merzer’s with his book “Food is Climate (https://climatehealers.org/foodisclimate) and J. Morris Hicks’ book “Outcry” (https://hpjmh.com). Both have deep feeling and passion for healing Mother Earth and are worth looking into.
The recommended book, “The Order of the Sacred Earth,” seems prophetic and essential reading for our existential time of climate/environmental catastrophe due to our historical patriarchal industrial ‘civilization’ polluting Mother Earth and not treating Her as Sacred and the source/grace of All Life here on earth, including our own. This destructive ecocide has indeed been morally sinful and suicidal. Hopefully, there is deeper spiritual meaning for these cataclysmic times that are going to get worse and consequently the suffering/death are also going to increase around the world. There will be an imminent time where denial will no longer be possible for most people, and hopefully then most people will real realize that besides physically trying to survive with one another, we have to spiritually transform our personal and smaller communal lives by compassionately caring for one another and Mother Nature/Earth in God’s Divine Spirit of Loving~Wisdom~Strength~Oneness Present within and among us daily on our spiritual journeys here on Sacred Earth, and continuing to evolve eternally….
🔥❤️🌎🙏
The Church of course has many of its own “orders”, but perhaps this is the one Order all humanity belongs to, whether we know it or not? }:- a.m.
AMEN Patrick, to the Order of the Sacred Earth !!!