“So you need this?” “Yes. That bond. That hope.” “Now? – For life?” “Now and for life.” Life, said the rushing water below between the rocks in the cold darkness. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Unchained (translated by Jakub Němeček) When astrobiologists search the universe for potential worlds where life could coexist, they are guided by the phrase follow the water – because other life than…
Category: Texts
Luděk Čertík: So much depends on the ravens (and our meetings)
Maybe you've experienced it before. You're walking through a forest and suddenly you hear the guttural croo croo croo of a raven flying by. At that moment, everything seems to stand on its hind legs. The forest you're walking through is no longer the same forest. It has changed. The needles on the pine trees are pricklier than they were a few moments ago. The bark of the trees is covered in a shiny crust. The mosses have become richer...
Janine M. Benyusová: BI-O-MIM-IK-RY or Nature's Responses / Why Biomimicry Now?
“We must draw our standards from the natural world. We must honor its boundaries and the mysteries that lie beyond them with prudent humility, and admit that there is something in the order of being that clearly exceeds all our capabilities.”Václav Havel Janine Benyusová is a biologist, writer, and innovation consultant. After writing books on wild animals and their behavior (Beastly behaviors: a zoo…
Glenn Albrecht: Enter the Symbiocene
In the Anthropocene, the so-called new normal is characterized by uncertainty, unpredictability, chaos, and relentless change. Shouldn’t we rather think of this era as a new abnormality? Environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht argues that we need to move on from the Anthropocene story, and proposes the Symbiocene (from the Greek sumbiosis, or community) as the next epoch. The scientific meaning of the word “symbiosis” means living together in harmony…
Andreas Weber: For a culture of radically shared vitality
This proposition was created during the first WorldEthicForum strategy weekend on October 2 and 3, 2021 in Scharans (Grisons, Switzerland) based on a proposal by Andreas Weber and in collaboration with Martin Otto. If you identify with these or similar principles and want to contribute to the revitalizing transformation of our world, you are cordially invited to participate in the WorldEthicForum. Translated by Alena Malíková and Jiří Zemánek. Principles and initial challenge of the WorldEthicForum …
Martin Nawrath: The flow of pilgrimage, the flow of mind
This essay "The flow of pilgrimage, the flow of mind" by Martin Nawrath was published in the thematic issue 4 of the XXXVII. year 2023 of the Veronica magazine (pp. 4-6), dedicated to pilgrimages through the landscape. At my age, I sometimes let my steps slow down. Perhaps the body of my legs knows better than I do what speeds to walk at in this stage of life. My head still likes to touch the terrain of the pilgrimage on the map,…
David Abram: In the Heart of the World
An excerpt from David Abram's book Becoming an Animal – Earthly Cosmology (HOST, Brno 2024), from the final thirteenth chapter “Conclusion / In the Heart of the Heart of the World” (pp. 347-354); translation: Jiří Zemánek. According to a story that was once passed down in various forms among numerous indigenous peoples around the world — among Aboriginal elders in Australia and indigenous storytellers in North America, among the ancient Maya…
David Abram: The Language of Things
David Abram is a leading American ecophilosopher, storyteller, visionary, and one of America's finest nature writers. In his work, which addresses critical environmental and ecological issues today, he combines the philosophical tradition of phenomenology with the rich lessons of the animist worldview of indigenous cultures. He is the author of The Spell of the Sensuous (1996; Czech: Kouzlo smyslů, DharmaGaia 2013) and Becoming Animal…
Jiří Zemánek: Between the human body and the breathing earth – about the books The Magic of the Senses and Becoming an Animal by David Abram
“Becoming the earth. Becoming an animal. And becoming – in this way – fully human.” David Abram The first book by American philosopher, ecologist and visionary David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (1996; Czech: Kouzlo smyslů, DharmaGaia 2013) has been hailed as a groundbreaking work of ecological philosophy and ethics that magically overturns the dichotomies between culture and nature, between…
Jeremy Lent: The Web of Meaning or The Future is Not a Sports Spectacle
“Patterns of meaning have been shaped by history. How will our own patterns shape the future?” Jeremy Lent Here is an excerpt from Jeremy Lent’s book The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe (New Society Publishers 2021), from the final thirteenth chapter, “Weaving a New Story,” which the author published under the title “The Future is Not…