Last week, we hosted two dynamic events that held the energy of a tidal wave! Charles Eisenstein, author of The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible, and Bayo Akomolafe, author of These Wilds Beyond Our Fences, co-facilitated a mid-week retreat-tsunami called The Grace of Decomposition. The retreat celebrated the rich composting process of letting go of elder paradigms that no longer serve the whole as we learn to live into a mysterious “third way” of seeing beyond entrenched dualisms: e.g., the “sacred vs. the mundane,” the “either/or” and the “us vs. them” mentality.
Bayo and Charles, along with gifted musician-of-Earth Sara Thomsen, also co-facilitated our annual Spirituality in the 21st Century event, called Living in the Mangle: Coming to Life in a World Alive. Over two-hundred twenty people came together at that event to delve deeply into living in the mangle, i.e., living in the transition from the story of stratified hierarchies with their emphases on separation and domination to a story of profound and intentional inter-connection and inter-being.
These two events offered sacred, reflective space in which we explored prevalent themes of the Anthropocene that have led to our current disorientation, confusion and global dis-ease. Rather than collapsing the tensions and trying to disentangle the Gordian Knot of our planetary malaise, we reflected in a variety of ways what it means to be entangled in an inter-connected world, a “thick now.” We heard about concepts like “intra-action,” ala feminist philosopher and agential realist Karen Barad, that changes how we perceive causality. (Intra-action is a process by which phenomena are co-created in an emergent fashion by many actors, including other-than-human kin. When we converge in energetic exchanges with all creation, we experience causality in an entirely new fashion that is much more complex, nuanced and intertwined with all creation.) We also explored many mythological, biblical and indigenous stories about the experience of living in the mangle. We sat and wrestled with paradoxes; played with koans and riddles; sang songs of praise, lament and healing; and listened deeply in the midst of tremulous silences. The tendency to try to “solve” problems that are leading toward multi-species extinction and ecocide is no longer a valid approach in a post-human world. As Bayo reminded us, “Times are urgent. Let’s slow down.” These events were opportunities to slow down, to listen with our whole being, to behold anew the constitution of the great “WE” in a post-human world, to compost ourselves, and to experience the grace of healing and leaning into Mystery together, as a complex web of life. “Living in the mangle” will continue to inspire and challenge us as we evolve as one.
—Laura Weber, Prairiewoods’ associate director