Coming Home Through Myth – Luisah Teish

Where are you at home? This session discusses the Eco-Spiritual beliefs of early humans, with emphasis on the importance of a balanced relationship with nature in village life. You’ll receive an overview of conditions on Earth and in the Human Community. We’ll also look at conditions in the Ocean, the Forest, the Farm and the Environment of the Inner City.

Additionally, through visualization, you’ll explore a series of landscapes, including the Forest, the Desert, the Mountain and the Open Field – and be invited to feel each and identify the place where you feel most “at home.”

In this module, you’ll:

• Identify your place of power in nature as well as your primary environmental concerns and the factors impacting your community.
• Get guidance for exploring your individual and our collective relationship with the natural world and all of its sacred inhabitants.
• Find powerful ways to hold multiple ways of knowing – through body, mind and Spirit.
• Gain illuminating insights on community engagement, service and stewardship.
• Leave the session with a homework activity:

Home Cleaning, where you’ll be invited to take a walk in your neighborhood, commit some small act that makes an improvement or acknowledges the spirit of the place, and then write about this experience.

In this module, you’ll explore the 3 aspects of “myth” and examine the body of myths that have shaped our perceptions and attitudes toward Mother Nature. Myths of Origin (such as the Creation according to Hellenistic Greece and of the Garden of Eden) will be deconstructed to demonstrate their impact on our attitudes toward the Earth, women, pregnancy, land labor, snakes, spirits and kin relationships.

Additionally, through visualization, you’ll walk through the Forest of Forever, where you’ll meet the plants and the animals and have a “first” encounter with other humans. You’ll be invited to recall your early childhood relationship to the Earth, where and how you played, your imaginary companions, and then to recall the subsequent conditioning by social and religious institutions that altered your relationship.

In this module, you’ll:

• Begin to identify any fears of nature you might be harboring.
• Examine any inhibiting beliefs you have through innovative critical thinking approaches.
• Find powerful ways to reclaim your innocent imagination and childlike love of nature.
• Use spiritual practices (as change agents) to help promote social, cultural and ecological balance.
• Leave the session with a homework activity:

Home Building, where you’ll create an altar in honor of your Healing Place/Power Place in Nature and use all elements at your disposal.

In this session, you’ll be introduced to the myths and stories from the Eco-Spiritual traditions of the world. Here, you’ll encounter Deities of Field and Forest, Elemental Beings and stories of plants and animals that think, talk and help to shape creation. They include the African stories of the Creation of the Earth, the Advent of Agriculture and the Coming of Humans. We’ll discuss these stories and the cultures that offer an embodied view of our relationship to Mother Nature.

Additionally, through visualization, you’ll be lead through a forest, peopled with mystical beings and into a village with a cultivated abundant garden.

In this module, you’ll:

• Be introduced to different worldviews of nature and research a myth or story from a culture (other than you own) that offers a different perspective.
• Explore mythological materials from the African diaspora which offer an alternative view of our relationship to “Mother Nature.”
• Get introduced to powerful practices for stimulating your imagination.
• Learn how to find important and enchanting stories.
• Leave the session with a homework activity:

Create a Community, in which you’ll sit at your altar and re-live the visualization from the session, ask illuminating questions about the environments and the inhabitants and write responses.

This module provides an overview of our areas of concentration: climate change, water quality and access, land use, global food security, species extinction and human culture. We’ll discusses some of the misconceptions about these problems, learn sources for correct information and choose three inter-related subjects to work with (at least one of them must be the Impact of Human Culture).

Our visualization for this session will be a walk through The Wasteland. The environment is covered in trash, the water is polluted, the animals are devastated and the people are starving, depressed and alienated. You’ll be encouraged to feel this devastation and to withstand the pain this condition can cause.

In this module, you’ll learn:

• A way to address a variety of issues and to consider strategies to address personal, community and global needs with compassion and effectiveness.
• To provide information, encourage reflection and inspire future action.
• Leave the session with a homework assignment:

Honoring Earth Stewards, in which you’ll review Module 3’s homework, and through the Internet, library and conversations with neighbors and classmates, identify individuals and groups who are or have been stewards of the Natural World. You’ll complete this exercise with a meditation on their attitudes, skills and lifestyles to recognize the similarities between you and them.

This module examines the ways in which we use our imaginations – our most natural resource. We’ll discuss the lives and ways of the Earth Stewards previously discussed in Module 4. And we’ll explore the power of storytelling as a means of connecting people to the environment and re-visioning our old stories to create new ones.

We’ll also walk once again through the Wasteland, but this time you’ll have the opportunity to stop, examine and impact these conditions simply by touching them. What happens when your energy is applied to a situation?

During this module, you’ll:

• Engage in powerful exercises for overcoming ecological depression.
• Find creative ways to activate your imagination.
• Experience insightful approaches for examining the basic components of stories.
• Leave the session with a homework activity:

An Exploration of Recyclable Materials, in which you’ll be encouraged to look at the materials around you and to begin to think about new ways to use them. (Possibilities may include fabric painting or other fiber art.)

In this module, you’ll learn to write, speak, paint and employ any and all creative processes to transform the story of your life and the nature of your relationships by creating new life myths (or stories) and art. Through visualization, you’ll walk through the Wasteland and see it change simply with your touch. You’ll listen for the sounds of nature and take in the sights as they appear in your vision, paying close attention to the ways this changes your senses.

In this module, you’ll:

• Increase your oral and written communication skills.
• Develop a style of story writing and storytelling that highlights the “Mysteries of Creation.”
• Leave the session with a homework activity:

Experience an Imagenesis, where you sit at your altar, imagine a better world, begin the story and/or art project – and feel the power in doing this.

Again, using visualization, we’ll walk through a landscape that has now been improved by the creative work done in the last module. What does this new environment look like? You will also receive more instruction on writing and speaking, using recycled materials and sharing ideas.

During this module, you’ll learn how to:

• Increase your oral and written communication skills.
• Actively participate in the healing of the Earth by producing multi-media works of art using recycled materials.

During this last session of the course, we’ll focus on sharing myth and art in community. We’ll do a visualization together in which we walk through the Forest, the Garden and the Village. We’ll interact with the environment and the people now healed by our actions. We’ll also talk about what we experienced during this exercise as well as any other areas of interest from the coursework.

During this module, you’ll learn to:

• Value and teach the empathy, compassion and understanding that can emerge when creating community and collaborating across differences.