Empowerment for Activists
Gaia Foundation, London,
July 7-8, 2001

John Seed and Ruth Rosenhek are environmental activists from Australia who
also facilitate workshops around the world that address   issues that
concern  activists and compromise their effectiveness everywhere - such
things as burn-out, hopelessness and disempowerment in the light of the
immensity of the challenges that we face and the complacency and denial of
the population at large.

Many activists feel that we are too busy responding  to the relentless and
urgent crises that face us to have the time to look after ourselves. These
workshops combine despairwork and deep ecology to provide a renewal of
energy, vision and community  that more than compensate participants for the
time lost from the "coal face".

Despairwork transforms the feelings of pain and frustration, anger, fear
and grief that assail anyone whose work brings them into daily contact with
the horrific reality of what is happening to our world. Denying these
feelings ties up huge amounts of energy, shuts down important areas of our
intelligence and motivation and connectedness. Our pain for the world is
only morbid if denied. Validating and opening to these feelings in a safe
and supportive context reliably results in a spontaneous  outpouring of
empowerment and reconnects us with the larger web of life.

Experiential deep ecology processes strengthen our  connectedness to this
web and extend our realisation  of identity with the Earth we struggle to
defend. As Arne Naess (Norwegian professor of philosophy who coined the term
"deep ecology") points out: "Ecological ideas are not enough. We need an
ecological identity, an ecological self." Through processes like the
"Council of All Beings" we extend out identity through space and acknowledge
our kinship with the myriad species and landscapes of the Earth. Through the
"Timeline of Light" ceremony  we recapitulate the Epic of our evolutionary
journey and come home to who we truly  are.

The workshop concludes with integration exercises and networking with the
other activists present to  prepare us for effective and sustained action.

The facilitators offer their work free of charge. All workshop fees go to
support the Los Cedros Biological Reserve in Ecuador. Work-exchange
available, no-one turned away for lack of funds.