Self and World
the five weekends
Of A Radical Nature:
Contextualising
Self and World
[element: earth]
What is this "radical nature"? How do you experience the call? And how do you answer?
This first weekend offers an experiential overview of key themes of the course, including -
Connecting to radical nature as self- empowerment.
What grounds and supports us in this? How do we take action that expresses our highest ideals and collective vision without becoming disappointed, stressed, or getting that "too little, too late" feeling?
Engaging feedback and transforming grief/shadow/overwhelm to guidance, insight, purpose and action.
From this context, the following 4 themes will be engaged and explored later in the year (dates TBA}
Out of the Darklands:
Energising
Purpose:
Presence
and Intention:
The Participatory Turn -
On the ground:
Life After Dark:
Reframing the Feedback
[element: air]
World as Self:
Being and Becoming the Change [element: water]
Earth, Air, Water, Fire … and You: Elemental Leadership [element: fire]
Heart, Hands, and Global Mind:
Being Your Place [element: sky]
Course Outline
Summary:
Self and World arises from an understanding of psycho-spiritual and socio-ecological relationships as core to sustainability and human well-being and resilience.
'Psycho-spiritual’ indicates context that is both immanent and transcendent. 'Socio-ecological' describes a means of engaging this context. Well-being and sustainability result from this subsequent praxis.
This course is an opportunity for radical transformation in action in the world.
“Radical” implies going to the very roots or basis of how we understand and experience ourselves, and the values to which we align.
“Transformation” implies not only a profound change within ourselves, but also trans-form, between or across form, and so coming to a renewed and renewing understanding and experience of our place and relationships in the world of form: things, systems and people. Such a transformation opens the way to informed and purposeful action as Treaty partners in this land.
Learning is both experiential and participatory, and occurs in a variety of settings, in and outdoors. It is undertaken through reference to systemic understanding and the challenges to that. Direct experience, change, creativity, culture, colonisation, psychosynthesis and other psychology, science, politics and the physical environment ground the experience. The project introduces key theorists and invites students to examine their personal relationship to place, presence and purpose.
Course Outcomes:
After completion, course participants will be able to:
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Experience and communicate understanding of the systemic base of ecological relationships.
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Engage systemic intelligence as a means to inform self-direction and community leadership.
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Enjoy heightened receptivity and increased creativity and reflective capacity.
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Have more resilience in the face of "doom and gloom" media coverage.
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Bring a deepened appreciation of the psycho-spiritual context of ecopsychology to their work and practice in the world.
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Engage with an eco-sustainability project that puts course learnings into action.
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Consider ecological understanding within current socio-cultural phenomena and media, through reference to their real world experience.
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Develop and deepen a cross disciplinary connection with past and present participants.
Course Content:
Social ecology, sustainability, psychosynthesis and the eco-psychological discourse
Systemic perspectives and the perspective of the participant
Learning in relation to Indigenous ways of knowing, place and ‘the local’
Learning through imaginative and creative ways of understanding and communicating
‘Mindfulness’ and the psycho-spiritual in relation to ecological understanding
Social action and patterns and perceptions of change
Mode of Delivery:
Theory presentation and group discussion; experiential processes; creative practices; reflection; multi-media; self-directed action based project.