Sacred Activism - Not only a Crisis of Climate, but also a Crisis of Connection
Written by Megan Hudson & Sanna Ohm - 8th November 2022
With the United Nations week of climate action COP27 taking place, we shine light on the sacred role of activism and connection. Whilst there is much to highlight about the COP, from its questionable sponsorships and travel methods of the mega-rich to activist arrests and platforming of certain voices over others, in its core it represents a hub of connectivity and exchange on the largest ecological crisis we are collectively facing. It is a moment of action, momentum and bringing distinct embodiments of the ecological movement into conversation.
So while we shine light on the sacredness of activism as a catalyst for change, we question ourselves what it means to take joint action? What it means to be a change-maker and how each of us in our Zazi sisterhood activates our own potent power of sacred action towards something larger than ourselves.
FROM WHAT TO HOW AND WHY?
Activism contains the energy of activating - providing energy to the seed to germinate into a seedling - birthing life from potential - the harnessing of our power to activate into motion. When our activism is founded on intentionality, authenticity and reciprocity, grounded in the principles of the Earth, it becomes sacred.
We zoom out from what is being done, to focus on how it is being done and what intentionality is woven into it. Activism is sacred when the constructions of our mind become embodied into our way of being and creating. When the intention is not to live in awe but to inspire the activations and blossoming of other's sacred power to bring change. And trusting in that when we sow the seeds, the winds will carry our voices bearing the pollen. Activating the sprouting of many other seeds, beyond our imagination and viewpoint. To trust that one seedling will become a garden, inspire a forest, and take a sacred place within a forest ecosystem.
The Western paradigm teaches to prize activity, doing and productivity, the measurable and quantifiable, above all else. A symptom of the disconnection from mind and body, being and doing and people and planet. We can see that this paradigm is also shaping the narrative surrounding activism, where the emphasis is rather on the mind's projections and expectations of quantifiable action than the embodiment of it.
Sacred activism seeks embodiment, being the integration of the conjunctions of the mind with the presence of our body, ways of being, acting and perceiving the world. To embody is to bridge to our own truth, with such conviction, commitment and authenticity that just our being is a sacred act of activism. It is a state of flow, which recognises that just a state of being can be a profound act of resistance and revolution. It does not require constant processing of the mind, questioning and anxieties around what needs to be done. A somatic experience of the world in bringing alignment between a higher truth and our activations. It is the embodiment of an older, deeper and feminine truth, a radical resistance to normative discourse on what is considered a ‘good life’ and what ‘showing up’ looks like within a capitalist system.
So perhaps our ecological crisis is fundamentally a crisis of connection, imagination, culture, and spiritual poverty. A clashing of two paradigms. Change is demanded by the Earth in how things are ‘done’ as much as it is in how we ‘are’ as beings of the Earth. Activation and true change can take place from the heart, to reach alignment founded in intention, truth, authenticity, spilling over into how we interact with each other and the Earth planet.
ACTIVATIONS OF OUR POWER
From the wisdom that comes with reconnecting to ourselves and with one another we can learn that sacred activism has many different embodiments. During our times of major pressing global challenges, everyone finds their own voice of activation in this bigger web of transformation. These can be louder, but also more gentle voices singing the songs of change. During this week of COP27 the roaring voices on the frontlines are important to highlight, but also the softer voices, that sing their songs through art, poetry, movement, storytelling and dance.
Bringing sacred activism into focus, this month can be a chance to reflect on our own activities. So often we hear from people around us being intimidated into in-action by the sense of enormity of the complexity of climate change, disempowered in their ability to catalyse change through their own activations. This fear is attached to the same illusion of individualism and separation that is the source of the crisis we are currently facing, a collective forgetting of our deep interwoven nature. It is not only a crisis of climate, but also a crisis of connection.
This illusion of separation keeps our voices distinct, but when we step into our power of activation we can see that our shouting is mirrored by many more, raising our voices into one united song, the power of our individual actions can be felt. It is in realising that we all contain our super power, if this is creating an ethical business, inspiring through words, painting, dancing, singing, advocating, shouting and protesting. We are utterly whole already, utterly interconnected in one beautiful forest.
Throughout this month we will shine light on different women who embody activism in their own way. Women from our sisterhood who inspire us with their superpower. We love to invite you to also share your story or that of someone who inspires you.
WORDS BY OUR FOUNDER
“So when will we learn to see,
that the great mother has gifted us all that is sacred to perceive.
That creation entails our relationship to the deeper layers of being in communion,
reciprocity in motion to what it means to be in union
When will we listen to what women have embodied in their old ways,
the cyclical wisdom that goes beyond the structures, time and space.
I’d like to believe that the future of our shared story, lies in the small stitches,
the woven magic of that essence safeguarded in their prayer to our shared wishes.
I’d like to believe that we have all the answers if we learn to listen.
to those that have stayed true to nature's wisdom,
that carry spells in every thread, that weave their beliefs into existence,
that embody the resistance
to the structures that have suffocated, our mother.
Our earth, our place to call home”
- Jeanne De Kroon, founder Zazi vintage -
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