Gaianism

Gaianism is a notion in development, and doesn’t have a clear definition as yet. We propose Gaianism to be understood as a proposed culture, or value-system, defined around the notion of Sustainability from personal, interpersonal, social and ecological standpoints. It aims at being a force for stopping, and inasmuch as possible, reversing, the ecological damage currently being done by our species throughout the planet, in the form of ecological degradation, species extinction, causing climate change, and heading towards an ecocide.

What is Gaianism?

Gaianism is an evolving notion, understood differently by different people and groups, however there seems to be consensus around the origin of the term, and about it’s main purpose as a movement:

• Generally agree that the terms “Gaian” and “Gaianism” come from the Gaia Hypothesis proposed by James Lovelock in the 70s through his series of books about Gaia, of which the most famous is “Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth”, and which spawned what is known as The Gaia Hypothesis,
• Generally share a concern about the current threat of loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation as a result of human activity, and
• Generally share a personal commitment to taking action in preserving the earth as we inherited it

The entry on Gaianism in the Wikipedia is currently recent and short, since its use so far has not been consistent throughout literature nor it has formed as yet a large cohesive cultural movement. Whilst by no means Gaianism can be defined by the Wikipedia, it’s entry is a valuable community effort to consensuate its general meaning, and the time of this writing (June 2016) it states the following:

Gaianism (also referred to as Gaian Religion, with an offshoot termed "New Age Gaian") is an earth-centered philosophical, holistic, and spiritual viewpoint that shares expressions with various religions such as Earth religions and Paganism while not identifying exclusively with any specific one. The term describes a philosophy and ethical worldview which, though not necessarily religious, implies a transpersonal devotion to earth as a superorganism. Practitioners of Gaianism are called Gaians. (...) Gaianism's philosophy stems from James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, which proposes that organisms interact with their surroundings on earth to form a more complex and self-regulating system that contributes to maintaining the conditions for life on the planet. Gaia can be understood as a super-organism made of organisms, as multi-cellular life can be understood as a super-organism at a smaller level of scale.

As a group in Sydney Gaianism, we’re free to create and define what the term Gaianism mean to us. What follows is not what Gaianism mean in general, but what we want to communicate what Gaianism mean to us.

What other Gaianism movements are out there?

Searching the Internet for the words Gaia, Gaian, and Gaianism results in a plethora of Neo-Pagan and New Age groups that use the word Gaian and Gaianism, especially from the United States of America. These communities are primarily spiritual in nature, tend to be small and disorganised groups or personal efforts, and their activities are centred on a variety of beliefs that range from the spiritual to the religious, the esoteric, the magical, and the occult. These are often also referred to as ecospiritual or earth-based groups, such as can be seen in the Gaian Times Eco-Spiritual Magazine (gaiantimesmagazine.com). There are also many businesses, online games, artistic expressions, etc which use the term Gaian.

How does Sydney Gaianism differ from New Age Gaians?

The kind of Gaianism expression that we intend to develop in Sydney is not based on spirituality, but rather based on an analysis of the cultural behaviours that have led humanity in a path of biodiversity crisis, destruction of our habitat, and directly or indirectly causing what is referred to as the Holocene extinction, also known as the Anthropogenic mass extinction, or Sixth extinction, which is considered to have began 12,000 years ago, and has massively since the Industrial Revolution, and heading towards an Ecocide.

Sydney Gaianism is intended to develop a system of values around the principle of Sustainability at every level: personal, interpersonal, social, and ecological. This system of values is likely to contrast with cultural and personal long held beliefs and traditions, relying science and everything that science itself relies upon, like empirical information, scepticism, non-violent communication, collaboration, openness, equality, freedom, open mindedness, etc.

What is Gaianism’s objective?

Gaianism’s final objective is succeeding in promoting a culture, along with the behaviours and actions that manage to restore our biosphere (Gaia) to back into natural balance, before we commit ecocide.

See also

• Gaianism entry in the Wikipedia
• Introduction to Gaianism (File:Introduction to Gaianism.pdf, slides in PDF format)