PART TWO: Moving with the Language of the Ocean
transforming extractive ways of being through connecting with earth systems
Myth, ritualised movement and transformative change
The combination of myth and ritualised movement is a technology that has been used as a transformative tool in the mediation of nature-society relations for time immemorial. These practices have been deployed to dismantle power over dynamics by generating a sense of connectedness beyond individualisation. These practices have been used as a tool of resistance, for resilience, maintaining culture, subverting oppression and building solidarity.
Ritualised movement is used by earth-centred cultures to maintain sustainable relations. These practices evoke altered states/intelligence that activates the right side of the brain - responsible for connectedness and altruism. In addition, new interpretations of archeological research point to examples of ritualised festivities as being central to transforming power over dynamics fostered in hunting periods for entering into more egalitarian ways of organising.
Ancient mythology and to a lesser extent, organized religions, have a foundation that draws upon knowledge and mythology with embedded lessons/rules about sustainability. For example, Sedna the Inuit goddess of the ocean, evoked in dance and ritual, embrues a moral guideline for sustainable fishing and respectful relations to the ocean. She warns that when respectful relations with the ocean are broken wild weather will ensue.
Another common theme from the ocean is its power of transformation, as inhabited in the Mesopotamian creation epic Enuma Elish. In this mythology, the ocean represents the feminine principle of salt water that merges with the masculine principle of fresh water - to create a world in balance.
With the modern problems that we face, from a world out of balance, science, myth and ritualise movement together can provide the practices for entering into connected states. These states help us embody the knowledge that we intrinsically linked to earth systems for our well-being.
Using spoken and written language was once subservient to dance 🤸
The systematic attempt to erase or diminish the intelligence of Indigenous / earth-centred cultures can be seen in the use of the word 'spirituality'. Western science is now taking epistemologies and ontologies seriously as forms of intelligence. This is evident in research findings on plant consciousness, how we share DNA with other life forms, the health benefits of forest bathing, psychedelics, and the science around awe, to name a few.
In regards to ritualised movement, recent research has also revealed that when humans connect through synchronised movement they are more likely to undertake altruistic actions, and reduce stress (cortisol levels drop and the nervous system integrated with others).
Combining western science with Indigenous/earth-centred ontologies/epistemologies (knowledge and being) has the potential to contribute to transformative change - out of extractive ways of being into regenerative ecological relations.
Intentional ritualised movement practice can help with this in the following ways:
redesigning our way of being based on protocols/praxis/principles for ecological relationality as earth custodians
facilitating creative ways of being for generating ideas and actions for transformative change
dismantling hierarchies through the temporary dissolution of social status
reclaiming decentralised decision-making for collectively designing systems in balance with the earth.
Eco-relational embodiment as praxis for insights
Combining ancient practices/knowledge with western science can provide insight into ways of being for addressing the myriad of modern problems we collectively (but not equally) face the consequences of today. Driven by this curiosity about transforming ways of being through reconnection with earth systems - I was inspired to meet the language of the ocean.
I sought to engage with the transformative sacred technologies that have been suppressed to make way for extraction and domination. These include dance therapy and yoga practice - combined with radical research and embodied writing for healing, expression, and connection.
I danced, wrote poetry and made drawings to imagine and engage with ecological relational states. Through daily connection, practice and learning from Indigenous worldviews - I sought to generate insight into relational principles, qualities and threads for transforming extractive ways of being - starting with my relational self.
Humans are innate storytellers. We love to interpret what we see and try and make sense of it. So this experiment with eco-relational embodiment practice attempts to let go of the societal meanings shaped by extractive ways of being and be open to new perspectives and threads of connection.
Dance is a relational interaction with gravity - between the earth ground and air. Whereas moving with the ocean is a full body emersion into an incomprehensibly large body of substance. While my body is 70% water, being emersed in the ocean has a different relational experience altogether.
To unskin my humanness and enter into a playful dance with the ocean; required me to remember that I'm always human and I'm always going to be coming from the limitations of what it is to be human and be a storyteller.
The holiday period was/is a unique space and time dynamic to play with, reflect and be open to learnings from the intimate relational space. Here lies the messy context of tensions between care/love and extractive “power over” dynamics. I sought to witness that which emerged in the emotional and relational landscape in the familial context and with the immersive experience with the ocean.
What is it to be an earth being dismembered from the clutches of extractive relations, of exploitative and traditional social stereotypes?
I felt the emotional landscape pulsating through as I connected with the ocean.
Insights from ocean relationality
What emerged in a recent embodied dance practice with the ocean was three interconnected states/threads of eco-relationality that were important for me in establishing right relations with myself, others and the more than human kin. These include the witnessing and acknowledgement (of the wholeness and history of life-affirming existences), the anticipation/connecting (checking for permission and willingness to relate), and the coming together (recognition of interdependence and need for reciprocity).
Waving with the dance of her ocean threads - the seeing, the feeling and the being of her, lies an ever-present knowing
Eco-relational thread 1: witnessing / the seeing - to move in, in a dance, there was the first step, which was the witnessing of the water, the big body, that ocean of water, that gorgeous, shimmering, powerful, raging whitewash, rippling, reflecting, - just holding that in my mind, in my body; witnessing that.
Eco-relational thread 2: anticipating/feeling - being in that moment before the ocean water arrives; before it rushes to meet the toes; the liminal movement of rapture before the connection. The anticipation before entering into connection with this —expansive and powerful energy evoked excitement, a desire, a longing. The acknowledgement of the power as it rushes toward me, also how the water is going to embrace me? Is it going to topple me over? Am I going to be out of my mind with the force of the movement, with the overwhelming of connection? And the excitement around that. A craving to connect, to be held in relation.
Eco-relational thread 3 becoming/being - enveloping, inviting into, what it is to be completely held, to be welcomed in, to be accepted as you are, a body in the earth system, acknowledging and meeting as you are, being engulfed in the water, hearing the noises, a different auditorial experience, you are the ocean, you are that ocean as well. Entering into a relational experience - where you become part of that ocean.
🪸Ocean threads
She moves me to witness her empowerment
The icy coats of her wings
The soft edges of her porous boundaries
The danger of her constant pull
The cascading caress of her welcome
That delightful bit before she invades the toes
She involves every aspect of me
She envelopes me as I am, inviting surrender
Vulnerable, until we're everything and nothing…
Dissolved, released as she retreats to gather again.
She invites the unfolding, the collapsing, the letting go…
Reflections and integration
Through failing, I’m drawn to living and being in different ways. I’m still unsure of how this will unfold. But, I’ve committed to breaking open and cultivating a transformative journey that includes three aspects - embodied healing, co-liberational radical writing/storytelling and eco-relational care. This is looking like showing up more consistently at local Aboriginal educational programs and events, practising embodied relational healing combined with radical writing sessions, deep listening to Country, and joining local mutual aid and resistance to extractivism campaigns.
It is delusional to think that humans are in control of this earth - the status quo reproduces traumatised and mythical narratives of "progress" that are inherently about domination and control.
Our systems are archaic and whether we embrace it or not - this is unsustainable and change is coming. The pivot toward connection with earth's ways vs anthropocentric will be an integral part of humans adapting to this change.
As old systems disintegrate and humanity reclaims itself as a balanced presence on this earth - there will be transformative disruption, collapse and regeneration.
The collapsing of systems, cultures, ecologies and the biosphere itself under the weight of this - is life responding to being pushed and pulled in ways that don’t fit with a balanced relationship. From this perspective, climate change could be viewed as the collective and collaborative response from earth (us and everything else) to an extractive-based virus of imbalance.
Where there is light and water - life will win
How we move forward is going to look different depending on so many factors. Where I hope to contribute, in the unravelling, is toward a pluriversal transformation of extractive ways of being in favour of regenerative ecological relationality, grounded in co-liberation.
How are we tuning into the lessons that are right in front of us? - in the ecological communities and in Indigenous worldviews?
Have you met with water or the ocean these holidays? if so, I’d love to hear about your experience, comment below or drop me an email - clairemelodyburgess@gmail.com
Here’s a playlist as recommended listening as you ponder the essence of the ocean
A note on the use of feminine language - In this relational poem I evoke the entity/energy of the ocean by referring to the pronoun ‘she/her’. I have chosen to play symbolically with the feminine principle - imbrued in the body of the ocean.
While doing so, I acknowledge that describing my (she/her) interwoven relationship (at this time) with the ocean using she/her pronouns has its flaws and limitations - as all human interpretations of reality do.
Women have been aligned with nature to subjugate them, however, in this practice the feminine is evoked as a cultural tool for communication and insight, to reclaim the feminine and nature as a celebration of these life-affirming qualities. The masculine, too, needs to be reclaimed as life-affirming rather than dominating.
Unfortunately, the patriarchal Abrahamic religions made the mistake (intentionally or not) of prescribing fixed gender norms and we deal with the consequences of this still today. However, to describe the ocean as an ‘it’ or ‘they’ also plays into the othering and separation logic of the nature/culture dichotomy which is so prevalent in modern societies.
In relation and with love, Claire
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#embodied #writing #revolutionaryhealing #transformative #postactivism #postjustice #weirdpolitics #loveintransformation #ecologicalrelationality
Manakitanga