Ecopsychology Quotes

“It has often been said that our environmental crisis is a crisis of perception. We do not readily see the patterns that would reveal our dependence on the natural world, nor are we commonly aware of the systems within which we are deeply embedded. Our attention, entrained on objects and focused on flat screens, is far removed from the dynamic and animated nonhuman world. We are as good as blind to the wonder at our feet or the daily spectacle of an ever-changing sky.”
― Laura Sewall

“Make the sunrise a temple.”
― Frank LaRue Owen, The School of Soft Attention

“La recherche d'une réalité communautaire prend la forme d'une opération de sauvetage massive. J'estime que c'est la grande aventure de notre temps, infiniment plus valable pour l'homme que la conquête de l'espace. Elle représente le retour et le renouveau de l'ancienne gnose. Pour ceux qui répondent à l'appel, ce qui se passe dans le monde des sciences, malgré sa place encore considérable dans le politique gouvernementales, perdra de plus en plus son sens existentiel. À leurs yeux, les scientifiques et leurs nombreux émoules feront figure de clergé archaïque, à la liturgie professionnelle absurde, occupé à échanger ses connaissances, soi-disant à la disposition du public, dans le sanctuaire secret de leur église de l'État.”
― Theodore Roszak

“Too many of us lack intimacy with the natural world and with our souls, and consequently we are doing untold damage to both. (p. 6)”
― Bill Potkin

“Make the sunrise a temple. - from "The Old Code of Good Travelers," The School of Soft-Attention”
― Hawk of the Pines (Frank LaRue Owen)

“Everything the Power of the World
does is done in a circle. The Sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball and so are all the stars. The Wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round.

Plotkin, Bill (p. 50)”
― Plotkin, Bill

“The Wheel of Life explores the nature task and the culture task in every life stage and suggests how we can get back on track with what nature intends for us as humans.

Plotkin (p. 15).”
― Plotkin, Bill

“I became absorbed, almost obsessed, with the question of how we humans grow whole . . . or don't. I wondered why there appeared to be such disparate levels of development among people uniformly considered “adults.”

Plotkin(p. 13)”
― Plotkin, Bill

“We cannot intentionally create unless we are able, first, to imagine,” (p. 17)”
― Plotkin, Bill

“The hero . . . is the man or woman who has been able to battle past his personal and local historical limitations to the generally valid, normally human forms. Such a one's visions, ideas, and inspirations come pristine from the primary springs of human life and thought. Hence they are eloquent, not of the present, disintegrating society and psyche, but of the unquenched source through which society is reborn.13
(p. 55)”
― Bill Potkin

“Early childhood (the Nest) forms the foundation for later soul discovery through the preservation of our original innocence and our innate relational intelligence and through the development of a healthy culture-rooted ego. The transition of Naming celebrates the appearance of this conscious self. Middle childhood (the Garden) affords us the opportunity to learn the enchantment of the natural world as well as the intricate cultural ways of our people — requirements, too, for Soul Initiation.18 Puberty marks our sexual awakening and our readiness to move fully into the social life of the greater community.
Plotkin, Bill. (p. 62).”
― Bill Potkin

“In these times, when even a simple day can feel like a firing pin, stretching corpse-like upon the earth is not leisure. It is medicine.”
― Frank LaRue Owen, The School of Soft Attention

“Civilization is on the wrong side of prehistory.”
― Jorge Conesa Sevilla, Ecopsychology as Ultimate Force Psychology: A Biosemiotic Approach To Nature Estrangement And Nature Alienation

“Pleistocene mother to her kid:
“Eat all the bone marrow and you can have once-a-year-honey candy.”
― Jorge Conesa Sevilla, Ecopsychology as Ultimate Force Psychology: A Biosemiotic Approach To Nature Estrangement And Nature Alienation

“All thumbs and nowhere to go.”
― Jorge Conesa Sevilla, Ecopsychology as Ultimate Force Psychology: A Biosemiotic Approach To Nature Estrangement And Nature Alienation

“All narratives about ‘self’ are imaginary--to various degrees. On the other hand, hydrodynamics are absolute. A canoe does not care what you call yourself as long as you paddle the way you are supposed. “Binary” means nothing to fast moving water and dangerous rapids.”
― Jorge Conesa Sevilla, Ecopsychology as Ultimate Force Psychology: A Biosemiotic Approach To Nature Estrangement And Nature Alienation

“All narratives about ‘self’ are imaginary--to various degrees. On the other hand, hydrodynamics are absolute. A canoe does not care what you call yourself as long as you paddle the way you are supposed to. “Binary” means nothing to fast moving water and dangerous rapids.”
― Jorge Conesa Sevilla, Ecopsychology as Ultimate Force Psychology: A Biosemiotic Approach To Nature Estrangement And Nature Alienation