Listen to the sea waves chant 

Listen to the nightly song of humanity’s thoughts

Listen to how people are resting after a busy day, 

Look at how enchanted they are by the sunset

Wonderful gift from the setting sun. 

Now breathe the air brought by the wind carrying

Perfume of flowers, all they want is some humility.

If you want you can yell and shout out to the world

How strong is your wish to give back, 

If you want you can sing, because 

Somewhere near you joy is hiding, sing 

Because you can do it, because you want to, 

You can play, you can scream, you can take back your smile.

You know they lied, told you joy’s dead and vanquished, 

It is a lie, because joy’s alive, within you. 

So even if its just a moment, I beg you to feel it, 

Hold tight and unto it, don’t let it die, 

Even if deep in worries and chaos, let it be heard, 

Because you need joy as much as I do. 

it is late, but please stay with me a bit longer, 

Let us enjoy this breeze we discovered tonight, 

Let it gives us strength before tomorrow comes

When we return among those who suffer and hope, 

But we will know that somewhere hidden

Joy exists, because you want it, because you can. 

Scout Song 

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day

Indeed, as all well know, it is a day to celebrate love, perhaps the religious significance of the day has been somewhere lost in time, of that martyr Valentine that secretly celebrated weddings at a time when the Roman pagans persecuted the Christians, eventually captured and martyred and then celebrated as a Saint. What remains today is mostly a youthful recurrence marked by flowers and chocolates exchanged between couple in love, and expectations of something special from our loved ones. 

If love is one of the core purposes of life, as described by many, what is the end to have a day to remind us that we love and that we are loved? Many voices criticise and attack this day as hypocritical, commercial, and unfairly depressing for single people. Could be they are right, and yet this does not diminish the importance of celebration. Every accomplishment, achievement and victory is something that needs to be celebrated, as celebration is an acknowledgement of how important that is to us, gives it value, makes it special and is a sign of having reached something as a result for your efforts. What achievement is greater than falling in love with someone, and then being in love together? To overcome the obstacles and difficulties being in a relationship means, and cherish the joys, passion and happiness it gives? That deserves a celebration indeed just as do birthdays, obtaining a degree, new year’s day and many more. Finding love (and being found by love) is indeed one of the greatest accomplishments in human life, and if there is a specific day to celebrate we are alive and present, birthdays, why not dedicate a day to remind ourselves of the fortune of being in someone’s heart while this person is in ours? Love truly does deserve to be celebrated, and does not mean financial investment in a massive bouquet or those specially crafted chocolates, find your own unique way of celebration and how to make it truly meaningful, as this day is here a reminder of what sometimes we can take for granted and forget to be grateful for. 

On another note, love is a feeling that goes beyond the one between human beings, that same passion, faster heartbeat, head in the clouds feeling, uncontrollable euphoria and sensing mutual desire is something that also occurs between you and the community you belong too, expressing mutual gratitude and love for all you have done, are doing and will do for one another and being reminded of the passion that drives you. Just well can be applied to the natural non-human world, you don’t believe me? Regardless of your relationship status, take a walk outside, even better run, roll, go crazy and feel the connection to everything into the rhythm of your heartbeat, and then compare it to how it felt the last time you said, or heard “I love you”. 

Rescogita is a startup that focuses on education through training, coaching, capacity building and consulting, grounded on the principles of ecopsychology, meaning in identifying practical solutions to affect the wellbeing of the individual, the community and the biosphere in a single approach. 

O Lord we thank thee, we glorify thee

O Lord we subject ourselves unto thee

Today we want to celebrate Timkat festival with our Ethiopian friends, who on this day and night mark their most important celebration of the year, the Epiphany, the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the river Jordan. The Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Christianity may be well one of the oldest Christian rites in the world. 

To celebrate this day the Tabot, a reconstruction of the Ark of the Covenant, which in the Old Testament symbolised the alliance between humans and God, containing the tablets describing the Ten Commandments, which God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai to serve as the core principles of the moral behaviour for humanity is displayed before the faithful gathered in the Church and placed on the altar and this happens in the middle of the night near a stream of fresh water. At sunrise the priests proceed to bless the waters , while the faithful bathe in order to renew their baptism, among the clergy’s songs and dances followed by  the faithful community. 

Following the ceremonial bathing, people wear their best clothes, music becomes overwhelming and while elders sing, youths dance and leap wildly at the fast rhythms, upon dusk the priests take the Tabot and hide it away until next year’s Timkat. 

By the way, legend says that The original Ark of the Covenant is under permanent guard in Northern Ethiopia, protected by priests who have sworn never to leave the sacred grounds

Rescogita is a training, coaching, consulting and capacity building firm centred on Ecopsychology, and as part of our mission we wish to honour both the diversity of humanity and promote the concept of a human culture different yet the same, in order to face and overcome the challenges our species and the whole biosphere are facing now.

On this day Catholics celebrate the Blessing of the Animals which falls on the remembrance of the death of Abbot Saint Anthony, and churches are packed with animal, be they livestock or company animals like cats, dogs, hamsters etc. On this day it is not unusual to see horses and pigs freely roaming through the aisles of the churches and freely roaming towns, and the night is alit with bonfires and plenty of wine. This tradition comes from medieval Germany, from the Cult of Saint Anthony precisely, a vegetarian healer whose figure is deeply connected to animals. 

It is a day to express gratitude to animals and their patron saint, Saint Anthony. Legends say that on this night God gifts animals with the ability to speak to humans and to one another. 

Besides carrying animals to be blessed in churches this festivity is very much felt in the rural areas of Italy and Spain, though each community celebrates in its own specific way mixing the christian faith with pastoral traditions. In the villages we can see parades of old and traditional professions which were made possible by animals, such as cattle herding, chariot driving and field ploughing, honouring mules, ox and horses. Or we can see processions of people and animals following a sacred icon of Saint Anthony across the fields to deliver the blessing to all the animals, and farms open to families and children to come and play and interact with the animals. As said, each community has its peculiarity, however two things common to all are the sacred moment when the priest blesses the animals and livestock to renew the protection of Saint Anthony, and the more profane and mundane bonfires lit in the winter night involving dancing, and food and wine shared with the whole community. Interestingly enough for many rural areas this day marks also the beginning of Carnival, the celebration that precedes Easter fasting. 

Rescogita is a training, coaching, consulting and capacity building firm centred on Ecopsychology, and as part of our mission we wish to honour both the diversity of humanity and promote the concept of a human culture different yet the same, in order to face and overcome the challenges our species and the whole biosphere are facing now.

Logic is reasoning carried out and evaluated following a set system of validation. The word comes Greek Logos and means Reason, Rule and Rationality, studying the principles of correct reasoning. 

Reason and rationality are believed to be a most distinguishing feature of humankind that implies knowledge and consciousness, which makes us the logical animals on Earth. This specific human characteristic investigates the principles of reasoning, which in turn was one of the topics of study of scholars from across the globe since the dawn of times. The discovery of what is reasoning and what are its principles drew us out of the caves and resulted in humanity undertaking the journeys of science and philosophy, our timeless and endless purpose of knowledge.

UNESCO alongside the Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences decided to dedicate a day to Logic, on the one hand to foster its importance in all branches of human knowledge, on the other to celebrate the uniqueness of humanity, and its road to knowledge, the travel of our species which does not have a specific destination and yet takes us forward to wonderful and amazing places. 

All thinkers, scholars and great minds from the  scientific to the humanistic disciplines agree that peace, cooperation, caretaking for our planet makes sense, it is something logical from the rational perspective, which demonstrates that our knowledge-acquiring journey is still incomplete. 

Rescogita is a training, coaching, consulting and capacity building firm centred on the principles of ecopsychology, with a mission of promoting an approach and culture of interconnectedness between wellbeing and wealth, and we honour today the World Logic Day

“The Sun Lord is auspicious and bestows auspiciousness. He subdues grief and worries, and nourishes life”

Poem to Surya

The agricultural season is just about to start, as midwinter is being celebrated and Surya the Sun God is honoured for His return and the people honour him by praying and taking a ritual cleansing bath in rivers, streams and lakes. The nights are lit with bonfires, songs and dances, the days are filled with noisy and colourful fairs as groups of children travel from household to household delivering the traditional songs of this time of the year in exchange for treats, as the blue sky is filled with colourful kites.

We are now somewhere between Nepal and India and can see faithful Hindus and Sikh celebrating the cycles of nature and expressing gratitude to the sun for sustaining their lives and the earth with joy, renewing community and mutual commitment, ritually cleansing and simply celebrating, dancing and sharing with one another, as the sun journeys into the Makara giving way to the hard work of ploughing and farming in the coming months.

Today is a really important celebration among Hindus, especially among Punjabis Himachal Pradesh and Sikhs. Today they celebrate their Midwinter festival as the sun begins journeying north and goes into Capricorn (Makara). This is the day when the Hindu faithful bathe in the Ganges river, light bonfires on the fields throughout the night. The celebration is dedicated to the Sun-God Surya, as days start to become longer.
Children going from home to home and asking for treats, colourful decoration, fairs, dances, kite flying, bonfires and feasts. Bathe in natural waters as a ceremony to thank the sun.

Rescogita is a training, coaching, consulting and capacity building firm centred on Ecopsychology, and as part of our mission we wish to honour both the diversity of humanity and promote the concept of a human culture different yet the same, in order to face and overcome the challenges our species and the whole biosphere are facing now.

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. “ John 1:14

Christianity is believed to be the culprit of many of today’s issues. Is it ? let’s step back. The first christians competed with the pagans and the latter’s faith was very much grounded on nature oriented beliefs, rituals and faith. For christians to face the pagans they had to either integrate some of the pagan elements in their faith and demonise others. For example, the merry and kind God of pastures Pan who’s goat appearance became associated with the devil, indirectly the message here is that nature is corrupt and imperfect and humans had to endure and resist in this valley of pain to gain they keys to Heaven.
The result of this narrative placed humans as supreme in the Creation, everything has a purpose of serving humans, the only soul-bearing living creatures, created to be similar to God. This view is quite simple and rather contains the point of view of those times than the universal values of christianity. That view can be understood as a PR strategy to sway people from paganism and as marketing tactics to best “sell” christian principles in times where complex dogma and theology (and education) were not widespread and religion for most meant superstition, worship natural elements and live by the seasons as 99.9% were farmers subdued by powerful overlords and injustice. Christian preachers had to speak their language, get across the message of Jesus in a way they could understand and give up gods and spirits. This was a time of social and economical collapse nearing the end of the Roman Empire. The question for those preachers was: What is the best way to communicate a vision of peace, justice and love by enacting values of revelation, liberation and solidarity to people who never asked themselves these questions? How to bring societies to experience humility, grace and gratitude? How to appreciate the goodness of creation? How to centre the believer in love, hope and faith and identify in the christian faith something that brings energy, inspiration and consolation? It did work, today Christianity is the 1st religion on the planet in its many branches, although often expressed more as superstition, just like the above tales, rather than actually promoting its core values.

9th December 2015 I took a walk on St.Peter’s Square in Rome, and noticed something unusual was happening, I could see images of natural landscapes and animals projected on the facade of the Basilica and I was shocked, only the “Creation”. Really, The Vatican? It was beautiful, a message where the humans were not placed above nature, but a part of it. I later learnt it was a display meant to raise awareness on the importance of the environment and need to contrast the current climate crisis, endangered plant and animal species. The only images of our societies showed piles of waste, traffic jams, polluting factories, intensive farming, later combined with images of poverty, refugees and injustice. That same year Pope Francis stated ““The Eucharist joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation.”

I came to discover the existence of ecotheology, tconnecting religious ethics, leadership, ritual, social practice, faith and link it with ecology, where scholars are digging in millennia of Sacred Texts and philosophical reflections inspired by faith to show that ecology matches faith as a glove and encompasses humans and the natural world in one life. Ecotheology is mainly a Christian trend looking at renewal of faith through connecting the christian message with nature, and positive human-Earth relations. Although possible it is not that easy, traditionalist views within organised religion, interfaith diversity in understanding the natural world and religious dogmas are definitely pulling the brakes on ecotheology. Nonetheless entire global cultures and institutions from science to humanities are starting to move towards a more ecological viewpoint and so is religion.
Just observe Christian core beliefs and ethics, what you notice are three pillars, mutuality, social justice and responsibility, which are a common thread in the messages left by Jesus Christ, meaning that the Christian faith does not contradict ecology, embraces it. Look at the Old Testament, Genesis, it has a message that gives meaning and orientation to life, purpose, time, space, origins and destiny of life, as well as a role to humans as Earth-keepers which can assume a much broader meaning and understanding today and the challenges we face as a species.
As we speak steps are being made; World Council of Churches launched the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, working on Earth Guardianship, climate justice and indigenous community rights. Pope Francis began promoting the bull on “Care of Our Common Home” and fosters interfaith dialogue also on ecological issues.

We live in a time of scientific, cultural and yes spiritual momentum as humanity adapts to new challenges, the call is cooperation, social engagement and promoting ecological communities. Should you want to learn more we advice to to look at the works of Father Thomas Berry, the founder of ecotheology and how faith can live within the rhymes and limits of the natural world as part of the Earth community, and that the biosphere reveals how humans’ relation to nature is the Deep Incarnation of the Christian Faith.

“…Be praised, my Lord,
for Sister Earth, our Mother,
who nourishes us and sustains us,
bringing forth
fruits and vegetables of many kinds
and flowers of many colours.
Be praised, my Lord,…”
St. Francis of Assisi
L. Nava

A Very Merry Christmas to all Christian Orthodox who celebrate today the birth of Jesus Christ, We are not going to retell the purpose and meaning of this celebration and decided to instead take you to a journey to the wonderful land of Ukraine and take a look at one of the most beautiful celebration of Christmas by singing.

Of course we are talking about the joyful and heartwarming Ukrainian Christmas Carols, the expression of community, family, joy and unity around this great yearly event. It is a well rooted tradition since before Christianity, as a matter of fact many Ukrainian carols do not deal only with the birth of Baby Jesus, there are just as many about ancient legends and myths passed down orally, and plenty concerning the stories of the Kievan princesses and princes, keeping the historical memory alive. Singing is a moment of collective memory and celebration of unity.

There are two categories of carols, Kolyadki, sang and Christmas, and Shchedrivky sang at Epiphany (little fun fact,the worldwide famous Carol of the Bells originally is a popular Ukrainian Shchedrivka.

Caroling is fun, especially when groups of singers go from home to home bringing along that festive joy into every household, and in Ukraine its also serious business, the songs foresee use of different tonalities and rhythms which is quite complex and requires a choir leader to direct the other singers. In some parts of Ukraine carol dress code include that one of the singers wears a goat skin, and that one of the singers carries a long pole with the Star of Bethlehem and leads the rest of the singers, and one is tasked with a bag to collect the presents.

So, how does it work, carolers knock on the door and ask the dweller for permission to sing, if granted they enter the house and sing a carol for each family member present from the eldest to the toddlers, sometimes even perform ritual dances for the merriment and good fortune of the house, or perform funny sketches with the goat skin. Once the performance ends, the ritual foresees that the carolers perform a poem to wish the host family the happiest Christmas, and tradition requires for the poem to be a very personal. We at Rescogita would love to sing for you all some joyful Kolyadki, perhaps when we can all meet in person,why not. Also taking this opportunity to wish a Merry Christmas to our staff member and Guardian Angel, Alina Shumna.

“We Three Kings of Orient are, bearing gifts we traverse afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star.”

This is the last night of the Western Christian celebrations, and in many traditions children will get a last treat tonight, just as the Three Kings bring their gifts to the Saviour Jesus Christ after a long journey following a Comet. Yet, who are these kings and where were their kingdoms? In different texts they appear under different definitions, the earliest ones being Magi, or Magus, wizard astrologists who read in the stars the advent of the Messiah, King of the Jews, later renamed the Three Wise Men. Perhaps their title as Kings was added later to add some beauty to the story, and probably because the prophecy that foresaw the advent of the Christ mentioned that sovereigns will bow before the King of Kings. Their names appear a few hundred years later Balthasar King of Arabia, Melchior King of Persia, and Gaspar King of India, thus making it possible to make them Christian Saints, patrons of travellers.

The Three Magi did not only come to worship The Christ, and definitely did not come empty handed they brought three boxes, each with a gift, Gold which is a symbol of kingship on Earth, Frankincense which symbolises deity, and finally Myrrh which is a symbol of death, “gold as to a king, myrrh as to one who is mortal and incense as to a God.”

Little fun fact, in Italy this night belongs to a witch called Befana riding at night on a broom filling the socks of children with sweets as long as they kept on being good and obedient, or otherwise removing the Christmas presents and filling the socks with coal if they misbehaved and made their parents angry or sad.

“God has no marks, no colour, no caste, and no ancestors, No form, no complexion, no outline, no costume and is indescribable. He is fearless, luminous and measureless in might. He is the king of kings, the Lord of the prophets. He is the sovereign of the universe, gods, men and demons. The woods and dales sing the indescribable. O Lord, none can tell Thy names. The wise count your blessings to coin your names.” Guru Gobindh Singh

We join the Sikh in celebrating Guru Gobindh Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru and the last human one, who reinforced and shaped Sikh culture, faith and identity as we know it today. Who was this Guru? He was the spiritual guide who finalised the Sikh Sacred Scripture Guru Granth Sahib Ji. He was the poet and philosopher who established long lasting ethical and moral codes for his people. He was the warrior prince who founded the Khalsa fraternity, warrior guided by strict moral and ethical rules and codes, and symbol of hope, wisdom and knowledge for all the Sikh and not only.

Today the Sikh celebrate his birthday, although the rituals started three days ago, the first two days see women and men reading out loud the Guru Granth Sahib from beginning to end, non-stop for 48 hours at the Gurdwara (Sikh worship place) and this ritual reading is known as the Akhand Path. On the eve of his birthday begins a procession with dancers, musicians and gatka warriors displaying their martial arts, displayed by the Panj Pyares. Finally his birthday comes and that is today, at dawn the Asa di Var prayers are chanted which gives way to a day filled with good food, prayer and merry songs until sunset, when the Guru Gobindh Singh celebrations close with the recitation of the Rehra prayers.

Akemashiteomedetōgozaimasu, which in Japanese means Happy New Year. Aren’t we all glad that 2020 is over? We definitely all are, and of course we do not expect 2021 to be free of challenges, the pandemic will not end because of a mere change in the calendar, nonetheless it is our nature to be optimists that the coming year will bring us many pleasant surprises, discoveries and learnings, at least this is our wish to all of you.

If you are wondering why the Japanese introduction is because we believe this ancient and wonderful culture can inspire us to celebrate a bit differently this time, to cast away the looming shadows that 2020 brought us and walk forward into the future.

Gantan-Sai falls on 1st of January, and is the Shinto new year’s day, a festivity that lasts for seven days used by people to visit shrines to cleanse from the ordeals of the previous year, renew the alliance within ourselves and renewal of the heart, and gain energy for health and prosperity. The seven days of celebration are also used to visit the homes of dear ones and deliver the best wishes for the year to come while wearing the best clothes and appear as best looking as possible.

So regardless if locked-down in quarantine or not, what about trying to start our New Year in a Shinto way? It is the 1st of January, start by taking a long bath or shower and actually concentrating, feeling and focusing on its beautiful cleansing effect all over you, body and soul (without using too much water please).  Then wear the very best clothes you have and make yourself even better looking than you usually are. Make yourself a small shrine at home, can really be anything, the importance is the meaning and sacredness you attribute to it and write down all the ordeals you have encountered and overcome in 2020 and hang them on your shrine. Contemplate on how good you have overcome all of that. Now that this is behind you, make up a ritual, can even be sipping a cup of tea, as long as when you do it envision all the feelings you want your heart to feel, the love, joy, compassion that you want to spring from your heart, sense the energy of those feelings and once you filled up your heart, wish yourself energy, health and prosperity and while you do that, feel for real how much your wish is true and coming from your heart. The last tip is to get in touch with at least five people and make each a true and very personal good wish for 2021 specifically directed towards this person with all your capacity to care for someone really important to you. And that’s it!

Rescogita, from our whole heart wish you health, joy and prosperity for the coming year, keep up the good work and be content.  Happy 2021

It has been said so many times that a dream without a plan is like a car without wheels, and so many of us on this day are going to make so many resolutions, built on the vibes and motivation of the celebrations, as well as evaluation looking back at the year past and we hear the echo of : – will take that trip, will visit that person, change job, start my own thing, write a book, learn that new sills, will lose that extra weight and workout, eat healthier,” Yes we all heard it so many times, how should this time be different? Maybe it won’t, or it will. From our ecopsychology and general eco-services we can offer you a tip. 

1. Make your resolution when you tell it to yourself state what you want, not what you don’t want. For example “I don’t want to be lazy” to “I want to b active in doing …” 
2. Write it down somewhere, helps make it feel more real, and to feel it is very real share it with someone, no it is not an omen and does not bring bad luck. 
3. Ask yourself what benefits will reaching that resolution bring you, and how this will be good not just for you, but also for your close ones and your community, as well as for the non-human world. So making sure all can benefit from it, and no one will be harmed 
4. Ask yourself what is the purpose why you want to achieve this resolution, to what end do you want to make this happen? 
5. Finally, transform it into a timeline with clear indicators of every step you want to make towards accomplishing your new year’s resolution. 

We also at Rescogita have our own resolutions for the coming year by the way, and are already turning our dreams into plans. 

• We will invest more resources and time to develop the concept of ecological communication in order to deliver the best possible service to our clients in fostering open, ethical, honest, efficient and powerful external communication tools. 
• We want to continue to deliver you our free webinars to promote the values and principles of ecopsychology applied to everyday life and work. 
• Be ready for our series of videos and podcasts coming soon in 2021 
• Pandemic allowing we shall soon unroll a series of live offers that will take place across Europe, from eco-coaching to eco-training 
• And much, much, much more. 

… However today is the 31st, so lets stop talking about work and let’s celebrate with near and far ones this rite of passage. Happy 2021 !!!

It was back in 2015 when together with my colleagues we delivered in Jordan a training course on entrepreneurship, and we decided to make it outdoors, as our rationale was that nowadays you can find tutorials, videos and free materials all over the web concerning how to make a business plan or a marketing mix, and at the same time none of those precious online tools is really able to build an entrepreneur’s attitude. 

As I was making my first steps into ecopsychology back in the day, although was not well aware of it quite yet, or at least not fully, I did recall my scouting days and the powerful effect nature has upon the mind, and its influence to reveal our deepest true calling and purpose, and what better tool and place is there to uncover one’s true entrepreneurial spirit than nature, rather than technology filled rooms and offices, if successful there will be plenty of time for that. 

We were working with a very strong mixed group of young entrepreneurs from both Middle East and Europe and we set off to our itinerant training, which firstly brought us to a camp atop the legendary Dana Valley, a place of human passage and migrations since the dawn of our species. We lived in large traditional tents, the only technology was gas or oil lamps and our training room was a larger tent covered in carpets and pillows overseeing a valley, on a distance a village dating back to five hundred years and Ottoman domination, however likely built upon much older settlements. Shepherds driving their goats on the steep slopes, orange earth baked by the sun, shadow from random trees here and there and a spring providing fresh water, as if it were a scene repeated year after year, century after century. The dark snake laying on hot pathway and gathering its sun energy, the wild dogs guarding the yellow-stoned village, and the multiple colours of varied stones, earth and sand as spring entered the valley under a baking sun and deepest blue sky absent of humidity. We were completing our two day session on values, and discovering one’s personal ethics and principles towards entrepreneurship and found myself reading a learning about Prof. C. Graves theory on the evolution of values from the start of humanity until today, while sitting on a rock overseeing one of the places where it all started, and moving my eyes from the book to valley it all started to resonate and make much more sense, that was the moment when I not only started to rationally understand the words of those wise people from times past and modern, but to actually feel them, their words and concepts creating emotions deep inside and triggering something. 

For the final part we envisaged to complete the training course in Wadi Rum’s desert, another encampment near a spring of fresh water and a small oasis amidst endless seas of sand and rock. During the day could not raise eyes to the sky and the sun burnt even the blue out of it, before turning everything red and orange during a very fast dusk and fastly light turned to dark, and heat turned to cold. Our purpose, besides completing the training with tools on self-motivation and motivating others, was to ensure people could spend some quality time with themselves and to foster an inner dialogue, and what works best than the silence of the desert. For our Jordanian colleagues this was the norm and habitat to enter  a natural space where time stops, almost literally, and everything comes to a standstill, for us, the Europeans this was a new sensation, despite we knew we could not go into the depths as we had to be there for the guidance of the learners, it was very hard and an impossible task not to let the desert enter you and have its winds echo through your soul. As the group set off alone to have their inner talk, we, the team, did not speak to one another, something called us to also be alone. In that timeless place, where the silence is so overwhelming and almost disturbing for people used to city, people and constant noises it was a very disturbing sensation at first and something I was tempted to break by humming some song or make noisier steps on the sand and hardened dry ground. It was then, after a tiring climb of a dune that sat down, not far from the camp, and just looked at the stars ever so bright. All of a sudden thoughts started to come, so loud and clear as if I was actually speaking with myself outloud, thoughts that travelled back and forth between the conscious and the unconscious at times feeling whole as my gaze never left the stars and distant dark rocks. A feeling of peace and wholeness travelled from hair to toes, although peace does not start to describe it, perhaps peace by realising how everything is interconnected. 

Did not even realise that I sat on that dune all night, and desert sunrise is astonishing, the rays of sun travel so fast on the rocks and sand that can actually see it moving and turning darkness to light and cold to heat, and yet I was not tired on the contrary, ecstatic, overwhelmed with joy, energetic and likely with a big smile on my face as I got strange and puzzled looks as I returned to the camp while locals were making breakfast. The group of learners also returned, and in their expressions I thought I could read what I was feeling myself. We sat in a circle to share the experience and nobody wanted to talk, we just looked at each other and smiled and that was the best feedback possible. A night in the desert, an inner game, a dialogue with the Self as it too rarely happens in life and a rite of passage for many of us, team and learners to feel ready for the next phase in life.

Today’s commemoration is that Zarosht no-Diso, a most important celebration in zoroastrian faith, that is the remembrance of the prophet Zarathustra’s death (his name meaning Yellow Camel, a sacred animal back in the day) , where his life is recalled as well as his teachings, the community attends the Fire Temple rituals, and it is a day of remembrance, not one of mourning as this faith does not foresee mourning and sadness for one’s departure from this world and life. We are talking about a very ancient faith fro Persia, founded by Zarathustra and monotheist believes in the One God, the Wise Lord Ahura Mazda, represented as a flame. Its tradition is connected to that of the Judaism, Christianity and Islam, such as the One God, Messiah resurrecting, heaven, hell, apocalypse. If you are interested to find more, the sacred text of this surviving ancient faith are collected in the Avesta, and its hymns, the Gathas are likely among the oldest surviving poetry and songs from indo european origins. Zarathustra himself was a priest and chanter, his life was made of meditation in caves and mountains until the One God Ahura Mazda appeared to him giving a message of purity, truth and righteousness, the three pillars of the faith which calls upon its followers to carry out good thoughts, good words and good deeds.

And yet we have another divinity and faith that celebrates the time we humans call December, where a prophet and bringer of good words and good messages to humanity ascends to divinity as light returns to the world.

We at Rescogita ground our beliefs in ecopsychology which inspired both our vision and mission in order to promote interconnectedness between humans by fostering community building, and between humans and nature through interconnectedness.

The purpose of articles such as this is to demonstrate how our cultures, faiths as well as spiritualism across humanity are interconnected and generated from an original, possibly single culture that gave birth to our cultural and scientific evolution. Noteworthy the dualism how most human cultures and faith, while honouring of even admiring royalties, generals and artists have almost always ended up worshipping and attributing divine features to bringers of peace, love and wisdom who humbly taught humanity  to do good deeds to one another, to think good thoughts and express good words, like Zarathustra. Which in itself is an element of hope in the truest human nature and core beliefs, meaning that this has the potential to become a common and widespread behaviour too.

L.Nava

Wishing everyone a truly joyous Christmas Day, with all that it implies. First of all a celebration to all Christians who celebrate the birth and coming to this world of Jesus Christ, regardless if that is celebrated with the Julian or Gregorian calendars, the purpose remains the same, that of a God coming to live among humans and deliver teachings of love, compassion, forgiveness and righteousness to all. A story common to many faiths and spiritual practices where the divine comes to our Earth for our enlightenment, well-being and promoting love and tolerance towards one another as one community. Just as the sun starts its return in december to warm our skin, the descent of divinity among humans purposeful to warm the soul as part of the creation, what we at Rescogita (and not only) call the biosphere . 

Therefore Merry Christmas, a festivity that over time has become an moment to make children joyful, to reward their good behaviours, mockingly punish, if at all, the bad ones. A time of the year that was chosen to remind one another to be kind and forgiving to each other, a time meant to make family and community ties tighter, feel compassion for less fortunate and to come together. A celebration of childhood and children, making fairy tales and legend come to life and express their love to the innocence of all children, and the time of celebration of a child born, who out of love for humans will sacrifice himself and provide forgiveness to all. 

Rescogita is company that bases its values and beliefs in Ecopsychology, that is the practice that seeks healing of individuals and society through mutual connection and community building and re-establishing nature-human healthy connections. This day is indeed for many an opportunity to do so, and therefore with heartily wish all who celebrate, Merry Christmas! 

L.Nava

We got here and it is time to celebrate, Winter’s Solstice has arrived, likely the oldest surviving celebration humanity has known, as it is a time of hope and light amidst the coldest and darkest season of them all. This is a time to pat each other on the back and say “well done, you made it so far despite cold, sleet, ice and rain, we are halfway there, but don’t despair, days won’t get darker anymore and light shall soon return”. A celebration that survived the millennia by assuming different forms and shapes according to different cultures and shapes, and regardless how we name it we have always felt compelled to celebrate the passage with rites, and among the merriest celebration many human cultures have known; seeing a coming end to darkness.

The earliest known cultures took this time of the year to celebrate the death and rebirth of the sun, therefore a celebration of trespassing and the return of life. You don’t believe us? Hindus celebrate Surya the Sun God by bathing and cleansing and sacrificing to the God. Yalda Night in Iran survived monotheism and celebrated since Persian times by sharing plenty of food, music and poetry. North Europeans had the day of Jule, celebrated very much like our Christmas. Ancient Romans had the cult of the Invincible Sun which used to be on 25th December.  Dongzhi in China, yuzu baths in Japan, Alban Arthan in Celtic cultures, Korochun in Slavic cultures… must continue?

Rescogita is a company that is grounded on ecopsychology, meaning that our services reflect the vision an mission of enhancing and improving inter-human relations as well as those between humans and the biosphere.

Celebrating Winter Solstice is a way to honour the world’s traditions, faiths and cults who saw on this day a celebration of light a life, and costumes of joy, mirth and plenty in households and communities coming together. Especially in these months of global pandemic we also want to congratulate you, just like humans on these days congratulated one another since times forgotten and tell you all “Well done, you made, we made it through darkness and cold, and from this day onwards the sun will start to shine on us more and more each day, well done!”

L. Nava

At Rescogita we build our vision on the principles of Ecopsychology, which means restoring human to human and human to nature relations. This also means to value culture, traditions and roots, as a common thread to all of humanity, born in the mists of time and with a purpose to celebrate community, life and connectedness to one another; therefore we join our Jewish friend in wishing a good Hanukkah week.

Hanukkah means dedication, and this day is devoted to recall and celebrate the rededication of the Holy Temple. It is an 8 day winter ritual and celebration, also known as the Festival of Lights, and the celebration is a nighttime lighting of the Menorah accompanied by prayers and delicious hearty food. When was this celebration born? From a time before the birth of Jesus Christ, when Seleucids invaders wanted to impose hellenic culture and faith on the people of Israel and replace the Mitzvah. This lead to a rebellion of few desperate Jews who drove the Greeks out of the land and reclaimed the Temple of Jerusalem restoring the worship of God. When the tried to light the Temple’s Menorah they discover a little olive oil there that was still consecrated to their faith and that tiny amount of oil managed to keep the Menorah burning for 8 days, just the necessary time to ritually prepare more olive oil. That is when the wise old men decided to start this Festival of Light, Hanukkah.

The core element of the festival is lighting the Menorah at night, this candle-holder has space for 9 flameses, and one of them is called Shamash, the Attendant, with a purpose or kindling the other 8 lights. Another flame is lit on the second night, another on the third,until the 8th night when all lights are on.

Of course the ritual involves blessings to be recited before the traditional lighting, followed by songs sang together by the community, synagogue, public places  and family engaging in the celebration, since every household has a Menorah, and its place is the doorway or the window.

That is when specific prayers are recited during specific times of the day, and God is praised and thanked for “delivering the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the evil into the hands of the righteous”

L. Nava

The Bodhi Tree is a sacred fig tree, in spiritual art it often assumes the shape a heart.  Buddhists all over the world today celebrate Bodhi Day, which is the commemoration of when Siddhartha Gautama, as he sat under a Bodhi Tree attained enlightenment. A central and core moment of Buddhism and milestone for the two millennia that followed. This is a day when the followers of the doctrine make a renewal ritual to commit once more to kindness to all that lives, compassion and englinment. We at Rescogita, are an company founded on the principles of Ecopsychology, and besides strengthening the human to human and human to nature reconnection and constructive support, we also look into cultures, traditions and faith, to identify the common threads that make of all humans a single community, and join our Buddhist friends in celebrating this day and renew our Vision and Mission.

The Buddha upon reaching enlightenment came to realise the interconnectedness between eventhing, which led to the creation of the 4 noble truths, at the central core of Buddhism and the 8 fold path. “Humans cling to impermanent states of being and material objects and this is called Dukkha, meaning unsatisfying. By trying to hold on to these things, humans end up caught in Samsara – the cycle of life, Dukkha, Death and Rebirth.This can be stopped by following the 8-fold path to attain true Nirvana.”

1. Dukkha : Unsatisfying material world we cling to
2. Samudaya : The origin of our Dukkha traps us in the cycle of life, death, rebirth.
3. Nirodha : end of Dukkha, escaping the cycle of life
4. Magga : Finally free from Dukkha

And the 8-fold Path to Magga are, the Right View, cause-effect, actions have consequences and create Karma. The Right Resolve, as adopting the Buddhist life. The Right Speech, to abandon disrespectful language, hate speech and lying. The Right Conduct. Killing, hurting, harming and stealing are forbidden. The Right Livelihood, own only what is essential. The Right Effort, to becareful with sensual and disharmonious thought. Right Mindfulness, to always be conscious about what your doing. Right Samadhi, practicing the 4 stage of meditation and aim at unifying the mind.

And how is Bodhi day celebrated? Well by decorating the Bodhi Tree with beads and lights… does it ring a bell? And people meditate on the life of Buddha, or visit the shrines, there are also tasty heart shaped cookies to enjoy. 

L.Nava

6th of December for many children (and adults) around Europe and not only is a favourite. All are familiar with the smiling and jolly figure with a white beard. Rescogita focuses on ecopsychology, and despite caring and working towards healthy human-human and human-nature relations we are also very much involved in studying the roots from the past to understand today. So we have a bishop, Nicholas, who lived in what we know today as Turkey, yet back in the IV century part of the Roman Empire. In the 11th century, some Italian sailors stole the remnants of the Saint and brought it to the city of Bari, to protect the remnants of the holy man from advancing Seljuk armies. Likely Saint Nick was a Greek Christian, olive coloured skin, brown eyes and in his 60s, persecuted by emperor Diocletian, likely beaten a few times by the soldiery. Moreover, testimonies from those times did not quite resemble the overweight, merry grandpa figure, rather a passionate zealot, a rebel against the authorities and quite a temper, reason why he was quite often in and out of prison until the times of emperor Constantine, so he did not die in prison. However, his cult grew because it was common belief he did quite a few miracles, and known as the protector of orphans, sailors and prisoners.
However, he made it to the top only later, around the XIII Century, when his reputation changed to a patron of children and the bringer of presents. The reason? Some stories from his life started to develop more liking and approval, like when he saved three girls from prostitution by gifting their poor father with three bags of gold for their dowry. Accompanied by a story where he resurrected three boys murdered by a maniac/cannibal innkeeper. For over 300 hundred years Saint Nicholas had a monopoly concerning bringing gifts, his day falling on the 6th December. Needless to say that often Christianity mixed with older pagan religions, and Saint Nicholas adopted some features of Roman God Saturn and Norse God Odin (magical people with white beards who could fly, and make sure kids behave).
Protestants were not big fans of Saints Worship and up in North Europe, where it was popular the cult decreased, replacing the task of bringing gifts to children from Saint Nicholas to Baby Jesus, and on Christmas Day. Although the image of baby, even if Jesus, is not threatening enough to compel children to behave, nor did it sound right to have Jesus deliver threats. The result was to fish in Germanic folklore, like Krampus, and add a menacing second figure looking more like a grumpy, rough and furry demon who demanded children to behave otherwise be punished.
Much of today’s understanding we have of that figure and role comes from America, ad Dutch colonists and migrants brought along Saint Nicholas’ cult (Sinterklaas), and in the Americas it became a Christian saturnalia, a feast of plenty, food, drinks and celebrations (though initially forgetting about children and gifts). Only in the XIX Century, romantic writers and poets revived the celebration, purpose of family and importance of joy for all children until today. L.Nava

Today is World Soil Day, Rescogita as a company that grounds itself on ecopsychology and providing trainings, coaching, consulting and capacity building with a human and environmental ecological approach, celebrates this day as joyfully as we can, Because celebrating the soil, we are celebrating life-bringing in its main element, earth, which is synonymous with our planet and the life it contains and supports. As we hold on to soil into our hands, in those few hundred grams is so much life, more than the eye can see, from the visible earthworms and little insects, to decomposed foliage, from sports of numerous plants ready to start life anew to tiny fungi coming to life, from bacteria o particles. An ounce of soil can be a biosphere in itself, and when nurtured and cared for provides us with food, with grassland, forests and all that lives is dependent on it. That is why we need to protect the soil and all its biodiversity, because we are part of it, and it is part of who we are, most vital crops won’t grow on sand or rocks, let alone concrete and tar. 

This is the purpose why we support the campaign “Keep Soil Alive, Protect Soil Biodiversity” promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and help them raise awareness of how important tt is to maintain a healthy ecosystem, on it depends the well being of both humans and non-humans, because indeed most of today’s soil management is one of the main obstacles, biodiversity is being lost, agricultural practices making the land barren, and therefore there is a need, a survival need, for governments, businesses, organisations, communities and even individuals to activate and improve soil’s health, because its capacity to recover is astounding, if we care for it. 

How? By reducing tillage, inversion and soil traffic, by using cover crops,  by increasing the input of organic matter,  providing nutrients, rotate crops and avoiding pesticides, and then we will be able to care for soil in order tor the soil to take care of us. 

L.Nava

Among us are those who gift their most expensive good available, their time, and dedicate it to their beliefs and values in a better value and to commitments that aim at economic and social development. Kudos to absolutely all of them, for living their values and finding meaning-making in their activities and endeavours while indeed making this world a better place by freely contributing both time and competences to others.  Rescogita is a company that finds its roots in Ecopsychology, and ecology is not only about taking care of our environment and nature, it is that, and also includes taking care of our communities and intra-human connection as a means for general wellbeing and purpose-finding. 

It concerns the expression of solidarity and unity around the common good, where your wellbeing is connected to mine and therefore let’s work together towards this common goal, as partners, Today is the International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, and this is a day we celebrate and honour, raising our cheers to all the people who engaged, who still engage, and who will find meaning in expressing their values in dedicating themselves to a just cause.

Increasingly today public, private and third sector are giving more and more value to promoting volunteering schemes, much has changed in society and seems that salaries and benefits, while being a good motivation, are just as important as having a purpose and meaning in one’s engagement and commitment, we can say surpassing or reshaping concepts like corporate social responsibility, giving workers and employers the opportunity to do something that they feel connects them to their communities and to the environment. More and more we see working places carrying out clean-the-park days, assigning a week of the working contract to volunteer for a just cause, up to corporations promoting social and economic volunteer programmes for sabbatical years. All of this results in increased loyalty, productivity and sense of belonging not just to a job and a contract, rather to something greater which impacts a person’s sense of self-realisation not only in their professional field, also as human beings. 

L. Nava

26th of November, World Olive Tree Day, a special day dedicated to a very special tree, we at Rescogita, as a company grounded on ecopsychology, can only honour this day and tree, a true friend to humanity since the mists of time. A tree with its previous olives and grey-green leafs became so close to many of our cultures that it entered popular legends, myths, religions and beliefs. The crown of athletes in classical times were made of olive branches and those same athletes would not win gold or silver medals but jars of olive oil. Greek believe that Athena by generating the first olive tree gave life to all the trees existing in our planet, Noah’s ark regains hope when a dove carries an olive branch from drylands etc. So many symbols and images are associated to this one single tree, friendship, peace, victory, light, richness. Perhaps because of its centennial lives, their capacity to grow and prosper under hard conditions, the healthy properties of olives themselves. 

Its importance and powerful symbols date from before Christianity, although also other monotheistic faiths and cultures continued to honour this tree’s benefits, and regard them as divine until our day. 

One of the approaches of ecopsychology is also that of what learnings we can gather from the non-human world, and we do wonder, upon looking at an olive tree what thoughts and feelings spring into our minds? What does this truly beautiful and wondrous tree have to teach us from its millennial experience? To whom do we need to extend an oliver branch today? 

L. Nava

On 25th November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and we at Rescogita would like to offer you the point of view of ecopsychology on this problem. 

What are the roots and origin of this violence? Referring to scholar Jared Diamond, we are looking at some 12.000 years ago (a very short time compared the the 2 million years humans are around) and it started with agriculture. Archeologists showed us that hunter/gatherer nomadic tribes had a more equal society than that of farmers. How was agriculture an influence to violence? Settled human communities were characterised by two elements, the first one being larger families, while the nomadic ones could maybe afford 1-2 children because they could not stay too long in one place, farmers could afford,and needed larger families, taking into consideration high child mortality, to help in the fields and take over upon old age and death of the parents, and therefore giving preference to male children. This meant that carrying children and looking after them became a woman’s prerogative, at risk of her health and social status, while gradually men became the breadwinners. The second element was that of property, while nomadic tribes had a vague concept of what belonged to them, farmer culture made it clearer in separating plots and claiming ownership of land, therefore ownership as a concept forced its way into the human mind and culture, concerning the land, tools, family and one’s woman; what the eco-feminists defined as the foundation of patriarchal society. This had a side-effect, farms to thrive had to intervene and alter the environment, hunting/gathering was more focused on adapting to the environment, farming to adapt the environment to us, and another behaviour entered our human collective thought, that of domination, as a matter of fact humans are the only species in Earth’s history to struggle to rise above nature and dominate it. These two characteristics  were crowned by an approach which we would define violence aimed at all we believe is rightfully ours and that we should naturally dominate, with force if need be, because it is our property. Towards nature, as it belongs to me and that forest stands in the way or more fields and crops, towards my neighbour as I have a right to more land and stronger and they must subjugate, towards my family as they belong to be the Pater Familias, towards my woman as she depends on me for food and shelter. This is what may well be stand at the origin of violence against women and dragged down many human cultures for 12.000 years, 0,0012% of our existence on Earth. In the 1990s the Eco-feminist movement, mother to Ecopsychology, brought up an interesting parallel, that men’s violence against women corresponds to men’s violence against nature, all started with a mentality of domination. Giving life to different forms of violence, from economic (lesser opportunities and salaries) to social (public life expectations) up to the most obvious physical and sexual. The approach of ecopsychology is one that fosters harmonisation with the outer world, creating a sense of belonging with the human communities and the biosphere as a whole in an ecological fashion. Ecological meaning that actions, decisions and behaviours are beneficial to the individual, its human community and the biosphere in general; underlining that such potential new mindset has no place for violence and the 12.000 year old dominant mindset serves no purpose at all in today’s and tomorrow’s world.     

L.Nava

Childhood is the phase of life where who we are, our purpose and mission into this world sets its root in order to guide us through adulthood. Yet how fast we dismiss that period of life, perhaps through rights of passage which relegate those experiences and learnings into a past both caged and locked. Keeping the sweet memories, the friendships, the sense of awe and discovery at every learnings, the feelings of joy, sorrow along with the excitement of new creative ways to have fun. Then all of a sudden, the creative learner is struck down by the expectations of maturity, adulthood and responsibility, and the games are put away in a dusty box perhaps to be handed out at some point to the next generation of children. Is that stage of life gone in the mists of the past as we become grownups? As a trainer, one of my favourite teambuilding activities is to actually feel the plenary room with toys, ask participants to recall childhood and to simply have fun; and if you saw it you’d be amazed, the amount of shouting and running, irresponsibly breaking a chair or hitting the wall, the games that get invented and the genuine fun present. Then I think to myself that no, it is not gone, its there, our child within will always be a full part of our identity and of who we are, that amazing and fast learner, that reckless kid full of life, the curious little creature that is never tired of discovering, and given the chance and opportunity that child returns to our conscious mind, and guides the responsible and mature adult in life choices and pathways. That is why we feel it is important today to celebrate the Universal Children’s Day, because it concerns all of us, from the small child up to the wise old person, each one of us has their own childhood within, and this little energetic creature is always there, with its inner strength and energy, willing to help. 

L.Nava

Philosophy is the lighthouse that lead the ship of humanity into the bay that sparkled evolution and civilisation. It is a landmark where daily survival started to be more or less taken for granted, and in that safety humanity could stop, look around at the nature and society around, explore past and future, ask questions, and became aware of its self-consciousness and that of the world around and beyond what meets the eye. Philosophy was born as the first stepping stone of another human journey, this time an endless one, the journey to knowledge. That is exactly what philosophy means – the love for knowledge, and since it is an act of love it also produced its offspring, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology etc, basically all that we know and study today has its roots in an ancient time when we started to ask questions and wonder.

And that is the purpose why today we are celebrating the World Philosophy Day, to celebrate the moment when we realised that there is more to just travel, gather, hunt and harvest, to consider ourselves a species and to discover, realise and create our relation to each other and to nature. 

Today is the day we cherish because slowly, through the mists of time and history, humanity starts to identify the answers to those primordial questions and, fortunately, for each discovered answer come along ten more questions, because knowledge is a never ending quest that journeys between the shores of learning and teaching with the unique purpose of moving forward together improving our lives and those of others. 

Through philosophy we have gained our knowledge, our ethics and morality, our sense of belonging, relations to others and feeling of being part of something larger than just the cycle of birth-life-death, in other words, Life.  Therefore, lets rediscover the roads that brought us to these accomplishments from a faraway past, aiming at a better future.

L.Nava

The word Tolerance comes from Latin – Tolerantia – To endure

Today’s world seems to have evolved beyond the word “tolerance”, new adjectives have taken its place with the intention to create more positive connotations. Acceptance is one of those words, for example, whereas tolerance is slowly becoming an archaic term for a time beyond ours. 

What negative connotations does this word carry along? Perhaps, in today’s understanding we can tolerate something that may imply this unspoken sentence “hey, I know you don’t like this but you have to tolerate it and swallow your dislike. Because its the right thing to do!” rather than today’s concept that “No, its not ok that you just tolerate it and deep inside you still disapprove and dislike, this is wrong in so many ways!”  The first sentences implies that it is fine that deep inside you disagree and disapprove of this, however your behaviour needs to adjust, so you become more tolerant. While the second one is requiring the counterpart a much harder task, to change mindset and perhaps mental constructions in order to accept what in the first place goes against the perceived values and principles of that person. First of all that is an assumption that when a person tolerates something, it necessarily something one disagrees with. 

Nonetheless, even if today’s world is replacing that word with others, perhaps more correct ones in expressing what humanity needs and what action in necessary, let’s take a short pause to admire the qualities of tolerance and for what purpose this is not an outdated word, since today is the International Day for Tolerance

1. Lets acknowledge what tolerance as  a word stands against: hatred, discrimination, indifference (intolerance) stand at the antipodes of tolerance, therefore gaining positive a constructive connotation as compared to its destructive and negative opposites. 
2. Tolerance is a journey, a process, not a destination on itself, accomplishing this is milestone on the way to acceptance and integration, until what ever was at the foundation of the intolerant behaviour is removed. 
3. Tolerance is a behaviour, manifests itself towards the tolerant behaviour of individuals towards specific people, ideas, groups, identities etc. While acceptance is an attitude something that takes shape and form in the personality. Can we achieve acceptance before having actually adopted a tolerant behaviour? 
4. Practicing Tolerance implies learning patience, the patience to endure the path to acceptance of what is different from my worldview. 
5. Tolerance is also a capacity, that of recognising and respecting the beliefs of practices of others that differ from one’s own. 

And most of all it is a the process and milestone that leads from behaviour to transformation of the attitude, through endurance and patience. 

And to conclude, tolerance is yes a behaviour which can be both proactive and reactive, when taking Popper’s Paradox, “as paradoxical as it may sound defending tolerance requires not tolerate the intolerants.” 

L. Nava

 Science is a word that comes from Latin which means both knowledge and collective knowledge, upon hearing the word collective we understand that it is something that belongs to everybody and therefore should exist for the benefit of all, is that right?  

From the enlightenment until 1914 generally society had a positive outlook towards science and scientists seeing progress, life improvements and advancements in every field; World War I and its destruction changed that perception, once witnessing the destructive capacity of progress, leaving a traumatised humanity, and a trauma persevered through the development of nuclear arsenals and other inventions that led to more sophisticated means of destruction, pollution and come what may. A legacy of this trauma can be the growing anti-science movements around the globe that we are witnessing today, propagation of hoaxes, conspiracies and a disinformation. There is a need to heal that trauma and to restore a covenant between science and humanity and mutual faith. On the one hand acknowledgement and recognition that thanks to science no human society of the past has ever had the health and wellbeing we have today, on the other hand the rejection of those sciences that are being applied to create more sophisticated and efficient ways to deliver war, destruction and pollution, which means gain back science’s etymology, collective knowledge that belongs to all and for the benefit of all. 

This year the World Science Day for Peace and Development’s theme is “Science For And WIth Society”, inevitably humanity is moving towards a more interconnected world where more often than not the challenges that we face make national borders irrelevant, its enough to look at global warming, or COVID-19, a very clear example of problems that can be overcome if we put together our collective-knowledge, our science, meaning not only the scholars and researchers, we mean everybody from health practitioners to policymakers to the civil-society through the private sector until science as we know it becomes Open Global Science, as the progress of one becomes progress for all. 

“To rethink  the links between people and nature, developing powerful tools for bringing people closer to nature by testing and applying integrated approach to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use and sustainable development, making the scientific process inclusive and the outputs of science more readily available for all” UNESCO.

L.Nava

While hoping that every viewer and reader firmly condemns warfare and armed conflict, attention needs to be brought to a quite bad habit of ours; while many condemn the pollution and environmental harm brought by industry, agriculture and other side (or direct) effects that modern economy have on the biosphere, few mention the environmental damage created by warfare.

Once a conflict starts, victims and damage reporting tends to focus on human life loss and infrastructure, per se horrific and true, and yet there is another victim unaccounted for, the environment. 

Only recently was watching on the news a phosphorus bombardment on forest lands, aimed at inflicting losses and damage to enemy troops hiding there, as the reporter talked about wounded and casualties in the background were acres of forest burning, vegetable and animal kingdom also being punished simply for being on the wrong side of the frontline. 

Modern warfare is so technological and based on complex chemical that quite often the lands affected remain barren, sometimes for generations, as the earth is contaminated with depleted uranium, explosives, metals that end up also harming water resources.  Should not land, animals and plants also be counted among the victims of war? Moreover take into account that 40% of internal conflicts in the last half century were linked to exploitation of natural resources, be it minerals, arable land, wood, water access, often ending up being very long lasting conflicts and not just in recent history. 

Care for the environment and biosphere should be a major actor preventing conflicts maintaining and keeping peace “there can be no durable peace if the natural resources that sustain livelihood and ecosystems are destroyed” (1). Scarcity of resources are among humanity’s upcoming challenges and definitely armed conflicts only contribute to the further reduction of those resources, how can a scorched land support our survival and living? Especially when chemical weapons are so easily employed in combat. Besides human life, in war among the first to perish are forests and wildlife animals, followed by biospheric damage

Perhaps it is even more true today than ever, the need for a new culture and a new form of existence, where humanity does not give in to he mass-psychosis of self destruction, and an understanding that warfare, regardless of victor or loser sees our source of sustainment and life damaged, often beyond repair. If everybody loses then what is the point? Short-term thinking will likely have an answer, long-term thinking no.

1. _{1. On 5 November 2001, the UN General Assembly declared 6 November of each year as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict (A/RES/56/4).}

L. Nava

Why do all cultures around the world celebrate death and have rituals in each of their faiths and beliefs to commemorate the trespassed? Christian, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Animists and more have in their tradition a specific time in the calendar for commemoration and acknowledgement of death, mostly (not all) placed between what we know as October/November, a tradition lost in the mists of time. 

The purpose of this can be multiple, honour the ancestors, a reminder of the transitional and temporary presence in this world,  a contemplation of life-death cycle, a specific time for the community to stop looking at its origin and celebrate today’s life while honouring the legacy of those who lived before us. Could well be that each answer is right. 

In many cultures this remembrance ritual occurs in the period between Equinox and Solstice, marking the end of the harvest season and the start of the darker and colder months. The ancient Greeks had Anthesteria, associated with Dyonisos – God of merriment and wine. Romans had Lemuralia a day used to exorcise bad spirits from their homes, and worship ancestors, Celts had Samhain the day to honour ancestors and thinning of the threshold with the spirit world. Aztecs, Navajos ad Hopis had rituals of sacrifice and food offering to the souls of the departed, and in many cultures these are still celebrated. 

What about today? The catholic this ritual includes prayers and sacrifice to purify the souls of the deceased and help them be free of the guilt of past mistakes so they can move on to Heaven, Hindus the Pitri Paksha offering messages to the afterlife conveyed by water. All have common threads, passage, remembrance, heritage, roots and ancestry and community. Embedded with a belief that on this day the souls of the dead revisit the world. In some Islamic traditions the Thursday of the Dead (or of Sweetness is celebrated) to celebrate the visit of the deceased dear ones to their homes of origin, and offered sweets. As well trending today… Halloween. 

Each of these rituals involves the concept that these souls are alive, just on another plain of existence, Heaven? Elysium? Valhalla? And other names for the afterlife, which implies that something immortal lives within us, a concept existing since the dawn of times all over human communities, defining the soul as something immortal, transcendent or even trapped in a material world freed by death, which is seen as stepping stone to the continuation of the purpose of the soul. 

The Ritual of the Dead, discarding its macabre and sinister name is a most important natural ritual that actually celebrates life, in every culture, the tradition of faith this time of the year celebrates a sense of community and belonging, honours the people who in the past contributed to building those families, communities, towns etc. and now are gone. Moreover, this ritual confronts people with the one of the biggest fears of humanity, death, and generates a sense of belonging that goes beyond here-and-now, a purpose-making, acknowledgement celebration. 

L.Nava