Into the Ground – a meditation on return to the earth

By Tom Stedall

Into the Ground is a long essay (in progress) that is a reckoning with a deep basis in the Western tradition of the accelerating crisis of our time. The title is a recognition of multiple senses of ‘into the ground’ – the seeking of the deeper nature of things, the ploughing of Western modernity into the ground, and the regenerative implication of return to the ground. It is also a recognition of the inevitability of such return, in the sense of return to the earth and the ancient reality of our habitation of it, by necessity if not by choice.

The essay establishes a route to non-duality in the Western tradition, incorporating a non-dual epistemic perspective that draws on Eastern and feminist perspectives, and offers a critical examination of the scientific worldview at both ontological and cultural levels. It further establishes the concept of ‘divorced value’ in modernity and suggests a comprehensive mapping of the Western philosophical tradition and the relative statuses of different forms of capital (natural, social, financial, etc.).

The overall offering is a critical and spiritual perspective of the reclamation of meaning, value and power in post-modernity (the ‘compost heap’), recognising these to be fundamental parts of the human condition in its deep past and any future. The recognition of power is as something beyond ‘power over’, that is, power within and between.

Through these recognitions, three ‘theories of change’ will be offered.

This talk will present a series of offerings based on these ideas, intended as living approaches to navigating a world in crisis. There will be time for questions and discussion.  The essay is not yet published, but will be made available to attendees.

Tom is an independent researcher whose fundamental and connecting interest is the nature of consciousness.

Please reply to get the Zoom link: info@schumacherinstitute.org.uk