So I have this new theory, well its more like a metaphor, but I think it’s what a lot of my study has led to and I think it will direct a lot of my further study. Ok, so I think that the planetary crisis, as Terence McKenna called it, can be best understood by this metaphor, this myth really:

For thousands and thousands and thousands of years humanity lived on this planet in a sustainable way that would allow us to continue living on this planet indefinitely. We had managed to adapt ourselves to life on nearly every corner of the land, foraging a living in extreme heat, extreme cold and everywhere in between.

For the most part we were mobile, nomadic, tribal and relatively anarchic. That is not to say that we lived in chaos, rather we lived in accordance with the planet’s natural equilibrium. That is also not to say that we in no way altered our environment. We changed entire landscapes with intentional brushfires, we wiped out entire species of megafauna. But change is the only constant in nature, and change we did.

At some point about 10,000 years ago, in the fertile crescent around the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, near two great rivers, we summoned a great and terrible demon with whom we struck an unholy bargain that would change the whole course of humanity. This bargain was much like the choice that the gods gave Achilles. “Either leave the bargaining table and go back to living the way you always have; if you do so you will live for a very, very long time but be completely unknown and die in obscurity. But if instead you take the offer, you and your descendants will become more powerful, wealthy and have more glory than you could possibly imagine, but the human species will only live out a fraction of the time it would otherwise have on this planet.”

They took the deal and the demon set to work, first teaching them agriculture and about the power of controlling surplus (or what we now call capital). Eventually this demon taught humanity all of the techniques of civilization and then industrial civilization and on it went. In exchange all humanity had to do was to wage war on, and enslave and exploit their mother planet and all of her creations. You see, this planet, like all others, is a god. Some call her Gaia, we shall too.

The demon hated Gaia and wanted to see her suffer, wanted to se her die, for she alone in the solar system could create life, she alone could birth conscious, self aware beings and the demon was envious of her great power. So it corrupted her most capable, adaptable species and turned us against her. The demon took our ability to manipulate fire and turned it towards the destruction of our mother, Gaia. It taught us to fear nature and to try to control and dominate, to master her like a slave to be exploited. In return it awarded those of us who kept the demonic system going with power, wealth and glory beyond measure, and stomped into the ground those of us who would resist the demon and its exploitative, coercive civilization.

And now, 10,000 years later, we have been led to destroy, kill, defile, burn and pollute so much of our beautiful mother Gaia and our brothers and sisters, all of her creation, that this planet is becoming less and less hospitable to human life, civilized or otherwise. Not to mention the fact that the demon has led us to enact the sixth great extinction event in all of Gaia’s life, the first time that an event like this has been caused by another species of the Earth.

Gaia’s climate is changing, her temperature is rising like a fever, her antibodies are activating to purge this demon like the virus, the parasite, that it is, and when she destroys it we are likely to be killed off with it, unless we can find the will and the way to banish it ourselves first. There is a saying in magical circles: Never summon anything you cannot banish. I hope that we can.