We live in a time of ecological crisis. The world we live in has almost been destroyed by industrial pollution, war, neglect and overdevelopment. The concept of the Anthropocene, the sense that today there is no such thing as nature independent of human activity, signifies ultimately that we have created a world in which we may destroy ourselves. However, although we are part of nature, we do have a special relationship to it, indicating this by the term, “ecopoiesis.” The word “poiesis,” from the Greek for art-making, means a capacity to respond to what is given and to shape it in a way that aims at beauty. Of course, our shaping may aim at profit or domination rather than beauty, but even our mis-shaping shows us that we are, we might say, ecopoietic by nature. We are not only ecological but ecopoietic beings.

For all of its numerous benefits, modernization is a double-edged sword. After wholeheartedly embracing Western-style modernization in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, China has achieved astonishing world-renowned achievements, most notably in terms of its rapid economic growth and development. However, contemporary China has had to cope with many of the bitter aftertastes of the pill of modernization, especially in regards to the serious ecological crisis faced by most developed countries. In order to avoid the fate of self-destruction of both China and the wider world, a new civilization—ecological civilization—is urgently needed. Different from industrial civilization that holds in the highest regard all things related to machines and tools, an ecological civilization is a civilization that respects nature and aims for the common good of humans and nature. It is the transcendence of modern industrialization, and thus requires a great all-round transformation. Organic-Process thinking can provide a theoretical framework for such an ecological civilization. Although China has made great efforts thus far to create such an ecological civilization, the road toward building one is long and difficult, as there is a great deal of obstacles that must be overcome to reach this goal.

An ecological civilization represents an exciting potential future of human flourishing on a regenerated Earth. It would require a transformation of our current economy, politics, and mainstream culture, leading to a fundamentally different civilization based of different values, goals, and collective behavior. An ecological civilization arises from modeling human society on nature’s wisdom—the same core principles that have kept natural ecologies healthy and resilient over millions of years. It is a vision inspired by life-affirming groups worldwide—Indigenous, political, community-based, and spiritual. While it’s visionary and seems a long way off, it may be closer than many people realize.

The article examines the influence of the Moon as a celestial body of the solar system, closely connected with the Earth, on humans. It is shown how, through creative activity in the interaction of humans with this celestial body, new meanings and forms of experience are formed and their renewal in culture takes place. In this case, the Moon acts not only as a physical object, but also as one of the natural archetypes, due to which a complex of human potentials is realized in their connection with the environment. When considering the Moon as a natural phenomenon, special attention is paid to those types of activities when it is perceived through the prism of non-pragmatic, artistic and aesthetic experience, closely related to the experience of beauty. When considering this mode of perception of the Moon, the concepts of poiesis and ecopoiesis are used.