EDITORIAL: THERE IS HOPE IN OUR STRUGGLE. THERE IS ECOPOIESIS
The ecological crisis and the crisis of the humanities are unfolding in close connection with each other, which is a consequence of industrial civilization and anthropocentrism. The way out of this situation is to affirm the ecological foundations of civilization, the eco-human way of being. We are far from that at the moment, being involved in the struggle with each other and the nature in and around us. But on the climax of that struggle and dissociation we come to the core of the ecopoietic vision, “the most ancient human truth: we cannot be studied or cured apart from the planet” (Hillman, p. xxii), and vice versa, the planet cannot be studied or cured apart from us in the era of Anthropocene, because today there is no such thing as nature independent of human activity.
Based on that understanding, and our painful condition, we come to the place of hope and see the eco-human horizon, recognizing that the natural world and us are parts of cosystems, that is, communities of different creatures that are in symbiotic relationships with each other and are endowed with the ability to regulate our activity both for ourselves and for the common good, reproducing and developing ourselves and the conditions of the living environment in our own interests and the interests of the entire global ecosystem.
So we start: clearing our vision of the horizon of the ecological civilization and creating a global network of people and our living environment, the Web of Life as a creative agent in order to transform our existence. So we continue our journal mission and are glad to announce the new issue with its variety of eco-human theories and practices and richness of eco-human experience. Complex issues of transformation of man and his living environment – nature and society – in accordance with the concept of ecopoiesis are considered in various sections of this issue of the journal.
In the section “In search of the eco-human paradigm: theory, methodology, concepts”, in the article ARCHETYPES OF NATURE, Alexander Kopytin proposes and substantiates the phenomenon of natural archetypes as a new category of ecopsychology. Considered from the point of view of the eco-human approach, archetypes of nature are considered as thought-forms and works of world culture, combining various natural phenomena and objects, on the one hand, and human properties, the world of mental phenomena, on the other hand.
In the section “Practices and technologies of the eco-human approach,” in the article ECOPOIESIS AND MIYAZAKI’S CINEMA: POETIC INTERACTION WITH NATURE AND A NEW ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE, Merve Kurt explores the concept of ecopoiesis through the ecological and aesthetic dimensions of Hayao Miyazaki's cinema. Drawing on Stephen K. Levine’s poietic ecology framework, her analysis focuses on Princess Mononoke, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and Spirited Away to investigate how nature is represented not merely as a passive background or resource but as a co-creating, sentient subject.
In their essay, NATURE’S VEIL: HEALING IN LIMINALITY – HOW THE INTERACTION BETWEEN NATURE, ART, AND PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPORTS US TO NAVIGATE TRAUMATIC LOSS, DEATH AND DYING, Carolina Herbert, Ph.D., arts psychotherapist, supervisor, educator, and Rev. David Moss, Interfaith Minister, professional musician/songwriter and artist, explore in creative dialogue the profound healing power of nature, art, and photography in navigating traumatic loss, death, and dying.
In her essay called MYTHIC IMAGINATION AND THE TOXICITIES OF CREEK, Madeline Rugh, Ph.D., a registered/board certified art therapist, and a visiting associate professor with Pratt Institute Creative Arts Therapies graduate program, represents the experience of creative response to a biologically damaged stream. Her resulting artpiece became a visual prayer for the Creek Woman and the health of the water in which she shared her Being. The essay also briefly covers, as context, the research of Emoto Masaru, the Sacred speech of Pat McCab, the historical antecedents of the Creeks given name, and mythological potentialities.
In this issue of the journal, “In Resonance with the Earth” section includes poetry and artworks by Merve Kurt, an essay by Sarah West and poetry by Vitold Yasvin.
In the “Events. Book reviews. Interviews” section Zheng Tie, Professor, Dean of the Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage at Beijing Forestry University, in his report highlights recent publications that showcase the progress and vision in ecological civilization construction in China and Russia; Tatiana Sizonenko, PhD, an art historian, a guest curator at the Mandeville Art Gallery at the University of California, San Diego, presents her review of the recent monographic exhibition Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work; and Alexander Kopytin, in his Interview with ecological philosopher with Yurij Rezhik discusses the prospects for building an ecological civilization in Russia
Alexander Kopytin, Co-Editor-in-Chief
References
Hillman, J. (1995). Preface. The Soul as big as the Earth. In T. Roszak, M.E. Gomes, and A.D. Kanner (Eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, healing the mind (pp. viii-xxii). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.