In our world today, there is a yearning to connect to beauty; a rising tide of sensitivity and awareness of the immense difficulties we are facing; a need to find a sense of redemption. Poetry offers this. It opens the window to paradox, giving voice to both the souls grief and its longing for the ecstatic. Julie Taras poetry falls in the tradition of the mystical poets who, through the magic of words, open the eyeand the soulto the awareness of the infinite; of timelessness; of presence. To enter into Songs of Gaia is to enter into a world where the desert wind becomes a wild womans breath; where the rivers youve drunk deeply from become the blood of the Mothers veins, and where the sound of your beating heart becomes the rhythm of the very universe in which you live.

A riveting exploration of one of the most important dilemmas of our time: will digital technology accelerate environmental degradation, or could it play a role in ecological regeneration? At the uncanny edge of the scientific frontier, Gaia’s Web explores the promise and pitfalls the Digital Age holds for the future of our planet. Instead of the Internet of Things, environmental scientist and tech entrepreneur Karen Bakker asks, why not consider the Internet of Living Things? At the surprising and inspiring confluence of our digital and ecological futures, Bakker explores how the tools of the Digital Age could be mobilized to address our most pressing environmental challenges, from climate change to biodiversity loss. Interspersed with ten elegiac, enigmatic parables, each of which is based on an existing technology, Gaia’s Web evokes the conundrums we face as the World Wide Web intertwines with the Web of Life. A new generation of innovators is deploying digital technology to come to the aid of the planet, using spy satellites to track down environmental criminals, inviting animals to the Metaverse, and biohacking Frankenstein-like biobots as environmental sentinels. But will they end up doing more harm than good? In an engaging take on conservation technology, Bakker looks at the digital tech applications to environmental issues from predatory harvesting of environmental data to human bycatch and eco-surveillance capitalism. If we address these issues and mobilize digitally mediated forms of citizen science, she argues, digital tech could help reverse environmental harms and advance environmental sustainability. And in the process, Big Tech might be transformed for the better. With its uniquely broad scope—combining insights from computer science, ecology, engineering, environmental science, and environmental law—Gaia’s Web introduces profoundly novel ways of addressing our most pressing environmental challenges—mitigating climate change, protecting endangered species—and creating new possibilities for ecological justice by empowering nonhumans to participate in environmental regulation.

The book first establishes a theoretical framework for conceptualizing environmental analysis. It then develops a conception of environmental literature with an emphasis on works by women, arguing for the need to reconceptualize woman/nature and nature/culture associations, and critiquing the problems of male poetic sex-typing of the planet. Murphy also elaborates on specific works and authors, with an emphasis on literary texts by Hampl, Harjo, Snyder, and Le Guin. Additionally, he treats issues of canon and pedagogy, as well as the possibility of agency in a postmodern era. Ranging across diverse fields and incorporating cultural studies, post-structuralist literary theory, and ecofeminist philosophy, Literature, Nature, and Other both defines and critiques the current terrains of literary ecocriticism and nature writing/environmental literature. Literary examples are drawn from fiction, poetry, and prose, including postmodern metanarratives and works by Native Americans and Chicanas.

Discussing the work of more than 60 poets from the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean, Nerys Williams guides students through the key ideas and movements in the study of poetry today.

Gaia finally knows who she is and what she’s meant to do. It’s only been a few weeks since the earth element woke in her. Now that she’s embracing her role as Mother Nature, she must journey with her group of power-wielding friends in a race against time to get back home before Azazel reaches them. With the awakening of a brand new element, her true past with Edan, a dangerous decision that could change the very essence of who she is, and a traitor among her group, the broken road back to Terra will be a test of strength. After all, even if Gaia doesn’t know it, war is closer than she thinks.

The first Books of "IS", is full of contemplative designs and graftics, along with rhythmic writings. All are created to move gently, your sences, and your brain, to "stiring" you "awake", and into thinking, sensing and obseving the life within you and around you. The writings and graphics are meant to be contemplated upon, and carried into your daily life, so to awaken you to the truth of you and the universe of life here, now, and beyond "here" and the "now". I have also included pages at the end of each chapter for the reader's own inspired writings brought on by the repeated readings, and contemplations of the writings and graphics in this book, so to assist in the activation of your creative and intellectual mind: right and left brain functions. The Books of "IS" came about after my being mysteriously, intuitively guided, for over twenty-eight years, to write down messages of a higher conscious level, on truths of life, myself, and all life in general. The writings in BOOK ONE: The Dance of Becoming, are compiled writings from a higher presence of love that I was receiving, during a strong inter-sensing, to write down what was "calling" to me. This first began occuring during my pre-teens; then again as an adult, during times of great sorrow or/and lonliness. As an adult, and after writing for almost a year, the writings began taking on a deeper nature. They began to change into messages and memories of truth, guidance, and gentle love; coming forth, giving me more of the peace and joy they had been creating within me. The desire to write more "called" often and strongly, yet pleasantly to me; and the experience of it all was: ecstasy! I began to realize that I must have been touching down into deeper parts of myself, and then rising up to the higher parts of me: my Higher Soul! I was then feeling such peace, joy and knowing, that I no longer felt sadness nor lonliness; Instead I felt the great desire and joy to experience and to know more! It felt as if at these times I was my TRUE SELF! I felt complete and all knowing! I felt like I was with the Holies of Holies and the Angels! Then, in the year 1984, I was tellepathicly told by these Sacred Messengers of a higher power/Creator, to put all these writngs into books, and when the time came, publish them to aid all mankind, all existence. From these writings, I receive messages and teachings that went beyond mundane and into the higher planes of existence, connecting me with the Creator of all principles, of all life: There I connected with Holy Messengers of various kinds. I had asked for valadation on all this and soon found myself miraciously being lead to the meeting of those who were Guardians of these ancient, long protected Sacred Truths; along with findings in old books; and other similar occurences and people. These valadations ranged from old mystery schools, of various kinds, to ancient indigenous beliefs on creation, and a higher powerful being; to more modern religions and scientific findings. I also was lead in syn with others, who too, were receiving similar writings with same truths; some written a bit differently. In 1884, I was given the spiritual, tellepathic message, that in the future, I would be compiling these and other writings into books to be published for the world. This was so that many people could be reached more quickly, for the "quickening" had begun.They told me that the writings in this book and in others, were "seed-truths", selectively and rhythmicly placed; camouflaged, seeming at first, to those "not ready", as stories of meer fantasy, so called: "make-believe" and sci-fy. I was told the writings are done this way so to gently but powerfully, unlock the encoded truths within those who hear or read them and view the graphics.These writings therefore, are like camouflaged words/codes, "hidden" to many, but obvious to those who were ready :"remembering", "awakening"; therefore, protected from those who would abuse them and interput them with mis-understanding, in a negative way; thereby, creating too much chaos.

The poems in this little book were primarily intended for use in Neopagan Druidical rituals, but there's no reason others shouldn't enjoy them, and perhaps find them pertinent to their own spirituality. I wrote most of them for submission to the ADF Bardic Guild Study Program in April through September of this year. A preliminary limited edition of five copies was prepared for ADF's 2013 Eight Winds Festival, held in July 2013 at Trout Lake Abbey in Washington state. This second edition contains a few additional poems written after that date.

The only thing we can be absolutely sure of is our own consciousness. But what is consciousness? Is it a property that is unique to humans or do we share it with other lifeforms? Or is the philosophical doctrine of panpsychism correct—are stars and the entire universe conscious in some sense? Early chapters in this book examine the prehistory, mythology, and history of this topic. Arguments are presented from the viewpoints of shamans, philosophers, poets, quantum physicists, and novelists. A simple “toy” model of panpsychism is then presented, in which a universal field of proto- consciousness interacts with molecular bonds via the vacuum fluctuation pressure of the Casimir Effect. It is shown how this model is in congruence with an anomaly in stellar motions called “Parenago’s Discontinuity.” Cool, redder, less massive stars such as the Sun apparently circle the center of the galaxy faster than their hotter, bluer, more massive sisters. This discontinuity occurs at the point in the stellar distribution where molecules begin to appear in stellar spectra. As described in the first edition of this book, observations of main sequence stars out to ~260 light years and giant stars out to >1,000 light years—using the ESA Hipparcos space observatory—support the reality and non-locality of Parenago’s Discontinuity. Local, more conventional explanations for this phenomenon are not supported by observations of other galaxies and the spiral arms of the Milky Way. Since 2014, the new ESA Gaia space observatory has been obtaining kinematics and position data for ~1 billion stars in our galaxy. The first Gaia data release in 2016 has been used in 2018 by a Russian team to demonstrate Parenago’s Discontinuity for a large stellar sample out to ~500 light years from the Sun. These observations support the hypothesis that anomalistic stellar motion is due to stellar volition, as described by philosopher/author Olaf Stapledon in his classic novel Star Maker, as previously discussed by the author in the peer-reviewed Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS). In light of the new Gaia observations and work by other researchers, it is not impossible that panpsychism is emerging from the realm of philosophy as a new subdivision of observational astronomy. Simple models of universal proto-consciousness may be subject to inductive tests using current and future space observatories. A special feature of this book is the chapter frontispiece art by C Bangs.

Robert Graves tells us that “the poet’s first enrichment is a knowledge and understanding of myths.” Certainly, as this collection of essays, poems and visual images affirms, mythology has been a field richly mined by poets and artists from antiquity through to the present day. It is testament to both the enduring power of myth, as well as the adaptability of its form, that poets and writers continually turn to the mythic for both inspiration and guidance. This volume presents a diverse collection of analytical and creative works by scholars, poets and visual artists, in response to their varied explorations of the prolific dialogue that exists between myth and poetry.