Remembering The World As Lover and As Self with Joanna Macy (In Memoriam)

In memory of Joanna Macy, we offer this recording from a Seminary of the Wild gathering where she spoke with radiant clarity about living through collapse with courage and love. She outlines four ancient ways of seeing the world—battlefield, trap, lover, and self—and invites us into the radical intimacy of belonging to a living Earth as lover and self. With humor and grace, she tells a story from Cosmicomics by Italian author Italo Calvino, in which the universe begins not with a bang, but with a generous offer to make pasta.

Discover Joanna's work at:

• joannamacy.net
• Work That Reconnects Network: workthatreconnects.org
• Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino 

Considering and discerning a call to be part of this new movement of ecospiritual direction? Apply today for the next cohort of the Seminary of the Wild Earth. The application deadline is August 15, 2025.

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 04:53 Joanna Macy begins—gratitude, interdependence, and uncertainty
• 11:31 Choosing how to rebuild: worldview as a tool
• 12:42 World as battlefield
• 16:38 World as trap
• 20:33 World as lover and world as self—belonging to a living world
• 24:17 The Cosmicomics story: love, pasta, and the birth of the universe
• 31:30 Transition from lover to self—nonduality and the ecological self
• 33:00 Thich Nhat Hanh on evolutionary belonging
• 35:00 Letting the Earth act through us—John Seed’s rainforest story
• 38:30 Question session on deepening into intimacy
• 45:41 Weekly wandering invitation: “What can I do for you?”
• 47:38 Closing invitation and credits