For much of history women were to taught to live in shame of being of not only their biological processes but were told that women were inherently inferior to men. This began with the story of Eve’s betrayal of Adam in Eden. The shame based ethic of patriarchy seeks to not only exclude women from rituals and ceremonies because of their unclean nature but also seeks to distance them from the sacredness of their very own bodies.
Richard Nelson: Agriculture was created as (and still remains) an instrument of war. Gardens must be part of any peace building plan and the integration of distributed food/water production within the boundaries of our homes and communities is perhaps more important then distributed solar energy conversion. We will regain a peaceful state of being when we “remember how we lived in the Garden”. The challenge is to recreate the Garden. The Garden concept is based on nurture; knowing how to live and let live. Agricultural practice, as it has been developed, gradually degrades the ecology and produces mass extinction; based, as it is, on techniques for skillful, selective killing by mechanical and chemical and (most recently) biological means.
The key is now to transform the Garden concept into a practical reality that can transform us as individuals and be manifest in the form of new eco-communities. We will reach this experiential level when we are ready to be led by the spirit of creativity and innovation; when we engage fully in the “Great Experiment” that was designed by our Creator.