Category: EDUCATION

The Resilience of Love: A Crisis with Symbiotic Opportunities

An online project-journey

Introductory Video/Article by

Dr. SerenaGaia, aka Serena Anderlini

Greetings, welcome everyone.

This video/article is for people interested in invoking the Resilience of Love while in this unprecedented perspective that we are experiencing.

This video/article includes:

• An introduction with an invitation to be part of this initiative.
• A narrative sharing my own emotions and perspectives.
• A message of peace, as a way envision opportunities in this crisis.
• An invitation to participate in the evolving program and project The Resilience of Love.

When we consider the voice of Gaia, we can interpret this crisis as a message from the sovereign hostess of all forms of life, a message that comes to us humans in the form of a virus. This message now calls for more balance in the symbiosis between planet and world.

For those who don’t know me well, I am Dr. SerenaGaia, aka Serena Anderlini, and I will say that the alarm of the Covid-19 crisis caught me in a period when I was gradually relocating in Italy, and in particular in the beloved community of Damanhur, after about 30 years of research and professional life in academia, and in the areas of the arts of loving and healing, while I lived in various regions of the USA. That includes California, where I discovered Tantra, open relationships and holistic health, and Puerto Rico where I discovered my relationship with the sea, with hurricanes, with forces of nature, and with Gaia theory, from a supreme scientist of symbiosis, Dr. Lynn Margulis.

From my Puerto Rican home in Punta Arenas I observed the patience of nature for 20 years, and noticed that recently that patience has disappeared. From that time back in the 1990s when we missed the opportunity to handle climate change more responsibly with the Kyoto Protocol, nature, I’ve observed, has exerted abundant resilience while waiting for us to decide that we were going to change the course of our voyage on his earth, to correct our route. That resilience has now come to an end. “What does not happen in 30 years can happen in one day,” as they say.

When I became aware that something truly extraordinary was happening, I was visiting New York, en route between Puerto Rico, and Oregon, where two of my expanded families are located.

I experienced all kinds of responses: agitation, avoidance, conflict.

Then I started listening to, and reading a very wide range of sources.

I was reactive, in an emotional state that included anger, fear, pain. Pain for my first matria, Italy, for many loved ones forced to the hardships of lockdown, for many a form of imprisonment, especially when living in small city apartments.

Then I evolved admiration, appreciation, gratitude for the wisdom with which people of goodwill in Italy understood, helped each other, came together, achieved results in flattening the curve, and in many cases even managed to find the pleasant side, with synchronic singing from balconies across the courtyards, with a newfound calm, kindness, simplicity, solitude.

From afar, I came to admire this somewhat magical, somewhat ingenious country, capable of great improvisations, whose people, together, listened and managed to respond.

I made peace with the thing.

When did that happen for me?

Two sources in particular impressed me.

I listened to Prof Telmo Pievani, at the University of Padua, where he teaches science of evolution. In a video, he humbly explains that, as long as the Earth had many primeval forests where herds of free mammals assemble, viruses would happily and un-conspicuously stay there.

Then they decided to make a species leap, they mutated, and came for a visit where free mammals do gather today, that is in metropolitan areas, where we humans are found, we who, until recently, were free.

“The Anthropocene,” I thought. This international exhibition in Bologna is designed to help the public understand why in geology studies today the thesis that the Holocene has ended is gaining support. The Holocene is the era that began with the last Ice Age, about 12000 years ago. Another era has started, an era when the balance of life on our sovereign hostess the Earth, also known as Gaia, is so dominated by our human presence and its effects, that we humans have become a force more powerful than all the other forces combined. Hence, Anthropocene, the era of human beings, as it were.

I put these two messages together and I understood that we are the responsible ones, not everyone to the same extent of course, but certainly each one of us in some way.

I got it. “This time,” I said, “there is no ‘bad guy,’ there is no ‘plan,’ there is no government to bash, there is no conspiracy.”

Or, at least, if there were any, it would be beside the point.

This gave me peace, and I found the courage to face the situation.

I asked myself, how can my practice of eco-sexual love, my experience, my wisdom be useful in this context?

This is the motivation for my initiative, the Resilience of Love. If this is a crisis of imbalance in life’s symbiosis, what opportunities are present for us to change that imbalance into a new balance of mutual support?

My practices, research, knowledge, and acquired wisdoms have served me well. I want to make them available to others.

Here is how I see it right now:

There is the world, what we have created, what can be described as the manifestations of the Anthropocene. And, lo and behold, this world today has come to an almost complete standstill due to a virus. Oh wonder of wonders!

What is a virus?

It’s a very ancient form of “non-life,” it has no body, and biologists assure us that its existence is absolutely necessary for the symbiosis of the various forms of life that accompany us in our journey here in the world.

There is this world, and let’s say that it’s a bit sad today, with people who suffer, worry, get sick, die.

And then there is the planet, that is, there is life, there is nature, which at this moment is quite happy.

There are trees, which as we know now can message each other through their branches and roots. In the Amazon, which is the only primeval forest that still exists, the message has made the rounds among trees, “they are no longer cutting us. Yay!”

Hares have been photographed in the deserted parks of Milan.
Often when we talk about hares, our mind goes directly to the taste of an excellent stew, or spezzatino. Hares hide from us, they are afraid. And instead this time they took courage, “the park is empty here in Milan,” they said, “why not go there for a walk?”

Dolphins reappeared in the lagoon around Venice.

The skies, finally clean, are full of pure air.

And so on.

So what is this Gaia who sent us the virus trying to tell us?

In holistic health, we often interpret symptoms as messages.

For example, I get the flu and I have to stay in bed. Maybe a few days earlier I felt tired and didn’t pay attention to my body’s gentle message. So now the body has to raise its voice, I get fever, and I have to take a break.

Or, I have a stomachache, I haven’t digested well. The body speaks, again. It could be suggesting, “why don’t you fast for a day, that way you give your digestive system a break, and then I can function better for you.”

So this Covid-19 per se, together with the Covid-19 alarm that’s been generated, could be just a symptom from the live body of Gaia, which we may interpret as a message. A loud message. A message that scours the planet from end to end. Not a more subdued message that only impacts some areas, as in super hurricanes, earthquakes in non-seismic areas, and other similar effects.

“I’ve had a lot of patience with you, dear humans,” Gaia could be saying, “keeping my metabolism stable as much and as long as possible so that I can continue to host you all as I did before.”

“That was my resilience of love for you. Now I’ve come to an endpoint. I can’t take it any longer.”

“It is up to you now to practice the resilience of love that I have practiced waiting for you to decide and change your course.”

That’s what Gaia could be saying.

I hear life calling upon non-life to save itself from us.

How did we let that happen?

Can we be more considerate of how we treat our partners?

Do we need a virus to behave as if our world depended on the health of this planet?

From Gaia’s scream, a new awareness can evolve and guide us as we reinvent the world to align with the happiness of the entire planet.

It’s up to us now to change the shape of our presence in the symbiotic system of life that hosts us, from what looks like a powerful tree overseeing the forest when just a single blow can cut it off, to that of a rhizome that’s more resilient because it grows horizontally, it expands sideways where it finds space to weave out its similar collaborative elements.

This is a lesson I get from the philosopher, Gilles Deleuze.

And this, behold, this is what I’d like to call the Resilience of Love.

“Good.” You might say. “And how can we practice it?”

The challenge is now finding ways to help ourselves navigate the crisis while together we also make an effort to change our route well enough for the Anthropocene to continue and be a beautiful time to be alive in.

We don’t have many of the answers of course. All these responses will have to come from the flow of events that evolves.

What can we do together at this time in the digital rooms where we can meet safely while staying in place?

A lot! We can transform the crisis into an opportunity for each one of us to:

Get to better know and love the ecosystem called “thyself.”

Get everyone to create and support a positive energy field in and around themselves.

In these ways, each person can contribute to their physical, emotional and energetic health, and to that of the people, families, tribes, communities, countries they love.

Let’s listen to Gaia and appreciate her message. The Resilience of Love lies in that active listening. The shared vision is co-creating the more symbiotic life that Gaia is requesting, a vision that can generate a new healthy and happy balance between the planet and the world. You can make a difference, and that difference can be key to your happiness and health.

We have weekly online appointments on Thursdays at 9-11 pm Central European Time (12 noon PST, 3 pm EST)

For all the details of the initiative, and to be able to join the ONLINE meetings, go to the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/696939774407362/

A screen will appear at the end of this video with all necessary information to join the Facebook event.

To access the link to the Zoom room, go to the Facebook event where it will be posted a little while before start up time.

Each appointment will be unique, and together we will work a progression toward deeper understanding and connectedness. The series will hold a combination of practices in the arts of healing and loving. It will expand our awareness of the symbiotic existence each one of us is part of, and its alchemies. These arts will apply to oneself, to one’s loved ones, and to all co-existing forms of life, ecosystems, and communities of beings that one is symbiotically related to.

Each meeting will invite active participation in various forms, including active listening, sharing in large and small groups, breathing, physical activity, movement, inner work, and a wide range of interactive and/or solo practices that will be proposed week by week as wishes manifest and momentum evolves.

A store of videos will gradually be created and made available in a dedicated YouTube playlist, inviting participants to practice, consider joining, and catch up on their own.

We envision co-creating a wide-ranging energy field of trust, support, and sharing.

Space is limited, self-proposing guests are welcome, opportunities to assist and collaborate are abundant. We recommend getting started as soon as possible, being present to as many weekly appointments as possible, and being open to going more deeply as a group moves along.

I send you a warm greeting until next Thursday, and I hope with this to have offered you something useful.

Please feel free to post your questions. We will address them to the extent that we can.

Thank you!

References include:

Video by Prof Telmo Pievani from the University of Padua

Anthropocene exhibition in Bologna

Science of Gaia and symbiosis of Prof Lynn Margulis

Rhizome theory of the philosopher Gilles Deleuze

Gaia and the New Politics of Love by Serena Anderlini

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For more information and scheduling contact Dr. SerenaGaia asfo

serena.anderlini@gmail.com, + 39 3294779406 (whatsapp), Serena Anderlini of Puerto Rico, on Facebook and Messenger. Thank you!