The Council of all Worlds

Ecology, Spirituality, and the Great Conversation of Life

In the widening crises of our times, humanity stands at a threshold. Ecological collapse, social fragmentation, and spiritual disconnection are not separate phenomena. They are different expressions of one deeper issue: we have forgotten that we live inside a living, intelligent Earth.

The image of tree rings, spiraling from the heartwood outward, reminds us that life speaks in circles, cycles, and patterns. Each ring records a season of drought or abundance, heat or cold. When we look closely, we see that the Earth is not an object beneath us but a vast, conscious field in which we are held.

The Council of all Worlds is an invitation to remember this field. It calls us back into the great conversation of life, where humans sit not above creation but among countless beings and intelligences as kin.

Listening to the Great Council

Across Indigenous traditions, there is a long-standing understanding that humans are not the only speakers in the cosmos. Trees, rivers, mountains, animals, ancestors, and star nations all carry wisdom. They are not poetic metaphors but real presences, participating in what some have called the “Council of Beings” or the “Council of all Worlds.”

To sit in this Council is to listen.

We listen to the forest that has survived centuries of storms.
We listen to the ocean that remembers every migration and every crossing.
We listen to the wind that has touched the faces of our ancestors.

This listening is not passive. It is a form of spiritual ecology: a disciplined practice of attention, humility, and relationality. It shifts us from asking, “What can I take?” to “How may I serve the well-being of the whole?”

Ecology as Spiritual Awareness

Deep ecological awareness reveals that every action is a prayer, whether conscious or unconscious. How we consume, how we travel, how we build, how we relate to other beings: all of this expresses our cosmology, our deepest understanding of reality.

When we begin to sense the Earth as a sacred, living system, spirituality is no longer confined to temples, churches, or retreat centers. It extends into the soil beneath our feet, the water we drink, the food we share, the air we breathe. Every ecological choice becomes a spiritual act.

In my work with Birthing an Ancient Future, I witness again and again how people undergo profound transformation when they truly recognize this. Grief for the Earth, long held in the body, begins to surface. Yet along with grief, a deep, unexpected joy emerges: the joy of belonging, of realizing that we were never separate.

This is the Council of all Worlds speaking through us. Our tears, our prayers, and our renewed commitments become its voice.

Human Responsibility within the Web of Life

To recognize that we are part of the Council does not mean that all beings carry the same responsibilities. Humans have developed a particular capacity for self-reflection, technology, and systemic impact. These capacities have been misused, often driven by fear, greed, and the illusion of separateness.

In a time of climate disruption and mass extinction, our task is not to retreat into guilt or paralysis. Our task is to step into mature guardianship.

Guardianship begins with acknowledging that our decisions ripple far beyond the human realm. It invites us to ask:

• How will this choice affect the waters, the soil, the seeds, the insects?

• What does this forest need from us, not only what we need from the forest?

• How can our communities become partners in regeneration rather than agents of depletion?

This level of inquiry is not a luxury. It is a necessity if we wish to co-create a livable future for the next seven generations and beyond.

Inner Council, Outer Council

The Council of all Worlds is not only external. It also mirrors an inner council within each of us.

Our bodies carry mineral, plant, and animal wisdom. The bones remember the mountains. The fluids remember the oceans. The nervous system remembers the flight of birds and the vigilance of hunted creatures. When we slow down and listen inwardly, we may sense these ancient lineages speaking.

Transpersonal practices, somatic work, and ceremonial spaces can help us access this inner council. We might feel a young part of ourselves that is afraid of change sitting next to an ancestral presence that carries timeless trust. We might sense the grounded presence of “tree consciousness” in our spine, supporting us to stand, to root, to reach.

As we integrate these inner voices, we become more able to participate in the outer Council with clarity and humility. Inner healing becomes planetary service.

Pathways into Practice

The Council of all Worlds is not an abstract idea. It can be lived, step by step, in daily life. Some simple doorways include:

1. Council Walks in Nature
Walk slowly in a forest, by the sea, or in a park. Pause and consciously invite the beings around you into council. Ask one sincere question and listen with your whole body for a response. It may come as a sensation, an image, or a subtle understanding.

2. Offering and Reciprocity
When you harvest herbs, collect firewood, or enjoy a meal, offer gratitude. You might leave a small offering, sing a song, or sit in silence. Reciprocity does not need to be complex; it needs to be sincere.

3. Shared Circles of Reflection
Gather in small groups—online or in person—to reflect on your ecological choices and spiritual practices. Share honestly about grief, confusion, and hope. When we speak and listen in circle, the Council begins to move through the human field.

4. Engaged Sacred Action
Let your insights shape concrete action: supporting regenerative agriculture, protecting local ecosystems, transforming your work culture, or developing peace-building projects. Spiritual insight finds its integrity when it becomes embodied action.

Birthing an Ancient Future

Birthing an Ancient Future – Multidisciplinary Council of Peace-Builders was created as a living vessel for this kind of work. Through retreats, programs, and ongoing writings on platforms such as Substack and LinkedIn, we hold spaces where people can remember their place in the wider Council and translate that remembrance into life-path, leadership, and service.

The Council of all Worlds is not something we create. It already exists. Our task is to re-enter it with reverence, to listen deeply, and to allow our lives to be shaped by this listening.

Closing Reflection

The concentric rings of the tree, the weaving of ecosystems, the quiet intelligence of rivers and stones—all invite us into a more mature humanity. When we recognize that ecology and spirituality are inseparable, we begin to live as participants rather than as bystanders in the ceremony of life.

May we learn to sit again in the Council of all Worlds.
May our choices honor the Earth and all our relations.
May our lives become a blessing for the generations yet to come.

Mitakuye Oyasin – We are all related.