The Web of Life

Science believes that the conscious, interconnected natural world is not only possible but likely

In shamanic tradition, we refer to the All That Is as the Web of Life, a place where everything has a connection to everything else. An ancient cosmology still in use by many indigenous cultures, the Web of Life has elements of quantum physics as well. Fritjof Capra is an Austrian born physicist who has written several books on the intersection between ancient beliefs in the interconnectedness of all things and modern scientific principles. These include The Tao of Physics and The Web of Life.

In The Web of Life, Capra writes, “The new paradigm may be called a holistic worldview, seeing the world as an integrated whole rather than a dissociated collection of parts. It may also be called an ecological view, if the term ‘ecological’ is used in a much broader and deeper sense than usual. Deep ecological awareness recognizes the fundamental interdependence of all phenomena and the fact that, as individuals and societies, we are all embedded in (and ultimately dependent on) the cyclical processes of nature.”

What science is beginning to confirm, the ancients have long believed. The Universe is a holistic organism with its own intelligence that cannot simply be divided down into mechanistic parts. What happens to one drop of water has a bearing on the rest of the ocean, to a greater or a lesser degree, depending upon many factors. Both Shamanism and Taoism are animistic wisdom traditions that recognize the importance of living in harmony with the greater whole — called the Tao or the Web of Life, respectively.

“Animism literally means ‘animate’ or the belief that everything in the universe is animate, has life, has energy, has a quality which makes it unique and has its own place in the universe,” says Josef Sykora, Co-founder of wovenenergy.com. This does not mean that rocks and trees are sentient in the same way that people are. It simply means that everything has energy or chi, and therefore a relationship to the rest of the whole. Nothing in the natural world is unimportant or meaningless.

It is within this interconnected web that symbols and omens become much more than superstitious clap-trap and can be seen as the knowable language that they are. Just because our modern world has, for the most part, lost the ability to understand and speak this language does not detract from its importance or validity. Aboriginal cultures everywhere still take wisdom and guidance from the signs given to them by the natural world, as do those who have learned the old ways in modern times.

“Animism is the belief that this world is vitally alive, that everything has spirit and a sort of flow through it. Anyone can tap into this understanding (if they are ready to, as it requires moving past a materialistic and mechanistic version of “reality” to do so), and can work with spirit.” In these traditions, the world of nature is not separate from the world of spirit. In fact, nothing in the physical world is separate from the spiritual. It is all one entity — one cosmic web which contains all life and all of life.

In this context, the spirit in question is The Tao or the everything. It is the Web of Life itself. Guides of all sorts, including animal spirit guides, angelic beings, gods/goddesses, etc., are merely aspects of this Whole given form in a way that can be identified and understood. The way in which such beings are interfaced with and honored may differ slightly from tradition to tradition, but they are very different from a deity that exists external to the world or its inhabitants. In these traditions, they are simply another part of the network that is Us.

Because everything is interconnected, there are no accidents. It is not so much that everything happens for a reason, but that everything that takes place has meaning and a connection to everything else. In this belief system, there is no such thing as a coincidence. This is not due to fate or pre-ordination, but rather to the impossibility of anything taking place within a holistic organism that is disconnected from the rest of it. Individual actions and free will can alter or affect possibilities, but the Web of Life also has many strands and many ways for cohesion to manifest.

We live in an amazing Universe that we have worked hard to deny the entirely scientific magic of because we have somehow mistakenly come to believe that this is intelligent. It is not. “Traditionally, scientists have been stalwart materialists. But doing so has caused them to slam up against the limitations of materialism. Consider the chasm between relativity and quantum mechanics, or Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and you quickly start to recognize these incongruities.” (1)

Panpsychism is the hypothesis that the entire Universe is filled with consciousness. “In quantum mechanics, particles don’t have a definite shape or specific location, until they are observed or measured. Is this a form of proto-consciousness at play? According to the late scientist and philosopher, John Archibald Wheeler, it might. He’s famous for coining the term, “black hole.” In his view, every piece of matter contains a bit of consciousness, which it absorbs from this proto-consciousness field.” (2)

Panpsychism may sound like Taoist or Spinozian philosophy rather than a scientific theory, but strange as it seems, it offers a satisfying account of the human mind within a unified conception of nature — something that is lacking in both materialism or dualism. Materialism says that consciousness originates from matter, from neurons firing within the brain. No brain, no consciousness. Dualism says that the mind and the body are different things and consciousness may reside in something entirely separate from the body, in the soul, perhaps.

But if every bit of matter contains consciousness in some form, then the entire Universe is quite possibly a unified consciousness in a way that we simply do not yet scientifically understand. This does not mean that the Universe has mental faculties such as thought or rationality but it may mean that the consciousness of humans and animals is derived not from the consciousness of fundamental particles, but from the consciousness of the Universe itself. (3)

Which brings us back to the Web of Life, the ancient belief in the unified consciousness of the stars, the planets, the seasons, the habits of animals, and the wisdom and majesty of the natural world. There are still cultures alive in the world today that do not view themselves as separate from nature or removed from symbiosis with it. It was not progress or intelligence to have begun to believe it to be so. Deeper scientific understanding is on track to take us back into alignment with this ancient understanding of the Universe and of the interconnectedness of everything within the Web of Life.

(1) The Universe May Be Conscious Say Prominent Scientists

(2) The Universe May Be Conscious Say Prominent Scientists

(3) Is The Universe A Conscious Mind?

© Copyright, Elle Beau 2020 Elle Beau writes about sex, life, relationships, society, anthropology, spirituality, and love.