Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

220 Designing ecological Habitats
pathways, vegetation and light will determine the personality of each
settlement; even predicting its destiny. Modern designers create programs
that take into account people and future outcomes such as beauty, ease,
happiness, health and prosperity. We propose that the designer as geomancer
is in total alignment with that goal – she just uses a few additional tools in
order to achieve it.
We realize that the act (or art) of predicting one’s destiny is shrouded in
mystery and universally invalidated by the ‘real sciences’. But if we broaden
our concept of ‘science’ to what Stephan Harding calls ‘holistic science’, 2
then we arrive at a place where it becomes entirely valid, even imperative,
to use our direct apprehension of the world around us in a conscious design
process. Holistic Science is:
a direct apprehension of the things around us through the medium of our
physical bodies... weaving together the empirical and the archetypal aspects
of the mind so that they work together as equal partners in a quest that aims
not at a complete understanding and mastery of nature, but rather strives for a
genuine participation with nature.
stEphEn harding
Earth Energies – Destiny and Design
We are born into the Earth
The Earth consists of the planet and its biosphere. She is influenced by the
solar system in which she lives. The solar system is influenced by the galaxy,
and the galaxy by the universe. We are composed of the same elemental
matter as the Earth and the Stars. We know the Earth’s language at a visceral,
unconscious level.
Becoming a competent geomancer is more a process of remembering
and unlearning than gathering more knowledge or information. That said,
and because we have traditionally been trained to learn by thinking, there
are a few design modalities that can be helpful in expanding our conscious
design process. Concepts such as vaastu, feng shui, shamanism, whole
body perception, meditation, sacred geometry, geobiology, bio-geometry,
radesthesa and bio-mimicry can assist the designer with shortcuts,
guidelines and a common language for the design process. The designer
may use one or more of these design concepts, depending on the needs of
the project.
Interestingly, many of these concepts overlap and support each other
at their most fundamental levels even though they span many different
cultures and times. When appropriately executed, they are a gift for the
village designer/geomancer’s toolbox and, more importantly, are a rich
compilation of centuries’ worth of data based on careful observation of
the physical environment and its effect on peoples’ destiny. Our combined