When We Stopped Believing the Earth Was Sacred

The essay by Greg Twemlow posits that humanity is suffering from a "Great Forgetting," rooted in the refusal to recognise the Earth Mother’s sacred nature, which has resulted in systematic ecological destruction, or "matricide." This detachment was cemented by a historical convergence of three movements: the legal transformation of land into property, the rise of abstract religion that relocated divinity to a distant heaven, and an Enlightenment philosophy that reduced nature to lifeless mechanisms. The author contends that the concept of an immaterial soul was invented as a philosophical anesthetic, allowing humans to rationalise harming their physical home without believing their "real" essence would be affected by the consequences. He contrasts this destructive, colonial mindset with the sustained ecological intelligence of Aboriginal Australians, who maintained a revered relationship with the land for millennia. The essay concludes that genuine consciousness is not an internal spark, but a participatory connection with the planetary body, and that humanity must urgently abandon the delusion of separation to respond to the Mother's present gasping for breath. Read the article.About the Author - Greg Twemlow writes and teaches at the intersection of technology, education, and human judgment. He works with educators and businesses to make AI explainable and assessable in classrooms and boardrooms — to ensure AI users show their process and own their decisions. His cognition protocol, the Context & Critique Rule™, is built on a three-step process: Evidence → Cognition → Discernment — a bridge from what’s scattered to what’s chosen. Context & Critique → Accountable AI™. © 2025 Greg Twemlow. “Context & Critique → Accountable AI” and “Context & Critique Rule” are unregistered trademarks (™).