Leaving codependence — reclaiming interdependence
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Shaping the new world together.
The interdependence between all life on our planet and the biosphere is a key element of the Gaia Hypothesis, which states that our planet is a living being. But in the modern world, that interdependence has often turned into an unhealthy codependency. In order to protect both the planet and us, it is necessary that we re-engage in a partnership based on equality. This partnership is called interdependence. This means that we are at eye level with nature and other people, able to act independently and autonomously, while being closely connected. This article explains the differences between codependency and interdependence and how to break free from codependence and start the journey back to interdependence.
The Gaia Hypothesis
According to Greek mythology, Gaia is the great Mother Earth, our world. She is described as having emerged from chaos. She became the ocean, the surface of the earth, and the sky. Her depiction as a goddess in mythology is dignified, half rising from the earth, inseparably connected with the planet. Temples dedicated to Gaia were built throughout Greece to worship her as a nature deity. She is the almighty goddess who gives life and takes the dead into her womb.
Our planet earth is also given a special status in science and is regarded as a living creature. Lynn Margulis and James Lovelock therefore developed the Gaia hypothesis in the 1980s.
The Gaia hypothesis describes the interdependence of all life and our planet’s cooperation with the organisms that live on it and the biosphere that surrounds it as a tactic for self-preservation. We call the symbiosis from the smallest to the largest living entity, serving the mutual benefit of all species, mutualism. The alliance of all phenomena of nature keeps the fluid balance of the world stable.
Lynn Margulis summed up this community of all that is in one beautiful phrase: “Life did not take over the world by combat, but by networking.”
A Path to Reconciliation
On December 7, 1972, mankind gazed at its home planet Earth from a distance of approximately 29,000 kilometers. The crew of the Apollo 17 spaceship and the special moment…
