A Trustee for Planet Earth is a person who holds their own life in trust for the Earth and for the children of the generations still to come, and who lets that trust shape the way they eat, speak, build, plant, love and gather. Para PachaMama ~ Spirit of Earth began on Saba in 2010 as a Global Community Network of Trustees for Planet Earth, and the call of that first New Moon still sounds today: we are the ones we have been waiting for, and every heart that says yes to the Earth widens the circle.
The many hands of Earth trusteeship
Trusteeship for the Earth has been carried in countless ways, by peoples, movements and single quiet hearts, across every continent and every age, and each of these ways is a thread in the same living cloth.
Guardians of lands and waters
Māori speak of kaitiakitanga, the guardianship a people carries for the lands, rivers and seas of their ancestors, and Indigenous nations everywhere have held their homelands in this way for thousands of years.
A river with its own life
In 2017 Aotearoa recognised the Whanganui River, Te Awa Tupua, as a living whole with its own legal personhood, answering the iwi who have long said: I am the river, and the river is me.
Women who held the trees
In the Himalayan foothills of India in 1973 the women of the Chipko movement embraced the forest trees to keep them standing, and their courage still inspires forest guardians across the world.
Planting a green belt
From 1977 Wangari Maathai and the women of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya planted millions of trees, restoring soil, water and dignity together.
Water protectors
At Standing Rock in 2016 people from hundreds of nations gathered behind three words, Mni Wiconi, water is life, and stood in prayer for the river.
The waters in ceremony
In October 2014 the Waitaha Nation opened its fifty-year Water Gathering at Waitangi to the world for the first time, with Para PachaMama holding the calling. The Waitaha Water Gathering →
Elders in council
Under the total solar eclipse of November 2012 the Gungganji Council of Elders welcomed Wisdom Keepers from many lands to Yarrabah for the Global Elders Gathering. The Global Elders Gathering →
Earth in the law
The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth was spoken at Cochabamba in 2010, Polly Higgins called people everywhere to stand as Earth Protectors, and in 2018 the Hague Principles named Earth Trusteeship beside our human rights. Rights of Mother Earth →
Hearts tuned together
From August 2010 more than a thousand hearts around the world tuned in with Mother Earth on each Full Moon, and the practice remains open for anyone to keep on their own. Full Moon Tunings →
Gardens that grow forests
Syntropic farmers plant in the pattern of the forest itself, so each harvest leaves the soil richer, and at East of Eden on Espiritu Santo Syntropy found a home in island soil. East of Eden, Vanuatu →
The keepers of birth
Every trusteeship begins with how a child is welcomed into the world, and the birth keepers who guard that first threshold tend the Earth in its most tender form. The Conscious Birthing Field →
The daily Trustee
A compost heap, a saved seed, a tap turned off, a word chosen with care, a child taken to the river: trusteeship lives most of all in the small daily faithfulness of ordinary lives.
Where Para PachaMama adds its thread
Para PachaMama tends the place where all of these outer forms begin, the living relationship between a single human heart and Mother Earth herself, because every act of guardianship in the world grows from that inner bond, and a heart that remembers its belonging to the Earth naturally becomes her Trustee.
What we offer every Trustee
- A guided meditation to sit with the spirit of Mother Earth, with its full transcript.
- A place to write her a letter, personal and creative, on the paper colour of your choosing.
- A living library of Letters to Mother Earth, written by Trustees from all over the world.
- The Full Moon Tuning, a simple heart practice to keep with Mother Earth wherever you are. Full Moon Tunings →
- The stories of the gatherings and ceremonies of the network since 2010. The Timeline →
A letter to Mother Earth
Your relationship with Mother Earth lives inside you, in the quiet of your own heart, and putting pen to paper gives that relationship a voice and a shape you can see. A letter to her may pour out love and gratitude, it may carry grief, anger and upset for what has been done to her and to us, it may lay down an old story you are ready to release, it may seal a new covenant between you, or it may name a personal commitment to the way you will walk with her from today. Every one of these letters is welcome, and each one deepens the bond.
Sit with Mother Earth first
Close your eyes and let Sophia guide you through the Unity Breath of the heart, into the Heart Well and through the watery mirror, to sit with the spirit of Mother Earth and hear what she has for you. Keep a notebook and some coloured pens close for when you return.
Write your letter
Make it your own and let yourself play. Choose a greeting that feels like you, write freely, begin with a poem, a prayer, a list of thank yous or a single long breath of words, sign it with your name or leave it unsigned, and choose the colour of the paper it will live on.
Threads to follow as you write
- What did Mother Earth show me or tell me in the meditation?
- What do I love about her, and where in my body do I feel that love?
- What grieves me, and what am I ready to lay down at her feet?
- Which place, which water and which piece of land am I choosing to care for?
- What covenant or commitment am I making with her from this day?
To have a shared letter taken down, write through the contact page with the title of the letter, and it is taken down on the day you ask.
Letters to Mother Earth
The first letters are on their way, and yours may be one of them.
All the Letters to Mother Earth →
Every letter written here welcomes one more Trustee into the Global Community Network, and together we hold Planet Earth in trust for all who come after us.