“Cyberspace is Sacredspace”

Jay OwenPoetry by Hazel Henderson

(published in the Merck Foundation publication ENOUGH 1999)

Earthbound humans
Soaring at last,
In cyberspace.
A leap in their long
And painful journey
Upward: from Olduvai,
Altimira’s caves
Catal Huyuk,
Sumer, with waves
Of patient migration
To cover all the lands
On the bosom
Of Mother Earth.

Cyberspace:
Entrance to the Mind
Of God.
Sacredspace,
Full of promises
Sung by all our sages
From Nomad Gatherer – Hunters
To Agriculture: Gift
Of all our Mothers.
To Industrialization,
Materialism, Consumerism,
Onward to the vaunted
Information Age.

Triumph of Technique
Yet mindlessly playing
Earlier childhood games:
Clicking on trades
In the Global Casino,
Dungeons and dragons.
Escapism from the Sacred Duties
Of Earthbound Life.
More ancient win-lose games,
Netizens crowing
Over Citizens,
Celebrating freedom,
Rights without Responsibilities.
Will we reach
The Age of Knowledge,
Learning at last,
To understand
The mysterious glories
Of Mother Earth
Teeming with Life
Symbiotic with our own?

Will we move on
To the Age of Wisdom
Seeing all Life
As inseparable
On our planetary journey?
Will we use our tools
Of Communication
To reach Community,
And a new Communion
With the Cosmos?

Cyberspace is Sacredspace.

See Hazel Henderson, Building Win-Win World (1996), Acknowledgements ix