WordPress.com · of humanity, called Ôcivilization.Õ !is ancient connection is echoed in our weekday names. Norse gods and planetary cycles no longer have meaningful reference for

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Image information:Cover – © Artman | Dreamstime.com Inside cover – Sun in hands © Anna Bakulina | Dreamstime.comJanuary – NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. LollFebruary, March, April, May, June, July, August, November, December – images used under license from Dreamstime.comSeptember, October – images used under license from Shutterstock.comBack cover -‐ Leaf in sun © Sergey Peterman | Dreamstime.com

Lynn Margolis and Dorion Sagan: Microcosmos and What Is Life?James Lovelock: Gaia and The Ages of Gaia Timothy Ferris: Coming of Age in the Milky WayThomas Berry: Dream of the EarthThegreatstory.org

Days of the week icons drawn by Maureen Monnet.

Calendar graphic design by Julia Jandrisits.

!ere hangs a lonely luminous gem in the vast silence of space. !ere swirl lacy clouds over land and sea, pattern upon pattern. !ere lie broad sweeps of surf and plain, and aimless massive plates shouldering slowly about. !ere is a place of boiling and "eezing, of torrent and calm. !ere great orchestral forests tune up with squeaks and howls and chatter. !ere earthen caves record the wonderings of women and men. !ere is a place of wounding and healing, of strife and repose, of living and dying, and again living.

How did this busy blue sphere come to be? What is it doing there? Has it any enduring promise? What is the story of this storied place? ~ Loyal Rue, Everybody’s Story

About the Story:!e scienti"c account of Earth’s formation and development is a story of vibrant creativity and stunning transformation. !e journey begins within the "ery core of a star, and concludes (for now) with the emergence of a species able to comprehend its origin. We have learned that the unfolding of the human is interwoven with the unfolding of the planet. !is is the theme of Earth Story calendar. !is telling of Earth Story is inspired by the works of Brian Swimme, a mathematical cosmologist with the heart of a poet. His DVD series Canticle to the Cosmos and !e Earth’s Imagination are seminal in#uences.

About the author:Peter Adair and his wife Caitlin live in Westminster West, Vermont.Orders and correspondence contact [email protected] or visit earthstorycalendar.com

About the names of the days of the week:Except for Saturday, all of our usual weekday names derive from Germanic and Norse gods. Sunday and Monday are from Norse gods of Sun and Moon. Tuesday is named a$er the Saxon Tiw, god of love and war. Odin, king of the gods in ancient Scandinavia, is the Saxon Woden, whose day is our Wednesday. !e god of thunder and lightning, !or, is the namesake of !ursday. Freya, a Norse goddess of love and death, is the origin of Friday. Saturday is from the Roman Saturn.

!ere are exactly seven named days, and not four or ten, because each of these gods represents one of the seven heavenly spheres visible to the naked eye. !e correspondences are: Sunday-Sun, Monday-Moon, Tuesday (Tiw)-Mars, Wednesday (Woden)-Mercury, !ursday (!or)-Jupiter, Friday (Freya)-Venus, and Saturday-Saturn.

!e week of celestially named days came to Europe in the fourth century from Mesopotamia, where it originated in the third millennium BC. Mesopotamia at that time was the cradle for a burgeoning human society based upon agriculture. Seeking guidance in structuring this unexpectedly complex culture, eyes turned toward the sky, where the orderly movement of the planetary spheres was a revelation. !e natural order of the heavens became a template for ordering the new con"guration of humanity, called ‘civilization.’ !is ancient connection is echoed in our weekday names.

Norse gods and planetary cycles no longer have meaningful reference for us and so we are indi%erent to their named days. !is condition can be amended. Weekday names can resonate as daily reminders of our lived experience. !e names used in this calendar are derived from the traditional weekday names and they describe elemental features of our extraordinary planet.

january 2012

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

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29 30 31

Birth of the Planetary System: Supernova EventA supernova is the seed burst of a perishing star. Light emitted during this outpouring can outshine an entire galaxy.

!e dispersed o%erings of a supernova are the chemical elements of iron, magnesium, carbon, oxygen and all the others that constitute the raw materials of our solar system. !ese precious elements are produced only in the alchemical furnace of a star.

Our sun’s gravity captured these jewels, and with them made a necklace of planets.Earth and all things on it, including humans, are fashioned from the creative brilliance of stars.

S M T W T F S1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 13 1415 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 26 27 2829 30 31

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 45 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 1819 20 21 22 23 24 2526 27 28 29

Sunday Moonday Treesday Windsday Earthsday Fireday Waterday

february 2012


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5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29

Earth Adopts a Child: !e Moon AppearsThe waxing and waning of the moon’s bright reflected light becomes an enchantment in the night sky of Earth.

Soon a$er Earth’s formation, during a time when asteroids rain upon the #edgling solar system, a sizeable intruder strikes our globe in a sideswipe collision. From this shuddering meeting, a portion of Earth’s body spews into space. !e interloper, its momentum reduced through the encounter, succumbs to Earth’s gravitational embrace and is received into orbit. !ere, it coalesces with the scattered material of Earth and becomes our Moon.

Earth’s daughter gradually slows our planet’s spin to its accustomed twenty-four hour rotation, establishes the axial tilt making possible the four seasons, and produces the caressing tides along shorelines that will become the fecund wombs of evolving life.

S M T W T F S1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 13 1415 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 26 27 2829 30 31

S M T W T F S 1 2 34 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12 13 14 15 16 1718 19 20 21 22 23 2425 26 27 28 29 30 31


Above image © Vasyl Helevachuk

march 2012


1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20

Vernal Equinox

21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Earth’s Sensitivity Awakens: Cradle of LifeA half billion years after Earth’s genesis, our planet sculpts its earliest, most essential,

most versatile, and most widespread form of life: Earth breathes into being single-celled bacteria.Bacteria are environmental chameleons, adapting to myriad habitats. !ey exist in deep ocean vents near the boiling point of water.

!ey reside in the atmosphere, in our intestinal tracts, and in rocks beneath Earth’s surface more than three miles deep.

Bacteria permeate the planet. They compose the living tissue of Earth.How does Earth’s life arise? Unique in the solar system, our planet sustains simultaneously the physical presences of gas (atmosphere),

liquid (water) and solid (mineral rock) in vibrant counterpoise. !ese elements participate in a fugue of constant movement and exchange with one another, in a process of continual building up and breaking down, interaction and transmutation.

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 45 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 1819 20 21 22 23 24 2526 27 28 29

S M T W T F S1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 13 1415 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 26 27 2829 30


Above image © George Burba

april 2012


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8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

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29 30

Earth’s Sensitivity Awakens: BacteriaEarth’s transformative physical and energetic dance of atmosphere, water and minerals

becomes the template for the first tiny forms of life.Life’s chemical tapestry, metabolism, is initiated by bacteria, and is woven into the cells of all later life forms,

including plants and animals. Bacteria’s ceaseless metabolic activity of chemical breakdown and buildup, amidst the #ow and exchange of liquid, solid and gas, emulates the activity of the planetary system as a whole.

The bacterial cell is dynamic Earth writ small.

S M T W T F S 1 2 34 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12 13 14 15 16 1718 19 20 21 22 23 2425 26 27 28 29 30 31

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 56 7 8 9 10 11 1213 14 15 16 17 18 1920 21 22 23 24 25 2627 28 29 30 31


Above image © Sebastian Kaulitzki

may 2012


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6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31

Earth Falls in Love with the Sun: A New EmbraceThree billion years ago, Earth’s Life forms an exquisite and intimate relationship with the Sun.

A billion years a$er the emergence of life, Earth awakens to the magnanimity of the sun. Single celled blue-green algae, called cyanobacteria, elegantly and resourcefully harvest photons from our sun’s lavish outpouring. !e photons are light particles, miniature bundles of sun energy.

Imbued with energy from photons, cyanobacteria rupture the chemical bond of water (H20), releasing hydrogen and oxygen. With wizardly cra$, the cyanobacterium then unites the freed hydrogen with carbon dioxide, conjuring out of thin air a carbohydrate—a sugar—which it then eats.

The Sun’s gift sweetens Life’s bowl.

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8 9 10 11 12 13 1415 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 26 27 2829 30

S M T W T F S 1 23 4 5 6 7 8 910 11 12 13 14 15 1617 18 19 20 21 22 2324 25 26 27 28 29 30


Above image © Boris Panasyuk

june 2012


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3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20

Summer Solstice

21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Earth Falls in Love with the Sun: Photosynthesis Life invents photosynthesis.

Sweet-loving cyanobacteria shape the chlorophyll molecule, the vital green pigment fostering a relationship to the sun’s energy, and momentously, a way for Earth’s life to generate its own sustenance. Abandoning the caprices of foraging dwindling food sources

in the sea, ocean bacteria with chlorophyll turn toward the sun as sugar cultivators. !e #ourishing bond with the sun henceforth provides the nourishment for all green plants, the animals that feed upon them, and the animals that feed upon those animals.

The Sun’s energy and Earth’s Life unite.

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 56 7 8 9 10 11 1213 14 15 16 17 18 1920 21 22 23 24 25 2627 28 29 30 31

S M T W T F S1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 13 1415 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 26 27 2829 30 31


Above image © Frenta

july 2012


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8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

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29 30 31

Earth’s Creativity Matures: Oxygen Transformation The blessing of photosynthesis comes with a caveat.

Oxygen, the waste product of photosynthesis, is an unforeseen menace. In its free state it is a potent poison and corrosive gas, causing genetic mutations and destroying living tissue. A$er a half billion years of photosynthesis, and the release of oxygen through splitting water molecules,

the deadly gas accumulates to lethal levels for bacterial life in the oceans and atmosphere. Under a looming cloud of devastation, a singular bacterium undergoes a chemical metamorphosis, developing within itself the ability to handle and use the dangerous oxygen in such a way

as to produce more than ten times the energy previously available to these organisms.

Oxygen, an outcast, becomes an ally.

S M T W T F S 1 23 4 5 6 7 8 910 11 12 13 14 15 1617 18 19 20 21 22 2324 25 26 27 28 29 30

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 45 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 1819 20 21 22 23 24 2526 27 28 29 30 31


Above image © Ghubonamin

august 2012


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Earth’s Creativity Matures: MitochondriaAbundant energy from oxygen gives rise to complex multicellular organisms.

!e enterprising bacteria transforming oxygen from a threat to a resource are ancestors of mitochondria. Mitochondria are organelles found within every cell of every plant and animal living on Earth’s surface. !ey are energy gymnasts, de$ly harnessing oxygen to power the cell’s functioning. Energy bestowed by mitochondria permits the development and maintenance of complex life forms. Although residing

within our cells, mitochondria remain fundamentally bacteria: they possess independent DNA and reproduce on their own timetable.

Mitochondria enable us to survive and thrive in what would otherwise be a toxic oxygen environment.

S M T W T F S1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 13 1415 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 26 27 2829 30 31

S M T W T F S 12 3 4 5 6 7 89 10 11 12 13 14 1516 17 18 19 20 21 2223 24 25 26 27 28 2930


Above image © Pseudolongino

september 2012


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Earth Blossoms: Advent of Flowering PlantsEarth’s first Springtime.

One hundred forty million years ago Earth’s senses come richly and exquisitely alive, when plants seduce mobile animals into their reproductive process. Flowering plants develop a panoply of dazzling colors, shapes, fragrances, tastes and textures to entice and enchant.

Beauty of a new dimension blossoms upon Earth.!e #owering plants are angiosperms, and their seeds are energy packets providing mammals with nutrients needed to increase in size. !e diversity of fruits, medicinals, legumes, vegetables and grasses (grains)

are o%erings of angiosperms, and angiosperms are today the dominant form of plant life on Earth.

It is due to flowering plants that Earth’s land surface is a rich soil and an artist’s palette.

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 45 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 1819 20 21 22 23 24 2526 27 28 29 30 31

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9 10 11 12 1314 15 16 17 18 19 2021 22 23 24 25 26 2728 29 30 31


Above image © Gulei Ivan

october 2012


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7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22

Autumnal Equinox

23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

Heightening of Care: Mammals ProliferateAs Earth’s life develops, the quality of caring unfolds.

When most "sh or amphibians lay their eggs and the eggs are fertilized, the female overlooks them brie#y, and then swims away. !e fate of the eggs is no longer of interest to her. Among reptiles there is increased regard for the young. Reptiles will nest their eggs and conscientiously guard the newborn. However, the extent of concern is severely circumscribed. Should an alligator hatchling stray a distance from its mother and then return, it is regarded as prey and eaten. With the development of mammals, and their proliferation sixty-"ve million years ago, there is an unprecedented widening and deepening of care. Mammalian young are formed inside the mother’s body. A$er birth, the bond of caring may continue for years

and even decades. Whales, elephants, walruses, chimpanzees, wolves, among many others, display a deep a%ection toward their o%spring.

Through the mammals, Earth’s life opens to love.

S M T W T F S 12 3 4 5 6 7 89 10 11 12 13 14 1516 17 18 19 20 21 2223 24 25 26 27 28 2930

S M T W T F S 1 2 34 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12 13 14 15 16 1718 19 20 21 22 23 2425 26 27 28 29 30


Above image © Mogens Trolle

november 2012Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

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Earth’s Sensitivity Deepens: Human Creativity The distinguishing feature of the human is that we are a global species.

Among large animal species, humans are not the latest evolutionary development on the planet. !at distinction belongs to polar bears. When humans arise two and a half million years ago, a profusion of #owering plants cover the globe, and huge migrations of animals

roam the continents. Earth’s beauty and bounty is a well-provisioned cradle for our foundling global species. A$er bacteria, humans are just the second planetary species Earth has birthed in its 4.6 billion year history. In our manipulation of the world to our purposes, we are having

a transformative impact on Earth’s oceans, rivers, atmosphere, land and life.

Human creativity, particularly as expressed through our technical capability, is surpassed only by bacteria, Earth’s primal planetary species.

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9 10 11 12 1314 15 16 17 18 19 2021 22 23 24 25 26 2728 29 30 31

S M T W T F S 12 3 4 5 6 7 89 10 11 12 13 14 1516 17 18 19 20 21 2223 24 25 26 27 28 2930 31


Above image © Victorita

december 2012


1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21

Winter Solstice

22

Planetary Birth Day

23

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25 26 27 28 29

Earth’s Sensitivity Deepens: Human MaturityWe are currently a juvenile global species playing havoc with the planet’s dynamics.

Like the "rst planetary species, we are igniting unintended and unanticipated environmental crises on a global scale. At the root of our creativity is a genetic modi"cation prolonging into adulthood the phase of exploratory curiosity, called ‘play,’ found primarily in the very young of most animals. !e space of un"xed instincts allows for a ‘play’ of the imagination. Lack of instinctual guidance also presents us

with a vulnerability in our relation to the world, as well as a susceptability to confusion and destructive outcomes.

The call to meet our self-created crises with caring responses that enhance Earth’s ecology will require of us the maturity to walk with an open heart into the unknown.

S M T W T F S 1 2 34 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12 13 14 15 16 1718 19 20 21 22 23 2425 26 27 28 29 30

S M T W T F S 1 2 3 45 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 1819 20 21 22 23 24 2526 27 28 29 30 31


Above image © Starblue

$14.95

“A supernova is the seed burst of a perishing star …” So begins the compelling narrative of Earth’s origin, its awakening sensitivities and its formative challenges. It is a story born from the researches of science, revealing the interconnection of the human endeavor with the journey of a wondrously creative planet.

!e dramatic moments of Earth’s journey illumined in this calendar are: January -‐ Birth of the Planetary System: Supernova EventFebruary -‐ Earth Adopts a Child: The Moon AppearsMarch -‐ Earth’s Sensitivity Awakens: Cradle of LifeApril -‐ BacteriaMay -‐ Earth Falls in Love with the Sun: A New EmbraceJune -‐ PhotosynthesisJuly -‐ Earth’s Creativity Matures: Oxygen TransformationAugust -‐ MitochondriaSeptember -‐ Earth Blossoms: Advent of Flowering PlantsOctober -‐ Heightening of Care: Mammals ProliferateNovember -‐ Earth’s Sensitivity Deepens: Human CreativityDecember -‐ Human Maturity

“ !e dust of many crumbled cities settles over us like a forgetful doze, but we are older than those cities. We began as a mineral. We emerged into plant life and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly recall being green again….Humankind is being led along an evol#ing course, through this migration of intelligences, and though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream, and that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are.”

– Rumi, 13th century Persian mystic and poet

!e basic mood of the future might well be one of con$dence in the continuing revelation that takes place in and through the earth.If the dynamics of the universe "om the beginning shaped the course of the heavens, lighted the sun, and formed the earth, if this same dynamism brought forth the continents and seas and atmosphere, if it awakened life in the primordial cell and then brought into being the unnumbered variety of living beings, and $nally brought us into being and guided us safely through the turbulent centuries, there is reason to believe that this same guiding process is precisely what has awakened in us our present understanding of oursel#es, and our relation to this stupendous process.Sensitized to such guidance "om the very structure and functioning of the universe, we can have con$dence in the future that awaits the human venture. – !omas Berry, Dream of the Earth

january 2012


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29 30 31

Birth of the Planetary System: Supernova EventA supernova is the seed burst of a perishing star. Light emitted during this outpouring can outshine an entire galaxy.

!e dispersed o"erings of a supernova are the chemical elements of iron, magnesium, carbon, oxygen and all the others that constitute the raw materials of our solar system. !ese precious elements are produced only in the alchemical furnace of a star.

Our sun’s gravity captured these jewels, and with them made a necklace of planets.Earth and all things on it, including humans, are fashioned from the creative brilliance of stars.

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Earth Story Calendar © Peter Adair 2011 Created and printed in Vermont, USA.

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WordPress.com · of humanity, called Ôcivilization.Õ !is ancient connection is echoed in our weekday names. Norse gods and planetary cycles no longer have meaningful reference for