Shamanu & DeepTime: Remembering Our Place in the Cosmic Story
When we think about time, we often measure it in days, years, or decades. But DeepTime invites us to consider a much grander scale - the billions of years that have shaped life, Earth, and the cosmos. It is an invitation to see ourselves not as isolated beings in a fleeting moment, but as participants in a vast unfolding story, stretching from the first spark of light to the present and beyond.
DeepTime shifts our perspective. It asks us to notice the slow, persistent processes that have formed mountains, oceans, and the web of life itself. It reminds us that life has been experimenting, adapting, and evolving for eons, and that we are the current expression of this ongoing creativity. This awareness nurtures humility, wonder, and a deep recognition of our connection to all that has come before, and all that will come after.
Brian Swimme, a leading cosmologist and storyteller, describes three universal imperatives that emerge from this cosmic narrative: Differentiation, Subjectivity, and Communion. These are not just philosophical concepts; they are life-guiding principles.
Differentiation is the creative impulse that drives life to diversify, to explore new forms, and to manifest uniqueness. Every star, organism, and human expression is a testament to this principle - the universe generating novelty at every scale.
Subjectivity acknowledges that every entity experiences reality in its own way. Each being carries its own perspective, its own sensory awareness, its own inner universe. By honoring subjectivity, we recognize that intelligence is distributed, that each life form carries insight, and that consciousness is woven throughout the cosmos.
Communion is the relational imperative, the drive toward connection, partnership, and co-creation. Nothing exists in isolation. Stars form galaxies, species form ecosystems, and humans form communities. Communion reminds us that life’s intelligence emerges through relationships, networks, and flows of energy that bind everything together.
Within the Shamanu Earth Wisdom teachings, these imperatives are not abstract, they are lived. Practices like Primordial Movement, eco-somatics, and Deep Ecology bring us into direct experience of differentiation, subjectivity, and communion. When we move spontaneously, we honour the body’s unique expression of life. When we tune into the Earth and cosmos, we cultivate communion with the larger web of life. And when we embrace our felt experience and the cycles of nature, we embody subjectivity, trusting our own perception while remaining intimately connected to the whole.
DeepTime, paired with the three universal imperatives, becomes a mirror for our own evolution. It reminds us that we are both singular and relational, fleeting yet part of something vast, capable of creativity and participation in the ongoing unfolding of life. Shamanu practices provide the tools to live this understanding in a felt, embodied way: to remember our roots, honour our unique patterns, and move in harmony with the intelligence of the Earth and cosmos.