Press Release

June 26, 1997

A New Symbol for Renaissance of the Earth

This June 26, 1997, at the UN in New York, on the occasion of the coming together of heads of state from around the world assembling to reassess the progress made since the first Earth Summit, there was a release of butterflies under the tutelage of Alan Moore of the Butterfly Gardeners Association. For the first time, under the watching eyes of the media and the people of the world, this most exquisite yet fragile creature was used to embody the new awareness of the exquisite yet so fragile beauty of our beloved planet Earth. The environmental awareness which has been one of the hallmarks of the end of this century heralds one of the most far reaching changes ever observed as we approach a new millennium rich with untold opportunities for peace on Earth and a better life for countless people, but also fraught with potentially disastrous unbalances in the world's overtaxed ecosystems. Hopes mixed with a healthy dose of skepticism coexist in everyone's mind with the inner desire to see our political leaders tackle the urgent task of reallocating the resources and creativity, wasted during the fruitless and now bygone era of armed confrontation, to help create the conditions for a new era of cooperation and fair sharing of the bounties of nature. But everyone will need to cooperate, each individual, the business community, the whole world, and not just the politicians, for such a new world to be. That's what the butterflies can help bring about.

We all marvel at some point in our life at the magical wizardry of Life that transforms a slow and ungraceful caterpillar into a delicate, magnificent, and graciously fluttering butterfly Likewise, humanity has the same potential for transformation and awakening to its inner spiritual reality lying hidden in the complex machinery of evolution, a process so intricately woven to the rest of all Life on Earth that a new science was even needed to study its multifaceted intricacies, the science of ecology. Similarly, the process by which the inner awareness of its own awareness and existence of a species, like our own human species, has evolved to the point reached today. We are collectively at the threshold of a global awakening to our unity, which is the field of study of a new spiritual science barely beginning to emerge today seen through the deforming glass of the New Age movement.

And like a Butterfly coming out of its cocoon after a long process of transmutation and maturation, humanity is emerging out of its cocoon of flesh to discover it is much more than a collection made of a multitude of individual bodies endowed with a limitless creativity and desire to conquer the material world bestowed upon us all. We are going to discover very soon that we can be much more than that. We are going to discover that we can suer like a butterfly into the limitless universe surrounding us, and not only conquer the material universe waiting for our coming, but also the spiritual universe lying hidden in the deepest recesses of our mind.

So not only is this release of butterflies signaled the beginning of a new chapter of human evolution and the dawn of an era of peaceful coexistence within the human community and with the entire community of Life on Earth, but it also marked the birth of a new awareness for our entire species, the awareness of our unity as a single collective entity of living beings, all coresponsible to co-create a new world of bountiful abundance for all, a world made free of polluting technologies and destructive harvesting methods A world where Peace will not mean the short moment of silence before the next explosion of violence, but a permanent state of mind permeating all people and all their activities. The emerging reality of our global human family of Love, all living in Peace and Harmony, will soon be etched in our collective consciousness by a memorable event, at the turn of this century into a new millennium - the Great Gathering of all the tribes, peoples and cultures of this world - and the Butterfly as a symbol of global and personal transformation. will soon be recognized as a portent and messenger for this new era, now just about to begin... the Earth Renaissance, the dawn of a new age.

Jean Hudon/Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator and Earth Concert 2000 Initiator

P.S. To get more information about the Millennial Great Gathering mentioned above and sign the Earth Proclamation, visit the Earth Concert 2000 web site at: http://vr3d.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/

Alan Moore

Member of the Peace and Justice Commission/City of Berkeley
Butterfly Gardeners Association/Friends of Tree Island
Earth Rainbow Network/Action Coalition for Global Change
1563 Solano Ave. #477
Berkeley, CA 94707
510-528-7730
Email: bflyspirit@aol.com

http://www.motley-focus.com/~timber/essence.html (Jean Houston)