18. Gaia and a Second Axial Age

The period between the 8th and 3rd centuries BCE, known as the “Axial Age,” saw the beginnings of philosophy, science, mathematics, and many of the world’s religious traditions. Sean Kelly proposes that the current cultural and ecological transformations taking place on Earth are evidence of a Second Axial Age. Whereas Axial Age values were oriented around transcendent or cosmological principles (e.g., Truth, God, Oneness), the Second Axial Age is compelling humans to reorient civilization around the living Earth community—Gaia.