Spirituality, health, and ecology: co-liberation, the climate movement, and the quest for planetary health

The increasing recognition that the climate and ecological crisis is deeply entangled with colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and health raises the question, what theories and practices can address this concerted attack on the web of life? This chapter addresses this question by analysing how the concept of co-liberation, which was developed by activists in the movement Extinction Rebellion, weaves together health, ecology, and spirituality in the diagnosis of the cognitive patterns and political structures that are furthering the current socio-ecological destruction. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork, the contribution demonstrates how the Co-Liberation group traces the current “domination paradigm” in the trauma and separation caused by patriarchy and white supremacy. The contribution argues that planetary health can only achieved by addressing these ongoing epistemic and physical systems of violence, and how activists draw on embodied and spiritual practices to achieve this.