Thank you once again, Desiree,. for speaking my language so eloquently! You are absolutely right that a synthesis of Gaian theory (Lovelock/Margulis) with Permaculture/Regenerative Design as Gaian Praxis (Bill Mollison, David Holmgren, and--now--many other visionaries throughout the world) is the way out of our toxic, dualistic rut. This dualism did not originate with Descartes, however (though he did codify it with his false, anthropocentric dichotomy of Res Cogitans and Res Extensa). Rather, it first arose with the Agricultural Revolution, when the natural world ceased to be our Mother, and became "the other" with no value at all until it is turned into commodities. The first literary record of this epistemic rupture between humanity and nature can be found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, when Gilgamesh and his Chewbacca-like sidekick Enkidu vanquish Humbaba, the guardian spirit of the great Cedar Forest, and instead clearcut the forest in order to build their city of Uruk. But Gaian consciousness, as you say, gives us a path out of the Hell we have created with our cleverness and greed...