Vision

Anima Mundi believes in a continuous evolution that seems to be one of nature’s living laws: to flourish, to keep creating the conditions for life to perpetuate itself.

We are capable of progress and, fortunately, we have created culture and technology that have helped us develop and reach beyond our limits, especially over the past two centuries. And the great adventure is only just beginning.

Yet the flourishing of civilisation has also left deep marks on the planet’s ecosystem and on humanity, and continues to leave them.

We have cleared forests, polluted, poisoned the waters and the air, and profoundly harmed the planet’s Great Garden. We have created social inequity and still perpetuate it. And to counterbalance these wounds of progress, it is essential that we become aware of them and of the negative effects of our own actions on the environment and our fellow human beings.

And then to become actively involved, each of us doing as much as we can, in regenerating the planet and humanising today’s social architecture.

In this way, we can create together, person alongside person and action after action, a society that cherishes nature and people.

Let us create a civilisation that honours the entire web of life, beginning with cherishing water, this fundamental substance of existence, and that places human rights and the rights of nature at its heart and in its foundations.

The very progress that has left such deep marks can become the means of bringing us into harmony with nature. We need only dare to set ourselves bold goals and act wisely.

To contribute to this change, Anima Mundi has, since its founding, run programmes of education, research and community engagement dedicated to water and biodiversity, as well as to understanding the human body and redefining the human relationship with nature in an age shaped by technology, major scientific discoveries and increasingly challenging climate change.

For Anima Mundi, it is vital to shape a way of life that begins with understanding water’s role in the ecosystem and cherishing this primordial resource. In doing so, we become more aware of the bond between water and all living things, and better able to give both water and the planet’s entire fabric of life the respect they deserve.

It is equally important that we learn about our own bodies and understand how they function at their best.

The more harmoniously we live with ourselves and our surroundings, the more prosperous our lives become and the more we truly evolve. And from this relationship with ourselves and with nature, new forms of economy, culture and civilisation can emerge, far more balanced, sustainable and prosperous in the true sense of the word.

Anima Mundi devotes much of its work to education, especially for children and young people, and to practical action in the field alongside them.

While grateful for what ecology has given us, Anima Mundi believes in a stage beyond it, born of growing human empathy towards nature, within a culture of cherishing life as a whole.

Becoming aware of our own bodies within the ecosystem transforms us and deepens the empathy that helps us show greater respect for water and for the entire web of life it sustains.

We all live in the Great Garden, and our way of life is closely bound to its condition, to how much we care for and respect it.

Ultimately, this is what it comes down to. Not only ecology, sustainability or sustainable development, but learning to care for the Great Garden and for our own lives.

Anima Mundi encourages us to ask ourselves a few simple questions. What is water? What is its role in the ecosystem? How can we honour it? Does cherishing it and the other fundamental substances that make life possible show how far we have evolved? And what does dishonouring them say about us?

We can ask ourselves equally simple questions about the human being. What does it truly mean to be human? What would a society that respects both the human being and humanity look like? Can we build such a society? Can we make today’s society healthier and more balanced? Can we eliminate or reduce social injustice?

How dependent is humanity on nature? Is it aware that it is part of nature? Is human society ecocentric or egocentric? Is it sustainable or destructive? Do we have the capacity to transform it? Do we want to?

And ideally, the answers would be as practical as possible and become the stones with which we build a civilisation that honours nature and the human being.

Today, Anima Mundi works locally in the Apuseni Mountains, supporting educational activities that encourage respect for water and biodiversity and an understanding of the human body. It studies the Arieș Basin, organises events and hikes, writes educational materials and lays the groundwork for projects with local, national and global reach. The first of these, Aqua Mater, dedicated to the essential role of water in the ecosystem, is already under way.

Anima Mundi also organises online courses, taught by Petrea Ciortan, on water and the human body.

New activities and projects will follow soon, and Anima Mundi invites you to join this journey of cherishing life.