Bioregional Animism

This is Anarcho-Herbalism

2011-10-27T09:12:00.001-07:00

This is Anarcho-Herbalism
Thoughts On Health and Healing For the Revolution
by Laurel Luddite
Text on this page can be freely reproduced

My medicine chest is a council of bioregions, with representatives gathered together as I make my way around the world west of the Rocky Mountains. The Coptis root was picked out of the churned-up scar left by an excavator, at the retreating edge of the Idaho wilderness. The tiny amount of Pipsissewa leaves came from an ancient grove above the Klamath River just feet away from where the District Ranger sat on a stump talking about his plans to cut it all down. I am drying Nettles from the California creek where salmon die in the silt left after a century of industrial logging.

Every jar holds a story (often a ghost story of dying ecosystems and places gone forever). I am honored to have known the plants in their home places and to have studied their uses as medicine. But for people not lucky enough to roam throughout the wilds, purchased herbal preparations such as tinctures may be the link back to this sort of healing.

Like so much in this consumerist society, it is easy to ignore the connections between a bottle on a shelf in some store and a living, growing plant out in the world somewhere. It can be hard to know if the plant grows a mile away or on another continent. There is much to be said for reconnecting, for educating ourselves about the herbs we use and gathering our own medicine when we can. That's how we will be able to build a whole new system of healing--one that can support our movement away from the corporate power structure that medicine has become.

The development of a new medical system, or the recovery of ancient models, will be another link in our safety net when industrialism fails. It will keep us alive and kicking out windows now in the system's last days when so many people have no access to industrial medicine. And it will reestablish our connection to the real medicine that is the Earth.

An alternative to "alternative medicine"

The sort of herbal medicine popular these days (presented to us by the media and so-called green capitalists as yet another exciting fad) has brought with it very little thought of a new way of healing. The plants, reduced to capsule form or worse, to their "active ingredients", are just new tools to work with in the same body-machine that industrial medicine sees people as being. They become no different than pharmaceutical drugs or a scalpel blade: something to pry into the body-machine with and use to mess around with the parts. Except of course much less effective, because the herbs have been taken out of the system of healing in which they have their strength.

When the marketers of herbal products get their hands on a new "miracle cure," it can mean extinction for the plant. This is especially sad when so many living creatures go into useless products or are wasted on conditions that they don't treat. (Has anyone else seen that Echinacea shampoo?) The classic example of this is Goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis, a plant close to extinction in the wild. It has a couple of amazing actions in the human body but has mostly been marketed as a cure for the common cold, which it will do almost nothing to help. By the way, the largest brokers of wild-harvested Goldenseal and many other big-name herbs are multinational pharmaceutical corporations. Given american society's obsession with herbal Viagra, weight loss pills, and stimulants, most of the herbs on the mass market are being sacrificed to these ridiculous causes.

There is an alternative to "alternative medicine." Southwestern herbalist, author, and teacher Michael Moore probably said it best in one of his recent digressions from a lecture: "In this country, the herb business mostly revolves around recently marketed substances with new research, and it comes from them to us. Whereas we're trying to establish as much as possible (in this "lower level" if you will) the fact that we need to create a practice and a model that's impervious to faddism. We're trying to practice in a way that derives from practice rather than from marketing. Not from above to below but from below around. Bioregionalism uber alles. Keep it local. No centralization because centralization kills everything."

Herbo-primitivism

So we need another way of looking at our bodies and the plant medicines. Seeing the two as interconnected and in balance is new to industrial culture, but in reality it is the most ancient healing model on earth. We knew it before we were people. Animals know how to use plants to medicate themselves. Their examples surround us, from dogs eating grass to bears digging Osha roots. Probably every human society has had some way of explaining how the body works and how plant medicines work in us.

One thing all herbalists know - dogs and bears included - is that a health problem is best treated before it begins. In more primitive societies where people have the luxury of listening to their own bodies it is easy to spot an imbalance before it turns into an acute disease state. This is where herbs are most effective. They work at this sub-clinical (and therefore invisible to industrial medicine) level of "imbalances" and "deficiency" and "excess."

This old/new healing system is subtle and requires a lot of self-knowledge, or at least self-awareness. It uses intuition as a diagnostic tool. Emotion, spirituality, and environment become medicines. The spirit and environment of the plants we gather affects their healing properties, and our relationship with those plants becomes very important.

Green Herbalogy

When we take herbal medicine we are taking in part of the plant's environment. Everything it ate and drank and experienced has formed the medicine you're depending on, so you better make sure it gets all the best. When we are healed by plants, we owe it to them to look out for their kind and the places where they live. Traditional plant-gatherers often have a prayer they recite before they take anything from the wild. I usually say something along the lines of "OK, plant. You heal me and I'll look out for you. I got your back. No one's gonna build over you, or log you, or pick too much while I'm around." So this true herbal healing system has at its heart a deep environmentalism and a commitment to the Earth.

The bioregional concept is important to this model of healing. Plants' actions in our bodies are really quite limited by the chemicals they can produce from sunlight and soil. For every big-name herb on the market cut from the rainforest or dug from the mountains, there is most likely a plant with a similar action growing in your watershed. Some of the best medicines to maintain good health grow in vacant lots and neglected gardens around the world.

Anarcho-herbalism

A society of people who are responsible for their own health and able to gather or grow their own medicines is a hard society to rule. These days we are dependent on the power structure of industrial health care - the secret society of the doctors, the white-male-dominated medical schools, the corporate decision makers with their toxic pharmaceuticals and heartless greed and labs full of tortured beings. That dependence is one more thing keeping us tied down to the State and unable to rebel with all our hearts or even envision a world without such oppression. With a new system of healing, based on self-knowledge and herbal wisdom, we will be that much more free.

Offering a real alternative health care system will help to calm some people's fears about returning to an anarchistic, Earth centered way of life. There is a false security in the men with the big machines, ready to put you back together again (if you have enough money). What is ignored is the fact that industrial society causes most of the dis-eases that people fear. Living free on a healing Earth while surrounded by true community and eating real food will prove to be a better medicine than anything you can buy.

What steps can we make now towards creating this new system of medicine? We all need to learn what we can about our own health. This can be through training in one or more of the surviving models of traditional healing and/or through self-observation. How do you feel when you're just starting to get a cold? What kinds of problems come up repeatedly, especially when you're stressed out? If you're a womyn, how long is your cycle and what does the blood look like? Understanding how our bodies act in times of health can help us recognize the very early stages of dis-ease when herbs are the most useful.

People who have some background in healing (in the traditional or industrial systems) can be a great help to those of us just learning. Healers who are working to form this new model, whether collectively or through their individual practices, should keep in mind that commitment to the Earth and a decentralized form are central to truly revolutionary medicine.

In these times of change, everything is being examined and either destroyed, rebuilt, or created from our hearts. Industrialism has affected every aspect of our lives - we are just starting to realize how much has been lost. Medicine is just one part of the machine that we have to take back and re-create into a form that works for the society we will become. Every herb, pill, and procedure should be judged on its sustainability and accessibility to small groups of people. We can start with ourselves, within our communities and circles, but should never stop expanding outwards until industrial medicine rusts in a forgotten grave, a victim of its own imbalances.

To know

2011-08-05T20:35:00.001-07:00

The etymology of shaman means to know.

Everyone has the ability to know.
And knowing doesn't belong to one culture or people or tradition.
You don't need a rite of passage to know, and you don't need the approval of others to know.
You don't need a drum to know, you don't need a teacher to know as some people are born knowing.
You don't need to die and be reborn to know, though some say it helps...
you dont need to be born a boy to know or a girl to know or both or neither genders to know.
You don't need to belong to a certain tribe to know.
You dont have to live rural to know, though you might because you know better....
You don't need a certain skin color or to speak in a certain language to know...
you don't need to be dirty poor or wealthy to know.
You don't need to read a book to know, though some do, and can talk in magical circles... But you dont need to walk and talk in magical circles to know either.
You don't need to know it another way then how you know it.
The way you know and what you know is unique and rare and has never existed and will never exist again in the history of this universe, revel in that... If you know how to revel.

'The Skys Gone Out.. ' by Si Matta

2011-06-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

The fog lingers in silent moss. A stillness between the storms and the rain.. Oh.. the RAIN! Born from this I am… Moss and webbed feet. Born of this Pacific Northwest. Born of this Landscape of Volcano and Vulnerability, of Majestic Peaks and Ancient Forests and Mighty Rivers. Firmly planted in mud, I can't seem to leave…. the tractor beam of Cascadia is in my Blood… Literally.

The Birds take their chance to sing as the Sun peeks its strangers head into the wet Forest canopy… Alive in a glow of Green from Douglas Fir and Cedar…. the air fresh and wiped clean. A Sense of DEEP Belonging Grips me… as I choke back the tears… I BREATHE in the essence of this space and let the air fill my lungs…. as if for the first time.

What is 'Place"? Is it not the essence of Now? The moment where Your feet stand planted on the Earth….the moment that has created and shaped Energy. I sit and watch the Sun play and dance with the clouds blowing in from the West.. completing cycles. In this Now.. I see snow capped giants who stand Citadel on the Crest of our Vision. I hear the sound of the breeze as it ruffles the Cedars and Firs. I hear voices in that wind. A faint whisper from time long ago when the Medicine Was the Land. In this NoW. I feel the Essence of Space.

I Am Watala/Cascade and I Am the Great Great Great Grandson of Chief Tumulth. I Am from the Heart of a Mountain Range. I Am stumbling around in an Alien world. One made of disconnection and chaos. I was born into the 21st century to learn. To remember. To Honor and to Rebuild. I am Proud and I Am Lost. I yearn to know the Old Way but know nothing of its practice. Its a fragmented puzzle with many esoteric and profound teachings.
The only Teacher left is the Land. The Spirit of Place. The Old Teacher of my Grandfathers and Grandmothers. The only Teacher Left is also fading in the back wash of Suburbia and Apple Pie. Columbus has rearranged Our Skies and I shape shift inside my pale skin. My blood quota memorized and cataloged on Plastic. Sovereign in a lost battle- I am searching for my Voice.

I breathe in the Spring and taste the memories of my Ancestors DNA. A strand that Spirals the Ladders of Time. and like the Raven discover a New Creation Story.

All Our Relations.

"Where You Go, there You Are."

Service

2011-01-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

Recently on the Evolver network, I read a comment on someones blog asking the Evolver community how they make money so that they can raise enough capital to enjoy the shamanic spiritual lifesytle... There was talk of investment profiles and such, and I felt my already high blood pressure start to boil. Its very disappointing for me to see these sorts of posts in spiritual communities. I know its there, Ive been to Toas, and Ive met the wealthy spiritual seekers, and Ive been to enough weekend warrior shamanic retreats to still need a good shower to cleanse myself of it.

Why the disconnect? Why the desire to serve the self over others? Why is it so difficult to see that shamanry and living as an animist does not require affluence?

My greatest spiritual advice has always been to be homeless for a little while... I wonder if they have homelessness spiritual retreats you can pay for these days?

People not products

2011-01-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

Ive been a huge fan of perfumes ever since a south american ceremonialist spit some in my face and I could hear and feel the spirits of the plants speaking to me and healing me, after breathing them into my chest cavity. Maybe its my wolfyness like makes me obsess about smells and communication through scent, as well as the medicinal qualities of scent. Or maybe its that I like little bottles all around my house filled with mysterisous potions that mystify all of my house guests. I defintely do love going to antique stores and finding ancient medicine bottles!

There is somthing about the alchemy of distilling, of extraction that has always fascinated me as well. My contemplations have always gone from macro to micro, and the interconnectedness of all things from those levels is always so fascinnating! But the notion of essence, and of liberating an essence from a plant for example to make a perfume or oil is incredible. Even extracting a chemical from a plant whether its useing hot water to make a tea or some more advanced method is intriging and some what of a taboo subject among animists I know. But I often think chemistry just confuses people, and that its peoples intentions with chemistry that really bothers them. That aside the simplicity of distilling has really become a love of my life as of late.

Most perfumes are made with an essential oil. Distilling follows natures rules to the tee in the most amazingly simple ways, and heats up the essential oils releasing them into the steam and condensing them back into a fluid with cold. Smuding or burning say sage or cedar works on the same principle of evaporating the plants essential oils, or out and out burning them, releasing them into the air. An oil or hydrosol, which is the water released during steam distillation, can be worked with in a perfume, or alone and there are beautiful shamanic traditions around the world that work with them in ceremonies.

This has been a real passion of mine for years now as you can tell! But ive been really wishing to levae my current proffession and move into wildcrafting natural products and selling Hydrosols and Oils from local plants. How does one do somthing such as this as an animist? Holding to our values. Well from the start, the ethical wildcrafting of plants is very important, asking permission of the plants and the land, giving offerings of humble gratitude is important. Working with pure water from a good place is important as well. But how do we work with this notion of product, of selling a product? What is a product any way?
Product:
1. Something produced by human or mechanical effort or by a natural process.

2. A direct result; a consequence: "Is history the product of impersonal social and economic forces?" (Anthony Lewis).
3. Chemistry A substance resulting from a chemical reaction.
4. Mathematics
a. The number or quantity obtained by multiplying two or more numbers together.
b. A scalar product.
c. A vector product.

In this respect I can understand working with the word product, but as an animist I cannot help looking at the word suspiciously...
I was produced or the product of human effort and a natural proccess. Human people are thus products? Yes they are... But they are not products in the orther use and defintion of the word.

Product; Noun~
1. Commodities offered for sale; "good business depends on having good merchandise"; "that store offers a variety of products"
Its hard to sell and buy people. Just as its hard to use people, as Ive always mention in regards to the concept of a tool. Human beings have for some time now looked rather pourly on the idea of buy and selling people, human people that is, and do not see people as commodities, ( though this could change in todays economic climate I'm sure) as a matter of fact seeing someone as a product that you could buy and sell some what unethical, and would be considered nearly patholigically anti-social and abherent behavior by todays ethical standards. Yet as an animist, we look at Salmon, and we look at Pine, at lemon, and Cabbage, and we see that we buy and sell people constantly. People are products, both litterally and in the sense of them being a commodity, but they are not human people.
How traditional animists worked out this detail when it came to hunting, gathering, farming, herding, and trading is always extremely complex and unique and it tends to revolve around reciprocity and respect as being the priorities to observe in the dynamic and exchange.
My challenge is how do I design a way of living in this society that adhears to my ethics and way of life as an animist?
For one What I want to do, is get people to unstand the importance of bioregional economies, to see the relationship between ecology and economy. I want to show people how much they can love what is local so that they will strive to protect it and work with it in a way that inspires pride in place and care in how we work with place and people of place. Bioregional economies or "domestic" "products" build strength in communities, where as globalized economies weaken local communities. When we see the value a local tree has to us, we appriciate it, protect it and develope a relationship of intimacy with it.

I see that producing hydrosols as a way for people to learn about this, I also see that the scents are the way that plants communicate, attract, as well as defened and heal themselves. The exchange of monies for these hydrosols would be to support the plants in reaching out to people for that communication, healing, and defence of itself. It is supporting the travel of these plant people. They would not be commodities that are owned or bought or sold, but given an oppertunity to work with others. They would be people not products and they would not be bought or sold but moved and supported.
I would put a picture of each plant and eco-region I harvested from including the GPS coordinates for each plant so that people could go there, and meet the spirit of the place. I would NEVER focus on consitancy of "product" but focus on the uniqueness of each extraction, the place, the time of year, the phase of the moon, the weather that day the reason for this, being that each scent will be unique and an expression of the personality of a plant, place, and community, driving the notion of other than human person of place home. I would not take the plant material from the eco-region but distill the plants there allowing them to re-enter the food chain of that place, once they had been distilled, reducing the carbon foot print. All of these things I take care of and care for because that is reciprocity and respect and working in an animist way.

It is possible to work as an animist. You do not have to sell out or drop out to be or not to be an animist in this soceity, and your efforts as an animist will create some of the changes we need to see in this world today.

Hopfully I can get this off the ground, and help the genii loci get their voice heard over greater distances!

See our site!

Animist Human Diplomats

2011-01-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

Written by Heather Awen from her wonderful blog Adventures in Animism. Reposted with permission. Thank you Heater!

Saugerties NY

Looking out the big sun room windows of our new home, my Mom said, "I can't pick up anything from the land here."

This is big news because my Mom can read the land most anywhere. "Can you feel anything?" she asked me.

"Welllll," I paused, "It's more like I go outside and leave my offerings and sense that the spirits are here on the peripheral of my second sight. Like feeding a cat who won't let me see it, it's too scared."

My Mom needs nature spirit companionship much more than human companionship. She said, "I think they just did so much damage with the mills that the land doesn't trust us."

This is an important thing for all budding earth-honoring neopagan animistas to keep in mind. "Nature" is not something for you to "visit" and soak up the healing vibes from, dump your negative energies into, and then bail. You are not at daycare. You are an adult member of the Gaian superorganism.

Some land will automatically welcome you in, with radiant peaceful energies. Those would be lands that have been treated well. I would like you to think of land where you live that has been treated well. No clear cutting, no monoculture farming, no mining, no landfills, no power stations, no illegal dumping, no paving, no polluting.

Now that you are aware of who you are dealing with, ask yourself how logical it is for you to bombard "nature" with the gimme-gimmes?

Being any sort of activist or sensitive person, you are likely to have periods of intense burnout, and nature can help heal this. Ecopsychology claims, and I agree, that this false separation in our minds and real separation in our physical locations from nature are making us crazy. The need to return to our place within nature and remember we are natural is a real one, possibly the only need that really matters on an evolutionary survival level. We don't need to ascend from earth, we need to descend back to our home.

With us needing nature and nature having been harmed by us (nature being everything that isn't a human animal - and many human animals have been harmed by other human animals, too), it makes returning to the Gaian community a bit tricky. You might encounter a spirit that is delighted to have you back, perhaps because it heard of a time when humans were sane and helpful. Sometimes, like the case of a park that has been treated well, the trees will be happy to see you. Some vacation spots that are managed well are that way too, they like the joy people share and the praise they receive.

But the park where junkies shoot up, people strip the bark off trees, broken glass harms the others living there - You gotta show some love. Think about your neighborhood. Was there a mill? How about mining? A field with lead paint chips? An area where a battle happened? Has a dam or reservoir changed life for many other-than-human persons? What about an abandoned factory?

If a shaman's job is to mediate between the other-than-human world and the human world, this is where an animist shaman healer can get right to work.

First decide how dangerous the place is for humans. If there are toxins or sharp debris, obviously this is not a place to stand within. Organize your ritual on the sidelines, perhaps surrounding it if you have enough people, maybe one at each directional corner, or chose a view that works for you. Are there no trespassing signs? I hate breaking the law because I am anxious on a good day, so if I cannot spend a lot of time legally at a place, I might create healing objects that can be placed on the site quickly. But some people (like the ice fishmen that merrily litter beer cans through the bank of the Esopus I live on) do not care about "no trespassing" signs. It's your call. Of course, you're not going to leave any trash behind. Any magical healing charms you leave will be biodegradable made with fallen sticks, hemp twine, found feathers, shells, bones, rocks etc and biodegradable art supplies. If your healing work will be where a building still stands, I advise against entering if it is posted - You don't know how structurally sound it is.

Once you have decided where you are going to start the work of mediation between your species and the land, you need to start making trips to visit it. Simple offerings as a way of saying "hi" need to be made respectfully. This land is a stranger and you are visiting. I like to say that I am open to learning what rituals need to be done if there is anything necessary.

One time I did this and Lake Champlain, a feisty, self centered female spirit, told me about the huge rituals on her shores. Why didn't anyone do that anymore for her? So my Mom and I often lavished her with gifts and songs. Chocolate was something she was curious about. I didn't know if she liked it, but she liked the idea of how much I like it and that I was willing to part with something I didn't want to share. She had a grandmother whom I learned was the spirit of the area when this was ocean water. Lake Champlain was lonely and very talkative. When you start a relationship with the land, remember that these spirits for the most part have been neglected and want to know where the F all the devotees went?

Sometimes you will be asked to do rituals for human spirits. It might indigenous people who were forcibly moved or murdered, workers who died from the terrible conditions in pre-union days, or victims of a battle, plague, or famine.

Listen carefully to what they want. Don't jump ahead of them. If they send you an impression of burning smoke, don't jump up and run to your book of herbal incenses and pick stuff out. What they want is not very likely to be in a book. Some research might tell you what sorts of foods were favorites by these ancestors. Did they drink alcohol? In establishing healthy relationships we give people what they want, not what we want. Giving alcohol to indigenous American Indian spirits is not something I personally do, due to alcohol not being indigenous to most tribes (none that I know of) and the horrible effects it has had on the descendants of these ancestors. It seems offensive to me. But you might get a different message (I might too!). If you are working with Chinese railroad builders or African slaves or Italian factory workers - it doesn't matter - do your research about the time and culture. This shows that you care.

Researching about the exact destruction that took place can sometimes be helpful. Human spirits sometimes like the details of their death acknowledged, maybe that is about closure. Telling our stories is a main healing step for those of us who suffer from trauma. Maybe talking about how many trees were murdered and how the waters were poisoned, and the fish died etc etc while crying will show the nature spirits that you care. But if you don't details, or don't have a sign that they are needed, forget it.

The land I am on right now, less than a mile from a former mill, where the soil is sickly and the wildlife is starting to return, wants an apology. I can tell we won't be able to move ahead til I say on behalf of my species, I am sorry. If someone harmed you gravely and then wanted to make nice but wouldn't apologize, would you trust them? No. Did I personally do this damage? No, but I am an ambassador.

Be honest. I always say that I am not very valued by my species and have little power, so I cannot promise anything terrible won't happen again - but that I wish for the land to be healthy and safe. Sometimes I am called to do a protection ritual, without knowing why. I guess all land today is under attack as laws change to keep the corporate socialism going strong.

If the land is going to be continuously abused, like with nuclear testing or more strip mining, don't try to call it to life just to have to enter into more pain. You wouldn't snap a just-raped woman out of dissociation just in time to be raped again, right? Send it psychic morphine, make prayers for all other-than-human persons to get out safely, and do all you can to stop the tragedy in the future.

OK, so how do you know what the land needs? Since I spent most of my life honing the intuition my mother also has, I am not sure what to tell you. The training it takes to learn intuitive healing, psychic readings, and spell casting all apply here. Stay open, is the best advice. If the answers come quickly and clearly, I am guessing your imaginative ego made them up.

If there are indigenous people already doing earth-honoring rituals and you are invited, remember that it's not your show. 3rd degree High Priestess with a Masters in Comparative Shamanism doesn't get to tell the elder how to do it "right". That's the effects of racism and colonialism at work.

I personally feel that the vague "pray for the environment" stuff people send as junk emails to me don't do that much good. Any magician worth her wand knows that specific goals, correct relationships, and right timing made or break the magic. If I was sick, I'd rather the doctor looked at my chart to see what I needed and gave that to me, instead of randomly guessing and injecting me with sulfa which I am allergic to. Get my point?

True magic, as all us Dion Fortune/Starhawk reading Magi and Witches know, changes consciousness. If you can do these ceremonies and then buy nonrecycled toilet paper, empty your ashtray on the side of a dirt road, drink a plastic bottle of water a day, and go 4 wheeling in fragile ecosystems, the magic did not work. The rituals have to change you too.

Some things to do in concert with the ritual work that makes the magic work much faster and stronger are:
join a local environmental group
pick up trash on the side of the road or in a park
learn permaculture skills and use them in your garden
experiment with grey water, worm composting, passive solar, etc
plant plants that bees and birds love
make "seed bombs" and guerrilla garden some vacant lots
water young trees starting out their lives on city street
drive less, buy less, throw away less (all them basics you're meant to do anyway!)

In my mind, there is no division between matter and spirit. I say I am a materialist because I worship what is, what I can touch and see and smell and taste. A tree isn't holy because "God" gave it a spirit - the spirit doesn't matter as much to me as the actual material being. (This doesn't mean that I don't believe all things have spirits or, more accurately, that I don't think that all things share one spirit; I do. But that isn't what gives any being its worth to me.) For those of you who believe that "spiritual" is a code word for "good", then think of it this way, treating Life well in physical ways is a spiritual. (You are a spiritually good mother when you feed your hungry child.) To me, they are all the same thing anyway. Smells, sounds, intuitions, telepathy, precognition, disembodied humans, tastes, feelings of cold and hot, light - There is a lot going on and to be dualistic and make everything one thing or another inevitably leads to the human pastime of "Which is good and which is bad?" That hasn't worked out so well for us, so dualistic thinking I tend to ignore as being generally harmful.

Building relationships with the land and other-than-human persons is like building relationships with other human animals. Some will not like you. Some will be in pain. Most will have baggage. Sometimes you don't have any ability to communicate with each other. Some have their own healing already going on and don't want your energies included - too many healers messes up the healing. IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU. This actually should be the animist motto. Other-than-humans - be they thunderbirds, dairy cows, ravens, oak trees, fungi, waterfalls, marshlands - are not here to amuse, save, or profit you. It is imperative that we get rid of the dominator-culture mentality that the mainstream religions have poisoned our minds with. We are not above Life, we are a part of Life. Again, IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU.

This is why I think animism doesn't appeal to most people. They want to be saved or enlightened. Religion is self centered, not relationship centered. In the Western world religion has come to mean personal growth. Not worshipping the Gods, not honoring the others we share the world with, not bowing in gratitude. It's become naval gazing to the point that our heads are up our arses, as Life goes on around us. Animism reconnects us to the world, to Life. Desire becomes good, desire for health, desire for sanity, desire for peace, desire for joy. Attachment to place brings us sanity and healing. When you know that you belong to the land - not some fantasy landscape but land you actually live within - alienation and isolation leave you. The world is no longer a trap of temptations to be punished in life after life til you "get it right" nor is it a battlefield of good versus evil, where you dodge landmines until you're saved and get to Heaven, never to return.

John Seed, a hero of mine, talked about how he went from being a farmer fighting to stop destruction of the forest where he lives in Australia to realizing he is a part of the forest defending itself. You may not have generations of elders buried in the land where you live or a history of sacred stories about the trees and animals and waters in your community (and maybe they have lost their stories about us humans, too). But to return to sanity we must return to a sense of place.

Animist healers, shamanic diplomats, neopagan ambassadors -- The world needs you! Go outside and state your intention to build better human - nonhuman relations. And then don't you dare go back on your word! We - the wes of the ancestors, the wes of the future, the wes of other-than-humans, the wes of humans today - are counting on you. And blessings on you, each and every one of you mending the tear in the fabric of Life.

And the remarkable thing is, as you gain the trust of the other-than-human persons you live with, they will start doing those healings, those magical things you wished for. It is called friendship. It will be two way if you work at it.

Happy New Year. The land calls

Bioregional animism Forum

2010-10-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

Looks like Bioregional animism has a new forum! We will be gradually moving off of tribes and onto the new forum. I woul dlike to invite every one to come and join us as it grows.
Tribes hs been good for us, but we have out grown it and Tribes feels a bit like a sinking ship these days. So we went private with the site.
Many thanks and blessings to Fishbowl for setting it up, it looks wonderful!
http://www.bioregionalanimism.org/

We are moving!

Going Local: Localised shamanic/animist healing

2010-10-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

October is the harvest time, and we look over what we have harvested through out the year, and among our local harvest we see it is not only food we needed but also medicines. The recent post on healing reminded me of Angelica seeds I harvested this year at Beards Cove a very sacred place to me on the Washington coast. I have had them in my work bag for nearly 5 months now. Ends up I have been carrying these seeds with me where ever I go, and probably for a very good reason. Today and most every day for a while now I have been very fatigued, exhausted really and the seeds, when I smell them revitalize me.

Having studied vegetalismo, and latin american curanderismo practices I have been fascinated for years by the use of perfumes. This fascination for working with perfumes and plant essences shamanicly has become a real obsessive passion over the years. One that I am consitently and slowly persuing, soon I will be taking a class on distilling hydrosols and essential oils. Because of the up comming work shop I have been thinking more and more about my angelica seeds, they are so abundant here in the PNW. They are so powerful smelling, and so unique, but it never really struck me to start working with them for spiritual purposes, and they have been reaching out to me, a part of me has felt it but has ignored it so much, and I have to look at why? For one... I have an exstensive ethnobotany back ground. So many non-local plants from around the world are available to me with the click of a button, and well I can just buy some florida water to do my cleansing. I have some, hell I have lots of it why do I need to even look for somthing local when what I have works? Its effective florida water... and when I need somthing stronger, I have my agua de ruda or rue water. Ive even started growing rue outside my house for protection, though strangely when I think back to harvesting the seeds... I did so with the intention of planting them out side my home. The angelica has been reaching out to me, talking to me... and I have not been listening. I have not been listening because I have been distracted by what I have and can get else where that I have ignored the very persistent and loud voice of a local and prolific plant.

Today I finally listened to this plant spirit. Sitting doing counciling with a client at work... I caught a wiff of the seeds from my work bag. I felt so tired and stressed, and so did my client. It came to my attention that we both needed to breath in the scent of these seeds. that these seeds would help us with what we both needed help with. The plant reached out again and intuatively i knew to just look up the aroma therapy of this plant.

History:
Angelica came from Africa in the 16th century to Europe. Used by pagan Romania for mystical rituals. The Christians used it after the dark ages for the plague devastating Europe. Someone had a dream of an Archangel telling them to use Angelica to destroy the plague. The roots are used in Chinese remedies and used to be used in herbalism. It's translation in French is root of the holy ghost. It protects against evil spirits, enchantment, conjuring spells. Often used to flavor gin and perfumes and traditionally candied for cake decoration and confectionery.

Properties and Indications:

Acts quickly on the nervous system

Anorexia or sudden loss of weight

Increases gastric secretions

Anemic people

Cardiac - purifies the blood

Anti-poison qualities - works on gout, arthritis, rheumatism

Deep drainage - stimulates all organs to evacuate toxins

Stimulates glandular and lymphatic systems - through this it helps to improve the immune system

Chronic respiratory complaints with mucous

Personality:

Weepy, sweet, frilly, clingy, despondent - over emphasized on the feminine side (both for men and women but not children)

Nervous and frail types

Weak people, tired and worn out (physically and emotionally)

Melancholy, long term depression

Deep stress - useful for someone who has had a deep setback or hard struggles (divorce, dealing with ill people, aching with no specific problem)

Exactly what I NEEDED! As well as being exactly what my client needed too! Then it hit me... I saw how to work with this plant, it showed me what to do with it. I will make a perfume with it ask for its help give it my breath by breathing upon it, as plants love our breath, as it is our continuous offer to them. I will, as I have learned to do, spray this perfume from my mouth, upon people in ceremony, for healing, it will replace my need for working with Rue water and Florida water in most cases.

One can go local with their use of medicines, one can go local with their use of foods, and one can go local with many of their needs. This to me was such a concrete example of localized spiritual practice that it sort of shocked me, for some one who has been writing about bioregional animism for years, it still have lots to learn about listening to the land, and working local. The seeds of angelica humbled me today, and I was reminded of a saying my good freind and teacher Mitra used to say, five feet away from every poison is its cure. Out sourcing as I have mentioned before keeps us from seeing what we have around us and how we can take care fo what is around us. It is amazing how sublte of a distraction it can be that it has kept me from listneing to such a powerful healing being as Angelica.

Healing with a Handful of Dirt and a Marlboro

2010-10-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

Originally printed in PNW pagan news letter widdershins, reprinted with permission from author.

Healing with a Handful of Dirt and a Marlboro

Article by Freya Ray

“Hey, we’ve got a healing crisis on our hands!”
“What kind?”
“Well, she went into the sweat lodge just fine. When she came out, she started spontaneously expelling a demon, speaking in tongues — that sort of thing. You should hear the spooky growling voice she’s using.”
“Has she puked yet?”
“Yup – kinda nasty dribbly stuff. While rocking back and forth on all fours.”
“Got it. Let’s see … I’ve got a bottle of Evian, a bunch of dirt and twigs and a pack of Marlboros. Yes. We can do this. Let the healing begin.”
I’m not really kidding. Of course, in the moment I don’t think it’s funny, as I am honestly scrounging around for what I can use to help someone desperately in need of help. Later, though, I can’t seem to resist the urge to find my entire spiritual practice hilarious.
Kitchen witching, pulling a McGyver, using mundane tools for sacred pagan purposes – whatever you want to call it, it works and sometimes it’s all you’ve got.
Some Situations Just Require Improvising
I have a Portable Witch Kit.™ Who doesn’t? It’s full of all the cool things I might want should I find myself in a Situation. A Situation could be any of the following:
· Sweat lodge, healing circle, or ritual fallout
· Someone’s living life a little too intensely and is frying on the energy
· Someone went and got themselves a demon, or a demon-ette (crud, guck, negative energy, that gray spot on their heart chakra)
· A breakup
· Psychic attack (see breakup)
· “Stuff” is up (childhood abuse issues, abandonment stuff, addictive patterns)
· There’s a sudden opening — a sweet spot, a softening in someone’s armor — that would allow some healing work to be done
· Past lives are rearing their ugly heads
· “Look! It’s an implant! Quick, let’s get it!”
I’d love to say I have my Witch Kit with me at all times, but it’s just not possible. I mean, first of all, it’s sort of unwieldy. It’s a small canvas bag, and an entire fishing tackle box of crystals. And even though the canvas bag by itself is fairly small, it’s not sturdy. It’s a precarious concoction including a glass candle; various bottles of things like Florida Water, Rescue Remedy and magickal massage oil; charcoal pellets; dragon’s blood; and a big honkin’ shell with sage in various stages of burnt in it, wrapped in a dish towel. The shell balances on top of the candle, but not well enough to rattle around in my car all the time. Besides, I like to have the shell out on an altar at home, so the whole bag has a tendency to get half-unpacked and then repacked when I need it.
Let’s look again at the list above and consider how many of these Situations would allow me to run home, assemble my kit, and come back. Hmm… that’s not an option. Much of the time, healing is like a first kiss. You seize the moment or the chance moves on and you’re “just friends” forever.

Tools to Consider:
You have the whole world at your disposal. What sorts of things can be turned to your evile witchy purposes?
Dirt
When I teach healing with energy work, I ask my students in the tools class, “I can think of six ways off the top of my head to heal someone with dirt. How many can you come up with?” They start throwing out ideas, and it goes on for more than six every class. You can use mud to draw out toxins, make a fetish, hold a handful in your hand and put energy you want to get rid of in it and then throw it away, you can bury things in it, you can put your hands or body on it to ground, etc. It’s almost always available to you (even indoors – I’ve grounded out excess energy into a houseplant’s soil). Same thing with rocks and twigs, should you find yourself outside.
My favorite grounding ritual: lay face down on the dirt and give it back to Mama. One time a boyfriend and I were fighting, and he told me later, “I was so mad and I was crying and I went out in the yard and laid on the grass, and then I remembered it was you who taught me that and I was even more pissed at you.” Ha! Useful technique trumps current attitude about teacher. Doesn’t get better than that.
Tobacco
Of course when working with tobacco we’d all prefer to have a nice pouch of Drum or a fine Cuban cigar rolled on the thighs of virgins. All smoke has powerful smudging properties, and tobacco is unique in its flavor. In the right hands, it’s completely different from sage or sweetgrass or dragon’s blood or Epsom salts and rubbing alcohol or cinnamon or any of the other things you might burn for the smoke.
However, when you can’t have the best, any old crap-ass menthol will do. Honest. Just don’t inhale. Pull smoke just into your mouth and then puff it out onto the area you want to clear. For yourself, pull it into your mouth and then puff it out into your cupped hand. Use your hand to pull it where you need it – heart and crown chakras being the most common places.
Water
Use that bottle of Evian! Water need not come from the Glastonbury Spring nor be buried by Rumi-chanting elves under the light of the Full Moon in order to be sacred. Wave a blessing its direction and put it to good use. Water can be used to help flush stuff out of someone’s system — that’s why massage therapists tell you to drink lots after a massage. You can use it to wash things out of your aura — add cider vinegar, sea salt, or Epsom salts, and it’s even more powerful. Water can be used to anoint, to gently bless. You don’t have sage handy? Throw them in the lake, or the bathtub!
Throw Something Away
So one time, at this festival, I had the opportunity to be the recipient of the combined healer energy from a Vicky Noble healing class. She was looking for volunteers for the group to practice on, and I happened to have a very groovy lump growing out of the side of my neck. Turns out the healing circle had zero effect on the lump (that benign cyst required surgery), but it was my ticket to some massive amounts of transformative energy that I desperately needed.
After this circle, I found myself standing in a doorway. My energy was stirred, shaken, massively bedrock disturbed. I needed to move it, fast, before I imploded. I was dancing at an outdoor performance, barefoot in a dustbowl surrounded by other festivalgoers. It came to me that I had to walk through that doorway naked and alone. Alone was easy — strangers who weren’t paying any attention to me surrounded me. Naked, well, that meant my jewelry.
I was wearing a little goddess in my ear, with a dangling amethyst crystal. I had on a string of rose quartz beads. There were toe rings. There was a silver fairy pendant, a gift from my sister, around my neck. I was wearing my juju! These things were all doing particular magickal jobs: balancing my energy, invoking the other realities I was learning to dance through, giving me rose quartz teddy bear love, and importantly — advertising to other baby witches that I was a proud new member of the clan. Naked. These things were performing functions, but they were also locking me into my previous energetic matrix. They were holding the vibrations of who I had been before Vicky Noble coordinated the energies of forty healers, all pointed at me. Although now, 10 years later, I can still tell you which pretty things I let go of, I can also tell you it was an easy decision. No deep thought was required at all. I just started stripping things off and hurling them into the woods.
The best was the rose quartz. I snapped the string and pulled the beads loose. I dropped them into the dirt. Then I danced them into the dust with my bare feet.
I was free. I walked through the door.
Should you find yourself in a Situation, look at what else is there with you. Is there some talisman that is holding on to what you seek to release? Can you or the person you’re working with be persuaded to throw or give it away?
Bring in a Little Sweetness
A friend brought a friend over to my house, and one thing led to another in the way things do. Next thing you know, I’m deep in energy work with the friend of my friend. After much excitement and an impressive display of our healing talent and her willingness to heal, things were settling into a quiet, wrapping up mood.
My friend and I settled on either side of our healing victim. I felt so strongly that she needed to know the sweetness of sisterhood. She needed to know, all through her, that she was loved and cherished.
I fetched the honey. I put a single drop on her tongue, while my friend and I held her and let her know she was loved. The honey communicated this message to her body on a level we couldn’t reach. I know it made an impression — I got several letters from this woman who had been a stranger a few hours before.
Puking is Your Friend

Never underestimate the value of puking. Both for you and for the person you’re helping. I mean, sure, there are nice, controlled Reiki types who make it through their entire healing careers without yakking their guts up on behalf of a client. Bless their hearts; I’m sure it must be wonderful.

I’m a shamanic type, though. I don’t get the luxury of standing off at a distance waving my arms around. I mean, sure, I wave my arms around (and yell and bite and whatever it takes), but I’m also directly involved in the crap coming out of someone. There’s a reason why I don’t do much healing work. I can’t avoid it all the time, though, and puking can be great.
When removing junk from someone, one technique is to suck it out of them. Now this is like siphoning gas from a car. (Anyone tried this recently as the prices keep going up?) You need to start sucking, and then get your mouth off the tube before you get a mouthful of toxic death. Same exact principle with energetic guck. You do a Clinton Inhale™(or a We’re Already Married Swallow™— pick your metaphor). Suck into your mouth, and then spit it out real quick.
If you’re a shamanic, full-body sort of healer like me, sometimes stripping stuff off with your hands isn’t enough. You have to suck it out instead. Two problems: Sometimes you don’t spit quickly enough, and sometimes the guck is extra wily and gloms onto you anyway.
What do you do then? Puke. If you’re lucky, you can do some meaningful dry heaving and call it good. If you’re not, sometimes you just have to use the full physical metaphor to get that crap you just ingested right back out of you.
If you’re dumb enough to add this sucking technique to your repertoire (or are already stuck with it — it’s not really something you choose), please remember one thing: If you have the urge to gak, don’t fight it. You will really regret it if you work to keep someone else’s demon-nasty slime-trail inside you. The short-term pain of throwing up is a thousand times better than the long-term pain of trying to find another sucker (oops! I mean healer) to get it out of you.
On the other side of the healer equation, puking can be good for the one being healed, too. If they’ve got the nasty in them and they’re trying to expel it themselves, encourage them to follow their urge. You’ll see them going green around the edges or perhaps retching a bit. Let them know that this can be an effective way to move energy, and they should go with it rather than fight it.
The body knows. If it can move the energy out with just a little mucous, it will do so. If it needs to go throw up for half an hour, it will do that.
Other Special Techniques
All right, I’m finished being disgusting. What else do you have at your disposal besides your digestive tract? Hands, breath, voice, warmth, the rest of your body. When helping someone move energy, I have wrapped myself around them and rocked them, using that instinctive child-like rhythm to help sort things out to where they needed to be. I have used my breath to blow things away or move them around. The voice is wonderful for toning (you and/or the recipient), doing a kung-fu cry to break up stuck guck, or telling a story about the energy leaving (guided visualization).
The hands are magick. With nothing but your hands, you can pull energy out, put energy in, balance chakras, smooth someone’s brow, or hold their hand. You can fix, heal, support, and love.

What else could you need?

Racism, Paganism, bioregionalism and identity

2010-08-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

"So, since I am not a "nazi" I began to use another term, in the late 90ies. I did it not just to avoid confusion, but also to find a term more suitable and accurate than the other terms I had used. This new term was odalism, from Norse óðal ("homeland", "allodium", "allodial law", "nobility", "noble", "inherited goods", "fatherland", "land property", "distinguished family", "distinguished", "splendid", "kin" and "the nation"). This term replaces everything positive about all the other -isms I have ever used, and in it lies Paganism, traditional nationalism, racialism and environmentalism. It is not only a more accurate but also a more inclusive term that can be used by all Europeans (and others too for that sake). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it is not a term tainted by history.

If we have a positive relationship to our homeland, to our blood, to our race, to our religion and to our culture we will not destroy any of this with modern "civilization" (id est capitalism, materialism, Judeo-Christianity, pollution, urbanization, race mixing, Americanization, socialism, globalization, et cetera). The "nazi ghost" has scared millions of Europeans from caring about their blood and homeland for sixty years now, and it is about time we banish this ghost and again start to think and care about the things that (whether we like it or not) are important to us."

Varg Vikernes
(July 2005)
www.burzum.org/eng/librar...ory07.shtml
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varg_Vikernes
First of all I would like to mention how disturbing the above quote is to me... But I would like to mention why it is that I thought it important to post it...

As in many ideologies the fascism is hard to see...

I have lots of friends who are into METAL, lots of black metal and, Norse inspired metal is becoming popular in the PNW and local cascadian black metal bands with heavy pagan undertones are becoming very popular, some focusing on bioregional concepts as well as pagan roots, maybe its the cloudy weather... its like Fenris has still eaten the sun here. A fascinating aspect of the metal culture is the embrace of paganism, and traditional norse roots. There is a very hard core rejection of judeo-christian spirituality, and a violent one at that some times. This rejection has even moved into European movements towards radical race based bioregional paganism. Ancestral and tribal in nature working the same father land like values of the Germanic people of world war too. The notion is reject that which is not of the father land. We are the father land, those that are not the father land are not our people, they are not human, their ways, and traditions do not belong on our land, nor do they. The identification and association of race, land and heritage, along with politics, and spirituality is not an old notion, it is still prevalent in MANY cultures, and many traditions, including native American sentiments. This relationship of race with bioregionalism and spirituality can be a dangerous one. Rights to land, rights to traditions and much more can be utilized to alienate others and to create societies of exclusivity. Depth psychologists such as Thomas Moore have dubbed this relational dynamic over the years Tribalism, and have equated it to a sort of alienating sort of practice which has seeds in nationalism, racism, religiosity, and ethnocentrism. Ive not always agreed with him on this note... however with the above quote from norse black metal musician and convicted murderer Varg Vikernes ( one of the original church burners) we see signs of what he is saying quite strongly. We see it in Norse pagan hate crimes in Europe. The Mentioning of Race Hygiene and Eugenics among "Odinists"...is another such example as is the notion of Odalism in the above quote.

These are ways of relating... and I would not say healthy ones at all.

I would never hope to see Bioregional animism, or paganism adopted by such notions or racial purity and entitlement. In fact I think that Bioregional animism as we know it and paganism is in direct opposition to such ways of relating, in that BRA creates a understanding that we are all the land we live upon regardless of race. Our bodies are all composed of the place we live within,and BRA encourages a full awareness and identity of that fact... but not in a socio-political format but a transpersonal/ecopsychological stand point. When we are in full awareness of our self as place we see others in the same light. We see others in our land as part of that ecological self we share with one another.
But what does this say of race and identity and place? Race from what my old anthropology teacher used to drive into our skulls is a political perspective and has no other foundation in reality. Given enough time people adapt to the ecology of the life place, it is the politics of culture and ethnicity that we confuse with these adaptions. What does this mean to the concepts of traditional lands? what does this do to the concepts of ancestral heritage and entitlement to place? These are highly complex issues, but they are political in nature and it is important to understand that. It is also important to recognize that regardless of these politics the reality of the matter is... we are the life place, despite, or nationality, despite our ethnicity, despite our politics, and ancestral heritage, those who live within the life place for 7 years are that place, every cell of their body is that land we stand upon the the sky we fill each cell with. This is the reality... we share this one body and self we call the life place, the bioregion. The politics that ignore that fact are aberrations.
Yet what about celebrating our diversity, our uniqueness, our differences? Bioregional animism and paganism does not seek to homogenize culture and do away with concepts of race? No not at all! We wish to celebrate it from point of view of difference not being a force of separation, but instead we recognize that like all of the unique other than human persons of place we are one. We are land, and sky, starting first and for most in our life place... and moving on from there to the whole of creation, this includes all peoples. Though not all peoples will get along peacefully all the time, the cat people and the dog people are excellent examples of this, it is something to strive for.
It is my hope that I have been able to share these ideas in such a way that does not inspire bioregional cultures of exclusivity, racism, nationalism and religiosity, but the opposite.My hope is that as Cascadian black metal spreads, the concepts of bioregional idenity and spirituality within examples such at Burzum can be seen as the ecofacism they are,and that concepts of Odalism do not become prevalent and preached within the subculture but can be identified as what to avoid within these emerging bioregional counter/sub cultures.

Psychedelics, Deep Ecology, and Wild Mind: Essay by Dale Pendell

2010-07-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

Posted with out permission, originally posted here...
http://dalependell.com/essays/psychedelics-deep-ecology-and-wild-mind/
After reading the intro I could not help myself from posting it here.

"In 1969, in an essay in Earth House Hold, Gary Snyder wrote that “Peyote and acid have a curious way of tuning some people in to the local soil.”
Thanks Dale for being such an awesome writter!

Psychedelics, Deep Ecology, and Wild Mind

In 1969, in an essay in Earth House Hold, Gary Snyder wrote that “Peyote and acid have a curious way of tuning some people in to the local soil.” While exceptions abound, some of the more salient characteristics of the psychedelic revolution that blossomed in the 1960s and continue to this day are an embracing of things “natural,” including natural foods, natural childbirth (and breast-feeding), an easy acceptance of nudity and the human body, and, for many, a return to earth-centered living. Many favored the outdoors as a place to open their minds in the new way, and interest in vision quest and traditional nature-based lifestyles followed.
In traditional cultures less shielded from the natural seasons and the cycles of birth and death, the powers of the wild are everyday occurrences. People lay offerings at springs, or perform dances to acknowledge these powers and to maintain an exchange. For the industrial culture of the twentieth century, it took the tremendous power of visionary plants and chemicals to open many minds to what had been obvious to most human cultures for millennia.
Hard-headed rationalists and cynical materialists often found themselves humbled by a looming mountain, a stream flowing on bedrock, or by a wild animal that stepped out of its camouflage to say hello. Many hold these liberating experiences as the most important in their lives and have never returned to the old paradigm. In seeking to understand such soul-moving events, people have rediscovered what human societies for thousands of years have acknowledged: that we are a part of a great living fabric, and that certain wild plants, animals, or places are endowed with something that we might call presence, or energy, or resonance. This feeling of special resonance or presence is usually glossed as “the sacred” by Western intellectuals, though no one is certain what that actually means. Such recognition has led many beyond the resource management ethos of conservation to what has been called “deep ecology.”
Being tuned in to the local soil means being at home—the root of “eco.” As trivial an example as orange peels highlights the difference between the tourist and someone who can feel that he is standing on the bones of his mother. Anyone who has spent much time in the back country has seen orange peels thoughtlessly tossed along the trail or at the base of a rock. People who would otherwise be careful about packing out their trash leave orange peels because they are not “trash” (though they wouldn’t do the same in their own living rooms). But “presence” has to do with what was there before we came—call it power, or beauty, or suchness—it has nothing to do with our ideas of what is trash and what is not-trash.
Encounters with the wild always have an awe-inspiring quality—that is their nature–but most of us are conditioned from birth to block out these experiences. One of the great gifts of visionary plants and substances is that these cultural filters are temporarily suspended, so that the wild has free access to mind. The downside, of course, is that everyday mind, with filters back in place, may dismiss the experiences as hallucinatory, forgetting that the filtered interpretation is also hallucinatory. That is, the very special and extraordinary quality of the visionary experience itself tends to allow us to relegate the profound insights of that experience to the visionary realm only, as if it were separate and not a part of “reality.”
In his book A Zen Wave, Robert Aitken presents two haiku of the Zen poet Basho. The first goes:
Wake up! Wake up!
Be my friend
sleeping butterfly.
Basho is not on psychedelics, but he is intimate with the butterfly. There is a joy and playfulness that form a shared reality—the oneness is the reality. The other poem goes:
The morning glory!
This too cannot be
My friend.
Aitken’s point is that Basho also recognized the absolute independence and separateness of the other being. That’s deep ecology! The many beings, the many rocks and crevices and waterfalls and streams, all exist in and of themselves, entirely without reference to the human world and human uses. At the same time, all of it is linked together in an indissoluble web.
The true mythologies of a culture are the stories that everyone accepts as true, without question. While the cosmological systems of other cultures are easily dismissed as myth, one’s own never are. For us, that myth includes the belief that there is an “objective” physical world that exists wholly independently from the self—from mind or consciousness. It’s even called “the Reality Principle,” as theistic an appellation as one could come up with. To free the mind, to recover that wildness that is equally jaguar and peony, leaf rustle and dew on a spider web, requires both insight and training.
On psychedelics, even “ordinary” experiences can be hair-raising. That is a clue for us to the true nature of the wild—that the wild doesn’t end or begin at a fence, and that wild mind is something that we know about from our own experience. If psychedelics can help with that realization, they are truly, in the best and most ancient sense of the word, sacred. Mind is wild by nature. Presenting wild mind, sharing wild mind, is benevolence.
Originally published in MAPS:
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v19n1/v19n1-pg46.pdf

Self and Place

2010-07-09T12:14:00.000-07:00

A large part of bioregional animism to me is the relationship with self and place. The set for this sort of bioregional animist psychology is focused on a concept of oneness, not unity per say but specifically oneness as unity indicates there are two things that are united or BECOME one. The difference on this point lays in that you do not become what you already are but you can become aware of what you are. Now on that note we move into some of the basics of BRA psychology, and it is in a sense a psychology of its own, a study of soul.

Part of the reason why I focused this notion of bioregion into the mix with animism and shamanry was in response to the very ungrounded/centered neo-shamanic practices I was seeing running amok. With huge ego inflation's coming from unitative concepts as well as a sense of being one with the whole of earth. Al of this was wonderful, but keeping with a be here now sort of stand point and seeking grounding and centering in my own practice and in how I guided others it became apparent that in the search for the transpersonal and shamanic many western people where loosing their footing, floating away and becoming highly ineffective and unintigrated. I myself started to come down to earth and my transpersonal experiences became more and more embodied somatic experiences.

I started to see self/mind/soul as more of a spectrum.

Working with a living systems model brought to us from ecology I started to see place as an point of reference for self. Starting with where I was standing right here and now. I began to feel in altered states being the space I was a part of, I was locality, the soul of the whole, the shakti, the prana the chi, the winds of creation moved and moved me and I was the land beneath my feet and the sky above awareness of itself right HERE, right NOW.

And the more one, lets just say, expanded ones awareness one became aware that self expanded outwards to include ones surroundings, the entire bioregion and all of the persons within it. This moved out to include the whole of the earth and the whole of the cosmos. And even though I could feel that oneness with the totality of all that is... here I was sitting in a clear cut surrounded by new life and a raccoon, and I was all of that. Because I was all of that, I saw that all of that was aware, sentient like me but not like me, unique and individual but all sharing one consciousness. I saw that through relating to self as place that one extended their body and self care and personal development to place, integrating and interweaving an exploration of self with a communion with place including the people of place, human and other than human. All was self, all was soul, all was mind and all could commune and establish communicative relationships.

Self discovery is the discovery of the land and the cosmos's sense of self. It is the wholes self exploration, doing so from the grounded, centered, perspective of HERE.

Blessings

Please help The Gathering the Stories project

2010-05-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Please help The Gathering the Stories project

www.gatheringthestories.blogspot.com/

We are very happy to be assiting in the production of this project by Si Matta native american film maker and good friend of mine.

I am posting this because I am in full support of this project and I really want to ask the members of this tribe to aid in giving whatever you can, even a dollar to getting this project up and going. This is how the begining of a gift economy starts!

We are funding this project through the site Kickstarter... you can find the link to that through this link below.
www.gatheringthestories.blogspot.com/p...ml

A clip of the documentry can be seen here...
www.gatheringthestories.blogspot.com/p...ml

Here is a message from Si about the project...

"Hello and may I take this opportunity to welcome you to Gathering the Stories: Life in the Columbia River Gorge. I am honored to meet you all!

Gathering the Stories is a multi dimensional project that focuses on one central point: Place, and our relationships to land. I am covering many perspectives because I come from many perspectives (check my Bio), but the one central focus is Place.

The WATLALA (Cascade Indians) are my tribe of origin (I am an enrolled member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe) on my Mother's side. Our old village site is now replaced by Bonneville Locks & Dam in the Columbia River Gorge. The intent of this project is to archive family relationships and stories of this place. However, I am also searching for lost spiritual traditions and ways of communicating with the land. I plan on archiving the lost tradition of Our Vision Quest and the use of Our Sacred Mountain: Wind Mountain. I hope to someday return this Sacred Mountain back to its' Peoples. First I want to share our stories!

I have always felt that this work (writer/videographer/ archivist/ storyteller) was my calling. However, I have always thought of it as something that I would do in the future after I went to school and got grant money to work on projects. One day it hit me that people are dying and passing on. With each passing goes myriads of stories and anecdotes now unheard to current and future generations. A sense of urgency to begin archiving is apparent and vital to preserve oral traditions."

From LLB~

*One of the things that the center for bioregional animism is trying to accomplish is the promotion and development of projects like Si's we are hoping to work on many projects like this in the future so that we can work together to protect the land and its peoples and work in harmony with the spirit of place. We hope to do this through promoting bioregional projects of any kind, and helping both new and traditional animist peoples in what ever way possible. Please give what you can in support of this project.

Thomas Berry RIP

2010-04-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POomCHT6hNE

Thomas Berry RIP

Animist art of the Séance

2010-04-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

For thousands of years around the world in many diverse animist cultures people have practiced the art of the séance. We may imagine that the séance is a dusty ol room with long thin curtains over midnight windows, with candles and crystal balls in the middle of tea time table. But the reality is the séance is ancient, from mesa ceremonies, to Yuwipi and Inipi ceremonies, to Inuit trance ceremonies, the spirits of other-than-human-persons are called on, given respect to, offerings given, often in a darkened room but some times in broad day light, the spirits are called, a representation of them often in the room. In darkness, after songs are song, prayers and the calling of the spirits has been done, the proper ceremonial showing of respect has been completed, and the cleansing and preparation of the participants has been accomplished, the spirits come, some times they lift the building, some times their voices thunder or whisper, some times rattles fly around the lodge or ceremonial space. People cannot see them, though many report blue lights, hypnogogic images, figures, or if some have the sight they see them. In some ceremonies the lights are on, and the spirits arrive in physical form, some will take the physical form of the anointed, the cleansed, the chosen, the healer, the medicine people, the holy people, the spiritual leaders, they will speak through them, move their bodies.

Some of these beings that are called on in these animist séances are spirits of the land itself, some are mountains, some are the power animals that where obtained on spiritual fasts or quests or journeys, Some come because there is a mask with their face on it allowing them a vessel to ride, some come to help, some to warn, some to heal, some to cause mischief, some are not even invited! The natural world, the spirits of place, the people of place all work together in these séances. This is a communal gathering of persons to work in mutual synergy with each other, to promote balance in the life place among other things... the relational dynamics between people of place and other than human persons is seemingly infinite in its complex diversity.

I would encourage those that wish to work with the other then human persons of their life place to co-create these animist séances with the other than human persons of their life place. The process itself can be as creative and complex as one wishes... the importance is humility, generosity, not commanding or being controlling, but inviting a powerful guest into ones sacred space. How one chooses to do this is up to the co-creativity that emerges from ones relationship with the life place, allow it to guide your process by holding the intention and letting go, allowing the spirit of place to move your mind, thoughts feelings, words, and actions. The bioregional entrainment practice described on this site would be very useful perhaps in developing this practice.
Once we can develop these relationships with the spirits of our life place we can begin to work with them to co-create a way of life that empowers health, well being and high synergy with the natural world.
Commune...

I would like to thank Stella Osorojos for writing her piece at reality sandwich that inspired me to write this piece. Blessings!

Animist Service Societies

2010-04-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

Lately in the face of having an real up and personal look at our current social system, as well as looking at the new laws on health insurance, I find myself thinking back to earlier times as well as other cultures who take care of each other in a much healthier way.

In my community there is a place that has been rented out to artists that was built and run by loggers a long time ago. This was a lodge they used for meeting and community get togethers as well as fund raising; the lodge was built for the purpose creating a cooperative that allowed loggers to gain health care. Other organizations around the united states where built many years ago that provided social services to people; the Odd fellows building around old town centers are a common site, few people know that the Odd fellows also own grave yards and the organization started as a way for low income members to be able to afford life insurance and to pay for burials of their members. The Eagles club, Moose lodge, Shriners, Masons, Knights of Columbus, Rotary Club are but a few. Many of these organizations are considered fraternities or sororities, or as the Odd fellows was called in England when originated in the 1700's as a friendly society.

All of these organizations where built on the foundation of helping members when they needed it in a time where there was no social welfare system, state health care or trade unions. Most of these organizations were non-profit mutual organizations owned by their members with all income passed back to the members in the form of services and benefits. Local services clubs as they are also called such as the Kiwanis club provide fire wood to single mothers in the winter time and one Kiwanis organization that is local to me runs a garden that is worked by volunteers as well as prisoners and the food that is grown is donated to the local food bank. Other service organizations such as the Fraternal Order of the Eagles were created in Washington state as a society for the development of the performance arts. Organizations such as the Elks Lodge are mostly social organizations that also work as charity and fundraising organizations to aid their community. Interestingly the Elks lodge also works as a way of honoring deceased members...

"Deceased and otherwise absent lodge members are recalled each evening at 11 p.m. when the lodge esquire intones, "It is the Hour of Recollection." The exalted ruler or a member designated by him gives the 11 o'clock toast, of which this version is the most common:
You have heard the tolling of eleven strokes. This is to remind you that with Elks, the hour of eleven has a tender significance. Wherever Elks may roam, whatever their lot in life may be, when this hour tolls upon the dial of night, the great heart of Elkdom swells and throbs. It is the golden hour of recollection, the homecoming of those who wander, the mystic roll call of those who will come no more. Living or dead, Elks are never forgotten, never forsaken. Morning and noon may pass them by, the light of day sink heedlessly into the west. But ere the shadows of midnight shall fall, the chimes of memory shall be pealing forth the friendly message: To our absent members."

In the past community members around the world saw the importance of these organizations because the government was not providing these services to those that needed them. Our grandparents knew the value of these organizations and often belonged to if not one several. Today we have our social services provided to us by privatized industry and our governments. The lack of personalized care and attention from our community wanes due to this dynamic today, and is woefully inept.

These society are nothing new animist culture as well had social and civic organizations, secret societies and rites associated to them, societies that encouraged every member to be a medicine person or the best warrior they could be; these organizations where also the law enforcement, and religious organizations of their societies. These societies worked, and in many cases continue to work to promote health and well being in animist communities. The names of many of the societies in Cascadia such as the Eagles lodge are often inspired by animist traditions.

A local therapist told me that he had gone over to do relief work in Indonesia after the tsunami hit there. He had planed to spend the majority of the time helping people cope with the trauma of surviving the tragedy. What he found however was a community that was extremely resilient. He found no cases of PTSD and people where coping with their grief very well. He could not at first understand why a society with no fundamental social services organizations or community mental health organizations could be so resilient.

What he discovered however was that each member of the community had a vested interest in each other community member. they also integrated ritual into their lives through building shrines which helped them deal with their grief (which reminds one of the Odd fellows as well as the Elks societies). This mutual care and care giving allowed these people to survive after the tragedy that occurred, and aided them in all other aspects of life as well, before and after the tragic tsunami. Working in the mental health field as a case manager and working daily with people in need I cannot help but look at the system I participate in as facilitating a lack of this mutual care, a passing of the buck if you will to state funded non-profit organizations, where the state has the final say as to how and who receives care; and why...

Value systems as well as aesthetics change from generation to generation, membership to social organizations such as those mentioned have wavered and waned. To belong to a civic organization today is a dieing tradition. Our needs are being provided for by state social services (sure they are) and it is easier to just pass the buck or live in tot6al apathy. We are becoming more and more divided and separate from each other; few of us know our neighbor next door or have even spoken to them. We live in communities? Many of us do not know what it is like to NEED aid from our community, and so invest very little into their community. These times are changing however. More and more people require aid due to the United States economic problems (all stemming from ecological devastation honestly) and it may be time again to reinvent or at the very least rediscover the community empowerment of the Service Societies.

Service societies can exist again and be motivated by bioregional as well as animist relational dynamics. Ritual and ceremony has always been a major facet in social cohesion as well as personal empowerment within societies. Mutual aid in assisting society members in helping each other has also empowered and co-created healthy communities. Groups that are forming now, such as a local organization like GRUB which teaches people to build garden boxes and grow food on their own property, Food not Lawns Organizations where also beginning to form aiding people to go local with their food production. These are non-profit organizations though, not necessarily service based societies. Non-profit organizations often times are funded by grants and not the community or members of the organization itself. Those that work for NPO's know too well that those who fund call the shots, if one wants funding then who ever is giving the money is in control. One must ask themselves what are the motivations of these people giving the grant? Are they members of the community? Do they live in your bioregion and do they understand the needs of those in your bioregion, human and other than human? Some may... but most will not. Funding provided by government funding to NPO's also continue the lack of regional autonomy, and further alienate us from our own home and community. This occurs because we are not giving the funding or doing the work for our community some one else it.

Dedication to Service

In my early twenties, I dropped out of college and studied and practice the art of shamanry, as well as the path of humble servitude. I took a part time low paying job, and ate approximately once or twice a day, some times eating road kill, dumpster diving or eating from the local food bank. At work I made bread from pizza dough that we threw away at the end of the day; and took it down to the park or the street's giving it away to any one who needed it. I would then get a cup of coffee and bring with me a book and a pouch of tobacco and I would sit on the busy down town sidewalk of the state capital I lived in. My daily mainstream mediation and prayer was a humble one, I would roll a cigarette and while smoking it I would ask life to bring me any one who needs healing and to help me to help them. I would say this prayer and open my heart. You can feel your heart when it is open, you feel loved by all that is, supported, and you feel love for all that is and supportive of all that is. I would put out my cigarette and unroll the tobacco and give what was left blowing my breath into it; my life force and then give it as an offering to life, on the side walk.

I did this every day for three years. I always had exactly what I needed to keep healing and helping others, even the eventual lack of fulfillment that led me to finding ways to help more people which placed me in mental health and finishing college.

During this time however I gave... I gave everything I had, I lead healing ceremonies with those I met, I built community and made strong and powerful allies in helping others. I brought healers to visit my community some times going into debt inorder to help others. The entire time I felt supported and guided and assisted by the land, by spirit, by the life force itself. In a very real way, moving my mind and body at times. I was the land, the whole in service to itself. My intuitive abilities soared! There where times where I began to understand what it meant to be a holy man, and I learned that there was not one thing I could ever do just for myself. In this time I went through an extreme healing and learning process as well; as I taught others I learned, as I healed others I myself healed. I needed help though, at times the need was so great but few where able to assist and so I spent time attempting to teach others how to awaken to the light within themselves and to serve others with humility. In a sense this is exactly what it is I am doing now.

When I started spending less time on the street and more time helping people through working with state funded agencies, I started to notice that the same power that came into me would enter into random people on the street. It was like watching a person get possessed by a beneficent being. You could see it, hear it in their voices, watch it in their behaviors... few of them new how to embody it for long and it would leave them. But I became aware that for those who allow themselves to live a life of humble service and who open their hearts to the whole the whole's ability to promote health and balance will become embodied within them, like a deity or bodhisattva of compassion entering into a monk in a trance dance. I saw that this force of nature or energy (we call it spirit in my community) was available to any one.

Over the years I have thought off and on about this path I walked in those years and from time to time I meet a young seeker and I recommend this to them. Few do so; perhaps they do not feel supported enough. Recently I watched the movie Men Who Stare at Goats, the NEW EARTH ARMY, I could not help but relate to these people, it was satirical of new agers, but the Jedi knights concept as funny as it seemed... was well possible, or some semblance of it. The notion of a group of people willing to embrace discipline and care for others using shamanic, and animist practice as a base of their philosophy, working with nature in synergy to aid others, this is possible... this could be! taking the shape of service communities as an organizational model bioregional animist societies could form on a membership basis focused on specific intentions, service to people in need on the street for example, care to the ill and the infirmed, care to the land and its need for healing and bioremediation, working with the spirit of place; with the life place, and the other than human persons of the life place. Done working with transrational practices allowing guidance and empowerment to heighten their efficacy in service.

It would be possible to begin small, groups of friends, meeting together donating small amounts of resources to their group intention. Through working with the spirit of place, with each other synergistically as well; the co-creation of rituals and ceremonies that would empower and create further social cohesion between society members. A deepening of ones synergy with place and each other could be developed through these practices, granting one help from the spirit of place in ones endeavor’s both personally and for the society and larger community. Meeting the needs of ones community or just narrowly working within ones own society could be a focus for these societies as well.

I would like to encourage people to think about beginning shamanic and bioregional animist societies with these thoughts in mind... this I believe is one way we can promote powerful changes in our communities, promote bioregionalism as a life way, and co-create healthy high synergy communities.

German Translation of Graham Harveys Animist Manifesto

2010-04-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

German Translation of Graham Harveys Animist Manifesto

Special thanks to Her DragonMill and Christian!

Alles, was existiert, lebt.
Alles, was lebt, verdient es, respektiert zu werden.
Was man respektiert, muss man nicht unbedingt mögen.
Jemanden nicht zu mögen ist kein Grund, ihn nicht zu respektieren.
Jemanden zu respektieren ist kein Grund, ihn nicht zu essen.

Angenommen, alles, was existiert, lebt, dann ist es besser von “Personen” zu sprechen oder von “Leuten”, als von “Wesen” oder “Geistern”, und schon gar nicht von “Biomechanismen”, “Ressourcen”, “Besitztümern” oder “Dingen”

Die Welt ist voll von Personen (oder Leuten, wenn man so will), aber nur wenige von ihnen sind Menschen.

Die Welt ist voll von anders-als-Menschen Personen
Die Welt ist voll von anders-als-Eiche Personen
Die Welt ist voll von anders-als-Stachelschwein Personen
Die Welt ist voll von anders-als-Lachs Personen
Die Welt ist voll von anders-als-
Die Welt ist voll von anders-als-Stein Personen

“Anders-als” hat wenigstens drei Referenzen:

Es erinnert uns daran, dass wir Personen sind in Beziehungen zu anderen

Es erinnert uns daran, dass viele unserer nächsten Verwandten Menschen sind, während die nächsten Verwandten der Eichen Eichen sind, also fällt es uns am leichtesten mit Menschen zu reden, während Steine am leichtesten mit Steinen reden…

Es erinnert uns daran, zuerst von dem zu sprechen, dass wir am besten kennen (diejenigen, die uns am nächsten stehen)

Mache diese vier Referenzen:

Es erinnert uns daran, Unterschiede als eine Gelegenheit wahrzunehmen und zu feiern, die es uns erlaubt, unsere Beziehungen auszuweiten, anstatt sie als Ursache von Konflikt oder Eroberung zu sehen

Alles Leben hängt von einander ab, und unsere persönlichen Unterschiede sollten nicht in Identitäten zusammenbrechen

Die Anderen und das Andere lassen uns offen bleiben für Veränderung, für das Werden, nicht festgezurrt sein im Sein

Der Animismus ist weder monistisch, noch dualistisch, er fängt dann gerade erst an, wenn man über das bloße Zählen Eins, Zwei, … hinausgeht… Wenn der Animismus rockt, ist er allumfassend, supergeil, völlig schamlos und von einem wuchernden Pluralismus

Respekt bedeutet, achtsam zu sein und konstruktiv.

Es bedeutet Anderen achtsam zu begegnen - und unseren eigenen Bedürfnissen.

Es bedeutet Beziehungen aufzubauen, Gelegenheiten zu schaffen, zum reden, zum sich beziehen, zum zuhören, Zeit zu verbringen in der Präsenz und der Gegenwart von anderen

Es bedeutet sich zu kümmern, sich wichtig zu sein, sich etwas zu bedeuten, achtsam zu sein…

Respekt kann man ausdrücken, indem man alleine lässt oder indem man beschenkt

Man muss nicht jeden Baum umarmen, um ihm Respekt zu zollen, aber man müsste sie dort wachsen lassen, wo sie es tun - unter Umständen müsste man seine Telefonleitung oder Gewächshaus umsetzen

Man müsste die Straße am Stein oder am Baum vorbeibauen

Es kann unhöflich sein, Bäume zu umarmen, die man nicht kennt - vielleicht stellst du dich erst mal vor?

Die Erde und der Kosmos sind kein netter und einfacher Ort zum leben, nur weil sie voll von Leben sind. Viele Personen sind einigermaßen unfreundlich zueinander. Viele sehen in uns ein gutes Abendessen. Vielleicht respektieren sie uns, während sie uns essen? Vielleicht müssen sie erst noch etwas lernen? Vielleicht lernen sie - genau wie wir - am besten zusammen mit anderen; mit anderen, die Respekt zeigen auch für die, die sie nicht mögen und vor allem für die, die ihnen so gut schmecken!

Das Leben ist nicht sinnlos, auch wenn die Evolution kein Ziel hat. Der Sinn des Lebens ist es, ein guter Mensch zu sein - oder ein guten Stein oder ein gute Dachs.
Es gilt heraus zu finden, was “gut” bedeutet, dort, wo wir leben, dann, wann wir leben und mit den Menschen, Pflanzen und Tieren und Steinen, mit denen wir leben, usw. Vieles davon ist sicherlich abgedeckt mit dem Wort “Respekt” und allem, was es beinhaltet.

Da alles, was existiert, lebt - und da alles, was lebt, in einem gewissen Sinne und zu einem bestimmten Grad bewusst ist, kommunikativ und beziehungsfähig - und da viele der Personen, mit denen wir Menschen diesen Planten teilen, viel eher Bescheid wissen, was eigentlich abgeht, können wir jetzt diese ganze Dummheit mal seien lassen, von wegen wir seien der Nabel der Welt, die höchste Weihe der Evolution, das Bewusstsein der Erde oder des Kosmos… Wir sind nur ein Teil der ganzen lebendigen Gemeinschaft und wir haben noch einiges zu lernen. Es ist nicht unsere Aufgabe, die Erde zu retten oder für die Tiere zu sprechen oder höhere geistige Ebenen zu erreichen. Viele andere, nicht-menschliche Personen sind schon längst glücklich sich ihrer selbst bewusst, vielen Dank! Und wenn wir aufmerksam wären, könnten wir selber ein paar Dinge lernen. Nebenbei bemerkt: Wir gehen wahrscheinlich nicht alleine falsch in der Annahme, uns für die wichtigsten Personen der Welt zu halten: Stachelschweine denken wahrscheinlich genau dasselbe (aber sie sind stachelige, von Fliegen umschwirrte Biester, also warum sollten wir ihnen glauben?!)

Mmh, als ich sagte “alles, was existiert, lebt” - ich bin mir bei Plastiktüten da nicht so sicher.

Aber ich bin mir sicher, dass wir Objekte nicht einfach als Ressourcen behandeln sollten, die uns oder der Menscheit halt irgendwie zugänglich sind oder gar geschenkt wurden, um sie zu benutzen wie es uns gefällt.

Dasselbe gilt für Wörter wie “Substanzen”, vor allem für diejenigen, die aus Pflanzen oder Pilzen stammen. Es gibt zwar Substanzen, aber sie gehören solange nicht uns, bis sie uns gegeben oder geschenkt wurden. Und wir sollten besser zusehen, dass wir nachfragen, wie man diese Substanzen am besten verwendet (sei es für das Wohlbefinden, für Macht, Weisheit oder was auch immer). Das gilt besonders dann, wenn die Pflanzen- oder Pilzperson, die das Substanz-Geschenk anbietet, ihr Leben in diesem Prozess verliert.

Vielleicht will uns der Pilz manchmal einfach nur helfen an dem großen Gespräch teilzunehmen, dass um uns herum stattfindet. Aber nicht alle Steine, Fische, Pflanzen, Pilze, Vögel, Tiere oder Menschen wollen gerade mit uns sprechen:

Manchmal wollen sie leise sein.
Manchmal wollen sie stören
Manchmal haben sie andere Sorgen
Manchmal verstehen sie einfach nicht
Manchmal sprechen wir die Sprache nicht
Manchmal kenne wir das passende Geschenk nicht

Die genaue und angemessene Art Respekt zu zeigen hängt davon ab, wo man ist, wer man ist, wen man respektiert und was dieser erwartet. Geschenke, so wie Schwerter und Wörter, haben mehr als eine Seite. Alkohol ist ein Geschenk an einem Ort, an einem anderen ein Gift. Ein Handschlag ist freundlich hier, und ein Ausdruck von Stärke anderswo. Küssen ist für einige respektvoll, für andere eine Attacke. Eine respektvolle Etikette zu erlangen bedeutet harte Arbeit, aber die Belohnung ist eine erfüllende Teilhabe an einer großen und aufregenden Gemeinschaft des Lebens.

Manchmal brauchen wir Schamanen, um für uns zu sprechen.

Oft erfährt man Animismus während man unter einem Baum sitzt, oder auf einem Hügel, oder in einem Fluss, mit einem Stachelschwein, neben einem Feuer… Animismus erfährt man eher durch raffinierte Geschichten, durch Lieder voller Seele, kraftvolle Gedichte, reizende Rituale, und/oder durch elementare Etikette, als durch ein Manifest.

Terra Vision and Shamanism is a Sham by Psilly

2010-03-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Psilly if any one recalls in the early days of this site was one of the first people influenced by the article I wrote called Bioregional transrational linguistics. He wroted or should we say co-wrote with the land a peice of poetry about that process. It is on the site and still remins to be one of the only examples of transrational bioregional linguistics there is!
I always find his work inspiring and so have decided to share it here with you wonderful people.
Blessings
LLB

TerraVision

You talk the universal language
of BO! & Bling, converse in catchphrases
and recite bad movies without thinking…
The idiot box rots your earthly body
radiations reflecting you back at yourself
until you forget everything else that is alive
in this world and begin to die a rusting robots death,
screws loose in your skull rattling out a gameshow jingle
mingle with fatty oils boiled a million times
by recursive repeats on the same theme: me me me!
Saggy fat machine whose eyes retreat
for all you see is the supreme loneliness of self
played by a trillion different actors.
Solid-state slowly congeals as conveyor-belts of ready meals
pour into the bottomless pit of your nuclear reactor.
Media-ate your precious fire: everyone has learned
an alien language spread wide without wires -
the whole world can speak in these retard bleets
but how many can tune into bird song?
The long forgotten station of buzzing bee?
Who has enough life in their pallate to deduce the meaning
of honey? Who has enough power left to break out of
the paper-bag prison called money?
Too few… too few?
Too-wit Too-woo!
Unplug your wrinkled arse from the techno-dance
and remind yourself instead what it is to be human.
A gift from the natural world that you pay less respect
than the bright plastic shit squeezed from hole labelled: Mall!
Your ears were sung into being like shells washed up by the sea.
Your fingers stretched from mushroomy-nodes to pluck down
fruit from the tree. Your wet round eyes are planets
sculpted by stars. Your nostrils were hollowed by the wind.
The buds of your tongue burst into flower only because figs
are not meant for imagination alone. For imagination alone
is your private sense, the holy ghost you can choose to share
or dance hidden through rainbow night in a cloud body,
your condensing rains between you and the earth
so that mysteries burst like a seedpod
scattering new ideas… The only technology is nature -
but not all technology is natural. We slipped on some
fruit in the garden – but we have always been falling,
it is an everlasting dance of interdependent spin;
we are each but a fragment of feather:
the life wheel share
is the wing.

"I do really appreciate your work! I went to make a comment on your

shamanism/animism thread but don't have a google or blogger account. I
was basically just wanting to say that for me “shamanism” was some
muddy abstract concept that I was able to project all my fears &
desires onto, whereas animism was a practical & grounded starting
point that empowered me to get out & focus on relating, naturally
creating my own practise over time… what really got me going was the
simple process of talking to the land, or a particular character in it
(a friendly greeting & a little self-expression) then giving a gift
(tobacco, food or drink mostly) and just letting things unfold,
letting things arise."
As I wrote at the end of "Shaman School" a few years back
(http://www.tranceparents.org/?p=45) :

“Shamanism” is a Sham. A blind amnesiac’s fumbling rediscovery.
A game, a lesson, a romanticisation of innately human actions.
A useless umbrella term for the myths and medicine, the law
and lore, of countless cultures not our own… An insult.

“Shamanism” is a Sham. Animism, rather: An Animating Perspective,
has given me all that ‘Shamanism’ promised but couldn’t deliver -
because it wasn’t my own it became everything I wanted,
I didn’t UnderStand it but I knew I needed it,
so when it finally delivered itself to me
it became something else:
A way that I Am.

Synergy

2010-03-19T08:54:00.000-07:00

Nature becomes something different after one looses the utilitarian

relationship with it. When one stops using nature and starts working

with it, working as it, the world becomes enchanted, life becomes an awe filled mystery. We

begin to realize that we are not alone in our endeavours to live and be

well. We begin to feel supported and guided, the help we always felt

the need for is there when we need it most. Nature begins to

communicate with us, share with us, and teach us. It becomes filled

with people and new friends we never knew existed. The beauty that we

did not see before is suddenly all around us, and within us. Most of

all you look at those that use nature with such compassion. You feel

their pain, their struggle, their confusion, it becomes a wound on

your body that needs healing so bad it drives your every action. You

feel this wound because these people who do not work with, but use

nature... are nature too... and they are also guiding you, and you can

also work in synergy with them in the most unlikely ways... their

wound becomes your own, because it effects you for you are nature too,

you are being used...

Synergy is freedom from being used... working with life is healing the wound...

Animism exhibition

2010-03-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

I have not been able to see this exhibition, perhaps those that have could comment on it. I think that intellectually it is interesting... But I feel in my gut that the intellectualization of animism is a bit of a ill-gotten persuite.

22 January – 2 May 2010

Opening Thursday 21 January at 19:00
Animism is a long-term exhibition and publication project first presented between 22 January and 2 May 2010 in Antwerp in a collaboration of Extra City Kunsthal Antwerpen and the Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA). A second version of the exhibition will be shown at Kunsthalle Bern from May till July 2010. Subsequent versions will be developed at the Generali Foundation in Vienna and the House of World Cultures in Berlin in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
The project approaches the concept of animism – coined by 19th century anthropologists in the context of the colonial encounter – from a contemporary perspective. It addresses the current increase in interest in animism, which stems from a widespread re-visioning of modernity, by a reflection on aesthetic processes seen through the prism of an exhibition.
The normative modern understanding of the concept holds animism to be a pre-modern social and psychological mechanism by means of which nature and things were erroneously endowed with souls and agency. This project seeks to move beyond those mistaken but sedimented commonplaces that have narrowed the understanding of animism to a matter of belief and psychology and instead raise questions about the collective practices of humans and non-humans and the qualitative relations that they produce. The term is employed like a mirror in an investigation of modern cosmography, reversing its underlying assumptions, and in particular, the way in which modernity conceived of the boundary between life and non-life.
Historically, this separation between the animate and inanimate gave rise to dichotomies characteristic of modernity, such as the opposition between nature and culture, the subjective and objective world, and the relation between fiction and reality so notorious to the arts. As these distinctions are challenged and transformed on a massive scale, fuelled by changing global political geographies, ecological crisis, technologies and forms of power, the exhibition seeks new forms of engagement with history and reality.

Animism has evolved around two opposed and yet complementary processes: animation and objectification. The exhibition meditates on the paradoxical status of objectification in modernity, its relation to conservation, mummification, and simultaneous re-animation and mobilization, and the forms of power relations it gives rise to. It puts the modern imaginary of inanimate matter and reification under critical scrutiny, and questions the economies of ‘transgression’ that have long informed modern aesthetics of enchantment and disenchantment.

By placing selected historical references next to contemporary work, Animism brings together works that reflect and negotiate the boundary between the subjective and the objective. Across the registers of technological media, moving images, depictions of life and embodiment, the exhibition questions the mimetic processes of modern aesthetics as ways to negotiate and, often paradoxically, confirm and maintain the imaginary oppositions of modernity.

The publication Animism (Volume I) brings together theoretical and artistic reflections on the history and contemporary relevance of animism. The publication draws on work from a wide range of disciplines – ranging from anthropology to art and media history – aiming at creating a constellation of perspectives, including the latest anthropological discussions and artistic debates, through which the question of aesthetic animation can be posed in novel, challenging ways.

With works by:
Agency, Art & Language, Christian W. Braune & Otto Fischer, Marcel Broodthaers, Paul Chan, Tony Conrad, Didier Demorcy, Walt Disney, Lili Dujourie, Jimmie Durham, Eric Duvivier, Harun Farocki, León Ferrari, Christopher Glembotzky, Victor Grippo, Brion Gysin, Luis Jacob, Ken Jacobs, Darius James, Joachim Koester, Zacharias Kunuk, Louise Lawler, Len Lye, Étienne-Jules Marey, Daria Martin, Angela Melitopoulos & Maurizio Lazzarato, Wesley Meuris, Henri Michaux, Santu Mofokeng, Vincent Monnikendam, Tom Nicholson, Otobong Nkanga, Reto Pulfer, Félix-Louis Regnault, Józef Robakowski, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Paul Sharits, Yutaka Sone, Jan Švankmajer, David G. Tretiakoff, Rosemarie Trockel, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Dziga Vertov, Klaus Weber, Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Contributors to the publication:
Agency, Irene Albers, Oksana Bulgakowa, Edwin Carels, Bart De Baere, Didier Demorcy, Brigid Doherty, Sergei Eisenstein, Anselm Franke, Masato Fukushima, Avery F. Gordon, Richard William Hill, Darius James, Gertrud Koch, Joachim Koester, Bruno Latour, Maurizio Lazzarato and Angela Melitopoulos, Vivian Liska, Henri Michaux, Santu Mofokeng, Philippe Pirotte, Florian Schneider, Erhard Schüttpelz, Michael Taussig, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Martin Zillinger
Animism is a collaboration between Extra City Kunsthal Antwerpen and the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA) and in cooperation with the Kunsthalle Bern, the Generali Foundation Vienna, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin and the Free University Berlin.

Concept: Anselm Franke

Curators: Antwerp: Anselm Franke (Director Extra City Antwerp), Edwin Carels (Researcher KASK/HoGent), Bart De Baere (Director M HKA Antwerp); Bern: Anselm Franke, Philippe Pirotte (Director Kunsthalle Bern); Vienna: Anselm Franke, Sabine Folie (Director Generali Foundation Vienna)

Locations:
Extra City, Tulpstraat 79, BE-2060 Antwerp, www.extracity.org
M HKA, Leuvenstraat 32, BE-2000 Antwerp, www.muhka.be

Spirit of Place by Glen Fishbowl

2010-03-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

Spirit of Place by Glen Fishbowl

I wrote this speech for The Unitarian Universalist Church of the Paluse, in Moscow Idaho, and gave it on Sunday the 3rd of August 2008- Glen Fishbowl

When I was younger I had a deep interest in the traditions and narratives of the People of Great Britain,‭ ‬where the majority of my bloodline originated from.‭ ‬With help of a friend well versed in Celtic studies,‭ ‬I examined the remaining narratives of the Celtic-Britons preserved in the Mabinigion and the poems of Taliesin the bard.‭ ‬With a basic understanding of the older Welsh dialect which these narratives were originally written and with firm background in historical context,‭ ‬the narratives took on a new life to me.‭ ‬What I learned was that the characters,‭ ‬and customs,‭ ‬and stories,‭ ‬of these people where not as important as the reasoning behind why they expressed themselves in these ways.‭ ‬They had developed different traditions within themselves,‭ ‬not only as tribal identities but as unique relationships with where they lived.‭ ‬I later learned this approach is fundamental‭ ‬to many indigenous peoples from around the world and often distinguished as animism.‭

Today,‭ ‬Animism is being understood as a set of worldviews that interacts with a living world where humans are only one part.‭ ‬By developing relationships with other-then-human-persons,‭ ‬they have a more inclusive concept of what a person is.‭ ‬In his book‭ ‬Animism:‭ ‬Respecting the Living World,‭ ‬Graham Harvey PhD‭ ‬summarizes the studies of Irving Hallowell by‭ ‬writing,‭ “‬To be a person does not require human-likeness,‭ ‬but rather humans are like other persons.‭ ‬Persons is the wider category,‭ ‬beneath which there may be listed sub-groups‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬Persons are related beings constitute by their many and various interactions with others.‭” ‬Graham points out that animist cultures can very greatly depending on the relational dynamic those people have with the place where they live.‭ ‬Furthermore,‭ ‬it‭ ‬cannot be emphasized enough that Animism is not the projection of human qualities upon the outside‭ ‬world‭;‬ rather,‭ ‬it challenges many of the assumptions of contemporary modern society.

I learned not to assume an intimate relationship with the land which has not been established through genuine connection‭; ‬to do so is assuming I was entitled the same privileges and consideration of‭ ‬an old friend or family member.‭ ‬To approach any person that way would be insulting and rude.‭ ‬Animist traditions grew from a personal relationship cultivated with the place they lived and the persons they shared it with,‭ ‬developing over countless generations.‭

I felt compelled to develop my own relationship with the place where I live.‎ ‏This required me to look to my immediate surroundings for inspiration.‭ ‬The Celtic-British narratives where a catalysis to learning how to relate with the ecological region where I lived.‭ ‬Associating the characters and stories to natural monuments and phenomenon around me allowed me to gradually see them with local personality and to interact with them in new ways.‭ ‬Before long,‭ ‬the Celtic-British narratives faded,‭ ‬and I was left with my own personal relationship with the place I lived‭ – ‬a moving experience which forever changed my life and the way I approach the world.‭

Person-hood is the central concept of animism and does not separate humankind from the world through evolutionary progress.‭ ‬Instead,‭ ‬it places the human being within the world of other persons,‭ ‬giving up distinction of humans as the only persons.‭ ‬It extends the inherent worth and dignity of every person to a greater community which consists of other-then-human-persons.‭ ‬It is through‭ ‬these vast networks of relationships which‭ ‬sustain life that animism learns respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.‭

When I moved to a new place I discovered I had to build a new relationship with that place and become familiar with its unique identity and personality.‭ ‬This is where I learned‭ ‬Bioregionalism,‭ ‬which is the conviction that social organizations and environmental policies be based on natural boundaries rather‭ ‬then regions defined by political and economic boundaries.‭ ‬Kirkpatrick Sale,‭ ‬in his book‭ ‬Dwellers in the Land:‭ ‬The Bioregional Vision,‭ ‬eloquently describes the essence of Bioregionalism,‭ “‬To become dwellers in the land,‭ [‬and‭] ‬to come to know the earth fully and honestly,‭ ‬the crucial and perhaps only and all-encompassing task is to understand‭ ‬place,‭ ‬the immediate specific place where we live.‭”‬ in short Bioregionalism also seeks to respect the interconnectedness of all life.

With animism viewing the ecological environment as a greater community of persons, motivates respect for other-then-human-persons and to work with them as integral parts of a greater community rooted deeply in a place. With an understanding of animism combined with the emphasis on place, the ageless desire of humans to understand the world and their place within it breathes new life into the worldviews of those who seek a deep connection with our planet.

When I discovered the writings of Marcus McCoy,‎ ‏who coined the term Bioregional Animism I was elated.‭ ‬McCoy’s writings are simple and eloquent explanation of the place-specific worldview of animism which had been a central part of my life,‭ ‬but with a solid foundation in academic discipline.‭ ‬McCoy’s drive to share these concepts was fueled by the works of‭ ‬Harvey and‭ ‬Sale,‭ ‬and others like them,‭ ‬and he began to journal his thoughts and experiences on the Internet.‭ ‬He writes,‭ “‬Bioregional animism is a response to the need for the rediscovery and rebirth or earth embracing traditions,‭ ‬and attempts to embody the ideal slogan of thinking globally but acting locally...‭ [‬It‭] ‬attempts to form deeply intimate relationships with the life and spirit of those around us.‭” ‬McCoy’s writings drew the attention of others,‭ ‬including myself,‭ ‬who have,‭ ‬in there own way,‭ ‬came to many of the same conclusions.‭ ‬What McCoy’s writing has done,‭ ‬is give people a common language and reference point in which to share and express their own experiences and thoughts,‭ ‬giving birth to an active community forum on the Internet.

It was then that my inner-life found an outlet and was reflected more vividly in my day to day interactions with human and other-‭ ‬then-human-persons around me.‭ ‬Being motivated by the Bioregional Animism community,‭ ‬and the welcoming arms of this congregations‭’‬ own‭ ‬pagan community I felt confidant and empowered to publicly share these views as a part of the Pagan Service held at this church nearly a year ago.‭

I find it is fitting to allow other members of the greater BioRegional Animism community to describe in their own words how it has impacted their own lives.‎ ‏White Wolf says,‭ “‬To me,‭ ‬it means being in harmony with the area in which you live.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬Only when we open our heart and see these as relations,‭ ‬can we then communicate with them.‭ ‬If we only treat these as things,‭ ‬then they are but silent objects.‭” ‬Nanci comments that,‭ “‬Walking in balance with all people of creation‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬[I‭ ‬Listen‭]‬ to their sense of knowing and‭ [‬learn‭]‬ how that relates to my own sense of knowing and well being.‭ ‬Intentional mutual respect with all people allows me to maintain a balance in my own life and helps me not to enforce my will,‭ ‬but to harmonize and blend with theirs.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭” ‬Mark adds,‭ “‬For me,‭ ‬bioregional animism is getting your roots deep into where you live,‭ ‬worshipping Mother Nature just where you are‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬.‭ ‬breathing and loving your area of Creation.‭”

On the summer solstice of this year some members of the greater BioRegional Animism community,‎ ‏including myself and Marcus McCoy,‭ ‬came together for the first time near‭ ‬Bellingham‭ ‬Washington for an event known as a‭ ‬Convergence.‭ ‬For me,‭ ‬it was validating to be with others who shared the same kinds of values and worldview.‭ ‬I was endlessly impressed by the people who made the trip to be there.‭ ‬There was little anxiety and each brought with them their own inherent abilities and talents which were lent to‭ ‬the group so effortlessly and without expectation.‭ ‬It was like old friends gathering after a long time of absence.

My friend, Rogerio, who also attended said, "The convergence was life changing. The keepers of the land, welcoming and sharing, showed me an ideal of communing with the land and living in peace with all persons, past and present. . .The spontaneity and truth in the ceremonies I witnessed, the conversations I joined and keep, the intentions I intend on extending, the knowledge I need to nurture, all are slowly, deeply assimilated into my everyday actions, renewed, understood and respected, giving way to my own roots, new ways of interacting with my surroundings, the beings and powers around me.” In addition, my Friend, Kate, said that for her, “the Convergence felt like a place where we united as a Tribe, and said our vows to bring our human communities to honor all of the living past, present and unseen.”

Their words are only a brief example of the impact this experience had on those in attendance.‭ ‬I am personally grateful for the experience I shared there.‭ ‬It is with consideration of others‭' ‬words that it is important to impress that Bioregional Animism is not Native American or other Indigenous Peoples Spirituality,‭ ‬nor a Modern Pagan tradition.‭ ‬Instead,‭ ‬it is syncratic with them and other ways of life.‭ ‬Bioregional animists have many cultural,‭ ‬philosophical,‭ ‬ideological,‭ ‬and spiritual backgrounds.‭ ‬Personally,‭ ‬I have found both Bioregional Animism and Unitarian Universalism to enhance and complete each other in my own life.‭ ‬In this regards,‭ ‬Bioregional‭ ‬Animism is a vision held within the hearts and minds of those who need it,‭ ‬and offered back to the world as a gift for those who likewise need to carry such a vision.‭

Moving from Shaman to Animist Healer

2010-03-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

As many of us know the term or label Shaman has become a loaded subject, a humpty dumpty word, and a term clouded with so many personal definitions and political associations that to utilize the word is an invitation to an extremely difficult discourse. I have mentioned before the need to revisit the original etymology of the word shaman and work from there. If we closely examine the word we see that it means “ one who knows” and as I pointed out previously here and the back yard shamanry page, it would seem that the distinction is that a shaman is one who knows about the animist cosmology of their people... at least enough to be called one who knows about it!

I have been finding more and more in my dialogs with others, as well as in my thinking and writing that this loaded term may be too difficult to work with any more. It was borrowed from the Tungus people and utilized by colonialism to describe something much to vast to go under one categorized anthropological label. The very vague nature of the term has allowed it to be specific and warped by the motives of individuals that do not always carry the clearest of intentions either.

So what do we do know? What would be and adequate shift in our terminology that no longer carries with it the clouded much debated qualities this term has come to hold? Even the use of the term shamanry as apposed to shamanism, though still a helpful clarification is still such a loaded coinage that it does not allow us to communicate clearly still. Not to mention that many traditional indigenous animists have brought up their grievance with the use of the word in labeling their own cultural practices.

My proposal is simple, and straight forward allowing clarity as well as a much needed opening line to discussing the importance of animism recognition today. The shift I think we require in describing that which has been labeled “shaman” in the past is to center the term itself in animism again. The terms Animist healer or Animist visionary healer, or animist spiritual leader, depending on the context of the relational dynamic a community has with their spiritual practitioners seems to work to create more clarity over all.

Working with this terminology instead of “shaman” helps in several ways. For one it redirects our attention to animism the origin point of what has been called erroneously “shasmanism”, it communicates clearly what we mean instead of working with a vague and cloudy definition that up to as many interpretations in today’s spiritual and academic circles as there are wasps in a wasp nest. It allows people to begin to see the relationship between people and place between being a healer and being an animist ie. having a relationship with nature for the purpose of healing. It also lets go of the potential for cultural appropriation and allows for people to discover their own unique ways of relating as a healer and as an animist.

Making a shift in our language helps make a shift in our understanding as well as our perception and behavior. It is my hope and has been along with the bioregional animism project that this shift occur so that the real strength of animist healing can really come forth in the world in new yet very ancient ways. In ways that are integrated in relationships with place, spirit and community. Essentially when one is communicating to another that they are an animist healer or that they are participating in an animist healing ceremony ect. they are telling some one that they are participating in a healing ceremony that revolves around a relational ontology. That they are participating in a relationship with spirit, with place, with community both human and other than human for the well being of not just themselves but that spirit, that place, and those people, both human and other than human.

It is my hope that in perpetuating this shift we will see practices evolve out of the armchair of the neo-shamaic counselors office space but into the permacultured gardens of communities that work with the land and cultivate not only fruits but intimate communicative relationships that create abundance, health and the ability to thrive, while keeping to our values as animist people.

How many times have we heard "our people have no shamans", the term plastic shaman used, "I am a shamanic cousnelor.", "The term shaman is a cultural appropriation.", "No one would call themselves a shaman." " A shaman does this but not that.", and more? It would seem wiser to point out that if one is a animist healer that one is just that with out borrowing the word of another people or utilizing a term that has lost its way from its original etymology.

Time will tell if this catches on... it is my prayer that it does!

First Earth

2010-03-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

This movie is amazing. I want to highly recommend it to those who are interested in natural living as well as natural building. It has so much passion, and really drives you to realize the importance of taking that step into natural building.

http://www.davidsheen.com/firstearth/

To view clips of the movie see here:

http://www.davidsheen.com/firstearth/english/

Gift culture

2010-02-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

This is the point I was trying to get too with the last videos of Rojo, I had never heard of this work before it really fills in the blanks! Wonderful!
I believe gift culture may very well be the only way we as animists can interact... its integral to animism in so many ways!

this is the first video in a series found here...
http://www.youtube.com/user/CharlesEisenstein#p/u

Here is also a nice talk about the subject...
http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/gift-economics.php

Originally posted on reality sandwitch
This article is a adapted from the introduction to the upcoming book Sacred Economics. The purpose of the book is to make money and human economy as sacred as everything else in the universe. RS Backstage members will be able to ask Charles questions directly about this material during a call this Wednesday, February 4th.
Today we associate money with the profane, and for good reason. If anything is sacred in this world, it is surely not money. Money seems to be the enemy of all our better instincts, as is clear every time the thought "I can't afford to" blocks an impulse toward kindness or generosity. Money seems to be the enemy of beauty, as the disparaging term "a sellout" demonstrates. Money seems to be the enemy of every worthy social and political reform, as corporate power steers legislation toward the aggrandizement of its own profits. Money seems to be destroying the earth, as we pillage the oceans, the forests, the soil, and every species to feed a greed that knows no end.
From at least the time that Jesus threw the moneychangers from the temple, we have sensed that there is something unholy about money. When a politician seeks money instead of the public good, we call him corrupt. Adjectives like "dirty" and "filthy" naturally describe money. Monks are supposed to have little to do with it: "You cannot serve God and Mammon."
At the same time, no one can deny that money has a mysterious, magical quality as well, the power to alter human behavior and coordinate human activity. From ancient times thinkers have marveled at the ability of a mere mark to confer this power upon a disk of metal or slip of paper. Unfortunately, looking at the world around us, it is hard to avoid concluding that the magic of money is an evil magic.
Obviously, if we are to make money into something sacred, nothing less than a wholesale revolution in money will suffice, a transformation of its essential nature. It is not merely our attitudes about money that must change, as some self-help gurus and "prosperity programming" teachers would have us believe; rather, we will create a new kind of money that embodies and reinforces our changed attitudes. Sacred Economics describes this new money and the new economy that will coalesce around it. It also explores the metamorphosis in human identity that is both a cause and a result of the transformation of money. The changed attitudes of which I speak go all the way to the core of what it is to be human: they include our understanding of the purpose of life, humanity's role on the planet, the relationship of the individual to the human and natural community; even what it is to be an individual, a self. This should not be surprising, since we experience money (and property) as an extension of our selves; hence the possessive pronoun "mine" to describe it, the same pronoun we use to identify our arms and heads. My money, my car, my hand, my liver. Consider as well the sense of violation we feel when we are robbed or "ripped off," as if part of our very selves had been taken.
A transformation from profanity to sacredness in money, something so deep a part of our identity, something so central to the workings of the world, would have profound effects indeed. But what does it mean for money, or anything else for that matter, to be sacred? It is in a crucial sense the opposite of what sacred has come to mean. For several thousand years, increasingly, the concepts of sacred, holy, and divine have referred to something separate from nature, the world, and the flesh. Three or four thousand years ago the gods began a migration from the lakes, forests, rivers, and mountains into the sky, becoming the imperial overlords of nature rather than its essence. As divinity separated from nature, so also it became unholy to involve oneself too deeply in the affairs of the world. The human being changed from a living soul to a mere receptacle of spirit, a profane envelope for a sacred soul, culminating in the Cartesian mote of consciousness observing the world but not participating in it, and the Newtonian watchmaker God doing the same. To be divine was to be supernatural, non-material. If God participated in the world at all, it was through miracles -- divine intercessions violating or superseding nature's laws.
Yet, paradoxically, this separate, abstract thing called spirit is supposed to be what animates the world. Ask the religious person what has changed when a person dies, and she will say the soul has left the body. Ask her who makes the rain fall and the wind blow, and she will say it is God. To be sure, Galileo and Newton appeared to have removed God from these everyday workings of the world, explaining it instead as the clockwork of a vast machine of impersonal force and mass, but even they still needed the Clockmaker to wind it up in the beginning, to imbue the universe with the potential energy that has run it ever since. This conception is still with us today as the Big Bang, a primordial event that is the source of the "negative entropy" that allows movement and life. In any case, our culture's notion of spirit is that of something separate and non-worldly, that yet can miraculously intervene in material affairs, and that even animates and directs them in some mysterious way.
It is hugely ironic and hugely significant that the one thing on the planet most closely resembling the forgoing conception of the divine is money! It is an invisible, immortal force that surrounds and steers all things, omnipotent and limitless, an "invisible hand" that, it is said, makes the world go 'round. Yet, money today is an abstraction, at most symbols on a piece of paper, but usually mere bits in a computer. It exists in a realm far removed from materiality. In that realm, it is exempt from nature's most important laws, for it does not decay and return to the soil as all other things do, but is rather preserved, changeless, in its vaults and computer files, even growing with time thanks to interest. It bears the properties of eternal preservation and everlasting increase, both of which are profoundly unnatural. The natural substance that comes closest to these properties is gold, which does not rust, tarnish, or decay. Early on, gold was therefore used both as money and as a metaphor for the divine soul, that which is incorruptible and changeless.
Money's divine property of abstraction, of disconnection from the real world of things, reached its extreme in the early years of the 21st century as the financial economy lost its mooring in the real economy and took on a life of its own. The vast fortunes of Wall Street were unconnected to any material production, seeming to exist in a separate realm.
Looking down from Olympian heights, the financiers called themselves "masters of the universe," channeling the power of the god they served to bring fortune or ruin upon the masses, to literally move mountains, raze forests, change the course of rivers, cause the rise and fall of nations. But money soon proved to be a capricious god. As I write these words, it seems that the increasingly frantic rituals that the financial priesthood uses to placate the god money are in vain. Like the clergy of a dying religion, they exhort their followers to greater sacrifices while blaming their misfortunes either on sin (greedy bankers, irresponsible consumers) or on the mysterious whims of God (the financial markets). Soon, perhaps, we will blame the priests themselves.
What we call deflation, an earlier culture might have called, "God abandoning the world." Money is disappearing, and with it a third property of spirit, the animating force of the human realm. At this writing, all over the world machines stand idle. Factories have ground to a halt, construction equipment sits derelict in the yard. Yet all the human and material inputs to operate them still exist. There is still fuel, there are still raw materials, and there are still human beings in abundance who know how to operate the machines. It is rather something immaterial, that animating spirit, which has fled. What has fled is money. That is the only thing missing, so insubstantial (in the form of electrons in computers) that it can hardly be said to exist at all, yet so powerful that without it, human productivity grinds to a halt. It is as if God had forsaken the world. Even beyond the mechanical realm, we can see the demotivating effects of lack of money. Consider the stereotype of the unemployed man, nearly broke, slouched in front of the TV in his undershirt, drinking a beer, hardly able to rise from his chair. Money, it seems, animates people as well as machines. Without it we are dispirited.
We do not realize that our concept of the divine has attracted to it a god that fits that concept, and given it sovereignty over the earth. By divorcing the soul from the flesh, spirit from matter, and God from nature, we have installed a ruling power that is soulless, alienating, ungodly and unnatural. So when I speak of making money sacred, I am not invoking a supernatural agency to infuse sacredness into the inert, mundane objects of nature. I am rather reaching back to an earlier time, a time before the divorce of matter and spirit, when sacredness was endemic to all things.
My understanding of sacredness is secondary to my feeling of sacredness, or to put it better, to the feeling of being in the presence of the sacred. I cannot define that feeling, nor need I define it, because I am sure that you have felt it as well. In the presence of the sacred, we are moved to the very core of our being, we feel reverence and awe, humility and amazement, and a profound sense of gratitude. Even though, intellectually, I know that I am in the presence of the sacred all the time, only rarely do I actually feel its fullness. When I do, I feel like I have returned to a home that was always there and to a truth that has always existed. It can happen when I observe an insect or a plant, hear a symphony of birdsongs or frog calls, feel mud between my toes, gaze upon an object beautifully made, apprehend the impossibly coordinated complexity of a cell or an ecosystem, witness a synchronicity or symbol in my life, watch happy children at play, am touched by a work of genius. Extraordinary though these experiences are, they are in no sense separate from the rest of life. Indeed, their power comes from the glimpse they give of a realer world, a sacred world that underlies and interpenetrates our own.
What is this "home that was always there, this truth that has always existed"? It is the truth of the unity or the connectedness of all things, and the feeling is that of participating in something far greater than oneself, yet which also is oneself. In ecology, this is the principle of interdependence: that all beings depend for their survival on the web of other beings that surrounds them, ultimately extending out to encompass the entire planet. The extinction of any species diminishes our own wholeness, our own health, our own selves: something of our very being is lost. We can feel this sense of loss directly, as an emotion, as well as indirectly through the multiplying health crises of our time. This book will draw from ecology to help describe a sacred economy. For example, in the planetary ecosystem there is no such thing as waste: the waste of one creature is the food of another, creating a sacred gift circle. For an economy to be sacred, it must be the same.
If the sacred is the gateway to the underlying unity of all things, it is equally a gateway to the uniqueness and specialness of each thing. A sacred object is one-of-a-kind; it carries a unique essence that cannot be reduced to a set of generic qualities. That is why reductionistic science seems to rob the world of its sacredness, since everything becomes one or another combination of a handful of generic building blocks. This conception mirrors our economic system, itself consisting mainly of standardized, generic commodities, job descriptions, processes, data, inputs and outputs and, most generic of all, money, the ultimate abstraction. In earlier times it was not so. Tribal peoples saw each being not primarily as a member of a category, but as a unique enspirited individual. Even rocks, clouds, and apparently identical drops of water were thought to be sentient, unique beings. The products of the human hand were unique as well, bearing through their distinguishing irregularities the signature of the maker. Here was the link between the two qualities of the sacred, connectedness and uniqueness: in their uniqueness, objects retain the mark of their origin, their place in the great matrix of being, their dependency on the rest of creation for their existence.
In this book I will describe a vision of a money system and an economy that is sacred. In other words, I will describe an economy that is no longer separate, in fact or in perception, from the natural matrix that underlies it. I will describe a reunion of the long-sundered realms of human and nature. The human economy will no longer be something separate from nature; it will be an extension of nature that obeys all of its laws and bears all of its beauty, wholeness, and enchantment.
Within every institution of our civilization, no matter how ugly or corrupt, there is the germ of something beautiful: the same note at a higher octave. Money is no exception: its original purpose is simply to connect human gifts with human needs, so that we might all live in greater abundance. How instead money has come to generate scarcity rather than abundance, competition rather than sharing, is one of the threads of this book. Yet despite what it has become, in that original beauty of money we can catch a glimpse of what will one day make it sacred again. We intuitively recognize the exchange of gifts as a sacred occasion, which is why we instinctively make a ceremony out of gift-giving. Sacred money, then, will be a medium of gifting, a means to recreate the gift economy of a hunter-gatherer or village society on a planetary level. A sacred economy will be an economy of the Gift.
Sacred Economics describes this future and also maps out a practical way to get there. Long ago I grew tired of reading books that criticized some aspect of our society without offering a positive alternative. Then, I grew tired of books that offered a positive alternative that seemed impossible to reach: "We must reduce carbon emissions by 90%." Then I grew tired of books that offered a plausible means of reaching it, that did not describe what I, personally, could do to create it. Sacred Economics operates on all four levels: it offers a fundamental analysis of what has gone wrong with money; it describes a more beautiful world based on a different kind of money and economy; it explains the collective actions necessary to create that world and the means by which these actions can come about; and it explores the personal dimensions of the world-transformation, the change in identity and being that I call "living in the Gift."
The economic crisis we face today is just one of many crises that are converging upon us all at once: crises in energy, education, health, water, soil, climate, politics, and the environment. My previous book, The Ascent of Humanity, traced the origin of each to a common root, millennia old, that I call Separation. Their convergence is a birth crisis, in which we are expelled from the old world into the new. Unavoidably, these crises invade our personal lives, our world falls apart, and we too are born into a new world, a new identity. This is why so many people sense a spiritual dimension to the planetary crisis.
I dedicate all of my work to the more beautiful world our hearts tell us is possible. I say our "hearts", because our minds tell us it is not possible. Our minds doubt that things will ever be much different than experience has taught us. You may, as you read the forgoing encomium to a sacred economy, have felt a wave of cynicism, contempt, or despair. You might have felt an urge to dismiss my words as hopelessly idealistic. Indeed, I myself was tempted to tone down my description, to make it more plausible, more responsible, more in line with our low expectations for what life and the world can be. But such an attenuation would not have been the truth. I will, using the tools of the mind, speak what is in my heart. In my heart I know that an economy and society this beautiful is possible for us to create, and indeed, that anything less than that is unworthy of us. Are we so broken, that we would aspire to anything less than a sacred world?

Rojo the Back Yard Shaman Part 2

2010-02-25T16:18:00.000-08:00

Rojo The Back yard Shaman Pt. 1

2010-02-24T22:01:00.001-08:00

Living animism

2010-02-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

Cruising around online I found this video series by Brooke Medicine Eagles group. I have not really been a fan of Brooke Medicine Eagle, and she has gotten quite a bit of flack over the years by Native Americans as a cultural appropriator ect... but as the old saying goes judge people by their deeds, their actions, (unless your into the ol non-judgment thing) and in keeping that in mind I can't help but apriciate that though these folks have gotten some flack as new agey folks selling native ways, they are walking their talk. These people are living animism. Check it out, grain of salt an all that... but they are doing some good stuff. This ecovillage series that they are going to be doing is pretty interesting too.
My fiance especially loved the scene about the gypsy wagons...

Project Beyond Civilization

Posted by Earth Heart Series on Jan 25, 2008 02:02pm in the Default Category category. This post was viewed 68 times.

We are working on a New Project which is the creation of an Eco-Village from the ground up. We will be creating REALITY based/ Internet/TV show which will take 8-10 young people who come togeather for a year to build an ecovillage.
Check out BraveNewEarth.com and Ecohood.info and use the contact us link to make contact with us if your interested in supporting such a venture.

The silliness of "isms"

2010-02-17T21:41:00.000-08:00

I wrote my first post on the post paganism blog in a long time. If your interested in nature based religion and spiritual practice and have an interest in paganism, give the post paganism site a look see. I started the site originally as a bioregional paganism site, continuing the work done here to that work. Glen aka Fishbowl has been insightful enough to rename the site post paganism, and has taken on the site as his personal project. A much needed endeavor I might add! And a real hornets nest of a topic as well!
In the article I challenge some of our basic etymological assumptions on the definition of what paganism means, and attempt to encourage a clearer and more original attempt at a working definition. Which in some ways was my original desire to start a "place based" blog on the subject of the country dweller.
Take a gander, and don;t pay to much attention to my colorful speach.
http://postpaganism.blogspot.com/2010/02/silliness-of-isms.html

Bioregional Palero

2010-02-14T17:25:00.000-08:00

By Travis
originally posted on the bioregional animism tribe... in regards to a post on emerging new bioregionalist cosmologies... found here...
where there is an on going discussion on the subject...

Well, this is some of what has been going thru my head and life lately. I have been pondering why a spiritual practice seems like work, or something done at special times, or under certain circumstances. And what I have been coming to (and this is just my perspective) is that the reason for this, this disconnect, is that a large amount of our communities base their spiritual practice on something from elsewhere- their sacred and holy place is some other place- the Vatican, Jerusalem, Tibet, Africa, China, India, etc. What this does, is make you interact with an idea- someone Else's, modified by yourself to some extent. This requires calling to attention your idea or devotion. So this is something separate from your real, physical life, and thus you have a chore, or a practice. I am as guilty of this as anyone else. I have an African faith, and practice that comes from the Caribbean, I worship the sacred sticks of the forests of our religion. For years, I have had a vague, underlying nag, that there was an essential connection problem between this, my religion, and the fact that I live nowhere near the places that produce the natural medicines I worship. every year that the rain of blood happens, it becomes stronger that there needs to be some meeting of the ground. This seasonal tension leaves me needing that meeting, more each year.
So as my depression from previous circumstances is lifting, I have been getting back to consulting the original teachers again, our elders, the plant persons. Recently, spirit determined it was time for me to talk to world tree by dancing with Jaguar medicine. I am grateful to Jaguar for coming from his land to me to set my sight right again. After he cleansed me, he and my God of Leaves took turns speaking to me, addressing this issue, this issue of disconnect. What I came to see, that I was doing the right thing, but absolutely ass backwards (a common character trait of two leggeds). I have to make a connection with my sacred medicine sticks- but that connection and understanding will flow- OUTWARD- from my connection with the sacred tree persons and mountains that i actually live in, walk in, look at every day. This is the reason people have a 'practice' or a 'path'- they are connecting to an idea of what the good way is- when the good way starts with the sun rising on your face, as you stand upon your own beautiful part of the mothers body. When the recognition, and daily communing with, your very real dirt under your feet happens- it quits being a practice- it becomes the way you live your daily life- like brushing your teeth is not a chore you avoid- its part of your daily life. When you can love- deeply- the very air you breath from the very sky you behold, as you stand upon the earth, you will see the beauty that is yours to participate in. When this is part of your daily life- 'practice' and 'path' are simply the joyful way you live your life. THAT is not a chore, nor is it difficult. If you make that first and essential connection with that which is where you are, most things will be effortless.
So medicine taught me which sacred tree to begin with- here on the hill I live around. Gave me a song to intend this connection begins here. As the trees speak and have dialog with me here, the path to understanding my beloved African forest sticks, has now become one of ease. Medicine instructed me in how to begin my work here, and how it will eventually flow back to the door from which I began my journey. As I was reflecting on this, Crow, (he and i have an approach communication system) literally jumped from the sky, landed on the ground in front of me, crowed (pay attention now, you can see!) gave a jaunty flip, and hopped back into the sky. The plants in my yard have started doing strange and wonderful leaps in growth in just the last few days. Animals have been mobbing me for affection. The air has a flavor i haven't tasted since i was a boy. Reality has an odor again. These are all signs for me, of reconnecting to my essential world. So part of my way is reconnecting peoples to consulting the plant elders, and making the connection between themselves and the type of 'practice' we have, and tying here, to where we live, our own Bio-Region. Our God of Leaves speaks from all leaves of the world, so we need to listen to him here, and learn from him the lessons of relating to the sticks and leaves of this, our land now. My spirits i worship are welcome here, but for them to be practical, it is connecting and relating here, that will anchor them. after all, our religions developed out of lessons taught to ancient ancestors by our plant elders.

Note from LLB:
This is an amazing example of how bioregonal animism can be worked with... and shows that bioregional animism is not an idea, a concept or a philosophy so much as it is a way that comes from opening one self to the land and

Animist worldview Ralph Metzner

2010-02-14T16:50:00.001-08:00

Shimmer

2010-02-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

I was happy to find this on a search for bioregional animism on you tube. Thanks to phonotron!

CHa-Cha-cha-changes!

2010-02-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

Happy lunar new year everyone! I have decided to institute some changes on the site. There are new pages, and a new theme to the aesthetics, this should make the site easier and funner to use. I have also added some things I am selling to promote bioregional animism. The clothing is made of sustainable materials and its not an attempt to make money off of bioregional animism, but an attempt to support it for the sake of future projects. Which include eventually building a actual center for ceremonies and education.
Enjoy the new site and the NEW LUNAR YEAR!!!

Visual animal acoustics

2010-02-12T20:29:00.000-08:00

http://aguasonic.com/Avian/
http://www.youtube.com/aguasonic
This site is amazing!
the art of other than human persons...
wow...
And here are auqua sonic orcas!
http://www.youtube.com/aguasonic#p/u/11/qz4BV17mN8M

Greatful to have been shown this!

2010-02-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

A reader of the blog just connected me to this site.

I have been a fan of Brain Swimmes work since I first started college. My first class at Evergreen State College was a class called sacred places, which had a serius impact on me obviously! Our first text book for that class was Swimmes classic universe story.

This video is a great introduction to new cosmology.

http://www.global-mindshift.org/memes/swimmeseries/step1-2.asp?bandwidth=high_video

Swimmes work is important for people interesting in bioregional animism because it gives us an understanding of the importance of the universe story, our cosmology. Now Swimme is not an animist, but much of what he says my inspire your own animism cosmology as it has mine. In animism we see many diverse cosmo,logies interweaving with animism. We see toaist cosmologies, christian cosmologies, we see new age cosmologies, indigenous ancient cosmologies, we see islamic and buddhist cosmologies and so on. For those of us that are steeped in modern society today the work that Swimme has done to elucidate a modern cosmology may help fill in the blanks for us who are actively discovering an animist cosmological vision.

Enjoy!

Learning to live animism

2010-02-07T17:18:00.000-08:00

Over the last few years I have had an amazing opportunity to learn from some great teachers in the art of ecological living. I have met with Organic farmers who are rebuilding the soil and increasing the nutritional value of our foods, permaculturists making island paradises, community developers, ecovillagers, free clinic organizers, not to mention the spirits of plants and animals I even worked for the mad mycological scientist Paul Stamets this last year helping him make his Life Box Product! The teacher though that impressed me the most is an old mudslinging badger named Ianto Evans. Ianto is the co-author of the hand sculpted house and is one of the founders of the cob cottage company. The cob cottage company is the closest thing I have ever come to seeing Hobbiton in the real world. The cob cottage company is a cob school and environmental living research village, at least that's what I would call it. A community based on education, natural ethics and simplicity.

My first visit to the cob cottage company was a few years ago with my partner Katie. We did not have much money but they offered a very interesting proposition, come work with us for a weekend and we will give you a place to stay, food and some education. This sounded great and it was. Ianto and Linda his partner are amazing teachers and hosts. We learned ways to work effectively, ways to live cheaply, we learned that its safe to put your head in a composting toilet and take a big ol wiff, as Ianto demonstrated! Ianto has a teaching method that is holograpahic in nature, showing the systemic relationships between actions and aspects of life that is becoming a revolution in thought among those who wish to see solutions in the world today. While sitting and eating food made from Iantos garden and from dumpster diving Ianto spoke to us about the importance of feeling the connection with ones food, knowing that in a natural system there is no such thing as waste, and that our feces was being transformed into the biomass that we where now eating. He shared with us the ecological and ethical wisdom of being a part of a natural cycle.

Every lesson and every aspect of life Ianto touched upon brilliantly demonstrated being a part of this natural cycle, these natural systems. It had become very evident that I had found a teacher that could show me how to live as an animist. At one point in the work weekend a wind fallen tree was needed from the forest. It was to be used as a central roofing beam for a new house they would be building during the next workshop. Ianto gathered us into the forest and we looked down at this tree. It was huge and curved like a bow, and there was no way I thought we where getting it out of there. Ianto taught us how to lift the tree and move it together as a team, while also teaching us a very valuable lesson about community. When we worked together with skill and care in doing so, the tree was light and easy to move. We could accomplish what we needed to accomplish so that we could live ethically and healthfully within our environment and with each other. Like wise was the lesson and philosophy of natural building in general, it is meant to empower individuals as well as communities to be able to not profit off of each other but to help each other live well. There was in my mind no more a powerful teaching method then lifting that tree out of the woods with such ease. I saw very clearly that if I wanted to live as an animist this analogy of working in community not with just humans but other than humans was going to have to be applied consistently. That without this basic way of relating I would not get off the tredmill of modern wage slavery and unethical living.

Ianto taught about the advent of the myth of living in a sterile home, of how we no longer allow nature into our homes and how that originated as a method for companies to sell more soap many years ago.

He taught us to be clever to recycle reuse and scavenge at one point showing us his logger costume he uses to get into the mill down the street so he can salvage jungle hard woods they burn and never resell. All the while expressing the importance of the natural ethics of these actions.

He taught us the importance of building with the earth with the soil and doing so in relationship to the sky, to the sun. His emphasis on passive solar design was like listening to the mythopoetic oral traditions of ancient sun worshiping peoples. If you built your home within a passive solar design using insulation on walls that received no sun exposer and heat absorbing earthen walls on the sides that do, you consume less resources to heat your house. In doing so you are once again living within a natural system intelligently and ethically.

A few years later I returned to the cob cottage company for a work shop on building rocket stoves. Rocket stoves are a type of wood stove that releases no smoke but mostly steam and maximizes fuel consumption and heat production. it is the most ecologically healthy and socially responsible way to heat your home I have ever seen. If you are building with cob its almost essential to build a rocket stove into your walls or to heat a nice cob bench or bed frame with. This was a week end class dedicated to fire, to heat,to warming ourselves. We learned the physics of fire from Ianto and his assistants. We also had an opportunity to learn how to drop out of the socio-econimic traps that keep us in a system that does not respect life and live within the boundaries of natural ethics.
I could not afford the class so I drove down one of the teachers who just so happened to be in my area, he helped pay for gas which helped me to arrive at the workshop, I could not afford to pay for the class and so my parents who live near the Cob Cottage Company traded some old windows Ianto needed so I could go. The entire weekend through the wisdom of mutual reciprocity allowed me to work off and gain all of the education I needed without spending a dime. This taught me that there is no excuse for not living this way out side of personal apathy and ignorance. While Driving Max, the co-facilitator for the class , I had an opportunity to talk with him about the other class they teach there called getting of the tred mill. My life at the time was in turmoil because of how I was living and working. Max encouraged me to live more communally because it reduces the cost of living and to live simply buy only what we really need, and working first and for most to reduce and rid ourselves of debt. When you no longer have debt you are free to live a life of simplicity.

I learned quite a bit from these people, way more then just learning how to build a natural built cob house, because learning to build a cob house is involves community, living in simplicity, growing your own food and much much more. To me these ways of relating are the life ways of animists. I would very much like to encourage all of you to visit the cob cottage company and learn from them while these teachers are with us.
A current list of workshops can be found here and I encourage every one who wishes to learn valuable skills on how to live as an animist, to attend the off the tred mill class.

Off The Treadmill!

Start Date:

Mar 26 2010

End Date:

Mar 28 2010

Location:

Coquille, OR

Cost:

$240

Accommodations:

Includes all meals, camping is available free of charge

Registration, Discounts and Related Information:

http://www.cobcottage.com/registration

Instructors:

Ianto Evans, Linda Smiley & Guests

Description:

"A life-changing weekend! Possibly the most valuable investment you could ever make. For people who pay too much rent or mortgage, who work too much or feel money is scarce. Life is brief, don’t waste it doing things that are uninspiring, ugly or at odds with your conscience. A weekend of practical tools, techniques and tips from lifetime experts. This will transform your life! This course will include financial advice, philosophical insights as well as hands-on experience of practical skills for improving self-reliance. Possible practicals include home heating, car maintenance, starting a food garden, bread making, etc. plus a tour of the dozen cob and natural buildings on site. Don't miss this one! 15 people only"

BRA on Wikipedia?

2010-02-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

BRA is looking for some one who knows how to work with Wikipedia to make a site there for Bioregional animism. I am willing to work with any one who would be game. It would be great to see it up there. There is also a need for the addition of new animism on Wikipedia.
Contact me here if your up to it!

"What about us?"

2010-02-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

When I was very young I would have breakfast and look out across the field from the kitchen window and I could see in the early morning mist our local herd of Elk having breakfast with me. Grazing in the field along side our cattle. It was awe inspiring even as a child.
One day a neighbor and his friends received permission to exterminate the entire herd. There where never any Elk in our woods or field after that day. Never again did I see them, for they left no survivors so the herd could carry on.
When I was older, an adolescent, we hiked above Golden Silver falls. A mile past the top of one of the falls was a valley with a long abandoned orchard around it. Around the base's of old apple trees I found many elk bones, and in the middle of the valley was a heard of Elk who must have lived there in that valley since the last ice age. This was there home...
I walked out into the middle of the field and the Elk got spooked. Instead of running away from me, they charged. I stood perfectly still and they ran past me as I stood in the middle of their stampeding herd. It was incredible. To smell them and feel the rush of the wind off their bodies as they charged past me.
This valley took on a nearly mythical character for me, it inspired me so much I think it actually led me towards the study of nature based religions. I went back there 5 years later to find that the entire forest around the valley had been clear cut and a large muddy logging road had been carved right through the middle of the field. Many years earlier, before I was born, a man had homesteaded there and had died in a gun fight with men who where attempting to poach the Elk. They burnt down his cabin, there was nothing left but the apple trees he had planted which fed the Elk. There was nothing left, the trees the apple orchard, the bones, the Elk... all gone.

A few years later I returned to my families cabin after a long absence. A friend of mine and I had made a rock medicine wheel behind the house in a little clearing. I went back to give offerings there and to meditate. As I walked through the woods, I found that the spot was gone... and so was the forest. The entire hill was clear cut, nothing was left but stumps piles of timber, an axe and a bulldozer. I was enraged... I picked up the axe and had my vengeance on the bulldozer.
As I grew up my interest in shamanry grew, my interest in spirituality and transpersonal psychology grew, as did my interest in entheogens. As I worked with entheogens more and more I became more and more focused on personal healing and growth, to focused. At some point self improvement and even healing work can be a self centered and totally narcissistic endeavor.
Sitting in my friends living room working with the medicine of the night, the room had transformed into a valley superimposed on the room itself. A Deer appeared next to me and walked into the space that I occupied, sharing the same space as my head. I harmonized with this Deer allowing it to move my head and use my thoughts to communicate with me. "What about us?" It said to me.
My healing and personal growth and my interest in "shamanism" at the time as it had been presented to me in modern day neo-shamanism had provided for me a narcissistic and humanistic disconnect from the natural world. It was unintigrated with how I lived my life. I became aware that the way I lived my life perpetuated the loss I saw as a younger man and as a child in the natural world. Habitat and lives completely destroyed that would never be the same again.
How was I living my healing? Animism had not even begun to enter my mind at the time, I was too focused on "shamanism" and my own personal healing and growth as well as others, but I had forgotten the other than human persons. The Deers spirit let me know right there and then that not only did I have to commit myself to protect, heal and serve the lives of humans but all of life, all of nature, all persons. I committed myself to that moment, and from that point bioregional animism began to form. I saw that this was the next stage of my healing and growth, because I was a part of this place and a part of these other than human persons as well. I saw that it was not only just about me but also not just about my species.

This is where I feel bioregional animism reaches out past the marketed neo-shamanic work shops and the spiritual tourism to other lands, not to mention the office space of the "shamanic therapist". It shows us that our relationship with place, how we relate to place has an impact on that place and ALL of the persons of that place as well as other places. It encourages responsibility in how we live our lives, and empowers us to tread lightly on the Terra. In this way bioregional animism as a place based practice helps us ground and center our spiritual practice in place, in the soil beneath our feet and helps us look around to our immediate surroundings, not just the up and out that so many practices ungrounded and centered in place encourage.

As an exercise, stop for a moment and recollect moments where you have interacted with nature in your past, make a list of these moments. Now find out or ask what has happened to these other than human persons, these places since then. Take a look out how you live, take a step back and look at the relationships, the interconnectedness of events, how your actions participate in the destruction of people and places, and see also which actions do not. What changes could you make? What actions could you take, how can you live as an animist giving respect to your relations? This is the grounding and centering of BRA, it is not a creative visualization of being one with the earth. It is action, it is changing the way you live to match that which you know, what you believe in. It is animism in action. Keep in mind that by doing so as an animist you have help from those relationships you make with the land and with human as well as other than human persons that wish like you to live in a healthy world. This does not have to be your lone stand. We are one and just knowing that helps us to be well.

Addendum: Ironically and tragically the day after writing this I was driving past one of my old work places. Behind the house I worked in for a year was a side hill with a nice stand of timber on it, a very healthy forest. This forest was my co-author, my teacher and my confidant. I would sit with tobacco and tune into the spirit of the forest and ask it to help me round out how to communicate bioregional animism to others. I could literally feel this forest guiding my thoughts and feelings. So much of how people know bioregional animism now comes through the synergy of my spirit mingled with the spirit of that side hill. This forest is now gone, laid barren, clear cut and wasted. Bioregional animism was this forests final breath.

"A brief additional note about Hallowell's phrase "other than human persons"

2010-01-25T12:46:00.001-08:00

From Graham Harveys Web Page on Animism

"A brief additional note about Hallowell's phrase "other than human persons"
I'm not alone in finding Hallowell's phrase - rooted in his learning from the Ojibwa of Beren's River - powerful, evocative and invaluable. However, although it is clearly a vast improvement over phrases like 'non-human' or 'superhuman', it might not be entirely accurate. Hallowell's phrase might intervene detrimentally between the members of Ojibwe clans (totems), which are interspecies kin groups (i.e. given associations of human and other-than-human persons such as beavers or bears). It might suggest that all humans are alike in a way that is not clear in these clan relationships. If the Ojibwe are Anishinaabeg, 'persons', they might question whether other humans, even other indigenous humans, are 'persons' in the same, fully relational, way. Similarly, Amazonian 'persons' might include jaguars and anacondas before it includes the humans down the road. If the term 'person' is relational and key to the whole project of animism, it is also contested by the possibility of non-relationship. If the Jivaro are not 'persons' to the Wari but anacondas are (as might be the case, I'm not sure), then Hallowell's phrase needs care. Just as Europeans wondered about the humanity of most (?) of the 'others' they encountered in their colonial expansion, so indigenous peoples often privilege the personhood of themselves in contrast to the less certain or decidedly negative status of their 'others'.
This is not a rejection of Hallowell's phrase, nor a new thought, but a refinement of a point already made by Hallowell and others who've found the phrase useful. That is, the phrase is necessarily relational: it is only useful in conversation with other humans. If there are human- and other-than-human persons there are also eagle- and other-than-eagle persons. But IF, and this is the point, some humans are uncertain about the personhood of some other humans, then perhaps we need to drop the word 'human' and talk instead about specific Ojibwe- and other-than-Ojibwe persons ...
Nonetheless, to resonate with comments I've already made in my book (albeit briefly), the chief value of Hallowell's phrase is in teaching us to pause each time we say 'person' and wonder if we are unduly privileging humans. I remain unconvinced by those who have tried to persuade me (in the nicest possible way, usually) that 'person' IS a primarily a reference to humans and only works as a projection or by extension to animals and so on. I continue to think that 'person' means a relational being, or a being who is relating, an actor or agent in communicative encounters with other beings who respond, sometimes reciprocally, sometimes violently, but always relationally. If 'person' means this (well, I insist that it does, but I'm a fan of Humpty Dumpty linguistics) then it only refers to humans when they/we are actively relating too. 'Person' does not refer to interiority (as the devotees of Western epistemology and ontology might assert) but to relationality."

Whats a relational ontology any way?

2010-01-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

Whats a relational Ontology?

Well bioregionalism we can look up and get kinda an idea of what this guys talking about... but whats animism?
Look it up online and you will get the old definition of animism, which is outdated and inaccurate and down right offensive to animists. wrought with colonial ideologies and misconceptions, not to mention cultural projections. Well you could wiki animism or even new animism which is partially what BRA's frame work of relating to animism works with... but your not going to find it. You used to be able to find mentions of new animist authors and academics, but they have been edited out sadly.
So where do we find a good recent and accurate definition of what animism actually is outside of interviewing animists themselves, we have to seek Graham Haverys Dictionary on shamanism actually to find the definition. This is a spendy book, and I suggest that instead you just look at the side bar of this blog... the definition is right there for your convenience, as well as mine.
But for redundancies sake lets post it right here again....

New Animism defined
New Animism:
"Arguably the proper label for the type of religion practiced among traditional indigenous people who employ shamans. Rather then being "shamanists" or adherents of "shamanism," these people may be usefully named "animists." While the term was coined by Edward Tylor ( a founder of the discipline of anthropology) to define the essence of religion as 'the belief in spirits" and has played a significant role in theories about the origins of religion, it is used here in a new way. The old theory of animism alleged that indigenous people and the earliest human ancestors had made a mistake in believing in spirits. The new theory, associated with Nurit Bird-David, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Signe Howell, and others, sees animism as a relational ontology-the recognition that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human. In Irving Hallowell's terms, there are human persons and other-then-human-persons, including rock persons, tree persons, cloud persons, and perhaps "spirit persons."Animist worldviews and life ways make it necessary for there to be shamans because (1) humans are relatively weak and need to seek help ( in the form of knowledge, healing, or defense) from more powerful other-then-human-persons and (2) humans often offend other-then-human-persons and need mediators in order to restore respectful relationships. In this context, shamans may be defined as those persons trained and skilled at working for their community when it is necessary to seek help from or reconciliation with the wider community of life. In turn, as Graham Harvey has argued, animism makes shamans both possible and necessary because their roles are about dealing with the problems of the living world."from:Graham Harvey and Robert J Wallis : Historical Dictionary of Shamanism

This definition is fairly straight forward, utilizing simple as well as complex concepts to describe the natural phenomena we find within human societies and individuals known to us as being animist.

But lets clarify some of the terminology here. What is meant by a relational ontology? Sounds a little confusing, like the inner language of some academic philosophical cabal. Well it is! So don't feel bad if it flew right past you! The above definition really articulates what this means however. Animism's purest most simple definition is that it is a relational ontology. An ontology is a way a people or a person views the world, a more accurate definition of ontology is : branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being.
Or :

The branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being.
(countable, philosophy) The theory of a particular philosopher or school of thought concerning the fundamental types of entity in the universe.
2000, C.D.C. Reeve, Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle's Metaphysics, Hackett Publishing, p. 97,
The answer to the controversial question of whether Aristotle's ontology includes non-substantial particulars, then, is that it does.
(logic) A logical system involving theory of classes, developed by Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939).
(computer science, information science) A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.

Lets work with these two as they are the most accurate.

"The branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being."
"The theory of a particular philosopher or school of thought concerning the fundamental types of entity in the universe. "

Now a relational ontology can be looked at in a few different ways, the types of enties in the universe are our relations is one way of looking at it, another is that everything in the universe is due to relationships, everything is interconnected, interwoven, one, everything can relate to us and we can relate to every"thing" as a one. It is the notion that we are not the only entities in the universe that relate, and establish and maintain relationships. If we do it then it is a quality that the universe possesses. Now Harvey puts it very well when he points out that animist people believe in "the recognition that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human." This is the most perfect definition of animism, of what a relational ontology is.

Now how does this relate to Bioregional animism and its unique stance on the subject. Bioregional animism points out that the land is a person and that we are a part of or one with that person, we are a part of its family, the mind or consciousness of that bioregion or life place is our mind as well as spirit and its body is our body. This can go macro to micro as well with the Earth and cosmos to individual communities and even ecosystems and even totems for example. Bioregional animism is unique in that way. We are the land dancing, we are place. As bioregional animisms we learn to identify as the life place and allow it to move and guide us while embracing our own unique expression and identity. Bioregional animism is unique in that each expression of bioregional animism is unique to the co-creativity of people and place. It will look different within communities that inhabit the same bioregion. Why? Because it is based on relationships, on how one relates and how one is related to. This is what I call a relational dynamic, which is changing and a co-creative expression of a people or person and place (also a person).

I hope that this cultivates some thought as well as clarity.

Bless and be blessed

LLB

benevolent and malevolent trees

2009-12-13T14:09:00.001-08:00

I had an experiencing with the spirits of trees many years ago that really reminded me of this story. This is a great blog and a great example of animism within the traditions of fairy.

Waking the Dead

2009-11-15T16:06:00.003-08:00

What type of relationships do we develop with those who have passed on today?
In many traditions ancestors and the spirits of the dead are a source of misfortune fear and sickness in other traditions they are a source of healing, guidance, and protection. How can we develop life affirming and death honoring relationships with those who are dead today? Come and join us in the discovery and development of those relationships.
Location: The Hall Of The Woods 3712 Sapp Rd. S.W. Olympia Wa. 98511
Time: 6-8 pm, Dec. 13th
The class will include a group discussion and lecture as well as methods for developing communicative relationships with our ancestors.
Registration, please contact littlelighteningbolt@fungi.com or just show up!
There is a minimum donation of 5 dollars, refreshments will be provided...
Brought to you by the Center for Bioregional Animism

Cultivating relationships with our ancestors gives us a tremendous advantage in life and someday in death. The development of communicative relationships with our ancestors gives us access to their wisdom and guidance through out our daily lives as well as helps us to gain a deeper perspective on the nature of life and death.
The fear and ignorance of death as well as spirit can create many problems in our lives, how were late to death and to spirit has a direct reflection on our relationship to life. In this class we will discover ways of developing our senses so that we can develop our relationships with life. The development of various forms of Clairsentience, Clairaudience, claircognizance, and telepathic awareness aid in communication with spirit. Many cultures have developed many ways to develop these inaite human sensitivities in safe and responsible as well as humble ways.
We will discuss these practices as well as discuss ways of developing these practices.

"Let there be no doubts that I am the assemblage of our ancestors, the arena in which they exercise my moments. They are my cells and I am their body."- Frank Hurbert, DUNE

This is the first of an ongoing series of classes brought to you by the center for bioregional animism. Next in the line up will be Deity Yoga, Guru Yoga, and the Phenomena of the Tutelary spirit, that which guides and teaches you. This class will be focused on looking not at yogic traditions specifically but at the commonality of traditions around the world from Christianity to Nepalese shamanic practices. We will be looking deeply at how learning and personal growth can come from trance possession and the embodiment of deities, tutelary spirits, teachers, and so forth. This brings us to the third class which is an introduction to animism as well as shamanry showing how relational ontology ie. animism shapes synergistic ways of working with nature and its sentience to create health and well being. Our forth in the series will be focused primarily on bioregional animism, and the cultivation and embracing of relationships with the land beneath our feet and all of the sentient beings that embody that land. Practical methods of communion with the land and the other than human persons that embody place will be shared and discussed all in the hopes of cultivating community with where we are.
We are looking forward to working with you!

Shamanry vs Shamanism

2009-10-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

on the note of defining key terms...
Lets look at then suffix after the world shaman.... ism... this designates that the term shaman is a belief system. Indeed is is not a belief system and there never was of will be a real shamanism. Which is quite the thing to say in the face of multiple books, workshops, and new age mystics talking about it, even college text books... but there is no such thing as shaman'ISM'. There are animists and there are shamans... but I want to get to that in a second...
The etymology of the word shaman means some one who knows... whats the difference between one who knows about basket weaving and the one who knows about say spirits and the cosmology of their people. They are both ones who know... but the basket weaver is not going to be called a shaman. So what do we mean when we say that someone is one who knows? What we are talking about is that someone knows perhaps more then us about life as an animist.
the term shamanism has in some ways really held us back. It has prevented us from seeing the forest from the trees... we see shamans instead of the cultures and belief systems they emerge from. We see them divorced from animism. In honesty we cannot have shamans with out animism, for an shaman is one who knows much or enough to be said they know some something ( and any one that knows more then you is an expert) about being an animist!

In some ways this demystify's the role of shaman a bit, it also rids us of the notion that the role of shaman is a belief system and redirects our attention from the bells and bone whistles to the actual belief system that shamans participate in.it also places animism as well as knowing much about animism into our laps... this to me is empowering, and takes us out of the fraudulent messiness we have found ourselves in with silly new age neo-shamanism and disjointed psychotheraputic practices. We can all be one who knows as much as we motivate ourselves to know, and those that know more become teachers, guides and helpers. Knowing this allows us to cultivate our own relationship dynamics with nature and spirit, life and death, and inspires creativity, co-creating new emergent forms of being in "relationship" with life. We can find inspiration from other animist, learn from those that know more then we do about their own relationship, but seeing full well that our relationship is ultimately very much up to us to create, cultivate, and nurture.
This also places the relationship in our hands... and right "smack" in front of us, as they say. If animism is a relational ontology and shamans are those that know much about relational ontology then we can see that there cannot be a lack of relationship between this cosmology and its integration in how we live our lives... weekend warriors and office space practitioners of shamanic arts in the middle of the urban landscape don't make as much sense as they once did, the relationships seem unstable and shaky and ineffectual.
You start want to have a relationship with your food, with your housing, and clothing... all of the other than human persons that give you life and a sense of meaning and purpose have a relationship with us... taking the 'ism' out of shamanism forces us to take a deper harder look at those relationships.
It is perhaps the need to do just that that draws modern western minds to shamans and animists, and why we find people rediscovering that one can just be an animist by developing respectful relationships with life again. They don't need to culturally appropriate or imitate the relationships of others to be an animist. They do not need workshops and sage burning gurus and they don't need to line the pockets of coyotes to establish these relationships if they don't want to.
Some academics have pointed at shamanry as being a better coinage for the work of a shaman or "animist that knows much about being an animist". I prefer this word. It makes a good point... since when has there been carpenter-ism, teacher-ism, dentist-ism and doctor-ism. Because the word shaman is etymologically unknown to many folks... it would only make sense that we would botch this one up fairly good. My hope though is that we begin to see the difference between shamanry and shamanism, the interconnected relationship between shamans and animists and we start being able to cultivate a more grounded and integrated shamanry and animism then what the new age profiteers and misled academics have provided us...
http://backyardshamanry.blogspot.com/
http://www.bioregionalanimism.com/

Lessons From The Colombia Plateau

2009-08-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

(This is a sermon I gave for a local Unitarian Universalist congregation)

The most common definition of animism is the belief of spirits inhabiting animals, plants, and inanimate objects. However, this is an over simplification based upon western-colonial concepts. Animism, is being re-evaluated by many in the fields of comparative religion and anthropology. A new understanding is surfacing. In the writings of Graham Harvey, he explains that animism is not the projection of human qualities upon objects. He argues that these old ideas are outdated. On the contrary, animism is and absence of the idea that humans are superior and/or separate from the living world. Animism relates to the world as a community of people, only some of whom are human. By relinquishing our dominion over the rights, and consideration of person-hood, the world is no longer a collection of resources for consumption, but is seen as a delicate web of relationships.

The center of experience, sentience, conscience, awareness and life is the immediate surroundings we interact with on a daily basis; it is our life-place. It is logical that the center of our life traditions are likewise the life-place. This is one of the lessons of Bioregional Animism, and can be found within the foundations of people around the world, with Moses on Mt Sinai, Jesus in Gethsemane, the Greek gods on Mt Olympus, or the Ganges River flowing from the head of Shiva. These are all physical places with deep spiritual meaning embedded within the lives of the people. If one wishes they can visit these places today; however, one does not need to seek pilgrimage to distant lands but can find sacred places all around them. Even in the most populated and urban of cities we can look underneath the cement, asphalt, pavement, concrete, steel, and in between the cracks of modernization to find the most sacred of places.

The stories I am going to tell may seem fantastical to some, but to an animist the world is a fantastical place. We revel in it, and rejoice in it. Even though at times we may fear it's sheer size, power, and force, we respect it. Stories are a powerful communication device in animist traditions. It is my belief that new stories and new oral traditions need to emerge in order to teach how to relate to the other-then-human and human people, and rediscover the sacredness of our life-places. This is why many of us are compelled to share our stories. Because, in so doing the land is expressing itself.

This summer my grandfather passed away at the end of the semester. In a rush I drove down to Rupert Idaho near the banks of the Snake River, where I was born. On all sides of my family, several generations called that region home. My grandfather had spent almost all of his 90 plus years along the Snake River Plain. He diligently farmed the land, married, and raised four daughters. My family moved upriver a few years after my birth. Many times in my adulthood I have left the Snake River behind; however, my friend has drawn me back too many times too count. I could see how interconnected that river has become in my family's lives and history and in my own life. In that moment I felt my grandfather like I hadn't felt before. He was in the air, the river, songs of birds, the baking sun, the trees, and in the farmland. I realized with many of my immediate ancestors who spent most of their lives along the Snake River Plain, that it was an ancestral home to me -- Much closer in space, time, and heart then England, Scotland, Germany, or Russia. I found a new understanding for the power of life-place.

As i rediscovered the sacredness of the Snake River Plain, I thought about my new home where the Snake and Clearwater find union. I thought back upon the lessons it has shared with me and on the relationship I have developed over two years of being here. The Colombia Plateau has been known among the tribal people for its power of dreams and songs. I have discovered this power on a personal level. Since moving here, prayer and ceremony have come back into my life.

On the autumn equinox two years ago, I was driving randomly, as I often get the intuition to do so. I ended up driving through the town of Orofino, Idaho and I kept on going. After several miles I wondered if I should head back towards the Clearwater, or head north. I heard Raven caw. I looked in time to see him take flight north. I interpreted this to mean I was to follow. A few more miles, and had seen Raven again, perched on a sign for a sportsmen access. I took the dirt road to the small reservoir, and a fawn leaped along side me for several yards, letting me know I was going in the right direction.

I came to the reservoir where a few locals where fishing. I noticed a trail that followed along the rim of the reservoir and walked until I came to a clearing that had been partially clear-cut an d burned. The trail took me away from the reservoir. The usual casual chatter of the forest was around me, cicadas, songbirds, the wind. I heard Raven caw again, I looked up to see him circling above me. I sat down on a fallen tree trunk and cawed back contentedly (caw ca-caw c aw). Naturally he spoke back, and I spent an hour engaged in conversation with Raven. Often times, these kinds of conversation are not immediately understood. It takes me time to contemplate the experience and find the hidden nuances in the interaction.

Living in the Colombia Plateau, I have learned how friction can be deliberated to bring forth desired change. The forest fire, is an example. Many trees parish in the fire. By clearing the foliage and old growth new growth is allowed to breath. I have learned to listen to instinct, intuition, and inspiration, and that they are the same language in which the living world communicates and deliberates. we are a voice among many voices in a diverse community of life, but often our kind talk t oo load and can only hear our own voices .

Living in the LC valley I have found my self more rooted in this Unitarian Universalist community. When at all possible, I make a point to travel so I can participate and be a part of this community. These travels between here and there have given birth to other conversations and experiences. There is a definite shift between the valley an d the Palouse. The warm weather of Lewiston often contrasts with Moscow, when it is lightly raining, you may be snowed in up here. I can feel the transition into two places as I drive up and down the Lewiston grade. It is not a sudden transition, but a gradual one.

All of this place was once a giant sea bed, with the formations of hills through the collection of blown dirt, and the shifting eart h due to volcanic activity forming the basalt and hills that shapes this life-place. Mighty forces of the living world deliberated to give us fertile ground. However, 99% of the native vegetation of the Palouse have been destroyed by Agro-Industry. Lewiston was once known as Siminikum (the Nez Perce word meaning confluence), before the coming of the humans it was the place for deliberation between the animal people. Now Lewiston has a strange odor and feel to it, which I have never entirely become accustom to. However, both pl aces have become valuable teachers to me an d have shared with me their stories. They have shown me how their stories run through my story like a current.

The LC Valley has taught me, more then an y other place, that regardless of man-made adaptations to the land, there is always a sacred place to be honored and respected. The Palouse has shown me how to heal within adversity and pain. The Wallowa region of Oregon has opened me up to my dreams. Through its great wine, The Colombia Valley of Washington has reminds me to be joyful.

Graham Harvey said, “Animists are more pragmatic than romantic and know that people of different kinds eat one another. [. . .] Rules about eating, or those concerned with the proper treatment of animal and plant bodies, are important ways in which animist respect is worked out, even in the case of killing or taking life.” In other words, We know that frightened and hurt people often lash out. We know that not all people mean well. We know that community requires great compromise. We are careful about our relationships and strive to be mindful of how fragile life is. We strive to respect our relationships. We also know that we are people too, and people falter, and forget things, and do not always act in each others best interest, and do not always understand the ramifications of our actions.

In my own life animism, brings the first principle of Unitarian Universalism, "To respect and affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person" full circle with the last, "To respect and affirm the interconnected web of all existence." As an animist and a UU these are but one principle, and expands the concept of a person to include all the connecting points on the web of existence. I will not go into the logistic differences between animist traditions and what is considered a person, this is beyond the scope of this speech. However, Bioregional Animism relates to the very ecology of where we live as being a person itself, seeing the web as a person, and that we are that person, and that person is the land. Think about this, when you step outside and breath the air and look upon the beautiful landscape that is your life-place.

Glen "Fishbowl"
August 9th, 2009

Grey breath

2009-06-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Grey breath rising,

swirling in the tree tops.

Pneuma, vital breath, spirit.

You are silent, but you speak to my eyes and my heart

feels your edges dissipate to nothing.

You tell me of where we have been

and how the forest breaths new life.

I am forever drawn to you...

knowing that the disappearing parts of you are in the process

of becoming

that which i do not yet know,

of self,

and the delicate mystery that surrounds and composes me.

I breath you in...

and as I exhale

I lend you my voice.

A Land Prayer

2009-06-06T22:03:00.000-07:00

The following is a prayer inspired by the entrainment exercise

I drink the waters of khaos, and I am given love
I slip under its current, and its thoughts are my own
the cycle of life is turned
I am khaos

I grew from the land, nourished by khthon
my bones are made from the ancestors,
the soil is rich with their wisdom and memories
I am khthon

I breath in the air and khora sees through my eyes,
moving my feet and moving my mind and moving my heart
the land is my skin and the air is my breath
I am khora

you are khaos
you are khthon
you are khora

we are chaos
we are khthon
we are khora

The reference to khaos (chaos) is from the Greek creation narrative, as with Khora being the landscape and spirit of place it self, and Khthon being the soild and underworld.

Bioregional Animist Entrainment

2009-03-04T12:42:00.000-08:00

Find a wild place...
Stand there... relax... open up... heighten your alertness and awareness... feel... sensitize... breath... pay Attention...
BE receptive and responsive most importantly...
Feel the air move around your hands... your hands and face... the skin is so sensitive... you can feel even the Slightest movements of air around your face and hands... allow those currents of air to move you... follow them... There is a moving stream of consciousness... of spirit that is the intelligence of space, the spirit of place the mind Of place... this is who you are. its a part of all that is... but its still localized here and now all around you and under Your feet....
Open your self up to this... be thins... embody this spirit of place... surrender as an offering the delusion that you Are separate entities... and just allow yourself to be this place AS WELL as YOU. you can do it.... its easy if you Try...
Your flesh and bones is its body... your mind is its mind... there's just one... allow it to move you... relax... Breath... feel... allow the feelings to move and guide you... trust... relax...feel the tensions and the resistances in Your body... scan for them... feel them emotionally and with thought... identify them... they are resistances to this Guidance... why are they there... what are you afraid of? surrender for a moment...
There is a stream of warm clear water flowing over smooth stones... slip into it... this is what its like... just slip in... Tune your self, resonate... think of it in what ever way you need... sing a song that is in tune with the voice of the Place, dance a pattern that is a pattern of the place, drum or rattle a rhythm that is the rhythm of the place... you Are Entraining your mind and body to be one with this place that you are... find a way.. ask for a way... this mind Of your after all and this voice after all is the voice of the wild place you find your self in...
Listen... pay attention... remember... be receptive and responsive...
You feel it... its moving you... its guiding you... there is no it no you... the difference, whats between has blurred, There is now a synergy... a new awareness... you are that which is guiding you and what is guiding you is you... This is synergy...
This is it... this is bioregional animism...
It's not just a combination of bioregionalism and animism.
It's not an idea... a belief... or a concept...
It's a felt reality...
An Expereince you can have...
Be where you are...
Go out side...
Breath...
Be receptive and responsive...
Breath... move... feel... be...

The Entrainment

Transformation Principle

"A physics phenomenon of resonance, first observed in the 17th century, has an effect on all of us. Entrainment is defined as the tendency for two oscillating bodies to lock into phase so that they vibrate in harmony. It is also defined as a synchronization of two or more rhythmic cycles. The principle of entrainment is universal, appearing in chemistry, pharmacology, biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, astronomy, architecture and more. The classic example shows individual pulsing heart muscle cells. When they are brought close together, they begin pulsing in synchrony. Another example of the entrainment effect is women who live in the same household often find that their menstrual cycles will coincide.

Discovery of Entrainment.

The history of entrainment is linked to Dutch scientist, Christian Huygens in 1665. While working on the design of the pendulum clock, Huygens found that when he placed two of them on a wall near each other and swung the pendulums at different rates, they would eventually end up swinging in at the same rate. This is due to their mutual influence on one another."

The process of Entrainment has been noted in transpersonal psychology and has been worked with in neoshamanic circles as well as in work with the manipulation of consciousness by various means. Entrainment is indeed universal "appearing in chemistry, pharmacology, biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, astronomy, architecture and more." It is a phenomena within nature, and a common one at that... synchronization and synergy are also ways of looking at the product of Entrainment. Entrainment can be consciously produced via many practices spiritually, and it would be my argument that many animist practices of altering consciousness are aimed at some sort of Entrainment in general. Doing this practice as described above aids one in getting a much deeper understanding of bioregional animism. Being able to feel the land as part of ones self and to be able to feel that the land feels you as a part of its self is basically the root experience of Bioregional animism. I created this practice in the hope that more people would be able to actually feel and experience bioregional animism out side of it just being an idea for them. Please feel free to post your experiences with the practice...

A bioregional animist film by Rogerio

2009-01-18T19:22:00.000-08:00

"Many mistakes I have made... still do. But I realize now that breathing is a gift that can be shared, nurtured and grown. Enjoying to do so, means I still have the strength to give something back to Earth before I surrender my body to her as final offering."
-Rogerio

It is my honor to present this art and message.......

I Stand With You Against the Disorder by Jeanette Armstrong

2008-12-27T19:01:00.000-08:00

I was extremely excited to read this article... I have learned so much from the Okanagan people. They have been a great source of inspiration to me in the past and have informed much of the work in BRA I have shared here.

"Okanagans teach that the body is Earth itself. Our flesh, blood, and bones are Earth-body; in all cycles in which Earth moves, so does our body. We are everything that surrounds us, including the vast forces we only glimpse. If we cannot continue as an individual life form, we dissipate back into the larger self. "

"As Okanagans we say the body is sacred. It is the core of our being, which permits the rest of the self to be. It is the great gift of our existence. Our word for body literally means “the land-dreaming capacity.”

"The emotional self is that which connects to other parts of our larger selves around us. We use a word that translates as heart. It is a capacity to form bonds with particular aspects of our surroundings. We say that we as people stay connected to each other, our land, and all things by our hearts"

"I do know that people must come to community on the land. The transiency of peoples crisscrossing the land must halt, and people must commune together on the land to protect it and all our future generations. Self-sustaining indigenous peoples still on the land are already doing this. They present an opportunity to relearn and reinstitute the rights we all have as humans."

Please take the time to read her words in yes magazine...
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=1346

Living it

2008-12-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

Nanci...

Living an animist lifestyle helps me to be in balance with all people of creation, whether I understand them as teachers, medicine helpers, brothers, or sisters. Listening to their sense of knowing and learning how that relates to my own sense of knowing and well being helps me to be a more well rounded person in my own right. It assists me in practicing empathy and compassion for all of my human and other than human community.
Intentional mutual respect with all people allows me to maintain a balance in my own life and helps me not to enforce my will, but to harmonize and blend with theirs to create a higher vibration in the universe.
Bioregionally practicing animism gives me a sense of place and belonging, as an individual, as well as part of the larger community. I also feel that having a bioregional philosophy only serves to strengthen my commitment to walking in my life ways and cultural teachings. There is something about being on your own soil or ancestral ground that gives you a stronger sense of who you are and more of a commitment to the future generations to come, which is a very big part of native teachings and way of life...The Seven Generations.

Synergy is Shamanry

2008-12-22T23:32:00.000-08:00

syn·er·gy (snr-j)

n. pl. syn·er·gies

1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.

2. Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.

[From Greek sunergi, cooperation, from sunergos, working together; see synergism.]
[New Latin synergismus, from Greek sunergos, working together : sun-, syn- + ergon, work; see werg- in Indo-European roots.]

Years ago, sitting in my bedroom with my very good friend Eric, we passed back and forth Eagles and crows feathers... and we discussed the relationship between Law and Freedom. At one point I handed Eric a handful of eagle feathers... over a dozen I believe. They were to many eagle feathers for him to hold so he handed them back to me. I sat above him for a moment, and I wished that he would understand how to hold and work with an eagles feather. Spirit moved through my words at that moment and eagle filled the room as well as wolf. I told Eric that when he smudged some one with an eagle feather he was not "using" the feather, controlling it, but instead the eagle was there still a part of the feather and that all he must do is hold the intention in his mind to cleanse with the feather and smoke. The feather started to move his hand and arm on its own, and his face turned to a look of pure amazement. I could feel the insight and the excitement that comes from realization, at that moment spirit and I shared with him that shamanry is not using nature or spirit to our own end, but holding a larger intention that nature holds as well and WORKING WITH NATURE to accomplish what is truly needed. Eric bowed and was grateful to learn this, and I sat down next to him on the floor once more, just as much a holy fool as he.

I've discovered that the definition of the word synergy is what was being communicated through me, from the whole, that evening. It was eagles message and wolfs message to both of us that night. I had never known that that was how I worked or the insight that spirit was gestating within me for so many years until I had had an opportunity to teach it to my beloved friend. This point of view on shamanry and animism is what I try to share so much in my work... SYNERGY...
In so many ways, animism is the spiritual practice of natural synergy.

Animism and oneness

2008-11-28T18:43:00.000-08:00

"Hishuk ish ts'awalk, everything is one."
-Nuu-Chah-Nulth People Vancouver Island

From Derrick Jensens book listening to the land.
An interview between him and John A. Livingston.

"DJ: Does the feeling of the extended self, lack of self/nature dichotomy, come and go or do you feel it always?

JL: It comes and goes, depending on the situation. If one is in the right circumstances, then its there. At other times it takes an effort of will to retrieve it. But I think we may be addressing the wrong side of the self other split.
What about the concept of "the other"? Maybe that's the problem, not self. I think the self other dichotomy may be so pernicious because we spend all of our time concentrating on self, and we seem to take other as a given. If there were no other, we wouldn't need the idea of extended self. I don't think the coyote sees the bunny rabbit as other. She is what she eats. No doubt the rabbit sees the coyote similarly- another part of the same being. When I scratch my head, which is the "other", my fingers or my pate? Coyote and rabbit similarly. Gazelle and cheetah. Whatever.

DJ: A transformation of parts of the self.

JL: Parts of a greater unit. Transforming, interacting, always toward new forms or levels of integration. Each death is the beginning of a new miraculous process of transformation> always within the greater whole. So that butterfly is me. I am that frog."

So transformation and a relief of the self other split through the perception of transformation relieves the idea of boundary's between us. This is one of the most common animist perceptions of wholeness and oneness. Its a missing point that aleaves the other/self split misconception. Its what I have learned from the snake, several times.

You are that....

Snake has come to me upon occasion during visionary states and once consumed me, whole, opening me to the whole, and telling me that "there is no such thing as positive or negative energy, there's just energy doing what it needs to do". After being consumed by the snake, my fear and panic was gone, I became the snake, a cobra, my back straitened and my cobras hood opened and I was filled with light, millions of voices speaking at once taught me the lesson of non-duality.
On another occasion snake came to me, and introduced itself to me as my soul. I did not trust the snake and argued with it, telling the snake that I was my soul and it was its soul. The snake insisted that it was my soul and then showed me, after I argued some more about the condition of my personal autonomy, that is was also the soul of every one I had ever known, and all of the spirits that I work with as well, transforming himself into each other them. Then I saw the truth of what snake was telling me... there is one soul and we all share it, we are it... all that is. The snake then began to tell me of my need to learn about transformation. This was many, many years ago.

Rarely do those of us who study transpersonal models pursue concepts of non-duality and oneness out side of eastern and western metaphysics and philosophers. East/west philosophers such a Ken Wilbur have dominated these discussions and have actually in the past claimed that animist traditions where on a lower level of development in comparison to say Buddhism, and that earth based religions or spiritual traditions such as neo-paganism...

"Well-meaning efforts to re-enchant the world by neo-pagan ideas and practices cannot fully restore what modernity has eliminated, namely, the interior dimension of personhood, soul, and spirit. Second, by calling for the return of various kinds of neo-pagan nature worship, some people may fall prey to what Wilber calls the "pre/trans fallacy."[17] It is a fallacy to confuse a) surrendering personal-egoic consciousness by regressing to a more primitive, pre-conscious state with b) transcending of egoic consciousness by moving toward an authentically transpersonal state." Michael Zimmerman

Animist as well as neo-pagan people around the world have integrated their own unique ways of relating to non-duality, the "transpersonal", and oneness in incredibly diverse ways. Each showing a perspective that is unique to a people of place. Transpersonal states, experiences of oneness and non-duality are cross cultural and not dependent upon some heirarchical ladder of development, that only certian asiatic groups or balding american philosphers get to experience and talk about. They are natural phenomena that all people around the world experience and have their own unique ways of understanding, knowing, preceiving and communicating.

For example, once again...
"Hishuk ish ts'awalk, everything is one."
-Nuu-Chah-Nulth People Vancouver Island

Animist people and their philosophies on oneness can help us increase our understanding of the universe, not to mention help us in developing our own unique way of understanding oneness and the transpersonal as an animist and reinhabited person of place. Other than human persons as well can be ( in my above example with snake) teachers of this wisdom, and the purely simple observation of nature itself can show our interrelatedness and oneness, if only one has the open eyes to see it.
Imagine for a moment that there is no word for other and self in your language, nor perhaps even an implied we! What would that be like? How would that change your perception and way of thinking and behaving? How would you address what we would call and perceive as an "other" if say you met an "other" on the road?
The Maya of Central American address this by saying ( in an English translation of coarse) "Inlakesh" which means roughly "We are different faces of each other", "you are another My Self", There is no real elequant English translation but in a nutshell it means we are all one. Another way this self other split is addressed is by looking into totemic relationship dynamics and family dynamics. Every one or thing is related ( quite literally and figuratively) every one is family, and every one is alive because we are one, every thing/one is intelligent because we are one, every thing/one is aware because we are one and I myself am aware, and just like in any family unit or kinship sharing occurs... and in this case it is also a sharing of attributes as well as qualities, powers and responsibilities, not to mention ways of seeing and knowing and being, this is where the shaman and transformation comes into play... but I will leave you to think that one over yourself.
Wakan Tanka is anoher example in the Lokotah way of relating to the world...

"In Lakota mythology and traditions, Wakan Tanka (also known as Wakan or Wakanda by the Omaha Tribe) is the term for the "sacred" or the "divine" as understood by the Lakota people. It is often translated as "The Great Spirit" or "The Great Mystery", and is typically understood as the power or the sacredness which resides in everything, similar to many animistic and pantheistic notions of God. Every creature and object is either understood as wakan or having aspects that are wakan. "

Then in some cases the animist perception and conceptualization of oneness is often simple (NOT to be confused with dumbed down) and often times integral to their relationship dynamics. For those of us concerned with reinhabitation of place and doing so as an "new animist" it is an important thing to contemplate. A challenge then for us is to look past eastern and western philosophical conceptualizations of oneness and non-duality and find our own unique sense of what that means to us as a person of place. As well as why that would that be of importance, to sense it as a person of place?

Eat your neighbours

2008-10-19T12:22:00.001-07:00

Eat your neighbors by Graham Harvey

"If animism can be seen in rituals addressing living beings who we wish to eat, it is also evident in an attitude to the world as a community rather than a resource. It is not only peculiar activities but also everyday living. As members of an ever expanding family of life, we have no right to take but are invited to share, to participate, to engage and relate. Animist elders slowly teach younger animists about ways of being that negotiate the difficulty of eating neighboring, related beings. They show others how to pay attention, to listen, to know whether permission is given to gain nutrition and pleasure from consuming others. They also indicate what is inappropriate, arrogant or insulting behave towards others. The precise nature of these understandings and actions varies from one animist culture to another. But the common theme is always “respect”. There is another sense in which we eat our neighbors. We’ve become familiar with the notion of a “carbon footprint”: the effect our consumption of fossil fuels has in the world around us. In the context of global climate changes we’ve caused, we need to consider not only our carbon footprints but the results of all our footsteps. Animism has a harder edge than is implicit in the comparison of fuel-use to footprints! We are inescapably part of a world of eating and being eaten. We can only do “violence with impunity” in small scale and local ways, and even here only with considerable care. The massive acts of violence that support modernist consumerist lives have no place in any form of respect for life." www.newstatesman.com/200703010007

Emergant bioregional cultures

2008-10-17T12:15:00.000-07:00

Private correspondence on tribes in response to a post on the city repair tribe in regards to the monkey chant being integrated into portlands emergent culture.
Learn to Moneky CHANT!

First a little history on the monkey chant... or Kecak... from wikipedia.
Kecak (pronounced: /'ke.tʃak/, roughly "KEH-chahk", alternate spellings: Ketjakand , Ketjack), a form of Balinese music drama, originated in the 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.^[1]
Kecak was originally a trance ritual accompanied by male chorus. German painter and musician Walter Spies became deeply interested in the ritual while living in Bali in the 1930s and worked to recreate it into a drama, based on the Hindu Ramayana and including dance, intended to be presented to Western tourist audiences. This transformation is an example of what James Clifford describes as part of the "modern art-culture system"^[2] in which, "the West or the central power adopts, transforms, and consumes non-Western or peripheral cultural elements, while making 'art' which was once embedded in the culture as a while, into a separate entity."^[3] Spies worked with Wayan Limbak and Limbak popularized the dance by traveling throughout the world with Balinese performance groups. These travels have helped to make the Kecak famous throughout the world.
Performer, choreographer, and scholar I Wayan Dibia cites a contrasting theory that the Balinese where already developing the form when Spies arrived on the island.^[4] For example, well-known dancer I Limbak had incorporated Baris movements into the cak leader role during the 1920s. "Spies liked this innovation," and it suggested that Limbak, "devise a spectacle based on the Ramayana," accompanied by cak chorus rather than gamelan, as would have been usual.^[1]

The Below discussion was in response to an add on the Portland Or. based city repair project tribe on tribe.net for a workshop on the Monkey chant. The Monkey chant is currently being popularized at burning man events and taught in workshops around the USA, and is being held at events that ecotrust and the city repair project sets up in Portland. Recently I watched a video by Ecotrusts at their salmon nation event. I was some what shocked to see it honestly, and disappointed in the cultural appropriation that was occurring at the event Though I believe that the people involved have the best intentions, they may not be fully aware that they are culturally appropriating this traditional practice from Bali, and they may not be fully be aware of what they loose in doing so.
In the days of globalization and eclectic global spiritual practices marketed to well meaning soul searchers, we must ask some central questions, to avoid cultural appropriation and find ways to find our own ways of finding meaning that have depth and can assist us in bring new emergent cultures and spiritual practices to life.
Below are discussions I had on the subject with members of tribes Jef and Whelky.

FROM TRIBE DISCUSSION:
How can one adapt this monkey chant to the unique emergent culture that is happening in the PNW, or in Portland specifically? Unless the monkey chant inspires a new way of practice you run the risk of culturally appropriating the monkey chant.
Portland can do better than that.
There are no monkeys in Portland out side of the zoo and perhaps Burnside, so how about putting your heads together in prayer and contemplation and attempt to figure out a practice inspired by the monkey chant but that is specific and unique to Portlands regional emergent culture?
How about a salmon chant with actions and movements that are inspired by the salmon, much in the same way that the monkey chant is inspired by monkeys? Or a raven chant, or a bear, or an elk chant with its high pitched whistles and magnificent running herds?
My point being is that what you hope to achieve with the monkey chant could be ten times more meaningful and inspired if it was in relationship to the emerging culture that is happening in the PNW, something new inspired and culturally relevent has a much deeper impact on the people of a place.

How does the imitation of monkeys in Portland resonate with being a Portlander? Or a part of urban Cascadia? Of coarse the monkey chant is much more then just the imitation of monkeys but still to achieve the goal that the monkey chant wishes to achieve with out running the risk of cultural appropriation is a unique challenge and a very inspiring and fun proposition.
The culture that is emerging in Cascadia is amazing and needs to be nurtured. Other traditions can be a great source of inspiration, but taking them as our own just sets us back a step from developing that emergent culture. Its like telling the mother to hold it in instead of push during birth.

RETORT FROM Jef on tribes

LLB~

I completely see where you're coming from. And I do agree with you, nearly fully. Chants have origin and meaning behind them, some are ancient, some are newer than others.

Overall, I would also like to hear about more chants and local chants based on our ancient native lands and occupants. Practicing chants from the local indian tribes would be more beneficial and perhaps empowering vs the monkey chant. You made a good point, we only monkeys in our zoo. Sad but needed.

To each their own.

My Retort to Jef:

Thanks Jef...

"Overall, I would also like to hear about more chants and local chants based on our ancient native lands and occupants. Practicing chants from the local indian tribes would be more beneficial and perhaps empowering vs the monkey chant."

Unfortunately that would still be cultural appropriation. Animist/indigenous practices belong to indigenous people, they are the out come of many generations of relationships between a people and a place. Practicing the traditions of others is like imitating the relationship dynamic of a good friend of yours with his wife... in other words you have to begin your own relationship dynamic not imitate or appropriate that of another's.
Now finding inspiration from the monkey chat and local indigenous traditions is a great place to start. But that doesn't mean we should do what they do, we need to find our own relationships and our own ways of relating.

How did these practices begin in the first place? It was generally speaking the inspiration of one person and it thus inspired others. At this point in history we have some what forgotten this and blindly follow or appropriate something pre-established.

This story I always feel illustrates the point I am making...

A woman is cooking easter dinner with her mother for the first time in her own home. Her mother is sitting at the kitchen table chatting with her while she begins to prepare the ham. The daughter, slices off the ends of the ham and places it in a pot, then placing it in the oven.
The mother seeing this asks her why she cut off the ends.
The daughter replies, "Well thats how you do it I guess I learned it from you."
The mother exclaims, "Well honey I do that because the pot I have for baking hams is too small for the hams to fit in, your pot fits just fine!"

By practicing these traditions that are not our own we run the risk of missing the point and depth that these practices have for the people who originated them. Even for new generations of traditional people the depth of meaning can be missed like in the example of the mother and daughter, this is even more so the case for those who appropriate the traditions of others or imitate them.
Finding inspiration in these traditions and forming our own ways of relating to life, spirit, community and place can create a depth of meaning for the individuals that is both new, original and connected to the ancients, in that we are following their foot steps in establishing our own ways of relating.
I teach on this subject, and more and more people are finding their own ways of establishing relationships with life and place and community that are really rewarding to them, with out offending or insulting those who are members of traditions from other cultures they do not belong to.
The new ways that are established by people are cultural relevant and more meaningful because they are based on relationships that are pre-existing and relevant, ie salmon instead of monkeys, I for one have never seen a monkey in the wild and have no real relationship with monkey out side of base symbolism.
Some one established these traditions... why not us?

whelky-
I agree about the need for bioregional culture,
but I think that culture could only really
emerge from a relationship with the land, as a
natural expression."

LLB-
thats really what I am saying as well.

whelky-
"I'm not sure if the
opposite would be true - if we created a
specific culture, if it could work to heal the
rift between humans and the non-human world.
what're your thoughts? "

LLB-
Thats one of the problems I see in peoples attempts to souly be the creative force in new cultural memes, and my criticism of the monkey chant. Traditional peoples ( or people who create and participate in traditions) rely upon transpersonal sources of knowledge in order to live and be in the world. Transrational lines of communication between the natural world and its human members were and are still today the source of the earths great traditions, mere inspiration and humanistic artistic license as we see in say burning man culture is not enough no matter how intoxicated the person is.
Burning man and its neo-tribalism is a classic example of this another classic example is say the modern primitive walk away Daniel Quinn folks good people but driven mostly by idealism and not so much via transrational guidance from the transpersonal facets of the whole ( located from the point of view of our bioregion.)

whelky-
"I think true creativity of any kind(not that I
think appropriating' the monkey chant is
creative) is working towards a relationship
with nature,"

LLB-
I agree whole heartedly, it is co-creativity that is the real aim, if its not co-creative its an example of human arrogance and the illusion/delusion that we are severed from the natural world. I used to go to ceremonies call the long dance. it was a new ceremony brought by a pueblo visionary from New Mexico for all people to participate in. it was powerful and effective and was only minimally influenced by his peoples culture, just enough so that many people could participate from out side of that culture and benefit from it. The dances came from visions and dreams and from the whole of creation, nature the source of inspiration itself as he put it. This man was a real inspiration to me and really guided how I now see community events, ceremonies and spiritual practices even art as a co-creative practice and relationship between human persons and the whole beginning with where we are, the land under our feet and sky over our head.

whelky-
"since I think that creativity comes
from our dreaming animal body - which is nature
itself. "

LLB-
I really like that notion and agree with you.

whelky-
"in my 'pinion, it's the imagination
that needs to be strengthened in order to enter
into relationship with the natural world. the
poetic and imaginal language that speaks in
resonances and sympathies has been traded for
literalism and cutting legalistic exactness..
and I've been thinking a lot lately about how
our cultural values have been so deeply, deeply
wound into language itself that I can almost see
the crisis of ecology as a crisis of the
constrictions of language. But I think I'm
ramblin' now."

LLB-
No your not ramblin right now at all... I think your absolutely right, and its been something I have been wrestling with for quite some time in regards to bioregional animism. Some times i feel my job is to be a relationship counselor between human persons and the natural world/spirit and its not been enough just to say hey have a relationship with nature/spirit. Originally with bioregional animism I saw that i could not tell any one how to have a relationship with nature/spirit, with other than human persons and the land and sky they live within, and i could not show them my own relationship and say do it like this because every place and people of place will require its own relational dynamic that are unique, to the land and people. But now especially after our first bioregional animist convergence I could not help but feel that the imagination has been stunted and scared by western society to such a degree that its hard to know where to start for a lot of people. some sort of example has to be set so to speak, there is a way of relating as an animist that is damn nearly universal , if there was not we would not be able to identify any thing as animist in general...
So what I have been thinking for a while now ( a number of years really) is that a dance/ceremony that is open to people of all bioregions to come to that will show people how to establish those relationships or light the fire of inspiration, kinda like how my older friends in high school showed me how to talk to girls haha! There has to be a sort of example that is open and adaptable to place that can inspire the imagination and promote a co-creative relationship between people and place again. But this sort of ceremony or dance has to come from spirit, it has to come from a transpersonal source to be effective, it cannot be contrived and simply from a humanistic sense of creativity, it has to come from the act of communion itself with the land and sky and spirit of all that is, starting with where you stand.
So I have been praying for that to come when I am ready to receive it...
I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to learn from the man who brought people the long dance from his visions, it was a great living example for me.

While I am on the subject of transrational stuff, there is a great essay that I posted on my tribe blog on the subject...
people.tribe.net/16064b50-...3ce119ccf5
this has been a nice conversation...
LLB

Book review

2008-10-13T19:33:00.000-07:00

The Modern Pagan

How to Live a Natural Lifestyle in the 21st Century

Brian Day

"Paganism means living in harmony with nature and respecting all that nature has to offer. It is a sustainable way of life that has existed in the British Isles for thousands of years and that has survived secretly among scattered households throughout the UK. Although it is not a religious path (true pagans do not worship deities), paganism will appeal to anyone who cares about the environment, who is interested in maintaining an organic lifestyle or who believes in respecting their roots whilst catering for the future. Paganism may be thousands of years old, but it is particularly suited to meeting our twenty-first century concerns. In "The Modern Pagan", Brian Day explains how to live in a way that honours the land and its inhabitants. There is advice on celebrating seasonal festivals, on cultivating a true pagan garden, on creating delicious food and drink from hedgerow fare, on herbal medicine and on working for the benefit of all. The core principles of Modern Paganism will make sense to anyone who is tired of the hustle and bustle of our polluted lifestyles, and who is looking for a way to connect with their surroundings."

This book is based on a wonderful premise. How do we as people with an earth based spiritual practice integrate our beliefs into our daily lives. This book cuts the the quick and shows ways for pagans to live their beliefs, and walk their talk. Much of what I promote in bioregional animism is focused in the same way. Living your life as an animist means getting your hands dirty.
Though I have not had a chance to fully read this book. I did get a chance to look it over and I think that though the pagan community at large may not be as accepting of it ideologically, the attempt to integrate earth based spiritual practice with ACTUALLY living sustainably is a real first in pagan literature. Very few people who practice an earth based spiritual system actually live in praxis and because of that THERE ARE FEW BOOKS OUT THERE ATTEMPTING TO SHARE HOW THIS IS DONE WITH ANY ONE! Which I find to be very alarming. Brian Day seems to be in the same category of folk such as I and Graham Harvey as well as all of the bioregional animists out there I have had the pleasure of meeting who feel that what you believe and think is not nearly as important as how you act in the world.
Much of my work with bioregional animism came from the frustration of participating in "shamanism" circles who lived what they practiced on the weekends about as much as a pedophilic catholic priest does every day but sunday. The frustration of seeing a natural life way perverted into a self serving practice of narcissism was hard to stomach. So though I have not read his book enough to be critical and give it a sparkling review or NOT, I have to applaud that he even put the two together in this day an age, earth based religion=sustainable living? Its about time the topic was covered in pagan book sections... you will be hard pressed to find others like it.
more power to ya Brian...

First Earth

2008-10-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

An Amazing series on natural building...

I have been learning to build with earth the last year now, I have never felt such a reward process in my life...
Why should we build with earth? Because its something we can do, right now that will have a beneficial impact on this planet and its people both human and other than human. As an animist walking your talk and living in respectful relationships is of primary importance, this is a way we can LIVE what we believe is right, what we know is a good way to live, while no longer supporting the ways that are killing this world.
thanks to red pharmacist for all the work!

Animismo Bio Regional en 5 minutos

2008-10-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

How does the land speak to you?

2008-10-04T11:28:00.001-07:00

By
Nanci~Little Shield

Fri, October 3, 2008 - 8:56 PM
How does the land speak to you?

In our way of life... with every decision we make, we always keep in mind the seventh generation of children to come. When we walk upon earth mother, we always plant our feet carefully, because we know that the faces of future generations are looking up at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them.

We are all flowers in the Great Spirit's garden. We share a common root, and the root is our earth mother. The garden is beautiful because it has different colors in it... and those colors represent different traditions and cultural backgrounds. Let us respect the difference in others.
... show more
In our way of life... with every decision we make, we always keep in mind the seventh generation of children to come. When we walk upon earth mother, we always plant our feet carefully, because we know that the faces of future generations are looking up at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them.

We are all flowers in the Great Spirit's garden. We share a common root, and the root is our earth mother. The garden is beautiful because it has different colors in it... and those colors represent different traditions and cultural backgrounds. Let us respect the difference in others.

The Great Spirit based us here to take care of this land and live for Him through prayer, meditation, ceremonies, and rituals, and to lead a simple life close to earth mother.

The people who are living on this planet need to break with the narrow concept of human liberation, and began to see liberation as something that needs to be extended to the whole of the natural world. What is needed is the liberation of all things that support life... the air, the waters, the trees... all the things which support the sacred web of life. Let us live a good life close to earth mother.

To honor and respect means to think of the land and the water and plants and animals who live there as having a right equal to our own to be here. We are not the supreme and all-knowing beings, living at the top of the food-chain of life as the inventors of all time... but in fact we are members of the sacred hoop of life... along with the trees and rocks, the coyotes and the eagles and fish and toads... that each fulfills its purpose.

Wisdom does not belong to one person. We need to act in harmony with wisdom. It is the lighted path of old and proven ideas through generation after generation of discovering natural law. Through the land we will find these paths to natural law.

In the beginning we were told that the human beings who walk about the earth have been provided with all the things necessary for life. We were instructed to carry love for one another, and to show a great respect for all the beings of this earth. We were shown that our well-being depends on the well-being of the vegetable and fruit life, and that We are relatives of all living things, we are relatives of all life.

Everything in nature has its instructions... just as geese have been instructed by the Creator to fly in a particular pattern every year... our instructions as humans is simply to give thanks to the natural world... and by doing do... protect it..
hide

animism on you tube

2008-09-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

Though this video is beautiful and a great reminder for us to see that we are not the only sentient beings in this world, I would like to add a comment stating that we need not see human qualities in other than human persons to see them as sentient beings.
I do really appreciate though this video and the time and energy that the person who made it put into it to make it beautiful.

House people

2008-07-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

Currently I am building straw bale low income housing for a community land trust on Lopez Island on the Salish sea of Cascadia. It has been a huge shift of gears for me to work in building and an important one... My work here was inspired by this story which I read on the plaquared within the long house education center at ever green state college while attending the practice of community coarse there my senior year.

The origin of the Guardian Spirits and the Smoke house.
a Skokomish story told By Uncle... whos true name cannot be said now that he has died.

Smoke House was a chief long long ago; but he was not called smoke house back then. He was just called chief. He Decided to create all the animals and all the birds. So he created them and named them all. Then he told each one, " In times to come, when people have been created, they will send their children out, during the night or during the day , and you will talk to them and tell them what they are able to do. You will tell the boys they will be able to get things easily, are to be good hunters, good fishermen and so on. You will tell the girls that they will be able to get things easily. At that time I will be smoke house myself."

Then he spoke again; " I'll have no body, no head, nor will I be able to see. Who ever desires to construct me will have the right to do so. The one that made me, I will take pity on him, and I'll give him what he requests. People may approach me thus; if anyone is injured, or if he is sick or if he is poisoned, he may come to me for help and I will give it to him. Also when any one is dying he may come to me and I'll help him also. I'll help him to the next world.
So in this world I am smoke house, for the help of human beings."

So in building these straw bale homes, I cant help but remember this story and think about all of the other than human persons that give their lives and bodies so we can fashion them into a home, I think of how the creator become these other than human persons so that they could take the form of these houses, I think of the tree people and the stone people, I think of the straw people, all the people, and I remember that its them and the creator that I am shaping into a home, I pray that others might be able to see this as they build these homes too.

some ones listening

2008-06-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hey LLB,
After reading your post I went out to the garden I have here at home with the intention of communing. It's a beauty garden, just to have beautiful plants growing here for myself, my wife and the other folks at this little apartment building overlooking the water in Queen Anne.
I've been moving some plants out of the way of oncoming construction and had more to move and save from losing them to a bull dozer, which is an uncaring and rude device. I asked the devas to please accept that I was moving the plants to a new home around the corner, and one with better soil and shade for them, ( azaleas ) because the full sun was keeping them to hot and dry. I got an immediate feeling in response and translated the feeling into words that seemed to fit it. It was very bouncy and talkative in a quick cadence and had a definite sense of how I should proceed. I went with the feeling and translation and did some things I've never done before. I let them pick what plant to transplant and found them very specific, like, "this one first, no no no not that one, this one"! OK I thought, that one, and then staying open to it asked about how to dig it up, not with words out loud, but in an inner voice, and got an immediate response, ........ "like this" and saw they wanted it done a certain way. So I did that and was carrying the plant in a container down to the new place, inviting them along when they said "hurry hurry hurry", and I thought what for, and they said, "no one likes their roots exposed for very long", and I thought about how I never even thought about that before or how it might feel to the plant.

Down at the new spot I was looking for where it should go and they said "no no no, over here", and were insistent that it go just where they wanted it. Ok......., I thought, you started this, so just keep honoring what your feeling, and I dug a hole where they wanted it and was adding some water to it, when the said, "that's enough, that's enough", and I asked why, and they said, 'look, you just get the roots covered and we'll find our way to water". While digging the hole for it I came across a worm because it's good rich soil, and they said, "no no no", as I went to move the worm, and said "put it on the side of the hole just there", which I did and started to cover with dirt, but they said "no just wait" and I thought to myself that this was getting out of hand. These chatty, insistent and highly specific instructions were not how I'm accustomed to gardening, and they said "you'll see why". So I continued with the hole and continued finding worms, which they insisted needed to be put all together in that one spot, and not just dumped there, and they had to be in contact with each other, touching each other. So here I am making a little pile of worms and then placing the azalea in the hole while being cajoled by voice/feelings to hurry up. When the azalea was in place they had me put the worms, who seemed to be waiting patiently, in a specific spot and cover them with a very light amount of soil, less than I would have thought good for the worms, but apparently exactly what was the right amount according to the chatter bug devas.

They were very clear that certain vines should be keep out, and vigorously removed, it's some kind of morning glory, (which is a monster to deal with) and that others should be left alone. As I went to remove a big dandelion they had a fit. "No no no"!
"Ok already", I thought, as I realized how many I'd pulled up this year and tried to hide the thought away.

I was gardening for hours and thought to myself that I can never go back to how I used t do it. I'm sure this sounds like a bit of a Disney cartoon, but that's also what it felt like to me at the time, like I'd unstopped my ears, and gardening was going to be good, but annoyingly noisy for awhile to come. I'm telling you this straight, not making it up, and it feels a bit heavy while it was certainly fun also. Geeze, it feels like everything is going to be different. I mean I'm happy about it, but feel kind of bad about all the years I've been doing it my way for my happiness, and not realizing it's not just about me alone, but the brothers and sisters in green and gold have feelings too.

I'm in relationship with several sacred plant medicines, and maybe this shouldn't be such a surprise, but it is. Not that it happened, but that it was so clear, and highly specific. Just like some people I know, who like there eggs just so, and placed just so, and only half a glass of orange juice please and not the blue tea cups with the green tea thank you very much.

I wouldn't kid about this, because my relationships are where I try to live out my spiritual ideals, and so this new one is going to need care and attention the way the others do.

All because some guy I've never met reminded me to open up to it. Yikes, and thanks LLB.

Green man

2008-06-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

I had a dream of the green man the other night... its a classic image the green man being driven out of a village out of fear of his wildness by the people... it was a sad scene...
it makes me wonder about deforestation, habitat loss, the destroying of large areas of land to create housing developments.
People do not build or create their communities with nature or with any mindfulness to the wild... natural communities, wild communities of other-than-human-persons are destroyed to make room for homo-domesticus. The green man is most definitely driven out of these areas.
I was also thinking of a faun that comes and enters into my body from time to time... it often feels that Cernunnos, the green man and the faun share a common ethereal body manifesting as either or depending on what is needed of them. The faun was of a large wild wooded area near my home I had given offerings to him and asked for him to share space with me so I could learn from him... and he did... it was an amazing process... at any rate his level of mischievousness was intense... bordering on a sick sense of humor, and a wrathful sense of justice. What made this faun sick? The forest was nothing compared to the size it used to be that he was one with. The level of respect payed there was higher then most however trash was to be found all over. The forest itself was chopped up into islands with pavement roads and developments tearing it apart.

The other night my grrrrl friend pointed out how dangerous and mischievous forest spirits can be, I know to well how much this is so... and she pointed out how much more mischievous and dangerous they are when threatened, we discussed how important it is to make them our allies if possible, to be wild and a part of the forest again in our communities and ways of life.
I look at the forests destroyed by housing developments and i see that none of it is necessary at all! That its all poor planning and life style decisions as well as ecological and social apathy brought about and perpetuated by those first colonized European Christan’s driving the green man from the village.

How can we invite the green man back into our communities again? What offering and ritual action is needed to invoke him into our communities? What will bring the faun back to health, to make him seem less of a demon to those who see him as such out of ignorance? How can we honor the horned god where we live?

We can start by looking at how we consume the bounty of nature, how we live our lives daily, where we get our food. We can invite the green man back into our village by including the wild into the village again. Creating bio-swales instead of draining street water into the sewer system, creating green roofs on our houses, building with natural materials like cob, straw bale, and renewable resources, getting rid of pavement and the need for mass transit by re-designing our communities around COMMUNITY, so we can walk to all the places we need to go. Or we can create our own villages as a permacultured part of the wild forest... human beings have the ability to actually aid ecosystems with their presence as well as bio-remediate the areas that have been damaged. What would the psyche of a people be like if they lived not in civilization but in and with the wild again, not beside it but a part of it?
The joy of the green man and the growth and balance of his dancing feet would be in our hearts, the masculine stereotypes and gender roles would change and no longer would men be seen as symbols of oppression. Art and beauty would be just another natural expression like a birds song, simple and humble and to be found in the artifacts we create for daily living.
To invoke these beings of nature, these spirits and powers the ritual is a change in the way we live our lives. The new magical training is skill building in eco-design, whole systems design, permaculture, renewable resources, sustainability, and alternative energy. The circle that is cast is the recognition of our interdependence, and the chants are the affirmations and oaths that we will change the way we live and no longer participate in this driving of the green man from our village. We invite him back and give offerings to him, by create the pace for him to exist in our village and in our actions.

The importance of communion

2008-06-02T15:19:00.000-07:00

Many years ago now, I moved my friend to New Mexico. He was a buddy, brother and a cohort, a teacher to me in many ways, and when he left it was a big transition for me to be with his friendship and guidance. I drove all his worldly possessions, his dog and his cat and his soon to be future wife and mother of his child from the PNW to New Mexico in a U-haul and before I left him there to start his new life in a new bioregion, I felt some what over whelmed, like a cloud was surrounding me and I couldn't see past it... I kept thinking, now what am I going to do with out my best friend? He called me up stairs and held out in front of him a hawk feather ( hawk being one of his personal medicines) and handed it to me say. " What your going to do now is go back to the PNW and teach people about the importance of communion."
So since that day this is what I have been doing via bioregional animism. If I could further simplify what bioregional animism is to some one I would perhaps say it is communion with nature, or perhaps it would be the art of conversation with nature, or communication with nature where you live for mutual benefit. WOW I could just keep going... but really its communing, its communion, or as Graham Harvey would say a relational ontology which is place based or locally-centric.

What is communion? What does it mean to commune?

- sharing thoughts and feelings
- a sharing of thoughts, emotions, or beliefs
- communion with strong feelings for: private communion with nature
- a religious group with shared beliefs and practices
- the act or an instance of sharing, as of thoughts or feelings.
- religious or spiritual fellowship.

as well as to commune... from Old French communer, to make common, share...
- to be in a state of intimate, heightened sensitivity and receptivity, as with one's surroundings
- to experience strong emotion for: communing with nature
- to talk intimately with
- communicate intimately with; be in a state of heightened, intimate receptivity; "He seemed to commune with nature"

and ironically...

Noun
1. a group of people living together and sharing possessions and responsibilities
HAHA!

For me these words commune and communion are KEY to really being animist. Quite possibly the very foundation of cultivating animist relationship dynamics. They were certainly

Recently I posted a short piece on a ceremony I had with my partner and my friend and I spoke about the communing people experienced with other than human persons. This has felt like the real basis and focus of Bioregional animism. Having respectful relationships with the living world requires communication and not just communication but communing with each other... to talk intimately with another, with an open heart and an open mind so that we do not harm each other out of carelessness. It takes real communing to have that authentic respect for the living world we seek to manifest through our being animist.
To commune with other than human persons and many time each other it often requires an approach I have called transrational or an intuitive approach that may require some slight shift of awareness or a drastic shift in awareness via an altered state. Animist people traditional embrace some form of transrational practice. For me personally and the people I generally associate with this is done with the aid of visionary plants and substances, though not relied upon to do so. This communion with these visionary people aid in communion and communing with other than human persons, just as any altered state of awareness will do so, though in some times subtle and not so subtle ways.

So how are you communing, how is this communing shaping how you live your life? Who have you been communing with and what messages have been received and given?

Being a bioregional animist I have focused on communing with the land I live upon and those that live around me so that we might live well together. Currently my life ha been changing in very big ways because of this communion and I am in awe of it.
I would love to hear from others who have been changed by such communion.
blessings
LLB

Co-creating with the devas of findhorn garden

2008-06-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

Co-Creating
with the Devas
of Findhorn

by Celeste Adams

Today, the concept of communicating with the plant beings as a way of creating plentiful crops and beautiful gardens, if not exactly embraced by commercial growers, is well known and widely used in the new age and organic farming communities.

Forty years ago, this approach to agriculture was pretty much unheard-of in the Western world. But on a barren, sandy, windswept corner of a rundown trailer park in Findhorn, Scotland, Peter and Eileen Caddy were changing all that.

The Findhorn Foundation, located in northern Scotland, was founded 40 years ago by Peter and Eileen Caddy and their colleague, Dorothy Maclean. It is one of the largest intentional communities in the United Kingdom and is a model for holistic and sustainable living. Despite the fact that Findhorn was built on sand dunes, it is known for its beautiful gardens, which were co-created with the nature devas.In The Faces of Findhorn, David Spangler writes:

Many people see Findhorn as a place; but to understand truly what Findhorn is seeking to make manifest we must see it from the inside out, and that means from the center of our being outwards. This is true of any of the other centers of Light that are now beginning to emerge.

New age communities are springing up in many countries, and small groups of people are coming together to help educate each other into a new way of living. All of these people are agents of the divine plan, in order that at this time in human history there might be worldwide demonstrations for the birth of a new Earth and a new humanity. . . .

So the message of Findhorn, the message which is unfolding throughout the Earth, is for humanity to awake, to arise, and to be the creators, now, of the world you have envisioned, and through envisioning are bringing into being.

The Findhorn Foundation attracts four thousand visitors a year, from countries around the world. It is a member of IONESCO and is recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization, or NGO, by the United Nations.

In The Spirit of Findhorn, Roy McVicar describes how Eileen Caddy heard the voice of God in simple, day-to-day directions that inspired her, with Peter Caddy, to create Findhorn:

Little in Eileen Caddy's early life indicated that she would one day be the co-founder of a New Age spiritual community or that she would develop a unique power to hear and to share the voice of God within....

After five years there [at the Cluny Hill Hotel] and a year at another hotel in Scotland they [Peter and Eileen] found themselves out of work, with no place to stay, puzzled that divine guidance should work in such devious ways. They then made the move which is now widely known; they went back to their caravan [mobile home], which was sited at Findhorn, and brought it to the very last place they would ever have chosen, a dirty, windswept corner of Findhorn Bay Caravan Park, because that was where God said to go.

Despite the fact that the land was barren and dry, beautiful gardens began to grow. In Faces of Findhorn, Professor R. Lindsay Robb of the Soil Association speaks about the vitality and vibrance of the Findhorn garden:

The vigor, health and bloom of the plants in this garden at mid-winter on land which is almost barren, powdery sand cannot be explained by the moderate dressings of compost, nor indeed by the application of any known cultural methods of organic husbandry. There are other factors and they are vital ones.

The other factors that Robb is referring to were Findhorn's co-creation with the angelic and elemental realms. In her book To Hear the Angels Sing, Dorothy Maclean writes about communicating with angels:

I had never set out to learn to talk with angels, nor had I ever imagined that such contact could be possible or useful. Yet, when this communication began to occur, it did so in a way that I could not dispute. Concrete proof developed in the Findhorn garden, which became the basis for the development of the Findhorn Community. The garden was planted on sand in conditions that offered scant hospitality and encouragement for the growth of anything other than hardy Scottish bushes and grasses requiring little moisture or nourishment.

However, through my telepathic contact with the angelic Beings who overlight and direct plant growth, specific instructions and spiritual assistance were given. The resulting garden, which came to include even tropical varieties of plants, was so astonishing in its growth and vitality that visiting soil experts and horticulturists were unable to find any explanation for it, and eventually had to accept the unorthodox interpretation of angelic help.

In The Faces of Findhorn, devas and elementals are described as living forces of creative intelligence that work behind the scene. All life is considered an outpost or point of entry through which great intelligences externalize themselves. "The devic or angelic beings work at that level where the divine image or idea is sketched out into the archetypal patterns for all forms. The devas, whose name stems from a Sanskrit word meaning literally 'shining ones,' hold these archetypes in consciousness, wielding and patterning the forces which vivify the physical form and stepping these energies down to the elementals or nature spirits, the 'blue collar workers' who build the forms through which Spirit reveals itself."

One member of the community describes a kind of sensitization process that takes place in learning to communicate with the nature spirits:

When I came to Findhorn in 1971 I began to realize that I was experiencing a broadening of perception; it was as though my physical senses were being extended in a way that's very hard to describe. Walking through the central garden I experienced an extraordinary sense of being greeted and caressed by presences there which seemed to be connected with the flowers. Later that winter I came to follow up that contact with the nature kingdoms when Dorothy asked me to try illustrating her messages from the Devas.

For me that whole period was like a sensitization process leading me into a whole different area of communication, a way of perceiving too subtle to say it was through images or sound but rather a direct reception of the essence of another being inside my own essence.

Today, Findhorn has become an important part of the world group. As their website explains:

On December 8, 1997, the Findhorn Foundation was approved for formal association with the United Nations, through the Department of Public Information, as a recognized Non-Governmental Organization. This was the culmination of a series of official collaborations between the UN and the Findhorn Foundation.

The new status was also a sign of a great maturing of our community, which has been promoting principles of sustainable development as put forward by the major UN conferences of the last decade — including the environmental aspect of the Rio Earth Summit, the human settlements aspect of Istanbul, and the women's aspect of Beijing — in an attempt to provide a contemporary and evolving model of sustainable living.

To learn more, we spoke with Richard Coates, a public relations officer who has lived at Findhorn for 25 years, and with David Buswell, who operates the enquiry line there.

Celeste: Can you describe the relationship that people had with plant devas in the early years at Findhorn?

Richard Coates: In the early days, we were famous for our 42-pound cabbages, which we don't grow these days. Well, I haven't seen any lately. We're told that this was necessary as a demonstration of the power of the people and an example of what we could achieve by cooperating with the nature realms.

By working with those beings, we could produce amazing results. But having demonstrated that, we don't necessarily need to keep doing that. Our gardens are quite magnificent and are admired by many people who come and visit.

Celeste: Dorothy Maclean is known for communicating with the devas and elementals. Are the people who come to workshops at Findhorn learning to communicate with devas?

Richard Coates: Anyone who comes here does one of our "experience weeks," which we give all year long for various nationalities. People work together, live together, and explore together in the gardens. It's a personal experience of being here and how that relates to nature.

We allow people to explore on their own and to have the direct experience of working in the garden. It's a very healing thing to do.

Part of our experience is a nature sharing in the evening. One of the gardeners will come in and talk. We also have an evening on spiritual practice. Many people like myself will spend the evening, after work or on the weekends, in the garden, and that's part of our spiritual practice.

David Buswell: Dorothy Maclean wrote a great deal about devas and nature spirits. She comes back here several times a year and gives workshops. When people are sensitive to plants, a relationship begins. Communicating with devas is a matter of sensitivity. There's no methodology as such to learning how to do it. That kind of sensitivity is inborn in some people.

People who really want to develop that sensitivity go to our workshops, run by Dorothy or others who do these things.

The gardeners here all have a basic connection. It really is an individual thing. Some say the plants are "talking" to them. Whatever they mean by that, the essential truth we've found is that the spirit within a plant is capable of communication. And when the plant spirits find humans they can communicate with, it's a boon to them. When human beings can recognize the subtle levels, the plant beings are overjoyed.

In ages past, far more people had these gifts. In folk history, they had connections with what they called the fairy folk, or in Ireland, the "little people." So communication with nature devas is not something new. It's an ability that existed when people were closer to the land, one that atrophied with the development of the intellect and industrialization. But today, people are developing sensitivity, and these connections are once more being made.

Celeste: How is the Findhorn Foundation organized and how does it operate?

Richard Coates: The Findhorn Foundation was originally a charitable organization run by charitable laws, not corporate laws. Then it became too cumbersome to handle as a single entity, so it's been broken down into different organizations. Some are charities, some are volunteer organizations. There's also an organic farm, a café, and a shop. This has enabled a lot more people to become involved.

Not everybody who is involved here needs to become a member of the Findhorn Foundation to be associated with the work that we're doing here.

Celeste: Why is it important that a place like Findhorn exists?

Richard Coates: It is a place where people can experience different ways of relating to each other, to themselves, to the planet, to society. It is a place that twenty-five or thirty years ago was on the cutting-edge of changing aspects of society. Many places around the world that now exist are based on what the foundation has been doing and demonstrating.

The things we have been doing, like health care and organic farming, are now very much a part of mainstream society. Even thinking about the planet as a whole, instead of selfishly looking at the nuclear family, "my country" or "my town," is a change since Findhorn began. Findhorn has inspired people to look at the whole picture, not just part of it.

Celeste: How is Findhorn spreading its message to the world about honoring and preserving the environment?

Richard Coates: Six weeks ago, we had a Restore the Earth conference, all about trees — reforesting, and how we could influence politicians to take care of the environment.

This was a precursor to the United Nations conference coming up in South Africa. We are recognized by the UN as a Non-Government Organization, or NGO. We have people at the UN who meet regularly and represent us there.

We also have our Trees for Love project, which was started by Alan Watson Featherstone, who has lived here for as long as I have. The plan is to reforest the highlands of Scotland with native trees, going out with work parties and fencing off areas to protect them from deer and so on.

Projects like Trees for Love might be small in terms of their individual impact. But as a whole, energetically, these projects build up exponentially.

Thinking about the whole planet, and not just my little bit or my backyard — that's how we have to think.

References:

The following is a short selection from the many books about the Findhorn Community.

1. God Spoke To Me by Eileen Caddy (to be republished by Findhorn Press 2002 in a special edition), the first book of Eileen's Guidance — still in print after 35 years.
2. The Findhorn Garden by The Findhorn Community (Harper Collins), the story of the community's early days.
3. To Hear The Angels Sing by Dorothy Maclean (Lindisfarne Press), Dorothy's autobiography.
4. Opening Doors Within by Eileen Caddy, daily selections from Eileen's Guidance.
5. Flight Into Freedom by Eileen Caddy (to be republished by Findhorn Press 2002), Eileen's autobiography.
6. The Kingdom Within edited by Alex Walker (Findhorn Press), a selection of writings on the history and work of the Findhorn Foundation by David Spangler, Peter and Eileen Caddy, Myrtle Glines, William Bloom, Dorothy Maclean, and many others.
7. Simply Build Green by John Talbott (Findhorn Press), a guide to the principles and methods of Eco-building.
8. In Perfect Timing by Peter Caddy (Findhorn Press), Peter Caddy's autobiography.
9. Growing People, compiled and edited by Kay Kay (Pilgrim Guides 2001), a recent collection of people's personal experiences of the Findhorn Community.

You may write to the Findhorn Foundation at The Park, Findhorn Forres IV36 3TZ, Moray, Scotland. Phone: +44 (0)1309 690311, Fax: +44 (0)1309 691301. The Findhorn website is at Findhorn.org.

http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/aug3/findhorn.htm

Watching new animist tradition form

2008-05-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

During a ceremony a few weeks ago, I sat and watched new animist traditions form. I watched as the woman I'm to marry and a mutual friend interacted with other than human persons in spirit and discussed their relationships with these persons. I could see them as the matrons of a newly forming tradition within this region. As these two women established relationships with these other than human persons they would introduce these other than human persons to others
and work with them to find co-creative ways to solve problems and live harmoniously in this bioregion. I watched forces of nature people and animal people and tree people and insect people come through these women and move around the ceremonial space, I witness these women share wisdom from spirit and communion with these other than human persons. I saw other than human persons and human persons create new relationships and work together.

I saw raven come in and heal wounds caused by the selfishness of others and, ancestors come and heal wounds caused by generations of accumulated pain. I saw Spider woman come in as an old crone and speak through my friend, teaching us that the ego is not a thing but a process of relationships, I saw an old lizard woman come through the woman I love and teach her the wisdom of lizard. I saw my fiance speak with a father tree which gave her much wisdom to share with us. I saw my friend and my fiance talk about the female forest spirit they have come to know as Flora. I saw that their relationship with this other than human person was the beginning of many future womens relationship with the forest spirit of this region. I saw these things happening so that relationships can be formed for future generations, I saw a birth.

Ecotrust

2008-03-29T21:42:00.000-07:00

Become a citizen of your bioregion!

Ecotrust is a unique and amazing group working towards actualizing bioregional life way, it is my pleasure to introduce you to them if you have not allready met them...

LLB

The Ecotrust Mission: To Build Salmon Nation
Citizens of Salmon Nation want to live in a place where economic, ecological, and social conditions are improving, where a "conservation economy" is emerging.
Our bioregion: the Pacific salmon / coastal temperate rain forest region from California to Alaska
Ecotrust was created in 1991 by a small group of diverse people who sought to bring some of the good ideas emerging around sustainability back to the rain forests of home. We set out to characterize this region and articulate a more enduring strategy for its prosperity.
These efforts are predicated on the notion, gaining an ever wider currency, that economic and ecological systems are mutually interdependent. To this relationship Ecotrust and others have sought to add a third "e" — social equity — to ensure that economic development awards benefits to all the region's citizens. Economy, ecology, equity: the triple bottom line.
Five integrated program areas, supported by our sophisticated tools and services, define and guide our efforts to build Salmon Nation:
Native Programs
Continuously strengthening over a decade of close relationships, Ecotrust both draws guidance from and provides assistance to the Native American and First Nation communities of Salmon Nation. Our objective is to support a growing network of leaders, increase outdoor education opportunities for native youth, and broker resources for repatriation and improved management of traditional lands.
Fisheries
Ecotrust seeks full public disclosure of the status of Pacific salmon as well as fundamental institutional changes in the way fisheries, marine ecosystems and watersheds are managed. With our State of the Salmon project, our goal is to create the most credible single source of information about salmon and salmon dependent communities, produce new models for socio-economic and ecological analysis, and protect and restore critical salmon watersheds.
Forestry
Ecotrust is working to develop landscape-scale examples of ecological forest management that sustain biodiversity and provide more reliable opportunities for forest dependent communities. Our objective is to develop new socio-economic models of traditional versus ecological forestry, protect key remaining natural-forest watersheds, and capture market forces to encourage new salmon-friendly forest practices.
Food & Farms
By promoting the seasonal products of local farmers and striving to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture on healthy watersheds, Ecotrust is fostering a regional food system in the Pacific Northwest. Our objectives are to improve public understanding of local agriculture and increase the market share of locally grown food.
Citizenship
Ecotrust works to articulate the idea of Salmon Nation, to promote a sense of place and stewardship among the citizens of the region. We seek to reach a significant percentage of this region’s residents, inspiring them to tangibly change the way they think about their relationship to nature and to become more responsible citizens of Salmon Nation.

Salmon Nation

2008-03-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

Salmon Nation is a bioregional project established by the organization called ecotrust.

It is a way of looking at the bioregion based upon is primary relationship with its most important food source, the other-than-human-person we have come to know as Salmon people.

Salmon Nation reminds us of the primary importance of this other-than-human-person to the great bioregion of Cascadia and beyond, through this work being done by Salmon Nation we begin to understand that making the world safe and healthy for salmon makes the world safe and healthy for human-people.

Please take a look at their web page and become an ambassador of Salmon Nation.

Become an Ambassador of Salmon Nation
Through the Salmon Nation Ambassadors project, we seek to jumpstart and support the creativity of citizens throughout the region on behalf of a civic society. A Salmon Nation Ambassador is any individual who is inspired by Salmon Nation and acts as a spokesperson to reach citizens beyond the typical avenues of environmental or social activism.
What do Ambassadors do?
They use Salmon Nation to help connect people to place and foster a new type of economic relationship with the landscape and community.
They are involved in work that enhances the vitality of the bioregion.
They work to bridge urban-rural divides.
They act as a conduit for information from the citizenry that helps inform Ecotrust's Citizenship program.
They are financially independent from Ecotrust, although they occasionally engage in a fiscal sponsor relationship with Ecotrust if foundation grants are available.
Ambassadors often resell Salmon Nation merchandise or distribute other materials to their communities. Discounted pricing on merchandise is available, and most other content is available for free.
To learn more, please contact Howard Silverman, either by phone at 503.227.6225 or
hide_email('by email','howard','ecotrust.org')
by email.

Bioregional animist convergence

2008-03-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

new post

Bioregional Animist Convergence: Sharing Place

Today, 7:35 PM

Bioregional Animist Convergence: sharing place

This summer solstice we will be holding a Bioregional Animist Convergence- a meet and camp out- somewhere in Washington.
The location is still up in the air because we don't know how many people will be attending. So far, potential locations have been: near Spokane, Lummi Island, and the Skokomish forest near the Skokomish tribes reservation. Though the event will be hosted in Washington, the idea is for bioregional animists of all bioregions to converge and share their relationship with their place. If you have the relationship, the means, and the desire, we look forward to honoring the relations of diverse bioregions together.

Discussions on Bioregional Animism will be led by Little Lightening Bolt and specific events and groups will be organized by those attending, hopefully including such topics as interspecies communication, the importance of sacred states of consciousness to animist people, local foods and their importance to bioregionalism and animism, etc. As planning for the convergence progresses, so will the specifics of the break-out events. We will also hold a collective group ceremony on solstice, opening ourselves to the life place and its people, asking the life place and its people to guide us in establishing a sacred way of relating to the space on this important day.
It will be a camp out which will require people attending to provide for their own needs. Encouraging self sufficiency, the way of the heron- a bird person of the Cascadia life place- we will ask that you bring enough of whatever you need to sustain yourself for the days of the convergence and perhaps a little more to share. A space will be available for camping, but we are not sure if this space will require a base fee for the group... once we have a better idea of how many people would like to attend, we will be able to determine where to host it and if there will be any cost to camp. Do be prepared to provide your own food, shelter, water and toiletries.

I would like to inquire about who is interested in attending and what people would like to see happen at this convergence. It will be for you, and for us all, and for our collective spaces, so what each of us puts into it, all of us will get out of it.
please contact LLB and let him know your thoughts.
please see the invite on this tribes events list.

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Medicine of Place

2008-03-26T18:05:00.000-07:00

Bookmonger: Spring Thoughts Turn to Plants

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2008/mar/02/bookmonger-spring-thoughts-turn-to-plants/

Spring has sprung up in my soul, if not on the calendar quite yet, and it was helped along by the books I read this week.
"Medicine of Place" is a labor of love spearheaded by Julia Brayshaw, with collaboration from artist Karen Lohmann. Both women hail from Olympia.
Drawing from her two vocations as a psychotherapist and a flower essence practitioner, Brayshaw makes an argument for the healing qualities of Cascadia's wildflowers. She suggests that the patterns and ecology of the native plants of our bioregion can offer not just relief for physical maladies, but spiritual tonic as well.

Medicine of Place

By Julia M. Brayshaw
Alchemia. 214 pages. $34.99.

Brayshaw provides monograms of 33 wildflowers found in the Pacific Northwest, from grass widow, which begins blooming as early as January, to explorer's gentian, which blossoms at the end of the growing season.
For each flower, she gives the botanical description and geographical range. A section on habitat and ecology discusses the plant's web of relationships, and sometimes includes the effects humans have had. The camas, for example, was a sustainable staple in the diet of Native Americans. Later, the agricultural practices of settlers contributed to the severe decline of the flower.
Brayshaw also lyrically describes the "gesture" of each flower — its physical characteristics — before moving on to the chief focus: the flower's "medicine story." These portraits propose ways of considering the flower's message or inspiration.
And the deck of over-sized cards, with wildflower images painted by Karen Lohmann, invites the same kind of involvement, with suggestions about using the cards to develop a more intuitive connection with plants. It may sound a little "woo-woo" for the more hard-boiled among us, but I found it to be a fun, mind-expanding exercise, if not quite as transformational as the author might have hoped.
Another new book that covers much of the same literal territory is the "Encyclopedia of Northwest Native Plants," compiled by three more plant experts out of southwestern Washington.
This reference features over 500 species of native plants that can be incorporated into Northwest gardens, with the aim of restoring some of the biodiversity that has been ripped out by development over the last century and a half.
The entries include advice on propagation, siting and cultivation, and there are lists of plants to include in hedgerows, meadows, and more.
Armed with multiple degrees in botany, author Kathleen A. Robson has worked for the U.S. Forest Service and as an adjunct faculty member for Washington State University, and currently operates a native plant nursery in Woodland. Her affection for these plants shines through in her authoritative descriptions of even the humblest bulbs and grasses.
Gorgeous photographs by Master Gardener Alice Richter and pen and ink botanical drawings by Marianne Filbert enhance this inspiring resource from Portland's Timber Press.

bioregionalism takes on the global heroin trade

2008-03-21T00:53:00.000-07:00

place

back to desert »

"what could make a person strong is understanding completely where you come from," says former Rio Arriba county commision president Alfredo Montoya. "Understanding who you are. What your village has to offer. Your history. your traditions and customs. How spiritually there's places to go. And that is why the land and water issues, fighting for the acequias and the land grant movement, are so important for recovering from substance abuse."

--from the book 'chiva: a village takes on the global heroin trade' by chellis glendinning

Thu, March 20, 2008 - 10:00 PM - permalink - 1 Comment

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First peoples bioregional animism blog

2008-03-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hey.. I just want to let you all know on this tribe how awesome you all are! I have grown so much because of all the interesting things that i find here and the sharing that goes on between us all, as we dance with the land. I was always an animist by nature (no pun intended), but as I've delved into the biroregional concept more fully and continued to share with all of you, maintaining the First Peoples blog...I have expanded my understanding of animism so much more...it's incredible. Today I picked up the newspaper, as I often do to find current events for the drop in kids and the first thing that drew my attention was an article about the Tech school sponsoring a community meal with local game on the menu. I realized that because I belong to this tribe and share in the understanding with all of you, that more and more I am thinking from a biroregional perspective and by osmosis, perhaps...coming to understand my biroregion in a much deeper way. I find myself much more involved these days with what's going on on a DAILY basis within my bioregion, rather than just a passing glance or in general knowledge. It's quite a different perspective that reaches beyond animism for me. I have always danced with the land and lived in an animist way, honored the spirits of the land I was on, but now it has taken on a deeper meaning for me....guess it's "put me in my place" for sure ; ) Maintaining the First Peoples' blog has been a good exercise for me and I am grateful for having been offered the opportunity. It has deepened my commitment and I would love to expand that further, and hope to see some other First Peoples' from all over the world add their perspectives. I would not want that to be all one sided from only this bioregion. If there are other First Peoples here..please come on over to the blog and check it out. I would love to gain a deeper understanding of other First Peoples experience with biroreginal animism....it will serve to educate me further and broaden my perspective. i am honored by the wisdom along your path that has made its way into my everyday thought process...you ROCK! Guess I might to give in and read that book now, huh LLB? ~LOL~ With much respect
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from nanci at the first peoples bioregional animism blog come and join her!

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