This has stayed a secret for too long, for too many people who need to know about it. Iroquois mentors inspired the US constitution, and as such it imitates the appearance of the Iroquois constitution, without successfully duplicating the heart and spirit of it, which has lead to many problems over the centuries. Listen in for more on this fascinating subject, that has much to say about our evolving identity as “people who rewild”.

“Exemplar of Liberty: Native America and the Evolution of Democracy”
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/

“Basic Call to Consciousness”
http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Call-Consciousness-Akwesasne-Notes/dp/1570671591

 

 Hidden Mentors of Democracy - COMC Podcast Episode 6 [34:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Finally able to publish this episode! Thanks to Mike R. for making the donation that made this possible.

Our greatest power comes from those with whom we choose to collaborate. How do we make these choices? What happens when we make them consciously? What consequences follow from broken agreements, and choices that don’t create the results we hoped for or want?

 

 Whom We Choose - COMC Podcast Episode 5 [29:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For a month or two I’ve studied ASL, taught by my Deaf friend RaVen. I’ve wanted to write something on the boundless joy and refreshing vitality that sign has imparted to me, in the moments that I immerse in it. However, I know the vitality, immediacy, and honesty of sign connects to some other fundamental animist languaging issues.

My friend Evan Gardner, a “language savior”, once told me that rather than fixing English (in the philosophy of E-prime and E-primitive), American Sign Language itself seemed to satisfy everything I looked for in a renewed and animist way of communicating. At the time, I didn’t really believe him. Now, I still write in E-prime of course, and still see possibilities with E-primitive (inevitable ones, in fact), but I also now think I understand Evan’s point.

From Word Play, by Peter Farb (also author of Man’s Rise to Civilization As Shown by the Indians of North America, an excellent book)

The Plains Sign Language lacked true nouns, verbs, or adjectives in the way that speakers of  English know them, yet it contained elements which could function like those parts of speech.

Also, regarding the Uburu of the Amazon, a tribe with a small hereditary deaf population:

Whatever the explanation, one must admire a society in which everyone learns a complete system of gestural communication simply to accommodate the handicap of a small minority. An equivalent case would be if everyone in the United States learned to read and write Braille for the benefit of the small percentage of the American population that is blind. And the sign language that the Urubu have developed is not merely dumb show; it represents a complete linguistic system which can fully communicate the utterances of the spoken language. I have sat with four or five Urubu men and listened to one of them tell a story. But as soon as we were joined by a deaf person, the speaker immediately switched to the sign language, apparently without omitting a thought.

For me, this doesn’t point to the ingenuity of the Plains Indians for drumming up an intercultural sign language, nor does it point to the generosity of the Urubu for nicely including deaf people in their conversations. Certainly ingenuity and compassion play a role in these situations, but animist expression plays the biggest part.

Humans, by my guess, became storytellers and trackers (and thus human) the same way the rest of the highly communicative species did: through imitation and mimicry. Mynah birds, Lyre birds, parrots, corvids (jays, crows, magpies, ravens), cuttlefish, octopi, mostly highly social and communicative animals, and certainly all excellent imitators, share a common kind of intelligence. I don’t know if we have an English word for what I mean by “kind of intelligence”, but I certainly don’t simply mean “smart”. Humans look at the world in a specific way, with a specific kind of trickster curiosity. Many of these animals share this odd perspective, or “spirit bundle”.

I believe all animist speech carries an intrinsic honesty, because it has imitative, rather than definitive, goals. It doesn’t try to label, it tries to pass on the sensory pattern: color, movement, sound, smell, texture. Thus you have birds named by their verbalized call (much like “Pumpkin-eeeeeeater”, aka Redwing Blackbird). David Abram speaks about this at length in the Spell of the Sensuous.

Sign language, most likely for practical reasons (but I won’t speculate), and more specifically American Sign Language, closely toes this imitative linguistic line.

In fact my friend RaVen once told me of her shock upon reading a faithful translation of Hopi language, because it sounded/felt/communicated just like American Sign Language.

So animists don’t have to make much of a leap from spoken animist language to signed animist language. But for decades, the grammer and subtle conceptualizations of ASL has eluded most modern language-speaking academics who have neglected until recently to even count it as a “real” language.

I highly recommend you learn ASL to further explore animist language; and if you can learn from a true Deaf speaker of ASL, so much the better. I believe you will learn something that comes as close as we can get to our own, honest, animist language. But behave respectfully: like with all languages, it belongs to a certain people, the people of the Deaf subculture. They steward and renew the language themselves, and teach it to us out of compassion and a wish to communicate.

Our Rewilding Renaissance means that the new story we have to tell about our relationship with the world needs an outlet. How do we enact it in our lives, express it in how we feed and shelter ourselves?

Especially since this culture enforces a system of wage slavery? Of working to pay for what one once could freely harvest oneself - shelter, water, food.

Well, to escape slavery you need an Underground Railroad.

More and more opportunities to step outside, step beyond civilization, will emerge as time goes on. With each iteration, these opportunities will resemble more and more the healthy and original ways we used to live, in our indigenous ancestries.

In one example of filling this need, Finisia Medrano works to welcome back the plant relatives that the original peoples of California, Nevada, and Idaho relied upon for their sustenance, by traveling, as a caravan, in a big hoop, planting seeds, stewarding, digging roots, and following the seasons.

In her words: “I would again ask any who feel the need to give life to the native food plants and to a rewilding culture and the seven generations to come out and help us harvest and plant these seeds. I can assure you that you will learn much about how to sustain the wild that gives to everything.”

I don’t think of myself as a “revolutionary” - but rather a “renaissance man”.

I once told someone that I really liked Daniel Quinn’s characterization of our work to move beyond civilization, as a “New Renaissance“.

Similar to the medieval renaissance, where participants look back to classical ideals of “antiquity” (greek and arabic ideas and art), for a rebirth of culture, those who rewild today look to our original lifeways, both in our ancestry and where humans still practice them even amidst the pressures of civilization. In this, we experience a kind of rebirth.

To me, the experience of rebirth and renewal provides a major affirmation for animism. Traditions that don’t reflect an ancient and yet ever-changing landscape soon crumble, and leave their people grasping for a way that does work.

I know of a Tarot card, the Wheel of Fortune, which speaks to me of the product of Revolutions. A common symbol of European allegory, it usually contains these elements:

For me, you can ride the outside of the wheel, as embodied in civilization, the rise and fall of dynasties, regimes, revolutions, the peasants become king and the king peasants, or you can sit in the middle.

In some ways this points to the dark side of those “in the know” regarding collapse. Do we choose to put our lives on hold, waiting for the day when “collapse hits” and our culture radically changes? Or do we live now, today, and know the world will keep changing as it always has. Renewing and rebirthing traditions that honor that pattern, will mean we don’t need a tomorrow to make our today meaningful.

One person responded to the idea of rewilding as a “Renaissance” with the protest that when they thought of the “renaissance”, they thought of art, music, story, literature. They didn’t think of permaculture gardens, or bow drill fires, or wilderness shelters.

I smiled and said, “Exactly!”.

So welcome to the Rewilding Renaissance.

I recently attended a story-game gathering in Seattle, on the weekend of May 31-June 1.  For a long time, I’ve had some difficulty establishing a storyjamming culture with my small group. I have many assumptions and things I take for granted about storytelling, and I don’t always know how to uncover and articulate them.

How nice does it feel, then, when you discover that you don’t necessarily have to uncover and articulate everything, to bring it back. Sometimes you can just go find it where it still exists, and immerse yourself in it! So two of my friends, newbies to Storyjamming, attended GoPlayNW, and took to it like fish to water. It all worked out so well. It reminded me that in many places, for many things, oral cultures still remain vibrant, alive, and important. That my former frustration with indie games (that they couldn’t mentor you how to play the game, by reading the game text alone), now stand revealed to me as their strength!

Also, the culture of the indie-game movement continues to really impress and delight me.  I know that one can’t find a culture of such supportive, creative, and sincere people just anywhere. Something about storyjamming, story-games, and the indie game culture has come together to make something really special.

Check out the story-games meetup directory for opportunities near you to immerse yourself in this culture!

Old English, “ácordan”, to accord, agree, reconcile (to reestablish a close and consistent relationship between).

I recently picked up Stewart Levine’s book, the Book of Agreement, and felt shocked - somebody had actually written about the “culture of agreement” that I’ve worked so hard to encourage in the circles in my life! What a relief. It has inspired me to write about this culture that I value so much.
We have so many traditions, cast aside hither and thither in the mad rush of “progress” to the modern era of abject american cultural poverty (I used to call it “spiritual poverty”…I still don’t feel totally satisfied on how to articulate our peculiar brand of glittery privation, emotional scarcity, and intangible inner destitution). The tradition of making clear, compassionate, wise accords, based on the world we want to create and experience together, falls among them. Instead, in the modern world, we create agreements of protection, those designed to help us experience as little harm as possible.

Relearning to reach an accord through agreements takes us closer to that place, of “oneminded” power/unity. That feeling of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other adults, who inspire pride in us that we can call them friends, family, kindred.

How many activist movements, families, business, and other modern social groups, fall apart through infighting and politics? How many stay somehow half-alive, teetering on the verge of imploding? How many people do we know, keeping their nose to the grindstone, with a steady muttered refrain of discontent, disconnection, and intermittent despair?

Every single one of us, constantly make and renew agreements, implicit (articulated only on the inside), or explict (discussed out loud between each other). In every generation, we must remake this culture all over again, from scratch. A culture without a new generation, agreeing to its principles, means a culture on its deathbed. It takes tremendous work, tremendous energy inputs, extensive institutions of schools, government, law enforcement, to make this happen for the modern world.

We remake this culture, by assenting to abide by its implict or explict demands for accords. Often, by keeping these accords taboo, unarticulated, and invisible, this culture accomplishes the magician’s trick of having us hand over our souls, heart’s-ease, and life-purpose, for no more than dust, hollow dreams, and fragments of a life worth living. We see the rotten deal only when we can actually, finally, see it.

This stems from the entrapping and complex web of secular puritanism, in which we strive to accomplish a variety of things, trusting that since other people claim to value them (without ever explaining why), we must want them too. That in our rush to achievement we have no time for petty things like our “inconvenient” needs, and “intangible” feelings, since everybody else seems embarrassed by them too. We often can react in jealousy and rage when someone else stands up for what they so desperately need - for why should they get it, “if I can’t have it”. Except who exactly told me I couldn’t?

In order to find ourselves again, we must tug on the tangled strings of our own needs and feelings, finding our way back to heart’s-ease and life purpose, even amidst a natural world under siege. To make room for this work, and to live lives together worth having, we relearn to make accords. In making accords, we discover the deep nature of conflict, that of abundant energy for change and growth.

Instead of fearing conflict, we learn to revel in it as an opportunity to reconcile even deeper, to renew bonds of collaboration, friendship, and family. We plan ahead, and make a place for conflict, knowing that whether we will or no, it will soon arrive. If we welcome it, it will stoke the hearth fire of our community. If we resist it, its flames will burn, smolder, reawaken, blackening the timbers of our lives, house by house, until we finally consent to embrace its message.

I just discovered an excellent test for your Fox-walking skill. In Portland, OR, sunny weather has arrived, and when the sun comes out, the flip-flops go on the feet.

Have you ever wondered why we call them “flip-flops”? Of course not! Everybody knows. They always make that sound, “flip-flop, flip-flop”, when you walk with them on.

Well…

Almost always.

You see, I don’t make the flip-flop sound when I wear flip-flops. I hardly make any sound at all, just the slight scuffing of the soles against the sidewalk.

Question: why don’t I make the flip-flop sound?

Answer: because I don’t push off with my feet. I lift my feet up, rather than pushing against the ground to move forward. I do this in such a low-key way that nobody really notices. It doesn’t look funny, like a Ministry of Silly Walks variation.

(But surprisingly, you will indeed notice that the main character in the sketch, played by John Cleese, does indeed do his own “fox walk” variation much of the time.)

So, see how much you can cancel out the “flip-flop” sound, while wearing flip-flops, without overdoing it. You’ll learn a lot about movement, tension in your foot, and all kinds of good stuff.

Adults hold space for culture, raise children, provide food and shelter for each other, and make decisions together that they follow through on. What does all this mean in a rewilding context? What do rewilding adults look like? I explore this topic with some rather strong opinions, borne of bittersweet experiences. Rewilding Adulthood may just amount to the most challenging, terrifying, and important work we have to do, as people who rewild.

Jake Swamp: http://www.treeofpeace.org
Jon Young: http://www.jonyoung.info
Rewilding: http://www.rewild.info

For the series on rewilding and breaking the spell of the modern culture, look into Breaking the Spell, parts One (Rewilding), Two (Rewilding Your Ability to Reason), Three (Reality Therapy), Four (the Village Philosopher), Five (the College of the Round Table), Six (the Reason for Riddles), and Seven (the Wise Compass).

 

 Rewilding Adulthood: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What does it mean to pay attention to Needs and Feelings, our own and others? Why do we characterize the most biologically tangible and real aspects of our human nature, as irrelevant and inconvenient? We explore this taboo inner universe in today’s podcast.

Julie Cramer: http://www.thebalancepoint.org

Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morihei_Ueshiba

Nonviolent Communication (communcation centered on nonjudgemental observations of Needs and Feelings): http://www.cnvc.org/

 

 Needs and Feelings of the Human Animal: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Thanks to the current round of donations (Thank you again, Tony and Kate!), I’ve just switched over from a free podcasting host service that bogged down my site and gave a lot of error messages, on to a paid hosting service, Liberated Syndication.

I went back and edited the Odeo links out of all the podcasts, and replaced them with the new hosting service, as hyperlinks to the title of the particular podcast.

Thanks for your patience and ongoing support. Now that I have a new monthly archive bill added on to the other payments of domain hosting, equipment, and computer repair (don’t ask), I continue to really benefit from your donations.

In the future, I hope to podcast or post video of upcoming riddle workshops, dream interview circles, story jam roundtables, and such. If you’d like to see/hear these things, you know how to help!

As we move further along the path of personal clarity and rewilding, we may discover things that hold us back, such as concepts of ‘Right’ and ‘Wrong’. In this episode I talk about finding better measures for evaluating the feedback the world gives us, to improve our relationships in real ways. I also talk about implications of making these changes, of abandoning judgement as a primary tool of relating, and how this will change the way we communicate.

 

 the Grave of Right and Wrong: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I don’t know if the following will make any sense to anybody. I’ve begun to put some pieces together for myself, but I might not yet articulate it well enough for others. On the off chance that it clicks for someone, I’ll go ahead and take the risk.

I want to underscore a point I made in the last article concerning disgust at civilization. To articulate an argument against something insane, means that you can encompass it in your logical system. That means that you dignify it as one of the reasoned choices available to a member of your culture, however much you argue against it. By arguing against it, you say a reasonable person may choose it - because, you want to change this person’s mind by using a reasoned argument. You see?

Even now, culturally, we have things that you “just don’t do”, no explanation needed, and we have things that we haven’t made our minds up about.

Furthermore, a sane and life-affirming choice needs no logical support - you can feel the evidence with your body’s senses. Only abstractions need logical support. The more removed the abstraction, the more support needed.

Once you’ve exposed a life-denying choice for all to see, to argue further in the face of someone choosing it means you consider their choice reasonable. Which means that you leave the door open for you to choose it, someday, as a reasonable thing.

To reject something, without explanation or articulation, marks a step into a world where you can move directly into remedy, if you yourself end up choosing it. At that point, everyone in your micro-culture knows you “just don’t do that”. And in rewilding, everyone knows that punishment doesn’t address the actual issues at stake. So everyone moves directly into remedy.

The more of your rewilding culture that, once accepted on the basis of life-affirming evidence, you no longer articulate in a reasoned argument, the stronger it becomes. It, in fact, exits the vulnerable arena of american secular puritanism, a mental battlezone where your values and choices lay open to constant debate on whether they qualify as a “one right way”, amidst personal accusations of hypocrisy and so on.

As long as you engage in debate about the “personhood” of a tree, for example, you leave open the notion that a sane person could see the “itness” of a tree.

If you live a good life, people in search of a good life will flock to it. If you argue for a good life, people in search of an argument about what makes a good life will flock to it.

[I wrote this over at rewild.info, a forum I help moderate, that deals with rewilding.]

The more I learn about the successful “survivance” of tribal cultures, in the midst of civilization, the more I think that the basic human toolkit of confident disgust really works. In fact, I have a theory…

You have three kinds of people who need protection from the destructive influence of civilized culture.

1) Adults immersed in civilization.
2) Adults newly immersed in a culture dwelling beyond civilization.
3) Children

For #1, these people need explanations and articulations to reveal the dark side of civilization (at least, in so far as they ask for help and support to make sense of why this culture doesn’t satisfy their needs). They need it brought to light, so they can make a conscious choice about it.

For #2 and #3, articulating things makes acculturation more difficult. We just need to act in disgust and revulsion towards things that do not affirm life. Body language, and simple statements, lead the way.

As, in “yuck! gross! weird!”. With that Mr. Yuk face.

Nobody needs to explain to a child who sees Mr. Yuk what will happen if they taste the contents of a bottle with his face on it.

We all know, at this point, that civilization had to work overtime to fool anybody that it made even the least bit of sense. In fact, civilization created a “yuck!” response for abandonment.

Tribal cultures, the world over, have used gossip, and social pressure (otherwise known as “guilt” and “shaming”) to keep their cultures intact and humming along.

Guilt and Shame impact us rewilders so powerfully, that we have to tread incredibly lightly in rewilding these concepts. They have caused enormous amounts of pain in myself, and my friends, and even now haunt me a little. Such power they have! In using them, we can easily regress into civilized modes of virtue and purity, exactly what we want to escape.

But, as a community, I think we’ve reached a point where we can begin to talk about them, and begin to consider what it means to feel “shame” that one has made a life-denying choice.

At this point, civilization has done so much damage to human and other people, that the burden lies with it to explain itself. I reject it utterly in every aspect as a gruesome joke, an anti-life and anti-human endeavor. I need no more explanation, no more books like “Culture of Make Believe”. A cruel and laughable enterprise, Civilization makes a mockery of those who engage in it, and deserves no more substantive rebuttal than Mr. Yuk:

In balance to that, then you can celebrate the life-affirming side. Talking to plants and animals with your children, treasuring family connections and making them stronger, etc. etc.

I believe that we over-explain things to our children, and to each other. Children, and other adults, look to our faces, our body language, the tone of our voice, for direction on what affirms life, and what doesn’t. If we act from a strong center with disgust or joy, we embody the world we want.