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Eco-Soul

1/11/2022

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PEGI EYERS

How deeply are human beings entwined with the natural world? Bespoke wisdom, a vision from the wild, or an offering from my ancestral Clan Mothers, an epiphany came to me in the trance state between sleeping and waking. This fantastical manifesto, an ontology inspired by our most ancient beginnings, extends past the far reaches of modern environmental theory and gives us much to contemplate, as we continue to be humbled by the Great Mystery. 
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OUR SOULS LIVE IN THE EARTH
AND THE EARTH LIVES IN OUR SOULS

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WHAT IF it was proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that your soul is eternal?  That your soul is a unique and sacred spark, a blessed part of the Divine Mystery that animates your inner life from birth to death, and beyond?  AND WHAT IF it was proven that your soul is on a continuous forward journey? AND WHAT IF PROOF EXISTS that between lifetimes your soul resides IN the landscape and IN the various features, elements and creatures in the natural world? THAT IN FACT, the natural environment serves as a vessel, or holding place for your spirit? 
The trees, plants, wetlands, grasslands, wildflower meadows, sand dunes, mounds, rocky escarpments, underground tunnels, caverns, ponds, lakes, rivers – any of these numinous and holy landscapes could serve as dwelling places for your soul.   

AND KNOWING THIS TO BE TRUE, believing beyond a doubt that the continuum of your soul depends on this eco-resting place, how can we allow the destruction of the natural world to continue?  The contamination created by conveniences and technologies,  the pollution dumped into the water systems, earth and air, the forests logged, the animals harvested, the earth’s body stripped by mining, the replacement of wild nature with highways, fences, factories and cities all pose a real and terrible danger to our personal destiny. After our physical death, where the Great Mystery will place our spirit cannot be predicted. (Unless we have exceptional training and have willed it so. Making personal decisions affecting the process of being born into death used to be a given in Indigenous societies.)  
Therefore the reckless and thoughtless damage to the environment on every level MUST BE STOPPED!  It goes far beyond the adage of "We are All Related."  We now know that without access to the undisturbed natural places on this beautiful planet that have been provided for our soul's rest and return, our spirits will surely and completely disappear. Contrary to the modern worldview, humans are not meant to exist in close proximity to technology, concrete cities and the built environment, but thrive in the truest sense ONLY in the embrace of the green and natural world.
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The further away we push nature the smaller our souls become – this is not a metaphor but a fact, as experienced by the millions today who feel a void, something missing in their lives.  Endless distractions and therapies exist to address this emptiness, but most of the theories bypass the simple truth that addresses the foundational requirements of the eco-soul. The contemporary endemic shrinking of the spirit is a reality, and healing is possible when we return to our ancestral and earth-connected roots, reclaim our enchantment with the world, embrace the wild for our ensouling, and re-establish the connection to Mother Earth that is so vital to our well-being.
            
As we co-existed peacefully with the Earth for millennia, we must expand once again into our true nature and potential as fully-realized human beings. To survive in both body and soul, we must acknowledge our vital reciprocal relationship with nature, and embrace our true human role as keepers and protectors of  Earth Community.

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Examples of the Eco-Soul dynamic are found in earth-connected and Indigenous societies worldwide, in oral tradition, myth, and even contemporary film-making. Based on Yolngu Matha Indigenous Knowledge and filmed in  the Ganalbingu language, the Australian award-winning movie Ten Canoes is a dazzling and accurate portrayal of a pre-contact hunter-gatherer society deeply bonded to the natural world in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. During the course of the movie, the storytelling in their oral tradition reveals that the souls of their people continue to live in a particular wetland - or billabong - between lives, and that the pregnant women of the tribe go there to coax a soul into their belly.

Sourced from the ancient folklore of Europe and elsewhere, James Frazer stated in The Golden Bough that the spirits of  the  dead  reside  in the trees, awaiting rebirth. The Indigenous peoples of Lithuania, Greece, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Britain, Africa, Indonesia, and the Americas worshipped the trees as sacred beings with in-dwelling souls, and protected them from harm. Depending on the culture, trees can be the abode of spirits, gods, ancestors, or souls waiting to be born.
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The Dryad by Evelyn De Morgan
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Ten Canoes Film Poster
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Hypogeum in Ħal-Saflieni
One of the ancient megalithic structures found in Malta, the Hypogeum in Ħal-Saflieni is the oldest intact underground temple in the world, and is thought to have been sacred space for rituals of birth, death and regeneration. Both above and below ground, the temple complex of this ancient matriarchal society (3800 to 3600 BCE) reveals construction and symbols that celebrate fertility and the female form. Having amazing acoustic properties, the subterranean chambers and structures enabled powerful communication with the spirit realm, and were places for worship, divination and healing. From tomb to womb, the Hypogeum in Ħal-Saflieni was also the burial place for thousands  of community members, and the Chamber of All Souls held the spirits of the collective between lives - as crucible, vessel and cauldron. The highly-evolved wisdom held by this society allowed for the successful migration between disembodied and incarnate spirits, in a dance of Sacred Mystery that embraced the perennial cycles of all life.
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores social justice, nature spirituality, the ancestral arts, and resilience in times of massive change.  www.stonecirclepress.com
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Shifting Borderlands of Tame and Wild

9/17/2021

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PEGI EYERS

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For millennia the false narratives of western civilization have placed humans as superior to all other life, and our era of late-stage capitalism has intensified our callous exploitation of “resources,” and our disconnect from the natural world. And yet we still carry the wisdom of our Ancestors deep within, the “Indigenous lore and undomesticated knowledge that portrays the world, and everything in it, as existing for its own sake, not to be defined, confined, known or possessed.”[1]  At the other extreme, we have been cushioned from encounters with “the feral” and have been influenced by the lies in books and films that demonize wild animals, and present them as monsters to be eradicated and feared. We rarely experience truthful encounters with animals, or intentionally seek them out, and yet I have discovered that the boundary between “wild” and “tame” is a permeable state, and surprisingly, subject to what is most expansive, and positive, in the human heart and soul.

One beautiful summer day not too long ago, I was shocked by a horrifying sight – my beloved cat Fettie rolling around in a Wild Turkey nest, full body stretched out in ecstasy, with the chipped remains of 13 very large eggs all around him.  I had been well aware of the nest for weeks, and with a protective gaze had been nervously watching the cows in the pasture browsing closer and closer to where Mama Turkey had chosen to build, right on the border of fenced pasture and wildflower meadow, leading up to the house on the hill. 

​And yet it wasn’t the thousand-pound cows crushing the delicate eggs that were a danger to the heart-melting prospect of motherhood and new babies, it was a member of my own family.  So impossible did it seem that my lap-cat Fettie, so well-fed and spoiled, would end those precious wild lives, I actually spent two days thinking that he had come upon the nest already plundered, and was claiming some sort of ownership after-the-fact.  And yet, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that body language does not lie. By rolling around in the remains of bone, feather and shell, the cozy nest of baby birds now gone from this world, he was showing me how pleased he was with himself – with his skill at killing, and his ability to survive, and thrive.
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How must Mama Turkey be feeling, I wondered?  Her heart broken, her purpose in life destroyed, her deep sorrow at the tiny sweet babies all gone, her beautiful family that never materialized a deep dark scar on her soul.  And yet I was anthropomorphizing, projecting my human sensibilities on the non-human  – we do it all time – but in my heart I knew that Mama Turkey did know and feel many of those things.  Wild Turkeys are smart community-oriented birds with long memories, and since that terrible violation the flocks in the far-off fields have kept a safe distance, and no other nest has ever appeared.  

Something in the human heart – mine in particular – will always mourn the departure of any infant taken from Earth Community, but I also know that the predator and prey relationship is integral to this world.  As a semi-carnivore living a privileged life far from the killing and butchery process, evidence of the hunt - or demise by natural means - has been a familiar sight during my sojourns in the wild.  Today, I define my deep bonds to the land as Animism, based on a life-altering ecomystic experience at age eight when I was immersed in the transcendent glow of nature for an entire afternoon, to decades of ambling in the woods, or dashing there for sanctuary and healing. Interactive communion with the other-than-human has been part of my life for a very long time, and the reciprocity emanating back to me from the wild beings, elements and creatures never ceases to amaze. And never more so, then when taking on the uncomfortable, tiring, frustrating, and ultimately rewarding role, of "Tamer of Feral Cats."   
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Living in rolling countryside on the outskirts of a medium-sized Canadian city affords the best of both worlds – proximity to necessities and amenities, plus the “far removed” stance of being surrounded by nature, the deep quiet punctuated by birdsong, turbulent winds or coyote’s howl, and at the end of the day, a clear view of starlit skies reaching to the cosmos. Sighting wild species such as deer, fox, hare  or hawk is a blessing, and a reminder of my own wildness, or “deep feral” within, and my own potential to thrive in the wild.  

A few years ago three small raccoons ambled up the hill directly toward me, making eye contact and chirping a kind of welcome that was more like a plea for help. Much to my surprise, I got directly to work picking the many burrs and sticky seed pods out of their fur. They spent the summer in proximity to the farm, being fed cat kibble, letting me gingerly pet them (to a degree), jumping on me as I was reading on the porch, occasionally coming though the door, or communicating in that frolicking charming way of raccoons all over Turtle Island.  But to tame them as pets?  That was never an option.  

​And yet, what happens at the intersection of wild/domestic when there does appear a species, like a cat, that one can tame? A free-roaming and unowned cat is as feral as any other creature, spending most of the time stalking and hunting over wide distances, marking territory, and depending on the cat, hiding out during the vulnerable daylight hours.  For me, the boundary between “wild” and “tame” is fascinating to the point of obsession, as I’ve spent literally weeks interacting, observing, and questioning these kinds of relations.  

​For one thing, how do domesticated felines end up in the wild? Born into the wild or abandoned, a cat who lives as a wild animal is at risk of death from predators such as coyotes, and diseases such as rabies, feline leukemia and parasites. Cursing as I do “all those who discard cats,” unfortunately our unpaved country road is a good location for city dwellers burdened with pet responsibilities – a “dumping ground” as it were for cats of all stripes, ages, and various states of well-being.  Our farming neighbours are not especially welcoming to cats, except for occasional hand-outs to the ones residing in drafty barns, left to survive (or not) on their own. One warm summer’s eve, I spotted a cat with grey fur wandering erratically back and forth across the road, oblivious to danger.  Instantly I knew this was a newly-abandoned cat, and stopped my car to help.  He or she seemed delirious, wounded, suffering from the effects of a head injury perhaps, and the closer I got the further they ran away.  “Definitely not about to trust a human, not now” was the clear message I received.  By the time I went home for trapping equipment and returned, the cat was already dead at the side of the road, hit by some oblivious driver.  

Even more upsetting were the bags of feline remains, and the skeletons under the trees, I found one day hiking in the woods near the road past the farm. These kinds of events are hardly significant to the farmers and hunters of my region, but devastating to cat lovers.  And yet, in contrast to the heartbreak are the “love stories” of four feral cats, who successfully made their way to the farm on the hill - now safely ensconced on their mats, with names, personalities, love, family, care, full bellies and medical histories.   
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Speaking from experience, the taming of a feral cat can be a long and tedious process, taking up to two years from first introduction to full status as a “family member.” Even with monumental patience and constant urging, the feral is not entirely motivated until the food, warmth and shelter outweigh the doubts and fears. First the cat appears, perhaps sighted hanging around the barn, under the storage shed, or in Bin Bin’s case, roaming up and down the front lane to burrow under the leafy border of Maple Trees.  Next - the calling and coaxing, the rattle of kibble in the dish, or food left out for their wanderings. Ferals are usually ravenous, and if food is available along with a friendly human presence, they are willing to take the risk. Even after many weeks (or months) of this sporadic feeding, there is still no eye contact, and they continue to run and hide.

​Then, as the deep freeze of a Canadian winter sets in and the wind blows hard, the feral will finally cross an inconceivable boundary and enter the house, sometimes hiding in the basement for many weeks (or even months!) as they become accustomed to the smells and sounds of mechanical things like heaters, and human activity.  Finally, after many hours of venturing into the lair with food and hesitant touch, trust is established and eye contact is made. Slowly the unremitting praise and petting has an impact, and after a few inevitable scratches and band-aids, the cat is tumbled into the carrier, taken to the veterinarian, and with the finality of surgery (spay or neuter) domestication is achieved. 

​Warmth, light, a steady food supply, and love are what domestication brings, and seemingly what the wild animal needs.  But how can you “need” things that have been a complete unknown?  Some mysterious reciprocity begins with the domestication process, changing the boundaries of what is wild and what is not.  Animals have love, care and loyalty to each other it’s true, expressed in their own unique way, and yet what can human love mean to an animal? Probably nothing at first, but over time a strange and miraculous intersection occurs, that something of that love is now being expressed by the animal. Are they mirroring it back to us, or do they actually carry the seeds for deep love between species? Can this be some kind of miracle that confirms our value as a human, to awaken a rare and transformative interspecies affection? If so, and if we can extend that same love to all of Earth Community, at the very least can we take our place in the Sacred Circle, with the intent to heal and care for all beings?
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There certainly is no discounting that the cats in my life, best friends who share movies and rides in the car, will continue to bring out my best qualities of love and care, and to teach me how to be true to myself, be patient, stick to a routine, spend lots of time meditating and looking at trees and clouds, and to pounce on something immediately if it appears delicious to eat. Most assuredly, cats have personality traits similar to human qualities – loyalty, respect, gratitude and altruism, such as the day when Buster guided another feral cat to the house, with behavior that can only be described as gallant.  And the gift of purring to heal the human psyche cannot be understated-!
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What is it in the animal that allows for domestication, to be content around humans, but maybe just as content in the natural world? The urge to hunt never leaves, as with his exceptional strength, speed, sharp claws and deep bite my boy Fettie will always be a highly-skilled predator. One autumn afternoon he bolted into the field of golden corn, and by the time he arrived at the road 300 feet away, had killed a hare exactly the same size as himself. Watching him drag the poor creature home in triumph was a tragedy for me, the over-domesticated human. My compulsion to painstakingly record the kills in photographs – the turkey eggs, the hare, the hawk, the voles, the mice, the baby rabbits, the various songbirds and woodpeckers – is to perhaps make sense of a process that few have the opportunity to witness, in our modern world. 

For millennia humans were not domesticated, and our hunter-gatherer societies were highly successful.  Civilization and our removal from the wild may offer certain advantages, but based on massive change and climate disaster today, has become lethal to Earth Community.  Looking into the eyes of another species and sharing our lives means being connected, empathic, grounded, embodied, vibrant, present, spiraling in time, sensing the mystery, and feeling wonder or awe – all aspects of a much-needed return to Ancestral Wisdom.  Without a doubt, we are companions on the journey.  And with our ongoing sorrows and sacrifices, perhaps all beings  – animal, human, plant, element or other – can share the deeply felt dynamic of both predator and prey, taking turns over and over in the great Dance of Life.
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photograph by Pegi Eyers
NOTES
[1] Layla Abdelrahim, Children’s Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness,  Routledge, 2015

"Shifting Borderlands of Tame and Wild" was originally published by Unpsychology Magazine, Issue #6, "The Other-than-Human Anthology," May 2020.   free download  www.unpsychology.org/latest-issue/4585970771
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Stone Circle Press   ​
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Earth First

8/23/2021

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PEGI EYERS ~ Ancient Spirit Rising

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"The First Ones" © Milka Lolo
The majority of the world does not find its roots in western culture or tradition. The majority of the world finds its roots in the natural world, and it is the natural world, and the traditions of the natural world which must prevail. [1]
(Haudenosaunee Address) 
 
The land is our greatest strength – if we look to Her we will survive. [2]
(Wisakedjak)
 
In the magnificent journey to reclaim our own Ancestral Knowledge, our essential bond to the land and our own form of ecocultural identity on Turtle Island, there are diverse paths and modalities that can lead our hearts and minds back to the natural world. From the minute they rolled out the pavement, my sense is that the western world has been devolving (!), and that every technological advance and infrastructure development is another act of self-destruction, when compared to the infinity of sacred treasures found in Indigenous life.

Situated at the core of western civilization is the master narrative of Christianity encoded in our expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and this scenario has been reenacted over and over for millennia. Reinforced by the isolationist perception that nature is a hostile force, cultural groups worldwide have hidden themselves away from the dangers of wild animals “red in tooth and claw” and the vagaries of weather, and better to make your stronghold fast.  

Over time, the culmination of this vast separation from the natural world has become a huge embarrassment to the artists, mystics, visionaries, and practitioners of our European-based Old Ways, who have tried to amalgamate elements  of  nature worship and earth connection into the public sphere, keeping indigeneity alive  in a  covert way,  and adding  a  much-needed eco-awareness  to the western  canon.   For  centuries  religion,  philosophy   and science developed elaborate theories to justify and cloak our separation from the natural world, inevitably coming full circle in contemporary times to spiritual ecology, the “greening of religion,” and a scientific backtrack to the original cosmology of Indigenous Science (found all along in living Indigenous Knowledge [IK] systems).  
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The Seven Grandfather Teachings ~ foundational to Anishnaabe IK
Already in place as they have for millennia, it is the IK/EIK (European Indigenous Knowledge) in every domain of human activity that hold the key to our mutual uncolonization process and survival into post-industrial society. The popular praxis that a “new view of reality is emerging in which spiritual insight and scientific discovery both contribute to an understanding of ourselves as intimately interwoven with our world”[3] (Macy and Johnstone) implies that we need to conjure up a brand new paradigm, a cutting-edge convergence of modern technology with spiritual enlightenment. The truth is, everything we could possibly need is already waiting to be found in earth-connected IK/EIK systems, and this actuality is expressed by renowned Mexican scholar Gustavo Esteva.
 
“The system is not working, and everyone is realizing it. People are looking everywhere, imagining and theorizing the possibilities, grasping at more creations of their own making in the built infrastructure, seeking the paradigm shift in science, technology, medicine, the Occupy movement and so on that needs to happen, whereas it is already in place as it has been for millennia, being lived by Indigenous Knowledge and Indigenous people.  Any course-correction discipline to decolonize ourselves is already in practice by Indigenous peoples, from astronomy to ethnobotany to medicine to food sources to community living, to intimate knowledge of the land base. You name it, it is already being lived and practiced.  The only thing that the dominant society needs to access this storehouse, held by the people for the people, is humility.  The paradigm shift is already being lived by millions of earth-connected cultures and Indigenous people worldwide, and the time has come to let the slowest set the pace.”[4]
 
In the throes of Euro-civilization building in the Americas, vital aspects of sustaining our eco-identity while existing under the blanket of colonialism seems  to have  fallen to  the  green  thinkers, the  herbalists, the naturalists, the wilderness guides, the artists (yet again!), the outcasts, the discontents, the malcontents, the cultural creatives and the introverts. An interesting contemporary phenomena is the anomie of certain people visiting the cities who experience great discomfort, sensitive souls who cannot abide the noise, pollution, and grey-on-grey tangle of the urban jungle. This almost begs the question that there must be two distinct types of humans, those that have evolved  in  the  artificiality  of  cities -  the  thriving  urban dwellers  who  love their metropolises - and those to whom concrete urban spaces are anathema. These "pastoral" folk are out-of-step with the values of Empire, and need to maintain their kinship to the natural world at all costs. Some have even gone so far as to say that “souls who are more comfortable in the cities are no longer comfortable on this planet, and should travel to another planet!” [5] (Krow Fischer)  Then there are the folks who exist in a kind of liminal space or twilight zone, somewhat urban while their hearts continue to resonate with the natural world, forced to live in small cities yet not fully embracing the rural life or countryside either.
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​Wherever one is situated, to heal our rift from nature and reclaim our ecological self, we need to put the highest value on loving and experiencing the land, for this is how our IK/EIK will emerge. To this end, my book Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community offers a collection of diverse paths, both ancient in origin and modern in voice, that place the Earth First.  These chapters Include:
Go Outside
                                                                         
Earthing
                                                               
Animism
                                                                
Ecomysticism & Nature Spirituality
                        
Ecopsychology
                                                     
Earth Story
                                                           
Sacred Sites
                                                          
Earth Love
                                                            
Rewilding
                                                             
Earth Rights

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"Border Crossing" © Lisa Ericson
“Nature gives birth to your soul – and that of all other animals and plants on the planet. You can count on wild nature to reflect your soul, because soul is your most wild and natural dimension.”[6] (Bill Plotkin)
NOTES
[1] Jerry Mander, “A Basic Call to Consciousness, the Haudenosaunee Address to the Western World,” In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. Sierra Club Books, 1992.
[2]  Public Energy, Wisakedjak/Mazinaw Rocks, dance theatre performance, Market Hall, Peterborough, ON, 10/31/2013.
[3] Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone,  Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re In Without Going Crazy, New World Library, 2012.
[4]  Mexican activist, “deprofessionalized intellectual” and nomadic storyteller Gustavo Esteva, Traditional Elders Conference 2013, Lecture, Indigenous Studies Department, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, January 28, 2013.
[5] Krow Fischer, Weavers of Light: A Channelled Book of Knowledge for Our Changing Times, Here On Earth, 2008.
[6] Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche, New World Library, 2010.
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​Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Stone Circle Press   ​
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The World of Small

5/23/2021

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PEGI EYERS

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"Moth Wing Woman" © Dorrie Joy
Pandemic restrictions aside, I have grown weary of late with "wilderness adventure" and "nature experience" narratives that involve counting the miles, scaling the heights, penetrating the off-limits, traversing the most rugged terrain,  finding rare species after a day-long search, or  paddling like mad to reach that overnight camping destination. Nature excursions have been commodified for decades now - a mega-industry tiered to income - and today privileged folks spend lavish amounts of money to go "rock climbing," "mountaineering," "canyoneering," "whitewater rafting," "fly-fishing" or "wildlife viewing."  And for any "helicopter expedition, personalized tour, whale-watch or safari" there is always a luxury lodge waiting at the end of the day. 

And yet nature is not a "challenge," a set of hurdles to overcome, a place to "survive" or improve your personal score. These are all outdated concepts held over from the  Euro-Colonial era, that pit "man against nature" through high-powered conquest. Based on fear and loathing, there is no genuine respect or love for nature, in the worldview that western men carry in their colonial souls.

"How far and how fast can my ATV go? How can my pickup truck compete with this run-off, this muddy backroad?  Where is the most spectacular scenery for my rappelling, surfing, zipline, hang-gliding, bungee-jumping or sea-kayaking? How deep in the forest can I go, to reach that palatial, fully-stocked hunting camp?" Modernity has produced people so callous, and so focused on centering themselves in every location, that they have lost the actual ability to see, or feel that nature is alive and sacred.

These "extreme" activities are also deeply racist, classist, ableist and misogynist, by leaving out the wishes and desires of BIPOC,  low income, disabled folks, or women. Not everyone is physically, mentally or financially equipped, or even interested in, superficial encounters with the wild!

In counterpoint to the über-man who takes up space with his "power over nature," I'm seeking narratives of nature connection that are scaled to the human body, to our wonder at the "small" and our most intimate expressions, and to seeing the tiniest organism with a soft touch and a gentle heart. This is the worldview of simplicity and immediacy, that favors the delights in our own orbit to the lofty heights of "eco-adventure."  Even in a few feet of water, sunshine, or soil there is so much going on!  I have a friend who takes the most astonishing pleasure in her tiny backyard garden.  In my own case, the story of my Cabbage Butterfly Friend is a great illustration of "embracing the small."

Cabbage Butterfly (Pieris Rapae)

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One afternoon in early March 2021, I noticed a Cabbage Butterfly with beautiful markings, lying sideways on the dining room floor. This was not surprising, as a cadre of eight had already emerged in January from the potted kale moved indoors last autumn.  Being hatched in the warmth of the house out-of-season, there was nothing in the immediate environment to sustain this wee being, and her chances of living past "day one" were slim. Nevertheless I lifted her frail body up with my “insect catcher” (small plastic sheet and glass lid). Placing her upright on the counter, I watched her struggle to regain her footing, and quickly set up a “feeding station” with the felt stamens, punctured container and sugar-water on hand from the last off-season emergence. She seemed content to stay on the stamens, so I left her without a cover or netting. 
 
So many “lucky incidents” followed to extend the life of this tiny being, that I feel compelled to bear witness and tell her story. The first challenge (aside from being prone on the floor) was that when I set up her sugar-water station, the stamens overflowed the saucer area. I checked on her 30 minutes later, and was dismayed to see that she had landed in a pool of nectar, and was immersed on her side struggling for life.  With a small wooden skewer under her footies, I lifted her up and placed her on a dry layer of paper towels. Hoping the sticky nectar wouldn’t permanently damage her wings, I spritzed her with water, and much to my relief she dried off and revived over the next couple of hours. 
 
Then it was on to some serious feeding.  What a delight to watch her delicate proboscis twirling in a spiral, finding a juicy patch and settling in. She soon became my special friend, who I nurtured and cared for, like any beloved pet. When the sugar-water got low or the stamens began to dry, I changed the feeding station, and redirected her to it if she flew off-course. After hours of feeding I would find her perched on other objects in the  kitchen – plastic cat food containers, a glass bottle, or other items.  But she never flew too far – until I began to find her perched upright on the kitchen floor.
 
There were exactly five incidents when I arrived home and clumped into the kitchen, only to miss stepping on her in my “assumption of human space.” Each time I lifted her with the flat plastic and returned her to her place on the saucer or the stamens, and each time she was safe. The next dangerous incident occurred one day when I lifted the cat food tupperware in a rush, filled the kitty bowls and clicked it back on the counter, only then looking for my little butterfly friend. I immediately realized I had seen her perched on that exact container only an hour before, but I had forgotten all about it. In a state of upset and fear I began to search the kitchen and dining area, thinking she was smashed to bits, crushed under my own foot, or thrust into some crevice, never to return.
 
Imagine my relief and surprise when I saw her perched upright, hidden by leaves under the plant stand on the kitchen island.  I gently lifted her up again with the plastic sheet, and she seemed to be in fine shape. What a resilient little being!  So the days passed, far beyond the 3-week life cycle of a Cabbage Butterfly. She was in a warm, sunlit space, next to the conversation and commotion in the kitchen, and didn’t seem to mind one bit. In the evening I turned on a small tube light to give her a few hours of extra light, and then she settled into the darkness like the rest of the household, to be greeted in the morning with activity and a warm breeze. In the middle of the day, or at other times, I would gently spray the top of the feeding station and the stamens with a mist of water, to keep her environment from drying out.
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On my birthday in March I returned home from a lovely celebration lunch, and a few hours later dipped into the take-out cake (of course), accidentally knocking the top of the container onto the feeding station. Oh my god!  I looked for my butterfly friend, and there she was, fastened to the styrofoam lid, none the worse for wear. I’m not sure how she jumped so nimbly onto the lid without getting hurt, but I was so glad and relieved.

As the days passed, I checked on her often, blowing on her wings to create a warm breeze and imitate the elements she might have encountered in the wild. I talked to her, put her back on the stamens if she wandered too far, and just generally studied this delicate and wondrous being. She started to turn her wee body to face me, with her little eyes looking up into my own. I felt in my bones a connection between us, and that she was telling me she was unhappy but grateful for this small chance at life, that she trusted me implicitly, and that she was fulfilling her own destiny as a member of Earth Community. 

I also communed with the Cabbage Butterfly Deva, or archetypal spirit, and with metapoetics and prayer, interacted with the sacred network and important niche of this species. I wondered about my butterfly friend’s impression of this strange environment, for like any other being, she held epigenetic memories of her normal passage through life.  It also crossed my mind that some aspect of the Cabbage Butterfly psyche may now hold a new adaptation in their memory from care in captivity, and how would that affect them?  Such things remain a mystery.
 
At one point I thought my friend was ailing as she sat still for so long, so I gently separated out her wings with the point of my wooden skewer as she let me caress her. Her wings were so much more sturdy than they appeared!.  As her wings separated they began to dry, and over the next couple of days she was energized and fluttering around the kitchen, again with my help returning to her station.  A few times I touched her wee antenna and she stepped up onto my finger, sitting there with an expression of contentment, basking in my admiration and love. She never seemed to lag, and at the end of the 4th week I began to call her my “Miracle Butterfly” after all the NDE's she had survived.  
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Toward the end of the 5th week I came home one day, and my Butterfly Friend was nowhere to be found. I searched the kitchen counter, front and back, the entire  area and the dining room for 30 minutes. It finally occurred to me to look under the layers of paper towel holding the sugar-water, and at that moment a giant Wolf Spider zipped out, and ran away.  As I lifted the paper towel higher, there she was, right where the spider had been sitting.  She was dead, killed by a mortal blow, captive to the Wolf Spider. In that moment of shock and sorrow, I continued to speak to her and honor her spirit, and  was sadly reminded of the predator-prey dynamic that rules our planet.  I placed her wee body in a sweet nest of cotton with her other kindred, and noticed that in death the Cabbage Butterfly loses absolutely none of its beauty, poise or vital earth essence. In the kitchen I went to where her feeding station used to be, felt her presence still, and thanked her for being my companion on the journey. 

A few weeks later on a cool spring day, a beautiful white Cabbage Butterfly flew toward me in a friendly  manner - right at my front door - and continued to soar around the yard in circles and swirls. I responded with the joy of connectivity, and with pure delight, to see a member of this species outdoors where they belonged!

Encounters with minute elements or beings in Earth Community - The World of Small - can open our hearts, bring gratitude and care, and create powerful bonds to place. These are the missing elements in our lives, since techno-capitalism has taught us we never have enough, we have to "keep moving," or what we really need, is always "over there." We do carry enormous hungers, and yet meaningful soul contracts can be found right next to us or underfoot, in loving relationship with the other-than-human world, in our indoor or outdoor gardens, and in our local green spaces.
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RESOURCES

Investigating Life with the Cabbage White Butterfly and Brassicas    >PDF<


Tiny Hummingbird Stops Construction on the Trans-Mountain Pipeline for 4 Months


Is it Time to Stop Climbing Mountains? Obsession with Reaching Summits is a Modern Invention
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Stone Circle Press   
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Resilience, Renewal and Love

4/27/2021

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PEGI EYERS

The Legacy of the Ancestors

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"Ancestor" mixed-media © Pegi Eyers
“Are you, like me, feeling that the mythology of your life is now divided between the eras of pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19?” When I wrote those words at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, I was experiencing confusion and unease, in what felt like a menacing new reality.  Being part of a “lockdown” was totally surreal. Was this really happening? Did our public health authorities actually have the power to shut down our civic spaces and amenities, and restrict our movements?  Apparently they did.  For most of us, this was a totally new phenomena. And to top it off, how could a “state of emergency” be declared on my own birthday, and what was I doing enjoying a celebration in a restaurant that should have closed their doors? 

It’s now a full year later, my solar return has come and gone, and the entire world has been forced to reconcile with great disruptions, tragedies and impossible events. Like everyone else, I’ve been stripped down to the essentials of refuge, food, medicine and other basic needs, with the comfort of social life relegated to the sidelines. Even going for a walk is daunting, with the potential of a deadly virus waiting around the corner to contaminate our lives. And how dis-empowering, to think of the people, places, and objects of our desire as a hidden source of danger! 

New words are part of our vocabulary too – terms like  “self-isolation,”  “shelter in place,” “quarantine,” “essential workers,”  “community spread,” “flatten the curve,” “online reality,”  or  “covidiot” (covid denier). Instead of café culture, bookstore browsing, visiting art galleries and going to spiritual gatherings and conferences, we now spend our days in our homes - humble or palatial as they may be. Except for the super-rich, everyone is suffering an economic hit, and the ability to keep a roof over our heads is in jeopardy.  Knowing how capitalism is structured, without the daily intake of profits our beloved community restaurants and shops will never rise from the ashes.  And right now, it’s hard to imagine what the world will look like, in a post-COVID era.

Intellectually I understand that the virus will run its course – some will catch it, others never will; some will die and others recover.  These are plain truths I can deal with, with a grudging acceptance and communal grieving.  But still, there is stress in the disruption of my routine, plus the ongoing worry of falling ill. COVID-19 has changed our world on a scale never seen before, and yet we had so much to begin with!  Until 2020 I was feeling the irony of living in an era of hope and cultural renaissance, at the same time that western civilization seemed to be collapsing under its own weight.  For many years I watched for omens of the apocalypse, and as a society, we’ve been comfortable with “the sky falling” for decades now.  Warnings of monumental change and the breakdown of ecosystems have been part of the public discourse for my entire adult life.  A civilization that destroys the natural world to live, will destroy itself.  It’s a given. And altering the balance of nature by massive deforestation and the annihilation of natural habitat, can unleash viruses like COVID-19 on the world.  

During the summer of 2020 as the pandemic set in, and after a proper time of adjustment and bemoaning, I finally went, “wait a minute!”  As a Celtic Animist with a focus on Matriarchal Studies, I had an epiphany that the clanswomen in my motherline would also have endured times of dire deprivation, as no era is exempt from the cyclical forces of birth, life, death and rebirth. They would have found their ingenuity and strength when the rains did not come, when the ground was barren, when the forest was on fire, when the storm lashed the valley, when the river flooded the land in the middle of the night, when disease gripped the babies and the Elders, when a horde of marauding horsemen threatened their borders, and when the cold and ice was so unrelenting they thought it would never end. And to withstand all this, and more, without electricity, hot baths, craft rooms, Netflix or gourmet food delivery! 

Our Ancient Mothers love us so much, they are always there to support us, and patiently guide us. Working from an eternal place of continuity and care, our motherlines have prepared us for a “time of awakening,” when the power of the Eternal Feminine is rising once again. The gifts of the Ancestral Mothers are manifesting in every sphere – in the urgency of women’s leadership, the revival of the gift economy and egalitarian social organizations, the emphasis on the “we” instead of the “me,” the double roles of the birth and death doula, the need for wise elders, the supremacy of unconditional love, and the passion for venerating our Beloved Ancestors in the here and now.  As in ancient times, on the rise today are the green seers, mystics and spirit-walkers, those skilled with oracles, dream and vision interpretation, storytellers, gardeners, artisans, warriors and guardians. We have re-discovered our skill with animist lifeways, interspecies communication, plant-spirit medicine, important rites of passage, magical intuitive “knowing,”  honoring the sacred, reciprocity with Earth Community – and finally, making decisions that honor the Seven Generations yet to come.     

Drought, fire, flood, hurricane, war, famine, disease – all these and more we have endured and will endure again.  Keeping the era in perspective, there is also a “destroyer” aspect to feminine deity, and goddesses like Kali and Coatlique bequeath the land and all beings with cataclysmic events in the “great re-balancing” – cycle upon cycle through the great wheel of time.
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Fortified with a new-found faith in the resilience of my ancient Clanmothers, I was able to cope, unlock my capacity for grief and compassion, find patience and perseverance, and understand that all things have a beginning, a middle and an end.  To embrace the “silver lining” of pandemic times means reconnecting with what is most important, and to adapt and thrive.  Isolation offers us the gift of time, and the space to retreat from the world.  We can make the most of the opportunity by reviving our ancestral wisdom, honing our craft, singing, dancing, laughing, crying and telling the stories of our lives.  The darkness in hard times can also feed us, nourish us, wake us, and ground us.

So what is the best way forward? The stress and grief we are facing is real. And yet, we need to keep our spirits up and stay positive!  To trust that the Primordial Mothers - the weavers embedded in the land - are summoning us back to our most ancient selves, to the Ancestors and wild nature. For the first time in many years, Mother Earth is flourishing from reduced pollution, and the portal is open wide to animist connections and nature bonding. The natural world remains the foundation of all life, and the sacred wisdom of re-connection has not wavered.  Even in the modern era we are still “People of the Earth” and our true power is found in our ancient communal past, when we remember the sacred essence our bodies evolved from, so many aeons ago. 

As we connect to the land, the Ancestral Mothers witness us from the thin place between the worlds, know our hearts and souls, and help us to heal from trauma. They send us the message that we will recover from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger, smarter and more compassionate, and new initiatives will manifest as we rise to the challenge.  And at some point in the not-too-distant future, the impulse to find our kindred spirits will bring us back to each other again.  As we gradually emerge from this traumatic time over the summer of 2021, I intend to find a Grandmother Tree, curl up in her roots and pray - pray for the revival of our beloved Earth Community. 
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Read more on social justice, ethnocultural recovery, Settler re-landing, rewilding, ancestral connection, sacred land and animism in "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community" by Pegi Eyers.   www.stonecirclepress.com
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European Roots ~ A Call for Leadership

4/17/2021

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PEGI EYERS

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Celebrating the European Old Ways and building a movement to reconnect with earth-emergent wisdom means reaching out to other spiritually-bereft diasporans, who are also seeking alternatives to Empire.  Brilliant leaders, authors, ceremonialists and seers in Celtic Reconstruction,  Ásatrú, Norse Heathenry, Sinnsreachd, Faery Faith, Druidry, and others who have been on the path for decades, are perfectly positioned to mentor and promote European Ancestral Knowledge to the culturally-deprived, as we participate in our collective journey to authenticity.  

With the beautiful renaissance of ancestral connection happening today, we need to “go wide” with our learning and sharing, and reach out in our community-building. There is a model from ancient times to follow, whereby religious and community leaders would offer up their powerful talents, knowledge, guidance and mysticism for the greater good, and this dynamic needs to be stepped-up in today’s world.

Going beyond the Christian notion of proselytizing, becoming proactive in informing those with shared heritage that a thriving movement of cultural reclamation is possible, is exciting and fulfilling work. Paradoxically, it is our privileges that have given us the leisure to recover our European Ancestral Wisdom in the first place, and these same entitlements may induce us to cling to the knowledge we have so painstakingly collected.  Yet if we can bypass our internalized conditioning in regard to cultural insularism, intellectual detachment or spiritual materialism, we can naturally and organically help to build, and restore, ancestral-sourced community.
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People are starved for European Indigenous Knowledge (EIK), and letting go of the tendency to over-protect means learning from one another, sharing our gifts, and connecting with kindred spirits as we return to our Sacred Ways. Reconstructionists and Traditionalists who are adept with EIK after years of immersion have the unique opportunity right now to assume major leadership roles, and by declaring themselves fully representative of their pre-colonial ancestral culture, speak for those of European identity at conferences, symposia, and even gatherings of Indigenous peoples.

As those of European  descent become more  adept at declaring ourselves to be part of the worldwide circle of diversity, our appearance at tribal gatherings will not be as host, or financier, or apologizer, or journalist, or scholar, or anthropologist, or collaborator, or spectator, or as a wannabee aligned with the lifeways of a tradition not our own, but as an equal and full participant, secure in our own ancestral knowledge.

If those of European heritage have also done their uncolonizing work by rejecting the memes of Euro-domination, and are clear about holding a position in solidarity with all those decimated and oppressed by Empire, this will naturally form the circle Mother Earth in Her infinite wisdom has been waiting for, as we express our mutual love in Earth Community.    
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“Attuning ourselves to the long-forgotten tides of moon and season, sun and sea, of land and circling stars - our connections with the cog wheels of
creation have deep roots in antiquity and are our oldest inheritance.” 
Marian Green, The Elements of Natural Magic
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Read more on social justice, ethnocultural recovery, Settler re-landing, rewilding, ancestral connection, sacred land and animism in "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community" by Pegi Eyers.      
www.stonecirclepress.com
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Settler Re-landing: Reclaiming Patterns of Connection

2/9/2021

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PEGI EYERS

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image © Debbie Arnold
As societal problems worsen and environmental degradation intensifies, re-landing ourselves in place is rapidly becoming an essential component of a post-colonial future.  In fact, the revival of bioregionalism, our collective eco-awareness and other revolutionary acts, will defy the nationalism, capitalism and materialism of hegemonic Empire. At the intersection of our bonds to place, contradictions arise in our relationship to the original First Nations, our status on the land, and locating earth-rooted culture.  How do Settlers reconnect to earth-emergent patterns here on Turtle Island?  

Engaging successfully with the uncolonizing process both in ourselves and others will naturally lead to a reciprocity with Earth Community, and a myriad of resources are available for these “future primitive” forms of self-identity. We can follow paths such as animism or ecopsychology, or narrow our focus along ethnocultural lines. Yet for those of us of European descent, it may not be clear where our own ancestral knowledge is located.  Empire is the great leveler of all cultural diversity, and as the multi-generational members of the Canadian or American nation-state and beneficiaries of white privilege, is it even plausible to imagine ourselves as i.e. Celtic, Baltic or Nordic peoples once again?  Instead of homogeneity and the default of whiteness, can we embrace our own heritage and the ancestral arts as acts of interruption and resistance?
 
As the paradigm continues to shift, many Turtle Island First Nation visionaries, academics and activists are inviting Settlers to “reindigenize” ourselves to our local bioregions.  This mandate suggests a review of the Settler use of the term “indigenous” as a marker of self-identity, and highlights the need for a strong moral code and a solid understanding of social justice. How do we embrace time-tested First Nations values and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) while respecting boundaries?  What is the difference between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation? As Settlers, our uncolonization must go hand-in-hand with taking responsibility to undo the damage leveled against people of colour in the Americas by white supremacy, genocide, slavery, eco-fascism, oppression and assimilation.

Organizing against Settler-Colonialism in our time, we can work to establish the equity that will lead to equality, as well as creating opportunities for reconciliation, restitution and emergent solidarities.  Understanding how we have all inherited trauma from colonization, and stopping the "cycles of harm"  will lead to healing and collective liberation. Working toward mutual anti-colonial futures and resilience in times of massive change, we must also consider the possibilities of the commons, peaceful co-existence on the land, a diversity of ancestral wisdom(s), and earth remediation. 
 
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Read more on social justice, ethnocultural recovery, Settler re-landing, rewilding, ancestral connection, sacred land and animism in "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community" by Pegi Eyers.    www.stonecirclepress.com
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Waeccan Means to "Wake Up"

8/10/2020

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What inner promptings or outer circumstances guide us along the path of ancestral connection?  In my own case as a life-long animist, at times I had felt drawn to practices in the New Age world, due to the plethora of books and products in metaphysical bookstores and fairs, and also for the social life and connection offered by local community.  For many years I was non-judgmental on the more bizarre manifestations in modern spirituality going on around me, i.e. cult-like hierarchies, the guru complex, "ascension," fake shamans and healing circles led by abusive and harmful people. But eventually it dawned on me that the New Age practice of constantly picking up new books and modalities was not sustainable, and was deeply hypocritical by being connected to the consumer shopping addiction.

When the absurdities, contradictions and outright lies in my local New Age community finally became clear to me, I had to turn my back forever. And at the exact same moment in time the beauty and wonder of my own roots, and the hard work of the Celtic Reconstructionists before me, came quickly into view. Why hadn't I seen it before? Beguiled by the "next shiny thing" and the aggressive marketing of quick fixes, finding that my own heritage was the "soft landing place" and source of connection I was seeking, was deeply and truly empowering.  Here is a poem that I wrote from that time:
“I leave behind the person I once was, who cared so deeply for so many
wonderful people, places and things, finding it was all dust.
 
Then, moving down the trail I am met by everyday magic,
as I stir my solitary dust into the sacred cauldron we call life.
Newly awakened, or waeccan, to my Celtic roots,
kissed by the sun and blessed by the moon,
I am infused with an inexplicable desire to SPEAK OUT
 ~ on behalf of our Mother the Earth,
and all those who would live in harmony with Her.” 
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A deep love for our Sacred Earth is contiguous with Druidry and Celtic Spirituality - no wonder that my heritage brings me such joy!  What have been your own experiences of disillusionment with the world of New Age Spirituality?  And what has prompted your own return to your Ancestors?  I  would love to hear your stories!

                                             BACKSTORY
My own spiritual journey was deeply informed by Indigenous Knowledge, and this process is fully described in Chapter 2 "I Am Interloper" in Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community.

                                               WAECCAN
“Waeccan” or “to be awake” in Old English simply means to be in tune with the presence of the mystery in nature, and I use it to align with my earth-wise Ancestors. When we are waeccan, our heart, mind and soul are open to the beauty in ourselves and all of creation.   The term “waeccan” may be the root for “wicca” or “witch,” but  I do  not  practice  wicca  or  witchcraft.   Drifting  far  from  respectable  roots  in  Old  English  and Germanic paganism, the etymology of “wicca,” “wiccan” and “witch” became progressively dire as a result of Christian oppression. Today, the brave tradition established by feminist foremothers Starhawk, Z Budapest and others to reclaim and embody the term “witch” as a valid, empowering and positive contemporary identity is admirable, and many have been able to disconnect the identity markers “wicca,” “wiccan” and “witch” from their negative associations.

                             FEMINIST GODDESS SPIRITUALITY
Many aspects of Feminist Goddess Spirituality have been entwined with New Age, but I continue to embrace Matriarchal Studies as a deeply honorable direction for cultural transformation.

                                             RESOURCES
A curated collection of resources for those awakening to their Celtic Heritage can be found here: www.stonecirclepress.com/celtic-reconstruction.html
                           
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
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Initiation Now: Rethinking the World as Alive

7/6/2020

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PEGI EYERS

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"Piel de la Tierra" © Gabriela Campos
For every age and demographic today, our lives are keeping pace with climate disaster events, in an unprecedented era of massive change.  Culminating in a perfect storm of toxic technologies and tropes such as the endless growth paradigm, ecosystems and human structures worldwide are beginning to crumble. Warming temperatures are unleashing fires, floods, hurricanes and rising oceans as never before, and late-stage capitalism is also a time of eroding (if not disappearing) social programs that used to serve the common good. But we are not going silent into that dark night. Resistance to Empire has been mounting for decades, and new initiatives today hold hope, largely due to the protests of young people as led by Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier, Isra Hirsi, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez and many others, and “on-point” movements such as Extinction Rebellion.  As Greta Thunberg is telling us, “This is a crisis. We have to act like our house is on fire, because it is.”  Young people from Standing Rock, Houston, Flint, Mauna Kea and countless other places are declaring an urgent, major crisis, and they are right.  Following their lead, and in collective response to the emergency, radically different modes of engagement are needed to contend with the existential, spiritual, political and civilizational crises of our time. 

Understanding root causes, or the “cause and effect” for any scenario is always a good idea. Today’s crisis is the result of the rise of capitalism and imperialism, the hegemony of land ownership, and a long-held worldview that separates us from nature. And yet, Euro-colonization is NOT inevitable, or part of human nature – it’s a set of very specific decisions that led to the way technologies and worldviews were forced on lands and peoples.  Knowing the full backstory may empower our perception to shift from fear and uncertainly (although that is certainly present) to wonder and awe, as we ask ourselves why we were born to "be witness to" such a momentous era. Times of collapse and extinction are impossible for anyone to comprehend, and yet facing reality is our best response.  The youth of today are not turning away, but are creating their own “rites of passage” though rigorous activism in anti-gun legislation, climate change action, lawsuits filed against governments and corporations, and other creative forms of resistance.  Momentum is building, and young people are fully prepared to achieve their goals, such as winning lawsuits that require an immediate shift to the divestment from fossil fuels.
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© Morgan Wade Photography
In dire times of shifting foundations, asking “what are we initiating into?” is a valid question to be sure.  As guardians, teachers and mentors, we need to seek new possibilities, instead of replicating colonial (or western) thinking. Solutions and actions can be sourced from praxis as old as time, such as forming healthy group culture modeled after ancestral wisdom and Indigenous Knowledge (IK).  Under the layers of modernity, our Earth is still a primal planet, every natural process is still part of an ancient tradition, and we can still live for the wild, revere the land, and discover that the other-than-human is not quite as “other” as we had once believed.  "Rethinking the world as alive" is the fierce promise we make when we spend more time in nature, bond with the earth, discover what our local bioregion has to offer, and find new skills and community supports in the process.  For initiation ceremonies and rites of passage we offer or participate in, we are all on a journey to decolonize ourselves, as we partner with the other-than-human, re-frame our identities, and re-imagine our place in the world.

For a powerful example of a living worldview embedded in the land we can look to the great Okanagan storyteller and orator Harry Robinson, who was wholly immersed in the natural world in every waking moment. During the transcribing of his priceless story-cycles, scholar Wendy Wickwire tells us that “Harry traveled to Vancouver to undergo medical treatment under the care of an elderly Chinese herbalist. Only then did the depth of Harry’s mythological world become truly apparent. As we passed through downtown Vancouver on his visits to the doctor, I realized that all the traffic lights and cars meant nothing to Harry.  They were almost an abstraction, an interesting but fleeting diversion from the timeless real world of Coyote, Fox and Owl.”[1]   In our own work to reject the failed experiment of industrial civilization and connect deeply with the land, can we also have no doubt that entering urban space is an illusion and an aberration, an insult to ourselves and Earth Community? Can we too walk among the ruins of Empire and see it as an abstraction, a fleeting diversion that for a long and merciless time tried to demonize Gaia and separate us from our one true home?

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"Soul Encounter" © Doug Van Houten
The land is both archive and ally, and the source for both our resiliency and our roots. It’s time to turn to the Ancestors, dust off the old texts, find the enchantment that lives in the dark, and “go underground” again to feel the messages of the land. What are the trees asking of us?  What does the salmon and cougar want us to do?  What are the lessons we are learning from our ancient elder the snapping turtle? Remembering our interdependence and recovering deep listening skills, enhances our adaptability and resilience, and revives our love for self, others and the land.  Having somatic body experiences in the wild, and creative expressions such as singing, dancing, drumming, painting, storytelling and ceremonial art, allows us to work through our fear, anger, grief, yearning, guilt and tenderness, in response to massive change and climate disaster.  And to arrive full circle, embodying our eco-self and holding the land in our bones, leads us to participate on the front lines, and ongoing activism on behalf of Earth Community. 

The ability to listen to nature’s promptings cannot be overstated. Many are already suffering from the catastrophic effects of climate change such as fires, hurricanes and floods, and are experiencing displacement and/or the loss of hearth and home, and having to start again.  Perhaps the lesson is to live minimally with few possessions, as many of today’s youth are already doing. Rejecting the values of the dominant society, “going feral” and shifting to holistic solutions is the best way forward in times of massive change and climate disaster.  Extreme social dysfunction, mental suffering and a sense of powerlessness have been generated by Empire, but we can temper these dire realities by acknowledging that human beings are not in charge. Mother Earth holds us all in her embrace, and as we  trust in Her antediluvian forces we give way to the wisdom of the land. Going forth into an uncertain future, we already have everything we need in the regeneration of our hope and  resilience. The eternal power of the "green fuse" continues to spark the growth of new life, and the love at the heart of the interconnected web empowers us. Be ready, be flexible, guide each other, and prepare each generation to live sustainably on our beautiful planet!

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© Sacred Feminine Art

NOTES
[1] Harry Robinson and Wendy Wickwire (editor), Write it on Your Heart: The Epic World of an Okanagan Storyteller, Talonbooks, 1989.  From the first of three volumes, the stories of Harry Robinson (Interior Salish, Lower Similkameen/Smelqmix, B.C.) as collected by Wendy Wickwire.

RESOURCES
Pegi Eyers, Chapter 6 “We All Have IK,” Chapter 27 “Entwining Heart and Mind,” Chapter 28 “Ancient Spirit, Modern Voice,” Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots and Restoring Earth Community, Stone Circle Press
"Initiation Now: Rethinking the World as Alive" was written for the Youth Passageways project LAND {CULTURE} CLIMATE in 2019.
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Stone Circle Press   
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Dangerous Women

6/23/2020

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Author Spotlight ~ Pegi Eyers

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Interview by Abrisham Ahmadzadeh
Re-Print from Unbound ~ October 11, 2019

This week, we chatted with Pegi Eyers, a Dangerous Women author who is a devotee of nature-based culture and all that is sacred to the Earth.  She lives in the countryside near Nogojiwanong in Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg territory (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada) on a hilltop with views reaching for miles in all directions. Her piece targets the passive white woman in the struggle for intersectional feminism. I’ve asked Pegi three questions, in an attempt to see the book through her perspective.

Abrisham >> What is your writing process/routine?

Pegi >> Whether I am writing a book, paper, article or blog, I’ve become accustomed to the discipline of spending at least 5-6 hours a day developing research and capturing different themes in new stories and non-fiction.  I love both the writing and editing process, so that makes my daily process a joy instead of a duty or a task! That’s not to say I don’t have uninspired days, but there is always so much to do in terms of responding to correspondence, planning for conferences, general promotion or graphic design my schedule never gets boring.  Some of my best ideas arrive full-fledged in the liminal time between sleep and waking, so it’s imperative to have writing materials at hand.

Abrisham >> What did the Dangerous Women Project mean to you?

Pegi >> The Dangerous Women Project has been an integral force in furthering women’s voices and perspectives into all sectors of society.  Leading the way in supporting the freedom of expression that is due all women, the DWP has provided an amazing platform for our objections as we continue to rage against the injustices of a male-dominated world.   Let us hope that as our collective defiance gives rise to a new era of empowerment for ourselves, our communities and the wider world, we stay focused on positive social, economic and political change for the greater good of all.  Such is our power!

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Image © Leah Tinari
Who is your favourite woman from history and why?

Pegi >> My favourite woman from history is Lozen, a Chihenne Chiricahua Apache oracle, healer, warrior and resistance strategist who lived during the 19th century. Beyond what the western lens considers suitable gender roles for women, Lozen was highly skilled in skirmish and evasion tactics in response to the European takeover of the Americas.  Born during the 1840s on the borderlands of what is now New Mexico and Arizona, her leadership was considered equal to other freedom fighters like Geronimo, and her brother, the famous Apache chief Victorio. 

Focused on the protection and well-being of every member of her matrilineal tribe, she inspired, encouraged and guided her people through the most dangerous situations imaginable.   In addition to skills with battle strategy and weapons, Lozen was a fierce and unrelenting warrior on horseback, and also possessed remarkable spiritual powers in service to the struggle.  Through chant, prayer, visions, remote viewing and prophecies, she provided direction by consistently identifying the location of the enemy (the American military) over great distances and diverse terrain.  According to Alexander B. Adams in his book Geronimo, "she would stand with her arms outstretched, chant a prayer to Ussen the Creator, or Giver of Life, and slowly turn around."  Lozen's prayer (below) is translated in Eve Ball's book In the Days of Victorio.
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Image ©Rori Comics



Upon this earth
On which we live
Ussen has Power
This Power is mine
For locating the enemy.
I search for that Enemy
Which only Ussen the Great
Can show to me.
As the unrelenting juggernaut of Settler-Colonialism advanced over the homelands of the Apache, Lozen never capitulated to oppressive forces, but maintained her integrity and honor to the very end.  Without romanticizing, whitewashing, or performing a "Settler Sidestep", I continue to be forever haunted and heartbroken by the multiple layers of meaning in Lozen’s story, and at the deepest level, the full implications of the genocide that occurred in the Americas. 

The stories of all those who lost their lives to colonial violence continues to remind me of my own responsibility to make reparations, and restitution for the unforgivable racism of my ancestors.  Instead of peaceful co-existence, or being good guests on lands already inhabited by a myriad of civilizations, the imperialist powers are still focused on control, religious conversion and white supremacy, and the same patriarchal domination of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous lands continues today.  Instead of cultural amnesia or normalizing Empire, my hope is that Dangerous Women everywhere will continue to embrace the critically important work of social justice and challenging the patriarchy.

Abrisham >> Thank you Pegi! The conversations that have stemmed from the making of this book so far, are what the book is all about.  The sheer volume of voices coming together for Dangerous Women is the most exciting part, and being able to bring so many powerful women together.

Who is your dangerous woman from history?  
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Dangerous Women: Fifty Reflections on Women, Power and Identity is due for publication in 2021 ~ watch this space for announcements and ordering information ~!!

By Jo Shaw, Ben Fletcher-Watson and Abrisham Ahmadzadeh
                                            DANGEROUS WOMEN
But what does it mean for a woman to be dangerous? Who, or what, does she present a danger to? Who gets to say she’s dangerous? Why do they want to say it? Does she consider herself dangerous? Is feminism dangerous? And what do the answers to those questions tell us about societies past and present? About our social and political structures, about our everyday lives, our attitudes and our very identities? Dangerous Women gives fifty wide-ranging perspectives on these questions.

We have welcomed poets, playwrights, artists, academics, journalists, historians, performers and opinion-formers, and indeed anyone with an angle on the theme, to reflect on the danger of females. Speaking from a variety of ages, ethnicities and cultures, we have come together from all over the world to give agency to any woman dismissed for her power, talent or success, trivialised as a threat or condemned for challenging the status quo. We are here to celebrate these women and applaud them for their strength.

In doing so, we have reclaimed the right to be dangerous, and highlighted the power of otherwise dismissed female figures. If you lack female idols, this book is for you. If you want to challenge the narrative that a powerful woman is a threat, this inclusive and diverse book is for you. Dangerous Women is for anyone and everyone who questions how to be dangerous, and indeed what that means.  Jo Shaw, Ben Fletcher-Watson and Abrisham Ahmadzadeh
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Pegi Eyers is the author of  "Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community," an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.   www.stonecirclepress.com
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    Pegi Eyers

    Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community

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    The recovery of our ancestral roots, and the promotion of social justice & environmental activism as interwoven with our spiritual life. Engaging with the interface between Turtle Island First Nations and the Settler Society, rejecting Empire and embodying the paradigm shift to ecocentric society.




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