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The Sanctuary: Essays on Eco-Mythology

10/6/2024

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REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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Recovering our eco-self is the most important work of our time, and freeing ourselves from the disassociated modern psyche is essential. With her brilliant prose, scholarship and mythopoetics, Sofia Batalha has been one of our foremost guides to this process, and the long-awaited English translation of The Sanctuary: Essays on Eco-Mythology far exceeds all expectations.  This volume is a superlative weaving of mythology, psychology and ecology – a set of portals, principles, metaphors, dreams, symbols and ancient tales - within a beautifully designed and articulated “Amulet Book.”  Sofia outlines the amnesia and dysfunction of coloniality in great detail, and by foregrounding the sacred stories and landscapes of Portugal, uncovers the “frail remaining fragments of a responsible and reciprocal European psyche.” The earth is alive, the elementals and spirits are speaking, the land is teeming with stories, mythical modes remain our primary form of understanding, and somatic dialogue with the other-than-human world is possible.   
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In synthesis with ancient ways of knowing and Indigenous methodologies worldwide, Sofia introduces new/old modalities to live by, such as the “crack of the mythical psykhē,” the “emergence of the present body,” the “portal of the sacred earth” and “research – prayer.”  Sofia asks if we dare to imagine ourselves as interdependent once again, and alternative narratives mean remembering and reclaiming the animist parts of ourselves, cultivating a deep belonging to place, answering our soul’s yearning, and co-creating with living myths to keep the mystery alive. “Research – Prayer” evokes the non-linear imagination, is both subjective and multi-directional, and is open to encounters with living forces and beings in the interconnected web with worship, reverence, ecstasy, ceremony, and communion.  Within the sacred space created by The Sanctuary: Essays on Eco-Mythology, Sofia’s wisdom allows us to make the pilgrimage to the “wrong side of the crossroads,” embrace an ancestral cosmology, embody the seasonal cycles of time, find our own local spirits and mythologies, leave offerings, and share the ancient tales. This is the work of reviving the wild ecological soul, and also our original instructions. As we reclaim the sacred connection denied so long by coloniality, in Sofia’s own words, “may the primal soul, archaic cosmic elixir and procreative flow, liquid and meandering, claim us back.”  

Order "The Sanctuary" by Sofia Batalha >here< or >here< 

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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.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. 
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"From Elder to Ancestor: Nature Kinship for All Seasons of Life" by S. Kelley Harrell

6/4/2024

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REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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Due to settler-colonialism - what Harrell so eloquently calls “the broken path,” members of the Euro-diaspora in the Americas have been separated from ancestral knowledge, earth-emergent Elders, and the land itself. For millennia, ethnocultures worldwide had access to teachings from the Elders, and today, we are finding our way back to that vital relationship in diverse spaces such as animism, paganism, rewilding, ecopsychology, and personal transformation. Teachers are available, but From Elder to Ancestor is a breakthrough, and the first book I have encountered that skillfully describes animism  - our inter-dependence with nature and the spirit world(s) - as inseparable from our journey to becoming a True Elder and Ancestor.  “We are Nature. We always have been.”

Breathtaking in scope, and offering the same integrity, love and compassion that Harrell suggests for “eldering well,” From Elder to Ancestor is a brilliant guide to our collective work in animism, nature immersion and the ancestral arts. Harrell takes an in-depth look at the toxic legacy of colonialism, how “the broken path” manifests within and without, shadow work, cognitive dissonance, taking responsibility, and processing grief and trauma.  She even covers controversial issues such as protocol on Indigenous lands, cultural appropriation, reparations, cancel culture, New Age theory, and uncolonizing from patterns such as implicit bias that perpetuate the “collective break.”  “We can’t become fit elders until we engage these parts of ourselves beyond the projections of settler culture - or at least as much as is possible to do so - and understand how to be feral.” 

With explorations through self-inquiry at the end of each chapter, From Elder to Ancestor engages with animism, Norse traditions, spirits of place, Naturekin, allies, elements, grounding, somatics, embodiment, rites, ritual, Ancestor tending, the emergence of the Sacred Self,  reciprocity, and the importance of cosmology and lore. Bioregionalism is key, and Harrell stresses that we need to “understand our actual relationship to Nature rather than one we borrow, project, or romanticize.” Whether we know it or not, ancient land-based wisdom is timeless and ongoing, and we are deeply connected to the places we call home. ​

I was incredibly inspired by Harrell’s honest assessment of the changes on her own spiritual path, and her stories of personal mythology. She emphasizes that perfection is not the objective, and that the most important goal is “to realize our interdependence with All Things, which must be lived through our actions, and by achieving a sense of belonging to that web of frith that has tended us.”   In terms of the elderhood journey, Harrell offers a wealth of knowledge. True elders educate, support, and sustain the community, and “living into the Communal Heart can happen at any age.”  Thank you Kelley Harrell, for gifting a brand-new vocabulary and dynamic weaving to the world, of what truly matters in our reconnection to earth, soul, elders and ancestors. From Elder to Ancestor: Nature Kinship for All Seasons of Life is a magnificent book.  
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Explore S. Kelley Harrell's website Soul Intent Arts >HERE<
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S. Kelley Harrell

From Elder to Ancestor:
Nature Kinship for All Seasons of Life
S. Kelley Harrell // Destiny Books // 2024
TESTIMONIAL FOR PUBLISHER:

"From Elder to Ancestor is a breakthrough, and the first book I have encountered that skillfully describes animism —our interdependence with nature and the spirit world - as inseparable from our journey to becoming true Elders and Ancestors. Harrell takes an in-depth look at colonialism as 'the broken path,' and with integrity and compassion, offers wisdom on healing trauma, claiming the Sacred Self, 'eldering well,' cosmology, lore, reciprocity with nature, and ancient practices on the land. Thank you Kelley Harrell, for a brilliant book that captures the essence of our vital reconnection to Earth, soul, and the perennial cycles of life.”  
Pegi Eyers, author of Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Our Roots & Restoring Earth Community
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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.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. ​
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"Why We Need To Be Wild: One Woman's Quest for Ancient Human Answers to 21st Century Problems" by Jessica Carew Kraft

3/26/2024

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REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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I am so grateful to Jessica Carew Kraft for writing this amazing book! Many of us cannot fully return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle today, but the principles covered in Why We Need to be Wild are essential for humanity going forward.  Utilizing both personal narrative and the journalistic voice, Jessica skillfully describes our disconnect from the natural world, and the best practices for reclaiming our bonds to the land, in both material culture and body/mind/spirit.  At the heart of today’s rewilding movement, there is a yearning to reject civilization, and a directive to recover Paleolithic skills and create earth-emergent community once again.  Jessica explores the many nuances of this collective journey, and describes her fascinating encounters with the main players, practitioners, teachers, visionaries and survivalists in this flourishing network.  Her progress from high-tech city dweller to ecological being – a story of trial and error - is fascinating, and incredibly inspiring.  Difficult themes such as the legacy of colonialism, rewilding on Indigenous lands, cultural appropriation and social justice are addressed, and Jessica takes on the very real challenge of living apart from the conveniences of civilization, both in the practicalities and ethics of self-sufficiency.  With her achievements in journalism and anthropology, and as a feminist and mother, she also offers much-needed representation in a movement that has been at times focused on the “rugged male!” In both theory and action, Why We Need to be Wild is a brilliant guide to the rewilding of self, family and community, and the ancestral wisdom we need to embody, as we return to right relationship and reciprocity with the sacred cycles of nature in the places we call home.   

Visit Jessica Carew Kraft’s >website<

Find Why We Need to Be Wild on >Amazon<
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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.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. 
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"Goddess Lost: How the Downfall of Female Deities Degraded Women’s Status in World Cultures" by Rachel S. McCoppin

3/17/2024

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REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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I am so grateful to have read Goddess Lost and applaud how Rachel McCoppin has significantly enriched the Matriarchal Studies and Goddess Spirituality canon. In recent years, there have been detractors to the narrative of Proto-Indo-European invaders (i.e. Kurgan) dominating the peaceful, matrifocal cultures of Old Europe, and official recognition of the Paleolithic matrifocal society as a foundation for human organization has yet to be acknowledged in many academic spaces. But McCoppin does not need to engage with these controversies or debate with scholars – her meticulous research offers evidence that speaks for itself.  I am not aware of any other book in Goddess Studies that has such a focused thesis, and her strategy is incredibly effective. No one reading Goddess Lost will be able to dispute that [1] strong Earth Mother deities were preeminent in societies worldwide, and [2] the women in those societies were leaders, and held power.  This book is a powerful affirmation of women’s sacred importance as goddess, regent, queen, pharaoh, warrior, wisdom keeper, administrator and priestess.
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The thesis of Goddess Lost is “to examine historical and mythic examples from around the globe to argue that when women were revered as sacred in religious belief systems, they were more likely to be respected socially. Conversely, when religious reverence of goddesses and sacred women declined in a mythological tradition, the social status of women also declined.”  Beyond the patriarchal lens and brutal history of colonization, McCoppin traces the remnants of goddess reverence in Europe, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, India, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania, to show that the worship of awe-inspiring female deities and divinities allowed women to have powerful religious and social positions, because their communities already recognized that women held power.  A worldwide survey on this scale is a formidable task, but the layers of myth and fascinating links between them as revealed by McCoppin, makes Goddess Lost a joy to read. As men began to assert their power as warriors, the sacred religious narratives of matriarchal cultures were demeaned, obfuscated, and reversed. Demoting once revered goddesses was a universal process that occurred differently in each culture, and with keen logic McCoppin identifies the elements of female power that were a threat to the new social and political order.   

Beginning in Europe, Upper Paleolithic cave art featured representations of the Great Mother, and the sacred feminine was expressed with bone, stone and ivory figurines that evoked both divinity and fertility, such as the renowned “Venus of Willendorf.”  Throughout Neolithic Europe the concept of a Mother Goddess presiding over nature, agriculture and fertility, was indicative of societies with matriarchal rule, a female-centered social structure, and the worship of a primary female deity.  In the late Neolithic and Bronze Age, several distinctive cultures broadly defined as Proto-Indo-European, expanded through the Pontic-Caspian steppes into Europe and Asia. These societies favored kingship, male sky deities and the valor of warfare, and the pattern as they grew to dominate was to incorporate the goddesses of a region into their own belief system, then marry the goddess to share power, and finally, to assume the role of those deities, frequently changing their names. In this way, as the goddesses were de-throned, the social rights of women were downgraded as well.  “Neolithic values faded away in favor of Iron Age ideology and technology, and the role of women became viewed as secondary to the might of the Iron Age male.”      
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Upper Paleolithic Cave Art and Feminine Icons
​Each chapter in Goddess Lost begins with the original mythology of the region in relation to matrifocal deities, earth spirits and leaders in society, followed by details on the arrival of the patriarchal warlords, oppressors, sacred priests, and monotheistic religions.  As a woman of Scots Gaelic descent, of personal interest was the sequence of events in Celtic lands, and how fertility goddesses connected to the prosperity of the earth sanctified the coronation of kings in a process known as the Sacred Marriage.  There are many examples of powerful goddesses and socially superior women in the British Isles, but in their agenda to dominate, the patriarchy switched the Sacred Marriage to a new narrative of men owning women.  Also, highly revered chthonic Earth Mothers found underground in serpentine caves and womb spaces were demonized by Christian forces, and reversed in mythic scenarios such as Saint George defeating the dragon, Saint Columba scaring away the Loch Ness monster, Saint Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland, and in Germanic lands, Beowulf killing Grendel’s mother.  In just a few centuries, honoring the Earth Mother tragically morphed into the killing of the Earth Mother.
  
The transition to patriarchal power all over Europe can be traced by the Indo-European language taking hold in Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Celtic, Hellenic, Italic, Germanic, Armenian, Tocharian, Balto-Slavic, and Albanian lands. Through conquest, military elites, slavery, trade and hierarchy, male ascendancy rose at the same time as agricultural civilizations. In these new societies, divinity was imagined as male, most revered religious leaders were male, and the worship of primary and secondary goddesses were purposefully demoted or outright eliminated. With representations of divinity in female form now replaced, men were considered superior to women, and women soon became ostracized and excluded from meaningful work, education or leadership positions.  Women were ruled by fathers and husbands, and forced into subordinate positions – a dynamic that has continued for millennia.  Today, the religions that historically erased or reduced the power of goddesses still dominate the world: Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – all philosophies that reinforce women’s inferiority and promote patriarchal systems. 

The knowledge streams in Goddess Lost - embedded in worldwide mythology and folklore - are too numerous to mention in a brief review, but of key importance are the mythic tenets that show a deep, lasting reverence for the land goddesses, centuries after the domination of patriarchal ideologies.  Countless groups worshipped a primary Earth Mother before encountering Indo-European patriarchies, Muslim expansion, Christianity or Western values. Moving ahead many centuries, and in the frenzy of European colonization, men were given total control over women’s agency and roles in both the domestic sphere and civic life.  In Africa for example, oppressed by a foreign economic system and totally dispossessed, women who once held dominant social and religious roles were pushed into menial societal positions, and the worship of once powerful goddesses was in time forgotten.  In the Americas and Australia, the same pattern of replacing goddesses with Euro-patriarchal models of divinity were repeated, which reduced the social power and spiritual leadership of Indigenous women.  Despite the chaos of the holocaust that occurred in the Americas, many First Nations maintained their reverence for goddesses, matriarchal clan systems, and women as connected to female sources of spiritual power. Today, through miraculous acts of resistance and survivance, many contemporary First Nations women on Turtle Island continue to serve as religious and social leaders in their communities.

Goddess Lost draws on the most important Matriarchal Studies scholarship today, as McCoppin quotes relevant scholars such as Jeannine Davis-Kimball, Riane Eisler, Marija Gimbutas, Miranda J. Green, Patricia Monaghan, Vicki Noble, Merlin Stone, Johanna H. Stuckey and many others. By becoming educated about civilizations that worshipped goddesses above gods - and all the divine and powerful women in our own collective history - she urges us to influence the next generation by promoting the possibilities outside of patriarchy. Women have always been capable and strong - powerful healers, intellectual authorities and leaders - and formidable warriors as required.  Goddess Lost is an excellent resource that will inspire us to fight for women’s rights to attain the power we are meant to hold, and to remember ourselves as sacred once again. 
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This review originally appeared in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies, Volume 2 Number 2 (2023)
Published by Mago Books  >Purchase Link<

Book description by Rachel S. McCoppin in the online journal 
>Feminism and Religion< 

Review of "Goddess Lost" by my colleague Margot Van Sluytman
​>Feminism and Religion<

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Pegi Eyers is the author of the award-winning book Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, a survey on social justice, nature spirituality, the recovery of ancestral wisdom, and the holistic principles of sustainable living. She is a member of the Helena Clan (world clans descended from “Mitochondrial Eve” as traced by The Seven Daughters of Eve), with more recent roots connecting her to the mythic arts and pagan traditions of England and Scotland.  She lives in the countryside on the outskirts of Peterborough, Canada on a hilltop with views reaching for miles in all directions. 
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"Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard Prose-Poem Format

3/1/2024

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REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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Happy 50th Anniversary to Pulitzer Prize-winner PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK by Annie Dillard~! Originally published by Harper & Row, PILGRIM is a year-long collection of essays by Dillard as she chronicles a dramatic year in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley.  Harper Perennial, March 2024

My first reading of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek took place twenty years ago, and at that time I had the impression that Annie Dillard was a mystic-type poetic goddess, able to conjure up sweeps of esoteric imagery from her intense studies and rambles in nature. Now, with my second reading many years later, I can say that her approach to the natural world is not as mysterious as I first thought - she has a firm grounding in natural science, biology, and literature as related to the study of the land. The scientific theories she quotes may seem dated, but her descriptions of the perennial life and abundant growth in natural creation have not lost their lustre. In fact, her reverence and intensity for wild places is even more important now, in these times of environmental threat.  For me, the passionate voice of Annie Dillard speaks on behalf of all the fragility, wonder and beauty that is in nature.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a classic of modern environmental literature, Dillard's discourse in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek weaves in-depth information and personal impressions on climate, terrain, biology, plants, trees, insect/animal/bird structure and behavior, birth, death and the seasons, and running through all these observations and insightful comments is the steady constant of Tinker Creek. At home on the banks of the creek for many years, Annie Dillard has become deeply connected to place, and we can see the effects of the environment on her worldview, consciousness, health and spiritual beliefs.  She discusses the alternate reality of life in the city, and how urbanization is now taken for granted.

"I remember what the city has to offer: human companionship, major league baseball, and a clatter of quickening stimulus like a rush from strong drugs that leaves you drained. I remember how you bide your time in the city, and think, if you stop to think, “next year…..I’ll start living; next year……I’ll start my life.”
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Reading Annie Dillard is like scrolling through a series of dreams in which everything is alive with possibility, and pregnant with primal power.   She includes the cognitive in all of her grounded flights of fancy, with examinations in psychology, human response and behavior, the nature of thought, and preferential states of mind such as innocence.

"Innocence sees that this is it, and finds it world enough, and time. Innocence is not the prerogative of infants and puppies, and far less of mountains and fixed stars, which have no prerogatives at all.  It is not lost to us; the world is a better place than that. Like any other of the spirit's good gifts, it is there when you want it, free for the asking, as has been stressed by stronger words than mine.”

The opposite of innocence is self-consciousness, which hinders the immediate experience of being wholely here, in the present moment. When one can lose oneself in wonder - in a present, timeless no-self contemplation of nature - a luminous gift occurs with the sensory recognition of the divine, which is the alive in creation and ourselves. Dillard's insight into the spiritual dimensions of deep connection to place is marvelous and inspiring, and affirms one of my favorite quotations from a passage by Lew Welch.

"The forest is the original cathedral. Light filtering through the green leaf windows floods the arched nave of the trees with wonder.”
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Dillard's odyssey through place, time and space, as inspired by the environs of Tinker Creek, provides a glimpse into the possible meanings inherent in creation, and the awesome, often violent powers in the natural world.  As an artist and poet, I found that a prose-poem format for Dillard’s river-wide flow of concepts  to be incredibly effective.  A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek engages with:
 
* seeing the obvious and then stalking the hidden in nature - the invisible worlds behind the light – offers the realization that our minute perceptions of our textured environment are only a speck in the infinite reach of universes;

* how language erects boundaries around the visible;

* the paradoxical mysteries in migration, hibernation and evolution, and that life does not cease to thrive, even in winter;

* speculations about the nature of early explorations in arctic lands, the idiosyncracies of muskrats, fish, frogs, spiders, salamanders, beetles, monarch butterflies, plankton, locusts, fleas, snapping turtles, luna moths and praying mantises;

* the unbelievable adaptation of creatures to the natural environment;

* the interesting possibility that the moon emits a warmth that can actually be felt by the sensitive;

* the mysteries in knotted snakeskins that mirror the continuous loop in time and creation;

* the transcendental nature of illuminated moments in quiet contemplation;

* the amazing resiliency and characteristics of trees;

* the cycles of seasons and biological lifeforms, the healing power of rushing waters;

* the impossibility of capturing the moment that vibrant, blossoming spring actually happens; 
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* the "spiritual" energy of wind;

* the intricate mysteries of green cell growth and photosynthesis;

* that this intricacy suggests an unfathomable intelligence at work;

* the transitory nature of summer floods;

* the nature of human mortality;

* the unsentimentality of life for both predator and prey in the food chain;

* the intimacy and familiarity with her terrain that leads to the active stalking of phenomena and creatures [this is the part that impressed me most];

* that Newtonian physics falls woefully short of measuring and describing the unknown;

* sleeping in the open as a connective experience to the natural world;

* the "if a tree falls in the forest, will anybody hear?” analogy to realize that nature is busily procreating and thriving, out of the range of human consciousness;

* her strange dream of a shamanic prayer tunnel;
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* and finally, knowing that a life spent in the presence of nature is full of both "tranquility and trembling."
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Annie Dillard tells us, "I am not a scientist. I explore the neighbourhood.”

And yet Dillard’s scientific research, spiritual allegories and lively accounts are evocative of the biologist as both mystic and poet. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is an unforgettable foray into the life-giving elements of wind, water, earth and fire, the mysteries of creation, the undaunted human spirit, the unquenchable urge for growth, and the vastness of time and infinity. Her citations from science and literature are highly appropriate and thought-provoking, such as this masterpiece from Dylan Thomas.

“The force that through the green fuse drives the flower/Drives my green age."

And this treasure, in her own words:

"Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery. The surface of mystery is not smooth, any more than the planet is smooth. These are our live seasons. Let us live them as purely as we can, in the present."  
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IMAGERY - LAND ART BY RICHARD SCHILLING
Adapted from a report by Pegi Eyers for Sehdev Kumar, University of Waterloo course, "Nature, Art, Myth and Folklore"  Fall 1995

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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.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. 
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Being Pagan: A Guide to Re-Enchant Your Life

12/12/2022

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REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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Being Pagan: A Guide to Re-Enchant Your Life
​Rhyd Wildermuth //  Ritona Press // 2021

​As a long-time admirer of Rhyd Wildermuth's writing (and his expertise at publishing), it was incredibly exciting to read his new book on Pagan theory and practice.  In our era of climate disaster and massive change, there is a critical need to recover the sacred, to reconnect to the earth and rejuvenate our ancestral wisdom, and Being Pagan is the perfect guidebook for the journey. Rhyd is a leader in Pagan Studies worldwide, and offers us a foundation for Pagan etymology, contemporary expressions, and how to reconnect to the cycles of the land in both urban and rural places. I especially appreciate his warm tone, and how the narrative – a weaving of prose and personal experience - feels like taking a tour with a caring companion.

Introducing us to the wooded hills of the Ardennes in pre-colonial Belgium - forests that were filled with deities, earth spirits and keystone species -  he refutes the harmful myth of the wild as “backward and savage.”  In fact, nature is sacred, and people living in harmony with the land have societies of stability and continuity, and the “ability to live in relative balance with the rest of the natural world around them, a trait completely absent and sorely missing in our modern world.”  (Why This Book?)  Without promoting Paganism as a religion or an identity, the goal of Being Pagan is to return us to a Pagan or animist understanding of the world, both in theory and praxis.  
Being Pagan: A Guide to Re-Enchant Your Life
The first - and most basic step - is to track the moon, as these cycles influence our entire reality. For millennia, monthly rhythms have affected the patterns of time, the fertility cycle for women, and our psyches at the deepest level. Tides ruled by the moon provided aquatic diets for societies bonded to place, and today, the moon still influences our sleep and energy cycles. “The moon has been our light, our lamp in the darkness. It has also been our calendar, our clock, the primary way by which we measured the passing of time and the cycles of nature long before we divided our days into hours, and used numbers to date our lives.” (Knowing the Moon)  Following the phases of the moon is not just esoteric knowledge, but how we place nature at the center of our lives. As Rhyd points out, our own energy ebbs and flows with the moon – for example, he has low energy at the new moon and just before. Keeping track of the moon tells us when to start or finish projects, when to be alone, and when to be sociable. It is very grounding to understand how our energy levels and behavior are affected by the moon, and how to live according to those cycles.

Rhyd outlines how Pagan life in harmony with the cycles of nature, or “natural time” became the enemy of the industrial revolution, and how the first capitalists created “machine time” to discipline the workers. Including the new idea of a “work ethic” these fabrications were also beneficial for the Church Fathers, who were intent on eradicating pagan festivals and beliefs based on natural cycles. Even today, the Calvinist idea that “idleness equals sin” is deeply ingrained, with our frenetic schedules and lack of rest or down time. And yet, as Rhyd explains, our reconnection to Pagan time is not that difficult to recover. There is no special technology or education required - we just have to observe the moon on a regular basis.  “Seeing my own rhythms connected to these vaster and ancient celestial and earthly patterns, places me in time. Not in the time of clocks and human calendars, not in a particular month in a particular year, but in an ever-expanding moment of all of life’s existence.” (Reconnecting to Pagan Time)
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The chapter “Being of the Land” is a fascinating survey on the ongoing divide that originated in Roman times between the urban and pastoral, and the [so-called] primitive and civilized. Terms such as “pagans, heathens or savages” were used for millennia to colonize Indigenous peoples and other earth-emergent societies. In conjunction with civilization-building, Christian hegemony was the norm and “the other” were either eliminated, converted, oppressed or assimilated.  And yet, tribal collectives have always resisted this brutality, and continue to affirm that being connected to the land is how we are supposed to be living. The urban/rural dichotomy has existed for millennia, but taking our cues from the natural world instead of the dictates of Empire will lead to the re-enchantment that we seek.  

“Being Pagan, then, is being connected to the land in a way that stands outside of—and often in opposition to—the concerns of the urban and of Empire. Even though the official histories of humanity always focus on them, empires and the cities they form are mere temporary interruptions to a more organic and mostly unwritten history of human life.” (The Rhythms of the Land)  Deep connection may include  eating locally and taking long walks, and becoming more open to any traces of emotion that remain in our neighborhoods or regions, and what happened there in the past. There may be watersheds or trees that attract us, and others that push us away. Then by tracking our own daily moods and experiences, a pattern, or “body map” may appear, of how we are influenced by place. “And remember to look for the moon as you step through the land from which you are composed, and into which you will one day return.”  (Reconnecting to Land)

The next chapter “Being Body” is a brilliant précis on the hegemonic concepts of duality that have caused us to become alienated and disconnected, both from the land and our own bodies. The rhythms and sounds of nature developed into the first human languages, but the shift from oral to written culture and the dominance of monotheist religions further compartment-alized the world. (When Verbs became Nouns) There is still an overwhelming and debilitating emphasis in our society on linear thinking and objectification, that can be traced to these early philosophies. And yet the timeless Pagan and animist worldview moves us back to a holistic weaving of the emotional and spiritual aspects of self with the physical body, to the somatics of internal awareness and body positivity. "We do not have bodies. We are bodies." (Being Body) Intellectual functions have their place, but meditation, bodywork, exercise, massage and other practices can teach us to pay more attention to our rootedness and our body. Also, spending time in nature allows us to become more grounded, and opens us to  a wider range of sensory perception and intuitive flow, a form of bodily “knowing.” “Body itself is a process, not just a static object, the same way that nature is an active force, not an abstract and unchanging concept.”  (How We Came to “Have” Bodies)
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“Wolf and Oak” introduces us to the importance of a keystone species to the ecosystem, to the truth that sentient elements, plants and animals are considered “kin” by Indigenous, Pagan and animist worldviews, and that ritual and reciprocity sustains all life. The cycles of growing and harvesting in our homelands, the bounty of nature and our important connections to food, have always shaped our ways of knowing. Eventually, modernity transformed these ancient bonds with Earth Community into “servants and products.” “In our ravenous consumption we destroyed the keystones of many ecosystems, chased out the apex predators and felled the sacred trees, leaving less and less space for our kin to survive. The animist, Pagan relationship saw everything as mutual relation and obligation, whereas the modern way of thinking about the world is inherently selfish and human-centric.”  (The Great Oak)

“Gods and Spirits” is a fascinating survey on dragons, giants and other mythical beings arising from formations in the land, and the blurring of lines between gods, land spirits, ancestors, and the forces in nature. In Pagan and Indigenous societies, “the existence of gods and spirits was part of the cultural fabric of life itself.” (What to Do About the Gods)  The chapter “The Other” takes us on a captivating journey through the spheres of the occult, the practice of magic and “body memory,” and the acknowledgement that animists are capable of incredible feats when embedded in the natural world. Today, we can nurture the same magical abilities and gifts, such as intuition, insight, and messages from the dreamtime, by paying attention to what our bodies (aka our genii,, the unconscious,  the spirits, dream callings)  are saying.  “Listening to the Other is the key to the Pagan framework of magic, of aligning consciousness to the unconscious in order to affect change.” (Listening to the Other)

Moving from objectivity to his own experience, with “The Fires of Meaning” Rhyd offers a deeply personal narrative on reaching communion with the Gods and other ancestral forces. The point he makes is that each seeker will make these connections and form relationships to the spirits in their own unique way.  “Life is an enchanted thing, the body is capable of understanding things we rarely allow ourselves to experience, nature has a rhythm and song of its own, our ancestors understood things we desperately need to remember, the land speaks, and gods and spirits dwell everywhere. All this that I have written about I have learned because of these experiences, from letting myself be body and giving attention to the time of the moon, the seasons, and the stars rather than the logic of machines.” (What Willst Du?) Followed by an extraordinary summary of all the practices and modalities as outlined in Being Pagan, the chapter “Pagan Rituals” will “help you reclaim a sense of agency and active relation to the world.”  (Pagan Rituals)    
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I especially appreciated the chapters in Being Pagan that covered issues I continue to research and examine in my own work. “Those Who Came Before” is a wonderful exploration on The Ancestors, including “rootlessness and even confusion about what ancestry means” in the Americas; how ancestral legacies today are usually focused on inherited wealth or health; ancestral trauma; displacement; diaspora; the ambiguity of claiming questionable ancestors; and how in Indigenous and Pagan societies one’s ancestry is considered beneficial or “part of the physical reality of a person’s life.” (The Meaning of Ancestors)  A major part of communal ancestry is the passing on of traditional knowledge and values, but it is a process engaged in, by both the ancestors and their living descendants. It is fascinating to see how basic behaviors and beliefs can still manifest and adapt after many generations, to the lifestyles of today. Ancestral veneration, shrines, prayer, and speaking with the Ancestors are also important Pagan practices.
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Finally, with the appendix “A Plague of Gods: Cultural Appropriation and the Resurgent Left Sacred” Rhyd tackles a controversial and contentious subject. Social justice activists today have embraced call-out culture to address the issue, but this approach is incredibly toxic, and adds additional layers of trauma to what modern folks are already carrying.  Allies should still listen to the voices of those most affected by cultural appropriation, such as First Nations in the Americas, but fresh approaches such as Rhyd’s can add more balance to the conversation. 

Overall, Being Pagan is an important guide to transforming the disconnect imposed on us by Empire by reclaiming pastoral time, and by reflecting the cycles of the land and the moon in our own experiences and Pagan traditions. We owe it to our collective ancestors to renew our connection to the land spirits, embrace an animist worldview, and embody re-enchantment in our lives. We need to stop seeing Earth Community as commodities and products but sacred kin, and practice the ancient rituals once again.  “It's of course urgent that we return to this Pagan way of relating to our kin, but most of all it’s both utterly possible and a source of profound joy available to all.” (Being Kin)    Highly Recommended.  
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Being Pagan: A Guide to Re-Enchant Your Life
is available  >here< paperback and digital copies

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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.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. 
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"Rites and Responsibilities: A Guide to Growing Up" by Darcy Ottey

11/20/2022

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REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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I am so grateful for the emergence of Rites and Responsibilities: A Guide to Growing Up in our time! Cultural visionary Darcy Ottey offers us a template for significant rites of passage – and what it means to be a true adult – in this monumental book. At the epicenter of the movement for many years, her passion, dedication, warmth and care shine through on every page. Written for a diverse audience of young people, organizations serving youth, rites of passage practitioners, nature immersion guides, educators, social justice activists, and seekers from every stage of life, Rites and Responsibilities is a brilliant resource. Including examples from her own life and the stories of others, Darcy outlines the human developmental process, how trauma and displacement happen from a lack of rites of passage, and how to uncolonize from the western worldview.

As both a spiritual guide and practical workbook, Rites and Responsibilities includes exercises for knowing the self, essential mindsets for initiation, new possibilities for cultural identity, tools for mentoring and other supports, creating personal rituals, the importance of ancestral connection, and facing the complexities of late-stage capitalism. With an emphasis on bonding to nature and learning from First Nations, this guidebook weaves the values of cross-cultural protocols and collective liberation with finding our special roles and skills, and embracing healthy relationships, both with people and the land.

​To step through the gateway into adulthood requires the preparations as outlined in this important book, and this transition can happen even in our later years. True adulthood means taking on a path of service, adopting the practices of the authentic, or initiated life, and holding a deep understanding of our connectivity to Beloved Community, both human and other-than-human. Embodying the ancestral wisdom of rites of passage is essential in this era of massive change, and Rites and Responsibilities: A Guide to Growing Up will take us on that journey of transformation.

>​Official Website<

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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.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. 
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"Grandma's Spirit: Calling Us Home to Tyendinaga" by Fred Leonard Jr. and Yontheraha:wi

11/15/2021

2 Comments

 

REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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The renaissance of First Nations today after generations of oppression is a magnificent revival of Indigenous Knowledge, and struggles for human rights, equity, sovereignty and land claims are ongoing. Restoring what was lost through colonization is key to healthy communities, and the reclamation of language and culture can take many forms.  As the Old Ways return, reviving oral traditions are incredibly important, and the work of Fred Leonard Jr. is an astounding example of allowing epigenetic memory and the Ancestors to guide the way.

Like many contemporary First Nations folks separated from family, clan and community through displacement, residential schools and other trauma, Fred Leonard Jr. found himself seeking his Haudenosaunee roots.  Leaving Toronto he was guided by his intuition to relocate to the Bay of Quinte, where he immediately felt welcome and at home. Meeting Mohawk teachers and Elders at Loyalist College led to his own explorations in genealogy and history, and an increased sense of belonging, with visits to Pow Wows and other events.

Who were his people? What family connections were just waiting, to be ignited once again?  As Fred continued to focus on his relatives and his great-grandmother in particular, he kept wondering who she was, and what her life had been like.  At a Pow Wow he attended, a great wind came rushing to him through the arbour during the women's sacred dance. From that moment on, he felt his great-grandmother's presence, and with the help of friend and seer Doreen South began to receive stories and promptings from his Ancestor, in great "downloads" of information resulting in an entire book of family history and Indigenous Knowledge. 

Grandma's Spirit may be the first book I have ever read, that is a direct transmission from those who have gone before - in essence, the Beloved Dead. With the intent to honor the Ancestors and hear their voices, it takes an extraordinary amount of heart to be open to their messages. Fred dedicates his book to "all the ancestors' voices that are crying out from under the ground to be heard" and sends "greetings, thanks and love" to all his people, both living and in the ancestral realm. His approach is an incredible inspiration to all who have been separated from family and community, by the forces of colonialism, war, displacement or diaspora. 

As Douglas M. George-Kanentiio says in the Foreword (author and husband of Joanne Shenandoah who recently passed into the spirit world),  "We as Mohawks believe the demise of the physical body is by no means the end of life's journey. It is just a transition from this world to the next. It offers the possibility of reaching across the realities to bring a message, deliver a warning, assist in the recovery of trauma, or complete an instruction and a duty." 

Fred's great-grandmother Yontheraha:wi/Sarah Maracle was in the spirit world for 3 generations, and yet she had the impeccable ability to return him to his people and complete his Instructions. Speaking through Fred, she describes a pivotal time in Mohawk history, when harmony and sustainability were disrupted and replaced with colonial rules, manipulation, racism and oppression. 

As his search continues, Fred finds an entry in a local archive that he feels is a match for his great-grandmother, and sure enough, her identity is substantiated by Seer Doreen South. From that moment on, Yontheraha:wi/Sarah Maracle becomes his spirit guide, and informs him that she has already been guiding his steps back to his people, and that his purpose is now to write a book. Tyendinaga is his ancestral homeland, and like the Great Turtle, no obstacles stand in the way when the spirit is called back home. Other Ancestors also deliver communications to Fred, and he discovers that the stories of the past are essential to the generations that follow. With deep humility and respect, Fred declares that, "This book was spiritually-guided. It was written by my great-grandmother Sarah, not me. I was just the vessel that did the physical work, through her guidance. These are her teachings and this is her story."

And what a story it is~!  Voiced by Yontheraha:wi/Sarah Maracle of the Bear Clan, we are introduced to ancestors, tribe and place; collective memories from the end of the last Ice Age on Turtle Island; and the beautiful Thanksgiving Address that honors every part of Creation. Grandma's Spirit seeks to guide clan members back to their Original Instructions, and traditional teachings never recorded before touch hearts and minds, and offer great healing. With kindness, humour, and the poetry of belonging, through the pages of Grandma's Spirit ​all people are being invited to learn the ancient wisdom of the Kanyen'keha:ka (Mohawk) people. 
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The Turtle Shell Calendar, explained by Fred's ancestor Catherine Claus.
Yontheraha:wi tells of her birth, her early life, Indigenous ways of being, wisdom keeper protocols, and the special responsibilities of women.  During her childhood she attends a government day school where the Kanyenkeha (Mohawk) language is banned, but she spends equal amounts of time in the forest, learning the special qualities of plants and trees, and communicating with the animals and elements in Earth Community. Love, beauty, sharing, peace and spirit are apparent in every living being, and the land is sacred. She develops the ability to "read" the winds, waters, sky and stars, and each season brings new adventures and TEK (traditional ecological knowledge) that has been time-tested for generations. 

Yontheraha:wi's childhood is a high-energy round of harvesting nuts, berries, mushrooms, roots, herbs, bark and plant medicines, collecting firewood, cultivating corn, beans, squash and other vegetables, preparing food; and other chores, games, crafts and activities around the homestead. Her family makes their own clothing, baskets, paints, and musical instruments such as flutes, turtle shell rattles and water drums.  She learns how to  notice the patterns in nature, thank all beings, practice non-interference, save seeds, sing to the water, and hunt with respect. Yontheraha:wi' relays many legends shared by her community, such as tales of the ancient ones, celestial beings, the "little people" and tree lore, that give deep meaning to the natural phenomena all around them. When she is 10, she begins to see the spirits of her own Ancestors come and go, and is encouraged to embrace her special ability.   

"My mother told me that everything would be all right, and that we come from a long line of people who see and hear the ancestors. It is a gift from the Great Spirit to help others."  (Yontheraha:wi') Surely the same gift has come down through the generations to Fred Leonard Jr., as he materializes Grandma's Spirit into being. Like a time capsule from another era, Yontheraha:wi''s narrative is alive, and rich with humour, wisdom and deep connections to the land.  

She offers more invaluable cultural teachings from early contact times, such as guidance and messages received from dreams; cultivating a good work ethic; promoting laughter and happiness; and how to nurture self and others to be healthy and strong spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically.  She finds that developing a strong Orenta (positive life force) early in life prepares her for the Okton (negative life force), that arrives in the form of tragedy and injustice.

As Yontheraha:wi' grows into her twenties, like other young native women she begins employment as a maid for a white family in Napanee. In the midst of adapting to new customs and a new language, she holds her head high and never denies her own heritage, even when enduring racist words and actions. Her statements on the rapacious greed of white people, their wasteful habits, and disrespect for nature all end with the same line, "Your ways are strange to me!"  In 1903 she joyfully brings her twin babies into the world - a boy and a girl - and performs the traditional ceremony of introducing them to the Great Spirit and Mother Earth. She lovingly creates tiny blankets and handmade rattles for them, but very soon an "Indian Agent like a dictator" arrives to take the children away.  

To destroy a culture, the children are removed from the family, and that was the exact agenda of the colonial powers in Canada. The Kanyen'keha:ka (Mohawk) people suffered paternalism, being treated "less than," and having external forces in control of their lives. In a culture clash that reverberates to the present day, the puritanical "ethics" of the Europeans and the loving egalitarian structure of Mohawk society had absolutely nothing in common. It took many years for  Yontheraha:wi' to recover from her anger, sadness and grief, and never knowing what happened to her children was a tragedy she carried to the end of her days.

As the colonizers forced the Kanyen'keha:ka to assimilate into white society, and life became more and more restrictive, Yontheraha:wi' eventually found times of happiness with her new partner Angus, and continued practicing her spiritual and cultural traditions. Her deep connections to the sacred, the abundance in nature and the Great Spirit never wavered, and her tales of midlife into Elderhood are irreplaceable treasures of wisdom, and a miracle of the written word. She even describes her own death at the age of 67, and being in the spirit world allowed her to finally locate her beloved son Arthur James and daughter Ruby, and to become a guardian spirit for the living.

I can only imagine the joy that the author Fred Leonard Jr. would have felt to know his lineage again, and his amazement as another ancestor came forward to tell his life story from the spirit world - his grandfather Arthur James Leonard. Forms of direct transmission from the Beloved Dead found in Grandma's Spirit - in turn verified from the historical record - are deeply magical and transformative. In land-emergent Indigenous societies, the dead indeed can speak to the living. 
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Wampum Belt of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, believed to have been established in the 12th century.
With his family tree located and verified, Leonard goes on to Part 2 of Grandma's Spirit, which is a meticulous survey of the Tyendinaga Mohawk since 1650, including the  key leaders, the migrations, the conflicts and wars, the toll of European disease, the encroachment of European explorers and Settlers, relations with the Jesuits, the benefits of early trade, and new adaptations to European trade goods. He includes key photographs of people, places, artifacts, and markers at sacred sites; many descriptions of TEK (traditional ecological knowledge); and transcriptions of folkloric stories, or "teaching bundles" that were passed down for generations.  He profiles the founding of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in the 12th century; the Peacemaker of the Hurons who joined the Five Nations together (the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca); the Great Tree of Peace; the signing of the treaties; and the roles of Fred's own ancestors (now identified) in those momentous events.   

Of utmost importance is Fred's description of the matriarchal society of the Mohawk, which is of huge interest today in both concept and practice.  A matriarchal society is NOT the opposite of a patriarchal society, but a system honoring egalitarian values that hold powerful solutions to the many crises we face today. 

"The Mohawk women were the backbone of the society. The children received their clan from their mother only. The women were the ones who made the decisions concerning Mother Earth and the crops she produced. It was the women who decided on matters of peace and war. If the chiefs were not doing their job, then the women would impeach them.  If the men did not listen to the women, there would be serious trouble for those men when they returned home. Also, the men had to get permission from the women before taking the young Mohawk boys to fight or to trade. The people really started to suffer when they stopped listening to the women and started to listen to the war chiefs."   (Fred Leonard Jr.)

For a non-native person, a Settler of Scots-Gaelic descent, I am incredibly grateful for this superb book, for the tenacity and dedication of Fred Leonard Jr. to locate his ancestors, and for the opportunity to learn about the issues and cultural traditions of the Kanyen'keha:ka from such wise sources. To understand that our ancestral guides are real, and that resurgence and decolonization can be possible for all those affected by Empire, is deeply profound and empowering knowledge.  And above all, to treasure the deeply-connected narratives of honour, care and respect for Mother Earth and the Original Instructions, that Yontheraha:wi' so beautifully describes.  This is the love that we must all find in our hearts right now, for the protection and healing of Earth Community.  Please read this book! 

One morning, after a bad wind storm, Tota (grandmother) asked me to get her pouch of sacred tobacco. She said, "We are going for a nice walk in the forest." I was holding her hand tightly, as I walked by her side. She said that after a wind storm, "You always go looking for fallen trees, with your sacred tobacco." We eventually found a white pine tree that had broken off, about halfway up the tree. She got down on her knees, put down a pinch of oyen'kwa'on:we (sacred tobacco) and placed her hands on the tree.  She started weeping!

I asked her, "Oh non kye:ren tesahsenhthos (why are you crying)?"

She tilted her head to one side as she looked up at me.  And she said, "I am crying because this pine tree is just like you.  Do you see those roots over there?" She pointed with her lips.

I said, "Yes, Tota."

She said, "They are the feet of the tree. They are connected to Mother Earth, just like your feet."

I looked down at my feet and said, "Oh, okay."

She explained some more.  "The tree has a body, its branches are like your arms and the pine needles are just like your hair.  Do you understand?"

I looked at my hair and said, "Yes, Tota."

Tota said, "The tree will go back to Mother Earth now."

She whispered to me, "The trees give us medicine, food and clean air to breathe.  They give us shade when it is hot, firewood when it is cold, and the birds make their homes in the trees, too. The trees do all of this for us. They don't ask for anything in return, except that we say nyawen'ko:wa (great thanks) to them every day.  This is why I cry for this fallen tree.  Do you understand?"

​I said, "Yes, I understand now!" 
(Yontheraha:wi/Sarah Maracle as a child, with her grandmother Catherine Claus.)

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Grandma's Spirit ​is available from the author at 
[email protected]
or through Facebook >here<

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Great White Pine - Tree of Peace
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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.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. ​
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"Dancing & Digging: Proverbs on Freedom & Nature" by Shaun Day-Woods

8/20/2021

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REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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​With his new book Dancing & Digging: Proverbs on Freedom & Nature Shaun Day-Woods is wildly successful at reviving the proverb as an art form for progressive minds! It takes an incredible talent to understand current movements and ideas, and pack both nuance and provocation into one short expression.  As the title suggests, Dancing & Digging bounces from laughter to deep meaning, articulating both the delight in our lives and the dysfunction of late-stage capitalism. Thanks to the advent of social media and a passion for “the meme,” the time for the modern proverb is at hand, and Day-Woods is a master of the genre.  
 
By their very nature, proverbs reject the dominant narrative, challenge the status quo and speak truth to power. With statements on wild nature, the ancestors,  communal living, anarchy, activism and general philosophy, Day-Wood’s proverbs activate our critical thinking skills and capacity for change. The aphorisms that inspire your heart and soul the most become your personal treasures, to return to again and again. Dancing & Digging is designed as a small portable book you can nestle in your hand – perfect for taking to the café, adventure travel, nature sojourns and other contemplative activities.     

For those who love the aesthetic of text interwoven with great illustrations, the stunning woodcuts of Rick Herdman will not disappoint. Day-Woods encourages us to slow down and savor the proverbs at our own pace, and includes suggestions for games, surrealist “group writes” and even graffiti sharing! He also offers blank pages to write our own proverbs, and by doing so challenge the “gatekeeper” mentality of the publishing industry. Dancing & Digging reminds us that imparting knowledge by proverbs is a very ancient practice, and one that we may emulate today.  As we continue to resist Empire and revive ecological relationships in Earth Community, this profound collection is the best kind of companion.

AVAILABLE DIRECTLY FROM >NIGHT FOREST PRESS<
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​“The wind carries the voices of nature’s ancestors.”

​“All around us are invisible veins of existence, streams of life.  We need only cup our hands and dip into them to retrieve music, ideas, insights, power.”

“It is important to the dominant reality
​that we forget that we once could fly.” 

DANCING & DIGGING
Proverbs by Shaun Day-Woods

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From “Dancing and Digging: Original Proverbs on Freedom and Nature”
​Night Forest Press

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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, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon.
 ​
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"Wyrd Against the Modern World" by Ramon Elani

5/11/2021

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Review by PEGI EYERS

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Once in a lifetime, a book may come along that changes your worldview forever, and Wyrd Against the Modern World is one of those offerings. You will find yourself deeply resonating with the truths as articulated by Ramon Elani in this phenomental work! His description of our current era of climate change is brilliant, and his “deep dive” into root causes, ancient forces, the Gods, and the concept of Wyrd will leave an indelible mark on your soul. Published by Shaun Woods and the folks at Night Forest Press, pages of profound wisdom reveal primal dreaming - a time when our collective ancestors deferred to the true powers of the Gods, wild nature and the land - and how our world has been destroyed by the structures of humancentric dominance and modernity.
   
“As our world dies, we re-enter the mythic age of gods. For five hundred years we have been told, and largely believed, that we are the sole agent of the cosmos. The hidden folk we once counted among our kindred, the architects of modernity declared were superstitious illusions. Elemental powers, earth, water, air and oak became reduced to mere material. This moment of collapse proves to us that we were never in control, and that we were never alone. In the burning sun, the savage storm, and the rising sea, are the grim faces and voices of the gods and spirits that modernity so proudly put aside. It is said that at the end of the world, the dead will rise.”

Restoring the worldview of our ancestors through paganism, reconstructionism and cultural revival is a thriving  “future-primitive” movement right now, but Elani adds a powerful and much-needed voice to the conversation. He reminds us that we cannot romanticize the past, or gloss over dark forces such as catastrophe, bloodstain, dissolution, death or decay, as these are the chthonic forces that shape our world. He also reminds us that while encased in a bubble of modernity, nature has always been waiting, and the most ancient beings are on the move again. Underneath all the layers of our “god-killing, life denying” techno-industrial world, the same sacred elements and patterns of the land speak to us, as they have for thousands of years. Right now, we are at a “moment of descent” to the Underworld, a “baptism by climate change,” and a journey we can only hope to survive, with the aid of the primordial powers. As Elani points out, many of us know deep-down that the world is ending, and that collapse cannot be held back - or fixed - by human-created solutions.

Which brings us to the elusive concept of Wyrd, and Elani’s brilliant expansions on the Norse, Heathen and Anglo Saxon definitions of “fate,” destiny” “becoming,” “unfolding,” and “always in process.” Drawing on the natural law of reciprocity, he creates an entirely new concept of Wyrd as a closed loop of gifts and exchanges in Earth Community, that constantly regenerate the whole. Wyrd is co-creation, the interconnected nature of the world, a weaving of threads that link all beings in complex and mysterious ways. Humans can adapt to the patterns of Wyrd, and “read the signs” through an animist perception, and yet are incapable of perceiving the totality. Including quotes from other great thinkers such as Brian Bates, Mircea Eliade, Carl Jung, D.H. Lawrence, Robinson Jeffers and Wendell Berry (“critics of industrialism and modernity”), Elani shows us how to understand the Sacred. He also describes how society shifted to the profane, becoming desacralized, denatured, disenchanted and dehumanized in the process.  Trapped in linear time, civilization has ruptured the traditional understanding of the cosmos, and must “comprehend” and control the natural world as “separate,” therefore resulting in global ecological devastation.
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Last Born in the Wilderness 2019
Elani outlines many excellent concepts on the derangement and folly of modernity. “Comprehension is a tool of the capitalist, the engineer, the scientist, the modern. Comprehension is an idea engendered by a conception of the world that is measurable, knowable, finite and a conception of humanity that is limitless. Comprehension is an idea of control, of domination. To comprehend is to name, to bind. It is an idea that will strangle and suck the life out of the world and ourselves.”  By contrast, the approach of traditional societies to “recognize” instead of “comprehend” is far more nuanced. “Recognition is the language of the seer, the wild deer in the misty glen, the bloody raven on the alder tree, the bear dreaming in a mossy cave. Recognition has always been with us. It is the way of our first ancestors and our last descendants. To know what you always knew. To be accepted and to accept. I will not seek to control you. I merely see you and I know what you are. There is an ease and a quietness to recognition, though it can bring earthquakes and break the sky. Recognition is a return. It is to find what has been lost, and to understand that it has been within us the whole time. We stand upon the barren mountaintop, upon the cliffs before the pounding waves, amid the lifeless suffocating sands. We see the ruin and devastation coming toward us. The coming storms are inescapable. They cannot be reasoned with. We cannot throw money at them. We cannot bomb them into oblivion. We cannot think our way out of this. We have reached the edge of what modern, techno-industrial society can accomplish. There is nothing left for us now than to sit with our horror; to dive into the depths, to welcome the rushing dark waters, and to seek what we have forgotten beneath the waves.”

“Climate change decisively and undeniably ends the myth of an anthropocentric cosmos.”  No longer will we be able to place ourselves first, or claim the human exceptionalism of  being "at the center.” Elani’s grasp of the mythology of the western world is profound, and he includes many tales and myths of apocalypse from traditional and pre-colonial societies – both their worldviews and their resilience. He highlights how our ancestors, by embracing the primal flow of life, were well-equipped to accept natural disasters as symbolic of a necessary cosmic destruction and rebirth.  Not so modernity, built on capitalist fantasies of “endless growth” and myths of Setter Futurity. The Empire that is dying right before our eyes negates the living soul of the world, defers the mythic cycles, denies both death and regeneration, and has no capability to imagine that climate disaster is real. 

"The ancient stories of the end of the world were told by people who were unable to accomplish any of our great feats, we tell ourselves. We can build cities on a scale so vast that previous people could scarcely imagine it. We can travel to the moon. We have learned to manipulate the elements and even harnessed the power of the atom itself to serve us.  How can such a people admit that they have unleashed powers beyond their command? Industrialism gave us the power to alter the world according to our wishes and dreams.  In the end, however, we now see that our power and control was an illusion. As this illusion comes crashing down around us, we are forced to accept that we have never been the almighty godlike beings that our technology allowed us to imagine. In the twilight of our days, we realize our error." 
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For a book that stares down apocalypse, the mythopoetics and compassion as offered within the pages of Wyrd Against the Modern World is astounding. Elani assures us that the gods are not dead, but are temporarily “in hiding,” and live on, in the “subterranean dream world of the unconscious, the intuitive, the irrational and the acausal.”  Climate change will liberate the gods, and reinstate the dream world fully into its power. He traces our primordial memories of kinship with the cosmos, and suggests that we ground our lives in the realities of “home,” both literally and within wild nature, as the source of hope and connection. By reactivating our return to a primal sense of time, a simple life connected to the land, the earth spirits and cycles of the seasons, we regain our ability to recognize the Sacred, to offer ceremony to the living Gods, to know the world of dreams as real, and to celebrate both our living and dying.  As Elani reminds us, the denial of the living soul of the world (or “godlessness”) is the true enemy of life, not death.  

As a deep call to the European soul, Elani weaves the old stories and illuminates the foundational myths of Nordic and Celtic lands. Wyrd Against the Modern World offers an experience of deep resonance, with impacts that echo into the dreaming of our lives. To traverse time and space with Wyrd is to embark on your own transformation, both forward to a tumultuous future and back to your Old Soul beginnings, back home to the living mythology, Old Gods and Fair Folk of the Forest. At the intersection of apocalypse our moment is at hand, and Wyrd Against the Modern World is a powerful companion for the journey.  

"Let us put aside materialism and dance the old dances and obey the hidden wisdom that is found in our pulsing blood, travel within the self to find the lost part of ourselves in the dark woods of the unconscious, and reconsecrate our bonds of allegiance to the inhuman source of all life and beauty. In the immediate future, this path, the path of Wyrd, leads us back to the land and the home."
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Wyrd Against the Modern World is available from Night Forest Press  Ramon Elani is an acausal heathen author and poet, and holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Connecticut. He lives on a small homestead with his wife and children among the hills and forests of New England. You can access his blog at The Tiger's Leap.
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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.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. ​   
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    Book Reviews
    by Pegi Eyers


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