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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 full of gratitude 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

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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 
leonardfred7@gmail.com
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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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." 

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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"Voluntary Peasants: Inside the Ultimate American Commune" by Melvyn Stiriss

4/12/2021

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REVIEW by Pegi Eyers

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NEW BEAT BOOKS, 2018
I missed the initial flourishing of the hippie phenomena by about a decade, but in my teenage travels I did witness a couple of communes up close, and was certainly part of the early “alternative” philosophies. But I never felt truly welcome in the “higher echelon”  hippie spaces,  as there seemed to be a strict hierarchy between the “most accomplished” dazzling individuals and the other rankings, with monumental egos at play. I also encountered systemic misogyny, white male privilege and narcissism (although it was hard to articulate at the time). So, it was with great interest that I picked up Voluntary Peasants, to find out what had been really going on in the flower-power Woodstock era.  I was vaguely aware of Stephen Gaskin and The Farm, but had no personal connection to anyone who had been part of that “utopia.” Written by one of the founders Melvyn Stiriss, this book is a first-hand account of (let’s face it) cult dynamics, and a romp through the mindset of the “generation that changed the world.”

The main drivers for the earliest manifestation of hippie culture in the Americas seemed to be drugs (“turning on”), wanderlust and meditation. At the same time that young people were rejecting the conservative values of their parents, they seemed lost, and adrift in an ocean of possibilities. Finding nothing of value in the dominant society, there was a mass attraction to eastern philosophies, and in a pivotal moment of “karma” (calculated or not?) a deluge of Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi and other Eastern Gurus arrived on the scene.  This was also the perfect moment for the “white guru complex” to take hold, and with a combination of paternal leadership, kind counsel, oratorial skills, and practices lifted from various mystery traditions, charismatic hippies like Stephen Gaskin were able to attract devotees and become the “voice of authority.”  Gaskin has been called the “first empowerment coach” of our modern era, and decades later, the same need for spiritual “exemplars” continues in diverse spiritualities, self-help and New Age Capitalism.  

As San Francisco and Haight-Ashbury became the epicenter of the hippie scene, the new zeitgeist radiated out across the continent, and Stiriss was there from the beginning.  He describes the excitement in glowing terms, as hippies and all kinds of alternative folk delved into new experiments in consciousness, new forms of freedom, new expressions in art and music, new sexual mores, and new ways of being in relationship – both at the personal level and in community.  Drugs like LSD, mescaline, peyote, mushrooms and cannabis were on hand  to expand one’s reality, (or was it to “escape” reality?), touch the “godhead,” become enlightened, become “one with the cosmos” and sink into “group mind.”  Taking the testimony of Stiriss as an example (and “bad trips” aside), the hippie worldview was a true path to self-realization, and was filled with joy, awe, creativity, compassion, generosity, kindness and understanding.
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HAPPY HIPPIES
Over two thousand hippies bonded with Gaskin’s vision, and in 1970 a caravan of 100 buses and other motley vehicles set out across the USA to “save the world” and deliver their message of peace, love, and “yoga” consciousness. On their return to Haight-Ashbury a “bad vibe” had taken hold, and at Gaskin’s urging the collective went back to Tennessee, to “get back to the land” and experience the joy of taking care of each other, in freedom and bliss. The necessities of life were quickly set up, the existing farmland planted, and everyone’s income was pooled to cover real estate, food, shelter, equipment and other costs.  According to Voluntary Peasants, the first hippie communes were not linked to communist, anarchist or kibbutz models, but were spontaneously organized i.e. “let’s make it up as we go along.”  The members of The Farm were especially innovative in creating housing from available materials, switching to veganism and other holistic practices like natural childbirth, and starting up interchangeable work crews for building, agriculture, transport, food processing and publishing.

As a precursor to today’s intentional communities, members of The Farm bonded with a common purpose to survive, thrive, and enjoy the many benefits of communal support.  A  vision statement written by Gaskin, was also a template for the wider “hippie commune” movement.

"Remove yourself from The System, the industrial-military-complex paradigm.  Learn to be self reliant.  Pool resources, buy some land. Learn to build houses and grow your own food, and create your own peaceful scene, an affordable simple lifestyle.”  

New members who rushed to join, such as “draft dodgers, trippers, back-to-the-landers, dropouts and nouveau hippies,” did not necessarily have to accept Gaskin as their "spiritual teacher," but were expected to be “collective, pacifist and vegan.” After years of major outreach, huge growth, and massive accomplishments without moving away from the “rustic” ideal, The Farm ran out of money in 1983 and switched from a “collective” to a “co-op” model (aka “The Changeover”).  At that point, all members were then required to pay dues to live on The Farm, earn their own money, and provide for their own food and personal needs. When the commune era dissolved, many ex-hippies went on to become doctors, lawyers or corporate magnates, and then built the boomer generation – the wealthiest demographic of all time.

It's always easy to critique at a distance, but after the passing of 50+ years we can draw some conclusions on The Farm, and the hippie cohort in general. Was it a “whirlwind trip toward enlightenment” that the testimonial for Voluntary Peasants claims? The willingness to embrace alternatives in sustainable technology and holistic health was a monumental change, but in many ways communes missed the big picture. Certainly at play was an element of that “good ‘ole American ingenuity,” but it was impossible for the hippies to make a clean break from the dominant order. In retrospect, there are many signs that the hippies did not recognize the aspects in their lives that they most needed to uncolonize, such as materialism, capitalism, greed and hierarchy. Drug use was central to the hippie experience – tune in, turn on, drop out – and yet it was an indulgent and self-centered message. What was all that acid, mescaline, peyote and mushrooms doing to physical and mental health?  And why the extreme peer pressure to take drugs, even for those who were probably unsuited? Instead of moderation, the emphasis on constant drug use created terrible addiction problems well into future decades, and caused frequent overdoses (some fatal) as well as disabilities, trauma and major PTSD.
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GURU STEPHEN GASKIN
The hippies were wired to look to a central authority figure who made decisions for people, instead of a mentor giving them the tools to find their own answers. In certain situations this is not necessarily wrong, but it is indicative of just how lost and impressionable young people were in the hippie “daze.” Gaskin was a charismatic figure who had the right things to say at the right time. From a remove of five decades, it’s hard to see the attraction – his appearance is a bit off-putting, and his tone, delivery and content not all that compelling.  But I guess you had to “be there” to “grok his vibes!”   From the book one gathers that Gaskin’s primary function was to dispense orders and tell people what to do, including abuse and insults, in a kind of “parent” replacement.  Much of what he dictated was from a place of control and manipulation, and he had all the qualities of a full-blown narcissist.  Just like in a cult, devotees received orders by a maniacal dictator, and in their best interests were forced to comply. On the surface, Stephen was considered a “magical, all-knowing, highly evolved being / an inspiration to thousands who wanted to save the world / the New Age avatar / the next messiah,” and the emergent hippies were in need of this kind of “model.”  And yet it would require scrutiny far beyond this short review to assess how quickly the bliss of stoned-out “group mind” turned to the cult dynamics of “group think.”

In terms of spiritual content, right from the beginning the hippies were experts at blending various philosophies and wisdom traditions together, and cherry-picking knowledge to find something that “clicked” – only to keep seeking (or “consuming”) trendy and exciting new practices. Everything was up for grabs, and yet whatever spiritual knowledge was gained, never seemed to be enough. Gaskin, the teacher of the True Path, was in competition with, or dismissive of, the various Eastern gurus and swami’s he came into contact with, and also became the “chosen representative” for a couple of First Nations leaders after going to their rallies for a “photo-op.” It may be iniquitous to apply the systemic phenomena of white privilege and cultural appropriation to early efforts at “new spiritualities,” but elements of exceptionalism and voyeurism were definitely at play.  For example, the fact that so many hippies lived in tipis is normalized and completely glossed over.  And even though Voluntary Peasants was written in 2018 and Stiriss should know better, there is a sprinkling of microaggressions and covert racism throughout the text. He calls being away from The Farm “off the reservation,” calls a Black man a “jive turkey” and categorizes Indigenous people as “child-like” and “dirt-poor” (instead of being colonized by Europeans), and in dire need of aid to reach the standards of the Global North.  

In terms of misogyny, women did seem to make a lot of decisions on The Farm, but men referred to their wives and girlfriends as “my old lady.” And at least on this commune, Gaskin always had the last word! The author’s descriptions are through a male lens, and we have to assume that women had a wide range of roles and interests, but the major focus was on motherlove and having lots of babies. What surprised me in Voluntary Peasants, was that beyond the expansion experience in nature and that “everything is connected,” Stiriss did not focus on the natural world, except to take it for granted. There was very little animism in the commune, as the ‘Divine” was an exalted state akin to the monotheistic or mystery traditions (which they data-mined to their heart’s content). Grandiose statements like “we are all one” were made, but they did not seem to recognize the natural world around them as animate and alive, except as a backdrop for heightened states of “stoned” awareness.

The strangest thing I noticed in Voluntary Peasants was the hypocrisy of espousing a break from the “Big Box” conventional cultural conditioning of the sixties and “living free,” and yet they accommodated Christianity, went to work in extractive industries like massive home construction, agriculture, mills, and clear-cutting forests to bring “income” into the collective.  They did nothing to challenge the humancentric focus of the dominant society, were in love with cars, technology, “gadgets” and status, and embraced the accountrements of hippie material culture as they became more and more extravagant. Forming a stand-alone community away from civilization without challenging the status quo was a temporary “high,” as the conditions for techno-capitalism continued unabated. The members of The Farm replicated hierarchy and class inequality, as the majority were supposed to pool their money and be “voluntary peasants,” while the core elite of Gaskin, his “pluri-marriage” and inner circle spent money like crazy on whatever items or experiences they desired, ultimately ruining the financial well-being of the whole.   

The biggest set up for failure (and as admitted by The Farm members themselves) was to have a Guru Figure with “monumental arrogance / colossal ego / grandiose narcissism” at the center, instead of following a consensus model. True leaders will always emerge, but function best in egalitarian societies, as “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Were communes a thought experiment? Was the counterculture an epic fail? Did the hippies sell-out and betray their own values? Did the hippie generation change the world? With an emphasis on using drugs and/or meditation to connect with "the godhead" it may have amounted to hedonism in the end.  As we see with trends in contemporary New Age today (a direct inheritance from the hippies), feeling “the oneness” does not translate into good critical thinking skills, resistance to Empire, social justice activism, or even being a good person. Overall, much-needed change is inevitable, and perhaps The Farm and the wider commune movement was not a failure but a short-lived success, as we never know the full impact of our actions. 
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ICONIC HIPPIE BUS
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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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THE BOOK OF LEAVES by Morgan Caraway

10/31/2020

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REVIEW by Pegi Eyers

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The Book of Leaves: Reflections on Dying and Change by Morgan Caraway is the perfect companion for these days of autumn, the time of Old Souls, Samhain, and letting go. After the passing of his mother into the halls of the Beloved Dead, Morgan Caraway was inspired to create an oversized book of reflections, and stunning, one-of-a kind mandalas, or kaleidoscopic leaf designs. He says that early in life “he searched for absolute answers to the bigger questions,” but with aging has found a new-found peace in living with the unknown, and “accepting the ambiguities of life.”  Responding to the mysteries of death must surely be a key component of living, and Morgan’s contribution to this process is exemplary. 

In the first chapter “What is Death?” he outlines the contradictions imposed by mortality, the inadequacy of religious answers, and how we belong to a society having an inherent fear of death. What happens after we die?  We really don’t know, and yet throughout time humans have tried to conceptualize this key experience.  He concludes that although dogma (gnosis) offers support, strict beliefs also limit our freedom, and that boldly facing the unknown (agnosis) can be just like life – both empowering and terrifying  at the same time.
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"Disintegration" by Morgan Caraway
In terms of the natural world, Morgan points out that dead leaves go through a process of disintegration, and eventually become part of the nutrient cycle in the soil that gives rise to new life.  He asks the important question, "How are our bodies any different?" Change is the eternal  law of nature, and each being has an important purpose that contributes to the whole. And yet because of our human ability to over-conceptualize and see ourselves as separate from Earth Community, we have become fearful of death, and create elaborate burial practices that "seek some form of permanence."   Morgan reminds us that the life spark and "elements that make up our bodies are immortal," as energy is neither created nor destroyed.
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"Daystar" by Morgan Caraway
In his search for understanding and to allay his fears, Morgan studied near-death experiences, and discovered that some are radiant and transcendent, and some are not. Again, he concludes that acquiescing to the Great Mystery offers the most freedom. "I feel it's best to honor death by not pretending or assuming to know it."  Instead of holding fanciful ideas or overwhelming emotions in relationship to death, we can just cultivate patience, as all will be revealed in the end!

A great storyteller, Morgan offers a heart-rending narrative on the last days of his Mother's life, and the many epiphanies and realizations that arose from that grief-filled experience. Those who have lost loved ones can relate when he says, "It had been a long, grueling journey. It taught me a lot about living, loss, and even grace." The main lesson he shares is that life is a gift, and that we need to seize the day~! It is within our ability to have compassion in the face of our own inevitable death, the loss of other people, and the absolute, unfathomable unknown.  Thank you Morgan Caraway for your wisdom and fine art! The Book of Leaves: Reflections on Dying and Change is a beautiful companion for life.
Morgan Caraway is a natural builder, multi-media artist, and co-founder of Sustainable Life School and Bottom Leaf Intentional Community. The Book of Leaves: Reflections on Dying and Change is available from the author >here< or from Lulu >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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HAYTI by Kurtis Sunday

9/7/2020

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REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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Hayti is a powerhouse of a book that describes colonial landfall in the homelands of the Taíno, now known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic, on the island of [so-called] Hispaniola.  Ostensibly the first work of fiction from the "New World” circa 1510, apparently over the centuries the manuscript passed through different hands and translations to be published by Cambria Books in 2017.  And yet Hayti is a strange mystery. Who exactly is Kurtis Sunday the author?  There is no mention of that name as either novelist or translator.  But what is crystal clear are the two separate narratives woven together – Sor Lucrezia di Marchionni, a Hieronymite nun, and Fray Hugo de Montenegro, a Dominican monk - who describe in painstaking detail the first contact period, in all of its conquering greed, “glory” and brutality, and the original beauty of the island – a beauty so exquisite our modern minds can hardly comprehend the lush paradise that was once Ayiti ("land of high mountains") before the Spanish took control.  

“Life abounds here.  Never have I laid eyes on such fecundity.  It is what they call the rainy season now, but every now and again the rain ceases and the grey clouds part and the sun appears – never for very long, but long enough to give one an impression of its reported ferocity at these latitudes – and everything becomes suddenly bright and lustrous and glistens; and the world fleetingly appears as it perhaps appeared, newly created and glorious. And I look with a sort of childish wonder on it all; the verdant grass and palm trees in our nunnery garden, the flowers so delicate and colourful, the white mist enveloping the hills to the north of us, and the glittering surface of the sea in the bay.” (Sor Lucrezia di Marchionni)

Peculiarities in character development aside, i.e. how did a Hieronymite nun have influence in the patriarchal Catholic Church of 1510 (?) and the stereotypical portraits of Taíno individuals, the rich detail in Hayti reads like an eyewitness account. The pristine condition of the ocean, rivers, jungles, mountains and low-lying areas; the Indigenous Knowledge of the Taíno, rich in animist and earth-emergent wisdom; the centering of travel by ocean passage; the sailing fleets important at the time and the great Armadas of soldiers, colonizers and African slaves constantly arriving; the struggles of the Taíno as their social equilibrium is destroyed by enslavement and genocide; the Eurocentric lens and racist worldviews of the explorers, military and early capitalists backed by twisted religious proclamations; and the Castilian greed to dominate and destroy are all outlined in incredibly animated and evocative prose. 

In the narrative Columbus is still alive - alternatively revered as a God or despised as a despot - and running through the novel (or is it a memoir?) are elaborate scenes on the making and reading of maps; early colonial architecture; religious observations and governance; medical care;  early agricultural operations; the breeding of horses, cattle and sheep; early manufacturing, wine-making and other industries; armaments and gunpowder; and the production of religious ikons and statues for the Castilians, who were "scruptulous in performing devotions before drawing their swords and shedding blood.”  Laid bare are the Spanish patriarchs who took pleasure in cruel and violent acts toward people of colour; the banking cartels; the race to claim the riches of “the new world;” the overwhelming greed for Caribbean gold; the rapacious desire for precious metals, jewels and other plunder to take back to Spain; the conversion of natural resources into mercantile products; and the imperative to accumulate vast fortunes, build gigantic estates and live like Kings on stolen land.

Elements of the Catholic belief system such as doctrine, homilies, canonical scriptures and rituals are highly repetitive in the text, and seem incredibly disconnected (or in their view “elevated”?) from the realities of the natural world and Indigenous epistomologies. The Taíno integration with the land, TEK (traditional ecological knowledge), intimacy with plants and animals, ancient mythologies, and oral traditions were all achievements within a social organization of chiefdoms led by principal Caciques, and through the guidance of seers known as Bohiques. The occasional European who "went native" and “married into” the local tribes is mentioned as an oddity, being the first wave as colonists continued to arrive, and an entirely new  tri-racial Creole culture was born from the union between Taíno, African and Spanish peoples. As a clash of worldviews in 1510, the religious commentary and Eurocentric superiority in the pages of Hayti  (by turns condescending and paternalistic) alternates with detailed descriptions of wondrous landforms, waterfalls,  magnificent trees, food forests, exotic plants, flowers, butterflies, insects, birds and animals - all creating a disturbing context for the disaster to follow.
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Engraving of Columbus arriving at Hispaniola (US Library of Congress).
As Fray Hugo de Montenegro (and Sor Lucrezia di Marchionni to a lesser extent) become increasingly disturbed by the senseless brutality, murder and greed on display, their protests run concurrent to the resistance efforts of the Taíno freedom fighters and their allies, escaped African slaves imported to work on the new sugar cane plantations. And yet the uprisings are doomed to fail due to superior firearms, betrayals, and the machiavellian scheming of religiosos competing for advancement within the entrenched hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Often overlapping, the triumvirate of soldier, priest and merchant represent the Spanish ideology and colonial agenda (“god, glory and gold”) that is forced on the Taíno with military might, religion and capitalist commerce. The double narrators, even though seemingly sympathetic to the Indigenous population, are still drawn into debates on the humanity of the Taíno, and by elaborate dialogues on conversion and saving souls, exhibit their own blatant racism and Euro-supremacy.  
 
“Souls, millions of souls in darkness, countless millions, yet to be brought to Him. That is the great task now.” 
Don Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus, "The Pharaoh of the Ocean")

From a modern perspective we can be grateful that there were dissenting voices at all among the Spanish colonizers, and how Fray Hugo de Montenegro and Sor Lucrezia di Marchionni detailed the horrific greed and brutality of the Spanish conquerers, and made clear the agenda to either destroy, enslave, or convert the “savages” and “heathens."  With demeaning and dehumanizing comments on all aspects of Taíno life, the "Indios" were not seen as human, and demonized as “devils" with the assumption that they needed to be converted to Catholicism (or would have the desire to be converted to Catholicism). Denying that all people have their own sovereignty, belief systems and agency, the Spanish exhibited a complete lack of imagination that Indigenous societies could have their own epistemologies completely outside of European or Catholic systems.  In acts of absolute power the Taíno were infantalized, sacred Indigenous Knowledge held for millennia was called the work of “demons” and “witches,” ownership over the Taíno was normalized as "senseless brutish labour,” and assimilation was forced with religious hegemony. And as a final insult, throughout Hayti the Spanish tone of superiority compared everything in their new environment with European norms and expectations, as they yearned for the “refined and civilized life" as compared to the “wild” that surrounded them. 

Of course in Hayti the authentic voices of the Taíno are missing, and the record of their resistance in the face of annhiliation is extremely one-dimensional.  As usual, the colonial white lens obscures the true story, and depressingly draws a direct line to how the colonial powers still view oppressed societies today.  In 1510 there were royal decrees from Spain to “treat the peoples encountered on the islands very well and lovingly, and to refrain from causing them any harm” but the colonizers on the ground broke those proclamations in a thousand different ways. The  deceit, plunder, robbery, murder, rape, genocide and greed by those claiming to be Catholic is beyond imagining. In addition to how Hayti implicates forever the criminality of the Spanish as we consider retributions and restitutions today, the takeaway from the book is the devastating heartbreak and trauma of a world lost forever. And for what? In the end, pristine ecosystems were traded for a couple of trinkets, and to establish a resource colony for a civilization that went on to destroy the Americas. Spanish landfall in the Caribbean was overwhelmingly brutal and dictatorial, and with the skilled exposition and immediacy of its prose, Hayti is testament to that destruction. 
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The exquisite "Hispaniolan Macaw" was driven to extinction by the colonial powers.
A review copy of "Hayti" by Kurtis Sunday was forwarded to Stone Circle Press from Cambia Press in Berlin, Germany.
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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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The Cull of Personality: Ayahuasca, Colonialism and the Death of a Healer - KEVIN TUCKER

1/25/2020

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Review by Pegi Eyers

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Finally – a brilliant work has arrived that will reconfigure the entire ayahuasca industry with its in-depth look at dire colonial realities! Kevin Tucker places Sebastian Woodroffe and the heinous murder of Maestra Olivia Arévalo squarely within an ongoing history of erasure and commodification, and throws the contemporary spiritual seeker experience into question. The Cull of Personality: Ayahuasca, Colonialism, and the Death of a Healer is a synthesis of many powerful truths, and offers an excellent understanding on the far-reaching consequences of our modern yearnings, and what our choices in self-empowerment really mean in terms of impact on Indigenous lands and peoples. For the best thinking in Decolonial Studies today, please read this book!
The Cull of Personality: Ayahuasca, Colonialism and the Death of a Healer is available from Black and Green Press.  See Black and Green Press for Primal Anarchy podcast, Wild Resistance Journal, and updates on the work of Kevin Tucker and Natasha Tucker ~ plus ordering and bookstore information.


Black and Green Press

Your home for anti-civilization, pro-wildness, and primal anarchist publications, critique, and insights. 
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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 uncolonization, social justice, ethnocultural identity, building land-emergent community & resilience in times of massive change. 
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. ​
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British Home Children

10/24/2019

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BOOK REVIEWS BY PEGI EYERS

The Street Arab: The Story of a British Home Child
Sandra Joyce
Welldone Publishing, 2011
 
Caroline: An Extraordinary Lady
Gloria Fidler
Cornerstone Publishing, 2015
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Through various migration schemes from 1830 to 1940, the influx of British Home Children was a major contribution to the historic rise of Canada, and over 10% of Canadians today are descended from this diaspora. Narratives of sacrifice and suffering as endured by these early Empire-builders have been reclaimed in our time, and we now have a modern perception of the “Child Migrant” programs as mercenary, opportunistic, traumatic and unfair.  Children in poverty were marginalized, homeless and orphaned due to the Industrial Revolution, wars and other displacements in the UK, and arrived on Canadian shores to years of servitude as domestics and laborers through an agenda akin to child slavery.  Once taboo and unrecognized, there has been an explosion of research and fictional accounts in recent years that uncovers the truth of our common heritage, and begins to reconcile this painful legacy. 
 
Storytelling is a wonderful way to honor our ancestors, as we may know key dates and the places where they were living, but not the more intimate details of their lives.  For those who share a passion for genealogy, filling in the blanks with a fictional treatment or composite can inform, entertain and pay tribute. One of the best accounts of the British Home Children era is Sandra Joyce’s The Street Arab, a story that captures the reality and atmosphere of village life in Scotland, and how an unlikely combination of events can lead to hard times.  Based on the experiences of her own father after WWI, Joyce traces the journey of young Robbie James to a “new life in a new land” in Canada, where he meets with condescension and mistreatment during a series of placements as a farm laborer. Not all British Home Children encountered hardship, but when they were released from servitude at age 18 the majority went on to have productive and even successful lives.
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Caroline: An Extraordinary Lady by Gloria Fidler also brings the emigration era alive with her novel based on the life of a real family member, a widowed mother of five who risks all to realize better opportunities for herself and her children in Canada.  Like so many who were separated from parents and siblings, the children left England separately and were reunited after many years apart.  For an entire cohort of new Settlers, keeping the bonds of family alive was the most heart-wrenching challenge to self-identity and continuity. 

With well-researched and potent fiction such as these two examples as a starting point, you can also explore the heritage of British Home Children at http://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com .
 
The Street Arab: The Story of a British Home Child ~ See the author’s website at www.sandrajoyce.com  for ordering and bookstore information.

Caroline: An Extraordinary Lady is available from the author Gloria Fidler at kfidler2@cogeco.ca
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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 uncolonization, social justice, ethnocultural identity, building land-emergent community & resilience in times of massive change.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. ​
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Circle of Eight by Jane Meredith

8/4/2019

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BOOK REVIEW BY PEGI EYERS

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Circle of Eight: Creating Magic for Your Place on Earth
By Jane Meredith
Llewellyn Publications, 2015

For holistic place-based cultures all over the world, human spiritual practice arises from, and is informed by, wild nature and the land.  In contemporary Pagan Community this approach varies, and it can be ambiguous how important wild nature is to our diverse traditions and religion(s).  Yet for at least a decade in Australia a small and dedicated group have created a spiritual tradition from the ground up, and Circle of Eight: Creating Magic for Your Place on Earth is the result of that collaboration between land and people. While musing on the local reverence for standing stones and other sacred sites on a trip through England, Priestess of the Goddess Jane Meredith had an epiphany. It was clear to her that Europeans had a special way of belonging to the landscape, and she wondered how she might apply that same deep knowing of place to her own Australian homelands.
 
So the Circle of Eight was born, a brilliant system based on ancient Celtic principles that can be embraced anywhere in the world, by any group of people. The Circle of Eight is a magical system that incorporates the unique features of each location – the weather, seasons, flora, fauna, elements, and other special conditions.  Beginning as a structure for magic and ritual, and with participants holding the positions, the Circle of Eight engages magically, energetically, and literally with the cardinal and intermediate compass directions. True to the specific landforms that surround each community, layers of meaning and activity continue throughout the neo-pagan Wheel of the Year, with explorations, ritual workings, earth magic, animism, local magic, storytelling, nature walks, ceremony and festivals. The Circle of Eight becomes a real, living and immediate experience. 
 
Intermixed with wonderful memoirs, and passages akin to the best in the genre of “nature writing,” the delightful chapters in Circle of Eight are also eight in number – Grounding, Casting a Circle, Elements, Invocation, Ritual, Myth, Inner Work and Release.  Meredith takes us on a journey through the structure of the Circle of Eight in both the southern and northern hemispheres, how to form and facilitate a circle, how to map a geographic circle, casting the circle, how to incorporate special elements from locality into the circle, invoking the living land, correspondences in the circle, festivals during the Wheel of the Year, working with myth, exploring inner work, endings, and letting go.  The author is deeply aware of previous claims to the land in Australia and the Indigenous Knowledge of those who came before, and at many points in the book expresses her deep gratitude for diverse First Nations and their teachings.  Circle of Eight takes the most honorable and correct approach, which is for European Australians to form their own deep bonds to the land, to “allow its presence to well up within us and begin to inform us more and more,” without appropriating any elements of traditional culture.
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Of course there are unique challenges to acquiring land-based knowledge in Australia, such as volcanos, brush fires, tornados, mudslides and other extreme weather events.  Meredith points out that Air, Water, Earth and Fire in Australia are nothing like the benign forces as portrayed in popular Pagan books!  Each part of the landscape and each element has a unique quality and personality, and we feel them “like energetic anchors in the landscape, present to inform, support and guide us as we work.”  As our practice widens and deepens, we discover features in the land that correspond to our own heritage and mythic traditions, and the Circle of Eight system can revive our own ancestral memories based on the sacredness of the land.   Especially thrilling is realizing how the ancient European practices of marking the land with great stone circles and the ley line tradition can live on today, by incorporating the “lore of the land” into our ceremonies, rituals, magical practices and everyday lives.  Wherever we are located, forming intimate relationships with the land feels familiar, and Pagans, Wiccans, Animists, Green Seers, Druids, Polytheists, Goddess Devotees and Reconstructionists alike will resonate with the superb teachings, guidelines, advice and wisdom found in the Circle of Eight: Creating Magic for Your Place on Earth. 
 
“Both European fairy tales and local, indigenous stories seem equally alive and potent, and equally imminent in the magic of this place by night.  The mountain breathes and its dreaming unfolds.  Frogs, lizards, and small marsupials own this place of red earth, old volcano, and tall trees.  Owls and maybe bats are here too.  And we are here.  Taking a few hesitant steps onto the edges of this realm in this place that formed all the earth far around it, erupting as fire many years ago but now resting, given over to the enormity of life unfolding and the deepening of magic.”  (Jane Meredith)
www.janemeredith.com

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The Circle of Eight ~ Offerings to the Land
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Jane Meredith
This review originally appeared in SageWoman magazine.
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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 uncolonization, social justice, ethnocultural identity, building land-emergent community & resilience in times of massive change.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon. ​ 
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