The memories move slowly, languidly. Like syrup or honey, sweet and oh so good, but clear and distinct. I can even remember snatches of conversation, still catch the scent of summer; the early morning coolness, then the hot air of afternoon, tinged with freshly mown grass. I can still feel the shiny black water worm writhing in the palm of my hand as I unfurled my fingers, hoping to see a newt.

Hermeticism tells us that all things are connected, that what happens in the microcosm is a reflection of what is happening in the macrocosm. With this in mind then, my local issues are a reflection of national and global issues. The loss and destruction of land and the displacement of peoples is happening all over the world. And the poor are always the worst affected.

“Where litter meets land, the detritus of the Anthropocene and the humus of the earth and her creatures meet in scenes that are disturbing, to some disgusting, but which display the alacrity of life”

Current Big Green proposals for a Green New Deal are coalescing around inadequate targets.

And yet the wheel turns. Hermeticism tells us nothing stands still. The principle of rhythm is ever in effect. The cycles of nature are no different. Whether you follow the wheel of the year or not, whether you believe in it wholeheartedly or see it as a modern creation, there can be no denying that nature moves in cycles.

the land is the gods

These small creatures share the ability to exist in extremis ‘in the furthest reaches’ or ‘at the point of death’

What will it take for human beings to change? I think, maybe, it would take dying.

Now is a good time to look back at the year that is almost over, at our victories and defeats, no matter how big or small. Doing so puts us in good stead for the year that is coming, allowing us to plan or pinpoint the course we want the year to take.

“they are going to create sports pitches and even a wildlife area. A fecking wildlife area!  As if the wildlife isn't already there.”

A radioactive wolf near Chernobyl
is now looking at your Instagram account. From Rune Kjær Rasmussen

"We are not going to be saved."

We're f**ked. Now what?

What is needed now is reconsecration, for there are no longer any paths for us to follow. Let us proudly declare to the mountains and the rivers: we renounce the cult of humanity, we renounce the world of techno-industrial society, and we bind ourselves in reverence and service to the living gods of earth and sky.

When you look at what is needed to slow down or stop Climate Change and the destruction of the environment that sustains human life, you get confronted with an awful reality. That reality? There is literally no significant change that will not also deeply harm vulnerable people or infringe upon some modern freedom we now conceive as vital, inherent, and inalienable.

“Cars are bourgeois and trucks are proletarian.” An analysis of the truck-driver’s strike and diesel crisis in Brazil.

To join our essence and consciousness with the world was once the common inheritance of humanity. Now, it can only be found in the hinterland, the lands beyond. Beyond techno-industrial society. For what is there to join with in concrete and steel?

“You, reading this essay: you are an ark.”

a poem from Twm Gwynne

April was Indigenous Month in Brazil. This article reports on the Leadership of Indigenous Women conference in Salvador, and explores the personal and communal journey of indigenous women through generations.