From Rhyd Wildermuth

We are a part of the natural world, though we may have forgotten it. Rewilding has become something of a buzzword in conservation. Rewilding aims to allow nature to recover from what has been done to it. Whereas conservation has measurable aims and is generally geared towards conserving what we have left at the moment, rewilding is more nature driven, and less of a human effort.

This year, in the largest anti-Illegal logging operation in the history of Brazil, in the state with the highest rate of deforestation — Pará — the wood seized was of “native woods of the Amazon biome” and did not correspond with the information declared officially.

‘When I discovered this secret, it excited me, as an animist, as I took it as scientific evidence for the intelligence and agency of sphagnum mosses as builders of peat bogs.’

Mountains higher than the tallest imagining of humans can easily crush all our fantasies, seas vaster than all the wars humans have ever fought can deftly drown out our delusions of self-importance.

“It occurred to me long ago that it is not older people that confer elder status upon each other. Elderhood is fundamentally recognized by the people who seek it, not the people who seek to be it. It is in the wheelhouse of young people to craft elders in their midst by their willingness to seek them out.”

Exploring duppy stories has been something that encompasses both my need and want to learn about my family’s and my own culture as well as my love of folklore. And it’s interesting because as you begin to study folklore, you begin to notice the similarities and the differences between stories from different parts of the world.

“If apocalypse is coming either way – if it’s already here – then there is nothing to be gained by refusing the struggle. There is nothing to be gained by turning aside and refusing to confront the awful world we’ve inherited. That world is in the process of dying anyway… and what comes next is up to us.”

This is the lesson I learned after having my work co-opted by fascists: It’s not enough to articulate a critique of capitalism—as I did in my article about distributism. If we do not also clearly distinguish ourselves from the fascists, then we will end up losing the debate to both.

Instructed by Rhyd Wildermuth

Under white birch trees.

In front of a fire.

Let that lightning untie all knots in my veins.

The fires still burn and have continuously done so for as long as anyone has been able to guess.

“It’s only with pacifism that you have this belief that we have to respond only using nonviolence. They’ll present it as politically practical. Of course, there are times when you just can’t use a militant force to carry out something. That’s why you have a diversity of tactics.”

The eighth edition of the Pagan Music List.

On Ramon Elani’s new book

Whatever rules being imposed by the state or the parallel powers of organized crime, they seem to signify a blatant disregard for the lives of marginalized peoples.

There’s a magic that comes with connecting to the land. It can be quite a controversial subject, the land. It’s one of those areas that has been subjugated by the far right, all that blood and soil stuff and of course if you live on colonised or stolen land, well, you know how that narrative goes. But I wanted to talk about connection to land today anyway, despite those things already mentioned.

“Out of the witch hunts comes a whole new disciplinary regime that becomes the norm for women in capitalism.”

Are we awakening from this nightmare
or have we been asleep too long?

“I began to see a connection between my anarchist mentality – which, for most of my life, was more of an instinct than a philosophy – and my pagan religion. Specifically, I began to understand a pagan and animist worldview as the spiritual core of a future free society capable of living on this planet without destroying all life here.”