COMING HOME TO THE PLEISTOCENEWhen we grasp fully that the best expressions of our humanity were not invented by civilization but by cultures that preceded it, that the natural world is not only a set of constraints but of contexts within which we can more fully realize our dreams, we will be on the way to a long overdue reconciliation between opposites which are of our own making.
Paul Shepard was one of the most profound and original thinkers of our time. Seminal works such as The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game, Thinking Animals, and Nature & Madness introduced readers to new and provocative ideas about humanity and its relationship to the natural world. Throughout his long and distinguished career, Paul Shepard returned repeatedly to his guiding theme and the central tenet of his thought - that our essential human nature is a product of our genetic heritage, formed through thousands of years of evolution during the Pleistocene epoch, and that the current subversion of that Pleistocene heritage lies at the heart of today's ecological and social ills. Coming Home to the Pleistocene provides the fullest explanation of that theme. Completed just before his death in the summer of 1996, it represents the culmination of Paul Shepard's life work and constitutes the clearest, most accessible expression of his ideas. Coming Home to the Pleistocene pulls together the threads of his vision, considers new research and thinking that expands his own ideas, and integrates material within a new matrix of scientific thought that both enriches his original insights and allows them to be considered in a broader context of current intellectual controversies. In addition, the book explicitly addresses the fundamental question raised by Paul Shepard's work, "What can we do to recreate a life more in tune with our genetic roots?" In this book, Paul Shepard presents concrete suggestions for fostering the kinds of ecological settings and cultural practices that are optimal for human health and well-being. Coming Home to the Pleistocene is a valuable book for those familiar with the life and work of Paul Shepard, as well as for new readers seeking an accessible introduction to and overview of his thought. >Amazon Link< In essence, Paul Shepard sees that we are genetically wild animals from the Pleistocene. Our genes expect us to be living a leisured life in the wilderness, in small bands, eating wild foods. We are not designed to thrive in cities, in overcrowded conditions. Living in the modern world destroys our bodies, minds, and spirits. Shepard takes us on a fascinating voyage through human history, with extended discussions on plant and animal domestication, and the horror that these grave mistakes brought to humankind. He recommends beginning the voyage back to a Pleistocene way of life. Shepard has done his homework, and this book is filled with provocative and head-spinning ideas. If you want to know WHY we got to where we are today, this book is a treasure. Nigel Shaw and Carolyn HillyerHER BONE BUNDLE / si knâmi grendyo ~ A Book of Words curated & woven by Carolyn Hillyer. A lyrical exploration into the mythic spirit of the Proto-Celtic ancestral mother tongue, and imaginative re-awakening for song, ceremony and celebration of the wild earth. With accompanying CD album of songs and chants collated from previous original recordings in the ancient mother tongue.
For the ultimate inspiration on how to recover and embody our ancient European Indigenous Knowledge directly, we can look to the work of Nigel Shaw and Carolyn Hillyer in fine art, music, ceremony, material culture and daily life that sings to the Celtic heart and sets our souls on fire. Deeply embedded in the Dartmoor landscape, Seventh Wave Music offers texts, poetry, music, artwork and musical instruments from richly-reconstructed Indigenous traditions affirming the Celtic, Nordic and Northern tribes of Europe. Nigel Shaw and Carolyn Hillyer “live and work on a thousand-year-old farm in the heart of Dartmoor, a mist-veiled landscape of wild hills and moors, and the inspiration for their work is drawn from the raw beauty, hidden spirit and ancient memory of this deep ancestral land.”[1] Music has the powerful ability to bring us back to our originating culture, and with hand-crafted drums, flutes, rattles and other musical instruments using locally-sourced wood, stone and other materials, the soundscape journeys and primordial rhythms of Seventh Wave Music restore us to the spirit of the wild landscape and the gifts of the land. “What is the story of our forgotten people? It is a story of return. It is a story of hearthstones and home; of amber from oceans and copper from earth; of men who soar with buzzards and women who weave heron feathers into their hair. It is also, however, the story of ourselves; in a landscape where time spirals rather than runs ahead of us in rigid lines, we look to our forgotten people to remember something about our own lives. Remembering our people, those who are connected to us by blood or clan or land or any other bond that serves to entwine hearts and souls, is part of rooting ourselves in our landscape and shaping the road along which we chose to travel. We learn from our ancestors in order to understand the ancestors we might become.”[2] (Carolyn Hillyer) With a foot in both worlds, Nigel Shaw and Carolyn Hillyer are immersed in the Old Ways, and have manifested ancient EIK on their Dartmoor land by building a Neolithic-style roundhouse using granite, oak and rye grass thatch, for ceremony and to evoke sacred space. Like a miracle from a dream or the answer to a yearning we never knew we had, hearing their music or reading Carolyn’s words transports us directly to our ancestral roots, reconnecting our hearts to the heartbeat of the Earth and the glowing hearth, to stone, bone, willow, reed, antler, feather, copper, and to the warp and weft of stories that are woven in the land. “we will build our dwelling from the bones of the earth we are wed to the body of the earth we will kindle our fire from the heart of the wood we are wed to the soul of the land now that the first hearth is set on the ground to the spirit of this place we are bound……”[3] (Carolyn Hillyer) The astonishing creative output of Seventh Wave Music and their hosted gatherings take us along ancient paths where we can reconnect with the energies of the earth, experience deep animist interactions with the nonhuman world, and feel the echoes of ancient forests, Atlantic coasts and stone circles once again. For over 20 years Carolyn has been offering workshop journeys for women, weaving together shared songs, chants, poetry, stories, ancient mythology, sacred symbols, hearth circles, ritual drumming, ceremony, oracle work, magical ways, rites of passage, wildcrafting, earth shrines, vigil, wayfaring, and interaction with the sacred wild sanctuaries of the land. Viewing her mixed-media art (“life-size images of archetypal spirit women, the ancient landscape in human form”[4]), and learning from the sacred prose and poetry of her mystic teachings can ignite our own deep well of remembrance and Indigenous talents as seer, bard, story-teller, hearthkeeper, healer, wanderer, hunter, gatherer, shapeshifter or lover of the land. “Ancient shadows of women spiralling/ through the coils of time we are part of those women spiralling with the song of the land and the dance of the moon inside.”[5] (Carolyn Hillyer) The work of reviving an ancestral paradigm can arise from different motivations, methodologies, groups or inspirations, and diverse sources can guide our passage back to the ancient clanmothers while evoking the vibrancy of our Celtic sensibility in the modern era. With their rich tapestry of music, performance, poetry, story, ceremony and hearthfire, the works of Nigel Shaw and Carolyn Hillyer give form and song to our personal journeys of cultural resurgence, and show us the way home to our EIK.
[1] Carolyn Hillyer, Sacred House: Where Women Weave Words into the Earth, Seventh Wave Books, 2010 [2] Nigel Shaw and Carolyn Hillyer, “About Seventh Wave Music: Words from the Wild Hills….” Seventh Wave Music, 2014. For information on music CDs, books, prints, hand-crafted instruments, concerts, events, Rivenstone, Festival of Bones, Thirteen Moons Womens’s Festival and Workshop Journeys for Women: Hearth, Trail or Threshold Weekends, see www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk [3] Carolyn Hillyer, Sacred House: Where Women Weave Words into the Earth, Seventh Wave Books, 2010 [4] Carolyn Hillyer, “Books and Prints,” Seventh Wave Music, 2014. www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk [5] Carolyn Hillyer, Sacred House: Where Women Weave Words into the Earth, Seventh Wave Books, 2010. AWAKENING THE HORSE PEOPLE RECOVERING A PRE-AGRICULTURE SEASONAL CALENDAR FOR ATLANTIC WESTERN EUROPEAN PEOPLES This image represents an annual cycle of deeply held, seasonal activities and movements (lifeway) for at least one band of Aquitainian (proto-Basque) speaking hunter-fisher gatherers of the Atlantic margin of France (see map) prior to their displacement by neolithic cultures. This ever-growing pool of cultural knowledge has been gathered over the last fifteen+ years through a process of ancestral recovery. Information presented in this calendar has grown from a variety of sources including scientific research, archeological findings, intuitive experiences, language recovery, and cultural practice. The ongoing accumulation of intuitive ancestral recovery combined with academic research allows for this calendar to grow and evolve. The calendar is offered especially for those persons whose ancestral recovery work takes them farther back in time than connection to neolithic or “Celtic” ancestors and ways of life. It is my deepest hope that this seasonal cycle will also serve as a source of inspiration for others to recover, grow, and follow their own people’s ancestral lifeways and seasonal relationships. This is ancestral recovery in its truest form – and yes, it can be done! by Awakening the Horse People Ancestral Recovery Yields Pre-Neolithic Calendar >LINK< ANCIENT SPIRIT RISING: |
 | Come back to your roots! Drawing on cultural studies and contemporary social justice, Ancient Spirit Rising examines the loss of our vital ethnocultural connection to tribe and place, and why there is a trend to borrow identities from other cultures. From the wealth of resources available today, an authentic self-identity can be reconstructed from old/new earth-centered societies, using the timeless values of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) as our model. A weaving of analysis, evocation and promptings of the heart, Ancient Spirit Rising offers strategies for decolonization, rewilding, restoring an ecocentric worldview, returning to the Old Ways, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community. With extensive notes and exhaustive references, Ancient Spirit Rising is an essential compendium for change! |
The Wisdom of the Past is the Seed of the Future
Reclaiming and co-creating ecological civilization today means rejecting and moving away from the over-emphasis on linear thinking which is the toxic legacy of Empire. The meme-carriers of western empiricism opined that “the birthright of our intelligence is calculation, not sensitivity,”[1] and this patriarchal ideology has perpetuated the rule of all that is mechanistic, disembodied, material and subject to control. Empire has taught us to ignore the holistic connections, to sort things into the appropriate categories, and to divide and conquer our own reality. The logic of domination views the land, elements and creatures in Earth Community as objects to be owned instead of kindred spirits, and the classification system of binary dualism has enabled conquest and ecocide all over the world. The misguided anthropocentric worldview of “man as ruler and pinnacle of creation” places human beings and their acquisitions at the center of the world, and renounces all care or responsibility to nature, natural processes or the other beings in Earth Community. In our time, challenging the insatiable entitlement and narcissism that this worldview has generated means including our hearts in the conversation, with a renewed focus on all that is intuitive and empathic. Becoming compassionate, loving and grounded, both in our physical bodies and the Earth, is a large part of our mutual re-indigenization process, and the emergence of holistic thinking in our time is a necessary rebalancing that is required after centuries of fractured, separatist patriarchal thinking.
Ultimately, to gain true knowledge and wisdom-in-action is to weave our scholarship with our own insights, experiences and unique promptings of the heart. Without referring to both spheres simultaneously, and embracing the balance of our knowledge and experience equally, errors and misconceptions can occur. We understand with our mind (theory), but what we come to value and how we respond to important ethical matters (practice) comes from the heart. We can achieve spiritual wisdom from a confluence of sources, but connecting the intelligence of the heart to the intelligence of the mind is how we grow fully into our own lives.
As we learn from animism, rewilding, voluntary simplicity and our own ancestral practice, leaving the buzz of civilization behind and immersing ourselves in nature easily and effortlessly puts us into the intuitive knowing of Indigenous Mind. Opening to the natural world with interaction and appreciation, and stilling our inner dialogue enables the mysterious unfolding of our hearts. Simply from being in nature we can see the world through the lens of love, and come to know that the “Great Heart” is the connective force in all creation. Filtered through the harmonious and beautiful space of love, our thoughts become allied with Earth Community. Clarity replaces confusion, and our thinking becomes a joyful series of inspirations in service to furthering the goals of Gaia, which are to flourish and thrive. Trusting in the balance, the wondrous gifts of the human heart and the human mind revolve as required, for nurturing and sustaining a good life for ourselves and all beings. Instead of identifying with the separatist and mechanistic worldview of industrial civilization in body, mind or soul, we find that we are at home again in the Sacred Circle of the heart. And in fact, we have never left.
[1] Philip Shepherd, New Self New World: Recovering Our Senses in the 21st Century, North Atlantic Books, 2010
ANCIENT SPIRIT RISING Stone Circle Press >Amazon Link<
Ultimately, to gain true knowledge and wisdom-in-action is to weave our scholarship with our own insights, experiences and unique promptings of the heart. Without referring to both spheres simultaneously, and embracing the balance of our knowledge and experience equally, errors and misconceptions can occur. We understand with our mind (theory), but what we come to value and how we respond to important ethical matters (practice) comes from the heart. We can achieve spiritual wisdom from a confluence of sources, but connecting the intelligence of the heart to the intelligence of the mind is how we grow fully into our own lives.
As we learn from animism, rewilding, voluntary simplicity and our own ancestral practice, leaving the buzz of civilization behind and immersing ourselves in nature easily and effortlessly puts us into the intuitive knowing of Indigenous Mind. Opening to the natural world with interaction and appreciation, and stilling our inner dialogue enables the mysterious unfolding of our hearts. Simply from being in nature we can see the world through the lens of love, and come to know that the “Great Heart” is the connective force in all creation. Filtered through the harmonious and beautiful space of love, our thoughts become allied with Earth Community. Clarity replaces confusion, and our thinking becomes a joyful series of inspirations in service to furthering the goals of Gaia, which are to flourish and thrive. Trusting in the balance, the wondrous gifts of the human heart and the human mind revolve as required, for nurturing and sustaining a good life for ourselves and all beings. Instead of identifying with the separatist and mechanistic worldview of industrial civilization in body, mind or soul, we find that we are at home again in the Sacred Circle of the heart. And in fact, we have never left.
[1] Philip Shepherd, New Self New World: Recovering Our Senses in the 21st Century, North Atlantic Books, 2010
ANCIENT SPIRIT RISING Stone Circle Press >Amazon Link<
FUTURE PRIMAL
Early societies, immersed in an unpolluted wilderness on which they depended absolutely, recognized the resonance between the natural world and human consciousness intuitively and explored it through their animistic systems of religion and healing. This attunement between inner and outer is capable of generating spiritual experiences we commonly call ecstatic or mystical, which have the effect of inspiring and ordering our lives. When we approach politics from such a perspective, magnificent possibilities open up - of ways of life profoundly “better, truer, and more beautiful” than our sad and frenetic destructiveness.
Louis G. Herman, Future Primal
How should we respond to our converging crises of violent conflict, political corruption, and global ecological devastation? In this sweeping, big-picture synthesis, Louis G. Herman argues that for us to create a sustainable, fulfilling future, we need to first look back into our deepest past to recover our core humanity. Important clues for recovery can be found in the lives of traditional San Bushman hunter-gatherers of South Africa, the closest living relatives to the ancestral African population from which all humans descended. Their culture can give us a sense of what life was like during the tens of thousands of years when humans lived in wilderness, without warfare, walled cities, or slavery. Herman suggests we draw from the experience of the San and other earth-based cultures and weave their wisdom together with the scientific story of an evolving universe to help create something radically new — an earth-centered, planetary politics with the personal truth quest at its heart. >Amazon Link<
SACRED SHADOWS: ICE AGE SPIRITUALITY
Are you drawn towards the world of our ancient ancestors? The ancient past is always with us, just lurking beneath the surface. It influences what we are, what we do, what we will become. It even invades our dreams. This book shows how the memories that seem to haunt us are not lost but are waiting to be recovered, so they can form part of our spiritual life. Rediscovering out past, our ancient history, will ultimately help us understand the present and welcome the future, because the past never really goes away. Tyllua Penry pulls together many different strands including history, archaeology and Jungian psychology. The result is an exciting ride through the ancient past and our own psyche, backed up by extensive references, a full bibliography and index. >Amazon Link<
will lord of the stone age
 |  |
Learn prehistoric skills from the world's leading flint master through immersive courses in the heart
of Norfolk, UK and master the art of ancient survival - foraging, weapons, hide-tanning, drum-making
and many others. >LINK<
of Norfolk, UK and master the art of ancient survival - foraging, weapons, hide-tanning, drum-making
and many others. >LINK<
cailleach's herbarium
BY SCOTT RICHARDSON-READ
Communalism, Reciprocity and hospitality were, and are, at the heart of Creideamh-sìth, fairy faith and Scottish animist belief. A different system of community was in place in Scotland before the impact of imperialism was fully felt - things could be hard, but because it was hard, folk knew their community and survival depended on cooperating and no one hoarding the wealth and. Some say this changed when the Statutes of Iona happened, as the lairds were kidnapped by the English imperial force and forced to sign the agreement, which meant, amongst other things, their descendants, and anyone worth more than 50 cows, were sent to be educated in the world of commerce in the English system.
This meant the idea of communalism, hospitality and reciprocity became overwritten in a top-down way, you might say, by the goals of commerce. At the heart of the communalism way of life was an understanding nature, and ecology was also part of the community, along with people, and we needed to work together to thrive. These ideas at the heart of the creideamh-Sìth. Of course, nature became less of a partner as things progressed and the reformation took hold, and the drives toward “improvement” were made. The notions of a collective working together became more about ownership, working for an employer and money for “them.”
If we hold to the Creideamh-sìth it means exploring these more connected ways of relating to one another, with an understanding that no one can survive alone or outside of nature. We need to rekindle these relationships as a matter of urgency, but how they might express themselves today is still hard to fully see. This is explored in the book "Mill Dust and Dreaming Bread" and through the writing on the Cailleach Herbarium website.
https://cailleachs-herbarium.com
Communalism, Reciprocity and hospitality were, and are, at the heart of Creideamh-sìth, fairy faith and Scottish animist belief. A different system of community was in place in Scotland before the impact of imperialism was fully felt - things could be hard, but because it was hard, folk knew their community and survival depended on cooperating and no one hoarding the wealth and. Some say this changed when the Statutes of Iona happened, as the lairds were kidnapped by the English imperial force and forced to sign the agreement, which meant, amongst other things, their descendants, and anyone worth more than 50 cows, were sent to be educated in the world of commerce in the English system.
This meant the idea of communalism, hospitality and reciprocity became overwritten in a top-down way, you might say, by the goals of commerce. At the heart of the communalism way of life was an understanding nature, and ecology was also part of the community, along with people, and we needed to work together to thrive. These ideas at the heart of the creideamh-Sìth. Of course, nature became less of a partner as things progressed and the reformation took hold, and the drives toward “improvement” were made. The notions of a collective working together became more about ownership, working for an employer and money for “them.”
If we hold to the Creideamh-sìth it means exploring these more connected ways of relating to one another, with an understanding that no one can survive alone or outside of nature. We need to rekindle these relationships as a matter of urgency, but how they might express themselves today is still hard to fully see. This is explored in the book "Mill Dust and Dreaming Bread" and through the writing on the Cailleach Herbarium website.
https://cailleachs-herbarium.com
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land art agency
RESTORING THE EARTH CREATIVELY
Creative thinking offers us the necessities we seek, individually & collectively. We believe that creativity is a universal language, spoken by all biomes and spheres and one that ushers in collaborative conversation with all beings of Land, Sea & Sky. y read more Our site is brimming with creative offerings and resources, suitable for all stages of creative practice, from beginner to award winning professional. We are a community of those creatively inspired by Land, Sea & Sky. We invite you to connect with our international network, rekindling wonder and possibility through collaborative participation with Land, Sea, and Sky. >LINK<
ANDY GOLDSWORTHY AND OTHER LAND ART
FACEBOOK GROUP Land Art is to be understood as a protest against the artificiality, plastic aesthetics and ruthless commercialization of art at the end of the 1960's. Exponents of Land Art rejected the museum as the setting of artistic activity, and developed monumental landscape projects which were beyond the reach of the commercial art market. Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather the landscape is the very means of their creation. The works frequently exist in the open, located well away from civilization, left to change and erode under natural conditions.
>LINK<
>LINK<
Winston Plowes - Land Artist
FACEBOOK PAGE A place for new pieces and discussion of environmental art by Calderdale land artist, Winston Plowes.
>LINK<
>LINK<
eco-Print: The Guide to Natural Botanical Printing on Fabric
by Kirsi Mantua-Kommonen and Ulla Lapiolahti
The first comprehensive resource on fabric eco-printing, from basics through current scientific breakthroughs, by three experts at the forefront of sustainable textile techniques. Master the novel technique so captivating that it’s also described as “textile alchemy”: eco-printing! Created by an ideal team of three world experts in the topic, this guide is the first in-depth exploration of eco-printing, a sustainable technique that is gaining popularity worldwide. Clarifying the reasons that eco-printing is a rising art, this comprehensive guide blends crafting and scientific perspectives. It teaches the details that create the magic of this process, including selecting the fabric, using mordants and plants correctly, and steaming to produce beautifully printed cloth.
• Expertly tested, reliable recipes and instructions for creating colorfully patterned natural textiles sustainably.
• Step-by-step detailed chemical formulas ensure success and understanding in each part of the process.
• Teaches essential eco-printing methods including how to choose and prepare the fabrics; how to select the plants for color and form; recipes for the dyes, mordants, and other materials; and ways to use new and combined methods to make prints exceptional.
• Explains the recent research and cutting-edge discoveries about eco-printing with fungi, including identification how-tos and recipes. Fungi provide unique colorways and even fluorescent tones that become visible only under black light!
• Teaches printing with indigo plants such as woad and Japanese indigo. Woad is capable of producing a remarkable array of hues, sometimes the whole spectrum.
• Reveals eco-printing’s origins from the very first incidental eucalyptus prints to the fabulous signature styles developed by today’s skilled makers on each continent, and the future roles it’s likely to play in sustainable fabric design and production.
In-depth profiles offer personal stories and suggestions from seven of the world’s leading eco-print fabric artists, together with their amazing prints for inspiration. >Amazon Link<
The first comprehensive resource on fabric eco-printing, from basics through current scientific breakthroughs, by three experts at the forefront of sustainable textile techniques. Master the novel technique so captivating that it’s also described as “textile alchemy”: eco-printing! Created by an ideal team of three world experts in the topic, this guide is the first in-depth exploration of eco-printing, a sustainable technique that is gaining popularity worldwide. Clarifying the reasons that eco-printing is a rising art, this comprehensive guide blends crafting and scientific perspectives. It teaches the details that create the magic of this process, including selecting the fabric, using mordants and plants correctly, and steaming to produce beautifully printed cloth.
• Expertly tested, reliable recipes and instructions for creating colorfully patterned natural textiles sustainably.
• Step-by-step detailed chemical formulas ensure success and understanding in each part of the process.
• Teaches essential eco-printing methods including how to choose and prepare the fabrics; how to select the plants for color and form; recipes for the dyes, mordants, and other materials; and ways to use new and combined methods to make prints exceptional.
• Explains the recent research and cutting-edge discoveries about eco-printing with fungi, including identification how-tos and recipes. Fungi provide unique colorways and even fluorescent tones that become visible only under black light!
• Teaches printing with indigo plants such as woad and Japanese indigo. Woad is capable of producing a remarkable array of hues, sometimes the whole spectrum.
• Reveals eco-printing’s origins from the very first incidental eucalyptus prints to the fabulous signature styles developed by today’s skilled makers on each continent, and the future roles it’s likely to play in sustainable fabric design and production.
In-depth profiles offer personal stories and suggestions from seven of the world’s leading eco-print fabric artists, together with their amazing prints for inspiration. >Amazon Link<
Best of Both Worlds: Enhanced Botanical Printing
by Jane Dunnewold
Unlock the magic of printing paper and fabrics with real leaves and flowers! This thorough guide explains how to choose plant materials and includes non-toxic formulas for chemical solutions that make prints vibrant and permanent. Use a simple metal pot to steam your botanical prints and then learn to enhance them with brightly colored dyes, gold leaf, watercolor and more! Dunnewold's vast experience with the surface design techniques she describes in detail in these pages, revolutionizes botanical printing. Make art prints to frame, cards to give as gifts, and beautiful collages . All of the processes in this book can also be used on fabrics. >Amazon Link<
Unlock the magic of printing paper and fabrics with real leaves and flowers! This thorough guide explains how to choose plant materials and includes non-toxic formulas for chemical solutions that make prints vibrant and permanent. Use a simple metal pot to steam your botanical prints and then learn to enhance them with brightly colored dyes, gold leaf, watercolor and more! Dunnewold's vast experience with the surface design techniques she describes in detail in these pages, revolutionizes botanical printing. Make art prints to frame, cards to give as gifts, and beautiful collages . All of the processes in this book can also be used on fabrics. >Amazon Link<
book of earth
Art meets science in Book of Earth: A Guide to Ochre, Pigment, and Raw Color, artist and ochre specialist Heidi Gustafson’s guide to creating color with Earth’s extraordinary pigments, exploring their fascinating uses today and throughout history and culture. Part anthropological study, part art book, and part how-to, Book of Earth is an immersive introduction into the world of ochre, a naturally occurring mineral used to make pigment. Each chapter delves into Heidi Gustafson’s rare pigment archive and provides a thorough exploration of natural color, while challenging our notions of the inanimate world. Featuring practical advice and techniques for creating your own pigments and applying these skills in everyday life, Gustafson also includes contributor essays offering historical and cultural perspectives on color cultivation and the meaning of pigments to various cultures.
>THE WILD PIGMENT PROJECT / ARTIST WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
>THE WILD PIGMENT PROJECT / ARTIST WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
the organic artist
Drawing on ancient techniques, artist and primitive arts instructor Nick Neddo shows you how to reconnect with nature to make and use your own all-natural art supplies. The Organic Artist: Mark Your Own Paint, Paper, Pigments, Prints, and More from Nature encourages you to return to those days when art was made with all-natural materials, like charcoal and birch bark. Immersing you in the natural world, this book seeks to inspire creativity by connecting you to your organic roots. In addition to offering a wide variety of suggestions for using nature as supplies for art, this book also introduces the concepts of awareness and perception that are foundational to the creative process. Readers will refine drawing skills, as well as increase their appreciation for the visual arts and the natural landscape.
>ARTIST WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
>ARTIST WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
EARTHEN PIGMENTS
Earthen Pigments: Hand-Gathering & Using Natural Colors in Art provides illustrated, step-by-step instructions for using natural pigments in various art media. Starting with the equipment and tools needed for collecting and gathering soils from the earth, author Sandy Webster takes the reader from the field to the studio where the processes of cleaning, sifting, and mulling result in beautiful colored pigments. Through recipes and illustrations, learn how to turn these pigments into a variety of artist mediums from water-based paints, to pastels and oil/wax crayons, casein solutions, printmaking inks, and even spun into paper threads for weaving, stitching, and tying. Several pigment samples are shown throughout, and a gallery of the artist’s works using hand-gathered pigments will inspire your own creative ideas.
>ARTIST WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
>ARTIST WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
Found and Ground
Everything you need to learn how to make your own natural watercolor paints, oak gall ink, plus brushes and pens to use them with. Author Caroline Ross will guide you to forage for the materials you need in your locale, and grasp the principles of simple, natural paint-making. "Natural," "no waste" and "plastic-free."’ If this is how you want to live your creative life, you will find a greener, more natural path with this book. It details a sustainable and fulfilling approach to painting. Covering every aspect of making natural paints, from finding raw materials to the techniques needed to refine it, this book is suitable for the complete beginner as well as those with experience in fine art. Found and Ground: A Practical Guide to Making Your Own Foraged Paints will also appeal to those with experience drawing and painting, but who until now have only used shop-bought materials to create their work.
>AUTHOR WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
>AUTHOR WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
from plant to pigment
An inspiring manual full of recipes for artists to create their own pigments, paints, and pastels from botanical sources. Natalie Stopka is an artist and educator known for her explorations of handmade, homegrown pigments. In From Plant to Pigment: How to Make Your Own Vibrant Inks, Pastels and Paints she invites us into her studio, sharing the ways she has divested her practice of non-renewable synthetics in favor of the craft of handmade, homegrown, local colour. Learn the fundamental technique of how to make a lake pigment, transforming botanical dye into lasting, vivid pigment. This gorgeous book will give you the tools to make the most vibrant natural colors that are perfect for your own artistic endeavors. Sections include: Botanical sources (cultivating, foraging, harvesting and storing dye plants) / The studio larder (essential equipment and ingredients)/ Lake pigments (including Natalie’s master lake pigment recipe)/ Other plant pigments/ Artists’ materials (using your botanical pigments to make an array of artists’ materials).
>ARTIST WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
>ARTIST WEBSITE<
>BOOK ON AMAZON<
Encountering the Earth:
How Ecological Creativity Changes Us and the World
Hosted by advaya, bestselling author Robert Macfarlane, collaborative theatre maker Lucy Neal, and filmmaker-curator Hannah Close engage in dialogues about our creative connection with the Earth. They explore how paying imaginative attention to our other-than-human kin, the living landscapes around and within us, and the web of relations that connect us all, can foster care for the Earth and deepen our sense of belonging to this wild and intelligent planet we call home. The advaya course they offer is entitled The Wild Imagination: Exploring Creative Ecology.
In a time of widespread alienation from the rest of nature, the ongoing machining of our creativity in service to capital, and the systematic destruction of our biosphere, cultivating and defending our creative relationships with the Earth has never been more critical, or more affirming – when the going gets tough, we turn to art to help us make sense of the world, ourselves, and each other. With that in mind, this conversation delves into the creative heart of life itself. Topics covered include the role of art in challenging times, creativity as a lifeforce, rewilding the imagination, and much more. This offering is a deep dive into the imagination of life~!
Ecological Creativity Skills:
Hannah Close is a writer, photographer and cultural curator working with islands and oceans. She is part of the Dark Mountain Project team and has published creative nonfiction both there and with the Centre for Humans and Nature, and her photography has been published in the Guardian, Telegraph and Times. Hannah is currently making a documentary called Islandness, and also co-convenes sailing residencies for artists. She lives between a wild Hebridean island and the salty southwest coast of the UK with her dog Rune. Hannah Close >online<
Robert Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His bestselling books include Underland, Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind, as well as a book-length prose-poem, Ness. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, won prizes around the world, and been widely adapted for film, music, theatre, radio and dance. He has also written operas, plays, and films including River and Mountain, both narrated by Willem Dafoe. He has collaborated closely with artists including Olafur Eliasson and Stanley Donwood, and with the artist Jackie Morris he co-created the internationally bestselling books of nature-poetry and art, The Lost Words and The Lost Spells. His latest book, Is a River Alive? was published May 2025.
Robert Macfarlane on >Instagram<
Lucy Neal is an artist, writer and co-director of Walking Forest, a ten-year public art work inspired by forest ecology and the hidden stories of women activists and Earth-defenders. A theatre-maker at heart, she was co-founder director of the LIFT Festival (1981-2005) and enjoys creating space for stories that act as a catalyst for change. She is author of Playing for Time - Making Art As If the World Mattered. Now in its 2nd edition, the book maps an aesthetics of care responding to an Earth in crisis. Lucy Neal >online<
access advaya offerings >here<
In a time of widespread alienation from the rest of nature, the ongoing machining of our creativity in service to capital, and the systematic destruction of our biosphere, cultivating and defending our creative relationships with the Earth has never been more critical, or more affirming – when the going gets tough, we turn to art to help us make sense of the world, ourselves, and each other. With that in mind, this conversation delves into the creative heart of life itself. Topics covered include the role of art in challenging times, creativity as a lifeforce, rewilding the imagination, and much more. This offering is a deep dive into the imagination of life~!
Ecological Creativity Skills:
- How creativity nurtures a reciprocal relationship with the Earth.
- How ecological storytelling emerges from the interplay between inner and outer landscapes.
- How viewing creativity as a lifeform in and of itself can reshape our environmental behaviours and values.
- How creative work can be a source of personal healing as well as have an impact on global issues
Hannah Close is a writer, photographer and cultural curator working with islands and oceans. She is part of the Dark Mountain Project team and has published creative nonfiction both there and with the Centre for Humans and Nature, and her photography has been published in the Guardian, Telegraph and Times. Hannah is currently making a documentary called Islandness, and also co-convenes sailing residencies for artists. She lives between a wild Hebridean island and the salty southwest coast of the UK with her dog Rune. Hannah Close >online<
Robert Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His bestselling books include Underland, Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind, as well as a book-length prose-poem, Ness. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, won prizes around the world, and been widely adapted for film, music, theatre, radio and dance. He has also written operas, plays, and films including River and Mountain, both narrated by Willem Dafoe. He has collaborated closely with artists including Olafur Eliasson and Stanley Donwood, and with the artist Jackie Morris he co-created the internationally bestselling books of nature-poetry and art, The Lost Words and The Lost Spells. His latest book, Is a River Alive? was published May 2025.
Robert Macfarlane on >Instagram<
Lucy Neal is an artist, writer and co-director of Walking Forest, a ten-year public art work inspired by forest ecology and the hidden stories of women activists and Earth-defenders. A theatre-maker at heart, she was co-founder director of the LIFT Festival (1981-2005) and enjoys creating space for stories that act as a catalyst for change. She is author of Playing for Time - Making Art As If the World Mattered. Now in its 2nd edition, the book maps an aesthetics of care responding to an Earth in crisis. Lucy Neal >online<
access advaya offerings >here<
the creative life
Creativity is an enigma. As poet and psychoanalyst Clarissa Pinkola Estés has observed, it is a “shapeshifter,” a “dazzling spirit” that appears in all our lives while eluding our attempts to explain its radiance. C.G. Jung regarded creativity as a vital human instinct; a force akin to nature itself, which drives the unfolding and shaping of every life. Creativity is also a calling, one that makes its claim upon individuals who in turn devote themselves to crafting the stories, objects, and experiences that illuminate and transform our world. The knowledge-making traditions of the arts and the humanities can inform and nourish every type of creative endeavor, including those dedicated to social justice, climate activism, and communal healing.
"I oftentimes refer to our students and our alums as the new Renaissance people of the twenty-first century. They’re polymaths and shapeshifters who can’t be confined into a single categorization or specialty. Modern Western societies push us to specialize from a very early age, which is incredibly limiting. Our students come to realize that they’ve always had a hard time staying in one lane; they’re ready to allow their inherent multiplicity to flourish in ways that nourish their souls and serve the world around them. It takes courage to go against the prevailing social norms, and this includes the courage to declare an allegiance to one’s creative life." Mary A. Wood, Ph.D., Chair of M.A. Depth Psychology and Creativity with Emphasis in the Arts and Humanities at Pacifica and author of "The Archetypal Artist."
"I oftentimes refer to our students and our alums as the new Renaissance people of the twenty-first century. They’re polymaths and shapeshifters who can’t be confined into a single categorization or specialty. Modern Western societies push us to specialize from a very early age, which is incredibly limiting. Our students come to realize that they’ve always had a hard time staying in one lane; they’re ready to allow their inherent multiplicity to flourish in ways that nourish their souls and serve the world around them. It takes courage to go against the prevailing social norms, and this includes the courage to declare an allegiance to one’s creative life." Mary A. Wood, Ph.D., Chair of M.A. Depth Psychology and Creativity with Emphasis in the Arts and Humanities at Pacifica and author of "The Archetypal Artist."
THE EYE OF THE CROCODILE
The late Val Plumwood was a feminist writer and scholar, the author of three books and over 80 published papers. Her major books, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, and Environmental Culture: The Crisis of Reason published by Routledge, London, in December 1993, were major contributions to feminist and environmental philosophy. Having deliberated profoundly on her experience of surviving a crocodile attack in February 1985 in Australia’s magnificent Kakadu National Park (the setting of Crocodile Dundee, filmed there a few months after the attack), Val Plumwood was equipped to write an account which is much more than an adventure story, one which addresses the meaning of our lives and major philosophical issues of our time. Unfortunately this account was unfinished at the time of her death and The Eye of the Crocodile combines the three completed chapters of this book with earlier writings on the themes of animals, death and predation.
Val understood the crocodile as it was seen in both Indigenous Australian and ancient Egyptian narrative, as a trickster figure, a deliverer of judgement on the errant human. In biblical metaphor, the crocodile delivers adverse judgement on human pretensions to master a malleable world. The crocodile is now one of the last remaining major predators of human beings, a creature which perceives us not in the inflated terms in which we tend to view ourselves, as cyber-masters or techno-gods transcending the merely animal realm, but simply as another palatable item of food. Crocodile predation on humans still has a unique ability to recall to us something uncomfortable and unflattering about who we are, to teach a lesson from the past we forget at our peril about the unconquerability of the world we think we master.
These opening tense chapters are a story of struggle and survival set in the powerful landscape of Australia’s Top End. As a feminist writer and environmental philosopher Val Plumwood looked into the eye of the crocodile and reflected on the meaning of her experience of being crocodile prey. This was an experience which changed her view of selfhood, human life and human freedom. The master story of Western culture places at the centre of the human story an invulnerable, heroic rational consciousness, struggling to reduce the energy, excess and otherness of nature to a humanised and moralised order which will do his bidding and reflect back his own conception of his deserts. Val Plumwood shows how the crocodile as trickster can help us reshape the old human-centred master narrative into a more modest tale appropriate for new times.
Few people have survived three death rolls from the Saltwater Crocodile, perhaps the most formidable remaining predator of humans, and lived to tell the tale. The Eye of the Crocodile is not only a survival tale, but a unique reflection on the meaning of human identity, human struggle and human death from a narrator who was also a major environmental philosopher.
PDF Ebook >LINK<
>Books on Amazon<
Val understood the crocodile as it was seen in both Indigenous Australian and ancient Egyptian narrative, as a trickster figure, a deliverer of judgement on the errant human. In biblical metaphor, the crocodile delivers adverse judgement on human pretensions to master a malleable world. The crocodile is now one of the last remaining major predators of human beings, a creature which perceives us not in the inflated terms in which we tend to view ourselves, as cyber-masters or techno-gods transcending the merely animal realm, but simply as another palatable item of food. Crocodile predation on humans still has a unique ability to recall to us something uncomfortable and unflattering about who we are, to teach a lesson from the past we forget at our peril about the unconquerability of the world we think we master.
These opening tense chapters are a story of struggle and survival set in the powerful landscape of Australia’s Top End. As a feminist writer and environmental philosopher Val Plumwood looked into the eye of the crocodile and reflected on the meaning of her experience of being crocodile prey. This was an experience which changed her view of selfhood, human life and human freedom. The master story of Western culture places at the centre of the human story an invulnerable, heroic rational consciousness, struggling to reduce the energy, excess and otherness of nature to a humanised and moralised order which will do his bidding and reflect back his own conception of his deserts. Val Plumwood shows how the crocodile as trickster can help us reshape the old human-centred master narrative into a more modest tale appropriate for new times.
Few people have survived three death rolls from the Saltwater Crocodile, perhaps the most formidable remaining predator of humans, and lived to tell the tale. The Eye of the Crocodile is not only a survival tale, but a unique reflection on the meaning of human identity, human struggle and human death from a narrator who was also a major environmental philosopher.
PDF Ebook >LINK<
>Books on Amazon<
Part of the feast
The life and work of Val Plumwood
| |
| National Museum of Australia A celebration of the life and legacy of Australian environmental philosopher Val Plumwood, who was almost killed by a saltwater crocodile in Kakadu National Park in 1985. Gregg Borschmann leads the conversation with anthropologist Deborah Bird Rose, editor Lorraine Shannon, curator George Main, and crocodile expert Grahame Webb. |
places of enchantment
Watercolour by Kim McNett www.kimsnaturedrawings.com
Resurgence Review of Peatlands: A Journey Between Land and Water by Alys Fowler
This is not just a book about bogs. It’s a book about love: love for the land, the planet we live on, and the people we share it with. Fowler has a very engaging writing style: “I want – I need – you to love these spaces.” I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that the end of the book brought a lump to my throat, as if I’d just finished an absorbing novel full of characters to whom I’d become attached. Which is a testament to the quality of her writing. I had never thought of peatlands as places of enchantment. Mysterious and intriguing, yes, even fascinating. But Fowler has shone a light into these “dark places”, which are not really dark at all, but full of life, history and wisdom, and of secrets that could save us all, if only we will listen. Read more......... >Resurgence<
STEPHANIE BOXALL
This is not just a book about bogs. It’s a book about love: love for the land, the planet we live on, and the people we share it with. Fowler has a very engaging writing style: “I want – I need – you to love these spaces.” I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that the end of the book brought a lump to my throat, as if I’d just finished an absorbing novel full of characters to whom I’d become attached. Which is a testament to the quality of her writing. I had never thought of peatlands as places of enchantment. Mysterious and intriguing, yes, even fascinating. But Fowler has shone a light into these “dark places”, which are not really dark at all, but full of life, history and wisdom, and of secrets that could save us all, if only we will listen. Read more......... >Resurgence<
STEPHANIE BOXALL
Rivers of the Soul: The Sacred Springs and Waterways of Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe
Beneath the ancient sky, a lone figure kneels by the river’s edge, whispering a prayer into the rippling current. For the ancients, this river was no mere stream but a living spirit, a threshold where the mortal world touched the infinite. "All flows from water," declared Thales of Miletus, one of the seven sages of ancient Greece, echoing a much older truth: within water lay the origin of life and the mysteries of death.
Imagine a time when rivers carried secrets of the afterlife, and springs were believed to be portals to the divine, conduits for both physical sustenance and spiritual healing. Water, while vital for survival, also possessed a profound symbolic resonance, deeply embedded in the cosmology and ritual life of Neolithic and Bronze Age societies.
This essay explores the multifaceted sacredness of water, focusing on its role as a mediator between the physical and spiritual realms. From rivers regarded as pathways between life and death, to springs as portals to the divine, and lakes as reflective surfaces of cosmic mysteries, water emerges not merely as a natural resource but as a dynamic force in shaping spiritual landscapes. By examining archaeological sites, myths, and rituals, this study demonstrates how water transcended its practical functions, becoming a symbol of transformation, continuity, and sacred power.
Alexander Peach January 2025
Continue reading this incredibly comprehensive essay >HERE<
Imagine a time when rivers carried secrets of the afterlife, and springs were believed to be portals to the divine, conduits for both physical sustenance and spiritual healing. Water, while vital for survival, also possessed a profound symbolic resonance, deeply embedded in the cosmology and ritual life of Neolithic and Bronze Age societies.
This essay explores the multifaceted sacredness of water, focusing on its role as a mediator between the physical and spiritual realms. From rivers regarded as pathways between life and death, to springs as portals to the divine, and lakes as reflective surfaces of cosmic mysteries, water emerges not merely as a natural resource but as a dynamic force in shaping spiritual landscapes. By examining archaeological sites, myths, and rituals, this study demonstrates how water transcended its practical functions, becoming a symbol of transformation, continuity, and sacred power.
Alexander Peach January 2025
Continue reading this incredibly comprehensive essay >HERE<
EARTHKIN WILD ~ FinD Wild Belonging
~ Nature connection, Earthskills, & Bushcraft ~
Journey deep into and within the wild, to find your true nature.
Journey deep into and within the wild, to find your true nature.
At Earthkin Wilderness School we hold that a deep relationship with nature, community, and self is essential to discovering one’s unique gifts so that cultural transformation rooted in earth-based ways can take place. We offer ancestral skills training, immersive experiences in the wild, deep nature connection programs, and primal movement practices for those looking for land-based learning and reconnection in the coast mountains of BC.
About / Adult Courses / Wildland Trips / Earthkin Gathering >LINK<
About / Adult Courses / Wildland Trips / Earthkin Gathering >LINK<
THE WILD REMEMBERING
 |  |  |
FACEBOOK PAGE A living archive of writings by Stasha Ginsburg. A place for seasonal listening, story medicine, and the slow devotion of becoming. Formerly The Wild Matryoshka. >LINK<
the spirit that moves me // kristen roderick
     |      kristen roderick ~ ceremonialist, fibre artist |
The Westray Goddess, the
oldest human form found in Scotland. (Orkney Archipelago)
(eik) eUROPEAN iNDIGENOUS kNOWLEDGE
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books & reviews
Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots
& Restoring Earth Community
BY PEGI EYERS
is an award-winning
book that explores
social justice,
nature spirituality,
the ancestral arts,
and resilience in times
of massive change.
Available from
Stone Circle Press
or Amazon
& Restoring Earth Community
BY PEGI EYERS
is an award-winning
book that explores
social justice,
nature spirituality,
the ancestral arts,
and resilience in times
of massive change.
Available from
Stone Circle Press
or Amazon
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We live in what we pridefully call civilization, but our laws and machines have taken on a live of their own; they stand against our spiritual and physical survival.
ERIC WOLF
ERIC WOLF
"We cannot surrender to the doomsday narrative that haunts us because
it serves to make us
give up on our dreams, and within our dreams
lie the memories of
the Earth and
our ancestors."
Ailton Krenak
Ancestral Future
it serves to make us
give up on our dreams, and within our dreams
lie the memories of
the Earth and
our ancestors."
Ailton Krenak
Ancestral Future
The earth is a generous mother, but she
demands respectful children.
TIBETAN PROVERB
demands respectful children.
TIBETAN PROVERB
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
you are surely lost.
Stand still.
The forest knows
where you are.
You must let
it find you.
DAVID WAGONER
you are surely lost.
Stand still.
The forest knows
where you are.
You must let
it find you.
DAVID WAGONER
When the ancient seers looked upon the world, what did they see?
They saw magic....
It is not so much
the Birch Tree that is important as it is....
seeing the magic in the Birch, its soul qualities.
ROBERT SARDELLO
They saw magic....
It is not so much
the Birch Tree that is important as it is....
seeing the magic in the Birch, its soul qualities.
ROBERT SARDELLO