The Green Man is an almost universal archetype of the renewal of life in the spring, and it is, of course, beloved by contemporary neo-Pagans as well, symbolizing manhood as re-newer and re-generator instead of as "warrior", which so often becomes authoritarian destroyer in a patriarchal, dominator, "alpha male" based culture (and this includes "dominating" nature, instead of working with nature).
The Green Man, by whatever name, is so very important for our time, and in considering this, I went looking for "living Green Men". And boy (excuse the pun) did I find them! What I learned gave me extraordinary hope, and a vision of the power of the Green Man (and Green Women as well) to bring rebirth to the land and to the future, if we, as a global humanity, can only listen to what these contemporary Green Men have dedicated their lives to.
Below is a wonderful documentary that I ran across almost by accident, about a man in India who single handedly, and with extraordinary dedication, planted a thriving forest, beginning his work in 1979. His story began my search for other "Forest Men". To watch and listen is to be not only inspired, but to feel hope. Because I believe that this is what the future civilization will have to look like, these technologies of love, sustainability, Earth based science and spirituality, along with new and old ways for human beings to cooperate and get along with each other. I believe, instead of vast space stations and digital robots and endless wars, the future will have to look more like a forest, or a garden, if there is to be a future civilization at all.
And the message Jadav Payeng (and the others I have, through the grace of UTube, been able to share here) carries is that renewal can happen when humans become stewards of the land, and let Nature do what nature does, assisting in simple ways, like planting trees, or allowing environmental diversity to be protected enough to return. These regenerated forests and deserts truly offer us hope.
I am reminded of a book by Alan Weisman called THE WORLD WITHOUT US, in which the author researched areas around the world that had become abandoned or off limits to people, like the neutral or demilitarized zone between North and South Korea - and the extraordinary renewal that took place in such environments. There was also a 2008 television documentary called "Life After People" that explored the same theme.
Since, as I mentioned in the previous post, I can't think of what to say of late, I will let these people speak on this Blog instead. They are true Green Men.
Then what is the answer? Not to be deluded by dreams. To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence, and their tyrants come, many times before. When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose the least ugly faction; these evils are essential. To keep one’s own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted and not wish for evil; and not be duped By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will not be fulfilled. To know this, and know that however ugly the parts appear the whole remains beautiful. A severed hand Is an ugly thing and man dissevered from the earth and stars and his history... for contemplation or in fact... appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness, the greatest beauty is organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and all things, the divine beauty of the universe. Love that, not man apart from that, or else you will share man’s pitiful confusions, or drown in despair when his days darken." - Robinson Jeffers
"Seldom do we realize that the world is practically no thicker to us than the print of our footsteps on the path. Upon that surface we walk and act our comedy of life, and what is beneath is nothing to us. But it is out from that under-world, from the dead and the unknown, from the cold moist ground, that these green blades have sprung." ............Robinson Jeffers
Then what is the answer? Not to be deluded by dreams. To know the great civilizations
have broken down into violence, and their tyrants come, many times before. When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose the least ugly faction; these evils are essential. To keep one’s own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted and not wish for evil; and not be duped by dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will not be fulfilled. To know this, and know that however ugly the parts appear the whole remains beautiful. A severed hand is an ugly thing, and man dissevered from the earth and stars and his history... for contemplation or in fact... appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness, the greatest beauty is organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and all things, the divine beauty of the universe. Love that, not man Apart from that or else you will share man’s pitiful confusions, or drown in despair when his days darken.
photo by MicStephens
I've been trying to find a way to articulate what I feel for a long time now. This past year especially, I've found myself overwhelmed with the destruction of the environment, and the immanent changes that are upon us. Our global civilization, with all its promise, and yet just in its infancy, increasingly looks like a runaway train. To mature, in the little time that has been given us, to meet the challenges of climate change and our evolution and promise as a common humanity on a small planet.......how to sustain that dream?
Now that the U.S. has put Trump*** and what he represents into power, I despair. He and his Republican regime are calling global warming "A Chinese hoax" even as the poles are melting, the permafrost is melting, and islands are disappearing. They pound their chests and threaten nuclear war as they withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Accord, prepare to end the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Energy Act, renew the pipelines that leak poison into our rivers. I watch America become dismantled, our Constitution increasingly broken, the tyrant minds of greed and violence like the Dark Lord of Tolkien's books overtaking America. Yes, that despair I've been feeling for a long time has deepened, and I find myself increasingly asking myself, "How do I live in these times?"
Every generation, perhaps, has to ask that. Or perhaps not. Perhaps many generations behind me lived with a surety of continuity in their families, countries, tribes, environments, that, even if not true (because change is the only constant), was true for their time. But I have lived in an extraordinary time, when change is too rapid to assimilate, and not only our tribes and nations are threatened, but our very planet, the Mother Earth we take as the ultimate constant.........is changing, is threatened. And humanity, for all of our beauty and brilliance, is still in its infancy.
It's always been with me, this "Before the Deluge" (which is also an important movie) mentality. It took different forms, but it was always there, the shadow that hung over my generation, born just after WWII with its inconceivable violence, and in the shadow of the nuclear bomb. For all the prosperity of the 50's, we knew what horror humanity was capable of, and we knew life was tenuous. I remember the surrealism of the "get under your desk" exercises, the Cold War, and the bomb shelter my father made in the closet, with a barrel of water and stacks of canned beans and tuna fish. It was always there, the Shadow.
Berkeley was ahead of its time, and in 1970 I remember taking recycled bags to the Food Co-op. We spoke of "voluntary simplicity", and of Zero Population Growth, and in 1973 I had a tubal ligation so I would not contribute further to the problem. We fought for the redwoods, we talked about growing our own vegetables, and we marched, and marched. We marched against Vietnam, we marched for Women's Rights and birth control and abortion, we marched for Free Speech, and we began to march increasingly for the Environment. People did sit down strikes at the nuclear power stations that so dangerously sat atop California fault lines, they chained themselves to old growth redwoods to keep forests from being clear cut. I saw the evolution of the Women's Movement and the evolution of Environmentalism, and then the evolution of Eco-feminism, which saw the profound relationship between the two evolutionary threads. I remember when Time Magazine did its Endangered Earth edition in 1989. Almost 20 years later in 2006 I saw the former Vice President of the U.S., Al Gore, produce "An Inconvenient Truth", shown in all major theatres. Not much changed.
I've come to agree with the founders of the Dark Mountain Project, and their Manifesto. Our civilization is not sustainable, our worldwide economic system is manifestly unethical, and our descendants cannot have the hope and privilege we have known. And as I say that I acknowledge that the majority of human beings on this planet have never had the hope and privilege that I have. The question is, how do you live with that?
For myself, I'm going to focus on what I love, and hope to learn to be a loving person in the time that I am granted here. And I aspire to live in as much simplicity and gratitude as I may. Despair, anger, polarization, none of this is helping me. My work has always been an effort to share Her image, in many different forms and with many different faces. I'll continue to make my shrines, and reliquaries, and words of praise to Her, in all of Gaia's vast diversity and indescribable beauty. It has been a privilege to live within Gaia, and a privilege to live in this time. It has been a privilege to live. Let my life become a prayer of gratitude, and perhaps some of those threads will go forward to those who are yet to come. Perhaps they will not curse all of us. But we'll never know.
A manifesto for change
"The Dark Mountain Project is a network of writers, artists and thinkers who have stopped believing the stories our civilization tells itself. We produce and seek out writing, art and culture rooted in place, time and nature."
The Dark Mountain Project was initially created as a journal by the former deputy editor of the Ecologist, Paul Kingsnorth. He and colleagues became disillusioned with the narratives of environmentalism, and so they decided to write their own. Eventually this evolved into a large artistic, literary, and scientific community, as well as workshops and the "Uncivilization Festivals". As he explains:
"Out of this huddle came a slim, self-published pamphlet that we called Uncivilisation: the Dark Mountain Manifesto. It was a clarion call to those who, like us, did not believe that the future would be an upgraded version of the present, and who wanted to help forge a new cultural response to the human predicament. It called for a clear-sighted view of humanity's true place in the world. We had no idea if this would resonate, but it did - all over the world. We sold hundreds of manifestos and attracted enthusiastic support from thousands of people. A movement began to coalesce. What was most fascinating – and telling – about it was the common thread running through it. So many of the communications we received were from people who professed a profound sense of relief. They too had been going through the motions about 'saving the planet' but had long since stopped believing it. Coming across other people who didn't believe it either, and who wanted to forge a new way of looking at the future, got a lot of people very excited.
To me, this is the most exciting thing about the Dark Mountain Project. It has brought together people from all over the world, from varied backgrounds – writers, poets, illustrators, engineers, scientists, woodworkers, teachers, songwriters, farmers – all of whom are tied together by a shared vision. It is a vision that a few years back would have seemed heretical to many greens, but which is now gaining wide traction as the failure of humanity to respond to the crises it has created becomes increasingly obvious. Together we are able to say it loud and clear: we are not going to 'save the planet'. The planet is not ours to save. The planet is not dying; but our civilisation might be, and neither green technology nor ethical shopping is going to prevent a serious crash."
*Much of Jeffers' poetry was written in narrative and epic form, but he is also known for his shorter verse and is considered an icon of the environmental movement. Influential in some circles, despite or because of his philosophy of "inhumanism", Jeffers believed that transcending conflict required human concerns to be de-emphasized in favor of the boundless whole. This led him to oppose U.S. participation in World War II, a stand that was controversial after the U.S. entered the war
One of the most important documentaries I've seen in a long time is COWSPIRACY - The Sustainability Secret, a film by a group of young film makers from California. They point out a very large "elephant in the room" that very few people are talking about, because such a vast economic system is behind that "elephant". But everyone should know about it, because it's something we can do, every single day, that can actively make a difference. Recently the United Nationshas recommended a vegan diet as SIGNIFICANT TO ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY. The U.N.! Regardless how people may feel about animals, and the health benefits of a vegan diet, if they care about climate change and a future for their children, I believe this is very important information. The movie is available on Netflix, and elsewhere.
"Dawn of New Aeon - She arises! Mother awaken to us! We see her on the horizon, rising with the sun…New Aeon - take hold! We feel the changes coming. We are the web of life…be glad, sing praises, love one another."
I've received photos from The Awakening - Our Changing Earth the performance created and produced by Ann Waters, in Collaboration with Mana Youngbear, the Muse in Willits, and her Community of performers and writers - wonderful! There are so many beautiful photos, and excerpts from the script I'd like to share, that I don't know what to chose.
So I'm not going to make just one post - I'd like to excerpt some of the performance photos, and the script, in several posts, to share these wonderful images and do justice to the cast. So here goes!
My deepest gratitude to Annie, Mana, and all of the wonderful people in the Cast - for creating hope, beauty, bringing the masks to life, and giving voice to the Numina. May this important story continue to unfold.
Mana Youngbear as "The Medicine Basket"
"You’ve gathered
through the springtime, the summer and the fall.
Your offerings
are yours alone, and precious to us all.
Now rest and build your strength up.
Cycle with the moon.
Offer your song of life
A very sacred
tune.
Dream of where you’re going
Dream of where you’ve been
Dreams make the Gathering.Beginnings never end."
"Rainbow Star Goddess"
"I bear a message of hope. You are the Rainbow Bridgeprophesized so long ago. Receive this seed, YOU are the Rainbow."
All photographs are copyright Jerri Jo Idarius, and used with her permission.
