Absolutism is uncalled for here; even our culture has a few scattered cultural remains that are innocent. However, the things that continue to trap us in a civilized mindset—that domesticate us—are extremely subtle, and often appear innocent at first blush. There is a great deal in the traditional wedding ceremony that is rightfully disgusting, and we excluded those things from our ceremony. We tried to add new things that had positive meaning for us in their place, but we cannot simply assume that the traditions and rituals of our broken culture are workable. They are, for the most part, not; and they are the things that will ultimately defeat us, even if we do have the skills to survive without farms.

I’d also like to point out that these are not mutually exclusive projects; they are, in fact, deeply complementary. Gathering wild edibles will help you think of the world in terms of patterns, and thinking of the world in terms of patterns will help you gather wild edibles. Both projects can be—and really, must be—pursued in tandem, simultaneously.

None of the stories, songs, games, and rituals we as westerners are familiar with stem from a primitive mindset. They’re all about domination and competition and destruction (or else they take those elements as a given).

For evidence of this, one need only look at the destruction wrought by a game of Pat-a-Cake.

And man, don’t even get me started on Chess.

So, yes, we’re revelling—not so much in the brand new car itself as what it represents: our ability to get out of the city. It’s not the destination by any means, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Not to mention that the old car, in addition to being a broken-down deathtrap, was also an SUV. The Civic gets much better mileage.

In any case, getting back to Shane’s original concern… not everything about primitive life is hunting and gathering. We’ve all seen the calculation that the !Kung spend only two hours a day - or less - acquiring food. So what do they do with the rest of that time? Mainly, tell stories to each other. Dance. Sing. Play games.

None of the stories, songs, games, and rituals we as westerners are familiar with stem from a primitive mindset. They’re all about domination and competition and destruction (or else they take those elements as a given). To live like a forager is not simply to forage; it’s to get yourself back in touch with the mindset you need to live in an egalitarian community. To do this, we must seriously consider our rituals and symbols and what they represent. Rites of passage play a vital role in any healthy community. And usually, they have absolutely nothing to do with dandelions.

I’ve oft-quoted this Tamarack Song article (itself quoted for us by Janene, who got it from Arkface who quoted it for IshCon) because it says it all so succinctly and so well, so here it is again:

Someone recently asked, “How long does it take from knowing nothing about the wilderness to going off and living in it, and when do you know when you are ready? I basically just have a few books I haven’t started reading about it.”

This is a profound question, and I see it is the main theme in various group discussions lately. Not a day goes by that someone does not ask me the same thing, or else a related question, such as, “What are the top skills I need to know?” “Learning the Old Ways should be free, like it used to be; why do I have to pay money?” “Where can I find an elder to teach me?” “Is it even possible anymore, with all the hunting and fishing regulations?” “All the land is private or restricted, and I can’t afford to buy any, is there anywhere can I go to live primitively?” “I want to learn on my own, what
steps should I take?”

I’m going to give you all some straight talk, in hopes that it will help to steer you on to a track might get you somewhere. The reality of the situation is that I have not met, or heard of, a single person in the past 40 years who has used the approaches that we have been talking about, who
has been able to return to primitive living. This includes the authors of the popular books. Yeah, they might talk a good talk, but look at what they’ve actually done — a month in the mountains, a solo year in the woods, some time in Alaska — is that really living the Old Way? Where is the
clan? Where are the elders? The children? Where is the example and clan memories to learn from?

Why didn’t it work for them, and why won’t it work for you? Because they carried civilization with them into the wilderness, and you likely will as well. You can learn all the skills you want, and The Mother will spit you back out just about as fast as you went in. The more stubborn individuals
will last a few months or maybe a year, but rest assured, they’ll be back.

Why? Because they didn’t do their work. We come from a technological society, so we naturally think that substituting primitive technology for civilized technology is our doorway. The only problem is that Native people are not into technology. They spend only a couple hours a day providing for
their simple needs, and they mostly use simple means. Look at their tools — few and crude, and their craftwork — basic and utilitarian. What a Native person excels at is what I call qualitative skills — how to sit in a circle with your clan mates and speak your truth, how to find your special
talent so that you can develop it to serve your people, how to use your intuition, the ways of honor and respect, how to live in balance with elders and women and children, how to speak in the language beyond words, how to befriend fear and live love. Without these skills, you will surely die. Or
else you’ll go back to the life that shuns these skills.

Will a book teach you these qualitative skills? Will a class or a workshop? Is learning firemaking or edible plants going to give them to you? They actually take you further away from what you need to know, because focusing on them reinforces the technological approach, and that 95% of your brain
which you don’t use, shrivels up even more. We become what we surround ourselves with; the way to learn Truthspeaking is to share with other truthspeakers, the way to bring life back to our dormant brain is to immerse ourselves in the full spectrum of life in which our brain evolved, the way
to elder wisdom is to be with wise elders. There are patterns to break — crippling, blinding patterns that take continual, unrelenting attention if we are ever going to see, hear, smell, and feel as fully as we are intended. That takes guidance, a supportive environment, and example. Otherwise, it’s just another exercise, another class, another walk in the woods, and then
it’s back to life as usual, with no end in sight.

Roughly 80% of what a Native person eats is not affected by hunting and fishing regulations. There are vast tracts of public and unregulated private land that are available to a hunter-gatherer, with virtually no human competition. If you think there are a lot of people at your favorite
state park or national forest just step a few paces off the trail, and they all disappear. Very few people really go “out” in the woods anymore. I know a dozen ways to live legally on or adjacent to foraging lands without having to pay big bucks. I can grow fat by living primitively in a farmer’s
woodlot or city park. It doesn’t take Alaska or the Grand Tetons. It takes shaking off the old preconceptions of what primitive living is and rebecoming the Native person you already are.

It simply can’t be done alone. We evolved as social beings, and we literally start going crazy when we spend too much time without company of our fellow creatures. Learning skills alone, buying land alone, is feeding a pipe dream, a romantic fantasy, that will likely only lead to frustration
and disillusionment. Virtually everyone I know who has tried it for any period of time, has given up and bought back into the system. Try to look up some of the older people who once had dreams as you do now. You’ll see — they now have mortgages and jobs with benefits they can’t let go of, and
kids’ educations they have to worry about. Yeah, they might still be talking about their dreams, and they might practice their skills and head out in the woods now and then, but realistically, when is that dream ever going to become reality?

And then there’s the cost of your rewilding. Yes, I said cost, because nothing is free. Money is the least of what you are going to be asked to give. There is a world of difference between something for free and something that is freely given. On a stay with one of my elders in Canada, I built her a cabin. 15 years ago another elder asked me to literally lay my life on the line for him. I would gladly give my last dollar, and much more, for the privilege of walking in my ancestor’s footsteps.

The alternative? Sit in the city, whining about how things used to be and ought to be. Or look at the cost of NOT rewilding, and come to realize that one has to give before they can receive. Then you’ll be ready to throw away your books, turn your back on the “experts,” and turn your face to the wind. You’ll start hearing voices that help you walk rather than give you sweet talk. There waiting to greet you will be your clan, your teachers, and your real self. You’ll leave survival behind and walk into the Beauty Way.

Tamarack

In My 2.8 Slaves, I discussed how my fear of social interaction cripples me, even at gatherings where most people claim they felt freer and more open than they ever had. hen I remembered to stay in the moment at my wedding, and danced like no one was watching, and stopped caring about what other people thought of me - even for that one night - I came closer to freeing myself from civilization than I ever had at any edible wild plants course. Restricting your food only to what farmers grow is only one way in which civilization shackles us. Its most effective bonds are the ones that penetrate our minds. Some people have a problem with arrogance, others with short-sightedness, others with fear (like me). And learning to live without these mental blocks is far more important - as evidenced by the fact that it’s also far more difficult - than learning how to live without farms.

We’re not standing still, either. We’re not stopping with this. The reason we’re so excited with the car is because it’s a means to an end. We considered going carless, and we could have done it—I walk to work every day, we walk to the grocery store, etc.—except that walking to the forest is rather prohibitive for a weekend jaunt. We’re behind schedule this year because we didn’t have a car to take us into the woods. So, yes, we’re revelling—not so much in the brand new car itself as what it represents: our ability to get out of the city. It’s not the destination by any means, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Shouldnt you have had the guests gathering their own nutritious cup of dandelion leaves?

Not if you want anyone to actually attend.

Shouldnt you have had the guests gathering their own nutritious cup of dandelion leaves? What am I missing here?

On a sidenote, I suppose that the name of Jason’s cousin on page 9 of the program file should be blacked out as well. Anyway, the blackout is not as complete as could be expected given the Peak Oil circumstances: I can still copy the entire text, sans black marks, from the A*****t Reader to the clipboard. If that is a consolation, I recall that some PDF documents published by Federal Agencies over here featured this kind of unintended Full Disclosure as well. They got it fixed eventually.

Enjoyed reading about it. Glad it turned out well even with all the commotion. Congratulations!

- Devin