scubasteveshamanbotanicalexplorerintraining

So i finally packed my bags and hit the trail! I went hinking and camping in the Hibernia state park last weekend with buddy chris and had a blast.

Chris is planning on going on a serious walkabout- like a couple weeks-months on the Appalachian trail, and so we went to ems and got all the latest hi-tek gear from a jet boil stove that boils water in 2 minutes to H2o purifiers, polypropylene this and that and all kinds of random knives and caribiner trinkets. the call of the wild is very strong and it seems that nature is imploring us to remember ancient knowledge anew as people become interested in growing their own food, getting back to basics.

Well all of this camping gear got me to thinking about what is truly essential, what we know about the basics, and what we really need to not only survive, but actually thrive.  While i am a self confessed nature lover who went to a green college in vermont and has read all the great wilderness writers, i must confess that while i am a great pyromaniac, there is a great deal that i dont know about basic survival such as water purifying, building a fire w no modern technology, identifying edible and medicinal plants from poisoninus and hunting/fishing. On the other hand I believe that there is more to nature than mere surviving- the indigenous folks of this planet thrived with a rich culture, art,  and trade.  Gathering food and water were basics that every child knew. how many of us could identify even a few edible, medicinal or poisonous plants in your backyard? how would you fare if the modern structures and technologies crumbled? would you be able to grow a garden or build a fire to purify your water? i don’t mean to get apocalyptic- quite the opposite- the fall of the year always gets me nostalgic for childhood memories of forgotten falls. the crisp autumn air gets me thinking about harvest, the changing of the seasons, traditions, and the natural cycle of preparing for the winter. i must be a romantic sentimental fool who goes for all the cliches of apple cider, picking pumpkins, and simmering butternut squash stews, but i think the fall turning of the season speaks to us on a very basic primitive level- if all the supermarkets were to go away tomorrow we would remember why our ancestors held great harvest celebrations to come together as a community to harvest and store up all the crops so the tribe/community could survive thru the winter.

anyway this hike and camping trip reminded me of how glorious the fall weather is and the importance of putting down the books, turning off the tv, computer and cell phones and getting out in the woods breakin sticks w a hatchet,  buildin fires and tellin stories by the moonlit campfire. fuck tv i’ll take a campfire any day!  the place we where staying was on an old native American campground that was given(stolen) for William Penn and then a couple other rich old dudes, but it got me thinking about the whole contrast of western and indigenous culture even in going to appreciate “nature” we come armed w all the gear ready to attack the wilderness instead of being nurtured by mother nature- i think the indigenous folks didn’t merely survive, but thrived and we must strive for the same. The basics of good food, clean water, shelter etc are just that; basics- everyone should be able to acquire them for themselves or be taught how to- what we should be focused on i feel is the creation of a new culture and lifestyle that embraces our ancient roots but also creates a new synthesis of modern multi-national global hi-tek consumer culture. we can create  a synthesis of all the best that the modern and ancient worlds have to offer in terms of technology, culture, art, medicine, magic, spirituality, healing and music.  let there be dancing in the streets, planting of guerrilla gardens, perma- culture, basement wine-making homeade cigar-box guitar playing and howling at the harvest moon for fuckin A its great to be alive on this beautiful blue green gem of a garden planet and until they discover life on mars its the best place to catch dinner and a movie that i know of in this galaxy so lets not trash it and lets dance and makes some romance and carpe diem. life is a garden- dig it. geopathy

the evolution to an ecoligcal and truly just. peaceful, egalatarian and creative society is a question of consciousnessness more than technics or politics. while technology, politics, and economic decisions all play a part, i think it is more a question if these crazy monkeys with big brains will develop the consiousness, emotional maturity, and spiritual and creative longings that are our callin and b and birthright as a species. i mean what other species is capable or creating art, computers, fibre optics, space travel, da vinci, einstein, ghandi and the like while also creating atomic weapons, toxic everything, and hitlers, stalins and assholes of all stripes. see i think humans have immense potential and are influenced greatly by our social environment more than we realize. we think human nature is static and set in stone and that humans are by nature greedy, aquisituve, violent etc. while this is true of our lower baser animal natures, we also have more spiritual and humaitarian potentials of cooperation and interdependence. diiferent social structures foster differnt traits to flourish so in post modern neo industrial crapitilism (or any ism for that matter) encourage materilism, greed, and agreession. in hunter gather societies, which we have been for 99% of our time as a species, cooperation is not just a concept but neccesary for survival if the peopl are to hunt and survive through the winter together so therisocieties encourage different behavior.

so my point is how can we foster the behavioral, spiritual, emotional and societal changes neccesary to promote a greener ecological society and evolve in time before we destroy our planet? i think its more a question of consciousness than technics. we have or can invent the technolagy and systems to live in a green way the question is how can we get people aware of and passionate enough about the situation to act. it seems the decentrecelization of media like the internet spreads the quicker dissemination of novel knowledge quicker than old gutenburg or cable tv. from my studiy of history and social change it seem the most effective ways to promote social change are control of the media, music, message, and medicine.

we need to empower and inspire people to evolve our society starting in our own backyards and neighborhoods and have festivals and celebrations and discussions and community gardens and alternative trade based system of commerce and independnt media, and ethbotanical archaic revivals of shamanic holistic integrated systems thought and moon river…  we need an evolution through music media and mystic medicine of the stars