My intentions were good. I started this project a few days ago on my birthday. I told myself I’d keep it simple. Write for a few hours in the morning and then work on sewing and get out in nature, but I’ve been a horrible failure. The past two days I ended up staring at the screen all day, buried in my map, pulling out different parts, but the story just wasn’t coming together. In fact, what I really wanted to talk about was rocks, because someone trolled me on Twitter with the comment “rocks do not have a spirit.” For me, this is THE big question. Maybe it’s best that I make my position clear from the beginning. I’ll tie it into Texas and mythology through Pegasus. Pegasus carries Zeus’s thunderbolts. The flying horse got the job after Bellerophon attempted to ride up and storm Mount Olympus.
Bellerophon, a warrior of Corinth, refuses the advances of King Proteus’s wife. This creates a problem for Proteus who sends Bellerophon on to his friend King Iobates. Iobates tasks the warrior with a series of challenges meant to bring about his untimely death. Among Bellerophon’s most notable successes is killing the fire-breathing Chimera, a lion-goat-serpent monster that had terrorized the Lycian countryside. This is accomplished from the air after Bellerophon tames the flying horse Pegasus with assistance from the seer Polyidus and the goddess Athena who gives him a magical gold bridle. Eventually Iobates realizes the gods are protecting the warrior, and to stay in their good graces he offers his daughter Philonoe in marriage along with half of his kingdom.
Bellerophon accepts the gift and happily raises his family, but eventually his pride gets the better of him. He feels his accomplishments are such that he deserves to be able to visit Mount Olympus, so he embarks with Pegasus on a journey up to those lofty heights. At the last moment, Zeus sends a gadfly to bite the flying horse and, in its bucking, dismounts the rider. Bellerophon falls from that great height, but he does not die. Instead, he lives as a blind, crippled wanderer, alone “devouring his own soul” for the rest of his years. No one will help him because he has betrayed the gods.
To my way of thinking, Pegasus Park, Dallas’s social impact biotech hub, exemplifies the gate-crashing, uninvited guest. The age we’ve been pushed into by public health lockdowns is one controlled by analysts and technicians who imagine themselves worthy of hanging out with Zeus. Demi-gods with fancy degrees and elite credentials pilfering tools of the heavens they don’t fully understand in a treacherous quest to usher in a cybernetic, post-human age. Looking down from on high, beings of the earth are reduced to passive repositories of molecular material available for energetic reorganization and modification. Their aim is to manufacture new forms of “life” to feed insatiable market demands for unnecessary consumer goods and creative finance products. I choose to stand with the yeast!
Ovid’s Metamorphoses speaks of Greek and Roman gods meddling in mortal affairs, often inflicting abrupt and dire transformations. Nanotechnologists, computational biologists, particle physicists believe they are mature enough, wise enough, to wield the lightning bolts of transformation. They aren’t.
Them: “Rocks don’t have a spirit.”
Me: “Perhaps that is the case for the story in which you are living, but you don’t have the authority to assert that for all other beings.”
The prickly comment came on the heels of my natural offerings at places like the Rice University Biosciences Center being labelled “witchcraft.” Such assertions are not surprising. Troubling, but not surprising. I’ve long felt that among scholars Silvia Federici’s perspectives on women, witchcraft, the commons, and nature hold the most relevance for these times. Federici’s work provides vital context around dispossession, gender, indigenous knowledges, emerging markets, and structural adjustment. The imperative for progress at any cost means those who center cycles of nature and reciprocity become targeted for marginalization if not erasure.
As I write this, I reflect on a trip our family made several years ago to pay our respects to the children buried on the grounds of the Army War College, the Carlisle residential school. General Richard Henry Pratt’s memorial marker states: “The way to civilize an Indian is to get him into civilization. The way to keep him civilized is to let him stay.” The plaque is a stone’s throw from the hospital building where hundreds of children died, now a boutique hotel for officers visiting the War College. The past is not past.
If you’ve been following my work, you know my contention is that the biosurveillance state didn’t result recently from the mis-guided actions of a few bad actors. It is systemic. At Carlisle Residential School children were removed from their homelands, families, language, and spiritual practice to remade as blank slates for an imperial project. They built the campus, now used for graduate-level training of high-ranking officers, with their own hands. Many died there. This project is evolving into the Metaverse. Seeds of domination, of coerced labor and resource extraction coming after cell function and brain wave signatures, date back centuries. We are entering a new phase, one where predator energies are reconceptualizing bodies and minds as bioreactors and data farms.
The exchange about stones and spirit came after I’d shared an image of a rock from my collection. This collection lives in bowls and on bookshelves and in dark corners of my backpack when I forget to take them out when I come back from a walk. Finding the right one was a nice excuse to spend time picking up these natural treasures, sorting them, holding their essence in my hands. I’d been trying to locate a passage I’d read a few years back about animist elements in the Ojibwe language – Winona LaDuke speaking about stones, asim, having spirit and agency. Turns out for the Anishinaabe when you pick one up, it may have chosen you!
On my quest for this passage I stumbled upon short story in the New Yorker, “The Stone,” about a girl finding a sacred object on a family trip to the great lakes and how her relationship with it evolved over the course of her life. The closing lines are “As the blood seeped into her brain, she dreamed she had entered a new episode of time in which she and the stone would become the same through the endless repetition and decay of all things in the universe. Molecules that had existed in her body would be joined with the stone’s molecules over and over, in age after age. Flesh would become stone, and stone would become flesh, and someday they would meet in the mouth of the bird.”
…meet in the mouth of the bird.
That, my friends, is sacred frequency.
To me Erdrich’s passage echoes John Trudell’s potent observations about the origins of the human being. “The DNA of the human, the bone, flesh, and blood, is literally made up of the metals, minerals, and liquids of the earth. So, we are parts of the earth. We are shapes of the earth…we have being. That’s our essence; that’s our spirit…all the things of the earth have being, spirit. Our relationship to power and reality is in that understanding of who we are. We are forms of the earth, and that’s reality. Nothing will ever change that reality.”
That is what these technicians cannot comprehend. We are forms of the earth and nothing will change that reality, no matter how many particles or frequencies, today’s manifestations of Zeus’s lightning bolts, they bombard us with.
In a post from 2014, John Two-Hawks writes of spirit roads; each person’s being unique. We are here to share and learn from one another and grow in our wisdom while connecting to the greater good. As people take their sacred journey, we must stay grounded in the earth lest we be set adrift like a tumbleweed, unstable and of no use to anyone. To connect with spirit, we must be in touch with all six directions, yet be firmly rooted in the ground – that imperative for GROUNDING. Pegasus was taken to great heights by the hubris of Bellerophon’s misguided Olympic aspirations. He rode the trajectory of perceived progress to a very bitter end. Compare his calamitous attempt with sacred work of the horses and riders who fulfilled Jim Miller’s 2005 vision of a journey to Mankato honoring the victims of the l862 mass-execution by hanging of Lakota men authorized by Abraham Lincoln. These horses are of the earth as Pegasus was to the air.
“This horse has the six directions that we use in our ceremonies. The two front legs represent the west and the north. The two back legs represent the east and the south. The head points up, the ears point up, represents up above. The tail points downwards towards Mother Earth. When you put those six directions together, it’s a sacred center. You can pray while you are on your horse. You can think about a lot of things. Some people can remember things that ancestors went through. It’s the horse leading the way, because of its healing power.” From Dakota 38+ 2.
To my way of thinking, there are two types of people in the world. Those who believe natural things of earth, water, and sky have spirit and those who don’t. Those who embrace animism, and those who consider it silly, or perhaps even profane. Everything I’ve learned since the biosurveillance state has rolled out, especially with regards to bioengineering, particle physics and frequency, tells me we are living in a universe of sacred energetics where dynamic communication beyond anything that we can imagine is happening all the time. Onto that network, the authentic cosmic dance, molecular engineers desire to place a counterfeit web. It is our task, for those who take it up, to bear witness, to speak the truth, to put positive affirmations into the world, and to listen for the songs of life sung by the brooks, breezes, birds, and cicadas.
They never asked permission to use their thunderbolts on us.
We cannot give consent.
Our DNA is a fractal antenna signaling the universe.
Life isn’t a computation.
Life isn’t an electrical engineering schematic.
Life isn’t a data dashboard.
Pi used in equations is an inadequate substitute for that which eternally unfolds.
Nature is (mostly) curves. (h/t Sofia Smallstorm)
“A stone is a thought that the earth develops over inhuman time.” Louise Erdrich
Well worth the read. Thank you.
A bleeding impossible burger. OMG! And people will just think it’s so awesome. Bite into a veggie burger that bleeds hemoglobin. And Ginko BioWorks are working with Moderna who is making the operating system for your body. And they are taking the moderna shots. OMG!
When I speak with people about these topics, they just get a glazed look in their eyes and I can only imagine they are thinking I’m a total nutcase. And perhaps I am! For not wanting to become a cyborg terminator robot. Recall that the terminator cyborg was from the future – 2029. (The Terminator – 1984)
But we as humans are not part of the earth. We are better than that. We are not dirt. We will now play God. Not with just a few things but forcefully make every human on the planet into a genetically engineered thing. And leave no control subjects behind. Leave no stone unturned.
Yes, yes, yes, and A.I. will never understand any of this truth or, spirit, humor, nuance, imagination, creativity.
Humanity and the natural world can never be replaced or substituted , it is all sacred down to the rock at your feet.
Everything comes from the Earth, the source of ALL. It is the source that these sorcerers wish to manipulate for their own gains, but the source is beyond their reach.
Are you saying that the Earth is the source of all that is? What about consciousness? Spirit?
Every thing of this Planet is of this Planet, nowhere else. The Planet is everything from the deepest intensity of its spirit to the grossest life form in the physical realm, the physical realm is but a small manifestation of the overall spectra of this Planet as a life form itself. “Consciousness” connects us from the physical to the spiritual.
your talk is very moving. where may I send natural things that I may find? I will share this work daily..
Great piece. As an animist and a witch, I encourage you to embrace the word witchCRAFT, as your rituals are of a kind. There are as many types of the Craft as there are witches. It is the denigrators’ use of the word which is off base. Why let it bother you when you can take the power of the word instead?
“Onto that network, the authentic cosmic dance, molecular engineers desire to place a counterfeit web.”
This reminds me of the Archons of Gnostic mythology. They can only simulate and represent the spirit of counterfeiting. (See “Not in His Image”, by John Lamb Lash)
I love your work, Alison. You have a sharp eye for connections. And yes — ” we are living in a universe of sacred energetics” because it’s God’s creation.
The rest is paganism. The animism is paganism. The witchcraft that Jane encourages you to embrace is pure NWO. It’s no surprise that when you go to globalists stores and public libraries you have 3 bookshelves on animism, witchcraft, spirit guides, tarots, astrology (a booking industry). I know, because I was part of this propaganda machine. I am seeing a lot of people connecting dots geo-politically, historically but NOT culturally.
As an artist, for me, the biggest shock was the CIA sponsored abstract art… and then I looked deeper and understood that whole system of new age, shamanism, eastern demonic cults being presented as enlightening and freeing ,netflix sponsored witchy, transhumanism agenda… It is everywhere.
Look at it. LOOK. It’s all about becoming gods, telling futures, removing the ego (“no, you don’t have to build a strong ego that can actually discern living in this PHYSICAL world”), , psychologizing everything and worshiping creations, stones, cards, pagan worlds.
They hate GOD. This is a war on God. No surprise EU wanted to remove “Christian” and “Christmas” just a couple of days ago.
LOOK closer.
If you think indigenous faith practices of the world are part of a globalist plot, I’m not sure what to tell you. I can’t imagine reading about the children of Carlisle who were removed from their families to be civilized and Christianized, many killed, and make a statement like this. Good luck on your path. It isn’t mine.
Again, I will say anyone who can read about murdered children and assert we should choose your faith path has underestimated me. In fact you show that we are on different paths and I would not choose to join yours. Be well.
Actual paganism, witchcraft, connection with divine self and the all that is is the opposite of what the transhumanists desire, which is artificial control instead of living in harmony with nature. I speak with trees, rocks, the dirt, nature spirits, my deceased relatives, deities, my spirit guides. Our choice is love or fear. I choose love.
Good choice.
✨🥰✨
It it a choice for anyone? Remember: none of us really know, but I would go with faith in God, and not let people’s bad actions be the reason to reject God. We are all one.
Source, All That Is, Divine Love, God. Connection is the opposite of rejection. The definition of God can be as expansive as we are or as narrow as we are. We are ultimately all one, divine eternal consciousnesses, simultaneously having individual third dimensional experiences. Whether to dwell in fear or love is indeed a conscious choice.
I often wonder if the Earth is simply the feminine principle and consciousness is the masculine principle. The patriarchal religions put the spirit world first and look upon material reality (Earth) with disgust. Earth worshippers are spiritually aware, in touch with the elemental realms, but seem to denigrate the mind/intellect. Speaking of the mind, does it not feel like the mind is some sort of technology upgrade from one of the many times our human DNA has been modified? I don’t think the Earth is the source of all that is, that consciousness is just a product of material reality. It goes much bigger than that.
What about the idea that Earth is actually a prison planet with souls being trapped in reincaration loops? That Earth is one big farm where you must feed off the life force energy of other beings in order to survive? Indigenous cultures were certainly spiritually aware, and perhaps felt more at home here on this planet because of their DNA and genetics but they knew they had to kill other beings. The white man figured out how to do it on an industrial scale. But why would anyone look at the harshness and brutality of this world with reverence and worship? I think it’s easy to romanticize nature and indigenous culture when one spends a lot of time insulated from it via technology. But I would never be able to survive out in the wild. Humans have to wear clothes and develop technology and civilization to survive. I swear we’re not actually from here.
I love spending time in nature and communing with the trees and the animals. I despise capitalism and the predator energy that wants to turn everything into a commodity and sell it back to you. But I think that predator energy is actually just part of the food chain system here and it goes even beyond what we can see with our eyes. Angels/Demons and the spirit world are also farming energy and getting us do do their bidding. It goes back to the gnostic idea of the demiurge. What a weird time to be alive.
I don’t see it as a prison planet.
Thank you so much for knowing and expressing these connections, with your mind and your heart. I weep through this information. I weep for how they continue to abuse the body of mother/Sophia/nature by removing her spirit, and denying us connection to the true science of the natural world. When I saw the ingredients of the vaccine, I knew instantly I would never be able to partake. The nanoparticles, the engineered RNA memories, and now they have commanded that the data of every soul in our whole country must be included in an AWS server. You have helped me understand the reason why I instinctually knew how wrong this is. I am only 3% of those left. I personally see spirit in All. Our planet has a soul and we can talk with her. She wants connection with all her creatures. Our Sun has a soul and wraps our solar system in his protection. Our Milky Way has a soul, it is a Seraphim. But this being is broken. It is here the damage is. Beyond this, is more of course. I broke down all religious words ideas and labels to ZERO awhile ago. Abandoned all faith and belief. And built it back starting with my inner beings relationship with the outer natural world and the outer mass consciousness being expressed. It has helped me build back better. I’m glad I have found you and your insights, I’m a bit of a tech/science geek too. And a herbalist etc. And artist. I pray for a gadfly!
I am so with you. Thank you for your eloquent resistance. Its helpful to remember that hubris is always grounded in the end.I plan on staying on the earth, myself.
Thank you again Alison, for your deeper thoughts. I know we are all a part of Nature but some of us are still unaware. Those unaware plotters of the great reset are also a part of the whole and must conform to the only laws there are – the laws of the Universe/Nature – as they will find out before too long.
Blessings on all as we watch and live the transition from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius – another way of seeing what is now unfolding so clearly.
I am re-reading 2 books that echo some of what you are suggesting (or at least what I am hearing). Peter Matthiessen’s Indian Country and John Berger’s Hold Everything Dear. Matthiessen’s stories of the struggles indigenous peoples in North America have everything to do with their connection to the earth, a theme that becomes even more clear by the end in his chapters on Four Corners and To Big Mountain where the earth itself – what power it possesses – is what’s at stake. Similarly, John Berger’s collection, in addition to his invaluable insights on the dead, includes his encounters with Palestinians. One chapter is entitled “Stones.”
I turn to these writers for reminders of my connection to the human race not only through the stories of their almost unimaginable suffering but also through their deeply felt/deeply fought connection to the earth. I am hoping to emulate these peoples’ willingness to fight even in the face of great, heart-shattering loss. Time to saddle up.
By the way, in Ovid’s Metamorphosis, according the on-line Encyclopedia Britannica,
“When Zeus, the king of the gods, resolved to destroy all humanity by a flood, Deucalion constructed an ark in which, according to one version, he and his wife rode out the flood and landed on Mount Parnassus. According to a story found first in the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book I, upon offering a sacrifice and inquiring how to renew the human race, they were ordered to cast behind them the bones of their mother. The couple correctly interpreted this to mean they should throw behind them the stones of the hillside (“mother earth”), and they did so. Those stones thrown by Deucalion became men, while those thrown by Pyrrha became women.”
Sorry about the haters and trolls, Alison. They are projecting their self-division onto you. Be the mountain!
Thanks for your words. Please never stop. You are doing solid work and reaching people.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvvf1eho69kcd4z/MudShadows.pdf?dl=0
this is an excerpt from Carlos Castaneda’s writings, describing the predatorial nature of this universe
a bit long so this is a link to a PDF file
Hope Alison sees it!
also, In Tolkien’s ‘Silmarillion’ there is a description how the Celestials made the path to the Blessed Realm ‘Curved’ at the end of the third age so that men from the mortal regions could no longer navigate there & thus bring disturbance
In Vedic literature there is also the description about how, when Lord Buddha stopped people from executing Vedic ‘sacrifices’ (near the beginning of the KaliYuga / IronAge / 4th age), the Celestials stopped visiting our world to accept what was offered in sacrifice
So that ‘connection’ (at least in the visible world) has been non-existent for the past 5000 yrs.
Someone once explained to me in India that mountains & stones are ‘alive’ but not all of them. The way to tell if a stone is alive is to put pressure on it with a needle; if the stone moves it’s alive.
Howdy, Texan here… Think I’ll address your comment about Rocks not having spirit and point you to an Indian Scientist named J.C. Bose. This man designed instruments to detect responses from plants and ROCKS to show that they all show similar responses to stimuli, the difference is primarily in the amplitude of the expression of the resulting response. Animals are easiest able to EXPRESS their emotion, which is a pure current function. (the juxtaposed side of the pure current function would be the pure voltage function which might be equated with THINKING.) To my mind to think is potential, to act is current. Bose produced several books which show via his apparatus the things he claimed are true. You can still find them on Abebooks.com or alibris.com as used or new print on demand publications. Interesting stuff… the world is not as its presented to be… because that lets those who are doing the presenting TAKE ADVANTAGE of those being presented to. Seek to understand and Understanding will seek you.