Hello friends,
I have already shared my thoughts on sacred activism and what that means to me. I guess this essay is a refined and more fine tuned version of it. I had multiple attempts lately to write an essay about the early stages of revolution happening now on a collective level and I just couldn't finish any of it. Something didn't sit right with me. . And now I know why.
I know that I was myself very involved in the idea to scream from the top of my lungs on social media that the Earth is burning and we are destroying our home planet. I was invested in pointing fingers at people and leaders and nations whose fault it was to be where we currently are collectively. It felt good to have someone to shame and to blame to cover my own feelings of helplessness and powerlessness to change what I was seeing.
There is a lot of discourse around what the revolution looks like. The idea to fight the system we are trapped in in order to dismantle it seems to be the prevailing one. The idea that we have to pick up the oppressor's tools to break and burn the empire and finally build the new world we all want to live in… And as it is true that every empire built on fear and greed has the seed of its downfall built in it, so it is true that we cannot operate from a place of fear within ourselves if lasting change is what we want
„For the master’s tool will never dismantle the master’s house" Audre Lorde said.
Using the tools of hatred, shame, blame and dwelling in superiority ( even the revolutionists can get caught in the „us-being-better-and-purer-than-the-others“ narrative I see everywhere since last October, when hell broke loose in Palestine) are not what‘s needed. These are the tools of the old order, the system we currently live in. In order to get out and leave it behind for good we need something else.
Dismantling the old world needs our songs, poetry, drum beats, cuddle puddles (for regulated nervous system), mycelium wisdom and laughter from our roots ( and bums)
Recently I learned (thanks @anamshamanicarts ) that the word „radical“ came from Latin and means „rooted“.
And when sacred activists say we need to radicalise the world in order to change it, it means we need to root it. To plant it in the fertile soil of our hearts and souls and live from there.
It is radical to sing and laugh while the old order is crumbling. It is radical to dance and be groovy while mayhem and despair are at their peak. It is radical to not go to work, because we feel the deep need to rest.
There is an African proverb: "The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth"
And our global village IS burning down- torn apart by wars, conflicts, hatred, violence, multiple genocides, and ecocide... from those who felt unwanted, unwelcome and unaccepted.
There is no "otherness" in the natural world. There is no judgement and no comparison in terms of good vs. bad, us vs. them. It is a concept, a structure, a narrative that exists in the human mind only. Everything and everyone has its place in the web of Life- from the most microscopic fungi in the deep oceanic valleys to the galaxies and supernovas in open space- and is a needed part of Creation's story.
In her essay "I Will Not Be Purified" , Strand reflects on how the concept of composting- embracing the dirt, the fungi, bacteria and organic waste- becomes a powerful metaphor for personal healing and ecological health. Instead of "cleaning" she proposes "composting" as a way to turn pain, trauma, and illness into fertile ground for creativity and renewal.
Additionally, in her interviews, such as her conversation on Embodiment matters, she sees decay (and the role mycelium and fungi play in composting organic and inorganic matter) as a form of collaboration that supports regeneration, offering a model for how humans can engage more sustainably with the world.
Based on my lived experience, allowing and surrendering to the process of composting and decay within myself in order to create fertile ground for the new to come, has been revolutionary in itself. Decay not as an ending, but as an integral part of a cycle that fosters new growth and connections. There is no fighting, and no rebelion (at least not in the sense of "to oppose by force an established government or ruling authority"), there is only surrender and softening; endless softening into the natural process of death to use what's no longer alive as fertilizer for new life. To turn it into "good soil" as Strand says.
When we soften and lay down our pain, our struggle, our trauma on the compost heap for regeneration, the process of composting happens naturally, almost effortlessly.
So what I see as our way out of the mess and the rubble of the old systems and empires is to willingly allow, and offer, and bless our shit to be used as good fertilizer for the soil to come. The revolution won't arrive as an external coup of leadership and power, but as a soft surrender to the cyclical forces of nature- Life/Death/Rebirth.
And I can’t do it on my own. It is a very intimate and personal , but also a collective process that needs to happen. I need and want you to be there too. Where we thank and bless, while releasing the old. Where we sing our imperfect songs and recite our unfinished poems to honour what no longer serves us, but once did, to protect us from harm.
The process of decay and rest feels peaceful in my body, organic. Like an embrace from the dark soil underneath our feet.
And Nature has such wisdom and intelligence to guide us through it.
Tis the season, my dears. 🫶🏼
Love
Hrissi 🦝