Keepers of Water

Among our Potawatomi people, women are the Keepers of Water. We carry the sacred water to ceremonies and act on its behalf. “Women have a natural bond with water, because we are both life bearers,” my sister said. “We carry our babies in internal ponds and they come forth into the world on a wave of water. It is our responsibility to safeguard the water for all our relations.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Photo: Kuorpak, Sápmi, 2018

Cinnamon

It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon.

Sarah Addison Allen

Photo: Kuorpak, Sápmi, 2018

Home of Gaetir

Home of Gaetir.

Photo: Kvikkjokk, Sweden, 2018

Autumn magic

Autumn magic.

Photo: Kuorpak, Sápmi, 2018

Witch

I myself have seen this woman draw the stars from the sky; she diverts the course of a fast-flowing river with her incantations; her voice makes the earth gape, it lures the spirits from the tombs, send the bones tumbling from the dying pyre. At her behest, the sad clouds scatter; at her behest, snow falls from a summer’s sky.

Tibullus

Photo: Self-portrait, Sintra, 2018

A Danza das Ánimas

:A Danza das Ánimas:

Abro os meus brazos a vós, pois somos os que ficarán, para loitar canda vós, vivir ou morrer.

by Sangre de Muerdago

Photo: Karats Lake, Sápmi, 2018

Os meus ósos

Os misterios que se agochan nos teus bosques,
na beira dos teus regatos,
na corteza das túas árbores, no solpor.
As historias dos carballos e os raposos,
e as túas peles enrugadas,
mais rezumas humildade, sen descanso.
Estragada, abusada e castigada,
polas xentes que acolliches,
esgotaron as túas forzas, teu amor.
Compañeira de aturuxos afogados,
de granito e de madeira,
que iluminas os meus pasos coa túa maxia.
Miña amiga, esvaneceste entre fumes,
xa cavaron a túa tumba,
rodeada de eucaliptos e petróleo.
Cando morra, eu ofrézoche os meus ósos,
que alimenten a túa terra,
para que dela broten novos bidueiros.

Unha Ofrenta de Ósos by Sangre de Muerdago

Photo: Self-portrait, Sintra, 2018

Bless the darkness

In the end, bless the darkness, hold the light, because the two aren’t divisible.

S. Kelley Harrell

Photo: Self-portrait, 2018

Rewild

Rather than merely trying to immerse in nature, Homo sapiens can again become part of the whole of nature —inseparable from the ecological fabric of place. Despite the dominant culture, the potential hardships, and difficulty learning with so few elders, we must re-wild to heal the separation that has occurred between humans and nature. It is the very rebirth of an eco-centered human spirit that is at stake… We must be fearless in our pursuit of wildness.

Arthur Haines, A New Path

Photo: Kuorpak, Sápmi, 2018

Espiritos

sangue dos nosos devanceiros,
espallada no campo a coitelo,
os seus ollos ben cheos de bágoas,
entendendo que morreron para nada.
os espiritos xa non están con nós,
esquecimos a nosas nais e pais,
camiñaban cos pes espidos na herba,
posuidores da vella sabedoria.

Soterrados Baixo as Pedras by Sangre de Muerdago

Photo: Serra da Estrela, 2018

Fire is.

In my biology class, we’d talked about the definition of life: to be classified as a living creature, a thing needs to eat, breathe, reproduce, and grow. (…) Fire, by that definition, is vibrantly alive. It eats everything from wood to flesh, excreting the waste as ash, and it breathes air just like a human, taking in oxygen and emitting carbon. Fire grows, and as it spreads, it creates new fires that spread out and make new fires of their own. Fire drinks gasoline and excretes cinders, it fights for territory, it loves and hates. Sometimes when I watch people trudging through their daily routines, I think that fire is more alive than we are–brighter, hotter, more sure of itself and where it wants to go. Fire doesn’t settle; fire doesn’t tolerate; fire doesn’t ‘get by.’
Fire does.
Fire is.

Dan Wells

Photo: Calvão, 2017

Recovery of our own ancestral wisdom

Animism is the way humanity has been deeply connected to the land and its seasonal cycles for millennia, in rapport and conversation with the animals, plants, elements, Ancestors and earth spirits. The opposite of animism is the “cult of the individual” so celebrated in modern society, and the loss of the animist worldview is at the root of our spiritual disconnect and looming ecological crisis. Human beings are just one strand woven into the complex systems of Earth Community, and the animistic perspective is fundamental to the paradigm shift, and the recovery of our own ancestral wisdom.

Pegi Eyers

Photo: Sintra, 2018

Going to the mountains is going home

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.

John Muir

Photo: Serra da Estrela, 2018

Someone

Someone. Fern.

Photo: Sintra, 2018

Aqui xacerei, durmirei

Xordas fican as miñas orellas, cegos fican os meus ollos,
eu que baixei, eu que baixei,
coas meigas os bosques e alí escoitei.
Xordas fican as miñas orellas, cegos fican os meus ollos,
eu que subin o alto dos cumios,
e alí observei, ali observei.
Óso e madeira, pedra e trisquel,
coñecín os que moran no alto das árbores,
os que corren espidos na neve do inverno,
os que vagan nas sombras cantando unha canción.
Óso e madeira, pedra e trisquel,
coñecin os que rin en fronte o perigo,
aqueles que poden agocharse baixo as pedras,
tamén os que teñen lume nos ollos.
Mais nada que facer, non comprenderei, e aqui xacerei, durmirei.

Xordas by Sangre de Muerdago

Photo: Self-portrait, Sintra, 2018

Songs of our Ancestors

The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children.

Philip Carr-Gomm

Photo: Self-portrait, 2016

Nothing exists outside of nature

There is no transcendent creator in animism, no god who set the clocks ticking and decides which ones to fix when they falter; nothing exists outside of nature. In other words, my philosophy does not require that I believe in something I cannot experience directly.

Dance is ritual

If theater is ritual, then dance is too… It’s as if the threads connecting us to the rest of the world were washed clean of preconceptions and fears. When you dance, you can enjoy the luxury of being you.

Paulo Coelho

Photo: Self-Portrait, 2016

Longo Camiño de Desaprendizaxe

eu quixérame perder no mundo das pedras que falan entre elas, e ficar o seu carón.
eu quixera viaxar coas águias das montañas e voar eternamente, pois eu xa non sinto nada.
eu quixera retornar ó tempo en que era neno, e perderme nos bosques para non me contaminar.
mais quixérame sumerxir coas sireas nos mares e aprender as melodias da liberdade.
eu quixérame fundir na fragua do ferreiro, e tornarme nun coitelo, e xustiza facer.
mais ainda que asi fose a escuridade caeu, e todo cubriu, eu xa non sinto nada.
mais a lúa guiarame nos camiños escuros, levarame de volta o útero materno.
e ali lembrarei a pureza esquecida, afogada e asolagada por homes e mulleres.

Longo Camiño de Desaprendizaxe by Sangre de Muerdago
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Photo: Self-portrait, Sintra, 2018

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.

Edward Abbey

Model: Pedro Cipriano, 2016