When it comes to laying out a vision for rewilding in our own communities I’ve found a few visions inspiring.
This one is by Jon Young and Wilderness Awareness School*:
Our vision is to reach out with our teachings until there's a related nature awareness school in every region, a mentor in every neighborhood, a naturalist in every family and compassion for each other and the earth in every heart.
This is one is by The College of Mythic Cartography in an essay titled: Breaking the Spell IV: The Village Philosopher*:
I read a book not too long ago called the Village Herbalist, which advocated the renewal of old traditions of herbalism, having an herbalist in each home who could deal with day-to-day needs, one in each village who could deal with the rarer and more acute medical needs, and one in each region who dealt with the most rare and most subtle of medical dilemmas. None of the different herbalists had more “expertise†than another, they in fact simply had different needs that they served.I’d like to encourage the same with animist inquiry. We have to relearn how to think, relearn how to observe. We have to rewild our philosophies. We have to take back authority over our bodyminds away from our domineering culture, in order that we can build lives (and a new culture) that actually works well for us. A Village Philosopher could act as a cheerleader, an inspiration for such a difficult and (let’s face it) intimidating act. Sometimes people just need a role-model to accelerate positive change in their own lives.
In the next post, I’d like to talk about an underdeveloped skill, in modern days, that a village philosopher would need to revive.
And of course the vision The New Tribal Revolution* that was layed out by Daniel Quinn in My Ishmael:
1. The revolution won't take place all at once. It's not going to be any sort of coup d'état like the French or Russian revolutions.
It will be achieved incrementally, by people working off each other’s ideas. This is the great driving innovation of the Industrial Revolution.
It will be led by no one. Like the Industrial Revolution, it will need no shepherd, no organizer, no spearhead, no pacesetter, no mastermind at the top; it will be too much for anyone to lead.
It will not be the initiative of any political, governmental, or religious body - again, like the Industrial Revolution. Some will doubtless want to claim to be its supporters and protectors; there are always leaders ready to step forward once others have shown the way.
It has no targeted end point. Why should it have an end point?
It will proceed according to no plan. How on earth could there be a plan?
It will reward those who further the revolution with the coin of the revolution. In the Industrial Revolution, those who contributed much in the way of product wealth received much in the way of product wealth; in the New Tribal Revolution, those who contribute much in the way of support will receive much in the way of support.
*1.http://www.wildernessawareness.org/about_wilderness_awareness_school.html
*2. http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2007/03/07/breaking-the-spell-iv-the-village-philosopher/
*3. http://appalachian.pbwiki.com/New%20Tribal%20Revolution
Take care,
Curt