Seeds, Lore and the Rising Wind
Taking Stock of a Slow-Growing Vision
Dear Reader,
I turn forty this weekend, and I suppose that’s as good an excuse as any to take stock for a moment, and to thank you for being here.
There are plenty of corners of the internet and many millions of voices you could be tuning into, but apparently you’re finding something at Seeds from the World Tree that’s worth your time, and in some cases, your money. Thank you for being here to all of you, and most especially to paid subscribers. Your support is deeply appreciated.
I’ll do my utmost in these pages to keep digging deep and to keep going against the (increasingly shrill and chaotic) cultural grain. And I hope to have a surprise or two for you in the weeks to come.
Now I’d like to pause and look back at this little project, which in its current incarnation began two years ago in the wake of a walking pilgrimage in central Italy.
In a nutshell, that trip helped me to see my calling in terms of collecting seeds, even as (no, especially as) fires blaze on the horizon and smoke fills the air.
What kind of seeds, you ask? Seeds of wisdom, one might say. Old germ plasm; the homely-seeming technology of our grandmothers’ grandfathers. Life-enhancing practices, from a healing tradition passed down by wandering monks in Korea to the cross-cultural art of coaxing meaning from the seemingly random.
The idea is to become a repository of lore. That’s a word I’ve always liked, lore, with its Tolkienesque grandeur—but I don’t mean the dead kind. What I’m interested in is lore that can live through, inform and shape us.
After all the best way to ‘save’ seeds is to grow them out and let them make new ones.
It’s not lost on me that this whole project is rather unfashionable. I don’t know whether we’re teetering on the precipice of a full-scale planetary crisis or already enduring one, but I see that people are mostly too harried, threatened or confused to pay much attention to ancestral ways, subtle arts or innovations that are quite literally ancient. (Never mind that what’s truly ancient turns out to be timeless: the cutting edge is circular.) For the most part we’re all too distracted by pursuits more marketable than old wisdom traditions. We’re busy being buffeted by the noise of headlines and the ever-shifting winds of social media.
At the risk of waxing curmudgeonly, I’ll say that no matter how digitally-mediated our lives become, there’s no substitute for earth, for minerals, for these bodies of ours. No amount of knowledge can stand in for wisdom, and wisdom is a rooted thing. Wisdom sits in places. Growing slowly, bearing fruit in its season. Tolkien (who keeps inserting himself here): “All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.”
Deep-rooted things don’t fly on the wind, either. They don’t make much noise. But they do endure. They nourish and anchor and hold true. They’re completely indifferent to the bluster of fashion, and sooner or later they’ll be needed.
On the cusp of forty, I make no claim to have a firm hold on wisdom. At best, I hope that I’m learning to recognize wisdom when I see it. When I do, I aim to share it here. Thanks for being on the receiving end. And thanks for supporting this attempted bridge-graft across an especially rough period in time.
Please, feel free to join the conversation. Comments always welcome. Hit us with links or leads on whatever roots and seeds have been sustaining you through the long winter and the promise of another heated year to come.
And if you know (or are) a writer you think might like to contribute a guest post, feel free to put them in touch. I’m wanting to open this forum more widely and to welcome new voices who are in resonance with the project as a whole. I can be reached at jedwardian@gmail.com.
A note on a some recent off-site publications:
Paradoxical Prometheus: The Drama and Dharma of J. Robert Oppenheimer just went up on The Mountain Astrologer blog. The astrology gets a little technical but I think it’s worth a look even for the layperson.
Here’s a non-technical article on Natural Sleep Remedies
And brand new one one Gentle, Restorative Care Post-Radiation treatment
For those seeking gentle, restorative medical care or interested in my Wayfinding work to help folks navigate change with grace and avoid blunders in life and career, I’m over at JonathanHadasEdwards.com.