Earthday 2019
The mountains are calling and I must go.
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
-John Muir
I have heard that those who celebrate life
walk safely among the wild animals.
-Tao Te Ching, v.50 http://www.wright-house.com/religions/taoism/tao-te-ching.html
All Feral Magick comes from direct experience of the Feral Gnosis and is based on an active will towards integrating with Deep Nature, for without being one with deep nature there can be no Feral consciousness. In Feral Magick we take particular interest in energetic and spirit aspects of flora and fauna, they being the incarnate avatars of the Feral Gnosis, the emissaries of Nature or Mother Earth. However, let me first speak generally about the Feral Gnosis, what it is and how it manifests.
The origin of Feral Gnosis is in the truth that Nature is ALL of manifest divinity, we reinforce this on-going gratitude and understanding of the complete integration of the human being as a living part of Nature with this simple prayer:
TO YOU, FROM YOU, ALL THINGS GAIA
This is no religious prayer, it is a statement of fact. All thing come from Nature, all returns to nature, we can only give gratitude and honor to Her for she does not need us as we need Her. She existed before Homo Sapiens evolved and will likely be here long after we are gone.
The Feral Gnosis and all of Feral Magick is Gaia-consciousness centered. By completely focusing on (and remembering) our true integration with Nature AS Natural beings we open to the Gaic consciousness. Some call this the Tao. Intrinsic to this modality of spiritual work is the absolute and conscious as well as unconscious acceptance of the truth that we are animals, primates to be exact, and that by accessing our innate animal being we gain direct connection to the Will and Love of Nature, our most crucial survival and spiritual Source. We call this animal being the Animalself.
Most human beings have severed themselves form this primary source of being which is also the wellspring of personal and social evolution, and thus we have not progressed spiritually as we have evolved technologically. In fact, the toxic effects of such a separation from Nature and a rejection of the Natural Source of our Animalselves has led to a bitter devolution in humankind, we have more and more access to floods of information but less and less access to real knowledge, wisdom and consciousness. Cutting ourselves off from Nature through such false human constructs as religions, political parties, money-cult, -isms of all kinds and the ubiquitous view that everything is exploitable has left most human beings numb walking atomotons who see Nature as a vague consumable or an opportunity for more mindless entertainment. On Earth Day we pay lip service to the source of ALL while tossing our plastic water bottles out and continue to blindly go about poisoning the very source of our breath, food and water in muddled ignorance and selective blindness, often feeling powerless. This is because we have lost the Feral Gnosis, the instinct and connection with the Earth that guided us for aeons. You are not really powerless, reach out into the wildness about you and in you and let the Feral Gnosis flow and empower you.
No other animal constantly seeks its own destruction, kills with no reason or shits where it eats and sleeps. No plant seeks its own extinction or creates double-binds of expansion and environmental destruction. We do, daily. Unlocking true being is what is called for.
Earth-centered cultures, like animals and plants, generally work within Nature as part of Nature, valuing and accepting and honoring the amazing, nurturing world about them. Most such cultures believe that while areas are tribal homes, ‘land’ itself could not be ‘owned,’ how could it? When such peoples kill to eat, they honor the spirit of the animals or plants that they consume. Their festivals and ceremonies grow out of natural seasons and events such as solstices, equinoxes and lunar changes. All of this is easy to research and verify. Such cultures are and were not idyllic, there was war and egregious aggression and territorialism, but Nature itself was respected by all and wholesale devastation and destruction was uniformly avoided as clearly insane behavior.
The wave of often patriarchal philosophical religions based on dogma and ‘divine revelations’ offered ego- centered belief in human uniqueness and sole divinity of hairless monkeys and were militantly based on the end of harmony between humans and Nature. ‘Primitive’ Earth-centered cultures were attacked and enslaved or just massacred. Some surviving Earth Centered cultures and religions can still be found, and offer some keys to the revival of Feral Magick.
Feral Magick seeks to REMEMBER the ancient primal path of innate primal spirituality by seeking the surviving inner and outer gnosis-threads of Animalself. Existing Natural cultures can help us learn and remember the implementation of such gnosis, but never through cultural appropriation. Our work is to listen and find our own way to remember and find within us the hidden wellspring of Feral gnosis that has been walled off from our core being by civilization, education, religious indoctrination, traditional family and gender roles, work and all the things that go into making up our narrow worldview. This programming and the great toxic lies of death-culture is what Feral Magick seeks to sidestep.
Here are the three Big Lies we must eliminate to attain Feral Gnosis:
- Human beings are NOT animals, we are above and beyond animals.
- Human beings were given dominion of the Earth to do with as we please by a cruel Father God (or political/economic -ism.) There is no crime in destroying nature.
- Human beings are ‘above’ and not part of Natural cycles, we live, we die, we go elsewhere- forever. The World will be destroyed as per scripture by a divine plan, sustainability is unnecessary.
All of these are destructive lies, all of these lies have led us down the wrong path and all of these lies must be both denied and actually ‘deprogrammed’ to directly participate in the Feral Gnosis.
Life is a series of initiatory experiences that bring us into communion with other beings and sources of life that help us reach our full potential and joy. We can not be outside a communion and claim we understand it and have access to it’s mysteries. Things may be learned by studying a way of life or culture or religious philosophy, but unless you are fully immersed and PART of that communion, you are mere studying something OTHER, you are not fully participating, you are not ‘in communion.’ It is ‘they’ not ‘us.’
Animists, Pagans and Pantheists are often the closest to the Feral Gnosis, but those who read about, study, write about other Animist or Pagan traditions AND appropriate or teach about such things without being part of those traditions are like the blind leading the blind unless they are OF that communion. Feral Magick and Feral Gnosis are about direct experience.
Some say they have studied and understand the festivals of nature religions and the agrarian cycle so closely tied to such festivals in many cultures. However, if they have never grown food or been part of a natural lifestyle, can they understand and feel the tides of nature as they ebb and flow through the earth without soil in hands and under feet? Feral Gnosis is about directly removing artificial constructs and directly experiencing the Natural World. This begins with the food we grow and eat, the water we gather and drink and the fresh air we breathe when we live within Nature, in communion with Her.
These things can not be intellectualized. They are not abstract or philosophical.
Feral Magick is the HOWL of the Feral Gnosis erupting from the rapidly disappearing deep wilderness, calling ALL to return to the primal, to return to our Natural home that was abandoned. By growing and finding food and herbs, by communing directly with the co-existent beings of Nature and directly COMMUNICATING with them we can receive gnosis directly from the source of ALL life! While the deep Wilderness is the ever-present temple of the Feral Gnosis, it emerges wherever there is communion between human and Deep Nature in a loving, open manner, whether it be in mountain wilderness or in a densely wooded park.
This leads us to the simple yet difficult path to connecting with the Feral Gnosis. To do so we must remember, reflect, renew and revitalize ourselves and our way of Communion with Nature on the deepest of levels.
Feral Magick envisions three phases of this-
REFLECT AND REJECT FALSE FEARS AND SEPARATION: This entails deprogramming and letting go of intellectual clutter, muck, false-walls and falsehoods that have been dumped on us and accepted as ‘real’ our whole lives. This means becoming CONSCIOUS that we are indeed OF NATURE, breaking through our fear of Nature and ‘tapping into’ the pure experience of Natural gnosis.
REDISCOVER AND REMEMBER OUR ANIMALSELVES: We must find, embrace and activate our Animalselves. This is our most primordial feral, intuitive, unconscious/group unconscious species mind. It exists as part of us and always has. It’s truths are carven on the sacred scrolls of our DNA. Our genes are 98% identical to chimpanzees. We contain ALL animal DNA within us. We have forgotten that all spiritual work and discovery and revelation of any worth involves the exploration, activation and implementation of this gene-gnosis. This is the core methodology of Feral Magick.
REVITALIZE AND RENEW OUR LIVES: The unfolding of Feral Magick as a permanent shift of consciousness and recentering as a Gaic Animlself with options takes time and there is only one Guru of worth: Nature, the wilder the better. The rapid destruction of the most vital fonts of Gaia power and therefore of Feral Gnosis, that is, true wilderness, is the single greatest threat to Feral Magick and thus humanity. As the Muir quote that began this essay says,
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
This is a bedrock truth: To really connect directly with the Feral Gnosis, one must go to the taproot of primal Nature, real wilderness. Here Nature rules supreme, all is in balance and the truth of what is and is not REAl is self evident. One does not need to seek divinity above or without- our true divinity is both reflected and imminent whenever we enter true wilderness alone with an open mind, heart and being. Anytime one does so, with reverence, cell phones off, without speaking, the awe of Gaia will descend with but little meditation and with it the bliss of communion with Nature. When one truly is OPEN to this blessing, the Feral Gnosis begins to whisper, well up from the Wildness and reveal itself. Once one truly feels at home within this communion, real work may begin in remembering and restoring our links with the Feral Gnosis through our Animalself.
Moving past instilled ‘fear of wilderness’ is a key part of this work. Our toxic programming has twisted us into being paranoid of wild nature and the animals that live there. This fear is dumb and evil, it has caused much civilized misery. It has pushed most peoples to withdraw from Nature back to ‘civilization’ out of fear. This fear makes it easier to justify pillaging and raping ‘scary’ Nature, as well as killing all ‘dangerous’ animals. ‘Civilizing’ the wilderness is a pernicious cultural belief, reinforcing the dogma that we OWN Nature and so we can dictate what it is and is not ‘allowed to be’ with no repercussions! Such hubris and arrogance now leads us to self destruction.
Such civilization has used fear of Nature to help suppress and twist our Animalselves into cages of civilized acceptability from an early age! Children who act naturally are called ’wild things’ or ‘animals’ as an insult, as are ‘uncivilized’ peoples. Being an animal is bad in this schema. This language and cultural semiotics forms a huge unconscious block to really being able to reach out and TOUCH and FEEL and EMBRACE the Wildness and animal within. Thus we are cut off from the electric flow of Feral Magick. For most, such ‘wild animalistic’ energy is too sexual, too intense, to visceral, and too out-of-control, to be comfortable for most ‘civilized’ people. It challenges ALL ‘civilized’ beliefs, and taboos which call for ORDER, not CHAOS! A wild animal to most ‘civilized’ people is seen as ‘dangerous’ but those still practicing Nature based religions see such an animal as beautiful, powerful, spiritual beings, and sources of wisdom or even as ancestors or totemic allys.
The prison of much ‘civilization’ leads to unhappiness, depression and neuroses. We seek to dull the pain of isolation from what is naturally vital with mass consumerism, drugs, empty media entertainment and things that simply don’t matter. The powerful gnosis of immersing yourself in a mountain valley hike will bring you more joy than a dozen blockbusters or FB posts or all the junk food in the world.
The Call of Feral Gnosis does not insist on stone-age survivalism or a Muir-like hermit solitude amidst the forests, but it does remind us that we NEED Nature, it provides everything important. We can pretend that our food comes from stores and our water from bottles, but it doesn’t, not really. The goal in life is to be happy, fulfilled, open. For this you need is Nature and an awakened animalself. When you touch the Feral Gnosis gathering herbs or under a redwood, or making wild uninhibited love, you feel alive. This is communion with Nature by BEING of Nature.
All civilizations rise and fall and, one way or the other, we will again be eventually intimately reconnected with Nature, whether we choose to or not. Our species may or may not survive the ecological mess we have created, odds are not great if we do not realign with Gaia. Feral Magick reminds us that there have been MANY similar species on this planet that faded away because of the flow of Nature, including our cousin Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon. They only exist in our DNA markers now. Think about the term ‘Natural selection’ in terms of Gaia,
It is in our own best interest to be PART of Nature and thus join our deep intelligence and, more importantly, intuition and intuitive spiritual being with Nature as part of Nature.
Unlike most ‘animals (not all!) we can cognate more about these things, we can make choices, we can seek interrelation and balance our ‘human’ cognition and ability to separate consciousness from Nature via Self while also immersing ourselves in, connecting with and becoming our Animalself as a unit of Gaia. Shamans and other intuitives in Nature based cultures and religions know and have worked with the Feral Gnosis from the dawn of the emergence of consciousness. We can see many such shapeshifter animal-human forms on cave paintings that are up to 65,000 years old. This reflects on every animal-human hybrid god and goddess form which also emanate the Feral Gnosis. Yet honoring such Feral Magick gods such as Pan or Hathor is not enough, we each must make the pilgrimages to the font of the Feral Gnosis itself. This entails making a sacred retreat into WILDERNESS and we need to do so alone. Some cultures refer tol such pilgrimages as ‘visionquests.’ There are many way to accomplish this initiatory adventure but it always triggers the LETTING GO of all the toxic crap and blockages holding us back from a complete embrace of Nature and the Animalself. Only alone can a person do ‘deep work’ on his or herself, eliminate Fear of Wildness and break through the strong emotional, physical and mental barriers that our programming has built up between us and Nature.
Those peoples who live closer to nature are generally happier and better adjusted, those who accept their Animalself do not generally create false and abstract dogmas, restrictions, taboos, laws and ‘sins’ used to control others. We have drifted into the dangerous and toxic global schema of suppressing and ‘taming’ our Animalselves to makes us ‘civilized.’ Thus our now emerging global ‘civilization’ is heading towards an explosive self destruction that involves both man-made and global environmental disasters which promotes the apocalyptic script set in place by most ‘philosophical’ patriarchal religions and exploitative political/economic -isms.
Most feel powerless to avoid the self-destructive path we are on, but we can each take the truly revolutionary step of removing ourselves and our energy from this death-march by returning to our primal wilderness Mother, to drink from the grail of Feral Gnosis. Such gnosis is free and open to any who make the effort to break through their fears and ego-walls and enter the state of grace in wildness, embraced by true wilderness. It requires no specific faith, belief or ritual, though Feral Magick rituals are powerful tools. All that is necessary is the love and will to LET GO of restrictions and to open your mind, heart and body to the pure power and flow of Nature and so receive the Feral Gnosis directly as it speaks to you. In this way we slowly and deeply rediscover our Animalself as well as our our True Self in communion with Gaia and thus move towards wholeness and truth.
In this way, our individual integration of the Feral Gnosis will help and change the Earth, one ‘human Gaia synapse’ at a time.
Feral Gnosis and Fereal Magick does not offer a complete solution to the problems that beset us, but it will affect a simple yet profound change on a personal and societal level as we fully accept our place as ‘Aware Animalselves’ as part of Nature. We thus literally become and so return to the Eden that has always been here as we awaken to our true Being that has been sleeping. In this way we can manifest the Feral Gnosis that is the play of joyous life.
Knowing the constant, we accept things as they are.
By accepting things as they are, we are impartial.
By being impartial, we are part of the Nature.
-Tao Te Ching quotes, Verse 16 https://terebess.hu/english/tao/mitchell.html (trans. Mitchell)
In harmony with the Tao,
the sky is clear and spacious,
the earth is solid and full,
all creature flourish together,
content with the way they are…
-Tao Te Ching, v.39 https://terebess.hu/english/tao/mitchell.html (trans. Mitchell)