I began reading Terrance McKenna during the mid-Seventies and continue to this day. Additionally, I often listen to various videos of McKenna speaking against a background of dub-step music. His essential ideas are familiar to my experience, sort of like old friends.
Fantastic! I agree about the old friends of his ideas and especially, for me, the magic of how he delivered those ideas is a familiar comfort. In many ways, I view McKenna as a modern iteration of a shaman, doing precisely what he talked about, bringing back thoughts and ideas and wrapping the whole in story, a story which makes us reassess our own worldview, ask questions and seek answers ourselves. Quite a powerful gift, when you think about it.
“temptations of caves, whispers of wells and springs, messages from marshes, receipts from rivers, murmurous mountains,”
You have my vote for all of those - except perhaps marshes of which there are none on the hill if course!
But rivers and springs and wells… I will truly look forward to…
A wonderful and informative post Alex, as always you know your subject in such detail! I’m going to have a think about how you can work around the cross posting although as you say and we’ve already discussed, it’s not going to be easy!
No! It's not going to be easy! I'm sure there's something to be done, however.
Today, I'm leaning more to a return to doors, simply to break up the watery theme a little, but I'm still unsure! Marshes will probably have to wait anyway, as I'd like a few more photos first (my marsh days were pre-digital cameras, so I have only a few decent images, perhaps not enough for ten posts). To be honest, having to choose between these options, and all the thoughts which accompany them, is not the world's worst problem!
This is so true Alex, I often delete whole paragraphs where I feel I’m moaning about problems that in reality, when I think of all that’s going on in the world, seem so trivial and selfish…
Excellent, thought-provoking writing, Alexander. Thank you for the nudge back to ‘The Frayed Atlantic Edge’ by David Gange … history has become written from cities looking outwards when in fact history was made in those edgelands. The city dwellers (the money-makers) plundered what they needed (including humans) and abandoned them when the well ran dry. ‘Barren’ reflects the capitalist’s perspective … barren because of its lack of money-making resource. Those of us who see beauty in softer hues and untamed (unexploited) wildness rail against the lazy descriptions.
I really feel we stand at a juncture where we have a chance to slow and reverse all that damage and exploitation, yet I also know it is sadly likely to take a lot more than a number of books or letters mentioning and discussing the subject. Things sometimes feel like they are shuddering, our time on this ridiculously wonderful planet of ours essential to the survival of the species yet, sometimes, all I want to do is say 'look at this sphagnum moss, isn't it remarkable?' Still, I'm always hopeful, as you know, and I keep acting on that hope being, as you so accurately say yourself, that pebble in the pond.
Thanks again, I always really appreciate your thoughts and comments.
Cladh Hallan is quite a place. I visited it several years ago as part of an archaeology conference with Mike Parker Pearson leading the tour. (My overriding memory of him, however, is of coronation chicken running down his beard, lol).
It was quite special, working there. The fact only a fraction of the entire site was excavated, a fraction which made such interesting discoveries, is quite remarkable (everyone remembers the mummies, but the environmental work on the preserved floors is incredible too).
And that sounds entirely on-brand for MPP! I remember when Channel Four were there, filming a documentary on the site, the producer took one look at Mike, with his holey, stained and ragged t-shirt and made the camera man take off his smart down jacket and give it to him! MPP never seemed to feel the wind, or rain, or cold, either, he'd just wear the same things every day, no matter the weather, seemingly nothing got in the way of him and the archaeology. I was lucky enough to also go on a field trip visiting the Stonehenge environs with him--got so much more out of that than reading about the sites and landscape.
This post was another real pleasure to read, as I'm discovering Alexander. Thanks. So much to chew on and agree with.Funny isn't it, how there’s a ways an imposed hierarchy forced onto nature, so that lichens and moss and even grass are demoted as tedious or un-sexy, as if equatorial diversity is the standard and anything less is “barren”. Although, I agree with you, it's mostly, as you say, a poor use of descriptive.
I love your idea of the dead calling out as they are ungraven by the behaviour of the living. What a great image. It landed really nicely with me.
I know what that guy from The Shamen meant. I’ve always thought of it as our (so-called) civilisation having tripped and fallen, but is yet to hit the ground. We are living through the strange moment where we are sailing through the air but have not crashed and felt the pain.
Thanks for mentioning Terence McKenna. I'm not surprised you got into McKenna (sorry, I don’t mean to be presumptuous - what do I know?), but I’ve always loved him. Lots of mad nonsense sure, although (for me) it really doesn’t matter if (a lot of) what he says is pseudo-science (it is), because (for me) he’s really an old school storyteller, and that beautiful human skill encourages ones own mind to get into gear and start thinking. It’s never been about being taking on facts (as is currently expected), McKenna’s strength is to get you to think for yourself through his astounding narrative. He is the fireside speaker and I love him for that.
Great post. Really got me thinking and feeling. Thanks Alexander.
Many thanks for this, I really appreciate your comment.
I always feel sorry for lichen and moss (and liverworts!), they never seem to hit the big time as they should. That said, when I used to frequent Instagram more often, there were some excellent appreciative accounts there. (I think I've posted my favourite lichen on Notes before, the map lichen, I'll have to dig that photo out again to share once more!)
Your description of civilisation having tripped, but yet to hit the ground is superbly apt. I think we stumbled through much of last century but had a chance to catch ourselves, to change everything, in the early nineties, as Eastern Europe opened up, the USSR dissolved, etcetera, but that really didn’t fit the narrative the powers that be required. All that hope I remember, watching the Berlin wall fall on TV, all those songs from that era, smothered and buried as quickly as possible.
You are also spot on with your description of Terence McKenna. An old school storyteller indeed—I have always viewed him as somewhat shamanic, someone who did exactly what he said the shaman does, going beyond the normal world and bringing back ideas and thoughts and, as you say, getting us all to think for ourselves. He is certainly greatly missed.
Thanks again, I really love this insightful comment, and I’m so glad you enjoyed the post.
I began reading Terrance McKenna during the mid-Seventies and continue to this day. Additionally, I often listen to various videos of McKenna speaking against a background of dub-step music. His essential ideas are familiar to my experience, sort of like old friends.
Fantastic! I agree about the old friends of his ideas and especially, for me, the magic of how he delivered those ideas is a familiar comfort. In many ways, I view McKenna as a modern iteration of a shaman, doing precisely what he talked about, bringing back thoughts and ideas and wrapping the whole in story, a story which makes us reassess our own worldview, ask questions and seek answers ourselves. Quite a powerful gift, when you think about it.
“temptations of caves, whispers of wells and springs, messages from marshes, receipts from rivers, murmurous mountains,”
You have my vote for all of those - except perhaps marshes of which there are none on the hill if course!
But rivers and springs and wells… I will truly look forward to…
A wonderful and informative post Alex, as always you know your subject in such detail! I’m going to have a think about how you can work around the cross posting although as you say and we’ve already discussed, it’s not going to be easy!
No! It's not going to be easy! I'm sure there's something to be done, however.
Today, I'm leaning more to a return to doors, simply to break up the watery theme a little, but I'm still unsure! Marshes will probably have to wait anyway, as I'd like a few more photos first (my marsh days were pre-digital cameras, so I have only a few decent images, perhaps not enough for ten posts). To be honest, having to choose between these options, and all the thoughts which accompany them, is not the world's worst problem!
This is so true Alex, I often delete whole paragraphs where I feel I’m moaning about problems that in reality, when I think of all that’s going on in the world, seem so trivial and selfish…
Me too! Yet sometimes I also think that those problems, those day-to-day issues, are also what unite us as humankind, so it is a fine line to balance!
Loved this and really looking forward to sharing the ancestral piece on Monday.
Thank you! I'm very much looking forward to sharing your piece too!
Excellent, thought-provoking writing, Alexander. Thank you for the nudge back to ‘The Frayed Atlantic Edge’ by David Gange … history has become written from cities looking outwards when in fact history was made in those edgelands. The city dwellers (the money-makers) plundered what they needed (including humans) and abandoned them when the well ran dry. ‘Barren’ reflects the capitalist’s perspective … barren because of its lack of money-making resource. Those of us who see beauty in softer hues and untamed (unexploited) wildness rail against the lazy descriptions.
Powerful words. Food for thought.
Thank you so much for this.
I really feel we stand at a juncture where we have a chance to slow and reverse all that damage and exploitation, yet I also know it is sadly likely to take a lot more than a number of books or letters mentioning and discussing the subject. Things sometimes feel like they are shuddering, our time on this ridiculously wonderful planet of ours essential to the survival of the species yet, sometimes, all I want to do is say 'look at this sphagnum moss, isn't it remarkable?' Still, I'm always hopeful, as you know, and I keep acting on that hope being, as you so accurately say yourself, that pebble in the pond.
Thanks again, I always really appreciate your thoughts and comments.
Cladh Hallan is quite a place. I visited it several years ago as part of an archaeology conference with Mike Parker Pearson leading the tour. (My overriding memory of him, however, is of coronation chicken running down his beard, lol).
It was quite special, working there. The fact only a fraction of the entire site was excavated, a fraction which made such interesting discoveries, is quite remarkable (everyone remembers the mummies, but the environmental work on the preserved floors is incredible too).
And that sounds entirely on-brand for MPP! I remember when Channel Four were there, filming a documentary on the site, the producer took one look at Mike, with his holey, stained and ragged t-shirt and made the camera man take off his smart down jacket and give it to him! MPP never seemed to feel the wind, or rain, or cold, either, he'd just wear the same things every day, no matter the weather, seemingly nothing got in the way of him and the archaeology. I was lucky enough to also go on a field trip visiting the Stonehenge environs with him--got so much more out of that than reading about the sites and landscape.
This post was another real pleasure to read, as I'm discovering Alexander. Thanks. So much to chew on and agree with.Funny isn't it, how there’s a ways an imposed hierarchy forced onto nature, so that lichens and moss and even grass are demoted as tedious or un-sexy, as if equatorial diversity is the standard and anything less is “barren”. Although, I agree with you, it's mostly, as you say, a poor use of descriptive.
I love your idea of the dead calling out as they are ungraven by the behaviour of the living. What a great image. It landed really nicely with me.
I know what that guy from The Shamen meant. I’ve always thought of it as our (so-called) civilisation having tripped and fallen, but is yet to hit the ground. We are living through the strange moment where we are sailing through the air but have not crashed and felt the pain.
Thanks for mentioning Terence McKenna. I'm not surprised you got into McKenna (sorry, I don’t mean to be presumptuous - what do I know?), but I’ve always loved him. Lots of mad nonsense sure, although (for me) it really doesn’t matter if (a lot of) what he says is pseudo-science (it is), because (for me) he’s really an old school storyteller, and that beautiful human skill encourages ones own mind to get into gear and start thinking. It’s never been about being taking on facts (as is currently expected), McKenna’s strength is to get you to think for yourself through his astounding narrative. He is the fireside speaker and I love him for that.
Great post. Really got me thinking and feeling. Thanks Alexander.
Many thanks for this, I really appreciate your comment.
I always feel sorry for lichen and moss (and liverworts!), they never seem to hit the big time as they should. That said, when I used to frequent Instagram more often, there were some excellent appreciative accounts there. (I think I've posted my favourite lichen on Notes before, the map lichen, I'll have to dig that photo out again to share once more!)
Your description of civilisation having tripped, but yet to hit the ground is superbly apt. I think we stumbled through much of last century but had a chance to catch ourselves, to change everything, in the early nineties, as Eastern Europe opened up, the USSR dissolved, etcetera, but that really didn’t fit the narrative the powers that be required. All that hope I remember, watching the Berlin wall fall on TV, all those songs from that era, smothered and buried as quickly as possible.
You are also spot on with your description of Terence McKenna. An old school storyteller indeed—I have always viewed him as somewhat shamanic, someone who did exactly what he said the shaman does, going beyond the normal world and bringing back ideas and thoughts and, as you say, getting us all to think for ourselves. He is certainly greatly missed.
Thanks again, I really love this insightful comment, and I’m so glad you enjoyed the post.