Introductions

Welcome Zach and Nathan.

lol, Nathan I thought you were already on here. :slight_smile:

Welcome Erica! Thanks for the nice introduction.

We definitely welcome spirituality conversations here. Under the “Village Skills” section you’ll see a board called “Spiritual Technology.”

Looking forward to hearing more of what you have learned!

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Greetings, everyone. My name is James Williams. I am 26 years old, and I have autism. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in the state of Illinois. Autism refers to a disability that causes impairments that impact your life, but appear at first glace as very invisible.

In addition, I have now pursued my dream in life as an advocate for people with autism.

I post here, however, not just to introduce myself, but to apologize for some actions that I engaged in on this forum approximately seven years ago. I look back at the error of my ways and realize that, many years ago, I was going through a difficult identity crisis and underwent a nervous breakdown.

Seven years ago, in 2007, I joined this forum under the name “Dickens.” I chose this name randomly. When I joined the forum, I was going through a difficult time in my life. This time emerged from the age of 14, when I sank into a deep depression at the age of 14 resulting from a fear of death. This depression led me to research many issues on the Internet. Through this quest, I found Ran Prieur’s website, which linked me into the Tribe of Anthropik’s website. I learned about rewilding through the Tribe of Anthropik, and from there I learned about this forum.

The idea of civilization’s collapse also put me into a deep depression and accelerated the breakdown. The idea that everything I knew in life, my entire identity as a person, the culture I grew up with, and the language that I spoke was itself an illusion that deviated from reality and terrified me. Feeling like I was fighting for my own emotional survival, I started to challenge and argue with many individuals in the rewilding community. I won’t name names here, however, out of respect for those individuals.

Not knowing how to behave, however, I used several names and sock puppets to argue those points—many of them, but the primary ones consisted of “aksum,” “Terra,” “peaknickster,” “Taylor,” and “Dickens.” I did not know what sock puppetry was, and again, I was only a teenager at the time, a teenager with a disability. I would lie when asked when I was Taylor, not knowing what to say and still wanting to write, not knowing the proper way to discuss things. I apologize for my actions and feel sorry for them. The truth is, I was all of those people–one person, by the name of James. Finally, in 2007, I had to ask myself to be banned from several forums and website because I could not control myself and it was too painful for me to continue writing. I stopped writing as “Dickens.” I also spent the next 3 years completing high school (I had been homeschooled prior to then due to my autism).

Later, in 2010, when I finished high school at age 21, I sank into another deep depression. I started writing my thoughts at the College of Mythic Cartography, and Willem wrote back, saying things that helped me get through my depression. I also got very physically sick, and realized I had to part ways with the community, knowing I needed to return to apologize at some time.

Five years later, after going through years of soul searching and starting my adult life, I realize the time has come to return and apologize for the error of my ways. I realize now that at that time, I was naive. I thought that people were wrong because I could not understand them. And at the time, I was a teenager not knowing what sock puppetry was. Today, I realize that my mistakes lay in a lack of understanding. I struggled with understanding much of what was said here, and could not acknowledge that at the time. I realize now that much of my disagreements and arguments that things were wrong lay in a lack of understanding what I was arguing against, again, a part of my autism. I may not understand what is said here, but at least, I hope, I have the knowledge to at least not argue with others here and to accept differences I may not understand.

With this, I wish everyone the best in their journey. But I wanted to be honest. I realize the error of my ways in creating multiple identities and arguing on this forum. In addition, my Dickens account is based on an E-mail address that no longer exists (so I cannot log back onto my account even if I wanted to). I want everyone to know that my true identity is not entirely Dickens, but a confused young man named James Williams. A young man who works in the autism world, and who travels nationwide teaching awareness on autism. Dickens is a part of my past that I hope to move on from.

At this point, my autism forces me to remain in civilization despite the struggles I face in current society. At the same time, though, I have decided to rejoin under my real name so that others can know my true identity, and to move on from my mistakes. I also hope to learn about what others are doing to move beyond a culture that I personally cannot withdraw from, but at least can support others who are doing so. I also realize, in addition, how much I misunderstood so many people here on this forum. I have no intention on telling anyone what to do—just to learn and move on from my past.

I also apologize for the misunderstanding that I felt when I was a teenager. Being autistic, you live in a world of authority figures–where people demand things from you and assert that you MUST act a certain way or else you cannot live. I mistook this group as that group as well, and challenged people for that reason. I felt I was fighting for my life. I completely agree with Jason on another post here that we can go feral, even if we are never wild again. Personally, I believe that with my autism, I probably cannot go feral either. But that acknowledgment–that we can never truly be wild again–has helped me realize the error of my ways in understanding this group. I wish you all the best in your efforts to pursue your dreams.

Finally, I will say that my work in the Autism world has brought me into another community–the community of Indigenous Native Americans in the state of Wisconsin. The state of Illinois, where I live, does not have many rewilding communities. But up North, in the state of Wisconsin, a large Native community exists. This community has accepted me and helped me understand many beliefs of rewilding in ways that I can accept. It has also helped me pursue my dream in life as well.

With that, I wish all of those here the best. I apologize for my actions as a teenager. And I personally would like to thank Willem for helping me cope with my breakdown five years ago. And Willem, I may still comment on the College of Mythic Cartography. But I feel as if, although I may still read your insights, it is best to formally withdraw from this group. This group is not for everyone, and I’m sure we all can agree with that.

Civilization may isolate many people, but my Community and Family still lives within Civilization. I shall stay with my Community and hopefully, do what I must do if and when a collapse occurs. Good luck with your efforts!

At the same time, however, it is my perception that my own experiences are vastly different from the people in this group. In the end, I feel that I must formally withdraw from the group. I shall formally withdraw but with greater enlightenment and awareness. And I shall remain in the Indigenous communities of Wisconsin, a community where I feel accepted and shine in my career and in my work.

Hi everyone,

This is a re-introduction. I used to post here with great frequency and was a moderator for a while.

In the past five/six years I have changed a lot! It’s actually kind of fascinating to realize how much you can change over a few years, especially when internally you feel the same and retain a lot of the same basic beliefs.

Even though deep down I maintain a very similar worldview, the way I have responded to my beliefs has changed, which in turn has driven changes in decisions I have made in life.

Unfortunately, I am sad to report, I have not changed for the better. I have not been able to unlock myself from patterns of pathological thinking. I have stuffed down all of my feelings about what I think is truthful and real, and I have become deeply cynical, and emotionally infantile (as a result of stuffing my feelings, and also in order to hide the cynicism (which feels very ugly to me, not something I want to have shining out into the world)). I only allow myself certain feelings in an effort to be non-offensive and non-confrontational. I can’t stand faking but I keep doing it.

It is strange, but looking back on it, the most honest I’ve been with other people has been on this forum, and then once I got comfortable here, I started a façade here too. Then it was no longer satisfying and I quit posting. However I have not found a better alternative and my quality of life has worsened and I have become more entangled in rage and disappointment since that time.

Somehow in the past 5 years, I have managed to work my way up a corporate ladder and I have a shitty computer job that keeps getting shittier (and more boring yet more bewildering), while astonishingly the pay keeps getting better. My job is to write project management plans and risk management plans and quality management plans and earned value management reports, which nobody in the company ever reads or uses after I write them. I do the bare minimum or less, and I sometimes actively participate in individual acts of sabotage at work (as I am doing now, writing here instead of working - SO MUCH MORE PRODUCTIVE than anything I could do at work).

I will be billing the time I am wasting right now to a client. I have begun to suspect that the only reason why they promote me is so that they can bill clients more money for the time I spend writing these plans and reports which nobody ever reads.

I was going to an expensive therapist who cost $500/month who would not engage in conversation when I tried to talk about how the civilized human environment was damaging everything and everyone. Yet I stuck with this therapist for 2 years. I also refused to submit insurance claims (maybe I was being overly paranoid, but I didn’t want to have an “official” record of having received mental health treatment) so I racked up $10k in credit card debt. Now I am trying to pay it off by staying in this job. So far, I have been able to make a dent in this debt, and at my current rate I should have it all paid off in a year. Then there will be another $4k in student loans, and then I don’t know what I will do next but I am certainly not keeping this job. I constantly think about quitting. But rent keeps going up and up, and I don’t know what to do about this debt.

Another thing I have not been able to do is shake off the immense, overwhelming feelings of fear and insecurity that I have been plagued with ever since I realized that all civilized hierarchies collapse and this one is a) no exception and b) in the process of actively collapsing. In theory I should embrace it, but my bodily emotions responded (and continue to respond) to the news much differently! When I first started posting here it helped to know other people had similar worldviews and that I wasn’t alone, but then it got worse because I got wrapped up in thinking about it all the time, which is another reason why I quit posting.

Now on a lot of days I try not to think about it, instead focusing on other issues like structural racism, capitalism, and misogyny, and generally what is known as the kierarchy. Or I focus on superficial things. Or I feed my facebook/internet addiction. However, that immense fear remains in my heart no matter how I try to distract myself (fear on a basic material level, this nagging feeling that I should stock up on food and guns :-\ … a feeling that I hate because it turns me into a rabidly selfish person on the inside). My whole body aches from this anxiety and fear sometimes.

I have taken to telling myself that when the shit hits the fan in the city where I live, I will likely die, and in theory I am OK with that, because everyone dies someday. My newest approach in an attempt to stay “adjusted” to this world of precarity is just to try to take care of myself until it is time for me to go. So I am doing nothing to engage with the rewilding community or exploring what it means to rewild because for the past few years I have been cynical enough to think that it is pointless.

At the same time it feels really good to post on here and read other people’s perspectives and perceptions as well as your kind words to each other. It feels like maybe, just maybe, idealism and integrity is not yet dead in the world.

Lastly, I did finally get sterilized, about two months ago. I am very glad I did so, and sometimes when I think about that, I feel content, whole, and complete. I simply couldn’t live with myself if I had to raise a child in this world.

I think will try posting once in a while but only when I really have something to say…

Rebecca

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[quote=“BlueHeron, post:800, topic:67”]Hi everyone,

This is a re-introduction. I used to post here with great frequency and was a moderator for a while.

In the past five/six years I have changed a lot! It’s actually kind of fascinating to realize how much you can change over a few years, especially when internally you feel the same and retain a lot of the same basic beliefs. [/quote]

Blue Heron, thanks for letting me know that I am not alone! Your words comfort me so much!

I am not here to challenge anyone anymore. I am here to learn this different worldview, especially when I realized just how much, in my professional world, I actually share some, though not all, values here.

In the end, my observations take me to a different viewpoint. But I now can learn with the Wisdom I have to respect my Values, as I still retain my Values with my Family. Thanks for helping me Resolve these issues. I shall NOT withdraw from the community. Instead, I shall remain a part of it, but now with the Knowledge of knowing how to function.

When I fell apart at the age of 18, when I first came to this Site, I had not gone to high school yet. That was in 2007. Homeschooled since then, and struggling in school. I returned to public high school at age 19, in 2007. High school, in many ways, was basically an “Escape” to me–a holding tank. I developed a social identity and thrived there, though, learning from my previous struggles. I graduated at 2010, at the age of 21.

In truth, what bothers me is the dissonance between my experiences and the experiences here on this Site. I do not Share in the Misery of living within Civ, rather, Rewilding causes me pain. Yes, I know that civilization is only 10,000 years old. But I’m in my 20s, age-wise, and it’s all I know. It’s my Community and my Family.

At the same time, like I said, I’ve built ties with Indigenous communities as well. Amazingly, these forums cause me Pain, yet so many of their values give me Hope. And amazingly, many of their Views cause me to Contradict the views here. Yes, civ is only 10,000 years old, but if the Indigenous communities view time cyclically, as my Indigenous friends do, what does that mean? Is this not another example of maintaining a value of Civ? I have grown to feel that this is not “either/or” just like light can be equally a particle, or a wave. Some things are linear, some are cyclical.

But does that make me sub-human? That because of my disability, I cannot experience what Must be, according to my Nature, something I should be Embracing? That I cannot enjoy the Wonder of the Earth or the Universe?

At the same time, despite living in the Observational mode, there are still rules and Etiquette I must follow to survive in a community. I still need to follow certain rules and morals about many things with my Friends and Family, and obviously, in this Community. I feel bad for the error of my ways. I’m glad I know now the Etiquette I need to Function here.

Thanks for helping me, again, Blue Heron.

Welcome back both of you! Thanks for sharing your journey over the couple of years.

Hello all.
Cen here - welsh by blood , now living in the stix in Bulgaria.
Found rewilding whilst looking for books on basketry.
What luck.
All the best.
Cen

My name is Kyle. I’d like to go by Kyle Ray, but people call me Kyle. I’m 23 years old and discovered Rewilding 4 years ago. My childhood was filled with an intense curiosity about animals(particularly birds and snakes), and in 7th grade I realized two things. I love trees and plants and animals and that other people do things that hurt them. This inspired me to argue and to label myself an environmentalist. It made no sense to me how humans acted towards the world. That year I also discovered something that gave me the confidence to stand up and say how I felt. With the help of my sister I found my way to my passion for Martial Arts. The blooming of my social surroundings drew my energy more towards friends and my confidence to speak my mind was mostly encouraged by teachers, which was great, but it also drew me into the school system more. I guess the acceptance of other humans was very important to me, once I found some sort of identity. High school was such a pain that I mostly acted weird to cope with my new found mild depression and draining of energy that seemed to occur every morning when I walked through the doors. After 2 years my friends and I found a way to do something with all our feelings and thoughts. We started a group focused on environmental activism and community awareness. Our projects reaffirmed my desire to make a difference, in spite of the soul-crushing effect school had. Though I half-like school because I enjoy learning it felt like it left something missing. After graduation I started college as an environmental studies major. I did some cool stuff like English Ivy removal and plant identification, but the computers and the lab work(computer-lab work) and the feeling that I was just another terms tuition to my teachers, as well as a steadily rising debt that I didn’t want to pay off eventually led me to quit. Around then rewilding entered my life and began the breakdown of my faith in civilization. That sounds like a bad thing, but it freed my mind to think outside the assumption that civilization is a good way of living, which I would call difficult and stressfull. It also gave me hope.I remember reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn on the bus home from work. Absorbed in what I was reading, I barely noticed anything until my stop came, I stepped off and the words in my head began to resonate with everything I saw. The concrete and telephone wires and cars looked like the cage I had just read. I felt sick to my stomach.
After becoming involved with some very passionate rewilders or people who work to restore and pass on skills of living (which I don’t know how to broadly define) and participating in these efforts I started to see the possibilities that life didn’t have to stay the same and that helping the world didn’t have to happen within the civilized realm of environmentalism to such a degree, but on a personal and community level and in more fulfilling way than I thought possible. Still my own problems prevented me from fully giving myself to it. Coping with civilization seems harder the more I see it for what it is. Despite the new world of rewilding opening up in front of me I found myself in a depressed and desperate place. Not knowing where I was headed or if I could find what I needed Made me feel terribly lost. I ended up hurting someone I cared about and hurting many people I cared in the ripples of my actions. I lied to myself in order to lie to others about what I did. I did not know how to take responsibility for something that shattered my perception of myself. I left behind a lot of good things to escape the reality of what I had done. I moved and tried to start something new. I wanted to work towards rewilding and start a community with the people around me. I also started experimenting with entheogens or psycoactive substances to cope with my denial, to fit in, and other reasons. Reaching and hope and the drive of rewilding and finding something better led me to push through boundaries I held and I began to see on a human animal level the insane things our culture does. I broke down crying when my job required me to tear spiders and their webby homes from ornamental trees. Every tiny beautiful plant I ripped from the dirt felt like ripping apart myself. The emotional weight overwhelmed me. I hated seeing my friends forced to work jobs and seeing them smoking so much and that I did the same thing. In some ways smoking marijuana(if the drug reference is inappropriate for this forum please let me know so I can remove it) seemed like a pacifier. I still don’t know how to talk about these experiences. I had to see so many intelligent, caring, and talented people sucked in to things that seem to drain them. Some might think I was just on drugs. That’s not true though. I wanted to find joy and feel like a part of the world around me and I worked hard to find it. The times substances played a part I took them seriously and treated them with respect as things with something to offer, however naive that might be.
In that time my family and my health became seriously important to me. For living far away I tried to do things with them and talk to them a lot.The healthier I ate, the less tolerance my body had for dairys, grains, and sugars. I began to yearn for a place to really practice rewilding skills and I felt like I needed to get back to my family. Moving was difficult I had so much that I care about. It seemed like what I needed to do.
My family was very supportive and they gave me a lot of freedom to do the things I needed to do and were very understanding even if they didn’t understand what I was going through. Their farm gave me a place also to come to terms with my actions and some of the lies I was living. I didn’t understand until then that I had some personal things I really needed to deal with and still have a hard time facing. I couldn’t have done that without my family. They keep inspiring me to try harder.
Practicing martial arts became a big part of my life again. It still is. I started reading as much as I could about rewilding skills and philosophies and putting into practice basketry, awareness, tracking, soil and plant restoration, plant food and medicine, working with roadkill animals that I found, and archery. I also felt inspired to bring my family along with me on this journey as much as they felt open to(maybe a little more than they liked). It’s tough when it feels like I’m trying to convince people of things that I feel so strongly, but that I don’t know how to communicate. The river helps. Gives us a place to play and a way to enjoy and learn together without too much pressure. I’ve probably given a lengthy enough introduction. These days I still practice these skills and try to learn more. I have some major cowhide projects under way, as well as a few skunks, and deer. Little by little learning bird language.

I hope to talk to people who have interest in similar things or maybe completely different ones and hopefully share some successes and failures. This has been my go to site for information on skills and helpful stories dealing the struggles of rewilding side by side with civilization. I would love to be part of the conversation.

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Hello rewilders!

My name is Liam. I currently split my time between Seattle and a beautiful place in the mountains outside of Republic, WA. Hopefully one day soon I will be able to live there full time and get to see the deer and wild turkeys ambling through the forest each morning. My heart swells in hearing the thrum of grouse as I walk through the woods or the mournful, lonesome sound of the wolves howling in the evening. What is more exciting than an unidentified sound rousing you from sleep, not knowing if it is the rustle of a hungry bear or simply a curious deer browsing a nearby shrub?

I aspire to a higher level of human sovereignty through knowledge, experience, and understanding of deeply practiced patterns of living. I am continuously trying to learn more about traditional perspectives and ways of living. I am studying the practical skills of hunting, fishing, foraging, trapping, and feral permaculture. My long term goal is to live a life as close to nature as possible by practicing traditional forms of living on the fringes of our modern society.

We all have ancestral roots, whether european, native american, or any of a myriad of other combinations. My ancestors may have oppressed your’s or vice versa, but we should not hold each other personally accountable for the mistakes of our forebears. Instead, let us accept the current reality, look at the best, most healthy practices from all traditional cultures and move forward via a new synthesis, a new culture that combines the best in all of us in an attempt to wrest the future away from destruction and degradation towards a healthier, happier, and freer, way of life.

I would like to connect and form relationships with individuals and groups in the inland northwest who are on similar journeys. Let’s learn from and support each other!

Liam Broderick

My name is Luke. I live in the eastern woodlands of the Mid-Atlantic. I became aware of this movement through Permaculture about 5 years ago. My family was fortunate enough to recently be welcomed onto a forested property on the side of a mountain. We are in the process of becoming acquainted with this land. I love to forage, climb trees, move. Started really thinking about things when I was about to have my first child. I am very interested in what I’ll call minimalist philosophies, movement, and the inner journey. Significant and new influences for me have been permaculture, Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen and Mindfulness Meditation, Joseph Campbell, Joanna Macy, Charles Eisenstein, Parkour, Arthur Haines, Ido Portal, Derrick Jensen, Bill Plotkin, Ben Weiss, Wilson Alvarez, Daniel Quinn, Daniel Vitalis, David Abram, barefoot running.

I have dreams of a school that offers a space for learning the eastern woodlands, primitive skills, permaculture, movement and what I have difficulty finding exact words for but will call inner work similar to that of Plotkin in Soulcraft.

Hello everyone,
I have been eyeballing this site from the shadows for sometime now and I figured I would go ahead and make an intoduction. My name is Calvin. I feel as though the rewilding label fits me best. I have grown up in Tennessee all of my life. I grew up seeing, as many of us Im sure, the damages that civ life can have on a persons body, mind, and soul. Not to mention the damages to our beautiful planet and society/culture. I imagine a time when the trees went on for thousands of miles. I also look up to the stars and realize how tiny we are. I question our systems. Government, economic, financial, and so on. I recently quit my job at a steel mill. I got tired of being a hypocrite. Imagining all the damage I was supporting by working there. So I quit. Who knows where I will end up, but it will be in the woods somewhere. I’m tired of being a financial slave, tired of supporting a system that’s beneficial to few and wreaks havoc on our home. It’s sad, but I think things will fix themselves one way or another. Thanks for having me.

Hi all. My name is Karen. I currently live in Scotland, but I grew up the beautiful foresty suburbs of NH. The term “rewild” I had not heard before, but it’s such a great descriptor for everything I aspire to!

Where to begin…rethinking the diet that made me so unhealthy as a teenager was my first introduction to going “backwards” in civilization. I became appalled at what humans have done to their food supply and attempted to remove everything artificial. Since then, it’s felt like the more I look at the pieces of my life, the more I’ve wanted to undo them in place of better, more natural solutions. Becoming a parent has only amplified this need.

I believe that back when we were hunter gatherers we had it right. Humans were part of and balanced with the natural world, such as other animals. They ate right, were naturally fit, had healthy social communities, and lived for the present. I am continually taking inspiration from that time, and hoping to regain some of that knowledge.

For a bit more about my journey, check out my blog about living and parenting naturally at
DaisiesOverDoughnuts.com (Or DaisiesOD.com for short).

Looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Greetings, I used to be part of this forum years ago but cancelled the original subscription because the forum seemed to have fallen into disuse. There seems to be a bit more activity now and my interest in rewilding has been piqued again given a few different rewilding resources that have emerged on the Internet, so I’ve restarted my account.

I live in the Green Mountain State of Vermont, in the United States. I make my living teaching at the college/university level in the disciplines of energy, environmental and food systems, which overlap so much they can hardly be thought of as separate disciplines. I also do a fair amount of consulting work, mostly at the nexus of energy and agricultural systems. In my spare time I forage, hunt, practice a range of ancestral skills, and lead my local chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation. I admittedly think long and hard about the mess Homo sapiens domesticus has gotten itself into and what solutions there are for those of us who want our species to continue.

Best wishes!

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Hello, everyone! My name is Dia and I’m 22 years old, living in sunny Florida. I am currently attending college for fine arts, with a focus on painting, as well as sustainability. When I am not working or attending school, I like to spend my time with and become closer to Mother Earth. I go to the beach nearly every day and love to snorkel and pick up any litter I find. Routine camping trips keeps me sane! I dislike living in a city. I also enjoy doing yoga to develop my body, to appreciate having such a wondrous stardust vehicle to witness this incredible universe. I have been a pantheist since I was young, and protecting Earth and her inhabitants gives my life spiritual purpose. Raised as a carnivore but am now a happy raw vegan to be a voice for animals and nature. The respectful partnership I see between indigenous tribes, our modern “undomesticated” peoples, and Earth was one of the biggest reasons I decided to commit my life to rewilding… as well as hallucinogens and Terence McKenna’s Food of the Gods, with his argument for an Archaic Revival. The spiritual revelations I have received while tripping and that book has changed my life entirely. I am very excited to graduate college, as I will be looking to start a carpentry apprenticeship. My dream is to purchase land and build myself an eco-friendly home within the forest and every day I am working toward it. I really hope to be an inspiration to others so that they may realize that to be apart from nature and our tribal hunter-gatherer days wreaks havoc not only on Earth but on us, on our souls. Every day I see people both entranced and entrapped by this material world, conditioned to crave and desire for more possessions yet they are still so far from happiness. Heaven is being able to wake up to the sound of nature to greet the sun in the morning and to be so damn grateful you opened your eyes to see another day of what Earth has to offer.

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Welcome Dia!

Thank you so much! I am very grateful to connect with like-minded people and to share knowledge. For knowledge is power!

Hey all! My name is Tyler, and I share with all of you the general apprehension, distrust, disenchantment, and scorn for the big Civ. My entire life has been spent in Wyoming, where the wilderness is prized just as dearly as is farmland. The latter I thought would be my future, but after only a year in an agricultural setting I have already become concerned with the relationship necessitated between farmer and crop. It is now, obviously, the wilderness which is calling me. To fully dissemble the barriers between man and nature, to exist inside the divinity of the woods and the plains, to be a beneficial and supportive member in the community of life - these are my ambitions.

I cannot say when or how I exactly learned about rewilding, but generally speaking I have been studying the movement for almost a year now. During my sophomore year in college I decided to abandon my ambition of becoming a phytoremediationist - complete with lots of gene splicing and posing as god in the natural world - in favor of environmental anthropology. This was when I first began to be formally acquainted with indigenous lifestyles, alternative modes of existence and behavior, and the like. Having a B.A. in environmental anthropology, I figured,would be a nice cushion for a career focused on sustainability in general. Like many, sustainability would be guided by a Technomessiah. Quickly this approach dissipated from the perspectives I gained from organic gardening, permaculture, rewilding, anarcho-primitivism, radical self-reliance, and all the rest. So, in short, in only a brief period I’ve stepped away from the business-as-usual approach to saving the Earth and have entered into the umbral groves where the most intense, most sincere, and most effectual paradigms are being formulated. More than anything, I hope to become a part of this movement, to be one of the many - yet too few - who are seriously questioning their relationship with their world - be it that the sphere of humanity, economics, subsistence, spirituality, philosophy, etc. - and are who are marshaling forth in defense of a noble human existence.

Learning the primitive skills society has stripped away from us all, like gathering wild plants for food and medicine, building shelters, hunting, fishing, trapping, tracking, creating fire, and so on, has been a key goal of mine since the beginning of this year. Of course, an apprenticeship with nature is a long one, and I do not intend to ever cease learning such skills. As well, I’m in the process of seeking out rewilding communities within the U.S., because I have an intense desire to “walk the walk” and to fully immerse myself in a lifestyle similar to the kind us primitivists vaunt. Not only do I want this for my own spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical satisfaction, but also so I could extend a hand strong enough to help pull others out of the mess of civilization. Helping others escape from the mess of our industrial culture is a prime concern of mine.

  • TB
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Hello all!

My name is Stephanie. I’m a 27 year old female and I live in the very urban city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin with my husband and 2 dogs. I have been lurking (obsessively) for the past few days on this forum and really am enjoying it.

I am an Early childhood educator and I am currently the Director of an “eco-friendly” (don’t even get me started) childcare center. I see the illness of our culture and civilization everyday in the lives of the families that I work with. For a very long time I was asking “Is it just me? Am I the only one who sees this? Am I just being negative and everything is actually fine and dandy?” But stumbling across this site has made realize I was right all along.

My interests include permaculture, foraging, lacto-fermenting, reading, survivalism, and raising Monarch butterflies. I would like to start learning archery as well as some other ancestral skills. My hubby and I rent a 4,000 square foot space for our own micro-farming adventure. We started super late and only got some bush beans to germinate. Next year I plan on planting half the plot with perennials and half with annuals.

I am really excited to join the conversation and if anyone else from here is in Southeast, WI, let me know so we can chat :slight_smile:

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Welcome! :slight_smile:

Ok, so I have a few questions after checking out Rewild.com more. I don’t know if it’s appropriate for me to post them here, so if not, sorry.

  1. What happened to Jason Godesky? Is he still active in the movement?

  2. Is he still doing podcasts?

  3. I saw that you said Facebook was more active but I absolutely hate Facebook, so is there any chance this forum will become more active again? I will certainly do my best to try and stimulate it.