NAVIGATING IN THE DARK
I really have no idea where this is all going, or how I’ll get there.
All I can say is that in the time of the COVID cocoon,
this was the question I thought was most worth asking:
how can we bring beauty and balance to the modern world?
Because I believe beauty and balance mean healing. Let’s not get caught in any more need for the question than that.
I believe we’ve known ways of living beautifully and in balance.
Perhaps we’ve been performing a great and dangerous experiment.
Learning what we’ve needed to, it’s time to look back, remembering
through preserving and translating indigenous ways of being.
I understand the tension around the livelihoods of indigenous cultures being expropriated, the history of so much being lost in translation, and how much there is to learn and un-learn.
To get my bearings, I collected the following definitions:
BEAUTY
noun: aggregate of qualities pleasing to the senses, or which exalts the mind or spirit.
verb: to balance order and chaos
BALANCE
noun: equilibrium between contrasting, opposing, or interacting forces.
aesthetically pleasing integration of elements.
mental and emotional steadiness.
a means of judging or deciding.
proportion.
harmony.
latin root: “bilanx” ([scale] having two pans) to hold in both hands
HEALING
‘to hold in wholeness’ so a system can repair itself
to restore balance
in contrast to: ‘curing’, the process of introducing an exterior vehicle for change. a cure supports healing.
PRESERVE
verb: to protect and keep free from decay
noun: organic matter prepared for future use
noun: area guarded for the protection of natural resources
latin root: “prae” (before) + “servare” (keep safe) = “guard beforehand"
TRANSLATE
verb: to find common meaning between two systems of thought or cultures
physics: to cause (a body) to move so that all parts travel in the same direction without rotation or change of shape
latin root: “trans” (accross, beyond) + “latus” (borne, carried) = “carry across”
INDIGENOUS
adjective: innate, inherent, natural
latin root: “indigena” (sprung from the land)
good to know: “indigenous”, “native”, “Indian”, “aboriginal” , and even “savage” have been used interchangeably throughout recent history, with varying shades of ignorance and insult. It is my intention with choosing the word “indigenous” to seek and speak to what is innate and natural in all of us - but especially kept by those who are still tied to the land their people “sprung from”.
WAYS OF BEING
noun: awarenesses of sentience
noun: practices of relating to sentience
verb: manners of navigating time and space
I wrote these definitions influenced based on my own experiences, especially with medicinal and teacher plants, and works such as Spell of the Sensuous, and Animism among many others.
MODERN WORLD
an unintentionally and dangerously performed experiment which has brought both systemic, inescapable sickness and destruction as well as stunning, incomprehensible connection with incredible capability.
origin: I wrote this definition based on my own experiences and inspired by the ideas of Henry David Thoreau, Carl Jung, and Christopher Ryan among many others.
Now, I’m pretty familiar with the modern world.
It’s the indigenous way of being I need to practice.
My blood is mostly Irish.
On my father’s side, the O’Byrnes crossed over sometime in the early 1800s. On my mother’s side, to this day the O’Connell clan has a fierce loyalty to their heritage that was instilled in me from my first breath. My grandmother’s house is a shrine to Ireland - though she’s only physically been there 7 days out of her 88 years.
I figured learning about what the ways of being my ancestors had would be the best place to start, but I needed to retrace the steps of where I found myself in the modern world. I collected stories by modern Irish souls - Dare to Be Wild, a movie about a very brave Irishwoman, Mary Reynolds, and books by Frank MacOwen and Tom Cowan (deepest thanks to them for nourishing my Irish soul).
They taught me about the four directions, or ‘airts’, the mysterious ancient goddess Brigid - a tri-spirit of Spring, poetry, and, most curiously, metalsmithing…
Metal smithing! I knew I was on the right trail.
I planned a journey to visit my grandmother and my parents, dragging my best friend, Tal, along with me…
heading home - to Missouri, where I grew up.