On Nature and Renewal
A Tribe Blog entry from 27th January 2024
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I only found the theme for this week on Wednesday night, but it certainly feels relevant for the entirety of the week. I’ll take a look back through the week with this lens applied, through which I should be able to provide you lovely Tribe members with insight as to what it is I’m channelling in my writing’s at the moment.
A Renewal Of The Past
This week’s poem, “Our Uprootedness”, can certainly be seen as the writings of the past being “renewed” through a new format, but in a way that acknowledges the wisdom and teaching of the material its based on.
I’ve very much been enjoying learning of Jung’s experiences through life and how it has framed the way he attends to the world. There’s so much in the way he speaks and the things he draws attention to that I deeply resonate with. The passage I shared on Substack alongside the poem certainly speaks to that. It comes from a chapter where he talks about the efforts that he put into constructing his own home, which he calls “The Tower”. It was built gradually over the span of 12 years, incorporating different aspects of his work and inspirations and translating that into a physical space.
Part of its construction involved incorporating ideas and motifs from his family history and ancestry, which gives him an opportunity to describe how he views the role of ancestry and lineage in the human psyche. It’s a fascinating read, and I imagine many others will enjoy reading “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” as much as I am.
Renewing Our Connection To Nature
With the words of Carl Jung in mind, I made time to immerse myself in a local nature reserve near me on the Wednesday. The site is a former clay pit and army barracks which has since been left for nature to reclaim. It’s incredible to see how nature has been able to create such a beautiful space out of our past activities, essentially “renewing” our past efforts on that land into something that local people can find enjoyment in.
As I explored the site, however, I couldn’t help but feel a sense that the full value of this place was not being recognised. While the key paths were well-maintained, the side paths, which are clearly intended to be navigable, were poorly maintained and littered with rubbish. It’s a shame, as these paths led to beautifully scenic spots that provide great opportunities to set aside the stresses that modernity has created and to reconnect with one of our highest ancestors - nature.
This is perhaps reflected more broadly in how the site is handled; there is a large portion of the reserve which is closed off to anyone as it is deemed “unsafe” for the public. There are remnants on this site from old Army activities that used to operate in the area. However, I suspect due to a lack of funding and resources, there is currently no desire to see this section “renewed” into something that benefits both us and nature - seeing as, in some ways, we are one in the same.
I’m sure there are some who believe this site should remain completely undisturbed by human hands and to let nature do absolutely all the work. I can understand the sentiment here, however, it denies the fact that we are a part of nature. My view of “conservation”, if it can be called that, is that human and natural activities should work in harmony with each other wherever possible. Humans should have good access to nature and the benefits it provides, and nature should be given opportunity to provide those benefits.
However, they need to be places that people want to visit. It seems reasonable to have carved-out portions of sites to create activity centres, toilets and the sorts. It seems reasonable to have well-maintained paths so people can get out into nature easier. It seems reasonable to cut and trim back plants if they’re invasive or spoiling the enjoyment of an area. It even seems reasonable to allow small-scale artisan and craft projects to use the resources in an area. Perhaps pottery made using clay from a site, or wooden ornaments from fallen or felled trees, or regenerative agriculture projects that utilise the conditions that the site offers. Maybe even allowing deer to help control vegetation levels, while allowing some level of hunting to both maintain numbers and provide good-quality hides and meat which are good for people’s health, and which they can exchange something of value for which helps the site flourish further.
What I struggle to find myself agreeing to is “conservation at all costs”, which seems to come at the cost of human enjoyment and experience, blocking people’s access to seeing and working with nature. For example, another nearby nature reserve encompassing an area of coastline has recently stopped boats mooring on the beach, in order to “encourage bird populations to thrive”. Instead, boats must now moor on a muddy, rocky part of the shoreline. For those with no knowledge of this site, that might seem like a reasonable idea. The problem is that the birds on this reserve have long used the muddy shoreline as a habitat for their activities. Nobody arriving by boat ever moors here because the mud on the shoreline is too thick and too deep to be able to navigate through. Hence, the boats would moor by the sandy shoreline where the birds only frequented occasionally.
This past arrangement was excellent, as people could come by boat to enjoy the reserve and the nature it had to offer, while the birds had an excellent, undisturbed spot. Now, nobody travels by boat to the site as they cannot moor by the sandy beach nor my the muddy shoreline. The birds have remained in the muddy shoreline for the most part. Even if it does encourage more birds to thrive in the area, there will be nobody there to be able to connect to the nature they are a part of and appreciate it which, in my view, is one of the biggest threats we currently face in society.
To come full-circle, let me return to Carl Jung, who shares the following words on this subject when describing his travels in Kenya:
To the very brink of the horizon we saw gigantic herds of animals […]. Grazing, heads nodding, the herds moved forward like slow rivers. There was scarcely any sound save the melancholy cry of a bird of prey. This was the stillness of the eternal beginning, the world as it had always been, in the state of non-being; for until then no one had been present to know that it was this world. I walked away from my companions until I had put them out of sight, and savoured the feeling of being entirely alone. There I was now, the first human being to recognise that this was the world, but who did not know that in this moment he had first really created it.
There the cosmic meaning of consciousness became overwhelmingly clear to me. “What nature leaves imperfect, the art perfects,” say the alchemists. Man, I, in an invisible act of creation put the stamp of perfection on the world by giving it objective existence. This act we usually ascribe to the Creator alone, without considering that in doing so we view life as a machine calculated down to the last detail, which, along with the human psyche, runs on senselessly, obeying foreknown and predetermined rules. In such a cheerless clockwork fantasy there is no drama of man, world, and God; there is no “new day” leading to “new shores”, but only the dreariness of calculated process.
[… Now I knew] that man is indispensable in for the completion of creation; that, in fact, he himself is the second creator of the world, who alone has given to the world its objective existence - without which, unheard, unseen, silently eating, giving birth, dying, heads nodding through hundreds of millions of years, it would have gone on in the profoundest night of non-being down to its unknown end. Human consciousness created objective existence and meaning, and man found his indispensable place in the great process of being.
Carl Jung, adapted from “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”
This passage speaks volumes to me that to compartmentalise our existence as separate from nature is no good approach, and that through existing in tandem with it, we give nature purpose and meaning. Nature “renews” us, and we “renew” it. That connection must be there, and it must be bi-directional. I worry that current trends in environmentalism, which contain a distinctly anti-human aura with them, seem to forget this. But more on that another day.
Born Anew
To close, I want to let Tribe members know to keep an eye out for an announcement next Wednesday. The heading of this closing section should give a good clue as to what it’ll be about. I’ll be sure to give some extra details in the subsequent Tribe Blog for that week too.
That’s all for now. Until next time, my friends.