Dear Subscribers,

Some of you are new to this list and some have been reading my material for over a decade or even 35 years. Excuse me therefore if I repeat myself, but one of the pivotal moments in the maturation of my mind occurred when I was researching my book on Cancer Salves. It was not surprising to me that Constantine Rafinesque learned about the flora of the New World from people who had been living here for generations; what was shocking was that Hildegard of Bingen used galangal in the 12th century and valued it above almost all other herbs. I tried to find out when galangal was first introduced to Europe because it absolutely had to have been imported from Thailand or China . . . and obviously, this had to have happened before Marco Polo's journeys. In fact, it was introduced by Arabs several centuries before Hildegard . . . which, of course, means that people in the Middle East already knew about the Far East and this occurred long before the end of the Crusades. For the record, galangal is also one of the main ingredients in the famous black salve that is usually attributed to either Cherokee or Penobscot peoples in the Eastern part of what is currently still called the U.S. Clearly, even if the bloodroot were indigenous, the other ingredients were not so the salve was a composite of several major cultures and scientific approaches to cancer.

This got my thinking going in many directions. One had to ask what was so dangerous about drawing correct maps of the world and why did Marco Polo and later Galileo have the Inquisition bearing down on them when history would go on to prove them correct. Next, and this is truly too long a story to tell in an email, I began to ask why people left Europe to come here. We were taught in school that it was all about religious freedom and some Puritans set foot in Jamestown and tried to survive their challenges because their freedom of belief was threatened in England. However, this was not the motivation for the earlier voyages of Columbus and the other explorers. So, we had explorers and settlers and frankly, I don't recall a word about the Inquisition from my history classes. There was also very little about the Plague and nothing

that suggested that the Plague persisted for something on the order of 350 years. We did learn about potato crop failures in Ireland, but that was later.

Parallels

So what is the point of mentioning this today? There are lots of reasons and some of you are probably experiencing synaptic firing right this moment. The parallels are immense. We could easily argue that we are still in an era of exploration but that the boundaries are now much farther into space. It is not certain that someone who claims to have seen extraterrestrial forms of life would be subjected to torture and forced to confess his heresies, but attempts would very likely be made to discredit the person, either through science or references to mental and emotional instability.

Likewise, there are people who have already expatriated because of fear of the coming (and dare we say promised) pandemics and the official measures that could be imposed "for our safety" which, of course, have nothing to do with safety at all but rather profits. When the Planet starts to seem small and crowded, where do you go? You go to the most obvious places, the places that are most pristine, most in balance, and most untouched by humanity.

The Journey

More importantly, what do you take with you on this fascinating journey to a new reality? You bring only those things you believe are essential to your well-being and the quality of life. This list will clearly differ according to what you regard as necessary and what enhances your pleasure in life. If you are concerned about the madness of what man has done, you bring heirloom seeds, your favorite gardening, recipe, and medicine making books, and perhaps some devices that will help you to collect water or build contraptions that allow some combination of ancient and modern to co-exist in your new life.

I would posit that millions of people are somewhere on this journey already, but only a few have moved to the jungles of Brazil or Ecuador and the rest are looking for sanctuaries closer to friends and family. Moreover, when we seem to be losing control over our lives, it is also quite natural to seek comfort in our faiths and we see this all around us also at this time. This faith can, of course, be dogmatic or experiential; but if it is truly living, it could probably open doors to communication, inspiration, and awareness of dimensions beyond this, all of which promises to revolutionize life as we know it, which also implies that life as we know it has to be transformed by the truths that are making their way into our psyches.

I am seeing people collecting "stuff" for their journeys into these new life styles and it's all rather chaotic and awkward at the moment because most of us have one foot in the old life and the other in the new. Try to imagine what it will be like when both feet are moving the same direction.

Post-Industrial America

In the 60s, it was already very obvious to me that the U.S. was heading for third world status as a post-industrial agricultural society. What I failed to see then was the corruption of the seeds themselves. I knew we would no longer be using heavy farm equipment and that farming would become more labor-intensive. I knew we had a water and soil pollution problem, not to mention the air. I knew that the air pollution was relatively easier to correct than the water and soil pollution. I knew that there would always be Malthusians in influential positions who insisted that the Planet could not support more population, and I knew they were wrong as they always had been. Ironically, the more toxic we are, the more we worry about our mortality, survival, and even the perpetuation of our own genes, pathetic as they sometimes are. It has always fascinated me that the more in balance we are, the less we worry about these matters, partly, I believe, because in the precarious balance between Spirit and Matter, the slider moves around a bit and when it is too much to the left, we long for more meaning in our empty lives and this can only be filled by inspiration whereas when the slider is further to the right, the world that we see with our physical eyes does not look completely real. This is also worth considering because some people think that our Planet is becoming fourth or even fifth dimensional and others think that only our attitudes are shifting.

The economy — as ought to be evident to all by now — is not just rigged, but it is rigged to reward the rich and disenfranchise everyone else. The only question is where the trigger points are because the game is so conspicuous. However, new realities are built on the dust piles of the old and we ought to be thinking about where we are heading, not just what we are losing or releasing. This process is very much like death and therefore it feels like this to those who are more attached and it feels somewhat less yucky to those who have tended to be more futuristic anyway.

Death is a transition from physicality to spirituality but the more attached we are to physicality, the more death seems final and arbitrary and perhaps unjust. Other losses are similar but less final because you rebuild without the same magnitude of loss. Many are feeling this now and the scale is overwhelming.

We are largely unprepared for this transition. I can see it in my own life. What can be more tell-tale than having to read a book or watch a video online about how to grow food. Shouldn't we all know this? Well, the truth is most of us don't know it. I have described my little adventure last year with potatoes because I realized that in my entire 66 years on this Planet, I had never once seen a potato plant, had no idea whatsoever what the leaves or flowers looked like. I sort of understood that you have to wash off the dirt before cooking the potatoes but the rest was all very hazy. In the new world that is emerging, not everyone will have to become a farmer, but what I am seeing is that the breakdown of rational systems within our society is going to have massive repercussions.

Think for a moment about the industries that have gone belly up first. The financial industry was always fraudulent, not because it was unregulated but because so many people were living on commissions from moving money, meaning there was almost nothing productive about their work. I am not pointing my finger at any individuals, just remarking on the reality that hit home when I first worked on Wall Street. After finishing grad school, my first job was on Wall Street and within a few weeks, I realized that the billions of dollars we managed involved 1000 people in our bank, countless lawyers and accountants with other Wall Street offices, and all we did was move money around. At the end of the day, there was no net gain for the economy, just some pockets that were fuller and others that were emptier. For this, a thousand people received salaries that supported them and their families but the obvious point was that some are becoming poorer when so much is siphoned off the top to manage a system that creates absolutely nothing. Okay, you can argue that floating new stock for a company that is expanding involves a bit of "creation" but really, it is still only a reapportioning of priorities. Let's say I truly believe in your gadget to harness solar energy so I decide to eat less or forego vacations in order to invest in your idea. I am helping you but I want you to give me something later to compensate me for deferring my pleasure in order to get your project funded.

In theory, this is what Wall Street is all about but the game of deferred pleasure versus present gratification was already totally out of control before deregulation allowed for the wreckage we see now. Now, if you zoom way out, you have to ask what else works more or less like this? There are millions of people whose livelihoods depend on sales commissions and there are millions of middlemen. For instance, in my own little gardening adventure, I have sourced seeds and plants, but when I went to the farmer's market last Saturday, the prices shocked me. They were low. Okay, not everyone's prices were low, but this is an immense issue also. Basically, the prices were so low that I realized that the trial and error of trying to keep plants alive indoors in preparation for transplanting was very expensive time for an amateur such as myself. I am learning and succeeding here and there, but the real point is that without middleman, the prices of what we need are realistic. The other issue that has been on my mind for decades is the attrition of the system of learning.

Our schools do not teach much or prepare us for meaningful work. People are put into sales positions without much training and jobs where there is actual value added have been exported — or we let other countries educate people and then fill our jobs through brain drain. This keeps our military-industrial complex in command at the expense of, dare I say it again, meaningful productivity.

Now, as I try to use my time and energy constructively, I see that I had a huge head start on others where self-healing is concerned. Just how long would it actually take to train a new generation of herbalists who know where and how to grow herbs, how to make medicine from the herbs, and how to use the herbs clinically? It takes decades so even if the work is divided among farmers, medicine makers, and clinicians, it will take years to reach self-sufficiency. Meanwhile, think of yourself putting things into the 21st century equivalent of a boat or covered wagon and you want to be sure you have a few seeds, a couple of reliable books, and some tools. It's not that we are reverting to the Stone Age, but we are going to have to fix what is broken and this takes time. Moreover, because we no longer invest in training people, it is going to take a lot of time for some people because they are clueless about how to be genuinely productive.

Shivani sends emails all day long, but the most shocking ones are the tent cities where formerly affluent people are living out of the trunks of their Mercedes. They are dressed well and freezing as they try to cook over open fires. The pictures tell hidden stories about just how badly adjusted we are to the world in which we live. How can people who were once affluent enough to afford more than others be so ill-equipped to survive massive change? That's the real question and we all need to balance practicality with less tangible pursuits.

As I said, I don't think we all have to become farmers, but enough of us have to do this to reclaim reality which means opting out of the failed systems that have brought us the chaos we now see. This morning, I received an email about companies that have pledged not to use GMO components in their food. Some of the companies only sell food; they don't actually manufacture it, but click here for the list.

I have lots and lots and lots more stories to relate, but I feel the changes that are occurring now will force many people into pursuits they actually love. This said, if you can visualize another way to live, try arranging your energies in such a way that you can actualize your ideas.

Many blessings,

Ingrid
http://www.landscapingrevolution.com

Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2009

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