This is the third post on the Autumn/Winter inquiry cycle of the Sentient River group, turning to reflect on the significance of the inquiry group itself – both human and more-than-human. We have explored some of these issues in an earlier post, and yet maybe it is easy to overlook this importance of group practice. ‘Never do alone what two can do’.
Lovely to hear from you and glad you like the posts. I am interested in your use of 'ae'. Where does this originate? We have been experimenting with Robin Kimmerer's suggestion of 'ki'. Our inquiries continue see https://www.dartington.org/event/living-waters/
Sorry for my very late reply. Ki sounds wonderful too. I don't know when I first started using 'ae', but it must have been many decades ago and I probable read in in some wonderful book like an Ursula LeGuin or Octavia Butler novel.
My dear River has been flexing ae's muscles even more since I last wrote! The parks are going to be so clean. The frogs are singing, but sadly I have seen some drowned frogs as well. But I have also seen much more Beaver Sign near River's new paths. This valley must have been so full of wetlands before white people came and made dams.
I am so glad your inquires continue and I will hope to read about them. The supportive donation/fee is beyond my means as a single, mildly disabled woman entering Cronehood, but I do understand it is needed.
I feel over the centuries we humans have lost several (many?) channels of perception in relation to the more-than-human world, (and in our dealings with humans). I find your collective experiment is a step forward to regaining such channels; long may it continue.
In the inner world we might say there are at least eight such channels (Will, Soul, Inspiration, Intuition, Imagination, Instinct, Intellect, Bodymind) and that these might somehow relate to communication with the river as a 'co-researcher'.
I love this. I am in relationship with a very large river which runs through the valley I live in in Oregon, the Willamette per white people's naming. Supposedly the indigenous people here had a name which sounded somewhat similar to that but I don't know...
This river is very powerful and has been flexing ae's muscles a lot lately. Day before for yesterday I went to see how ae has thoroughly cleaned the local parks by running through them and washing everything. The ferries are shut down and even some of the parks are shut down. River's power is so exciting! I am full of hope.
Dave (quoted above) responds: I was particularly struck by this early paragraph which I feel gets to the heart of our work. I reckon this wonder-ful category unmediated perception calls for some deep contemplation about perception, but also as to what mediates between outer world and inner awareness. Could the phenomenologists help us make sense of how we make sense of sensation> That would be sensational! Are we in the realm of the wild paleolithic mind here…..and David Abram’s ideas about how language and writing have pushed humankind towards abstraction……
Lovely to hear from you and glad you like the posts. I am interested in your use of 'ae'. Where does this originate? We have been experimenting with Robin Kimmerer's suggestion of 'ki'. Our inquiries continue see https://www.dartington.org/event/living-waters/
Sorry for my very late reply. Ki sounds wonderful too. I don't know when I first started using 'ae', but it must have been many decades ago and I probable read in in some wonderful book like an Ursula LeGuin or Octavia Butler novel.
My dear River has been flexing ae's muscles even more since I last wrote! The parks are going to be so clean. The frogs are singing, but sadly I have seen some drowned frogs as well. But I have also seen much more Beaver Sign near River's new paths. This valley must have been so full of wetlands before white people came and made dams.
I am so glad your inquires continue and I will hope to read about them. The supportive donation/fee is beyond my means as a single, mildly disabled woman entering Cronehood, but I do understand it is needed.
May the Rivers teach us all, in course or out....
P
Thank you. Will check LeGuin, which now rings a bell. No worry about donations, the point is to get this practice out into the world. P
I feel over the centuries we humans have lost several (many?) channels of perception in relation to the more-than-human world, (and in our dealings with humans). I find your collective experiment is a step forward to regaining such channels; long may it continue.
In the inner world we might say there are at least eight such channels (Will, Soul, Inspiration, Intuition, Imagination, Instinct, Intellect, Bodymind) and that these might somehow relate to communication with the river as a 'co-researcher'.
I love this. I am in relationship with a very large river which runs through the valley I live in in Oregon, the Willamette per white people's naming. Supposedly the indigenous people here had a name which sounded somewhat similar to that but I don't know...
This river is very powerful and has been flexing ae's muscles a lot lately. Day before for yesterday I went to see how ae has thoroughly cleaned the local parks by running through them and washing everything. The ferries are shut down and even some of the parks are shut down. River's power is so exciting! I am full of hope.
Dave (quoted above) responds: I was particularly struck by this early paragraph which I feel gets to the heart of our work. I reckon this wonder-ful category unmediated perception calls for some deep contemplation about perception, but also as to what mediates between outer world and inner awareness. Could the phenomenologists help us make sense of how we make sense of sensation> That would be sensational! Are we in the realm of the wild paleolithic mind here…..and David Abram’s ideas about how language and writing have pushed humankind towards abstraction……