Re-Matriating ‘Knowing’ – Universal Knowledge vs University Knowledge
Dialogue, Resources + Guided Meditation
(Audio provided is for a Guided Earthwork meditation at the bottom… Enjoy all that is found here… by your own Worth!)
In an age of paperwork that dictates life-work… a placard limp-nailed to plaster wall – gathering dust over our worthiness while we practice our indebted University knowledge behind desks, through phones, secluded to filing cabinets metal caves – all for the orderly financing of our socio-economic system for some ‘charted’ socio-economic growth. Our Intentions directed by clockwork – eating, sleeping, time for caring, time for loving – scheduled or not able to be scheduled - “let’s put a rain check on that” – while we find the time to rest the body.mind – in order to trudge along the next scheduled day. Life Linear: Point (A) to point (E) to arrive at point (G) for final (D) profits looking to the in-between, focal points (B,C,D) on how to better project productivity… keep moving forward – do not deter (even at the sake of One’s health, brethren, Kin, Earth… life itself).
We know this dismal-ity. Determination born of the Overpowered Capital/Colonial story cyclically inbred to every benefit – bred for Modernity’s case-work revolution of gains, gains, gains – Capitalize!
In this ongoing – Desire Fueled ‘University knowledge’… How long shall we strive to earn a diploma (the word diplomatic jumps out!) signifying your earned experience, that only projects to keep feeding upon itself? Self-destructive, yet ever hungry for more power – that we no longer sustain…
Look around: the concrete jungles, plastic islands (The Great Pacific Garbage Patch now has its own Ecosystem) – man-made lakes of oil from failed pipelines – altered weather from our own turbulent, factorized emissions – endangering the entirety of life itself, down to our own species – as we continue to placate arrogance in plastic sheets – ready to float on forever – outlasting the impact of our knowledge…(ie: imagine thus – a laminated diploma, resting upon your headstone... your flesh long rotted, yet the black network of ink dyed upon the death-flesh of some distant tree – still as vibrant as the day it left the printers)
Learning from Academia – in the realest sense of academia – for knowing in order to create change… let us look to Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira – and the authors experience in the academia/social field of awakening realities born of Modernities severity of affluence that has implanted its worth into our world – from an individuals’ system to the World-Wide System – in how valued-nurturance is subdued by systemic violence, injustice, racism, education and the lines in-between…
In the chapter: Surrendering Arrogance - Her work primes considerations of looking towards the systemically ingrained arrogance of hierarchal knowledge within three internalized constructs – the smarts, the throne, the stage…
The Smarts – limiting views of our own systemic reality through self-sustained, codified tunnel visioned objectivity. (Ie: limitation by: we know all we know, that will be all we know, and by that we are completely justified in being right.) This is the basis of ‘Hierarchal Humanity Worthiness’ – where we know what’s best for the Earth – because we ‘are dutifully aware’ (heavy, heavy emphasis on the sarcasm here) of our surroundings and impact. Yet, we are transit to this knowledge by our own limits, and if anything, the Hierarchy here, the English Language. It is a vast difficulty to ‘translate’ what the Earth speaks and experiences – as these tend to arrive within the mysterious somatics of the body. Yet, simply taking an effort to feel without needing to ‘know’– will bear a far deeper healing than directing through our filtered ‘knowing’ from Overworld-Education. There is a subtly here - to justify your ‘knowing’ as ‘truth’– yes, “you can still be right” in what you know – yet, that knowledge, and the experience around that knowledge, has to shift in order to treat the ever-shifting self within the tectonic-shifting world.
The Throne – that placard on the wall resting above the chair in which we sit in the office of our work – this space of prideful ‘knowing’ – “righteous people” in “righteous place” for the “righteous cause”. Those that dictate our Earth Worth, in the realest sense – write their own ideals into Bills, Legislature, Contracts – dictating rightdoing and wrongdoing, and the punishments waiting for those below their hierarchy. That in ‘this space of the throne’ – they are absolute in what is deemed ‘Justice’ – and in this system, signing away rights of absolution to best serve their preservation to ‘the throne’. (Ie: The Supreme Court – writing into laws what is to be done to The Land of which they have never even stepped foot, breathed the air, caressed the life of). That these ‘judges of worth’ sit above the people that are participating in the ‘Real-Land-Work of their Living-Knowing’… This dichotomy creates the difference in knowing Home-Land-Worth based on ‘what-is-HERE’ and not ‘what can be used/extricated/mined’ in finance for a Nationalized Worthiness…
(Please look into Oak Flat – close to the Author’s Home – Apache Land currently under danger of Resolution Mine expanding the massive reservoir for the lands copper… the author has provided many poems/experiences/calls-to-action around this cause)
The Stage – the final, all captivating, all attention, spotlighted self-affirmation that in turn reaffirms ‘the player’s’ smarts (from above). Coming full cycle… entangling a person’s worthiness to their self (vs an representable world of worth). It’s this self-feeding that emaciates its Self – continually having to consume its own values reflected back on itself (think Narcissus) in order to finance its own ego-logical survival. Leading Belief: That if there is no stage to benefit ‘this persons’ worthiness – there is no point in taking on the work – therefore… no purpose in taking on the transformational work… the ‘Working Healing’ found existing outside of the ‘knowing’ Self. If “All the world is a stage/And [We] are merely players… And one man in his time plays many parts” (Shakespeare Qtd) – One must step outside the spotlight… learn the next entrance/exit for ‘the role’… and let ‘Self’ transform into the represented/representable…
Now – this Logos – these ‘facts of the matter, to create the myth-work of these events’ – have to give us some graces. Without these scientific studies presenting us records to clarify the Ecological footprint all around us - from industrialized companies to our individual impact (granted there is a huge separation between the two). With ‘the numbers’ giving us the (University graced) knowledge of where Humanities impact is greatest – we can (in all desires and action) – shift to the un-well-versed Universal knowledge of Land-Life – and maneuver our impact towards a space of Healing the Earth…
“What would it mean to let your wisdom die and grow, die and grow – in work with the seasonal Earth?”
Let’s introduce The Re-Matrial Archetype of Being…
To Re-Matriate is to: Put ‘The Mother’ back into things… “this diving feminine essence that moves through… and animates the world around us... [An] endless capacity to give… and replenish and multiply exponentially.” (Marya, R., & Patel)
To begin to say – Re-Matriating as a role – a role in action to Nurturance, Cultivation, Rearing the divine essence of life, back into life. Stating: that which you are in participation with – and that goes to say – “You are in Participation, All the Time” – active or inactive.
Slowly, comfortably, safely – by your own Universal Wisdom – and Earthly resources/energy/ability - “reawaken… connections to the Sacred… those things that are necessary for life to proceed in health and wellness” (Marya, R., & Patel, Emphasis added). Particularly – what is Here and Now – to be in the Vitality of what is within reach – by touch, by sight, by voice/noise, by feeling/emotions – intimate ‘knowing’ in absolute contact. And accepting this ‘knowing’ as the complete creative simplicity of subjective knowing by ‘object knowing’.
(Witness these… songs, ceremonies, language – as prayer… in the fullest practice of time/of energy by Your Own way of gratitude to an objects subjective reality… as ‘the physical is the Object that Means Itself’.
In this simplicity – an active honoring of “our sacred responsibilities we have to the land… songs for our water, our songs [to] the children, our ability to take care of the plants”. By “taking [One’s] rightful place in the world right now, taking care of the land [through] ceremonies… songs… language” (Marya, R., & Patel ) – we find the Universal knowing in Simplicity…
Simply Sung – Simply Danced – Simply Spoken – by ‘Being the You that is You’ – unabashed, unashamed, resting in Naturality - nothing in the over-grandiose – nurture a grounded worthiness – wherein, in ‘participating’ within the ‘way of your Self’ – creates an alternative, transitory space wherein –
You learn the world, as the world knows You
You Become The World, as The World Becomes You
You Heal the World, as the World Heals You
For today, this is the present-Universal-Knowing… as discovered by maneuvering this labyrinthian style of University Knowing… and for now – it is “as is” – rest as “shall be” – yet now as it “will be”… as this awakens within Us – it can become transitory – enacted within your own knowing in order to become You – in order to be Moved by You.
And if you ever get lost… know this… Your Breathe – in all it’s Naturality - is ever in Center for You…
Blessed Be
Long-Learned One
Birthed Within
Reach out… tell me How I can support you and your work… converse… un-leaven your spirit… let us be here for one another…
Another Article inspired by Inflamed: https://open.substack.com/pub/onthejourney/p/the-conduit-of-systems
“Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice” by Raj Patel and Rupa Marya
(You can Find Rupa here on Substack! At:
- Deep Medicine)Marya, R., & Patel, R. (2021). Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice. Picador.
Hospicing Modernity – Vanessa Machado de Oliveira
Machado de Oliveira, Vanessa. Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism. North Atlantic Books, 2021.
Meditation: Bury a Thought
First– Take Yourself Outside – physically if able, or in imagination – and rest there for a Moment… connect, breathe - Be in this time and space… What feelings arrive here? Who are you Here? Breathe, Accept this, and let yourself – gently – be this.
Next – Imagine your Nervous System – this bodies root-work system– form it in your vision to your fullest ability. Give it form – shape, size, color, weight – be able to hold its visual entirety – as it is presented here and now. Knowing it is alive and Well within you. You have both carried each other this far - all your life – you and this system have survived everything up to now.
Now – Listen to its voice…
What does it have to say? Listen closely, listen with intent, listen with the ability to be surprised – do not filter, do not apply logic – what is ‘translated’ may not make sense. Notice the thought surrounding this awareness…
(If you need a cue – think systemically – what can you let go of? Finances, Time and Scheduling, Perfections, the ‘need to know’…)
Now, send this thought down, through you, from you – into the real – or envisioned – Earth. Notice how it travels, how deep it travels, where it takes rest and roots…
Now here, in this Earth, from You – feel this awareness here – in Earth – and let it Be.
Now, let visit another voice. This one of the Earth. Again, listen intently. Listen within your own quietness…
This Earthen Language now – mingling into your own… What does this say now? How does this voice respond? What wisdom comes from being in this space?
Let this new awareness rise up – and feel it within your body. Where does it go to rest and find warmth? And what does it say? What does it feel?
Do this back and forth as many times as you feel comfortable… if you keep moving back and forth between these ‘points of contact’ – you may begin to find no awareness arise, and you find contact with what we can call ‘The Self’ – Your Being in the Right here, right Now – As Is.
At the end of this back-and-forth… Breathe back into Your Self – Your Space – Your Surroundings…
Notice… What has changed? What do you know now… about your Self? About the Earth? About what exists between you two?
And
How can you live ‘This Knowing’ into life? So it may Become, by the ‘Way that is You’…
Beautiful, Jacob, especially the guided meditation after these reflections. These reflections so lovingly in-formed on behalf of unfolding anew. . .