sdi: Oil painting of the Heliconian Muse whispering inspiration to Hesiod. (Default)
sdi ([personal profile] sdi) wrote in [personal profile] temporaryreality 2022-01-05 10:29 pm (UTC)

We have to create more forest (literal and otherwise).

"Only God can make a tree." :)

On the upside, the forest is still there. It always was! You just have to go outside!

Let me put it another way: the world isn't disenchanted, but we're under a spell! But the way to break a spell is to stop feeding it, right? You can't simply oppose it, since that keeps you locked into its frame of reference: in the terms of The Art of War, it's letting your opponent pick the battlefield. But that's how you lose the battle! Instead, you have to go in a completely different direction. I think this is what JMG talks about when he says "the way to dissolve a binary is by resolving it into a ternary:" if you want to experience the world as it is, you can't go with the mainstream, and you can't oppose the mainstream—you have to ignore it entirely and go your own way. After a while you'll wander past the edges of the spell, and you'll wonder what the heck you were thinking.

So I think that the feeling that "we have to create more forest" is a trap. The forest can create more forest! Maybe you should focus, instead, on finding a nice shady spot to rest in?

Post a comment in response:

If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting