We bow to you, ancestors from a distant past.
We are speaking to you from a healthy future and offer the story that our great grandparents passed on to us, so that you can re-Member:
"The Great Letting Go.1
Once upon a time there was great turmoil and despair on this beautiful bluegreen planet. Most of the human beings on earth had forgotten about the circular principles, which is odd, but it somehow happened. They had invented a very strange alchemic process, in which the ”ultimate goal” was for a ”single person” to ”own” as much as possible. Imagine, they even had forgotten that we all are deeply woven into the fabric of all beings. What is ultimate? What is ”a single person”?
The first part in this alchemical process was to take - plants, stones, rare earths, parts of animals and all sorts of natural elements from the earth. Instead of taking only what is needed and creating only what is healthy, they took more than what was sustainable and fought about it! Killing plants, animals, species. For thousands of years the bodies of the earth and all its peoples were destroyed and taken apart. The resulting traumata made it even more difficult to re-Member. It was dark times, my dear.
While life went into this alchemical process as a source, the outcome was fourfold: depleted soil and life on earth, sick and confused human beings, a lot of useless and unsustainable dead matter and incredible amounts of virtual ”money” on virtual ”bank accounts”, accumulated by only a couple of ”individuals” (back then the word was not yet used to describe someone who could not re-Member2).
The tragic thing about it was that there was no giving back. The disuniting algorithm they had created had spread like mycelium into every process and pattern. Humans had become blind towards it. Once they started to see it, they found themselves in all sorts of double binds, since what they were trying to get rid of seemed to be everywhere. Yes, they truly had forgotten about the circles and the soil. Life on this beautiful, miraculous planet was at dire stake.
But then, from many different directions, the ancient truths were being re-Membered. Slowly, they gathered in circles again, slowly they listened to all the voices again: first the silenced humans, then the trees, the animals, the mountains, the water. The song of life was once again being heard by the human peoples. Slowly they started to perceive the circular, interdependent reality again, the woven-in-ness into the fabric of all beings through the space in between.
The deep shiftings became possible when more and more people pointed to the strange alchemical process as the basis for the destruction of aliveness. Then The Great Letting Go started. The beautiful souls that had ”won” the old game of accumulation and that had more than more than enough, started to let go and poured their virtual hoardings into a pot3, created so that humans could give back to land. This pot made it possible to nurture the ones that cared for land, soil and the more than human beings. Oh, the celebrations of the whole!
All of a sudden the gardeners, the farmers, the beekeepers, the foresters, the permaculturers, the regenerative agriculturers, the backyard vegetable growers, the humus specialists, the druids, the herbalists, the keepers of indigenous knowledge and practice had enough resources to care for earthworms and microbes, water retention and biodiversity. Money was given back to life, land was given back to itself, houses were given back to the commons - and the strange alchemical process shifted into something nurturing.
The human people understood that health can not be individualized or fragmented, health is about the whole and the whole can not be healthy if a part of it is suffering4.
So this is why we take care of our regional soil in circles, providing for the community of all beings we live in. And this is also why we have more than enough and can share and trade in a healthy way."
Dear ancestors, please re-Member.5
This article was first published in German in the evolve-Magazin, issue 41, Februar-April 2024
i first came across the concept of “re-Membering” through Sara Jolena Wolcotts work
“The Great Letting Go Fund” is the idea behind this short letter from the future. i am haunted by it since i had the idea back in 2019, in Kjiv at the Emerge Gathering. What if we gave back? What if we turned this process around? What would it take? If you are interested in becoming part of this idea, let me know. There’s work to be done.
i encountered the concept of “One Health” at a conference of the German Alliance for Research in Agriculture, where a group of participants created the idea and formulated that this concept of “One Health” could be a gamechanger for desirable futures.
i am honouring the amazing work of Gregory Bateson, Nora Bateson, Joanna Macy, Vanessa Machado de Oliveira,
,,,, , , , , , , , Elizabeth Debold and Thomas Steininger - they are constantly inspiring my work, this article and the idea of the “Great Letting Go Fund”.
Kaa,
It's good to hear from you again. I'll gladly join you in conversation about money. It's one of my favorite unpopular topics! Let me know how I can support you. With care, Adam