The war between good and evil is in reality an imposition of stupidity and simplicity over wisdom and complexity.

Narrative is the most powerful mechanism for memory.

That pair, those two together, mother and child, are the pivotal relationship of any stable society. All other relationships radiate out from, and feed into, this central pair.

We are the custodians who are uniquely gifted to do this work, so we need to do it consciously and with mastery, within cultural frameworks aligned with the patterns of creation. If we allow the I-am-greater-than deception to enter this process, all is lost.

It has protocols of active listening, mutual respect and building on what others have said rather than openly contradicting them or debating their ideas.

This complex, beautiful and healing ritual could not have been designed arbitrarily by any individual or even a ‘working group’.

Failing to pass it all on means I’m carrying it around like a stone and stifling my growth, as well as the regeneration of the systems I live in.

Here’s how the smoke works. It is made by the leaves: light from sky camp and nutrients from under the ground, connecting the two worlds and moving between them, visible but intangible. You have to feel it going through you, through your body and particularly through the big spirit at the centre of your belly. The smoke is liminal—neither earth nor

I was worried about my academic knowledge overtaking my cultural knowledge. I needed to produce something in my own way first that was a greater work than a thesis.