Postcards from Rewilding: Autumn 𓁹‿𓁹
Issue 6: Fruits of an autumn equinox; nourishments from the root 𓆏
Dearest wildlings,
I write this to you as autumn descends upon those of us in the Northern Hemisphere ~ that season of “mists and mellow fruitfulness” as Keats put it. In India meanwhile, the land emerges from monsoon season, its vegetal species arrayed in their most brilliant greens. And what a special yin/yang this abundance is to the rich red, orange and yellow leaves we now crunch through along the Rhine in Basel, as the trees return their chlorophyll and other crucial nutrients back to the root in preparation for the winter that sleeps quietly around the corner. With the autumn equinox not far behind us, it is a time of transition into equilibrium - a moment where the Earth rebalances herself, and invites us earthen bodies to do the same.
In such times, where the struggles of our world sit somewhat uncomfortably alongside such beauty, it feels only right and proper that the regaining of equilibrium has taken its slow time here, too. In my own case, this issue’s snail-paced arrival coincided with the all-consuming hatching of twin wolfpacks - vibrant, rhizomatic and very much alive. And so, as this email package arrives to your doorstep (carefully wrapped in a red twine ribbon as ever, carried on the wings of an ancient carrier-pigeon) and nestles itself into your day, we hope this issue’s traces of rewilding provide their own nourishments, as you prepare for all that which comes ~ with a bit of Toki Futo spirit medicine to boot.
This time, our Wild Thickets wolfpack reflects on those special transition moments of summer-autumn, when all is flux/flow and frenetic colour, a fresh wind where the aromas of scents known combine with those still unidentified. And so, as we root around in the undergrowth seeking truffles, who knows what treasures might be found along the way ~ 🧧
Now, with much ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°),,, a delivery from our favourite wildlings… 🍁・゜゜・．
I have been thinking about ‘dark fungi’ - the 95% of fungal diversity that remain unknown to science, and within which extraordinary but unknown potential exists to address ecological crises, including plastic decomposition, enhanced carbon absorption in soils and yet unknown abilities (cancer cures? Populist political quellings? Techno music compositions?). This autumn I hope to rewild my soul a little, having remained mentally bunkered down in dissertation writing on the aforementioned subject. - Tristan 🍥
Summer sun came with an invitation to locate love as a practice of rewilding itself. It’s not hard to feel love upon encountering bright wild lilies in the city’s feral edges. Yet to love in other places feels not as easy, like work where the separation between love and labour has only been growing. I’ve been lucky to have been thinking, making, and learning love together with a couple of loving creatures in other summer lands. - Jaz 🍥
In my search for the „Würfelerkenntnis im Ei“, the 9-point problem, I hadn’t made it out of the box yet. But when illuminating the pixel from a different perspective, my shadow made it out once and waved hopefully at me.... - Susi 🍥
This has been a summer of quiescence - an agonizing wait steeped in uncertainty. A fallow field appears bare. But all the while it is regenerating with the faith that the place of waiting nurtures the universe of life and your place in it. My seeds are now germinating as I start a new chapter of my life, absorbing fresh ideas and seeing with new eyes, the wonder that is this life. - Gayatri 🍥
This summer has been a season of deep research (embodied, experiential and bookwormy) that comes from an insatiable thirst to understand the collective spell that we are under. This research includes deep talks with folks who hold different perspectives and belief systems, silent meditation, somatic movement, reading books including The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler, The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner, Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliot and listening to podcasts like Gnarly Girls; learning more about the domination model we live within as something that is constructed and therefore also something that can be deconstructed. Moving into autumn, I will be scheduling weekly ‘meadowing’ sessions, where I will be laying in a meadow looking at the sky. - Jess 🍥
I’m moving into a new internal landscape; or rather, a new internal landscape has already moved into me, bringing with it experimental regimes, different calendars, and strange sensoriums. Jeff VanderMeer’s ‘Absolution’ - both a prequel and sequel to his Southern Reach series - is a comfortably unsettling read, and a suitable exhibition catalogue for this period. - Georgina 🍥
Over summer, I’ve been readying the launch of a new video podcast, “Waterbodies” — about how Vancouver’s False Creek can be uplifted as an showcase for urban/marine ecocultural restoration. Over autumn, plans include transplanting fruit-bearing shrubs onto the public sidewalk median, and tinkering with the community wetland. - Mendel 🍥
I got to meet new, amazing people that gave myself new perspectives. In the near future, I wish to rewild my routines with more mindfulness. - Emanuel 🍥
I tried here to simulate the concept of “moving energies” (drifting fog) between clear and ordered elements. Whilst focusing the simple and clear elements of the image, the fog starts to move in the blind spot of the view, *at least in theory :) / Vivid — “moving energy between static structures”. Seeing without recognizing, as a principle of perception that should enable me to take place in nature without imposing my order on it, was one of many personal summer-tasks / ...Whilst sitting on a lake from dawn to dusk, catching the weather pattern of a whole day, I felt the desire for another unfulfillable task. - Lexxe 🍥
My summer has been getting back to soil via earth.kubu.fi / Grounded in the Finnish landscape, listening to the land / Autumn - radical redistribution of things that I own, physically material clearings. Emerging alliances. Making things happen with water, boom boxes, and new groups of people. - Teresa 🍥
Me and Ruth C have been turning our small-town coastal LARP into something that might take in both the coastal planet and lots of species with shorter lives than ours. That feels like a bit of rewilding. As for going forward, I’d like to rewild my life. Not something in my life, but the very idea of it. One can only be a full-blown academic for so long. - Ann 🍥
After finishing public data cultures i’ve been exploring environmental intelligences, networked naturecultures and recompositional methods, building on our forestscapes listening lab and collaborations with ecosystem restoration practitioners. We’ve also been organising forest forays, foraging berries, gathering plums, damsons, apples and kale - and thinking about growing collectives. Continuing desire for composing spaciousness and expansiveness in everyday life Would love to make time for more open-ended, exploratory studio sessions with friends - as well as finding ways to grow care, solidarity, connection and collective learning in groups I’m part of. - Jonathan 🍥
This year’s summer solstice gave me the best birthday gift of my life: Princess Mononoke, a border terrier puppy from the countryside of Switzerland (and Ghibli forests). She’s been called dreamy flower 🌸, sparklehound 🦄, pupperino 🍕 and diablito 👹 (all correct), and she now runs alongside the wolfpack of transversal learners-teachers I’ve been growing since moving to Basel last year. They teach me new wisdoms from the wilds daily - starting with feral hacking, and continuing with hikes to meet the local mosses and lichens this autumn. - Kit 🍥
I have been working on an Ecological Citizen Network+ funding bid with the Womens’ Environmental Network to build citizen-led food waste to composting site distribution infrastructure in East London. - Viktor 🍥
Hypenated identity crises as a settler in these lands re-envisioned through the prism of myth and generational memory, told through poetry, memoir and long-form fiction. Planning and launching the 2026 MENA Film Festival in January. - Arman 🍥
Diving into stars / Sparkling above and below/ Phosphorescent Bliss / This fall, we will be rewilding in the Kootenays, finding places where energy and thermal pools flow as the seasons shift. A perfect place to embrace the new season. - Mauree 🍥
Until the next turn around the bend, dearest wildlings, with ✨🔮✨ for your own shifts of the season ~ and a bit of extra spice for the dances of life ahead ;)))
See you in the thickets,
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