“The icon of the vegetable with a bite out of it shows us that there is an element of competition in obtaining a yield, whilst the proverb “You can’t work on an empty stomach” reminds us that we must get immediate rewards to sustain us.”
At first glance, one might think this principle proves the absurdity of exopermaculture, both in the physical, tangible garden, and in the community. In both realms, this principle insists on “immediate rewards to sustain us.” And in both realms, hunger is the basic, underlying motive for doing permaculture. “You can’t work on an empty stomach.” Plus, hunger makes you ungrounded. Hard to think about higher, more subtle values and realms without getting dizzy. In order to survive, both personally, and in community, we must first, each of us, eat. And hopefully, there will be enough for all, so that the “element of competition” need not dominate.
That’s what’s so great about permaculture Not only does it “get a yield,” it increases yield, year by year, when intelligently designed. Indeed, from the very first day of my Permaculture Design Course, I knew that permaculture was the hope for the future, since not only does it implement low-cost, low-impact gardening, but it can be creatively applied anywhere, used to remediate even the most barren desert.
So, can exopermaculture help obtain and increase yield? The jury’s out. We have yet to try it. Or, perhaps I should say, we have yet to admit these kinds of concerns into our permaculture world-view. Though Eileen Caddy communed with the vegetable spirits at Findhorn to find out what and how to grow in that windy wasteland, and though indigenous peoples have felt at one with the elemental and star kingdoms for millennia, permaculturists tend to think mostly in terms of creative juxtaposition of material inputs into our little piece of land when we focus on obtaining a yield.
But wait! Permaculture does consider the larger cosmic realm, even worships it, in assuming that all growth on Earth is powered by the Sun. Moreover, organic, and certainly biodynamic gardeners also consider the influence of the Moon, during those days when the Moon is between New and Full, in “water” and “earth” signs.
But, with these two, admittedly large, exceptions, the realms of the cosmic, not to mention the invisible and intangible are rarely integrated in any real way into permaculture thinking, with the exception of course, of our unconscious reliance on the most mysterious power that drives everything else, the life force itself, regularly and inexorably making a huge something out of mostly nothing. Bursting through seeds, shooting up stems, uncurling leaves, unfurling flowers, enfleshing fruits, and then falling, falling, dropping back into the soil to fertilize yet another round, another season.
Those who truly attune to the garden tend to harmonize with the life force. And anyone who stops to truly notice the power of it, is liable to wake up with a startled shock.
Yes, the garden itself is the realm of mystery. The universe, as the poet says, sxists in a grain of sand.
But back to the more practical version of “obtain a yield.” Again the question, might an exopermacultural focus “obtain a (larger) yield?” Here, I ask that we just let go of our conditioned scientific attitude for awhile, just drop the whole notion of proof. And really, folks, as if we can “prove” anything! As if we can actually, successfully limit situations to only certain, prescribed, totally defined inputs, and then say, this one or that one “caused” X to happen! As if the universe works through linear chains of causality! As if the web of life can be reduced to this kind of simplistic analysis! All this is part of the framework that I and other exo people would call “third dimensional thinking,” Newtonian thinking, the world view that describes the world as mechanical, like a clock, or like a bunch of billiard balls, knocking about on a green felt table.
Let’s face it, at this point, we have no “proof” that ETs are really visiting us. That the cosmic realm contains beings that live in many forms, and in many dimensions, and that they might be asked to help us comprehend how to work more harmoniously here on Earth.
Many people have experienced “contact.” Some call themselves “channels” for otherworldly entities. UFO stories abound: of how they disable nuclear warheads, and stop cars on highways, accompany planes, hover over or streak by cities, and mountains, and deserts, sometimes alone, sometimes in fleets, both day and night. Many people can swear on a stack of Bibles, that they “know” ETs are real, and that they are visiting us. But what kind of “proof” would do? Especially if 99% of what goes on in the living universe is not in this dense three-dimensional plane?
Finally, allow me to take one more tack on this 3rd principle. And that is this: it may be that only here, on Earth, do we have to worry about “obtaining a yield.” That only in the third dimension do we have to work so hard to make sure things grow; do we have to eat the flesh of fruits and plants, and, for most of us, animals. Reports come from “higher dimensions” where entities don’t need to eat of such gross matter, that they live on the nutrients supplied them through the air, or ether. Or that, for example, on Venus, which I hear lives in the 5th dimension, all they have to do is imagine something for it to appear. No “hard work” necessary!
And if Earth “ascends,” as some say it is in the process of doing, to the 4th, and 5th dimensions? Then what? How would we do permaculture on that new Earth? Rhetorical question. Food for thought. Whatever comes next in these days of global weirding, it helps to open our minds.
