"Lost Rites" versus Fascism

I chose the wren bird as the image to go with this writing because of the Welsh (and Irish) myth of how the wren became King of the Birds. In a contest to establish who was the king of the birds the mighty eagle soared the highest, and hidden in the feathers on his back was the wee wren, who waited until the eagle peaked and became exhausted to fly just that little bit higher. The humble, the meek, the sweet, the innocent... the one without the prowess or strength alone, could simply soar because he waited. I hope the symbolism comes clearer as I go on.

Having published 3 books called the Lost Rites that chart the loss and reclamation of death rites from the personal to the collective to the systemic; I feel I made absolutely clear in those books that the cause and effect of colonialism and all the hierarchies of harm-doing that come with it were down to what we lost when we became disconnected from land and landscape, from community and connection to other humans and the more-than-human. I felt that it spells out throughout this body of work the importance of atonement (at-one-ment) and that ritual, ceremony, lament and the reclamation of death rites (personal and systemic) are part of a process of coming Home not to a patch of land but to ourselves and to the ground of integral beingness; that can only be demonstrated by truth, reconciliation, reparation and atonement.

This is Deep Decolonisation.

It has always been manifestly apparent to me that somewhere in the murky mind of fascism the fantasy of European indigeneity serves the white supremacist cause. The far right claim "indigeneity" to their nation state as evidence that the "other" does not belong. And so I have made my position throughout the books and in all the work that I do - that they are wrong to do so, that there is a fundamental conflict between the concept of "indigeneity" and the idea of "other".

I have recently found myself needing to write this piece, to underline and highlight this essential point - that there can be no claim by the white person of land; no land belongs to us. We either belong to the land or we belong not-at-all.

I have reason to say that a gross misunderstanding of the Lost Rites body of work might lead to a white person to think they are able to deny their whiteness; that they might be able to access a posture of victimhood because their ancestors were persecuted (as all our ancestors were at some point) and as a result feel they can step aside from the responsibility of dismantling white supremacy and instead claim to be victim of it.

This is the opposite of what this body of work invites of us all. The Lost Rites invites us to fully accept and own our privileges; and lever those privileges for change. Every time someone chooses to deny their privilege and adopt the posture of victim; they also give their power away to the forces of the world that feed on their bitterness, hate and self pity. The oppressed become the oppressors and violence continues to be perpetrated upon the innocent.

I have been shown in my dream time and meditations of late that there are forces in this world operating at systemic and strategic levels that draw their power from the emotional field of humanity; the bitterness, fear, hatred, drama, self pity, resistance, denial, fury, rage and toxic emotionality of the immature psyche are the rocket fuel that keeps the war machine whirring across multiple realms. It serves the sinister forces of this world to keep us all in abject rage and exhaustion; how better to keep a nervous system in outrage than to stoke the idea that someone else is more deserving of your tiny slice of pie than you; and the hungry ghosts start wailing?

So what IS being asked of us at this time? It is to find our way into authentic power and presence; through pathways of unity that celebrate difference and diversity. The more diverse the discourse, the healthier it becomes. The more voices we hear, the wiser we become. The more colourful the field, the richer we become. The Lost Rites body of work is about re-membering our collective innocence and reclaiming that from the doctrine of sin and the machinations of the feudal hierarchies of power that became empire. We cannot ever, ever, ever reclaim our innocence without a reckoning of the harms we have done others. The pathway back to our innocent selves is through truth telling and radical accountability - never denial.

This is only something that we can do as a collective.

This is only something we can do with the more-than-human holding us.

This is only something we can do with humility.

And that is where the Wren Bird comes in. We don't have far to fly in order to soar the highest, if we stay humble and camouflaged in the Work. This is not the work of ego, to be performed on world stages, for likes on instagram... this is the work of the Circle, in sacred places, with integrity and modesty. It looks like shared mourning, it looks like lament, it looks like mature discourse, it looks like humble learning. It looks like baby steps but turns into the whole pilgrimage, in the end.

Make of these words what you will, they flow from me at a time of deep contemplation so they may not always make sense... but they carry magic in them, they are part of the untangling of what is tangled and the mending of what is torn.

Thank you for reading.

Alexandra Derwen