by Paul Cudenec (who reads the article here) I have always found that physical and spiritual heights go hand in hand. As a boy, in the grey London suburbs, I had to make do with the top floor of the multi-storey car park over the road from my grandmother's house in order to experience this … Continue reading Great Pan and the gap into Elf-land
by Paul Cudenec (who reads the article here) We all know how faiths and ideologies can be corrupted and deliberately turned into a negation of what they were meant to represent. But, it strikes me, the opposite can also happen. In this instance, the change would not be brought about by external hostile action against … Continue reading Renewal from within and beyond
by Paul Cudenec (who reads the article here) Last weekend I spent a night in the heights of the Cévennes mountains, near to the source of the Vidourle. As I gazed up at the great swathe of the Milky Way and marvelled at the sparkling infinity all around, my mind went back to other moments … Continue reading The night sky and the truth
by Paul Cudenec (who reads the article here) Max Weber, the subject of my last essay, was not alone in suspecting that certain religious beliefs - or the lack of them - had played a key role in shaping modern industrial society. Indeed, a century before Weber wrote about "die Entzauberung der Welt" - the … Continue reading The disgodding of nature and our hearts
by Paul Cudenec (who reads the article here) "The birthing of humans by the Earth is a universally widespread belief. In numerous languages, we are named 'born of the Earth'". [1] So writes Mircea Eliade in Le sacré et le profane, a book to which I referred in 'Our sacred belonging'. [2] On the surface … Continue reading Gnosticism and the universal mother
by Paul Cudenec with photos by Ibraar Hussein [Audio version] "In the time when gods, spirits and human beings lived together in nature with the plants and the animals, everyone communicated, each knew everything about the others". [1] Such is the ancient wisdom of the Kalash people of South Asia, their ancestral memory of a … Continue reading Rooted in our living world
by Paul Cudenec The southern French coast near Montpellier Airport is rather congested. Holiday resorts have sprung up to profit from those heading to the lovely sandy beaches - as have, of course, the roads required to take them there. Just to the east of La Grande-Motte - a product of the proudly modernising 1960s - the … Continue reading In search of the source: a personal journey against the flow
Number 102 In this issue: Zones of corporate tyranny A message to the nature-hating bastards London conference for freedom and Palestine We Were the Shepherds Walter Benjamin: an organic radical inspiration Acorninfo 1. Zones of corporate tyranny Campaigner David Powell has issued a new warning about the spectre of corporate tyranny facing the UK. We … Continue reading The Acorn – 102
by Mike Driver Stop for a moment, listen, can you hear it? Like a strain of music in the distance, lost, then heard again. Spring is coming. Hope gathers itself in the soil, the songs of the forest are changing, optimism lights the air. Spring is nature’s trampoline propelling colours like prayers on butterfly wings. The … Continue reading About This Life
Our Beloved! You are within us, around us and beyond usWe feel you, we see you, we know youYou move us and breathe through usYour heart is our soulYou gave us birth, we give you bodyYou gave us everything and so we will give our whole selves to you We will be your song and … Continue reading The spirit of Sophia: our promise
winter oak 