"Enter forms that we know not, to be felt by sea, by air, by earth, and shall be an elemental pledge. This is our birthright, this is our charge, and we have given over to others and they have not done well. And the forests mourn, the leaves fall..."

Patti Smith, "Notes to the Future" [Land (1975-2002)]

"...let us consider the evolution of elemental beings or environmental
spirits. We have generally referred to these beings as 'nature spirits.' But
now we live in a world that is progressively dominated by material forms and
structures. We need to acknowledge that there must be a growing multitude of
nature spirits that engage not only in nature, but also within this world of
material forms and structures created by human beings. To cover both of
these aspects of creation, let's call these spirts 'environmental spirits.'"
Marko Pogacnik, Sacred Geography, 18

An interesting panel we spotted at the upcoming SXSW Interactive conference:

"It's Nature's Way": Innovative Tech Design Through Biomimicry (Michael Dungan, BeeDance, LLC)

Description

A social network that functions like a colony of ants. A database that manages and shares information like a slime mold. What can we learn from the obvious? Millions of years of royalty free R&D embedded in nature holds the answers to many of today's human centered design challenges. In this presentation, co-facilitated by Chris Allen of The Biomimicry Institute and Michael Dungan of BeeDance LLC, learn how a systems approach that mimics nature's lessons and resiliency can be adapted to technology design. Biomimicry is a proven design process that asks nature for advice. The application of biomimicry is responsible for the development of successful products ranging from Velcro and photovoltaic solar panels to advanced seawater desalination methods and more efficient Japanese bullet trains. Bringing a biologist to the design table to explore innovation in IT application development and optimization can unlock new discoveries. The teachings of specific champions in nature that will lead to break-through design thinking will be offered during the presentation. When approached as mentor, model and measure, organisms and whole systems found in the natural world become powerful collaborators. As B2B and B2C users continue to seek out more robust, fast and reliable forms of technology, the answers may not be in the room, but right outside the window.

Questions Answered

1. Why does biomimicry as a design strategy make sense for programmers and developers?
2. What are some actual examples of biomimicry operating today in the IT field?
3. Are there examples in nature that can be explored for social media, security and communication innovation?
4. Are visualization and location based technologies already at work in nature?
5. Does nature utilize hardware, software, and affinity networks for its processes?

 

"In the Western tradition, the first book to bring together all the
different species of elementals into one coordinated system, and which
described their unique characteristics, was About Nymphys, Sylphs,
Pygmies and Salamadnders and Other Spirits. It was first printed in
1589, 48 years after the death of its author, the famous physician,
scientist and theosophist Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim, also known as
Paracelsus."

Marko Pogacnik, Nature Spirits and Elemental Beings, 55

"...in spiritual science, fire always built a bridge between the outer material world, and the inner soul world that can be perceived only inwardly. Fire or warmth was central to all observation of nature; it was the gateway by means of which one penetrated from the outer to the innter. It is truly like a door in front of which one can stand. One can behold it from outside, one can open it, and one can behold it from within."

"...fire is situated at the boundary between the perceptible, material world and the etheric, spiritual realm that is no longer perceptible."

Rudolf Steiner, "Redemption of the Elementals," Nature Spirits, 48-49

"When looking at miracle stories of healing, the key element involved in
transmutation of energy is the ability to move out of an egoic state of
consciousness, where one feels separate from the rest of life, into a state
of union with the power of the universe or the creator."

Sandra Ingerman, Medicine for the Earth

"We can learn nothing at all in the elemental world unless we become a different person within every other being, indeed unless we become similar, to a high degree, to the other beings and events. We have to have, then, one peculiarity of soul for the elemental world: the capacity for transforming our own being into other beings outside ourselves. We must have the faculty of metamorphosis."

Rudolf Steiner, Nature Spirits

1. as the vegetation glories in its incursions on the old museum {THE END}
2. pale lives of the second or third order touching their electronic counterparts in soft spots of a distanced tenderness
3. the enclaves' window panes all in exodus inverted awaiting income a change in métier a hug from down the hall a gathering place
4. inordinately together as trollies emptied of passengers save a stray photographer roll by and echo out their old routines against
5. between bardo people clustered in millennial glee and doom collecting the abundant remnants fabrics of the past patching them 
6. the involution of the world a moebius fabric twisted inside out and into even more elaborate permutations organs on the outside or in
7. run by elemental bands of light beings over and over reassigned until their stellar event until that day serving the mutations
8. while the cine houses gather primordial dust and feet grow unused to treading the inevitable pavement the world tree migrates into the wires
9. lives a second or third life at night against time in nowhere geographies sullenly exchanging amongst themselves their discoveries
10. emptied collectors hoard their goods captured across the fiber wire veins into the recesses of bunker lives where each bricoleur
11. the movie halls are vided, the projectors gather rust in their retirement no one ventures out into the cinematic streets the shops are

This Svara is the imperishable (syllable), the immortal, free from fear.
Because the Devas entered it, therefore they became immortal, and free from
fear.
- Upanishads