The Meaning of Deep Ecology

With Deep Ecology, the Original Mind of archaic Man is brought to self-consciousness for the first time, in modern civilized man-- the Self manifests, as the Menning, because we return to the developmental stage of Culture-creation, the Mythopoetic Age, before the overdevelopment of certain human traits with the development of advanced civilizations, to a more juvenile, undifferentiated state of mind that is open, spontaneous, innocent, vital, flexible, creative, yet we retain our mature knowledge, including the lessons of experience gained over millennia by civilizations, and so do not repeat the mistaken turns we  have made in our cultural evolution.  This neoteny, the retention of juvenile traits with maturation, will be characteristic of the Menning, as if we regenerate growth from the rootstock of our nature, getting culture-civilization right this time, rather than heading further down the wrong road-- to a dead end, literally-- to annihilation.  We have learned that, though we can no longer be a natural animal, that is, subject to natural selection, we can, and must become ecological, or else we, and the Biosphere, are doomed.  That simple knowledge is the essence of Deep Ecology.  So, it must be 'back to the rootstock', of original Nature-mind, to rethink civilization from the ground up.  And the ideal of Ecology,  personified in the Drygand, becomes the god-idea upon which a civilization of survival-- the Menning-- is worked out, its Ethos.  We become, for the first time, the protectors, the Saviors, of the Biosphere-- that is to be our species-nature, and our role.  This is our destiny-- to evolve into a new species, with an ecological way of life, both part of Nature and outside it, as its protector.

Menning (Ice.)= culture, civilization: the ecological culture-civilization.

The Phylogeny of the Mennings

First, there was archaic Man.  Nature was his matrix, the All, full of numinous power, and he was its child.  Nature was his family and his neighborhood.  It was respected, feared, and loved.

Then came civilized Man, who had learned to herd animals and grow grain and store food and so-by increase over the land, building permanent townships to hold and protect his own, against beast and man without the walls.  In his mind he became detached from Nature and increasingly distant from it, seeking to become independent and secure from it.  He sought the favor of gods against the demons and monsters and fiends that lurked outside the walls, in the wilds.  Nature was no longer family.  It could be benevolent and beautiful, but it was set against him.

Finally, the estrangement of Man from Nature becomes extreme as his independence and security increase to enormous levels-- Nature becomes negligible, an ornament and a useful supply-store at best, a hindrance and a plague at worst.  The numinosity has fled from it, apart from the horrific.  Numinosity, if it exists at all, resides in the God of human welfare.  Nature itself is overrun, used up, laid waste.  And before long, it is dying. Man has triumphed over Nature, and now the child of Nature kills his parent.

This is when the Drygand comes.  And the first men to become Mennings.

The Phylogeny of the Drygand

First, there was the primordial Serpent, a power-animal of fierce numinosity, representing the great, wild forces of the whole of Nature.

Then came the chimaeric creatures of civilizations around the world, the mightiest of which was the serpentile Dragon.  It took various forms, notably as the destructive, treasure-hoarding Western monsters, as the Hindu were-snake Nagas, strangely similar to the aristocratic Celtic Faeries in their splendid underground courts, and as the Chinese Lungs, fabulous divine Nature-beings of the clouds, the rains, and the waters.

Finally comes the ecological Drygand, the ultimate evolution from Serpent and Dragon forebears; a quintessential synthesis from them; a revolutionary mutation induced by the crisis of the human-engineered Extinction Event; archetype of the modern Idea of ecology; heroic, transformative noumenon; and, finally, the heraldic icon of the new ecological civilization.

Back to Nature

Man is still subject to the irresistible allure of Wild Nature, within as well as without.  This is to be 'taken by the Faeries', drawn into the inevitable destiny of beyond-human evolution, when we go back to Nature, but as its Champion, this time.  Man becomes Heroic.

The Indryg

The Indryg, like the Land-dryg and the Drygand, is a warden-sule with the form of the Greek Agathos Daemon or Indian or Tibetan Naga, as presented in the previous shtook.  But the Indryg is a personal guardian, such as a Fylgja or Hamingja, whereas a Dryg is guardian of an area of Nature, and the Drygand  guardian of all Nature, though at a certain depth of understanding, they are all connected.  The Indryg wards a Deepster particularly from the insidious allure and influence of the Searuvel-sith in which he is caught, so that he is not corrupted by it or turned away from troth to the Menning.  But the Indryg gives personal help, advice, and warning to his mensch like any ordinary personal guardian does.  If you are not acquainted with your Indryg, then turn your mind toward finding him within.

Drjugr (ONorse)= rich, solid, substantial, ample, lasting.
Sule= tree trunk, pillar; sun; soul.
Sith (OEng)= way of life, culture.
* the 'y' in dryg-words is pronounced as u-umlaut, as in the International Phonetic Alphabet; roughly, as eh-oo, melded.

The Ecological Dragon

In the Deep Ecology movement, there seem to be two major gods in use-- Gaea and the Dragon.  I have never been able to get into female divinity.  That's just me.  It took a long time, though, even after I started on the Mythos, to arrive at 'the Dragon', of which the Drygand is a form.  I like the idea of an Ur-god of Nature, and it was Merlin in the movie Excalibur who really turned me on to the Dragon as the primordial pantheist God.  It works. 

Snakes, the basis of the dragon-concept, have been worshipped virtually everywhere-- it's their uncanny awesomeness.  They really are alluring and amazing.  A dragon is not just a snake, but a chimaeric creature, and I think there is something shocking, outlandish, monstrous about chimaeras, that can make them highly numinous, and a chimaera based on the snake is even moreso.

There are various ancient dragons or were-serpents that seem to be variations on an idea, maybe an extremely ancient idea. In going over my notes, I've come across a few of these which point toward a representation of the Drygand.

First is the ancient Greek Agathos Daimon, or 'good spirit-being', a guardian of the individual person, whose form is of a winged serpent.  Perhaps a development from it is Hermes' caduceus, a winged staff wrapped in two snakes helixing up it in opposite directions.  Hermes himself is quite interesting as a human-form god-- who knows how strange he was before he was human-ized!  Then there's Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent of the Aztecs, and he is also in the mold of a winged serpent, but feather-bedecked.  There was an Egyptian flying horned-snake, and the conventional Eurasian dragon has horns as well. There's also a Tibetan 'Naga' (Sanscrit for the etymologically-related 'snake'), whose upper half is human, and lower half snake-like, and it also has horns and wings.  This I find perfect for the Drygand, though as Pan-chimaera, he can take any biological form.  The Hindu nagas are treated more like wights than gods, I think, but are powerful beings nonetheless.  They do have a king, the Naga-raja, who could serve, combined with the Tibetan naga, as the perfect model for the Drygand.

I don't know if there are many neopagans who find the Dragon to be their ultimate expression of Godhood, but in the form of the Drygand, I find that it works.  It's primordial, preceding even the Titans, you could say; transhuman, and works as pantheist Nature God as well as Ecological Savior.  A very powerful image and concept.

Lore

Hal Ing-oz is Ordman, Helg-walden of the Deepings, his Maeth.

Ordman= chieftain.
Helg-walden= sacred king.
Deepings= the Alfaer.
Maeth= tribe, folk.

The Drygand-drang is kumbol of the Deepings, carved as an Oz-drangsule.

Drygand-drang= a free-standing idol of the Drygand.
Kumbol= emblem.
Oz-drangsule= a carven log representing a god.