Ethiculture
The land-based practice of Natural Synchronicity: caring for soil, plants, animals and habitat, influenced by permaculture and natural farming, while exploring how human needs can coexist more coherently with other life.
Natural Synchronicity is a philosophical inquiry expressed through writing and films, and embodied in the daily care of land, plants and animals.
It asks what happens when ideas about freedom, relationship, responsibility and natural order are put into practice rather than merely argued.
The inquiry is not about copying nature or claiming certainty about its laws. It is about seeking greater coherence between how we understand the world and how we participate in it.
Current work
Eight years of growth and change on the land — food forest, gardens, water systems, animals, wildlife and the continuing work of caring for a place.
Natural Synchronicity is an inquiry into how human beings relate to the world around them. It presents these twin tenets:
Freedom is innate; its exercise is relational.
Freedom belongs to the being rather than being conferred by another human, institution or entity. Yet every exercise of freedom occurs among other beings, places, histories and consequences. Its exercise must therefore account for reciprocity, consent, responsibility and the corresponding freedom of others.
Situation Theory — everything depends on context.
Principles may orient us, but their application depends on particular circumstances and requires discernment. Relationship, history, necessity, alternatives and consequences matter. Context determines how principle can be responsibly applied.
The project asks how we might live with greater freedom and coherence within the natural world.
The land-based practice of Natural Synchronicity: caring for soil, plants, animals and habitat, influenced by permaculture and natural farming, while exploring how human needs can coexist more coherently with other life.
Natural Synchronicity follows Iona and Koan through wandering, relationship and spiritual inquiry.
Written in a philosophical, beatnik style and originally finalised in 2016, the novel is the literary root of the wider project.
Digital and print editions are available.
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