Spring 1986 RAIN Page 45 will justify our continued existence as one species of this planet. In my understanding, “permaculture” is a word to stand for the process of bringing our lives back into participation with ' the processes of Earth. To heal the Earth, we must first heal our relationship with the Earth. This means self-healing, for it is we, not the rest of creation on this planet, who are out of balance. I suggest four steps in this healing process;* (1) Observe. Become aware of experience. Observe the natural world and how it works. Look for repeating patterns. Also be aware of your inner “voices” and impulses. You are also a part of nature. (2) Trust yourself. Try out your impulses. Do what feels beautiful to you. I theorize that our aesthetic sense is an ability much more powerful than our minds in helping us make balanced choices. Beauty may be nothing more than the balance between pattern and randomness that typifies a healthy ecosystem. Trust your observations. Experts are fine as resources but avoid them as authorities. You are the only expert on your experience. It is the only basis by which you can interact with the rest of the natural world. (3) Respect and honor every being and situation as a unique part of creation. Every person, place, and thing is a unique gift from the universe. Recipes and formulas ignore this uniqueness and your power to respond to it in an appropriately unique way. Seek guidelines, not rules. You belong to one of the most adaptable species on earth. So adapt instead of dominating. (4) See everything as part of a whole. For that reason, problems which occur together often have common solutions. Ecologies are efficient and durable when all parts support capture, transformation and storage of energy by the whole. Each whole is part of a larger whole, to the point where there are galaxies of galaxies of galaxies of galaxies of galaxies of galaxies. Probably the principle continues beyond that level, but at that point human perception, even aided with instruments and computers, is exhausted. While I have been working with these principles to heal my own relationship with the earth, I have found that their application has made me aware of eight observations, in four pairs. I do not purport to have discovered any of these observations or natural principles. But, as best as I can tell from my personal experience, this appears to be an irreducible minimum of principles which we can emulate to begin to learn the reconstruction of working ecosystems. ♦After using this list for about a year, I realized that each of these steps is also represented by the points of a Native American medicine wheel. The medicine wheel is a circle interrupted by the four poinU of the compass. The first and second steps here, awareness of self and trust in personal power, correspond with the east and west, representing rebirth and strength respectively. Respect for the uhiquesness of creation and awareness of its wholeness correspond with the south and north. From the south comes love and cleverness, my Native American friends tell me. The bald eagle from the north flies high and sees creation as a whole. I find the confirmation of this unity comforting. Economy and Elegance 1. Do only what is necessary. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This involves humility, in realizing that our understanding is limited, and respect for the natural way in which nature makes things happen. Don’t try to improve on nature. This is what Masanobu Fukuoka (author of The One Straw Revolution, Rodale Press) means when he says his is a “do-nothing” philosophy and why he always questions the reason for every task. Imagine North America today if our ancestors had honored this one principle. 2. Multiply purposes. Never do anything for only one reason. “Stack functions,” is the way Bill Mollison expresses it. In nature, all design is elegant My hand is clearly designed for grasping. But it also serves as a heat radiator for my body, a weapon (fist), a signal device, a writing implement (finger in sand), a bodily support surface (as in pushups), a sensory organ, a carrier of affection (e.g. caresses), and even typing this article, however that would be characterized. If we perceive several functions for an object or decision, then many more will be present. If we perceive only one function, it usually boils down to ego: fear or greed. Either or both of these are commonly counterproductive guides to our actions. Balance 3. Be redundant. “Repeat functions,” Bill would say. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is how my grandmother put it. Look at any relatively whole nutrient cycle, energy transformation pattern, or watershed. There is always a variety of pathways by which an ecosystem can proceed about its business. In nature, this is done so that no two organisms occupy the same niche in an ecosystem, yet if any one species is removed, everything it does for the whole will be accomplished by other organisms. It is understanding of this principle, for example, that reveals that growing our food in monocultures is stupid and self-destructive. 4. Design, and act, on an appropriate scale. Or, as Granny said, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” This is why permaculture starts at the doorstep and works out—to keep on a scale commensurate with our understanding. We are only responsible for the next step in whatever we are doing, and that step is always right before us. The tragedies of all great literature teach us that heroes are losers. You would be amazed at how high you can climb one step at a time if you just keep moving in the right direction. Resilience 5. Work with edges. That is where the action is. Straight lines have far less edge than waves. You know this instinctively. People gravitate to the edges, like the beach, the forest edge, the side of the path, or the living room wall (where they put their furniture). Nature amplifies edges, as in your lungs or kidneys, when it wants to amplify energy transfer, and reduces surface, as in a dewdrop or a turtle shell, when it wants to limit transactions. There appears to be no
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