ashes to ashesdust to dust

table of contents

cosmic dust 8

when the dust settles... 18

!nely ground 28

terra !rma 38

of mystery and magic 48

references 58

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food

until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken;

for dust you are and to dust you will return.

~Genesis 3:19

e have been captivated by the cosmic order for centuries, for it is the dust of space, stars, comets and cosmos that lies

at the heart of creation. "e idea that all matter is composed of elementary particles dates to at least the 6th century B.C.E. "e philosophical doctrine of atomism and the nature of elementary particles were studied by ancient Greek philoso-phers such as Leucippus, Democritus and Epicu-rus; ancient Indian philosophers such as Kanada and Dharmakirti; medieval scientists such as Al-hazen, Avicenna and Algazzel; and early modern European physicists such as Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton. As science continues to explore the matter and origin of creation, it is becoming more clear that the universe was not the result of a giant explosion. Instead, experts say that there was — and continues to be — an expansion; an unfolding of intense gravitational pressure.

All mythologies have stories about the creation of the world. Monotheistic religions speak of a su-

preme being, the Alpha and the Omega. Polythe-istic traditions embrace many deities, including animals and plants that are imbued with spiritual authority. Indigenous traditions talk of Dream-ing; a belief which tells stories about powerful beings who arose out of the land, created or gave birth to people, plant life and animal life, and connected particular groups of people with par-ticular regions and languages.

Whatever our belief systems —science included — we are constantly seeking to orient and under-stand ourselves in an in!nitely complex universe, blithely unaware that the key to understanding the world “out there,” may in fact, be “in here.” One may go so far as to say that “outer and inner space are the same […] since it was out of pri-mordial space that the galaxy took form […]We are productions of this earth. We are, as it were, its organs. Our eyes are the eyes of this earth; our knowledge is the earth’s knowledge. And the earth, as we know now, is a production of space.”

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cosmic dust

Dust’s ambiguous meta-phorical place as both the most ordinary and the !nest of things derived from its role as a frontier between the seen and the unseen. Like skin, a tis-sue that stands between the interior and the exte-rior, dust separated what could be known by the senses and what lay be-yond them. In this respect, dust was like darkness: it formed a graduated and permeable screen between the realm of what was empirically known and the realm of the imagined.

when the dust settles...

he world is in a state of turmoil. We are experiencing dramatic climatic change. Cultural revolution. Bounda-ries and borders are breaking. Class

structures are faltering. Dust has been kicked up by the footsteps of the factious. We are in the middle of a storm and the earth is shaking.

"e world has witnessed the rise and fall of in-numerable civilizations. And with each rebirth comes new energy. In a sense, we are beating the rugs of our ancestry, shaking o# the dust that has gathered and making room for the new genera-tions. Some things will be lost and resistance is futile. But from the ashes of death and destruc-tion comes new life. Dust in the form of soot and ashes reveals where !res have burned.

In myth, we !nd the phoenix, a mythical bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1000 year life-cycle. Near the end of its life, the phoenix builds a nest of twigs that then ignites. Both nest and

bird burn !ercely and are reduced to ashes. From the ashes, a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again.

We as human beings experience similar meta-physical deaths and rebirths throughout our life-times. We must clear away past selves in order to move forward and mature. Animals and plants exhibit the same behavior, as do the seasons. Out with the old. In with the new. "e nature of the universe is cyclical. "e histories and happenings of the world are often repeated, depending upon the psychological needs of the time. Mircea Elia-de declares that, “the very dialectic of the Sacred or Eternal tends to repeat a series of archetypes [(or elementary ideas)] in disparate moments throughout history, so that a [mythology] real-ized at a certain moment in time is structurally equivalent to a [mythology] revealed a thousand years earlier or later. Past, present and future and are constantly in dialogue with one another, giv-ing rise to what T.S. Eliot called a “dream-crossed twilight:” the metaphysical space in which the narrative of the world is enfolded.

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ur relationship to food is complex. "e dusts of plants and minerals have long been used to add $avor to food. Spices, sugars, $ours and salts are generally considered the

“staples” of most kitchens. "ese !nely ground dusts or powders illuminate the alchemy of what it means to feed body and soul.

In medieval times, the balance of the peasant world teetered on tiny grains. Peasants literally measured life by it. Grain meant food for today and seed for tomorrow. In good times, French peasants would respond to an inquiry about how they fared by say-ing “J’ai du pain” (I’ve got bread). In bad times, they looked in the dust for things to eat. Nothing was too small to be considered food. During famines, which stalked European peasants until the nineteenth cen-tury, the smallest things could sway lives and for-tunes.

Not much has changed since the medieval ages. Life’s riches almost always “boil down” to what we eat and how we eat. Amidst an age of global

excitement and upheaval, we are called upon to be cautious, to be sparing and mindful of what we consume. "e recent documentary, Forks Over Knives, investigates the profound claim that “most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that a%ict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting animal-based and processed foods.” As the number of urban gardens and farmer’s mar-kets expands, our diets will be transformed along-side a world that is being trans!gured. We will value quality over quantity, indulging in the small and simple delights of local cuisine and seasonal ingredients.

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efore the beginning of the industrial revolution, women and men were intimate with dust. Dust was a part of daily life. It was found in the !elds,

carrying with it the sweet smell of an autumn harvest or the fresh bloom of spring $owers. Yet much of the “modern” world has dissociated it-self from the earth. In the last 30 years, there has been an explosion of antibacterial soaps, lotions, face creams and detergents. Dirt, dust, molds and all other manner of earthly “scum” are the things of disease. We have become obsessed with clean-liness. In the words of Mary Douglas — author of, Pu-rity and Danger — “Re$ection on dirt involves re$ection on the relation of order to disorder, being to non-being, form to formlessness, and life to death.” "e Wellcome Collection in Lon-don, England is currently featuring an exhibition called, Dirt: "e !lthy reality of everyday life, and also draws upon Douglas’ insights. "e exhibi-tion traverses centuries and continents to explore our relationship to dirt, bringing together 200 artifacts spanning visual art, documentary pho-

tography, cultural ephemera, scienti!c artifacts, and !lm and literature. “"e exhibition uncovers a rich history of disgust and delight in the grimy truths and dirty secrets of our past, and points to the uncertain future of !lth, which poses sig-ni!cant risks to our health, but is also vital to our existence.”

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In the next 5-10 years, our relationship to dirt will change. "e role of technology and virtual reality in our lives will de-

crease, and we will reach for the earth, for the familiar soil and lands of our childhood. As consumers, our purchasing power will emphasize organic produce, skincare and other fair-trade merchandise. Once again, we will plunge our hands into the soil of our gardens and the wet sands of our beaches. We will reacquaint ourselves with terra !rma, with the primordial dust

from whence we came.

n fairy tales, a mere sprinkle of dust can cause wondrous things to occur. In the story of Peter Pan, it is the combination of pixie dust and happy thoughts that enables

Wendy to $y. A shimmering dance of particles awakens the imagination and the inner child. In its smallest and most deeply hidden forms, dust is too hermitic and magical to be understood. Yet its existence cannot be denied. Even though most individual dust particles are unseen, dust as an entity functions to mark the boundary of the small. With fairy dust come fairy tales, the mythological stories that help us to remember the dreams we bring with us upon entering the world.

Tales of witches, wizards, elves and sorcerers con-tinue to fascinate the world at large. We are ines-capably drawn to these fantastical creatures who are capable of casting spells and foreseeing the future.

Roger Sperry, author of In the Mind’s Eye, writes that “after some four to !ve hundred years of growth in a highly verbally oriented system of

education and knowledge, we may be seeing a new phase in which certain kinds of complex information will be increasingly handled visually rather than verbally.” A transition to educational and epistemological systems which value creativ-ity, imagination, and visual literacy is in keeping with the worlds of fantasy, myth and ingenuity. We crave the power to dream the impossible. We have been taught to believe that to think clearly about something, we must think in words. We have been taught that to understand a com-plex system, we must break it down into smaller pieces. But with the advent of new visual tech-nologies, the mind’s eye will undergo a dramatic transformation.

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“So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will $y on

wings, forever, in Never Never Land!”

All evidence suggests that conventional educational systems may be focusing on the wrong kinds of skills and on rewarding some of the wrong kinds of learning. Conventional educational practices may be systemically weeding out many of those who might have the most to give as many sectors of our economy and society continue to go through fundamental change, requiring deeper and more basic kinds of learning.

Coming full circle, we may soon begin to see that some of those who are best attuned to absorbing and fully un-derstanding problems of vast complexity may be just the ones who sometimes have the greatest di"culty at the lower levels of the conven-tional education system.

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West, !omas G. In the Mind’s Eye. Prometheus Books; Upd Sub edition (January 1997)

Amato, Joseph A. Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible. University of Califor-nia Press (November 5, 2001)

Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. TAYLOR; 1 edition (November 15, 2002)

Barrie, J. M. Peter Pan. Viking Juvenile (October 1, 1991)

All Fashion Illustrations: Kathryn Elyse, www.paperfashion.net

All Other Images: Found on www.google.com/images and/or purchased by Beth Lauck, www.what-nxt.com

Beth LauckWhat Next

2011