Antonio Orihuela
The sacred plants remind us that we are spirit, community and nature; to recover these links, to intertwine these three realities, to realize that this is precisely what we are, in the midst of the social and ecological collapse is the only thing that can save us as a species. Even so, we continue to wage war on the expansion of consciousness, which means we are engaged in a war against ourselves; we are still at war with others, because that is what neoliberalism dictates, and we are still at war with nature, when we should be fighting a war against capitalism. In this sense, sacred plants are a magnificent ally for discovering those strange coasts, those unknown fishing grounds of beauty; they are the great bonfires in which you will see all your adhesions burn, in which all implants sizzle and melt; the door to achieve access to the delicate delight of the eternal moment. Preserving these plants, venerating them and learning from them seems to me to be one of the rare ways we have left to stop the biocide in the making. Congratulations to Jill Pflugheber and Steven F. White for bringing us closer to who we are.
Antonio Orihuela is a poet and coordinates the “Voices from the Extreme”, gatherings sponsored by the Zenobia and Juan Ramón Jiménez Foundation of Moguer, Spain, a forum for bringing together counter-hegemonic senses and sensibilities.
