Survivalism: A Skills Based Initiation Culture Into A Deep Connection Eith Nature.

Draft version still being edited, pre-release.

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Survivalism or Bushcraft?

Both terms are interchangeable.

Initiation Cultures in the Postmodern Collapse.

We don't really have coming-of-age ceremonies in the Industrialised world. These transitions seem more important to cultures that have either not been fully assimilated into capitalism or that have maintained their more ancient traditions.

Some Sufi sects still practice an initiation rite that bestows responsibility and requires the initiate to lead a simple life of devotion, peace, and compassion. The Sufis are the peace and love hippies of Islam.  My Asian family are followers of Jalaluddin Rumi. But their Sufism is markedly different from Western Sufism.

I do periodically hear Core Shamanism practitioners podcasting about initiation culture and trying to found one. Just to be clear, whatever they do in their initiation, it will be unlike anything I might suggest from a survivalist point of view.

Initiation Based on Ability and Skill

Initiation serves many purposes, but for many hunter-gatherer cultures, it's a test of skill, allowing the initiate to prove themselves as capable hunters and survivors. This is important, because the entire famillial unit/tribe /clan will depend on these skills for survival. This structure of initiation has space for specialisation: Scout, Tracker, Herbalist/Healer, each with their own apprenticed training periods, with the foundation of the initiation in survival. There are a few cultures left that do this. It's good to test your skills and be appraised for doing so in front of those who taught you. But after a period of time if practice, knowledge and skills development.

The XReadiness idea could offer the perfect practical and useful alternative to the drum banging ritual magic that Core Shamanism practitioners are doing, with the bonus of fostering a deep and meaningful connection to nature that is based on actual medical research.

When I read the XReadiness document it felt like it had been written by people who didn't really grasp what it means to be at home in nature or think really hard about what happens during collapse That really comes across in this line:

"Carry tinder (cotton, birch bark, dryer lint) and kindling in your emergency

bag; dry materials are often hard to find during crises."

Before the invention of the chemical match. Every person carried a tinder box containing flint & steel, and for tinder the cheapest thing was "Tow", a byproduct of weaving, spinning and rope making from flax, hemp and nettle. Some people were more skilled than others, I am sure. In villages with a blacksmith, it was common to get an ember from the blacksmith for the hearth. It was also common to maintain an eternal fire in the hearth, honouring St Brigid, the Goddess of Fire, the Hearth, the home and childbirth.

Don' t half learn survival skills and rely on shop bought tinder.

This is a foolhardy, Prepprr approach beause they dont think the crisis will last, becasue they dont believe in science, because they dont qant capitalismnto end and think "pinko commies" cant do survival.

Fire is the Great Initiator and test of skill in adversity. 

Otzi, the Copper Age man found in a Glacier, was a victim of an ancient who-done-it carried Amadou tinder processed from hoof fungus and pyrite. Pyrite struck on Flint makes sparks, and amadou, a felt processed from hoof fungus, that can catch the low-temperature spark from pyrite and flint.

Hoof fungus is likely to go extinct as the planet warms; it's a cold-climate species. But there are plenty of other things to choose from Tinder.

The Ferro Rod, A Brief History

Ferro rods, short for ferrocerium rods, were invented in 1903 by Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach.

Ferrocerium is a synthetic pyrophoric alloy made using a blend of elements including Cerium, Lanthanum, Iron, & Magnesium. Ferrocerium, Ferro for short, Rods work by striking the rod which removes small fragments of metal. These fragments produce hot sparks reaching temperatures of 3,000 °C due to a rapid oxidation process.

Initially used in lighter flints, ferro rods gained popularity in the mid-20th century as a reliable fire-starting tool for the military. They were later adopted by hunters, campers and outdoor enthusiasts for their assistance to ignite fires in harsh conditions.

Tow, Plant-Based Tinder From 120 Years Ago

Skins of hemp and typha fibre.

Nettle, purpose-made Tow. Made by the author.

Fire-making skills in nature teach us a variety of other skills: 

Recognising trees all year round.

Experimenting with other plants to use as tinder.

Knowing where the dry wood is, even when it's been raining for weeks, or everything is covered in snow

Maintaining morale within a cold wet group of people by giving them roles as the materials are gathered.

Plant fibre processing skills.

Preparedness, or readiness also means having a tinder box that you can replenish from nature.

A person with extreme competence in Nature, especially when people are cold and wet, gives other people a tremendous morale boost, and the way that person has been trained makes a difference. We share skills with the cold wet group while heeping them shelter, we occupy them with small tasks that keep them warm & distracted. Extreme competence is also confidence, you have done this before, you know what you are doing.

Fire making is a Core Survival skill

Making, keeping and maintaining fire is an ancient skill. The true master knows the plants that are fire allies. Can process standing live plants into tinder within hours, because they know the plants and while they wait gather dry materials from places we already know we can find materials.

XReadiness suggests you learn at least 2 ways to make fire other than lighter and matches. You should learn every way. 

Ferro rod

Flint and steel

Hand drill

Bowdrill

Spark or ember from electrical ignition that is not a lighter

Lighter

Matches

Other means..

There are no rules

I recommend, at the bare minimum, all of these methods, try them out, and know how to do them with relative competence. Find the one you like to show off with, and find the one that guarantees you a fire each time.

Fire and fire lays are complex subjects

Interconnected Skills & Connectinto Nature: Humans & Nature

There is an interconnectedness of skills in survivalism. The processing of tinder for fire can also provide materials for string to help build shelters. Tow can be used in basic water filtration. You need fire for boiling water, boiling is the gold standard for water filtration- correct.

Many of the plants used to make tinder are also edible and contain medicine in some way. Sometimes they are all of these things and so much more. Our ancestors held plants in great reverence, not because they were psychoactive, but because they kept us warm, kept us fed, and became our allies. 

Understanding this is where nature begins to connect to us. 

This may surprise you, probably because of books like Core Shamanism, Michael Harner or podcasts where people talk endlessly about "connecting to the web of life", but their explanations of how this is done are oversimplistic. I have also heard people say that forest bathing connects us with nature. What is often misunderstood is how we are already connected to nature, after all, that's where we evolved and have spent the majority of our time, before the Oil civilisation removed us.

I don't think terms like "trauma culture" are helpful. No amount of therapy can reconnect us to nature or fix the trauma and neither can weird and wonderful rituals. When I said nature connects with us, it's a biochemical process. Our large complex brain interacts with nature without us even realising it. The connection is made through the limbic system, the same system hijacked by "Limbic Capitalism" to keep you scrolling for ads. The limbic system goes into overdrive when you learn real survival skills in nature. In time we begin to understand the language of plants and the landscape.

The limbic system is heavily involved in processing both visual and manual (tactile) stimuli, especially those that are emotionally significant or relevant for survival. In natural environments, these sensory inputs help manage behavioural responses, such as identifying threats, finding food, or social interaction, often below conscious awareness.

Combine Intuition With Science

The plants told me I can eat this.

Always double-check, check the data. Have other people eaten it? Does it need processing?

Never eat anything because of a dream or vision.

Don't try to communicate with the plants we use, they will communicate as your connection deepens. We don't push nature.

With fire making, there are endless possibilities for exploration and experimentation with processing materials, seeing if they smoulder without assistance and whether they can be lit with a variety of ignition methods.

Survival skills, taught in nature, with the philosophy of walking lightly on the land, but the real skill is teaching skills pro-socially in cooperative groups where success is about learning, experimenting and helping each other, as well as patiently observing mistakes being made.

Wishing For The Collapse Of Western Industrial Civilisation

You can say hello to the Stone Age. If you aren't ready, have an escape and survival plan and extreme skills, and are over 40, you will be dead within months. An EMP would cause instant collapse and mass famine across every country affected, total communication breakdown of all cell networks. Digital radio networks and radio equipment would not work. An EMP is a doomsday weapon and an obsession with preppers.

Fools Gold & Flint

While this Tinder Box might be a beautiful piece of workmanship, it is primarily for demonstrating Iron Age Fire (Pre-Roman Celts, to 120 invention of the chemical match), 3000 years of fire lighting history, mostly lost.

Coupled with this set-up and that under these conditions, it is a guaranteed fire, whatever the state of the wood. 

This simple tinder box contains a pine resin-based log made from pine resin, dried rotten wood and beeswax. It's windproof and lighter. Theres also sredded birch bark, King Alfreds Cake fungi, and fatwood.

Video Links with Explanation

Demonstrations Of Easily Learneddddddd And Applied Skills

Tiktok

Shaved fatwood ignited with ferro-rod

Nettle Tow, Processed in 4 hours, then ignited with a ferro rod

Youtube

XReadiness suggests using a magnifier. Ok, great idea, but it omly works when its sunny. Also fire wuth Ice? I have tried it, the ice isnt pure enough and the sun not intense enough. But its not impossible.

I like multi use items. A good orienteering Sylva Compass compass has a magnifier. Orienteering is the skill of using a map and compass to follow a course. It is very competative. I was taught orienteering differently, based on land navigation and use of contours on OS maps to ninigate the lamdscape following low gradient routes to reduce fatigue.

Orienteering compasses have a magnifier and on a sunny day can give you an ember on good tinder. The kids were having a water war in the background..

"Foster skills like meditation"

Making fire is a slow meditative process. Mindful fire making with aĺl your attention on what you are doing & what you know and have discovered. The skill is practice in bad weather. 

Play with your Tinders, let them get damp, then try and light them

Build skills and knowledge and leqrn the skills now.

Above all learn your means of ignitions well, like the Ferro Rod and I recommend buyong a large one line the one in the video.

Above all we need to remember this is a mass extinction even, with planetary heating. Survival will be extremely challenging unless you are already training to be both comfortable in nature with the philosophy of repair and wqlking lightlybonnthe earth and nit taking learning survival skills lightly. Anyone who thinks they can learn them when the need themftom YouTube is a fool.

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Love and peace in a time of collapse