Survivalism: A Skills Based Initiation Culture Into A Deep Connection With Nature.
First Published 23/12/2025
Survivalism or Bushcraft?
Both terms are interchangeable, however there aee aspects of survivalism thar are not found in Bushcraft.
Initiation Cultures in the Postmodern Collapse
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, and tge stages in life. There are a few cultures left that do this. It's good to test your skills and to be appraised for doing so in front of those who taught you. But after a period of time if practice, knowledge and skills development and when the Elders / trainers choose.
The XReadiness idea could offer the perfect practical and useful alternative to the magic thinking 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.
The Prepprr approach to survival is minimalist survival skills and stockpile food. This is beause they dont think the crisis will last, becasue they dont believe in science, because they dont want capitalism to end and think "pinko commies" cant do survival, and looking at the output so far from XR, Deep Adaptation, Dr Gail Bradbrook and various Shamanic types, they are pretty correct.
Survival Skills & Knowledge are 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. He had hunting tools, the tools to make them and keep them sharp. This man could have survived the collapse of this civilisation with ease.
In Collapse the Division of Labour is Dead
Dr Gail Bradbrook keeps saying we need the guys who build stuff. Yeah, we know. But in collapse while we are building stuff, fixing stuff, foraging and planting climate resillient forage and teaching people how to survive. What are you doing?
Brutal? Yes, but I have lived on protest camps and we can't carry hanger-oners because we did that and it's a good lesson on how some people wreck the community, eat all the food and disrupt the work.
I have a lot of questions about Shamanic Mental Health Healers? While I understand that some people who identify as Shamanic Practitioners may also be psychotherapists or psychologists. I know of untrained people completing misappropriated rituals as part of a training to become a Somatic Shamanic Healer, in less than 6 months.
Nature for shamanic practitioners, is an abstract concept, sacred, distant, not an intimate. Possibly because engagement is misunderstood as seeking control, which comes from a branch of mindfulness in the extreme. In the extreme, because it isn't concerned with connection to nature or what they eat in a rapidly changing climate. Extreme mindfulness ultimately is an elitist practice only for the few served by others.
I find the concept of healing climate anxiety, climate related PTSD and depression with Shamanic healing practices quite alarming because in my experience as a former mental health worker, the last thing depressed, traumatised and anxious people need is drumming, chanting and soul retrieval. There is no peer reviewed evidence that this works, and there is plenty of data that shows that nature based interventions work for Generalised Anxiety, depression and PTSD. Nature based interventions are supported by reams if up to date research.
Survival Skills adds layers if confidence and self reliance along with plants based skill learning which isn't about control, but about building relationships with plants. Nature isn't where we go to charge our batteries its where we may need to Survive. When I say the division of labourbis dead in Collapse, what it means is that there is no heirarchy. Learning survival skills is how Nature connects to us at a deeper level than sitting under a tree. We all need to learn them and learn them fast and read the peer reviewed data on how the limbic system and nature interacts.
I won an award for establishing a groundbreaking Nature Therapy project at a Large Psychiatric Hospital in 2018. Nature and meaningful activity in nature is deeply healing. We can heal ourselves and the planted and get closer to the plants and animals. Its not backward, it natural.
The Basics, Making It Easy:
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
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 keeping them sheltered, 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.
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
& Many 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 to explore
Interconnected Skills & Connecting to 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 at Ever Deeper Levels
This may surprise you, probably because of books like Core Shamanism, Michael Harner ⁹or 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
When initiation asks for a tinder box and sets the rules:
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 Learned & Applied Skills
Tiktok
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 with 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", learn mindfulness.
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 and good.
Build skills and knowledge and learn Survival skills now.
Above all learn your means of ignitions well, like the Ferro Rod or Bow drill and I recommend buying a large ferrorod line with 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 walking lightly on the earth and not taking more than you need & learning survival skills and walking softly on the land.
Anyone who thinks they can learn survival skills as we need them from YouTube during collapse is a fool.
WE ARE NOT HERE TO DO, OR FIX OR SOLVE FOR YOU. WE ARE HERE TO TRAIN YOU. EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE COMPETENT IN SURVIVAL SKILLS & BUILDING & FIXING THINGS DURING COLLAPSE..
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