Aaron C. Wolf is Dead

As an undergraduate at Indiana University in Bloomington during a discussion on Nietzsche I expressed an interest in dedicating a few years of my life to learning primitive living skills and “living off the land.” My professor, Chris Kerns, then Dean of the Comparative Literature Department at IU, said for a modern person to take on a hunter gatherer life style would be to die.

Alester Crowley's Thoth Torrt Death Card

While Chris Kerns defiantly had a philosophical disposition and a flair for the dramatic, his comment on adopting a hunter gatherer lifestyle by modern peoples seems to me lately to be a valid statement. So much of who we are – our anxieties, pleasures, and pains are so completely wrapped within the context of a consumer culture. It’s very difficult if not imposable to really look at, understand, and evaluate ourselves minus the influence of modernity. So much so that to successfully removal of oneself from modernity would require a complete reappraisal of one’s own identity – and this interests me very much.   And if you agree with assigning death as a description of the changes that occur when one abandons modernity,  and returns to a life close to the earth then on August 9 Aaron Wolf will die.

August 9th is not only my birthday, it’s the day my lease ends (at 1200 pm to be exact) leaving me officially homeless. August 9 is also the official start date one of my most complex and potential liberating life journeys. For a variety of reasons which will be explained in more detail in forth coming posts I’ve decided to dedicate the next three years of my life to learning practical primitive living skills within a modern context.

I’ll be updating this blog to keep touch with friends and family and as a resource to anyone else considering taking on a life literally closer to the Earth. Other than my motivation, few Tom Brown classes and four years service as a Marine Corps infantryman classes I’d would not say I’m basically starting from scratch with no particular qualifications to pull off a long term survival situation. This journey of mine will defiantly be a learning experience, a cretin amount of humiliation is inevitable. It’s entirely possible my attempt to return to the Earth will fail – and if it does I’ll be left broke, homeless, and utterly miserable.

So there are defiantly risks being taken. On the other hand it’s clear, at least clear to me, that our current life style is not sustainable. A relatively successful 5 year carrier as a corporate Information Technology guy spending my days mostly building websites for companies like Disney and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, has left me convinced that the American dream is flawed, for while I would say I enjoyed a better standard of living then my parents happiness remains elusive, a sense of personal privacy and freedom remains elusive. While I may well find that my expectations for what can be achieved by living a “primitive” life style to be naive the fact of the matter is I’m obsessed with finding out for myself what’s possible when one abandons the culture of consumerism and seeks a new path informed by the rhythms of nature.

Tonight I pack my car. Tomorrow I’ll clean up my apartment, and then I’ll be moving to the bush. My first stop in this transition to earth living is Lothlorien Nature Sanctuary in Needmore Indiana. The good people at Lothlorien have allowed me use of the land in exchange for work (including some straitening out of the Elf Library) and a few survival classes will be offered as I achieve competency, probably starting sometime next Spring). It’s the first stop on a three year journey to acquire the skills and knowledge to live off the land.   To be continued….