Rituals

Rituál vznikl v rámci projektu Krajiny budoucnosti, který pátrá po odpovědích na výzvy spojené s naší klimatickou budoucností, před kterými stojí věda, ekonomika a politika. Autorky a autoři rituálů hledají možnosti, jak těmto „krajinám budoucnosti“ porozumět mimo vědecké kategorie. 

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Go to the edge of this
newly formed lagoon.
Look at the glacier.
Take a deep breath and shout:

MOTHER!
MOTHER!
MOOOOTHHHERRR!!
Call
MOTHER!!!

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The ritual for Fjallsárlón  was created by writer and documentary film director and producer Andri Snær Magnason.

More information about the processes taking place at Fjallsárlón can be found on the Melting History subpage.

This ritual was created within the Future Landscapes project, which searches for answers to the challenges linked to our climate future and faced by science, economics and politics. The male and female authors of the rituals are seeking ways to understand these “future landscapes” outside scientific categories.

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Prepare for the water blessing ritual. Water in the landscape, water in bodies. Water that creates life.

On the nearby farm, water allows plants to be created. They’re grown without the need for substrate or soil. Water is enough. Water is the protector of the soil – it provides its abilities in favor of new organisms.

1. Find a place nearby where you can sense dampness. This can be the mud near a puddle, grass that’s still dewy, or at least the shade of a tree where the sun doesn’t reach.
    
2. Turn south.
    
3. Lick your index finger. With it, touch your forehead, the center of the human being’s intellectual dimension. Turn 90 degrees to the west, i.e. to the right.
    
4. Lick your middle finger. With it, touch your chest, the center of the human being’s emotional dimension. Turn 90 degrees to the north, i.e. to the right.
    
5. Lick your ring finger. With it, touch your lower abdomen, the center of the human being’s corporal dimension. Turn 90 degrees to the east, i.e. to the right.
    
6. Lick your little finger. With it, touch your genitals, the center of the human being’s sexual dimension. Turn 90 degrees back to the south.
    
7. Stand in a relaxed position; you can also sit down, putting your hands on your knees. Breathe freely. Close your eyes. Count from ten to one. At every number, breathe in and breathe out.
    
8. Water connects us; it has constantly remained the same, only changing in its forms, since the beginning of biological life on the planet until the present. Imagine the following story of a single drop of water:

“Look! A regular drop of water caught on the edge of a forest brook. A deer comes and gulps up the clear icy water, catching the lone droplet with its tongue. This drop circulates through its body. Later, the deer is killed by hunters. The remainders of meat and fur start to rot; the drop evaporates. But the moisture is captured by the wind, driving and driving it as it tosses about in the belly of a great cloud illuminated by electrical charges – blue flashes – then there’s a fall. The drop falls down, down, down, the icy air ruffles its edges, and it falls hard into the angry sea. Giant blue whales swim under the surface. It becomes a part of their bowels, vibrating with the tones of the holy whale song. In the darkness and trembling. (sound pause)

Later, the same drop seeps into the clayey earth and later refreshes the tongues of nomadic women; it is consumed by the stem of an orchid, it evaporates in the dome of a steam-generator, rolls down the temples of an office worker, and is sweated out by the foreheads of lovers. From the beginning to the present plastic bottle on the desk of a schoolboy or a bustling manager. Over and over again. Cycle and continuation. Water does not disappear. It carries the memory of the ages. Your body is full of water.

What does the past carry along with it? What stories? What all do you carry inside yourself?

9. Open your eyes. There is no real boundary between the water inside you and the water of the planet. Moisture connects all living things. Now repeat the following sentence aloud:
    

"I bless the water that created me." Now spit far ahead of you. Turn 90 degrees again to the west, i.e. to the right. Repeat the following sentence:

"I bless the water that makes up this world." Spit far ahead of you. Turn 90 degrees again to the north, i.e. to the right. Repeat the following sentence:

"I bless the water that animates my body." Spit far ahead of you. Turn 90 degrees again to the east, i.e. to the right. Repeat the following sentence:

"I am the bearer of water and its protector." Spit far ahead of you. Turn 90 degrees again to the south, i.e. to the right. Repeat the following sentence:

"I am life and the protector of all life.”

10. If you have a drink with you, symbolically pour out several drops for the ground to absorb, then take a drink. If you don’t have a drink with you, carry out this act at the first opportunity. Complete it all with this sentence: “May God and kindness, eroticism, creativity and my own identity be the clear river and may I become the banks for its current." Whenever you see the water, or feel it on your tongue or skin, remember that you carry this blessing within you.

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This water blessing ritual was created by anthropologist, publicist and writer Lukáš Senft. He says about rituals: "they allow me to connect with the dance of reality, through which the soul finds unity with the world."

To discover more rituals, visit futurelandscapes.cz.


More information about the processes taking place in Kaly can be found Invisible Growth subpage. 

This ritual was created within the Future Landscapes project, which searches for answers to the challenges linked to our climate future and faced by science, economics and politics. The authors of the rituals are seeking ways to understand these “future landscapes” outside scientific categories.

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1. Find a spot in the landscape from where you can see the oil pump.
   Stand so that you’re linked to it by a straight line. You can be as close or as far away as you like.

2. Start by swaying slowly to the rhythm of the pump. Sense this rhythm, bend forward and back up straight; accept its rhythm for your own. Lean forwards, then slightly backwards. Once you get a feel for the movement and it becomes natural to your body, close your eyes.

3. Continue on in the movement. Move forward and back, forward – back, forward – back. Match your breathing to the movement. Breathe in – breathe out. Breathe in – breathe out.
   How does the movement make you feel? What is it similar to? And to who? Is it natural?

4. Leave your eyes closed as the extent of the movement gets smaller, slower. Slow down the tempo and length of the movement; return back to a stable, erect position. Be aware of what you’re feeling. Keep your eyes closed. Breathe.

Breathe in – breathe out – breathe in deeply – breathe out deeply.

By breathing in, human life begins.

Breathe out – breathe in. 

By breathing out, human life ends. Each breath inhaled contains 0.03% of carbon dioxide, and each breath exhaled contains 4%. The more carbon dioxide, the closer death is. 

By breathing, each of us produces 27 tons of carbon dioxide. That’s 15,000 m³ of gas, which can be compressed to 40 liters of liquid. 40 liters of liquid is one shower. Breathe in. How do you feel? Is the rhythm of the oil pump still present in you? Did you know it’s with you in the landscape? It’s next to you, while under you is oil, soil, water, rock, the earth’s crust, the mantle, the earth’s core, liquidity, the center of the earth.

Human life begins above the earth and ends under it. The life of oil begins underground and ends above it. The cycle – circle – movement, cycle – movement, breath – movement.

The same amount of carbon dioxide that you exhale over the course of your whole lifetime is produced by an automobile in just one year. Every year, the power plant in Počerady emits more than 4.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. That is 6,666,666 liters of liquid, or 240 swimming pools, of carbon dioxide.

Breathe in – breathe out.

5. Keep your eyes closed and start to slowly move to the rhythm of the oil pump.
    

Soil – oil. Soil – oil.
 

6. Bend forward and back to the rhythm of the pump without opening your eyes. Once you assume you’re copying the movement, keep doing it for a while.
    

7. Open your eyes and look to see if your movements are aligned with the movement of the machine. Are they in harmony? Or was your movement too fast? Is your movement calmer and slower than the work of the pump? 
    

Observe yourself, observe the machine and let your movement slowly subside.

Reduce your movement until you’re standing erect.

8. Hold your breath. Feel what it’s like not to breathe. Not to produce carbon dioxide. Not to consume. To stop.
    
9. Then take a deep breath. Bend down and breathe all the air out into the soil, into the earth below you. Stay down; take a new breath and breathe it out again into the soil. Take a breath for the third time and, while breathing out into the soil, scream I love you to death!
    

10. Breathe in and repeat this with other messages that come to your mind. Take as much time as you need. Say anything you need. Carefully stand up straight.
    
    Look around you. Give thanks.

11. Leave quietly. 

You can repeat this ritual elsewhere, in the center of the village of Žarošice or in any other place while sensing what it feels like there. Does it belong there or is it linked to the machine in the landscape and the line you’ve created with it? With the earth, which holds oil?

Take a shower today and imagine how much liquid carbon dioxide you’ll produce in your lifetime. It’s 40 liters; it’s one short shower, it’s a moment on the planet.

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The Breath Burying Ritual was created by Martina Malinová, who studied social anthropology and in her work explores the world through art, film and rituals. She is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts, a mother on maternity leave, and likes to lead conscious touch seminars and family constellations. She says about the rituals: "to me they mean exploration, learning, holiness, performance, action and creation."

More information about the processes taking place in Žarošice can be found on the Fossil Ritual subpage. 

This ritual was created within the Future Landscapes project, which searches for answers to the challenges linked to our climate future and faced by science, economics and politics. The male and female authors of the rituals are seeking ways to understand these “future landscapes” outside scientific categories.

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At the beginning of 2013, the world was divided into regular squares of 3 x 3 meters and each of these squares was randomly given 3 words that unmistakably localize it.

If we look at which squares are found in the immediate proximity of the electric power station, among them we find the following what3words localization: sklizeň.jednací.hnědý. harvest.negotiating.brown. This is the borderline between the property of a large-scale tomato-growing greenhouse operation, where the Tušimice I power plant used to be located, and the property of the presently operating Tušimice II power plant, which creates electricity and heat from brown coal. The power plant is supplied with fuel from the brown-coal open-pit mine located in its close proximity. The hydroponic tomato farm holds the same “philosophy”. “The tomatoes don’t come to you from halfway across the world – they’re picked on the same day they’re delivered to the shops,” claims the director of the Naše rajče project. In order to be heated, the greenhouses use the heat surpluses from the power plant, allowing the growers to maintain a fully controllable climate in the greenhouses all year long.

Behind the fence, which is equipped with razor-wire and multi-phase electronic protection, is Gan Eden – the Garden of Eden.

Rabbi Eliezer, one of the greatest Jewish sages of the 1st and 2nd century, wrote that the serpent that tempted Eve took the form of a camel. According to Jewish spoken tradition, upon it rode the angel Samael – Satan. In Hebrew, a camel is called gamal, which corresponds to the letter gimel, which is also the number three.

From a mathematical perspective, the number three is crucial to the physical world, which is three-dimensional and made up of three axes of direction: north-south, east-west and up-down.

According to the Kabbalah, Satan represents space – the physical universe and also the power of fragmentation. Without him, everything would coalesce with God. 

Beyond the fence is the Garden of Eden. 4 x 200 megawatts of energy and constantly ripening tomatoes in the controlled climate of hydroponic greenhouses, outside of space, fragmented and full of externalities, greenhouse emissions and bills for energy and food. Modernized paradise is monocultural and has focused on maximizing revenue from tomatoes together with minimizing expenditures for its production. The red color of the juicy fruit, the white down of the peregrine falcon’s hatchling raised on one of the chimneys, as we learn from ČEZ directly on the plant’s homepage, and everywhere the bright green of PR campaigns.

sklizeň.jednací.hnědý. harvest.negotiatign.brown.

“Extract” says the serpent, that is the camel, but this time in the form of a falcon’s youngling. “Consumption, energy sovereignty, local, available, the ecologization of operation, cutting edge, at least, still, if, alarmists, naïve, living standards, abundance moving forward until 2035.“

On the spot where you’re standing, walk counter-clockwise in a square of 3x3 steps and permutate after me the third word of the coordinates. The word brown. Try to focus on the new meanings and their associations. Fix your gaze on the power plant’s cooling towers.


H,Ň,E,D,Ý
Ň,H,E,D,Ý
E,H,Ň,D,Ý
H,E,Ň,D,Ý
Ň,E,H,D,Ý
E,Ň,H,D,Ý
E,Ň,D,H,Ý
Ň,E,D,H,Ý
D,E,Ň,H,Ý
E,Ď,Ň,H,Ý
Ň,D,E,H,Ý
D,Ň,E,H,Ý
D,H,E,Ň,Ý
H,D,E,Ň,Ý
E,D,H,Ň,Ý
D,E,H,Ň,Ý
H,E,D,Ň,Ý
E,H,D,Ň,Ý
Ň,H,D,E,Ý
H,Ň,D,E,Ý
D,Ň,H,E,Ý
Ň,D,H,E,Ý
H,D,Ň,E,Ý
D,H,Ň,E,Ý
Ý,H,Ň,E,D
H,Ý,Ň,E,D
Ň,Ý,H,E,D
Ý,Ň,H,E,D
H,Ň,Ý,E,D
Ň,H,Ý,E,D
Ň,H,E,Ý,D
H,Ň,E,Ý,D
E,Ň,H,Ý,D
Ň,E,H,Ý,D
H,E,Ň,Ý,D
E,H,Ň,Ý,D
E,Ý,Ň,H,D
Ý,E,Ň,H,D
Ň,E,Ý,H,D
E,Ň,Ý,H,D
Ý,Ň,E,H,D
Ň,Ý,E,H,D
H,Ý,E,Ň,D
Ý,H,E,Ň,D
E,H,Ý,Ň,D
H,E,Ý,Ň,D
Ý,E,H,Ň,D
E,Ý,H,Ň,D
D,Ý,H,Ň,E
Ý,D,H,Ň,E
H,D,Ý,Ň,E
D,H,Ý,Ň,E
Ý,H,D,Ň,E
H,Ý,D,Ň,E
H,Ý,Ň,D,E
Ý,H,Ň,D,E
Ň,H,Ý,D,E
H,Ň,Ý,D,E
Ý,Ň,H,D,E
Ň,Ý,H,D,E
Ň,D,H,Ý,E
D,Ň,H,Ý,E
H,Ň,D,Ý,E
Ň,H,D,Ý,E
D,H,Ň,Ý,E
H,D,Ň,Ý,E
Ý,D,Ň,H,E
D,Ý,Ň,H,E
Ň,Ý,D,H,E
Ý,Ň,D,H,E
D,Ň,Ý,H,E
Ň,D,Ý,H,E
E,D,Ý,H,Ň
D,E,Ý,H,Ň
Ý,E,D,H,Ň
E,Ý,D,H,Ň
D,Ý,E,H,Ň
Ý,D,E,H,Ň
Ý,D,H,E,Ň
D,Ý,H,E,Ň
H,Ý,D,E,Ň
Ý,H,D,E,Ň
D,H,Ý,E,Ň
H,D,Ý,E,Ň
H,E,Ý,D,Ň
E,H,Ý,D,Ň
Ý,H,E,D,Ň
H,Ý,E,D,Ň
E,Ý,H,D,Ň
Ý,E,H,D,Ň
D,E,H,Ý,Ň
E,D,H,Ý,Ň
H,D,E,Ý,Ň
D,H,E,Ý,Ň
E,H,D,Ý,Ň
H,E,D,Ý,Ň
Ň,E,D,Ý,H
E,Ň,D,Ý,H
D,Ň,E,Ý,H
Ň,D,E,Ý,H
E,D,Ň,Ý,H
D,E,Ň,Ý,H
D,E,Ý,Ň,H
E,D,Ý,Ň,H
Ý,D,E,Ň,H
D,Ý,E,Ň,H
E,Ý,D,Ň,H
Ý,E,D,Ň,H
Ý,Ň,D,E,H
Ň,Ý,D,E,H
D,Ý,Ň,E,H
Ý,D,Ň,E,H
Ň,D,Ý,E,H
D,Ň,Ý,E,H
E,Ň,Ý,D,H
Ň,E,Ý,D,H
Ý,E,Ň,D,H
E,Ý,Ň,D,H
Ň,Ý,E,D,H
Ý,Ň,E,D,H

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The Greenwashed ritual was created by an organizer, artist and social worker Pavel Sterec. Here is what he says on rituals: "I have an ambivalent relationship with rituals, but am attracted by the way they connect experiences and meanings that are formulated through performative behavior."

More information about the processes taking place in Tušimice can be found on the Slow Violence subpage.

This ritual was created within the Future Landscapes project, which searches for answers to the challenges linked to our climate future and faced by science, economics and politics. The authors of the rituals are seeking ways to understand these “future landscapes” outside scientific categories.

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“In the darkest of night, he left his embalmed heart on the desk. His only baggage – a small backpack – was still moist from the sprinkling of holy water. He put an extra pair of soles into it. Like a madman, he stepped into the abyss; nothing sparkled, nothing shined. A white rose blossomed on the slowly-cooling highway. He frivolously danced away a few months in the hallucinatory rhythm of the passing cars. A nest of solace in the rustling stalks of the reeds. The whirr of tornadoes at noon in the empty fields. He let himself be fed by wise old women, who stewed Reynoutria sprouts in kettles. The earth beneath his feet, desolate and poor, rumbled dully. But one rusty morning everything changed. He was awoken by the intoxicating smell of wild thyme. The wind began to swing forgotten censers, calling the pilgrims to the threshold of the first sacred ground, free of people. He had reached his destination. With reverence and circumspection, he moved along its edge like a female acrobat hanging between the heavens and earth. A liminal walk along a tightrope, whose tempo he adapted to the movement of the ancient animals. Then he broke into a wild and free run like horses, horses, horses, horses! He rested. He dallied. He listened with great concentration. This was when he discovered the secret entrance to the land of sky-blue crosses of bitter gentians, rhinoceros beetles, subterranean mushrooms and oh-so-fragile saxicolas. Blue butterflies began to rain down from the sky.”

Take the path along the fence of the reservation. At this very moment, you are accepting a new job for a period of time. You stop being a hunter of images, and you hide your mobile phone in your pocket. You are now a free pilgrim with an open, very concentrated mind and a joyful body. During your wandering, you are inspired by the movement of wild animals. You change the tempo of your stride; you start to run and jump around awkwardly like a youngling; you stop, lie down, rest, roll around, maybe even nap. A playful ally of nature walking respectfully along its protective border, exposed to new diversity, beauty and mutual transformation. It’s only up to you how much of it you bring home in your memory as the most valuable souvenir. Your ritual circumambulation ends in the same spot from which you set off. Stop here for a moment. Lower a cheek to the ground or rest it on the trunk of the nearest tree. You have reached your destination and are touching a precious relic. Wait until an imprint is left on your cheek. This is your pilgrimage tattoo.