Someone unsubscribed this week and wrote, "Too much about the Empire. That which we resist, persists. I enjoyed the rest of the content, though."

And I want to bless them on their way and say, very clearly: this sentence has been weaponized against the very medicine our time is asking for. "What you resist persists" is true when we're talking about repressing our own shadow, pretending our rage or grief aren't there so they leak out sideways.

But that's not the same as naming the systems that are actively killing forests, oceans, bodies, and cultures. In the more-than-human world, resistance is not a problem to be transcended; it is a holy, ancient, and wise function.

Trees resist disease. They thicken their bark after fire, flood their leaves with bitter tannins when insects attack, and share warning signals through the mycelium so the whole forest can respond. Wolves resist threats to their pack. A doe will stomp and snort and put her soft body between danger and her fawn. Bees do not "high vibe" a hornet nest away; they swarm it, heat it, suffocate it with their bodies. Your own immune system is literally organized resistance. If it bought the idea that "what you resist persists," you'd be dead by next Tuesday.

When someone says they "enjoy the rest of the content," I hear something tender: the rituals, the prayers, the land, the grief work, the business built with a soul — all of it feels good.

But here is the uncomfortable truth: every single one of those things is already an act of resistance to Empire.

Sitting with your grief instead of numbing it is resistance. Planting a tree in poisoned soil is a form of resistance. Putting ourselves between a bulldozer and an ancient grove of trees is resistance. Petitioning our town for cleaner water is a form of resistance. Building a business that values reciprocity over extraction is a form of resistance. Choosing to listen to the Oak instead of the algorithm is resistance.

Ritual is not a "scented" bypass; it is a way of standing in the river of Spirit and saying, "Not in my name, Not with me" while we pick up whatever small tools we have.

We cannot pray our way around these times, or "love and light" our way out of the consequences of centuries of extraction, even if a part of the new edge spirituality wants us to believe that. No elders I worked with ever said anything close to that. Prayer, magic, ceremony, community, remembering, these are ways of gathering strength so our resistance can be steady, rooted, and sane. If Native cultures around the world had not resisted the Empire, there would be none left.

Empire (yes, sorry, have to name it again) wants us quiet, vague, and "above" it all. The forest, the ancestors, and the children not yet born are asking for something much less comfortable and much more beautiful: to remember that love, when it is real, resists.

Thank you for the subscribers here and the paid subscribers; you really help those roots grow. 🦌🙏🏼🌳

I am founding subscriptions for Elders and people in need, rewilding 20 acres, purchasing ancient-endangered trees, and building a center for ancient wisdom and community.

You can help the resistance to grow,

Angell