I met Willow at the loom on the farm one summer day. She was delighted that I thought she was like Mary Shelley, who I had been immersed in for seven years writing. Traversal. Neither of us knew who the other was – Willow turned out to be an inventor of good and necessary things Atmosdedicated to the renewal of humanity and all nature.
I had recently led a workshop based on my bird divination and Willow had enjoyed the process so much that I suggested we apply it to a theory we discovered we shared: We both love science – that is, the incredible human love of truth, of understanding how nature works, of pulling back the curtain of mystery to see little by little and the bits and pieces of human nature believing that reality is the same. a magnificent mystery, with parts of us as far away as the outer reaches of the Solar System, as unfathomable as the depths of the Mariana Trench, and fascinating to explore. And we strongly disagree with Keats, who accused Newton of “weaving the rainbow” – taking the magic out of nature through science. No: Science only enhances magic.
Every weekend since the day we met, we have taken one scientific topic and let the words in it, come to life, organize them into whatever the unconscious wants to say in the mind, and exchange what comes up: poems, koans, underground currents of thought and the feeling that it surprises us again and again, invites us to a deep conversation with each other and with our two minds, how it can make us different with material things, but how they make us different with material things. they are related to the underworld.
We started doing it only with text, but as a lover of natural history and astronomy from the golden age of scientific illustration, I finally offered to put our fortune telling on restored images from centuries-old books that I love, just like I did with bird fortune telling, each one a kind of one-page picture book.
Six months ago, we decided to share our weekly adventures in language, wonder, and secret wisdom of the heart in a new free, separate Substack The Marginalian and separate Atmos: Every Saturday, we publish our individual readings of a piece of science fiction as a work of art, make them available as prints and other tangible items (including notebooks, greeting cards, and tote bags), and donate the proceeds to The Nature Conservancy.
Although this practice remains pure play, it has become a lovely way to free up the lines of our formal writing and equip our prose with poetic particles. We encourage you to try it yourself as you follow our ongoing journey on Substack.
To get a feel for what to expect, here are some of our favorite horoscopes from the first six months:
Photos from: Die vergleichende Osteologie [The Comparative Osteology] illustrated by Edouard Joseph d'Alton, 1821
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Die vergleichende Osteologie [The Comparative Osteology] illustrated by Edouard Joseph d'Alton, 1821
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Sulla fina anatomia degli organi centrali del sistema nervoso [On the fine anatomy of the central organs of the nervous system] by Camillo Golgi, 1885
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Sulla fina anatomia degli organi centrali del sistema nervoso [On the fine anatomy of the central organs of the nervous system] by Camillo Golgi, 1885
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen der Säugethiere [Natural History and Illustrations of Mammals] by Heinrich Rudolf Schinz, 1824
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Naturgeschichte und Abbildungen der Säugethiere [Natural History and Illustrations of Mammals] by Heinrich Rudolf Schinz, 1824
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: The Stone Age in North America by Warren King Moorehead, 1910
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: The Stone Age in North America by Warren King Moorehead, 1910
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Report on the Radiolaria Collected by HMS Challenger During the Years 1873-76 by Ernst Haeckel, 1887
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Report on the Radiolaria Collected by HMS Challenger During the Years 1873-76 by Ernst Haeckel, 1887
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: The Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe by Thomas Wright, 1750
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: The Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe by Thomas Wright, 1750
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Illustrations of New Rare Butterfly Species by William Hewitson, 1856
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Illustrations of New Rare Butterfly Species by William Hewitson, 1856
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Astronomical drawings by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, 1872-1882
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
Photos from: Astronomical drawings by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, 1872-1882
Available as a print and extra, benefiting the Nature Conservancy
