Yesteryear Fiction

Nature/Anti-Nature
By All is Light


When classifying mainstream faiths, one can see that there is a definite division between “earth-centered” religions that stress the importance and spiritual superiority of nature and those, like the Judeo-Christian faiths, that focus more on the functions of society at large, working within the limitations of the basic framework of the never-ending cycle of human progress, treating nature as relatively inconsequential on the whole.

The Path of the Yazhi, however, attempts to incorporate both; it is common knowledge that as long as there are humans, neither nature or modern society are ever going to “go away” completely (both are integral parts of our lives) so coexistence and compromises are necessary, lest we injure ourselves by jumping to extremes. This concept of the equality of nature and what is referred to by Yazhi as “anti-nature” (i.e. things that are uniquely human and set us apart from nature) is known as the Sacred Duality; much like the Yin and Yang, this duality incorporates two diametrically opposed forces that are inextricably linked, but the principle resemblance ends there. While the Yin and Yang work independently of man, existing in all things and states of matter, the Yazhi’s Sacred Duality exists because of man, kept in a delicate balance by human hands alone. (Think about it– without the delicate balance, nature is just as likely to overrun everything humans have built as anti-nature is to eradicate our environment.) Of course, without humans, there is no purpose for such a balance, and the earth itself, a very significant part of nature, would simply reclaim everything that was once maintained and kept on the opposite end of the scale, if you will, by human hands.

But, for simplicity’s sake, let us consider a lawn. Without human intervention, it is simply a plot of land, weed-ridden and thick, with dry, dead patches wherever seeds are unable to grow; every year it grows, a veritable jungle of wild grasses and flowers that grow so much they begin to compete for space and resources, their roots getting tangled in a strangling mass as they seek out moisture and minerals. Then, as the heat begins to take it’s toll, the grasses and flowers die off, leaving a virtually barren plot of land that sits, first baked by the sun and later hardened by frost until at last conditions permit growth again, and the cycle begins anew. It’s very essence is sporadic and random, subject to the whims of weather and not very useful on the whole.

With human intervention, however, and the balance of the sacred duality, anti-nature can turn that same lawn into a lush and green patch of perfectly manicured grass such as you might find at a golf course or near the civic center of a major city. Too much anti-nature, and it’s a barren plot again, land blighted and scoured of nature’s touch by an extreme. To this degree, one might compare the Yazhi’s sacred duality to the way a balance in nature is kept by predators keeping prey in check, lest they breed out of control and damage the environment; but consider the opposite– too many predators, and the prey become extinct.

It is also important to note that Yazhi believe the balance of the sacred duality is essential to the proper flow of ambient energy; the presence and degree of nature and anti-nature in any setting effects not only the way different types of energy move (or stagnate, as the case may be) but also the way that energy feels. Sound hokey? Consider this– blindfolded, without sound to key you in on your location, would you be able to tell the difference between a forest and a city? Of course you would; your latent ability, as a human being, to feel the difference in energy flows and energy fields (Yazhi believe) practically guarantees it.


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All is light, and light is all.
We see, we breathe, we think, we love, and in the hinterlands between the folds in the fabric of reality and spirit, we find magic, we learn what it is to be Soul, to be light.