POWER OF WORDS

I'm creating a new website for words dedicated to the SYMBIOCENE – the new era after the Anthropocene (according to environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht)

This project is called SYMBIOPAEDIA – and it's a florilegium (a garden of words) for the Symbiocene.

You can find this fledgling website under symbiopaedia.com

Although the project is very young, it has roots in the mothersoil of a bigger work, which I've been nurturing for the past 25 years.

Being normally a 'perfectionist' (presumably like many of us here) I am taking a step here which is both scary and exhilarating. We are so used to pushing ourselves to get everything PERFECT before putting anything out into the world, for others to read. (at least I do)

For this project, I've decided to take a radically different approach. I am putting it all out, the raw and unedited creative process – which suits the spirit of the project itself – and which feels more natural to my spirit too.

Here on DUP is the first place I'm 'coming out' with this. I feel safe among fellow word-creatives. I'm not primarily a poet myself. But Iiving with a poet, I read a lot of poetry, and I imagine that poets – of all writers – are the ones who are most creative with words.

In my understanding, if we want to invoke a new era, we have to step out of our individualist writing caves every once in a while – into the spotty sunlight – to join forces with others who are as hangry for that new era as we are.

In the skies of my imaginative innerworldly space, a chorus of well worded voices has a more powerful effect than my lone whisperings in the wilderness. I envisage Symbiopaedia as a symbiogenic project, which means I'm counting on collaborations with other symbiophiles.

I expect fellow symbiopaedics to feel excited about the prospect of transitioning into the Symbiocene. It's a project for poets & writers – like you – because words are your primary creative medium.

I look forward to reading your thoughts and words! Either here or on Symbiopaedia – https://www.symbiopaedia.com/glossary

The Symbiotope of Symbiopædia was created to provide a home for words.

Not just any words 〰 young, old or departed 〰 but specifically words who are symbionts for the Symbiocene. Words who claim their identity, live their own lives and share their glorious gifts.

The Symbiocene is the new era which we inhabit 'after' the Anthropocene. Symbiocenic words may not look any different from their Anthropocene relations. The difference lies in their implicit meaning.

In the Anthropocene, humans experience time and space as separate from each other. In the Symbiocene there is no distinction between time and space. We live in a spacetime continuum.

A statement like, ‘once the Symbiocene has arrived, we will live in a spacetime continuum, is a typical expression of the Anthropocene mind.

The Symbiocene mind might say instead, ‘to live in the Symbiocene we can bring the spacetime continuum into our presence right now.’

Does this make sense??

Yep, it makes sense. Language carries a whole culture, a whole way of thinking. If you want real change for the common good, then a new language is essential which must gradually replace the old language/culture/way-of thinking. A Symbioppædia is a great idea.

Veronika - I read this when you first posted and I will admit it went right over my head. I have since read it twice, and I am not comprehending what's happening here, despite fully resonating with your statement: The Symbiocene mind might say instead, ‘to live in the Symbiocene we can bring the spacetime continuum into our presence right now.’

Maybe it's a philosophical matter for me rather than a definitive one, as I believe all dimensions exist at once, except in a vertical manner vs horizontal timeline.

Maybe it's because I am dyslexic, and language itself has always been a challenge to overcome.

P.S. - I very much enjoyed the photos on your site.

Thank you for reading and grappling with it!  I very much appreciate your feedback.
It is probably more a matter of me not having explained it very well (rather than your lack of understanding)
"Symbiopaedia" – a space for "wild words" – is very much about language in process.
It's about becoming aware of words as symbionts (= living creatures with whom we are in a symbiotic realtionship)
It is also a very young project which I'm putting out in a raw and unperfected state (before having fully understood it myself – deliberately)
I am curious to see how Symbiopaedia might evolve as a collective project, inviting fellow word-lovers to join in and collaborate.
Thank you for asking questions.

I am grappling with it because I want to understand. Are you referring to neology of sorts? The invention of words?

Thank you! Most of the credit has to go to all the talented photographers who make their work freely available.

Well, there are some neologisms. But only if necessary. It's about creating a new language for the Symbiocene (the era after the Anthropocene). In the Anthropocene, individual words and language in general are used in a specific way.
The underlying concept is roughly this:
If we want to call in the Symbiocene (the new era governed by symbiogenesis = evolutionary principles we can find in nature everywhere) we need a new language. This means, familiar words need to be reinterpreted. In the glossary of the website you'll find references to how familiar words are used in a specific way in the Anthropocene, followed by a suggested new definition for the Symbiocene.
This redefining of words has happened all the time, throughout all eras, more or less spontaneously, and often influenced by writers and poets. Symbiopaedia is an opportunity to participate in that process of shaping our language. And language, after all, is the interface between our inner and outer worlds.

Okay it clicked. A shift in perception except by definition..

yes. By definition, but not any random definition. My suggestion is to connect with the 'true identity' of the words themselves, whom we can meet and discover by learning about the word's own stories.

Ones Words

Is one trying
To speak words
In a certain
Order
But ones Thoughts
Doesn't know
What one means
When one
Doesn't understand
The meaning
The root
Of the words

That One Speaks

Double Speak
Only Leads

To Chaos

well written words

and they appear so true
in the light of the Anthropocene,
that chaos seems inevitable
as a destination.

If words are living creatures,
however,
as seen in the Symbiocene,
they are not entirely dependent
on the thinktinkerings
or doublespeak
of the speaker
but may lead their humans
out of the chaotic muddle
of their own minds

VeronikaB said:yes. By definition, but not any random definition. My suggestion is to connect with the 'true identity' of the words themselves, whom we can meet and discover by learning about the word's own stories.

History and the Truth are the pillars of knowledge.

VeronikaB said:well written words

and they appear so true
in the light of the Anthropocene,
that chaos seems inevitable
as a destination.

If words are living creatures,
however,
as seen in the Symbiocene,
they are not entirely dependent
on the thinktinkerings
or doublespeak
of the speaker
but may lead their humans
out of the chaotic muddle
of their own minds

Bravo.