Hymns to the Night

More heavenly
Than those flashing stars
In those far places we
Imagine endless eyes
Which the Night
Has opened in us.

--The poet  and philosopher Novalis

Since I've started this blog I've been meaning to clarify something.  The blog is not really meant to be about mushrooms.  Exclusively.  However there's a good reason why I've named it "The Tender Truffle."

When one tries to explain the purpose of writing, what other reason can we give than that we are trying to put down on paper our inner thoughts and feelings in order to better understand them.  We are trying to discover the undiscovered self--that which Emily Dickinson called "the undiscovered continent."  For Dickinson, the inner self was a private space which one could discover by private reflection and creative exploration.

Even 250 years after Emily Dickinson began writing the idea of "finding oneself" is more present in our culture than ever.  By clarifying our thoughts and feelings, we are fulfilling a basic need to find our true selves--the self which is at peace with our natural instincts and the one which enables us to create the world in which we wish  live in.

A glance over the magazine covers in the the supermarket reveals a preoccupation with the theory that by concentrating on our exterior, we can somehow find happiness through the actions required to create a human being that looks like a supermodel.  The headlines read like a to quick fix list for the innerly discontented: "Red Alert! How to Maintain Your Haircolor!," "9 Foods that Make you Even Sexier," and "Your Best Body Ever" are just some of the few attention stealers aimed at making us believe that after a few minutes of flipping through a magazine that we've discovered the secret to sculpting the new modern Venus.

What's remarkable however, about what happens after we put so much effort in such actions, is the suprising amout of inaction they lead to.  Somehow we end up dissatisfied enough to keep buying the next issue in the hopes of some life-changing secret finally being revealed.  The truth is however, that we usually end up right back we where started, because we've been prevented from really looking within by being made to think that we need to look "without."

This has exactly the opposite effect that it should one our search to discover our true "inner landscape."  It's a bit like slapping acrylic paint on an old table.  Sooner or later the paint begins to crack, and we discover that what we really have is the same old table.

If we try and think about a more natural way of getting in touch with our inner nature, let's imagine we cover the table with something the wood can soak up naturally, such as flax seed oil.  This allows the wood to breathe and to be more in tune with the things happening around it--such as moisture in the air.  Suddenly an old table becomes a beautiful piece of furniture, because we've nutured it with something that allows it to show its inner beauty.

Not surprisingly, nurturing yourself from within is the kind of action that really leads to long-term beauty.  Suddenly, we are aware of the landscapes which exist within us--the people we once were, and many different sides of ourselves which otherwise may have remain buried forever.

The name "The Tender Truffle" came about because of the German philosopher Novalis, who believed that identity was fragmented, and that through self-reflection, our lost selves could find their way back to each other to make a person whole again.  By loving a person, we are loving not just one, but also many people.  For Novlais, love was a way to come into contact with our own divine power and that of the other person.  This is why he writes that a thousand eyes have been opened in him by his beloved Night, which can see more infinitely than the stars in heaven.

Novalis was obviously a very tender person, although he lived in a time that was not always so tender.  Sadly, he lost his intended bride to tuberculosis when she was just 15.  However, he never stopped exploring both inwardly and outwardly--aside form philosophy he also studied many other subjects, including physics and chemistry.

Therefore, this blog is about more than just mushrooms.  Mushrooms are just the impetous for self-exploration and realisation.  Not every blog will be this philosophical, but it's important to begin, if someowhat belated, with clarifyling some basic assumptions before one gets carried away with a premise.

Did you know that truffles grow underneath the dirt, and that using a pet pig is a very good way to find them?  Pigs are very intelligent it turns out, and have very good noses for sniffing out truffles.

Did you also know that a tree continues to grow afer you cut it?

The whole point of self-exploration is that afterwards our lives and those of who we care about are richer, wholer--more free, than if we had allowed ourselves to be constrained by a few pieces of paper.  I much prefer paper in tree-form anyway.  I think a tree has much more to say about the world than a magazine.

...Explore thyself!
Therein thyself shalt find
The "Undiscovered Continent" —
No Settler had the Mind.