The Free Radical

Man, if I could just teach Sitka to write these posts instead of just inspiring them…

This one practically writes itself; I just hope that the symbolism isn’t too bloody obvious.

This is what the forensic archeologist dragged from the bush today. It’s an ancient “shed.” Let me explain. Deer shed their antlers every year in the spring, so it’s not uncommon to find an antler or two lying around the forest on occasion. Antlers found on their own are “sheds”; ones founds as the result of a kill will still be attached to the skull. Because sheds are a favourite thing for dogs to chew on– and they nearly last forever, sheds tend to fetch a good price in pet shops.

The one that Sitka retrieved today was obviously very ancient. It takes some considerable time for an antler to begin to rot, and this one was nearly broken in half as a result of decay.

Antlers have a complex and varied symbolism. On the one hand, they are receivers, acting as antennas in order to tune the animal into the grander aspects of its cosmic existence. They also represent rapid growth, fertility and vitality as they are the part which rapidly regrows each year after shedding, and the “velvet,” along with the growing tips produced during the regrowth stage, are widely sought as a source for nutritional excellence in terms of hormonal and growth factor rarities. (I sometimes take elk antler tincture myself.) And finally, antlers may– in their crudest expression– represent weapons. During the rut, mating supremacy is primarily determined through jousts involving the antlers.

This particular antler is obviously not a symbol of vitality and new growth. Rather, I view it as an ancient weapon which has fallen into decay and disuse. It is a part of the control grid which has been erected around humanity since ancient times, through restructuring and repurposing natural energies and bending them to an unnatural will. This one has snapped in half from the strain.

Sitka, for her part, represents youthful innocence. She has an unquenchable zest for dismantling all of the Forest’s old secrets. To her they’re all just treasures. She has the kind of attitude that humans just hope is devastatingly infectious!