Dair Shoron - the intriduction to Shadoran

Dair Shoron - the introduction to Shadoran

To walk bare foot through a wilderness of untouched beauty is not just an experience but an honour where you are connected to the earth upon where you stand and true freedom is realised. Think of the Earth as our mother, we drink from her rivers and eat the fruits of her splendor, and then some people turn their backs to her - poisoning and disowning her with their neglect and disrespect. They spit on the ground upon where they where born but they are too blind to realise they are infecting themselves with hatred and helping society head towards its own demise.
From the moment you where born you have never taken in a fresh breath of air, tasted a clean glass of water or seen the true colour of the sky - Never lived the way life is meant to be lived. Most are fooled into believing they have a high standard of living yet they have no idea what has been stolen from them by capitalist society.
The toxicity of our society seeps deep down into our souls eroding the pure essence of our existence. However it can be easy to release yourself from the shackles of society with knowledge and an open mind.
We are all blessed with the ability to make a decision about how we wish to live our lives, be it under the phantom dictatorship of our current society or as free souls who are daring enough to look outside the confinements we are forced to live in, willing to seek out a more fulfilling and balanced lifestyle with rewards far more valuable then gold or silver.
At times you may find yourself feeling as though the possibility of resolving some of the issues we are faced with as a society may be futile. Just remind yourself that one day we will be able to put our differences aside and unite for the greater good and honestly say that all of humanity is something to be proud of.

"Shadoran was something that resonated with me as a small child but now it has flourished into something bigger then myself, something that is remarkably pure and enlightening. I like to think of it as a seedling that I planted when I was young that grew into a luscious tree with its branches reaching up to the sky, roots deep into the earth. I may be the hand that planted the seedling but now that it is matured, we all can eat from its fruit, shelter under its towering branches and marvel at its beauty and eternal presence. This was the birth of Shadoran." Scott Zirus - founder of Shadoran.

Shadoran is a unique opportunity to return our Earth to its original balance and eradicate social and environmental issues. Most resonate with Shadoran and feel its ability to bring unity and balance to their lives. It is derived from a non-religious culturally based community who wish to advance a new social 'revolution' by eradicating social and environmental issues while re-introducing the world to the benefits of native living in hope to forge a major shift in the way people live their day-to-day lives. Shadoran is a collaboration of concepts and cultural elements, it is a social and environmental movement but more importantly it is a way of life. Most of the concepts of Shadoran are either based on nature or the unique bonds that humans share with one another. To be a real Shadoran means you live the concepts, culture and have an active role in the Shadoran movement. It has a tribal and primitivist orientation with values that promote unity and balance between all people and nature.

Imagine a place where you are able to live free and in harmony with nature, where you live off the land and you’re not forced to work in order to earn money to survive, where there is no need for bills nor mortgage, a stateless society where everyone is equal - A utopian lifestyle.
It’s a nice dream but will it ever happen? Is a stateless society, free and in harmony with nature a real possibility? The fact is that for a good 90% of human history people have lived like this, quite happily and better then we do today.
The ‘Shadoran way of life’ corroborates many different aspects and aims to find harmony and balance within the natural world and we look towards primitive lifestyles as a guide and for inspiration. Among the abnormal conditions present in modern industrial society are excessive density of population, isolation of man from nature, excessive rapidity of social change and the break-down of natural small-scale communities such as the extended family, the village or the tribe. The industrial revolution warped the dreams and views of the people because before it, when people envisaged a better world, it was an Eden-like utopia, now people envisage this as unobtainable. The Shadoran lifestyle has been striped back to the original roots of society where people were already equal, had all they wanted for life and not controlled by the state. The Shadoran lifestyle encourages the practice of the usufruct system, when something is someone's while their using it and everyone else's to use when not, provided that the property is not destroyed or waisted - An un-orthodox concept that doesn’t involve money or reward system. Shadoran aim to become self sustainable and self sufficient, which frees up more leisure time for family and recreational activities. We aim to have a healthier body and mind by growing and eating organic produce, working for the good of the community with huge emphasis on preserving the environment and respecting the land we live on. Shadoran experience a greater sense of community and self worth while having the freedom to express oneself creatively and proudly sharing the person they truly are inside.
Many primitive peoples, when they don't have work to do, are quite content to sit for hours at a time doing nothing at all, because they are at peace with themselves and their world. It isn't natural for an adolescent to spend the bulk of their time sitting at a desk absorbed in study. A normal adolescent wants to spend his time in active contact with the real world. Among primitive peoples the things that children are trained to do are in natural harmony with natural human impulses. The Shadoran lifestyle strives to uphold theses natural impulses in a way that is constructive and builds community and individual freedoms.
Technically there is nothing to prevent us from going to live in the wild like this but in practice there is very little wild country left, and we need to work towards restoring the natural balance that once existed when this way of life was the only way of life. We look towards the future with hope and salvation because we know that one day we can say that we are content.

Not many people in our ‘advanced’ modern society can say that they are truly content with their current lives. Here is the common scenario of the average working class person – you are awakening early in the morning by the sound of your alarm. You get ready for work, hurrying so not to be late. You hop into your car and battle traffic until you arrive at your workplace. You work for hours then have a short lunch break then back to work. After work you battle traffic again and return home where your family is waiting for you. You watch TV, eat dinner, and spend a short amount of time with the kids until they go to bed. Then you have a few short hours with your partner before you go to bed yourself. Then do it all again in the morning.
We repeat this pattern until we can afford to retire. But why do we do this? The common answer it to simply - earn money to live.
However we really don’t get the chance to enjoy our lives because we spend the majority of it working. It’s a vicious and boringly repetitive cycle and we become victims of the capitalist system. Even our childhood is spent preparing us for the workforce – it’s called ‘school’. Rarely things like life skills and morals (the real things needed to live a fulfilled life) are part of the education curriculum, it’s particularly focused on providing you with the skills to get and maintain a job. A good job may provide you with the finance to buy yourself a nice house, a fast car and large boat but that will not necessarily bring you happiness and realistically the average person does not ever obtain these luxuries and their primary focus is on earning enough money to feed and cloth their family. This system benefits the few and hinders the majority. This is the basic essence of a capitalist society. As a community we are increasingly becoming less satisfied with what we have and waist our lives trying to get what we don’t. Our family structures suffer and our children are given unobtainable goals for life. Life is there to be lived not to simple exist. You should live a life that is worthy of being called ‘yours.’

An ideal world is one that had once existed for thousands upon thousands of years underserved until modern era. It was simple, peaceful and most importantly it was in harmony. People where content with their lives and even enjoyed work.
Imagine this scenario – you find yourself in this ideal world. The entire earth is green again, the air is clean and the water is pure. You live nestled among the towering trees, bathed in their lush cool shade. You’re accepted unconditionally by your extended family and your tribe and you have a huge sense on contentment and self worth. You have the freedom to walk barefoot and life is void of shame about the human body. Birds chirp and sing all around you without fear as you gather berries and fruit for lunch then help the other tribe members collect firewood and food for the festivities that night. You then reside to a nice sunny spot for a midday siesta. You are awaken by the sounds of laughter as the children play safely down by the river, you join them for a nice relaxing bathe then take the children on a short walk through the undergrowth teaching them about the unique balances that exists omnisciently in nature. You pass on the knowledge that was passed onto to you in a casual and inspiring way. That night you enjoy the food and festivities around a bonfire, you dance, laugh and sing with everyone in your small community. You then retire into your nice warm hut for a sound nights sleep.

This ideal lifestyle was one that was shared by many different native and primitive cultures throughout history. Unfortunately it tends to be difficult to return to this way of life because of the degradation and destruction of the natural environment and the ecosystem through humanities selfish and foolish endeavors. However the Earth can eventually heal itself with a little help from us through stopping further degradation and rewilding the planet.

Rewilding is the process of returning the earth to its original state by regenerating land that humans have interfered with. Vast amounts of land lay cleared and useless and the best way to utilize this land is to return it to nature and allow it to regain the beauty and balance that it once held before humans selfishly claimed it. How? Replant it and nature will do the rest. People need to also disperse themselves from cities and begin to dwell among the newly rewilded lands, becoming self-sustainable and prospering in harmony with nature. The value and need for money will become invalid, as the land will provide for all our needs. Each homestead will be self-maintained and a balance between nature and green technological advances will make life even more comfortable. We will have the best of both worlds with no negative impacts on the environment in which we depend on for survival.
Eventually we will have the ability, opportunity and wisdom to return to the wilderness. When we do return it may not be the same way as in the past because we may take some positive technologies with us. For example we may have solar power in our huts but then again we may find we have no need for electricity – historically we have survived a lot longer without it then we have been with it.

The Shadoran way of life is ideally so different from the current ‘westernised’ culture that it naturally forms its own customs and values - Things such as celebrating the seasonal changes, our unity with nature and our community, the family structure and the importance of life. The Shadoran culture is closely related to tribal customs and values because of its primitivist orientation however every culture throughout the world will continue to grow and develop throughout time. The Shadoran culture is no different because the more wider variety of people that contribute to the Shadoran community, the more diverse and unique the cultural aspects will become as we begin to adapt and adopt other customs and values from various other cultures.
But how do you define culture?
Culture is basically the development or improvement by education or training through skills, art and customs of a people from generation to generation by word of mouth or by practice. It’s also through culture that we take in the values and understanding of the world around us.

Shadoran is not a religion - it is a culture that you can choose to adopt and because this is the case there are two main types of Shadoran. A Shatein (sha.tE.in) is a Shadoran that decides that they want to follow the customs and culture to better understand the Shadoran way of life. The other type is referred to as Avarleis (ar.var.lee.iss). These people don’t follow the culture but still believe in the values of Shadoran and its teachings. Most people when they decide to join Shadoran usually class themselves as Avarleis until such time as they build up enough knowledge and see the true benefits of being Shatein. There are also two subtypes particually associated with children. The first one being an Anascein (ar.nas.cE.in). An Anascein is someone who is born into Shadoran from Shatein parents. These people are truly fortunate because they are able to learn the Shadoran way of life from a very young age, which avoids being tainted by negative influences from the outside westernise capitalist society. The second subtype is called Nevilein (nee.vil.E.in). If a parent with young children becomes a Shatein Shadoran then their children are seen as Nevilein until they themselves decide to become Shatein when they become of age.
A distinct style is developing and our way of life is becoming more clearly defined and recognized. A good and honourable culture is more important to making the world a better place then most people realize. It’s a teaching tool, a guide and a step forward to uniting us as a community.

Contemporary society is obsessed with pushing forward and excelling. But where are we headed? An advanced society isn’t necessarily a society that is economically strong or technologically advanced. It’s obvious that during the next few decades the industrial-technological system will be undergoing severe stresses due to economic and environmental problems, and especially due to problems of human behavior (alienation, rebellion, hostility, a variety of social and psychological difficulties). We hope that the stresses through which the system is likely to pass will cause it to break down, or at least weaken it sufficiently so that a revolution occurs and is successful, then at that particular moment the aspiration for freedom will have proved more powerful than technology.

One of the goals of Shadoran is to advance a new social 'revolution' of the new age - to eradicate social and environmental issues and forge a major shift in the way people live their day-to-day life creating a new utopian society. But how is this done? By what Shadoran dubs Voltz Cambir (Social Reform). One of the major peaceful tools used to bring about Voltz Cambir is Rein-Shoron (re-introducing). People tend to try and over complicate the situation of Voltz Cambir because they see the issue as being too hard and complex to resolve, when in fact by going to the roots it can be relatively simple. We need to counter react via Rein-Shoron through the three main influences in a child’s life - Parents, Teachers and Role Models. If we get them on side then you can limit the amount of negative influences that children are exposed to and prevent other social problems from arising. If we are able to stop the negative seeds of society before they germinate and consume our kid’s childhood then we have a good chance of beating it. As adults the real revolution happens from inside – undoing the programming that we experienced ourselves and clearing our minds to the possibilities of living a life that differs from the one society currently presents to us. Things will not change over night; there will be a lot of work to this process of change and it’s very likely that there will be a lot of people who reject the change because they fear it. One thing is certain – that the sun will set and rise again and it will be a new day, fresh and filled with possibilities.

Originally humans where hunters and gathers. They lived in balance with nature and relied on the produce of the land to survive. Then they discovered agriculture and they learned how to manipulate nature so they didn’t need to rely on the land to directly provide for them. This was the first step in humans controlling their environment and dissociating themselves from nature. The next major advance was the invention of technologies as we entered the industrial and information era. Humanity has now got to the point where it has almost dissociated itself from nature altogether. But being so ‘advanced’ has its high cost. Humans now neglect their original needs to be connected with nature and to be part of it as a whole. The current state of humanity is not sustainable as it has a very heavy burden on our environment and it has forever mounting social issues. However as a race we are at the point where we can either go one of two ways. We can continue on the current path where the problems and issues that plague our society will continue to mount and hope that humanity has the knowledge and desire to resolve these issues without greed and hate tainting the result (this is what the people who benefit from capitalism prefer). Our other option is that we could take the other path and begin to return our original balance with nature. For that to happen we will need to pass through a transition era where we will eradicate the programming that society has placed upon us and resolve issues that taint our new way of life (Programming such as racism, consumerism, commercialism, sexism, self hate, love of money etc). Once that is achieved we would start entering into an Original Balance Era. The likeliness of humanity going back to the very first hunters and gathers state is possible but not probable. To find balance in the Original Balance Era we would need to decipher what aspects we could take from our previous three major developmental stages (Hunter and Gathers, Agriculture and Information Era) and use them to make a balance for this new era. As a human race we have a choice to what road we go down. Humanity needs to realize that this new era is a realistic possibility and we could even reach the new era within our lifetimes.

A lot of people have the perception that the world and its current situation cannot change when in fact it will. Human history has shown is that great civilizations have risen and fallen and that indicates that the United States of America will not be the super power forever like it is perceived. Our society has reached the point where our consumable life styles and our reliance of oil is having a very large impact on our environment and will most likely be the modern societies down fall. Yet people have a naive attitude and blind sightedness to still think that things will not course our current life style to end. Will we only realise when it’s already too late?
The idea that the next generation will fix the problems in the future that are course by today is very wrong - the future is today and we ARE the next generation. Our forefathers have left us with the burden of complex social and environmental issues that if left unresolved will have devastating consequences. As individuals in our society we need to open our eyes to the things that lie ahead and take it in our stride even by breaking away from mainstream society and living an alternative lifestyle that ironically will hopefully save mainstream society from itself. All the great empires have fallen but why did the society of native people like the Australian aboriginals last for centuries and centuries in perfect harmony and untainted? Those societies where able to stand the test of time.

Shadoran is an invitation of peace and unity for all who are willing to except that fact that we all need to play a roll in creating a better world. Only when we are able to open our eyes and take our first deep breath of clean air will we know how right we were to take Shadoran into our hearts and fight for what we truly believe.

Our hope is that our efforts have inspired and fuelled the passion to live a life worthy of being called ‘yours’ - because every journey is a journey worth living, for every moment of life is worth experiencing.

Today is a new day – make the most of what few days you may have left on this wonderful Earth.