Becoming the Forest

BTF IV includes specially commissioned essays, interviews and illustrations, by animists, philosophers, artists and musicians, including: an essay on panpsychism as a possible answer to the climate crisis; a philosophical-historical overview of the relationship between black metal and the forest; a magical-realist account of a sylvan trip gone wrong; an in-depth interview with Rune from Nordic Animism, whose project looks to Scandinavian folklore and customs for “hidden animist knowledge” and more respectful ways of living with other subjectivities.

The symbolism of the primstav (a calendar staff used by the agricultural societies of old Scandinavia), runs through the issue. Its seasonally-based, cyclical view of time hints towards a worldview which was embedded in its environment, and which placed man as part of - and at the mercy of- nature, rather than above it.

Contributors: Lotte Brown, By the Spirits, Crown of Asteria, Drukfout, Feral Season, Una Hamilton Helle, Hedda Hassel Mørch, Hawthonn, Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, Invunche, Helge Kaasin, Edvard Munch, Necrofier, Alexandra Uppman, Cathy Ward

Table of Contents

Entering the forest

Una Hamilton Helle

Wherein time moves in spirals, and petroglyphs speak of the coming Fimbulwinter

Interview — Feral Season (US)

In which the scorched trails of wildfires are retrodden through the range of light

Nordic Animism

Excavating traditional knowledge with Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen

Wherein a Dane exhumes the remains of lost lore and discovers life therein

Interview — Invunche (NL)

In which the three-legged figure of Chilote folklore guards the secrets of a warlock’s cave

Interview — Crown of Asteria (US)

In which mythology mixes with magical intent in the Michigan mist.

Gjennom den Onde dunkle Skog

Helge Kaasin

Wherein the roots of Norwegian Black Metal are found to burrow deep into the soil of history

Interview — Necrofier (US)

In which synchronistic tales are told of a child-eating demon and a tiger-eye ring

Researchers — a Cliffhanger

Lotte Brown

Wherein the moon is swallowed, mud is tasted and the sound of bone hitting stone echoes through the forest

Interview — By the Spirits (POL)

In which a Silesian mountain is ascended and a path of ancient magick traversed

Panpsychism as environmental philosophy

Hedda Hassel Mørch

Wherein the vast, shadowy land of consciousness is explored and the limits of Western thinking probed

Interview — Hawthonn (GB)

In which the duo go searching for the wyrd sonic signatures of Britain’s edgelands

Further artworks by Lotte Brown (BE), Drukfout (BE), Una Hamilton Helle (NO),

Edvard Munch (NO), Alexandra Uppman (BE), Cathy Ward (GB)

Becoming the Forest as a project interrogates the entangled relationship we humans have with our surroundings, inspired by the ecological strands of black metal, and for this issue we have truly gone underground, both in a musical and topographical sense.

BTF V has essays on animist Norwegian stone customs, the dark topographies of Table Top Roleplaying, a long form poem about the endless horizons of the Northern hemisphere and eight interviews with musicians and bands who have emerged from the fertile humus of contemporary black metal.

Contributors and bands:

Lotte Brown, Úna Hamilton Helle, Stu Horvath, Ild, Bekah Lunn, Menace Ruine, Mycologia, Oerheks, Panopticon, Peace Vaults, Returning, Tom Sewell, Andrew Walter, Wulvyr.

Table of Contents

Earthbound Rocks and Thunder Stones: Tales from Norwegian Stone Culture

By Úna Hamilton Helle

Wherein glacial rocks and cup marked stones are greeted and honoured as neighbours

Interview: Wulvyr (GB)

In which the Waste Walker digs into fertile soil to find that all life comes from the ground up

Interview: Menace Ruine (CA)

In which quiet cabin living reveals the true cacophony of nature’s rhythm

Fiat Lux!

By Stu Horvath

Wherein we descend to fantastical depths and probe the limits of darkness

Interview: Peace Vaults (AT)

In which an archer meets wild boars in the Viennese woods, almost as if in a dream

Interview: Oerheks (BE)

In which an old oak stands strong as the sole survivor of an ancient forest

Building Relations with a Stone: Pointers for an Animist Art Practice

By Úna Hamilton Helle

Wherein a lithic encounter opens up a portal to the underworld

Interview: Mycologia (US)

In which a New Englander delves into the understorey on the hunt for fruiting bodies

A Hare Running

By Lotte Brown

Wherein the sky is upside down and some figures drowning in fleece try to follow the horizon

Interview: Returning (US)

In which the porous bodies of salmon, herons and humans move amongst a numinous land filled with ancestral voices

Interview: Ild (NO)

In which a fire still burns amidst the death cloak of life

Imaginary Standing Stones

Drawings by Tom Sewell

Wherein the bones of the earth hover in the air

Interview: Panopticon (US)

In which freezing temperatures are endured in the fight for an inhabitable world