Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, physical and emotional abuse, and sexual violence.

“My first conscious memory of ‘science’ (or was it religion?) comes from my kindergarten class, which met in the old Grange Hall.”

When Kimmerer is inside the clearing, she is literally inside a circle of stones—this makes her, symbolically, an “insider” to their world, no longer “Outside the circle” of knowledge (3). The anthropomorphizing of the stones as “full of intention” and turning their “gaze” on Kimmerer to “acknowledge” her reinforces the quasi-mystical, spiritual nature of her experience. It also reinforces the theme of Learning Through Relationship With the Nonhuman World, as Kimmerer feels that she is in a literal communion with the landscape around her.

“Within the circle of stones, I find myself unaccountably beyond thinking, beyond feeling. The rocks are full of intention, a deep presence attracting life […] Held in the gaze of the rocks, my presence is acknowledged.”

When Kimmerer is inside the clearing, she is literally inside a circle of stones—this makes her, symbolically, an “insider” to their world, no longer “Outside the circle” of knowledge (3). The anthropomorphizing of the stones as “full of intention” and turning their “gaze” on Kimmerer to “acknowledge” her reinforces the quasi-mystical, spiritual nature of her experience. It also reinforces the theme of Learning Through Relationship With the Nonhuman World, as Kimmerer feels that she is in a literal communion with the landscape around her.

“Mosses are not elevator music; they are the intertwined threads of a Beethoven quartet.”

Kimmerer metaphorically compares looking at mosses to the attention required to listen to and appreciate a complex series of sounds, such as a Beethoven quartet. The appeal to