05
The Dwelling Place Of The Red Pine Genie
I lifted up the curtain on a pathway of flowers,
And a flashing bluebird bade me come
To the dwelling-place of the Red Pine Genie.
...What a flame for his golden crucible
Peach-trees magical with buds!
And for holding boyhood in his face,
The rosy-flowing wine of clouds!
— Meng Haoran, translated by Witter Bynner, from The Jade Mountain: A Chinese Anthology, Knopf Publishing
Thank you for calling The Botanarchy Hotline. The Botanarchy Hotline is medicine disguised as a poem, delivered through the portal of your phone. It’s a ham-radio séance between you and the living Earth, for those ready to be bewildered back to life.
The transmission at the end of your telephone line is Episode 5: The Dwelling Place Of The Red Pine Genie. It’s the 8th week of Spring, the pulsing peregrinations of flowering buds are dancings together in the rites of spring, and today we’re gonna make like an ivy-crowned Bacchus warbling his native wood-notes wild and sit down for a visit with the Red Pine Genie.
In Chinese medicine, spring belongs to the Wood Element, which represents the spirit of gigantic forces that re-awaken after their winter rest. Wood pushes through the mossy detritus of winter from dormancy into action, bridging the potential energy of a buried seed with the manifest magic of emerging form. Its energy is one of bursting, birthing, sprouting, and growing, tiny mysteries vegetating hither and thither. It’s flashy! It shows its hand! The Season Of The Red Pine Genie is all about tapping underworld power for skyward growth, reaching upwards and outwards with leafy expanse, adorning the world with a pathway of flowers.
(Cont’d below)
Book Rec: The Jade Mountain: A Chinese Anthology, Witter Bynner
☏ Episode 1 — March 20, 2025
The Best Time For A Poet Is When Spring Is New
☏ Episode 2 — April 3, 2025
This Wild Joy At Wandering Boundless And Free
☏ Episode 3 — April 17, 2025
The Secret Names Of Mountains
☏ Episode 4 — April 30, 2025
Exchanging Greetings With The Wind
☏ Episode 5 — May 3, 2025
The Dwelling Place Of The Red Pine Genie
☏ Episode 6 — May 28, 2025
Resisting Tyranny With The Oak Trees
☏ Episode 7 — June 11, 2025
I ♡ Unnoticed Plants That Grow Beside A Stream
☏ Episode 8 — June 26, 2025
Relaxing All Day On A Peak
☏ Episode 9 — July 24, 2025
Counting Every Falling Petal I Forget The Time
☏ Episode 10 — Aug 7, 2025
Drinking A Little Until Half Intoxicated
☏ Episode 11 — Aug 21, 2025
The Heart Finds Beauty In Adoration
☏ Episode 12 — Sept 4, 2025
Mountains, Mountains, Mountains
☏ Episode 13 — Sept 25, 2025
Sitting In Sunshine Wrapped In A Robe
☏ Episode 14 — Oct 16, 2025
Autumn Begins Unnoticed
☏ Episode 15 — Oct 27, 2025
No One Knows This Mountain I Inhabit
☏ Episode 16 — Nov 19, 2025
We Share Such Emptiness Here
☏ Episode 17 — Dec 4, 2025
In The Mountains, Asking The Moon
☏ Episode 18 — Dec 21, 2025
Blow Out The Light, Watch The Window Brighten
☏ Episode 19 — Jan 10, 2026
I’m More Like The Flowering Plum
(833) Eco-Poem
A low-fi ritual broadcast from another dimension of care.