Time as Rhythm
Photo: John Hoffman © Genesis+Art
Wonderland Trail
Mt. Rainer, Washington
Time is something that we have been reflecting on and exploring through nature and our art. Time and its meaning has changed its meaning to us and how we walk along in it. Time, like landscape, was captured and repurposed for extraction. Sacred calendars were displaced by the industrial revolution to accommodate factory shifts. Natural rhythms were replaced with mechanical ones to serve empire and not people. Ceremonial days gave way to productivity quotas and capitalism. Time was carved into hours, then minutes, then seconds and even smaller units of measure. All of this was done to serve the global financial market, it’s a kind of time-keeping that doesn’t serve communities, it serves capital. It no longer has a relationship to seasons, weather, or human life. But not all-time flows in a straight line.
Circular time is also a way to think and walk in time. In many indigenous and ancestorial traditions, time is cyclical, relational, and alive, the Māori Maramataka follows the moon, guiding when to fish, rest, and plant their crop. The Mayan Tzolk’in spirals through a sacred 260-day cycle. The IGBO four-day week governs market rhythms and spirit life. Capitalism taught us that time is money, but what if time is relationship? Can we see time in a way that leads to kinship, ceremony, and return? A circular time where past, present, and future are connected. Each cycle is unique, but shares similarities with past and future cycles, connecting them all. Circular time is a metaphysical theory of time that views time as a loop without a beginning or end. It can suggest that all objects and events usually return to their starting point, repeating a cycle of maturation and death. A time for life and a time for death. In many cultures, time wasn’t owned, it was honored. Time isn’t a resource to spend, it’s a rhythm to return to. What time systems shaped your ancestors? What rhythms do you follow now?
SHARE THIS BLOG POST: