“The whole of nature,” Ralph Waldo Emerson says in his seminal transcendentalist text, “is a metaphor for the human mind.” All natural facts symbolize some deeper spiritual fact, he argues: light invokes knowledge where darkness indicates ignorance. A fox is cunning, and a lamb innocent. Stages of life pass much like seasons of time. The analogies between us and the natural world are not arbitrary or mere flukes, he argues, but a sign of the great universal harmony between man and all things.

In this study, we’ll wander from a cafe into Rock Creek Park to witness nature’s wintertime proclivities, mapping the will of the world onto man’s own tendencies, and identifying the roots that run far beyond what modern life encourages us to see.

Text: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature 

Date: Saturday, December 5 at 11am 

Location: Rock Creek Park in DC with Kanika & Josh

If you are interested in joining the Washington DC mailing list, fill out this form.