SEEDS OF CHANGE

BELOW IS A TRANSCRIBED AND EDITED CONVERSATION BETWEEN GARRETT BRADLEY AND “A,” WHO IDENTIFIES AS A “SHAPER” AND HAS REQUESTED FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS INTERVIEW TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS. THIS CONVERSATION WAS HELD BY PHONE ON AUGUST 18, 2024.

GARRETT BRADLEY: Thanks very much for speaking with me. 

A: No problem.

GB: You’ve asked that we withhold your name for privacy. But for our readers, do you mind if I clarify what brought us together?

A: Yes, of course. 

GB: Great. So Earthseed is a religion created by Lauren Oya Olamina, who is a fictional character in Octavia Butler’s book Parable of the Sower [1993]. You are a real person, living in the real world, and you identify as being a part of Earthseed. Does that sound right?

A: Yes, that’s right. 

GB: And I’ve been eager to talk with folks like yourself, who follow Earthseed, who identify as Shapers. Is that right? 

A: Yes.

GB: Right, so we met online and I very much hope this can be the first in a series of ongoing conversations. Can you tell me a little bit about Earthseed, in your words? What are its basic tenets of thought? What does it do for you?

A: Well, every person will have a different response. For me, it’s about being one with nature. And nature is something that changes in season and scope. It’s never stagnant; its essence is movement. Movement is the muse. Holistic movement. 

GB: Is movement qualitative? Is there a type of movement or change that would work against the belief of Earthseed? 

A: We aren’t—I’m not—here to control. That’s also part of it: accepting things as they come and working with them. The three things we follow are 1. Learn to shape God (which Earthseed teaches is another word for change) with forethought, care, and work. 2. Educate and benefit your community, your family—however you define that—and yourself. 3. Contribute to the fulfillment of The Destiny. We call ourselves “Shapers” because shaping God is about accepting change, shaping one’s life around what isn’t in your control. 

GB: If God is nature, why use the word God? Is it that working with familiar language helps to expand its definition?

A: Yes, God can mean different things to different people. There are a variety of narratives attached to God as a name. When Earthseed refers to God, it is referring to circumstance, to nature, to setting, to force of life. 

GB: Can you talk to me a little bit about The Destiny? Some people might struggle reconciling a destiny to take root among the stars with, say, Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos’s version of going to the stars, or Mars. How is it different?

A: Well, first of all, Octavia and Lauren were talking about this in 1993, well before any white men were using our data to build empires extending to the moon. So I would say the way in which we even get to the ideas sets it apart, number one. 

GB: Right, OK—

A: Second, the stipulation for getting there is that we first have to figure out how to be here. We have to learn how to coexist as we once did, in order to get to the future. 

GB: Something that stands out to me is Lauren’s ability to perceive humanity’s Achilles’ heel, which is our profound propensity to forget. We forget how to love. How to imagine. How to survive without things made by us. Does it resonate to think of The Destiny as being something that is purposefully impossible? That its pursuit is actually the end goal?

A: No. My interpretation is that we will end up in the stars no matter how long it takes, and that we will be the counter to Bezos and Musk. 

GB: Is that not what we have here on Earth already? 

A: Earth is its own environment. God is change. When our environment changes, we will be given a new challenge, a new set of circumstances under which our faith and our memory will be tested. 

GB: Right, and so it goes back to remembering: Can you remember? Can you be a good person in any situation, even those that are unfamiliar to you? 

A: Yes, that’s how I see it. 

GB: How does Octavia Butler fit into all of this for you? Are you following her if you follow Earthseed?

A: Octavia Butler was a prophet. She was paying attention; she wrote it down and channeled through this character, Lauren Oya Olamina, a narrative that we can all see ourselves in. 

GB: Is Butler God?

A: No, but she helps us to see God. 

GB: If I can go on a tangent for a moment: One thing that really stood out to me when watching Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men [2006] was the implication that Black women are the future. We were the first, and in many ways we are also—chronically—the last. Did you need convincing that an eighteen-year-old girl like Lauren could create an entire movement? 

A: I didn’t, because I understood how she got there. She was like Octavia in the sense that she paid attention, she read, she was looking over there while everyone else was looking over here. And so she had answers where there was a gap in information, and she shared this information and wrote it down. At a certain point, our words, our writing, the things we leave behind are separate from us; they take on a whole new meaning. I mean, Jesus was Black. 

GB: I know we’re getting a little bit more into the book now, but Lauren suffers from something called “hyperempathy.” She can feel the pain (and the pleasures) of others. And she has to overcome this in order to survive. So her ability to perceive deeply, to empathize to the extent that the line between herself and others is blurred, is also what she must control in order to live and eventually lead. And I would say that’s a consistent dilemma with many great leaders: Their ability to perceive something outside of themselves is part of what makes them great leaders. But the other half of it is then learning to what extent that perception has served its purpose and needs to be transmuted elsewhere. The creative, emotional intelligence can only be put to use and help others so long as it doesn’t become debilitating to the one facilitating it. Does this play any role for you within the context of Earthseed?

A: Does empathy play a role? 

GB: Yes. Does Lauren’s trajectory as someone who must learn to harness her emotions so that she can use them, rather than being used by them—does that translate into Earthseed for you in any way? 

A: Yes, of course, because in order to live alongside and within change, one must allow oneself to be connected to it. You can’t participate in change if you don’t allow yourself to feel. We are in a world war. There is war everywhere, in every country, and we are seeing the leaders of almost every nation have to reconcile with their resistance and inability to follow nature’s course. With their inability to adjust, to apologize, to restart. They believe the only way they will win, the only way they will survive, is to stay the same. 

GB: Right.

A: And we are about to witness a new story emerge. 

GB: The story of change?

A: Yes, the story of change. “God is change. Beware: God exists to shape and to be shaped.” 

Garrett Bradley is an American artist and filmmaker. Her upcoming film Parable of the Sower is an adaptation of Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel.