The Forgotten Ones: Meet the Lichen People for October’s Re-Enchantment Day

Every October, Re-Enchantment & Gratitude Day turns its attention to the Forgotten Ones, those beings and aspects of the animate web of life we may have overlooked, or who don’t easily fit into the themes of other months.

This year’s Forgotten Ones turned out to be hiding in plain sight, on the bark, stones, fences, and sidewalks all around us: Lichens!

I spent last weekend with some fine human specimens from the California Lichen Society in Trinity County. One thing I learned, apart from meeting a whole host of new species, is that lichenologists don’t get very far down the trail.

I think we averaged approximately 13 LPH (lichens per hour).

Among the marvelous beings encountered:

Powder-headed tube lichen. Sunburst lichen. Pixie cups. Fancy frost lichen. Pimpled kidney lichen. Pin lichens. Elegant horsehair. Brown horsehair. Usnea. Oakmoss. Tufted foxtail. Lungworts. Tile lichens. None lichens. Map lichens. Pink bull’s-eye lichen. Brown wrinkle lichen. Emery rock tripe. Green rock-posy.

Entire civilizations beneath our hurry.

Lichens invite us to consider how life survives through unlikely partnerships, how the overlooked help sustain entire ecosystems, and what it means to become something together that we cannot become alone.

Perhaps they have lessons to teach us about reciprocity, collective survival, and the strange intimacy of different beings making a shared life.

Arriving a little later than usual this month, October’s issue gathers a Lichen Kin blessing, poems, reflections, and a Meet the Lichen People gallery.

An invitation to get down close, let your imagination wander into a lichen living room, and spend a few unhurried moments in small company.

Re-Enchantment & Gratitude Days are anchored to the first Saturday every month, but can be celebrated any time. They offer invitations for blessings, practices, and poetry honoring a being or aspect of nature.

Next month, we tune into The Decomposers