Meet Soren

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Soren. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Soren below.

Hi Soren, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Purpose is a huge word and it seems to have different chapters in different phases of life. For me, at 57 now, I feel like my deeper purpose is coming more into the light. This is of course from completing many other phases that had other purposes. All the purposes share a thread and I suppose, for me, that nature is that thread. Since I was very young I was drawn to the wild lands, the flowers, the animals, the beauty, the water and the Sun and sky. For as long as I can remember, maybe three or four years old, I have been fascinated with and enamored of native peoples of the world, human villages. It’s etched in my soul and there’s something so raw and right about it, to me, that it’s always been my go to for comparison to how I’ve lived this life. I always felt at home in raw, natural environments. I could feel them and they brought me peace. As I got older I studied many cultures and lifeways of peoples from all over the world. When I was in high school I got into psychedelics, mushrooms and acid, and would go to the nearby hills, the Santa Monica mountains, and explore. My eyes were thrust open to the magic of the oaks, sycamores, the little grottoes, the chaparral and the animal communities within it all. I remember being in the mountains at night at a place called Skull Rock looking out towards the city. There was a distinct line where the natural realm of nighttime darkness ended and the electronic grid of civilization started. It was shocking to see. It was calm in the darkness and the grid looked like an electric circus loud and arrogant. Now, in reality, both are natural somehow, but as beings, animals really, we do get to decide what feels better to us. I’m not even saying one’s better than the other, just different things for different beings. The “civilized” has always felt sharp and cold to me, lacking warmth and humanity even though it’s filled with human beings. The wild lands have always felt comforting, they make sense, there’s a harmony, even in life and death, that works and continues on and on despite the hand of civilization clawing at it incessantly.

These revelations and experiences gave me a sense of what I consider real and fake, or artificial. Of course it’s all real in ways, it’s part of the current theater we all live in on Earth right now. But seeing this aspect began to affect my choices as I grew and got wiser. It became harder and harder to ingest the artificial. Things such as food, water, relationships, jobs, places to live and so on and so forth. As time went by I was able to, usually, move closer to what felt good for me. It also gave me great interest in making my relationships real, living by my honor and ethics and indulging more and more in real food, simple things. It brought a lot more joy and dignity to my life. It also helped me align more and more with what I consider my purpose.

I’ve always loved people and talking and philosophizing and comparing notes on this life journey. I’ve always had great intuition with people and could see them for who they were. Some like this and some don’t. I’ve always lived on the outskirts of civilization, the game board, and had a hard time doing the normal thing, careers and following the rules so to speak. It never felt right. It felt like a cage. I had a couple times I kind of joined up but it didn’t last long and it drove me crazy. I learned to live by my wits and to not care about the judgment I received from others. I come from a long line of doctors and though my parents were somewhat supportive of my different route I would later find out they actually judged me hard for it. I persevered and stuck to my code. I raised my children how I thought it should be, actually reading lots of information on childrearing in “primitive” societies, and they are amazing. They had beautiful childhoods and we got to spend lots of time together. I got heavily into writing poetry, songs and other things like foraging and hunting and fishing. I began to practice some traditional skills like friction fire and hide tanning. This led to creating jewelry and other beautiful things such as bone fetishes, yucca quivers and arrows, stone and shell adorned buckskin bags and much more. People began to recognize my work and buy it. My wife does some too. We got kind of known in the Ojai/Ventura/Santa Barbara and even LA areas. It struck me how the naturalness of the pieces drew all kinds of people to them, from toddlers to the very old. People wanted to touch it all, put it on, talk about it and it led to amazing conversations of humanity, history, current affairs, everything. It’s been really amazing in that way. It’s part of my purpose.

In this chapter now I feel like I’m moving into a deeper phase of purpose. I’m looking to work with more men, kids, women too and talk about life, love, childrearing, purpose, dignity, what we’re here for in essence and how we want to live. In this age of AI, artificial intelligence, artificial means fake, I feel like we’re on the precipice of losing our warmth, our connection and so much more. It’s not a fear thing but just a reality and I’m not real into it. It’ll go where it will go but I feel like my purpose is to help keep the humanity alive, our natural roots, our communities, to breakdown this silly division that’s going on and find our commonality. We are all really the same inside, we have the same needs and a lot of the same desires. In this time of great upheaval I’d like to share the grounding and connection I have found and learned to work with amongst many others. I want to hear everyone’s journey, I learn so much from others. Division leads to separation and loneliness and that has never been good for human beings. I feel like this era of purpose for me will be rich, it’s part of what I came here to do. I want to do it as best as I can. For anyone who feels aligned with these thoughts feel free to reach out and let me know. I want to give back to this world and the beautiful souls who inhabit it.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

For the past Decade or so I, along with my wife, have been making jewelry and other art from things we make and find. We use mainly shells, stones, bones, seeds and other natural materials that we come across. I also have been brain tanning deer hides for quite some time so that is the literal thread that weaves our jewelry and other pieces together. It’s truly unique. We’ve been told so many times by people that they’ve never seen anything like it. I always reply that it seems they missed about ninety-nine percent of human history. It’s what people have done all over the world for thousands of years. We are innately treasure hunters. We go out, pick up beautiful things, bring them home and string them up and wear them. That’s all we do. People are very drawn to it, it’s just a universal thing being drawn to natural beauty. It’s cool because we let nature and the Earth do most of the work. We just look around and find things and drill holes in them. It’s amazing the beauty that lies beneath our feet everywhere we go. There’s jewels everywhere!! And other things, money, tools, arrowheads, the list goes on. Every time I just take a walk, even along roads and in cities, I come home with some kind of treasure. I like looking at life as a treasure hunt. It’s fun that way. And man you find some valuable shit!

We also treasure hunt for used clothes, shoes, furniture, motorcycle helmets, toys, antiques, memorabilia, once again the list goes on. We sell a lot of stuff online that we have found. It’s fun too, different style but same idea. People give away some amazing stuff for cheap and it’s neat to put it back out there for a profit. Regular work is tedious for my nature, showing up everyday and such. I have done it and don’t feel above it but if I have a choice I’ll do my own thing every time. Discipline is key and I’m not always great with that but getting better.

I have also worked with people counseling, life counseling, practical wisdom through spirit, experience, intuition and so on. I come from a long line of doctors/healers. It’s in me. I have helped many people honor their true selves, I can see who people really are and help them honor themselves. I want to get more into that. It’s very satisfying and it’s a confusing world right now. I feel I offer safety, understanding and the depth of a true Earth grounded way to build a resilient and REAL foundation. We are only here a little while. We need to be brave and honest, true to each other so that we can live richly while we are here.

I also draw a lot. I like pencil and colored pencils. I draw what I call “Weirdos.” It started by being bored in school. When my kids were little I showed them my techniques and they loved it. I’ve been making it a practice lately to work on a drawing every morning now and they’re adding up. Some are just the weirdos themselves but some have quirky words to go with them. I usually go kind of esoteric, sometimes societal/political critique. I don’t do politics. The system is a joke. I don’t participate. Both sides suck. lol. I like to poke and prod with wit and lots of ancient occult references. It’s a wild world and I feel I gotta’ say something. I’m looking to make an Etsy page for my drawings to sell them. I really dig them.

Our jewelry and other creations can be seen at thenaturalfreehumanbeings.com. We also have an instagram page under that name but it’s been hard to the social media stuff lately. My wife and I have been working lately to re-stoke our individual flames after a three year somewhat floaty period after her mother died. Lots of change in the air. Exciting.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Hmmm? I think, first of all, a good natural curiosity and interest in the world. A love for life, so to speak, and a passion to explore and relate with people. Anything that you’re going to do needs some kind of depth and feeling. Human beings are feeling, sensuous beings and if you have that in yourself whatever you do will be accessible to others who feel. They can even reach people who have trouble feeling, as so many do in our culture.

I also think my interest in history, culture and the human stories of our world have helped me go places and get along with others. I love meeting people and talking and relating about life. I guess it’s similar to the first but has it’s own nuances. It brings up who we are as individuals and what we want to do while we’re here. It also brings in a collective continuity between us all. We are not happy, usually, isolated or alone all the time. Getting together and relating brings comfort, warmth and inspiration. We are all reflections of one another. Sometimes we don’t like the reflections but that usually is an important aspect to explore. It’s the whole “spot it you got it” thing. I’ve also learned, many times the hard way, that judgment can close doors and usually has to do more with us than who we are judging. I always say that the way to world peace is for everyone to basically make as many friends as possible, to ignore the heavy audacious negativity of the news and such and be open to one and all. Of course some situations and people are good to get away from and that is a skill to learn as well, a way to do it wisely and with as little turbulence as possible. One of my goals in life is to get better at minimizing chaos and discontent. Not always easy but with effort the rewards are remarkable.

Perseverance is a key as well. I’ve found that no matter what has happened in life, or whatever difficult situations arrive that I persist in seeing them through and deal with them with as much integrity as I can muster. Even when it’s awkward or uncomfortable speaking the truth and resolving things is very important. I don’t want to leave big wakes that are unpleasant for others or for me to have to think about. I like to sleep well at night. When things get tough I do persevere and know I can get through almost anything. Of course one day we will leave this place and, as all do, I will get through that too hopefully with joy and ease. I plan on that.

As for advice for others earlier in their journeys? Try your best not to undermine yourself. Do things with integrity. Be honest. Be brave! Continue following your passions even if they are not societally accepted. Try not to take things too seriously while also getting things done and achieving your goals. I don’t feel like there is a great judgment that will come to us upon leaving this realm but that we will look upon what we did, how we treated folks and other life forms, how we made our way. Be true to yourself. Your spirit is inside and wants to guide you. Trust yourself.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I am looking for folks to collaborate and partner with. In this next chapter of my life I really want to be around more people doing work on self, spirit, connecting with nature, creating beautiful things, letting go of familial and life trauma and getting present. I am not a builder in the physical sense so I would love to be involved with an already existing institution/business that deals with helping people grow and know themselves through creative endeavors, primitive skills, nature, fishing, foraging, cooking, processing raw materials, collecting raw natural materials and also deep dives into life and how we all relate, helping people accept themselves for who they are and getting brave about life and being here in this somewhat complicated and seemingly absurd era. I am looking to be around like minded men and women who are serious about helping people feel more at home and comfortable in their lives and families, with raising children and making their livings in new and progressive ways. If this resonates with anyone reading this I’m open to talk and relate about it all. I’m very serious about wanting to give back through utilizing all I’ve learned in my fifty seven years here. I have a lot to share and I love speaking and working with others who feel the same. My email is [email protected]. Please reach out if you you feel so inclined.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thenaturalfreehumanbeings.com
• Instagram: thenaturalfreehumanbeings
• Youtube: thenaturalfreehumanbeings
• Other: [email protected]
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