Because the mountains recede in waves…

… in the Similkameen…

… when they don’t, they stand out, even when they are within this language of bodies.

Note the cultural markings on this hill at Blind Creek.

It has been noticed for a long time.

This standing out as a “head” in the valley, sets directions for human movement in the valley, and determines which areas are within and which lead beyond. Part of this is the blueing effect of distance (below), but part of it is the effect of famine shapes as being within, like the old village site above. It is one human energy, and one earth energy, taken two ways. Intriguingly, the hills of deposited silt above maintain different grasses than the hills behind, and, being settled, are thus most suitable for settlement.

Some mountains, however, stand out completely, and have a totally independent power, that doesn’t lead either beyond or within. They’re not human at all.

They are of a different order altogether.

And some unite human bodies with nonhuman ones. That, too is a lesson.

To live in such a valley is to have all manner of possible futures, all of which lead into alternate representations of yourself and your potentialities, which can be read according to their relationship to you within their own arrangement in space. You are a map.