The Trackers Compass

How the Trackers Compass Works 

At our camps and programs, we use the Trackers Compass to lead us through the Game of Tracking. Each Guild aligns with one direction of the compass—Action Call, Code, Mission, Purpose—creating a connected mission for growth and collaboration.

Action Call 

Outlines character traits you and your Team need to excel in the Game of Tracking:

• Be Ready: Learn Trackers survival skills like your life and the lives of others depend on them—because one day they might.
• Be Gritty: Cultivate the strength to weather challenges with grace and fortitude. Pick yourself up from setbacks. Solve problems yourself, don’t wait for others to do it for you.
• Be a Caretaker: Care for people, many generations, the land, and the silent and invisible. Prioritize the needs of others over your own. Harvest in ways that regenerate the earth. 
• Be a Team: Forge connections with your Team, as you train together in skills. Set high standards for your Team. Plan and execute missions to benefit others. 

Code

Equips you and your Team with tools of situational awareness to navigate the Game of Tracking:

• Pay Attention: Use wide-angle vision (Whiskers) to perceive the world beyond your immediate focus. Sense with your entire body to observe the minutiae around you.  
• Flow with Nature: Don’t expect nature to cater to your needs. Adapt to your environment, develop resilience and flexibility. Use Tracking to experience the true way of nature.
• Be Truly Helpful: Complaining about being cold is not helpful. Building a campfire is. Care for the Village, nurturing both ancestors and future Generations.
• You’re Doing It Wrong, Do It Better: Perfection is boring. Always seek to improve and Do It Better. Just as plants, animals, and mountains grow and change, we too must evolve.  

Mission

Sets objectives for you and your Team, preparing you for real adventures that meet your goals:

• Protect the Village: Elevate the well-being of your community and the More Than Human World above yourself. Cultivate a Guardian mentality like scouts, warriors, or firefighters.
• Respect the Waters: Appreciate our waters—from the smallest creeks to the biggest oceans—recognizing their role in sustaining all life. Navigate the tumultuous currents of challenging times, guiding your Village through uncertain terrain.
• Restore the Earth: As stewards of the Earth, cultivate biodiversity and abundance. Work to reverse the harm done by consumption. Restore balance to our ecosystems. Harvest so that you regenerate the land and its habitats for the More Than Human World.
• Remember Our Story: Share stories with the younger generation, and offer a place by the hearth for Wizards to impart their wisdom. Pass on Trackers Legend & Lore so it benefits others. Remember and respect your own family’s culture and stories.

Purpose

Encapsulates the heart of the Game of Tracking—caring for others and the more than human:

• Care for Family: Move beyond a self-centric view. Care for your family, including siblings, parents, aunties, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Include your community and Village.
• Care for Many Generations: Shift beyond a generational-centric view. Utilize the wisdom of Wizards in your daily life and help guide younger generations on their journey.
• Care for the More Than Human: Steward beyond a human-centric view. Through tracking, develop a deep connection to plants, animals, and the land like your own family. 
• Care for the Silent & Invisible: Go beyond the noise of the modern world. Become silent and invisible to reveal the often-overlooked plants and creatures all around us.

The Book of Five Rings

Miyamoto Musashi, master strategist and rōnin, wrote “The Book of Five Rings,” which has had a profound influence on Trackers Earth. Like our Compass, Musashi outlined 9 basic principles:

1. Do not think dishonestly.
2. The Way is in training.
3. Become acquainted with every art.
4. Know the Ways of all professions.
5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
6. Develop an intuitive judgment and understanding for everything.
7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
8. Pay attention even to trifles.
9. Do nothing which is of no use.

Numbers 7 and 8 are especially important in the Game of Tracking. A Tracker sees and perceives details most people overlook. As a Tracker maps their environment, these details reveal a diverse, beautiful, and complex ecology.