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Anyone not aware of the increase in both natural and
human-caused disasters, hasn’t been paying close attention! “Of utmost importance,” Hardin teaches, “are
the practical and spiritual lessons they provide.”
The Earth is a magical set of processes– and a tumultuous
cauldron, forever subject to cycles of natural stress and catastrophe. Some mountain ranges were midwifed by a great
and tremorous uplift, and others by a fearsome volcanic surge.... and it’s
thanks to their gradual crumbling that we’re provided both sand and soil. The arrival of new life forms has often
signaled the disappearance of others, throughout the long history of this Gaian
Earth mother. It is nonetheless
difficult to name a period in time when there’s ever been this diverse a
variety of natural and man made disasters, occurring either simultaneously or
in such rapid succession.
Most alarming is the acceleration of events affecting the
entire world, taking place right now.
Including interpersonal violence and political repression: the destruction of the World Trade
Center and the wars it’s
inspired. A surge in gang killings and
wife beatings. The increase in
authoritative government and the abrogation of civil liberties and civil
rights. Systematic religious, racial and
cultural genocide. Along with financial
disruption: the international stock market crash, and an imploding of the
economies of Russia, South America and Southeast Asia leading to starvation and
social unrest. Along with greater health
risks and epidemics: the spread of cancer, AIDS, acute environmental
sensitivities and food allergies. Psoriasis
and heart disease. Rampant alcoholism
and prescription drug abuse. Plus the
ecological crisis: burgeoning overpopulation, and a dominant global culture
promoting illusion and distraction. The
Great Lakes infested with zebra mussels, and Lake Baikal
drying up. PCB’s in the water resulting
in hermaphrodite polar bears. Toxic
herbicides and pesticides impacting depleted croplands, the wiping out of
ecologically essential predators, and the clearcutting of fragile rainforest
ecosystems. The disappearance of frog
and amphibian species worldwide, and the genetic manipulation of animals and
plants. Plus the polluting of the air,
and unrepentant destruction of the ozone layer.
Killer bees, and the overfishing of the seas....
Then there are those mounting conflagrations that are not as
easy to attribute to a single act or oversight.
Relief agencies around the world report they’ve never been spread so
thin, attempting to alleviate one humanitarian disaster after another. The antarctic ice shelf is breaking up,
hurricanes are on the increase, and a season of famine in Africa
is all too often followed by another. As
I write this the American West in the fifth year of record drought, a chronic
condition only slightly alleviated by the Winter’s gracious rains. We’ve been beset by ever larger forest fires,
and deadly bark beetles have infested many of the remaining stands. The famous Rio Grande is running at a fraction of its
normal volume, while the Southeast has nearly been washed away by record breaking
floods. It’s as if Earth and Spirit were
jumping up and down, getting ever louder and more shrill in the effort to grab
our attention. And indeed, they are! The rustling leaves of the trees beckon us to
notice their beauty and grace, before the Autumn reckoning when each tumbles
from its silvan place. Similarly,
tragedies call on us to wake up– and personally tend to their needs, roots and
causes before it’s too late.
There are potential consequences should our kind not heed
the implorings of the existing shamans and elders, as well as the dire portents
of our communicative world. They are
reflected in the oft foretold fall of Babylon,
in the prayers of the Tibetans and the prophecies of the Hopi. In the nuclear storms of the dark gods
Teacatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli, the promise of Quetzalcoatl and the Viking
legend of Ragnarok: human kind–
systematically disenfranchised from sacred self, Earth and Spirit– could pay an
unnecessarily tragic price.
Note that paying a price isn’t the same as either penalty or
penance, it’s simply a matter of responsibility: the portentous results of our
collective failure to respond. Contrary
to certain social and religious dictums, we’re being neither tested nor
punished. More accurately, the directive
inspirited Earth is probing for new healing, for new ways of being and
relationship that can return the whole to balance. She’s probing for those precious empathics
who can hear her cries, sense her needs, and feel her cumulative pain. And she’s probing for a reaction, as if to
ask “Is anyone home? Does anyone
notice? Does anyone care?”
The significance of the Earth changes is so great and the
social condition so urgent, it’s tempting to reject the implications and duck
the assignment. It’s certainly simpler
to blame it all on the power of evil spirits, the manipulations of scheming
extraterrestrials, the trickery of a hellish devil, the retribution of a
wrathful god.... or on an impervious corporate state.
It’s a relief on some level to imagine that
the forces of destruction are insurmountable, the perpetrators too powerful for
us to bother attempting to intervene.
But whenever there is a human or institutional cause we share a degree
of culpability, and we find both an opening for activism and a chance for
reformation. And when the tumult and
tragedy are set into motion by something bigger than our mortal hominid kind,
we can still assume we have a part to play.... contributing both to the
creation of the imbalance itself, and to the global healing that must
follow.
We were each born with a body that regulates its internal
hungers and heat, triggers the urge to reproduce, and can heal its cuts and
wounds. A bodily fever is a valuable
curative response to a dangerous infection.
While a fever can potentially kill the patient as well as the disease,
it’s not some dark force that’s out to get us.
In a similar manner, violent earthquakes and viral outbreaks function
like a terrestrial fever that indicates– and can sometimes help eliminate– the
imbalance and dis-ease threatening the corporal Earthen body. We too are integral elements and agents of
planetary being, planetary change, and we have the daily informed choice of
being either part of the problem, or part of the cure. Ignorance is not a lack of information– it’s
deliberately ignoring the impact of our lifestyles, the results of both what
we’ve done, and what we have so far failed to do. Ignoring the hushed screams of falling
old-growth forests, and of the hundreds of species yearly banished into extinction. Ignoring the pleas of motherless children,
abused wives, and those hungry homeless camped on our streets. Ignoring the preeminent mission of our kind
and times, which is to reconnect, re-member, resacrament and restore.
While in some ways it’s the more difficult path, being a
servant of Gaian truth and Gaian healing has some immediate and lasting
rewards. So much of this work involves
reinhabiting our animal bodies and the vital present moment, where we can fully
experience with every one of our six senses the unfolding world around us. It is here we discover not only problems and
challenges but their benefits and solutions. here we notice the taste of our
meals and savor the scent of our lovers.
When we plant seeds or saplings we plant ourselves in place and
time. Every circle we cast, every ritual
we practice or invent creates a magic that needs no future act or validation to
be complete. Teaching and healing are
revealed to be both rhythmic and melodic, as we become whirling ecstatics spreading
to a saddened culture our primal engagement and bliss. Even our necessary activism, and our most
assertive resistance, are part of this dance.
And there is no joy like that of helping other people, other species,
other manifestations of nature to be authentically realized, to bloom free and
evolve unfettered, no greater satisfaction than helping them shine! It’s here and now we choose to fly or
fall.... to ignore or heed the hero’s call.
There may never be a period of total peace on Earth, and
truth is, we’re strengthened and purified by a degree of challenge and
travail. But there can and must be a
return to balance that supports the flowering and blessing of the whole. The necessary cure will involve a complete
remaking or our sense of self, community, purpose and place. It will require new forms of Earth-centered
teaching, and teachers who are both visionary and grounded. A future founded in gratitude, and hope that
will last. And a return to the
sensibilities, sensitivities and values of our sacramental tribal past. We can halt much of the destruction by
exposing the facts, and through our most focused, unselfish acts. Even the earthquakes and droughts can be
tempered if not tamed, through the depth of our gratitude, the sincerity of our
rituals, and the strength of prayers.
In bringing down a deer to eat, our primitive ancestors of
every race gave thanks. Indigenous
Americans spread cornmeal before the animal’s stilled mouth. An ocean away early IndoEuropeans burned
smudge sticks while describing their hungry children to their downed quarry,
and promising to praise the creature’s stamina and beauty in songs shared with
the entire tribe. It’s time that we, too, spread sacred yellow corn or hallowed
tears at the foot of our many gifts.
Time that we compose new songs to the source of our sentience and
sustenance, bliss and delight. And that
we sacrifice all delusion and hesitation, on the miraculous altar of life.
If there is ever a human extinction it will be because we
neglected to respond as her “feelers” and healers, failed to fulfill our Gaian
and evolutionary role. And if we survive
the Earth changes and our own species’ most magnificent mistakes, it will be
because we have learned to apply the attendant lessons in ways that benefit not
only us but the Earth. It’s then that
we’ll truly flourish, body and soul.... serving as her lovers and protectors,
ritualists and restorationists, sensors and celebrants again.
Jesse Wolf Hardin is an acclaimed teacher of Animá earth-centered
practice, the author of five books including Gaia Eros (New Page 2004),
and performs on the GaiaTribe CD “Enchantment” <www.cdbaby.com/gaiatribe>. He and
his partners Loba and Kiva offer online Animá correspondence courses, as well as
host students and guests at their enchanted canyon and true ancient place of
power. Opportunities include weekend retreats, personal counsel, shamanic
vision quests, resident internships, and special Apprenticeships for the most
dedicated. Annual events include the Wild Womens Gathering, and the Medicine
Woman and Shaman Path intensives. Contact: The Animá Wilderness Learning Center
& Women’s Sanctuary, Box 688, Reserve, NM 87830 <www.animacenter.org> <mail@animacenter.org>.
©Jesse Wolf Hardin 2005-2007 Reproduction
in any form is prohibited without express written permission
from the author.
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