In Joana Macey's Work that Reconnects workshops there are a number of exercises in which people take on the persona of life form not human. In these exercises the person taking on this life form speaks as this bird, or deer or grasshopper, or badger would. It can be quite profound to see the world through this beings eyes, to see the concerns they would hold about our human behavior, and to speak their concerns, to draw upon their unique strengths.
In EH White's The Once and Future King, White tells of the future King Arthur's childhood, hidden away under the false identity of being a page for one of his father's nobleman. Merlin the magician is present to teach "Wart" and prepare him for his life as a king. Merlin does this by turning Wart into a series of animals so that he learns the lessons of their strengths and perspective. In the pivotal scene where Wart takes the sword out of the stone, thus claiming his rightful place as king, as he is preparing to take it out he sees in his minds eye all these animals that he had learned from and he hears from them.
The Pike tells him: " Remember that the power comes from the Nape of the neck." The Badger tells him "what about those forearms that are held together by a chest? A Merlin cries out: "Now then, Captain Wart, what is the first law of the foot? I thought I once heard something about never letting go?" "Don't work like a stalling woodpecker," urged a Tawny Owl. "Keep up a steady effort, my duck and you will have it yet." A White-front said, "Now, Wart, if you were once able to fly the great North Sea, surely you can co-coordinate a few little wing-muscles here and there? Fold your powers together, with the spirit of your mind, and it will come out like butter. Come along, Homo Sapiens, for all we humble friends of yours are waiting here to cheer." p.205
The Wart walked up to the great sword for the third time. He put out his right hand softly and drew it out as gently as from a scabbard. And so became king. Interestingly Joanna has been known to say that we are not facing the climate challenge alone. That all our ancestors, descendants and other living beings of the planet are rooting for us, they are putting their weight on the scales for survival.
Native people attribute certain traits and wisdom to different animals and so which ones show up in their path is a message to them. So much information coming through to them from their environment.
Many of us live so segregated away in our urban environments that we don't even see a non-human living creature in a day. But what if we started looking, what if we took on totem animals and learned their lessons? What if we approached the climate problems before us through the eyes of other living creatures? Something tells me that one could not destroy the Tar Sands if you saw them from above like a flying bird, you could not blow up a mountain if you lived a chipmunk on that mountain, you could not poison a lake or river if you thought as a fish, and the list goes on and on.
And as we tackle the climate problems before us what excellent advice and guidance would we get if we consulted with a Willow tree, or a Mountain, or an Elk or Geese?
This is part of the new paradigm, the paradigm or returning to our rightful place on a Living Planet.
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