Tapping into the wisdom of the earth’s elders
By Jeanette Stanfield
To the Ancient Ones
Thank you for holding the pain of the human race in your beings for centuries. Thank you for nurturing and protecting the wisdom of planet earth for future generations. We are now in century 21 and finally beginning to know that we need your wisdom. Thank you for sharing and calling forth the energies of mother earth in all of us.
When Brian Stanfield and I went to Australia in 2003, we had a sense that we wanted to make contact with the spirit of this old and ancient land. In one of those “sussing out” moments in a bookstore, Brian came across the book ReEnchantment by David Tacey. One striking chapter talked about how Aboriginal people experience the sacredness of the earth.
Just look – nature recognizes you
The following is from a conversation between Elder David Mowaljarlai, author Yorro, Yorro: Spirit of the Kimberley and his co-writer Jutta Malnic:
“You know, Jutta, when daylight starts, it wakes me up. I can’t sleep any more. It wakes the whole body. So I turn round and have a look. There is brightness. Piccaninny daylight makes you feel like a different person. Morning gives you the flow of a new day — aah!
With this beautiful colour inside, the sun is coming up, with that glow that comes straight away in the morning. The colour comes towards me and the day is waiting.
You have a feeling in your heart that you’re going to feed your body this day, get more knowledge. You go out now, see animals moving, see trees, a river. You are looking at nature and giving it your full attention, seeing all its beauty. Your vision has opened and you start learning now.
When you touch them, all things talk to you, give you their story. It makes you really surprised. You feel you want to get deeper, so you start moving around and stamp your feet -— to come closer and to recognize what you are seeing. You understand that your mind has been opened to all those things because you are seeing them; because your presence and their presence meet together and you recognize each other. These things recognize you. They give their wisdom and their understanding to you when you come close to them.
In the distance , you feel: ‘Aaahh — I am going to go there and have a closer look!’ You know it is pulling you. When you recognize it, it gives strength — a new flow.
You have life now.
Then you put it in your storeroom, in the little room in your brains here. You taped him, you got ‘im in there! You are going off now, to see what the day will hold. You feel a different person. One more day is added to your life, you will be one day richer.
You got country as far as the eye can see, and it’s yours. but because of this consciousness, you are going through it reverently, quietly — through the middle of all this nature. What will happen? Well, every contact you make with the eye — perhaps you don’t bother to look at it — but everything is present for you to see.
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After reading that chapter, we and Rhonda and Brian Robins decided to experiment with that method as well as with the focused conversation method. There was a bluff overlooking the sea just down the road. We were going to work on experiencing that bluff as “our land”- a sacred place of the ancestors. We went out early in the morning and sat silently before that bluff. We had a conversation with that bluff and began to see it in a new way - its warts, beauty, starkness, sturdiness and warmth. We named that place: tom-bob-bullay. He was now a part of our earth community consciousness.
In many ways, we felt very foolish sitting there, dialoguing with a bluff but we were changed in some strange way.
Why do I tell you this story? In the last 10 years, I have been fortunate to have some wonderful conversations and experiences with indigenous peoples. I believe the ancient ones of this planet know in a profound way that they hold the secrets to the next “Great Turning” as David Korten calls it. They are daring to share that wisdom with those of us who less than a century ago was trying to destroy that wisdom. Why would they take such a risk? Perhaps they know that the human race is now counting on them to guide us into the next chapter of our life on planet earth.
One lesson I learnt from those encounters is that we go first to listen and experience. As an Aboriginal guide told us, first check if your ears work! Now that is a good starting place. As a Westerner, I usually assume that I know something that I need to share. What if my real job is to listen, not just with my rational mind but also with my heart and intuitive mind?
During a ToP training session, a Maori elder posed a question: do we connect at a value level? What is ICA’s real motivation for working with us? She had been part of the training team with facilitators doing courses in her community. Several of us responded to her request for a deeper conversation. We spent two days trying to connect at the level of values. We kept reminding ourselves that we were after no product, a hard rule for facilitators. The elder knew there were gifts in ICA’s methods but meshing the training constructs with Maori culture felt uncomfortable.
Her questions were about our roots. Where did these methods come from and for what purpose? We talked about their roots in black communities in Chicago. We saw a video on the 5th city project in Chicago and she asked hard questions. And throughout the two days, we would laugh, at times a bit nervously, and keep reminding ourselves that no product was needed.
However at the end, she said to us, yes we are about the same mission. We took a deep breath. In spite of our clumsiness, we had connected with this Maori woman who had “held court” for two days. And I am very grateful.
What are the ancient ones doing now about sharing their earth wisdom? Here are three examples from my present home in Canada.
In May last year, I walked through the park to Lake Ontario to see the "super moon" that was so close to the horizon that it was bigger and brighter than ever. As I walked onto the sand, I heard drumming and saw a small group of First Nations women and their children watching the light of the moon emerge. One woman in a beautiful robe was drumming. The drumming continued as strand by strand the moon emerged out of the darkness until it was a very full moon. A flow of light from the moon over the water heightened the magic. The silence in the midst of the children playing was palpable.
When the drumming stopped, I thanked the drummer. She nodded. A moment later, a woman said, “She's my neighbour”. I felt welcomed in a new way. Yes, my neighbour and her friends were celebrating this great moon.
Across Canada, young indigenous women and men are on the move. The young women who founded the Idle No More movement to care for the land and water began with round dances all across this country. They invited all to participate. They decided that it was the moment to call young people to care for the earth and take on their rightful roles as change agents.
I recently met Josephine Mandamin, an Ojibwa grandmother. For the last 10 years she has taken up what she calls her women’s bundle –that of celebrating and caring for the life-giving power of water. This is featured in the film Water Journey. She has walked with others around all of the Great Lakes down to the mouth of the St Lawrence River. In 2011, she guided a four-direction walk in which buckets of water were collected from Hudson Bay, the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific and poured into Lake Superior. I found myself asking the question - what women’s bundle do I need to take up?
The spirit energy required for the human community to shift into a sustainable way to be on this planet is so immense that we will need to call on the energies of all the ancient ones. From such a sustainable place, new systems, new sources of energy, and new kinds of relationships will be on fertile soil and humans will be able to create a healing way of being on this planet.
One simple message of wisdom keepers in every culture and religion is “operate from a place of compassion beyond divisiveness.” For me, this is not about morals; this is about energy or consciousness.
My first response when I hear something different from what I think is to begin a debate in my head and sometimes out loud. My Western education has taught me to find the “mistake” in the thinking. Instead, what if I were to ask ‘What is the gift in this thinking?’ Then I can explore and listen openly and gratefully. New consciousness emerges more easily with a bit of discomfort, when “certainties” get challenged. Then growing takes place. This is real learning. We need a lot of this kind of learning today and quickly if we are to give our descendants an earth home.
The ancient ones of this planet hold great wisdom. May you tap into this wisdom and compassion for our home, the earth.
Jeanette Stanfield is a member of ICA Associates: Canada
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