CONSCIOUSNESS IN NATURE
THE WILD BEINGS #5

The Ancestors

Thich Nhat Hanh taught that we all 
"INTER-ARE" 
and the Ancestors that 
"we are all one, though not the same." 
These teachings also parallel Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis. 
We are all made of the same elements and everything we do 
can have an impact on all the Beings and the planet.

Druid saying

Last week's blog addressed the research on trees and mycelial 
interaction and how the "Wild Beings" 
especially the bears and bees have their role to play.
We can learn more from our Ancestors, the San Bushmen. The San Bushman, based on genomic studies, were the
"First People."
We all have some of their D.N.A. in our genes.
Bees feature prominently in their creation story and elsewhere. 
They very much embrace the Gaia concept and being 
hunter gatherers they intimately understand 
how all Beings interact. 
If it was not for this wisdom they would not have been able to survive 
in such an austere environment as the Kalahari desert.

This rendition of the Kua San creation story was drawn for me 
by a bushman one day in 1987 while sitting under an acacia 
to escape the heat. The belly of the Earth Mother pregnant 
with all the Beings ruptured.  
Her abdomen then sealed off and She became the Earth Mother 
and it's crust.
The sun, stars and moon were in place and according to legend 
the ostrich later brought the Bushman fire 
tucked under its wing.

Another creation story probably from the Kung San clan 
referable to the first human is where the wisdom of Bee features.  
Mantis is also huge in San lore.

In the times I spent visiting the San, it seemed true that there

was a distinct spiritual connection between them and bees as evidenced in this rock painting. The sweetness of honey is a treat to the San and they have a strong connection with the honey guide who with its bird song leads them to the hive. The San always share the spoils with the bird since they say if you do not the next time honey guide will take you to a mamba instead. 

A buzzing sound, akin to bees, is a common sensory experience in states of altered consciousness. 

Here the artist seems to be making an offering to the hive.

The Celts believed that if you wanted to find out something from the Ancestors you should ask the bees.

"To experience the Wild Beings 

one must dance with them."

The Ancestors

Never was this more real to me than the month I spent alone with the San in 1987. Their knowledge of animal behavior was so profound that they could "dance" them by mimicking their behavior exactly. I still recall one bushman "becoming" an ostrich 

and except for his human form it would have been impossible to

know he was not an ostrich. This form of shapeshifting in real time, and also sometimes in surreal time, enabled them to have advanced hunting and tracking skills. Some have reported that although they follow the tracks they also can follow "lines of energy" that help them find the animal. Hunters were known to bond with the animal, "become" their prey on the hunt and "psyche" them out causing them to freeze after chasing them down.

The fact that animals have their own behavior and consciousness and they understood it was part of San existence. They could not have hunted successfully without it.

This 53 minute video by the Fosters helps us understand what the Ancestors mean about animal consciousness when they say ...

 to experience the Wild Beings one must dance with them. This exquisite and graphic movie (there are moments that may be too graphic for some but just shut your eyes for a bit) reminds us 

of 

who we were and used to be not so long ago

 how much we have lost 

 the extent to which indigenous peoples continue to be marginalized 

and how the ancient beauty we had as participators in God's magical creation is fast disappearing including ...

The Ancestors

Click on the link to highlight and play. You will not be disappointed by the 53 minutes spent.

53:30The Great Dance - A Hunter's Story

Animals have incredible intelligence and can learn. Lions in a  game park in South Africa have figured out how to open doors and pull their unfortunate human prey out of the car.

Illegal migrants from Mozambique trying to enter South Africa would walk through the Kruger National Park to prevent being apprehended. Everyone knows that to frighten animals and predators away it helps to make loud banging noises. It was not long before lions learned that this was a dinner gong for a meal.

Dogs have telepathic abilities and can be taught to sniff out prostate cancer and to detect mines in war torn areas. Rupert Sheldrake did research on "dogs who know when their owners are coming home." This was regardless of car noise or a predictable time of day. The same was true when the owner decided to go for a walk at odd times. The dog would appear almost at that moment. Dogs have been known to travel vast distances to find their owners with some remarkable psychic ability. I noticed that the San never lost their way in the shapeless Kalahari desert wherever they were. They also seemed to have a built in G.P.S.

Sheldrake also has done research on morphic fields. 

 The 100th monkey phenomenon describes how macaque monkeys on a Japanese island learned to wash sweet potatoes. Once a critical number of monkeys on the island had learned by observation to do this monkeys on nearby islands started to do the same through what Sheldrake would call a morphic or morphogenetic field.

Animals have the ability to predict when earthquakes are about to occur and before the disastrous tsunami in Thailand the elephants left for higher ground before the event.

Birds especially homing pigeons and European robins can find their way in the day and at night possibly by using magnetic compassing. Loggerhead turtles come back to the same place year after year to lay their eggs.

Successive generations of weaver birds when brought into captivity and separated from their parents still retained the instinctive ability to weave their remarkable nests. This is behavior that seems to reside in their D.NA. if not their "consciousness."

Dolphins and elephants have empathy and both have been known to rescue humans especially dolphins. Elephants mourn their dead and go back to visit grave sites. Research has shown elephants passing the bones of a deceased elephant in a funeral like procession from one elephant to the next one behind.

Orangutangs, chimps, gorillas. bottlenose dolphins, orangutangs, elephants, bonobos, macaques monkeys and magpies have 

"self-awareness" 

with a mirror test. They knew it was them in the mirror.

It is clear that we have just begun to fathom the depth of animals intelligence and the specific consciousnesses that we do not have.