Collaborating with the Earth
by Marta Williams
 During
one of my classes, I read aloud a passage about how all the animals and beings
of the natural world want humans to learn to reconnect and communicate with them
so that we can work together to save the planet. After I finished reading, my
dog Brydie, who was sitting next to me on the couch, carefully laid her head
against my heart and closed her eyes. She stayed that way for a long time, as we
watched, transfixed. She has never done that before or since. She was telling me
that she totally agreed with the words I had read and wanted this change to come
about.
I believe that other life forms are aware of what's happening on the earth
and know that it is deadly serious. They are waiting for us to collaborate with
them, and they do want us to reconnect and do something to stop the destruction.
But humans are good at pretending that bad things aren't happening when they
really are -- especially now, when we are confronted by such a vast number of
seemingly insoluble problems.
WHAT TO DO?
I don't know what to do, and I don't have the solutions. But I am sure of
this: The way we do everything has to change. The way we grow food, the
materials we use from the earth, and the ways in which we earn our living, get
around, entertain ourselves, do business, share power, distribute wealth,
resolve conflict, and coexist with each other (men and women and different
races, cultures, and species) have got to change all around the world.
Otherwise, we will destroy ourselves and life on our planet fairly soon.
The things that people are doing now to stop the destruction of the earth are
good, but the opposing forces are very strong and there are too few people
actively working to turn things around.
Theodore Kozak, a proponent of ecopsychology, says that at a deep,
unconscious level, most of us are grieving about what is happening to the earth
and to nature, and that we do not want it to be happening. To cope with those
feelings, most of us have gone into denial. To avoid feeling the pain, we
pretend that nothing is happening to the earth and that what we do causes no
harm. But pretending that nothing is happening, as Derrick Jensen points out in
his compelling book, A
Language Older Than Words, only makes things worse and leaves us
incapable of action.
It is very difficult to stay conscious. Environmental activists know this
better than anyone because they put themselves at the front lines of the
destruction of nature. Activist and songwriter David Grimes, who lives in Prince
William Sound in Alaska, witnessed the destruction of life in the Sound
following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. I recently spoke with him about how people
cope with being activists for the earth. He relayed the following story told to
him by an activist friend.
After years of tree-sitting and other nonviolent protesting against
clear-cutting, the woman found herself totally angry and grief-stricken. These
feelings were overwhelming every aspect of her life and she was alienating her
friends and family. She told David that one day, when she found herself crying
in a grove of trees slated to be clear-cut, she felt the trees communicating
with her. What she received came mainly as feelings that seemed to be coming
from the trees to her. The essence of the message was that the trees did not
want her to sacrifice herself for them. They considered her their ally and
wanted her to remain strong and balanced so that she could continue to be
their voice in the world. This experience shifted the way she approached her
activist work, and after that she was able to come to terms with the enormous
pain incurred by being an activist and staying in touch with the distress of
the planet. It was as if the condemned trees imparted some kind of grace to
this woman before they were struck down.
Perhaps one way to cope with the overwhelming emotions we may have about the
earth -- the emotions that send us into the false protection of denial -- is to do
what that activist did: Talk with the nonhumans on this earth about the
situation we are in. We may find the same kind of strength that she found to go
through our painful emotions and emerge able to help without being overwhelmed.
The nonhumans of our world are telling us this message: "Don't abandon us;
don't shut us out." I suspect that, as things get worse, more of us will see
that being in denial isn't working. It is clear to me that we need, instead, to
join together around the world to oppose what is happening, until our numbers
and our commitment outweigh the strength of the global corporations and
superpower governments that are destroying the earth.
Ideas for Collaboration
I started this book with the story of the U'wa, a tribe of people who live in
the cloud forests of the Colombian Andes. When their tribal lands were
threatened by oil exploration, the U'wa decided to talk to the oil and tell it
to "move" and hide from the oil company drills. After they did this, Occidental
Petroleum, the multinational oil company doing the exploratory drilling,
announced that it was giving up its efforts at oil exploration; they had been
unable to locate the large reserves of oil initially identified on the land. I
suspect that the U'wa thought a long time before they came up with that idea. I
have been wondering, "What else can we do like that?" What if we convinced all
the oil in the world to hide? Then we'd be forced to do what we should be doing
anyway: shifting to vegetable diesel, methane, wind, solar, and hydrogen power --
renewable sources of energy. Converting to renewable energy is totally feasible,
and we'd be doing it today all over the world if the petrochemical conglomerates
weren't blocking the way. So far that's the only idea I have come up with, but I
am going to keep working on it.
What follows are some suggestions I've collected for collaborating with the
earth. These techniques involve visualizations and methods for shifting energy.
I am not including suggestions for direct actions like protests, lawsuits, and
tree-sitting. You hear enough about those actions from other sources. But their
omission here does not diminish their importance. I am suggesting that you do
the energy work in addition to direct actions, not instead of them. We need to
become visionary activists and collaborate to turn things around on both the
physical and the spiritual planes.
You Are What You Imagine
In her book
Making the Gods Work for You, Caroline Casey counsels that we will
get what we focus on. She encourages us to imagine what we truly want to have
happen in our lives and on the earth, no matter how implausible. To do this,
imagine what you want as if it were already happening. Make it as vivid as
possible. Close your eyes and use all your senses. Imagine it as if you were
watching a movie. Do this often, especially when you find yourself dwelling on
the negative.
Ritual
Our ancestors used ritual to encourage the rain to fall and the crops to
grow. They asked for all kinds of help from the elements, the spirits of place,
and the animals and plants. Make up your own rituals to ask for what you want.
For example, ask the wind to bring a change of heart to all humans. Then blow a
handful of cornmeal into the wind as an offering to speed it on its task.
Dream a New World
Your dreams have power. Aborigines believe that dream time is the real time.
Use your dreams to change things. Casey suggests that, before you go to sleep,
think of something you want to accomplish or something you want to see happen.
Ask aloud that this thing come to pass. As you sleep, the thought will go out
into the world and become manifest. You can also ask to receive guidance in your
dream. To do this you ask for what you want right before you go to sleep. Be as
specific as possible. Then have pen and paper near your bed, so that when you
awaken you can jot down whatever you recall.
Spirit Talk
If you are having a problem with someone, talk with this person spirit to
spirit. To do this, imagine meeting with them in a safe and protected place in
nature. You may also invite your guides to come in to protect you. Close your
eyes and see yourself in this place. Imagine having a conversation, from your
heart, with this person. Say everything you have not been able to say in real
life and explain what you want. Listen to the person's responses. End the
conversation when you wish. Realize that some people are completely unable to do
things differently, even though their actions are causing great harm. Ask the
universe to send healing to such persons and to bring forth whatever is
necessary to remedy the situation caused by these people. Now see the person
walking away from you. Then you can leave and return to your body and normal
consciousness.
Prayer
In her book
Medicine for the Earth, Sandra Ingerman tells a story about some
Tibetan Buddhist monks who came to Southern California many years ago when there
had been a prediction of a major earthquake. People in Los Angeles were
beginning to panic; some were even leaving the city. The monks came to pray for
the land. She said the message they brought was that, when there is trouble, the
best thing to do is to gather with others and pray. The expected earthquake did
not come. Who knows whether the monks helped divert it?
Spend five minutes a day praying for the changes you want to see on the earth
and in your life. Try to do this at the same time every day so that it becomes a
habit. You might also form a prayer group with others. Working together to pray
will be more powerful.
Healing
Send healing to the places on earth that need it. Do this as a daily practice
and try doing it in a group to increase the intensity.
Now That You Can Hear, Listen
You can go out and find those animals, plants, and places who are your
guides. When you find them, ask them what you should do. Ask how you can best
help at this time -- when nothing less than the fate of the world is at stake.
Ask a river otter, a valley oak tree, a gray fox, the ocean, a dragonfly, a
marsh hawk, a horsetail fern, a snowy plover, a badger, a nuthatch, a slender
salamander, a bat, a hummingbird, a lady's slipper, a dolphin, a cottontail, a
pond turtle, a buckeye tree, a golden eagle, a waterfall, a rattlesnake, a tree
frog, a thimbleberry bush, or a mountain of stone. Now that you can hear, go out
and listen.
 This
article was excerpted from:
Learning Their Language: Intuitive Communication with Animals and Nature
by Marta
Williams.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, New World Library. ©2003.
www.newworldlibrary.com
Info/Order this book
About the Author
MARTHA
WILLIAMS has always had an affinity for animals and a love for nature. She
earned her degrees in biology and resource conservation and worked in wildlife
rehabilitation, habitat restoration, and environmental regulation. The author of
numerous magazine and journal articles, she now lectures, teaches, and offers
clinics on animal and nature communication worldwide. She lives in Northern
California. Website:
www.MartaWilliams.com
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