It was one of the many bizarre elements in the time of my shamanic journeying. The animals. Read up on - or better, do - shamanic journeying, and you quickly become aware of the animals. Totem animals, power animals, soul companions, animal spirit guides, and the rest. There they all are, the typical shamanic ones: bear, eagle, coyote; wolf, deer, jaguar, leopard; owl, raven, crow; even the occasional friendly insect. In my case, however, none of these turned up at all. Instead, it was gorillas and orang utans.
Talk about autonomous characters in the unconscious, who come unbidden! I had never given a thought to these animals in my life before. Where and why these walked into and around my shamanic journeys I had no idea whatsoever. It was as if they appeared out of nowhere, for no reason, of their own accord. Since they had decided to connect with me, I felt it was a good idea to reciprocate the interest. Getting on the wrong side of a bunch of huge primates would not be a smart move. I read up on them, got to know them; put pictures on the wall, went to gorilla conservation meetings; made small donations to organisations supporting their plight, something which I continue to do.
Gorillas and orang utans strike me as being 'carriers of soul': think of the associations with the word 'soulful' to get an idea of what I mean. They are very different to their more celebrated primate relative the chimpanzee, who is excitable, chattery, kind-of-nervy, and easily moved to aggressive behaviour. Belying their size and hairy appearance, gorillas and orang utans tend to live quiet, ponderous lives. It is not too fanciful, maybe, to consider them reflective. Their centre of energy seems to be located low down their bodies, around the stomach. Orang utans, especially, are prone to mischief and humour. They can also be sexually naughty: adult males are known to have captured female humans and carried them off for sex.
Sadly, it needs only a brief perusal of any relevant sources to discover that the plight of our primate buddies is a pretty mess. I suppose that the last of your species hanging on in Ruanda-Burundi, Indonesia, and the DR of Congo is not the best move for the prospects of survival. But it's tough for these remarkable animals, and whether they will continue to remain as inhabitants of anywhere other than shamanic journeys is uncertain.....
Part Two
It behoves us to recall Neil Kramer's wise words on the current state of 'world affairs'. To the (everyday) Self it is a disaster, he says. To Soul it is a challenge. And to the Sun (the Divine, or what have you) it is a game. Having abandoned the 'escape to nirvana' approach to life, where the aim might be to see the 'game' as the real reality, I feel that the trick is to experience all three aspects kind-of simultaneously, interacting with each other. This is wholeness, totality. Many - probably most - people never get beyond the 'world as disaster' stage. My task is not to disown this perspective, but to allow it to be embraced, put into perspective, by the other dimensions to living. And at this very moment in time, the everyday Self demands its pound of flesh......
Today you can read all about Climate Change Treaties, and about how the Trump is putting America before the Earth by demurring about signing up once again, unlike the rest of our G7 summit heroes. Any responsible, right-on, caring person will protest loudly against Trump, and how he is trying to destroy the whole planet singlehandedly (anybody new to Pale Green Vortex, incidentally, to avoid getting seriously confused, should understand that the last sentence is intended to be ironic). Academic after stuffy, boring, stupid, small-minded academic will continue to queue up to tell us how vital all this is, and how we'll all burn in hell if we don't take yet further action on Climate Change. I've written plenty about this over the years, and I'm tired of it. Suffice to say that most of it's crap.
At the same time, real, visible destruction is taking place which is truly an ecological disaster. And you know what? Nobody seems to give a toss. Where are the screaming eco-fanatics now? Completely stuck in their own toxic ideologies, their blind belief in agendas and programmes which are not their own, handed down to them by people who are not exactly charitable.
Take a read of the article linked below. It's from 21st century wire, one of the many more authentic media organisations out there. I'm not saying they are perfect, but I quite like them. Unlike the BBC, Guardian, Telegraph, and the rest, they attempt to be serious. Unlike the mainstream lackeys, who seem to rely largely on press releases, youtube videos and facebook tweets, they actually go to the places they report on. This article on Indonesia is an example, written by somebody 'on the ground', who has actually bothered enough to go out there. Similarly, 21st century wire's Patrick Henningsen recently went out to Syria and hung out there for a while, visiting real places, meeting real people, making his own real observations, coming to his own real opinions. People who we can actually take seriously, seekers after what's really happening rather than dark puppets out to provoke collective knee-jerks.
In the meantime, remember Brother Gorilla, Cousin Orang Utan. They could do with a bit of proper support.
21stcenturywire.com/2017/06/01/indonesian-borneo-is-finished-the-rape-of-the-orangutan/
