Stone Wood and Bone
We speak of finding our way back to the Forest, and yet in order to begin that process we are challenged by a set of questions, the first obvious two being if we are not in the Forest, where are we and why do we want to go back?
The Forest is both a spiritual metaphor for a ‘lost Eden’ and for the Earth we live with, or in this case live apart from.
The Ancient stories speak of many reasons why we lose connection with both. It is what happens as a result of that loss that we find ourselves trapped in.
The Ancestral Forest is a place and/or state of being in union, acting interdependently with all created manifestation within and of that Forest, be it the physical or the spiritual. Moving away from that intimacy, we as humans have fallen into a place of isolation, separation and as a result an existence of regret and grief. To counteract and play ignorant of that we have created a fantasy that satisfies the individual at the cost of the Earth, each other, intimacy, the Ancestors and ultimately the Descendants.
So we as humans live apart in an addictive dream.
It may not be why do we want to, because we are so addicted to the fantasy of the current addiction, we are unaware of what we want, we are trapped in need.
We must find a way to remember to go back, our continued existence depends on it; we are so caught in the cult of the individual we do not see how alone we are; we think that by making the world smaller with technology we are more intimate. The truth we have indeed made the world smaller; what once was bursting fruit of possibility has become a shrunken dried prune from the actions of humans and in this we have made ourselves more isolated. Like Fear the first man who saw himself and compared himself to others, we have created the delusion that we cannot be the same as others. We create gods who judge us, when in reality it is our own judgement and we long to be one and fear it in that same moment. John Bowlby said we long for intimacy but fear the assumed reward of loneliness; this is the nightmare of the first human whose addiction we have inherited.
If we can just be ‘one’ with the Forest; rather if we can surrender and let the Forest be one with us with no individual special humanness, surrendering to interdependence we will free ourselves of this addiction. This habit manifests as the addictions we recognise and judge in the world not realising we are all part of the addiction. It is not about the future of the individual, rather the future of our species who might find a life devoid of greed, fear, ignorance (and by that I mean ignoring each other) and who knows we may even be happy.
During this second year phase of the three Ceremonial Gatherings prescribed by the Ancestral Spirits, we get to free ourselves of addiction; we get to understand the intimacy of the tribal even primordial way of living; we get to open the path for our future, without deference to self.
Like the Pataxó who are planting trees that their children’s children’s children will sit under.
The request from the Ancestral spirits is that we stop if only just for a moment and let the Forest call us home; this conference is such a moment.
If we can free ourselves from the superior need to evolve (that is not working well for us right now – increasing wars, increasing disease, division, capitalism, humans a driving force of extinction) and truly understand devolving which some fear is a stepping back into the dark ages, we will see that love, relationships, contentment, equality all those ideals we strive for, like buds on the trees will by default flower and bear fruit. Sometimes we have to step back to see the future, sometimes we have to step back to understand moving forwards, sometime we should stop hunting and surrender to being the prey.
We are asked to be bothered about the world we share and bothered about all those kin, human or otherwise we belong to as an equal family member.
Simple acts of kindness, thoughtfulness, stillness, silence; being sacred in our lives. We confuse ourselves by comparing our mundane lives and our spiritual lives. The truth is there is no mundane life, only spirit life. Every breath is the song on the Ancestors singing through us to the Descendants of the time to come. Every act is a step in the divine dance of the spirits inviting the world to turn. We are spirits in human form.
We call to the Ancestors for guidance, they who have lived, danced, sung and dreamed so that we can be in this moment.
We are the Ancestors for those to come, who right now are calling to us for guidance. We are living, dancing, singing and dreaming the Descendants.
And we should ask ourselves – what are we dreaming for the future ones?
What happen to us or the Forest if we do not go back?
That is easy, frightening, but easy. We assume the Forest, the Earth, depends on us – a sad assumption on our part. It has happened before, Art-s-Wath the Great Forest will not allow her children to suffer to the benefit of one child; we will be discarded. We hear so many say, “let us get together and heal the earth.” – best way, as hard as it may sound to heal this Great Mother, let all humans become extinct. And before we rise up in horror at that statement, let us not ignore that humans create extinction all over this planet; our extinction will just be the way we work, we just don’t see, because in the addiction, we are next on our list we created!
Stone, Wood and Bone, is a calling for resolution to our addiction, and a return to our primal ways. Not some regressive Luddite act, rather a reconnection to the Maternal spirits in the stones of the Forest, the Paternal Sprits of the trees of the Forest and a seeding of the Bones of the Descendants waiting for safe birth. We need to leave if just a for a day, an hour, a moment, the addiction to the technology of society which has divided and separated us, and in that sacredness remember that our very bones are those stones, our blood is that wood and our breath the song of the souls of our descendants bones. Let us in that moment be the fire that combines all of that and becomes a beacon for the future rather than an inferno of destruction.
The End of the World is not coming to us, we as humans are going to it.
The pain of the Ancestors is we do not listen to the ancient songs that are present in every footfall, wind whisper, wing flutter, water trickle, babies cry; we do not bother to listen when these are hidden in the wails of war and torture, not just of the creatures around us but of our own kind. We are surrounded by the death and dying of the Descendants.
We can listen and dream a new dream for the ones to come and yet to dream this we have to break the fantasy, break the addiction. die to the individual and suffer the loss of our greed.
We are caught in the fear of that suffering and dying and can not see the pain we already suffer.
Who will wake Fear the first man and like the Jjin sacrifice themselves to the waking anger; do we have that courage for the future of our species?
Rev Pathfinder John-Luke Edwards, Elder of the Sagh’ic Lineage
Cu-fasaich Coisiche Dooidhche Wolfindark 