Discovery:
Listening to Lessons from the Earth
Q: Earth lessons?? How can bugs teach me? Or blades of grass?
A: You learn how to open your eyes to a bug without relying just on what it looks like, or your ears to the flutter of the breeze through the grasses without restricting them to just the sound of rustling...
It is difficult to explain how the Earth around us is constantly capable of providing us with information that is deeply important to us. However, when learning shamanism, students are instructed in walking in nature and learning how to listen, and see these lessons.
Moving into a shamanic state of consciousness, the hearing is beyond sound, and the vision is beyond sight, yet the lessons are keenly significant. Sometimes it is easier to explain, by demonstrating.
I have included a short walk taken by a new practitioner, who headed out knowing that the Earth was somehow going to provide her with important information that was significant to her alone. I have included it here, as this teaching rapport between us clearly demonstrates the groping, searching sort of process new practitioners go through, and the suprising discoveries that then come!
So... how can a bug teach you, or a blade of grass?
Listen! ...
Student Practitioner: I performed a sage self cleansing before I left the house, got on my bike with a set city park in mind. I thought that I’d been there before, but when I arrived, I realized I hadn’t. Kids playing, each with a single parent – some sort of play date group. I pushed my bike by and followed the trail towards more trees, cut through a path that followed the boat harbor and was tucked behind houses. I felt conspicuous. I didn’t want to trespass in others’ backyards.
My Reply: Excellent choice, to switch to walking from the bicycle. It seems that our ‘connection’ with the Earth is so much more immediate when we actually do so.
Student Practitioner: I kept moving and looped back up onto the road. These roads, neighborhoods, near my house, near where I have biked, I had never seen before. Then, a highly wooded lush area snapped and crackled to my right – Things falling from trees, animal movement, I went in that direction, but soon there was a steep vine-covered descent into a deep gully. The smells of eucalyptus – of dank Santa Cruz ecosystem. It felt so wild, sort of raw. A space that suits me, however I didn’t want to make my way down a viny steep pitch.
My Reply: Ahh, now you are entering a kind of ‘transition zone’… It can occur to us as a very subtle realization that we are somewhere new, though this is not thinking in terms of geographic place, but rather that we are entering a transitional zone of consciousness where how we constructed the world can shift, and where we are in position to become conscious of things that we had previously not seen or fully recognized.
In your case, it is here, now, that that the calls from the Earth are starting to come to your attention: the crackle of animal life, things moving, the smell of the moist, lush greenery...
Student Practitioner: I quickly realized that I was in the back of a Church Bible Camp. Continuing along the back boarder of their parking lot I saw between two small trees and went in. More of the lush greenery, but without the drastic gulch. There were trees with small purple blossoms in bloom. Another crackle of something falling from a tree – tumbling through suspended vines, taking out branches and debris as it went. I followed the sound to another section of the steep edged gulch.
My Reply: It feels as though you are sort of ‘swimming in this transition zone’, searching for your ‘right place’ with the same kind of antennae as if you were looking for a place to set up camp, but in this case, to learn something important from the Earth. Sounds are important to you, as are color and movement. Unsurprising, as these are some of our primal senses.
As importantly as the specifics, when we seek to learn from nature, be aware of the bigger picture of your journey, which really began when your intention to do so was set. For instance, the not feeling quite right behind the houses, or feeling the draw from but noticing that a certain section was too steep, or of harkening to things falling and that ‘debris’ is being cleared when it happened… all of these things may be part of the unfolding of the lessons you are being given, as all of these are ‘voices’
Student Practitioner: I opted to stay away, turned around, and quietly looked at the ground a few feet in front of me, under the blooming tree. Pieces of monarch butterfly wings. I go for a closer look; move a small blade of grass and a piece of the wing tears a bit. That is when I realize, “Every movement, no matter how small, has an impact”.
My Reply: Excellent! Bingo. It all adds up! This is often how the lessons come. Many people learn in gentle steps along the way, many others upon reaching a certain spot and then listening to it all start to unfold. For many, it is as if there is some sort of ‘critical mass’ of information that must be reached, and then the lessons start to tumble forth.
Student Practitioner: I sit down and look about the small space a bit closer. Fallen leaves with tiny nibble marks all along their edges. It brings me into their world. A space below the vines. I think and feel, “There are worlds, larger and smaller (dependant on perspective and definition) than the world of the human being. Each does its thing and plays its part. There is no judge of what is more or less important. Mutual significance of all beings”.
My Reply: Again, excellent. The lessons are continuing, as you are continuing to let yourself be drawn into what is being said to you. Wonderful work here.
Student Practitioner: I then hear the clack of a skateboard, more skateboards. People doing their thing. I sit longer, a young girl cries out in glee. Teenagers come around the corner, sit and commune together, doing their thing. I am presently aware. Sitting on my own... On my own, visiting with the different worlds that live here – that dine on the leaves that I sit by. Thinking, thinking slowly. What if I stop thinking? What will I learn?…
Crawling on me. On my notebook, then on my jeans, and onto my shoe. My leg is crossed and I lift my bottom knee to view a closer look. I watch this teensy tiny round beige spider. I wonder what she/he is thinking. Then, the spider belays off my shoe and there it hangs 2 inches off my shoe, 5 inches above the ground. Oh, dropping now. Nope, in the blink of an eye the tiny beige being is back on my shoe. Oh to be able to move like that. Ha ha! What sweet spider do you have to teach me? I ask. My answer came quickly… “Be Curious”.
My Reply: Great! Yes. We can listen to what the whole is saying (the whole of the blades of grass, the wind and the butterfly wing and you as participating observer, all interacting with one another), as well as the part (in this case the spider).
What is equally important is that you are able to hold this shamanic state of consciousness even as other, uninvolved human beings pass by. Good.
Student Practitioner: I feel that the whole experience was meaningful. I was able to slow my pace (this past week was particularly fast-paced for me) and to hear and see beyond my stress. I enjoyed dropping into the world of the bugs and butterflies and it opened me up to healing thoughts and positive teachings. The little spider friend was particularly wonderful in his movements and interest in checking me out. When I received the message of curiosity, I felt his curious nature. He did not fear me, he curiously explored. It livened my spirit and I feel that I can live my life and all that I do – painting, mountain biking, schooling, listening to music, being with family, socializing, meeting new people, all with curiosity. This suits me and works with my playful spirit and opens to all sorts of “curious” possibilities.
My Reply: Yes. In a way, Spider is encouraging your curious self. This might be meaningful to you generally in your life, though you might also understand it as pertaining to a particular curiosity you have been holding. This is the one of the enormous aspects of opening oneself up to listen to such voices: they provide us with not mere ‘information’, but rather, reach down deep inside of us to clarify something or provide an important lesson about something that is already significant, perhaps crucial to us.
You are being directed towards discovery. Here, your curiosity is being encouraged. Moreover, you have received a strong prompt to embrace your fearlessness!