Dear Subscriber
Thank you for continuing to be here. These offerings are no more than contributions to the work you are undoubtedly already doing on behalf of all animals, the natural world, ‘Gaia’ and our relationship with all that is. I am, as you may also be, shown how key these times are to drawing us back into the fabric of being at one with all life – whatever species we are.
Thank you to all those of you who are having a go at the Celebrating Life activities e-course Lionhearted Soul Seeds | (suepg.co.uk). How ever you are finding your explorations of deepening your sense awareness, trust that this is an unfolding path, timeless in its nature. This month’s newsletter offers an opportunity to weave into our awareness how we perceive what we may know as ‘our self’ in the world.
Taking action from last month’s newsletter with Seal, the day I chose to go litter picking was wet, wet, wet! Initially I thought my haul was small, but by the time I returned home I had collected far more than I would have thought was actually there. Once the little bits of plastic, empty dog poo bags and snack wrappers were added together with drinks cans, broken glass, and larger strips of plastic it was a messy mass. I shall be going out again. My clean up patch was in woodland; my next outing is to a patch of Welsh coast. Whatever litter picking we can do in our own way, I am sure that Seal and other marine life, as well as land animals, will be very grateful. Thank you for doing what you can.
Litter picking in a UK ‘rain forest’. Wet, wet, wet!
This month we are meeting with Orangutan to ask about the state of things in the natural world from their perspective. I had someone else in mind, but no. Orangutan is the one for us at this time.
The Story
A key animal story that’s been in mainstream news this month is of an Orangutan who self-medicated with a plant poultice to heal a facial wound. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58988-7 Although many accounts have been mentioned previously (for example: ‘Wild Health’: Cindy Engel PhD) this recent incident is being touted as the first one recorded.
Why are we surprised? Orangutan’s genome is very similar to human’s DNA at 97%. Obvious intelligent problem solvers who are at one with the forest. Orangutan, the name we give them, can be translated from the Malay to ‘person’ (orang) of the ‘forest’ (hutan). Of all apes, humans included, they have one of the most stable DNAs, and with that comes a long-standing understanding of forest plants and their properties. The plant featured in the self-medication report is Akar Kuning (fibraurea tinctoria). Humans also know of this plant’s healing properties. Whether we have picked this information up from watching Orangutans or through our own experimentation I do not know. Yet my guess is that it is far more likely that humans copied orangutan behaviour rather than the other way round. Animals, as we know, have an innate sense of oneness with their environment which humans have somehow come to lack. (The Celebrating Life ebook offers an introductory opportunity to rebuild the many layers of this within our awareness.)
Yet, this month’s story includes another Orangutan. One I met at a UK zoo a couple of months ago. It seems timely to share this encounter with you in light of the self-medicating Orangutan’s story making mainstream headlines.
I stay with this a moment, taking in these insights. I don’t know what I was expecting. Probably not this. Standing on a floor to ceiling windowed bridge over the orangutan enclousure, a sort of windowed box from the orangutans’ point of view, I later realized it is hard to see who is looking at who. But in those moments, I am just aware of this long, shaggy haired one shuffling about and casting me a glance. (I feel I am talking with an elder female, but as I am not 100% sure will refer to them in the neutral tense.)
I hear: “I don’t have much to share.” And with this comes the sense that their perspective is limited by their life experience of zoo rather than wild living.
“You do, you know.” I encourage. My heart was touched by this one’s reply. “People will listen.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Orangutan elder replies. “How safe will you be without your fences?”
My attention is drawn to the enclosure fences. Orangutan Elder makes their way up concrete steps towards an opening into an inner area, more private than this wood-chip floored expanse. As Orangutan reaches the opening they stop, turn and glance my way. “If you set us free, could you cope?”
I see the dilemma. Could we cope with Orangutans living freely in the world with us? Could we humans cope with any ‘wild’ animals living free amongst us? Do we cope in this modern world we’ve created with any of those animals who are still free? Free to roam unhindered where they want and how they want.
“Good point,” is my reply after my musing. Then add “So, have I asked enough? Too much?”
By now this elder is sitting just within the private enclosure area and all I see is the shadowy silhouette of them. Their reply is “Do it carefully. Take care, or you might crack.”
“Crack?” I have no idea what this means. Although I do have a sense of something being too much to handle.
“Crack.” They continue. “It’s subtle and you need to take care.”
Now things shift in my awareness and the energetic sense is visceral. We, as humans, are so fragile to the true nature of living equitably with other Earth life, with other animals, with the natural world. I feel in my gut how, as we strive to heal our actions on Earth, how very unprepared we are to meet the reality of living alongside other animals. How we have fenced ourselves and them, caged ourselves and them, put us each in some gameshow of a leisurely distraction.
We have stolen our own freedom as much as theirs.
Freedom to truly be who we can be within the web of the natural world, of life.
The Solution
After ten minutes or so, Orangutan Elder comes out again and makes their way across the wood chip floor, picking up this and that along the way, just as when I first encountered them. I watch and follow gently. As they slowly make their way, I pose the question: “Do you have a solution to all that we have talked about?”
I got no answer. If anything, I am more deeply aware of the question being mirrored back to me. Orangutan walked under the enclosed bridge built for humans, to the other side of their enclosure and made their way up steps, past hanging belts and logs to a doorway against a far wall. When they reach this, they stop, turn, and look over their shoulder at me. I know I am noticed, acknowledged. It humbles me, this intelligence, this knowing that sees me and has communicated with me. Then they are gone.
Solution Suggestions
Not as straight forward as litter picking, is it? Not as hands-on practical. I feel that a mirror has been held up by this orangutan for human self-reflection. What is it and who is it we see?
I wonder if, as we find quiet and stillness in our day, as you meditate or walk in nature, I wonder if we may hold this encounter as a mirror. How do we hold it and what do we see?
My reflections return to the unexpected sense of enclosure, distraction, entertainment, escape from what is ‘real’ in a natural sense of life, that came from the encounter.
Zoos are such strange places. Nothing is quite as it seems. As animals, including human animals, are sentient, where is the boundary, the fence, between enclosures for human and animal? How do non-human animals see us as we wander these fenced pathways with ice-creams, buggies, cameras, and children with faces painted to mimic them? They certainly see us. And they certainly have thoughts, emotions and sensations about what they see. Yes, they are safe here from poachers and we are safe here from predators. Yet in all this fenced safety, what do we actually see?
A Zoo, I realize, can be a tremendous opportunity for self-enquiry - to have a mirror held up by these wise ones of the forest. Just as we have watched them to discover ways to self-medicate, so we can look at those watching eyes as mirrors to know ourselves better, to self-enquire who we are in relationship with all other sentient beings. To begin to shift for our own wellbeing, then act for the wellbeing of others.
These realizations can get into the realms of who is the one within us that is watching who we think we are. This can get deeply esoteric! Yet keep it simple, keep it strong: look in the mirror at the small everyday ways we perceive ourselves and our activities. Look at our interactions with the natural world and all other sentient beings. Glance by glance we can overcome the challenges we face for the benefit of all life.
More than anything I realize this encounter with Orangutan is not so much about Orangutan, it’s about us, their cousins. We are being offered a gift from their deep orang wisdom.
And when we fall into the boundless mirror who is the wild one we encounter?
Before you start any solution task take a few moments to feel your connection through your feet with Mother Earth. Open your awareness to the wisdom light that pours down like nectar from the stars into our hearts. Ask for love to assist you with these solution opportunities, as you act on behalf of all individuals who will benefit, whatever their species.
Other Thoughts
Truly, a key point for transformation to occur is ‘to get out of our own way’. Ironic, saying this when the theme that has emerged here is for self-enquiry!
If we do nothing more this month than see things through the mirror that any animal we have in our lives holds up for us, to see ourselves through their eyes, I feel we will see much of who we truly are in relationship with all species, all nature. And, of course, whatever you see is fine. Be gentle with yourself. As a teacher of mine once said: “Notice the facts, acknowledge their presence, and let them be.”
With love, act.
With soul, seed a lionhearted future for all.
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