I recently mentioned that the Veil between realities is something we live with every day.
We can choose the Materialist world or the Imaginal world, and the way we treat the world around us is the key to which one we end up in. No, really. I’m totally serious, here. This is my serious face.
If you walk into a forest as a Consumer, a Spectator, someone hoping to be Entertained, you will see trees and leaves and maybe hear some bird calls and see some squirrels, and probably have a nice time.
If, however, you walk into a forest with reverence, as a Partner, a Friend, as someone hoping to be in Relationship with the forest, you will see trees and leaves and maybe hear some bird calls and see some squirrels, too. But, if you put yourself in the mindset of relationship and assume that the Forest is a Living, Breathing, Sentient, Intelligent Being who just happens to have a lot of moving parts, the Forest will reward you with deeper connections to the life you encounter, and with the forest as a whole. You will be allowed to sense the personality, feel the emotional resonance, maybe even get into a deep, meditative state of communion which is so much more entertaining than mere entertainment.
This is powerful stuff. As an animist, I often talk about how every life form is a person, but really, it’s like a set of Russian dolls: the Cosmos is a Person, the Planet is a Person, the Continent is a Person, the section of country between these rivers is a Person, that river is a Person, this park is a Person, that tree is a Person … hey look, a squirrel …
But the really critical thing is, if you get into relationship with a forest or a river or a park or even just a tree, you will never see that being as just a forest or river or park or tree again. You will see it as a sentient and intelligent being, and hopefully, as a friend. And how do we treat our friends? With reverence and love! I would never let anyone log you or pollute you or knock you down to put up a strip mall. You’re my friend, I’m going to fight like hell to protect you from that.
One of my dearest friends and favorite companions is a River Spirit.
When “he” is present (and I say “he” because he’s a river and so genderless, but boy does he have a strong, lovely, masculine vibe), I feel a playful bubbling of something really sweet that would be tingly if it was smaller. When Laura and I go visit him, we both pretty much get the giggles at how amazing it feels to be in the presence of this enormous and ancient intelligence. We are learning to communicate with him, but he makes himself pretty clear – especially when we make an offering of some top-shelf whisky. Sometimes we can see what looks like electrical static forming over the water, a watery, hazy, but very dynamic formation that makes light more sparkly. Mostly he communicates through the action of the water – the boops and plops and bubbles intensify until it’s almost like popcorn, and often the water starts to roll up onto the beach, trying to get closer to us.
I have to confess, I have a bit of a crush on him. He’s got a certain charismatic gravitas about him that is hard to resist. He’s part wild man, part intellectual. He’s charming and he’s … well, dangerous, too. He has excellent taste in whisky and women.
So how did we make friends with him – and can you do it, too? Of course you can! Let me offer some steps that you can use to get into Relationship with the People in your neighborhood.
Before You Go
- Start getting your ears turned on and tuned in. My mantra is “two ears, one mouth.” Try to listen to the thing that is furthest away from you. Identify it, and try to place yourself in proximity to it, as though you are allowing your consciousness to travel over the sound bridge to wherever that sound is. Return gently to your body, and listen for the softest thing you can hear around you. Imagine yourself becoming as tiny as this thing you are listening to, and let yourself be drawn to it across a similar sound bridge. Be as still as you can, and try to hear your heart beating, or the blood in your ears, or even, if it’s very quiet around you, the sound of your brain firing neurons and being awesome. Spend at least a few days practicing this at random intervals before you go.
- Pick your spot. Rivers are often home to many spirits, they are big power spots in the landscape. Look at a map of your area and allow your eyes to drift, maybe half-closed, until something causes them to stick, or comes into sharp focus. That’s a power spot. You can also use a pendulum or dowsing rods to suss out some likely locations for land or river spirits to be hanging out.
- Prepare an offering. What sort of offering? Well, depends on the Spirit, actually. Our sexy wild man likes whisky and tobacco. There’s another river spirit we know who likes shiny things, beads and polished semi-precious stones. You kind of have to feel into it and listen to your intuition. It’s amazing how many times you will be completely correct about these things.
- Take a trash bag and pick up the trash around the area on your way in and out. Leave the place better than you found it. It’s about respect, care, and reverence – and about being good friend material.
On Your Way
- Go with reverence, and approach gently. Introduce yourself, and say you’d like to spend some time with them. Make your offering, and then … shut the fuck up and listen to where you are. Listen to the river. Are you hearing more activity? Are there waves curling up to meet you? Can you sense a presence, or feel one in your body? Listen for the musicality of the place, patterns, rhythms, tones. Every sound has a pitch, a dominant frequency. See if you can hear the subtle melody in those frequencies and hum or harmonize along. Show you are willing to learn the songs of the Place. Jam sessions between strangers aren’t just for humans, you know. And music is one of the most universal of languages. Try to respond in some way to what you are hearing.
- A river is an alive being made up of trillions upon trillions of other alive beings, from microbes to catfish to alligators. Every symbiote in the symphony of the whole makes up the voice, so all the air bubbles plopping to the surface, all the fish snapping at seeds and bugs on the surface, every microbe and every dragonfly make up the matrix of thought and communication that is the river. Same goes for a prairie, or a forest, or a wetland, or a mountain. And for you. You are made up of a bunch of parts, and several different inter-woven nervous systems. Your gut has a mind, and your heart has a mind, and your brain has a mind. You are also home to billions of beneficial bacterial colonies that help you digest food and fight infection, and a host of microbes on the surface of your skin that consume your dead skin cells and provide an additional layer of environmental protection. We’re all just colonies walking around in other colonies. Don’t forget that.
- Expect to be delighted. The spirits of the Earth want to talk to us, want to be in relationship with us, want to be seen, felt, heard, and acknowledged by us, and they expect to be respected. Treat them like beloved members of your innermost circle of friends, like revered elders, like your favorite teachers. They will respond favorably and in ways you can’t even imagine but will instantly recognize.
Afters
- Make a point of returning. These beings are possibly as old as the Earth herself, so time passes for them differently than it does for us, so a year can go by in the blink of an eye, but that doesn’t mean you can show up once every ten years and be in a relationship. Think of them often, send them love when you can’t visit. Visit when you can, and always take a little something.
- Don’t write the experience off as wishful thinking or an over-active imagination. First of all, wishing is a way of expressing desire, and desire is how we communicate with the universe. Second, the imagination is how we create our experience of the world and an essential part of any spiritual relationship. There would be no artists or musicians or writers or poets without the imagination. There would be nothing but ugh. The imagination is one of our most sacred divine powers. Trust it.
I know that’s a lot to remember, but it is all an important part of the process. If you just want three things to remember to try, in this order: 1) shut your mouth and open your ears; 2) pick up the trash; 3) make an offering. Every step of this process will enhance your receptivity and your experience, but do what you can. Learning the songs is one of the most powerful things you can do once you make contact.
Don’t forget to bring this home, and begin to be in relationship, if you aren’t already, with the spirit of your dwelling, including the land around you, even if it is smothered under concrete. Everything has a spirit, and buildings are made by humans for humans. They have windows, which are their eyes on the world. They have doors through which people and things pass. They have creaks and groans and pops and snaps, they have squeaky floorboards and growly furnaces. They have personality because they are People. Being in relationship with all kinds of People makes us better humans.