I saw it on a dark counter at a camping store. There were a couple of dozen little cactuses in tiny painted pots with a magnet attached. They were being sold as curiosities, to be placed on a refrigerator. They had been forced in a greenhouse (climate conditions manipulated to time their blooming) , and brought for sale just as they were starting to bloom. Life, raised for human’s frivolous and momentary pleasure. The chances of survival were slim, as their destiny was to be placed as a magnet on some appliance. It made me mad and sad and I bought one as a plant “rescue.” I didn’t know if it would survive a dark Idaho winter but at least I was giving it a chance and if it didn’t make it, it would die having been seen and valued rather than cast away as an object. The miracle of blooming; of continuing life, turned into a casual conversation piece.

It bloomed and bloomed, then went dormant. Over the next 11 months I watered it and put it in a southern window but I didn’t know if it had mummified or if it was alive. Then the first week in April I saw tiny little buds. It was alive! It had made it through the winter! It was blooming on its own, without being forced! It gave me great joy and I showed it to everyone who came into the office. Some people understood; others humored me politely. It may seem silly to care about a tiny cactus but every life form and every individual is precious. The mere fact of life is a miracle. We may need to use a life form for our own life’s sustenance or protection but that doesn’t make it any less precious or remarkable. When we lose wonder we have lost a deep connection that satisfies; nourishes and sustains us through thick and thin; a connection to something eternal and meaningful.

Our own human brains are another miracle. Such immense complexity with such astounding potential. With our brains connected to our hearts we humans can lead, in consultation with all living things, to work towards enlarging our sense of community, taking all living beings into respectful consideration when we make decisions. We humans have the capacity to become increasingly conscious rather than increasingly unconscious but for that we have to connect with something larger than ourselves. The little cactus is a reminder. Loving it is not silly or trivial. It is part of a larger way of seeing life and being in the world.

Earthfire Institute, and the wildlife under its care, work as one unit.  They help us learn about their kind and we help them tell their story and those of their wild relatives. This mutual love and understanding is what gives all involved “a leg up” on this earth, each enriching  and helping the other.  Our dream is that everyone can gain from the richness there is in connecting to and respecting all forms of life.

The Wisdom of the Wild

Windwalker, Spiritual Cougar

Windwalker is a cougar who came into what appeared to be a spiritual state of beauty and gentleness as he reached a ripe old age. In his book Alzheimer’s Isn’t What You Think It Is, Elmer Green describes how statements of great spiritual wisdom came through his wife even as Alzheimer’s destroyed her physical brain and left her unable to speak for months. It was as if she were occupying two worlds at once, bringing glimpses from beyond. Perhaps as age weakens the grip of biological forces on the brain, a similar thing happens with all old creatures—humans and animals—allowing a connection with the larger life forces to blossom. When retreat participants met with Windwalker in his last year, he would purr the entire time. It was a deep, resonant purr that gave us the impression his purring was a healing offering. Diane, a retreat participant who suffered from an autoimmune disease, told us that she was telepathically called by Windwalker to visit Earthfire.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Near the end of his days, Windwalker could no longer use his hind legs; he spent his time lying on his side. We gave him soft, clean blankets to lie on, and cleaned him as best we could. Knowing he would leave his body before I returned from a two-week trip, I went to him to say goodbye. He purred, looked at me, and then turned his head away as if to say it is done. A few days later when Jean checked in on him, he sensed that Windwalker’s end was near. Jean returned a few hours later and found Windwalker sitting tall and upright, magnificent even in his old age. He was looking up and out of his protected enclosure, gazing up at the sky. Windwalker was so lost in wherever he was that he didn’t hear Jean arrive, didn’t feel him approach until Jean touched him. Jean says Windwalker startled, as though he was suddenly reminded he had a body. As Windwalker got weaker, Jean lay down next to him. Windwalker purred and purred, although it grew weaker and weaker. At the end, Jean purred for him and held Windwalker in his arms as he took his last breath. Jean’s account reminds me of the stories I read about the dying in Final Gifts, a book by two hospice workers, Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelly. With a foot in both worlds, Windwalker behaved the way people approaching death often behave.

The Healing of Apricot and Teton Totem

Apricot is a wolf who somehow survived distemper in her brain but a few years later began to display neurological symptoms. Her eyes were unfocused, her neck arched at a strange and uncomfortable angle, and her weaving walk was uncoordinated. The vet told us that prednisone might help but that there was no real treatment. Prednisone did help a little, but we really didn’t want to keep Apricot on a steroid that might shorten her life. I asked Jill, an energy healer whose specialty was damaged nervous systems in humans, if she would like to try healing a wolf, and she consented.

Apricot is a shy wolf, not used to other people, so we didn’t know how she would take to being touched by a stranger. Jill wanted to do the work in a comfortable setting and suggested that we take Apricot to our yurt. Apricot had never been there, which added another element of uncertainty to the healing we had arranged for her. We walked her into a new setting to meet a new person for a new experience. Jean and I reassured Apricot as Jill put her hands on her. In a few minutes, Apricot lay down and went into a deep trance while Jill worked on her neck and head. For forty-five minutes, she lay there taking in energy. When Apricot came out of the trance, she looked around, apparently dazed, then got up and walked around a bit before coming back to ask for more. The next day there was a brightness in her eyes and a bounce in her step, though the symptoms persisted. The second time we gave her the energy healing, we tried it on a massage table. After a couple of minutes of adjustment, Apricot went into a trance again, and when Jill was finished, Apricot continued to lay there for a long time, breathing deeply. The third time, Apricot pulled us over to the massage table. Over time, all symptoms disappeared. For the last two years, Apricot has been symptom free. She is now fourteen, and last summer, in an expression of pure joie de vivre, she leapt from the top of our 15-foot waterfall into the pond.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Since then, I have asked energy healers to work on two other wolves with neurological issues, Cucumber and Uintah. Though tentative at first, each went into that same healing trance, and afterward each was better, if not fully healed. The effect of energy healing appears to cross species, all of us responding to universal healing energy.

There are obvious limitations to hands-on healing with a grizzly bear, especially one like Teton with an aggressive streak. Over two years, Teton Totem had slowly become paralyzed in his hind end, though he was still in his prime. He would drag himself across his enclosure with his front paws. After we had tried all that Western medicine could offer, I turned to Penelope Smith, well known for her work in interspecies telepathic communication. She had previously met and loved Teton. Penelope agreed to do what she could and contacted Teton telepathically from her home in Arizona. She received an image of a slipped disk in Teton’s lower back. She asked him how it happened, and he flashed her a picture of a time when he was standing a few years ago and felt something slip in his lumbar. Penelope worked with Teton daily to facilitate his healing. Whatever the explanation, the facts are that after the first day, Teton dragged himself to his pool and placed his right hind leg in the water as he tried to swing it to and fro. Each day we watched him and observed microscopic improvement. In time, he was able to walk again. That winter he entered his den walking normally, and when he came out the next spring, he was still walking normally.

Cindar’s Telepathic Cry

Cindar was a beautiful, vibrant, black wolf. One evening when she didn’t look well, we brought her into the cabin. She seemed terribly vulnerable, so we asked Summer, a vet, to examine her. X-rays showed congested lungs, and Summer diagnosed severe pneumonia. Although we started Cindar on heavy antibiotics, none of us felt right about the diagnosis. How could pneumonia take hold so suddenly and strongly in a healthy young wolf? One night Summer woke up with a new diagnosis: Cindar had a lung torsion, a twisted lung. With the blood supply cut off, a part of the lung died, filling the rest with fluid from a massive infection. No one local could perform the necessary surgery, so we frantically made arrangements for Jean to rush Cindar to a specialist in Salt Lake City. Cindar died on the way there.

Whenever we lose an animal from an unknown cause, or in this case an unusual one, we have an autopsy done to be sure the other animals are not at risk. Cindar’s autopsy confirmed Summer’s diagnosis. But why would a healthy young wolf die of such a rare illness? Summer said she probably wouldn’t see another lung torsion in her lifetime. Trying to understand, Jean and I eventually remembered that in Traditional Chinese Medicine each organ has not only its own function and vibrational frequency but also holds the energy of a specific emotion. The emotion associated with the lungs is grief. It depletes the lungs and causes them to contract. If people with lung problems suffer from deep sadness, why not wolves?

Now we wondered about the possible causes for Cindar’s grief. There were no recent losses or changes at Earthfire, and then the same explanation suddenly occurred to both of us: hunters in Idaho had recently begun to kill wolves. Not only were they shooting them, they were rejoicing in the killings. Many in the Rocky Mountain states want to eliminate wolves by whatever means, and they regard the wolves’ suffering as irrelevant and justified. The governor of Idaho himself held a rally on the state house steps to declare that he wanted to be the first to shoot a wolf when the ban was lifted. There is considerable documented evidence that wolves are telepathic among their packs across long distances, much like our experience with Thunder’s passing and the wolves that responded with mournful howling. Is it possible that Cindar was feeling the pain of her nearby kin?

Death is a part of nature, but death inflicted with a cruel intent to destroy is another matter. Therapists who work with people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder report that recovery from PTSD due to natural causes such as an earthquake is different from PTSD due to torture. The element of malicious intent by a fellow being compounds the suffering. Psychologists also report that some children who are not listened to or understood attempt to communicate through illness. Some animal communicators believe that illness and death can sometimes be an animal’s way of communicating. Did Cindar develop a fatal illness not only in response to the slaughtering of her kin but also to communicate this tragedy? Her death has left us with a profound sadness for the plight of wolves—and of all other animals.

I think we humans “survive” by becoming numb, tuning out the pain around us. It is too much to bear unless we have a framework that helps us tolerate the suffering, such as the Buddhist way of compassion. Animals do not have this kind of framework for their suffering. They are being driven off the earth, and so we hear of elephants that rampage, chimps that go wild, and bears that attack humans encroaching on their space. Those unable to fight become ill or sadly melt away. Deena Metzger says of her alliance with the elephants: “I do not think I called the elephants to me. I think they are coming to us, calling us. I think they are consciously transmitting cries of anguish and grief, and some of us are hearing them and are responding.” I would add that all the animals are calling out to us. When we tune out, it doesn’t save us; we still somehow feel the suffering of other living beings. If we take the time and make the effort to tune in to the animals, they will remind us of what is and what can be. During one visit to Earthfire, Penelope Smith came rushing up to me to say, “The animals are beside themselves because we are listening to them. It has already gone twice around the world that humans are listening to them!” Animals can keep us connected to our hearts, without which there is no real meaning. When we are connected to our hearts, we won’t lose our way in top-heavy abstractions and technological innovations. The animals at Earthfire have lifted a veil and made a connection with us in that place where we are all one. The animals are calling us to council.

Our Calling

I have the privilege of living with wild animals. My astounding experiences with them have taught me that when we leave any beings out of our consideration, we cannot be whole. Still connected to nature, which is our heritage too though we are largely lost to it, animals have much to teach us. Our story together is still being written, and there is much we can do to honor the animals, the earth, and all its beings. Here are some starting points:

Link to original posting of : The Wisdom of the Wild

En Español

 On September 19th, Susan had the pleasure of speaking to the Revolution4Evolution.  You can view her webinar above, and read her thoughts and suggestions below on how you can get involved, too!

 “The animals of the planet are in desperate peril and they are fully aware of this. No less than human beings are doing in all parts of the world, they are seeking sanctuary.” ~ Alice Walker, Selected Writings

 Each morning Jean and I meditate with the help of a wild animal. For the last year it has been Cucumber, the Little Wolf that Could, who insists on being with us.  We begin with asking the animals and plants and trees and land to lend us their presence and their unique wisdom…and then we call out an invitation to any human souls who are seeking a connection with the animal world and would like to share their unique and special selves to enrich our endeavors here. And then you expressed interest!

 I am late in this letter because we had an animal emergency and when that happens Jean and I stop everything else. Uintah , a very shy wolf whom we were never able to touch, had a mysterious type of colic and we have been working through the nights to help save him.  For the first time he has let us touch him. Life threatening illness has helped pierce the veil between humans and this wolf -he has asked for help and let us in. They so want to live.

 Ways to help: Nature and Animals

 We have so few structures or institutes in our culture that help support clear and deep thinking related to the natural systems that sustain us. We need to start to restructure our society to support us in our search for deeper connection which will result in different values and actions.  We are each struggling, often alone, with enormous pressures against us – inside our own brains, partly wired to focus on the immediate, and the outside pressures that reinforce that instead of spending some time with eternal values as the basis for our existence.  

—Slow down inside. It is not possible to be mindful if we are rushed, stressed, harried. Breathe and notice the incredible life forms and beauty around you . Let them speak to you. We cannot hear the subtle and lovely voices and wisdom of other living beings without allowing ourselves to be quiet.

 —Give a 10% tithe of your time to support the systems of life that sustain us. Giving money is not enough. We each need to take personal responsibility to do something for our planet and the living beings without a voice that live upon it.

 —Practice mindfulness ; encourage it in others; from local sacred activism mediation or discussion groups. A few minutes reflective practice in the morning will help us not get so lost and driven. Encourage meditation in the schools.  I heard of a school in Colorado that is based on meditation  and the students are doing remarkable things We need more of that.

 —Practice mindful eating, thanking the living forms that are giving their lives for us be they animal or vegetable and being aware where they came from.  Help develop a course in school on where food comes from.  Not political – just factual. There is no “free” food. Anything we grow and eat takes from some other living being in some way, from the space, water, soil and land we use to grow it and all the systems it takes to get it to our table. We need to practice and teach us to be respectful and not wasteful, taking only what we need.

Jean & Huckleberry Bear

 —Support organizations that are trying to save land for the animals – without land and space there is nothing and our love for the animals alone does not help them.  There are many – you can research them or contact us for a list of some of the most active but a good start is wild.org or the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.  Both focus on wildlife corridors.

Ways to help: Earthfire

 —Help us grow our community and take the vision we have out to the world any way you can.  Send  people to our website, our Facebook page, You Tube channel, Twitter feed and our blog.  We would welcome your comments and stories, photos and experiences.  We also have an online chat community through Ning at earthfireinstitutecommunity.ning.com.  Please e-mail us at earthfire@ida.net for details on any of this.

 —Help us with ideas and places we should connect with and let them know about us.

 —Send us ideas for retreats or retreat leaders; great books and videos for our library.

 —Send us ideas  or contacts for places where I can speak.

 —Our two biggest needs are fantastic staff, and funds. We are looking for an understudy assistant director and animal handler to work with myself and Jean to ensure continuity . These people have to be committed and realistic. We also need funds to be able to pay them . We need to continue improve the enclosures for the animal, especially play gardens for the bears.  To donate, please go to http://earthfireinstitute.org/support/.

Susan Eirich

 I look forward to what we can help make happen together.

 With love to all of you from myself, Jean and the animals of Earthfire.

 Susan

CalArts student John Martin put together this piece during the Michelle Lund/Earthfire residency program in July.

Don’t dream it’s over for Northern Rockies Wolves!

“What happens when you put an experimental animator from Argentina, a musician from Mexico City, a performing artist from New Jersey, and an ecologist from California in the Earthfire Institute pasture?
They become part of Bluebells the bison’s herd.” Mike Bryant.

There has been a utter explosion of creativity here at Earthfire with the combined talents of three artists, a scientist, Jean, Susan and the animals – through the California Institute of

the Arts residency program currently at Earthfire. The animals have simply awed the students. One of them has already made a life-time commitment to conservation; science lectures at CalArts will now be enhanced with understandings gained here, an on-line children’s book has been conceived, and that’s just in the first three days of a two week program.

The Michelle Lund/Earthfire Institute Residency program has made possible the encounters between CalArts students and faculty with Cucumber the wolf, Bluebell the bison, Pimpernel the coyote, Firefly the fox and many other Earthfire animals. The goal of the residency to is to produce a powerful multi-media art project, informed by science, on the new ways of seeing and practicing conservation.

Johnnie Martin, a performing artist says “The animals here at Earthfire have gone through a lot of different transitions. Bluebell’s herd has passed away and she has come to embrace humans as her herd. There is a real, raw, love that comes out of Bluebell. It’s almost overwhelming to hold this animal that’s 1500 lbs in your arms as she licks your shoelaces. There is nothing else quite like that.” He goes on “I think Earthfire presents a really interesting model for an animal sanctuary, in that its an ethical venture, yes, to take care of animals that can’t live in the wild, but takes it to another place to educate people about wildlife. In the larger picture of conservation the number of animals that are here aren’t very many, but through their role of spokes-animals they can encourage people to support conservation in a really big way. I wish that more animal sanctuaries had that two-fold component.”

Mike Bryant, part of the science faculty at CalArts is using his experience to expand on his conservation lectures.  He states “Inspired in part, by Earthfire’s physical location, which “guards” the southern portion of the Yellowstone to Yukon Wildlife Corridor, and by drawing from the personal connection with the wildlife at Earthfire, I am exploring the many facets of the term connectivity as it applies to Conservation Biology. Earthfire is bringing the level of my personal connection to wildlife up, which leads me into something that I haven’t done before in my lectures to the CalArts students -  to really focus on the role of advocacy as an ecologist. That is what I have been working on here.”

The students will be hosting a free public presentation of their work done over the two week residency at Pierre’s Playhouse in Victor, ID on July 30th at 12pm.  We hope to see you there!

Click here to view the embedded video.

A beautiful poem narrated by the peerless Norman Bailey, about listening to things that cannot be heard through our ears but through our hearts. The animals, without thinking they are always listening and we are linked by the great listening to the larger knowledge circling this earth.