The Oldest Language

photo credit:  Jorge Trigerros

“We suffer from misperceiving the world. We believe ourselves separated from each other and from all others by words and by thoughts.”—Derrick Jensen

Because of cultural indoctrination, it’s difficult to embody the concept of Oneness.  This idea we are related to everything and everyone, that how I behave to others and the environment actually impacts me (they are not acts outside of me) is a concept our heads might get (superficially?) but the rest of us has not integrated.  Despite Oneness being in most traditional healing milieu (Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine) and most religious doctrines, there is a fracture. Somehow, despite the idea of treating others as we would treat ourselves, embedded in the fabric of our social etiquette and laws, there is a maintained disconnect.

Two authors, Machaelle Small Wright and Derrik Jensen brilliantly illustrate in their different ways what it might mean to have a more whole relationship with the world at large.

Photo credit: Mie Sato

Jensen’s A Language Older Than Words, is erudite in his sometimes harrowing history of personal and world violence and the healing relationship of nature.  “There is a language older by far and deeper than words. It is the language of the earth, and it is the language of our bodies. It is the language of dreams, and of action.  It is the language of meaning, and of metaphor.….This language of symbol is the umbilical cord that binds us to the beginning, to whatever is the source of who we are, where we come from, and where we return.  To follow this language of metaphor is to trace words back to our bodies, back to the earth.”  I am reminded when reading his remarkable accounts of the relationship with chickens, wolves and stars how removed we are from nature, and respect for inter specie co-existence and rituals.  Through our bodies, in the experience of sacred dances for example, a deeper understanding of this relationship is possible. Practicing healing forms that respectfully include my own nature and all of nature is a large step in understanding this ancient language.

I found Machaelle Small Wright’s writings while on a childhood-dream-visit to the Findhorn Community (http://www.findhorn.org/) in Northern Scotland a few years ago. Wright’s Behaving as if the God in All Life Mattered is particularly interesting as she has straddled both an ordinary upbringing in a conventional family and the extraordinary bringing herself up with the guidance found in relationship to nature.  She went on to develop and evolve Perelandra, (Perelandra Garden Workbook: A Complete Guide to Gardening with Nature Intelligences).  In relation to gardening she says: “We do not attempt to repel insects.  Instead, we focus on creating a balanced environment – nature defines the makeup, patterns and rhythms of this balanced environment—that attracts and fully supports a complete and appropriate population of insects. In turn, the insect relate to the gardens plant life in light and nondestructive manner. Each year is different and builds on the foundation laid the previous years.”  

Photo credit:  Mie Sato

“From this work has developed a new method of gardening that I call “co-creative gardening.”  This is a method of gardening in partnership with nature intelligences that emphasizes balance and teamwork.  The balance is a result of concentrating on the laws of nature and form from nature’s perspective.  The teamwork is established between the individual and the intelligent levels inherent in nature.  Both of these point out the difference between co-creative agriculture and traditional organic gardening or agricultural methods.”

I consider these two writers prophets of the time, seers connecting us to this elusive Oneness. The possibility of healing is dependant on our relationship to this organism we inhabit and a relationship to the natural world at large.

“There is a language older by far and deeper than words.  It is the language e of bodies, of body on body, wind on snow, rain on trees, wave on stone. It is the language of dream, gesture, symbol, memory.  We have forgotten this language.  We do not even remember that it exists.”  -- Derrick Jensen