"Wild Earth" Animal Essences

Each animal offers support in aiding you on your life’s path. For example, Beaver, the Master Architect, assists you in building your life. Meanwhile, Snake offers deep transformation of your wounded psyche.

For help in accessing the power of the animals, I suggest “Wild Earth Animal Essences” created by Daniel Mapel of New Hope Virginia. These essences are a direct means of receiving that help. For children, “Wild Child Essences” helps them feel safe and protected. Adults with childhood issues also benefit from these essences as well. For example, Elephant Calf provides emotional protection and warmth for those who need a sense of family.

Like flower essences and gem elixirs, these are vibrational remedies for people to use in healing. Each animal essence carries the energy of that animal. (None of these essences are made from animal parts, nor is any animal harmed.) Use in a bath and feel the energy of the animal come alive in you. Or if you rather, take a few drops in a drink of water.

I am offering them at $US 10 a bottle. Ask for them when you see Animal Teachers for a consultation or vending at a fair! I will be vending at KarmaFest, June 7 and 8 2008, which is held at the Harford County (MD) 4-H Camp at The Rocks. Their website is http://www.karmafest.com/

Other Worldly Beings: Incarnate Angels

Whenever I thought about angels on earth, I pictured them as tall, blond, thin people. To me, Angels were serious people who came to deliver messages and teach lessons. Of course, they would have a glow about them. I often thought that if I met one, they would be an austere college professor.

After finding out what Incarnate Angels are really like, I realized that my notions needed a bit of refinement. Because life on earth is so different, many Incarnate Angels have addiction problems. They are the ones “who love too much”, and therefore have problems with imbalances in their relationships. The healthier Angels learned how to remove toxic elements from themselves and others.

Incarnate Angels are more than messengers: they are healers, as well. Angels are active in human lives as nurturers and healers. They are reckless in their love as they try to heal the rifts between people and within people.

Pondering Incarnate Angels in my life, I see one person who exemplifies this Magickal Being. My son’s social worker counsels at-risk teens at the local high school. Even on her vacation, she checks in with the teenagers, in her care, to ensure that they are alright. The teens respond to her care by trusting her with their darkest secrets. Because she loves them so much, each teenager would give her roses when they graduated.

Other Worldly Beings: Ponderings (1)

Traits of an Other Worldly Being

• Feel different from others
• Acute sensitivity to other people, chemicals, or violence
• A strong sense of purpose
• A history of frustrating relationships
• Strangers tell them their problems
• Look younger than their chronological years
• May have a history of personal or family addictions
• Has a ringing in one ear.

Source: Doreen Virtue, “Realms of the Earth Angels: More Information for Incarnated Angels, Elementals, Wizards, and Other Lightworkers”, Hay House: USA, 2007.


Other Worldly Beings

Incarnated Angel
Incarnated Elemental (animals, crystals, dragons, elves, fairies, unicorns, etc.)
Star Person
Wise One (reincarnated holy people, shamans, etc)
Hybrid (combinations of other worldly beings)

Evolving Soul – moved from one group to another, but does not identify with either.
Shape shifter – dabbler, going from group to group to experience each.
Walk-In – being who lives in a human body, after that person’s soul left


Of Hybrids and Blended Folks (according to Doreen Virtue):

Wise Ones

Mystic Angels: Wise One / Healing Angel
Knights Paladin: Wise One / Protector Angel
Mystic Stars: Wise One / Starperson
Leprechaun: Wise One / Elemental

Merpeople

Merangel: Water Elemental / Angel
Merfairie: Water Elemental / Other Elemental
Star-Mer: Water Elemental / Starperson
Mystic Mer: Water Elemental / Wise One

"Critter Crossings" (3): Solutions in play

Established transition zones (areas only mowed once a year)

No mowing beyond the transition zone

Barriers of wire mesh, partly buried to prevent animals from burrowing under

Compost road kill to deter scavengers

Vegetable road barriers to prevent small animal crossings

Squirrel bridges

Salamander crossing signs

Wider culverts

Wood tops on deer fences to stop them from jumping over

"Critter Crossings" (2)

People getting together to solve the carnage!

The people of Central Florida noticed how many frogs, snakes, and turtles were being killed crossing a busy highway. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, about a thousand animals of eighty species were being killed a year along a two mile stretch of U.S. 441, which crosses a nature preserve. The local people with state transportation and natural resource agencies, environmental groups, and the University of Florida worked together to develop a safe crossing for the animals. The result was a tipped wall that diverted the animals to highway underpasses. Since building the wall, animals have been safely crossing under the road.

Salamanders in a Massachusetts town were being killed, trying to crossing a busy street to get to their breeding ponds. The people of Amherst tried to save the salamanders by carrying them across in buckets. To find a better way of saving the amphibians, the local people worked with the British Fauna and Floral Preservation Society, ACO Polymer of Germany, the Amherst Department of Public Works, University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Audubon Society, and Hitchcock Center for the Environment (a local conservation group) to design and build a tunnel for the salamanders to use to cross the street in safety. The tunnel was built, and hundreds of salamanders were saved.

To prevent Eurasian badgers from becoming road kill, badger tunnels (first built in Heumen Municipality, the Netherlands) provide a solution for the tradition-minded badgers. The tunnels connect municipal greenways with established badger setts. Since the implementation of the badger tunnel program, the population of badgers in Heumen has doubled.

For large and small animals, help is on the way. If we act as a determined group, we can help them. The U.S. Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)) sets aside funds to pay for habitat connectivity measures (including crossing structures). The U.S. Federal Highway Administration will aid local groups in providing solutions for wildlife crossings. Contact the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Federal Highway Administration: Paul Garrett at (303) 969-5772 or Paul.Garrett@fhwa.dot.gov. Their site, “Critter Crossings”, provides examples of community action.

Remember working together we can prevent the carnage of the roadside.

"Critter Crossings" (1)

Why did the animal cross the road? To get to the other side for food, mating, and breeding. How do they cross the road? With great difficulty, since many are hit by cars and trucks daily. Add up all those deaths, and you realize that whole species are becoming extinct.

Most people do not want to hurt an animal. They would rather swerve than to hit one. Others do not want a deer crashing into their windshields, and having to pay for the damage. However, we can all agree on a solution to provide safe crossings for animals.

While many of us consider large animals like deer, the smaller ones such as toads and salamanders also need our help. Even squirrels seeking nuts would prefer a car free future. With our friends and neighbors, we can arrive at simple solutions for benefiting both ourselves and the animals.

It could be as simple as a sign declaring “Salamander Crossing”. In Scotland, rope bridges were constructed to help endangered red squirrels to cross safely over the road. In the Dismal Swamp of Virginia, road crews provided large underground culverts for foxes and other mammals to use. In Poolsville, Maryland, the local people collect salamanders and carry them to their breeding ponds.

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Photo by William Boarman

To record the movement of desert tortoises through this underpass, researchers adapted a computerized tracking system that until then had been used mostly to census fish.

- picture caption

Stingray Teachings

Stingrays are beautiful and graceful swimmers, with a distinctive sleek tail, that has sharp spines on it. Stingrays propel Themselves through water with their powerful pectoral fins, which ripple and flap like Birds' wings. Their 'stingers' which stings like Scorpion's tail, defend Them from predators.

Stingrays regularly return to cleaning stations where Reef Fish live. The Reef Fish eat the parasites off the Stingrays' skin. They get a meal, the Stingrays, a bath and massage.

Stingray demostrates the positive aspects of friendship. But, remember that friendship is more than mutual assistance.

Stingray's Teachings Includes:

"Stingray Dreaming asks that we always take time to get to know people before forming superficial opinions of them."

Copyright: "Animal Dreaming", Scott Alexander King.

Stingray's Wisdom Includes:
Confidence
Grace
Moving Through Life with Ease
Freedom
Camouflage

Death and Rebirth In Myths

Many cultures have stories of death and rebirth. In Japan, Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, has to be coaxed from her cave to bring back the light. Meanwhile, the Hittite God, Telepinus, has to be coaxed from his mountains to bring back the rains. Among various Native American nations, Corn Mother has to be sacrificed to be reborn as corn for the people. The Inuit of the Arctic tell stories about Sedna, from whose broken body comes the bounty of their land.

Why do these disparate cultures have myths of death and rebirth? One could argue that they explain the cycles of life on earth. Daily, the sun rises and sets, and then rises again. In Ancient Egypt, Tawerat of Egypt acted as midwife to the daily rebirth of the sun.

However, these myths go beyond simply explaining the daily or seasonal cycles. They make explicit the delicate balance between the needs of people and nature. To keep the balance of life, deep harmony has to exist between the two. Lest they upset it, people need to be reminded of their relationship with nature. In building their city, the Romans were conscious of disturbing sacred groves in building their city.

Where ever humans lived, they faced the vagaries of nature – volcanoes erupt, monsoons flood, droughts linger. The myths reassured people that after everything died, it would come back. Living in an uncertain world, people needed to know that the sun would rise again. The retelling of stories of death and rebirth restored people’s faith in an ordered universe.

Since everywhere, people need to know that the universe is orderly and secure, similar stories are told by different cultures. Myths of death and rebirth tap into the human need for hope and a better future. People could go about their daily lives, reassured that in the future, the warmth, welcoming rains, and fertility of the land would come once again.

"Other wordly Beings"? (1)

Except for stories of “space aliens” among us, I never thought much about “other worldly beings” among us. However in conversations with various New Age folks, I learned of “walk-ins” and “star people”. “Walk-ins” are people who have another being take over their body. “Star people” are folks who are aliens reborn in human bodies. Later, I encountered people who told me about the “Other Kin”, folks who are animals, dragons, and fairies reborn in human bodies.

All these concepts are difficult for me to comprehend, since I take mental illness seriously. I regard these stories as a way to explain away serious mental issues. To me, it is easier to be an “other worldly being”, than to admit that perhaps one’s brain is disordered. I often thought that this was a convenient explanation for not taking responsibility for one’s actions.

Living in the city, I have not encountered any “other worldly beings”. It may be that cities are not conducive to these beings. Or it could be that the mentally-ill people I meet are maladjusted “other worldly beings”. For me, it is hard to tell the difference between someone with a malfunctioning brain, and someone trying to adjust to a new life on Earth.

White Stag and Hind

This is from the Celtic point of view.

The Celts regarded Hind to be a fairy creature who could pass between worlds. Upon seeing White Hind, the seeker would be guided safely into the forest towards the gates of the Otherworld and beyond. Hind were “fairy cattle.” They were guides for people when life seemed chaotic and illusionary.

In many stories, Stag signified a great change in a person’s life. White Stag initiated a series of challenges for a person to overcome. For later Christians, Stag came to represent Christ leading souls through the darkness. In both traditions, Stag is the one who guided the person through changes.

Stag’s Teachings Also Include:

“Venerated by many peoples in the past and today, Stag is a creature who is generously willing to share its life with people.” Copyright: “Through the Unremembered Gate”, Tira Brandon Evans.

“The White Stag is infact one representation of our own soul with the hunt, proving to be a vital lesson in self-discovery.” Copyright: “Animal Messengers”, Scott Alexander King.