Page 11 - Dark Matter Women Witnessing

in it and not enough of other forms of nature,” writes Bender. The same could be

said for many of our other systems. In “Listening for the Long Song,” the

concluding article in this issue, Andrea Mathieson notes that “...most of us have

lost our ability to hear the subtle sounds of the Earth and the voices of all her

creatures.” Caught up as we are in our human dramas (this U.S. presidential

election needs to be over now!), “we become deaf to the loving wisdom

constantly available to us within the natural world.” We are unable to “listen with

our feet”—as the elephants instructed—to that “great animal, alive and

vi
breathing”beneath us.

I had a moment reading Mathieson where I was able to see even my own rage

and panic about testerone-driven destruction and extinction as a kind of static

preventing me from tuning into deeper levels of awareness--- and ironically, from

truly hearing the beings whose lives I’m so anxious to save. Windheart says the

whales taught her “how to drop my awareness down into the earth, to open

through the perceived edges of my physical form into something vast, deep, and

universal.” Call it universal awareness, call it Anima Mundi, call it The Long

Song, call it Source, we humans are mostly cut off from it and suffering the pain

of disconnection. We need the wisdom and counsel of nonhuman nature and we

need to learn to listen.

I have learned so much from the writing in this issue. Every piece deserves your

careful attention. Please don’t miss out on a single one.

i http://environmentalhumanities.org/arch/vol6/6.7.pdf
ii Linda Bender, Animal Wisdom: Learning from the Spiritual Lives of Animal. North Atlantic Books, 2014.

iii
Naomi Klein, ““Why Black Lives Matter Should Transform the Climate Debate”
https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=ssl#q=naomi+klein+black+lives+matter+and+climate

iv The biophysical and systems environment is nothing less than a consequence of a whole community
comprised of brilliantly unique individuals dancing in relationship,” 2012 post, Elephant

Journal. http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/04/life-­‐is-­‐our-­‐cause-­‐megan-­‐hollingsworth