Messages from Gaia

If I could talk to the animals, just imagine it

Chattin’ with a chimp in chimpanzee

Imagine talking to a tiger, chatting with a cheetah

What a neat achievement it would be.

~from the song ‘Talk to the Animals’ by Leslie Bricusse

This song was written in 1967 for the musical Doctor Doolittle. As I read through the words of the whole song, the message was that it would be awesome to talk to animals but it wasn’t something that was possible but rather just a whimsical notion.  We’ve come a long way!  I know a lot of people who talk to the animals and have great conversations.

I was thinking about this while I was working in my garden today. I tend to talk to plants more than animals.  I was wishing some plants would grow in some places but not in others.  Then it occurred to me, ‘Am I communicating that clearly to the plants?!’  I realized I wasn’t.

This is such an exciting area of our expanded consciousness, in my opinion! Think of the possibilities!!  There is so much taught about inter-person communication.  Yet communication with nature is something that isn’t often spoken about, at least in the mainstream culture.

I have learned so much about communication and co-creation with nature from Dorothy Maclean, a founder of the Findhorn community in Scotland and Machaelle Small Wright from Perelandra in Virginia. They were pioneers in the 1960’s and 70’s in co-creation with nature.

Dorothy and Machaelle both talk to the Unseen Beings of nature. Some of their communication with these beings is practical-what do the plants need to thrive, how to solve problems, etc.  Some is beautiful learning about realms we can’t see or touch but that have great wisdom for us.

I think it is so important that we talk to plants when the purpose is to find ways that work for people and nature. If we are at war with parts of nature or try to impose our will on nature, she will go into defense mode and that’s not co-creative or positive for anyone.

I am ready for a new phase in my partnership with nature. I plan to start communicating more about my needs and finding out what the needs of the plants are.  I am full of excitement and anticipation about what we will come up with.  Stay tuned!!  And please share your experiences in communicating with plants and animals…and bugs and rocks and whatever else you are drawn to talk with!

I am going to include a longer piece at the bottom of this message about some of what I have learned and done in communicating with nature so far. I’m a beginner but it is so awesome and fun.

Blessings, Mary

This whole arena of communicating with nature is so interesting and exciting to me! Nature has such a strong, unblemished connection to the Divine.  Humans have lost much of this connection and it has been distorted and damaged through our forgetfulness and ignorance.  Now the portals are opening in wonderful ways to allow us to communicate and co-create with nature in magical and mystical ways.  Woo hoo!

Dorothy Maclean and Machaelle Small Wright both tell stories of their issues and communication with moles. Each had a situation where moles were damaging their gardens and they wanted them out.  But instead of getting out the poison and traps, they talked to the moles!  They asked them to please move to another area adjacent to the garden.  And they did!!!  It involved more than a quick conversation but that is the essence of what happened.

I these are wonderful examples of how we can work WITH nature. First we need to understand, recognize and respect the plants and animals’ needs and rights.  Humans are often very self-focused, thinking only of how to get rid of things that are interfering with our plans.  No wonder we don’t get cooperation.  People are part of ecosystems and we need to be partners, not dictators!

It’s about relationship! I certainly don’t appreciate someone coming up to me and bossing me around, telling me to do something without asking for my thoughts about it.  Why would plants and animals like it?  Love is so powerful and if we can love the plants and other parts of nature, things flow so much better.

If we want cooperation from nature, we need to look for answers and solutions to problems that work for everyone. Dorothy says we need to find at least one thing to like or love about the plant, animal or insect we want to move from a space.  That can often be a challenge.  What’s to like about a mouse in the house? a bug eating our roses? poison ivy giving us itchy rashes? bindweed strangling our vegetables?

I think if nothing else we can find some admiration for the qualities of those critters or plants. Mice are good mothers, bugs are amazingly resilient, poison ivy feeds birds, bindweed can teach us about tenacity.

Then we look for solutions to problems with those critters and plants that work for all. First of all, I think it helps to acknowledge that it’s the ‘problem’ that is motivating us to communicate with nature and express gratitude for that, even if it’s grudging!  We express our needs.  We ask for help.  We brainstorm possible solutions and see if we can come up with something that we can all agree to try.

Dorothy tells of a place at Findhorn where she loved to go lie on the grass. The area was surrounded by thorny gorse bushes.  One year she went to this special place and the gorse was growing so she couldn’t get to it.  So she asked the gorse if it was okay to trim it and she got a yes.  So she trimmed the gorse and enjoyed her spot.  The next year she went and the gorse was growing to create a path for her to go to her grassy place, no trimming needed.  The gorse was welcoming her!

I see this whole area as a balance. I have studied permaculture and it teaches about how to work with nature.  There are things we can do in the physical world to partner with nature.  If we don’t want weeds growing somewhere, we can mulch the soil.  Nature will always cover bare soil with plants and we can use this knowledge to make decisions that create what we want.  And there are things we can do in the Unseen realm, talking to the beings of nature. Enjoy!!!