I am standing on top of a mountain looking over a landscape of unspeakable wild natural beauty that stretches as far as I can see. This is the ‘long view’ the dream -maker tells me. The trees are stretching out their lush green needles to the sky as if in prayer, and they are whole. The forests, clear waters, the animals, birds, insects. All of Nature has been returned to a State of Grace.
An Old red skinned Indian Man appears. He is a Grandfather. He is on the mountain with me but also stands below (both and). He speaks to me.
“Sit, listen, this is the Song of Life”.
A finely crafted flowing red clay seat appears below (it flows like a wave) although it is situated a few inches above the earth. Almost hovering. I also see a drum made from deerskin and red clay sitting on the ground. There is a four directional equilateral black cross on the skin of the drum. The cross is thick and around the cross an intricate design is etched/inked into its skin also highlighted in black.
The Grandfather speaks again.
“Sit and play this drum”.
I protest mightily.
“I don’t know how. I know nothing, I say.”
He replies: “Play! It is the song of life”.
My life? Life? I am still protesting, but I know I will play the drum. I will do as he says, though I don’t know how. The drum is a prayer. Now, I am sitting below in front of the drum that is situated on the ground. I wake up.
I will play the drum.
It’s critically important to recognize that dreams/ visions are always filtered through personal experience and need to be understood in this context. Each of us may hold an infinitely small piece of the bigger picture…
For Indigenous peoples the drum is the Heartbeat of the Universe and for some Red Earth is sacred. Indigenous peoples have been crucified since the European invasion that has destroyed the beauty of this beloved country. Indigenous peoples are our continent’s intergenerational seed savers, prophesiers, and story tellers.
This is, I believe, the second dream that I have that reveals that Earth has been restored to a Peace that is beyond our present understanding.
The first dream/vision of this kind I had in New Mexico about six years ago when I held a miniature blue green earth in my hand. Lush green vegetation, and trees of all kinds were present. Wild animals roamed free. There were no people. The most disturbing element for me was not the lack of humans but the fact that the planet was encased in clear plastic.
When I have discussed these two dreams with a few others it has been suggested to me that I didn’t see any humans because the people that survived lived in small bands that were hidden by lush forests. I think of Indigenous myths that indicate that some humans will survive these times.
I wonder what our readers think.
Either way, the edge of hope in these troubled times may lie in ‘Deep Time’, a period that spans millions and millions of years.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, an Indigenous elder and author of Braiding Sweetgrass does not take a position with respect to the survival of the human species.
However, Robin who is also a scholar, scientist, and botanist gives us a hopeful version of earth’s renewal:
“Mosses are the coral reefs of the forest. I have faith in photosynthesis. The plants know what to do. They know how to sequester carbon. They know how to cool the air. They know how to build capacity for ecosystem services and biodiversity. Will the world be different? It will. Will there be tremendous losses? There will. Heartbreaking losses. But the evolutionary creativity of the plant world will renew itself. Plants will figure out how to come back to a homeostatic relationship with the planet.”
I would add that mycelial networks add an even more ancient dimension because their origins stretch back even further than plants taking us back to the beginning of all life as we know it. These underground roots crochet their inconceivably complex fungal webs (hyphae) that transport carbon, water phosphorous and other nutrients below the earth’s surface today. These underground highways are all interconnected and communicating any place that still retains viable soil.
Before that, blue green algae (cyanobacteria) floated on warm shallow waters until they met their first fungal partners. One ate light, the other ate rock and together they oxygenated the earth creating an atmosphere to support all future life on land.
Even in the worst scenario it’s important to remember that this planet has already survived five extinctions.
Life in some form will rise again.