animal wisdom series - a message from the gorillas

Photo Source: Pixabay

When I connect with the Gorilla's there are many different troops that I can choose but I am being drawn to Rwanda and am being zoomed into that area. They know who I am and some of them are not used to having a human who has projected herself to that area to visit them in this way.  The younger ones think and feel this is strange. The older ones are just looking at me and chewing on vegetation. The Earth smells different. It's very Earthy and strong. The air is moist and misty and we are cool up in the mountains. It's so quiet. My body feels like it is calm. It feels like this when I am with nature and animals. There is a deep calmness inside of me. Something that the industrialized world has lost in their day to day hive of activity that is created by the human mind.
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I hear them talking to each other verbally and also silently. It's so beautiful. There are multiple conversations at once and yet they are all melding and balanced. Everyone understands each other and there is no mis-communication. In the quietness. In the quietness. The Silverback noticed me and is coming to check me out. It's his role as the protector to make sure all visitations of any nature are safe for his group and I allow him to sniff me and to poke me a little on my back. It is inwardly quite confronting to have a Silverback in your sphere with the intensity of their gaze and their breath in close proximity. I stood very still. I did not look at him. I only looked on the ground. It was instinctual. I knew I needed to be invited to stay for me to talk to them. He tickled my hair and I wanted to laugh but kept still. He then took my arm. He has such a strong grip (I haven't felt that strong a grip before) and he pulled me with him. I went with him. We walked past the others (females and juveniles) and they were all watching me while still munching away. The air was cooler now and it felt more moist. The clouds were visible. It was cloudy up their in the mountains and the temperature changed so quickly. I felt stings on my arms - nettles. They were a favorite for the Gorillas. He sat up in the mountain and I got the sense he wanted me to sit next to him. I kept my arms low to the ground with no sudden movements. I wanted to show respect and to show I am trustworthy. Then I heard his voice...I want you to learn the way of the Gorilla then we will tell you about Gorilla for you to share with the humans. His voice was loud in my right ear. His voice was calming and at the same time protective. It was also very assertive and I knew this is what I needed to do to be considered a part of the Gorilla group and to show my respect for them as a species. I agree. I told him that I wanted to learn Gorilla and for him to show me.

First he told me to sit like him. My knees were close in to my torso and my feet rolled underneath. He told me this was important not only because it was comfortable (for him not so much me) but because it gave the momentum to jump in a different direction if need be. He said that they were mostly safe except for the two legged ones like me. They are not trustworthy and not safe.
I apologized for humanity and their actions. I told him this is the time for him to share with humans what Gorilla means and I would share this for all to hear (I could not use read - they don't read but they hear). He looked at me with his eyes directly in my eyes. It was very intense. He did not respond. He accepted my apology and it was sitting between us - the apology and we allowed it to simmer and then to integrate in the space between and inside of us. I felt so humbled by this experience. I was humbled by the gentleness and kindness shown to me. He took another leaf and he looked at me again. I could feel he wanted me to watch him carefully. It was a nettle (yikes! why?) and he wanted to show me how they folded the nettle leaves so that they could eat them and not be stung. He showed me fast and I asked him to show me again slow. I was terrified what if the nettles stung me all the way down my esophagus? I had a lump in my throat. He showed me a second time. It was such a cultivation - this folding. It felt like a ritual before food. It was part of the actual beginning of taking the nettle in. The nettle he said helped the gut for them. They liked nettle because it had iron a lot of iron and also it had some things that would make them feel okay. He showed me (in his mind) the picture of the forest and how much damage there was to the forest and the Gorilla's running to higher ground. They were afraid to go down below because that's where the two legged ones were and they were not safe. He looked at me now with this deep sadness in his eyes. He showed me pictures and feelings of being killed, burnt and different parts being used for food or other (the bushtrade also sells Gorilla meat and limbs). He made me feel how his heart was crying. It was like someone had put a sword inside the heart and he then showed me how this is carried by all of the Gorilla's. All the different species of Gorilla, he says we all know of each other even if we do not come together, we know of each other. I felt deep shame, shame for the disregard humanity has for their habitat and disregard for the Gorillas as sentient beings. I was ashamed that they endured this human created trauma. That not only affected individual Gorilla's but affected the collective. He looked like he had fire in his eyes when he turned and looked at me. It was the fires that are used to burn the habitat. It reflected in his eyes. He showed me his heart crying again and I felt my eyes well up. I sat still but it was hard. My knees were achy and my feet were going to sleep but I wanted to respect him as much as possible. He could see that and feel that. He grabbed my arm again and with the same strength he pulled me deeper into the mountain. There was a clearing and the vegetation was different. I felt relief as this meant I didn't have to attempt the nettle folding and eat the raw nettles. Here there were grasses. Grasses that sometimes they ate. He showed me they would eat the heads of the grass that is what they did. He pointed to some weeds (they looked like weeds) and he told me not to touch these. And then another type of weed he said when they had the runs they used this. He knew so much of the environment. It wasn't just a knowing it was a feeling. There was what I call a nervous system to nervous system dialogue between his body and the environment. It was with his feet and knuckles when they were connected to the Earth. It was with his breath as he breathed in and out. It was a full body experience. It was incredible. I felt an aliveness that I have not felt before. He looked at me and allowed me to feel that I was not ready before this time to embrace what this was like because my body would not have been able to take it. It is very powerful. He also made me feel like now I understood why it took so long for me to talk to him and his relatives. He looked me deep in the eye. It was so intense and yet it was so gentle at the same time. I could go flying out of my body into the Universe by looking at his eyes. It was hypnotic. He gave me a top of the grass where the seeds were. He folded it in on itself and gave it to me. I took it and began to eat it. He was quite impressed and I could feel he was happy I followed through. He felt good in the stomach now, I am okay and I am respectful. I am not a bad human. The grass tasted tart and it took a lot of courage to swallow it when I had chewed and chewed and it didn't seem like it was enough. He grabbed my arm again and we were going down the mountain. He was going so fast I kept on losing my balance and he thought that was odd. He let go my hand and bounded ahead and let me move how I wanted. He looked sideways every now and again to see I was there. His head was also darting around because he needed to check that all was okay. As he came to the rest of the group he puffed himself up. He puffed his whole body and he was so much bigger than before. It was intimidating. He stood high on his front legs and the back legs and his body was very taut. He went to each of the females and sat with them a bit. I felt like I was invisible. But I was not. I was accepted. They were going about their own lives and letting me have a feel, a glimpse and an experience with them. What a privilege. As I thought this they all turned to look at me. Their eyes intensely on my form and I could feel it penetrate inside of me. They were looking at me on the inside. They were reading my energy body. It was quite a trippy experience to have them all do this at once. It's like have peeping toms inside your energy body that are only looking at you to see who you are. Nothing more. When they all left I could feel my energy body move back into the position it had before. It was surreal. One of the females came to me and like the Silverback she sniffed me all over and she poked me in the chest (I got the sense she had satisfied herself that I was female). Then the other females came and some of the juveniles that were not far from their mothers. They also poked my chest (the females) and sniffed me. Then they put there hands on my hair and head. Their hands where heavy on my head. Then they started to groom me a little. I was not up to Gorilla standard and they wanted to change that. They wanted me to feel what Gorilla family felt like. The females were different. They had their own strength that was not only deep but their connection to Mother Earth was different to the male. When their feet and knuckles or hands (because they did splay their hands on the ground) touched the Earth they talked to the Earth. They asked for parchment to be abated. They also asked for more food when they needed it. There was a direct link between them and Earth. They also asked protection from the two legged. They were scared of humans. Scared of humans. When they lost one of their clan it was a grief for all the females and the male (although he did not show it as much). The females shared everything with the Earth. Their experiences, feelings (including the grief of loss) and their joys. Joys for the Gorillas were when there was food, when the young ones played and when there was abundance for all the members of the family. There were some of the older females who shared a great deal of wisdom with the younger females/males. There seemed to be what we would term a culture. They were able to tap into their specific species uniqueness and they would share it with the rest of the group. They were so deeply connected to the Earth because they had built relationship with the Earth over a long period of time and their bodies had the ability to process information differently than a young body. This deep wisdom is the piece they want to share with humanity. That each animal has a deep wisdom that they bring with their species as a whole. They are also an expression of the deep wisdom of the Earth and each of them play an intricate part in the stability of the Earth as a whole. It was on a micro-level in their own environment and also it was on a macro-level as every small environment affected all the ones near it and so on - it was a ripple or butterfly effect. The older female shared her consciousness with me and she shared pictures and feelings. She showed me how the Earth was not pleased with what the humans were doing. There was no balance. The humans had lost their ability to sense in the other realm and they were saddened by this (Gorillas). She had a quizzical look in her eyes and she asked me how I did this? How did I remember? I looked at her and it felt like I had to do sign language. I did not study sign language but I was using a sign language that involved feelings, pictures and using my hands for certain gestures so she could 'hear, see' me. It felt like this sign language was old. It was older than I could even grasp. She looked at me with this knowing in her eyes. She recognized me. She knew now I came into this world with the DNA open to the animals. It was changed and she showed me how it had a nick in it and that this nick was there because it would allow me to choose to offer the animals a voice. I thanked her. And again using sign language mix I asked her when it was decided on this planet that it would be so. She said at my birth I decided I wanted to be with the animals. She proceeded to show me all the animals wild and domestic that touched my life from then until now and she allowed me to feel that these were not coincidences. She allowed me to feel how the animals could sense me and that they were open to me looking at them. They told me I needed to go through some iterations before I could actually interpret what they were saying from their perspective. They told me not so much when you were little you were open but after you started to be shut down by society. She showed me that if the world was different they would have found me sooner but the domestic animals took care of  me. She touched my arm and I felt the warmth of her hand and the tickle of her fur. She was sharing energy with me. It was Gorilla energy. She looked at me directly in the eyes and said "don't let them take my babies. Don't let them take my family." I looked at her deeply and my heart was crying. It was crying for the loss of their babies and family and for the intervention of humans in their habitat and them being taken to be put in concrete places. She looked at me and said she did not want to talk about the ones in those places that humans go to (captivity). She was sad and she was also angry (its a different type of anger, it is not exactly like we humans have). She felt we had lost our sacredness. And that we treated them like they were just ... and she showed me a picture of a monkey...(apes have no tail and monkeys do. It also felt like it was not derogatory at all. It was the explanation of the mis-match of the animal essence, it was the feeling of humans projecting on animals their superiority - this is what it felt like when she showed me this picture). She says that all animals are here for a reason and have their purpose but it is disrespectful for humans to not honor them for the animal essence they are. She says that honoring them means respecting their place (where they live), their form (bodies), their food, their ways, their families and their animal essence. She says that humans leave a print (she showed me a human print) everywhere. She is showing me how animals do not do that - they leave a print that is specific to them (it feels like a niche). She is also showing that everything is connected. And that there is a reason for everything and that things are not always what they look like (things are not always what they seem). She touched my chest again. She is finishing now. They are moving away up the mountain. The Silverback is at the front and as he looks down at this group he looks at me. I had the feeling of "do not forget." How could I forget this? How could I forget. That would not be possible. I will not forget

Gorillas (via Chiara)