Tales from The Council of All Beings – Part I
New Life on The Old West held our first ‘Council of All Beings’ meeting in September at Kingfisher’s Bridge Nature Reserve, near Wicken, leaving participants genuinely illuminated and inspired.
Since their inception in the late ‘70s, Council of All Beings meetings have helped countless thousands of people around the globe find solidarity and courage to act on behalf of nature, despite worsening social and ecological conditions (The Work that Reconnects, 1984 — John Seed, Joanna Macy, Arne Naess ) During the meeting participants are invited to step aside from their human identity and speak on behalf of another life-form. Beings come forth to speak of their concerns and the challenges they face, and to be witnessed and received by the humans.
Although many attendees had informed us of their apprehension beforehand, the event was hugely successful and feedback was extremely positive. Taking a non-human-centric view of nature was an exciting and compelling activity, even though many felt “out of their comfort zone”.
An unusual activity – but so worthwhile!
Here are a selection of tales told by some of the life-forms present.
Click on each picture to reveal the story of what it was like for the human taking part.
I am Soil…
“I am soil, and I speak for soil and earth. I am the thin, outer layer that supports all life on this planet. I may not look like much to the naked eye, but there is more to me than humans can comprehend. I am an astonishingly complex ecosystem, containing an unimaginable number of living organisms — a single teaspoon of me contains more bacteria than people on Earth, never mind the miles of fungal mycelium, nematode worms, mites… I could go on. I provide the essential growing substrate for almost all plant species, which in turn are essential to all animal life and the complexities of human society. Most fundamentally, I provide the medium that allows plants to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, and to convert the sun’s energy into a form that humans can consume.
Despite everything I provide, I am so often overlooked and mistreated. I am stripped of nutrients, only to be doused with unsustainable and damaging levels of artificial fertilisers; I am sterilised and toxified with pesticides; I am a dumping ground for waste and dangerous chemicals and contaminated water; I am cyclically compacted, broken open, left bare and brown, only to blow away as dust or wash away in the rain.
I am treated like dirt, but I am so much more. You need me more than you know!”
I am Fire…
“Iam fire and I speak on behalf of fire people. As fire, I want to tell the council how frustrated I am that you have forgotten me and are misusing me – by disturbing the ancient ones – by lifting oil and coal out of the ground and burning them you have caused great imbalance. You burn these fossil fuels and you don’t even see my flame, so you do not know that you have turned the world upside down and have put the earth up into the sky. And there is so much dead material on the ground. The tinder is building and the temperatures are rising so I have started to blaze for balance… 5 million hectares in Siberia last year, 10 million hectares in Bolivia this year. You won’t be able to stop me.
And yet we used to dance together. You used to set me loose across a landscape and I would run before you – burning the old to make way for the new. Fresh shoots brought grazers. Grazers brought predators – then humans would flourish too. Millions of years we danced this dance, and now it seems that you fear me. Come back to me, celebrate around me, eat and talk… we can sort this together… remember your hearth song”
I am Lady Nettle…
“Iam lady nettle, the female of my species.
You all know me as I am all around you. I am remarkable, I am strong, I am so generous in feeding others, and yet humans revile me and try to kill me, branding me dangerous and unwanted. I sting. Yes, I sting, but not out of malice. I sting to protect myself from being entirely eaten by other living beings. Humans hate my sting, yet when I sting them, it provokes a healthy histamine response that helps them, if only they were wise enough to realise.
Not only that, but every part of me from my roots to my seeds is edible and health-giving. I even grow where there is human activity. What more do I need to do to prove my generosity and importance? Yet still I am damned with poisons and hate.”
Keep your eyes peeled as we post the tales of more beings in Part II and beyond.
What’s more, we will be running the second of our three Councils in April 2025. If you would like to attend, then please get in touch!