Many Westerners regard African tribal lore as simplistic, even naïve. This is far from true. On the contrary, African beliefs reveal a sophisticated, experiential understanding of the natural environment – one that most Westerners have lost touch with.

Born out of millenia of living at the mercy of the Earth’s vagaries, rural Africans have an innate understanding of nature. With the current environmental problems facing the planet, traditional Africa is a good place to search for the wisdom that points the way to ensuring our continued place here.

With this in mind I went looking for the Keepers of the Knowledge, the Sangomas and the Healers in rural South Africa recently.

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Lions have long held a special place in human minds. Around the world they’ve appeared in mythical and cultural lore reaching right back through the ages. From ancient Egypt and Turkey to Greece, Rome and India they are closely aligned with the Sun, and therefore are an archetypal symbol of light.

Lion King - Guardian of People

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It is well known that a gauge of a healthy ecosystem is judged by its predators. The top feeders are a litmus test for everything underneath.

We now learn that the link between humans and nature is at the cutting edge of modern psychological study. As all indigenous people will tell you, when the environment is under threat they experience a profound feeling of spiritual disquietude, or dis-ease. This is now being recognised as a factor in modern psychoses and solastalgia is the term for this environmentally connected psychic distress. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Peter Willis for articulating that which has been sending tentative tendrils into my consciousness.

Like the pre-shock waves of a great tsunami (when animals respond by moving up to high ground), we are discerning the outlines of a new human consciousness arising in response to the forthcoming turbulence in human civilisation.

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Still on a biblical theme: the parallel between the long suffering people of Zimbabwe and the misery of Job in the Old Testament is apparent. In the Book of Job God has a wager with Satan that Job’s faith is so great it will withstand all manner of deprivations inflicted by God.  The conceit in this is shocking (and probably inadmissible to many of the faithful). Yet the parallel is there again – Zimbabwe’s ruling elite crushing their own people for the purpose of shoring up their power.

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I’ve just closed the covers on “The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot” by Herbert Krosney. Much of it details the arduous and dangerous route, often through bungling and greedy hands, the ancient papyrus manuscript took since its discovery in Egypt (yes, this is an African story) in 1974 to reach the general public.

The content of the Coptic codex is built up by the author when he states that the “Gospel of Judas will shake the very foundations of the Christian faith.” However, when one finally reads the excerpts of the story of Jesus as told by his betrayer, Judas Iscariot, it is curiously satisfying.
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Stark, extreme, magnificent, the Kalahari has a humbling effect on most people. You’d have to be a hard nut not to get it.

A spiritual reconnection with the Earth is something that more and more people are realising is an essential ingredient to humanity’s psychological health. In fact the Wilderness Leadership School makes it their business to sensitise people to this reality.

During a recent sacramental visit I became reacquainted with Belinda Kruiper, widow of Vetkat Kruiper, renowned Bushman artist. Immersed in the society of the formerly dispossessed Belinda is trying, in her own way, to demonstrate to her husband’s people a way of reconnecting with the Kalahari on their terms. These people of the Kalahari have long been marginalized from their land and way of life.  However, a recent land claim awarded a large portion of the Kgaligadi Transfrontier Park to the Khomani San and a community-owned and run lodge has been erected and is operational.

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