Lion King - Guardian of People

Light, as we know, is the opposite of darkness and in psychological terms it represents consciousness – that elusive awareness that connects us to the universal intelligence.

This association with a higher plane of existence is further reinforced by the fact that lions are often represented at the side of earthly manifestations of divinity e.g. goddesses, pharoahs, kings. They appear as guardians of these divine mortals.

So in the mirror of a rapidly decreasing wild lion population we obtain insight into our own current level of consciousness, or rather lack thereof.

But first let’s go back to ancient Greece, where the stories of Heracles and Androcles represent a transition from lion hero to lion king. Heracles needs to prove his hero status with a series of twelve labours, the first of which is to slay a lion and wear its pelt as proof of his prowess. In the story of Androcles however, Androcles proves to be a man of greater stature as he doesn’t need to slay the beast to prove anything. His heightened consciousness represents a more developed emotional landscape where the lion is befriended. Later this act saves Androcles from certain death.

There is a long tradition of lion shamanism in Africa. The first stage of initiation into this spiritual practice is the facing up to the lion. The second step is the assumption of the man-lion identity i.e. befriending it. The same theme of lion hero transforming into lion king appears across many cultures.

This metamorphosis, from one to the other, is important in the modern context. Are we ready, as human beings, to move beyond proving our supremacy over the rest of Nature? Are we ready to befriend the Earth? If the story of Androcles is followed, this act will save us.

As apex predators lions are indicators of the health of the biological system that supports them. Sick and dying lions indicate a sick and dying biological system – the very same system that gave rise to the human species and that humanity is dependent upon. That lions can be seen as guardians of the natural system, and therefore of humanity, is an easy symbolic connection to make.

It is therefore hugely significant that some Maasai, long known for their culture of lion-heroism, have renewed themselves as lion kings. The Lion Guardians programme is an enlightened initiative that aims to save lions. However, it is in the tendrils of light piercing the darkness of our neglect that this programme will prove to be a paving stone on the spiritual path to saving humanity.

]]> http://www.clarissahughes.com/spirituality/are-you-a-lion-king/feed/ 1 http://www.clarissahughes.com/ecotourism/hope-and-courage-conquers-mountains/ http://www.clarissahughes.com/ecotourism/hope-and-courage-conquers-mountains/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:46:50 +0000 Clarissa http://www.clarissahughes.com/?p=557 A miracle is happening in the settlement of Groenfontein, in the southern Cape of South Africa.  Set against the backdrop of the forbidding Swartberg range, the courage of this small community is literally, and figuratively, climbing mountains.

Eleven years ago the Calitz family arrived with the intention of raising their young family in rural freshness. They soon realised that the reality of life for the people of the valley was completely out of synch with this dream. “Maid, Spade or Fade,” is how Erika Calitz describes the opportunities available for locals. Combined with the emotional legacy of apartheid these limitations rendered feelings of futility and inadequacy among the inhabitants. Dysfunctional behaviour flourished.

It all began with a boy named Alfonso.

Alfonso was a loiterer. He hung around the farm watching the family’s every move. As time went by they became accustomed to his habitutal presence. Then one day the police arrived looking for him. The result: Alfonso was placed with the Calitz family as an alternative to going to juvenile prison. During the three years he lived with them, he went back to school, became a prefect and was much loved by fellow students and teachers. Since then Alfonso has flourished into a fine young man.

Alfonso set the stage. Over the years other youngsters have lived with the Calitz family, either voluntarily or placed with them through social welfare or the correctional services.

Understanding the desperate need for emotional anchorage, the Calitzes started holding casual meetings on Wednesday nights for the youth of the valley. They sat on the floor of their living room, shared stories, listened to music and sometimes watched inspiring movies – Forrest Gump was a favourite. Soon many parents started joining, and eventually, singing and praying also became part of the evening’s format.

But the Wednesday meetings weren’t enough. To give these kids a real chance, hope was needed. Thus the idea of a guided hiking trail over the massive and daunting Swartberg was born. At an average of over 2,000m high the range is a fitting symbol for the emotional mountains these youngsters take on.

Amidst much scepticism and downright obstructionism – “we survived death threats, stones lobbed at our cars, offensive and abusive language” – the Donkey Trail started in 2008. It’s a two day hike into a remote valley called Gamkaskloof. All the male staff are local. From camp hands to donkey trainers, lead guides to donkey operators they’ve all attended, at one time or another, the Wednesday meetings at the Calitz home.

The obvious attractions of the trail (a world biodiversity hotspot, spectacular scenery and quirky history) ensure a steady stream of travellers. Yet it is the palliative effect on damaged psyches that charms those who delve deeper. To hear a stutter of uncertainty turn into a clear, confident reply in just two days is heartwarming. “It’s rehab for my body, mind and soul,” explains Franklin Dido.

Moreover, this is a world class tourism experience. Attention to detail merges with thorough training and excellent equipment to ensure a high level of safety and enjoyment. It’s an example of empowerment tourism that really works.

There have been many challenges of course, but the lads are now looking beyond tomorrow, into a deeper brighter future. Interests in studying nature conservation, ornithology and rock art have been expressed. As has the wish to learn more about business management and tent and tack making.

As Erika Calitz says, “We cannot take our guides to the world, but we are bringing the world to them.” Each trail, each interaction, no matter how compassionate or difficult the guest might be, is a valuable lesson in the personal journeys of these young men.

Situated in a narrow strip known as the Strandveld, the Diamond Coast is host to many of the Succulent Karoo plant species – a global biodiversity hotspot.

The Succulent Karoo comprises 6,356 different plants, of which 40% are endemic. This in a harsh, arid environment, where one sheep requires 5,000 hectares of land to support it. The diversity is so extraordinary that you’ll find one species endemic to a small 100 square metre patch of earth.

The adaptations that all forms of life have made to survive in this harsh landscape are revelationary. The surprises take your breath away. For example, Euphorbia morantanica is a deciduous evergreen. Yes, that’s right it goes both ways! Losing its leaves in summer to reduce transpiration and retaining chlorophyll in its stem to continue photosynthesis. Or how about the Namaqua Dwarf Adder, the world’s smallest viper, that collects the fog rolling off the Atlantic Ocean on its scales to drink?

In the floral kingdom life-strategies and adaptations fall into two broad categories: evasion and tolerance. Generally the annuals, the flowering plants that Namaqualand is famous for, fall into the evasion category. They exhibit a rapid completion of their life cycle in a short, favourable period i.e. spring. Differing germination regulation mechanisms mean that not all species flower every year – there is a staggering of procreation over a series of years. One could also call it a sharing of the available resources . Other species produce two different kinds of seeds: one favourable to one set of germination conditions and another to a different set.

The succulents and stone plants generally fall into the tolerance category, where a thick outer skin and fewer stomata reduce water loss. Some have even adopted a different photosynthetic pathway and only take in carbon dioxide at night, when opening their stomata means a reduced loss of moisture. Others, called windowplants, actually withdraw under the soil allowing only a small “window” to protrude at soil level to let sunlight in.

It’s all quite mind-boggling. And extremely humbling.

It appears that this extraordinary tenacity and versatility has rubbed off on humans. Ancient middens provide proof of mankind’s presence up to 3,000 years ago. More recently, hardy settlers survive in Namaqualand’s harsh environment. It’s almost as if Namaqualanders realise that under such extreme conditions the smallest adaptation can make the difference to existence. That’s why you’ll find the people of Namaqualand incredibly helpful. If there’s anything they can do to help, they’ll do it. They know, to the core of their beings, just how priceless this phenomenon called Life is.

]]> http://www.clarissahughes.com/conservation/diamond-coast-%e2%80%93-arcane-world-of-miracles/feed/ 0 http://www.clarissahughes.com/sustainability/ke-nako-freewheeling-2010/ http://www.clarissahughes.com/sustainability/ke-nako-freewheeling-2010/#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:11:16 +0000 Clarissa http://www.clarissahughes.com/?p=502 Sjoe, it sure was a buzz. This year’s Freewheeling Festival was completely different to last year’s. Or maybe it was just me, having moved on from the initial “Wow, this is so cool,” phase, to “Right, what can we do about it?”

The organisers confirm that the feedback this year was about more do, less listen. The youth groups put it well: “We’ve got the energy, you (oldies!) have the wisdom. Let’s work together to make the world a better place to live.” It gave me goosebumps to hear that.

And while creativity, personal development and wellness were well represented in the array of workshops, there were many more (it seemed to me) sessions that were about doing.  The variety of presentations can be seen on their website and here’s a link to one that I particularly enjoyed, Martin Wigand’s, Future Money.

The beauty of Freewheeling is that it is inclusive. It recognises that people are drawn to different aspects of sustainability. As such the approach is holistic. In a world as fraught with the divisions and problems as the one we find ourselves in 2010, you can’t help but see hope in the Freewheeling ethos as a way forward for South Africa and the globe.

Yep, it sure is time. Ke Nako. The slogan of the FIFA World Cup applies just as well to Freewheeling. Let’s roll up those sleeves and do it. Now!

What is less on our minds is the fact that 2010 has been declared as the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity. The rapid loss in biodiversity on the planet gave rise to this attention-getting intiative. Species extinctions are almost a daily occurrence, and they are only the ones we know about – there are many more, unknown to science or beneath the surface of our awareness that we remain ignorant of. The real scary part is that these extinctions are, in almost all cases, caused by human beings.

The Bushmen have collided with this realisation – that biodiversity is important to safeguard our future – in their desire to remain on traditional land. When they lived as hunter/gatherers the impact on the land was minimal. However, things have changed and the former hunter/gatherers have now acquired livestock, drive vehicles and shoot game with rifles. This is their lifestyle choice. Their ecological footprint has increased signficantly from times of yore.

The situation in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana highlights this issue. The land the Bushmen wish to remain on is declared a game reserve. It receives an average of around 300 mm of rain each year. Desertification, caused by overgrazing livestock, is a real and imminent threat.

Parallel to this the Government of Botswana has long recognised, and implemented, a sound Tourism Policy that utilises the country’s natural resources in a sustainable manner. Tourism is a vehicle that provides benefits for its citizens into the future. The choice presented to the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari goes something like this: if you want to keep livestock you need to move out of the reserve; if you want to stay here then continue to live the true hunter/gatherer lifestyle or get involved in the tourism industry.

As the responsibility of preserving biodiversity falls to governments and citizens alike, the assumption that the Bushmen don’t understand the issues of sustainability is patronising, to say the least.

Which is not to say that we shouldn’t mourn the loss of the old way of hunter/gatherer lifestyles, along with the knowledge and skills that went with it. In light of the vanishing culture the preservation of that wisdom should be encouraged (e.g. museums, books, storytelling etc.). But it certainly is not up to outsiders to decide how the Bushmen should live.

So in this year of 2010, of African Pride, could there be an emerging trust that sometimes Africans do know what they’re on about?

The sustainable use of the Earth’s natural resources is a lesson the whole world needs to learn.

]]> http://www.clarissahughes.com/people-and-culture/biodiversity-and-bushmen-in-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.clarissahughes.com/spirituality/in-sickness-and-in-health/ http://www.clarissahughes.com/spirituality/in-sickness-and-in-health/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:34:28 +0000 Clarissa http://www.clarissahughes.com/?p=424 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.

So it is of great concern that the number of big cats in Africa is declining fast. In fact, so rapidly that the estimated number is less than the worldwide population of rhino (some 20,000 odd).

Caused by the usual culprit (habitat encroachment and all the corresponding issues around that) there is now another, more insidious, agent – the substitution of lion bones for tiger bones in traditional Chinese medicine. Ah yes, the downside of globalisation, I hear you say.

What does this bode for the psychological and spiritual health of Africans?

Many urbanised Africans are still relatively in touch with the natural world – they gather firewood, collect rainwater, cook outside, keep chickens and grow a mealie patch.

And so this destruction of the natural world as signalled by the decline in the continents predators is, I feel, more deleterious to Africans than to those cultures who’ve already become accustomed by centuries of separation from nature. It’s a wrench that is happening all too fast to be absorbed and integrated healthily in the collective African psyche.

Soliphilia is another neologism that descibes “the love of and responsibility (my emphasis) for a place, bioregion, planet and the unity of interrelated interests within it.”

As the rest of the developed world now realises it cannot separate itself from nature – that, in fact, nature needs to be nurtured if we are all to survive – is it not possible that culturally and spiritually a synergy could exist? Africa is still relatively connected. African culture bursts with beliefs and stories around its wildlife and rich natural heritage.

I see a great opportunity for mutual enlightenment and understanding on a deeper psychological level here. And this kind of recognition would do wonders for Africans’ self-esteem.

As the title of this piece suggests, we are married to the Earth. Physically, spiritually and everything in between. Never before has there been such an clarion call for us to fulfil our marital obligations. If we abandon our responsibility? Well then, Earth is in no way obligated to us, now is she?

While in Kenya he listened to the native drums, which asserted that all along the Swahili coast, fish stocks were on the increase.

The upsurge in Somali piracy has had an unintended benefit, fish numbers have started to revive, as fewer foreign trawlers are willing to risk East African waters.

What a difference to the usual consequence of African lawlessness, where plummeting numbers are the norm when the human wheels fall off (e.g. DRC and Zimbabwe).

The critical question, of course, is who is the plunderer?

Outsider (regional and foreign) rapaciousness is the killer. Sensible and controlled temperance is clearly a relief to natural resources and, by consequence, to the humans who rely directly upon them.

I can’t help but ask how Asians and Westerners would feel if Africans started stripping their natural resources. Would this be the moment, then, for Africa to take heed of the history lessons, and save the planet?

I asked her what she preferred being called, Bushman or San. And she answered in a definite tone, “Ek is ‘n Boesman.” I am a Bushman. This apparently started a thought train going because she then went on to explain that really her people were Tsaasi (I’ve spelt it phonetically) and that she was a Khomani Tsaasi.

“Tsaasi?”

“Ja, ons is die mense van die tsaa.” We are the people of the tsaa.  Tsaasi.

“And what is a tsaa?” I enquired.

With great meaning resonating in her voice she explained that Tsaa was the eland, an antelope of profound importance to the Bushmen.  When it cries it sounds like a human being, she continued; and I understood there is a deep psychological identification with this animal.  Her lively eyes, set deep in a lined, apricot face, sparkled as she explained that an eland’s dewlap provided really good medicine.  Eating the fatty meat and wearing the skin of the dewlap would protect like nothing else.

It was so clear to me that she regarded herself and her kinsmen as People of the Tsaa, that I wondered about the other names bestowed on these gentle folk.  “Bushman” was obviously imposed by outsiders, but the politically correct “San” seemed odd, and I couldn’t really see how San would link to Tsaa. Then I thought about the Setswana name, Basarwa. The Ba prefix denotes the meaning People of.    So “People of the Sarwa” seemed closer to what she called herself.

It was time for me to go and I was thinking about a suitable farewell when the Setswana phrase “Sala Sentlê” bubbled up and came out my mouth. Ouma Khunna looked at me quizzically. “Oa bua Setswana?”  You speak Setswana?   I explained that it was very rudimentary Setswana and that I hadn’t practiced for years.  But there was no stopping her.

It was like opening a dam wall. “Oh, dis ‘n besonderlike land, daardie.”  It’s an exceptional country, that.   If she wasn’t so old, she said, she would go and live there.  And I knew that something had touched her in our conversation because she then opened up with a very personal story.  I could see her relatives were nervous about the reception the story would receive.  Would I laugh?  Would I dismiss it as nonsense?  On the contrary, I felt extraordinarily privileged.  It was a story of such personal meaning that I will treasure it forever.

Thank You, Ouma Khunna.

Dignity and respect are mentioned in at least two southern African countries “Visions” that I know of.  Botswana and Lesotho.  Could it be that this will become a worldwide phenomenon?  Global civility.

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.

The challenges are well documented: food and water scarcity, climate change, increasing violence and crime due to desperation and a sense of hopelessness. It’s inevitable.

But how do we humans deal with this impending turbulence and loss? Physically we are well equipped: we have lots of forewarning (thanks to science), we have incredibly fast communication systems (effective in our response times) and we have a good historical knowledge database (we know from previous experience what works and what doesn’t).  That takes care of the doing side of things.

And then there is our humanity, where our responses will be shaped by who we are, where our being determines our action. It is well recognised that the human spirit finds fulfilment in adverse conditions. Or put another way our lived experience is more important than the conditions we live in, so that by exploring our being dimension we can have a better experience of the turbulent times to come.

If we were to track human history against the growth of an individual we could say we are in the adolescent stage. We have an untidy global bedroom right now. It’s time to grow up.

So what are these signs of the emergent human consciousness?
The transition towns movement and its extrapolation is an early sign. We are also seeing a change in values, especially in the West, as indicated by an increase in altruism and philanthropy. It’s important to note that values change over time and across different cultures and are shaped by conditions of living. For example private wealth creating agendas in the face of collective struggle (e.g. WW2, apartheid and the forthcoming civil turbulence) would have been and will be unconscionable.

Where does Africa sit in all of this? How people respond to crises depends on communities and their leadership and in Africa we are seeing the emergence of a new kind of African leader in the form of Khama, Kikwete, Mills and Sirleaf. Are our communities ready for change? It is important that communities are not driven by fear but rather a genuine wish for a new spirituality. Historically Africa has displayed openness to transformation and new ideas. While recently researching Lake Ngami in Botswana, I learned that Chief Lechoalathebe requested that missionaries be sent up from the Moffat Church at Kuruman, a fine example of being mentally and spiritually mature to transformation.

If Africans can tap into that historical receptivity there is no reason why her societies will not make the most of the forthcoming turbulence. Blaming the West for everything won’t cut it; a genuine revival of that mature spirit, so well demonstrated in the past, will be required.

And it’s not only a one-way street where Africa does the learning – not at all. Before us we have a great opportunity for a reciprocall learning experience where Africa teaches how to live a fulfilling life without all the materialistic stuff , the desire for which has become so entrenched elsewhere. Many Africans live close to Nature, whereas other continents have lost touch with her. Through Africa’s teachings we can relearn respect for the environment and for each other. I remember being moved by a Balozi family greeting ritual where each and every family member was honoured individually with three kisses on the palm of the hand. If we can get that kind of respect back into our societies we’ll be well on the way to a new human consciousness.

The population issue is one that I’ve mentioned before but it’s a subject that can ably emphasise a shift in consciousness. Instead of seeing population control/self-control as a rebellion (adolescent term) against our innate nature, what if we saw it as a gift to others and to life’s biodiversity? The theme of self-sacrifice is universal and appears in most of the major religions.  If we have issues around being dictated to, or controlled, what if we were to see population self-control as empowering and enabling to our children and to others? It’s also possible that we need a quantum of souls incarnate for transformation to work.

So some inner work is before us, where we need to reframe our questions, often widening them up, towards more openness and a new consciousness. It’s happening, and it’s easier to work with it than against it.