The Web of Life Part 4: Offerings

The apecheta is now a part of the land. It is a reminder that while we can create something beautiful and meaningful, nothing is ever complete. There is always more.

After collecting all our belongings and making sure that the land was taken care of, we wandered back to the sanctuary. It was time to say goodbye to the animals and travel over to Annette’s home where I was to meet other beings I would allow into my heart. She has adopted two turkeys who sauntered up to her as soon as we arrived. The male was especially making his presence known, telling us he was clearly in charge of that property!

Inside the barn, I met her huge draft horse. Annette’s husband Kevin brought over a ladder and helped me shimmy up onto this incredible and gentle being. Of course, I fell in love with him! While there, I also met her pet pigs, goat and dog all of whom have free run of the land and are treated with love and respect. This is how I would want to be treated if I had come into this world as a four-legged being!

Annette and Kevin then gave me an offering in reciprocation for coming to spend time listening to the land. They took me for a wonderful meal and Mary Jane happily joined us. While eating good food in good company, we recapped the day and all the opportunities it had presented. By the end of the meal, I was quite satisfied. The day had been more than I had hoped for and both my belly and heart were full!

We said our goodbyes and soon I was on my way home. So many thoughts were running through my head. Annette was making such a big difference in the world caring for the animals who don’t have a voice in how they are treated. Humans tend not to think about that which they think doesn’t affect them, that which they don’t see or understand.

My mind wandered here and there and then back to the cornmeal sacred hoop, which represents the web of life. We truly are all connected! What happens to any one of us, as well as any being, really does affect everyone else in the world on some level. The butterfly effect is an example of this concept. Edward Lorenze, who coined this phrase, came to realize that a hurricane’s formation and path can be influenced by the slight flutter of a butterfly’s wings a continent away and weeks apart. If this small and unassuming act can ultimately change the course of nature, imagine what we each produce with every act we initiate! We can either choose acts of destruction or acts of kindness. Either of these cause effects far beyond our imaginations!

Consider also the spider’s web. It is both strong in the fact that it holds together even when a robust wind blows and, at the same time, it is vulnerable in that one small movement sends a wave throughout the entire web.

The great web of life is the macrocosm of the spider’s web. Whatever happens, no matter how minute we believe an action may be, ripples throughout the entirety of the web. The question for me becomes, “How do I personally choose to affect that web?” Remembering that everything has come from the stars and that we are all related; humans, animals, plants and inanimate objects alike, I choose to honor ALL that is. I choose to make a difference that adds to the web of life.

Making a Difference

There are ways that I consciously choose to make a difference in the world, to add to the web of life. I respect and honor other human beings by sending metta, or universal love, to all people everywhere, even those who believe that I am their enemy. Metta is the Buddhist word for loving-kindness. With metta, I wish all beings safety, success and happiness, for when people are genuinely happy, they are more likely to be at peace and inner peace creates a healthy planet.

Shamanism has brought me ever closer to animals in that I want to learn about them and understand the ways in which they live so that my life may be more in tune with theirs. Watching the way an animal responds to life often helps me respond better in situations. When an unexpected animal crosses my path, I look up its totem medicine to see what message it has for me that will benefit me at that time. In seeing all animals as sacred, I treat them with more respect.

I also choose to recycle and reuse. When I am in nature, I clean up after myself and others. When eating, I honor the food by giving thanks to the beings and plants that gave up their life so that I may be nourished.

Personally, I like the idea of offering myself back to the earth by having a green burial when I die. Without being embalmed, I will be wrapped in simple biodegradable material and placed in either a cardboard or basic pine box that is perhaps decorated by my loved ones with meaningful images and symbols. There is a natural green cemetery within an hour’s drive from where I live where I will be interred. The setting will be lush and I will have a simple flat natural stone to designate where my body was given back to nature.

While upon the earth, I gently and honorably partake of that which nourishes me. When I return to the earth, I become nourishment for those that nourished me. Reciprocity is the chain of life. From the earth I come and to the earth I shall return…back into the stardust…my original form.

I also give back to the land elementals, the Faerie Folk and all those who care for nature behind the scenes. Years ago, I made a promise that I would honor them each month at the full moon. There are many ways to honor the fey. I offer food and song.

On a fancy dessert size silver plate I place a piece of good bread cut into small pieces along with some cheese. If I have ginger candy, they receive that and if not perhaps a ginger snap or other cookie. In a silver-plated goblet, I pour some warm milk with melted butter and honey. All this is than placed on a silver tray that I take outside and place where the Faerie Folk are sure to find it. I then look around me and take in all that they have created and send gratitude to them for the work they do. I also thank them for working with me in my shamanic practice.

I then sing a song to them that they gave to me a couple of years ago when visiting a faerie shrine. Upon entering the shrine, I had asked them to give me a sign that they were there and this simple yet beautiful song immediately came to me. The lyrics, which I sing three times, go like this:

Sing, dance and be merry! Sing ye! And be merry!

Sing, dance and be merry! Sing dance be merry!

The Elementals and nature spirits have other ways of sharing themselves with us…if we take the time to honor them. Here is a true story of what happened while visiting the Fairy Trail at Lily Dale, New York with two of my dear friends a couple of years ago.

In the earthy hollow of an ancient tree stump situated on a mound in the heart of the woodland, my friends Kathy and Victoria and I had just set out our offering. Crystals, lavender, rosebuds, and other sundry items were lovingly placed in honor of the Faerie Folk who inhabit that sacred land. A wee jumping frog appeared in time to affirm our presentation while we three held hands and sang songs of gratitude for their divine work.

We had come to Lily Dale, New York, to honor the Nature Spirits and these wonderful beings who, behind the scenes and undaunted by mortals, have continued to care for Mother Earth since time immemorial. They’ve graciously done so to make life habitable for all who live here.

As we then continued along the trail, we happened upon a tree, somewhat off the beaten path, that we instantly recognized as a sacred being. Captivated, we were drawn to her. We instinctively wrapped our arms around her and spoke loving words into her. We breathed with her and she with us.

Afterwards, to record our extraordinary experience, I photographed the area. Upon reviewing the panoramic image, we were stunned by what we saw! There, in front of the tree, was a tall, wispy, lavender image. Could it be that the spirit of the tree chose to honor us in return for our offerings?

That experience in Lily Dale, along with those that occurred at Happy Trails will stay with me for the rest of my life! I feel honored to be a part of a world in which magic happens in so many wonderful ways! We simply need to become aware of the magic, the small miracles, that take place right before our eyes.

I also feel honored to be in the world with so many good people who are willing to make a difference. People, like Annette and Mary Jane, who acknowledge the sacredness of all life and live to bring balance and peace to Pachamama and to all beings.

My teacher and friend, Patrick McCollum recently stated that, “