SHAMAN'S VISION: an Exuberant Animal Publication
Frank Forencich, Chief creative officer, Exuberant Animal

Light was fading on the grassland as the day drew to a close. Vibrant bands of color streaked the sky, dancing reds and orange illuminating the distant mountains. The raging thunderstorms of the afternoon were quiet now, with just an occasional spark of lightning flashing on the horizon. Vast herds of animals grazed in the distance while lazy birds soared overhead.

The tribe was gathering around the fire as it often did, eager to share stories of the day’s adventures. The day had been a good one, with a successful hunt and a productive gathering of roots, nuts and berries. A small team had gone forth to the south and returned with a young kudu antelope which they roasted and consumed with vigor.

There were some 40 people in this tribe, a rag-tag band of family and assorted strangers that had drifted in over the years. They had suffered much together – a long drought, wildfires, and occasional attacks by predators – but they held together and cared for one another as best they could. Like any tribe, they had their share of strife, but when times were hard they came together in solidarity.

As the darkness descended, an old man entered the circle and squatted by the fire. He was a shaman of sorts, although no one thought of him as such. He was simply an old man of exceptional power and knowledge. His vision was legendary.

The man’s body was withered and wrinkled, his left arm hanging limp and useless after a savage mauling by a lion many years ago. He could no longer hunt, but his word was held in high regard. He was the one who knew where the animals lived, how to prepare the poison for the arrows, and how to find water in the dry season. In large measure, it was his knowledge that kept them alive.

The old man had saved the tribe on several occasions, once when he drove them to safety in the face of a raging wildfire, another when he brought them to hidden water during a brutal drought. He was a man of few words, but those words carried great weight. When he spoke, the people listened.

"Come together now, and I shall tell you of my vision."

The tribe grew silent, all eyes turned in his direction, all ears tuned to his voice. For a long time he was silent as well, his eyes closed. Very softly, he sang to himself, a song that he had learned from his ancestors many years ago –a song to gather the spirit. Finally, he opened his eyes, looked into the faces of his people and began to speak.

" I have had a powerful vision. You must know this. Days ago, as I slept, I saw a future that is coming to our land and will soon be upon us. A new world is coming. You must hear these words and prepare yourselves. The survival of the tribe depends upon it."

The old man paused, looking into the spirits of his people. He knew that this story was different, a story unlike any other he had told before. Would they believe? Would they hear his words with their hearts? He gathered his memory and began to speak:

"It was late. The night was cloudy and the sky was low, as if wrapped inside another night, another circle of darkness. I sat on a hilltop, gazing out, seeking my guides, but they faded from sight, shimmering, then disappearing altogether. I had been there for 3 days, waiting, knowing that something was to come to me."

"The night deepened and I began to feel a weight upon my chest, then my entire body. Heavier and heavier it seemed until I could scarcely breathe. My body struggled and I called out to the ancestors. I was afraid."

"Just then, as I felt I could no longer bear the weight, I found myself standing in another land. And now, I could see clearly, with my eyes, my ears, my skin; I was in a new world, a strange world unlike our own."

The tribe was transfixed. They had heard many visions before of course, but this was somehow different. There was an urgency in the shaman’s voice, a sense of life and death. This was no ordinary dream.

"I saw people everywhere - many, many people" he continued, "but the land was gone. No, not gone, but covered and hacked into small pieces. I saw trees and dirt and water, but not in their natural order. The land was no longer whole – it was broken. It was as if a giant hand had come to the land, changing and moving everything."

"I was in this world for many long days and nights. How long I can not be sure. I walked and wandered alone. There were people everywhere, all around me, but no one could sense my presence. My body was invisible to them – they could not hear me speak. My spirit was confused and in turmoil. I was fascinated, curious, and terrified. At times I was filled with great wonder, but also a great sadness. You will not believe my words when I tell you of this world. But you must believe me. You must."

No one spoke. The people were awed by the shaman’s story and the power of his voice. They looked into his face and he knew that they would hear his words.

"The land was covered with wide stone paths and there were huts everywhere. The huts were far bigger than our own, and some were giant huts that reached all the way to the sky. Some were made of stone and big enough to hold many, many tribes."

"Most of the people spent all of their time in these huts, never coming out. Sometimes they would come out to the land, but then turn around and go back into their huts."

"The people did not walk on the land as we do. They did not walk much at all. Instead, they were masters of a strange kind of animal. It was a rhino animal, but not as we know it. The people could get inside the rhinos and move from place to place. The rhinos seemed to go wherever the people wanted them to go, but they traveled on the wide stone pathways that covered the land. Sometimes the rhinos were as fast as antelope, but other times they gathered in vast herds on the stone paths and hardly moved at all."

"The people also traveled inside huge birds with wings that didn’t move. These birds were so loud that it made my ears hurt and my head ache. Where they flew to, I do not know."

The people of the tribe were dumbstruck. No one could believe such a thing. It was impossible.

"I tried to breathe, but the air was foul. The rhinos on the stone paths made the air stink. And then there was the sound. It was loud and it was everywhere, all around me. The rhinos thundered on the stone paths all day and night. There was no quiet anywhere. I had to cover my ears, but the people did not seem to notice."

"I tried to get away to the land, but there was nowhere to go. I tried to walk alongside the stone pathways, and once I tried to cross to the other side, but I was attacked by the rhinos! I escaped by running, but I never ventured out onto the stone paths again."

"I wandered for hours, but I saw no game, no animals. I saw small birds, but no lions. There were no hyenas, no snakes, no big creatures. Nothing to hunt."

The old man paused and sang softly once again, gathering his breath and his spirit. A shadow passed over his face, but it faded and he began to speak again.

"My spirit was sad, but the people didn’t seem to care about the way they lived. They walked from hut to hut, never looking up, never looking out, never checking the wind or smelling the air. Most of them spent their time talking into their hands, talking as if there were people in their hands that could hear their words. And many people had plugs in their ears and could not hear the wind or the earth."

"As I wandered in and out of the huts, I saw many of the people looking at magic lights. I could see many things in the light – there were people and animals and colors and shapes, but it was all light, nothing more. None of it was real. But the people watched and watched and watched. They could not look away. They lived for the magic light. No matter what happened to them, they always went back to the magic light to see what it would say."

"As I wandered in this world I noticed that the people were weak, in body and spirit. Their bodies were broken. Their bellies were huge and looked ready to burst. They did not stand proud. They struggled to walk. They were bent over, eyes down as if carrying great rocks on their shoulders. They seemed like strangers to their own bodies, uncomfortable in their skin. Many of them seemed sick. I saw only a few bodies that might be able to hunt."

The night deepened and the first stars began to appear, glorious in their brilliance and color. Creatures of the night began to stir, venturing out in search of food and water. A light breeze kicked up the fire, but no one noticed. Every ear was tuned to the shaman’s voice.

"As I watched the people come and go from their huts, I saw that they used their bodies in very strange ways. Their feet never touched the earth. They had skins wrapped around their feet, even when in their huts, so they could not feel the ground. And all around them, everything was smooth. Even the rocks were smooth and inside the huts, everything was smooth. There were smells here and there, some wonderful, but many were terrible, and none of them of the land."

"Some of the people did move their bodies, but it was not hunting or dancing. They went to a special hut that they said was made for moving. And they plugged up their ears and watched the magic lights as they walked on paths that didn’t move, and climbed up hills that went nowhere. They seemed alone and miserable; they never laughed or played or sang. They sweated, then went back to their rhinos that moved on stone paths and then looked at their magic lights again."

"I grew hungry and I watched as the people ate. The people always had food with them. It was in their huts and in their rhinos, and they had to do nothing to get it. No walking, no hunting, no tracking, no digging, no scavenging. The food was always there. But they seemed not to notice. They simply ate whenever they wanted to, wherever they happened to be. They just ate, and no matter how much they ate they always seemed to want more. They even had special huts, places they could go where other people would just bring them whatever kind of food they wanted."

"Their food came from far away, they said. It came in the rhinos and the big birds. The things they ate were very strange to me. Some of them said that the food made them sick, but they ate it anyway. Why did they do this? I do not know."

"Many of the people were sick, but they didn’t know what to do. They had forgotten how to be alive. Some of them swallowed magic potions. Some of them went to a hut to see a shaman, but all the shamans did was look at the magic lights. Everyone seemed worried about their bodies. There were cures for every sickness they said, but still, people were sick everywhere."

"As I watched the people in this new world, I noticed that their tribes were scattered. People were all mixed up, coming and going, never staying together for long. People talked to one another, then walked away. Sometimes they would come back, but sometimes not. There was no circle at night, no drumming, no dancing. Sometimes they would gather around one another, but only for a short time, and then go away again. They lived like birds in broken flocks."

"The people had forgotten that they depended on one another to stay alive. They fought with one another in so many ways. And so their tribes fell apart, and they wandered, looking for someone to talk to, someone to live with. There was distrust and fear and loneliness."

"I watched the children and I became sad. They hardly ever played. Most of them just looked at the magic lights all day, just sitting. They didn’t laugh or sing or tell stories. The children hardly ever left their huts. The adults were afraid to let them go outside. Everyone seemed afraid, but I could not tell what they were afraid of or why."

"As I wandered, I discovered that people had forgotten about the land, the plants and the animals. No one spoke of these things, no one paid attention to the wind or the light as it crossed the land. No one sniffed the air. But how can one live without the land and the animals? How can one ignore the weather, the plants and the world? They said that they got everything they needed from the magic lights, but I think not."

"Some people did speak of the land. They told stories that the land and animals were in danger, that everything would die if nothing was done. Something was wrong with the world itself, they said, something was out of balance. Something had to be done they said, and they worried. But they talked about the world, as if it belonged to them, and that if they did the right things, they could fix it. I could not understand this."

"I tried to tell them our story. I tried to tell them how to live, but they could not hear me. I wanted them to know about the land and the ancestors and the animals that we know. I talked and shouted, but still they could not hear me. And then, just as I thought that I might be known, I woke up on the hill. It was dawn. I was exhausted and did not move until the sun was high. It took me 3 days to recover my strength."

The people stared in silent wonder, trying to understand this story of this strange world. As the fire burned down, a young man added sticks and coaxed the flame back to life. A shooting star streaked across the sky and in the distance, the lions began to roar. They waited for the shaman to speak again, as they knew he would.

"That was my vision. I know it to be the future, our future. It will be here soon. It is sad and it is dangerous – to our tribe and to our bodies. This much I know. The world will be transformed and you will be living in this world soon, trying to survive."

"This new land will be confusing and strange. There will be many wonders, but many dangers to your spirit and your body. This new world will challenge you in ways that you can scarcely imagine, and so you must remain strong. These are the things that you must do..."

"First, you must stay strong in your bodies, no matter what happens. The new world will try to take your energy, your vitality, and your life. It will take away your hunting, your walking, and your dance. You must not allow this to happen."

"Above all, you must move! You must move often and with vigor, every day if you can manage it. People will try to keep you in your hut, but you must say "NO." You must get out and move. Hunting will be difficult, but you can walk. You can run. You can dance."

"The new world will try to keep you apart from the land, the sky, the water and the animals. It will try to hold you captive. But you must get out! Do not go to the hut with the path that goes nowhere. Do not walk on the hill that stays in one place. Go to the land, the hills, the mountains and the water. Travel long distances, suffer as you must, but go to the wild lands, the hills, the grasslands and the mountains. See the sky and the animals. Walk long trails and sleep under the stars. Rub your body up against the world."

"You must be careful what you eat. The new world will have many things to eat, but many of them will be poisonous. It will be hard to tell by taste and touch, so you must be careful. Some of the food that tastes the best will make you sick."

"This will sound like crazy talk to you, but you must eat food. There will be many things in your new world that look like food and even taste good to you, but you must not eat them. The new food is NOT food. Eat wild foods when you can find them, but you will have to look hard."

"The new world will be noisy and will bring turmoil to your body and your spirit. You must find quiet times and quiet places, places where you can hear the land and the wind."

"Above all, you must find a tribe and keep it alive. The new world will try to scatter you and divide you from your family and friends. It will keep you isolated and alone, unless you go to the people. Choose your tribe carefully and seek out those who are strong. Do not give up your life to the magic light. Talk to one another, laugh and touch. Tell stories and speak of your dreams. Celebrate, rejoice, and dance. These are the things that you must do."

The old man began to sing softly, and the people knew that he had finished his story. But no one spoke. No one could believe what they had just heard, and no one could question it. This new story, this new world, it struck them senseless. How could they prepare themselves? How could they live in a land so different from their own?

Finally, a little boy spoke the words that all had been wondering. "Will you be there? In this new world? To guide us?"

The old man smiled to himself… "I hope so, my friend. There is no way to know what may happen when this time comes, but whatever we do, we must find one another. Look hard and use your hunting skills. Stay strong and keep looking for your tribe. Whatever happens, we must find one another."

The stars blazed overhead and the galaxies drifted. A meteor streaked across the sky and all looked upward. The lions roared again, and elephants called out. The fire burned low and the people’s minds were filled with awe, each one wondering, "How will we fare in this new adventure?"

(pelinks4u home)