Songs the Body Knows

In the beginning of all things,
wisdom and knowledge were with the animals;
for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly
to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed
himself through the beasts, and that from them,
and from the stars and the sun and the moon,
man should learn. Tirawa spoke to man through his works.

                                                                        Chief Letakots-Lesa, Pawnee
(from Historical Atlas of World
Mythology, Vol. I  by Joseph Campbell)

SONGS OF THE ANIMAL BODY

We depend upon our animals for food & clothing, companionship & pleasure. Yet – in our efforts to provide them with the best of care – we often anthropomorphize their feeling and needs…and provide them with living conditions that are incompatible with their very nature. When confronted with challenging conditions or experiences, an animal experiences an inner stress that may manifest in disorders such as abnormal behaviors (e.g. excessive grooming in dogs, tail biting in pigs), reproductive problems, susceptibility to disease, injury and even death.

Stress-related disorders often reflect an inner disharmony within the animals. As practiced by herding cultures throughout the world – and verified scientifically – specific patterns of sound and rhythm are capable of restoring an animal’s inner harmony. In this workshop, participants will be invited to access the ancestral pool of wisdom that unites human and animal…and to draw from that pool the specific patterns of sound and rhythm capable of restoring the  inner harmony of their animals.

We would get a song from the singing of birds
and the voices of different kinds of animals.
There is song in everything.
   -Me-dee-kes, Tsimshian First Nation
(from Up and Down the North Pacific Coast by Canoe and Mission Ship by
Rev. Thomas Crosby, 1914)