John Seed and the Council of All Beings Part III
(Page 6 of 10)
May/June 1989
By Pat Stone
That's what the Council of All Beings is. Joanna Macy and I developed it to help people gain this kind of passionate identification. You see, it doesn't matter if I learn that 55 million or 45 million rain-forest acres are being destroyed each year instead of 50 million. What's relevant is that I realize that it's my planetI'm part of it and it's a part of me and thus decide to throw my life behind protecting its diversity, complexity and beauty.
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I'VE SINCE THOUGHT BACK UPON MY experience at the Council. The first part of the weekend consisted of a range of exercises: a Cherokee sunrise dance, guided visualizations, nature explorations, reading a eulogy for animals-even reenacting our species' evolutionary progression (an exercise that included slithering, snakelike, on the ground). Saturday afternoon, we were instructed to go off in the woods, seek an "ally" to represent at the Council, then come back and create a mask for that creature or force.
I wanted to be Soil or Water, two obviously significant aspects of our planet. But after I settled atop a big boulder in a thicket of firs and ferns, a remarkable progression of insects walked on me, landed on me or buzzed by me. Finally, when four different ones rested on my four limbs-and a fifth, my noseI took the hint. I went down to camp and made a mask of a generic, all-purpose bug.
The next day, 13 of us masked creatures gathered in a circle. We put two humans in the center and then aired our grievances against this shortsighted and inconsiderate species. The first, Mountain Lion, circled the humans on all fours, growling, reprimanding, screaming and crying with grief. We each, in turn, talked about ourselves and expressed fear, bewilderment and anger toward the humans.
Later, we changed tacks and, one by one, offered advice and gifts of some quality we possessed. When the humans humbly accepted these offerings, we all broke into a circle dance. The Council ended on this positive note, and we moved over to a campfire, where we burned our masks to "release" the spirits we had represented.
MOTHER: John, you wrote once that the Council of All Beings "prepares and allows people to hear within themselves the sound of the earth crying." I should admit, though, that while I got a lot out of the Council we just held, I didn't have a transcendent experience.
Seed: I was a little disappointed, too. I think this has probably been the least intense of all the Councils I've held in the States. I'm not really sure why. Perhaps it's because my own energy has been really low the past couple of daysI've been a bit washed-out and depressed. Maybe it's because many of the people here are Earth First! activists who've participated in direct actions for wilderness and already have ecological identities. I've always felt that the highest-and fastest working-form of community therapy is for people to actually put their lives on the line for wilderness.
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