Self Nature Spirit from Alexander Stratford on Vimeo.
It’s not what you look at, but more about if you truly see nature.
As we head into 2011, I thought I’d start the year with a simple message to open our minds and hearts to the wisdom that surrounds us. The wisdom that is nature and the need for community in moving towards awareness of how we are impacting the earth.
All any of us can do is point to the signs that nature provides us. It is up to each and every person to realize that we have a responsibility to future generations. If you are not spiritually connected to nature and do not understand the reality of living in harmony with natural law then chances are you will not make it.
The eagles in this video are perched so as to see in all directions. It was only 20 degrees at the time, and because I have learned to approach them in a respectful manner they allowed me to photograph them. The eagles are conserving energy by being still and keeping their wings wrapped around their bodies. They follow the million years of instinct and evolution for survival they have developed through time.
Spiritual awareness starts with the realization that everything has spirit. Spirit is the life force inside all plants and animals. To follow a shamanic path is simply to realize that our relationship to nature is deeply personal and significant in our lives and to begin to understand how it has meaning for us. We need to see the signs and symbols in nature just as a doctor sees signs and symptoms in our bodies and then guides us towards changes we need to make.
It is said that the eagle’s power is spiritual because it flies closest to the upper world of spirit. That which is closest to spirit is most healing and therefore the eagle represents spiritual healing. Of course this is not the symbology of eagles taught in our schools or portrayed in our media. We have only been taught man’s interpretation of eagles as Apex predators and competition for resources. We have not learned the true nature of eagles or the significance of natural law. We have only celebrated the eagles power and strength and made it our symbol of freedom, all the while killing it will guns, cutting down its nest and perch tree’s, and poisoning the food chain it lives in and depends on for survival.
As I continue the Lily Point Calling Campaign in 2011 I will be pointing out many things that the eagles have taught me, and how they have led me to follow a different path. I will only be pointing the way towards this path, and whether or not you follow it will be up to you.
Perhaps Chief Seattle said it best when he said that man did not create the web of life but that he is merely one strand of it. What we do to the birds (eagles) and the beasts, we do to ourselves. I so appreciate and honour your eagle reflections. Thank you, Alex. At Wreck Beach, they teach their young to hunt by performing aerial aerobatics far above the crowds in pursuit of seagulls. The tree which GVRD cut in the so-called name of safety near Marine Drive was their ages-old hunting perch. One had to be careful not to have seagull bits and pieces like feet or wings fall upon your head. Nature has many lessons for us but the International Naturist Federation’s main tenet is for naturists to always live in harmony with and respect nature, ourselves, and others. I’ve tried to fashion my life accordingly.
Thanks Alex.