The Feather Guides

Transcription

The Feather Guides

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Gabriel Hartmann
The Feather Guides: From Climate War to Climate Peace
To the Featherguides,
the Sovereign Rulers of the World
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A flock of Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) at the beach, Limantour Spit, California.
© Copyright Pat Ulrich. Image source: http://flickr.com/photos/wetlanddoc/
"Did you ever watch a flock of sandpipers on the beach, how they ebb
and flow with the tides, becoming at times not a gathering of individual
animals but one organism, moving as a unit together along the surf?
When they burst into flight, their cohesiveness is even more startling
and wondrous. At once they all will be flying in a certain direction, and
then in an instant the entire flock will turn simultaneously and take a
new direction.
"Studied closely, there is no one bird that makes the decision to turn, but
it seems to be a Spirit, a collective consciousness, that runs through the
flock instantly. When viewed from afar, the flock appears to be one
animal, one organism, one consciousness, governed by the collective
force and Spirit of all the individuals. It is this same consciousness that
runs through man, Nature and the Earth – that which we call the
'Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things', or the 'life force'.
"I suspect that it is but one bird that creates the thought that turns the
flock, and the one thought becomes immediately manifested in all the
others. The individual then transcends self and becomes one with the
whole. Thus, at once, the bird moves within the flock and the flock
moves within the bird. So, then, do not ask what you can do to affect the
life force in a positive way, for the same Spirit that moves within the
birds also moves within you. One person, one idea, one thought can turn
the flock of society away from the destructive path of modern times. It
is not a question as to whether we make a difference, for we all make a
difference, each of us in our own way. It is the difference that we make
that is important."
– The wise Apache ‘Grandfather’
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Reviews from Scientists
“The thesis introduces and discusses an impressive body of
empirical data, some of it from own observations. At several
points, interesting insights are offered, e.g. in the comparison
of American and South-Asian Indians. […] The main theme of
the thesis is highly original […]. The idea of focusing on how
indigenous people such as certain American Indians and
South-Asian Indians protect the health of nature, and forests in
particular, through spiritual identification with nature, and
particularly birds, is challenging and potentially rewarding.”1
– Prof. Dr. Michael Brzoska,
Scientific Director, Institute for Peace Research and
Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany
„In the following text different examples for the significance
of feathers in Indian culture are presented and a correlation
between the possession of feathers and power – including
Divine power – is established.“
– Dr. Jobst-Michael Schröder,
Head of Department “Sustainable Forest Management”,
Institute for World Forestry, Hamburg, Germany
“Congratulations on the completion of your degree. The
world is very progressive now and I'm happy that you found
a fit for your work.”
– Carla Dove, Ph.D.,
Head of the Feather Identification Laboratory,
National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
1
Excerpts from a longer critical statement.
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Reception by Indigenous Leaders
Haru Xynã Kuntanawa (left) and his father Univu Kuntanawa (right), two Feather
Guides from the Neotropic, verified the validity of the statements in this thesis from the
perspective of their Indigenous cosmology and bestowed it with authenticity.
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Overview of Content
Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………5
Preface…………………………………………………………….……………..…...7
0. Introduction………………………………………………………………………...9
Unprecedented event in world history
Skeptic’s arguments discharged
Natural regulation unlikely
Critical limit of 6°C within possible range
Warning of the IPCC
Gaia is dying
Emerging climate-induced conflicts
The vision of the Apache ‘Grandfather’
Scope of this study
1. Climate War………………………………………………………………………16
First use of the term ‘climate war’
Military climate war
Psychological climate war
Contemporary use of the term ‘climate war’
The dethronement of Nature
Working definition of climate war
Climate war – a classical environmental conflict?
2. Climate Peace…………………………………………………………………..21
Original lifestyle of humans
Different positions of humans towards Nature
First use of the term ‘climate peace’
Working definition of climate peace
Life in accord with Nature
Humans as caretakers of the Earth
Indian Life – an example of life in accord with Nature
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3. A Model of Consciousness………………………………………….……………25
The four levels of consciousness
Value formation from consciousness
Evolution through the four phases of consciousness
Indians on the highest level of consciousness
Similarity of American Indians and Asian Indians
Indians have reached the highest level of consciousness through feathers
4. The Indian View of Nature……………………………………………………….30
The eye of the heart
Singing in Nature
Humanization of Nature
The Indians’ relationship with trees
The Indian’s relationship with animals
Totem animals and spirit animals
Communication with spirit animals
The Indians’ relationship with birds
The Indians’ relationship with the Earth
Indian social organization
5. The Path of the Feather…………………………………………………………42
Feathers as the origin of Indian culture
The Feather Initiation
The Sun Quest through feathers
Earning more feathers
Feathers as gifts from Nature and from people
Wish-fulfilling feathers
The Eagle Dance
The Feathered Sun
The Sun as the primary lifegiver
Identification with the Sun
The Sun Dance
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6. The Feather Guides……………………………………………………………..54
Definition of ‘Feather Guides’
The three dimensions of ‘Feather Guides’
Authorship of the Feather
Authority of the Feather
Authenticity of the Feather
Feather Guides can fly
Feather Guides of the American Indians
Feather Guide of the Asian Indians
7. A Case Study of Sustainable Forestry……………………………………………63
The importance of forests for mitigating climate war
Engage the Indians as caretakers of the world’s forests?
The Menominee Indians
The Feather Guide’s advise to the Menominee Indians
Indian sustainable forest management
Turnover rate in Indian forest management
Protecting the ‘grandfather tree’
Contributions to the debate on forest preservation:
Indian selective silviculture
Contributions to the debate on saving civilization
8. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..……70
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...71
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Acknowledgement
First and foremost, I would like to thank my two supervisors, Professor Dr. Michael
Brzoska, the Director of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the
University of Hamburg, and Dr. Jobst-Michael Schröder from the Institute of
World Forestry in Hamburg for their wise and gracious guidance. Professor Brzoska
helped me to sort out my divergent thoughts with his brilliant intellect and invited me to
participate in a conference on the security risks of climate change at the German
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where I was given the chance to meet with Dr. Dr.
Rajendra K. Pachauri, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. Dr. Schröder shared with me many inspiring insights into forest ecology
and supported my intention of combining forestry with an engagement for peace.
Professor Dr. Sebastian Scheerer from the Institute for Criminological Research at
the University of Hamburg, Professor Dr. Dr. Peter Klein from the Federal Research
Institute of Forestry and Forest Products, Commander Harald Hochgräfe from the
German Armed Forces, Dr. Bevan Morris, the President of Maharishi University of
Management in the United States, and Jane Aikens all helped me with
recommendation letters to get into the “Master of Peace and Security Policy Studies”
program of the University of Hamburg.
His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Founder of the Global Country of World
Peace, offered me the unique possibility to participate for five weeks in a project with
the Bribri Indians in the rainforest of Costa Rica and to meet with a number of other
Indian leaders from across Central and South America. I feel honored to have been
granted an interview with His Majesty Epe Awapa Lissandro, the King of the Bribri
Indians. I also thank Sea of Beauty Woman for her interview.
Professor Dr. Dr. Hans-Joachim Giessmann provided a very useful definition of life
in accord with Nature. In addition, he and Dr. Patricia Schneider graciously granted
me an extension of the submission deadline for this thesis. Professor John Konhaus
supplied me with details on ancient Indian plant science. Dr. Volker Schanbacher
and Dr. Ashley Deans widened my horizon in cosmology and its connection with
climate. Manik Bali at the Max Planck Institute of Climatology in Hamburg was a
great source not only for information on climate but also on Asian Indian culture.
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Sonja Moran-Hagemann made the powerful Sun Mandala depicted in the
dedication. Steve Ulicny shared many of his personal experiences of what he had
learned from Amercan Indians. Dr. Margret Johannsen, Merin Glazier, Rachel
Nevas, Peter DeRuiter, Pedro Ugalde and Hans Bruncken contributed
valuable discussions on the definition of Feather Guides. Heather Gilmartin
proofread the entire text and critically examined its logical consistency. I am grateful to
all of them.
I am obliged to Ulrich Hagenah from the State Library of Hamburg, to Gerd-Michael
Heinze from the Ministry of Environment of the State of Lower Saxonia, to Joachim
Menzel, to Bernd Grube, to Tanja Carbone, to Verena Meyer, and to the
Freemason Library in Washington, D.C., for pointing me to valuable literature
and websites that I would not have found otherwise, and to the Ethnological
Museum of Hamburg for allowing me free access to their exhibition on Indian tribes
in Paraguay.
Finally, I thank my parents Dr. Renata Hartmann and Dr. Eike Hartmann, my
great-aunt Toni Möhlenbrock, Christina and Peter Sterling, Hanna and
Gebhard von Schneyder, Helmut Weigelt GmbH, Beate and Lieutenant
Colonel Gunter Chassé as well as one anonymous source for their generous financial
and logistic support during the last months of my studies.
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Preface
The overwhelming amount of information on the topic of climate change that literally
collapsed upon me during the last four months in preparation for this paper truly
paralyzed me inside. During this time I was given the chance to meet and talk to many
climate experts eye to eye, including the world authority on the topic – the chairman of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri – and
the personal advisor on climate change to the German Federal Chancellor, Professor Dr.
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. What they had to say deeply shocked me: the entire
Amazon rainforest, one of the world’s greatest treasures, could disappear within our
lifetime if global warming continues. I found it impossible to treat all this information
as an objective observer without letting it touch me. Where there was only a faint notion
in me before that there is a little less snow in winter now and perhaps a few more
storms, this notion was suddenly replaced by undeniable evidence that the scale of
environmental exploitation and pollution through our civilization is undermining our
own basis of future survival. Our species is destroying the Earth simply by being here.
More than that: We are leaving our own future generations with an increasingly
deteriorated planet by our way of living. My heart began to feel very heavy. I felt as if
strangled in my throat, unable to articulate in words what was going on. And I started to
question my own right to exist. Every time I opened a water tap, every time I threw
something in the trash, I asked myself the question: “Am I a burden on the Earth by
doing this?” These serious concerns about the relationship of us humans towards Nature
and towards the Earth brought back to me the memories of what I had experienced five
years ago in the jungle of Costa Rica.
Before I began my studies at the University of Hamburg, I was given a chance to spend
five weeks with the Bribri Indians in Costa Rica. They are a very ancient people, who
inhabit the region between the Caribbean Sea and the Talamanca Mountains, which they
call holy. I felt highly honored that they adopted me into their tribe through a special
brotherhood ceremony. Perhaps this partnership with the Indians allowed me to look a
little bit through their eyes. Their way of communicating with Nature impressed me. I
also noted a strong similarity in the thinking and attitudes of the Bribri Indians to the
thinking and attitudes of a few Indians from India who were there with me. Both types
of Indians – from the East and from the West – appear to have a common understanding
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of the origin of their cultures and a common attitude towards Nature that is very much
in contrast to how we in our industrial society treat nature. They share common medical
practices, using herbs and special stones for healing that often seem to be much more
powerful than modern pharmaceutical treatment in curing chronic disease. To both
types of Indians, all of Nature is alive – not only animals and plants, but also rivers,
clouds, and mountains. They regularly communicate with plants to know their healing
powers, and with birds to know about the weather.
My desire was to find a way to save their forest, and the forests of the world in general.
I had seen how the forest of the Indians was being destroyed by machines of moneygreedy companies; and I had seen the injustice of how their forest land was taken away
by well-known banana multinationals, and heard first hand how the workers in these
plantations are sprayed almost daily with toxic insecticides from airplanes – with their
only protection being an umbrella. The aftermath of colonization has not ended there
yet. It was then that I remembered having come across an article that mentioned the
Institute of World Forestry in Hamburg. I went to see that institute and was inspired to
study Wood Science at the University of Hamburg. After completing my undergraduate
degree in this subject, I realized that Wood Science would take me into a rather
industrial direction and away from my original intention. Therefore, I went on to study
Peace Research and Security Policy as my graduate subject, because I felt that on a
political level there would be more possibilities to help the forest and the Indians. But
what threatens the Indians today is not a local threat to a remote tribe through a banana
company anymore – it is a threat to the existence of humanity at large, and perhaps
much more to our own industrial society than to theirs: the danger of a climate war.
Email: [email protected]
20 August 2007
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0. Introduction
Unprecedented event in world history
For the first time in the scientifically recorded history of the Earth, humans are
responsible for a dramatic climate change of global dimension. Atmospheric
concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly
around the whole world as a result of human activities since 1750. The levels of these
greenhouse gases now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores
spanning the last 650’000 years. Greenhouse gases change the energy balance of the
climate system, presently leading to an increase of radiative forcing2 of +1.6 W per
square meter on the Earth’s surface. As a result, the global average surface temperature
has risen by 0.76°C since 1860, with most of the increase occurring in very recent
times: Eleven of the last twelve years (1995-2006) rank among the twelve warmest
years on record worldwide since 1850 (IPCC 2007a: 2-5). By the end of this century,
the average world temperature is projected to climb by up to 6.4°C. Sea levels are
expected to continue rising by 4.2 mm per year through the thermal expansion of water
and the melting of ice shields, with a long-term rise of more than 11 meters when the
Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets melt completely (IPCC 2007a: 13, IPCCb: 15).
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that major advances
in climate modeling and the collection and analysis of data now give scientists “very
high confidence” – at least a 9 out of 10 chance of being correct – in their understanding
of how human activities are causing the world to warm. This level of confidence is
much greater than the IPCC indicated in their last report in 2001.
Skeptics’ arguments discharged
The two hypotheses put forward by ‘climate skeptics’ claim that the effects of
greenhouse gases are merely “piggybacking” on two more significant climate drivers.
These climate drivers are, first, variations of cosmic ray intensity caused by the cyclic
travel of the solar system through the four spiral arms of our galaxy at intervals of about
145 million years that are held responsible for at least 66% of the variance of
2
Radiative forcing is a measure of the influence that a factor has in altering the balance of incoming and
outgoing energy in the Earth-atmosphere system (IPCCa: 2).
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paleotemperatures3 through a direct link of cosmic rays with the formation of cooling
clouds (Shaviv & Veizer 2003) and, second, increased activity of the Sun that results
in an increased solar wind, repelling the cooling cosmic ray flux while simultaneously
enhancing the thermal energy flux reaching the Earth, which together increase
temperatures on the Earth (Wong 2003). Both have been nullified by a recent study
(Randerson 2007). This particular study proved the activity of the Sun to have
decreased since 1985, which according to the above two theories would lead to global
cooling, whereas during the same time global temperatures kept rising at an accelerated
rate of 0.2°C per decade. While these two theories have their value in explaining the
long-term cycles of ice ages and warm periods, the Sun cannot be ‘blamed’ for the
dramatic contemporary global warming, which is really caused by anthropogenic
greenhouse gases, and the danger this is causing to life on Earth.
Natural regulation unlikely
Some hope existed in the past that global warming would release enough fresh water
from melting glaciers in the Arctic to reverse the Gulf Stream, thereby causing at least a
local cooling effect for Europe. However, based on the most recent climate model
results, it is unlikely that the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) in the North
Atlantic will undergo a large abrupt transition during this century. Some slowing of the
MOC this century is very likely, but temperatures over the Atlantic and Europe are
projected to increase nevertheless due to global warming (IPCC 2007b: 17).
Critical limit of 6°C within possible range
251 million years ago, at the end of the geological era of Perm, the Earth suffered a
mass extinction that killed 95% of all species. It took 50 million years for species
3
Paleotemperatures (from Greek ‘paleo’, meaning ‘ancient’) are reconstructed temperatures of the
geological eras of the Earth over many million years, using e.g. the occurrence of certain oxygen
isotopes in sediments.
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diversity to recover to a level similar to that before the catastrophe. This was the most
severe crisis that life on Earth had seen. It was caused not by a meteorite (as was the
cause for the extinction of the dinosaurs later) but by global warming. Billions of tons
of carbon dioxide from deep inside the Earth’s crust were released into the atmosphere
by volcanoes in Siberia, which in turn released large amounts of methane from the
warming oceans. In a self-reinforcing vicious cycle, these greenhouse gases created an
irreversible greenhouse effect of tremendous scope. Research on oxygen isotopes in
sediment stone from the end of Perm indicates that the average rise in global
temperature was 6°C (Lynas 2004: 350-351). If a rise of 6°C was sufficient to kill
95% of all species on Earth, then the Earth is in danger of another such mass extinction
– this time caused by humans: The upper limit of what the IPCC (2007a: 13) has
forecast in average global temperature rise is 6.4°C!
Warning of the IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concentrates the expert knowledge of
more than 2000 of the world’s leading climatologists and gives recommendations to
world political leaders. In its Fourth Assessment Report for Policymakers of Working
Group II, released on 6 April 2007, the IPCC lists the following ongoing and future
global trends caused by global warming, which are becoming more and more severe
with every additional rise in global temperature: Increased deaths, disease and injury
due to heat waves4, floods5, storms6, fires and droughts affecting millions of people; a
reduction of up to 50% in rain-fed agriculture yields by 2020 in some countries due to
decreased precipitation; 10-40% decrease of global fresh water resources by 2050,
adversely affecting more than a billion people in Asia alone; sea-level rise and coastal
flooding endangering millions of people; 30-60% of plant and animal species at risk of
extinction; increased livestock deaths in drought areas; increased intensity of storms;
increased wildfires; infectious disease vectors and post-traumatic stress disorders. The
report summarizes its findings with the statement that “unmitigated climate change
4
A heat wave of unprecedented magnitude in summer 2003 caused at least 70’000 deaths in Europe
(Spiegel Online 2007). Such heat waves are expected to occur much more often in the future
(Bhattacharya 2003).
5
A cloud burst of record dimensions in southwest India released 940 millimeters of rain within 24 hours
on 26 July 2005, causing at least 1000 deaths (Bindra 2005).
6
Hurricane Katrina claimed at least 1836 lives in August 2005, making it one of the most deadly
hurricanes the United States has ever experienced (Direct Relief International 2007).
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would, in the long term, be likely to exceed the capacity of natural, managed and human
systems to adapt” (IPCC 2007b: 4-20).
Gaia is dying
Even James Lovelock, the founder of the Gaia hypothesis of the Earth as a living
organism, has become a pessimist. Once he was a leader of the ecological movement
and brought inspiration to thousands of ‘green thinkers’. A trained chemist, his
scientific colleagues first looked at his apparent New Age theory with incomprehension
and skepticism. Later, they accepted his systemic ideas into mainstream science and
now call it ‘Earth System Science’. His theory postulates that our planet regulates all its
terrestrial, aquatic and atmospheric feedback systems in such a way that they maintain
life – almost as if the Earth were a living organism. But then came what he calls “the
human epidemic”: humans cut the Earth’s forests to pursue agriculture, and thereby
robbed the Earth of its self-repair mechanisms – the forests. The loss of forests has also
been described by Diamond (2005: 18-19) as one of eight categories of causes that
contributed to the collapse of ancient civilizations. Lovelock predicts that the
world’s population will be reduced by more than 80% by the year 2100, and that large
areas of the Earth will be devastated by climate change this century. Even a nuclear war
would not be as devastating as the impacts of global warming, he argues (Evers 2007:
30-32).
Emerging climate-induced conflicts
When the trends mentioned by the IPCC are extended in time, the increasing scarcity of
food, water, and livable space, combined with the continued growth of the world’s
population and increasing demands arising from higher standards of living, may lead to
global conflicts of massive scale. The impacts of climate change spread from directly
affected areas and sectors to other areas and sectors through extensive and complex
linkages7 and “environmentally-induced migration”, as was highlighted by the German
Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU 2007: 3). These recent results of scientific
7
These complex linkages are difficult to comprehend in subjective terms, therefore such changes tend to
be branded ‘natural disasters’ by the groups concerned (Bächler 1993: 17).
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research were preceded by warnings from a number of earlier sources. Mostly these
came in the form of more general concerns about human behavior towards nature (e. g.
Meyer-Abich 1987, Verbeek 1987).
The vision of the Apache ‘Grandfather’
A very detailed and dramatic prediction of a coming climate war is contained in the
visions of a wise Indian of the Apache tribe, known as Grandfather. Some time in the
1920s, he had four visions about the apocalyptic destiny of humanity and the
destruction of nearly all life on Earth if anthropogenic pollution is not reversed. For the
‘business as usual’ scenario of continued pollution – particularly pollution of the
atmosphere – or, in his words, “a life away from Nature”, he predicted several stages of
subsequently more severe events that have startling similarity with the most recent
predictions of the IPCC. They manifest in droughts, starvation, and incurable epidemics
for Africa, and on a global level desertification, extinction of birds and other animals,
“holes in the sky” caused by the travel of man, absence of clouds and rain, oppressive
heat, dust-filled thick air, atmospheric distortions to a degree that the Sun appears
bigger and the sky turns red at night, storms of unprecedented intensity, coastal
flooding, scarcity of water in the cities, and drug-induced urban wars. His fourth and
final vision describes what can be called the ultimate climate war – a global collapse of
human civilization, caused by dramatic anthropogenic climate changes, that leads to
violent cannibalism (Brown 1991):
“There will be a great famine throughout the world, like man cannot imagine.
Waters will run vile, the poisons of man's sins8 running strong in the waters of
the soils, lakes and rivers. Crops will fail, the animals of man will die, and
disease will kill the masses. The grandchildren will feed upon the remains of the
dead, and all about will be the cries of pain and anguish. Roving bands of men
will hunt and kill other men for food, and water will always be scarce, getting
scarcer with each passing year. The land, the water, the sky will all be
poisoned […]. Man will hide at first in the cities, but there he will die. A few
will run to the wilderness, but the wilderness will destroy them, for they had
long ago been given a choice. Man will be destroyed, his cities in ruin, and it is
then that the grandchildren will pay for the sins of their grandfathers and
grandmothers.”
8
It is unlikely that Grandfather used the term ‘sin’ in his original description to his disciple Tom
Brown since the concept of sin was introduced by the Roman Empire as an ultra vires instrument of
power that was akin to Indian culture.
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Scope of this study
Grandfather could only imagine a radical choice: climate war, or return to a human
lifestyle in balance with Nature9. The current discussion has again raised the specter of
climate war – but generally focusing on ways to limit climate change while still
continuing a human lifestyle based on a more efficient exploitation of nature (see IPCC
2007c). It will not be investigated here whether such remedies can or will be successful
in avoiding climate war. Rather, in this study, I have a much more limited objective. I
will take the Indian approach to climate change and climate war seriously and will look
in more detail at the knowledge and customs of ancient Indian cultures. What can we
learn from the knowledge and customs of these societies about procedures that might
help in mitigating a coming climate war? How is Nature seen and treated?
Of course, it is not possible to directly draw lessons from indigenous societies for
modern industrial societies. Too many things are different. Grandfather distinguishes
between ‘the world of man’, that will be destroyed in the climate war, and ‘the children
of the Earth’, who will survive. The main differences are listed in Table 1. It can be
deduced from his description that the indigenous peoples with their traditional way of
life are such children of the Earth. In his first vision, reference is made to a particular
tribe10 in Africa, which once were children of the Earth, but then suffered a terrible
famine. The reason is presented as follows (Brown 1991): “These people should
have been left alone. They once understood how to live with the Earth, and
their wealth was measured in happiness, love and peace. But all of that was
taken from them when the world saw theirs as a primitive society. It was then
that the world showed them how to farm and live in a less primitive way.” And
further: “The world will one day look upon all of this with horror and will
blame the famine on the weather and the Earth. […] The world will not see that
it created this place of death by forcing these people to have larger families.
When the natural laws of the land were broken, the people starved, as Nature
9
Regarding capitalization of the term ‘Nature’, see footnote 18.
Volger (2002) makes a difference between ‘tribes’ or ‘tribal peoples’ and ‘indigenous peoples’.
10
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starves the deer in winter when their numbers are too many for the land to
bear.”
The Children of the Earth
The World of (white) Man
1) Live close to the Earth and according
to the natural laws of the land
1) Live away from Nature
2) Seek spiritual enlightenment
individually at every moment and work
for the spiritual enlightenment of all
mankind by bringing the wisdom and
philosophy of the Earth back into
modern society
2) Lead a shallow life of flesh and
labor only
3) Experience happiness, love and
peace in oneness, living their Vision
3) Experience mediocrity, giving up
their sense of adventure
4) Follow their hearts, do not follow
any leaders
4) Chasing sex and drugs, leading to
epidemics and urban wars
5) Work to the best of their abilities to
make things better for the future of
their grandchildren
5) Kill their grandchildren to feed
their children, i.e. live unsustainably
for short-term profit
6) Listen to the Spirit of the Earth and
understand the warnings of Nature
6) Blame the weather and Nature for
famine & diseases instead of blaming
themselves, do not heed to the
warnings of Nature
7) Formerly tribal society with
shamans, now often scattered and
isolated
8) Will survive the climate war, and
purge themselves of mankind's
destructive thinking. Will bring new
hope to a new society that lives closer
to the Earth and Spirit
7) Regard tribal society as primitive
8) Will be destroyed by the climate
war, and the Earth will heal itself
Table 1: Comparison of the children of the Earth with the world of (white) man, as
described by the Apache ‘Grandfather’ (extracted from Brown 1991).
The hypothesis of this study is that the knowledge and customs of indigenous peoples
can inform both the current debate and future action to prevent climate war. The recipes
for mitigation that will be found for modern societies are unlikely to be those of these
groups, yet it would be foolish not to know about and reflect on their thinking and
actions. This is especially true in the context of security policy, when the old concept of
national security – of securing “the (perceived) absence of (military) threats” within
national boundaries – is no longer valid because of the transnational, global effect of
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atmospheric changes11, and instead has been replaced by a new understanding of
security policy as “policy that secures the existence of civilization”12 (Giessmann
1992: 64). Such a global concept of security policy demands that we examine all
possible ways of securing the survival of global civilization, including procedures from
ancient cultures that may appear unfamiliar at first.
This approach is not entirely new. Indigenous people are mentioned as a primary source
of information about sustainable development in much of the sustainable development
literature, ranging from the Brundtland Report (World Commission on
Environment and Development 1987) to the philosophical, idealistic
ruminations of a writer like Thomas Berry (Berry 1988).
I will start with an overview of the use of the term ‘climate war’ and derive a working
definition from there. I will then reverse this definition to define ‘climate peace’, since
war cannot be our final objective. Following this definition of climate peace will come a
model of consciousness that explains why Indians behave differently towards Nature
than individuals of industrial societies. The remaining part of this study is dedicated to
the Indian approach to life in accord with Nature and to the procedures and instruments
the Indians use to accomplish this, while each of them is summarized in the light of the
debate on preventing climate war.
It cannot be denied that many contemporary Indian communities find themselves in
similar social and environmental straits as modern industrial society, or even worse, in a
social and environmental type of limbo after adopting a capital-driven lifestyle without
being able to integrate it with their own culture. For example, the Menominee Indians in
the US State of Wisconsin, who were widely praised and honored in 1996 by then-Vice
President Al Gore with the Presidential Award from the President’s Council on
Sustainable Development, exhibit severe problems of alcoholism, drug abuse, poverty,
social welfare dependency, child and spouse abuse, and crime. Some of their members
have even contaminated their own forest with chemical or non-biodegradable debris
(such as beer cans) and attempted to achieve personal profit while destroying
preservation efforts of other tribe members (Davis 2000: 10). Therefore, in this study
11
The concept of environmental security, in this setting, acquires an international dimension which is not
reducible to the sum of national security formulas and interstate agreements (Gleditsch (ed.) 1997:
204).
12
Translation from German by the author.
19
Gabriel Hartmann
primary emphasis is given to the original roots of Indian culture and not to its present
distorted phenomena.
20
Gabriel Hartmann
1. Climate War
First use of the term ‘climate war’
The term ‘climate war’ was first used to describe military techniques to deliberately
change the long-term weather conditions over the territory of an ‘enemy’. The British
Royal Air Force, while experimenting with this new technology over their own territory,
accidentally caused one of the greatest flood catastrophes in British history on 15
August 1952 above the village of Lynmouth in south-western England. Eyewitnesses
reported of airplanes spraying chemicals in the sky as well as sky colors they had never
seen before – yellow, green, and even violet. During the subsequent cloudburst, which
lasted for 24 hours, the water pouring from the sky killed 35 people and made 420
homeless (Zindel 2006: 1-2).
Military climate war
In 1955, the mathematician John von Neumann wrote an article in the ‘Fortune’
magazine about what he called “climatic warfare” (Kneip 2007: 37). This kind of
warfare included the artificial melting of ice shields and artificial weather
manipulations. During the 1950s and 1960s, the United States Department of Defense
dedicated several hundred million US$ per year to research on climatic warfare
(Zindel 2006: 3). Between 1967 and 1972, the US military generated artificial rain on
2602 occasions, mostly during the Indochina War, by spraying silver iodide (AgI) and
possibly other unknown substances into clouds. Artificial rain can be used to obstruct
traffic and create mudslides over ‘enemy’ roads, but it does not have a long-term effect
in changing climate. Procedures for wide-ranging climatic changes and the
amplification of storms have been experimented with by military circles but are not
ready for use (Son 1992: 104-121). 13
13
The real danger that such procedures for a climate war might be developed, combined with large public
protests after the use of such techniques in the Indochina War, caused the Soviet Union to propose an
Environmental Modification Convention in 1977. This convention was somewhat defused by the
United States, but was finally signed and entered into force on 5 October 1978 under the auspices of
the United Nations. Article II of the Convention defines what could be caused by environmental
modification techniques: Earthquakes, flood waves, disturbance of the ecological balance of a region,
change of weather structures (clouds, precipitations, cyclones of various types and tornadoes);
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Gabriel Hartmann
Psychological climate war
Considerable thought in military circles has gone into projecting low frequency streams
via the electrically charged high atmosphere, the ionosphere, onto ‘enemy’ territory.
Some human brain functions operate on very low frequencies, of about 5 Hz, and very
low field intensities. This frequency is known as the ‘alpha rhythm’ of the brain. When
humans are exposed to low pulsating electromagnetic fields of the same kind, it can be
empirically shown that the general organic performance of these individuals decreases
after about a quarter hour. If the electromagnetic shield of the Earth’s ionosphere over a
certain territory can be artificially enhanced in such a way as to alter the biorhythm of
enemies therein, this would be a very subtle means of psychological warfare
(Alrecht 1983: 58). The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program
(HAARP) in Alaska, with a large arrangement of 180 antennas designed to power 3’981
MW into the ionosphere, has been hypothesized in conspiracy theory circles to be such
an instrument of mind control, and the term ‘climate war’ was also used in this context
(Chossudovsky 2005).
Contemporary use of the term ‘climate war’
With the growing awareness of a contemporary change in climate on Earth and its
resulting challenges, the term ‘climate war’ and its German equivalent ‘Klimakrieg’
have gained a new meaning. Whereas the above-mentioned ‘climate wars’ were
deliberately designed and either hypothetical or of limited scale, what seems to be
approaching now is a climate war that is unintended14 and the effects of which can grow
out of control on a global scale. The term in this context seems to have been used for
the first time by Meyer-Abich (1996) in discussing the injustice of unequal climatic
changes over the northern and southern portions of the world. In recent months, the term
has gained new momentum in political debates (e.g. Dyer 2007, Paywand 2007),
modification of climate structures, modification of ocean currents, modifications of the state of the
ozone layer, and modifications of the state of the ionosphere (Fahl 1989: 204-211).
14
Diamond (2005: 18) coined the term ‘ecocide’ for an unintended ecological suicide of a society.
22
Gabriel Hartmann
and in the media (e.g. Allard 2007, Bittner 2007, Gartzke 2007, LaFrenz
2007, Northam 2004, Zeiner 2007).
The dethronement of Nature
According to Grandfather, the threat of climate war is a result of human “life away from
Nature” (Brown 1991). This separation between human life and Nature was sealed
during the Age of Enlightenment, which went hand in hand with the Industrial
Revolution. Many scientists of the Age of Enlightenment decided to separate their own
Great Spirit15 from Nature and lock it into bottles. This liquidation of the spirit – its
transformation from the subject into an object – had the advantage that the liquid spirit –
now devoid of its greatness – could be consumed during the academic evening sessions
of the scientists.16 17 It was at that time that Nature was declared to be dead, and capital
alive.18
19
. Nature was clamped onto the torture board to wrench her secrets20
(Tetzlaff 2005). Nature’s ‘secrets’, thus obtained, formed the basis for technological
progress. In the course of the Industrial Revolution, spirit became the fuel both for
machines and for humans. Thus, humans were turned into machines.21 This
development has lead to a deformation and degeneration of human perception (MeyerAbich 1987: 714-717): The voices of Nature within us were not heard anymore. The
death wrench against Nature has lasted down to the present day: “In practice Nature is
15
I use the term ‚Spirit’ following Owen (2001). According to the Bribri Indians, a Great Spirit is
someone who wears a crown of feathers (interview with the author, July 2002, Puerto Viejo, Costa
Rica). Even though people in our society generally do not wear feather crowns, consuming the spirit
in bottles in the eyes of the Indians amounts to taking off one’s own crown, i.e. giving away one’s
dignity.
16
Vicarious for this attitude, which is still present in academic circles today, one can take a statement of a
renowned professor of International Relations at a Dutch university: He told the author that he
ponders over the existence or non-existence of God through a bottle of Whisky. It implies, in a nearliteral sense, that God resides in the Whisky. This is in contrast to the attitude of the Indians, who hold
that God resides in everything and everyone, not only in the Whisky.
17
In industrial society, the spirit in bottles (alcohol) is at the very core of society. It plays a key role in
degrading the individual’s perception of Nature and of other human beings. According to a member of
the Royal Family of the Bribri Indians, anyone aspiring to be or remain a Great Spirit should avoid
alcohol and meat (interview with the author, July 2002, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica).
18
“Living animate nature died, while dead inanimate money was endowed with life. Increasingly capital
and the market would assume the organic attributes of growth, strength, activity, pregnancy,
weakness, decay, and collapse obscuring and mystifying the new underlying social relations of
production and reproduction that make economic growth and progress possible” (Merchant 1982:
288).
19
The seed for the torture of Nature is much older than the Industrial Revolution. It has its origin in our
language. In English, everything besides people (and perhaps one’s pet) is reified by the word ‘it’.
20
Translated from German: “Die Natur auf die Folter spannen, um ihr ihre Geheimnisse abzuringen”.
21
According to Haru Xynã Kontanawa, the Chief of the Kontanawa Indians, alcohol pollutes one’s
spirituality and causes material greed. In other words, spirit kills Spirit (interview with the author,
Bonn, 24 May 2008).
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Gabriel Hartmann
simply the opponent to be struck down” (Schuon 1990: 12-13). A clearer description
could not be given: Life away from Nature means considering Nature as one’s enemy.
This “dethronement of Nature, or this scission between man and the Earth – a reflection
of the scission between man and Heaven” has led to the fact that today “the world is
divided into two camps, human beings and Nature” (Schuon 1990: 13). We seem to
have reached what Francis Bacon (1620) had declared to be the highest and most
noble form of power: the dominion over all of nature. According to Meyer-Abich
(1987: 710), man’s absolutistic rulership over nature is inhumane, and this absolutism is
the real cause of environmental destruction and of climate war.
Working definition of climate war
The most down-to-the-point definition of the imminent climate war, and the one that
will be used here as a working definition, is given by Alt & Alt (2007): “The climate
war is a world war against Nature.”22 The particularity of this definition is that Nature
is personified as a warring party, while the other party to the war is humanity. When
Nature is seen as part of one’s own existence, according to the definition of life in
accord with Nature that will follow in the next chapter, climate war is ultimately a war
against oneself.
Climate war – a classical environmental conflict?
In a classical environmental conflict, “nature or the ecosystem has no consciousness”.
Such a conflict is “caused by environmental scarcity of a resource, that means: caused
by a human-made disturbance of its normal regeneration rate” (Libizewski 1992: 4-6).
This scarcity then leads to conflicts between human societies. Environmental scarcity
can result from the overuse of a renewable resource or from overstrain of the
ecosystem’s sink23 capacity, that is pollution. Both can reach the stage of the destruction
of the space of living.
22
23
Translated from German by the author. The original text is: “Der Klimakrieg ist ein Weltkrieg gegen
die Natur.”
A “sink” in the climatic sense is defined as “any process, activity or mechanism which removes a
greenhouse gas, an aerosol or a precursor of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere” (United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, Article 1).
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Gabriel Hartmann
By contrast, in the climate war as defined by Alt & Alt (2007) above, the conflict is
not between one human society and another but between human society and Nature.
This humanization of Nature corresponds to the Indian view of Nature, with the big
difference being that the Indians see Nature not as an enemy but as part of themselves.
It has become clear in this chapter that the root cause of climate war lies in an immense
disrespect of humans towards Nature. In the context of the debate on climate change
and climate war, it appears that climate war can be averted when this relationship with
Nature is improved. The next chapter will analyze how such an improvement could look
like.
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Gabriel Hartmann
2. Climate Peace
Original lifestyle of humans
The original economy of our species was sustainability. Pre-industrial peoples lived
sustainably because they had to: if they did not, if they expanded their populations
beyond the available resource base, then sooner or later they starved or had to migrate.24
“The sustainability of their way of life was maintained by a particular consciousness
regarding Nature: the people were spiritually connected to the animals and plants on
which they subsisted; they were part of the landscape, or of Nature, not set apart as
masters” (Ruckleshaus 1989: 112). As will be shown further down, the Indians
have kept this attitude toward Nature down to the present day. They can therefore serve
as an example of life in accord with Nature that has been lost in industrial society and
could contribute to the debate on how to prevent climate war.
Different positions of humans towards Nature
Different societies have taken different normative stands on the relationship between
humans and Nature. Three main positions can be distinguished. The first position is
anthropocentrism, which views humans as created to dominate the Earth and use it at
our pleasure. The second one is ecocentrism, which postulates that humans are one of
many species among which we are in no way better or dominant. And the third position
is a middle ground, which considers humans as wise stewards of the Earth (Goffman
2005). It is this third position towards Nature that the Indians adhere to. Meyer-Abich
(1987: 711) calls this position the physiocentric idea of man25. According to him, it is
inscribed into humans to only become truly human in the natural community with
animals, plants, wind, water, the sky and the Earth – and not in human society alone.
First use of the term ‘climate peace’
24
This is to say that it was not a conscious decision to live sustainably, but rather the result of supply and
demand, like in all other natural systems. No other choice existed.
25
Translated from German: “Physiozentrisches Menschenbild”.
26
Gabriel Hartmann
The expression ‘Klimafrieden’ and its English equivalent ‘climate peace’ have thus far
only been used by two scholars and one city administration. Meyer-Abich (1996)
placed the concept of climate peace within the larger concept of peace with Nature,
which he elaborated on in his earlier works (Meyer-Abich 1979, 1984, 1987). The
city planning commission of Berlin – known as the green city of Germany because of its
many trees and parks – used the term ‘climate peace’ in the context of its future
planning for a clean energy system. It employed the equivocal slogan “Save
energetically for climate peace”26 (Grüne Liga 2003). Finally, Gelbspan (2007)
used the term ‘climate peace’ to propose an Energy Conversion Fund based on a
currency transaction tax similar to the Tobin tax.
Working definition of climate peace
If climate war is defined as “a world war against Nature” and has its origin in “life away
from Nature”, then climate peace, being the opposite of climate war, is world peace
with Nature through life in accord with Nature. Since peace is often understood to be
merely an armistice situation in which existing conflicts are not carried out violently
(Meyer-Abich 1987: 711), the definition of climate peace here goes one step further
and defines climate peace to be a “world alliance with Nature”. In this alliance, Nature
becomes a true friend with whom one lives together in harmony. In this sense climate
peace is life in accord with Nature.
Life in accord with Nature
Life in accord with Nature, in the words of Professor Giessmann27, means
1) to treat nature as responsibly as oneself; and
2) to see nature as part of one’s own existence – not as anything foreign.
The first part of the definition of life in accord with Nature focuses on responsibility.
Responsibility requires communication with Nature because without communication no
26
27
Translation from German by the author. Original text: “Energetisch für den Klimafrieden sparen.”
Personal conversation with the author on 6 July 2007.
27
Gabriel Hartmann
response is possible. This is precisely what the Indian does: “He can talk with animals
and with trees and with stones. He can talk with everything on Earth” (Fitzgerald &
Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 54).
The second part of the definition of life in accord with Nature focuses on familiarity,
which is the opposite of foreignness. It requires “the end to our conqueror status in
Nature and the recognition of our kinship with our natural co-world [German: Mitwelt]”
(Meyer-Abich 1987: 714). To understand this part of the definition in more detail, the
term Nature can be divided into two parts: Inner nature and outer nature.
1) Inner nature is the self. It comprises anything that takes place within one’s skin
and/or that is part of one’s identity. It is the subject.
2) Outer nature is the environment of the subject, both animate (plants, animals,
human society) and inanimate (minerals, water, air). It is often perceived as an
object separate from the self. It is this outer nature that Professor Giessmann
referred to in the definition.
By seeing outer nature as part of one’s own existence, the boundary between inner
nature and outer nature is dissolved. Both parts of Nature – inner and outer – are then
united into one all-encompassing Nature28. In other words, life in accord with Nature
means to expand one’s identity to encompass one’s entire environment. The self then is
no more the small self but becomes the big Self. Through the second part of the
definition of life in accord with Nature, all of Nature becomes oneself – one Self.
Humans as caretakers of the Earth
Life in harmony with Nature requires a holistic unification of the subject (self) with the
object (environment) in a way that the object loses its objectivity and becomes part of
the subject. The result is a subjectification of one’s surrounding world. As a
consequence, the perception of one’s self becomes so expanded that no matter where
one goes, one always moves within one’s Self. In this expanded state of the Self, where
everything takes place within the Self, every person, every animal, every plant, every
stone and every cloud is an intimate part of oneself, one’s expanded body, which one
28
For distinctive purposes, the unified double nature of Nature – Nature that is alive by virtue of the Self
– is capitalized throughout this text.
28
Gabriel Hartmann
cares for with tenderness. Through this intimate connection to one’s Self, even
seemingly lifeless objects become alive with one’s own life. All mountains, rivers and
oceans become alive, the sky becomes alive, the Earth becomes alive, even distant stars
become alive.29 Through life in accord with Nature, humans naturally become
caretakers of the Earth and of all life. In this balanced state of give and take, humans do
not take more from the Earth than what they give back. When humans perceive
themselves as the ones within whom Nature is perceived, a world with humans will be
better than one without. Once humanity has reached this stage, it will have truly grown
up (see Meyer-Abich 1987: 715-717).
Indian Life – an example of life in accord with Nature
The perception of themselves as caretakers is what the Indians exemplify. “Almost
without exception, Indians see themselves, even if their circumstances in today’s world
are unpleasant and destructive, as a people who protect the Earth, the forest, and its
creatures. If they fail in this duty, then they have failed as Indians, as human beings”
(Davis 2000: 51). What is it that makes Indians behave so differently toward Nature
than industrial society? How can it be quantified? This will be examined in the next
chapter.
29
This is probably what the ancient Indian seer Vashishta experienced when he wrote:
“Far in the distance, I saw my Self, reverberating.” (Rik Veda 7.1.1)
29
Gabriel Hartmann
3. A Model of Consciousness
The four levels of consciousness
Research into the reasons why Indians behave so differently towards Nature than our
industrial society has led Hall et al to postulate a value theory, according to which
four levels of consciousness exist. These four levels of consciousness are (Hall et al
1991: 8):
1)
The world as mystery / the self as center
2)
The world as a problem / the need for belonging
3)
The world as project and invention
4)
The world as mystery-cared-for / Self-as-lifegiver.
Individuals tend to move through these levels as they age, although individuals can
become “stuck” at any one level for some time. A similar development is true for
societies, albeit there are always some individuals that stand out from their societies.
The level of consciousness a society exhibits at any point in time shapes its worldviews.
At every level of consciousness, life is different. The higher levels of consciousness
offer a wider panorama of life than the lower ones, which is why individuals and
societies tend to evolve upward.
Value formation from consciousness
Values are the internal forces which motivate and provide criteria for shaping our lives
as human beings. They arise from the priorities that reflect an individual’s worldview.
Values develop meaning as the result of internal images (or visions, in the language of
the Indians) that precede the streams of thought, feeling, and action that make up
individual lives. As individuals, we react to the external world by transforming these
inner images into action through language. Language is a motivating force at the heart
of who/what individuals, institutions, and peoples are (Hall et al 1991: 22). An
individual’s inner images on the fourth level of consciousness are what make all of
Nature become alive in the perception of the individual. On this level of consciousness,
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Gabriel Hartmann
communication is possible with all of Nature. The language in which this
communication takes place is the language of Nature, which can be by means of visions
and feelings and not necessarily in spoken words. This is how the Indians communicate
with and value Nature. Communication with Nature is a prerequisite to fulfill the first
definition of life in accord with Nature – “to treat nature as responsibly as oneself” – for
without communication no response is possible.
A comparable line of thoughts was presented by Meyer-Abich, who proposed to
replace our monological technical relationship with nature through a dialogical
relationship as a prerequisite for peace with Nature. “A person who only speaks and
does not listen behaves monologically. A dialogical relationship with the natural coworld [German: Mitwelt] would be one in which Nature within us comes to speak so
that she [Nature] enters into a conversation with herself. When we put ourselves into
the position of a plant or animal, their Nature within us can become perceptible – since
we humans are the ones in whom Nature can come to speak” (Meyer-Abich 1987:
715). 30
Evolution through the four levels of consciousness
During the first phase of consciousness, human values are related to safety and survival
needs. Values formed out of this phase promote skills development that enables children
to meet basic physical and psychological needs.
In the second phase, which usually begins at the age of eleven, humans enter the
struggle to become part of a significant human community. Individuals attempt to be
accepted by others as well as to have their work recognized. Acceptance and recognition
allow them to feel a sense of belonging. During this phase, values such as competence,
confidence, and self-esteem become critical (Piaget 1968).
In the third phase, humans move from dependence on other human beings toward
independence. Physiological needs can largely be met by the individual, so they are free
to develop values such as human dignity, service, and vocation.
The last phase constitutes the highest phase. In this phase the concept of
interdependence comes to the forefront of conscious thought, and values like harmony,
interdependent relations, and synergy become critical (Hall et al 1991: 8-20).
30
Emphasis in italics added by the author.
31
Gabriel Hartmann
Indians on the highest level of consciousness
The point here is that industrial societies are largely stuck at the third level of
consciousness, the level from where the world is seen as a project that is explored by
technological inventions. The worldview associated with this level of consciousness
declares nature to be dead. It is only when the fourth level of consciousness is reached
that Nature becomes alive by virtue of the Self-as-lifegiver. Indians have been found to
hold more values from this fourth level of consciousness than other American
communities studied by the same researchers. One characteristic value of the Indians’
level of consciousness is ecority – a term that was coined by the team of researchers.
Ecority is defined as “the capacity, skills and personal, organizational, or conceptual
influence to enable persons to take authority for the world to enhance its beauty and
balance through creative technology in ways that have worldwide influence” (Hall et
al 1991: 179). Ecority drives individuals to take responsibility for the world: they
become –caretakers of the Earth. It also gives them the desire to enhance the world’s
beauty and its balance through the creative use of technology.31 These are behaviors that
no doubt meet Giessmann’s first definition of life in accord with Nature: “to treat
nature as responsibly as oneself”. Other value sets of the fourth level of consciousness
include truth / wisdom, integrated insight, integration / wholeness, aesthetics and
beauty-as-pure-value. The truth / wisdom / integrated insight value set leads individuals
to an intense pursuit of ultimate truths. Integration / wholeness leads to an individual’s
effort “to organize the personality (mind and body) into a coordinated whole” (Hall et
al 1991: 181), which is the basis for the unification of inner and outer nature.
Similarity of American Indians and Asian Indians
Even though the assignment of the term ‘Indian’ to the indigenous people of the
Americas was based on a misapprehension Christopher Columbus made more than
500 years ago, observations during a traditional coronation ceremony in Costa Rica in
June 2002, which was performed jointly by American Indians and Asian Indians,
indicated a strong similarity between these two types of Indians – Eastern and Western.
31
This is in contrast to the mostly destructive use of technology in industrial society. According to
Meyer-Abich (1987: 713), our knowledge of preservation is lagging behind our knowledge of
destruction.
32
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What unites the American Indians with the Asian Indians is their common view of being
part of Nature. This was confirmed by Schuon (1990:102&31): “Like the Asian, the
American Indian is much concerned with the question of the spiritual meaning of
Nature. […] In the view of the Red Indian, as in that of Far-Eastern peoples, the human
is situated within Nature and not outside it.” This familiarity with all of Nature – the
opposite of foreignness – developed the core values of the Indians, as voiced by
Standing Bear of the Oglala Lakota Indians: “Out of the Indian approach to
existence there came a great freedom – an intense and absorbing love for Nature; a
respect for life […] and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and
brotherhood.” (Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 111).
Indians have reached the highest level of consciousness through feathers
The central statement of this study is that Indians have reached the highest level of
consciousness through feathers. According to Haru Xynã Kontanawa32 of the
Kontanawa Indians, feathers are “antennas of spirituality” that allow us to hear the
voices of Nature – inner and outer – within ourselves. Thereby Nature enters into the
self-referral dialogue with herself that Meyer-Abich (1987: 715) described above.
Feathers assist the Indians in their pursuit for truth and in the development of what they
call ‘the eye of the feather’. A wise Apache woman said: “To look through the eye of
the feather would take me to that place of vision where I can see what’s real and what’s
not.” (Tuchman 1994: 50). The eye of the feather is identical or very similar to the
‘eye of the heart’ that will be discussed in the next chapter. The following statement
from a Navajo Indian seems to confirm this: “When you look at a feather, you have all
your heart and soul in it” (Tuchman 1994: 15). The eye of the feather is also known
by the Indians of Asia: it is the truthful eye of a loving caretaker. In a very visual sense,
it is the ‘eye’ on the feathers of the male Peacock. This eye of the feather was always
worn on the crown of Lord Krishna, who was said to have been an exemplary
caretaker of the Earth (see Figure 9). The eye on the feather, then, is an outer
representation of the eye inside the heart. In other words, the occupation with feathers
on the outside helps the Indians to develop the perception of the heart on the inside.
32
Interview with the author during the 9th United Nations Conference for the Convention on Biological
Diversity, May 2008, Bonn, Germany.
33
Gabriel Hartmann
While the next chapter will give a general overview of how the Indian’s high level of
consciousness expresses itself in different areas of life – life in accord with Nature, the
fifth chapter will specifically analyze how feathers structure Indian identity from
earliest childhood and expand their Self until it encompasses all of Nature – inner and
outer – by becoming one with what the Indians call the Feathered Sun. When an
individual has realized the Feathered Sun within, he or she becomes a Feather Guide.
The characteristics of Feather Guides will be examined in the sixth chapter. Finally, the
seventh chapter will provide a short case study of how the policies introduced by the
Feather Guides can inform the debate on sustainable forestry, which is an area of
particular interest in the mitigation of climate war.
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4. The Indian View of Nature
The eye of the heart
Black Elk, a blind Indian of the Oglala Lakota, describes how he perceives Nature
not with his normal eyes but with the ‘eye of the heart’. “I am blind and do not see the
things of this world; but […] the Eye of my heart sees everything. The heart is a
sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit dwells,
and this is the Eye” (Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 5). This way of
perceiving Nature through the heart is common to all Indians, not only those who are
blind, as Rolling Thunder (Chief Joseph) of the Nez Perce Indians explains. “As a
Nez Perce man passed through the forest the moving trees whispered to him and his
heart swelled with the song of the swaying pine. He looked through the green branches
and saw white clouds drifting across the blue dome, and he felt the song of the clouds.
Each bird twittering in the branches, each water-fowl among the reeds or on the surface
of the lake, spoke its intelligible message to his heart; and as he looked into the sky and
saw the high-flying birds of passage, he knew that their flight was made strong by the
uplifted voices of ten thousand birds of the meadow, forest, and lake, and his heart,
fairly in tune with all this, vibrated with the songs of its fullness” (Fitzgerald &
Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 108). Standing Bear of the Oglala Lakota Indians knew
the effect of life away from Nature on the heart and therefore avoided it. “The old
Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart away from nature becomes hard; he knew
that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too.
So he kept his youth close to its softening influence” (Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald
(eds.) 2006: 10).
In the context of a serious danger such as climate war, it may seem naïve to bring up a
discussion on the perception of Nature through the heart. However, the very fact that
our industrial society may perceive this discussion as naïve would indicate that our
hearts are blind and not able to see our hearts’ importance for life in accord with Nature
and for preventing climate war.
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Singing in Nature
One way of opening the heart is by singing. Humans usually only sing in an
environment in which they feel comfortable and not under stress. Song is able to
express more subtle feelings than spoken language: we sing, for example, when we love
someone. When this love is directed towards Nature, it is a way of expressing one’s
admiration to Nature. Indians often sing when they are alone in Nature. It is a means for
them to connect with Nature. American Indian singing humanizes the sounds of Nature
– in a way similar to Asian Indian music – and thereby includes all creatures in the
human voice: roaring, croaking, cooing and speaking, the combination of thunder,
storm, rushing water, neighing of horses and warbling of birds. “And thus, Indian
singing possesses the magic and beauty of the sounds of Nature. […] It belongs to the
American wilderness in the same way as the cry of gulls belongs to the sea, or the
howling of the wind belongs to rocky mountains, or the cry of the Eagle belongs to
lonely, craggy heights” (Schuon 1990: 142).
Humanization of Nature
To the Indian, all creatures, including plants and even minerals – and likewise things in
Nature such as stars or wind – are brothers; everything is animate, and each thing
depends in a certain manner on all the others (Schuon 1990: 20).33 Coyote
Thunder, the great-grandfather of the Apache ‘Grandfather’ who was quoted in the
introduction, saw stones to be not only alive like people but to constitute a nation by
itself: “The stones are the oldest and wisest nation, for they are the bones of Mother
Earth, from which all farmland and all life comes”34 (Brown 1994: 83). As was
explained in the previous chapter, this humanization of Nature is achieved by the
unification of outer nature with inner nature, which endows even seemingly inanimate
objects with the Self-as-lifegiver of the fourth level of consciousness. In this way, even
the weather is humanized. During an effort to formally establish an independent Bribri
33
Even though this perception is foreign to most of us in industrial society, it has partly entered the field
of civil conflict transformation under the name ‘Theory of Interdependent Co-Origination’ which is
explained as follows: “The theory of interdependent co-origination states that everything has an
influence on everything else. Everything inter-is with everything else. A flower is partly a flower, but
it also has the sun and the rain and the earth inside it.” (Miall 1996: 16).
34
Translated from German by the author.
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nation within the boundaries of Costa Rica in July 2002, one great leader of the Indians,
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, proclaimed: “There will be a huge wind of freedom blowing.”
Two weeks later, when the Indian plan for independence was met with resistance from
the Costa Rican government, a major cyclone blew over the area adjacent to where the
Indians reside, disconnected all government power and phone lines that led to that part
of the country, and blocked the government road to the Indian territory with more than
50 uprooted trees. This was interpreted by the Indians to have been the “wind of
freedom” by which Nature “reacted” to their desire for freedom and to the government’s
disapproval to their plan. Following this example, it becomes clear that the Indians see
Nature, or more specifically the weather, as a living wholeness that has consciousness
and intelligence comparable to themselves, otherwise it would not be able to “react” to
their desire. Whether such an alleged alliance of the Indians with the weather system is
taken seriously in the debate on climate change is questionable. From the scientific
point of view of industrial society, the high levels of greenhouse gases need to be
reduced physically to prevent climate war. Mere wishful thinking does not seem
sufficient and from an outside perspective would be downgraded simply as
metaphysical ‘belief’.
Figure 1: Ancient land of the Bribri Indians in today’s Costa Rica, with a tributary of the
Sixaola River and the Talamanca Mountains in the distance. To the Indians, the river, the
mountains, and the clouds are all alive. On the Bribri’s own account, they have lived in
this area for at least 30’000 years. (Photo taken by the author, July 2002).
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The Indians’ relationship with trees
Trees play a very important role in preventing climate war because they physically
sequester carbon dioxide– the principal anthropogenic greenhouse gas – from the
atmosphere. They can be called peaceful ‘climate soldiers’ in the battle against climate
war. It is very important to treat trees with respect because they secure our own
survival. Walking Buffalo of the Stoney Indians explains that Indians
communicate with trees. “Did you know that trees talk? Well they do. They talk to each
other, and they talk to you if you listen. Trouble is, white people don’t listen. They
never learned to listen to the Indians so I don’t suppose they’ll listen to other voices in
Nature. But I have learned a lot from trees: sometimes about the weather, sometimes
about animals […]” (Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 7). The Indians in
Asia also talk to trees. Vriksha-Ayurveda, a comprehensive ancient textbook on the
science of plant life, prescribes talking to tree seedlings in the following way during
their transplantation: “Oh tree, I shall take you to a better place from here and shall
water you in such a way that you shall be satisfied. You will grow there and shall have
no fear from lightning, etc. I shall look after you there, like a dear son” (Surapala
1994: verses 85-86). This shows that in ancient Indian society, people established
intimate relationships with trees and treated them as family members.
With today’s modern scientific equipment the idea of listening to trees does not seem all
that strange. In a recent experiment conducted by the District Forest Authorities of
Eberswalde and the University of Bonn (both in Germany), trees were equipped with
special detection devices on their logs to measure off-gassing of ethylene. Ethylene is a
gaseous plant hormone, the presence of which indicates that the tree is sick or under
high stress, which is increasingly the case as a result of droughts and global warming.
When a laser is periodically sent through the captured ethylene, the gas is heated and the
periodic modulation of temperature increase can be amplified by a microphone and
made audible. The more ethylene a tree off-gasses, the more “uncomfortable” it feels
(see Schibilsky 2006).35 With their knowledge of trees, Indians may inform the
debate of scientists what the needs of trees are to successfully mitigate climate war and
perpetuate climate peace.
35
This is not to say that the Indian way of listening to trees can be directly compared to the technical way
of ‘listening’ to trees. What the Indians hear is not the off-gassing of ethylene but the voices of trees
within themselves.
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The Indians’ relationship with animals
It is interesting to note that Indian societies had no word to differentiate animals from
humans. They were simply considered a people, just as humans were people.36 To the
Lakota Indians they were brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers. They were extended kin
(Andrews 2001: 211). Animals are even accorded political rights and form their own
nations, as Albert White Hat from the Sioux Indians explains: “We address other
creations as ‘relatives’ or ‘nations’, such as ‘Eagle Nation’ and ‘Coyote Nation’”
(Tuchman 1994: 64). The Cherokee Indian David White Eagle Tree includes in
his description of the Indian view of animals not only a perception of them as brothers
and sister but also as teachers: “We consider all of the animal kingdom as basically our
teachers. We draw upon their powers or their attributes to help us be more balanced.
One way of looking at the human’s relationship to the world is that humans are the
accumulative total of all the creatures of the Earth. We have within us the Eagle, the
hawk, the turtle, the buzzard – everything” (Tuchman 1994: 88). Animals are part of
the Indians’ expanded identity. Animal voices are the voices of Nature that may be
more easily apprehensible than those of plants or minerals, because animals are more
closely related to humans. Animals teach the Indians modesty. “Voices of pure greed
are not here. Animals speak only in balance. They take what they use, they do not amass
wealth” (Lane & Samuels 2000: 72). When the Indians hunt animals, a rule
practiced by many Indian tribes, e.g. the Bribri Indians, disallows their hunters to eat the
meat from animals that they have killed themselves. Instead, they can only accept meat
that another hunter offers them as a gift. This rule was probably designed to prevent
unnecessary killing and the rise of aggressive trends spreading in their society. In many
of these tribes hunters are also required to consult their Feather Guides (see Chapter 6)
to fix the boundaries of their hunting territories.
In the debate on climate change and climate war, such modest behavior towards animals
makes much sense. In fact, in a recent conference on the security risks of climate
change37, the chairman of the IPCC38, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri – himself an Indian
36
37
With the research of Dr. Jane Goodall, the world-renowned chimpanzee expert and Peace
Embassador of the United Nations, this view of the Indians finds confirmation in the Western world.
In one of the most well-visited lectures in years at the University of Hamburg on 1 October 2004, Dr.
Jane Goodall said “there is no sharp line dividing us from the rest of the animal kingdom.”
According to her, we are not the only thinking beings on our planet, and this insight demands from us
a new respect towards all animals with whom we share the Earth.
Joint conference of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the KfW Development Bank on the
topic ‘Sicherheitsrisiko Klimawandel’ in Berlin on 13 June 2007.
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– said when he was asked personally what everyone could do to contribute to the
mitigation of dangerous climate change: “Eat a little less meat.” The reason for his
recommendation is that the entire meat cycle including refrigeration and transportation
is highly intensive in carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, modesty in meat
consumption – to take from the animals only what one needs39 – not only respects the
life of the animals by seeing them as part of one’s own existence but also helps in
reducing the amount of methane that is produced by livestock. Methane is a greenhouse
gas that is 21-23 times more powerful in its effect on global warming than carbon
dioxide. In a recent study the FAO stated that the entire chain of meat production
accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions – a bigger share than that of
transport. At the same time, the study emphasizes that the livestock sector’s potential
contribution to solving global warming is equally large (FAO 2006).
Totem animals and spirit animals
Two different forms of animals can be differentiated in the way Indians communicate
with them: totem animals and spirit animals. Totem animals teach them in the outer
world, while spirit animals teach them from within.40 A totem is defined as any natural
object, animal, or being to whose phenomena an Indian feels closely associated with
during her or his life (Andrews 2001: 7).41 While a totem animal refers to the
physical animal in the outer world, or a physical imitation of it (e.g. a carving in wood),
the term ‘spirit animal’ refers to a mental vision of an animal. A spirit animal is defined
38
39
40
41
The IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with Al Gore two months after this thesis had
been submitted, which shows the recognition by the international community that the dangers of
climate change are a serious threat to world peace and can lead to climate war, as was outlined in the
vision of the Apache wise man in the introduction. The Nobel Prize Committee honored both Al Gore
and the IPCC under the leadership of Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri for their global campaign of
alerting politicians and the public to the need for action to prevent climate war.
According to the Cherokee Indian tradition, “there was a point in time when humanity got a larger
population. People had lost their balanced way of relating to the Earth. It got displaced. And it began
to prey on the animals in an unbalanced way. The animals finally got tired of it, so they held a
conference in the woods under a hemlock tree. They decided that they were going to come up with
different ills that they would visit on humankind for all their greed” (Tuchman 1994: 84).
This teaching from within often happens in dreams, as David White Eagle Tree of the Cherokee
Indians elucidates. “It was recognized among all tribes that there were basically two worlds: the world
that you were awake in and the world that you were awake to dream in (the other world). You would
sleep between worlds and wake up in one or the other. When someone who was a powerful dreamer
would go into the dream world, they would meet the spirits behind different animals and plants and be
able to receive teachings from them” (Tuchman 1994: 84).
The word ‘totem’ is a simplified derivation of the term ‘ototeman’ from the Ojibwa Indians, which
means ‘brother-sister-kin’ (Schuon 1990: 20).
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as “a synthesis of all the animals of that species that have lived in the present, past, and
future. The spirit animal has the wisdom, strength, and energy of the animal and teaches
you the essence of what the animal is. A spirit animal is connected to the actual animal
while being far greater than any one animal. […] It is not an anthropomorphized form of
the animal, or a human dressed in an animal, it is the animal spirit itself” (Lane &
Samuels 2000: 19&43).
A story in a brochure of the Menominee Indians should serve to illustrate what the
Indians understand by spirit animals and how they are part of their identity. “Early
records indicate the Menominee as living in villages at the mouth of the Menominee
River, and it was here the tribe had its beginning. According to a sacred origin myth of
the Menominee, the Great Bear emerged from the ground, took human form and was
made an Indian by the Great Mystery. Being alone he called to himself an Eagle flying
high above to be his brother and descending took the form of a human and an Indian. As
the two journeyed up the river they met a beaver and made him their brother, as were
the Wolf, the Sturgeon, Crane, Moose and White-tailed deer being made their brothers.
Other animals, fish and birds were made their brothers forming the clans of the tribe and
the first Menominees” (Menominee Tribal Enterprises 1994). Most Indians do
not literally believe in this story. Still, what makes the story important is that it is a
touchstone for the common identity of the Indians. The spirit animals were different
among almost every Indian culture. One group had a bear, another an Eagle, another an
owl. Each group oriented the animals in different directions, associated them with
different colors, and empowered them with different meaning and stories (Lane &
Samuels 2000: 47-48).
Communication with Spirit Animals
The Spirit Animals only stay and talk to an Indian if she or he listens to them. A Spirit
Animal appears to the Indian in a vision.42 It is the inner voice of the wild, the voice of
42
The Feather-Guide of the Kontanawa Indians, Haru Xyña Kontanawa, shared his personal
experience of such a vision, in which a Spirit Animal came to him in a dream. “I saw a great Eagle
perched on a branch and approached him with the idea to kill him with my bow and arrow in order to
prepare a coca (feather crown) of its feathers for myself. The Eagle spoke to me: ‘What are you
doing? I came here to protect and teach you. Don’t do that! I will teach you the wisdom of healing.’
And the Eagle taught me how to heal my cousin. I cannot explain this. It is the Spirit that teaches. It is
the Spirit that heals. You can pass on the knowledge of medicinal plants. But what is given to you by
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Nature, the voice of the Earth. This is the form of communication in the language of
Nature that was described in the previous chapter: “It [the Spirit Animal] will speak in
an inner voice that sounds to you like a thought but feels as though it is not yours alone.
[…] Within the mystical silence, it reverberates in your head. It is the same way you
hear music in your mind. It reverberates. […] Spirit Animals will give you thoughts
that are unusual, and you will suddenly feel like you are slightly out of space. This is the
experience of the animal coming to you. […] It does not talk to you in words like a
cartoon figure. You sit up and hear the wisdom of Earth speaking to you; you hear the
words go through your mind. You understand them; you decipher and translate what
you receive into your own language. Your mind can understand it; you know for certain
it is true. It is a powerful, real, lived experience. When you are receiving the thoughts,
you feel as if you are in an altered state of consciousness […]” (Lane & Samuels
2000: 67&122). Listening to Spirit Animals seems to be an important aspect of life in
accord with Nature, and since life in accord with Nature leads to climate peace, it has its
value as a contribution to the debate on the mitigation of climate war.
Figure 2: Totem animals are animals with which an individual has an intimate level of
communication in the outer world, while Spirit Animals are mental visions of animals.
(Image source: Andrews 2001: 14, colors modified).
the Spirit, you cannot pass on – you can only do it.” (Personal conversation with the author, 25 May
2008).
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The Indians’ relationship with birds
Indians have a very special relationship to birds, particularly to the Eagle. The Eagle
summarizes the knowledge of all the other spirit animals: “Eagles fly at heights that
afford them a horizon of 360 degrees. […] They see everything that happens on Earth.
If you want to see all the animals, look out of the eyes of the Eagle” (Lane &
Samuels 2000: 185-186). To the Indians birds are personalities, and bird society
represents a metaphorical image of human society. This is why birds are sometimes
called “winged peoples” (Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 63). In the words
of a wise Apache woman: “The birds are the people that fly high and walk on air”
(Tuchman 1994: 49). In the same way that humans have different habits for
constructing their houses, different techniques for acquiring food, and different eating
habits, birds also – in the view of Indians – have their own customs. The close
connection between humans and birds is derived from this parallel (Dyckerhoff &
Völger (eds.) 1994: 55). “Birds are the extended kin of human. They are unique
among most animal life. Like humans, they stand upon two feet” (Andrews 2001:
73). Theodore Barber conducted research at Harvard University and demonstrated
that birds are sensitively aware and emotional, have distinctly different personalities,
and are aware of what they are doing. They act purposefully and flexibly with
willpower, intelligently limit offspring and have a sense for aesthetics, including
musical ability and the ability to form abstract concepts. Birds are even superior to
humans in some kinds of intelligence, such as navigational intelligence. “They also
communicate meaningfully with humans and relate to them as close, caring friends”
(Barber 1993: 1-3).
Indians communicate with birds to learn about the weather. They understand the
language of birds.43 There are no other living beings that inhabit the Earth’s atmosphere
in the same numbers as birds do. Birds travel long distances through the atmosphere
each year. Some species migrate more than 50’000 kilometers per year (Lingen 2004:
112), and some fly at heights of up to 10’000 meters (Lingen 2004: 122) – both is
beyond natural human capabilities. No other living beings know the atmosphere as
43
Birds appear to be more aware of the natural weather cycles than many humans. During an interview of
a 94-year old Indian in Costa Rica by the author, a bird started singing in a tree nearby. The author
asked the Indian what the bird said, and the Indian replied: “It is asking for rain”. Normally at that
time of day it would rain, but that day it had not rained yet. (Interview with the author in July 2002,
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica).
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thoroughly as birds. They have the living experience of climatic changes taking place in
the atmosphere, which they regularly communicate to their conspecifics and can
communicate to humans as well. Man-made weather balloons and satellite technology,
in the view of the Indians, deliver only dead technical information that needs to be
interpreted to extract its implication on life. It may be worth an experiment to connect
climatologists with Indian bird experts to share information about weather and climate
that the Indians gained from birds.
The Indians’ relationship with the Earth
In the view of the Indians, the Earth belongs to no one, as one Indian spokesperson
declared: “[A]ccording to us, man is possessed by the Earth, not Earth by man”
(Schuon 1990: 93). To the Indians, the land of the Earth is not an economic unit that
can be bought and sold in the free marketplace. Rather, it is communally held, not only
for this generation of Indians, but for all the generations that have lived and all of those
yet to be born (Davis 2000: 29). The tribal elders laughed contemptuously at the idea
that a man could sell land. “Why not sell the air we breathe, the water we drink, the
animals we hunt?” some replied (Deloria 1970: 82). With their attitude that no one
has a superior claim to exclusive use of land, the Indians have avoided the ‘tragedy of
the commons’ described by Garret Hardin (1980). The tragedy consists of a behavior
commonly observed in industrial society, where one consumer increases his or her
claim on a commonly held commodity in order to derive a larger personal profit. This
leads to a frenzy of resource use with each user increasing his or her take until the
resource is destroyed. This is what happened to nearly all the land outside of the Indian
reservations. Resource entrepreneurs, railroad promoters, lumbermen, mine owners,
land speculators, cattlemen, and farmers indulged in the uninhibited and feverish
exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources. Urged by a ruthless and excessively
competitive economic environment, these groups devastated forests and rivers
(Robbins 1982: 16). The Indians, by contrast, have increased the value of their land
resources while deriving common economic benefit from their products. This is a record
rare in today’s world – one worth examining more closely given today’s threat of
climate war. For, according to Berry (1977: 28-31), “[i]f we do not know how to use
the land then we cannot hope, over the long-term, to preserve ourselves or any culture.”
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Indian social organization
What helps to keep mavericks from the Indian community integrated in the community
has been called “lobster bucket democracy” (Daly 1994, personal conversation with
Davis 2000: 92): “Indians are like a bunch of lobsters stuck in a bucket. If one climbs
to the top and starts to grab ahold of the bucket’s rim, the other lobsters reach out and,
quick, drag the lobster back to the bucket’s bottom. Indians progress only when they all
get together and make a miracle happen and lift up the entire bucket.” To outsiders this
political system often seems irrational and unnecessarily narrow. However, to the
Indians it protects the key cultural, spiritual, sustainable, and unifying aspects of their
people. It is a protection device that helps to maintain consensual decision-making. It
constantly emphasizes the primary importance of the good of the people over that of the
individual. This is in contrast to the individualism and competitive fighting prevalent in
industrial society. In the threat of climate war, the question can be asked whether the
Indian “lobster bucket democracy” may be better equipped to keep us from running into
disaster – as individuals and as society at large.
The Indians have a strong sense of intergenerational equity. This sense of equity not
only encompasses the need to protect the interests of future generations but also stresses
the importance of Indian ancestors to tribal identity. Only if you honor those who have
come before can you truly protect the interests of those who are yet to be. As a rule,
Indians maintain a long-term perspective in their behavior by bearing in mind the needs
of the next seven generations (Berry 1994: 19-20). David White Eagle Tree of
the Cherokee Indians details the Law of Seven as follows: “We pass the first seven
plants, or the first seven patches, or the first seven animals that we’re hunting. We do
this to ensure that the seven generations to come will have plenty. Whatever you gather,
you give some to the elders to help take care of those who have gone before. Sometimes
you wear a feather when you’re doing this. If you want to have that power to be able to
see very clearly and distinguish things, you might carry an Eagle feather in your hands,
or have one tied in a bundle that you have with you” (Tuchman 1994: 92). The
Indians also take care that their own population does not exceed the resources that their
land can provide to feed their children. With these responsible attitudes, they meet the
first definition of life in accord with Nature better than industrial society.
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This chapter has examined how the Indian high level of consciousness is expressed in
different areas of life and what contributions these behaviors may have to the debate on
mitigating climate war. The next chapter looks specifically into the mechanics of how
feathers help Indians to develop their high level of consciousness. Since this level of
consciousness is known to lead to behavior that is in accord with Nature, the
development of this level of consciousness automatically helps the mitigation of climate
war at every step. This is self-evident now and will not be repeated separately anymore
in the next chapter.
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5. The Path of the Feather
Feathers as the origin of Indian culture
According to ancient record, Indian culture in South America originates from someone
known in most tribes by the name of Maira (Mahira). It was Maira who brought
the first feather crown to the Tupinambá Indians on the coast of today’s Brazil
(Thevet 1953: 66). Maira is also said to have brought a feather crown made of
yellow tail feathers of the Crested Oropendola (Psarocolius decumanus) to the Urubú
Ka’apor, several thousand kilometers inland, and taught them how to manufacture it
(Dyckerhoff & Völger (eds.) 1994: 57). Such records or cultural heroes who
brought the first feathers to Indian societies and established their social order exist
throughout the Americas. It would not be exaggerating to say that feathers contain the
seed of Indian culture. When an individual is born into this culture, it is natural that she
or he inherits the traditions of the use of feathers that have led to the high level of
consciousness in these societies as described in previous chapters.
The Feather Initiation
From the very earliest days in life, feathers structure the individuality of the Indians. “It
[the feather] means to the carrier a confirmation of his own identity and imparts on him
mental potency and protection at the same time. Without the feather […] man was
considered incomplete by many groups […]”44 (Dyckerhoff & Völger (eds.)
1994: 55). Already as a young child, the Indian gets initiated into the path of the feather
– the path that leads to the Feathered Sun. Andrew Thomas of the Navajo Indian
explains this initiation: “If you’ve been initiated, you get your Native name and you get
your feather. The feather is yours for life. When you’re initiated, you go through a sweat
bath where you purify yourself. Then you […] take an oath with the feather presiding.
[…] You’ve got to hold the feather toward the East, the giveness direction. From the
East, we seek new life. East is the bringer of goodness” (Tuchman 1994: 18). East is
the bringer of goodness because East is the direction of the rising Sun. By facing East
during the Feather Initiation, the individual connects her or his awareness to the Sun.
44
Translated from German by the author.
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This connection to the Sun through feathers is the common feature of all Indians in both
North and South America. To the Indians, the Sun is the lifegiver, the protector, the
guardian. By connecting with the Sun, the Indians become caretakers of life and
develop the quality of Self-as-lifegiver. During the Feather Initiation they say: “I’m
going to be honest and fair and I will help my people – through this feather”
(Tuchman 1994: 18&45). The Feather Initiation is the first step of establishing a
connection between the child and the Feathered Sun (see below).
The Sun Quest through feathers
The next step on the child’s path of to the Feathered Sun is to go on a Sun Quest. The
Nez Perce Indians began their quest for unification with the Sun almost in infancy. The
child, either boy or girl, when less than ten years of age, was told by the father or the
mother that it was time to align with the Sun. The child was told to go to Yonder
Mountain, build a fire, and fast. The parents told the child to follow the course of the
Sun for an entire day. “As the Sun goes down, sit on the rocks facing him. When the
dawn comes, go to the east and watch the Sun return to his people. When he comes to
noon, go to the south and sit there, and when he has traveled low again, go to the west
where you sat first and watch until he is gone. Then start for your home.” To help with
the alignment with the Sun, a feather – representing a ray of the Sun – was tied to the
child’s clothing before she or he was sent on the journey (Fitzgerald &
Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 45). This feather is the second feather that the child receives
after the Feather Initiation.
Earning more feathers
Each new feather the child receives represents a ray of the Feathered Sun that is
growing in their awareness. The child’s desire to become one with the Feathered Sun is
a strong motivating force to earn more feathers. Sandra Black Bear White, a
Lakota woman, goes into the details of how feathers can be earned at different phases of
life of an individual who is growing up. “When you’re twelve years old, you go through
an adoption ceremony where you get an Eagle plume tied on you, and you’re permitted
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to keep it. An adoption ceremony is held when our parents want to honor us or think it’s
time that we start learning more as becoming adults. We’re adopted by someone who
can be a good role model for us. From then on that relationship continues, but we must
do our share. When we go through the adoption ceremony, we have to give something
of value. Most of the time it’s a big giveaway to show that from then on we have the
right to wear our feathers. If we don’t do that, our elders tell us we can’t wear the
feathers. […] In our tribe the only time you can get a feather is when you earn it. You
must have an achievement or be given a feather through other ceremonies. Women get
feathers from achievements like graduating school or being in service. […] If you’re a
Lakota man, you can get an Eagle feather from any achievement. […] This means that
you are someone who is going to school to get an education and degree, someone who
is working hard, someone who’s providing for a family, someone who is in the service
and has helped the country, someone who is always helping the people. You get
recognition for your achievement so people agree that you should wear the Eagle
feather. […] Then you must always help the people, in general, to let them know you
have gained the right to wear an Eagle feather. You have to be humble and helpful. […]
In our rules, a lot of teachings come behind the Eagle feather – like bravery, wisdom,
fortitude, generosity. If people don’t honor these traditions, they don’t have a right to
wear Eagle feathers” (Tuchman 1994: 75-82). It is evident from this statement that
such an individual is on her or his way to develop the qualities of the fourth level of
consciousness: that of a helpful caretaker and of Self-as-lifegiver.
Feathers as gifts from Nature and from people
As the young Indian is looking for more feathers around him or her, feathers given to
him or her by Nature become instruments for the silent communication with Nature:
“The feathers speak to you in vision space. They speak as you pick them up. To hear a
feather’s message, be quiet, pause, and listen. Each feather has a unique message for
you. […] When you pick up the feather, you stop and, for a moment, you are taken out
of time. In that moment, a message can come to you if you ask for it, and the message is
unique to that particular feather” (Lane & Samuels 2000: 26). At the same time, the
individual learns humbleness and gratitude to Nature for every feather that Nature
49
Gabriel Hartmann
presents: “A feather is given to you.45 You cannot look for it and find it. It is given as a
gift. It comes in a moment when you don’t expect it. You can look for them but soon
you forget and think about something else and that is when they appear. Suddenly in
front or your feet is the most beautiful feather and it takes you from your ordinary
thought to the place of no time, of expanded time […] With each feather, you are given
a gift, a piece of the living Earth. What is the gift you give back? It is the giving of
yourself to the Earth. To those who inhabit her. We offer ourselves. We offer our lives.
With each gift you receive, you gain more to give back, and the cycle of abundance
goes on” (Lane & Samuels 2000: 26-27).46 Feathers can also come as gifts from
people. This teaches the individual to see people as an equal part of Nature. Andrew
Thomas of the Navajo Indians emphasizes the extremely high appreciation for a
feather that comes as a gift from a person. “You can pass a blessed feather on to
someone else, and that’s about the highest gift you can ever come upon from a Native
American. You have money value and so forth, but there’s no comparison to a feather”
(Tuchman 1994: 18). With this growing collection of feathers, the individual also
grows in the qualities of the fourth level of consciousness, where all of Nature is
perceived as alive.
Wish-fulfilling feathers
It is interesting that the arrows of Indians, both in India and in the Americas, usually
have feathers attached to their sides. These feathers act as stabilizing ‘fins’ to the
45
46
Emphasis in italics added by the author.
In the olden days, the Indians did not kill any birds for their feathers. They collected feathers that the
birds had naturally shed during molt. Sometimes the birds would bring their own feathers to the
Indians as a present. In later days, when life was lived less in accord with Nature, some tribes lost
their intimate relationship with birds and set out to hunt them to take feathers from them, but even
then they did not kill the birds. The arrows they used for hunting birds had a blunt cone at their front
end so that the hit bird was knocked unconscious temporarily without being injured and without
shedding any blood. In this unconscious state, the Indians removed a few feathers, but never any
feathers that would hamper the bird’s flight. The Indians took great care not to shed blood on the
feathers, which would have blemished them. Had the Indians not respected the birds’ lives, several
bird populations would have become extinct many generations ago (Dyckerhoff & Völger
(eds.) 1994: 66). Even though this behavior towards the birds can be said to be responsible – and
would thus partly fulfill the first definition of life in accord with Nature – it is questionable whether
the Indians would have liked to be treated themselves in the same way as they treated the birds. It is
also not clear whether some Indians developed a greed for feathers and then did not shy away from
killing birds to obtain their feathers. Such behavior would not contribute to the growth to the highest
level of consciousness.
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Gabriel Hartmann
arrows, increase flight precision47 and aim accuracy (Deters et al 2004: 90). This
characteristic of feathers in increasing the power and precision of an arrow is transferred
to the functioning of thoughts in Indian cultures. Thoughts are compared to arrows.
Wishes are particular thoughts aimed at a specific target. By attaching a feather to a
wish, this wish becomes very powerful. The way to attach a feather to a wish is by
holding a feather in hand while thinking the desire. Andrews explains: “Through
feathers, we can learn to make our wishes reality. They empower our thoughts, and
through them we can invoke Nature to confirm this link for us” (Andrews 2001: 97).
The wish-fulfilling power of feathers was also confirmed by Sea of Beauty
Woman in an interview48: “Feathers are used as place holders, or bridges, between a
wish and the fulfillment of that wish. The first step is to have an intention for something
to enter one’s life. The feather is then seen as an outer materialization of that inner wish
– as if its fulfillment is already on its way. The feather thus enhances one’s intention.
The entity that is addressed for the fulfillment of a wish lies inside oneself. By taking up
contact with a feather in the outside world, order is created on the inside.” Ultimately,
then, it is this order that feathers create in the inside, in the brain. Order brings about the
fulfillment of the wish. When the brain is functioning in a more orderly way, the ideas
necessary for the fulfillment of a wish will come naturally. However, not any wish will
be fulfilled. “Your wish […] must be in harmony with the wishes of those whose power
you will borrow.” (Lane & Samuels 2000:116). The wish-fulfilling power of
feathers can be used by the Indians to wish for more feathers to come so they can keep
growing in consciousness. To the Aztec Indians, feathers were apparently so important
as wish-fulfilling instruments that the handling of feathers formed a core of their
culture. Only very few Aztecs had the privilege to work with feathers. These feather
workers had a prestigious profession in society. Figure 3 shows an Aztec feather worker
mounting an enormous feather onto a board in a way similar to that of modern feather
collectors today. It is likely that the feathers in this representation are over-dimensioned
to emphasize their importance.
47
Dr. Armin Wagner at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy pointed out that without
feathers the arrows would not be able to fly at all: They would spiral and fall down. (Personal
discussion on 31 July 2007).
48
Interview with the author on 22 July 2007.
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Gabriel Hartmann
Figure 3: Aztec feather worker mounting an enormous feather onto a board for a
traditional ceremony. To the Aztecs, feathers were so valued that they formed a core of
their culture. It is likely that the feathers in this representation are over-dimensioned to
emphasize their importance.49 (Image source: Krull 1996: 38, color modified).
The Eagle Dance
By constantly wishing for more feathers, the growing individual may have accumulated
enough Eagle feathers to perform an Eagle Dance. During the Eagle Dance, the Indians
attach the wing feathers of a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) to their arms in
anatomically correct order and move their arms like wings in order to expand their
consciousness and identify with the Eagle (see Figure 4). This identification takes place
through the Eagle as a spirit animal inside the Indian. “Eagle flies to the Sun; he
represents illumination, showing you in your brightest light. […] Eagle is about
illumination, about seeing forever in clarity and light” (Lane & Samuels 2000:186187). The Eagle dance, therefore, is a major step on the way to the individual’s
identification with the Feathered Sun.
The Eagle Dance is not a human invention. The Eagle himself dances. Steve Ulicny
reported such an experience with a majestic Golden Eagle in a remote area of the United
States, south of Bear Butte, South Dakota. He observed the Eagle for a
49
The last bird species with feathers of such size was Argentavis magnificens. It lived in the Andes six
million years ago and had a wingspan of seven meters (Palmqvist & Vizcaino 2003).
52
Gabriel Hartmann
Figure 4: Eagle Dance performed by children. In this dance, the wing feathers of a
Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) are attached to one’s arms in anatomically correct
positions and they are moved like wings in order to expand one’s consciousness and
identify with the Eagle. (Image source: Tuchman 1994: 25).
while as he was soaring in circles high in the sky and felt great admiration towards him.
The powerful wild Eagle then came down from the sky and sat on a gravel road at a
respectable distance from him. What followed was most unusual: The Eagle performed
a dance on the road by artistically moving its feet, wings, and tail, and turning around in
circles. The dance lasted for three to four minutes. The Eagle was staring at him intently
53
Gabriel Hartmann
the whole time as if to say: “Now pay attention to everything I do, and feel it in your
heart.” Ulicny said he was totally awestruck, with his attention drawn to every tiny
motion of this great bird. Finally, the Eagle lifted its head and looked over as if seeking
approval, and then took off again.50
51
Such experiences are not unusual among Indians
and it is likely that they derived the Eagle Dance by imitating the dancing bird.
The Feathered Sun
The Indians of North America aspire to become one with the Feathered Sun. The
Feathered Sun is a symbiosis between the Sun and the Eagle. The Indians see each ray
of the Sun to be an Eagle feather. By arranging Eagle feathers, more specifically tail
feathers of a Golden Eagle, in a circle around the head, the bearer is transformed into
the Feathered Sun. This transformation takes place in her or his consciousness. Whoever
wears the crown of Eagle feathers is identified with the Feathered Sun.52 Its splendor
suggests royal dignity – the radiance of both a hero and a sage. Traditionally, each
feather in the Sun Crown had to be won and deserved53. “[T]he identification of man
with the Sun comprises a heroic aspect, it implies a multiple victory over illusion”
(Schuon 1990: 164-165).
50
51
52
53
Personal experience related to the author in May 2002.
When Peter Becker, a German ornithologist, heard this report, he explained from an objective
perspective that perhaps something edible was lying on the road that attracted the Eagle’s attention.
(Personal discussion on 28 October 2006).
Albert White Hat of the Sioux Indians brings up the point that feather crowns have often been
wrongly associated with war. “I want to mention another misconception that some anthropologists
have. They call the feather bonnet that the leader wears a ‘war bonnet’. That’s a wrong description of
it. I think the title ‘war bonnet’ really comes from Hollywood. If a man earns the position of
leadership and responsibility, those feathers are given to him representing his virtues of generosity,
fortitude, courage, and because he’s reached the age of wisdom” (Tuchman 1994: 70-72).
Feathers can be earned, for example, by demonstrating an act of bravery by helping out in a town
disaster in modern days. In the old days, earning feathers was by saving someone or something that
was a real act of bravery. “You would sit in council and get to tell the story of what you had done. The
council listened to how you had overcome your fear and moved into the place of “It’s a good day to
die.” And, of course, when a person moves into that place, they’re invincible” (Tuchman 1994: 49).
54
Gabriel Hartmann
Figure 5: The Feathered Sun. In this emblem, the Sun is composed of concentric circles
formed by stylized feathers of the Golden Eagle. The outer circle has 40 rays.54 Each
feather is divided into two parts, inner (‘soul’) and outer (ray). The angled extensions at
the tips represent fringes of horsehair that are attached to the outer portion of the feathers
to emphasize the dynamic movement of the rays, spreading in all directions. (Image
source: Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 50).
Figure 6: Sun Crown of Indians in North America, made of feathers from the Golden
Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). The individual shown is White Whirlwind of the Oglala
Lakota (Image source: Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 23).
54
It is left to Vedic scholars to draw further connections between American Indian culture and Asian
Indian culture. To them, the number 40 could be of special significance.
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Gabriel Hartmann
The Indians in South America have the same association of feathers with the Sun. The
first feather crown brought by Maira, the founder of Indian culture in South America,
is said to have been constituted in a way that flames shot out of it, in spite of it looking
as if it were made of feathers. This is in conformity with the view of the Urubú Ka’apor
Indians, who hold that the feather crown is a symbol of the solar circle. In fact, this view
is shared by Indians across the continent – the Tucano Indians, the Arekuna Indians, the
Paressi Indians, the Bororo Indians, and the Bakairi Indians. The feather crown
transforms its carrier into a representative of the Sun. Maira is equated by the Indians
with the Sun. By wearing the feather crown, they identify with Maira – with the Sun.
In their view, a human only becomes complete and perfect by putting on the feather
crown (Dyckerhoff & Völger (eds.) 1994: 57).
The Sun as the primary lifegiver
Why is it that Indians put so much emphasis on their identification with the Feathered
Sun? A member of the Lakota Indians expounds on the importance of the Sun, which
explains why the Indians honor it with Feathers as the primary life force. He also
explains how in the Indian view the interaction of Sun and Earth creates the vital water
cycle. “All living creatures and all plants derive their life from the sun. If it were not for
the Sun, there would be darkness and nothing could grow – the Earth would be without
life. Yet the Sun must have the help of the Earth. If the Sun alone were to act upon
animals and plants, the heat would be so great that they would die, but there are clouds
that bring rain, and the action of the Sun and Earth together supply the moisture that is
needed for life. […] This is according to the laws of Nature […]” (Fitzgerald &
Fitzgerald (eds.) 2006: 105). Therefore, by identifying with the Feathered Sun by
wearing a crown of feathers – a Sun Crown – the individual develops the qualities of
Self-as-lifegiver and of a caretaker of all of life on Earth. These are precisely the
characteristics of the fourth level of consciousness, as was explained in a previous
chapter.
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Gabriel Hartmann
Figure 7: Sun Crown of Indians in South America, made of feathers of the Blue-and-gold
Macaw (Ara ararauna) with shining golden undersides and feathers of the Scarlet Macaw
(Ara macao) with flame-like red undersides. The individual shown is Haru Xynã
Kontanawa, a Feather Guide of the Kontanawa Nation in the South-Western
Amazon. (Image taken by the author during the 9th United Nations Conference for the
Convention on Biological Diversity, in May 2008 in Bonn, Germany).
The Sun Dance
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Gabriel Hartmann
The Sun Dance celebrates and consolidates the achievement of the fourth level of
consciousness. In the Sun Dance, man is spiritually transformed into an Eagle soaring
higher and higher in the sky and becoming identified with the rays of the life-giving Sun
(Schuon 1990: 100). “The dancer in this rite is like an Eagle flying towards the Sun:
from a whistle made of Eagle’s bone he produces a shrill and plaintive sound while
imitating the Eagle’s flight after a fashion, using feathers he carries in his hands. This as
it were sacramental relationship with the Sun leaves an ineffaceable mark on the soul”
(Schuon 1990: 34). Why is this? It is because the Indians hold that “[t]he Sun is our
macroscopic heart, the heart is the Sun of our microcosm; by knowing the Sun – by
knowing it in depth – we know ourselves” (Schuon 1990: 91). It means the Indians
perceive the Feathered Sun as their alter ego. The Sun Dance, along with other dances,
helps to give a sense to all Indians of who they are as a people. They also remind
children and adults of what their relationship to the Sun and the Earth should be.
Essentially the Sun Dance has two meanings, one outward and the other inward: the
first is changing, the second invariable. The more or less outward intention of the Dance
may be a personal vow, or the desire to regenerate the world. The inward intention is to
be united with the Solar Power, to establish a link between the Sun and the heart. The
central point of the dance is a tree. “The tree is the presence – necessarily vertical – of
the Celestial Height over the terrestrial plane. It is what allows the contact, both
sacrificial and contemplative, with the Sun” (Schuon 1990: 97). The Sun Dance lasts
an uninterrupted three or four days, during which time the dancers must abstain from
drinking in torrid heat, while executing the prescribed movements for hours and hours.
The Sun Dance is intended to become a permanent inner dance. Once contact with the
Feathered Sun has taken place, an indelible trace remains in the heart. The barrier
between ordinary consciousness and the Feathered Sun is lifted, and the person lives
thereafter under another sign and in another dimension (Schuon 1990: 99): She or he
has become a Feather Guide.
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6. The Feather Guides
Definition of ‘Feather Guides’
The English term ‘Feather Guide’ is derived from the German word Federführer, which
is in itself a neologism that cannot be found in dictionaries yet. It is a personification
and a logical extension of the existing adjective55 ‘federführend’ and the existing noun
‘Federführung’. ‘Federführung’ means ‘lead management’, ‘decision-making’, and
‘auspices’, while ‘federführend’ means to be ‘in charge’ and refers to the mastermind
behind a project.56.
‘Federführer’ is composed of the two parts ‘Feder’ and ‘Führer’. ‘Feder’ has three
translations into English. The most common translation is a ‘feather’ originating from a
bird. The second meaning of ‘Feder’ is a ‘spring’ made of metal. It can be assumed that
the elastic nature of a bird feather gave its name to the spring in German. Springs and
feathers both serve as shock absorbers and as cushions. Further, the smoothing function
of bird feathers is expressed in the English verb ‘to feather’57. The third meaning of
‘Feder’ is a wooden ‘tongue’ used in the ‘tongue and groove’ system in wood
construction. The ‘tongue’ of one wood element is pointed in such a way that it fits
precisely into the carved out groove a second element in a very similar way as a bird
feather fits precisely into the designated skin pouch of a bird. In this way, all three
translations of ‘Feder’ derive from birds.
‘Führer’ translates into ‘leader’, ‘guide’, and ‘pathfinder’. Whereas a ‘Führer’ can be
understood to be a non-democratic, authoritarian or even totalitarian leader, a guide is
humble, cooperative, ready to be asked for advise, but non-imposing. Therefore the
word ‘Feather Guides’ was chosen as a translation of ‘Federführer’. The multiple
meaning of the word ‘guides’ – both as a noun and as a verb – implies that the Feather
Guide, as a person, is ultimately guided by the feather, which in turn is a ray of the
Feathered Sun.
The notion of a Feather Guide is intended to provide a linguistic framework to grasp the
fourth level of consciousness – the level of a caretaker and lifegiver – at which the
Indians have arrived by following the Path of the Feather, spanning the entire process
55
Precisely speaking, ‘federführend’ is the present participle of the composed verb ‘federführen’, which
does not exist in dictionaries in this form. However, see the use of this Verb by Thomas Dürr and its
derived meaning further down.
56
Translations based on Leo Online Dictionary, http://dict.leo.org
57
In the graphics industry, the verb ‘to feather’ means to create soft edges of a graphic object that
gradually fade into the background, e.g. in the software Adobe Photoshop. In fact, a bird feather was
chosen as the logo of version CS2 of this software.
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Gabriel Hartmann
from the Feather Initiation to the individual’s ultimate identification with the Feathered
Sun by wearing a Sun Crown made of feathers.
The three dimensions of Feather Guide
Feather Guide represents a 3-in-1-structure of authorship, authority, and authenticity.
Authorship is the silent, witnessing aspect of thinking and writing. Authority is the
dynamic aspect of action. And authenticity is the material aspect of enjoying the fruit of
successful action. These three dimensions of Feather Guides can be explained by
drawing on the universal value of feathers not only in Indian societies but in other
societies as well:
1) Authorship of the Feather:
– Feathers (quills) can be used as pens. They are one of the oldest writing
instruments. Modern pens are designed after the feather. The German word for
fountain-pen, ‘Füll-Feder’, is still rooted in the feather.
– Since any feather of sufficient size can potentially be used as a writing
instrument, every feather contains a potential message from Nature. One of the
German names for the hollow lower part of the feather – the part that holds the
ink while writing – is ‘Seele’, the ‘soul’ of the feather. The ‘soul’ (calamus) at
the base of feathers is transparent, and in this transparent ‘soul’ all the manifest
expressions of the feather are united – the shaft, the branches, and the thousands
of barbules – representing the individual mind with its many branches and
thousands of thoughts. It is this ‘soul’ of the feather that can be said to carry the
feather’s message.58 The symbiosis of a feather with the mind of an author
unlocks this message. For this mental connection it is not necessarily required to
physically use the feather for writing because the transfer of the message can
take place purely in the mind.
– In using a feather as a guide or a writing instrument, the ink travels down from
the top, through the shaft, and to the finest tip. It is only when the ink flows from
the tip into space that it travels onto the paper and imparts knowledge. Thus, it is
58
The ‘soul’ of feathers generally is transparent or near-transparent. Transparency is the closest quality to
invisibility. Invisibility is not only a quality of the souls of feathers, but equally of the souls of
humans, animals, plants, and places – a part of their personalities that extend beyond visible light
frequencies.
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Gabriel Hartmann
through transcending the finest point (or zero point) of the feather, that all
knowledge and guidance – the 'fulfillment point' – is delivered.59
– The Bavarian author Ludwig Thomas (1867-1921) is said to have had “a
sharp feather”60. What is meant by a ‘pointed feather’ is the precision of words
that came forth from the point of his ‘feather’ [pen].
– The expression that a particular text is “penned by someone” in German still
translates as “aus jemandes Feder stammen”, which literally means “to originate
from someone’s feather”. ‘Feather’ refers to the origin of the creative process of
writing – the cognitive space of the author. It is not the hand that moves the pen
or feather while writing – it is the fourth level of consciousness that moves the
feather.
– The German singer Thomas Dürr in his song Liebesbrief uses the expression
“Was tief in mir schlief führt nun Feder und schreibt Dir diesen Liebesbrief”
(Dürr 2000), which can be translated as “That which was asleep deep within
me now guides [my] feather and writes you this love-letter” His words give a
very clear definition of the living Guide behind the feather: It is the fourth level
of consciousness that wakes up to its own reality and then moves the feather to
write down words of love.
– Finally, summarizing the authorship of the feather, feathers bestow individual
identity to an author, expressed by the French term ‘nom de plume’, which
literally means ‘feather name’ and is known in English as ‘pen name’ (German
‘Künstlername’).
2) Authority of the Feather:
– Feathers have long been used as instruments of power – soft power.61 As was
shown in the previous sections, Indians across North and South America wear
crowns of feathers. The feather crown expands the identity of the bearer to make
decisions in accord with Nature. These decisions are made through the heart, as
a wise woman of the Apache Indians said: “Look at the quill as the path of the
heart and the feathering part, all the barbs that branch out from the quill, as
decisions in life as we make our journey” (Tuchman 1994: 38). In the
arrangement of feathers in a crown, it is the ‘soul’ of the feather (see above) that
touches the head of the Feather Guide to deliver its wisdom.
59
This contribution comes from Merin Glazier (personal communication, May 2007).
German: “Seine spitze Feder ist bekannt.” (Interview with Gerd Thumser, biographer, in the
Rundschau-Magazin on the German television station Bayrischer Rundfunk, 21 March 2007, 9:15
p.m.).
61
The adjective ‘feathery’ is a synonym for ‘soft’. For the concept of ‘soft power’, see Nye (2004).
60
61
Gabriel Hartmann
– One translation of “Feder” into French is ‘ressort’62, which is equivalent to the
German ‘Ressort’, the English ‘department’, ‘area of accountability’, ‘sphere of
responsibility’. The Greek equivalent is ‘ægis’ and the Latin equivalent is ‘pax’.
The term ‘ægis’ originally comes from the name of the protective shield of
Zeus. ‘Pax’ is a Domain of Peace, in which the Feather Guide extends a
protective umbrella. This quality of an aegis or protectorate created through
feathers is contained in the German expression “jemanden unter die Fittiche
nehmen”, which literally translates into “to take someone under one’s wing
[feathers]”63.
– Within this domain of power, the Feather Guide uses a feather as a scepter. In
his song König der Narren Thomas Dürr employed the phrase “learn or die
through my feather”64 (Dürr 2001a). Here, the feather was used symbolically
as a sword of knowledge that kills ignorance.
– Power includes the dimension of protection and defense against aggression.
Feathers are used on arrows to guide the arrow on its flight. It is largely the
feather fins that allow the precision required for an arrow to hit its target. They
resemble the fins of modern missiles. The ancient Asian Indian king Rama used
feathered arrows to defend his kingdom from an aggressive intrudor. Feathers
also have the capability to protect against the weather and against injury. Hence,
feathers give form to a protectorate that they generate for others and for oneself.
In his song Millionen Legionen Thomas Dürr gives a voice to the protective
value of feathers: “And then I raise my feather as a protection against the pain
that comes across to me from the battle field of love”65 (Dürr 2001b).
– The term ‘federalism’, in a translingual field such as politics, also contains the
word ‘Feder’. This explains the structure of government of a Feather Guide: A
cooperative union of sovereign administrative clusters based on conviviality,
united under an umbrella with the Feather Guide embodying the collective
consciousness of all clusters. Federations are characterized by common foreign,
security and finance policies (Galtung 2000: 165).
62
The other translation of ‘Feder’ into French is ‘plume’, meaning 1) bird feather, and 2) quill (feather as
a writing instrument).
63
‘Fittich’ is a synonym for ‘wing feather’.
64
Translated from German by the author. The original text is: “Lern oder stirb durch meine Feder.”
65
Translated from German by the author. The original text is: “Und dann erheb ich meine Feder zum
Schutz gegen den Schmerz, der vom Schlachtfeld der Liebe zu mir rüberdringt […]”.
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Gabriel Hartmann
– Connected to the first dimension (authorship) but with more emphasis on the
second dimension (authority), a Feather Guide has the function of a gavel
holder, i.e. he or she has the last word in any major political decision.66
– Finally, summarizing the authority of the feather, feathers bestow group
identity, as expressed by the English saying “Birds of a feather flock together”67
What is meant by this phrase is that people who share the same quality of mind
will gather. ‘Feather’ is the connecting element of the group and embodies the
minds of its individuals and forms the sovereign.
3) Authenticity of the Feather:
– When the silent authorship of the feather (first dimension of Feather Guides)
has been successfully translated into dynamic action of authority (second
dimension of Feather Guides), the result of successful action is the fruit of
action. The fruit of action of a Feather Guide are more feathers. This is ensured
on the authorship dimension by the wish for more feathers, and on the authority
dimension by decisions in accord with Nature. Such decisions provide suitable
habitats for birds to reproduce, and as bird populations molt, their feathers
become available to help humans in their growth of consciousness.
– An identification guide to bird feathers as biological objects is also a Feather
Guide, either in the form of a person or in the form of a book. Each bird has a
large variety of several thousand feathers in different shapes and colors: flight
feathers, tail feathers, coverts, body feathers, and down feathers. With some
experience, it is possible to tell not only the species from which a feather comes,
but also its exact position on the body. A Feather Guide guides one through the
diversity of the world of birds.
– The Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn (Germany) features an exhibition on
birds that is titled “Federführende Faszination”68, which can be translated as
“fascination that carries feathers”.69 The term ‘federführend’ here refers to the
principal carriers of feathers, i.e. birds. Birds themselves are Feather Guides.
66
According to Dr. Margret Johannsen at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy
‘federführende Staaten’ are gavel holders in the Madrid Peace Process that was initiated by the USA
in 1991. (Discussion with the author in December 2006).
67
The German equivalent is: “Gleich und Gleich gesellt sich gern.”
68
See http://www.zfmk.de/web/Museum/Dauerausstellung/Vogelwelt/index.de.html
69
The German verb ‘führen’ not only means ‘to guide’ but also ‘to carry’ or ‘to have on stock’ (e.g. in a
store).
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Gabriel Hartmann
– Finally, summarizing the authenticity dimension of the feather, feathers
bestow the ability to fly to those who use them.
Feather Guides can fly
In Indian thinking, a Feather Guide has the ability to fly. This ability comes with her or
his transformation into a bird with the use of feathers. The Bribri Indians say that “birds
are the friends and the spirits of humans because they can fly. They symbolize the
freedom of the human spirit that can fly without limits in all directions.”70 During the
process of becoming a bird, the Feather Guide allegedly leaves the body and flies
around the universe as a bird.71 Here, the instrumentality of the feather is explicitly
connected to flying, and such associations reach back far into the Paleolithic period of
humanity. By wearing feathers, the Feather Guide becomes a bird. It is not a matter of
disguise but a true metamorphosis: the Feather Guide becomes a bird (see
Dyckerhoff & Völger (eds.) 1994: 58). The widespread accounts by Feather
Guides about their “visits to heaven” demonstrate the spiritual background of this
conception. The ability to fly in order to cure diseases and to investigate the origin of
diseases and their possibility to be outcast is reported by the Feather Guides of the
Tupinambá
Indians, the Karajá Indians, the Wayana-Aparai Indians, the Tapirapé
Indians, and the Urubú Ka’apor Indians (Dyckerhoff & Völger (eds.) 1994: 58).
70
71
Interview with the author, July 2002.
One such example was provided by Pedro Ugalde from Chicago, who shared with the author several
experiences of how he flew to his friends in different parts of the world during his dreams. His
perception in these dreams was that of a bird: he saw everything from above while he was levitating
over the ground. During one of these flights in summer 2003, he went to see the author on the other
side of the Atlantic. He saw how the latter was driving on a highway with signs indicating ‘Hamburg’
and how he went to a workshop on wood. Both was factually correct, even though Ugalde did not
know from anyone that the author had moved to Hamburg and was studying Wood Science there.
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Feather Guides of the American Indians
There are not many Feather Guides alive among the American Indians today who
exhibit all the characteristics listed above. His Majesty Epe Awapa Lissandro of the
Bribri Indians in Costa Rica is one such Feather Guide. According to the Bribri,
someone who wears a crown made of feathers is a Great Spirit. This can be truly said of
His Majesty Epe Awapa Lissandro. He is a very quiet, humble man with great
wisdom and healing power, and one who is constantly thinking about the good of his
people and their future.72 His Majesty Epe Awapa Lissandro also expressed his
highest esteem for feathers: “Feathers contain the wisdom of Nature.”73
Feather Guide of the Asian Indians
The most prominent Feather Guide in ancient India was Krishna, who lived around
3000 B.C.. He always wore a Peacock feather on his head. The Peacock’s upper tail
coverts are known for their magnificent ‘eyes’. The Peacock’s ‘eye’ on Krishna’s
crown represents the eye of a loving caretaker – an eye that sees everyone and
everything needing to be taken care of. Krishna was a natural caretaker of the forest.
Once there was a forest fire near his hometown, Vrindavan, in which many people and
animals were trapped. Strong winds made the fire spread rapidly. Krishna
extinguished that fire and saved the lives of many townspeople. He often went to the
forest to play his bamboo flute – much to the enjoyment of the plants and wild animals
who listened to him and did not show any fear from him. Krishna was a pacifist – he
refused to touch any weapons and protected animals by propagating vegetarianism. He
was also known for his loving nature towards people. Humans, animals and plants were
all equally part of his Self. He was a protector of Nature and one with it.74
72
This is the personal impression the author got of His Majesty during a 5-week visit in June to July
2002.
73
Interview with the author in July 2002.
74
According to Manik Bali, personal communication, 12 July 2007.
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Gabriel Hartmann
Figure 8: Feather Guides are Kings of the Forest. Here are two Feather Guides from
Central America during a unification ceremony with Asian Indians in June 2002 in Puerto
Viejo, Costa Rica. The parasols behind them represent the Pax or Aegis created by their
feathers – their Stewardship over the forest.
Left: His Majesty Epe Awapa Lissandro from the Bribri Nation in Costa Rica, wearing
a crown made of two tail feathers of a Pheasant (Phasianus spec.) and one half-concealed
tail feather of a Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo). The Pheasant, according to Indian custom,
embodies family fertility and domestic security (Andrews 2001: 185). Wearing Pheasant
feathers strengthens the fatherly qualities of this Feather Guide for his entire tribe. The
Turkey is a bird of the forest. It has a long history of association with spirituality and the
honoring of the Earth Mother. To the Indians, it is a symbol of all the blessings that the
Earth contains, along with the ability to use them to their greatest advantage (Andrews
2001: 199). The Turkey feather in the crown of this Feather Guide makes him a custodian
of all the forests on the Earth.
Right: Feather Guide of the Naso tribe in Panama, His Majesty Rey Tito Santana,
wearing a crown made of one feather from a female Curassow (Crax spec.), one tail
feather of an unidentified Bird of Prey (order Accipitriformes) and three colorful feathers
of an Amazon Parrot (Amazona spec.). Parrots are considered by the Indians as birds of
the Sun. Because of their ability to mimic humans, they are said to represent ambassadors
between the human kingdom and the bird kingdom (Andrews 2001: 181). By wearing
parrot Feathers, this Feather Guide developed a strong ability to communicate with birds.
The feather of the Bird of Prey bestows visionary power and guardianship (Andrews
2001: 152), while the significance of the Curassow, a bird of the forest, is not known.
This bird family is very endangered by deforestation. It can be assumed that by choosing
to wear a feather of this rare forest bird, the Feather Guide takes on the responsibility to
protect its forest habitat and thus become a guardian of the forest. (Image source: Global
Federation of Traditional Kings, picture taken June 2002 in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica).
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Gabriel Hartmann
Figure 9: Krishna was a Feather Guide from India around 5000 years ago. He was
known as an exemplary caretaker of the forest and everyone around him. His feather
crown is made of a single feather. This feather – an upper tail covert of the male Peacock
(Pavo cristatus) – has a magnificent ‘eye’. The eye of the feather, when worn above the
head, is the eye of a loving caretaker – an eye that sees everyone’s needs to be taken care
of and wishes to be fulfilled. (Image source: Nader 2000: 367).
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7. A Case Study of Sustainable Forestry
The preceding two chapters have probed into the rather abstract details of how the
fourth level of consciousness is developed by feathers. This last chapter is intended to
be a more concrete example of how a Feather Guide’s advise can contribute to an area
that has lately come to the center of the debate on the mitigation of climate change and
climate war: the preservation of forests.
The importance of forests for mitigating climate war
Much of current debate on preventing climate war focuses on the importance of
preserving forests. The burning of natural forests around the world contributes more to
global greenhouse gas emissions each year than the transport sector. (Stern 2006:
xviii). The carbon still locked up in forest ecosystems alone is greater than the amount
of carbon in the atmosphere (Stern 2006: 604). Even if all oil reserves, including
unconventional as-yet-undiscovered reserves, were burnt today, the Earth’s overall
vegetation and soil still contains more carbon than in all remaining oil stocks (United
nations 2001). Forests are the most important air filter on Earth because they remove
carbon monoxide and other pollutants, and sequester carbon dioxide. Deforestation
reduces the capacity for carbon sequestration and becomes an additional driver of global
warming. Forests also play a decisive role in the water cycle of the climate system. The
cutting of forests has a reduction of precipitation as a consequence. (Diamond 2005:
214). The resulting droughts reduce agricultural yields and can lead to conflicts over
food supply and drinking water. Historic evidence shows that in the past, societies that
had developed successful forestry flourished, whereas societies that failed in managing
their forests collapsed (Diamond 2005: 29). When the international community
realizes the importance of trees as ‘climate soldiers’, this is likely to cause a
‘dendrocentric turn’ in international law, comparable to the ‘anthropocentric turn’ that
took place in international law in the 1990s (Kotzur 2001: 143). This would come
close to the Indian attitude of considering trees as their brothers and sisters in a global
family, in which all life is connected and interdependent.
Engage the Indians as caretakers of the world’s forests?
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Gabriel Hartmann
One proposal that could be brought up in the debate on climate change, then, is to
commission the Indians – many of them forest-dwellers by tradition – as caretakers of
the Earth’s remaining forests and/or in planting new forests so they can make use of
their natural skills of talking to trees. As reasonable as such a proposal may sound, it is
unlikely that the Indians would accept it. They are more likely to consider such behavior
to be selectively opportunistic and hypocritical. The Indians would sense that people in
industrial societies would take advantage of them, asking Indians to take care of the
forests so that they themselves can continue their war against Nature by polluting the
air. In addition, the memories of the past still weigh heavy on their hearts. For hundreds
of years, industrial societies have exploited the land of the Indians and destroyed their
culture with nothing else in view than their own prosperity, and now that their
prosperity and survival is suddenly in danger, they turn to the Indians and ask them to
help – without even apologizing for what they did. Indian settlements have been
bombed with dynamite from the air on purpose, they have been shot at by machine guns
from army helicopters to open their land for road construction, they have been
intoxicated with arsenic and germs of smallpox, tuberculosis and influenza that were
deliberately introduced into their villages (Timberlake & Tinker 1984: 32).75 With
such inhumane atrocities against the Indians, in violation of all international human
rights conventions, it is highly unlikely that they would be unwilling to render any
services to industrial society. However, their procedures of sustainable forestry could be
copied by industrial society as examples of long-term actions that help to mitigate
climate war while continuing to make economic use of forests.
The Menominee Indians
The Menominee Indians in Wisconsin count approximately 3500 members and own
about 950 square kilometers of mostly forested land in North-Eastern Wisconsin. They
are original woodland people. When the advancement of manifest destiny – the
American dream to dominate the continent from sea to shining sea – denied them their
75
Climate peace will include peace with the Indians. This is because “peace between peoples and the end
of the ruinous destruction of Nature are two sides of the same medal” (Bastian 1990: 75, translation
from German by the author).
69
Gabriel Hartmann
large hunting grounds in 1831 and urged them to become farmers on the forest land that
was left, they decided to become loggers instead so they could continue their tradition
as wood dwellers. The loss of pre-European Menominee land, combined with the
corresponding destruction of forest on lands, which they once inhabited, has made them
especially aware of the value of their remaining land and forest. From their perspective,
farms ate up the land and ended the richness of the forest. Even today, after more than
200 years of interaction with industrial society, Indians still maintain their holistic view
of life in accord with Nature. A declaration by the Menominee Forestry
Department (1995: 110) reads as follows: “Unlike many non-Indian concepts of
man and nature, the Menominee people do not view themselves as separate from the
forest, or the forest and its creatures independent from them. The Menominee culture
exists in harmony with Mother Earth, understanding the circle of life. The forest,
properly treated, will sustain the Tribe with economic, cultural, and spiritual values
today and for future generations. This has been taught and practiced on Menominee
lands for more than 8000 years, and accounts for the quality of the forest on the
Reservation today.”
The fact that they legally own this land within the United States of America no doubt
makes a big difference in their overall life motivation – much in contrast to the Indians
in South America, where most Indians are still not given the same rights as their
countrymen.
The Feather Guide’s advise to the Menominee Indians
The Menominee chiefs, like the chiefs of most Indians, also wear feather crowns76.
They are Feather Guides to their people. The Menominee are a still-living example of
how the feather guides one to life in accord with Nature. An unnamed Feather Guide of
the Menominee Indians recommended to his people to align their behavior with the Sun.
“[S]tart with the rising Sun and work toward the setting Sun, but take only the mature
trees, the sick trees, and the trees that have fallen. When you reach the end of the
reservation, turn and cut from the setting Sun to the rising Sun, and the trees will last
forever” (Spindler & Spindler 1971: 201). This attitude shows that, first, from the
perspective of the Sun, which the Indians took, humans and trees have the same value.
76
See e. g. http://www.menominee-nsn.gov/history/photoGallery/people.php
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Gabriel Hartmann
The Indians consider the trees as their brothers and sisters under the same Sun. To them
“the forest is the people, and without the forest […] the people will die” (Davis 2000:
8). Second, the Feather Guide’s recommendation to take only the mature, sick and fallen
trees was at the core of what made the Indian forest management sustainable.
Indian sustainable forest management
To an outside observer, the Menominee forest appears pristine and entirely untouched
(Davis 2000: 12). However, this is not even remotely the case. In 1854, there were an
estimated 1.5 billion board feet of sawtimber growing stock on the Menominee
Reservation. From 1865 nearly 2 billion board feet of sawtimber have been harvested.
Yet the most recent inventory indicates that the sawtimber stocking is still 1.5 billion
board feet, even after 138 years of harvesting (Pecore 1992: 16). At the same time,
the Indians have increased the biodiversity, productivity, and health of the forest. Their
management of the forest’s water resources and quality is equally impressive. The
reservation’s waters have much the same quality they had over a hundred years ago. In
fact, their forest, in its splendor, is healthier and more productive than at any other point
in history since the Menominee first canoed up the river to their new reservation home
(Davis 2000: 21&203). At the same time, these Indians have learned to use the most
modern technology available on the timber industry market. To summarize their
formula for success, in the Indian sustainable management method, on average every
100 years all the trees are cut and replaced once (without actual clear-cutting ever taking
place). By comparison, in modern forest management in a comparable climate zone in
Europe, the turnover cycle for commercial beech trees is 70 years and around 40 years
or less for spruce, depending on the way of their timber is used.77
Turnover rate in Indian forest management
How can this inform debate on climate change and forest preservation? Roughly
speaking, sustainable forest management in the Indian way gives about twice as much
77
Information based on personal notes taken during lectures at the Federal Research Centre for Forestry
and Forest Products in Hamburg, Germany, April 2003 to September 2005.
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Gabriel Hartmann
time to the trees to grow, or, in other words, harvests only half the number of trees what
modern commercial management does. On the other hand, this does not make them rich.
Theoretically, by selling their forests and land and then carefully investing the resulting
capital sums, the Menominee could have taken a large step toward lifting themselves
out of poverty for both present and future generations. This, however, was not their
choice. The Menominee way follows the advice of their ancient Feather Guide: “[T]ake
only the mature trees, the sick trees, and the trees that have fallen, […] and the trees will
last forever” (Spindler & Spindler 1971: 201). The Menominee did not object to
harvesting the mature, the sick, and the fallen trees, but when all was said and done, the
forest had to last forever. This technique has become known in the science of forestry as
“selective silviculture”78 (Davis 2000: 136). The Indians put the lives of trees above
money. They might live in poverty, but living in poverty was better than living in a
landscape denuded of forest and made to look uncared for and scrubby. In the face of
climate change and the danger of climate war, industrial society will have to wake up to
this Indian wisdom of placing living trees above profit. As was said in the introduction,
when there are no more trees, history has shown time and again that soon there will be
no more humans.
Protecting the ‘grandfather tree’
Some old trees that have been there longer than all the others in a forest are of particular
importance in the Indian perception. In one particular forest, there was an ancient tree
called ‘Grandfather Tree’. The Feather Guide Rolling Thunder said: “This is the
grandfather plant; it is in charge of all the others. Don’t hurt that plant or all the others
will die” (Lane & Samuels 2000: 146). The reason the Indians consider certain old
trees more special than others is that they perceive a human face in its bark – they
recognize themselves in the tree. Logically, they protect such a tree, because cutting it
would mean cutting oneself (see e.g. Pazzagona 2002: 147). Here again, we see how
the perception of oneself in a tree fulfills the definition of life in accord with Nature and
thereby helps to preserve trees that are essential for mitigating climate war.
78
The German equivalent is ‘Plenterwirtschaft’.
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Contributions to the debate on forest preservation: Indian selective silviculture
Selective silviculture the way the Indians practice it offers three contributions to the
debate on forest preservation in the context of preventing climate war (Newman 1967:
47).
1) Under the selection system, less timber is taken, removing only the high-risk
trees and concentrating most of the cut on the hardwoods. By limiting market
availability of timber, prices naturally rise, yielding higher per-piece profits such
that overall profit stabilizes around a sustainable value. This value is lower than
short-term profits earned from clear-cutting but stable in the long term – likely
over hundreds of years, as the Indians demonstrated.
2) Selection cutting does not take the low-value, small logs that are prevalent from
clear-cutting operations. The optimal cut-off point is mature trees with a
diameter of 36 cm (in the case of Hemlock trees).79 Above this size the area
necessary to obtain the allowable cut is too great, from a cost standpoint.80
3) Under the clear-cutting system, artificial regeneration is necessary. The high cost
of planting can be eliminated by dependence on natural regeneration, which can
be achieved under the selective system of the Indians.
Contributions to the debate on saving civilization
What can the forest-dwelling Indians contribute to the overall debate on saving
civilization from a global climate war? If the forest is equated with the resources of the
Earth, and the Indians are equated with all of humanity, then their message is that by
deciding to preserve the Earth forever, accepting the sacrifices inherent in this ideal and
wisely using whatever tools made available by science, technology, culture, and history,
the Earth can be preserved and made more productive and beautiful than at any other
time in human history.
79
Newman does not mention at which height of the tree this diameter is taken – a detail that would be
essential to know!
80
Cost is further determined by the accessibility of the terrain, i.e. whether it is mountainous or flat.
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Gabriel Hartmann
8. Conclusion
This study has attempted to inform current debate on climate change and climate war
with traditional approaches of the Indians. According to the model of consciousness by
Hall et al (1991) that was presented, industrial society is largely stuck at the third
level of consciousness, from which nature is perceived as dead. This perception of
nature tends to lead to irresponsible behavior that is ultimately the cause of climate war.
The Indians, by contrast, largely live on the highest level of consciousness, which
spontaneously leads to action in accord with Nature.
The central contribution to the debate is that Indians have reached their high level of
consciousness through feathers. Feathers structure Indian identity from earliest
childhood, and feathers expand this identity until the Self encompasses all of Nature –
inner and outer. As has been shown, feathers connect their Feather Guides to the Sun.
The Sun is the primary lifegiver. This is why it is natural for the Feather Guides to
become lifegivers and caretakers of life themselves, both towards their people, who in
turn develop these qualities themselves, and towards trees, animals, the Earth, and the
sky. If this hypothesis is true, feathers have the potential to lift any society to the highest
level of consciousness, which will lead to responsible behavior towards Nature and
avert the danger of climate war before it breaks out.
An alternative possibility is that Indians have developed their high level of
consciousness in some other way that is not obvious, and that the attraction they feel
towards feathers and towards the Sun is only a result of this high level of consciousness
– not the cause. In this second case, we would have to keep searching for the way to this
level of consciousness if we desire to mitigate climate war and establish climate peace
by using their approach. Feathers, then, would not be a direct way there, yet they could
carry a clue.
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Gabriel Hartmann
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