A few weeks ago I dreamed a group of us women went down to a pool where a herd of elephants was standing. It was very crowded. We squeezed in, skin to skin, with these giant animals who were so strong, so gentle. As we settled into the water up to our chests, the elephants began to rumble, to vibrate. We were there to learn how to tune into their vibrations, to sound with them, at the same level of 500 waves per second, or maybe minute. The attunement was the task. The harmonizing to the same song. Not quite audible but felt. And in the communication, a message.
What might that message be, for us humans, us women, us Grandmothers? Because this was not a dream about elephants. It was a dream from the elephants.
On the physical level, there is a message about the terrible dangers they are exposed to – poaching, habitat destruction, hunting. But this dream felt more like a reminder, an awakening, for us women in the pool to reclaim the ancient wisdom we have forgotten, of the strength, compassionate power and urgent need to care for our Earth and to dream a new song that will carry us all for generations.
As tough protectors and gentle nurturers, elephant Grandmothers remind us of the importance of family, of tending to the babies, of community. They are a matriarchal society where the elder females have an honored and essential role to play. They are the ones who carry the cultural knowledge and history of the herd. The location of safe areas of plentiful food, of watering holes. Having a Grandmother elephant in the herd has a critical influence on the survival of the babies, of her own daughters if she dies before they are nine years old. Unlike most mammals, elder elephants can continue to bear young so there could even be three generations bearing calves at the same time. Perhaps for us elder women, this trinity represents maiden, mother, crone and speaks to our creativity at any age. Bearing new babies from the wombs of our imagination. Elephants are extremely intelligent with brain structures similar to primates like us humans, chimpanzees, apes, monkeys and cetaceans (whales and dolphins). They have amazing hearing and communicating capacities, able to hear low frequency sounds (infrasonic) better than almost any animal on Earth. And they can communicate at long distances for 5-50 miles, as well as being able to sense through their feet an oncoming thunderstorm, tsunami, herds running at a distance. They are the keepers of memory. The guardians of the land. They keep harmony in the herd, but can be fierce in protecting the young ones. They have great power, stamina and patience which they use in service to the whole, to the community.
In this dream is a story about the law of vibration, about interdependence and interconnection. It is a story told now by physicists as well. When we realize we are all swimming in a mighty Universe of vibrating energy, that we are fields of vibrating energy ourselves, we can then dream new forms with our very thoughts.
As women, perhaps as Grandmothers, we too carry the ancient wisdom, the old stories, that are essential to the wellbeing of future generations.
A poem from artist and author Patricia Reis comes to mind:
From the beginning/We have been with you./We are the ancient ones/And we remember.
We remember the time when there was only love/The time when all breathing was one…
We are the ancient ones/And we have waited and watched/You say that you have no memory of us/You say that you cannot hear our voices…
We say the time of waiting is over/We say the silence has been broken/We say there can be no forgetting now. We say listen.
We are the bones of your grandmother’s grandmothers/We have returned now/We say you cannot forget us now/We say we are with you/And that you are with us.
Remember. Remember.
