The Wisdom of All Animals
February 09, 2024 Filed in:
Animal AwarenessI met Dawn Baumann Brunke just before the turn of the century. (Whoa, that makes it sound like a very long time ago!) She was editor of Alaska Wellness magazine and interviewed me for her book, Animal Voices, published in 2002. Here’s an excerpt from our interview for the chapter “When All the World is Wise.”
“The wisdom of the Universe is contained in every being,” Penelope replied. “Often insects are messengers of the greater wisdom. You just need to drop the barrier and your fear—your human conception of ‘How could an insect do this? How could this be?’ Wisdom is everywhere. Sit with a grain of sand and you’ll get the same thing! Sand contains all of life!”
I sighed.
“You know, this isn’t introductory material,” chuckled Penelope. “People start wanting a technique, wanting it to be analytical, wanting it to be a skill, and it’s really much more than that. It’s about the soul connection. It’s about restoring your soul’s sensitivity. What happens as you get in this deep space of love with another being—because that is what it is, that connection, that communion is what love is—everything is open to you.
“Some people say, ‘How could an insect know this? How could a horse know this? How could a cow know this?’ Well, we all know everything! People have to keep stretching themselves beyond the categories that we put on things. When you’re open and you’re receiving, all the world is wise. All the world communicates to you. It’s all beautiful, all pulsing, all incredible.”
I understood what Penelope meant. When essential unity is felt throughout one’s being, all the world is wise, and answers are anywhere you look, in any face, any species.
So, who are we really speaking to when we speak to any animal?
Penelope laughed again. “All of this is about going home,” she said. “People can often relate easier to the animal being a spiritual being than they can to themselves. Then they discover that they are spiritual beings too, that they are wise also. Sometimes they honor the animal more than they do themselves or other humans. That’s fine, because that’s a vehicle. The animals want that, too. They want people to wake up to the spirituality in animals, plants and themselves, all the world.
“We’re all one thought. We’re all having the same feelings. It’s a soul lesson. Of course we’re all individuals, too, and a horse is different than a cow is different than a human. But when you’re connecting at a soul level—and you can feel that because your heart uplifts and you open and expand and feel exhilarated—it really doesn’t matter.”
“So the question becomes, ‘Who’s talking to who?’” I asked.
“That’s right!” Penelope laughed. “It’s there that people get confused. Again, on a certain level, you have to be really clear that you’re communicating to the animal, and the animal is communicating back to you. That’s sort of a linear way of thinking about it. However, when you get into the union, it really doesn’t matter. Nobody’s talking to anybody. We just are. It’s all available, and you’re just tapping in.
“When people ask, ‘Well, why did I get a message different from another person?’ I tell them, ‘Because that’s your message.’ The animals are going to communicate differently and you are going to tap in differently. You are going to receive what you need to receive. We’re talking about soul communion. This is something people in this society don’t normally do when they are on a more superficial level. When you get into soul communion, it’s all the same. Whether you’re talking to a frog or a tree or the earth, you’re going to feel the same and get the same kind of Universal wisdom—because it’s in all of us.”
“When you’re in that state of oneness, it does all make sense,” I agreed. “But when you come back here and try to explain it…”
“Yeah,” said Penelope, once again laughing. “People say, ‘Well, it doesn’t make sense,’ and I tell them, ‘That’s exactly right. It does not make mental sense. It is not encompassed by the mind.’ Once you get beyond that mental self and start to live as your soul-self, you don’t get confused anymore because the mind doesn’t get in the way. You understand that when we’re talking about human mind, that’s one thing, and when we’re talking about Universal mind, it’s a whole different level. It’s like the Mind of God.”
“So, the idea isn’t really to kill the mind,” I said, “but to expand its boundaries, open it to something bigger.”
“Exactly! It becomes your tool,” explained Penelope. “You’re no longer the slave of your mind. Perhaps you start communicating with animals, and your mind says, ‘Hey I can’t grasp this.’ You say, ‘Right, mind. Just be quiet, go rest for awhile, and I’ll grasp it as a soul.’ That’s the basic level. It’s underneath everything. What I’m going for is bringing people home, so they encompass things with a soul heart, completely. We still have to deal with the human level, but it isn’t so hard anymore.”
“And this whole idea correlates to ego as well. As with mind, the idea isn’t that we need to kill ego but simply go beyond the limits of little ego.”
I pondered. “Do you think there’s such a thing as Universal Ego?”
“Here’s how we’ll look at it,” said Penelope. “What most people consider ego on a small level is the sum of our personality and desires. That has to be very strong and balanced. There’s nothing wrong with that. Every animal you talk to will say ‘I’ proudly—‘I’m beautiful’ or ‘I’m great’ or ‘I’m this or that.’ In animals that are balanced, and most of them are, it’s self-love. In that space of self-love, you don’t focus on the narrowness or the separation of the ego. You just say ‘I’ and ‘I is We’ and ‘I is Everything’ and ‘I is ALL.’ When people talk about transcending the ego, they’re talking about fears, limitations, narrowness. It’s more of a survival issue.”
“Like a protective mechanism?”
“Yes, exactly. Defense mechanism, survival mechanism. I don’t think of ego that way. When people say, ‘Gosh, you love yourself,’ I say, ‘Of course! I’m beautiful, I’m wonderful; I’m great. So are you. Celebrate yourself!’ As you do that, you recognize that ego is okay. It’s the way we function here, and it’s part of the soul also. Everything is part—the body is part; everything is part of the greater. Then you don’t separate it anymore. It becomes a good thing; it becomes a fun thing. That’s the place the animals will take you to.
“We can all celebrate that ego in each other. Otherwise, what would be the point of being individuals? Why would we be different people? Why would we be a frog or a dog? Well, to celebrate the ego! Ego just means ‘I.’ It’s not all that you are, but it’s a fun part. It’s the clothes. It’s the game. As long as you’re conscious of that, it’s all good. Animals seem to be very conscious of that. It’s taking it to a new place where it’s a celebration; it encompasses what life really is.”
“When you’re in your clear space, you’re getting it,” Penelope told me. “You can sit there and feel the wisdom and receive it from the frogs, the flowers, the trees, the dogs—from all of them. Because when you are in that space, they are communicating that wisdom to you. You are getting it. There isn’t any difference. It’s all the same.”
We can talk to animals, plants, or rocks; it doesn’t matter which type of individual brings the wisdom and reflects who we are. Animal communication is a vehicle for finding ourselves.
