I am delighted to share the audio sound scape of

WHEN WE WERE WHALES 

This is a story woven and created out of the field of love, may it tend to your heart, and what you love most.

Leah Lamb, Storyteller
Dana Walden, Producer, Sound Designer
Alexia Chellun, The Power is Here Now
OCNO – Didgerihang

WHEN WE WERE WHALES

They say there are people

Walking among us

who once lived in an ocean of water

and swam through an ocean of consciousness

As if ocean, and body, and universe, were all the same thing.

These oceanic beings– let us call them whale, were connected 

To the cloud beings whose tears watered Earth

To the rooted ones, whose hearts healed Earth

And to the land walkers, who sang, chanted, and spoke Earth into being. 

And once upon a time

those ocean beings

and land walkers

were kindreds. 

as the most ancient story of the universe lived through them.

 

 

It is that story that brings us together tonight— 

a story about 

giving

and receiving. 

In this ancient story …

When the land walkers asked for a life

The whale beings gave a life

When gratitude was offered…

a pathway between body and spirit was forged 

an exchange was made

as The spirit of the whale 

was invited to live through the body of the land walkers, 

In this way

even death 

led to more life. 

 

 

This was not written down. 

there was no signing of a contract. 

it was just known. 

Until one day… it wasn’t.

The agreement was broken.  

And when this ancient law of the universe 

of asking, giving, receiving, gratitude 

— was broken

A curse was cast on the land walkers:

the more they take, 

the hungrier they get. 

They say that is when Greed was born. 

But that is another story, and we are deep into this story.

In this story—

some of those whale beings, 

decided they weren’t going to join the death march led by Killing and Greed that was slaughtering their aunts and uncles, murdering their mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers. 

They were going to make good on the ancient agreement between their ancestors 

so they decided to leave their oceanic world 

so they could walk again on earth through the bodies of the descendants of those ancestors. 

Because they would need to walk among the two leggeds

to put an end to those who were interrupting the flow of life.

 

 

But the old ones warned them: 

“You can’t kill the being that is killing us

and get to the source 

of what is living through them.  

When you get to the source of their anguish—

you will get to the source of what is causing the disruption of all of life –

THAT is what you must hunt down.”

And the elders warned them:

“It is dangerous going from one world to another: 

There is the risk of forgetting who and what you are in the process.”

And they warned them: 

“You can’t rush to show the truth of who and what you really are

you must be patient and wait.

Because the disruption you will face has become very powerful.

There is strength in numbers and you will need others to protect you.” 

The younger whales thanked the elders for their warnings and prepared to go on their way. 

But the elders continued…. 

“You are not alone on this mission.

There will be others— 

The fairy folk will join you: they have a bone or two to pick with those takers.

And the elfin will be there, cleverly disguised, no longer willing to be stepped on or over. 

The plant deities will start speaking through the voices of humans.

The mer people will rise and walk among you.

And the dragons will fly again.

Look for the signs —

for when Earth recognizes that enough of you have made it through, 

She will shake awake all who are still forgetting.

Now of course there is no guarantee 

how long it will take

or that everyone will arrive

or .. that you will make it out alive.”

 

 

A young one looked back, 

realizing for the first time, 

what they weren’t saying…

that there would be no return to this ocean home it loves so much,

“But what will we do while we are waiting, walking our flippers on land?”

The elders advised 

STUDY the new ways of this land,

and the old ways,

but perhaps most important…

the disconnected and broken ways 

SING your love medicine 

as it will be your song that brings them back to their source

BRING THEM THE DREAM…of who they once were and who they will be yet again.”

And so they left,

just a few

but enough

left what they were 

and what they knew

to make a good on that sacred contract between 

the ancient land walkers 

and the ocean dwellers 

and the Spirit of Life. herself. 

This is the story of those brave souls 

who dared to walk on land among us

and what they discovered

as they tried to remember what they were

and what they were not. 

 

 

We swam to the surface as fast as we could

so we could walk among the two-legged

and release them from this curse. 

Walking on land… 

outside of the all of the all

it was so easy to forget….

But as we sang… we remembered.

There was a time when we were whales

and we knew 

the strength and true power 

of what we were.

When we were whales

we sang the mother’s milk of the universe into being

we built treasure chests of understanding.

made beds of wonder. 

caressed the sea creatures with our caring.

When we were whales 

we dressed in pearls made of dances dedicated to the sun 

while blowing bubbles that married the ocean to the sky. 

As we walked as two leggeds on earth: 

Fear – surrounded us as it fought to inhabit us. And we began to understand what the two-leggeds were up against. As Scarcity slipped around us and tried to feed us lies. 

But we remembered….

when we were whales we understood the marriage of life to death, 

to water to oil, 

to the sun to the moon. 

We loved the darkness of the depths, 

and flying through the sky 

as we wove those two worlds together: 

above and below,

inside out,

light to dark. 

And so we walked that on land…  

and still it was so easy to forget what we were made of

But we remembered

when we were whales we loved

and we loved 

and we loved

we were the cherry on top kind of love. 

 

We did as we were instructed when we studied the two leggeds 

as we became familiar with the two leggeds, 

we understood more and about the curse that had been cast – 

They were dealing with a thing we had never dealt with before, a thing called Hate

There was no place for mystery in their lives. 

But the strangest of all— they dealt with having an unreliable tongue. It would say what it doesn’t mean, make things taste good that were bad for the body, but that same unreliable tongue can also bring beauty, calm the nervous system, and bring hidden things into view. 

But an unreliable tongue destroys trust.

We found things we never expected. 

You see, In our world that which holds us— is us. 

Suffering, joy, love cannot be hoarded and separated. 

When one has it 

all have it. 

But on land, 

where the laws of separation reside

the land walkers had a developed special talent that we didn’t have. 

 

 

 

They had empathy–  the ability to feel through the heart and see through the eyes of the other… and as we learned from them, we began to understand them.

We did as our elders told us 

And we sang to the people.

We sang to their hearts 

to their memories

so they could remember

and put back together

—that they are the ones who are chanting, singing, and speaking this world into being. 

and they are needed. 

So while we studied them, and gave our song, and out love, 

because of that unreliable tongue,

even though we were told to: 

we did not dare give them our dreams. 

Instead, 

we sang our dreams of who the two legged really are- 

and how they can be again– 

into to water —

into her rivers, lakes and rain

so that they can remember every time they touch her. 

 

And we sang our dreams 

into the arms of trees 

so they would root that knowledge into this land 

so every step the two-leggeds took on this earth could be a moment of remembering.

Because when tw0- leggeds breath

they are in relationship to spirit

when they eat, they are in relationship to earth. 

when they swim, and bathe, and drink–  they are in relationship to us. 

And we told the two-leggeds again and again what we know as true:

You are loved

You can love again

You are love

walking on land 

as we are love

singing through the ocean

the ocean of your body.

Eventually, We learned how to walk in your world

In a world that holds beauty and hate

love and war, 

trust and despair. 

And our world became larger. 

Some will say that we forgot how to be what we are 

when we walked among you as people of the whale, 

while we waited for the others to arrive.

But we know that is just because 

they do not know

that once you are a whale, 

you are always a whale

and you will always be a whale.

I see you 

with those two legs, 

and flippers disguised as arms, 

you are different, 

it is not so easy to glide through life.

But as people of the whale

you walk the ways of whale on earth.

And you sing ~ keeping the memories alive 

of what you once were. 

And you keep sharing the dream, telling the stories…

even though some will think 

you are just spinning fantasies and fairy tales.

 

On great occasion

another person of the whale 

will catch the harmony of your song

and something that has been quiet and dormant within them will wake.

Because your call tells them it is safe to come out

and reveal the truth of what they are

because you dear one

have done your job— 

to learn the old ways

and the new ways.  

the strange ways

the broken ways

the hardened way

and perhaps the most meaningful… the disconnected ways.

And even though everything 

you have seen, known, and felt

as you walk in the light of the sun, 

and through the darkness of a one moon world

you sow the worlds together from this place

and you look at the little ones, and you say:

You be you

and we be we

and us be us…

well you know how the rest of that song and dance goes. 

 

And you look into the eyes of elders

and you listen 

before you speak:

You are loved

You have always been loved

And you will always be love. 

 

If you want to hear the whole story of how this story came into being…

(You can listen to the audio below)

 

May this story bring you closer to the water you live with and among,

and may it bring you closer to understanding the beings who are living among us,

and may you bring you closer to protecting these beings, and these places,

so that many generations to come will have the opportunity to enjoy, appreciate, learn from, and celebrate the world of water and all the being that live and love there.

 

Images by Karim Iliya