When We Were Whales [Soundscape & Audio Story]
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