He felt the need to protect her...

While running a natural awareness session for my friend Thomas on his year course, it was decided that we would play the game 'Animal Tag'. This involves me watching people within the circle closely and when I sense the right moment I choose someone to take on the role of an animal.

At one point I decided to choose a woman to play the part of a male tiger and another person was chosen to be a hunter closing in for the kill. As the group watched with interest as the tiger who was blindfolded responded to the silent movements of the hunter, clearly demonstrating that she was picking up on the hunters intentions by moving away from him but also often turning to face in the direction of where the danger was coming from.

Tiger Picures

A few minutes later I approached another member of the group in the circle and I asked him to take on the role of a male tiger, he was also blindfolded and he was unaware as was the rest of the group the roles I had assigned to the others.

At first he stood still for a short period of time as if trying to get a sense of where he was and what was taking place. Then, slowly he moved by this time the other two players had also moved so the second tiger had no real idea where the other players where within the circle.

He continued to move forward and at one point he stood between the first tiger and the hunter. At the end of the game we did a short process. This involves me asking the group what they saw and did they draw from the visual information they were receiving, when I do this I always find it amazing even thought it should no longer be the case, how much the group have sensed what was taking place. This I believe is because by now they have invested in the game and there becomes also and emotional connection between them.

The tiger tiger when asked what was going on for him, he replied. I just had a sense that I needed to protect, if fact it was quite powerful and at the point when he stopped between the hunter and the tiger we concluded this was where the strongest feeling was for him.

Then once this process is over I then ask each player to disclose to the group what their role was, before that they are not allowed to say. When this happened there were smiles all round as people put the final pieces together and also gasps of amazement that the third player had connected with the first player as a pair of tigers in a relationship with each other.

Watch Out... Is what the Jays had to say.

Whilst bird watching in Thailand. I stayed at the Nam Nao National Park. One day I decided to take one of the longer trails to see if I could find some elephants as I had been told they were in the local area and if I was very lucky maybe I would also catch a glimpse of a tiger.

As I crossed a clearing heading for some high ground, I had an image in my mind of a tiger walking towards me, did this mean that a tiger had passed down this very trail some hours earlier or was it a vision of what was to come? Either way I felt very excited by the prospect of both but more of the latter. As I approached the high ground which leads into dense undergrowth I heard a flock of Jays causing a real commotion this caused me to stop, I was very aware that they were warning of potential danger close by.

As I looked down the trail and into the undergrowth, suddenly I heard an almighty crash and my heart missed a few beats. My immediate thought was that the sound had been made by an elephant, so I waited to see if it would appear around the bend of the trail, nothing came then I began to think perhaps it was a tiger charging though the undergrowth after some deer or something, my heart raced even more, what would I do if it was a tiger?

After a while the Jays began to settle down at which point I felt it was ok to move forward to investigate what the noise was, I soon discovered a very large branch some twenty meters long by about one meter thick laying on top of a clump of large bamboo. I realised had the Jays not kicked off, the time it would have taken me to walk from the ridge to this very spot, would have been around the same time this tree sized branch had crashed down, I would have been if not under it certainly very close to where it had landed.

I realised the Jays had saved me from some serious injuries at the very least or even from death itself.

Hunting as a Rite of Passage: I am so sorry, thank you for giving up your life.

In 19.. I attend a Battlefield Survival Course at the International Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol School (ILRRPS) in Southern Germany. It was one of them courses that changes your life, one that you will never forget. No more so when we were required to kill an animal for our food.

This was my first time killing an animal, and I found myself walking away from the group with my rabbit in my arms. I held my rabbit close to my heart and while stroking it I looked into its eyes and I asked it to forgive me, as I was about to takes its life. I found myself thanking it for giving up its life so that I may understand what it means to do such a thing and in order to help me survive if ever I found myself in that situation.

I walked away from the group because I did not want the others to hear me, in case they thought I was mad, but also I felt it was a personal and private moment between me and the rabbit. All this took place long before I knew what I know now.

Which is that we are all connected and there is a respectful and honourable way of taking a life in order that one can live.

Sometime after setting up Natural Pathways I wanted to show people how to do this as I felt it was really important. For me it is like a jig saw puzzle every piece represents a wilderness living skill, we are happy to show people how to trap and how to skin and gut but no, its not PC to show people how to kill.

Why?

Have you ever heard a rabbit cry out, even hard men wrench at the sound. I came in for a lot of flank for wanting to do this, eventually I was able to show people using dead animals, and what surprised me was how many vegetarians were up for the experience, perhaps because I really drove home the point that this was about respect and honouring the animal for giving its life, so that me may live.

What ever their reasons it turned out not to be so controversial after all and they had the option not to take part.

Why am I telling you this? Who knows I just felt it needed to be said.

Hunting as a Rite of Passage

In the past the when they were deemed ready elders would perhaps send the young bucks away from the village to go through their transition from Boys to Men my friend Will Lord once shared such a story with me, it went something like this.

It was time, time for him to leave, a bot of 13 years, he was taken to the edge of the encampment, there he was given a flint and told not to come back until his flint was a highly polished axe head which had to be fully functioning as an axe.

OK, so what, that should not take to long for a well trained person. But, lets think about this for a moment not only does he have to turn this stone into an axe but in the process he also needs to take care of himself. He must be aware of the dangers of the wild and how to move within nature, he would need to understand nature, that's what all the training was for, even when he played games with his friends, they were all designed to help prepare him for this day. But the ultimate test was now beginning.

First he needed to find shelter, maybe a cave to start with, who knows it all depends on the surrounding environment. If there is no cave then he would need to build a debris shelter, this would be a good place to start, he would need to protect himself from the elements, just as we do today when out shopping on sunning day and it starts to rain without thinking we naturally head for a doorway, this is part Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Fire would be next, then water and followed by food, but of course he would be aware of all these things at the same time, no to do so could result in survival being at risk, this would require a connection unlike any other, a spiritual connection to his natural world he is not separate from it but an integral part of it.

This connection we still have today, however, the modern world has removed us from this connection outwardly at least. Because once we return to nature suddenly we remember what we have always known and that is here we belong. I have seen big hard men melt at the sight of Merlin, (my Eagle Owl) without words there is an instant understanding.

And, so the young boy continues on his journey searching for food, moving when the time is right and the seasons dictate, understanding the animals around him learning from them, connecting to his inner self, that voice that helps to guide him as well and all the while the axe head is taking shape. he has learnt by know to lay successful traps ones that bring him food and before laying such traps which can be indiscriminate he asks that the animal give up its life so that he may live and in so doing he must also honouring the animal he traps, otherwise its life would have no meaning, he would be taking for the sake of taking without regard, does he take all ten eggs from the nest or does he only take what he needs to live and in so doing embraces the new life of the other eggs yet to come...

To be continued