Reconnecting to Animal Wisdom: Ollie Neveu
This past weekend I made a trip home. Life got overwhelming and I needed to be near my pup, Melanie, to recharge and remember my purpose.
My love for my pup cannot be described in words - it's the most unconditional love I've ever known. For years I was able to differentiate the immense love I feel for Melanie from the pain and suffering of the animals who showed up on my plate. I could go from cuddling with her to eating a steak. I could look into her eyes and see her soul and then grab a burger and forget the burger was once a soul with eyes, too.
And that thought is affecting me.
Our food choices are socially constructed. We are taught to believe one type of animal is more valuable than another; we are conditioned to believe killing is normal. Though I no longer consume many animal products, I still feel guilt for the role I've played in the torture and abuse of animals in my 24 years as a heavy meat eater. This guilt is one of the reasons I was so excited when Ollie Neveu, an intuitive healer/animal advocate, reached out with an idea to write a piece on veganism and how it increases our sensitivity and makes us more reflective of our part in the harm of animals. Her piece shines a light on the conditioning process most of us experience growing up and addresses how we can be proactive in regaining our connection to animals and their wisdom. Ollie was avid meat lover until she transitioned to veganism after adopting her rescue greyhound (Guru Dog Neve) who opened her heart and showed her the shared consciousness in all beings. If you're new to veganism and feeling guilty over your meat eating past, this post for you. If you aren't a vegan but are curious about the lifestyle and its benefits outside of health and environment, I hope Ollie's words are helpful to you.
“We may not be responsible for the world that created our minds, but we can take responsibility for the mind with which we create our world.”
CARNISM AND RECONNECTING WITH ANIMAL WISDOM
by: Ollie Neveu
For thousands of years humans have looked towards animals for guidance and wisdom. Cultures all around the world saw animals as keepers of powerful truths and deeply connected to the wisdom of the universe/God/the spirit world. Because animals have souls, just like we do. They’re just like us, except for the ways which they aren’t - and that difference is what makes them amazing spiritual teachers. Children know this inherently. Studies have shown that children from around the world all hold this belief, across cultures and religions. It’s a natural, inherited knowledge, passed down from multiple generations. An inbuilt belief that whispers of how we once lived our lives, in tune with nature and animals.
But in the modernised Western world, the whisper is silenced. This universal human belief gets shut down and shoved away into the deep recesses of our hearts.
As children grow and are shaped by society, we are taught that this belief has no place in our world. From religious dogma that literally teaches ‘Animals do not have souls’, to industrial farming that sanitises the brutality and suffering of animals by reducing their flesh to ‘meat’, their individuality to serial numbers and their lives to units. Not to mention an ever increasing distance between ourselves and nature - means that the majority of fully grown humans are wandering around either not aware or refusing to acknowledge this deeply held truth.
This denial (technically called carnisim) puts some serious roadblocks in between us and our ability to receive the abundance of wisdom that animals hold. When you open your heart and mind, you can see that animals have many lessons to share with us. And a really good way to do this, is by ditching the meat, dairy and eggs and transitioning to a vegan lifestyle.
Adopting a vegan lifestyle connects us back to that innate part of ourselves that is very in tune with animals and nature. Through the conscious choices we make through veganism, we are able to dissolve the blocks that kept our hearts closed off from animals. Blocks that were put in place so we could eat burgers without being overcome with guilt. This open pathway allows us to experience a profound relationship with animals, tune into their wisdom and also gain the trust of prey animal like horses/goats/rabbits/mice/birds, who can all tell if a human eats meat.
We also benefit from not loading our body with the energetic imprint of trauma, pain and suffering that an animal experiences before being killed. This is why you will often hear people saying they feel lighter after going vegan. The benefit of removing this heavy energy from our plates, and loading up on high vibrational plants instead, allows for a greater clarity in our own energetic experiences - which is music to an empath’s sensitive ears. A heightened intuition and greater spiritual connection as a result of a vegan lifestyle allow us to open further to animals and receive their wisdom.
You can learn more about Ollie below - I just joined her animal healing circle on FB and am so SO excited for the growth to come.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/animalhealingcircle