The Long Thaw

Years pass as quickly as an impression leaves a mark on the soul. I was visiting friends I had met as a student in Scotland. I had since moved. I had forgot how, when sunshine is scarce, grey shadows mark the dark season and reveal what hides on the other side of the divide.

The adult world starts to penetrate the child’s mind during the short days and long nights of winter. Alastair had taken on the task of making supper with his two boys. Each sang his own song. “Daddy?” piped up the five-year-old. “Yes, turnip?” Daddy responded. “Should I set the table?” the youngster asked. “Brilliant idea, ” came Daddy’s reply.

The 10-year-old and I discussed turnips. Aileen arrived, seeing the table set and supper ready she smiled and told her fellows, “Darlings, how beautiful. You are very courageous.” We sat and enjoyed the simple meal, good company and rich conversation that nourished body, mind and soul.

The boys were keen on telling me about their adventure to Glasgow where they had seen a woolly mammoth’s tusk and teeth and got a poster of it's evolution by Uli Westfal.

The youngest, five-year-old Ian said, “Mama said mammoths were like elephants and they bring luck. Too bad they died.”

I said “ I have a painting of an elephant drawn by an elephant that my mom had in her living room. She always loved to talk about the elephant in the room. That expression means you should talk about an obvious concern that is the cause of a problem. Elephants can use tools, but some people think it is cruel to teach them to draw. She respected their talent.”

Ian added “ I saw an elephant dance in ‘Fantasia’. I was really happy when Dumbo could fly but it was really sad when Dumbo’s mom was taken away.”

Then 10-year-old, Aidan recounted the story about the elephants, Babar and Celeste. “Babar’s mom died. Then Babar ran away. An old lady found him and took care of him. He learned how to be civilized then returned to his village, became king and married Celeste. They floated off for their honeymoon in a balloon, but became stranded on an island. Then they escaped on a whale who dropped them in the ocean but were saved by a lifeboat but then put in a circus. Finally the old lady found and freed them, and they went home.”

Aileen, a keen beekeeper , nodded appreciatively at the synopsis. “I read that Beehives are placed on perimeters of agricultural enclosures near elephant reserves. The smell of bee pheromones keeps them from entering and destroying crops. Elephants are smart. They have big brains and can integrate and transform information and solve problems. Take note, they form social structures led by the wise decisions of the oldest matriarch.”

Alastair continued with a twinkle in his eye. “My grandmother always said that there is more to be learned of what we see than the human mind can process. She believed in the theory of everything, a Grand Unity where coherent resonance remove boundaries between linear and nonlinear dimensions. She told a story about elephants.”

A nomadic Mongolian Siberian tribe, called the Tongoose, revered the elephant that migrated to the borders of Siberia. Tongoose are of middling size, limber and well made, with small lively eyes, a keen sense of sight and hearing. They are brave warriors, excellent archers, good horseman and well acquainted with many a tree and rock, plant and star.

During the off season in 1799, A Tongoose fisherman went looking for elephant tusks. Beneath the opaque crystals of a clouded ice shelf over a frozen pond, he discovered the remains of a woolly mammoth. During the Ice Age, mammoths were driven through swampy ground, by the instinct to find fresh water. It had become contaminated with salt water. The mammoth sank into the mud and were preserved.

Tongoose know the power of holy terror of emotionally-charged social taboos. Because of their fear, the mammoth stayed there for four years. Tongoose are wired to work to be resourceful, using their skills and what is available to do what they can with a pure heart. They have Shamans, trained in the Bhagavad Gita and follow Buddhist teachings of simplicity that use 'sadhana’, a practice that can release the minds and hearts of an individual so the soul can voyage with a complex comprehension and skills to use unexpected complexities to make things work so as to ease suffering, pain, sorrow, fear and discontent that can occur from greed, aversion and delusion that Buddhist’s call Dukkha. The Tongoose herd reindeer with the Dukkha tribe. They share information openly, to make life easier for them both. Dukkha is known as a marriage of spices that include cinnamon, or cumin, fennel seeds, coriander, white sesame seeds, sea salt pepper or sugar, egg, with or without the yolk, and nuts to make one of the miracles of mankind, manna.

Tongoose are taught that ‘it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly that to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.’ They gain sight with the inner eye that does not depend on an overactive imagination, but respecting what is hidden in plain sight and hard to notice. They polish red or brown quartz containing particles of gold, so it has the appearance of Mother of Pearl. Adding water to mica they make glass windows for in igloos that use ice as insulation against the cold. They track animals and because of the vast possibilities in the wild terrain, return the way they enter.

Tongoose harvest the delights of day lily tubers and bulbs found in the soft and almost fluid clay called lithomarge or rock marrow, and powdered gypsum called rock meal, that they mix with bread and eat as a sandwich. They use the lilies and the tasteless fruit of a wild pear tree, to make a liquor that is not at all agreeable. It is imbibed during the harvest festival, called Kamchatka, also the name of a remote eastern Russian island. Kamchatka, is a geothermal and political ring of Fire, where explosive volcano spirits dwell.

During the festival, fire dances, drumming, chanting and singing occur. Tongoose are good musicians, with an agreeable expression They pride themselves on the strength of their tone that rings out as they sing a merry song and do a nimble dance. They even performed at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851.

Back to the mammoth. William Reed, author of ‘Phantom of the poles’ in 1906, used the discoveries of the mammoth around the world, as evidence to support a contention, from 1692 by Edmond Halley, (after whom the famous comet was named), that claimed the Earth was hollow.

In 1912, Admiral Richard E. Byrd took to the skies in an airplane over Antarctica, to find evidence of circular openings at the South pole, which might allow plants and animals to move through a dark underworld. Byrd discovered Mount Sidley, the largest volcano in Antarctica. His diaries hint at his meeting a strange alien race that tunnelled to Agartha, at the earth’s core. This has been called Hades by the Greeks, Hell by Christians, Sheol, the abode of the dead, by Hebrews and the mystical city of Shambhala that the Russian mystic, Nicholas Roerich, searched for in the Himalayas. The Earth’s core is called Aryavarta, the land of the civilized people by Hindus, and the lost cities of Atlantis, Lemuria and Mu that disappeared after war and cataclysmic events. Who knows?”

Alastair had told the story in a sufficiently whimsical manner that the youngsters were satisfied with it to leave the table and get ready for bed.

I commented, “It’s refreshing that over a century ago, these explorers looked for evidence of a possibility outside of popular belief that suggests what one thinks exists, is all that exists.”

Aileen said, “When I imagine elephants, I think of the diamond pattern on their saggy, baggy skin.”

Ever the lighthearted humorist, Alastair interjected, “Who would have known? I must trim my beard to a point, to look more handsome.”

I said. “Whenever I hear ‘must’, I think of how the French translate ‘Il faut que’ as ‘you must’. The contextual meaning in English indicates a duty or obligation but, as I understand, the meaning in French is ‘you might consider’. Male elephants develop a ‘musth’, a swelling of temporal glands that produces ten times the usual testosterone during the mating season. It attracts mates, but causes aggression. Just goes to show you never know the effects of a musth.”

Aileen laughed, rolling her eyes. “Ganesh got an elephant head, as a replacement after his estranged father Shiva beheaded him. The head has the shape of a diamond, considered the most attractive in human recognition tests. The diamond represents a facet of the infinite. Ganesh’s symbol, the swastika, is shaped like a diamond. Ganesh, the Hindu ‘Deva’ of intellect and reason, great scribe and patron of arts and science, uses the potential of the wild mind to be the God of beginnings. Using intellect, consciousness and the psyche, Ganesh calmly observes how the ego affects emotions and organs, instead of reacting.”

“Ganesh who?” Alastair queried, deadpan as if he were sneezing.

Aileen continued, “Ganesh is said to represent the way in which the soul and the physical body of a man can remove impediments. Ganesh convenes with the distorted demented the creatures of delusions, using his ‘Vahana’ which in Sanskrit, means a vehicle. Ganesh rides on a lion, peacock, serpent, ram, horse or tortoise, or the celestial musical god, Musika, the mouse. Ganesh knew the power of making friends, no matter how big or small they were. Musika help Ganesh go where needed, squeezing into the most secret places or leaping long distances off the back of a bull, or removing obstacles that bind and cause pain.”

“Ganesh is said to have the form of Aum, the primal seed sound of cosmic energy that governs sleeping, dreaming and waking of the higher mind of consciousness. The root chakra holds the dragon made up of the Yin and Yang. The Feminine Shakti ‘yoni’ Yin energy of awakening, creative development and productivity makes life feel vital, especially during the darkness of the new moon and winter. In contrast, the masculine, passionate, methodical, restless Yang ‘linga’ energy is driven by desire and aggression associated with the full moon, the sun and summer.”

“Oh, yes. Yang really can be a problem- in quantum theory it deals with the mass gap that occurs between an electron in a wave and a particle.” quipped Alistair.

Aileen finished her thought. “Ganesh transmits what the Buddhists call the seven treasures, along Ganesh’s seven trunks, the chakras. The qi goes through the Dantien and turns the Hindu Wheel of life as Ganesh uses opportunities for creation or destruction to control spiritual development and destiny.”

Alastair added. “It is interesting to watch how destiny works. Jacob used the Stone of destiny, that once held the Arc of the Covenant, as a pillow when he dreamed of a ladder reaching heaven. The stone was brought to Scotland and used by monarchs at coronation ceremonies until taken by England’s King Edward 1 in 1296. In the 1950’s two Scottish Nationalists took it, but was eventually returned to Scotland, via England in 1996. It’s on display in Edinburgh Castle museum. Destiny is curious.”

I stood up and said, “ Sheesh, we are the tillerman of the nouvelle vague. Symbols enter deep into the domain of the unknown, and unseen forces hold connections that go beyond moral imaginings. I never thought the elephant is such a symbol. The elephant seems to swing on the ship sailed by Theseus, who asked, ‘if his ship were to be restored, with each of its wooden parts replaced, would it be the same ship?’ ”

Chuckling they went to tuck in the boys and called it a night.