The Silence Ceremony

The Presidential eye continued its impassive survey of the creatures filling the sky above, the valley below. Sun continued to light the lioness like a beacon whose gleaming presence atop the craggy peak signaled to the animals that the Ceremony was about to begin. Looking her way, one creature after the other became transfixed by the still, golden being on the cliff.

Moving her head almost imperceptibly in a clock-wise motion, the lioness subtly finessed Sun’s fingers into crowning her with a brighter and brighter glow, all the while fixing her shining eyes on the assemblage, sending a wordless message of Light into every creature, one at a time and all at once. In return, the animals--from the serpentine snake to the enigmatic iguana, the glinting weasel to the clattering quail, the blinkered mole-rat to the sky-borne hawk, the flashing whale, sleek-haired alpaca, fleet-footed mustang, hard-muscled wildebeest, humpty-backed camel--oh, ALL the animals of WEarth sent the luminous message back to the radiant beast on high, their animal-power altering its flow, changing its direction, causing the lioness to swirl her head now in a counter-clockwise motion, sending the energy up, up, up, up until Sun herself was caught in its pulsing current.

This, the moment of Power, was the moment of danger.

If any animal, but especially the central one, became unlinked and the flow broken, mighty forces could escape uncontrolled, causing upheavals and energy-errors entirely ruinous to WEarth and all its inhabitants.

The lioness, strained and stressed, was pushed to her limit. Nothing--not the most trying chase, the most strenuous mating, the most extended birthing--had ever been like this. But the discipline of the hunt, where every breath, muscle, nerve, and twitch was under strict control for as long as it took, held her in good stead.

She held her stillness close, and the shimmering current from Sun to lion to animals and back again flowed clean and pure and perfect, smoothing away all jagged edges of doubt and demurral. In an exquisite triune of heart, mind and soul, the lioness gave herself to this moment of unity.

Then even the young creatures felt something rise in their blood, causing them to move and sway with the rest in a way subtle and liquid and strong. The Waters and Winds responded to the massive animal motion by slowing down and smoothing out into a hush like a great deep breath, a song with no notes or tones but rhythm nonetheless, transporting the Great Silence in ripples and waves. Fires everywhere ceased their cackle and roar and became invisible once again, disappearing into earth and air as if they had never been. The noise and smoke of ages cleared, and now, within the ritual perimeter, the animals could not only hear themselves think, they could hear the minds of others as well. The quietude was clear, permeable, crystalline, and entirely complete.

Spent, Sun withdrew. But, curiosity overcoming lassitude, she maneuvered around to a favorable vantage point in the east to hover above, watching, waiting, listening. Moon stood attentively on the western horizon, his white face intent upon the scene below. Even the Sisters fell quiet, clasping and holding their busy fingers tightly together to keep them still. And as the Winds went, so followed the Waters, and vice versa, each reflecting a growing stillness one upon the other. All Stars present reluctantly receded as liquid blue filled the great bowl of the sky--this was an earth matter; there was nothing they could do.

Then, with everyone settled--all Powers great and small, all animals Wild and Halfwild--the First Meeting of WEarth Cycle CCCXCVI came to order.