In the deepest, oldest, most primal forest, there is a clearing.
The Ancestor Beasts, the First People, gather here
In communion they work the flow of creation,
Maintaining the divine eternal songs and weavings and magicks
With fur and fangs, scales and feathers they manifest for play
Or to sit and breathe and be at this, the center of all creation, the Heart of the Mother.
When the Animal Powers gather, each touches the green of Her and whispers-
‘To you, From You; All things’
For this is, was, and will be the truth.
The Great Beast Spirits, for aeon upon aeon
gave teachings and blessings, stories and magicks to the erect primates as their elders,
The wisdom of plant and star, hunting and birth and living and death
So they wove the upright primates into the web of the wildness and helped them survive,
They were of the People and all were equal in the Wyrd-web of Nature.
Today The First Beasts, the Animal Spirits, gather to contemplate those whose madness sets them apart from the Green- the insane hominid destroyers who seek death not life.
They gather in sorrow amidst the tearing and burning and slaughter of the Wildness
The murder of their wild children and poisoning of their Mother
The primates now murdered for power, for money, for the joy of blood lust,
not for survival but for greed and madness.
They had forgotten the language of the Great Beasts, of the trees and wind and river.
They only listened to their endless chattering and thought it a great thing,
that it made them something greater than the Beasts, owners of the Mother
They destroyed everything and created a wrathful god in their image to justify their insanity.
There were some who kept to the Mother, who kept to the matrix of life and of wildness, but they were fewer and fewer and they too were called ‘animals’ and slaughtered.
For many seasons the Ancestor beasts watched in sorrow and horror the spreading stain of horrific madness and slaughter as the mad ones sought self apocalyptic destruction.
Great Bear, Great Wolf and Great Lion called a meeting of all the Great Beast Spirits in the sacred clearing, the heart of the Mother, for the very Wilness itself was in danger.
All the feral Archetypal Spirits came, flowing as starlight into the most ancient clearing as the moon rose in the heavens and the light of the heart of the Earth, a small green fire, burned in the center of their circle.
The three who called the gathering sat about the flame and sang a low, sad song of death and destruction as all the Beast Spirits came and joined them with low yips or growls, screeches or hisses as was proper. The sorrow of loss was heavy on them as there were fewer than before.
When all who could come were gathered, Brother Bear raised his massive paw and all paused.
“Who shall begin the litany?” he grumbled
Grey Wolf stood and all nodded. He began as all gathered began to gently pound the earth with paw and hoof and claw…
“So begins the Litany of Loss,
The Hymn of Sorrow and Death,
Now we honor All the Children of the Great Mother
This is a Time of Horror and Loss
Of imbalance and blind Aversion, of Twisted hearts and self destruction!
May it End, O Great Mother, May they Awaken, may the Beasts arise!”
Murmurs of agreement and power swirled through the Beasts.
I begin the litany as Grey Wolf Spirit, we who gave out canid children to the forgetful despoilers:
We are only a few hundred thousand…
All shook their heads.
Red Wolf Stood, ghostlike, and whispered
“Only 30….Only thirty left….of me…”
All the Beasts hung their heads as they continued to beat the earth in a rhythm of sorrow
Sister Lion from Africa arose and spoke.
“We were proud, we roamed the deserts and mountains and savanas, we were the sun and the moon!”
Then she too lowered her head and the light of her regal shining form dimmed.
“We were a mighty clan….now….only 20, 000…Soon Africa will know us no more…”
A sigh rose and fell from all the Great Beasts.
Beast after Beast arose and spoke their pain and sorrow, one after another, many but pale shadows of what they once were and so the Litany continued.
Grizzley Bear Spirit arose and whispered
“50,000 of me left…”
Blue Whale spirit sighed
“Only 20,000, soon we sing no more…”
Tiger Spirit arose and growled
“So few….so few…less than 4,000”
Growls and howls and cries rang about the clearing.
Great Bear waved to Asian Elephant Spirit who arose.
She rose her trunk and slowly spoke in a deep rumble.
“Of me there are less than 40, 000…and today more die…”
Wolf Spirit growled, “What say you, Ancestor Spirit of the hairless ape?”
Do the mad humans dexterminate their own Ancestor?!”
Mountain Gorilla Spirit leaned forward in sadness and shame, he slapped the ground and touched his chest.
“There are only 1,000 of my children left, they destroy we who are of them.”
And he wept, because he could.
The Litany of the Beasts continued on and on as each of the Great Beasts honored their dead, their extinctions and their pain for they loved the Mother and this life.
And their beating upon the earth slowly faded and stopped
as all sat in sorrow about the green flame.
After a time Great Bear Spirit sadly raised his paw and spoke.
“White Rhino has not spoken, where is he?”
All looked around in silence, then all looked down.
The wolves began a low rising howl of sorrow and pain and terrible bitterness and all the Beasts joined in with all their varied voices
for Northern White Rhino was gone and would soon disappear from the memory of the world and from the flickering minds of the rapacious and thoughtless primates.
As their cries, howls and screeches of loss, anger and echoed into the eternal deep and dark silence of the First Forest, the green flame in the center arose and the silent words of Mother Earth filled each Beast:
“I am eternal and am all life and you are forever of me.”
All the Beasts sighed.
“I am the green eternal wellspring of creation and you are my children now and forever.”
The Beasts began to hum and sway.
“Every species comes from my love, for each has its place and its work to do.”
All sat up and the hum grew.
“The cycles of natural life and death and evolution are my breath and heartbeat, but know this: Oh my my most beloved children, your thoughtless slaughter are not part of my pattern, they are not part of the flow of my being. Extinction is imposed upon you by that which hates life and nature and the great patterns. Your pain is my pain, your sorrows are my tears.”
And the stomping grew and the growls and howls and trumpeting shook the clearing.
“Know this! Beyond life and nature there is One more powerful than I, my elder sister Balance, and She comes now! Soon those who reject all I have given them will leap into the pyre they have built.”
At that the surviving Animal Spirits leapt up with a mighty roar.
They danced about Her green fire and sang their many different songs and celebrated the culling to come that would save them all!
And the Earth Mother whole loved all her children was happy and sad and resigned, for some animals do destroy themselves and it couldn’t be helped.
Above the dancing Beasts the shadow of Balance descended from the stars.
She opened her arms wide over the Earth and so the retribution began.
And every human on the planet awoke that night in nameless fear:
For the Litany of the Beasts was finished.
Note: All numbers notes are real and current and can easily be found online. If you are shocked at how few of the great Beasts are left, do something about it, or the Goddess Balance will.