Dear Hunters: Endowed To Protect

Remember this: Causative Melancholy writes an unread letter.

Dear Hunter: I am about to let you know what’s up.

Now that Thanksgiving 2016 has the derogatory stain of Human and Constitutional rights violations by a continuous stream of militarized police violence on the Standing Rock Sioux by Morton County Police, DAPL, Dakota Access, LLC, and outsourced security companies-the one thing I would like to see, which cannot find, is a full environmental impact statement for the conditions a DAPL crude oil leak in the ground implied under the water source of the Standing Rock Sioux. 

There should be one. This environmental impact statement should include the complete expanse of the pipeline through its subsequent states and anything it affects, even human beings. Where is it? How can Dakota Access, LLC build without the environmental impact statement? If there is an environmental statement, why is it not available for the public?

The XL Keystone Pipeline had an environmental impact study-where is DAPL’s?

Questions. Questions.

Free media is focusing on infringement of an indigenous spiritual movement, human rights, desecration of sacred burial mounds, and Dakota Access with the help of North Dakota’s governance to pull a Viking move on the Standing Rock Sioux. When you read the content of official letters between lawyers and different departments involved-one wonders where that bit of information is.

Celebrities got involved. It is a shame that the common person can’t make a statement and it is heard. It has to be known person with a huge following. That didn’t work-DAPL put up a barb wire fence while officers walked over the burial mound like it was nothing.

Yet a small person can stand up and make a big sound-when everyone else joins in repeating the words.

Foreign places even showed support but they are a long ways off.

I have been trying to put it all into perspective with the lack of evidence, available research on the part of science in order to do such a project, and turning the screw so you can look in another prism of the key hole.

When you review pipeline projects, jobs are generated but do not last forever. The project itself destroys habitat in areas and it takes time for those areas to recoup.

There is a problem with keeping up a standard of maintenance and upkeep on pipelines to keep leaks from occurring. Corrosion, as I have read is a guilty party. If an oil pipeline is sixty feet under a water source, at the mercy of the agents of nature, and not visually inspectable, is it proper to say this is favorable conditions for undetectable leaks over a period of time that could cause extreme damage to the ground, ground water, and those living things above it?

Then a company drives that right through someone’s family graveyard-that is a morally bankrupt concept to observe.

For writing purposes’ sake, I am going to reason that what has been done to Standing Rock is good enough reason to revolt. If you need something else to drive it home-here it is. Anyone else that can think of a valid reason to support this argument, feel free to write your own-and spread the word.

I may dwell in darkness in my blog, but readers tend to write and spread the word. Go forth and multiple.

Out-of-sight, out-of-mind. This pipeline stretches estimate 1,130 (or 1172) miles-with a certain amount of that underground. It goes through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and on to Illinois. That is 1,130 miles of potential damage to wildlife habitat, outdoor infringement due to No Access due to damage, etc. There is the issue of the Oil Company cleaning up the mess it has created, and everyone else living with the fall-out from it.

How fair it is that a big corporation, or company can act as they please, as it would seem, to whomever they want, yet depending on which state you live in, the constituent has to go to the local government, ask for a building permit to add to their house, or have natural resources come out to their property and tell the constituent where a hole can be dug to put in a water source?

Does Human habitation ever occur in an Environmental Impact study? 

If it does, why was the Standing Rock Sioux not included in its ledgers? Or someone was hoping to rub the Standing Rock Sioux from it in the hopes-no one would care about them.

Not this day.

The idea the other states involved caters to the acceptance of something that could ruin their quality of life exists, but look the other way with the hopes nothing bad will happen. Then I think, Flint Michigan and the tainted water-among other stories.

Constituents were disregarded in the construction of policies and ideas to supposedly serve the community without proper consideration for the possible outcomes that could harm them. In its execution of said plan, disregarded ensuring quality material and a plan to monitor were lacking. There didn’t seem to exist consistent monitoring for safety issues and placed regulations for water quality.

You have distrust in politicians, and the politician’s inability to use sound science to ensure quality of life of the human constituents through regulations that stipulate a section dedicated to problem-solving in the now, instead of the “after the fact”.

No one said a politician had to be a scientist, but a politician has a world of scientists at the ready to give sound input on issues where there is questionable content. All they have to do is ask the question, receive the input, and make a sound decision, or send that idea back to the drawing board until someone works out the kinks.

If you can’t execute it without harm-review, revise, and then act.

Dear Hunter-this is where you come in. If you hunt any of those states, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois-go to that states Department of Natural Resources for hunting and google the wild game. Do you want to lose that?

If these people can ramrod a tribe of indigenous peoples, when someone decides to privatize Public Lands-do you think the militarized police aren’t going to show up and spray you in the face with mace, shoot rubber bullets at you, blind you with lights to keep you up at night, and refuse to let you build a fire in freezing condition after spraying cold water on you to give you hypothermia?

Do you think you will be different? Somehow, your life has more value than Standing Rock-no, it doesn’t.

Standing Rock fights for the same things-it varies in their timeline-but the same things. They fight for all of us. Even you good hunter.

How you value land and hunting is the same as Standing Rock with some varying in belief-but you know it is sacred, you need it, and it is yours to defend-it is your home.

If you don’t believe me look up the fight for public lands and hunting. See what your google strike gets. I believe that is one of the keystone issues Steven Rinella speaks on; if you need some credibility here, because what do I know-I am a woman.

When you have elected a President that can’t be trusted in his word, you have to wait for the shoe to drop; God forbid where it fall.

When shady politicians forego the quality and value of human life to hire a get-away-crew to do less than excellent work which causes sickness and disease-maybe you need to rethink being silent because you were never promised it wouldn’t happen to you.

If a United States veteran, who made a vow to protect the American people can stand up for and with the Standing Rock Sioux, then Hunters everywhere need to get off their asses and realize what this means to them.

Not ever hunter is a likable character. Some are self-serving, like to see themselves in photos, and act as elitists over all of us-but you, Hunter-are a free agent of the wild. It is your endowment to protect it. I am eyeballing you to scientists of the world.

Yet, you are free to chose.

Its water, land, family, wildlife, a way of life, and the things you spout are tradition, to be pasted to your kids-for future generations. 

That is no different than Standing Rock Sioux. They have the same innate right to it-and it is being tread on.

Its habitat, wildlife, all things we know as Nature that restores our soul when the trappings of this world, wear us down with stress, depression, and lack of hope.

One of our mottoes as the American Public: Don’t tread on us.

When did we give it away? Why do we normalize the treading on other people that are fighting for a reason that can’t be argued?

When did we stop standing up with our ethnic brothers who want the same decency and respect-the same people whose ancestors walked through lives of happiness, abuse, torture, life and death for us to get here?

How did people come to disrespect the self and each other, and normalize the things our ancestors and people now, died for?

Some people don't like what I have to say. If I was having a hard time, I would want someone like me to show up. Standing Rock is having a hard time, that is all they want to-and people to respect their belief that pipeline not go under their water source, or anywhere near their sacred burial sites. They don't want putrid water. Water is life.

Dear Hunter: You best be standing up and vocalizing. You are not immune to this. Don't wait for them to drive something through your hunting grounds. If you shirk you duty at this, when your hunting is gone, or you cry for help and it goes unheard-I told you so.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore, čhúŋwaŋča waók kté 

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Makes you wonder if the same thing happened to Standing Rock. 
When you read down through this you'll find this statement:

The scope of this task was restricted to assessing the impacts in the Columbia River from these two scenarios; we did not evaluate potential impacts in the Pacific Ocean or along the Pacific Coast. We also did not separately assess how the public or Indian Tribes would value the potential losses to natural resources if either of these spills were to occur, although these values may be at least partly accounted for in the methods we used. Thus, we expect that we are underestimating the potential impacts to fisheries and the potential natural resource damages from these spill scenarios.

http://192.168.1.1:8181/http://columbiariverkeeper.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/2615-137-CFTE-Ex1503-000095-ENV-Report_05-13-16.pdf

Vehicle Hunters: Dogs, Guns, and Blatant Disregard

Remember this: This ain’t the O-K Corral.

I have a current, active hunting and fishing license. I’ve been several times since my escape from that land: the Southwest.

For the past two years, the last couple of days of hunting season bring out the worst desperation for hunters. Every year it gets worse.

I am not sure what drives this need to do desperate acts. Is the stress and pressure to keep up, produce a product, and suck up to everyone to stay in the nook of their good graces that much of a problem in the hunting world? Is it worth it and for how long?  

I was having a tire plugged and doing some farrier work on my pony. The other horses alerted me that something was amiss out by the road. I looked up and saw a dark blue, Chevrolet truck parked in the road at the edge of the other pasture. This pasture extends out to the woods and my horses ramble around wherever they please eating.

I thought, “How creepy. Not sure if that is someone casing the joint, or just being a douche.”

I turned my head to grab the part to put air in my tires when I heard a loud shotgun go off. I jerked and looked straight at the vehicle. Three more were popped off. I said some profanities.

Every horse person in the known universe can concur: You do not mess with my horses.

This person was sitting in their truck shooting out over the pasture from the window. The truck was parked a stone’s throw from the neighbor’s residence. The wife is always in the house but hardly ever comes out.

I wasn’t sure what they could be shooting at. The woods were two pastures away. I couldn’t remember if it were dove hunting season-but still-no one is supposed to shoot from a vehicle especially out over someone else’s private property.

It agitated my father, who sent me after another truck while he watched the dark blue Chevrolet now backing up to hide behind the neighbor’s magnolia tree. Someone has been trespassing on his property and menacing him while he hunts. He can’t hunt in peace because of the boundary agitation by out-of-community hunters and community hunters skulking about in vehicles.

Now the private land owner that hunts is being assaulted by the vehicular hunter, who acts pretty much like a scavenger predator (coyote) at the boundaries.

I don’t think anyone foresaw this problem with landless hunters not willing to hunt sparse public land then converging on the areas outside of private land owners while trying to circumvent the land owner’s request for hunt lease funds in lieu of access; then trying to figure out how to run wildlife off of rest areas or quiet hunt areas in private lands by using trespassing hunting dogs, gun fire from mobile vehicles, and trespassing by driving onto ungated private land as a get-in and get-out scenario.

Just because you have a hunting license doesn’t give anyone the right to expect a property owner to hand over access to their property and open the property owner up to liability because of someone’s potentially hazardous pastime.

I left and followed another one barreling down the road. You find out one hunter-he or she knows who the others are because they are literally sucking at pack hunting. Low and behold, he was crawling under the neighbor’s cattle gate to grab a hunting dog.

The problem with hunting dogs with this scenario is putting them out on the boundary of a private area you have no access to, then know those dogs are going to cross over that inaccessible land without permission of the land owner in hopes of driving animals off-this is probably done while another hunter is in a stand trying to hunt that area with a valid hunting lease.

It is blatant disregard; much like someone shooting out over my horse pasture.

I thought of some suggestions. People like the option of suggestion.

If hunters are going to be allowed to hunt with dogs, those dogs should be microchipped, wearing identification collars, or collared with tracking systems. If a private landowner should find one on their land, should be able to require a payment of a return fee to have that dog relinquished back to the owner-payable by the owner to the landowner. Also, there should be accountability on the part of the hunter using the hunting dog. That dog’s identifier should be register with the DNR for monitoring for a fee that way if the hunter is unwilling to pay the return fee on the dog-they should be fined for negligible abandonment. This would reaffirm accountability when the dog walks out in front of someone’s vehicle and causes that person’s property to be damaged and in need of repair.

Now, this business of shooting from a vehicle can cause all kinds of problems. You never know when you are pointing a weapon at someone’s property, even if you think it is the woods, that there might be someone standing right there or walking by that could catch the spray of it. It is also wrong to open fire around residential areas far from the woods, even if you’re shooting at birds out of bird hunting season. Home owners don’t want to be menaced by out-of-community vehicular hunters blasting away for unknown reasons and scaring people.  This is a good way to get shot at by senile, older people who take offense at unwanted gun play from hooligans.

This has become an embarrassing and shameful way to be. Deer feed people, even undeserving, selfish people. Yet, the very animals everyone claims as “only for food” are treated like corn fodder, nothing more than an object, not deserving of any kind of respect.

Hunters are state constituents with a purchased privilege to do an activity. They are not God, nor are hunters entitled to walk around like John Poppy Cock demanding non-hunting participants smooch posterior because of implied and expected erroneous, cognitive delusions of being an alpha hunter; one that uses everything under the sun to catch a sad little deer.

There possibly is plenty of deer in the upstate. Several years now, my observation is the steady lack of visuals on deer. In order for me to even hear a buck, I have to listen in the dark after 10 pm. Not only the animal but the human is menaced by the ever imposing presence of vigilant hunters waiting to score.  

I would hate the idea that people are so hunter-greedy someone wants to make deer hunting a nighttime sport-because I am a hunter, I don’t apologize- blah, blah, blah.

Everything is eventual, per Stephen King, at the rate hunting is traveling it will reach its carrying capacity before it makes a free dive.

I ponder that hunters lost sight of how to be. Hunting appears to be an ever-growing soulless dead thing that no longer knows how to be-at least from my vantage point.

Is this the irony of hunting? To be a soul-less dead thing much like the multitude of soul-less dead things that is the eventual outcome of its labors.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

Hiding in the Grass

Remember this: Count your accomplishments to know your effectiveness.

I was watching this eagle hunting on a field; decided today would be a good day to go hunting. I went down to the woods, realized the lane was slick as eel crap. A fat doe walked out in front of me like she was grocery shopping. I had Nena Two Feathers with me. We got out and walked around the grassy, wildlife lane I cut with the lawnmower. I walked up on the sandy hill and cut some witch cane, then walked over to the other stand. It was 12:30 pm. I could hear either someone sitting in the woods blowing like a buck, or a buck. I would later hear this again mixed in with the sound of a bull. These are two distinct sounds. I walked back to the truck and left.

I went back around 2:30 pm. There was no bait anywhere. I decided not to go into my dad’s man cave of a stand. Walked through the briars and mud to get to my stand I hadn’t been in for two years; sat there for a while in the calm, watching a squirrel dig nuts out of the leaves. I was reading this book called The Luminaries, when I heard a lizard scurrying under the black trash bag. I looked out the hole. At the end of the lane in the woods, two doe walked across. One stopped, and I could have tagged her out, but decided she was far away for a shot. The temperature began to drop and I was getting cold. I heard something crashing through the water in the swamp. I sat there a while. I heard this high-pitched, musical sound that was like a loon call. I relieved the trigger of my rifle, put my book in my bag, then put everything on my back and crawled out the deer stand. 

I slowly made my way through the woods and the water to the man cave. I put my rifle down with my backpack. I took my broken camera out then walked over to the side of the duck pond, which is elevated. I got down on my stomach, crawled up the side in the mud and briers then waited to see if I was discovered. 

I could hear and see the migratory birds calling and playing in the water. I started to laugh at my shenanigans of trying to take a picture of ducks with a broken camera. I watched them for a while. If I had stayed still, I could have gotten away with it for a long time. I finally stood up to take a photo; they flew off. I laughed, but was like meehhh, at the same time. I decided I was going to build a nature blind so I can take photos, undiscovered, in a couple of days.

Listening to those ducks was the most tranquil thing. I began reflecting on my successes, riddled with typos, with this particular construction into creative writing.

My greatest success here is: I wrote bulk posts and didn’t have to kill one animal to do it. This illustrates the unnecessary activity of people who chose to kill to compliment a work, instead of it just being for food. There again, if you’re hunting something for food, then happen to write something up, it is all in your intention.

My point got across in whatever form it took. I didn’t have to sacrifice my ethics or morals to appease a public audience, because doing such was quietly expected.

In order for you to prove yourself, and be accepted into the social media hunting community, it is implied to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt of your validity. I said, “Screw that.”

The bulk of the photography I used was images I took myself. My critique of issues I wrote was directly from my train of thought. Some of the posts are responses that required thought. Ideas just appeared for me to write, which I am grateful for. I didn’t have to hijack people for content, or mine for gold on other people’s pages due to the desperation to be prolific and relevant.

I offered friendship, it was denied. No big deal. I still did what I wanted. I was able to express myself in a creative way. I didn’t want the bad company, or the faux friendship people extend to those they idolize, and douchey people full of their own celebrity. After all, you are still just a regular person; nothing more.

I was reading a book about Georgia O’Keeffe. The writer asked O’Keeffe if she would agree to the writer penning a biography. O’Keeffe tells the author she can write the book only by the information she finds, not what O’Keeffe divulges. I realized even published this wasn’t the deeper version of O’Keeffe. People should have some option of privacy, even in their thoughts.

I wasn’t interested in mining other living peoples’ lives to steal a story that wasn’t mine to tell or take, even though people probably sampled from me. I do like getting my point across to people out to do harm. There are those people that watch what you are doing, get pissed, want you to shut up so they can write the same thing, kind of. Why?

I would suggest this. It is because the individual is enamored of you and can’t express this to you, or they think they are the expert and feel it is their place not yours. These people have all of the connections in the world-so they use you, then hope and pray no one realizes what they are doing. 

With that being said, there are people reading, get the message, and pass it for the truth it is. You know who you are.

The best decision I made was not be accessible by comments. I sidestepped lots of negativity. I can gladly say, I didn’t fight with anyone, other than the random comment by a fake profile, about hunting. My last count was three negative interactions over five years. As a person, I was irrelevant, but as a vat of knowledge, I was priceless.

When it came to people and situations, I deferred to my I Ching of Everything question. There is a simple formula for determining any situation or person by asking these two questions in one:

Are you an Asshole, or are you not?

Drowning down reality with a lot of word play can be relegated to a simple yes or no answer. Don’t complicate things.

What would I know? I am just the voice that speaks from the ether.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

Three Coffins Deep

Remember this: Animals are elevated on the wall. Humans can be buried up to three coffins deep.

 

My thoughts have been on the different ways hunters perceive trophy animals and their treatment. Trophy animals are elevated to a status of enshrinement in a hunter’s home. What could this mean?

A hunter will stalk the landscape to find a young or old specimen and kill it. I say kill, because it is what it is.  You are not saving its life. You are taking it. This landscape is a location with legal parameters that dictates how the animal will be disposed after hunted.

American states don’t allow transport of animal parts from other states due to disease. Countries don’t allow transport of meat, but will allow pelts or other taxidermied parts to be transported to the hunter. This varies from place to place, depending on legalities.

Let us consider the treatment of trophy animals.

There are views that trophy animals are patriarchal or matriarchal animals that live to old age.  The quarry has reached a pre-death stage where a hunter quests to enact euthanasia.  The argument here is: it saves the animal from dying a natural death to its end, no matter how unattractive.  The hunter processes the animal in some pre-determined way. After finalizing the hunt, the animal is taxidermied then showcased in a home, museum, etc.

I thought about a quote I read on a public social media wall. I am not knocking the person it made birth from.  I challenged the content as true or false. I could have copy and pasted the quote, but it seemed irrelevant. Why? I wasn’t arguing the definition of a trophy hunter or the goals they pursue. To sum up the quote: trophy hunter perfectionist acts as euthanasia man to prevent animal from dying under a bush; places on wall.

Is this what a perfectionist would strive to do in reality? How is this considered perfection when it is a severely flawed delusion of the true reality? I also asked the question was the intention of seeking perfection in this trophy acquisition really ending a perfectly lived life to old age in a less than natural way? By natural, I mean without human mechanical means.

I felt if a true perfectionist considered this scenario, it would be beneath them. It would never be perfect enough. Perfectionists tend to start, stop, and repeat without carrying through a percentage of the time because all conditions are not perfect.

I do reread my own writing and question the content because it is easy to fall into the trap of readable appearances. What read as a common sense quote or statement could turn into a questionable contradiction.   

Here is where my thoughts began. It is the way in which we treat perceived special animals and human counterparts. There are several types to consider; humans, trophy, non-trophy, nuisance, laboratory, and domesticated animals or pets.

The trophy represents some experience in the hunter’s life that must be remembered. The animal is held in esteem by prolonging its existence in the form of a taxidermied shell.  What is left after processing is showcased in the home, office, museum, etc.

How loved the processed trophy is treated depends on the hunter’s attachment to the memory. Some hunters love their trophies others move on to the next. Taxidermied trophies tend to be eventually overlooked throughout the day as unconscious home décor. It is always there and passed by so many times in a day. If there is no one to tell the tale to, it gets overlooked often. Dust bunnies start to build up, moisture breeds mold, the fleshy shell begins to crack in weak places, and the animal face no longer holds its fresh appearance. What once was a majestic beast in need of enshrinement now becomes an unsightly eyesore. I will not even go into the aftermath of divorces. There is no telling where the trophy will end up.

What about the other types? Attachment sways the dictation of treatment. How attached is the person to the animal or person? Does this attachment generate from competition and value over the animal? Is it coveted that much as a trophy animal?

I wanted to touch briefly on each type as they were valued and disposed.

For domesticated animals, the intended could be tossed in a dumpster, a place in the woods, or left to lay and decompose. Special pets could be buried in a grave, cremated, or be taxidermied. These beloved pets are elevated above animals people have no attachment to. If it is a cow beyond veterinary help, then a trip to the slaughter house may be prescribed if the meat hasn’t been tainted by medicines and chemicals.

For wild, non-trophy animals, the fate of being gut shot and left to wonder off and die could happen. This could happen with farmers and their crops, nuisance animals where the shooter doesn’t want to deal with the body or cruelty cases where no emotional attachment is exhibited. Hit-by-car wildlife could lie there several days before the road crew cleans the body up. Wildlife can be viewed without interference while onlookers watch animals kill, eat each other, and video tape events.

Laboratory animals are left in containment over a period of time, yet receiving adequate care without emotional attachment. Treatment depends on the experiment they are entered into.

When you consider people, you never see taxidermied humans. I think there are laws against this. There are bodies that have been plasticized for art and donated for scientific study. There are also those deceased peoples, who have supposedly put their bodies in deep-freeze to be re-animated to cure their diseases or live again. For people considered important by society, they are elevated in pop or historical culture.

With human beings, we tend to entomb in a mausoleum, be cremated, or buried up to three coffins deep. Given these three options, the body is initially on display before burial, if possible. Once the funeral is over and the coffin is buried, the only thing left are pictures and a headstone.  Where a beloved trophy is hanging on the wall, Grandma Moses is out of sight, ten miles away and well under the ground. Most people do not even go to the cemetery, once the body is buried to refresh the flowers. To be fair, this is not true of all people. There are families that tend their dead vigilantly, depending on the culture and country. They elevate their ancestors above the animals they hunt. Others see the animals as their ancestors in another form. Other cultures see dead human bodies as empty shells that can be possessed by the damned.

With hunting quarry, there are views that the animal shouldn’t be left to die an unsightly death at the pickings of vultures. Yet for humans and unloved animals ,we bury them well out of sight or discard them with little care to the treatment of the remains. Animal and human alike are shoved in a trashbag without prejudice. 

When you look at the relationship between the trophy hunter and the trophy, the pivot seems to be the level of attachment the hunter projects onto the animal, circumstances and memory. Culture could play a part where applied. There exists in equal parts the action of the hunter to the hunted.  After learning about cultures and their treatment of the dead and animals, it is not difficult to believe the why or because of trophy hunting. It is still incredible to me, the way in which humanity categorizes creatures of value versus creatures perceived to be less or no value.

 

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

The Shifting Shadows

Remember this: The midday sun casts a shadow on the ground but the setting sun only makes a solid form appear like an empty shadow when really it is solid as a rock.

Recently I modified a wooden dilapidated chicken brooder into a coop with heat lamps to keep the chickens I have hand raised since April-May of last year warm. The golden buffs were complaining like two old ladies and seeing them with frost huddled up on a wire laying pen made me feel sorry for their plight. I was their care-taker so I felt compelled to build a better mouse trap for them. I must say my carpentry skills are becoming occult I tell you.

I resembled a chicken thief sneaking up on the fowl in the dark to gently grab their legs and shove them “into the light”. They showed their appreciation by dropping a couple of eggs off the next morning. Seeing my business was done I walked around to feed my horses. As I was tossing sweet feed I looked out over the back field to see if I could detect movement. Near the swamp I thought I saw a dark shape move. I walked out of the corral to get a better look. Here I was doing the three-step until I was out in the barren garden behind some very thin wispy dried weeds. I stood and stared for a while. Lo and behold seven dark shapes strolled out along the barbed wire fence. I wondered if I could get any closer. I shuffled on stopping randomly and standing still. One of the horses came out and I thought she was going to blow my cover but I moved up the row. Eventually the other three horses came out and I was walking down the dirt row in the center of them. I thought two can play at that game Mr. Deer herd. I began to think about the things these tricky deer have done in the past.

I remembered over the summer I was picking string beans when I decided to lie down in the tall grass to take a rest. The light was right and I wanted to watch bugs. After a while of bug watching and wondering if a snake would slither through I got up and went about my business planning to come back to pick more beans. The next day I discover the deer have wallowed in the same area I laid down in. I scratched my head and said, “Huh.” Undoubtedly the deer tried to get my stink on them in a pivotal move of strategy to hide their scent when men with guns came a-calling. Well played; well played. How smart is that?

I realized that while looking at these deer they were nothing more than black silhouettes dancing across the late evening to disappear at their leisure into the beige high grass by a now defunct watering hole.

This shadowing effect got me to thinking about how in hunting we are obstructed, confused, or enlightened by shadows or dark solid moving objects. Seeing the movement across the fields of animal bodies that look like dark specks, or see things ghosting by in our periphery before first light or at the close of day will mess with your mind.

The shadow that is cast by mid-day sun is not solid yet in the evening the lack of sunlight causes a dark shape to seem like a shadow. That is why you should always take care when you aim your gun at what you are going to pull the trigger on. If you can’t see it, don’t put yourself in a bad situation.

It’s amazing the act of casting a shadow because it can be ether-like, an illusionary solid, or even one of the mind. How could one possibly apply the shadow to hunting aside from something you think you see but might not be, all that it seems.

Here is the opportunity for the shadow of the deer to help us as individuals accept our own shadow.

“The persona is what we would like to be and how we wish to be seen in the world. It is our psychological clothing and it mediates between our true selves and our environment just as our physical clothing presents an image to those we meet. The ego is what we are and know about consciously. The shadow is that part of us we fail to see or know.” (Johnson 4)

We are followed by the shadow of things when ever there is the orb of enlightment. The shadow can not hide. Yet our shadow is constantly with us, yet we forget it is there sometimes whispering in our ears as projection. This projection is cast onto the outer realm of our bodies onto other people, things, or self.

It would be safe to say that we truly aren’t the person we really are except around people that have grown up with us or know us intimately. Outwardly we put on this display to entice other people to befriend or take us seriously with no guarantee they will do such or any idea there has to be a mutual exchange of interactions.

Accepting one's shadow to balance out the dark and light aspects of ourselves deep down is the most honest thing a person can do. Trying to rectify these two poles and bring about a certain amount of unstable balance is a challenge for the person who hunts. Owning up to the facts that we take animal life, ingest that life, and carry on in the wake of what would be considered destructive behavior is embracing that part of oneself that is capable of such things for the sake of survival. Others who are not presented with dealing with this darker half as a hunter still encounter the shadow in their life as love, hate, obsession, resentment, etc. No one is immune or above the shadow. The shadow presents itself in different ways and is never destroyed only countered.

We are solid objects that can look and seem as dark formless purveyors of death from the perspective of the outside viewer when the hunting act is considered. Being honest with yourself on why, how, and to what extent you perform as a hunter rules the way in which  you form a code of morals to deal with the world at large. This world has no limits even when attitudes are projected onto you by others. There is the constant push to be like everyone else so bonds can be formed. Is that really necessary to fit into the square my little circles? Own your darkness and you own yourself; this is when the light breaks through and comes in. Huntress, own thy shadow.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

PS. Can't wait to see which one of you magazines grabs this up and posts it on the cover, in an article or on a meme.

Literature Cited:
Johnson, Robert A. Owning Your Own Shadow, Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche. Harper Collins Publisher, New York, NY. 1971 Print.

Buddhist Belief of No Harm and Spiritual Ruminant Pelts.

Mrigadava means "deer-park".

Remember this: Austerities only confuse the mind. In the exhaustion and mental stupor to which they lead, one can no longer understand the ordinary things of life, still less the truth that lies beyond the senses. I have given up extremes of either luxury or asceticism. I have discovered the Middle Way. ~Buddha~

Disclaimer: This diatribe is not meant to attack Buddhism in any of its forms. Think of it as a train of thought.

I was pondering the spiritual aspects of animal symbology as it pertained to a female hunter and the creatures she hunts in my readings. I wondered if I could find a contrasting scenario that I could parallel some portion of the act of hunting with to show a sort of irony to the symbology of an animal, the regard that is held for a particular animal, its particular use and my Sherlockian deduction of what the information meant, or appeared to be. I thought of one my favorite animals, the deer.

Enter the Buddha and his discourse entitled,  "Dhammackkappavattana Sutta".  

“The Buddhist emblem of a golden eight-spoked wheel flanked by two deer represents in Buddha’s first discourse, which he gave in the Deer Park at Sarnath, near Varanasi. This discourse is known as the ‘first turning of the wheel of dharma’, when the Buddha taught the doctrines of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path to five Indian mendicants. As a symbol of the Buddha’s teachings a gilded three-dimensional wheel and deer emblem is traditionally placed at the front of the monastery and temple roofs, from where it shines as a crowning symbol of the Buddhadharma.” (Beer 59)

As I quoted the Buddha above, it would seem that the Buddha was noted to give a discourse at the Deer Park of Sarnath in India (a long time ago).  I thought this novel for the time that there existed a deer park and what its particular use was. While there the Buddha gave his commentary on his Enlightenment and its applications to his Sangha, who were dispersed out into the world to spread the meaning and interpretation of Dharma. What are the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold path?

The Buddha preached the Four Noble Truths which are as follows:

• There is suffering


• Suffering has a cause


• Cause is removable

• There are ways to remove the cause

To address these Four Noble Truths, the Buddha extended the Eight-fold Path which is as follows:

• Right Speech


• Right Action


• Right Livelihood


• Right Effort


• Right Mindfulness

• Right Concentration


• Right Attitude


• Right View

Seems pretty straightforward; avoid inflicting suffering on self and others by positive mores.

The Buddha is sitting in this deer park in Sarnath, India with noted five men and a crowd of golden Ruru deer where he says that he is turning the wheel of Dharma. This wheel represents samsara (the world) and the eternal existence which goes forward through cycles of reincarnation because of worldly cravings and the inability to tell one’s self no to things that cause suffering. 

If the basic precept of Buddhism is non-harm, because you don’t want to incur suffering in the self or other sentient beings, then there is no way to survive life. 

I was reading one snippet on a white rabbit sacrificing itself out of compassion to other animals as nourishment; of its own accord. One would have to do as the white rabbit and selflessly give up life to avoid inflicting suffering on self, or others by ingestation, or death at other living sentient beings monkey hands, mouths, claws, etc. These same sentient beings, who do not feel the same as you, are going to devour you. Otherwise, it would be Jim Jones Kool-Aid 24-7.  Even if you decided eating fruits and vegetables was the way to go, you are still stopping life in order to eat as plants are life. To eat them you have to pull them up from their happy home and cook them or eat them raw. 

If a plant could decide if it wanted to sacrifice itself for human consumption I would dare say it would reply, “No”. This sacrificial rabbit reminded me of indigent tribes of North America interpreting a lone animal giving itself over to a hunter as a sacrifice as a show of compassion to the people for food because the animal’s kind could spare them.  

With this being said let us visit the deer in this little drama of to kill or not to kill; which is really the question. Why the deer? Why a female and male deer?

The deer being male and female could signify the human element of sexual desire in people. This desire is at the heart of suffering for it is brought about by lust, longing, loving, and attachment through emotion onto some article, animal, place, or person.

I also wondered on the interpretation of the male being on the right and the female being on the left. It would seem direction wise this was in reference to how each sex is percieved. To be male and on the right meant acrion and solar existance. Right sided maleness in the deer emblem harkened to being the conscious side, nobility, and wisdom. 

The left female side interpreted means to be weak, unconsious , lunar, and sinister. Why am I surprised at that?

If we reflect on Jung's idea of the female form in left direction he thought this was flowing from the heart and might I add......all the evil thoughts connected with it.

Buddha’s observation of deer in the wild, or at the park, may have brought him to the conclusion that we should strive not to be as humans but as animals. I would think the Buddha distanced himself from predators as they were instigators of suffering. The Buddha did not have a lot of people as his friends, it would seem.  As one reading the story of his approaching the mendicants to give the discourse, they had planned to shun him altogether but changed their mind based on his glow. 

One can see why he may have been against suffering for it was also social suffering and not physical suffering. Suffering of the mind can be just as great to the soul as an actual bullet to the heart.   

In regards to deer, there is the idea of domination through ownership or power. Marpa the Translator cited, “The Dharma is owner-less, like deer in a meadow.”  

When I pondered this, I thought it could be a sign of not wanting to strap oneself to the responsibilities of the world that humans have generated such as capitalism, jobs we hate, or governments that rule out laws that bind us daily for insensible reasons. Either way, we are caged canaries singing right along to our sad, sad songs. Buddha always ran from the expectations that were placed upon him. He ran from his wife, his son, his court duty as Prince. He ran from the prisons other people had made that were waiting on him to enter dutifully. Strange way about saying no but everyone has their quirks.  

Let us look to the emblem (ridag choekor) because this is significant to show the location of where the discourse took place. Humans have long referenced the character of deer as human. These deer symbolized a significant place, conscious state, and also sensual desire.

“However, the wheel and deer emblem eventually became the enduring symbol of an establishment where the Buddha’s teachings are transmitted, and where the endless wheel of the dharma continues to turn.

The two deer peacefully rest in attentive obedience on either side of the golden wheel, with the male deer to the right and the female to the left. The male deer is sometimes depicted with the single horn of the seru deer (unicorn) or rhinoceros, and on gilded bronze sculptures the sexual organs of the two deer may be shown. The gentleness and grace of the deer represent the qualities of the true Buddhist mendicant.” (Beer 59)

“The deer is the vehicle of Shou-lao, and he is traditionally represented riding upon a stag with mature antlers. Deer were believed to live to a great age, and were credited with being the only creatures capable of locating the ‘fungus of immortality’ (Ch. Ling-chih). The deer of longevity may be depicted with a piece of this fungus in its mouth. Chinese legends describe the Islands of the Immortals’ as being located in the eastern ocean. Here the immortals consumed the divine food of the ling-chih, and drank from the eternal waves of the jade fountain. In Buddhism the deer is an auspicious symbol of tranquility, harmony, non-violence, and particularly of renunciation, because like a homeless mendicant the deer is believed to rest in a different place each night.” (Beer 55)

Enter Irony.

Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant; the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same. Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear and shall not understand, and another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more and of the outsiders' incomprehension.

Enter Disparity.

Disparity is most often used when the author causes a character to speak or act erroneously, out of ignorance of some portion of the truth of which the audience is aware.

After this I guess you are wondering what does this have to do with hunting.  I was researching how followers of the Buddha’s discourse where using animal by-products in the form of relics for spiritual, symbolic attire and functional uses. How many times have you seen a hunter take a part of an animal carcass and use it for a trophy head, belt, seat cover, or in a spiritual rite? No matter what even if you kill the animal humanely, it dies abruptly or slowly of natural causes, or some other animal kills it; there is going to be some length of suffering. 

Yet Buddhist followers were acquiring pelts either directly or indirectly. Let us face reality. Once you kill an animal if there is an essence of soul or life inside that body it is gone once the animal is killed. It’s no more than an empty sausage casing once you remove the meat, bones, and organs. That is a rude way to put it with indifference to its suffering. Only if you are generating a pseudo emotion of calm in your mind by believing you are absorbing energy from a sausage casing should be scrutinized but still you have its symbolic meaning. In rituals, the symbolic meaning is what helps the person transgress over into a spiritual realm even though humans can’t see spiritual realms. Otherwise, we could have that profane question, “Is there a God?” answered.

This reminds me of a question posed by a philosophy professor of mine. We drew a circle. Inside the circle was the Natural World and outside the circle was the Supernatural World. Professor Black asked, “How to you transpose from one place to another?” I replied, “Why do we think there is a barrier? I believe it is a semipermeable membrane of sorts that can interchange things from side to side in equal measure. We just can’t see it.” 

Here I found documentation:

“Deer or antelope skins serve as meditation seats (Skt. Asana) for Buddhist yogins or siddhas, such as Milarepa, rechungpa, or Thangtong Gyalpo. As an asana the deer-skin is believed to enhance the solitary tranquility and awareness required by as ascetic, with the pure or sattvic energy of the deer being absorbed by the practitioner. In wrathful deity practices a tiger-skin asana is more commonly used, denoting rajas or dynamic energy.

Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion, wears the turquoise skin of a magical deer or antelope draped over his left shoulder and heart. This skin is known as a krishmasara or krishnajina, meaning ‘black antelope skin’, and is a symbol of the deity’s love, compassion, and tenderness. The black antelope skin was originally an emblem of Shiva in his forms as Lokanath or Lokeshvara, the ‘Lord of the Worlds’. “(Beer 63)

Maybe this is the difference minus the fact someone skinned that ruminant and tanned the hide for the magical deer drape? The skin was a symbol of the deity's (Buddha was not a God) love, compassion and tenderness versus the present day huntress's animal hide throw being an object of horrific cruel death, ego enhancing relic to top predator status, and objectified taxidermy of animal suffering. Why can this present day hide not mean the same thing? If you humanely kill an animal with minimal suffering, and preserve its hide because you want to remember the hunt, and show tenderness at its numbers while caring for it in the off season, why not? Then again I thought its not just enough for some to kill one when it means food and there is no spiritual value granted to the prey. It's all in the mentality and the perception of each individual huntress and hunter. Those buddhist probably just showed up with it one day swung over their shoulder and no one bothered to be obsessive over where the pelt was acquired, in what way, and how the animal died to get the pelt. Maybe the new hunting reply should be, "It's not against my religions?"

Here it has been documented in stories how renunciates who give up worldly life wander around with a deer or antelope pelt over their upper body (usually the left) or as a garment. One reasonsing for hanging a pelt over the left side is this is the location of the heart which is the abode of the mind. This is the symbolic skin of the Sil-snyen deer of legend who feels heart felt compassion towards all sentient beings.  This Sil-snyen deer lives between snow and rock on a mountain, with strength and compassion for nature. Hunters trying to gain access to the Sil-snyen deer’s land pretend to fight amongst themselves.  The Sil-snyen deer becomes impatient with compassion and goes out to mediate, where its life is assaulted. Touching the skin of the Sil-snyen calms the mind and endows bliss. Here is another story where Hunters are crafty evil-doers. Even though this pelt is a by-product of a dead animal it still is removed from the judgments of society as being a bad thing, not an object of past suffering if you regard that moment before death or death itself as suffering.

I thought in Western culture if you had such a pelt or animal article mounted, worn as clothing, petrified or taxidermy there could be backlash as it is seen as an object of suffering inflicted by cruelty. Then again, it’s the interpretation it has or its significant use. The monks pelts were used as symbols of spiritual Enlightenment towards compassion.  These pelts symbolized sacrifice on the part of the deer through stories.

Thinking about this pelt over the heart gives the heart a dual reality of being the actual heart beating in your chest pumping blood and in another non-physical reality where the heart is a decision maker and a memory keeper.  I refer to this second matter when you hear someone tell you to listen to your heart for decisions as they put their hand over your actual heart. This could also be when you have a dead relative you cared about and someone refers to you carrying that relative’s memory in your heart. At all times the actual brain is ignored.

Given all this the truth here is that in order to address suffering one can only alleviate the degree of suffering and not eradicate it. As far as Buddha’s Middle Way of dealing with suffering, it was directly aimed at people not animals even though he thought animals could attain Dharma. Even though deer can represent all those terms contrary to suffering they are always seen living in a realm absent of fear. 

The irony of the use of an animal pelt on behalf of Buddhism is very interesting to regard when faced with the onslaught of people against hunting when you consider the history of animal by-products used in tenets that were defined to cause no harm, or suffering. I guess the act of wearing the pelt was showing reverence for the symbolic meaning of the deer but today groups are repulsed by wearing animal by-products unless you are a shaman or the article has a spiritual meaning. When in regards to hunting and the animal suffering there is a belief that you do it as humanely as possible, otherwise suffering itself can hardly be avoided even on the minute levels. That animal had to die for that Buddhist pelt........

"Om mani padme hum'.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Literature Cited:

Beer, Roberts. Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols. Chicago, Ill: Serindia Publications, Inc. 2003. Print, pgs: 53-59.

Other links to enjoy:

http://www.sakya.com.au/clearmind/95/dharmawheelbuckdoe/

http://world.time.com/2012/11/10/as-tibetans-burn-themselves-to-protest-chinese-rule-communists-in-beijing-stress-happiness-in-tibet/

http://buddhism.about.com/od/sacredbuddhisttexts/a/The-Golden-Deer.htm