MARTI >
Writer, photographer, Earth guardian, pathfinder

Ohjoshi keeshiko quay

Leon and the council of elders

Sharing Visions & Creating Community

Years back, I sat in council with Leon Shenandoah, grand chief of the Iroquois nation. We sat in a teepee, just like in the movies, on a high plateau in the Rocky Mountains with high mountains all around us. At that time, Leon was already a wrinkled old man. Leon had been chosen by the Iroquois grandmothers when he was 6 years old to be the Grand Chief. How they knew is a mystery to me, but all his life Leon was an example of integrity. I will never forget the day when Leon told us of his vision from many years before. He said that the time would come when the Earth would be burning up and people of all races would come to his people. What shall we do, they would ask? All his life, Leon had walked a spiritual path, which he said was lined with strawberries and led to the stars and Pleiades. But in his vision of the future, Leon could only look at all the frightened souls of the world and say, I cannot help you. It is too late. Find caves and hide from the sun for everything that sees the sun will die.

I have never been able to forget Leon’s words, nor that feeling that even when we look darkness in the face, we cannot necessarily be sure of the light. All of this was long before climate change became the reality it is today. And now, many years later, I know that we are all on the front line. We face a brutal choice: life or collapse and extinction. We embrace our very survival as something extremely uncertain. In the face of climate change, how can we protect our Mother Earth?

I don’t have any ready-made answers, but I think our first step is to walk with a humble heart, trusting our deepest sense of intuition as we align with nature, each other, and those who came before us. We all know that never before have we faced such a huge challenge. And yet all the wisdom-keepers and knowledge-holders that walk this planet will tell us that the responses remain simple and that they are derived from the natural world itself. 

Our ancestors knew that we are of nature, not above or outside it. They understood that nature is our Mother and that our task is to respect and take care of her, to nurture spirit, safeguard wisdom, walk with deep awareness and compassion, restore her beauty and balance. They knew how to welcome all beings within the circle of life. To return to the heart of existence, to understand that love is the absence of fear and that fear doesn’t just disappear because we want it to. Facing fear is part of our initiation into life, a journey that we have to embrace to develop courage, discernment, awareness, and gratitude. 

In the great scheme of things, we will always remain only learners, but we can share our vision by gathering around us people who love and respect nature, and with them, establish mutual community and trust. To accept who we are, to open our eyes and face the darkness, to refuse decisions made behind closed doors, to abolish the slavery of our minds, to defend all our relations from abandoned children to chained elephants to tiny seedlings stubbornly growing out of our deserts of asphalt. And to come to understand that nature is our mother. Safeguarding her may become our unique and only truly meaningful task. And time is of the essence.

I trust that together we can spiritually embrace the Earth as our ancestors did many years ago and that we can maintain an unwavering understanding that every living and inanimate being has heart and soul. My life, like all of ours, is a journey of discovery. And on that journey, there are a few powerful guidelines: live simply, listen and observe well, offer genuine love and gratitude, and most importantly, walk with a humble heart. 

Change is now and it is here. 

(Based in Paris and India)