Animal Compassion

In the Spring of 2009, I traveled to Sweden to work with Emelie Cadsdotter, who runs an animal sanctuary there.
Emelie is an animal communicator who practices Chinese Medicine and homeopathy, and she also practices the Rosen method with animals. Currently, she is teaching a new method of riding that one of her horses taught her. Using this method, Emelie has rehabilitated horses with both emotional and physical issues.  Emelie has written several books about her work with animals. This year, her book All the King’s Horses will be translated into English. You can order her book at info@balkongforlag.se.

While at Emelie’s sanctuary, I asked each animal I met to teach me about compassion. The last night I was there as one of the horses approached me, I felt a new sensation in my heart. Having recently experienced the passing of my brother and some dear friends and animals, I had grown accustomed to a certain feeling of weight in my heart. As this horse walked toward me, I suddenly felt that my heart was very light, and much, much larger. Instead of feeling that the energy of my heart took up a small area in my chest, I suddenly felt the energy of my heart radiating out many feet in all directions. As this horse came closer, I was very clear that this awareness was coming from her. We then walked forward together, and I felt that she was teaching me how to walk through the world with this large, light heart. I felt that she was teaching me that I could not only walk through the world with this expansive heart, but transmit it to others, as she had done.

After thanking this horse, I told Emelie what I had just experienced. Emelie told me that her name was Tamara. Emelie has observed that in any group of animals, each animal will consistently take certain “jobs.” The larger the group, the more specialized these jobs will be. A few years prior, the herd had an older male horse who was the “healer” for the herd. As he was passing, Tamara was often at his side. When he passed, Tamara became the new healer for the herd. I had not known that this was Tamara’s role when she approached me, but after my experience, I knew it to be true.

It is my experience that animals hold this kind of heart energy, undiluted by the qualities of thought that can weigh us down.  It is also my experience that animals understand and act in concert with the wisest possible action, even if the wisdom of their action is not apparent at the time. I thank Emelie for elaborating on these ideas and others, and for generously sharing them with me. I encourage you to read her book and find out more about her work. 

Tamara

Animals and People

I am in awe of the deep bonds animals form with their people. Quite frequently I have found that animals and their people will need the same or a related homeopathic remedy. Sometimes just giving this remedy to the person clears the issues that the animal is having. (The same is often true of infants and their parents.) For this reason, I often witness the deepest healing when I can seeing the people at my “human practice” in Alameda, and the animals through one of the vet clinics where I practice.

Often, I see that people are suffering due to their feelings about their animal’s state. I believe that a critical part of my role as animal homeopath is sharing with people the way in which animals are able to hold sympathy and compassion for their people, without being caught up in the details of human thoughts. It is often these details that cause people to suffer. While animals can experience high levels of pain, I feel that they often greet this pain with a purity of heart that is void of “suffering” as we know it. It is this purity of heart that enables animals to greet death without resistance; (unless of course, they sense their person’s resistance to their death!) When an animal’s time has come, I seek to convey to his/her people my experience of the purity of an animal’s relationship with death. Understanding this makes for a moving experience of the passing of a loved one.

It is my intention to connect with animals at a deep energetic level. When I take an animal’s case, I speak freely to him/her, asking her/him to show me her/his symptoms and energetic state. I acknowledge the animal as a teacher. I set the intention of simply moving into a state of deep awareness of the space I share with an animal. This is exactly the same state that enables the deepest revelation and healing in my human practice.  Because animals rest so naturally in this state, they guide me into it. The animals teach me to find this state, which I then bring to my work with humans. Humans give me words to understand the effects of the remedies and essences, which I then bring back to my work with animals. It is an amazing cycle, and I am blessed to be able to work with both animals and people.