In my years of teaching animal shamanism around the world, this question comes up over and over. Why aren’t more animal communicators vegan, and why are so few spiritual teachers, pagans and shamans vegan?

And further, if the Prophecy of Peace only needed 144,000 “rainbow warriors” to reach a tipping point, then why hasn’t it happened yet? Surely there are 144,000 people around the globe who were spiritual.

In 2016, there is still a large group of the populace with deeply engrained programming of the old paradigm, but the rise of veganism is like a rocket. To me, this means people are becoming more enlightened, because compassion and real empathy for others is a sign of evolution. However, we are ruled by a (collapsing) matrix of collective thought from an old paradigm reinforced daily, along with fear and violence on our televisions and in our news feeds. Until this changes, we remain programmed predators stuck in an old reality. It’s great marketing! It takes a strong mind to rise above the dream matrix. And those strong minds are cracking through the (collapsing) matrix today. Yay!

So perhaps people are on a spiritual path, but they haven’t yet understood that animals are precious, that animals have finished with a paradigm of suffering, and they aren’t here to be our food. They are here to live their lives. And they are urging us to catch up with the new paradigm. Perhaps many people haven’t really understood that we are all connected. And that animals are also important in the shift of consciousness we are currently experiencing.

The Spark of the Divine

To live with the mindset of humility, understanding that animals are precious, that they can teach us something and are to be respected — that is the nature of spiritual compassion and evolution. To understand that the spark of the Divine is in everything, including animals and trees, rocks and rivers, sky and clouds, is a spiritual path which becomes inclusive rather than separatist. Further, when we truly understand that we are all connected, we begin to understand that to harm others, harms ourselves. And that is a key point. Hurting our animal kin, damages our souls and hearts in ways few people yet realise. And slaughter houses hurt our animal kin terribly. And thus they hurt us, and hold violence as a shadow in our matrix.

Holding ourselves as superior to our animal and natural world brothers and sisters creates an abyss of separation which underlies many of problems we face today.

Many spiritual teachers hold that everything is perfect and in Divine Order. And I get that. We are living an illusion. And I also get that a Rainbow Warrior is someone who works on themselves to walk in beauty, so the world becomes a place of no suffering. When we are beauty, so is the world. So it is up to us to change our inner selves, to change the world. That is what Gandhi meant with, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

It’s not just a change of diet. It’s an entire perspective and societal story we are changing, by changing ourselves from the inside out.

Personally, as an innate empath and telepath, spirituality and a gentle , compassionate vegan lifestyle go hand in hand. From an early age, the thought of hurting animals or nature was unthinkable. They are all alive and sentient. And killing hurts. I couldn’t understand why others were so rough with animals and plants and trees. I would apologise to stones I tripped over them, and not just hug trees, but climb high in their branches for solitude and comfort. I couldn’t understand why others didn’t hear the screams of cows being branded and de-horned, or losing their babies. Or the protests of an old tree in the desert whose life-giving branches were thoughtlessly cut for a cubby house. Or why stockmen didn’t care when their horses’ mouths were bleeding from the rough handling of the bit. The adult world was not a kind one. But it seemed the only one.

Discovering Choices

When I left school, I discovered choices and names for things that previously had no name, like “vegetarian” and “vegan.” My body naturally abhorred the idea of flesh and I was relieved to find Eastern spirituality encouraged the practise of non-meat eating. I never wanted to contribute to the violence of the slaughter house or even backyard killing. I had witnessed first-hand the struggle and fear of a duck having her head chopped off for a Sunday lunch. I got into trouble for not eating lunch that day. How could I, when I had been with that duck energetically when she was killed? When I felt her fear? When traumatised, earth-bound animal spirits would follow me around asking me questions about why they had been killed? Questions I couldn’t answer. Questions that made me feel very alone.

Years later, I realised that many people live in their own community bubbles like I had with my family. And the beauty of this age of social media is that the lines between these communities are blurring and the walls are coming down. We just need to keep showing up and talking outside our own community circle. We need to introduce other people to different ways of doing things until they become normalised in society. That is what is happening with the vegan movement. From something hippy and unacceptable, it’s fast becoming mainstream, with health and climate change benefits as well. By normalising compassion, we’re on our way to a gentler world. When “harm ye none” extends to animals, we will have a paradigm shift.

I felt compelled to teach my own brand of animal shamanism, because in those days, animal communicators who were vegan were so few and far between. And I wondered about that. Did they not go to slaughter houses? Do they not speak with farm animals? Even horses would throw up terrible “behavioural” challenges for their people when they were threatened with being “put in a can.” Animals are highly telepathic and intelligent. They know what that means.

So why couldn’t these other non vegan animal communicators understand and feel the fear of being prey to a human predator? Was it because of their own addictions to flesh-eating, from their own conditioning and programming? I’ve even heard communicators say the animals have told them it’s okay for them to be eaten. Why, then, do some of the world’s greatest thinkers, writers and poets say the opposite? Through me, the animals have begged for a Kindness Revolution. None of them want to be slaughtered. No killing is humane. And it negatively impacts the etheric field.

When we first arrived at our property 20 years ago, we inherited the farm geese. We were told they were vicious. Well, they might have been to people who killed them to eat. But never to us. Not once. And this is the magic of compassion and living in harmony with all beings.

Where’s the Tipping Point?

So why isn’t there a Prophecy of Peace tipping point happening? I would say it is, as more and more people find and commit to a more gentle and inclusive way of life. But not all vegans are on a spiritual path which embraces a higher perspective, and not all who are spiritual have adopted a kind lifestyle embracing animals as their kin. Yet.

Everyone’s journey is personal and unique, and sadly, the horrible plight of farm animals has been overlooked by many on a spiritual path. People are told animals are humanely killed (an oxymoron) or that blessing and thanking will make it all okay, taking out the “negative vibes” from the food they are eating. But it’s really not just okay to bless a soul who died in fear, or think that the animals did it gladly. People forget that animal wasn’t travelling in this world alone, and their death in a slaughter house not only leaves the mark of terror on the etheric wall, but their family leaves the marks of grief.

Changing the Collective Dream

What we need instead of fear and grief for a big paradigm shift is deep peace and divine love — so all beings may be happy.

We need to change the collective dream. And the more people awaken to kindness, the quicker this will happen.

People talk a lot. But it is how they walk in the world that counts. More ethical spiritual teachers will emerge as the collective consciousness shifts to a kinder and gentler way of being. We can’t go into the New Earth wearing the same clothes as we did in the old paradigm. For a golden age of peace to happen, we have to consider deep peace for all species. We have to stop being predators. And we have to be peaceful on the inside as well as in the outer world.

Embracing Ahimsa

So let’s consider ahimsa as a spiritual goal. At it’s core, this sanskrit word means “non-injury.” This goes further than “do no harm” or non-violence, because injury can be a word or a thought or an attitude. So ahimsa holds no prejudice towards other beings. It is a big heart with an open mind devoid of preconceptions. Divine Love for all beings is the essence of ahimsa, and the action of love, dissolves both hate and fear. It’s powerful stuff.

Ahimsa is also a multidimensional concept, It carries with it the idea that if all beings are a divine spark — to hurt another sentient being is to hurt oneself because we are all connected.

Ahimsa is about peace and freedom for everyone, through being love. And that love dissolves all the darkness in the way of light.

To finish off, I would like to add a beautiful mantra, which is for me a chant for Ahimsa:

OM LOKAH SAMASTAH SUKHINO BHAVANTU

It translates as “may all beings be happy and free of suffering,” and reminds us that we are inter-connected with all living beings in the universe.

A wider translation may be:

May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.

This connection to the web of life includes our own peace and happiness. How can you achieve true happines if you cause unhappiness to other living beings? Nor can we be free if we deprive others of their freedom.

Understanding at a deep level that all life is connected, we begin to respect the web of life in all its intricacy, and the wish to do no harm blossoms. With that flower blooming inside us, we shift our perception to one of Beauty, and the world changes with us.

. . . .

© Copyright May 2016 Billie Dean

Billie Dean is a writer, animal empath and telepath, and the co-founder of the Deep Peace Trust and A Place of Peace farm animal sanctuary. Her award-winning book Secret Animal Business changes lives.