This whole article may seem controversial so I want to simply state that these are my thoughts and feelings which may be different than yours and that is okay, maybe we both can learn something new together.  I am a channel/medium but I am also a huge lover of nature, Gaia, plants, trees, animals and humans are even growing on me too, LOL. I love being outside to see, smell, hear and touch the beauty of nature, the elements, our seasons, plants and animals are always in my home, and I even appreciate and rescue the insects.

I am not trying to advocate for anyone to be a meat eater, a vegetarian or a vegan either, I am just putting some thoughts out there from my experiences for others who might be questioning too. Many of us struggle with the idea of eating and consuming animals for food. I did and sometimes even still do because I am not a vegetarian. I am sharing perspectives from my own life lessons here because I feel it is important that those of us who are becoming more aware, take the time to show and share our respect, reverence and gratitude to the animal and plant kingdoms. It’s time to recognize the true value of happy animals, of clean plants, air, water, soil and all the many ways they provide us fuel, energy, healing and joy.

In childhood and still now, I feel that animals are people too. Animals are conscious and sentient beings, maybe even smarter, more cooperative and compassionate than many humans. They are almost always nice to me, make me smile, have eyes that can see me and express emotions and they all have a heart that beats like mine. I went through thinking that I “should” be vegetarian and actually felt guilty for many years for eating meat.

 

Yet I have also known that animals were an important part of our food chain long before our modern times but even in our own times, and respected those who hunted animals in ethical ways to feed their families. Think about our Inuit peoples up North who hunt a whale with a stick to feed their families and community? Wow. Yet even my own Grandfather & his families’ survival depended on hunting for many years of their lives, and I share the personal story later in this article of a difficult yet important experience with my Grandparents and animals. Also where I realized that even the plants such as the carrots and apples we eat are beings too, and I knew that I did not have any bad intentions towards them either, yet I ate them.

As I move along my own spiritual journey the things that I can, or will, or will not consume are changing. Many of us are in the process of expanding, of changing our thinking, our beliefs, our ways, unlearning things we thought we knew, and also trying to be more aware and conscious of what we eat.

 

I would advocate for all of us to try to consume as organic of food as we can, when or if we can. There are some that argue that organic is just a myth and yet I think of eating organic as simply eating the same kind of food that my Grandparents ate most of their life. They just ate real food that they grew on their own land, preserved what they could, and more importantly, did not have large amounts of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers on any of it. Even the cow & chicken poop was safer back then because those beings were not injected full of hormones, antibiotics and super vaccines.

All of the food we eat is/was a physical living being that has conscious energy within, be that seed, root, fruit, vegetable or animal.  From seed, or birth, to harvest, that being lived a life and had living energy within it. I feel that ultimately what is important for us to learn and realize is that we gain energy from the food we consume, all of whom are beings and to give gratitude to all who give their lives to feed us, whether that being is a plant or an animal.

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We all should show gratitude and respect to all these beings, and the idea of saying Grace at the dinner table was a great way to do it: Bless the Food, Bless the People.  We have unfortunately pulled away from this practice and the tradition almost lost because many people think it is just a religious thing or that we need to recite words in a certain way or order to do it right.

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The Business of Food ..

 

We’re looking at out food differently now, from how it’s grown, fed, raised, or harvested and we are even realizing that a lot of the food we eat, is actually no longer food, it’s chemical, synthetic, engineered, made in a lab, substitute ingredients and cheap replacements for food. We have not really recognized that a lot of our food is being manufactured, created and engineered to taste yummy but it hurts us on the inside. We are in now what seems to be a battle between the cravings of our taste buds and the feeling of our tummies. Oh it tastes so good, but damnit, it hurts.. Listen to your tummy.

 

Many of us are starting to notice changes in the strangest places that tell us food has been changing, but don’t know that food producers don’t have to be forthright about their true list of ingredients, getting to hide behind the “secret of” (think Colonel Sanders secret recipe). Many people are noticing that they actually miss how something “used to” taste versus how it actually tastes and now when we put them in our mouth, we don’t enjoy them anymore because they don’t taste right.

 

Unfortunately many food corporations have spent huge amounts of time, effort and money into figuring out how to mass produce fake ingredients and processed food. Ultimately so that they could manufacture it cheaper for bigger profits, and then sell it to us through clever advertising as safe. Let’s face it sure we’ve also enjoyed the convenience of it and bought it, because fast food and packaged food is easy, simple and quick. Many people are so busy in their lives that some do not have, and others do not take, the time to sit down and have a meal together anymore, with some wishing or preferring to be able to just take a pill.

 

When it comes to our food, we trusted the various institutions of agriculture and production to do what was best for all involved in the monitoring, planting, growing, watering, feeding and harvesting of animals and plants, including how much we needed in order to feed everyone on the planet. Now that most people everywhere have a computer in their hand with a cell phone, we’re seeing pictures & videos of what is happening like never before. Doesn't it seem wrong that people need to go into vegetation fields or barns in full on industrial hazmat suits as a regular part of their job?

 

I’ve also learned that food production and the processing of it is changing even more for the actual farmers themselves, the men and women out there doing more and more work, for longer hours, on bigger pieces of land, with bigger pieces of machinery just to keep up, and yet losing out big time in both time and money to big agriculture, seed dominance and mass food production. So much of the industry has been industrialized and monopolized even whether a farmer can keep his own seeds or not and massive amounts of pesticide, herbicides and chemicals, that we’re lucky they still want to grow.

 

But many people still living actually remember when our junk food such as chewy candy, chocolate bars, chips, ice cream, boxed foods and even canned fruit or vegetables actually tasted good. That’s because our early processed, convenience and junk foods used to be made with, but are no longer, actual real ingredients. The craving sometimes comes from remembering how it tasted when it was made with real sugar, chocolate, non GMO ingredients, or just salt instead of MSG.  Some of the cravings are because of the engineered and processed flavors, salts, sugars, etc. that were designed to do just that.

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So some things we shouldn't eat because our bodies can't process them because they have been engineered, but there are also some beings that our bodies cannot process anymore either, because they were raised and/or killed in fearful conditions.  We are getting sick from some of the foods we eat now, and animals, plants, seeds and even the humans who work with them, should not be treated terribly in order to feed us. We have been taught to desensitize ourselves, turning to tums or pepto, and learned to ignore our body signals because we believe it's something we are able to eat, want to eat, or should eat, and so the problem must be coming from something else.

 

Did you know that our bodies are actually designed to run off good quality salts and fats? They are great fuels for energy and healthy cells. You know, that stuff they said was bad for us on TV commercials?  However, did you know that through clever food marketing, advertising and engineering, we have been steered to such a degree that we actually crave sugar and carbohydrates? Which are sluggish and short term forms of fuels for energy.

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Did you know that something like celiac disease, prominent in North America where we have genetically modified (GMO) wheat grain, is not a problem in Europe where they did not allow those types of seed to grow? Did you know the way they manufacture bread is also contributing to gluten problems because people complained they didn’t want holes in their bread? Did you know that being “lactose intolerant” is actually normal for humans, and that we really shouldn’t being able to process dairy after we are weaned off our mothers milk? I used to eat a lot of red meat because I was told by my Doctor that because I had low iron & am an O blood type, that I needed to consume a lot of it because I needed a lot of protein. I rarely eat it now. Milk is something we are told we have to consume for strong bones and teeth, and as a woman to prevent osteoporosis and a bunch of other things, but my body does not want to process that anymore either. Food sensitivities are also really affecting kids and we’re seeing it with the enormous flair up of nut allergies now, but very few people had that problem when I was young.

  

I don’t think we really recognized how much society has moved us away from being connected with the energies of the lands, waters, plants and animals that we eat. We are forgetting the important connections with food and our holistic health. Within only 2 generations many people now live in cities and are quite disconnected from farms, the source of their foods, and have never had an opportunity, or the desire, to garden.

 

A blatant example of this for me several summers ago when I pulled a carrot out of my garden for my stepdaughters’ 8yr old nephew, who proceeded to look at me & then look at the carrot with disgust saying: “Eww..That’s not a carrot”. I washed it off, cut off the ends to look like the ones you see in the little bags, and still had to convince him it really was a carrot. Me “Try it, it’s a carrot, no really it’s a carrot, really it is I’m not joking, just try it and if you don’t like it I will just eat it.” Eventually going for “Well maybe I should just eat this carrot myself”. No boy wants someone to take his food, and when he took that first bite, his eyes literally lit up and with a big smile and he said: “This is the best tasting carrot I have ever had !”

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We do not always know where our food comes from, how it was treated, raised or how it was slaughtered. Sometimes it is very disturbing when we find out the conditions that our food could have grown in, and not just that of the animals. To negate a lot of the lower energies associated with these practices, know that we can share Love and Gratitude with our food before we consume it. This raises the energy in it as high as we can and when we express our love with other consciousness’s, we also spread love & thanks energetically & physically when we consume that love energy ourselves and then our bodies ultimately pass on that love energy physically to the waters and lands. Many people who do any sort of spiritual work, even just meditation, notice that they quickly do the pee-pee dance afterwards and that’s partially because it’s grounding.

 

Thank all the beings for growing and for being here for us to eat, and even thank all the people who did something for us to be able to eat it.  Before I eat food, whether it is vegetables or junk food, I say to the Universe in my mind and sometimes out loud something pretty simple: "Thank you to everyone who grew and to everyone it took, to get it in my mouth”.

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Remember that we do not know something until we learn about it somehow and people want to trust. I’ve been pretty confused about food and even like most women had other guilt and emotions associated or taught about food. As we come to learn about these things, we should try to not stay overly angry at the establishments or even beat ourselves up for too long for not knowing and trusting about processes we don't know.  We don’t want to keep the energy low and we start changing what we support by how we spend our money.

 

Personal Story ..

 

I’m not sure how many more generations will get to say this, but when I was young my father’s parents had an actual farm on a big piece of land, and although at the time I may not have thought of it as lucky due to all the chores associated with a farm, now as an adult I am forever grateful for the experience of being around real food. I am certainly not a farmer but very grateful to my Grandmother who taught me something about growing food simply by growing it. They grew huge amounts of their own vegetables, made homemade bread, had a wide variety of wild berry patches, preserved all their own food, even some of the fresh fruit from summer, and stored them all in an actual dirt root cellar, tops down in case the mice got in. They also raised their own chickens and ducks, had 2 ponds stocked with fish and my Grandfather tapped maple trees and hunted wild game. They had a wood stove for heat and cooking & even had an outhouse for a few years. I think it may have even helped me realize many things about our industrialized food a bit sooner than others who didn't have someone in their lives who grew food. 

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When I came to visit, my Grandfather was always understanding & kind to me, he listened to my endless talking & questions and told me many stories. He did not have this same reputation with his own kids. To my father, aunts & uncles my Grampy was intimidating and scary, but all I noticed was that they were all a lot quieter when he was around. My only experience around hunting has been with this Grandfather and although I feel that I myself couldn’t hunt, admitting even if I had to live in the wilderness and hunt for survival it would be tough for me, I had known there were times in my Grandfather’s life where he hadn’t had that choice. He had hunted for a large portion of his life in order to feed his families, hunting as young man to provide food for his mother & 2 sisters, and also later on to feed his own family. My Grandparents had 7 children and at the time of their first 2 children, they lived in a canvas tent for 2 solid years, meaning 2 winters in New Brunswick, Canada. Hunting was a part of who he was and accepted as what he had to do sometimes so that he and others could survive.

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He would talk to me a lot about all the plants on the land from grasses to trees, all the many insects, animals and birds who made their home on various places and waterways on his land, our favorite bird to watch & hear together all year long was the Chickadee. He would also let me know if it was that time of year that there was an animal hanging in the barn and that I should not go in there. The first time I saw the huge pair of Buck antlers hanging up high outside the barn doors I immediately freaked out and my Grandfather spoke to me softly, calming me down by letting me know that was it a special space of honor and to give gratitude for someone who came to feed his family at a very important and scary time. I was okay with that, and even started to say “Hi Buck & Thank you” when I walked underneath him.  

My Grandmother was a physically, mentally and emotionally tough woman that considered me kind of wimpy. She took care of the ducks and hen house, collected eggs, caught, killed and cleaned all the chickens, ducks and trout from the ponds. I loved to feed everybody and collect the eggs but otherwise I was pretty squeamish. Sure I could catch a fish & reel it in, but no way could I put the worm on the hook, or take the fish off the hook, or kill it when needed or gut it.. eww.

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One of my harshest memories about animals from childhood and maybe one of my biggest lessons was from the day my Grandmother decided she needed to toughen me up. It was a Sunday and most of my father’s family came to the farm on Sundays to help work around the farm. Per usual she asked me if I wanted to come with her to the chicken coup to collect eggs, something I looked forward to when I went to visit, but this time when we were done feeding everyone and grabbing the eggs, she told me to stand there and wait for a minute. You always listened to what Nan told you to do, so I stood there. 

 

Next I knew, she mumbled something, took a step towards a hen that had stepped towards her, quickly grabbed her by the neck, pinned it to the chopping block, said thank you out loud, and then she dropped an axe. She had just slaughtered a chicken for that evening’s supper and I was not prepared to see that. I cried. I then had to stand there and watch the hen run around the area with its head cut off, and I cried. Once it had exhausted all its energy and collapsed, my Nan picked it up and roughly put it on the picnic table in front of me, more crying, and told me that I had to pluck out all of its feathers right here and now, more crying. She then proceeded to yell really loud to everyone within ear shot that no one else in the whole family was allowed to eat another thing in the house until I pulled all those feathers out. Some of my aunts & uncles were watching, but the cousins were gone and no one said a thing. I cried the whole time as she stood right there next to me watching, waiting, scolding me to hurry up, and after the majority of it was done she got impatient, told me to go on, dealt with the final bits herself and stomped into the farmhouse.

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After she went into the house my Grandfather quickly came to my side to console me and to let me know that everything was okay and everything was alright.  He told me that they had honored the hens the best they could, they gave them good lives, fed them well and let them run around outside free in the sunshine and the rain, getting bitten by all the different bugs like the rest of us. The he said “But Carrie, know that when the time comes, the animals know they are going to be food and willingly offer their life to us”. What?!  He asked me if I noticed that the chicken had walked right up to Nan as she stepped forward, I said I did, he then asked me if I heard her ask them just a moment before for someone to feed her family today, I said I heard a mumble. He asked me if I heard her say Thank you.. I said did.

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He then started to tell me about how when he goes hunting in the forest, that he asks for an animal, whether it may be a moose, deer, rabbit or whomever to please come forward to help him feed his family. He said that sometimes he knows they make him wait, to have him spend some time and share gratitude with the forest first, but one would always come and step forward within clear view. He told me that as he goes into the forest he asks the animals to help him and that when he sees an animal and even after he killed it, he thanks the animal for being there.  He told me he always made sure they experienced as less pain as possible, never suffered and that he would thank it again, taking time to honor its life before doing anything to its body.

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I knew this was all true, I had watched him so many times as he would thank the shrubs & plants for producing the berries, peas, beans etc. before picking and eating them, thank the Spruce Tree for growing the gum before cutting it off, thank the Maple Tree before sticking a tap in it or when he switched out the buckets. He helped me to understand that the plants and animals that are living here on Gaia are here supporting all life, all the humans, insects, animals and plants that live here too.

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Later after a long afternoon of working in the giant fields the entire family sat down together for suppertime, sprawled throughout the kitchen, outside onto the wraparound porch & onto the lawn. I sat on the lawn with Grampy’s dog next to me and a big bowl of what they called Nan’s hodgepodge, basically fresh vegetables from the garden cooked in a pot of milk & butter, a chunk of homemade bread, a big handful of raw carrots & peas in a pile next to me, and nowhere near anyone eating chicken.

 

My Uncle, you know how it's always the quiet one? He had watched me seriously struggle with plucking those feathers the entire time, now sitting as far back behind everyone on the porch as he could, and then asked me a question and made a wise comment at the same time. Although at the time it certainly wasn't coming from a place of wisdom, but more like being a wise ass.

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As I was biting into a fresh carrot, he yelled at me across the rest of the family: “Hey Carrie, Whatcha doing over there just killing all those carrots & peas ya got thinking that it's okay to?”  I stop eating mid bite, spit out the carrot in a big fuss as children tend to do and immediately got defensive saying: “No way, I’m not killing anything”, but also realized, but maybe. My Uncle: “Well those vegetables that you’re putting in your mouth were living in the dirt, on the vine or in a pod only an hour ago”.  Insert lots of wise ass comments here from the rest of the family and my little cousins started acting nervous from not knowing what everyone was talking about because the adults had shooed them all away the moment my Grandmother grabbed the axe in her hand, which I had failed to clue into but had heard the “come on, come on, let’s go’s” and I clued in later but they still didn’t know what happened. 

My father sat on the porch between us, hearing all this & decided to say something. Maybe to help me out but more likely to get on with eating in peace, he did make me think though. He started with “Listen Kiddo most things grow here so that we can eat & so we should respect them for growing for us. No living being should have to experience any fear before they die, it’s not right. Animals feel too you know, think about how tense you get when you are scared and all that adrenaline gets flowing through you, well that happens for them too.” ..(I’m thinking.. Dad?.. is that you?.. LOL)..

 

He then started talking of how when he dropped out of high school & moved out, he lived and worked on his friend’s pig farm for a year or so.  He told how his friend took good care of all the pigs, gave them all names and head, ear & butt scratches every day. He kept their pens really clean and would even stay in the barn with the new piglets. He talked about earning new respect for pigs, and all animals in general, and instead of just assuming pigs were just dirty garbage eaters he learned that they were very intelligent, caring and loving beings.

 

He told of that time of the year when one of the pigs were to be culled for the family and the workers for winter, and the reason why he now only liked to buy meat from local butchers. The day before and the day of, his friend would feed this pig all the freshest fruit and vegetables, give them a lot of attention and love, and thanked them for being here with, and for, their family.  Then the day of, at some point he would calmly and quietly walk up to the pig, slip out a very sharp blade out of sight & quickly make a deep slit under their chin in the fatty area of their throat. To my Dad’s amazement the pig hadn’t even seemed to feel it or even know what had happened, and neither did any of the other pigs in the pen. It wasn’t pretty but none of the herd had experienced any trauma until the one pig fell over because the pig had continued to walk around normally and happily with a full belly looking for more ear scratches and head rubs.

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My Dad admitted there that he had never considered any animals having emotions other than his own dog before that, and that he was surprised about how bad he felt seeing that they were all really sad when their companion died. He also noticed at the same time how calm they all were. Lastly he said: “So Kiddo some things are here for food for us & some are food for others but we should just make sure they are all treated right for it”. 

 

I knew my Nan treated her chickens very well, gruff at times sure, but I had listened to her talk to them and watched her feed, interact and scratch them for years. My Grandfather at that moment stood up and come next to me and everyone's smart ass comments & conversation quickly stopped, and all went quiet: “This young lady was instrumental in feeding you whole lot here today, and you will thank her for it”. Thank you's from all around came quickly. Then he bent over to face me with a piece of chicken in his hand and said: “Now Carrie, you should honor that chicken and share your gratitude with her for feeding your family by eating some of it”.  As he held out his hand to me I first whispered thank you chicken, I bent over like only little kids can & thanked all the vegetables around me for growing, stood up, reached out for Grampy’s hand, I looked him in the eye and with a soft blink, and surprisingly, even to myself, took and ate that piece of chicken.

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I had actually forgotten about a lot of this until I started developing my channeling/ psychic mediumship skills in my later years when I had an experience with this Grandfather who is now in Spirit and a bunch of these childhood memories had come forward with him. The synchronicity: that day I had just realized that I could, and had connected with a few animals energetically and actually asked the chickens, the cows and the fish consciousness: “Hey is this really okay?  Am I a horrible person for eating you?”

 

The response I heard through clairaudience (clear-hearing) was: “It is okay to consume us and no you are not a bad person for it. We come forward as beings that are consciously aware that a part of our existence and experience may be for human or animal consumption. We ask that you be grateful, feed us well, take care of us, let us live good lives, let us experience our lives in freedom, feel the sunshine and the rain on our bodies and eat and get bitten by all the different bugs like everyone else. We forgive humanity for how they have treated us but now please do be aware of our quality of life”.  It felt so familiar but I doubted myself and that I had received such a clear message, until that nights development circle when connecting with Grampy and all those memories flooded in. My heart lit up, my eyes filled and I said out loud with a big smile on my face: “Thank You Grampy.. I Love you”.

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How do my Grandparents still influence me now as an adult long after they have left the physical world?  I grow a garden and I thank something before I pick or eat it. I eat our own vegetables as long as I can and I do canning and preserving of tomatoes and peaches, lots of peaches, and make jam from my own berries for the winter. I also warn the spiders before I invade the raspberry bushes, leave water out for birds, rescue bugs out of puddles, feed birds in the winter and the returning family of Robins some of our strawberries in the summer, I also stop and observe the dragonflies, lady bugs and bumblebees and I even negotiate with the mosquitoes with some success.. (see insects)

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Final Thoughts ..

 

Take a moment to share love and gratitude with all beings, be they an element, a seed, a plant or an animal before you drink or eat them. Thank them & Love them, for existing and for providing for you. Also recognize that that love energy goes into it and then you also consume that energy, counteracting any low vibes. If you would like to see some of the effects of words from humans, check out some of the videos online from scientists and even from kids classroom experiments showing how positive words and negative words affected water, plants and even rice.

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Animals, plants, and even the elements such as air and water are living and conscious beings and we need to learn to be wise like our Elders and treat them as such. I want to take a quick moment here to acknowledge the many energetic beings that are connected with nature and even help our food grow, known as the Elementals. The Elementals are many and known by many names such as the Gnomes or Dwarves, or Fairies etc., are energetically supporting the plant, animal, crystal and mineral kingdoms, the elements themselves, all nature and open spaces. They are inter-dimensional or may even be physical within Inner Earth, but are also connected to us humans, their long time family and friends who've had many lifetimes and experiences together. These and many others are here are supporting all physical life here on Gaia that connect with us as Spirit Guides.

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Although Grampy never spoke of Nature Spirits or the Elementals specifically, he did talk about the energy of the forest, the lands, trees, animals, waters frequently and revered them all.  And I do also remember getting to overhear bits of Sasquatch stories here and there that he shared with his neighbour over the fence, but he always kept sending me off to go do something so he could talk in private. I would rush to go do whatever it was that he wanted as fast as I could so that I could come back and listen to more of the story, but damnit he kept coming up with something else for me to do.. LOL.

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Dear Fellow Humans:

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Please stand up for, encourage and support quality of life on Gaia for all plants, animals and humans who have rights but cannot speak for themselves for better quality of life and humane livestock, agricultural and plant industry practices through how we spend our money.

Please stand against abuse or cruel living conditions, factory farming, over breeding, raising or hunting animals for single body parts, specialty features, trophy hunting or the pitting of animals against each other, and for less pesticide, antibiotic, chemical & hormone use.

Oh, and please go outside, or into meditation and play with the Elementals !!

 

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Check out other articles under Human Stuff such as:  Intuitive Senses, Empaths, Unlearning what we know, or What is reality? etc. Look under Spirit Stuff for articles about Spirit Guides, being multidimensional, or the Elementals in general and for information about lots of different guides etc. Look under Earth Stuff for information about Gaia, Earthing, Trees and more.

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