2020: Trust Amidst the Destruction
Last night, I had a dream about rats. My husband and I are constructing a new building near our home that will be an altar room for our traditional work. In the dream, the building was there, all complete and filled with our altars and furniture…and rats.
In the dream, someone told me about the rats in our building, as if I should be concerned and alarmed. When I walked in, I felt mildly annoyed at all the rats running around, but I just kept doing my work there, unharmed and unscathed by my rat companions.
After I woke up, knowing this is the Year of the Metal Rat in the Tibetan and Chinese calendar, I have learned that, in ancient understanding, rats are considered a very social animal, devoted to community and family, smart and adaptable to any situation that presents itself. They create prosperity and reap benefits in times of great change. Rats must really trust each other. After all, how can you get things done with others without a sense of mutual support and vulnerability that only comes with true trust?
When I watch the news or dip into social media, I get a sense that trust is on thin ice in my country lately. Yet, when I deal one-on-one with people, real-time, I discover that trust. Sometimes the discussions are like climbing a slippery slope, looking down on sharp stones below. I’ve learned some things about human nature, about how to talk with others about difficult topics, about patience. I’ve made mistakes, and I have more to learn.
But when we make it through our challenges — the adventure of navigating human relationships in strange times — it’s remarkable how things can come together.
Grandfather Fire didn’t bring this up, but it strikes me that rats are also very good at making the most of the trash of the world, the disorganization. They thrive in places that have been destroyed or seem to be in chaos. The chaos doesn’t faze them. Instead, they find the jewels, the nourishment amidst the rubble. Perhaps our building will be one of those jewels, rising from the rubble of 2020, our shaken-up time that has immobilized some and mobilized others.
Initiated as a tradition-holder in the Nahua/Mexican weather worker lineage in May 2003 by don Lucio Campos de Elizalde of Nepopualco, Morelos, Mexico, Erin Everett is a weather worker, ceremonial leader, and traditional healer. She is known in Nahuatl as a quiatlzques and in Spanish as a tiempera. As are many in this tradition, she was struck by lightning in her youth, which is a known calling to this path. A native of western North Carolina, she and her colleagues work with weather in the Asheville, NC geographical region. More information about their work, tradition, and teachers can be found at seedsoftradition.org.