To those who hold that life is an accident happening on an unimportant rock in the middle of nowhere, filled with creatures, most of whom are either a nuisance, or dangerous, or possibly valuable to the right buyer, the idea of the destruction of Lake Baikal as a unique habitat on the planet may seem insignificant. After all in a world run by money the most important thing is surely to have more than one’s neighbour or at the very least to have enough to buy the latest SUV or home cinema setup.
To those who hold that the Earth is herself a living entity the view will look different. When we adopt the position that Consciousness is the quality which underlies Creation, we appreciate that not all of life is visible or even tangible. There are layers on layers of subtlety which evade the blind human senses. Science is discovering this as it realises that animals and insects have more acute skills of awareness in regions that humanity had no idea existed until recently. The ultra-violet patterns on flowers for example. Visible to bees and other insects who would be amazed that this animal that prides itself on being ‘el supremo’ is unable to see these patterns. Or birds that travel annually from one continent to another infallibly arriving at the same location thousands of miles from their starting point, or fish that return to the same rivers.
I don’t wish to denigrate the efforts of the biologists who discover amazing things about the animal world. Gods bless them for opening our eyes to the wonder of the world we live in. Often I find myself at odds with the behaviourists who attribute to animals the very ambitions that guide their own lives, mistaking birdsong for nothing more than territorial declarations, unable to hear the happy chatter that passes between these celebrants of dawn each day. I am sad for them, and for the people who are persuaded to listen to these ambitious scientists as they limit the world to their own horizons. We should teach our children to listen to silence, like the rest of nature, like the indigenous people around the world do, so they could hear what is going on around them. But maybe that would not help them, and instead the clamour of politicians, eager to gain another 4 or 5 years sitting on their backsides in the emotional turmoil of a nation, is more important.
Not to me however. For me the question comes where does life begin on Earth? Elsewhere I have answered this by saying that life does not begin on Earth, and so I believe it to be true. Life clothes the Earth. For the moment.
But how is life transmitted to Earth? Well, for me this is where Lake Baikal comes in, with its depths reaching towards the heart of the Earth. In the Orphic vision of Creation Life begins in the Mind of the Divine. And what is that? That, as I understand it, is the Sea of Consciousness which embraces the Universe and gives rise to the Universe, surrounds the Universe, and of which the Universe is one tiny bubble in the froth of spume given up by that endless sea.
Here the ideal forms, the images and templates, of the life which manifests within the material Universe find their origin. There is nothing which exists which is not held in that All-permeating Mind. So the threads of life are woven into the fabric of the Living Universe by the processes of Precipitation and Reflection.
In my understanding these images are projected into Lake Baikal on Earth. Lake Baikal is the receptor of these Images Divine, just as the Eye receives the images of material bodies, which then populate the earth with the myriad life forms we see rapidly disappearing before the juggernaut of commercial exploitation. Destroy the unique environment of Baikal and you will blind the third eye of the Earth which perceives these divine forms and blends bodies for them to inhabit.
But who will listen to this? Certainly not the bosses of the timber companies dredging up the rivers with logged remains of ancient trees as they rush them down to the pulping stations in this paper hungry world. Oh shameful man that you are so deaf to the cries of your siblings here on Earth. Waken I pray.