BottleKickers Society

   The small group of men meets behind the equipment shed in secret.  Usually only 2 or 3 men at a time they perform the handshake that had been passed down over the years by their teacher they refer to as "Uncle".  Today was a training day and 5 men showed up. They are not afraid. They are intentional. They are fundamental believers of the Unorthodox Order of BottleKickers, and this serious business.

    On this day they were inspecting bottles for their suitability for weekend use. They look at it, measure it, and gauge its suitability for breaking through the resistance of air.  One of the newbies breaks out a casio scientific calculator and is immediately scolded by his teacher.  "Use the abacus, you!!! We can't afford mistakes!!"  For Uncle, teaching the men in the right way was the only way to ensure that the Society would continue after he left leadership in the organization.

    Most of these men were 12 steppers, men who kind find spirit in just about anything. For some it started with concentrating really hard on the door knob at the rehab center. One of the men was what they call in the rooms a Big Book Thumper, a man well versed in the book "Alcoholics Anonymous".

   "For most people the Big Book is their first step into their spirituality, but if you follow the history of Bill WIlson through to the Oxford Groups, take a left past Jung, and head towards the outlands of AA history, you will find some of the first quantum physicists. The book isn't about the New Christian Church. That was just a ruse!!  People have been manifesting reality on the bottle for centuries!" 

   "I see these new guys goin' out there to kick the bottle like it was their dick or something.   This is not fuckin' rocket science! The bottle's natural state is airborne. It wants to be in the air!" He looks at the men kicking the bottle timidly and screams, "Hey, what is your problem? If I were that bottle I would be pretty frustrated about now!" He looks at me and say, " I am afraid for the future of this process. Something has got to give..."

    These BottleKickers' fundamental belief is that the initiates' first realization of a higher reality is when they see the combination of a spiraling bottle shape shifting in time and space, ritually lit bit a chaotic candle. Suspended in mid-air, the bottle puts into their subconscious that all things are possible, and that they can be one with the bottle, therefore one with the universe.

   Over the years they have used the keys to the universe to unlock a passionate want for codification of the WORD.  They knew that if other men were aware of their intent, that they would meet resistance, something that these metaphysical magicians had little time for. They would use their powers to get the men to do their work for them, unbeknownst to the larger group. 

    “The first thing we had to do was do away with that whole Spiritual Warrior program. Their energy would have found us out and ruined everything. We are the chosen ones!” He looked at me with a fanatical smile that sent shudders through me, but he had such a kind face that I could not help but be enamored by the power and passion of this man.

    "Next we had to invoke the need for a Curriculum Chair in order to protect men from the process while we consolidate our power," he said. Through the Curriculum Chair they were able to orchestrate the development and protection of the original WORD by pointing them elsewhere in the protocols.  " We got through  '98 protocols with no problem. The last time around was rough. We sensed the power of an entire committee forcing its will. It took all I had to contain the group and protect the protocol.  Thank the Bottle for the Multicutural Initiative and the Lodgekeepers! Those guys sidetracked the committee and we were home free!"

    The next issue that got their attention was the Safety Committee and the advent of the Plastic Bottle. "That is like a Golden Calf to us", Uncle said, "an false idol." He then conceded that plastic could be used with proper preparation. " I learned to like the liter-sized Fiji Bottle," he said. "It flies well, and it has such a pretty picture in the middle. We can live with a plastic bottle so long as our secret society remains hidden from the leadership program. It would destroy the motivation to know that the plan has been in place for centuries, and that they are subterfuge to a greater purpose."

    He then looked at me with an intensity I had never experienced and said, "What do you think you plan to do with this information?" I told him that I just wanted to write a story about it. He looked deep into my eyes and said "No, you are an errand boy... sent by clerks... to collect a bill."  

Just then I looked behind me and saw the men semi-circled around me, bottles in hand. They were chanting.. over and over..

"Take One Down... Kick it Around... kicking the bottle then go to the wall.."

"Take One Down... Kick it Around... kicking the bottle then go to the wall.."

"Take One Down... Kick it Around... kicking the bottle then go to the wall.."

Getting Grounded

The Wise Tree Intertwined sensed the ripple of the presence of the new guests. Its life-force disturbed, its branches at first recoiled in cautious expectation reminiscent of an earlier fear. In the early days as a sapling it saw fierce winds through the hills with the smell of a tree’s greatest fear: Fire. In that instinctual place the tree people try to bring all of their branches inward as if to protect itself from the heat and flame, protecting its main ring of memory from the intensity of combustible change. In that instinct a young tree does not know that the fire entity feeds not only on the tree, but on the air itself, and that it would be spared a slow death if it would just extend its branches as far as it could so it could to immolate into the fire and pass into the life cycle of the eco-system. 

Within View of the Tree, away from the bed of leaves that were the home of the squirrels, the Wise tree had an elder tree to talk to. The elder tree had nurtured and blessed it in its sapling days, telling it stories of the forest, and explaining that their intertwining was a gift from the spirits. The older tree had a large wound on its side that had long since healed. The Elder tree recounted a story of fire from personal experience. It had survived this change long before the sapling was born. It was from this elder tree that the sapling learned that all things had a purpose, and that the trees that die in the ashes of that were part of the rich ground that nourishes them. It taught the sapling to feel and to use the older spirit trees that came before it as guides and nurturers. The elder tree said that the sapling would need them someday. The saplings intertwined did not yet understand.

The Special Council of Animals met days before the larger body of animals to set what they called the AGENDA. There seemed to be a tense peacefulness about them, as if they had fought a long and hard détente to get the clarity they need to work in this setting.  The picked a spot high on the hill, in view of the main tree, yet a little ways away.  They wanted to be alone in their planning.

The Wise Tree, not yet elder but no longer saplings judged its fear against its curiosity and decided to lovingly extend its branches over to the far side of the site to where the guests had convened. With slow intention it stretched and stretched and stretched in service to the circle of travelers.  While it acknowledged love and service as its primary function, its incessant curiosity felt the calling to sense their energy as well. It could already feel an electricity of expectation from the group, connected yet divided. The tree wanted to know more.  The branches stretched slowly, seemingly inaudibly, but in an instant Existential Coyote looked up from what it was doing, sensed the area, and almost immediately looked to the tree as if knowing that the tree’s branches were encroaching upon the energy field he was creating. The tree instinctively stood absolutely still, gauging the energy as the coyote did the same.

In this moment, Wannabe Fox left the circle for a moment, walked from the circle towards the Wise Tree.  As the wise tree lovingly watched this stranger approach it, expecting the love it had received from the squirrels, the six-leggeds, the moss people, the rain, the Fox merely walked up the tree and began urinating.  The trees system went into temporary shock. The entire forest knows instinctually the smell of the predator marking its territory. The squirrels gathered in the periphery, sensed the disunity and communed amongst themselves in anger and in fear.  Why has this predator defiled the wise tree?  A frenzied murmur of squirrel-speak energy reached out across to Coyote’s energy field. He sensed an issue, forgot about the tress’ curiosity, and reached out to the squirrel circle with his senses.  He looked around, saw Wannabe Fox re-enter the circle, and looked back to the squirrels, who were watching the Fox with anger and contempt.  He asked the Fox what just happened.

The Wise Tree Intertwined was still in shock, holding still, and feeling the energy from both groups. As protector of the space it accessed the all the loving energy it had, and held the space in the midst of this chaos.  The squirrels were protecting the Tree, the Coyote was assessing the situation, and the Fox seemed confused.  The Tree searched the energy fields for an answer.

The Coyote began a conversation with the rest of his Special Council.  Something was wrong with the squirrel community hosting their meeting. Medicinal Lion volunteered to go over to the squirrels and ask what the issue was.

Lion crossed the bed underneath the tree to the squirrels, but then he smelled a territory marker, and felt the instinctive urge to mark his territory. He moved closer, recognizing Fox’s scent, and began to… 

Suddenly the squirrels’ screamed in protest.

And the Special Council’s awareness suddenly understood what had happened.

The tree was impressed that the two bodies of animals were called to act against its instincts, in community with each other. The Lion stopped himself, walked over and apologized, but the squirrels’ wanted something more to happen to codify and accentuate what had happened here in the moment.

Dancing Snake, sensing what needed to happen offered up one of the Animal Council’s newest technologies, the Peer Review, to clean up the misunderstanding.  The squirrels were curious and hopeful, as were the Trees’ convergent energies. The squirrels sensed the trees’ support, and it was agreed. The two groups separated and prayed for guidance…

 

 

A Council of Animals

 In a land far from where you and I live, there is a forest in the hills near the sulfur spring.  In the forest is a wise tree. To look at it one might think that it had been struggling to grow in its infancy because of the unusual shape of its trunk. Then look again and you would see that the tree was once two trees that had emerged as one. The trees branched out further up, providing wonderful cover for the ground surrounding it, so wonderful that many beings would come and bask in the comfort of the shade this partnership of trees provided.

 The trees were as close as two beings could be. They shared the water and sun without thinking of scarcity or avarice. They had grown up together and were as comfortable as two trees could be. They kept each other's life force warm during the cold seasons and endured the occasional dull ache as they grew a little with each passing of the moons. There were offspring growing beside them, their roots intertwining with the roots of the trees that produced their seeds.

 The roots were the source of their relationship with Mother Earth, and they pushed deeper and wider as they reached out to catch the rain that fell. Their roots created a nest of intention that held the dirt and life that flourished down below. If they could know the word love, they would embrace that word as the true meaning of what their symbiotic relationship was. And that relationship was energy that reached out from the branches and pushed from the roots. The energy filled the space, and it was a serene space, a space where community could live in harmony.

 Birds would scratch at its bark, and the tree stood and watched with a sense of the nurturing energy of fulfilling its purpose in service to the community. The six-leggeds ran up and down the tree, playfully working. The trees stood and watched, proud to have such beings to live with. The trees stood and watched as the natural selection of the forest took its course of life, death, renewal. The trees stood in service to the forest inhabitants, lovingly providing shade and protection, its sacred purpose.

 The leaves had fallen early in the season, leaving a bed of leaves for the 4-leggeds and the winged people to forage in. Squirrels climbed and clamored throughout their branches and through the branches of all the trees of the forest, both near and far. The trees stood and watched and nurtured the squirrels with their warmth and seeds. The trees spread their branches as far as they could to try to create a path for the squirrels to travel upon, to ease their travel through the forest. The squirrels sensed the help that the trees offered and began to gather among the nurturing trees' branches more and more. The trees watched the squirrels come and go and come back again. The trees grieved when some squirrels failed to return, when some journeyed on, when some became too tired to forage or too tired to return through the big forest.

 One day the squirrels communed in a circle in the soft leaves under the trees.  They prayed together for good fortunes for themselves and others, and they prayed for the tree.  They stood and watched over their dominion from spirit, proud but for the cold wind blowing through their branches. Guests were arriving soon with the winds, and the squirrels prepared their home for other animals from a far expanse of land, driven by mission to grow and change their world. They were a council, a council of animals. 

 In their council culture, as other animals entered their world, they were taught about how this council would communicate with each other in order to maintain balance and equity. Encumbered only by the number of nuts and berries each had and each was willing to share, the animals were given as franchise the council product, its initiation tool, to sell in their part of the expanse.  In its infinite wisdom and experience this council of councils projected the exact number of nuts and berries available for themselves and for the Council, and made decisions based on their often conservative projections. The collective contributed to the whole and the whole supported the collective. And so it was in this far off land.

 Once a year this council of animals would meet in order to count their nuts and berries and divine how many nuts and berries they could project for the upcoming season.  They would bask in the loveliness of the air and sulfur springs, and then make ready for their share of the nut and berry pie.

 Now in its animal wisdom these reasonable beasts of the dominion would elect leadership to shepherd the diverse herd.  At helm was a paid feline named Laid Back Lion and an elected chair named Existential Coyote.  Their elected court included Heedless Fox, Loving Dingo, Poetic Snake, a wise elderly desert owl,  a Passionate Panther, and a couple of hut building beavers who held a pipe and smelled of burnt ember.

This was the special council. They planned the schedule for the meeting, and had the knowledge and expertise to drive the vehicle they referred to as AGENDA….

The tree shuddered, though it did not know why…..