Survival Essentials - Food Gathering - Traps and Snares

In this episode of Conversations with a Shaman. 
We get into episode forty-seven of Survival Essentials. 
Food Gathering - Always stay calm and nourished. 
Traps and Snares.

 This and so much more in this episode of Inside The Ravens Eye. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Inside the Raven's Eye. I'm your host, Alan Mitchell. My medicine name is Raven's Spirit. This podcast is partnered with Earth and Spirit Medicine, owned and operated by Winfield Ivers. His medicine name is Coyote Thunderhawk. He is a shaman here in the state of Utah, so make sure to visit Earth and Spirit Medicine.com. In this episode of Conversations with a Shaman, we get into episode 47 of Survival Essentials, Food Gathering. Always stay calm and nourished. Traps and snares. This and so much more in this episode of Inside the Raven's Eye. Thanks for listening and enjoy. Okay, so here we are. New episode, episode 47 of Survival Essentials. Food Gathering. Always stay calm and nourished. This one is Traps and Snares. Figure 4, Paiute Deadfall, and other methods. And you know, for me, I was thinking on the way here, I've never hunted, I've never won, I know nothing about this topic matter whatsoever. And so I'm really kind of interested to hear what you're gonna say in regards to this. The only one thing that came to my mind in thinking about this, because it seems like I'm every time I we do these recordings, I'm here in person with you, is that I I kind of associate things back to society because that's been most of my life, has been not I've been in the wilderness quite a bit, but nothing in comparison to you and to others out there that have basically lived out there. And so for me, when I thought about these snares, these traps, I I thought just as almost kind of putting myself in the animals' perspective of here being in the modern wilderness of society, of like, what are the traps? What are the snares of society that can get us tangled up or take us out, you know, maybe get familiar with those. And maybe sometimes those animals are the really clever ones, they've come across those snares and traps before, so they know how to avoid it. So for me, it was kind of thinking about I always say food for thought, you know, in reference to that. But with saying that, I'll hand it over to you.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

I love that perspective, you know, that you just offered, and definitely going to hit on that. I I think that's wonderful. So when it comes to long term, so remember we're trying to get found, stay alive, we're trying to make good for that first 72 hours, give or take, and we're talking about the food gathering aspect, and we're talking about the possibility of not getting found in those first 72 hours, then what? Well when you're looking at long term it's interesting because you're you're you're really in a gamble. You can't force these things to get in your traps and snare, so to speak. And maybe you don't even know how to make traps and snares, and then also maybe you're a vegetarian and you don't want to. Maybe you don't want to take the life of an animal. But when I look at it this way, all living things on this planet are spirit. You know, it's all connected. So whether you eat a plant or whether you eat an animal, it doesn't matter. Do it respectfully and have gratitude. Bottom line. All things are intended for our benefit. What is the benefit? And at what placement are we currently as to really define what that is? Is it from a selfish interest or is it from this purposeful desire as to how we approach each and every second our life? Because when I approach a plant, for my wild edibles, so to speak, or medicine, it's respectful. When I approach a human, it's respectful. When I approach any living thing, it's respectful. When you approach the animal life, it's respectful. So traps and snares, it maybe you don't even know how to make any. So maybe if you're out there more than 72 hours, you're just gonna have to get creative. Or maybe now you could start practicing how to make different types, like a figure four, uh the the Paiute, these are different uh deadfall traps that you can make from sticks and stones, basically. So you wouldn't even need a knife, you could create a uh a knife from stone, and then you could begin to work with the content of wood. But as you approach the stone and the wood, you want to do it with gratitude. See, it's living, it's spirit. So you say, hey, that's why I say stay calm and nourished. You know, you're getting nourished. Here you go back, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. You want to get nourished all those ways. You know, I talked about physiological, I talked about wild edibles and medicine, and here we are now, and it's kind of shifting into, you know, uh animal life. Almost like specifically to animal life in a way. And so if you do know how to set traps and snares, maybe you're really good at it. I'm not super good at it. I know how to do it, but I have not caught a lot of things in traps and snares, small things, like like you know, some of your desert rats kind of thing, you know. Uh and squirrels, rabbit, biggest. When you get a rattlesnake, it's not because you set a trap or a snare or anything. It's kind of like, oh god, we ended up in this place and there's rattlesnakes here. Or in the survival situation, if you're by yourself, oh my gosh, there's a rattlesnake. That's food. Okay, and there's a way to go about getting that food and cooking that food. And if you have fire, then you can cook it like that. But that's why sometimes looking at what you have to do with food, if you don't have fire, then you might not want to do your traps and snares and things, because in a way you'd just be taking life and you wouldn't have that opportunity to cook and make it the way that it's intended, that way. Now, you know, maybe fish, you could eat some raw, but still, in today's world, there's a lot of contaminants. And kind of speaking of that, we'll use that word in kind of reference coming back to what you were talking about initially, you know, the traps and snares in society and life and and what happens that way. But let's just say that you don't have any of your gear. Let's just say that you've hit, like you're you've stayed in the wilderness three nights now, you're lost and stranded, but you're still alive. You haven't been found. And now food does start to get important. Okay, but you've still got to look at your priority list, you know, if you got your water yet, because your water is going to be more important than your food. So if you're on day three or four or something like that, and you still haven't found water, you still need to be busy finding water. And if you do find water and it's not coming out of a pure spring, then you need to be busy about getting fire so that you can purify that water. Unless you're willing to take the gamble of drinking the water and getting giardia, knowing you can get well by plants. But you need to know those plants, and you need to be able to uh administer those plants to yourself. And when you're sick, it's difficult to get energy and focus. So there's a lot of thought processes through this entire thing. So you want to prioritize. So here you are, and you're though at that point, you don't have any gear, you're like day three, four, you're feeling kind of maybe discouraged, like, okay, uh, I haven't been found yet, I haven't found my way out of here. And let's say that you do have fire and water. Let's just say that. Let's make this hopeful, okay? Let's say you have fire and you have water, so you're okay that way. And now you're going to go ahead and be setting up these traps and snares. I recommend setting up many, many, many, many, many. I would just put my entire focus at that point to building traps and snares in every possible place that I could where it appears to be where there is evidence of animal life. And I would do it with gratitude, with prayer. Thank you, sticks, thank you, stones, thank you, everything, for helping me to create these. Thank you for the life that will be giving itself to me so that I can sustain mine. Help me to be grateful for that and figure out a way to always keep a good cycle going so it doesn't feel like I'm just a taker. Whatever, you know. This is a sacred way of living, is what I'm talking about here. So you might not be that connected spiritually yet to be speaking that way to yourself out there, but this is a way you want to be. This is the way you want to speak to yourself out there, this is the way you want to speak to yourself right now, every day, every second of your life. You want to know that you are able to wonderfully, prayerfully, gratefully go about your life and know that you are receiving everything that you are giving thanks for as you go about it, giving thanks for its appearance in the future. Thank you for that life that is coming to me, see. You're not you're not just praying, oh please, God, I need some fruit. No, you're bringing it, you're inviting, it's an invitation, it's an acknowledgement, it's a respect, it's a gratitude, see. So trap snares on down the line that way. Go about it in a wonderful way. Yeah, the thought processes are freaky. And if I were out there that long having to rely upon all of that in that way, no, I have not lived in the wilderness, completely living in a long-term situation only upon traps, snares, and wild edibles. However, if indeed I were ever placed in a situation, I know exactly how I would approach all that long term. And right now, in real time, my desire is to, for me, reduce the traps and snares of society, place myself on a larger geographic region of property where I have the ability to do more in the long-term sustainability of food, fire, water, shelter, and not just for me, but for others, see. And not just in the providing of, but in the understanding of, in the stewardship of, in the teaching of, in the learning of, so that wherever anybody goes after learning knows, they can go apply that in any place in this world under that umbrella and make everything better, see, because it has to come from a concept. We've talked about this in Puppet versus Master, and you know, about the conceptualizing and about how we gather the invisible and make it into something. I'm going to get a fire no matter what. Okay, that's a good start, and it is. It is the best start. I'm going to get some food no matter what. I'm going to live no matter what. So learn how to first consider what you really might be willing to do and look at things spiritually as to if you're not wanting to take animal life, maybe you would rather die than do that. I'm not that person. I'm not going to do that. And I have a lot of reasons. I'm going to live and I'm going to sustain, and I'm going to do it with these techniques I'm talking about, the gratitude, the long-term view, see, the thinking seven generations ahead, see, but it's a lot more than that now. And oh, we've got to think way, way, way, way, way down there. And it's not just about thinking about it. It's in the doing right now, and the best doing anybody can do right now is not necessarily in trying to say we're fixing the solution. We need to fix our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. We need to fix our thoughts, words, feelings, and actions. We need to get connected to the life force so that we can act appropriately in our environment from that approach. And so then we can go about the projects that need attention on this planet from that platform, that foundation, rather than a frantic one. So, in survival, in life, operating from frantic thinking gets us frantic results. Being calm and nursed gets us a different kind. So it's in the thinking, the speaking, the feeling, and the acting. It's in the preparing and the training, it's in the navigating and signaling. It's in all these aspects of how we come to a position of who we are so that no matter what comes upon us, we can act appropriately. And we can do it from this eternal perspective. And we can understand that all life is connected. Whether we're eating plants or whether we're eating the animals, it is of all the same. And it is an energy force. And it is about sustainability. And every living organism already knows this. We have an innateness developed within us. But us humans, we get kind of pulled away from that. And then anything we try to domesticate through that as well. And it pulls away from its original form, see? And so we don't want to do that too much. Now, Mother Earth is very generous. She will provide. Now, when you start studying the traps and snares and figuring out how to go out and build all these traps and snares, have fun. Practice it. But when you catch those life force beings in your traps and snares, and you go about how you first of all give the thanks and the gratitude way ahead of time, but then you do again when you get there. And then you do again as you're because you have to cut the animal open in order to get the food out. Okay? You kind of have to maneuver things. You have to be willing to do some things that might seem psychologically defeating. And it's a real process. It's very real. But that process will connect you in a way of appreciation and such tears of gratitude when you know without a doubt that that being is sustaining your life. That I do know. That I have felt many times with that reciprocation of the life force giving itself to me. And especially in that animal form way. So, yes, figure out how to make all your traps and snares. Stay out of the traps and snares of society. Stay out of the traps and snares of your mind. That's your deepest entanglement, folks. The traps and snares that lie in your thinking are s they're tricky. You've got a lot of energy. And you've got a lot of energy around you. And we mingle within this energy field of so many other living beings all the time. And so these traps and snares, see, you know, we've got to be careful that we don't keep stepping in them, and then we sit there and we act out and cry out, hey, I'm trapped in a snare. You know, we kind of don't, because when somebody's in a suicidal position and they're caught in that trap and snare, those traps and snares of entanglement in their mind and in their soul and in their being like that. A lot of times the only way they cry out is by taking one too many steps down the trail where all of a sudden they did go ahead and pull the trigger, or they did go ahead and jump, or they did go ahead and take that alcohol and pills. And you know, they might have gone to it maybe slowly. That's usually a long time process in most cases. It's not that an individual lives all their life and in one second they want to just be gone in most cases. In fact, I've never heard of that one. Now, when you consider the traps and snares of the mind, when you consider that all you want is to feel safe, to be happy, to have healthy functional relationships first and foremost with yourself and with this father spirit and this mother earth, this life force. And then begin to understand your own vulnerabilities and how you play in the ballpark arena of other social beings. Because when you're out in raw wilderness in the middle of the desert and you're by yourself and you haven't eaten or drinking anything, if that's drinking, for four days and four nights, your senses are so powerful. You can hear the smallest, most minute sounds that you have never given yourself a chance to hear before. These sounds are outside of you at first, and as you begin to identify to the different sounds, whether it's a dried leaf tipping over from a slight breeze, or whether it's a faraway call of a raven, or whether it's the trickling water, or whether you begin to hear your own breath, and then you begin to hear the spirit, and you begin to understand your place. That's where I learned a lot. Even as I'm speaking about it right now, I want to go do it some more. I'm hungering and thirsting. I've been busy in my societal life with my family. I have learned to have this wilderness mindset no matter where I live, no matter where I go, no matter who I'm with, no matter my environment, surroundings, experiences, circumstances, no matter what. But right now, as I'm speaking about it, I'm craving some solo time in the wilderness with me, Father Spirit, Mother Earth, the life force. That connection does something powerful. It reminds us how vulnerable we are. It reminds us of how powerful we are. It reminds us of the fine lines of stepping. So that as Black Elk said, that every step maybe is a prayer. So when it comes to traps and snares, and when it comes to the food gathering, when it comes to the survival essentials, it's a moment-to-moment disciplining, a moment to moment living, a moment-to-moment way. Make it yours and live a good life. Make a difference for yourself and those around you. What do you think there, Raven Spirit? That's all I got.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Yeah, I just I'm taking it all in, honestly, right now. I don't have much to say.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

If you want to learn more, if you want to expose yourself to these situations I'm talking about in conditioning yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, to understand who you really are, to find your true gifts and talents, to be able to express them in a way that has no threat whatsoever. You should email us, you should contact us, you should look us up, whatever that way if you want, reach out. Maybe uh talk me into teaching you. Maybe teach me. We gotta keep the circle going. We're stepping on them all day. So with that, I'm just going to say something like when I watch a hawk fly, the last thing I'm thinking about, even if I'm starving to death, is eating it. I'm just watching something beautiful and it's glory. And I am in awe. Go a long time without food. But I don't think it's good to go very long without a spirit and connection. So with all that, we'll uh catch you on the next episode. The necessity. Alright, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

There we have episode 47 of Survival Essentials. Food gathering. Always stay calm and nourished. Traps and snares. Interesting topic to think about. In the raw wilderness, it is interesting and crucial to ourselves, in my opinion, to seek and learn the old ways of living. In our modern wilderness, the traps and snares of energy of others is so very important to learn as well. The old ways of living. If you enjoy this podcast, please remember to share this with your loved ones, family and friends. Give us a rating and follow us so you don't miss any upcoming episodes. Thanks again for listening and much love and God bless.