The Call of the Orca

There are very few events in my life that stack up to our encounter this weekend with the JPod of Southern Resident Orcas.

I truly can count miracles of this nature on one hand and this weekend is pretty near the top of the list.

We never know what leads to what and how things come together to allow perfect timing and perfect placement. It is evident that magic was afoot.

For years, I have worked with the Nagual Orca energy. I have shapeshifted as an orca. I know them. I communicate with them. They assist me, and their presence in my life is significant. (See my blog from years ago...Shape Shifting)

We were gathered for the Awareness School sound camp, a four-day event that called people from as far as Idaho and Montana. Key to this was Rafe Pearlman who was a guest artist for the event. His connection with the PNW protectors tipped us off that the orcas were traveling north up the Haro Straits on Saturday late morning.

We packed up our little caravan and headed to the Westside Preserve for a hopeful whale sighting. Many of you know that at the retreats we often go to this area hoping for a sighting usually to no avail. Some of us want to see them so badly that we conjure in our minds that we have seen them ( wink wink 2020 Visionaries).

I can now say that when the mighty J-Pod travels through this Haro Strait, one can feel it in the heart. They are our relations. They know we are marveling at them... all up and down the coast. Their presence in the wild creates awe in anyone who sees them traveling with their young. J-2, Granny, teaches her great-great-grandchildren how to fish, jump and slap their tails, sparkling like black jewels. J-27, Blackberry, regally brings up the rear.

We are reminded of the importance they serve as placeholders on this planet. Their intelligence, their pods and their profound way of communication even beyond vocal language teach us the bonding power of a matriarchal species holding community not only with its own but with us too! The importance of interspecies communication is available and they are whispering to us.

We are one.

The subtlety of sonar is perhaps beyond our ordinary comprehension. They teach us what we need to understand about the future of our planet and the advanced techniques of higher-level communication. They teach deep connection and sensitivity to one another.

We come out to pay homage.

There was no exception on this Saturday.

We marveled at the vast number of them in the deep waters midway between Canada and San Juan Island. We even spotted J-27 Blackberry bringing up the rear (we verified that later). We situated ourselves in a coastal cove that created an amphitheater. Great for resonance.

Rafe had written an orca chant a year previously, singing to them, calling to them all year. You will hear us chanting that in the video.

We were giddy at this sighting, but there’s more…

As the J Pod passed through, many of the boats and planes that had rushed in like paparazzi were now dissipating. Rafe began to teach us the chant and we sang it as a prayer, a blessing, and a meditation with deep gratitude. After 5 or so minutes, we noticed far in the distance that the J Pod had turned around, heading back south down the middle of the Strait. My heart leaped and I called from my heart. I could not help but think that they heard our call.

Suddenly, we noticed a few surfacing, coming toward us. One could only hope. They turned 45 degrees from the mid-channel slightly north of us. Our chant became empowered with hope, with energy, with love. We gasped in amazement as the two large orcas then appeared very close to shore directly in front of us, surfacing and diving, blowing their mighty blowholes. The sound is like no other. They were speaking to us.

That was when the baby breached high in the air, not once, but twice, and right in front of us not 50 yards away!!!

You can hear us gasping, and laughing in the video which by the way does not do justice to the actual proximity of these majestic shiny black and white creatures. Once their display was finished, they did not continue south close to the shore. They made a forty-five-degree turn back to the middle of Haro Strait.

This verified everything for us.

Orca Medicine was so powerful that we were brought to tears.

Each of us there will be touched deeply by the Orca power of communication, connection, and love...forever.