I am hunting bear (here's why)

“The first religion was to kill God and eat him.” – Weston LeBarre

For many indigenous cultures, the relationship with the natural world was governed by the shaman.*

This was especially true for animals that were charismatic and held a special place in peoples’ hearts. Across the world, animals like large predatory cats, wolves, and bears have been revered and held in high esteem.

In Far East Russia, the Udege believe the Siberian tiger was “Amba” – God’s of the forest. 

In Japan, the Ainu people believed the bear was a representation of “protectors of nature”. The shamans of the Ainu would wear bear skin in order to have the power to protect all of nature.

This is as true of hunter-gatherer societies as it is of many modern agriculturalists.

As late as 1807, the Hindu nobility of India decreed that the Tharu shaman had the role of “protecting people from the threat of tigers… evil spirits…” This decree identified that only the spiritual leader had authority to deal with tigers. 

Only those who were spiritually “tapped in” had the authority or duty to communicate with, honor, or create boundaries around the tiger. 

This relationship between shaman and predator is a part of the next evolution of my work.

And this is why I have chosen to hunt black bear.

I am sharing all of these intentions and thought processes for multiple reasons. 

1. To organize my thoughts and create even more intention around my decision.

2. To share with others who question why I would choose to kill such a majestic animal. 

3. For those who desire to learn and apply similar practices in their own lives. 

A Sacred Duty

The reasons I am compelled to hunt black bear are manifold, but high among is the concept of “sacred duty”. In one way, this can be described as a component of “dharma”, or life’s path, but that is not the sacred duty I’m envisioning for this hunt.

The way I consider my sacred duty in this concept is more easily explained by one of my favorite quotes in the movie Dune:

“A great man doesn’t seek to lead. He’s called to it.” – Leto Atreides 

I’m not the first one who viewed a predator hunt as a sacred duty.

In the early 1900s in British-colonianized India, a man-eating predatory Bengal tiger killed 436 victims over the course of 7 years. The terror with which the local populace lived was immense. It became clear that this tiger had to be hunted and killed.

But the Tharu, the indigenous people of the region, never believed hunting tiger to be “sport”. For them, a tiger hunt was a solemn affair that began with sacrifices of roosters and goats. The Tharu believed the tiger was not an enemy: it was something to be harnessed and cooperated with.

A delicate balance between man and human had been disrupted with the arrival of the British who emphasized clearing forest for lumber and destroying prime tiger habitat. Many tigers were poached or wounded for the purposes of monetary gain. The “monster” that many villagers feared was a product of humanity. 

Into this scenario came a man named Jim Corbett, an Indian-born Brit of Irish descent who was raised in the wilds of India. Compared to most British of the time, Corbett did not appreciate the way tigers were hunted for “sport” by the British nobility. He did not appreciate that local tiger hunters also used killing these animals for financial gain.

He was dismayed that 80,000 Bengal tigers were killed between 1875 – 1925 in India under the direction of the colonial government. Corbett’s respect for the tiger was paramount. He had a deep empathy and respect for the animal:

“The tiger's function in the scheme of things is the maintain the balance of nature... and if on rare occasions when driven by dire necessity, [the tiger] kills a human being, or when his natural food has been ruthlessly exterminated by man. It is not fair that for these acts a whole species should be branded as cruel and bloodthirsty.”

Corbett recognized what ancient Indians had acknowledged in the Mahabartha 400 years BCE:

"Do not cut down the forest with its tigers. And do not banish the tigers from the forest. The tiger perishes without the forest. And the forest perishes without the tigers"

Corbett was adamant that if he were to hunt this tiger, all other hunters would have to stop. He would not share the classification of a sport or bounty hunter. 

He would hunt “…strictly or primarily out of a sense of duty.”

For his skill, Corbett was asked to find, hunt, and kill several man-eating cats including leopards and tigers. In total, these predatory cats killed over 1,000 humans.

But Corbett never created an enemy or villain out of these cats. In fact, he understood and empathized with cats who were behaving just as he would were he in the same situation. 

For the latter part of his life he saw both the need for him to complete his duty in killing these cats, but also a duty to preserve and save their environs.

He used his considerable clout in the British establishment to petition for national parks, the first of which became the 125 square mile Hailey National Park, which the independent Indian government re-named to Jim Corbett National Park in his honor.

What is most compelling about Corbett’s story for me is the tension between polarities that he held. He was a man who killed more tigers and leopards than any modern human. He was compelled by duty to do so. And yet, he did so with the utmost respect for the animal and the species as a whole. 

This is an extreme example, but one I have intentionally shared to bring home a key point: how one commits an act is far more important than what one does.

Humans Can Balance Ecosystems

The same threats that faced Bengal tigers in early 1900s India now occur worldwide and on a much grander scale. In almost all ecosystems, humans have altered the landscape so considerably, it is partially our responsibility to support rebalancing.

One way we can do that is the protect and reintroduce predators onto a landscape to make it more healthy. A perfect example of this was the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park, an action that fundamentally altered the course of ecology in the area including the flow of the river. Here is one of the most inspiring videos on that topic.

But predators that are overpopulated in an ecosystem creates problems as well.

The way California manages mountain lions is one example. In 1970 they banned the hunting of mountain lions. As mountain lions proliferate, they inevitably have conflict with livestock and humans. Then the state issues depredation permits to hunt and kill those mountain lions. Today there are as many mountain lions killed from depredation permits as there were being hunted before 1970 when it was banned.

The mountain lions who do survive are being pushed to the edges of health. Adolescents are too abundant to compete with territorial males, they get closer to human settlements, and 97% of mountain lions now have rodenticide in their system because they are forced to eat animals outside of their normal prey closer to human settlements.

The worst part is, when a mountain lion is killed for depredation purposes in California, the animal is buried or burned rather than honored, shared, and consumed in a spiritually and consciousness-expanding way.

Mountain lion in California need to be hunted.

But my proposal is not simply to hunt mountain lions the same way they are hunted elsewhere. Not in a way that covets the skull, the claws, and hide. Not in a way that boosts the ego.

What if it was done by a select group of people who were asked to do so. Where it was a great privilege and honor to be asked.

Where it was a sacred duty to balance the ecosystem?

Black Bear in America

A Spiritual Legacy

Bear across the globe have great cultural and spiritual significance. In tribes of Europe, North America, and Asia, the bear have been traditionally honored with elaborate ceremonies as the “undisputed king of the animals…” For indigenous and animist people, the living world around them was filled with their deities and gods – and bear was one of the most revered.

The legacy of the bear in indigenous cultures was intertwined with the hunting of that animal in some, though not all, tribes. Arthur Haines, a man who teaches indigenous lifeways in Maine and who speaks Passamaquoddy, a First Nations language from the area, reminds us that black bear hunting was a cultural practice for many peoples who sought the animal for spiritual power, courage, and meat.

To make black bear hunting “wrong” is to make indigenous people “wrong”, which is akin to perpetuating a form of imposed colonialism (i.e: we know best).

But the way that our ancestors the world over participated in a bear hunt was very different than the way it is done today.

According to Wolf-Dieter Stotl’s book Bear: Myth. Animal. Icon, the hunting and killing of bear was universally highly ritualized and sacred. 

It started with the connection between a shaman and the bear. The shaman had the ability to step outside of daily consciousness in order to communicate with the spirit of the animal. According to the Cheyenne medicine man Bill Tallbull, “animals themselves usually seek contact with certain people rather than the other way around. The animal reaches out to the humans that they are willing to protect.”

After connection to the spirit of the animal, all parts of the hunt were highly ritualized. They asked permission of the bear spirit, they hunted only at certain sacred times, and they drank the blood of the sacrificed animal to get power from it.

The cave people kept the bones and skulls of the bears and buried them ceremoniously so that the bear spirit would stay with them. Many tribes would have a revival ceremony so that the spirit of the bear could reincarnate. The treatment of bears was akin to the treatment of human dead.

In fact, the oldest known objects made by human hands are 70,000 year old wood and bone remnants from a bear cult in Switzerland who created altars for the animals they hunted.

Bear shamans wearing a bear skin in ceremony. Paintings by George Catlin.

Ecologically

Black bear are currently one of the only large predatory species that is categorized as “Least Concern”, meaning their population is stable and growing. In fact, in certain areas, such as New Jersey, hunting has been approved by voters as a tool for controlling the populations of animals who are encroaching ever closer to human settlements.

If we humans are to prioritize our lives and property more than black bear (which is not inherently necessary, though is currently the paradigm of civilization), hunting these animals to control the population does seem to be one of the best options.

But doing so in an ethical way is of the utmost importance. Female bear (sows) are extremely social creatures, have a good understanding of family ties, and are child-rearing. Larger males (boar) are more solitary, pass on their genetics at a younger age, and can sometimes be ruthless in their patrolling of territories. 

Thus, I will be hunting not necessarily the largest black bear male I can find, but certainly the oldest.

Heartbreak

Black bears are incredibly intelligent and social animals. Observational research by Benjamin Kilham shows that bears form alliances and friendships, maintain a code of conduct amongst themselves, and even share food supplies when there is abundance. The cooperative nature of bears, not to mention the way they behave and stand on their rear legs, is highly reminiscent of the human species.

Which makes the act of killing black bear all the more challenging. I love them. I feel connected to them. I cannot help but feel emotional kinship when I see a black bear cub.

I do not desire to kill black bear.

But this is part of the tension that I hold – I know that someone must manage these animals. How can I defer that duty to someone else? Especially when that someone else most likely will not treat them with the respect and love that they deserve in death?

Of course, I will benefit from hunting the black bear. I will eat the meat for months, I will share the meat and the consciousness that changes from ingesting such an animal with others. I will appreciate many parts of the animal – the organs, prized by traditional Chinese medicine, the claws, the skin. Surely this is not a purely selfless act.

But I don’t need any of those things. I could go without and be just fine. 

I am sure the process of hunting and killing such a creature will be heartbreaking to me.

But it is also a sacred duty that I am called to.

What Honoring the Bear Clan Looks Like

There are numerous practices I bring into my Sacred Hunting experiences including fasting, abstinence, and many others. I do these when I hunt for any animals. But the intensity and importance of black bear is different and honoring this animal will look different as well.

Permission

My spiritual teacher Will Taegel taught me much about relating with nature including more subtle forms of communication. One thing he was fond of was asking for permission from the trees, from the plants, from the land for whatever it is that I desire. This can be done in many ways.

A year ago, before Will passed through the big door, he encouraged me to ask permission from the bear spirit to hunt a black bear. In one of my dreams a black bear came to me and handed me a bear claw necklace, which I interpreted as being given permission. Some months later, my friend Daniel Vitalis gave me a bear claw necklace from an animal he had killed.

As I prepare to hunt black bear in a little over 1 month, I will again be asking permission of the bear in my dreams and meditations.

Sacrifice

A large part of indigenous ways of relating to the hunt was through sacrifice. Tribes would often go through a process of purification through sacrifice, something that south American tribes call a “dieta”. There are fasting practices, abstinence, bathing in cold water, and a host of others.

I will be going into my own “dieta” process for 4 weeks, which will include the following:

• No sex/sexual activity 

• No caffeine, no refined sugar, no alcohol/substances

• No TV or entertainment inputs

• Only eating meat that consists of wild game

Not only does this sacrifice honor the animal, but it also allows a connection with more subtle energies without the high stimulation of the modern world.

Connection

Forming or prioritizing a connection with the animal spirit that I will be hunting is also of paramount importance to me and the indigenous people who hunted bear before me. This was done in many ways. Sometimes a bear dance, sometimes a sweat lodge, but always included some form of spiritual connection with the individual bear spirit and that of the larger “oversoul” of any given animal.

For my rational mind, I will form a connection to the bear through learning about it in the form of three books. "Walking with Bears" by Will Taegel,  "In the Company of Bears" by Benjamin Kilham, and “Bear: Myth. Animal. Icon” by Wolf-Dieter Storl

More importantly, I will connect with the spirit of the bear in my dreams and will make it a priority as I prepare for the hunt.

I will also undergo a few ceremonies before the hunt that will involve plant medicines and a sweat lodge. This form of connection is one I have used extensively in Sacred Hunting intuitively, but is also verified amongst peoples across the globe:

“Dreams and visions as well as shamanic techniques such as deep meditation, long fasts and vigils, trances, dances and drumming for some tribes, and mind-altering plants for some others connect them to the specific animal spirit, with the lord, or the mother, of the animals…”

Honoring

There are two entities to honor on this hunt. One are the Ojibwe people, indigenous who lived in Thunder Bay, Ontario and were able to preserve the black bear habitat before Europeans arrived. Their customs, their lifeways are important to acknowledge not out of some obligation or social signaling, but because we can learn from them and their rituals. I certainly can.

The other entity that will be honored is the black bear. I’ve already spoken at length about the ceremonial ways of handling and honoring black bear from indigenous cultures before, but I also have a desire to bring in a recent event that moved me in India.

A wild Bengal tiger named Collarwali was so revered for her mothering of 29 cubs to adulthood that she was honored with a funeral pyre by the locals (see picture below).

I want to honor the animal with beauty and art as a way of returning myself and others to a relationship with these creatures which is of awe and respect. 

I will build an altar with timber from the area, adorn the animal with local flowers and give the organs and bones back to the land with respect.

Any Act Well Done is Done Forever

Each year 50,000 black bear are killed via legal means in Canada and the United States. It is an animal that is hunted more than any other outside of deer and elk. 

It is taboo in many circles to kill and eat an animal that holds such a special place in our hearts. It is commonplace for hunters to take a callous approach to killing such intelligent and social creatures.

My hope is to fulfill my role as a bridge walker between worlds. With Sacred Hunting I have brought together two disparate “sides” or philosophical ways of viewing the world. Again I hope to bring a new, fresh perspective to the hunting world and also give non-hunters who balk at the idea of killing a bear something to resonate with.

My teacher Will spoke often about “bridge walkers” and their crucial role in Earth’s new era. It’s no wonder I am particularly drawn to the black bear, an animal that is a bridge walker in our myths:

“...the bear is a mediator between worlds, and this is exactly how many indigenous people have experienced the bear… for the Khanty, Tungus, Samoyed, and Finns, the bear is a go-between for the heavenly god and the earth goddess… like a genuine shaman, it is a being of both worlds.” 

The bear is the messenger of the gods.

Notes:

*Shaman is a Siberian word. It will be a stand-in for the equivalent spiritual leader of indigenous tribes across the world.