IN THE DEEP WINTER of 1963 two young Eskimo-Kalaallit men went hunting and came to the big wall and did their ceremony. As they did so, they noticed that water was coming out of the Big Ice way up the wall. When they returned and told the Elders of that strange phenomenon, no one believed them. How could water move, when the temperature has been less than minus 30 degrees Celsius (-22 ºF) for about three months? Later that winter other Elders went hunting and upon returning confirmed that water was trickling out of the Big Ice at the Big Wall. That became the first sign that something was amiss – not at home – but in the world.
Today that trickle has grown to roaring rivers of water pouring out of the Big Ice into the Atlantic Ocean. Since that first trickle was noticed the average depth of the Icecap has shrunk from five kilometers (three miles) to three (2 miles), and the melt is accelerating. Today there are hundreds of roaring rivers coming off the Icecap year round. In geological terms the rapidity of ice melt in Greenland is instantaneous.
The melting Icecap is the most dramatic evidence of accelerating global climate change. Greenland is our miner’s canary. The certainty is that our world is changing, and those changes will alter our way of life at best, and destroy them at worst. To be confronted with the changes in Greenland is to have that reality dramatically brought home to us.
Melting the Ice in the Heart of Man is a teaching from the Eskimo-Kalaallit people, a peaceful culture thousands of years old that has never known war. It summons us to bridge the distance from our minds to our hearts through strength and gentleness; through compassion and love; through courage and grace, bringing about personal transformation and global healing for the times to come.
The time has come to unite our voices and our hearts, to walk our spiritual paths with practical feet, to restore the balance that’s been missing on the earth. We cannot wait. Through our Healing Circles, we create experiences that empower us to live more compassionately, transforming our world one life at a time, melting the ice in the heart of man.
From Ice Wisdom, the website of Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, used with permission.
Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq, shaman, healer, storyteller and carrier of the Qilaut (winddrum), is an Eskimo-Kalaallit Elder whose family belongs to the traditional healers of the Far North from Kalaallit Nunaat, Greenland. His work has taken him to five continents and over 50 countries around the world including South Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Arctic Europe, Russia, and Siberia. Angaangaq conducts healing circles, intensives, and Aalaartiviit – traditional sweat lodges. His teachings are deeply rooted in the wisdom of the oral healing traditions of his people.
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