Tenaya Jewell - Mustang Spiritual Activist

Tenaya Jewell: scientist and sacred activist.

Sacred activism is the blending of science and spirituality. It is the blending of one’s spiritual practice with one’s everyday life to include activism and it is about letting the work you do transform your inner life, seeing that what you advocate for is your mirror, your teacher and your healer. 

“A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history.

On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions.

When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic, and social institutions, a holy force – the power of wisdom and love in action – is born.” Andrew Harvey, founder of Institute for Sacred Activism

From Ishe- I invite and challenge everyone to do SOMETHING!! learn more, donate and or simple talk about this issue with 3 friends!

Links: 

Love Wild Horses: We are working to save thousands of at-risk government jailed horses, grassland ecosystems, and surrounding communities from the impact of wildfires and climate change; with groundbreaking rewilding healing land management studies that also aim to empower Native youth and Elders. https://lovewildhorses.org/

Oregon Wild Horse Organization: a national nonprofit dedicated to the protection and preservation of native wild horses, burros, and their habitats, ensuring that they remain an integral part of our living heritage. Our work includes advocacy for stronger laws and engagement in litigation as needed. We also strive to educate the public with the knowledge and resources necessary to be effective advocates.https://www.oregon-wildhorse.org/

Corelight: Create positive change in the world by fostering inner peace amongst individuals and outer peace through humanitarian service. Our dedication is to the awakening of humanity and to the healing of the Earth. We believe unshakably that the only way to accomplish this is through each person’s willingness to take responsibility for his or her own transformation, as well as to collaborate with others in the work of creating change. https://www.corelight.org/

Wild Horse Education: nonprofit at the frontline of the fight to gain transparency of federal agency actions and in the ongoing battle against abuse on and off the range for America’s wild horses and burros. For well over a decade, WHE has been a boots-on-the-ground organization throughout the western US and a hands-on driver of precedent setting legal actions and policy change. WHE remains committed to exposing the reality our wild ones face each day and bringing that evidence to the public, media and the courts. https://wildhorseeducation.org/

Western Watersheds Project: The mission of Western Watersheds Project (WWP) is to protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife through education, public policy initiatives, and legal advocacy.https://www.westernwatersheds.org/

Transcript

0:01

Hi. I am Ishi Abel with the Horse Human Connection Matrix. Today I have a guest with me who's a very important guest because of the work that she does and who she is. Tenaya Jewel is a scientist and spiritual activist working on issues with. Mustangs, the wild horses. Welcome Tenaya. Oh, thank you for having me. Yeah, so, so glad to get to have these conversations. So I was really caught by an article that you had on Facebook and wanted to know more about it, and so you sent me the entirety of it and was, I was able to read it and realized in how much an alignment, a lot of our philosophies are about horses in general. And specific work that you're doing, can you define spiritual activist and what that's meant to you personally? Sure, I'd be glad to. So, spiritual activism is basically taking what you learned in your spiritual practice and applying it in real life. A lot of times we keep the two separate, our spiritual side and our secular everyday life. Sacred activism about blending them into one. So they're one and the same. And as one of my friends like to, likes to say you have to get up off the meditation cushion sometimes and go out and take action in the world. Mm-hmm. And the action that you take is going to be rooted in your teachings. And that's things like impeccability compassion. I follow the teachings of non-duality. Using your intuition to find your way and holding space energetically for healing to occur. And I see all types of activism as coming from concern and compassion. When your awareness stretches beyond just your own private life and you notice injustice or harm happening, a lot of times people first turn to political activism, and that's important, but you'll quickly find yourself stuck in what I like to call the box of allowable activism. And this is where you run up against the, current laws and regulations, a lot of these are actually in favor of corporations and enable them to do what they do to make the most profit instead of actually caring about the environment. Even though, you know there's processes in place that the government says, yes, we're gonna limit the amount of harm they can do, but as long as you pay a certain fee like a permit that's giving you permission to dump certain chemicals in the water or chop some many trees down. So there's a lot of other things that the government does, like preemption laws that prevents communities from. Determining what they want in their community versus what the state or federal government wants to happen. And there's not much ways to fight back locally. So there's that, and there's corporate personhood where corporations have the same rights as people. In some cases they're considered a person. So it's hard to really stand up against that and challenge stuff in court. There's regulatory loopholes and. Agencies that have a lot of conflicts of interest. A lot of people from corporations actually are heads of like the federal agencies like the BLM or Forest Service or stuff, you know, they're it's the fi like the fox guarding the hen hen house, that's where sacred activism comes in. Because you run up against these barriers. Sacred activism is about transcendence transcendence of old, outdated patterns like our personal egos. We sometimes put ourselves in these boxes and we're contained by our family conditioning, societal conditioning and traumas and that limit our abilities to function. In a productive manner speaking to some of the blockages with political activism, it's so obvious that our system of lobbying yes. Is, is like one of the major problems with that, and I don't remember. Which election it was, but it's been in the last eight years, there was someone who was running as a candidate solely on the platform. Well, not solely, but that's the part that I picked up on, is that I was willing to give them my vote and my support because one of their campaign things was to abolish. Lobbying, which would shift, a lot power back to the people from corporations and. It's got to be so difficult to work in this environment and try to make any kind of progress without having that spiritual activism, without having you know, your insides aligned in a way that it just doesn't rip, rip you to pieces for the injustice of what it is that you're taking action against. Yeah. And what helps me is in my spiritual beliefs. The outside is a mirror to your inside. It's one and the same. And the journey, whatever you're drawn to in activism, that is your journey your spiritual journey, personal journey of healing healing your blocks and your limitations and your traumas. The outside is mirroring to you these parts in yourself that need healing as, as you heal those, you also shift things on the outside. If, I don't know how many people are familiar with that type of work, but you're changing your vibration like I like to say, and it's, you raise the vibrations that ripples out to the collective and heals the collective as well. Absolutely. And there's something about working with horses that to me is related to that. I mean, horses have taught me how to work with intention and as we do make a change and we have the knowledge that we're all part of a much larger whole. And, and I know horses exist in the world that way with the all, as that, that comes into our awareness and we work with intention, those shifts become possible, not just in the physical plane, but in the energetic plane as well. And I think that's part of what you're talking about with the spiritual aspect of this. Yes, exactly. It's, it's the same thing. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So tell me. About the horses. What, how long have you been involved with this work and, and what are some of the projects that have happened and what's worked and what hasn't worked? I've known about wild horses since I was very young. I remember reading this article and one of my horse magazines when I was like in grade school and about what the BLM was doing to the wild horses they were calling them at that time. And I was very angry and I wrote them a very angry letter and I would put signs up in my neighborhood, save the wild horses, you know. But life happened I went to college and I served in the military for six years, and then I had my career and. Then I, I was also on the spiritual path though, and in my spiritual community, we talk a lot about issues happening in the world because they're important and they do reflect our inner journeys and we focus a lot on the animals on the planet and all the problems, you know, many species face. Since I've always loved horses, I was drawn to the, the wild horses. I eventually found some people in my area that were also concerned for the horses and we just joined together. It was just a small group of us for a while and we would. Get together and work on presentations and figure out how to contact our representatives. And we were able to get meetings with them and talk to them about the issues. And I even made a trip to Washington DC and I got to meet with about 30, I'd say about 30 or 40 different staffers of different representatives. A lot of them didn't know about the horses, we had to educate them on just the very basics of what's going on. They're like, we have wild horses. What? You know? Wow. So, yeah. I'm gonna go back a little bit to what you said when you were very young and you, you first, this came into your awareness. Said that they were being cold at that time. Can you define that and do you have knowledge of exactly what was happening at that point? I mean, because I think, I think what happens is people wanna turn away, you know, like myself included. Like there's this horrible thing that happens to these beautiful animals, and if I know too much about it, I might have to get involved and that might stir things inside of me that I'm not ready to deal with. So I'm asking you to get nitty gritty about that. What, what did, what were they doing? Well, this was back in like the early 1980s and according to the article that I read, I think it was like a horse and rider magazine, you know? Mm-hmm. And they were saying that the BLM was actually drowning the horses in these large vats of water as a way to get rid of them. And they considered that. That's wonderful. Yeah. And I was like, what? I was. Very young in grade school, I didn't know how to look more into it. I just knew I had to contact them and say, stop this, well, they're not allowed to do that anymore. When we say choline I think Australia, they call them, they shoot them from helicopters but here in the US it's more. Reducing their numbers so low, their herd numbers that they, when they do breed, there's possibility for inbreeding. So we talk about genetic viability. There's not enough numbers to maintain that, to produce healthy horses in the future. And they also dart them with birth control. Animals can be affected by it as well. Wow. That sounds like a mess. Yeah, it sounds like a real mess. Yeah. So what, what has the group that you've been involved in been able to do so far? Well, the main thing is raising awareness. We'll attend, different festivals or events in the community where we set up a table. And you just hand out pamphlets and stuff to make more people aware of what's going on.'cause the more awareness we have, the more chance there is for real change. But first we have to get enough people on board. So that's our main focus. And we also haveve been able to work with a lobbying group and they help us. Keep contacts in DC They're based in Washington, DC of course, what lobbying group is that? It's called Lobby it. And they're one of the, less expensive places that doesn't cost a fortune. We pay for it via donations. Everybody donates a certain amount of money per month. It could be as low as$5 to$50 or whatever, but well, we. We barely make our monthly payments, it's still hard to get enough money together for that. So the money goes to pay somebody who then in, in my mind, a lobbyist is standing in front of the congressional, the door where the congressman come out. Well, I know. And or makes an appointment to try to have conversations with them or their staff. Is that, yeah, I mean, lobbyist is kind of a bad word, right? But they really help us'cause they're there in DC all the time. They know how to maneuver and operate in that environment. They know how to get appointments with the staffers. They know they know the staffers, a lot of them, and they can set up meetings for us and they help us track bills. They keep. They give us, you know, monthly updates on what bills are, where the progress that they're making, what kind of sponsorship we have. We do have a couple bills that we monitor the Safe Act, which would ban the transport of Equines over the borders for slaughter. Trying to close the loopholes on equine slaughter. We're. Trying to introduce a bill for Rewilding. Trying to set aside some sanctuaries where we can put the horses where they'll be safe and also help restore ecosystems. That's one group that I'm in called Advocates for Wild Equines and that's our focus. But I'm also a part of Oregon WildHorse organization and they're really strong in the litigation and countering BLM, so-called science. We come with the facts, you know we have a lot of people with very strong science and law backgrounds in the group, and we. Read through all the environmental assessments and all the plans that the BLM has for the horses and counter some of the points they make and try to get them to show us the evidence for what they're saying. And we do have a legal case. It, it sounds like you're making it harder for them, but are you actually able to make some headway, like make some change? We've tried to get on some of the advisory councils and these advisory councils are made up of representatives from the different interest on the land. Like there's a couple environmentalists on them. There's of course cattle ranchers. And there's recreational people and we're supposed to all come together and discuss the best ways to manage certain parts of the land and what each interest wants to see. And I've tried to get on the council myself, there is a position for a wild horse advocate, but in the past and currently, they have chosen people that are from the livestock industry to represent the wild horses. And so that's a huge conflict of interest. Makes, yeah, total conflict of interest. That makes absolutely no sense unless you're just not playing fair. Well, that's the thing. I mean, they're supposed to put out this image that yes, they're playing fair, but really it's, it's rigged, I'm a rebel. The purpose of my whole podcast is to start a revolution in the horse world. So I'm just gonna say, if you can't. Work within the system and actually get something done. My inclination is to go outside the box, you know, what can you do, what can we do to mm-hmm. Raise more awareness to make the issues very clear since I discovered you on Facebook, like there's another person I was following on Facebook, George, I can't, I can't pronounce your last name, George, I'm sorry. But like I saw just today that they have shut down the I think it's called whip, the, the Wild Horse Inmate Program. Yeah, I saw that. I saw that you sent me that. Yes. And like, that's a great program that has a huge impact, not just for horses, but for, you know, people and residualization rates and, mm-hmm. Why, why would you take that away when it's something that is clearly helping? Society and preserving some of our heritage in the wild horses as well. And I know there's a lot of change happening with the current administration, and I'm not gonna say I understand why they do some of the things they do, the point that I'm trying to make is when things get really bad and. You're trying to play by the rules, but no one else is playing by the rules and the rules aren't fair. Where, where does that leave us? Where does that leave us as, I mean, that, that's the actual thing that makes us rebels. Yeah. Well that's where we are as a society right and in a very mild version of that, there's a horse sanctuary near me. It's, you know, within 30 or 45 minutes of me. I've never been, They, people get to visit one time a year, but it looks like every time I hear about it or it comes into my periphery, like they're doing a good job. I think they house. Like a hundred horses on a large piece of land. I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah. What is it called? Duchess. Is it Duchess Sanctuary? Yes. And so I don't know a whole lot about them, but the point again is that could there be more places like that? I think that's the future. And that is a, at least a temporary solution until we're able to. Progress as a society where we respect animals more and nature itself. Mm-hmm. And we need to leave room for nature to be itself, and we need our wild things out there. We need wildness. And right now people in charge don't see it that way. So we absolutely do I'm gonna do a little plug here for my retreats because they're, the name of them is in Rewilding together and. At this point where people are so stressed out with daily jobs, with being on their devices not only is digital detox something that's needed, but we need to rewild ourselves in a way that we remember how to really connect with each other. And ourselves, which is part of what you're talking about with spiritual activism and, and the land. And we need these wild places and nature. To be able to do that, to be able to remember and retain our humanness. And just like we have wetlands banks, you know, there's some, there was some act passed, I don't know if it's an Oregon act or a national act, but in order to preserve wetlands and in recognition of the wildlife that lives in wetlands, at least in this part of Oregon. If you buy a piece of land with wetlands on it that you wanna develop, you must also purchase something from the wetlands bank, which will then be held as a land trust and not developed in order for you to develop this piece, which keeps like an equalization of the na natural spots. And I don't, I don't see why we can't create something like that with, bLM or Oregon or I'm not even sure what political machine that would be. Mm-hmm. That's why my group wants to turn our focus onto this state. In each state should focus more locally on the state level so we can work with the state government. It's a lot easier to work with them, I would think, than the federal. On a national level and to find places where the horses could have sanctuary. They do land grants all the time, you know, if they could find some land and it could be publicly funded you know, that would be a solution until we can get well see. I hate saying that I, because this, the land the horses are on now, that was given to them. By Congress with the 1971 Wild Horse and Burroughs Act, and that land was supposed to be set aside for them to preserve them. And so they have their they, they remain free and thrive. And so what? And then, and then they, they did a double jeopardy and then leased it to somebody else. Like, that's not allowed. That's not okay. That's the thing. And when we look at older maps, we see that their land continues to decrease. They, you know, it's in Roche deba by other interests. And the BLM also has what's called multi-use like. Multi-use mandate or whatever. They're supposed to allow multiple uses of the land, but they've used that as kind of a loophole to get around the WildHorse and Burrow Act. I think one of the things we challenge is that mandate and how they're misusing it and'cause they really shouldn't be en rosing on the horse's territory as much as they are. And Yeah, they, they, yeah. Absolutely shouldn't be. That's what that, that's clearly what the intent of that was. Not to be leased to cattle ranch or something. I'm, mm-hmm. I'm flashing on something that I heard as we're talking about this, and I'm not sure what part of the country it was, but at some point in the history of Wilded horses, I was told by what I consider to be a very reliable source, that they were actually hunted and shot in our country. Do you know anything about that? I have not heard of that. I know there's hunters that are proposing that they, they really want, that they want tags to be issued for the horses. I know. Yeah. They advocate for that a lot. They think they should be treated well, like the deer or elk I don't mean to, I don't mean to insult the deer or the elk one bit because they're, you know, lovely creatures, which I also enjoy eating sometimes in a, in a way that I feel is respectful of their life. Yeah. Yeah. But to me, horses are so different. I mean, they have been our partners throughout history, they have. Been alongside us willingly and taught us, and helped us in so many ways that that's just blows me away that people think that that's a good idea. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's very frustrating. So what can people do well my. Advice for anyone that does wanna get involved in activism, I first recommend working on yourself, finding the areas in yourself that this issue might be reflecting back to you and heal those parts. Because our egos. If you, if you're involved in transformation work, you know how our egos like to manipulate and trip us up and sabotage things. So it's good to at least be aware of your patterning and tendencies and where your weaknesses and strengths are. If somebody is just hearing this and just starting mm-hmm. Like, I have an idea of what you're talking about and some of the things I've done in the name of, of healing and growth for myself, but it's a very broad thing. Like, where does a person start? They just can't like order the book for that on Amazon. Right. Start seeking, seek, the knowledge. I started out with self-help books, when I was in the military, I got severe case of PTSD and mm-hmm. I was seeking help and I started reading about just personal growth books learning about psychology. I, I love studying psychology and how the mind works. Bringing awareness to those areas is the start. Setting the intention that I want to be a better person. I wanna clear out my blockages, like intention is so powerful. Yeah. And we call that the awakening process. Because, well, you're kind of asleep if you're not really conscious of your patterns and how you're acting out in the world. You're considered asleep. I don't mean to insult anybody, but it's asleep. You're just kind of with these blinders on and just kind of like automaton just acting out your daily life, not really conscious of your way of being and how you're affecting other people around you. And so it's just kind of removing those blinders and awakening to. A more conscious part of yourself, acting intentionally and consciously, living on purpose, yeah. Not doing. Questioning everything you've been taught. Like a lot of people say, well, this is how my granddaddy did it, so this is how I'm gonna do it. It's questioning that and questioning everything we've been taught in school. Our history books are turning out to be, not true. Now. There's a lot of things that have hasn't been said. A lot of people have been left out. Mm-hmm. Just having a curiosity about the world and looking at it with an open mind and being open to new ideas. Yeah, being open to new ideas, it's it. Mm-hmm. It can be really challenging, you know, it's easy to be open to people that have the same beliefs or beliefs that don't, you know, take you down trails that have you questioning all kinds of things. That's an easy way of managing beliefs, but when you come up against something new. That you don't understand. Mm-hmm. And you get really curious about it, or you come up against someone who has a very different view and you're trying to have an open mind to understand where they're coming from, which you know, might be like, the example that's coming to mind is these cattle people that are the WildHorse advocates, like one-on-one with those people having these discussions. That are not easy also requires people on this side having an open mind to be able to have that communication. And I guess that takes us back to the beginning where you were talking about doing the work on yourself and the spiritual activism. And I, I, I guess part of it for me too is like paying attention to what happens to our insights. Like that strong emotional response to anything. Mm-hmm. Whether it's, no matter what the response is, if it's a really strong response, chances are that's being cultivated inside you by something, whether it's a block or a passion or what have you. And that's kind of what you're talking about is examining those, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And learning about emotions. I mean, I had to. Find a book that described each emotion and what it felt like and what it meant, because I had no emotional literacy. You know, I, I just wasn't, I didn't grow up in that kind of environment where people talked about things and showed emotion and it was a learning process. And my twenties, I had to learn what, what is anger and what is grief and what does this feel like, you know? And I think a lot of people are like that too. They, they're afraid of their emotions and it, it's hard at first too. Let yourself experience those and, right. Well, I mean, there's clearly a program, a program running that says, you know, get up, drive your car, go to work. Eat lunch. Mm-hmm. Come home, cook dinner, put gas in the car, be with your family. Turn on the television. Do it again. You know, there's not a program running that says, go sit in nature and pay attention to when you have strong reactions to things and get curious about everything and question every belief that pops into your head. They're just not that program. Well, okay, I'm gonna make it right now. That's the program that I wanna put on everybody. Yeah. Well, what you were talking about earlier about. Facing, our like so-called opponents. Right. I had an example come up to me in my life about that and I can share that as an example. Love that. Yeah. There's this person who made this documentary and she's a cattle rancher and is, the name is called hellbent. It's like a documentary she made and I. I was just looking at the pictures she put up for, advertising it and it's this woman with this very, weathered look, or, she's very tough. She's got like this scowl on her face and she's, hell Ben on getting rid of the wild horses. You know? I don't know if she actually wants to get rid of them, but she wants'em off the public lands pretty much, you know, and she would, I think she's a former BLM employee that was part of the wild course and bur program. I didn't get a chance to watch much of her. Much of the documentary I just watched, the very beginning of it I put it off because I didn't wanna hear it, it, I was like, am I gonna need like a barf fag by my chair, just in case she says something that's gonna really trigger me, This is the work. I have to hear her point of view. And the point, the beginning that I heard was actually seemed kind of reasonable. It wasn't, you know, much I could disagree with at first. It's not so bad, but I see I used her as a mirror to myself. And I, I'm gonna read, I'm gonna read some of the stuff that I, my notes that I took here about it. Let's see if I can bring it up. This was my processing of it. Hell bent the figure of the woman she embodies the colonized mindset. Domination over nature, control over the wild suppression of freedom. Her ruggedness, weathered skin and scowled face are mask of toughness. Mask that conceal rather than reveal the wild horses are the uncon instinctive horses of the soul, vitality, freedom, vulnerability, sensuality. Untamed spirit to seek to destroy the horses is to seek to suppress the vulnerable, spontaneous, and free parts of the psyche. This is precisely what happens in the patriarchal paradigm of hyper-masculinity. The wild and tender are feared and therefore attacked. So I perceive in this woman an echo of the part of myself that fears vulnerability. She is like the inner police who says, if I allow my softness, I'll be weak. If I allow my freedom, I'll be unsafe. This is not my true self, but rather a mask I wear. Formed through cultural conditioning and survival strategies. She represents the inner tyrant, who keeps the wild horses of my heart caged. So by recognizing her as a mirror, the key is not to banish her, but understand what she protect. Protects. Behind her harshness is fear. Fear of being broken, fear of being unprotected. If softness comes through my work then is to approach her not as an enemy, but as a part of myself. That can be sooth held and gently retired from her. Watch. The wild horses are my vulnerability, tenderness, and emotional truth. They're not dangerous. They're their souls natural companions and we need to allow them to run free, bring joy and vitality. It is really like poignant and so beautiful and touching. And the natural world is constantly giving us feedback about ourselves, and I think that's part of waking up and being aware too, is being open to that, to that feedback and that transformation. I want to be involved. I wanna be involved in ways that are outside the box. Yes. That's what we need. Yeah. We need a new way. That's unprecedented. That hasn't been done before. There's so many people in the equine assisted world, in the equine therapy world that experience horses differently because we hold space for them differently and they show up differently. We know stuff that people that go to rodeos and ride Western, some of them have a little bit of an inkling of, but most of them have no clue because they're so caught up in the dominance and they're so caught up in the program of dominance that runs our culture that they don't know what's possible. They don't know that horses have an intelligence like a three or 4-year-old person. They don't know that there's a lot of language that horses understand. It's not just the language of equ, it's switching a tail and pinning your ears and, you know, shifting your weight. They, they understand so much. Yeah. Yeah. I, I am just, I'm feeling a little speechless. I, I feel like I wanna go inside and, and gather up and then, mm-hmm. Do one of the things that I do, which is connect people and talk about it. We need networking. We need, you know, a way to get more people involved and a wide range of people, I would love to check back in with you at another time and see what else has happened because I'm feeling like the timing for this is really ripe and I can't wait to see what happens next. I'm gonna ask everybody who hears this to pass it on and to think about it and to take a look. We'll put some links in the show notes that you can get more information. Yeah, sounds good. Thank you so much, thank you so much. All right. We will talk soon.