Mystic River, Massachusetts.
Spring in Massachusetts is the time of year when the herring swim up the Mystic River to Horn Pond and Mystic Lakes to spawn. There is something mystical and ancient about migrations and this particular one seems like a pilgrimage. In contrast to aimless solitary wondering, the herring clearly are demonstrating a conscious shared collective intention. Not only have many been away at sea for three years maturing into adult herring, but they are guided by an internal compass that leads them miraculously back to the same river, and the same lake where they were born.
Their return also brings me back to Mystic Lake every Spring in hopes of catching a glimpse of their silvery blue bodies. Although I don’t always have the luck of seeing them, when I do it feels like I am in the presence of something sacred. I am reminded of how these herring have been migrating here for thousands of years and how their migration connects me to the ancient history of this landscape. A glimpse of them sets in motion my own mental pilgrimage into the mystical past.
The Mystic River runs through the ancestral lands of the Mashpee Wampanoag people, and annual return of the herring marks the Mashapee Wampanoag New Year. Certainly it is a celebration worth witnessing, after a long winter, Mystic Lake comes alive and is filled with birds of all kinds including ospreys, blue herons, herring gulls and cormorants who come to feast on the herring and the scene is celebratory. Perhaps a scientist may say the birds are here to simply feast on the herring, but I would say they are feeding us so much more than their bodies.
The annual migration of the herring tells a story about resilience, persistence and trust in intuition. In addition to the awe-inspiring way they are able to find the same river after spending years at sea, herring must swim against the current of the river, and for Mystic River in particular, they often have to swim up fish ladders installed in various dams that obstruct the flow of the water. Many are chased and eaten by seals as well as birds of prey, raccoons and foxes. Yet somehow they have the courage and strength to keep going.
The herring courageously swimming up the ladder at Mystic Dam on Mystic Lake, Ma.
I am reminded of the words of Robin Wall Kimmerer, ethnobotanist and bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, who says “The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.” She goes on to say: “We Americans are reluctant to learn a foreign language of our own species, let alone another species. But imagine the possibilities. Imagine the access we would have to different perspectives, the things we might see through other eyes, the wisdom that surrounds us. We don’t have to figure out everything by ourselves: there are intelligences other than our own, teachers all around us. Imagine how much less lonely the world would be.” And certainly the herring can offer all this.
In our modern age learning from plants, or relating to them as wise elders and teachers may seem irrational, and not objective or scientific, and yet you find this animist or pagan approach taken in many ancient and present-day indigenous cultures around the world. It has only been the past few hundred years with the expansion of science and colonialism and the industrial revolution that we find nature being controlled, bought and sold, categorized and exploited rather than respected and endowed with personhood. Finding wisdom from the wild is a skill that has always deeply been integral to the human experience, and it is simply a question of tapping into an ancient memory that exists within us to recognize it, become aware of it and learn from it.
I have printed this linocut inspired by the Mystic herring migration in spring green as April-June is the season when the herring return each year.
Besides modeling perseverance and persistence, herring are anadromous, meaning they can tolerate both salt water and fresh water. It is a unique and phenomenal gift and skill and teaches us how important it is to be flexible and to cultivate the capacity to move through multiple worlds and contexts. For us this may be the capacity to live in multiple cultural worlds, or being open to different points of view, or in the great words of Carl Jung, “holding the tension of the opposites”. What this means is allowing more space for seemingly opposite ideas, feelings and behaviors to peacefully coexist. As a result, we become less rigid and more flexible, less judgmental and more tolerant, less fearful and more loving. We can see a contradiction and yet find truth in both sides, we can see shared connections in seemingly opposing entities.
At this great time of transformation and change in the world, with so much polarization happening around us, what an inspiring and profound source of wisdom for all of us that these herring offer as they swim from salt water ocean through fresh water river and back again. They can love and find home in both, and when I see them playfully splashing in the shallow water, I wonder perhaps we can too.
Blog Cover Photo Credit: Jet Kim on Unsplash
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Whether it is winged deities like the Hindu apsaras; airborne Christian mystics; Islamic Sufis; or the Greek Goddess Athena with her Little Owl, there is a consistent association between birds and a sense of fierce and powerful womanhood and femininity across cultures and geographies. In what small ways can we reclaim our power, rebel like these bird heroines, and embody the energy and spirit of wild birds?