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Rekindling the Fires
Ideas are like lightning bolts, they hit you in unexpected ways and a tiny spark might set aflame a mighty blaze or - in this case - a fire inviting storytellers to take a seat and exchange stories of old and glad tidings whilst sipping on a cup of hot coffee. In 2023 I was invited into the Green Tent Circle and after getting to know me better, the founder, Ann Smith, wanted to know, how to spell my name correctly. She took a look at my Facebook page and stumbled upon my spirit animal drawings. Ann said in a comment on Facebook, "Love your drawings. How about an animal narrative of why Everybody Can Do Something for Mother Earth?" We had been discussing a project called "Everyone can do something for Mother Earth" in our circle meetings and were brainstorming ideas on as to how to bring it into being. In the beginning it was a simple combining of my drawings with short wisdom quotes. The first ones we came up with together in circle meetings, after that I worked on them alone. I designed the wisdom cards and I agreed to introduce a new spirit animal every month in a new event series that also became part of Glad Tidings, the newsletter published by the Green Tent Circle. Ann surprised me again when I received an e-mail inviting me to become the 13th Illuminator of the Green Tent Circle's monthly Illuminator Series and to speak about storytelling, spirit animal wisdom, walking the shaman's path and help launch "Everyone Can Do Something!". 
GTC founder Ann Smith, wanted to know, how to spell my name correctly. She took a look at my Facebook page and stumbled upon my spirit animal drawings.
As it is always the case, when you come up with ideas, others want in.
There was another artist who wanted to have her art published, but Ann insisted on using solely my drawings. Said artist - also a shaman - subsequently left the Green Tent Circle. Ann informed us in an e-mail that they had decided to take a personal leave of absence. |
The Logo of "Animal Wisdom Speaks" was designed by Leah Myers in 2024. She used the drawing "White Crow" as a result of one of Kristin's spiritual names being "The White Crow".
I fell in love with collecting fairy tales and stories again during my work on the monthly series and decided to build a new organisation envisioning a library and archive being home to stories and wisdom in their original languages. Stories and storytelling bear incredible seeds of hope and healing within and since I had already started to build Winterfire and LearnToBloom, I knew it would add another aspect and form of healing wisdom. I had built an e-learning environment before and the challenge of creating an archive rekindled a spark within me. Designing new concepts is a playground I love and because I love to gamify learning materials I knew I was in for a genius time. I informed the Green Tent Circle about my decision to create a new organisation during one of our circle meetings and was met with enthusiasm. I secured the domain, wrote a concept and started building Animal Wisdom Speaks. While I was working on a project in Munich in 2024 I got another surprise of a lifetime: Judi Snell, CEO and President of WOYA, had added Animal Wisdom Speaks to the Coalition 4 Change and we were to participate in an official side event during the actions days of the United Nations Summit of the Future. At the event I spoke about the power of storytelling and the decision to either be the hope for the future or the fear devouring hope. Dare to be the hope. Kristin Raphaela Otti |
