Here
is the second of our November
Novenas for the Fallen Through, which for this month are devoted to Saint Cuthbert
and to a
call for protection for our wild kinfolk.
If you would like to read more about this month’s
novena
you can read our first prayer here.
Yesterday,
we lifted a prayer for our badgers and for an end to the injustice
and cruelty of the badger cull. Today, we turn to a much beloved wild
being, the hedgehog, in whose decline badgers have been implicated.
So often we seek to blame non-human others, rather than taking
responsibility for what we have caused. It also felt that bonfire
night, which this is, would be a perfect time to lift a prayer for
hedgehogs, who are often injured when the fallen leaves and woodpiles
that they sleep in, are set fire to tonight. If nothing else these
prayers are a call to greater human mindfulness and I know that the
hedgehog people would be grateful for that tonight of all nights.
First,
something of St Cuthbert. This morning I was walking in the beautiful
autumn sunshine thinking about this month’s novena and the
multitude of beings of fur, feather, skin, scale, and leaf, whose
survival is under threat for all manner of reasons on our little
island and elsewhere. I was wondering how to draw our prayers
together in an image that might resonate, how to include each in the
prayer for the next, and the image of ‘St Cuthbert’s beads’
came to mind. St Cuthbert’s, or Cuddy’s, beads are 300-million
year-old discs or columns of ‘stone’ with natural holes in their
centre and found in abundance on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.
These little discs, which are in reality the fossilised remains of
crinoids, tiny marine animals sometimes referred to as ‘sea lilies’
and ‘sea stars’, were gathered in the medieval period from the Northumbrian beaches where they had been washed up and then strung
together to create prayer beads. They became associated with St
Cuthbert and it was said that he either collected them himself to use
as a rosary, or that his spirit created them on stormy nights to be
found on the beach the next morning. In other parts of England they
are known as ‘fairy money’ or ‘star stones’.
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| (St Cuthbert's beads. Image: Treasurenet.com) |
In
Sir Walter Scott’s 1808 poem, ‘Marmion’, St Cuthbert is
credited by fishermen as creating these beads at Lindisfarne. As a
slight aside, they also refer to the ‘snakestones’ of Cuthbert’s
contemporary, St Hilda of Whitby. These were fossilised ammonites,
plentiful on the beaches close to her abbey, which were taken as
evidence that she could turn snakes to stone! Scott writes;
“But
fain Saint Hilda’s nuns would learn
If,
on a rock by Lindisfarne,
Saint
Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame
the
sea-born beads that bear his name:
Such
tales had Whitby’s fishers told
And
said they might his shape behold,
And
there his anvil sound:
A
deadened clang – a huge dim form
Seen
but and heard when gathering storm
And
night were closing round,
But
this, a take of idle fame,
The
nuns of Lindisfarne disclaim.”
I
have just learned, whilst researching Cuddy’s beads that the common
name given to the sea animals whose fossilised bodies form the beads
is ‘echinoderm’, coming from the Ancient Greek ‘Echinodermata’,
which translates as ‘hedgehog skin’! Spirit truly is weaving through the song of this novena. What wild magic!
I
thought that the image of Cuddy’s beads, made into a rosary, was
perfect for our work and I will imagine new beads added to our string
of prayers as we move through each of these nine days. Already
badger’s bead is threaded there. And so, on to our beleaguered
hedgehogs.
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| (Image: bestwallpaperhd) |
The
once common sight of hedgehogs in our gardens has become a thing of
the past for many of us. I must admit to not having seen a hedgehog
for many years, which is a source of much sadness to me. The People’s
Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), who have been studying hedgehog
numbers for over a decade, estimated in 2014 that there were fewer
than a million hedgehogs left in the UK, citing a decline of over a
third between 2003 and 2012, with an even more dramatic decline of
50% in rural areas. This is in stark contrast to the estimated 2
million hedgehogs who lived here in the mid-90s and the 36 million in
the 1950s. Further studies are needed to pinpoint the reasons for
this decline but some are habitat loss, poor hedgerow management
(leading to a diet less rich in the food that hedgehogs need to
survive the winter), and the fragmentation of their habitat due to
new roads and housing. And of course new roads also bring death by
car.
That
this dramatic decline should be of deep concern for the hedgehogs’
sake is clear enough but we should be doubly concerned because
hedgehogs are considered to be one of our ‘indicator species’,
revealing to us the health, or otherwise, of our ecosystem. They are
‘generalists’, which means that they aren’t particularly fussy
about the habitat they need. If they aren’t able to thrive despite
their adaptability it says a lot about how poor our environment has
become. Hugh Warwick, spokesman for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, says that the hedgehog is “the most important creature on
the planet, because you can get nose to nose with it. With a hedgehog
you can get really close, make a connection...risk falling in love.
To quote Stephen Jay Gould: ‘we will not fight to save what we do
not love.’”
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| (Image: Wide Open Pets) |
Our
long-suffering badgers have also been implicated in the dramatic
decline of the hedgehog population in the countryside. In these rural
areas intensification of farming practices and growing field sizes
are destroying hedgehog habitat. The rise in badger numbers has also
been suggested as a possible cause, as they are hedgehogs’ main
natural predator. This is just one of the arguments that has been
used to justify the badger cull, although I have not seen anyone
suggesting that perhaps we should stop building large housing
estates, which are also implicated in hedgehog decline! It is true
that badgers will eat hedgehogs, but it is also the case that they
compete for the same food supplies; mostly worms in their case. This
is called an ‘asymmetric intraguild predatory relationship’, so intertwined are they one with the other. If their food becomes scarce,
which is the case when land is intensively farmed, then badgers will
begin to prey on hedgehogs. This is compounded by poor hedgerow
management meaning that these habitats so important to hedgehogs,
whose name comes from the Middle English words ‘heyg’
or ‘hegge’
(‘hedge’) because it frequents hedgerows, and ‘hogge’
(‘hog’) because of its
pig-like nose, no longer provide the shelter from predators that they
should. In addition,
intensive farming of maize, which badgers love to eat, means that
badgers enter the winter much healthier than their hedgehog kin and
so are more likely to survive until the spring, unbalancing their
populations. Nevertheless, there
is no evidence that culling of badgers leads to an increase in the
hedgehog population. Only a change in our own behaviour, including
the ways in which we shop, can do that. It
is intolerable, obscene,
that we should
blame innocent creatures for our own lack of care.
 |
| (Statue by Fenwick Lawson, Lindisfarne Priory) |
Novena
for the Fallen Through
Protection,
justice,
and shining
health for our wild kin.
This
prayer is for the hedgehog people.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
Dearest
Cuddy, we ask your protection for the hedgehogs
of
this land and all lands,
whose
survival is threatened by the decisions we make
and
the ways that we choose to live.
We
offer gratitude to our hedgerow dwellers,
our
little hedgepigs, who gift to us a window into the wellbeing
of
our land, if only we had the heart or mind to see,
to
understand, all that they reveal to us.
Blessed,
furzepigs, tip-toe urchins,
we
come to you in sorrow for the ways in which
we
have contributed to your suffering and your decline.
We
have allowed our farming practices to destroy
your
places of root and wild furrow.
We
have turned your hedgerows into hedge-wraiths,
offering
neither food nor protection,
casting
you out of balance with the badger people,
hurting
you both, blaming them for our own folly.
And
all in pursuit of easy food for our population
grown
huge beyond that which the earth can sustain,
and
needing homes which further limit your prayer of life.
Help
us to be more mindful of you,
although
you are small and easily ignored,
when
we choose how to live.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
Help
us to understand the land that has been gifted to us,
the
web of life that we are in intimate connection with
just
outside our door,
to
understand the importance of our gardens,
the
need to live in right relationship with all beings of soil.
May
we come to see the beauty and potential in seeming untidiness,
value
the wild poetry of leaf and woodpile,
the
silver trail of slug and snail,
knowing
that they too are our neighbours and our relations.
Help
us to be more mindful in our use of pesticides,
casting
them aside forever as we truly weave ourselves
into
the ecosystem that we too are part of,
listening
to, rather than dominating, the earth,
finding
natural ways to bring health to our ordinary Edens,
knowing
that all creatures come to teach us balance,
how
to care in wilder and better ways.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
Help
us to truly love our neighbours as ourselves,
knowing
that the tall fences we build between us
cause
harm to the hedgehog people,
blocking
their right of way,
cutting
them off from their wild paths,
from
food and family, from mother and mate.
Help
us to understand that in keeping one another out
we
also keep out life.
In
making the edges of our field too narrow, too rigid,
we
make ourselves the same.
Let
us rejoice in each broken fence
that
lets wild life through,
and
where there are no gaps, let us make them.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
Our
prayer is to be as deeply entwined
with
our nearby wild as you were with yours,
to
listen to the needs of the once-familiar beings
of
hedge and garden, of woodpile and wild.
Our
prayer is for the hedgehog people to thrive once more,
for
our tiny Saint Tiggywinkles to be seen
amongst
us as they once were.
We
ask this in the name of badger and water vole,
hen
harrier and natterjack toad,
red
fox
and red
deer,
dotterel
and dormouse,
red
squirrel and seal.
Of
starling
and sparrow,
sand
lizard and slow worm,
hedgehog
and hare,
corn
marigold and marsh cleaver.
Of
great
crested newt and small
fleabane,
ringed
plover and oystercatcher,
pasque
flower and mountain ringlet butterfly,
wildcat
and skylark.
Of
marsh
fritillary butterfly and shrill carder bee,
blue
ground beetle and white-clawed crayfish,
freshwater
pearl mussel, cormorant, and crow.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
May
the light of the bonfires burning tonight,
not
harm but illumine the plight of the hedgehog people,
bringing
them to mind as we go about our days,
helping
us to stay alert and aware,
attentive
and alive to the needs of our near neighbours
and
our familiar kin.
It
has been too easy for us to take for granted
what
we thought would never change.
Help
us not to protect our hearts by curling into ourselves,
instead
facing the sorrow of the spaces where hedgehog was
but
is no more, making a place for them to return,
knowing
that they are our teachers and our guides,
knowing
that they are family.
The
first is for badger.
The
second is for hedgehog.
May
our string of prayer beads,
formed
in the starry sea where all things are one,
gathered
on the shore of meeting,
be
filled with life, love, and wild justice
for
all beings on this earth we share.
For
this we pray.
Aho
mitake oyasin, amen, blessed be. Inshallah.
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| (Image: St Cuthbert's beads from Lindisfarne Priory, English Heritage) |
 |
| (Image: Gillian Day) |
Further information and references:
On St Cuthbert's beads ~
On hedgehogs and their decline ~
On not blaming badgers ~
People who support hedgehogs ~
https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/ ~ contact them if you find a sick or injured hedgehog
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