Bowhunting: Spirituality From The Treestand
Halloween has passed, and Thanksgiving is on the horizon. The first of the “Big 3 Holidays” is in the books. November is here. For most people, it’s time to get into the holiday spirit. For some, it’s time to get cozy and enjoy the World Series. For another select group of people, this is the best time of the year. The deer begin their annual rut (breeding season) and bowhunters begin to spend as much time in the woods as physically possible. The temperatures drop and bucks will be up and moving all day in search of does to breed. As I sit here in Florida, I find myself yearning for Autumn back home in Maryland. One of the things I took from my retreat in Sedona, was to embrace “Ceremony Consciousness.” The ceremony of the rut, the ceremony of bowhunting, and the spiritual connection I have to being in the woods is heavy on my mind.
My life changed when I got bit by the Lone Star Tick. You can read about how it changed my diet in a blog I wrote in the past titled “It All Started With A Tick Bite.” I can no longer eat beef and I became conscious of what I was putting into my body. After dealing with the reality of my new dietary restrictions, I was willing to try something about a year after getting bitten. I was sitting in a meeting at work, and a co-worker had brought in some venison.
Background, I wasn’t completely new to venison. My dad had given me some deer bologna before when I was younger. He hunted when he was younger. So, it wasn’t like it was completely foreign to me. The alpha-gal allergy I now have made me break out multiple times when I experimented with beef. Scientifically speaking, it’s mammalian meat that my body can’t break down. Naturally, this includes venison.
Back to the meeting and having some thinly sliced venison sandwiches, I was willing to give it a try. The likely scenario, I think in my head, is this is super clean meat, I won’t eat much and if I do have a reaction, it’ll be negligible. The next morning, I woke up to realize I didn’t break out. My co-worker brought it in again a week or so later and I ate it without caution. Yet again, no reaction.
This was pretty monumental for me. I tried to eat the cleanest and best quality beef and my body couldn’t break it down. I’m allergic to mammalian meat, but somehow, I can eat venison? Is it because it’s so clean and free range? Possibly, but I’ll never know for sure. I was always curious about bow hunting. I loved the stories. I was slightly pushed by my coworker to “go get yourself a bow and get your own deer now.” I started reading, researching, listening to podcasts, listening to more stories, watching videos… And just like that… I was hooked.
So, fast forward, I bought my bow in the winter, after deer season had passed and got a decent deal on my gear. I spent the entire off-season dialing in my skills and getting prepared for the big day. This was the most exciting thing I had gotten into in a long time. I felt a true calling to it. Bowhunting captivated my soul. Shooting my bow was a form of meditation. The routine of shooting a bow takes full commitment and focus. You pull back, anchor, loosen your grip, line up your sights, breathe, set your pin on the target, settle in and minimize how much the pin floats on the bullseye of the target, and slowly squeeze your release to let the arrow fly. The process alone eliminates the noise from the outside world. I loved going down to the basement at night to quietly sharpen my skills.
I was ready. The next summer we set up our tree-stands. We set up our cameras and watched the deer routinely come into our hunting area as the fall transition was happening. What a thrill. We finally get to opening day and I didn’t waste any time. My first afternoon in the stand I connected with a 6-point buck and my life was changed forever.
The spiritual experience of hunting is the ancestral connection to all of the men who have done this before me. When you go hunting all of your senses are elevated. When you first enter the woods, you feel as though you’re an outsider. You’re trying not to disturb THEIR environment. That all changes shortly after you get settled into your tree stand and you’re camouflaged into the tree tops. You’re motionless, you control your breathing, you’re silent and the forest slowly becomes alive again. The birds chirp, the squirrels run freely, now, this is when the shift begins to take place. You’re no longer an outsider, you’re now a part of the environment.
As the deer cautiously come within range, your heart pounds, you can’t breathe, your body begins to shake, and all of the preparation is no match for your body’s natural response. When an animal of a certain caliber walks into your hunting area, the adrenaline rush is indescribable. Your instincts take over. It’s an untapped response that you haven’t felt before. Primarily due to the fact that we’ve all been separated from this ritual due to the convenience of the grocery store.
On the surface, this article is about missing the autumnal traditions of bowhunting. But deep down, hunting meant more to me than just accumulating meat or the “sport” aspect of it. It’s about masculinity. It’s about strength. It’s about the spiritual connection and reverence for the woods. It’s about the fundamental relationship that we need to have with our natural surroundings.
I believe this is what’s missing from the modern experience. I think there’s an aspect of hunting that makes us feel alive. It’s experiencing our natural rites of passage. Being men in the purest form as a hunter gatherer. Putting your senses to the test and reading the woods. Men have been hunting and harvesting meat since the beginning of time. It’s only in the past 75 years or so that we’ve transitioned into eating pre-packaged meat wrapped in plastic and stacked on Styrofoam trays. Regardless of how foreign it may seem to you; you’re hardwired to hunt.
There’s a shift in consciousness happening with the relationship we have with food and our health. Big agriculture, monoculture farming, and the mass production of crops and livestock is losing favor. On the other hand, farmers markets, eating organic, eating local is gaining popularity. Eating clean, organic, and local food has tangible benefits. I firmly believe that if you really want to impact the world you live in, shift the view from the macro to micro. Support your local farmers markets. Plant a garden in your backyard. Go hunting.
In the end, it’s not just the crisp fall air I miss. It’s the ritual. It’s the walk into the woods. It’s the smell of the leaves from the tops of the trees. It’s the connectivity I have to the earth. There were tons of signs I noticed while I was in Sedona that heightened the desire to write this article. A lot of synchronicities that kept pushing me to go back to hunting in my mind. It’s been too long. No other time of year matches the thrill of being embedded in the woods, sitting amongst the changing leaves and hunting whitetails.
