Neptune's Dolphins

In January 2017, two notable orcas died – Granny (also known as J2) and Tilikum. Both lived tragic lives in different ways. Granny, captured and released because of her age, saw the gradual extinction of her pod due to pollution and overfishing. Tilikum, captured as a calf, killed three people arising from his torment at being a performing killer whale. Both animals were the impetus for humans to reconsider the ethics of using animals for entertainment. The result was an ending of orca shows at major marine parks. These two orcas became deified by the Whales as Gods – Granny, the Matriarch, and Tilikum, the Resister. The Whales saw Holy Power in each of them.

 

Granny (J2), the Matriarch Orca

 

Granny, also known as J2, the oldest known orca of the world has died at 105 years old. She went missing on October 2015 and was declared dead in January 2017. As the matriarch of the J Pod of the Southern Resident Community, Granny let her pod by sharing what she learned about when and where to find food. (These orcas roam from southeast Alaska to central California and the northeastern part of the Pacific Ocean.)

 

Granny was captured and released in 1967. Because of the destruction of her original pod and her age of 40 years old at the time, this orca became known to activists. She was the icon for keeping communities of orcas intact in the oceans.

 

The Whales told me that Granny joined the Holy Powers as a Deified Hero. She is called upon by other orcas to guide their pods and to advise the Matriarchs. Granny is now the Divine Matriarch.

 

Hail Granny (J2)

Matriarch, Crone

Teacher, Mother

Survivor, Lover

 

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May we honor your life

May we protect your kind

May we learn from you.

 

Hail Divine Matriarch

Guide for the Orcas

Leading Them Home

 

Tilikum, the Captive Bull Orca Who Resisted

 

The largest bull orca in captivity, Tilikum sired 21 calves. He became the first successful grandfather of orcas in captivity. Tilikum died at 35 years old from an ongoing incurable disease of his lungs.

 

Tilikum’s notoriety came from killing three people at Sea World (accounting for the three of the four deaths by captive orcas). In 2010 after drowning Dawn Brancheau, he became the focual point of why orcas should not be kept captive. The movie “Blackfish” detailed his tragic life from being captured as a calf, through his being bullied by other orcas, to his isolation, rage and depression. Why Tilikum killed became the intense focus of trainers, marine biologists and others. The result was the impetus for ending the performing orca shows at Sea World.

 

The Whales raised Tilikum to be one of the Heroic Dead. He is the Resister, who leads their kind in their battles against being be assimilated by humans. They honor Him for the Hero that He is.

 

Don Mclean’s “Vincent (Starry, starry night)” is a fitting elegy for Tilikum.

…….

 

For they could not love you

But still your love was true

And when no hope was left inside

On that starry, starry night

You took your life as lovers often do

But I could have told you Vincent

This world was never meant for one as

beautiful as you

 

……..

 

The silver thorn of bloody rose

Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow

Now I think I know

What you tried to say to me

How you suffered for your sanity

How you tried to set them free

They did not listen they’re not listening still

Perhaps they never will

 

Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group

 

Throughout recorded history, people have endowed Dolphins with symbolic potency. Various Dolphins were the intermediaries between the Worlds of the Living and the Dead. Seeing an inquisitive Dolphin frolicking in a ship’s wake, people thought that He was a messenger from the water gods. Dolphin frescoes from the Palace of Knossos in Crete (1600 BC) show Dolphins in all their mythic glory. In Christianity, Dolphins symbolize Christ. Meanwhile, New Age people see Dolphins as emissaries from the stars.

 

Who are the Delphinidae? They form the largest family of Cetaceans (Whales) ranging from Hector’s Dolphin to Killer Whale (Orca). Delphinidae have bulgy heads and distinctive beaks. That bulge under their foreheads is the “melon” which helps Them focus sound waves when They echo-locate. Delphinidae whistle and click to navigate and “see” in the ocean.

 

Highly intelligent, Delphinidae adapt quickly to any situation, They find Themselves in. Scientists have determined that these animals have a sense of self. Dolphins recognize Themselves and others. Not only that, They have a language, complete with dialects based on where They live and the pods They travel in. Communicating by whistles, clicks, tail-slapping, Dolphins speak to each other. Mothers whistle to their Calves teaching them the language of their pod.

 

Dolphins have a reputation for violence. When They are angry, They ram each other and people, and rake their teeth across each other’s bodies. In addition, They use sound to annoy each other. Killer Whales are the only Cetaceans that hunt other Whales, and are appropriately called “Wolves of the Sea”. Meanwhile, Bottlenose Dolphins kill Porpoises in their territories. Like people, Dolphins have their good and bad sides.

 

Delphinidae teach conscious living. Never fully sleeping, They have to remain partly awake to breathe. Using echolocation, Dolphins are more conscious of what goes on about them. With their curiosity and intelligence, Delphinidae chose to be aware of Themselves. They ask the same of you.

 

Note: Porpoises are smaller and have rounded instead of beak-shaped snouts. They are in their own family of Phocoenidae. River Dolphins (Platanistidae) are separate group from Ocean Dolphins (Delphinidae).