In this Collective Consciousness the individuals work together.  They are industrious, determined, and strong.  With stamina and patience they can build or bring down things that are far greater than they each could as individuals.  They work together for the good of all members of their community.  If one gets injured others will tend to it.  Others will carry his load.  They work diligently.  They understand that they have to put in the hard yakka – the hard work – if they want to succeed.  And believe me, they want to succeed and they are successful.  There are an estimated 1.4 million ants on this planet for every human who lives here!

They have one goal – the ongoing survival and success of their community.  They are social creatures and they know that all things will come with hard work, time, and conviction and that they can overcome any obstacle if they all work for that one goal.  So they do.  They all work for that one goal – survival of their species.

I could be talking about humans.  We all like to think we have all these attributes, and we certainly do – except one.  We too are strong, most of us will work hard at what we need to do to survive as individuals and family groups.  A lot of us will help others who are in need.  We can overcome amazingly hard challenges.  We are social creatures.  The biggest difference between us and the animals I am talking about, is the one major step that we have not yet fully gained in our evolution – we don’t work together for the survival of our species.  We don’t work together for the survival of our home, Earth.

I think it’s fair to say that there are very few humans on this planet who do not really dislike ants.  Some folk may have a fascination about how their societies work, but generally we fear them.  They invade our homes.  They can EAT our homes – certainly they can here in Queensland.  They invade our homes and try to take over our food sources, our water.  They get into our kitchen cupboards, our pets drinking bowls, our beds for goodness sake!  They swarm, they try to set up new colonies in the wall behind your sofa – and we wage war on them.  Most people I talk with are capture-and-release people, but Ants and Cockroaches (especially the big flying ones)  – well there’s no capture and release for these – these are killed!!!  Swatted.  Sprayed with Tea-Tree oil, boiling water poured over their home, our home surrounded with a moat of diatomaceous earth…..  When they attack our homes It Is WAR!

Yet, other than their physical form, in many ways they actually epitomise what we, humans, are aiming for.  We talk about aiming for Oneness.  For everyone to understand that they are each a small part of something that is far bigger than us.  That we are all connected.  That if something hurts our planet, our trees, our oceans, our family, we too – every one of us – are hurt.  All of us.  Including, ultimately, those that do the harm.

Other than our physical form we have so many things in common with ants.  So many similarities and this, I believe, is why we really do not like them.  They could have been the dominant species of this planet if they were bigger.  We won that race because we have opposable thumbs and because we don’t follow that path of Oneness – that society that has only one mind, however much some of us strive towards it.  It is our ability to think individually that allowed us to become dominant.  Though I suspect that ants would challenge that thought if we could communicate with them!

That ability to think individually is our greatest gift and our greatest burden.  I suspect that ants don’t have Eureka moments; I suspect that an individual ant couldn’t think up something as complicated as a motor car.  Or Electricity.  Or the wheel.  It’s probably just as well because if they could – we, humans, wouldn’t be here now.  And I think – just my personal opinion – that it is this very ancient threat to our species that makes us hate them so much; the potential of similarity in everything other than physical form makes them too alike, too close to us for comfort.

• Ants’ message is to remind us that we are stronger than we think.
• That if we can come together in common cause, then with hard work, time, and conviction we will achieve our goals. 
• We can turn dreams into reality.
• Individually we are small – together we are stronger than we could possibly imagine.
• All things are connected – but humans have that added ability to think individually.
• We need to learn to think individually and act as one for the survival of our species. 
• It’s time to stop thinking about the small things; these will resolve themselves if we focus on that one thing we all desire – to build the best possible future for our species.