(From Six Lessons with Delphi, Introduction)

I wanted a golden retriever and Delphi (pronounced Delpheee) wanted to get out of the dog show business. We found each other at a kennel in Virginia.

I loved animals and I had already developed an ability to communicate with them. I thought that was fun. But, there was something different in the way Delphi communicated and expressed herself. She wasn't cute and doggy. She was precise and profound in the way she expressed herself, and she was very wise. It took a while for me to understand that Delphi wanted to be a teacher and that what she was looking for was not a mistress, not even a pal, but someone who could hear her and write down what she had to say.

It wasn't my idea to "teach" animal communication. The whole idea was Delphi's. She pointed out to me that we should team up and advertise that we were in the animal communication business. I must say I was a bit hesitant because, although I could understand animals and they could understand me--which had resulted in some small miracles between "owner" and "pet"--I had absolutely no experience, had attended no animal communication workshops and had no idea how I communicated. Still...somehow...Delphi encouraged me to just advertise. Well, we did, and we have been teaching and coaching communication with all life ever since!

Delphi and my other two golden retriever partners, Chipper and Light, have guided me into a world of wonder, so much love and incredible wisdom. They have introduced me to amazing children who truly believe that dogs can speak, and they have uncompromisingly showed me the child in the heart.

How did this all happen? Why did Delphi and I write Six Lessons with Delphi? I had just completed a book entitled Delphi, What Being on Earth Is All About that told the story of my life with Delphi. Soon after the book was finished, I began to receive requests to write a study course on animal communication. So, I got together with Delphi to discuss the matter. She loved the idea and went right to work dictating to me her wisdom teachings.

Soon after spiral binding the lessons and passing them out to several of Delphi's favorite students, orders began to come in. Schools, community organizations, churches, and the women's unit of Wilmot Prison in Tucson, Arizona, were among the Six Lessons' customers. As I write this, over 2,500 spiral-bound copies have been sold. All copied, collated and bound in my small office with the help of Delphi volunteers! And the call for Six Lessons with Delphi is continuing as I write this.

Letters began coming in, addressed to Delphi. Heartwarming and heartbreaking letters from "children" of all ages who wrote that Six Lessons had changed their lives. It was following the first group of letters from the women's prison that I knew that Six Lessons with Delphi had a life of its own. People of every age and culture were responding to a little, home-published, "just for fun" book written by a golden retriever.

Do I really hear or sense Delphi speaking? Yes. But then, so many people have confided in me over the last few years that they, too, know that their dog or cat is speaking. We can all understand nature and our animal partners; perhaps not exactly as I do, but we can communicate and we can realize a living partnership with our planet and all life upon this planet.

In the communication classes that Delphi and I have hosted, I have seen genuine healing, both psychological and physical. And what we have experienced in these classes has been a deeper understanding of relationships, a depth of communication and a gentler way of living. Now, with Six Lessons with Delphi, the gift of a New World can be shared--a world where everyone is related from dolphin to porcupine, little child to tree. We are all one happy family on earth, or so Delphi says.

We have forgotten our place in the circle of life, Delphi tells us; it is time to return to community partnership where we all work together as a team. Community means all life. When we feel companionship with all life, emptiness is filled; we feel connected and loved.

As I review my companionship with Delphi and the ways that she acts and reacts with me, I sense she is a very special spark who lights my world and the world of those who respond to her presence and her lessons.

These lessons are for the whole family, to be read and discussed together. They are for the quiet reading corner, hidden from the world, where the magic of Delphi can be remembered and understood.

An eleven-year-old friend and student of Delphi remarked that her deepest wish after reading the Harry Potter books was to receive an invitation to the Wizard School. That invitation didn't come, though she waited and waited. But then, she met Delphi and was invited to join the Delphi School! In the Wizard School, she pointed out, you use a wand to perform magic. But in the Delphi School, you use your heart. "It's Heart Magic," she said. Delphi was listening, and when the young person had finished speaking, Delphi looked genuinely pleased. "That's Proper Magic," Delphi said. And they both laughed and agreed it was!

- Patricia Jepsen

 

Six Lessons with Delphi, by Patricia Jepsen and Delphi, pages i-iv, copyright 2002 by Patricia Jepsen Chuse, ISBN 0-9667560-2-9