A Reality that Blinds Us:
Earth Changes
February 21, 2010
Koki Medicine Clan
I want to place some concentration within this article on those who identify as “Taino”. I begin, first and foremost, by asking the question: “What is a Taino?” and “What is it that is in our consciousness when we say out loud “I am Taino”?” What does this actually mean inside of our conscious thinking, inside of our Spirit, and inside of the Life that is being lived upon the Earth within this very moment that our eyes are upon this article? My question does not rise from the habitual response that has been born out of the Taino Resurgence which is “Tainos are the ‘good people’”. If this is what we are holding in our consciousness as a Taino, then the description is astronomically out of balance. If one is responding to the question by saying “I was born a Taino” then what does this actually mean? The way that many self-identified Taino today are living, in reality, is in total contradiction to the values, principles and focus of our Taino Ancestors in the Caribbean. This is a fact that only through a dense denial can we try to avoid.
The facts are that our Taino Ancestors were master ecologists and master agriculturalists who had a pristine and prolific environment which they were care taking. This same agricultural, botanical and ecological ability and sensitivity extended all over this entire continent with its gifts continuing to bless us in the form of the many foods (vegetables and fruits) which were selected, cultivated and developed by our Ancestors. Our Ancestors were innovative in dealing with the wet and dry seasons and were far advanced in the practices of permaculture and working with the natural ecology to sustain themselves. The Spirituality was a direct result of this intimate relationship, it was not something abstract or disconnected from the Earth. Our Ancestors had profound principles and understandings and these revolved around “The Dead”, “Agriculture (or Sustainability)” and the relationship of the Living to the Dead and to Atabey (the Earth). Not only did they revere the Spirit of the Earth as well as the Processes of Life and Death, but they also understood these things and gave intricate expression to them as can be seen in the myriad of petroglyphs and Cemis which continue to resonate today, although today they are much less understood. The Myths (of which we only have fragments left) clearly are complex and profound expressions of geological, biological, astrological, cultural, spiritual, botanical, historical and ecological Truths.
The definition of Taino as “good people” has worked against the empowerment of our people, often creating a feeling of passivity or victimization that has worked contrary to our process of reclaiming an identity. When we say “I was born Taino”, are we referring to DNA, are we referring to a family identity as Taino or “Indio”, are we referring to a category on the census, or are we referring to a holistic approach to life which extended from the food we ate and the structure we lived in to the education we received and the medicines we used? Or are we referring to a spirituality which revolved around the Dead and the use of Cemis, and if our Spirituality did revolve around the Dead and the use of Cemis, what were they used for? Or are we talking about Christians who acknowledged an “Indio or Taino” identity within the family line?
We must consider carefully all these points and reflect on our Ancestors understanding and value for these points and our understanding and value for these points today to see if truly there is a contradiction or if there is a breakdown within the typical definition of being a Taino today.
Taino burial practices were very spiritual, the understanding of the process of Death and the world of the Ancestors was elaborate and profound. Ancestral Remains were placed in Ceremonial Grounds and in gourds handing right within the home. Ancestors were held very close and many of a Family’s Cemis represented certain Ancestors and were used as a link to those Ancestors. Ancestors were important to every aspect of life including childbirth, agriculture, weather cycles, protection of the community, fishing, hunting and certainly Death. The Cohoba Ritual also revolved around Ancestors/ the Dead. Our Ancestors could “see” the Death that is biologically ever present within Life and constantly elaborated on their understanding of this phenomenon. Without a doubt if our Ancestors were to witness a typical burial today they would be horrified and disgusted at the heartlessness within this process. The Ancestors never had dreamed of care taking the body of the deceased in such a barbaric and cold manner. As Agriculturalists they would have been outraged at bringing a body into the Earth full of contamination of unnatural embalming fluid and encasing the body in a concrete box in a cemetery far from the center of the community. They would have been outraged to see a body left to strangers to wash, to clothe and to prepare for burial, and a body left unprotected and uncared for overnight in morgues and funeral homes. Traditionally our Ancestors always had full access to the remains of their Dead; the modern cemetery is the equivalent of institutionalizing the Dead and ensuring a growing breakdown in communication between the Living and the Dead.
As Tainos we must be focused and concerned about these issues of burial practices and we must run (not walk) to become engaged within the growing Green (Traditional) Burial Movement which will allow us to bury our Dead with the honor and respect that our Ancestors held so sacred. Green burials, meaning home funerals, no embalming, full empowerment of the Family within the whole process and either bringing the body to “Green Cemeteries” or to Family Burial Plots in (usually) more rural locations can allow us as Tainos to fully express our Spirituality and Traditional Practices within what can be seen as one of the most important Ceremonial Moments of Life which is DEATH. Not only is this “eco-friendly” meaning that we are not leeching the highly toxic formaldehyde in the embalming fluid into the soil and are not burying the metals and plastics of the caskets and cement of the vaults into the soil, but it also allows the body to go through its natural process of decay. To allow the body to go through its natural process of decay is very important to the Spirit of the Deceased, and eases the transition from Life to Death, it is the process of the material absorption by Atabey (Mother Earth). Ideally we can bury our Dead in Family Burial Grounds where our children and relatives can have full access to our Bones so that they can communicate with us unencumbered by the limitations of cemeteries. For those who grasp for the excuse of not having enough money to go against the “norm” I will point out that Green Burials are a fraction of the cost of the typical american funeral and burial. Our Ancestors were Muerteros “Workers with the Dead” and today we continue to be Muerteros. To continue to allow our Dead to be placed in conventional cemeteries, poisoned with embalming fluid, and suffocated in caskets and cement, is insanity when we have a reasonable and available alternative which resonates deeply with our Spirituality and Traditional Values.
Knowing that our Ancestors were master agriculturalists who had a deep sensitivity for the ecosystems they lived in, again it is essential within the depths of our Spirituality and Tradition to examine deeply the use and abuse of food within our lives and the way this food is grown and processed. The typical modern diet consists of a high percentage of highly processed foods, many of which are made from genetically modified crops, most are made from crops grown with chemical fertilizer and chemical pesticide and herbicide. Animal meats are produced in horrific, terrifying and barbaric conditions with no concern for the Spirit of the animal who is giving its life to feed human beings. Animals are inbred to the point that they are distorted in appearance and would not be able to survive in natural conditions. The typical diet consists of a small variety of vegetables and fruits ignoring the vast array of vegetables, fruits, berries, nuts and grains which are available for human consumption, not to mention herbs and medicinal plants. The result is undeniably failing health, degenerative disease, increasing weakened immune systems and emotional and mental issues derived from poor nutrition. In essence a de-evolution of the human body, mind and spirit. Crops and animals are grown as “monocultures”, crops in huge fields where the life of the soil is destroyed through compaction by large machinery, the constant planting of only one or two different crops and continual application of poisons (pesticides) and chemical fertilizers. Animals are penned together in unhygenic food lots. The soil fertility continues to decline and with it the nutritional value of the food grown upon it. Spiritually food has become a wasteland, and as we see spiking levels of obesity and disease, it has become clear that (chemical) food has become an enemy of the healthy human body. Many people have no idea of how to grow food and many are adverse to “getting their hands dirty” to reach out and touch Atabey (Mother Earth).
Our Ancestors were geniuses in their ability to work with the natural environment to create Gardens which produced abundant food for the People. They would mix together different plants, all of which served the whole system, whether the plant produced food, medicine, useful fiber or substance or if the plant attracted a beneficial insect or bird which kept pests away from the crop plants. They did not clear massive fields to plant only one crop in them but created diversified areas within the natural landscape. Some of our Northern Ancestors (or Relatives if you will) perfected a still popular (to organic gardeners) and well known technique called the “Three Sisters Garden” which combined corn, beans and squash (as well as Sunflowers). In a given space all three (or four) crops could be grown at the same time. The corn provided the trellis for the beans, the squash shaded the roots of the beans and corn and reduced the need for rain or irrigation, and the beans brought nitrogen into the soil helping to “feed” the corn and squash, and all three thrived together. More corn could be grown on the same area if only corn was planted but when all three (or four) crops are grown together the net result is more food within a more balanced ecosystem. This same model was used throughout this continent including within the Amazon Rain Forest. Our Ancestors worked with natural systems to produce food, they did not work in opposition to natural systems. Our Ancestors recognized a greatness and a beauty and love within the gestures of placing ones hands upon the Earth to cultivate food, medicine and materials.
As Indigenous Caribbean People (Tainos) we must overcome the mental incarceration which has separated us from the Earth we walk upon which we depend on for nutrition (the sustaining of Life), and we must once again empower this very important Ceremonial Aspect to our Lives. Studying Indigenous Techniques, studying modern revival of those Techniques, studying the natural ecosystems we live in and mimicking and working with those systems is Essential to Our Spiritual Development. Once again we must Re-member the healing properties of the plants which surround us, we must turn once again to Native Plants which can empower our immune systems and bring us much needed nutrition. We need to return to thinking “Native”, not just as lip service but as actual practice. Again for those who say finances limit ones ability to make these changes, this is not usually so. While ideally we would all have a whole acre to make into a garden, through making a Garden using the modern revival of Indigenous techniques (permaculture) we do not need much space to produce food and medicines. We may also be able to join a community garden, get access to a small garden plot, or even do some balcony, rooftop, fire-escape, or window gardening, or as one of my dear friends has done make a community garden in a median on the road (supported with seeds and compost by the local township). The possibilities are only limited by our own mental limitations and our lack of thinking “Indigenous”. Gardens are also a powerful way to bring communities together. Those who love Gardening will tell you quickly that there is a deep Spirituality within this practice as well as emotional and mental cleansing and healing.
Along with the process of Death, the process of Birth was also essential within our Ancestor’s consciousness and spiritual practices. The popular petroglyph showing a Frog Woman in a birthing position (many call her Atabey, and we consider her to be the aspect of Atabey who is “Guimaco” Fertile Frog Woman) underlines the importance of the power of Female Fertility and Giving Birth. Many aspects of the fragments of the Ancestral Myths that we do have refer to processes of giving birth. Obviously our Ancestors gave birth in natural conditions under the care of experienced midwives, much as the global population has given birth until relatively recently. Yet, somehow today many of our women (supported by us men) run to the hospital and undergo a very medicalized process of giving birth to our Children which is approached as a “disease” process and during which fear is instilled into the expectant Mother that she must rely on this over medicalized process or else endanger herself and child. I do not advocate not seeking medical or hospital treatment in the cases of pregnancy and birth in which a genuine threat is present to the Mother or Child, as there are very real emergency situations and medical conditions which do require a hospital setting. However the vast majority or births are normal and natural and do not require anything other than an experienced midwife or birthing center which provides a setting in which the Mother, Father and Child can be comfortable and can approach the whole process in a traditional manner or a spiritual manner. (Midwifes and Birthing Centers are again a fraction of the cost of a hospital birth). The vast majority of cases do not require chemicals be given to the mother for pain which then get passed on to the child. The Mother being more comfortable is less likely to need “inducing” and is likely to be much more comfortable and able to deal with the contractions and intense energies of childbirth in a way that is empowering and not disempowering. This natural process can then be followed by the process of breast feeding of the Child which has 100% benefits to both Child and Mother, including the transferring of antibodies from Mother to Child, bonding, and stimulating the Mother’s uterus to shrink back to its original size and removing excess weight from the pregnancy. It also means that infant formula is not required and the money spent on this can be redirected into things that will support the Mother’s health and immune system for the time she is breast feeding. For us Taino we can have a Cemi present during this whole process to empower it. This process, then leading to the education of the child, must be the domain of the Parents and Community rather than institutions if we are to truly see ourselves as Indigenous Taino People. It is the Birth, Nurturing and Education of the Children which lead to a healthy Indigenous People, and as the situation stands today few “Taino” of today are finding a way to break through this mental breakdown to be able to envision and carry out a new (yet traditional) approach to this Sacred and Essential Process of Life! We have all heard the horror stories of how Indigenous Children were kidnapped from their parents and sent to western “boarding schools” where they were forced away from their traditions, beaten for speaking their traditional languages, and were subjected to mental (and sometimes physical) torture which created a profound breakdown within those communities just as the same root of brutality attacked the Africans who were kidnapped, tortured and deprived and enslaved within this continent. Today this same process of the kidnapping of our children continues but now with our consent, which is given from a center of fear inside ourselves.
Our Taino Ancestors did not build grandiose structures made of stone, huge temples or vast pyramids, however they did build a type of structure that was perfectly adapted to the climate of the Caribbean with its Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and Volcanic activity. These humble structures were natural, non-toxic, circular (to be less susceptible to high winds knocking them down) and healthy spaces for the Families to live in. They did not take out high mortgages to build these structures and they did not pay rent to live in these structures. If the home did get destroyed by a Hurricane, they were easy enough and quick enough to rebuild. The largest stone structures our Ancestors had were their Sacred Caves and Caverns which were (and still are) deeply spiritual spaces and also very safe areas to go to during a Hurricane. Their Bateys were marked out with large stones many of which were carved with petroglyphs, so clearly our Ancestors were familiar with Stone, skilled at working with stone but felt no need to build homes from stone. Today many of us live in “concrete jungles” or as some say “concrete reservations” where we live in high rise buildings, encased not only by concrete but also by all manner of toxic material from the insulation used, the carpet glue, the adhesives within all the plywood and wallboard, the toxicity of the paint and the list goes on down to the toxic cleaners used to clean the homes. Workplaces tend to be even more toxic as carpets are replaced more frequently, cleaning agents are stronger and more toxic, and in many cases natural light is even more dimmed. The huge amount of electricity which powers all this comes from coal mining and nuclear power predominantly in this area which devastates mountains, poisons rivers and which accumulates nuclear waste which is a danger which is impossible to neutralize. Indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air (even city outdoor air) due to all the toxins inherent in the way modern buildings are constructed, remodeled and the way all the furniture and furnishings are made and the chemicals used to clean everything.
The “Green Building and Green Remodeling” is gaining in popularity as those with the money to spare remodel their homes or build new ones with natural and nontoxic materials, however this is a very expensive approach and for many of us it is very difficult to find the money to do this unless we roll up our sleeves and provide the labor ourselves. Other options include the growing in popularity “small house movement” which can enable those of us who have the courage and adaptability to make changes, to find a way to live in a healthy home. For many of us substituting our power source with “solar energy or wind energy” is a dream due to the large costs involved in buying solar panels and windmills. Fortunately, the options continue to expand and wind energy is available as an energy choice on the grid in some areas and in others companies will rent you solar panels and charge you a kilowatt hour charge just like the power company, making this a viable option for some. However, one of the first advice we received in our research concerning living “off grid” was “reduce energy use to 10% of what you use now”. Since then we have, without changing homes, cut our energy use in half without much effort, switching bulbs, being more conscious of energy use, turning off lights, computers, foregoing outdoor lighting, and switching one appliance to a more energy efficient one. We also opted to get 100% of our electricity from a local wind energy producer. We are Indigenous People who find ourselves in a society which is in direct opposition to our Indigenous Values however the most obvious option is not the only option and as the climate crisis and energy crisis and financial crisis, food crisis, water crisis, healthcare crisis continue to get worse growing options are arising which are allowing us to make choices which are more in harmony with our Indigenous Spirit. As Taino today we must be in the forefront of the changes which are occurring which allow us to lower our devastating negative impact upon our Mother Earth and allow us to extricate ourselves from this alien way of life that we have found ourselves entrapped within.
Many people are talking today about “Earth Changes” from Climate Change to Maya Prophecy and other Indigenous Prophecies and Cycle Transitions as seen from many different cultures. Earth Changes are depicted as many different things from a series of devastating end of the world type catastrophes to changes in consciousness. Seminars are being held, conferences are taking place, workshops are occurring and books are being written all on this general topic of “Earth Changes” and in terms of “Climate Change/ Global Warming” laws and regulations are being enacted, promises are being made (and broken) and protests are getting ever more vocal.
As a Taino I fully recognize that “Earth Changes” are upon us, there is no doubt that we are confronting a reality that can only be denied for so long, and “so long” is already out of time. However from my perspective “Earth Changes” include much more than a climactic change or a mystical “shift in consciousness”, Earth Changes include everything we are interrelating with on a daily basis. Our Mother Earth is responding to the behavior of human beings upon her and there is and will continue to be consequences to the dumping of mass toxicity into the Soil, Rivers, Ocean, Skies, and there is and will continue to be consequences to mining and quarrying deep into the Earth to exploit resources that are better left alone (such as Uranium) and the widespread destruction of ecosystems to feed the ongoing addiction to fossil fuels. There is and will continue to be consequences to the manipulation of weather cycles through weather modification and the creation of manmade earthquakes to suit the agendas of a minority. Our Mother Earth will always seek balance and will always seek healing, and the ways that this may come about can be catastrophic to human beings (as well as other biological life). These “Earth Changes” are not “natural” as they are being cause by the “unnatural” behavior of a total disregard for life, for ecosystems and for the Sacredness of the Earth, Sky, and Waters. These “Earth Changes” have occurred because of a “Consciousness” of greed, a epidemic of inferiority complexes and superiority complexes, a breakdown in the relationship to Mother Earth. We also need to understand that the Earth is always transforming and changing and we need to be sensitive to those changes so that we can continue to survive and thrive within our experience here.
Western thinking separates everything into its components and ignores the underlying wholeness of Creation. Western thinking addresses symptoms independently rather than the underlying imbalances or weaknesses. Indigenous thinking analyses the underlying issues, imbalances and weaknesses which once addressed will allow the whole system to thrive. With the “Earth Changes” that are upon us we must, especially as Indigenous People, look at all the “Changes” that we are confronting as symptomatic of an underlying disease (which we could classify as colonialism, imperialism, tyranny, power imbalance, feudalism, industrialization without consideration of natural systems, and a breakdown in the human mind or mental disease). Our Climate Crisis is not a separate phenomenon from the Oil Crisis, Water Crisis, Food Crisis, Economic Crisis, Health Crisis, Mineral Crisis, Educational Crisis, Cultural Crisis, they are all interwoven and come from the same fundamental crisis, which is a crisis in Consciousness and Spirituality, which has been coming to a head for over 500 years. What we do need to recognize is that we are at the point of “Earth Changes” where the crisis is reaching a point where it affects the whole organism (whole Earth and all her Biological Life) in a way that precipitates a massive “Change” which we have classified as “Earth Changes”. It reaches a point where the current prevalent behavior of greed, disregard for the Earth and all her Life, is no longer able to be sustained by the resources of the Earth and change is no longer something to be sought out or hoped for, it becomes something that is inevitable and comes regardless of whether we have prepared for it or not. Every empire falls when it becomes diseased and corrupted internally, this particular “empire” is a global empire which has conned virtually all people of the Earth into becoming totally dependent upon it. Most of the time we do not even realize how dependent we have become upon the material (and emotional, spiritual and mental) (mal)nourishment that we live upon, we only get a glimpse of it when the power cuts out, we loose a job, or a “catastrophe strikes”.
As Indigenous People and certainly as Taino (who have experienced this unnatural consciousness within our homelands for more than 500 years, therefore who have a very extensive resume of experience with this consciousness) we must see these “Earth Changes” as systemic and seek to prepare ourselves from a holistic point of view, taking the various points I mentioned earlier (Burial, Birth, Food, Heath and Housing) and others into consideration when envisioning a plan of action with regard these Earth Changes. My concern today is not just regarding the Earth Changes but regarding the fact that many of us are in denial or blind to the reality of what is confronting us and what it is escalating into, which is why I entitled this article “The Reality that Blinds Us: Earth Changes”. Identifying as Taino today has everything to do with this Reality and seeking to craft an identity as Taino which does not take these points and changes into consideration is an exercise in fruitless denial.
Written in the Spirit of Our Multiple Grandmothers....
