Much Love!!!

Much Peace Love!
May this New Cycle have Solutions to the Obstacles of the Passing Year so that they do not affect what is awaiting to be Confronted, Transmuted and Uplifted for the Benefit of Good Relations!
May this New Cycle bring the Healing of Mother Earth to the Priority of ALL Peoples, 
There is only one Resolution, which is to Thrive and to overcome all Obstacles and Enslavement that face Our Mother Earth and her People!
May the Ancestors Resonate Deep in the Bone Marrow of Our Skeletal Structure!
Taino Ti
Nsala Malongo
And all those Good Things!

The Koki Medicine Clan

The Koki Medicine Clan is a Medicine Clan dedicated to the Ancestors and Misterios, rooted in the understanding that our lives today emanate from the lives of the Ancestors and are a continuation of the lives of the Ancestors, who understood and understand the thriving and abundance that comes from a profound relationship with the powerful Misterios of Life.  We love and honor all the Misterios, from the powerful phenomenon of the Hurakan, the Misterios of Sun, Moon, Floods, Death, Agriculture, to the many Spirits of all the trees, herbs, plants, soils, minerals, and animals.  

Our Taino Ancestors understood the profound spiritual "juice" that allowed them to see beyond the material reality and to be able to "pull" profound Misterios into Cemis that create a spiritual-material meeting point where life and death stand on the cross roads and we are able to speak inside both worlds!  Our Ancestors were able to bring into the material world the intelligence of Misterio into a form that would communicate wisdom to them.  In the Koki Medicine Clan we follow this camino of profound spiritual understanding and expression, and in the here and now we, to our capacity in this world,  also pull these Misterios who bless us with their manifestation.  This spiritual juice cannot be bought and to sell it is to prostitute it, it comes from the depth of the Ancestral Trail of this Koki Medicine.  Koki Medicine is about Truth, in full understanding of the many agendas and distortions that are all too common among our people and traditions (globally) today.

Koki is the tree frog, who calls to its mother Atabey for the nourishing rains to allow the trees, plants, crops and ALL life to flourish.  Koki is also the calling of the children of our Ancestors who long for the Spiritual Vibrancy of the Ancestral Past, who call out to those Misterios who had retreated due to the corruption of this world, who call forth the abundance of Indigenous Traditions, and the Reconciliation with Mother Earth in all her manifestations, who call forth for a re-emergence of the Sacred Medicine!  

The Koki Medicine Clan follows the direction of the Ancestors and Misterios and follows the Internal Calling for Reconciliation with Mother Earth so that we all (globally) may once again have abundance and thriving in our lives, which comes naturally from a holistic and loving relationship with our Mother Earth.  Our Cemis are born from many elements and through many processes which allows us to understand their Spiritual Direction and Spiritual Vibrancy which is much greater than individualism or materialism.  We have our ways of communicating with our Cemis, and they speak profoundly always.    

Koki Medicine is rooted firmly in Ancestors and Misterios, and Ancestors and Misterios have lead us clearly to grow Gardens, to plant Trees, to plant Medicinal Herbs, to create Bateys and Spiritual Points upon the Land of the Sacred Heart of Life that has been trusted unto us to caretake and whose healing process is also ours!  Ancestors and Misterios have led us to be where we are, not in our Island Homelands but on a vast continent whose profound Indigenous Traditions of Agriculture and Gardening continue to vibrate today where this beautiful land is honored and respected.  It is an expansion of a Cemis, (or Fundamento) which creates a space which vibrates and surges with Spirit, in contrast with the largely depleted and suffocated areas which reside on all sides, poisoned by decades of chemical poisoning.  

Koki Medicine has been on a long trail, and not an easy trail, to come to the point of its present manifestation.  Many obstacles have arrived and have been overcome in this journey of manifestation, and sadly there have been many voices of animosity and derision.  The Ancestors have always provided a way to overcome obstacles and to protect from the arrows of animosity and envy.  We are very blessed and grateful to be on this Koki Medicine Trail of Abundance and Reconciliation! 

The Ancestors have lead us to bring a strong emphasis on growing our food and medicine, and bringing a diversity of plants and trees to the Land.  We grow many things, some of which sustain us during the winter as well as the summer.  Our heat and much cooking fuel comes primarily from fallen trees from the Land, and every year we plant hundreds more trees to more than compensate for what we use.  We make many herbal medicines from our plants that build up the immune system and help to bring harmony to imbalances in the body.  We make spiritual baths from our plants for spiritual healing and balance and we make herbal teas from our plants to bring nutrition and balance to that aspect of the spirit that is physical.  We grow our food with our hands, using no fossil fuel to cultivate, but respecting our Mother Earth by getting our hands "dirty" with that most precious resource- good organic garden soil!  As we evolve spiritually we evolve in this material world bringing the spiritual intelligence to resonate in holistic choices within life, which includes the choice to Earth School. 

The Ancestors understood clearly that the education of the Children must be with the Families, Communities to allow the children to develop a healthy relationship with the Misterios of Life.  They understood and we understand that education is not to ram disconnected information formulated by people and groups who have ulterior motives and conflicts of interests down the throats of the chidren.  Education is to allow the intelligence and Spirits of the Children to interrelate with a healthy environment and to be guided by the Elders to understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy.  Earth Schooling is our term for the schooling that our daughter is engaging directly with our Mother Earth, and with the manifestations of the Misterios (the Medicines, Cemis, Nkisis) and with our wisdom and experience gained through our lives.  Earth Schooling is a holistic approach to education that is absolutely INDIGENOUS in ESSENCE!  

Koki Medicine is rooted in the Ancestors and Misterios and extends its vibration and love and concern into all dimensions of our lives and those who come into its realms.  Koki Medicine is transformative, and continues to transform our lives and the manifestation of the Land of the Sacred Heart of Life, including all the Bateys, Bohio, Munansos, and Sacred Gardens and Forests!  Koki Medicine Calls forth Justice and Truth, and the respect for Indigenous Traditions and Indigenous Spirituality.  Koki Medicine is not fooled by pretenders, and those with negative agendas, or those who seek to manipulate and distort, Koki Medicine is not fooled by "power over" or the superficiality of appearance.  Koki Medicine is about the beauty of living with love and humility close to Atabey our Earth Mother, is about the abundance of healthy food, natural medicines, holistic education, and natural resources to thrive.  Koki Medicine is about bringing a voice and action of healing and living in a respectful way upon Atabey.  Koki Medicine is about the Profound Love of the Ancestors who continue to stand rooted in the Profound Love of the Misterios of Life and the Great Mystery of Life, which is the Root of this whole manifestation that we call Universe.   

Achieving One of Our Goals in Sustainability- Winter Harvest!

Every night now the frost sweeps through the hills and forests around us.  All the tender plants have collapsed, discolored to the Earth, returning quickly to her to become soil as the freezing temperatures destroy their delicate leaves and stems.  The trees stand naked, stretching upwards with their expressive trunks ranging from deep brown to grey and silver and even purplish hues.  We watch carefully the depth of the frost every night to determine when to pull out our potatoes whose delicate stems and leaves have long since disappeared to the chill of winter.  We consider whether to mulch over them with straw and leaves and leave them within the natural winter refrigerator of Mother Earth or to pull them out before the frost penetrates to their depth and store them in a cool room or basement.  

Meanwhile behind a crate of potatoes the garlic begins its cycle of growth, just pushing up above the compost, impervious to the chill of winter.  Little by little we pull the potatoes from the Earth, looking to see what condition they are in.  They are crisp, with perfect skins, red, purple, yellow, delicate fingerlings, russets.  They are the legacy of Indigenous Wisdom and generations of careful plant selection from our Relatives of the South- Genius Gardeners, Genius Plant Breeders, Genius Botanists, who continue to gift us the Potato which embodies not only incredible nutrition but also the wisdom of these generations, the Ancestors!

For us Sustainability is not only an ideal, but it is also deeply ingrained within the choices and actions that we take everyday.  These purple Potatoes skins glisten with a deep purple color and when cut open an intense purple with fascinating designs within it is visible.  The energy of them is striking.  Although purple potatoes, red potatoes, yellow and fingerlings can be purchased at a health food store or in the gourmet section of the not so local supermarket at times, the texture, the crispness and the earthy smell of these freshly dug potatoes is in a world of its own in comparison.   The difference is in the Spirit, the Vitality of the potato itself.  While research has shown that organically grown food and specifically homegrown food is in general more nutritious than the ordinary supermarket equivalent, this does not acknowledge the Spirit.  What we eat becomes incorporated into our physical, mental and spiritual bodies, and food that is produced by machinery, by chemical onslaught and then shipped thousands of miles has a depleted Spirit, and then we eat that depleted spirit.  Our vegetables are complete hand raised!  Our garden beds do not see a plow or chemical and we incorporate spiritual practices directly into the growing of them.  

It is common knowledge (to many) that our Taino Ancestors buried medicine right with the plants in the form of stone Cemis, directly linking Spiritual-Ancestral Power and Wisdom with the Agricultural process. This was in addition to other natural additives that they enhanced the soil with (bat feces, etc).  This was (and continues for us to be) all about bringing the Ancestral Spirit, Mpungo and the Spirit of Mother Earth together along with our own Spirit and Energy within the planting and harvesting process. Additionally attention is given to the Moon and other Celestial movements to bring further vitality to the food which will nourish the body, mind and Spirit!  

Rather than fighting to grow tomatoes in a green house with all kinds of burning of fuels to heat it and bring light to it to force a tomato to grow in winter or to burn fuels bringing a hard, flavorless tomato thousands of miles, we "GROW WITH THE FLOW"!  Here we harvest arugula and mustard greens which will survive many nights of frost before succumbing to the cold much later in the winter.  While these plants struggle to survive the onslaught of bugs in the spring and turn bitter and stringy in the heat of summer, they stay tender and crisp at this time of year, totally free from pests.

Meanwhile in the cold frames our lettuce is growing in abundance interspersed with cold loving greens like mache, endive, cress, strawberry spinach, spinach, swiss chard and cilantro.  These will continue to thrive throughout winter and as soon as the light starts to return in the new year they will resume their rapid rate of growth.  The cold frames allow us to eat fresh greens all through winter with no fuel input other than the radiant heat of the Sun!  (Below: dark green spinach in the center, lettuce to the left and mache to the right).  

While as adults our sensitivities may have become numbed due to years of consuming spirit-less highly processed foods or limp tasteless vegetables, canned veggies or frozen veggies, we can see in our children a sharper mirror image of the vitality or lack of vitality of the foods that are eaten.  In an infant who is first eating vegetables after months of only Momma's Milk we see a Spiritual-Mental Leap that takes place in the child's development when they begin to taste the various vegetables!  And it is a well known fact to those who follow the research that children who eat wholesome organic and homegrown or garden grown vegetables, meats, eggs and fruits are healthier and more mentally alert, more able to learn and develop.  The children are a sensitive mirror of the facts of healthy living, and healthy living IS Natural Living, IS Sustainable Living, IS Living with Sensitivity to Spirit within the continued movement of the Spirit of Our Ancestors!!!   

There is an prevalent arrogance especially in so called "developed" countries where some people look down at those who "Live from/ with the Earth", derogatory phrases such as "subsistence farming" are utilized by ignorant and arrogant people.  These people forget that their sustenance also comes from the Earth although they may be desensitized to this fact through distance from the source of their food and an array of plastic and metal barriers between themselves and the Fertile Earth!  Working as Tainos and as Paleros with Our Mother Earth directly is a great blessing in multiple dimensions, from an abundance of vital nutrients, rich and vibrant textures and colors year around, the beneficial exercise and mental stimulation (positive vibration!) that comes from working with Our Mother, and an Ancestral Connection to all those Ancestors stretching back generations who also worked with the Earth directly.  From the most miniscule of soil bacteria that is invisible to our eye (Mycobacterium vaccae) we learn what we already know: working with the Earth stimulates Serotonin (hormone linked with feelings of well being, decreased stress and anxiety and increased ability to learn) (Note to Paleros:  Think FUNDAMENTO)!  Our Camino  within this Physical Experience of Atabey (Mother Earth) is inextricably linked to growing that which Nourishes us directly from her rich, fertile soils!  The ignorant term "subsistence living" gives us images of depressed people struggling to grow a straggly bunch of crops from poor, abused and compacted soil.  Nothing could be further from the Truth as Our Taino Ancestors and all Our Ancestors from this whole Continent understood very well, Growing "crops" in the permaculture style of the Past and utilizing the Indigenous Practices of Agriculture contains within it a whole University of Wisdom, Knowledge and Positive Spiritual- Mental Development; a healthy body, mind and Spirit!!!