Nfinda Kalunga/ Sacred Burial Grounds

Urban Paleros are accustomed to large city cemeteries, where bodies line up in rows, double or triple deep.  These cemeteries have strict hours and access.  What is more common out here are many small rural graveyards, sometimes attached to a church, sometimes belonging to an old home or farm, some have as few as a half dozen graves, some have more like a hundred.  Many are overgrown with weeds and even become absorbed into the forest.  Others are mown by someone once in a while but many are neglected.  

We are fortunate that adjacent to our land there is a graveyard (shown in the first 4 photos), where many of the people who tended this whole area now rest.  This graveyard was connected to the local "Black Church" which later moved down the road a couple miles.  Once in a while we see a car full of people looking for it, but most of the time it is quiet.  Most of the bodies in the graveyard are a hundred plus years old.  The graveyard is surrounded by forest on 2 sides and unless you venture into the forest you would not realize the number of graves that are right inside the forest at this point and are totally overlooked by whoever is tending the graveyard.

During our visits to the graveyard we noticed the various plants growing and noticed that they had obviously been consciously planted and placed, specifically the YUCCA plant.  The YUCCA plant is a native plant, it has spiky evergreen leaves and sends up a tall flowering stalk in the summer which flowers white edible flowers.  The leaves can be used to make twine and baskets and more.  In some places the gravestone had become swallowed up by the Yucca plants.  There are also a number of evergreen trees, especially cedar and native pine, which we know symbolize immortality or everlasting life!

Yucca was used much more in the past in this region by those of African descent and tradition to give protection and grounding to the Spirit of the person in the grave.  You see Yucca often planted by specific graves and often at the entrance of the graveyard.  You do not see the Yucca typically on graves of those of western religious traditions.  

These photos show other graveyards in the area that we have visited which also have patches of Yucca surrounding certain graves.  The graveyard adjacent to us has far more Yucca because of course it is connected to the "Black Church".  If you drive down the back rural roads and look carefully for old graveyards, there is a strong possibility that you will see graves with Yucca.  

For Paleros and those who practice other traditions of African roots, the Yucca tells a story about the tenacity of African Traditions in this country.  

As Paleros who have worked with Yucca, we know how it expands greatly from its original planting and forms a large mound that grows larger and larger.  It is difficult to remove once it is rooted, especially because its leaves are spiky and not easily grasped.

Yucca is not the edible tuber (Casava or Yuca), apparently it received its name because of confusion of the Spanish (who were confused about basically everything pertaining to Indigenous culture).  

We have seen Yucca in literally 50 graveyards within an hours drive of our home.  Once you start to look for it, you will see it everywhere.  We bring forth this brief post in order to educate those who may be seeing this, and perhaps not know of its significance.  For us it is a powerful statement of the resilience and adaptability of our traditions and holds within it many lessons that we can benefit from.  By its very presence it is a voice that arises from the graves speaking to those who have the ears to listen!

Winter with the Misterios

Massango / Maiz : Sacred Tratado made on the Kalunga Line!

Maiz/ Massango is sacred to both Taino and Palo traditions, as well as sacred to the majority of Indigenous Nations of this continent.  Many within the Palo and Taino communities take this sacred grain for granted due to the commercialization and genetic engineering of this grain that has made it a staple killer in the conventional food system and enviroment where its appearance as "high fructose corn syrup or corn sugar" has accelerated the occurrence of diabetes, as well as numerous other dis-eases.  The can of corn that is utilized by some of our brothers that suffer from severely calcified pineal glands is just one example of the de-spiritualization that corn, the sacred spirit, has undergone, much like our people- Indigenous to this continent and globally! 

The story of corn is magical and mythical and defies materialism and western rationality.  The Spirit (Cemis/ Mpungo) of corn manifested materially due to the profound spirituality and horticultural wisdom of our Ancestors of Meso-America.   This manifestation is of unique spiritual Power, whose only example is the Corn!   These genius cultures were able to literally create (pull, bring forth) the Spirit/ Ancestor that manifested as corn.  Other popular grains around the world have easily recognized and edible ancestors who were the wild grains that were domesticated by the peoples.  Corn is unique, with a wild ancestor that is radically different from the corn we know today.  The Ancestor of corn is "teosinte" a wild mountain grass, whose hard, almost indigestible grains are a far cry from the nutritional giant that is MAIZ.

Corn manifested due to a profound TRATADO between the People and the Spirit of the Corn.  Corn contains a hard husk, which does not allow corn to naturally or wildly propagate (shed its seeds to grow the next generation).  Corn requires the effort of the People to Harvest and SOW the next generation.  This requires an ongoing commitment by the people over what has been thousands (at the least) of years; consistency year to year.  As Paleros, as Tainos, we should understand the nature of Tratado and the dynamic relationship between the Living and the Dead which must be maintained in a consistent and deeply Respectful manner.  

Here in our Conucos, in the gardens of our Munanso, we grow Indigenous varieties of corn, not your yellow modern variety which has been selected for the disempowerment of the Spirit of the Corn and for commercial purposes.   (STOLEN LEGACY!)  We have this year, HOPI BLUE and OAXACAN GREEN DENT.  The colors are beyond words, and the feel of the corn in one's hands is heavy and so full of Spiritual Energy.  The energy of the corn vibrates!  This cannot be compared to using corn out of a can, which no Brujo or Bohitu in their right and balanced mind would utilize such a despicable dilution and distortion and perversion of the Sacred Spirit of Corn who has been so beneficial to our Ancestors!

We need to remember that our ANCESTORS held profound Tratados with these Sacred Spirits, whose presence enabled the manifestation of High Cultures that stretched across this Continent and whose temples, sacred roads, horticultural research centers (Machu Pichu among others), and cities are still rising from the soils to tell the profound story of the wisdom and spiritual advancement that our Ancestors achieved.  The Spirit of the Corn provided such abundant nutrients that our Ancestors were able to live inside the energy of Thriving and Abundance rather than the current energy of Survival that we are subject to and oppressed by (the rat race).  This has profound implications for the importance of corn within our Palo rituals!  (Kuenda Nsasi!)

As Paleros in particular, we cannot forget the critical role that Corn played inside the atlantic slave trade.  Corn, introduced to the African Continent by the Portuguese, was such a powerful and easily cultivated grain, easily stored, easily transported, that it became the staple grain of choice utilized in the Infamous and Evil Middle Passage.  African agriculturalists grew the corn which was sold to the slave traders and transporters who utilized it to transport more and more Africans to the Caribbean and Continent.  After a period of time Corn took on a significant spiritual and ritual role within African Societies, however this does not negate its abuse and misuse in the enabling of the slave trade.  Today we see a continuation of this abuse of the Sacred Spirit of Corn in the genetic modification of modern corn and the production of high fructose corn syrup.  If we as Paleros, as Tainos, forget this, then we, too, enable and promote the selling into prostitution of our Ancestral Legacy, which is this Sacred Tratodo (Pact) between our Ancient Peoples and the Spirit of Corn.

 From its birth place in Meso America, the cultivation of corn extended across this continent, and was grown in diversified gardens (Conucos) which has become the foundation of organic, biodynamic agriculture, permaculture etc.  The Milpas, which were and are diversified garden in Meso-America included/ includes MAIZ, Avocados, Squash, Beans, Melons, Tomatoes, Chilis, Batata, Jicama, Amaranth, Mucuna (tropical legume) which together give rise to both an ecologically and nutritionally complete system.  This system enables land to be continually cultivated for THOUSANDS of years, whereas the conventional system currently in place which arose out of the plantation (slave) system of monoculture destroys topsoil and requires "expansion" into new fields after just decades.  

Here, in our temperate zone, we are entering the season of "dormancy" where the energies of the Deciduous Plants go into the roots, empowering the roots which are full of energy at this time of year.  For us the Roots represent the Dead, so this is the time that is dominated by the world of the Dead.  It is also the time when we gather the fruits of our Conucos to present to the Ancestors and Mpungo to continue to enhance and empower the cycle of Abundance and Thriving and of Spiritual Justice.

Always we have the fire!  Burning from a diversity of Palos who are manifested Solar Energy (Sunlight manifested into form).  Trees are the Ancestors who enable our lives, who preceded our Human Existence!  They are able to take SUNLIGHT and make MATTER!  They balance our exhale with their inhale, balancing the oxygen-carbon dioxide equation in our lives. 

While the trees thrive from the Sun, they grow to the rhythm of the Moon, and this Rhythm is reflected in the Ceremonial Cycle of the Palero and Bohitu.  This Harvest was presented at the time of the November Full Moon, when the Earth moves with the Moon in the one direction and the Sun in the opposite direction.  We utilized the White Corn to represent the reflected Sunlight of the Moon, and the Yellow Corn to represent the Sun's Light.  The white corn covered each mound (of the four directions or moments of the Sun) and the yellow corn encircled each mound.  A fire is in the Center. The abundance in our lives is only possible from the healthy balance of Sun, Moon and Earth.  Although the photograph is taken during the day, this Ceremony includes Day and Night because a Full Moon Ceremony reaches its strength during the night, not the day.  (The Mpungo/ Cemis must be present for the Ceremony!  There is no point in doing a Full Moon Ceremony when the Moon is not at its peak of Fullness...)  

The Moon dictates cycles of fertility, particularly at the point where animals and most significantly human beings arise within the evolutionary story.  The plant cycle is dependent on moisture/ rain/ tides, which is influenced by Moon but dictated by Sun.  However, the fertility cycle of Animals is solar and lunar, and the fertility cycle of the Mothers of Human Life is primarily LUNAR in nature and is embodied by GUACAR (WAKART) the Taino Spirit of the Women's Menstrual Cycle.  Birds and other animals have fertility cycles triggered by sunlight (they nest in the Spring and Summer), animals have a variety of Solar and Lunar influences, however, Women are almost totally influenced by Lunar Energies in terms of the fertility Cycle, whereas Men follow a Solar cycle.  This Menstrual cycle is one of the most powerful spiritual energies available to us (quiet as it is kept).  It only comes through the Mothers of Life, and it is for this reason that the Yayi (Yaya) of the Munanso are latent energies of thriving and abundance who need to reclaim their traditional roles within our Sacred Traditions and to not continue to accept an inferior role within our Traditions.   Here on our Ceremonial Land we have a Sacred Space for the Mothers of Life to engage the Traditional Bleeding Ceremony with the Earth.  Our Lives arise out of this Dance between Solar and Lunar Energies!

The blues and greens of these Indigenous varieties of Maiz are just amazing, and the photos do not do them justice.  You have to hold them in your hands to fully appreciate them.  You really gain an appreciation for the Spirit and Nutrients involved in their manifestation!  The Hopi Blue corn cob is a dusty pink/ magenta color, and the Oaxacan Green is a blood red that is stunning.  It is important to pause for a moment and profoundly appreciate those Indigenous Peoples who have struggled to keep these varieties alive in spite of the onslaught of modern agriculture.  We are humbled to play a small role in bringing or re-introducing these varieties to this land.   

Interrelating with the Misterios in this way IS THRIVING!  Many folks look down on rural horticulturalists, jibaros, and agriculturalists with destain, calling them "subsistence famers", however this is a profound and deeply sacred relationship to the Mpungos and Cemis of LIFE!  

Corn is extremely promiscuous, and sends its pollen everywhere and so is continually developing new varieties.  It is not rigid or stagnant but fully embraces evolution and diversity.  The corn below was harvested from our Hopi Blue patch but has purple grains rather than blue and among the grains are cream colored red streaked kernels.  We will replant this next year to see what will develop!  Indigenous Traditions are profoundly realistic and not fantastical.  They are about life, death (putrefaction), earth, sun, moon, cycles and evolution.  As a people, we have been through hell and back and must reclaim our Ancestral Legacies and defend them against dilution, prostitution and commercialization!  The Spirit of Hatuey must always been supreme in our thoughts, ideas and actions!

It is so wonderful to be able to use our own Corn for the Palo Ceremonies.  Below we cook the vital organs to present to the Misterios.  These represent nutrient dense spiritual energies that relate to solar and lunar energies.  They also represent those meats given high value by our Ancestors who understood the health benefits of organ meats.  

The fire is the embodiment of the sacredness of the Sun.  The human development of cooking historically allowed us to access nutrient uptake that was unavailable through raw food.  The animal effectively acts as an intermediary between solar manifest energy (plants) and provides humanity nutrients in a form that we are able to fully access.  These animals here, inside the pot, along with the corn, were raise by our family, we nourished them daily, observed their behavior, utilized them to fertilize our Conucos, and generally developed a relationship to them based on reverence and respect.  The goat was outside our back door for months eating and working to clear all kinds of weeds and thorny bushes form our back garden.  The roosters ate our table scraps and ranged over our gardens to find bugs.  

The cooking fire, again, was a sacred evolutionary transformation that humanity engaged, which again made nutrients available to human beings with greater efficiency.  As Paleros and Bohitus, we know that the aroma from the Barbacoa (the outside Barbeque) attracts Los Misterios y Los Ancestros!  The aroma is intoxicating and the intimate relationship developed with Sun, Earth, Palo, Plants and Animals cannot be replicated or adequately substituted by mass produced, factory farmed non-equivalents!

There are so many ingredients that are utilize for Palo Ceremony that are taken for granted, such as Corn, Cacao, Nsugna (Tobacco), Melafo, and so on, which all tell us a story.  It is important to retrieve that story so that we can bring more consciousness to our practices and we can protect ourselves from the disease of fantastical thinking and "purist" illusions.

Here we have venison from our land, roasting with everything we have grown within our gardens.  This is the true "free range" meat!

Finally we adorn the Nkisi/ Fundamento with evergreens.  Evergreens are not only the only tree still green at this time of year, they represent Immortality, everlasting life, and the abundance of critical and sacred vitamins and nutrients during the winter.  A pine needle tea, infused oil, or vinegar greatly helps the winter blues!  It is for this reason that those Africans who found themselves in this region planted evergreen trees and yucca in the Campo Santos / Nfinda Kalunga/ Graveyards to represent eternal life, and Indigenous peoples of this continent enjoyed the bounty evergreen trees bring to the winter table.  

Finally, after the ceremony, the snow arrived, bringing the full dormancy and internal fire of winter forward.  It is a time of introspection and planning, however we should always remember, as we engage these extreme weather patterns, that the time of Earth Changes is indeed upon us...

Nkisi's In The Garden!

Maiz (corn) is a Traditional and Valuable food, sacred to Indigenous People all over this continent and adapted to many different conditions.  It is a staple crop, meaning it has the energy that can sustain people as a primary food source.  Today this blessing has become a curse through the manipulation of corn through GMO and the heavy spraying of pesticides, as well as through the creation of high fructose corn syrup that is devastating to one's health.  However, a number of heirloom and Indigenous varieties of corn continue to be available to gardeners.  We have grown two varieties this year, the Green Oaxacan and Hopi Blue.  Both will give us corn to grind to cornmeal or corn flour, but can also be eaten as 'sweet corn'.  In particular the Oaxacan Green Dent corn has grown very lush.  

Not only do we use our garden for the practical purpose of growing food, we also use it for Spiritual Purposes.  Here we bring our various Nkisis to the corn to be within the forces of the growing corn and to be refreshened and strengthened.  

It is vital to realize that this corn and the whole garden is not sprayed with any chemicals at all, just with some Witch Doctor's brews made from herbs.

We also have brought out one of our Cemis to the Garden to sit among the potato plants.  Potato is another valuable and sacred food crop to many people of this continent, in particular in the South.   Many Paleros and Tainos make offerings to the Nkisis or Cemis of corn and potatoes as well as other sacred foods such as Yucca, Coconuts, and so on, however there is also a benefit when we can place our Nkisis right within the garden to take in the essence of these plants on a different level.  The feeling of sitting in a corn field is a unique feeling as the energy of the growing plants is very intense.  

There are many ways for us to feed our Nkisi or Cemis, and it is up to each Palero or Bohitu to find those ways that work for them.  We need to avoid becoming rigid or unteachable in terms of what it means to caretake a Cemis or Nkisi, especially as the Earth continues her "changes".  Our Mother Earth is speaking in very loud ways, that even the most deaf of us should be able to hear, and the time to reconnect with her from a spiritual perspective was Yesterday!  But if we did not do it yesterday, we must do it today!  

Our garden is created using Traditional Principles, which are principles of 'polyculture', utilizing the landscape to conserve water, and using the plants to increase the soil fertility rather than deplete it.  Not only are these principles beneficial to the Earth's Harmony and produce higher quality foods, they also create a garden space that is beautiful and dynamic, that refreshens one's Spirit.  It produces a garden that is also a wonderful 'laboratory' for building one's understanding of life and the life processes.

In the flower bed below there is food and medicine growing, some are native varieties, others are exotic (such as rhubarb).  The blessings the garden brings are: Sustenance, Flavor, Health, Wisdom, Happiness, Fragrance, and Visual Joy.  We have some sacred bundles in this part of the garden that have been absorbing all this good energy.

By working with the garden spiritually, we also are working to refreshen the depleted Spirits of the place where we live, who have been depleted by years of abuse in this area where conventional monoculture farming has been going on for years.  The bad farming and living practices as well as a total disregard for Spirit has brought a tiredness to this area that is obvious.  We have been happy to see the way that the Spirits have responded to our work with our Gardens and Ceremonial Grounds.

Behind the garden you can see the 'Solar Shed' which holds solar panels on the roof and various necessary electrical gadgets and batteries to run the solar power plant inside.  However, as remarkable as "solar energy" is in terms of photo-voltaic systems, the plants themselves are "solar power plants" using a far more developed, refined and efficient technology that is ANCIENT!  The plants create their bodies from the energy of the Sun and their green leaves are photo-receptors that take in that energy.  Every leaf is a solar panel!  The difference being that everything about the plant is beneficial, from the carbon dioxide it takes in and the oxygen it breathes out, to the beneficial humus it creates when it dies back (drops leaves or dies back to its roots in the winter) and the food or medicine it creates.  Even the most modern photo-voltaic system creates waste and inefficiency.

Below a Sunflower, lillies, veronica and trumpet vine all occupy about 4 square feet of space, all working harmoniously together to create food and beauty for insects, animals and humans.  It is a picture of the most beautiful and eco-friendly power plant!!!

Here our strawberries grow in the  front next to some areas that have just been planted for fall and winter vegetables so that we can eat from the garden in 4 seasons!  The strawberries ripen from June through October giving us an extended harvest.  The shrub on the right is an Elderberry that must have arrived thanks to a bird, and will give us berries in the next couple weeks.  Further back tomatoes are growing and raspberries.

It is within all this energy that we bring our Nkisis and Cemis to be refreshened and powered up by the energy of the Sun and the first Ancestors (the Plants) and it gives us an opportunity to remember that the plants are the Ancestors that made it possible for animal, bird and human life to be viable upon the Earth!  For this reason we must always ask the Garden for its Blessing!

Our "ELDERBERRY Bushes"

Indigenous agriculture resonates with the natural ecology of Mother Earth.  To an astronomical extent the terrain that we have become so accustomed to, from urban parks, to suburban yards, and agricultural fields, are extremely unhealthy and depleted ecologies; more precisely these are ecologies in crisis.  

The Land that we caretake and work with is coming from a number of years of depletion, both from conventional agricultural practices and orchard practices to logging.  We have quickly come to recognize that there is a healing process that we are witnessing upon this Land as we follow Mother Earth's lead in this healing process.  

A natural and healthy ecology consists of many layers of vegetation that grow simultaneously in one place, from the ground covers and perennials to the shrubs and trees.   Rather than monocultures, we want to assist Mother Earth in creating the extreme diversity that is required for health.  Certain plants appear as vital healers within this process.  They are Mother Earth's emergency Medicine, and often they are also our Medicine that can assist us to develop or enhance healthy immune systems.  Elderberry is a powerful immunity enhancer.  

The two previous posts on this blog show earlier years (2010, 2012) elderberry harvest and medicine making:

The Elderberry Bush


Elderberry Medicine

At this time of the year the Elder is in full flower.  The berries will ripen in early August.  The flower is also a Medicine.  We dry it for use in teas.  It encourages sweating which is beneficial for colds and flu.  We combine it with Yarrow Flower and Mint in a winter cold care tea.

From the Elder's first appearance several years ago, it has spread throughout our animal pastures, and into our vegetable garden and even into our Munanso!  We have ABUNDANT ELDER HERE NOW!!!! This Medicine is very revered and it is said that you should never cut down an Elder, certainly without permission.  

We use the Elder shrubs here not just for Medicine but also to place Cemis in to energize them.  In the photo above our daughter is hiding in the Elder bush.

The Elder is a powerful Medicine and we feel very blessed to have Elder in our lives.  As the name suggests this is a very revered plant that gives abundant blessings.  We make many good things from the Elder flower and Elder berry.  The birds also benefit from the Elder, and most likely it was a bird who originally brought the Elder here!  The Elder is a very beneficial plant for bringing healing to the ecology of our space, and it also is a useful plant for us humans!  These two aspects are essential to Indigenous Agricultural practices.  Our Ancestors were master agriculturalists, master gardeners, and as we strive to "follow in the footsteps of the Ancestors" we realize that since we are not living in the same place and time that they did, those footsteps, while upholding the principles of the Ancestors, are, and will continue to be, unique to the here and now!