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!