From the Spirit of the Land- Two Worlds Merging

This was written back in 2004 and was an indepth description of what was required in the caretaking of the Land of the Sacred Heart of Life which is entrusted to the Koki Medicine Clan. It speaks of the internal transformation and purification that must take place. You can see that it was divorced from any fantasies or illusions. 

From the Spirit of the Land- Two Worlds Merging (9/1/04)

As we walk upon this Land, we must be willing without a struggle and misconceptions to open our Heart in experiencing the True Heartbeat with Our Mother within this Land. And in this journey to open our Heart, we must allow Our Heart to resonate in the awareness of our sensitivity and caring for this Land. Without Our Heart we will not be able to learn the multiple Teachings and Lessons that the Indigenous Spirit of this Land has been waiting for many Moons to release into receptive and willing ears, who have that Inner Ear connected to the Heart, which can only be seated in a thorough understanding of open-mindedness, which is the cleaver pathway of a Contribution that would in turns reward us with Sustainability.

In walking upon this Land, we should be willing to allow a thorough inventory of the placement of our thoughts, our concentration and especially of our selfishness which leads us to a place of carelessness of inner thoughts, which in turn reflects in the movement of our body as we walk upon this Land and in the embracement of the spirit of this Land. It is utterly essential to realize that a Spirit can be of humble nature or of a hostile nature. And so we must make an inventory so that we do not align a hostile natured Spirit to mark each step that we take upon this Land. So therefore we are encouraging each individual that walks upon this Land to consciously, wholeheartedly and Spiritually take multiple moments of looking within the stream of their thoughts. We must allow the humble natured Spirit to mark our paths, our steps within this Land for their Contribution is greatly needed and will reward our thoughts with the Seeds of Growth.

Here Our Concentration must be present at all costs to understand that this Land that we are utilizing for the Work of the Vision did not arrive out of thin air. It did not arrive through a mundane inheritance, it did not arrive out of selfishness, uncaring or a wicked heart, it did not arrive from confusion, distortions and horrors. It arrived from a Collective Body of Ancestors, who skillfully had been working with the Cycles of Time to bring forth a Contribution of Sustainability, Progression, and Reinstituting within the Minds the Stories of Caring, Nurturing, Growth and Harvesting, and the expansion of understanding the significance of Continuous Thriving in the desperate Need for Reconciliation which begins in the Internalness of every Dancer, who would be dancing within this Circle of the Vision, which has been entrusted to the Koki Medicine Clan. We must remember inside of Our Soul, inside of Our Intelligence and within Our True Essence that this Collective Body of Ancestors always was and will continue to be loyal to the Stream, Oceans of Progression. And because there was a skillful, bitter orchestration of the dismantling of the Sacred Hoop that allows a Healthy Human Experience within Our Mother, this Collective of Ancestors never surrendered their Love, Devotion to the Evolutionary Process that the Creator designed within Its Creations. This Ancestral Intelligence is free from stagnation, degression and dehumanization of a Spiritual Experience. 

This, without any doubt, places us to concentrate on the Two Worlds that we must confront intelligently, skillfully and with great effort to decipher its interpretation so one doesn’t overshadow the one of Progression that is the Contribution of the Vision within the Koki Medicine Clan. Let’s first look at the Unnatural World, that World which most of us are absorbed within and to a great percentage unaware of, it is the world of menticize, depression, oppression, grief, sorrowfulness, despair, the unhealthy struggling to survive, Spiritual backwardness or bankruptcy, Spiritual enslavement, the world of individualism, the world of greed, lust, gluttony, lies and paralysis of action, the world of destructive capitalism, imperialism, fascism, the world of marketing human beings in the arena of slave markets, the world in which the Global Community is being manipulated by corporations whose interests are in the destruction of the Human Experience and the dismantling of the Sustainer of Our Experience, Our Mother Earth, the world with an educational and medical establishment that is in opposition to the Evolution of Spiritual Progress and of Healing. There are many examples that we can cite, but at this point there is no need, for this opens the Trail for you to understand the world that we are talking about when we are talking about Two Worlds. It is without a doubt that we must recognize the need to look deep inside of the effects of this unnatural world on Our Morality, Our Spirit, on Our Soul and the ultra suffocation that it brings to the Spiritual Entity Our Mother Earth and the entire Universe that our experience is rooted within. 

For the Caretakers of the Vision of the Koki Medicine Clan, it is extremely important that without the understanding of your habitual behavior you will not be allowed to walk upon this Land as a Caretaker. Because we are not here to care-take the creation of the orchestrators of menticize, the orchestrators behind the dismantling of Our Mother’s limbs and organs. This is not by any means what the Vision is caretaking or nurturing. We are not religious fanatics, evangelists, atheists or agnostics or soul-less Human Beings. We are not here to entertain each other’s menticize or, if you like, lunacies. It is none of these things that we are here for. We are not here upon this Land to be caretakers of a mini insane asylum, that is not the significance, the reason for this Land, and without an understanding, and mind you a thorough Spiritual understanding, of the Declaration of the Land, Article 2 of the Declaration and Constitution of the Vision within the Koki Medicine Clan, you can only be a detrimental component of opposition to the principles laid out within that statement or document. So let’s be clear that unless you are willing to go through a profound internal purification of the multiple years that you harbored an imposed indoctrination, you will not be able to bring forth a healthy and profound contribution to the principles and ingredients that the Spirits of the Vision are looking to compensate you with for your Contribution.

This Land principally, first and foremost, is to establish the principle of sustainability through a Spiritual Foundation. This Land secondly is for the establishment of a Spiritual and Intellectual University of Profound Mental Growth, which will empower the Caretakers and those who would benefit from its contributions of Spiritual Progression and Development. With this being said, we immediately must focus our full attention on how we are to walk and think upon this Land. Because the Caretakers of this Land must be loyal and devoted to Self and Collective Progression. Without this devotion to Self Development and Spiritual Development through the expansion of our Mental facilities to critically assert Intelligence of Action, we will not be able to construct a Leadership of Progression that will institute the seeds of developing a whole Community to think in Leadership and Sustainability and One Mind, One Spirit, One Soul and One Heart. For the Caretakers must be rooted within themselves in the Ceremonial Strategy that will reinsure that all the points of the Land are secured Spiritually and the Nourishing of the Spiritual Collective. If the Caretakers cannot step into this World of Spiritual Progression through amplifying their Spiritual Mind to fully embrace and engage the Ancestral Collective, then they will not be able to be effective Caretakers of the Land. For here we must realize that the Land is no longer an idea, but a rooted Reality and Fact that can be seen with both eyes and the sole of our feet can feel the Spirit and Heartbeat of this Land. There is no doubt that the Caretakers must be rooted in the ability to think and act in multiple ways to be able to sustain the needs of the Land while it is in its developmental stages of being Self-sustainable. Caretakers that cannot be creative in figuring out a financial task that would allow Green Energy to flow consistently into its development can only hinder the process. As a Caretaker your willingness to go the distance in the pursuit of Creating multiple avenues of Resources has to be centered in your Consciousness through focus and through your willingness to continue the process of re-educating oneself and expanding on the historical Stories of the Ancestors. The Caretakers cannot and must not be rooted in ungrounded Spiritual Principles, they must know without a shadow of a doubt through basing it in facts. The Caretakers must be of sound Mind, of Sound Spiritual Facts, of Sound Spirit, and of Sound intermingling within the mundane operation of everyday Life for the benefit of extracting the nourishments that can be transmuted into healthy Energy that could be distributed within the ingredients and contributions that the Vision is setting in motion. Without this Process there cannot be any merging of these Two Worlds. The Spiritual Development must be first and foremost in every aspect and ingredient that we are in pursuit of. 

The Voice of the Land in Gratitude, in Harmony and Thankfulness to the Collective Energy.

Concerning the roots and evolution of our sacred Ancestral Spirituality

Country Dwelling In Haiti!!!

Concerning the roots and evolution of our sacred Ancestral Spirituality.

Note: Old Discussion That Needs To Be Rekindled

I wanted to continue this important discussion concerning the roots and evolution of our sacred Ancestral Spirituality.

Many years ago a Voudu houngan from Haiti came to visit me because he had heard about me. He brought me a small stack of literature (in French) on the Taino culture.

We communicated back and forth for a number of years. I did a ceremony for him with basically the Fire, the River and the Monte. He was very grateful and I felt it was no coincidence that we had met. Of course he immediately requested a guord of water and permission to do a libation for my Taino Medicine because he recognized its Spirit. He had a bunch of people in Florida who he wanted to bring up to me, but when the recent coup occurred we lost contact. I am in the process of finding him once again because I am certain that it was no coincidence that a houngan of Haiti had come to seek a Taino Medicine person.

When the African came to our shores under slavery, they brought their culture and traditions, their deities and spiritual practices. What they met in the Caribbean was a culture, tradition, deities and spiritual practices which simultaneously created a harmonious “marriage” (if you will (Palo Ceibe)) and which contributed elements which would allow for the survival of the African and his/her Traditions in the Caribbean. These cultures WERE NOT IN CONFLICT with one another in fact they were unbelievable (but believably!) similar in terms of many, many points. Specifically the Taino culture contributed elements of Aggression and Survival which were embraced by the African who needed those very elements in order to survive. The Afro-Caribbean traditions were very much revolutionary traditions dealing with conditions of oppression in the Caribbean. Both the Taino and the African were both subject to the same barbaric oppression and therefore found the same remedy in rebellion, revolution and revolt and also of course escape to remote locations to continue with a very strong mixed spirituality containing both African and Taino elements. For any Taino today to negate these facts is to be determined to embrace the ostrich totem and bury the head in the sand. Certain deities within Afro-Caribbean traditions are Taino in origin and flavor, especially deities of the burial grounds. In Voudu you have the term “Zombie” referring to one of the wandering dead who one might meet in the burial ground or on the cross road or road. The Voudu deity Baron Samedi is guardian of both the Burial Ground and the cross roads. Zombie is derived from Zemi (Cemi) the Taino word for the Dead be they Ancestors or the Spirits of Natural Forces. Baron Samedi is clearly related to Guatauba Maquetaurie (Ruler of Coabey). Simbi is a deity related to Rain and “magic” or (the work of the Boitiu). All of these are related to the Cemi. One of the Voudu cults in particular which is very often mistaken for “evil” is particularly Taino in flavor (Petro cult) which gets stronger under conditions of greater oppression because of its aggressive powerful deities. It deals in the currency of anger against the oppression and therefore provides remedies against the oppression. It is useless to go talk to a passive deity about a situation of injustice or oppression, you have to go talk to a deity who deals in that energy.

The point that I find it necessary to make here is that if the Taino of today is seeking to find an identity outside of the historical collaboration and unification with the African Spirituality then what that Taino of today will be left with is a collection of European flavored, christian influenced French Espiritismo morphed to a “Taino Image” which lacks any real spirit of our Revolutionary Warrior Ancestors. Our Ancestors were no pushovers. The accounts of the Europeans (esp. Las Casas and Columbus) is what has contributed most heavily to the image of the gentle, passive (easily colonized and Christianized) Taino which is used today to designate who is a “real” Taino or not. We here on Taino Makana are widely spoken about as “the bad Tainos” or something like that, with no understanding or grasp on our historical story. When the African unified with the Taino a new generation sprung up and after that generation gave rise to another generation and so on, the first new generation who was practicing a unification of Taino and African spiritualities became Ancestors, Spirits, who continued to move in the lives of their future generations right to our present moment. To deny either the Taino or the African is to deny our Identity and the key element which allowed our survival and our RECLAIMING OUR DIGNITY. It was through SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, TRADITION, CEREMONY that our Ancestors were able to survive and rebel against the oppressors. If we lose sight of the beginning our Resurgence which ACTUALLY started the moment the invaders invaded, we forget totally who we are. It is only through SPIRIT that we can recover from the hypnosis/ witchcraft of colonialization, and for us to try to control and rule over who and what that spirit is, is total stupidity.

The Living Gods of Haiti

I want to continue by bringing forth some work done by Maya Deren author of “Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti”. She is one of the few authors who actively sought out Taino spirituality and Medicine within the practice of Voudoun. She herself was an initiate, so she is not talking as an outsider looking in but rather with the love and respect of someone initiated into the tradition.

At one point she is speaking of the Maraca as a SACRED tool to the Taino and in Voudoun whereas she had found it was more of a musical instrument in Africa. She addresses the mythology of a “Woman coming from the Sea (mermaid)” in Arawak and Taino myth and relates her to the Voudoun myth of Water People who are spirits inside the Petro cult. I include her actual words here:

(Speaking of the Maraca) “Yet the most revealing legend in this connection is the tale of the Orinocan Orehu, who are water sprites, or mermaids, and who may drag a man to the depths of their aquatic haunts. This is a very recurrent myth in Haiti. They are not altogether evil; for it is said that in ancient times an Arawak, walking beside the water and brooding over the sad condition of his people, beheld an Orehu rise from the stream, bearing a branch which he planted as she bade him, its fruit being the calabash, till then unknown. Again she appeared, bringing small white pebbles, which she instructed him to enclose in the gourd, thus making the magic working rattle. She instructed him in its use and in the mysteries of Semecihi, who are medicine men of the Arawak corresponding to the Carib Peaimen, though the word seems related to the Taino Zemi. Orehu is no other than the mainland equivalent of the Haitian (Taino) woman of the sea, Guabonite, who taught the medicine hero, Guagugiana, the use of amulets of white stones and gold. This legend is precisely comparable to the stories in Voudoun mythology that are told of the Water People, who Herskovits (P.244) classifies as baka, spirits of the Petro group, which are sometimes good but sometimes drag or entice the victim to the bottom of the water.” (From Appendix B).

Clearly we can see the correlation that she is making is significant. It is also significant on many other levels, if we look at the bringing of a Medicine Tool or even Medicine Spirit into the hands of the Taino, we cannot negate a “woman of the water”. Which goes completely contrary to the unfortunate and misguided popular belief that women have no business being Boihitus. It was actually a woman, Guabonite, who initiated the man, Guaguguiano, into the secrets of Medicine. Not only is this true with the Taino, but we can see that it is wider than just this one point when we look at the Arawak myth spoken about above. It is important not to let primarily christian dogma invade our thinking when it comes to our Ancestors who have been staring us in the face all along. There is no reasonable indication that only the men were Medicine People whereas there is a entire Myth clearly indicating that the woman was absolutely essential in the process of developing the Medicine.

To be continued…