Conucos

Right after the Winter Solstice with its Full Moon and Eclipse and before the New Year we brought Fruits and Root Vegetables, that had been with the Misterios for a significant time, to the Conucos (Taino Mound Gardens or Raised Gardens) where we unearthed the River Stones that sit on each one.  These Spirits go into the Earth during the growing season and come out during the Winter.  Mother Earth's topsoil was frozen solid and with great effort we unearthed the Stones.  We then placed all the fruits and root vegetables, including Sugar Cane with each one.  

We make a great emphasis in our Munanso/ Bohio- Batey of feeding the Earth because we understand that the Spirit of our Earth Mother has been attacked with so much IGNORANCE, Toxicity and careless living.  The Spirit of much of the Land upon the Earth is very, very depleted and needs our love and sustenance and not just in words! These offerings will be allowed to decay right into the Conucos where they will be 'turned into ' the Earth to allow their further decay.  They will bring their diverse nutrients to our Conucos, including Spiritual Nutrients.  

It is never far from our minds that we live in a time upon the Earth that the burden (curse) of so called "civilization" has brought us all to a critical point where we can no longer take our Mother Earth for granted.  Even the weather patterns are "rebelling" against the ignorant way of being upon the Earth, and wreaking chaos upon our vulnerable brothers and sisters (fish and birds) who are falling out of the sky and dying in massive fish kills.  Our Mother Earth continues to cry out to us in numerous ways for our Love and Intelligence to return to care taking of our Mother rather than just taking from her.  

Garlic Planting

This fall we created a new garden for the garlic, a raised bed garden made from stones and filled with the rich forest soil that had been further enhanced by contributions from a series of goats, horses, donkeys and a bull!  In this particular place on the Land the bedrock of Mother Earth literally is right at the surface and it would be very challenging to attempt to grow plants directly upon the rocky soil here.  By creating a raised bed we give the plants a foot of rich fluffy soil that creates ideal growing conditions.  The soil will be able to retain more water because of its high humus content and will be able to drain off any excess water because it is raised which will help the garlic from getting mold conditions while growing if we happen to have a year of an abundance of rain.  There are many places upon the Earth where either due to natural conditions (such as our bedrock area of the Land) or due to the abuse of the land through conventional agricultural practices which compact the soil, the soil is very hard and depleted.  Raised beds can transform these conditions immediately and allow us to grow a greater abundance of vegetables in a smaller space, which saves water and is easier to keep tended!

We have an assortment of garlic (hardneck, softneck and elephant) and some shallots ready to plant.

Above one clove of elephant garlic is as big as Anani's palm!  These are huge cloves, and there are only four cloves per garlic plant and they tend to have a milder flavor than regular garlic.  Garlic is planted in the fall, it begins its growth and then overwinters through ice, snow, frozen ground, to then emerge in the spring, grow throughout the Spring and is ready for harvest in the summer.  Garlic is a powerful medicinal plant, excellent for boosting the immune system.  The mere fact that it not only survives but flourishes through the cold conditions of winter is reflected in its medicinal power!  We utilize it crushed with honey or olive oil and taken by the teaspoon, or made into a garlic tea for colds and flus during the winter.  It is a natural antibiotic.  It is of course also a awesome addition to every meal!  We love to roast it directly on the grill in the summer!

We plant the garlic deep enough for about 2 inches of soil to cover its growing tip, then as the weather gets cooler we add a thick layer of mulch (leaves or straw) on top of the soil to further protect and feed the garlic.  The sticks are to label the different varieties for the purposes of discovering which garlics prefer our soil and weather conditions.  As we continue to select the best of our garlic crop for future plantings we naturally guide the garlic to flourish in our unique conditions.  This is the benefit of saving your own seed or in this case saving your own clove.  It is the very best of the garlic harvest that gets planted for the next year because we want to continue to improve the crop and if we would only plant the mediocre garlic we would be guiding the garlic in a mediocre direction.  There is a spiritual tool or truth to this simple process of choosing the garlic for the next year's harvest!

Anani loves to be involved  in planting all things, but the garlic is especially easy for children because the cloves are big and are easy to handle.  She also discovers that when planting garlic you do not take off the husk like you do when you cook, and that garlic requires patience, in fact almost a whole year of patience!  Whereas arugula and other greens will emerge within days and be harvestable within weeks!  This is a way for her to learn the natural rhythm of the foods she eats, and the rhythm of life and death and the seemingly contradictory elements of being able to plant garlic at at time when everything else is being harvested.  She is seeing that even within a cycle of "death" meaning winter, some things thrive and begin their process of life during this very season of "death".  

Anani is seeing that the Garlic that is harvested is "reincarnating" as we place its clove within the Earth, and that it then sends up a shoot, fills out its root bulb and becomes a full garlic plant once again.  She also sees this with the seeds from the tobacco, the vegetable seeds, and she sees this occurring naturally and through our action to collect and plant seeds.  She sees how every year tomatoes, borage flowers, calendula flowers, holy basil, and other unexpected plants come up because of the seeds they threw down the year before which have re-incarnated once again in the most unexpected of places as the wind or a bird or bee or even an animal that ingests the seed such as a fox takes a seed and drops it in a more distant place.  She sees that tobacco grows by the Sacred Fire from the seeds of the Tobacco that was offered ceremonially to the fire the year before.  This occurs more and more frequently as we enhance the fertility of the soil and bring in a diversity of crops and herbs to the Land.  We have naturalized plants upon the land that simply were not there when we first arrived.  Sweet Annie grows all over the field now, Amaranth grows everywhere, cilantro throws its seeds everywhere and tomatoes come up in every place where we have ever planted them.  This year in our tree nursery tomatoes came up from two years ago!   Holy basil (Tulsi) also came up and it turns out that holy basil is very very medicinal and makes a tea that is slightly spicy and delicious!  All the medicinal herbs can and are utilized for bilongos, cargas, and other Medicinal purposes.  

Plants are vital to us as spiritual-physical warriors!  At a time when the diversity of plants upon the earth are being attacked, at a time when the use of plants medicinally is also being attacked, at a time when the health of the people of the planet is also under severe attack, the plants are our life line!  We love and honor the plants upon the land, we are always bringing more plants to the land and reaching out to our Mother Earth in the spirit of Reconciliation through placing our hands, our sweat and our love upon her to grow an abundance of vegetables, herbs, fruits, nuts, flowers!  We don't bother to roll up our sleeves anymore, we cut the sleeves right off!  Not only is this process healing for our Spirits, our Souls and our Relationship with out Mother Earth, with the Ancestors, with the Spirits of the Earth, but it is also deeply satisfying!

Pruning the Raspberries, and the Love for the Spirit of the Land!

Late winter or early spring is time to prune away the dead raspberry canes and any weak canes or canes that are in the pathway.  It is very important to do this to ensure a productive and healthy season for the raspberries.  We grow raspberries for their taste, their high vitamin content, and their medicinal properties.  Raspberry leaf tea is very good as well as a syrup that we will make this year from our black raspberry early spring shoots.  Anani is a big fan of the raspberry patch.  We also have in these rows grapes and strawberries.  Our Raspberries are Black, Red, Yellow and Purple!

This pile of debris came from just one side of one row of the raspberry canes.  It is very essential to remove all these old canes and debris because leaving them next to the raspberries can make the raspberries diseased.  Raspberries are very sensitive plants.  We ultimately burn the debris to ensure no disease is spread.  Spiritually it is also important to clean up and remove debris as this helps us and the Spirit refreshen for the Spring that is around the corner!  When an individual is involved in cleaning up, whether it be pruning, raking leaves, weeding the gardens, and so on, upon a Sacred and Ceremonial Land, or even within a small Monanso, the action of cleaning is an EBO for the individual and the individual's frame of mind is very important within this EBO!  When working with these things, one MUST be grounded in Love for the Earth from a Spiritual Perspective!

This is before the pruning, showing the chaotic appearance of the canes, many are broken due to wind and snow from the very hard winter we had this year, and many send shoots into the pathway.  

Left Photo:  After pruning, you can see the shift in energy and how clean and clear the raspberries now look.  Right Photo:  This is very important.  This is an EGUN TREE dedicated to a specific EGUN which stands at the lower end of one of the rows of the canes, right at the entrance.  We know that the EGUN associated with this tree is Observing the activity with the raspberries, and since there is an Egun Tree right by the raspberry rows we have to pay even greater attention to the physical and mental energy we apply when engaging the pruning activity!

Here Anani is participating in removing the debris.  It is very important for her to be involved in these activities and to understand and learn how to caretake the various gardens and spaces.  This way she learns from an early age what is needed to caretake this Space within ATABEY!

Left Photo:  The pile grows.  Right Photo:  The end posts of the rows are visible and next to them the Egun Tree.

Here you can see the walking path in between the rows which also gets cleaned of old dead grass and debris.  You can see the Egun tree's position in the left photo and how close it is to the raspberries. In the right photo you can now see that the raspberries are all in a  neat row and the path is easily accessible and clear.

Left Photo:  This is another Egun Tree of one of the Elder Egun of the Land!  This tree is just down the slope from the raspberry rows, and this Egun is also observing what is going on.  Right Photo:  While we were working a Vulture drew our attention to him/herself because she/he was making an unusual flight sound due to what looks like a missing wing feather.  The Vulture represents the DEAD as well as REBIRTH, which is relevant to the time of year and to the fact that we were engaged in working in close proximity to TWO EGUN Trees!  It may be that the Vulture is molting which is a form of renewal!

Here Thunder the Bull has just been re-captured.  We had found him next to where the fire pit for burning debris is.  This particular bull was originally brought to the Land for the benefit of the EGUN whose tree is right next to the raspberry rows.  So to see him loose on the very day we came to prune the raspberries was very significant!  Fortunately he was cooperative in allowing us to coral him once again in a safe field, because this bull is very fearless and bullish and will use his weapons without hesitation.

We also see this as the EGUN making himself known and bringing us a message!

Changes are Inevitable

Many years ago, talk of "Earth Changes" were low profile, but many of us (Tainos and others) at that time were very concerned with the challenges that these Earth Changes would inevitably bring to the People including the Plant People and Animal People.  Of greatest concern was the movement away from "land" towards urban and suburban residences that has occurred in the last 100 years.  Many of my People, Taino, Boricua, Afro-Caribbean found themselves displaced from rural settings in Boriken and transplanted into the belly of the beast in "nuevo york and surroundings" as well as other metropolitan areas.  A People once largely agriculturalists had become entrapped within the most deprived economic cycles of city life.  I am not excluding in my concern or thinking a similar story of those from other Caribbean Islands, or Central or South America, or the multiple stories globally.

Years have since passed and the numbers of my brothers and sisters who have empowered themselves to make the changes necessary to be prepared as best as possible for these "Earth Changes" are disturbingly low.  I see many of my people totally dependent on and engulfed within the energies of total lack of sustainability and enslavement, and many who express anger and resentment when faced with the suggestion to make these positive preparations and changes which not only provide a preparation for the future but also enhance the health, harmony and stability of the present.  However there are many of my younger brothers and sisters who are actively pursuing these changes and it inspires me to see their level of consciousness, creativity and dedication.  

Today "Earth Changes" has become a common phrase within the thinking and speaking of all people, whether it is described as "global warming" or whether it is concern over the Maya prophecies of 2012 (or what is being presented as the Maya Prophecies of 2012?).  What I see when I speak of "Earth Changes" is both a Cycle within Mother Earth but also the effects of human beings industrialization upon the Earth and the consequences of that and the "backlash" from that.  I also see "Earth Changes" in terms of what the insensitivity towards the Earth brings about, which is illness (rampant disease primarily caused by a diet which does not nourish the body and puts the body out of balance), technological overload and consumerism where although all the gadgets are supposed to save time and improve the quality of life of the people, the effect is the opposite and they have undermined families and communities.  And there is the economic changes which are inevitable as the Earth's resources continue to be plundered and waterways, air and land continues to be polluted and destroyed leaving less and less fertile land, less and less clean air and less and less clean water available for "us", humanity, People to thrive from, and the economic changes caused by an increasing dependence on global corporations who have NO HEART and the subsequent disempowerment of local industry.  

Back in the day, our solution was simple, "Land and Community" where we could be self-sustainable.  We knew we could not control all factors in what was coming, we knew that the energies were much larger than us, but we also knew that creativity and working together could take us a long way.  Here is a brief view of how in my humble way I respond to the accelerating Earth Changes and encourage those others whether in urban or rural settings to also embrace these humble achievements.  At one time (and even today) "farmers" (or in my homeland Jibaros) were looked down upon as the lower class, lacking in sophistication, poorly educated, and it is essential that we overcome that mental block.  This prejudice can also be seen in the behavior of the various people on certain Caribbean islands towards people of other Caribbean Islands who they consider to be "less than".

One challenge we face here is WINTER.  In the Autumn the first heavy frost kills most of the vegetables, peppers turn brown, tomatoes rot, potatoes rot and so on.  This is very different that the tropical climate of the Caribbean but the Caribbean faces its own challenges, one being an intense dry season.  Regardless of where one is upon the Earth there are cycles that must be appreciated and worked with (not against).  Here we have two "cold frames" which are basically two wood boxes placed on the Earth with a window cover.  As you can see we have many leafy greens which because the cold frame does not "freeze" are able to grow all winter long and provide important nutrition that would not otherwise be available without a dependency on the supermarket.  All this without the use of any electricity.  The only heater is the solar rays of Grandfather Sun!

The supermarket's leafy greens are firstly limited in scope, the supermarket tends to stock those varieties and types of leafy greens that are convenient for them (long storage life, easy to produce, bland) which means that many types of wonderful leafy greens never hit the grocery shelf.  Secondly the leafy greens in the supermarket have traveled thousands of miles by truck from (usually California, or Florida, and even further afield) and every step along the way they lose vitality and nutrition.  There is an astounding difference in taste between the greens that come out of our cold frame and the best that the supermarket has to offer.  Another concern with supermarket produce is its potential to be infected with pathogens which we know is a real threat based on all the recalls that go on with various produce.

In these photos you can see piles of snow around the cold frames and the green of the cold frame stands out far more strongly than it would in the summer time.  The contrast is not only visually refreshing but it helps to combat the "winter blues".  

The cold frames allow us to appreciate the lushness of the Spring, Summer and Fall in a tiny dose which brings further awareness of how dependent we are on the Cycles of Mother Earth when the false illusion of security of power plants, fossil fuels, electricity grids, TVs, is cracked as we find ourselves without power in the cold of winter due to a storm, high winds or what have you.  

Greens in a bag to be taken to the table for salad.  It is important to realize that much of our Indigenous Spiritual Practices revolve around these "humble" concerns, abundance, thriving, fertility, harmony, balance and community.  There is an ironic breakdown in the individual who claims an Indigenous Spirituality yet walks upon the Earth with a total lack of sensitivity, or speaks of loving "Mother Earth" yet consumes and absorbs products from the market and stores which cause destruction to the very same "Mother Earth" in the ways they are harvested, quarried or formulated and causes destruction to the sacred temple the human body!

Garlic, a crop which gets planted in the fall to be harvested the following summer.  It takes in the coldness of winter as an empowerment and it provides a powerful immune stimulant that can be especially used during the winter!  We take the very best of our garlic harvest and replant it so that we can continue to adapt these varieties of garlic to the Land, with its unique make up of minerals and soil components.  Garlic is also good for combatting the fall out from those "chemtrails" which we continually see streaking across our skies as we turn our faces upward to make prayers to "Yokahu Bagua Marocoti", or prayers to the Sun or to Nsambia Mpungo or Great Mystery!

The garlic is hanging in the gazebo (which we also use to dry tobacco, sage, sweet grass (see sweet grass braids to left of garlic) and other herbs.  Later the garlic is moved inside where ideally it is kept in cool conditions in a root cellar or unheated basement, but failing that garlic deals fairly well with most conditions (other than moist).  

One of the staples of our South American Relatives, the Potato is truly a wonder.  There are thousands of varieties of potatoes most of which we supermarket goers have never seen or even dreamed of.  These are purple potatoes, with a purple flesh that retains its color and brings a beautiful addition to soups and stews.  Every year we try different varieties but the purple potato is one of our favorites.  Although we grow our potatoes in a large garden, they can also be grown in containers on a sunny balcony and some gardners have produced amazing harvests with various techniques in urban settings.

Our chickens!  The hens produce eggs almost year around (they take a short break in late December- January) and the roosters are used as well (spiritually and for food).   We could stimulate the chickens with false light to lay eggs year around but we know that allowing them to live in their natural cycle keeps them healthier and happier and ultimately more productive, and the eggs and meat are healthier for our well being.  The taste of the eggs bring many of our Older Relatives back to their old memories of rural life and to their memories of eating farm eggs when they were children in Boriken or elsewhere.  The taste of the chicken itself is much more "gamey" than your typical store bought chicken.  The tastes are miles apart and the flesh itself is much healthier and densely nutritious than the market chicken.  When someone in our family falls sick we go out grab a rooster or older chicken, hand process it, and throw it in the pot with potatoes, onions, winter squash (all from the garden) as well as medicinal herbs, lots of garlic to give us a nutritious and warming meal!  The chickens also eat all the kitchen scraps as well as worms from the garden, any insects, any unwelcome garden grubs, slugs or bugs.  They also eat ticks.  Since we have had the chickens the tick population has decreased dramatically because we let our chickens free range once summer comes around and the hawks and foxes are less hungry.

One of our outdoor grills fired up ready to cook.  We appreciate the fact that even though we only cook outside in winter on rare occasions, we always could if we needed to.  Our indoor stove is propane, but if for whatever reason we could not get the propane or the propane was unavailable or became astronomically expensive we could easily cook our meals outside.

Buffalo meat cooking with peppers and onions from the garden.  We eat vegetarian meals primarily but approximately twice a week we cook some meat, buffalo, chicken, lamb, goat.  We especially like the buffalo and appreciate that buffalo tend to be raised primarily on pasture (unlike most beef) and so the quality of meet is consistently higher and healthier (although more expensive).  We also honor and appreciate the Spirit of the Buffalo which is a very powerful spirit and it is especially good for those who are weak in Spirit to occasionally eat Buffalo even if they are "vegetarian".

A pot cooking on the grill of a mixture of squash, potatoes and onions.  Every variety of potato has a unique taste, as does every variety of squash, and a unique texture.   We like to mix them all up then compare all the different flavors as we eat them.  Our daughter has her own names for certain potatoes like "the creamy potato" the "butter potato".  By eating different varieties not only do we provide different tastes for our taste buds but we take in different spiritual properties and energies which in turn work on our mental body to expand our mental capacity and perspective.  We especially seek out heirloom and Indigenous Varieties for their great flavor, connection the Ancestors, and because many of those seeds are rare and in danger of extinction and by growing them we help to prevent their extinction.

A summer meal, buffalo with onion and pepper, two varieties of potato with whole garlic cloves cooked in olive oil and herbs from the land, and a Tomato and scallion salad with basil.  

These two dishes are the purple potatoes (above and fish with onions and herbs (below).  You can get a good look at the purple flesh of the potatoes and their dark purple skins!

Eating from the Land where we live is more than just convenient, economically sensible and fun, it is allowing us to take in some of the Soil's properties where we are living, harmonizing us with the environment where we live.  This is very different than taking in the properties from a factory farm or large plantation type farm thousands of miles away from us.  We take in the Spirit of the Land herself in minute quantities when we eat from the Land.  This is very important to us as Paleros and as Tainos and as People who love "Atabey" Mother Earth.  Spiritually it is very significant and it is also significant when we can utilize animals or fruits and vegetables to give the Nkisis and Cemis which have come from the Land herself.  There is a significant difference!

Cafe!  Important to us all Muerto y Vivo!  On this day it began to snow but did not interfere with the process or cooking that was about to take place.  All the wood for the grills comes from the Land herself, and we are not just taking wood, we are also replacing it with new live saplings.  So all this wood is sustainably harvested and does not represent net CO2 emissions into the climate.  Wood after all is a renewable resource!  The ashes from all the fires is collected and used for both spiritual purposes and to add to the gardens for fertility.  Last year we found tobacco seedlings growing from our Ceremonial fire's ashes that sprouted from the tobacco we grew the year before that we used to make offerings to the fire.  We transplanted the seedlings to the tobacco garden where they flourished and produced tobacco which is now drying to be used next year!

The wood that is placed on the fire comes from a tree that has died or a branch that fell off a tree in a storm or a tree that was harvested   for whatever reason.  The wood is often from a tree that has been around for 30-50 years and has been a witness to much upon the Land.  Many animals built their home in the tree, ate from the tree, urinate, defecated on the tree, or even died on or within the tree.  Woodpeckers poked holes in the tree, bugs made special tracks in the tree, worms ate the tree and much more.   The tree took in many rains, many winds, and many rays of the Sun and took in the flashes of lightning and sounds of thunder and storms that passed by it.  The tree took in the snows and the many minerals from the soil.  In other words the tree has taken in energies from all the Mpungos! This tree is now put on the fire, the flames start to release the spirit of all this by using the oxygen in the air that is present, and the material essence and spiritual properties of all these spirits is left in the ash.  When this ash is for example placed ceremonially upon a Baton (ancestral staff) all this spiritual energy is given to the Baton and brings the Spirit of that Baton to "Life".  

The fire and behind it Lucerito's Monanso (hut).  The hut is made from sections of tree trunk which all have a spiritual property to them.  What better way to a make a Palero's Monanso?  Palo of course meaning TREE!

Seeds Are Life And Death!

Seeds Are Life And Death!

As Indigenous People, if we cannot see ourselves as seeds, we are lacking the ingredients of progression and are failing to understand the Spirit that is the Spiritual Entity which gave birth to us all, whether two-legged, four-legged, flyer, creepy crawler, swimmer, tall and green ones.... We are all seeds of this Earth, which as Tainos today we identify as "Atabey" and each particular culture and tradition reserve their unique name for the same Mother who birthed us all alike. So as Tainos searching and seeking to construct a culture within the ruins of our ancestral traditional ways, we must dig deep within our essence to see and understand our place within Mother Earth, which is suffering from the ills brought forth by the alien mentality of the two leggeds who invaded and who totally rebelled against the Mother of Life. We are the seeds of Life brought forth by the Earth herself, and if we are to make contributions of coexistence with our existence we must travel within the black dot, through the black dot to cultivate the seeds of progression and change in a world that is inevitably changed, and is slowly heading in the direction of totally rebelling against the actions that have been taken to dismantle the Sacred Hoop which contains the memory of evolution within the experience.

As Tainos, once again if we cannot see ourselves as seeds, we are definitely and without a shadow of a doubt, blind, ignorant, and involved in the manufacturing of mental deceptions within our everyday movement towards the entertaining of the lunacy that haunts our mental body each day that we allow ourselves to be in a fantasy inside of an illusion that leads us to no conclusions. The only thing that can be harvested is more fantasies, more illusions, and the continuation of being instrumental in the dumbing down of our mental bodies!

The center root of Taino consisted of cultivating seeds that would bring nourishment, wisdom, for the living and communication with the Dead. The seeds were the central theme of understanding the life of the Yukayeke within the center root of the Ceibe tree and the Ancestors understood that the tentacles of the Ceibe were the living veins of the Mother. The Yucca becomes Yucca because of the seed and the Yucca that the Ancestors cultivated had within the DNA of that seed, life and death in unison. The People understood how to separate the process of Death from the process of Life from the one seed that is the Yucca that nourished the people and gave them sustenance for their physical bodies. Whereas the Cohoba seed is the seed of the Dead, that the Living ingests in order to be in a trance of the Dead. In the trance of the Dead, the seed allowed the Living and the Dead to sit in unison for the benefit of the People, to gain the knowledge and wisdom to sustain themselves and to elevate their understanding and their conception of the Spiritual Entity. The Cohoba of the Dead allowed the Dead to continue to Live inside of the Cemis through the consciousness and intelligence of the Living who holistically and scientifically understood the distribution and the birthing of the seeds of life that the Mother shared with all alike.

Seeing ourselves as "seeds" immediately brings up the most powerful manifestation of ourselves as Seeds, which is our children, our grandchildren, our greatchildren who continue the bringing forth of our Essence as Seed! The Seed contains within it all the knowledge and wisdom necessary for its growth, its expression and its creation of multiple more seeds containing this same knowledge and wisdom. The seed requires the vital elements present in our Mother Atabey and also the Light and Heat from the Sun (Boinael). The moisture, nutrients, air, rain, even micro-organisms all are necessary for the growth of the Seed, however the Seed itself holds the "intelligence (knowledge and wisdom) for its full manifestation and its generation of another generation of Seeds. The transmission of Knowlege and Wisdom must and will remain consistent and strong as Seed generates Seed. A seed does not seek or expect to derive its Essence, Identity, or Intelligence from it's "environment" but understands its total dependence on the Natural Elements for its manifestation from Seed to Seed Producer. This process of transformation from Seed to Seed Producer is very important for us to see in our lives.

As Tainos we cannot allow ourselves to go into slumber and denial concerning the Seeds, because the Earth herself is not in need of the Seeds, for she is the birther of all Seeds. It is "us" who need to regain and caretake the knowledge of the Seeds, because we cannot and should not and we must not continue to portray ceremonies that lack the vitality to manifest Seeds of Progression for the People and for the unification of our Actions with all our Sisters and Brothers of Life. We cannot continue to pretend to be doing ceremonies of planting in the absence of actions, because ceremony in our way should be rooted in the essence of the DEAD. But the actions of some of continuing to call the Dead to a ceremony(s) which is rooted in Fantasy and Enactments is detrimental to us all. Ceremony is the bloodstream and back bone of a people to thrive with the Earth in ALL of her Relations and Manifestations within the Evolution of Progression. There is a stream of medicine people and politicians who are invested in deception and illusions that lead the people empty handed in utterly searching for solutions to thrive in the current situation that the Earth's People find themselves in. Fantasies of Ceremonies abound, which are more rooted in denial, in self-hatred, in Hollywood stereotypes, and in blindness to the highest degree that one can surmount mental and spiritual blindness.

Meanwhile around the Earth Indigenous People and Indigenous Ways continue to be under attack from an enemy utilizing the same vicious, divisive, manipulative and deceptive techniques that were used upon our Ancestors and upon all the Ancestors of this Continent. Meanwhile it only takes one leader of the community to make a "deal with the devil" to bring down the entire community, the one weak link that allows the full penetration of this enemy to come into the heart of the Community and its Indigenous Ways, stripping the community of its Land and soon following that of its Culture and Spirituality, and soon following that of its physical health and vitality. When will we learn that it only takes one weak leader to become corrupted to destroy a nation? And what of the Indigenous communities such as us Taino, whose very Re-Surgence founding leaders were not clear on what side of the fence they were standing? Whose "medicine people" were unclear and continue to be unclear about the spiritual foundation they were standing on, not knowing if they should choose to emulate hollywood stereotypes of "north American Native spirituality" with its stereotypical purification (sweat) lodges and medicine wheels, totems and so on, or whether to emulate the movie "Emerald Forest's" portrayal of Amazonian "Indians", or whether to emulate the richly complex Central American cultures, or whether to emulate Christianity, warping deities such as Atabey and Yokahu into the virgin mary and jesus. What developed from the countless hours spent talking about the coming Earth Changes, and still never moving, never creating, never putting into action any plan of action, all talk, no results...? If it only takes one corrupt leader to lead a community or nation astray what happens to the community that is lead by 95% corrupt leaders (including medicine people) who refuse to embrace the Indigenous Principles which have proven over and over again would allow communities to thrive?

In this season of Spring Equinox, Equinox ceremonies abound within the resurgence... strangely dressed people (looking more like christian asthetics with perculiar headresses) prance around enacting what our Ancestors would perceive with perplexity as ridiculous performances, elsewhere scantily clad amazonian-esque actors re-enact hastily researched and poorly defined renditions of cohoba ceremonies, funerary ceremonies and so much more for throngs of school children and tourists... Irregardless of the climate and weather conditions, the seed planting season is forced into the dates of Spring Equinox, the "medicine people" in the temperate climate of the North forgetting that the Caribbean is a tropical zone, shivering in the cold winds of March to perform a C-section delivering the baby Jesus (I mean Yocahu) from the warmth of his mothers womb into the chilly early spring air so that he can begin his yearly cycle of life on the outside and then life on the inside of his blessed mother's womb, forgeting the conditions in the Caribbean allow agriculture at any time of the year, with the primary defining factor to our Ancestors being the level of rainfall during the year and not the temperature! Our traditional Taino spirituality has been taken by these buffoons and distorted, torqued, knotted and disgraced beyond recognition once again by those who are continuing to assuage the feeling of guilt and inadequecy and personal rootlessness, by becoming experts upon our tradition, the spiritual descendents of the chroniclers (missionaries) with the full new age adornment so favored today! Desperate in their need to cling on to their "father" christianity. Virginizing Atabey to more closely resemble their maternal fantasy of the blessed mother mary, proudly strutting through museaums, parks, pow wows, sacred grounds, schools, universities, events and areitos as the modern missionaries of our people, the Panes, the Las Casas, still harboring their secret jelousies and envies towards an Ancient People who truly understood their rightful place and balance upon the Earth, still rocked by their personal identity crisis, and still trying to please the big man and big woman!

Within all this drama, where are the seeds being planted? Are there even any real seeds present? And if there are real seeds, are they planted in the Earth or are they simply "symbolically planted" after which the "participants" go and gorge on "traditional" food which has been really planted by exploited Indigenous People around the world or do they run to McD or the King to gorge on beef patties farmed from cattle grazing on what was the Amazon Rain Forest and Tomatoes picked from virtual slave laborers in Florida or California (the unwanted Indigenous, so called"immigrants")? What type of exploitation will it be this time? Or do they simply visualize seeds being planted and then proceed to visualize a meal to eat? One more spoke in a consummer culture this time consuming "spirituality" neatly packaged in "ceremonies that you can do at home every day" and if you want to "you can even become a real Taino shaman.....!" Or play the political field right, get the right headgear, self promote on facebook and myspace, build a cyberspace organization and soon a mythical yukayeke will elect you casike! Then develop an unverifiable "bloodline" back to a recorded casike or unrecorded (your fantasy is the limit) casike and your in for life. However at death do not expect any other burial than a good christian one with a few decorative Taino flairs, Taino hymns and the famous Taino 'our father' (never mind our Culture was Matrifocal)..., and if you are lucky a "Taino regalia" and a few sparse "community members" competing with your biological family for the spotlight! And there you will be in no man's land, caught between looking for jesus and looking for spirit guides and trying to avoid "those Africans"....! None of this funny at all, this is not meant as a joke or ridicule but a deeply disheartening look at where the fantastical ceremonies have lead our people to.

What seeds have been planted for these times of Earth Changes that we are no longer waiting for but which are upon us? Where have these ceremonies taken the people or not taken the people? Are our communities prepared for today and everything tomorrow will bring? Traditional, natural seeds are the lifeline of our Survival, not only the seeds that produce plants, trees, and so on for our physical survival, but also those ceremonial seeds that allow our Spiritual Gardens to have Harvests for our Continued experience within our Mother, Atabey! We can no longer continue to give credence and acceptance to what is being marketed as "Taino", we can no longer stay silent in witnessing the modern destruction of our Culture and Spirituality, and we can no longer wait for authentic ceremonies to somehow miraculously evolve from these enactments, but we must fully and immediatly embrace the FACT that we are SEEDS and SEED-PRODUCERS and tend our GARDENS!