In the most powerful, sacred and wild part of the earth, you cannot be part of the land if you’re not part of the people, and you cannot be part of the people if you don’t allow yourself to be blessed, healed and enriched by them.
Let me guide you to this land and to my people, by translating and sharing a deep understanding of both worlds.
-Julián Katari
On the news today: “THE NORMALIZATION OF DEHUMANIZATION: Dehumanization is what permits genocide, land theft, slavery, segregation, discrimination, etc: Washington Redskins win trademark fight over the team’s name” Is it a coincidence, that I’m about to publish this article?
The following article is an attempt to contribute to the education and awareness inherent to La Senda Verde, from a perspective I happen to be fond of which is that of the ancestral native philosophy.
Everyone that gets involved with La Senda Verde, myself included; that is volunteers, workers, visitors and donors, begin to develop a sense of raised awareness about the meaning and purpose of life, that comes in a series of life teachings. Continue reading “The Human Being in Danger of Extinction”
She is like the mother of all living things, the raised sea, the heart of the continent, of the earth…
The Andean world is very different from many other worlds, it is a vertical world, uphill and downhill, where life is challenged by the constant pull of gravity. Hillsides are washed from their nutrients, the mountains washed from their gold, addicting riches compensate the harshness of producing an organic life, chosen still, by many Andeans. According to them, we live in a middle place, a place between the inner and the outer, the upper and the lower. This is essential in Andean philosophy and cosmology, and is reflected the material cosmos they live in: the longest mountain range in the world.
To them the earth grows sacred as it extends upwards and downwards away from the middle place they prefer to live in. Towards the sky, the cold of snow is the reflection of a land of sky-like sacredness, difficult for organic life to thrive in. Towards the earth, thrive the hidden forces of the planet, powerful inner-like forces that are as deeply respected as sky forces are. Time is perceived in the same way. The present as a middle place, where life strives, and is the axis of twin realities, one past where it all comes from, and one future, of where everything is going. Continue reading “The Meaning of Lake Titicaca”
The Kallawaya (also known as Callahuaya, Kolyawaya, Qolla Huayu) is a culture native from the towns of Curva, Chajaya, Khanlaya, Huata Huata, Inka and Chari, in the surroundings of the town of Charazani, in the Bautista Saavedra province of the La Paz Department, Bolivia. This natural setting is one of the most spectacular, unexplored and unexploited natural regions that remain on the planet. The Kallawayas are the guardians of a practically undisturbed biological corridor that runs all the way from Titicaca lake, up the glaciated peaks and lakes of the Apolobamba Mountains and down the steep ravines into the most remote mountain and flood plain rainforests of the Madidi National Park. Continue reading “Kallawaya Medicine Men”
In the Andean Culture, it’s common to carry out different types of offering rituals to mother earth or Pachamama, and the Apus Achachilas or Spirits of the mountains, and can be called K’oa or Mesa. The reasons why to do them as well as the ways to elaborate them can be very varied. For example, the first Friday of every month is a common day when an offering is given for general well-being. Other motifs can be: health, financial prosperity, good luck, payment for offences committed, thanking the earth for the blessings received, facilitating a better future or shedding evil energies. The offerings are prepared with a varied repertoire of ingredients that can include sweets, seeds, plants, animal parts, coloured papers, wools, incense, wine and coca leafs. Continue reading “Mesa Offering to the Spirits of the Mountains”
