Coral and the Abuelas: Deep Listening to the Message From Our Ancestors and From Mother Earth for These Times
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During the Global Forum 2022, fifty English and Spanish-speaking people from different parts of the world attended the virtual session where the Teoría U en Español team of the Presencing Institute, paid homage to the original cultures of South América.
The Teoría U en Español team is spread all over Latin América, and knowing the problems that we currently have in most of our countries with the Internet connection, we were prepared for a break in the signal coming from anywhere. Not on Her watch! We had a clear and perfect signal that allowed us, from the beginning, to be enveloped under the spell of the Winter Solstice, which set the stage for watching and listening these three sages expressing their art, wisdom, and magic before us from the confines of mother Earth. It was as if She was staging the performance Herself.
We don´t know much about how to live in this planet, while the original cultures know everything. We are here to learn from them. Laura Pastorini.
The session was organized by Fundación Cuidemos Paraísos, an ONG that protects native forests and original cultures in the south of Chile. Coral Herencia, the foundation’s head, not only sang her own songs, whose letters speak of nature, love for mother Earth, for the others, and for our own beings, but she also presented the two Abuelas (grandmothers), who are the keepers of ancient indigenous traditions and rituals. They are Abuela Alejandrina Ayala from the Arequipa mountains in Perú, and Abuela Nan Amalia Tum, from GuateMaya (Guatemala).
I believe in you, I trust you, my mother earth, maker of all life, woman, uterus, flower. Man, seed of love, breathe, feel my strength that makes your roots grow, feel me, drink my waters, listen to your inner voice, listen to your heart. Coral Herencia.
Coral, from the Mapuche woods of southern Chile, and the two Abuelas, Alejandrina and Amalia, from their Incan and Mayan lands respectively, took us into a whirlwind of emotions and sensations through a no-stopping one-hour performance where they alternated inspiring music and songs with ancient rituals and ceremonies honoring Gods, Goddesses, and the forces of nature, which they enacted in the Spanish language and in ancient tongues.
In the Mayan culture we consider the Earth as a mother who throbs, who speaks, who sings, who laughs, who cries, but who also asks respect from us. We feel that an immense life-giving power comes from her. Today our mother demands of us human beings to listen to the call of our ancestral values, towards respect for everything that exists on her, because everything has life, a way of being, a mission, just as we also have the mission to live in her. We are all linked in this cosmic order, and she invites us to maintain harmony and balance on earth through our sacred offerings. Abuela Amalia Tum. Mayan sage.
I was in awe by the lucidity, coherence, emphasis, and force with which the two Abuelas conveyed to us the message of the divinities and of mother Earth for these times. We could feel an energy in the air, a sort of spiritual connection that I can’t explain, but that allowed us to experience their interpretation in full force, just as if we had arrived in Cuzco, Perú, from the Mayan lands in Guatemala, after a long journey on the Inca Road through the Andean mountains. And, once there, we sat at the ceremony to listen to the sage’s chants, prayers, and songs carrying the message of the divinities, while drinking tea of coca leaves, breathing the hallucinating smoke in the air, and feeling the heat of the crackling fire.
Listen to the call of mother earth! The earth is the only home that humans, and everything that has life have. We must take care of her as they took care of us in the great Tahuantinsuyu, where everything was sacred, like the respect for the rivers, where even the animals walked close to the hills for fear of causing dirt or stones to fall into their waters. The seas, where life evolved, were teeming with fish of all kinds. The farmlands were always healthy with the energy of the sun, as they were left to rest for a while to recover. The playful wind sowed the seeds of forests and valleys with native and diverse plants that generated clean air to breathe. We have to resume respect for everything that has life on the planet. Abuela Alejandrina Ayala. Inca sage.
It was an unforgettable experience, for which all of us are deeply grateful because now we are more conscious than ever of our responsibility in these challenging times, to mother Earth, to others, and to our own Selves.
The Teoría U en Español team, which was born during The GAIA Journey, is an emerging, organic group of volunteers, always ready, always in service, with the freedom to appear when each one feels it. We integrate and embrace diversity, opening a listening space of respect, and acknowledging what each one of us brings to the table. The team has had a significant impact on LATAM as a space for connection, resilience, awareness, deep reflection, and collective action in the very disruptive and uncertain times in which we live. For any inquiries, please contact us at: gaiaenespanol@gmail.com
These are the links for contacting Coral and the Abuelas: @fundacioncuidemosparaisos, @coralherencia_music, https://soundcloud.com/maputinkuy/coral-herencia-madre-tierra
Abuelas: @amaliatum, @alejandrinaayala
