Kudilonga

(enlarge the photos)

Inriri Marks a Tree

Early one morning, hearing the usual tapping of the woodpeckers, we heard one tapping that was much closer than usual.  Moving closer to the source of the tapping, we saw a woodpecker pecking on a cherry tree with focused intensity.

He was so absorbed in his work that he did not worry about us moving closer and closer to take his picture.  As he pecked he threw out slivers of wood.

The vibration of his pecking was very strong, and seeing this we realized how strong his head and beak must be to withstand such force.

There is a Taino Myth, which we will not go into detail about right here, however it concerns the Inriri (woodpecker) and the making of Cemis.  Knowing this significance, we made note of the tree the woodpecker was focusing on.

This WILL be a tree that we will transform into a Cemis specifically the area which the Inriri has been working on.  We also gather the wood shards the woodpecker has thrown to utilize in Cemis and Bilongos and Fundamento as appropriate.

We can always take a section of tree, and with various tools make it into any shape we want, however when an animal or bird does the shaping for us, we are now working with the Spirit of that Animal and the Spirit of the particular Tree, which brings another dynamic and additional energies into what we are working with.  Just as when we use a piece of wood from the Ocean or River, we are using a Spirit of the Tree but also a tree that has been shaped by the Spirit of the Ocean or River, which brings additional energies to that wood.  

The Inriri is a bird that has a very powerful head and whose pecking sounds like a drum, and a communication.  This woodpecker has a red cap, further emphasizing the Head, the Consciousness, the Mind.  The woodpecker is digging deep into the tree for the insects that will nourish it, and throwing out that which is inedible, showing discernment and the ability to dig in deep.

All these qualities are significant, and we were excited to see this tree being marked by the woodpecker. The fact that the woodpecker was not afraid of us, and made his presence known insistently to the point that we decided to investigate where he was, all point to this being a tree that needs to be transformed into Medicine, Nkisis, Palo, Cemis etc.   

These photos show the speed and power of the woodpecker's movement.  Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge to be able to appreciate more fully the striking markings of the woodpecker!  At a later time we will be elaborating further on the Taino Myth involving Inriri and the significance of the Myth and the resulting Cemis.

The Sacred Forest of the Palero

Before the onslaught of deprived European barbarism, this continent and especially the region we live in was covered with Mother Earth's favorite garment, forest.  Now we see acre after acre of depleted farmland, suburbia, industrial developments and the like, including manicured lawns, spiritless "landscaping", and the repeated use of a small number of select species of trees and plants.


A palero who is looking for something more than what is offered in the Botanica may venture into the parkland or forest land to search out palos for use to make powders or to utilize for the Fundamentos or various other purposes.  However we always need to seek out the story and know what trees are imports, what trees are native, and the progression of trees that make up Mother Earth's forests.  When we see  forest land cleared and then "abandoned" we see an amazing progression of plants and trees who move in to rehabilitate the cleared earth.  What we may, in our ignorance, view as "weeds" are the first "emergency medicine" of Mother Earth.  Then there comes a series of trees, eventually giving way to the old growth forests full of Oaks, Hickories and others.  


When we trace the wisdom of the Palero in the Caribbean we have to acknowledge the Indigenous Face of that Wisdom.  It should be obvious (but it is not obvious to many) that the trees growing in Bantu lands were different from the trees growing in the Caribbean or Turtle Island (including South, Central and the North- what is misnomered "America").  The Bantu and other Africans coming in conditions of oppression (chains) relied upon the wisdom of the Indigenous People who had been care taking the forests and land for thousands of years.   We may intellectually "know" the properties of a certain "palo" or tree, however this is very different from having "hands on experience" and directly working with the Palo.  


Every species of tree and plant is unique, some grow easily under adverse conditions, some grow rapidly, some slowly, some transplant very easily, some do not tolerate transplanting at all.  Some leaf out early in the Spring, some very late.  Some have flamboyant flowers, some miniscule flowers that go virtually unnoticed.  Some are edible, most are medicinal, and some are poisonous and some are medicinal and poisonous!  Knowing the difference is essential!!!  The difference is the difference between success and failure.


When we became caretakers (also known as "land owners" in this society that operates under the assumption that land can be "owned), we became the caretakers of approximately 30 acres, and fortunately about 60% was fairly established forest, 40% was either new growth forest or hay field.  As the years have passed we have planted many trees.  Some have been planted and worked with as ceremonial trees and also trees belonging to specific Ancestors.  Others have been trees planted for the benefit of the land. We have planted and transplanted many Native Trees and have embarked upon a reforestation of most of the Land of which we are caretakers.  In the process of this, we have had the opportunity to have much "hands on" experience with these trees, and we have gotten to know them from a different perspective.

Here is our most recent "tree nursery", we get "bare root" trees and put them in a nursery to grow for a couple years before we transplant them to other areas of the Land.  This tree nursery has "honey locust", "Redbud", Maples, Paw Paw, Walnut, and Lobolly and White Pines.  All of these are Native Trees to this area, and all have medicinal properties and spiritual properties, some are edible.  All benefit the fertility of the Soil.  They all leaf out at different times, some transplant easily (root lightly) some root deeply.  They will soon become large enough to give us Palos which we can use in multiple ways.  

In the back ground you can see the Pigeon houses, which are for a specific family Ancestor (egun).  

This particular area was previously used as a hay field, and the hayfield was managed using tractors and chemicals.  Tractors do a lot of damage to the soil structure and chemicals are poison.  We began working in this area very early on, and planted a series of different gardens using a spiral form, at one point we had an abundance of tomatoes here!  The story of this particular area is interesting.  We began by plowing it using a horse with a simple plow.  The horse was an elderly work horse who with great strength and willingness pulled the plow in the spiral.  We did not want to continue to oppress this Ntoto (earth) with machinery.  Then we planted various crops and finally we transformed it into a tree nursery.

Here we are growing evergreens, both Lobolly pines and White pines (both native to this area).  These will be used as a protection against the wind and a screen at certain points on the land that are more exposed.  Pines are also important Palos and spiritual baths that we use.  We will also, in the future get some non-native Pinon species of evergreen that will provide us with "Pine nuts" to eat (Pesto or Mole anyone?).  While we use many native species, we are not dogmatic in our approach, also embracing non-native species that bring important qualities or foods to us- just like Palo in the so called "new world": which embraced both African and Indigenous Practices because the need was both survival and thriving.

We are a far cry away from obsessively manicured lawns and heavily mulched beds of single species in corporate landscaping and farming.  Our land is an abundant expression of life force, embracing so called "weeds" alongside more cultivated species.   It is just like the Palo that we know that blows in the four directions.  Rigidity does not exist in how we play our Palo!!!!  

Here a corkscrew Willow has taken root.  This was from a bouquet of willow that we purchased and which rooted in the water.  We planted it and it thrived.  It has amazing twisted limbs that will one day give us important palos!  We can also propagate many more willows from this one.  Willows have a very strong life force, you can take one branch and put it in water and it will send out roots and become a whole new tree. This is a power of regeneration which is important for us to harness within the Munanso.  Trato son trato.

Our six year old daughter's garden was one of the first to be "born" upon this Land seven years ago when she was in her embryonic stage!  Her mother dug the compacted soil, planted plants, applied natural ingredients to the soil, made mambos and so on in the garden as she created it.  Now this garden is an abundance of herbs, blossoms, medicinals, and a modern day "wishing well", which is used from the perspective of Paleros.  Our daughter immediately took to the garden and knows practically every plant in the garden and what it is good for.  She followed the trato that was done when she was still in the uterus.  

There is oregano, lemon balm, lavender, sage, a weeping beach, irises, thyme, mint, perennial vegetables, and a variety of what people call "weeds" but are really medicinal plants and plants used in spiritual baths and spiritual work!  

Here is a close up of the weeping beech, which is a non-native but very mysterious tree!  

In the garden we also find a "volunteer" tree which seeded itself, most likely with the help of a bird.  It will someday become an important Cemis or part of an Nkisi or what have you which will be for this child.  We need to remember that trato son trato and the Spirit speaks for itself, if we are able to listen.  The approach to "Earth" in this "american" society tends towards a very limited, fearful approach, whereby "weeds" are feared, almost hated, and everything needs to be in a straight line or at least grouping to be acceptable.  In the Palo we play, if the Muerto takes you, you better pay attention.  Mother Earth has a more important voice in the landscape than we do, and we need to embrace her wisdom in the same way the Bantu embraced the wisdom of the Taino- Arawak.

Over time our little hedgerow has grown.  This is very magical for a number of reasons.  One reason is that most of the plants in this hedgerow have been ones destined for "the dump", ones that various people have wanted to "throw away" in the never ending pursuit of "fads".  We have gotten forsythia, azaleas, fothergilla, lilacs, flowering pears, elderberries, and so much more.  We take what some view as "valueless" and make a value from it.  We as Paleros, see the riches in it!  Many people chase "riches" but do not know how to work with Mother Earth who is the true owner of all riches and the master of creating riches and abundance.  While Palo as practiced today is predominately so called "patriarchal", the source of all riches is our Mother Earth (Ntoto).  For example the willow above can be propagated to make a thousand new willow trees from one, each carrying the powerful essence and spirit of the original willow!  What power of abundance and amplification of power!  The Palo that the Ancestors of the Past knew was the Palo of Common Sense!  If you are playing Palo inside of Palo, then the Palo and Egun will take you to understanding and wisdom even in the absence of your physical elder, because facts are facts and many of our elders who initiated us are no longer around or have deeply betrayed us and betrayed the essence of Palo and not only this but have also betrayed the Root of Tradition which is always Nsambi.  

Again, our daughters garden has many plants that have been pulled out of places where they became unwanted.  There is so much waste in this society that it has become a way of life for many to just be consumers and not cultivators or creators.  Whatever is the fad of the moment becomes the next days "trash".  We are blessed to have a large space to caretake and we have a place for almost any plant, and we take the blessings that others waste and plant them, and they bring us abundance which is not only physical in nature.  

The photos above and below both show sage plants, one is culinary the other is a purple sage plant.  Many of us use sage in our spiritual practices, however many of us also are not aware of the amazing variety of sages that are growing on this planet.  Varieties of sage grow practically everywhere, in fact we were gifted sage from Alaska not too long ago, that has a beautiful scent.  Desert sage is very different than white sage, very different from all the other sages.    We use sage not only in the Munanso, but also in the kitchen and also to make teas for the purification lodges that we do.

Paleros always speak about the muertos, and speaking to the "Dead", but we need to never negate the fact that the muerto is skeleton but we ourselves as the physical body cannot move without the skeleton that lives within!  In understanding the skeletal structure of our own body, we begin to understand the skeletons the Palero works with.    Within our physical skeletal structure various muertos are residing, our leg bones contain different energies than our cranium or metacarsals (finger bones).  We could even say they contain different muertos.  We need to acknowledge that we have all our ancestors residing within, however different spiritual energies are amplified in specific bones.  We know that the leg bones (tibia) are especially important for certain functions that have to do with activity, because of course we move because of our leg bones, that is what propels us  one way or another way, to run, walk, jump, hop and so on.  Then we have the various bones of the spine which lead to the center of consciousness within the Kiumba our skull.  We come to realize that each bone within our body holds a unique emanation of consciousness or a unique Ancestor if we want to think of it in that way.  We could even expand to realize that each bone within our body resonates with a specific Mpungo or Power within this Universe. So to understand the Nkisis, we must also understand ourselves as an Nkisi, a walking, fleshy, Nkisi.

In understanding this, we can see above Nkisi collecting flowers for Nkisi, Muerto collecting flowers for Muerto!  Living flowers are cut to offer the Dead, however even though they "die" at the moment of severing from the plant, the unfurled blossoms continue to unfurl and reveal their beauty, and the willow will even send roots out allowing us to realize that it never actually died!  You cannot understand the "Dead" without understanding that you are the Dead in the garments of what appears to be life!    Remember as Paleros we understand that the whole Universe is a Spiritual Entity, and that the Mother Earth is just a grain within that Totality, suspended in the air just like many universes and planets that extend to infinity!

Lemon balm and a bird bath.  Lemon balm is a medicinal, is an edible, and is a very prolific plant.  Once it is planted, just like the spiritual plant Altamisa, it is impossible to remove!  Below you can see Altamisa with Thyme which is also a powerful medicinal and culinary plant!

Below there is a large patch of altamisa, which we actually picked up as a single stem from NYC, because altamisa is a herb that will literally grow up through the sidewalk!  It is a fragrant "weed" with great spiritual powers.  We allow it to spread within reason!  You may be able to go into a Botanica to get altamisa however you will not understand its tenacity, its survival instinct and its adaptability. You see it surrounded by buttercups (yellow flowers) which are poisonous and are selectively avoided by the horses who instinctively know it is poisonous.  We as Paleros of the modern day have to reclaim our own instincts in how to utilize these various plantas.

Remembering that this is the garden of a six year old,  who is well on her way to becoming much more proficient in the world of Ngurufinda and who has had her hands within the planting of many of these plants beginning at the age of two, we have to acknowledge that what we do today is for the benefit of the future generations and to truly benefit the future generations we need to have those future generations directly involved in our spiritual practices and not given over to the parenting of the TV, Video games or the like.  This baby Yayi is already learning the energies and uses of the plantas and palos.  In this Munanso we never tell the Yayis that they are subordinate to anything because they are the Mothers of Life and they are the first bleeders of Life.  It does not matter how powerful a Tata you are, you still came through the womb and pyramid of the Mother!  You could let colonialism and christianity psyche you out but this is a fact.  

Lavender above, oregano below, neither are native to this region, neither are native to Bantu lands or the Caribbean, however they are both powerful herbs, culinary, spiritual, medicinal.  It would take a very rigid mind to reject these herbs simply because they do not come from our homelands, however this rigidity is not productive.  As Paleros we play with anything that gives us results!!!  

Note:  Feel free to dialogue on this topic, because dialogue always challenges us to go deeper into our understandings!

Uncovering ghosts in the trail of Palo in the Caribbean!

Two Worlds Merging

With the passing of the so called "good friday" event, our thoughts and contemplations turn towards the roots of the typical practice of utilizing this day for throwing brujeria at our so called "enemies".  


First of all, we all can recognize good friday as a christian event; a Christian event commemorating the murdering of their "savior" which has little concrete historical evidence to support it.  This murdering of their "savior" has (and continues to be) blamed on "the Jews", in fact over the last couple thousand years a Christian practice of murdering and falsely accusing Jews has run rampant, resulting in multiple massacres and genocides, culminating in the Nazi institutions of genocide.  Even ridiculous accusations of Jews "spearing the host" (in other words the wafer eaten during church service representing (allegedly) the body of the savior) resulted in multiple mass murdering sprees throughout Europe over hundreds of years.  Children that were murdered with no obvious perpetrator were raised to the status of "saint" (for example: St. William and St. Hugh in England) once Jews were blamed for the murders (accused of sacrificing the children) and then put to death.  These "saints" became huge money making schemes for the churches.  This behavior was not exclusive to the catholic church but was shared between the various Christian branches.   What is important here is the BEHAVIOR.  


There is abundant factual evidence of the Christian churches BEHAVIOR of presenting false stories and false accusations in order to advance their agenda, with their primary agenda being wealth and spiritual and actual power.  Jews were a convenient target for the Christian leaders and their largely ignorant and definitely bloodthirsty masses.    However all other traditions were equally targets of the church's brutality and psychological madness.    The church waged spiritual war against Indigenous Traditions (including Indigenous African Traditions) and this spiritual war included a very powerful psychological component that enable the spiritual war to be effective.  Make no mistake, this Spiritual War continues...


When we trace Palo Mayombe to its "Roots" we find those Roots to be within a situation of very difficult conflict and oppression, not only within the Caribbean but also within the Kongo kingdoms.  It was 1488 when the Portuguese first arrived at the mouth of the Congo River, and it was 1492 when the Castilians arrived in the Caribbean.  The church was behind each of them, validating, and indeed guiding their actions.  Along with conquistadors armed with weapons and disease, friars, missionaries and priests were the second arm of the attack.  One attacked the physical body of our Ancestors with murderous violence, the other attacked the mind of our Ancestors with equal violence, but a violence cloaked in a lethal combination of ancient sacred images and falsified history.  


When we look at the Kongo in this time period we see that the Portuguese went into the Kongo first "selling a dream" to the Kongo leaders, promising wealth, education and power and boasting of the power of their savior and their god.  By the time the leaders realized the true intentions of the Portuguese (wealth, power and control over the whole of those regions of Africa from East to West Coast), the damage was largely done.  The Portuguese did what all European invaders did (and incidentally continue to do), which was exploit divisions that were already present within the populations of both Continents.  By promising one chief wealth, and power over their historical "enemies", they were able to hide the fact that they themselves were a far greater enemy than the Indigenous Population could possibly fathom at that time.  There were of course notable exceptions to this, one being Hatuey, the Cacique that saw through their diabolical plans, another being Queen Nzinga who waged war against the Portuguese in her country of Angola for many decades due to her fierce opposition to the slave trade.  We must realize that not only was there utter imbalance, chaos and brutality occurring within the practices of slavery in the Caribbean but there was also utter imbalance, chaos and brutality occurring on the other side of the Atlantic in the Kongo where the people were being kidnapped from.  


Not only were physical bodies being brought in hell ships to the Caribbean but the ghosts of those who died on the journey were also being both left in the Kongo on the roads traveled by slave traders, in the forts along the coasts with their slave dungeons, on the ships and arriving in the Caribbean.  The number of dead equaled the number of living and this is not including those who died early deaths due to the harshness of slavery in the Caribbean.  


Meanwhile it was the Indigenous Population of the Caribbean who were also being slaughtered, who held the knowledge of the Natural Environment of this environment which was new to the Kongo people who arrived against their will.  It was to the Taino (the Indigenous People of the Caribbean) that the Kongo turned to to discover the healing plants and the Sacred points within the Rivers, Caves, Mountains, Forests, Lagoons and Oceans.  Various diverse Kongo traditions were practiced throughout the Caribbean, and these traditions eventually coalesced into what we call Palo Mayombe.  In speaking of Palo Mayombe we cannot be ignorant as to the conditions that were occurring in Cuba, in particular) during the last 100-120 years.  All of these conditions had their effect on Palo, and the conditions that we continue to live under continue to have an effect on the practices of Palo.  


During good friday, many practitioners of Palo (not all), are engaging work with their Fundamentos (Prendas) which is primarily about attacking enemies.  Good friday is seen as the day when so called "evil" got the upper hand over "good" and the savior got "sacrificed", "good" then became triumphant once again on the sunday following.  (It is vital to note that Indigenous People of this continent have been accused by the very same Christians of doing human sacrifices, when by their own admission it is the Christians who are speaking of human sacrifice with the murdering of their savior, in fact they glorify this particular human sacrifice).  


In looking at this spiritual-psychological battle that has been waged against our People we need to engage a profound Spiritual Realization within ourselves to recognize that the behavior of attacking our "enemies" during the good fridays is reminiscent of the divide and conquer behavior of our oppressors.  We are blindly continuing the behavior that was originally exploited by the invaders of our  Two Continents.  We continue to expend energy and resources on fighting each other rather than utilizing those resources for progression and evolution and for strengthening our understanding of both Our-story and His-story.  


Note:  We will continue to build on this understanding in further articles...

A Palero's perspective on the 7 Deadly Sins

Below is an excerpt from a rough draft of a paper that I have been working on over the years.  It is concerning the seven deadly sins of the christian church, as well as the seven heavenly virtues.

We must be aware that this time of the year, specifically "good friday" is a time during which there is a large amount of negative "witchcraft" taking place, including within the christian tradition.  Many Paleros work with Ndoki during this time, and many practitioners develop lists of enemies who they throw witchcraft at.  We do not adopt this practice within our Munanso at this time, for reasons that are multiple.  However, I am going to share this article (below) to give insight into aspects of my thinking on this issue.  I am also going to follow this by another article that will question certain assumptions that have been made concerning the christian god and the so called jesus the christ.

Our Great Ancestor, the Great Cacique Hatuey, has brought us a clear message in the moments of his death.  The picture below shows him being burnt, and depicts the evilness of the consciousness of those men who with premeditation murdered him.  It also shows their barbarity in the documented practice that they inflicted upon our pregnant women when they invaded our Caribbean Home, in which they would slice open the women's wombs, remove the fetus and stomp on it.  

In the moments before Hatuey's death, he was asked if he wanted to be baptised so he could go to "heaven".  He asked them if they when they die, would also go to that "heaven".  When he heard them affirm that they would, he said that he preferred to go to their hell.  Hatuey has sent us a message over a time of 500 years that calls into profound question the christian definitions of "god", "savior", "heaven" and "hell", as well as what the ceremony of "baptism" is truly about.  In the article following this one, we will focus on the history and assumptions concerning these concepts or spirits or energies.  

Bear in mind that the excerpt is from a much longer paper that discusses the historical and spiritual roots of mental illness in this continent from an Indigenous-Afro-Caribbean perspective. 

 

Perhaps I will utilize this moment to remind my People, Indigenous People of this continent, and in particular, of the Caribbean, where my Ancestral bones have been from the beginning and to the point where the bandit psychopath serial killer Columbus and his mob brought their rage to my Grandmothers, my Grandfathers, my Caciques, and Medicine People, to cite that the rage that was brought by these brutal bandits affected the mental body of the Old Ones in Boriquen (misnumbered Puerto Rico), and throughout the Caribbean.  The point is that people who were experiencing for generations a healthy mental body found themselves resorting to the killing of their Children and they, themselves, committing suicide or drinking the poisonous herbs in order not to subject their Children to such brutality and hatred for Life and for the Creator of Life!  People, who were in love with Life, now resorting to the taking of their own lives, and using their medicines and Spiritual gifts to curse those Europeans who only understood Life through brutality and hatred for the Mothers and the Earth itself!  The Europeanamerican must realize that the malediction that they came with was amplified by the curses of the Good People, who were in this Continent, thriving and developing powerful Foundations that insured a conception of Creation and of the Creator of their Creation.  We, Indigenous People, must realize and recognize thoroughly that they have turned our Continent into a mental institution.  And we must further realize that the Spirit of the Ancestors is no longer silent, and will not be silent, because it is echoing its voices, its dreams, or its nightmares throughout Creation in awakening and drawing its Children back to the Sacred Fires of Our Yucayeques (Villages)!

As we continue, let’s take a look at the two fathers of the 7 Deadly Sins, Pope Gregory (I) the Great, and St. Thomas Aquinas, who are responsible for drafting and defining the Seven Deadly Sins.  Now, to the Indigenous People of this Continent, it is important that we analyze these 7 Deadly Sins as outlined by these two psychopaths, because these deadly sins have been engraved within our mental body and our capacity to accurately utilize our common sense within our development in the experience.  These sins, in our cultures, were not our everyday concern and engrossment, so let’s explore. 

Concerning Pope Gregory I (the Great), he forbade the opening of schools, and made the papacy into the richest landowner and slaveowner in Europe by persuading the wealthy to hand over their property to the 

Church since the end of the world was at hand.  He wrote in Be Friends of God:

“If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance.  But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow.  Therefore we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee.  This very day is a day of truce, a day for conversion.  And yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done!  Not only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to them…  

“If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves.  We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow.  Nobody must rejoice in the security of their own good deeds.  As long as we are still experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what end may follow… we must not trust in our own virtues.”

What deranged consciousness continues to creep up in the pages of his-story!  We continue to witness undeniable facts concerning the mentality and the thinking of these people in Europe, and there is no doubt that we witness this same mentality and thinking in the USA.  It is so obvious that their mission is to keep people Spiritually bankrupt and in obedience, fear of the Creator, of Life, so that we may not recognize the god that they are truly speaking about, which is a god of evil, fear and brimstone!  It is so contrary to the words of the Prince of Peace, Imhotep, who said, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die.”  It is clear, through their own writings and thinking, that these people are plagued with an insanity that has perverted the Creation in which we are having our experience, and we are accepting this behavior as normal and healthy and rewarding within the experience of Life. 

Furthermore, with Gregory I, the ascetic psychopath, continuing into the mentality behind his 7 deadly sins, we take a look at the practices of Roman Childrearing during his life. Severe child abuse was considered normal at the time.  Fathers had the power of life and death over their entire family.  The Roman patriarch was unpredictable, harsh and punishing.  Gregory, through his writings, clearly had a typical Roman childhood of cruel and irrational abuse.  As he grew older he turned to extreme asceticism, fasting to the point of ruining his digestive system permanently and undergoing self-inflicted sufferings and harshness in order to avoid the much greater and eternal punishment that he was convinced awaited humanity in the “hereafter.”  In an article entitled “God the Father and Gregory the Great:  The Discovery of a Late Roman Childhood.” by Carl A. Mounteer he writes:

“Also Gregory’s writings are filled with the notion of the unpredictability of God’s punishment.  Even though one’s conscience must be probed for sin ‘as teeth tearing the flesh,’ one can never know if one has punished oneself enough because one can never know the extent of one’s sins.  Gregory frequently expressed his fear that, because of God’s unknown and unpredictable severity, man could never know if he inflicted enough suffering upon himself to propitiate God.  Therefore one can never perform too much penance because excess penance counts as merit.  But if one does not engage in enough self-punishment, one’s soul could be damned.  Thus he praises as ideal penitents those who are ‘guilty of no sin, and yet they afflict themselves fiercely as though every sin oppressed them.’  For those who did not succeed in imposing enough self-punishment in this life Gregory prepared the definitive medieval version of Hell as a bottomless chasm of fire for the eternal physical and psychological torment of the wicked.  The scholastic theologians of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries would adopt Gregory’s description in its unabridged entirety.  From these thinkers, particularly Thomas Aquinas, this portrayal of the damned found its way into Dante’s Divine Comedy.”

Gregory portrayed God as more malignant than any previous Christian or Jew had. 

We continue to probe into the consciousness that has destroyed billions of lives, through the black book, the sword and the European brutality that has been inflicted upon this Sacred Continent, not excluding Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Asia and so on.  We cannot avoid recognizing a mental illness, not just a mental illness, but an extremely advanced case of mental illness, among this mentality of Europeans and Europeanamericans!  Here we can see how they have inflicted this godly punishment upon us all, and through menticize we are freely participating in this drama of psychopathic behavior which is bred and thrived upon by the Europeans of the time and in the times!  Concerning Thomas Aquinas, we inform the reader that he became engrossed in the teachings and practices of Pope Gregory I, and was a descendent of the Lombard kings, who were very brutal; in other words, psychopaths.  So we encourage you to look him up for further acquaintance with his activities and mentality, because he fortified and glorified the Seven Deadly Sins.  The writer of this paper is saying, from a Spiritual perspective, that Gregory and Thomas and their fraternities were aware of, or responsible for, awakening and unleashing the demons behind the Seven Deadly Sins.  Pope Gregory I says outright that the devil works for God!  So these men we must look at so that they do not play hide-and-go-seek with us in the present.  And as Indigenous People within Turtle Island, South, Central and the Caribbean, we must return back to our consciousness to realize that these demons have have infiltrated our consciousness, our traditions, our cultures, and our practices!  We must look carefully at these so called seven deadly sins because these are the imposters that are invading our intelligence, our common sense, and our ability to unshackle ourselves from this modern slavery that threatens our coexistence and the coexistence of our future children within the spiritual entity.  And the Europeanamerican, we say to you, listen up and look back at your past which you conveniently want to forget, because of your comfort within this sacred continent, that is not rooted in your essence or your ancestral bones, so that you may find the courage to overcome the malediction that has been plaguing you for centuries, not excluding the mental illness that is haunting you each moment of your life! 

Concerning the seven deadly sins, Carol and Dinah Mack in their book A field guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits state that the seven deadly sins “... are one of the most virulent and chronic of the possession species that roost within the Psyche.  They are seen as tendencies, temptations, passions - all interconnected strands of the fabric of the human condition, the stuff of exaggerated cravings that cause mortal suffering (251).”  

As we examine the detriments of the indoctrination into the psyche of the people/Indigenous People of Turtle Island, South, Central and the Caribbean, we are able to understand the crippling and the denial that is taking place by a small minority upon an astronomical majority who is suffering the effects of these European demons inside of their psyche.  And, it is through this psychological attack of these demons that the European has been able to dis-empower and affect the mental body of the Indigenous People of this Sacred Continent to the degree that the suffocation is occurring in the here and now.  But, we must understand that before the psychological infiltration of our Mental Body occurred, there was an undeniable physical brutality, and a physical feeding of the Ancestors to these demons had occurred.  In other words, they, meaning the Europeans, had to first allow these demons to ingest the physical bodies of our Ancestors in order to direct these demons to the psychological dismantling of our Sacred Hoop and our Healthy Mental Body, that would eventually dismantle our Spiritual Foundation of the Evolution and Integrity for All Life!  So we must realize that through the brutality, the murder, they were able to digest the Essence of the Ancestors who were being sacrificed to these demons for the benefit of colonizing the whole continent and the establishing of a Europe outside of Europe; this we must understand.  We must be able to understand that the Ancestors of this Sacred Continent were forced to deal with barbarianism at the hands of the Europeans, to the extreme of barbarianism.  We are people who were rooted in Spiritual Development and who understood the Spiritual Entity with reverence, dignity and respect, and we knew how to use the Medicine for the benefit of the Whole.  And we must return to that memory of utilizing the Medicine for the Whole, because if you open your eyes, you will see that the Medicine of the Ancestors is being used against its descendents, the Indigenous People of Turtle Island, South, Central and the Caribbean, not excluding Africa, and the likes.  We must remember that Hatuey went to speak to all of the People, that Sequoia went to speak to all of the People, and that Imhotep was concerned with all of the People as well.

The Seven Deadly Sins are:

Pride

Greed

Lust

Envy

Gluttony

Anger

Sloth

As Indigenous People, we must travel into the depths of our mental body, so that we may uncover and discover that these are European virtues, white male supremacist pets, and each of their pets have a name: Pride- Lucifer, Greed- Mammon, Lust-Asmodeus, Envy-Leviathan, Gluttony- Beelzebub, Anger- Satan, Sloth- Belphegor.  And you are encouraged to dig out the roots of their pets and continue to explore the mentality of the masters of these pets, so that you can clearly understand that these European virtues, which have become our curse, have nothing to do with our Culture, Traditions, and Practices!  The only thing they have to do with us today is the shutting down of the vital principle of awakening the pineal gland in our development in order to disconnect us from our Ancestral Roots and from the totality of the Creation and the Creator of Life.  Women, Men, and Children of the Spirit of this Sacred Spiritual Entity, we must realize, all together, that these European virtues have infiltrated the vast majority of the Lovers of Life.  And we are able to see the manifestation of these demons in the reflection of our mirrors, and we must shatter these mirrors, these reflections, and return to the reflection of the mirror of the River who did not betray our reflection, when we were Healthy and Vibrant inside of the Spiritual Entity, known as Life!  And for you, Europeanamericans, Mothers and Fathers, who are seeking a holistic treatment for the mental illness that is plaguing and haunting your children, you must understand that these so called deadly sins, that were shoved down the throats of my Indigenous People, are the very root of your malediction and the mental illness that you are looking to deliver your children from.  In order to treat the mental illness of your children, you must understand the root of that mental illness in the first place, as we have been stating through this paper.  Let’s remember that these seven deadly sins are the seven principle demons that the white male supremacist of Europe and the USA have been working with for centuries, and who have dismantled countless Cultures, Traditions and Practices through these principle demons of evil destruction.  And furthermore let’s raise a brow to the fact that Greed, Envy, Pride and Anger are the four demon generals that they set loose when they go to fight wars and declare wars against innocent children, women and men! 

It will be helpful to us to analyze the seven deadly sins, which are connected to the psychopaths and the breeders of a mental illness within this continent.  We must allow ourselves to analyze these things, or these seven words, because perhaps there is a healthy utilization of these words, but in realizing that they have been demonized, we must allow ourselves to break and dismantle the spell of these sins, that are tools of the colonizers and bloodsuckers of Life, and who are the graduates of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory.  These sins, or pets, of the Europeans gave justification to burn people alive or split them in half with their swords, or just dismantle bodies, part by part, because, according to them, they were dealing with heathens, savages, beasts.  And I inform you, Europeanamericans, that the People that these sins gave justification to be torn apart, were far, exceedingly far, from being savages and beasts.  For these People were highly developed Spiritually, Morally, Ethically and were rooted in a profound Love for their Children, their Wives, their Mothers, and Grandmothers, and their Elders, and had dignity and an astronomical respect for the Natural Environment, which they understood was a Spiritual Entity within the Totality of the Whole of Creation, and who respected and lived by the principle of guarding the Sacred Hoop of Life for the Continuation of Life!  So once again, to the Indigenous People of this continent, not excluding the African, it is time, and it has been time, for us to analyze the mental illness that has plagued us through the process of indoctrination and colonization of our Natural Essence to coexist within this Creation, as Co-Creators of our Evolution!  

So for a moment, or so, let’s look at the seven heavenly virtues.

Humility------------- Pride (Lucifer)---------- Jupiter (Zadkiel)

Sufficiency --------- Greed (Mammon) ----------- Sun (Raphael)

Chastity ------------ Lust (Asmodeus) ---------- Venus (Aniel)

Charity ------------- Envy (Leviathan) --------- Moon (Gabriel)

Sobriety ------------ Gluttony (Beelzebub)  --- Mercury (Michael)

Patience ------------ Anger (Satan) -----------  Mars (Sammael)

Diligence ----------- Sloth (Belphegor) -------  Saturn (Kafziel)

To begin with, we must realize that these heavenly virtues are the dungeons of colonization within this continent, extending globally, and in this realization we must thoroughly be willing to analyze these virtues.  And when we do so, we may uncover Ancient Deities of African Origin or of Mayan, Inca Origins and so on, who have been perverted and dismantled by these psychopaths and dismantlers of Sacred Cultures, Traditions and Practices of Peoples who have profound understandings of the Spiritual Entity, the Creator, and of Life.  In our wakefulness, we are able to decipher the tricknology that has been used to subjugate our minds and to allow us, willingly, to allow the Ancestors to remain in their dungeons of forgetfulness and dreadfulness and utter desperation.  We must not be fearful of uncovering, and unlocking, the doors of the dungeons in which they have imprisoned the Ancestral Spirit, and imprisoned our minds, amd which allowed us to be abusive to ourselves, our Women, our Children, and our Elders.  Let’s remember that the truth stares us eyeball to eyeball each day that Grandfather Sun rises in the East and settles in the West.  We must see the scheme that these heavenly virtues and deadly sins have poisoned our minds and have replaced our Ancestral shrines with Michelangelo’s cousin as the blue-eyed, blonde headed jesus the christ!  In these heavenly virtues and deadly sins we must be dubious concerning Gregory the (so called) Great and Thomas Aquinas, because as we trace the facts of their lives, there is no doubt that we are uncovering psychopaths, maniacs, fanatics and definitely a personality disorder, which is common within Europe at the time that these things were written by these two men, at different periods.  When we look at the atrocities that these maniacs have engaged within their own continent, we must withdraw our admiration for these maniacs, and their heaven, because we cannot decipher if their heaven is more evil than their hell, or vice a versa.  Because when we honestly analyze the facts, their heaven is hell and their hell traps you into their heaven, which leads you back to the same dungeon and to the same insane asylum, which they are the masters of!  We must remember, Indigenous People of this continent, not excluding the African, that our Ancestors knew the Afterlife, and how to return to the Afterlife with respect, dignity and reverence for the Lives that would remain in the physical experience (body).  They knew the Ceremonial Practice of the Dead, or if you like of the Departed, they knew the Ceremonial Practices of the Living within the Spiritual Entity, and we must return to our Ancestral Practices that can Liberate us, and allow us to surmount the courage that was evident in our Cultures, our Traditions, and our Practices!  We cannot continue to allow ourselves to be hired assassins for this brutal mentality of white male supremacy, wars of suffocation and deprivation of the dignity of Life with our Brothers and Sisters around the Globe.  We must be willing to dismantle their mental indoctrination of our minds, which pervades this whole continent.  It is the only way to address this mental illness that is plaguing us, and we must remember that for the psychopaths it is just another day!  We must realize that for the small minority of Europeanamericans who are seeking a holistic treatment for their Children and who are perhaps attempting to have a voice against these atrocities that are occurring globally, or for those Europeanamericans who are weighing their comfort in one hand against the lives of People which are being lost for that comfort, you must begin to understand that for you the task will be greater, because the only heaven you have known throughout the centuries has been the one laid out by your Ancestors who brought the destruction upon this continent, not excluding Africa and the Globe.  And we stand firm in our statement that the heaven that you know is actually the hell that you live each day of your life!  And I remind you in this paper that these statements are not coming from a term that is commonly used by you Americans, Europeanamericans that is: “reverse racism”!  These statements are coming from historical facts and from the Spirit of the Ancestral Body of the Sacred Hoop of Life that has been dismantled within this Sacred Continent, and this is a fact!  And it is a fact that the Indigenous People of this Continent, not excluding Africa, have been placed, through your brutality, in an insane asylum dictated by your supreme psychopaths.  We have in the living flesh been placed in the purgatory of your hell, and this is a Fact!  Because, these heavenly virtues and deadly sins are in fact a purgatory and your definition of purgatory is what this continent finds itself within.  We are, in fact, tracing mental illness and the more we trace it, the more we find it in Europe and the Europe that was established in this continent!

Munanso in the Manigua

Our Munanso is in a clearing that was created with garavatos and machetes within a Manigua within the forest.  The Manigua is mostly a honeysuckle shrub, that leafs out earlier in the year than most bushes.  There are also many trees, including two that are right within the buildings in the Munanso.  There are two distinct layers here, the Manigua layer and the tree canopy.  Over time the tree canopy has extended over the actual clearing.  Within the Munanso clearing various shade loving native plants grow including  medicinals, they are ginseng, black cohosh, solomon's seal, trillium, monarda, wild ginger and sweet woodruff.  

Walking