I've been a participant in a "Permaculture Caravan", an experience that I was told would feature educational workshops on bioremediation, hugokulture, permaculture design principles, renewable energy, free energy, seed saving, hands on workshops with natural building techniques, compost and plant guilds and food forest gardening. I was told I'd learn more about living and probiotic foods, get to practice yoga, and get to dance and experiment with music and sound. I was told I'd get to adventure on some hikes out to see some sites where others are practicing permacutlure, and get a view on how people in Ecuador live in collaboration with Pachamama. I got to experience all of this and so so much more.
This, my friends, was no ordinary permaculture course. Phil and Suzanna, two amazing people, originally from (achem, one of my favourite places ever) the Kootenays of British Columbia, moved to Ecuador almost 4 years ago, to continue their work creating greater consciousness in this world. They practice what they call "Eternaculture: the marriage of permaculture with abiding spiritual awareness".
Earth harmony with spirit harmony.
When we started the 14 day course with a Despacho Ceremony, I knew that I had arrived at the right place, and I felt wonderfully comfortable. A Despacho Ceremony is a Quechua traditional ceremony, where we, as a group, created a most beautiful bundle of art. It started as a small mandala of green leaves and red and white petals, with the divine feminine and the divine masculine being represented in these colours. The two guests who facilitated the ceremony slowly added leaves, branches, seeds and other pieces of nature to the spiraling work of art, until it was the turn of each group member, having only all met just hours before, to state our intentions for the weeks ahead. The whole group witnessed each persons intention and addition to the work of art. We offered up our 'Hoocha', our heavy or stagnant energy to the earth below us, to Pachamama to eat, while we willingly received 'Sami' from above, clear light energy... Later, the bundle we created was ceremonially burned in a fire. It really felt like a communication with Pachamama, at the same time as an opportunity to set a tone of deep exploration and discovery among this group of strangers for the two weeks to come.
There is so much I want to share about what this past two weeks has been, but the richness, like the chocolatey avocado mouse we shared mid week, is at moments, indescribably delectable!
I'm still integrating it all. Integrating the group experience of living, and loving people from a variety of backgrounds. Integrating the overwhelming, raw, uncomfortable emotion that arose when I practiced a a Sufi movement meditation, called a Zikir. I'm still integrating the technical information I learned about renewable energy systems, and the fact that my mind was blown when I learned about free energy, and upon having a blown up mind, how I then proceeded to question, once again, the honor-ability of governments, and when I was reminded of the brilliance of our brains, and the potentiality of higher consciousness. I feel more inspired then ever, to build a 'susty shack' with my father (strawbale, off grid, bioremediation for water, composting toilet, gardens surounding, mosaic counter tops, outdoor and indoor kitchen, rocket stove, cob oven, no fridge!). I am still integrating the beautiful and powerful practice of the Unity Dance - a chi-gong-esk movement meditation dedicated to Pachamama in the four sacred directions, borrowed from Indigenous Canadians. I feel invigorated by all the music I've had the opportunity to be submersed in. The Sound Healing journeys with didgeridoo, the Taize, the Kirtan, the beautiful opportunity to bring about the many songs I know, and bring them to the group, and sing my hearts song...It's been incredibly affirming to recognize again, how song really does connect me deeply with spirit. Lectures on Integral Awareness and sacred geometry, have been so meaningfully coupled with on the land exploration, practice and experience. And the food - oh me oh my - we ate so deliciously healthy, wealthy, and tropical!
Of course, I can't go further without telling you more about the food.
Unlimited avacados, which not only were salad and soup toppers, but made their way into a delectable chocolate mouse mid - retreat. Each morning, we had lacto-fermented coconut kefir! It's really too bad there is no great source of young coconut water in Canada, as I might just have to give up on my cow-kefir for this tasty beverage. It's lightly efervescent, slightly fermented zingy taste was uber refreshing after my sweaty runs down and up the hills of this valley. Along with coconut kefir, we also had the joy of eating lacto-fermented / raw / dehydrated granola, topped with fresh papaya or banana or pineapple or mango, some of which came from the land in which we were staying. That was further dressed with a dollop of young coconut milk - the sea creature like, juicy meat of the young coconut was blended (in the almighty vita mix) with some water to create a fatty frothy batch of local goodness. These are not local luxuries we enjoy in Ontario. So I was lapping it up and savoring each moment.
Each lunch, each dinner was accompanied by a fresh garden salad, with some delicious mastery of a dressing, and Cosmo flower petals decorating the top. Other favorites were the passion fruit morning juice, and the kimchi and sauerkraut that accompanied lunches and dinners. There were all manners of vegetable-y soups at lunch. Dinners were sometimes delicate complex, and more often warm, hearty and abundant....think flavourful veggie burgers, herb-ey ratatouille, cozy nut loaf, Indian inspired, roasted tubers, the list goes on. Each meal was beautifully punctuated by a circle of us, holding hands, singing a song of thanks before digging in.
The countless conversations with Phil and Suzanna are super special to me now, in reflection. They share their wisdom in an extremely humble way, they hold space, and create a group container in the most respectable and calm of ways, and they dwell within the greater microcosm that is their community of rural Ecuador with respect and collaboration.
I can't forget to mention the countless people that Phil and Suzanna introduced us to. Laura, the ecstatic dance facilitator and voice medicine woman (and our resident chef!); Talbot and Lula, the mushroom scientist, humble home builders, and yoga teachers. Circus communities, and mountain dwellers living in intentional communities, adobe and cob infrastructure builders, intricate artisans and animal husbandry experts, sacred sanctuaries where fairy's roam, and fresh water is abundant, magical forests by the rushing freshwater rivers, with unique sculptures guiding your path, folks with smartly designed sustainable water management systems, and many many folks who left North America to live here, in this sacred valley of Ecuador.
I need to mention that as I write this - under a roof, but fully in the outside air, no walls surrounding me. I feel warm. Hallelujah I feel warm in February! I've said it before and I'll say it again. This concept of indoor/outdoor, it's so different here in this area of the world, and it makes me feel so so alive, because at any moment, I can feel her, I can feel Mama Nature vibrating up through the soil into my legs, I can hear her birds call, I can smell her basil perfume...
Whether it is the vibrant rainbows of red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, violet that blaze across the mountain valley sky on a regular basis, marking the gentle mist just barely visible in the seemingly distant green mountains, or whether it is the sacred corners and highlands of this mountain range that yield an abundance of food, and earth in which inspiring humans build their 'super adobe' earthen homes, and forage their meals too; any opportunity to engage with this earth in a more meaningful way makes me feel more connected, more alive, more free. I hope you find some time today to feel the sun on your face, feel the snow in your hand, or grasp tightly a brilliantly orange carrot...feel the vibration flowing through her, from me, to you.
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| making a garden bed - hugokultur styles (photo credit Liza Charbel) |
