The Land Dreams in Ceremonies: Reparation Ceremony #9 *Koksilah Road*

 

Journey with Prayers: One night while in prayer, I reached out beyond the artificial boundaries of the property we were living on to feel the mountains, the valley-bowl and the nearby little forest.  Ma Honeysuckle called back to me from the forest, and guided me down, like roots growing into the ground, through the layers of soil and time.  I felt the mountains as witnesses of the bowl-lands, the current-day farms and houses in this area, then felt (below/ deeper) the first clearings and farming of the area, and (deeper) the original forest and paths through the region, and the impact and trauma of colonizers reaching here, taking from here, occupying here.  And then I was stopped – as if there was a stop sign that said I was not allowed to go any deeper.  I did not have permission to go beyond.  The roots and medicines and history below this level of trauma were not mine to access without permission, and that permission may never come my way.  It was not within my rights to ask.  It was not mine to peer into.  It was not mine.

As Above, So Below: The trauma and history held in the land affects us all, seeping from below to above.  I cannot separate the land from the nature entities, nor from Spirit, nor from those who live upon and impact it, nor from its history... I am aware that to root my ancestral medicine within the land, I must be in right relations with the land, which includes all its inhabitants (plants, animals…), its First Peoples, and the ancestors and spirits of place. I know this because I feel it, and because the land whispers it... Each person is tasked with their part in collective healing.

Footprints: Imagine everywhere you “walk” you leave traces ~ energetic footprints or snapshots ~ of the thoughts, emotions, and actions of those moments.  Some traces dissipate like wisps of smoke, and others are left to fossilize, depending on the impact and energetic heaviness of the experience.  Imagine all the places you have “walked” on this Island…  On this Earth.  Like cleaning up a campsite, we are tasked with cleaning up/ being responsible for the footprints we have left behind.  These ceremonies are part of my personal land-reparation and “footprint” clean-up, and purposeful imprinting of prayer and ceremony.

Shadow Walking: Imagine standing beside a pile or hill of all the garbage you have made in your lifetime… ALL of it.  (Note that only 68% of paper, cardboard and metal get recycled, and only 9% of plastic is recycled.) Just feel that.  This is a very real footprint of your time here on this earth.