Indigenous Spiritual Traditions

19 Jun Indigenous Spiritual Traditions

This week we examined some very colorful, erotic, fully-embodied traditions more identified with the community and nature than most. Antoinette Santos Reyes spoke eloquently about her Philipina heritage and how she had experienced an “explosion of imagination” (I loved that!) when talking with elders about their almost-lost traditions. The Babaylan women had the ability to mediate with the spiritual world and practiced songs, poetry, herbs, bodywork, and language as healing and spiritual methods. Santos Reyes also shared rich information about the trauma of colonialism to the body and how it has engendered self-hate and self-loathing. This was the first time I had encountered the concept of exploring the body through socio/geopolitical lens, although perhaps that would include feminist perspectives.

T’Shango MBilishaka shared a worldview of everything being intertwined, and that the ancestors speak to us and we to them. The job of the individual is to create balance in the world – this was somewhat reminiscent of the Hopi worldview. The Efa culture is non-hierarchical, and does not embrace an either/or paradigm, rather one that is and/both. As with the Hopi, people identify with animals and their characteristics. There was also an interesting view of transformation: that one is not born human but must prove it through rites of passage and adversity.

The all-night healing dance of the Kalahari Kung reminded me of all-night raves I attended on the beach in Goa. There was the same ecstatic music, expansion of consciousness, contact with spirits and gods, joy, and sense of community. The raves felt tribal as well, and one could relish the ecstasy and spirituality of dance.

Then we came to the Santeria ritual which was also colorful and lively, theatrical and quite a spectacle. Here again were portrayed people in close relationship with the gods and who work with them by means of ritual and rules of conduct. Everything was carefully choreographed: the costumes, herbs, blood, cigars, money, and the animal sacrifice. It was lovely at the end of the rather shocking display to hear the author say that she was embraced by one of the participants and his body was “full of love.”

© 2024 Catherine Auman

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