The Art of Weaving a Bag

My first teacher for weaving a bag in the tradition of the tribes of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta was Saga Maria in Rio Ancho, Guajira. Maria was a native women from the Kogui people, i stayed with her for few nights every week for a year in 2012. We cooked together and i helped her family in whatever they needed, i shared beautiful moments with her community. She taught me with her smile and presence, the language was not a barrier or a limitation for our connection. She showed me how to weave without words, just by showing me and let me do it by myself, then when i was doing something wrong, she laugh at me and then she used to take my bag and weave on it to show me how to do it, until i finally i started to learn...

In the communities of the sierra the woman learn to weave since they are little girls and they weave all day long, they are constantly doing bags to carry the harvest of their fields. They weave big bags called gamankala made of fique, a natural fibre that grows in the leave of the “furcraea andina” plant. These big bags are used to carry wood or to carry potatoes, yuca, plantains among other foods. The medium size bag is called gama, in this bag they put sometimes the coca leaves that they harvest and they put a hot rock inside the bag to help the leaves to get dry, these bags are also used to carry cotton, or to classified the string of "fique", wool or cotton with the materials needed to do more bags.

The girls weave bags for their brothers when they are little and the women weave bags for their husband when they are married. There are different kinds of bags that men used, there is a special cotton bag to carry the coca leaves and another one to carry sacred objects for the offerings, there is also a big cotton bag that the woman gives to the man as a symbol of love and respect.

From my understanding and by listening the stories of our elders, the bag represents the womb metaphorically speaking. This makes a lot of sense for me because the bag its in the daily day what sustains food which is life just like the womb, besides the shape and the common sense of this metaphor of the womb and the bag, the act of weaving is an act of creation just like the conception. We can say then, (by following this idea of the bag as the womb), that the needle is the representation of the penus, that the act of weaving is the sexual act of penetration that gives space for creation and that every new knot is the manifestation of this creative power that we hold. In other words, weaving a bag can be compare in a simple way to the gestation of a baby, where every knot is a cell that multiplies in beautiful harmony...

"with fertilization the mother's and father's genetic code bound

and this union carries the baby's genetic code,

genes are arrange in chains in the form of a spiral that we call DNA.

Every time the cell splits during the fetus development,

DNA creates an identical copy of it self in each cell,

each cell carries the genetic code of the fetus

and the DNA as a chain multiples with the multiplication of the cells,

DNA is influenced by the parents

and the information is past to the children as genetic heritage

this information defines their hair and eye color

and perhaps some of the characteristics of the personality"

Are you following me? please stay with me... because it is so beautiful to observe that just like the DNA gives particular information to the baby for its development, in these communities the color of the string and the design of the bag identifies the members of the tribe and their lineage. This is how the people from the each tribe creates identity, like this you can recognize the origin of every person, and you can say to which tribe the person belongs just by observing the color and form patterns of the bag.

I find this really interesting, because the women is the person that literally is giving color and form to the culture thru the bag, she is silently reproducing and honoring the legacy of her ancestors, just by weaving. In this action she is taking care of her people, she is weaving the thought of her mother, and her grandmother and all the people before her, she weaves to remember every day who she is and where she comes from. The natives say that this is how they write, and they record, the bag becomes the path of life.

This wonderful metaphor help us to understand why weaving is such a profound act of self love. When i weave i feel i start to create a moment of union with myself, it is a unique moment where i am witnessing my ability to create knot by knot. When i weave i can choose to be really present with every dot, feel my breath and contain my awareness in the amazing instant where one knot takes me to the next one. Off course sometimes my thought goes to other places, sometimes i start to think too much and then for some reason all the string is tangle or i have to go back in the bag because i made something wrong, and it's fine, because this is the beauty of the practice, that you are actually in front of a white canvas that is inviting you to listen what is going on in your mind field.

Weaving a bag will give you access to the mystery of the spiral, according to the muisca people, weaving it's a way to capture silence, its a way to do the inner walk. These practice will help you to have a daily active meditation, and to bring awareness to your thoughts.

Now that we already have this context i will like to go to the Storytelling, where i hope we can get a better understanding of how weaving a bag can help usto:

• bring harmony to our relations
• develop emotional intelligence
• cultivate mindfulness and awareness
• develop our firm sweet word
• have natural appreciation of the beloved
• practice psychological honesty
• feel safety and self confidence
• speak our truth with kindness

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this is the story of a really special bag

this bag was going to be a gift for Michael

i weave with a lot of love and intention for our relationship

we were living together and sharing a lot of time and space

i started to realize that weaving the bag while we were together was creating this beautiful space of presence between us, Michael is really independent, i can say that he likes to have his own space where he can be focus in his work and in his vision, he is a really talented musician with big dreams that appreciates silence or the beauty of nature sounds or good music, he has been travelling alone for a lot of years... weaving during our relationship allow me to contemplate his presence without any expectations, i was just there sometimes next to him weaving and that open the space for us to just be. I learn a lot with him how we can be focus in our own worlds however be there for one another in the simple things.

Holding presence together is a wonderful experience, we can do it in different ways, when we dance, when we breath, when we make love, when we watch a movie or read a book, when we do eye gazing, however i think that weaving creates a beautiful container for that presence to happen in a really special way. I feel sometimes that weaving fills the space, is like something is happening without making any noise, you know, sometimes in the world we live people experience this anxiety that something has to happen or someone has to say something, however when we tune into presence everything is happening. When i weave next to a person and more when i weave something that is for that person, i feel that i am loving and caring that person with every knot because every knot is a portion of my existence, of my breath and thought and energy.

Our relationship went through a lot of experiences, i knitted this bag in a slow rhythm, i was weaving casually when i was feeling in the mood to do it. Sometimes, when i felt my head was going through something about our relation i started to weave and then i was able to listen better what was going on inside me, and i was able to come to him after and talk with more awareness about my feelings, because i already had the moment for introspection with the bag, that in certain way i felt it was like being in communion with him. Just like taking a walk, or writing a letter, or meditate, or making a drawing or praying.. My feeling was that weaving was something practical that was helping me to find the words to speak my truth to him.

The time keep passing and the bag was almost finished, i took my time to appreciate everything that we were going thru while i was weaving, and when the time to give this bag to him arrived a lot of things happen that make me feel that this bag was not for him, i just couldn't do it... the bag was finished and ready to be a gift, however i was not feeling sure about it, so, i talked this with him and that really open a space for a lot of honesty between us and our conversation make me realize that this bag was actually for me!

This make a big shift for me, this bag was a gift from my feminine to my masculine. I realize that i was looking in Michael and perhaps demanding unconsciously from him something that actually i had to develop within myself. After this talk i decided to move forward and we are now friends ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Song

Grandmother Cotton

Written in Sierra Nevada during the Madre Sierra Gathering in 2016

Translated in Israel in 2017

Let me tell you the story of the cotton,

because the purity of your nature inspires it

we can learn by contemplating your beauty

you are soft, you are strong. you are receptive to our heart.

We breath with the sun to nourish our soul.

we weave the seed of life to unify.

We bring back our thought love with intention

we bring back our moon to remember

The cotton seeds first are in separation

with patience while we weave, we can see the reflection.

Then its body becomes one string,

a string that connects, links and growths in spiral

You are aware, you contemplate and observe life moving forward,

From your womb we can listen a profound advice,

by capturing silence we experience wonderful peace

Natural Cycle : Menstruation

This is what I have been practicing. It is a mix of different ancestral teachings and my personal insights and intuition. This is what it makes sense for me and and  what is working for me.

Basically it's about empowering ourselves from a process  of  self-checking. We can do this anytime, however for me works during the moon time because I feel is a moment where I am deeply connected with nature. During these days we are living  a natural cycle and the insights that come when we open the space to really listen are aligned with intelligence of your womb.

As We Know every cell in our body is conscious and every cell carries a particular memory and a specific information that allows the cell to serve to the whole system of the body. During our menstruation we can feel our womb, sometimes it's painful, sometimes is subtle; however we have a physical experience of our womb. So, when we sit in silence to breath and feel our womb, the field of our mind will be connected with our physical experience of regeneration and our thoughts will be our instrument to know what really is going on with in.

So we're going to talk about this tree Fields where we can explore and expand our experience with the menstruation: 1. in the physical level, 2. in the emotional level and 3. in the mind level

1. In the physical level our blood carries valuable minerals for the earth; nutrients that can be used as a natural fertilizer for our plants. Simple and practical. One of my dear native friends from Sierra Nevada Santa Marta recommend me that to mixed the blood with water, for a better reception of the nutrients. When we offer our blood as fertilizer, we can just focus and think that we are giving nutrients to nature. Think about the minerals, vitamins that the earth is receiving, like when we fed a baby. Natural and Simple we are Nourishing the Earth. Feel the joy that you feel when you feed another person. that's it.

2. In the emotional level think about this: your womb is between 2 chakras: your sacro and your solar plexus, that means that is between the water element and the fire element. So, we can picture our womb as a hot pot of boiling water. When we start to conceive our womb in this way, we start to understand a lot of the recommendations of the elders. They say that it's really important during these days to keep yourself warm: not walking barefoot on cold weather or on cold surface, drink hot herbal tea, don't sit on the cold floor, keep your hips warm. They told me: while you are in your moon time, you are fire and when you are being fire you want to be warm and far from water. 

For the natives of Sierra Nevada Santa Marta this is a moment of deep introspection, the woman do not take showers or enters to rivers or cooks for others. For them and other different cultures this is of moment of rest and stillness , it is a time for the men or the community to cook for the woman; during this time the native woman takes care of the fire and she stays inside, contemplating herself in darkness. 

When we start to practice these principles in our lives everything makes so much sense, when a woman feels supported in these ways from the community, then, after her cycle is done, she can serve the community with love and kindness and she will have a lot of energy to sustain, nourish, care and embrace her family without feeling exhausted. She will be able to give and give and give with tender love and her emotional body will be balance because she gave the space for the auto-regulation of her waters (emotions). 

Taking care of our emotions means taking care of our waters. Our water is our blood. To take care of ourselves during our menstruation time, it means to be honest with ourselves and stop our daily life and reflect, breath and be aware of our body, mind, emotion connection. 

This practice with the time will provide you emotional intelligence. This means that you are going to be able to witness your emotions and flow thru them with ease instead of identify with them and be overwhelmed by them. This means that you are going to be able to be aware of your reactions, drama, complaining, victimize or other emotional storms. You are going to be able to cry, and flow with your emotions without any words, or thoughts to get identify with, your emotions will be authentic and you are going to be able to express them in a better way. 

Reflections Hummingbird Pilgrimage

Let the space to be fulfilled with our interventions in a balanced way, without overwhelming the people around with so many words or repetitive comments.

Silence is a precious gift that allows the others around us to express, meditate and bring something else to the space spontaneously.

Listening comes from a space of deep silence, let's give space for silence between interactions because that allows us to process and integrate every expression and allows the space for collective realizations. 

When we react immediately to a comment without giving the space to breath and understand where the person is comming from, our reaction comes from a space of the ego wanted to justify or be right about something. Let's remember that every person has a point and a perspective that it is experience as a truth. We are here to accept eachother's truth, we are here to contemplate eachother and be compassionate with our differences

Getting mad, complaining, make an ugly gesture or face, responding with a tone DO NOT help. Our negative attitude is not going to change any situation, actually it is going to cut the flow of positive or neutral energy that is in the collective field, and make the situation worse. When we take the moment to process and breath in the difficulties, breath in the frustration, breath in the stress, we are providing an enormous service to the community by transforming our poisson into nectar. 

When someone around us is going through negative emotion represented in complaining, or a bad angry sad face or gesture, an uncomfortable tone in the voice or judgement or frustration. .. we hold a silent space as a compassionate container for that emotion to be express with out labels and with the awareness that the silence that we offer is a deep listening that will allow the negative to have a sacred space to be. We are able to contemplate, receive it and transmute it with our pure presence with out giving it more energy with our response or rejection.

It is important to find the moment to express and communicate our reflexions of the negative to the collective, we can share how we feel and what we are asking from the community to make it better. Without judgement towards someone specific, and without making ourselves victims. 

Redemption is a strong a powerful action that we can replace for forgiveness. When we say "I'm sorry", we are creating the sense of guilt, we are saying that we make a mistake, that something is wrong and this feeling creates the idea that by saying this words everything is resolve and fine. Then we do the same "mistake" and we play the game of words once again. I feel we can focus our energy in making things different, we can safe the apologize for ourselves and transform it with a deep silence of reverence and acknowledge follow by self-reflexion and meditation that can take us into the right action. This means that our apologize will be actually the action of doing things the proper way... all the energy that we spend in making ourselves feel better and the person affected by our "mistake", we can invest it in changing ourselves. So, instead of saying I'm sorry 4 times for the same thing, we can actually be silent and be the change and apologize through redemption (action), so that "wrong" action never happen again.

Para ti

I&i open this chapter to honor your manifestation. Nuestra tribu aroiris. raising up in this time. And in this time we are together and I see you and I feel you and I am here. I feel honor to witness your beauty and the expansion of your heart. 

The trees listen with attention, our song in the forest is our prayer, the cold water brings the power of the ocean to our mind. Our tears are the rain in the desert, we feel the expanding life within and i can feel that we are guardians.

Aqui y alla.  

Our movement is awakening our inner child and helps us to remember the strength of the playful contrast... 

I love you brother. 

Let's integrate together knowledge and wisdom, I feel the opportunity to learn and expand from the humbleness of the unknown.

What is the true and clear intention of the darkness that surround us... Let's  be honest and free, we are allies, and there is power and potential with the great mystery of our intention to fulfill our true purpose

I trust this sacred journey. It is like a spirall. we are moving and progressing in beauty, grace, strength.

Let's take some time to rethink rebuild and refortify about the unstable. Let's begin a new path based on the wisdom of the spirit of the chaos as the ultimate cleanser.

Our unspected, profound and mysterious connection brings an harmonious blending of energy.  

We all are living our life lessons, our guides remind us about  integrity, kindness, compassion, discernment, discretion, faith, forgiveness and love

I am being honest with us

it is not about you or me. It is about the lessons I am learning by sharing time with you. Thanks for being my mirror. 

I am learning from Saint Germain that Visualization empowers your vision. He says that we must talk about it when it is absolutely necessary and relevant, in that way you can focus the energy of your speech in listening your heart and intuition that can direct you to the actions that are necessary. Talk about the things is not going to make them happen. However planning, meditating and thinking about them will give you a better understanding of what is relevant to say and in what moment and how make the things happen. 

I feel is important to take time to study the role we are calling to our life. When we talk about something with full knowledge, is like being a rooted tree. Do we really know what we are talking about?  Research, discipline, dedication and perseverance will help us to be the action that inspires other to act. Lets learn and embrace new ancient knowledge with integrity.

Unconditional love do not demand or expects. We trust in our projects as a living force that is moving us from a space of deep connection with the source. We are calm and not attach to the results, we enjoy the journey. 

Being receptive is to embody the divine feminine. Awareness to what we are here to receive and to offer. Let's give space for us to receive and experience receptivity. We can talk about the femenine awakening thru our action. It is not necessary to talk about it, it is more important to live that awakening in our daily day. What it means to be a mother, a vessel...  Beyond the form, it is about the essence. Beyond the speech is about being fully present.

When i want to do things my way... without listening what the great mystery is offering me. When I push forward to make things happen the way I think they have to happen. I fall to realize that I have no control. That when I pray for being a pure and clear channel and for light being my guide. I enter in a state of surrender to be whatever it is necessary for me to experience.

Start a process requires a lot of energy and to honor that energy it is important to finish that process and be fully present from the beginning to the end.

Important for us to be aware of acting from a place of appearance, by pretending to be or to embody the way it is supposed to. Beyond of what it looks like, or what it's supposed to be, when we are calling the light, beauty and perfection of the being without honesty is an illusion. when we are not impeccable in our words, light will make us blind, then we can not see our shadow and the things we must transform to transcend separation.  

Performing is a sacred act of surrender. It is a call to be authentic instruments of spirit to move energy around us. Performing dance, music, prayer, ceremony has a deep purpose of connection with God. 

I feel it's important for me to say sometimes that I'm no joking, that I'm talking from deep inside and that I've been trying in so many ways to speak my truth about how it is important for me to create a real Alliance between us. I feel I am putting my energy in a lot of things and it is obvious that I can use some help. Thanks for your support.