COLLECTIVE PRAYER ACTIVATES HEALING AND ANIMATES LIFE
Cristine Takuá
4 November 2024
Photo: Carlos Papá
Collective prayer activates everyday joy, awakening healing and guiding paths in search of knowledge. Living Schools are also a meeting place for spiritualities. For several years, I have been weaving networks of exchange between the Huni Kuï, Guarani, and Maxakali peoples. And in this web of relationships, healing is a collective pursuit through shared learning and constant dialogue with the plants and dreams of Living Earth – Hamhi, Living School – Una Shubu Hiwea, and Buen vivir – Teko Porã.
I am truly fascinated to see the profundity of the strengthening practices that have blossomed from this action I am coordinating. We're not just talking about theoretical educational processes, but rather seeking to activate pathways of healing for the awakening of memories and to make joy effective as a methodology of study.
Art: Fabiano Kuaray
Engaging in dialogues with plants and learning from them how to connect with ancestral knowledge is extraordinarily powerful. As I've been saying for a few years now, the bible, sugar rum and school curricula have crossed our cultures, our memories and our bodies in a very strategic way in order to silence and erase a multitude of lores and practices.
However, through dialogue with certain plants and the spiritual exchanges between the peoples who make up this collective, we are witnessing the blossoming of a new story. From chacruna to cecropia, from tobacco to soul vine, from anamu to jaracatia, we are witnessing a new beginning every day. This whole process was dreamt up, and we're witnessing it transform our territories.
Art: Delcida Maxakali
Art: Voninho Maxakali
In the studies of the Living Schools, singing is one of the fundamental particles in the transformation of very ancient stories and speeches about life and all beings. There are chants to call the spirit that is far away, chants to cure fright, chants to call the baby at the time of birth, chants to bid farewell to the spirit that has been enchanted, chants to ward off bad energies, chants to cheer up and chants to concentrate. Within this study, each person aims to develop and see the profundity of this sacred knowledge.
Knowing these codes and understanding the mysteries of beautiful speech is a teaching and learning process that every school should value. Deciphering and practising their instructions puts us in a position of knowing how to be in the places where we go in a good and beautiful way.
I salute all the masters who guide us in this world of imperfections.
I thank the plants and the enchanted beings for bringing our practices closer together and making us stronger every day.
Photo: Cristine Takuá
Art Maxakali
Art: Sueli Maxakali