great thread on the Kogi Indians...the "Elder Brothers"

[Desertrose]

for those who don't venture into GD too often....this is a thread about what our govt has done to their beautiful and pristine land...they call their mountain the "Heart of the World". Hearing about what is going on really makes my heart so heavy....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4171434&mesg_id=4171434


I thought perhaps my brothers & sisters in this forum might be interested in such a spiritual tribe of Indigenous people who've bascially remained untouched by civilization until recently......Kogi's in S America, along with the Hopi in the SW and Aboriginees in Australia have been sharing their warnings...too bad we don't listen....


About the Kogi:
http://www.labyrinthina.com/kogi.htm
"The Kogi know secrets about nature that would make our scientists rethink their ideas on the environment and the universe. They have a presence about them that commands respect. The power of their mind is beyond comprehension. But few people outside of Colombia know who they are and what they represent. Why do they call themselves the Elder Brothers and how can we learn to live in the spiritual world that this lost tribe lives in?

___________

Spiralhawk is working on bringing more information & a speaker IIRC to the US and will , I'm sure, post more as the time approaches.

Blessings
DR

[Quakerfriend]

1. Thank you for posting this, DR.

It is a topic close to my heart. My husband is from Colombia. He and I have traveled throughout this extraordinarily beautiful country and thru the lush jungles that lead to the beaches of Santa Marta.

I weep for all the beautiful people of this land. As you know, people throughout Colombia are heavily dependent on sustenance farming. Our 95 year old grandma still works her farm every day.

What aerial spraying does to the entire Amazon Basin is equally disturbing.

The US gov't is allowing surfactants, whose use is now ILLEGAL in the US, to essentially be dumped on the Colombians. So, the big chem companies are getting paid by our gov't to get rid of the stuff they can no longer sell in the US because these chemicals are considered too dangerous for human beings!

[LWolf]

2. Thank you.

It seems like we need to hold our entire planet in the light; it's easy to "not think" about what is going on in other places, when your own place is in such troubles.

I've been working with my grandson. He's a 5-year-old boy, and one who spent his first 4 years with people who have no respect for life outside of the human fetus. It has been a long hard struggle to get him to relax around insects; he sees any kind of bug, spider, whatever, and screams, "quick, kill it! Stomp on it!" He thinks I'm nuts because I don't immediately kill every bug I see. He thinks I'm nuts because I told him he couldn't beat on the trees with sticks. "They're just trees," he told me. I've been working on an awareness of the value of other living things, respect, the golden rule, care for the world, etc..; it's a long, slow trip. I'm told I shouldn't expect that kind of awareness from a 5-year-old. Maybe. But if he can learn to "dominate" every other living thing on the planet at such a young age, he can "unlearn" that and learn to respect the earth and her creatures, too. What happens if he doesn't? He becomes one of the masses who are so disconnected from the planet that they can't see that people are a part of the living systems they destroy.

Why are so many people so disconnected?

[Quakerfriend]

4. Ah Lwolf, you are doing a beautiful thing for him by

expanding his awareness.

He is very lucky to have you.

[Dover]

5. That's so beautiful LWolf.

You are healing his heart on many levels, and I'll bet it's mutual.

I just spent a week with my niece and she is a real nature girl. We experimented with the cactus fruit that is now ripe. We collected some, ate it, cooked it, made skin lotion with it, etc. She was so focused! It was her curiosity about the fruit that got the whole 'cactus project' started and I learned a lot too.

[davsand]

6. Kids CAN connect.

It isn't always easy, however.

I have an 8 year old daughter. She is absolutely PHOBIC about "free range" spiders. She really can't deal with them in her room, but is at least past the point of demanding a summary execution. She'll allow me to relocate the spiders now.

My kid has always talked about rain as "giving the trees and flowers a drink" and it has worked very well to make them into living things in her mind. Animals are a great fascination--and utter respect. Part of that has been encouraged by her pets, but a lot of it has been made visceral for her by watching nature shows that talk about conservation of species and natural habitats.

I think you have to work with it to make it real...


Laura

[Desertrose]

7. Looking at your sig line really brings home to me how out of balance

our world is.

The idea of any woman having to deal with the coathanger abortion issue in the future seems pretty unbelievable...and yet we could be on the brink of it.

Relate this insanity of where our country is now, to the world of the Kogi and it makes me wonder how can two such incredibly different cultures can possibly continue to co-exist.

Not sure they can. Not when one is so bent on controling and dominating the entire world which is clearly the plan from those "in charge" of our country. Look what they have already done to these people who just want to live their lives on their land as they have for hundreds & hundreds of years.

I think our best hope of changing things is starting as you & LWolf have done...with the kids. We have to, as you said Laura, "make it real". Make this world so real that they value it as a sacred gift, a sacred place to live & grow and learn.....and also make kids (andn a few adults, too) aware that whatever they do it has effects, repercussions and that they (we all ) are responsible for cleaning up any mess they make.

Something the neocons have obviously never learned.....

I look at the "less material" cultures and I think there is so much to be learned from them in regards to honoring life and the earth.....we are so caught up with our quest for more & more ...more knowledge, more power, more technology. more everything, that we miss a lot of equally (if not maybe more) important things in our walk on this earth......

FWIW, I hope the Kogi realize there are those whose hearts are with them.....:cry:

[Dover]

3. These things cause me such heartache....it's difficult to read it.

They speak to a deeply buried part of all of us...and have kept the connection we severed long ago. They are the stewards of the planet.
My deep grief informs me that the connection is still there and retrievable...we simply need to bring it into the light. I also know I'm not alone with my grief, which gives me faith.

[Mandate My Ass]

8. Horrible

No doubt these people are being made to suffer because of Columbia's new liberal president. He is against privatization of the country's resources so Bush sends Dyncorp to destroy their habitat. It's so ugly. "If I can't have it nobody will." These poor people are pawns in a game they never wanted to enter and are being punished for a way of life they've managed to avoid. :(

What does that say that he would destroy everything in a spiteful fit of anger? These people are much more evolved than Bush. Stewardship of the earth vs. domination and subjugation.

Thanks for posting. It's important to be aware of these things and I look forward to learning more about their culture.