voices of three grandmothers.

[Guest guest]

For the first time in history, 13 indigenous

grandmothers gather from

all corners of the earth in a common vision for global

healing. These

are the voices of three grandmothers.

Nature Speaks Secrets

By Bernadette Rebienot

BERNADETTE REBIENOT

©Marisol Villanueva Méndez

" My journeys are not about enclosing myself in the

solitude of the

forest. The forest doesn't absorb my being. Instead,

it permits me to

capture the secrets of the invisible, of which we are

the trustees. "

BERNADETTE REBIENOT, from the rainforests of Gabon,

West Africa

Since we are invoking a world healing, we must ask,

" Is the world sick? "

Unfortunately we are bringing up this topic rather

late in the game

since this immeasurable organism called Earth is

already beset with

gangrene. Our planet is sick from the never-ending

ravages of people,

pollution, deforestation, abusive power, jealousy, and

hatred.

The Earth suffers from horrific wars that transform

people into

monsters and destroy what is human. These wars leave

behind orphaned

offspring who are ripped from their families-families

that are

precious to us. Then there are the pandemics that we

all face: AIDS,

malaria, cancers, and other plagues.

This great sickness is exacerbated by famines, by

galloping poverty;

by the death of ideas and of cultures, and by a

disdain and rejection

of the Other, which signals the return of all forms of

discrimination.

The Earth suffers, humanity is threatened, we are

disoriented, we have

lost our way. Nature has been speaking to us for some

years now and

manifesting her anger in her perfect and terrible

expression-catastro phes of the air and water, deadly

fires and heat

waves. By violating the laws of Nature, we are

bringing punishment

upon ourselves.

I have been in service to humanity since my youth as a

traditional

practitioner and a healer. Where I find life is in the

forest. In the

forest, I still know how to become one with a

landscape rich with

thousands of mysteries. In the forest, my feet touch

the earth every day.

However, my journeys are not about enclosing myself in

the solitude of

the forest. The forest doesn't absorb my being.

Instead, it permits me

to capture the secrets of the invisible, of which we

are the trustees.

I believe these secrets will soon become precious

compasses for humanity.

By listening to the secrets of the forest, I've used

remedies made

from plants to treat the maladies of my patients.

These secrets have

taught me to accept the Other and our differences.

They have taught me

about the fragility and the infinite smallness of

humanity, the vanity

of our excesses, and the ephemeral nature of our

existence. They have

shown me the force of peace and of united families.

For the last several decades, the forest has taught me

respect for

humans and for nature, respect that is cruelly lacking

in our world.

Perhaps this is why many who have tasted such wisdom

and respect come

from far away to see me in my African forest.

Humanity must also understand that we cannot continue

to walk " on one

leg " in our daily life. We must take into account the

visible,

invisible, and spiritual dimensions of the world

because two plus two

doesn't always equal four. Whether this takes the form

of meditation

in America, a platform of world solidarity established

in France, or

teachings drawn from our African rituals, there is a

spiritual message

that remains the same.

Humanity must enter into reconciliation with nature if

we wish to come

upon a new reality, a new alliance. The great

initiates of Africa

understand the very core of their forest, the language

of the trees,

of the rivers, and of the birds. They understand the

essential and

mysterious language of nature that speaks to us. Those

who are keepers

of the knowledge of hidden things, the " luminaries "

and the initiates

of the world, must transmit this knowledge to the new

generations

because everyone needs two legs in order to be

balanced. Our true

equilibrium rests on the existence of the physical and

spiritual bodies.

Humans constitute the link between all the particles

of the universe

that crisscross and fill up space. Our ultimate

horizon is not bounded

by the visible world but dives deep into the sacred

universe, into the

unity and dynamism of a Great Whole of which only

certain parts are

visible. There is a submerged part of the iceberg

waiting to be

discovered and revisited. We are cosmic beings.

Today's civilization has been cut loose from the

essential roots that

formed humanity. We are destroying and polluting

nature. The people of

the future will no longer be those who believe

exclusively in logic,

in the reign of numbers and capital, but rather those

who have

understood that the net of tomorrow's society resides

in respect and

consideration for the Other. Such respect would mean

that dialogue

would replace war.

Joining Prayers

By Agnes Pilgrim

AGNES PILGRIM

©Marisol Villanueva Méndez

" Handed down from my people was a story that the only

duty left to us

from the ancient ones was the duty of prayer, so, I

became a prayer

person. "

AGNES PILGRIM, from the great forest of the American

Northwest

It is exciting to be making history by venturing into

the world

praying to make a difference. However, there are still

many things

that I don't talk about as I'm afraid the Creator will

quit helping

me. In the beginning, my people could become

invisible, shape change,

and talk to the animals. I believe what happened is

that they began to

abuse their gift so the Creator stripped it from them.

So, I try to be

careful.

I travel to a lot of different lands being a " voice

for the

voiceless. " All things created need a voice. I am

called to pray for

the Bengal tigers, for animals in Africa, for wolves,

for salmon, and

for the Ganges River in India. I went to Australia to

pray for the

Murry Darling River and its pollutions. I prayed for

the Condors and

now they are coming back after being gone for over 200

years from Oregon.

My tribe sends me to areas that need prayer or

blessings. They send me

to christen a ship, to burial places, to testify for

monuments, and to

fight for special plant life. I've been called to lead

prayers to stop

clear-cut logging and to lobby in Washington, DC, to

save our Siskiyou

Monument here in Oregon, which has plant life that

grows nowhere else

in the world. So far we've succeeded. We will continue

to struggle to

save some of our beautiful spiritual places. The

prayers will help.

I'm the oldest living female left of the Rogue River

Indians, who

lived in Southern Oregon for over 20,000 years. As a

registered member

of my tribe, The Confederated Tribes of Siletz

Indians, for many, many

years I have served on tribal committees always

fighting for cultural

and traditional improvements. My children and I are

all traditional

First Nation natives and we " walk our talk. " I've been

at death's

door; I have survived cancer since 1982. I asked my

Creator to let me

live because my family needs me and I've got a lot to

do. I said, " if

you let me live, I'll keep busy the rest of my life. "

And I'm

certainly doing that!

Years ago when I was about 45, I experienced a

restlessness. This

sensation was not only present in my waking hours but

also in the

dream time. There was a force pulling me toward a

spiritual path. I

was told to cleanse my inner self. Ultimately, I did

what I call a

" dying to self. " But first I fought this

inner-calling, thinking I

wasn't worthy to do it. Looking back, however, I can

see where I began

to change. I started to fly around and I went to all

my six children

and asked them to forgive me for any hurts I caused

them. I asked them

to voice anything they wanted to me. I told them how

much I loved them

and that I would pray for them. I know I made mistakes

as a parent.

Yet I still hadn't committed myself to walk this

" spiritual " path. I

was still arguing with my Creator. Finally one day my

friend, who is a

psychiatrist, told me to stop fighting this path and

resign myself and

just do it. So, I did. It was like a big load was

lifted off of me.

Handed down from my people was a story that the only

duty left to us

from the ancient ones was the duty of prayer, so I

became a prayer

person. The Creator has answered many, many prayers

and I give

blessings for allowing me to be a mediator.

Prayer is needed throughout the World. It is time we

step forward and

join prayers with people around the globe. Together we

can stop the

abuse of women and the molestation of children,

hunger, overgrazing,

the lack of protection for our medicinal plants, and

drug abuse. We

can join together no matter what our religious or

spiritual beliefs

are. We can join together and fight to save our Earth

Mother and

salvage our own existence.

It is time to take action now if we want to help all

our relations. We

need not for one moment limit ourselves about what we

can do. We must

give support and encouragement to each other and to

whomever we meet

on our path. Love people unconditionally and add their

voices and

prayers to ours. People need to be encouraged to use

their voice. The

Creator will hear our cries and turn the dark side

around.

Yes, we have a lot of work to do to have harmony and

peace. We have

many goals set before us but we can accomplish them by

working

together. Together we have gifts to bring by teaching

what is sacred.

We are all in this " leaky canoe " together so we need

to be a united

force to be reckoned with and we will keep on keeping

on until our

" hearts are on the ground. "

Aho!

Being Honoring

By Flordemayo

FLORDEMAYO

©Marisol Villanueva Méndez

" I don't consider myself a traditional person, but a

universal person.

Instead of abiding by rigid rules, I want to be free

in my heart. "

FLORDEMAYO, from the highlands of Central America

For me, there has never been a question of what I came

to this earth

to do. I have always understood my purpose through my

personal

dialogue with the spirit of the ancestors through

visions and dreams.

I was raised learning to translate dreams. It was

imperative in my

family. Whether they were positive or negative, it

didn't matter. Even

if they foretold of a death or an illness, I learned

to receive the

messages in a way that was honoring and respectful.

The Grandmother' s Council was already written in

stone for me. I had

heard about it through the prophecies of the Mayan

people, and I had

also been given a direct vision that the Council was

going to come

together.

I chose to accept a role at the Council because I felt

that there are

so many of us around the world that have lost the

touch of " basicness "

between the earth and the sky. Women now carry more

toxins in their

bodies then they ever have. All the chemicals from

daily creams and

shampoos are being transmitted through breast-feeding.

The first cup

of milk children have from their mother is already

full of sanitary

napkins and deodorant.

Hope springs from the re-teaching of people on

gardening and survival.

I have been working towards re-introducing people to

the teachings of

medicinal plants. We are re-learning how to take care

of the Mother

Earth. In doing so, we allow the spirit of the sacred

plants and the

sacred waters to heal us. In essence, we are

re-empowering ourselves.

For those of us who have forgotten, we are re-learning

the teachings

so that our grandchildren and their grandchildren to

come do not forget.

I really believe that the earth and the elements have

the capacity to

mend themselves. It might not be done in our lifetime,

but everything

takes its course. We live under a sacred law: Life is

a circle. By

being in the present, we are also in the past and the

future. Nothing

is unseen and there is always a reason for things that

happen.

I believe that our global healing is possible. But

like everything

else, it is going to take a whole bunch of believers

to do it. I am

not a healer, but a mediator for healing. I am just a

conduit of a

massive amount of energy, and I allow it to travel

through my body and

present it to the person looking for healing. When

people come to me,

healing only takes place if they have already

surrendered into a

healing space. When people come with incredible faith,

I have noticed

instantaneous healing.

The best way to continue to heal ourselves is to honor

our free

spirits. In honoring that, we become forgiving and

when we become

forgiving, we become understanding, and when we

understand, we become

honoring, and then we can move forward with our lives.

Moving forward

means that we have also mended the circles of the

generations of the

past. We are always brought into the present to mend

generational

breakage of the sacred circle.

We can also respect our traditional practices and

integrate them into

our modern lives. I feel that traditionalism is a

little bit

restrictive. And that is okay, but for myself, I do

not like to love

my creator without any freedom. I don't consider

myself a traditional

person, but a universal person. Instead of abiding by

rigid rules, I

want to be free in my heart. It is possible to

integrate the

traditional and the modern by opening our hearts and

allowing the

teachings of the cosmos to enter our daily lives.

Ultimately we all have to find our own individual way.

We can find it

by stopping, being silent, and being honoring. It will

take us a

lifetime to do that. But it is imperative.

As told to World Pulse's Global Editor Ramya

Ramanathan

Declaration of the Grandmothers

We are 13 indigenous grandmothers who come together

united in common

vision. We gathered from the four directions in the

land of the people

of the Iroquois Confederacy. We come here from the

Amazon rainforest,

the Arctic circle of North America, the great forests

of the American

Northwest, the highlands of Central America, the Black

Hills of South

Dakota, the mountains of Oaxaca, the mountains of

Tibet, and from the

rainforest of West Africa. We have united as One.

We believe that our ancestral ways of prayer,

peacemaking, and healing

are vitally needed today. We come together to nurture,

educate, and

train our children. We come together to uphold the

practice of our

ceremonies and to affirm the right to use our plant

medicines free of

legal restriction. We come together to protect the

lands where our

peoples live and upon which our cultures depend, to

safeguard the

collective heritage of traditional medicines, and to

defend the Earth

herself. We believe that the teachings of our

ancestors will light our

way through an uncertain future.

" We are in unity here, the elders with the young ones,

and all around

us and above us and under us, we're breathing unity

right now. I pray

that this unity continues to happen in circles

everywhere, that people

all over become one again. "

MARGARET BEHAN, Red Spider Woman, a Grandmother from

the North

American plains

A 102-year-old Zapotec native woman from Juchitan,

Oaxaca (The Place

With Flowers). She worked as a baker all her life and

joined a

rebellion when she was young against Dictator Porfirio

in 1911.

" We are standing in the vibration of a sacred

prophecy. The prophecy

tells us that consciousness is preparing the spirit of

the feminine,

the spirit of the grandmothers. In the prophecy, we

shall walk into

the light united from the four directions. "

FLORDEMAYO, indigenous grandmother from the highlands

of Central America

Spiritual freedom is my birthright.

I am a free thinker. I am able to rise above mental

prejudices and stereotypes of others.

I am a free thinker. Nobody and nothing can manipulate

me or deceive me.

I am a free thinker. I freely choose truth and love.

Today, I embrace a greater degree of spiritual

freedom.

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