Roots

I’m sitting in the playroom next to Clau, a local indigenous woman and friend. We’re leading 10 women in 5 dyads as they engage in a trust exercise. In each dyad, woman x imagines woman y is a woman with whom she’s had a falling out. She’s encouraged to communicate any pain she’s still carrying; an opportunity to free herself.

After listening uninterruptedly for three minutes, the other woman offers an apology, and waits for the wounded woman to place a hand on her knee—signaling she’s accepted the apology and is now offering forgiveness.

This exercise is a perfect mirror for the poignant journey Clau and I have been walking together.

For the previous 4 weeks, we’d struggled to find common ground to stand upon without then feeling like the rug had been pulled out from under us. Time and again, we’d drop into these deep portals of connection, only to be blown apart to what felt like opposite ends of the solar system. It was a running and returning again and again, with no place to land, no way to sustainably grow our connection, no way to fully trust the other, no way to see her clearly as the divine.

Nevertheless, that morning before the women arrived, we’d chosen yet again to courageously meet in the vast, sacred space of the heart—calling in our ancestors, the womb bearers of our lineages, while owning the potent opportunity to do the work of lifetimes.

Resting in the greater knowing, our nervous systems screeching and howling, we brought our attention to our breath and relaxed into the scars of our connection. There was history there, most not personally owned. Neither of us felt entirely safe but we felt held, so we stayed, we breathed, we allowed the strands of change to gather in close.

In that holy atmosphere, we felt called to invite in a common ally to help us go deeper still. The sobering burn of the hape entered us as a quivering, tearful prayer; laying bare ever deeper levels of injury and ever greater longing. Together, we were mending what those who came before could not.

Now, back in the playroom, we stand in a circle. Each woman steps into the center, taking her turn to receive. The vibration of the gong reshapes every molecule of water she’s made of; her crystalline formation is singing her soul song anew.

Afterward, we gather into a sharing circle to reflect on what’s transpired. Clau (with the help of Jeymar) weaves the sounds of Spanish and English - each a mother tongue for her daughters but alien to some, it’s an effortless translation of difference into a seamless whole; it’s music.

This is the first time I have ever seen an indigenous woman living in a new age-conscious community rooted in the Western world, leading events that call forth both local and nonnative, blending cultures that often miss one another into one.

I am in awe.

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Claudette Claudio weaves indigenous and Western healing modalities into a unique and powerful offering. She studied with the Matsés Tribe in Peru and now facilitates Kambô medicine sessions with Kambô Naturista Shamanic and Holistic Therapy. Thanks to the integration of holistic approaches and ancient technology she helps others dissolve generational traumas, addictions, depressions, self-esteem problems, and childhood traumas. Her teachings and guidance involve reprogramming of the mind, mindfulness integration, somatic practices, Andean cosmovision and earth-based shamanic healing.