My journey to the sacred lands known as Matlapeng, began a little more than 8 years ago. PowerFULL dreams & visions were calling me back to Africa, to a place I’d been shown to make manifest a centre of healing - a space where traditional spiritual teachings, rituals and ceremonies were to be taught, shared and experienced, with the peoples of our Rainbow Nation and all Mother Earth’s Children. A deep desire was seeded to share in ceremony and gatherings, the many wisdoms of our Native Ancestors, the ‘Original Peoples’ and the many teachers I had met along three decades of seeking. Amongst the Native peoples, there is an understanding, that those who have ‘gone home’ (passed on), have most likely looked back at their lives and looked into its workings. Out of their love for the future generations, the Ancestor Spirits offer guidance and much wisdom, if only we are willing to listen, to see, with an open heart & an open mind, that All Life is related.
Native American peoples speak “Mitakuye Oya’cin”, it means “We Are All Related”. Our Afrikan ForeFathers & Mothers speak “Batho ke Batho ka Botha”, or “Motho ke Motho ka Motho O mongwe” it translates to “I am because you are, or you are because I Am”, or the Inuits say “In’Lak’eck”, meaning “I Am Another You”, the East Indians greet “Namaste”, or the Muslim “A salaam mut allaykom”. Each of these greetings, IN Essence, acknowledges the GOD/GreatSpirit/Modimo/N’kulukulu/Allah/Buddha/PRIME CREATOR, in the other. Beautiful isn’t it??? I wonder if there is such a greeting amongst the European/Western peoples?
We have all, at some time in our lives, experienced a ‘magic’ for which we find no words, for which there seems to be little or no explanation – it is these m&m’s or as I prefer to call ‘magic & miracles’ (or spiritual candy) of which I wish to share. I live in deep gratitude for how my life has been enriched by a beloved friend, Roxan who not only made it possible for Matlapeng (place of stone) to be made manifest, but has also afforded me the privilege & honour to truely BE custodian of a rocky outcrop overlooking the majestic Magaliesberg Mountain range – the oldest mountains in the world, said to be 100 times older than the Himalayas. The ‘Cradle of Humankind’, stretches across the North West & Gauteng Provinces of Southern Afrika .
When I first arrived on these lands, my family and friends, actually most people, openly expressed their horror. Some even said I was ‘crazy’! A woman, living alone in the Afrikan bushveld, without municipal supply, cries of jackal, leopard and brown hyena around her cabin at night! What of the snakes and spiders!, And the crime!! I struggled to find the words for them to understand that I was being guided towards ‘something’ - my purpose perhaps (?) and ‘felt’ I was safe. I awoke each day to the splendour of my surrounds, learning to walk with trust at my side. In the months that followed, my friends and family witnessed accomplishments near inexplicable, & each time I offered that “my many unseen helpers ….” they would predictably roll their eyes, or deepen their stares into my ‘sanity’. Each day I have been blessed with extraordinary ‘blessons’ – blessings from observing how our Earth is self-sustaining, lessons from the elements and animals, or receiving teachers or guests. Looking out onto the oldest mountains on our Earth, I marvel at her grandeur. I am in awe of her transformative healing energies, which I witness stirring in people each time they arrive. When in nature, one becomes one with the ‘cosmos’ and the many forms and forces of Divine creation. I have been privileged to participate and observe many varied native peoples perform ceremony, ritual or teachings – the wisdoms and knowledge of their Elders, their Wise Wo/Men, Shaman, iSangoma, Herbalists/iyanga, confounds many sciences to this day!!, yet ‘gifts’ them with natural phenomena for which there is no rational explanation. A language of humanity is required so that we may understand the wisdoms of our many Ancestors. WE, the children and custodians of this beauteous blue-green Earth - we need to re-establish spiritual values and ethics, so that we may, collectively, put an end to the lies and greed imposed on us by materialistic cultures.
As a young child and throughout my youth, I was ‘raised’ by two African Mothers. They taught me much and through their actions, showed me even more! For many hours, I would sit at the feet of Anna, or Rose & listen to their stories. My brother, sister & I would sit spellbound with Anna’s expressions & actions of her stories as a young girl growing up on a farm. And when school holidays came, my Mother shipped us off to my Great Grand-Mothers farm nestled in the Magaliesberg district or another many miles from Kimberley in the then Orange Free State, where we’d live out the stories Anna or Rose had told. These were the happiest days of my life.
My EarthWalk as a Spiritual Warrior-PrayerWarrior, is to share with all who come onto these lands, the wisdoms of our Great MotherEarth and All Life She sustains, and to honour the teachings of our Ancestors. Ritual and ceremony as taught by the Elders and those before them, remind us of the sacredness in life. Our Native Ancestors-Elders would practice ritual every day, giving gratitude to the Earth for the abundant foods and waters, to the trees and the medicine plants, to the animals. They offered their gratitude to GreatSpirit-N’kulu’kulu-GOD. We should encourage our children to look into the histories of the Native Peoples, the ‘Original Peoples’, for they walked their EarthWalk in a Sacred manner, in a sustainable and considerate way. My personal experiences with Native Elders, ‘iSangoma’, ‘Iyanga’, Medicine Wo/men, Native StoryTellers and teachers of many varied spiritual & healing methodologies, has blessed me with many understandings. A golden thread weaves each into a most beauteous cloak, connecting all. Our dis-connection from MotherEarth, is a dis-connection from GreatSpirit. With every guest who arrives on these lands, I see a shift, an awakening awe stirring each to find a space to sit, … and perhaps drink freely of the open vistas, or to breathe deeply of the cool mountain air. Some cry. Cry from a deep well of love bursting from within, as they embrace their surrounds.
The Western ‘consumer-culture’ pandemic has infiltrated every aspect of modern ‘civilized’ (?) life, and the value-systems of past, whether social-cultural-spiritual-economic-political, has and continues to disintegrate. It is sad indeed that we have neglected the teachings of ‘old’ and that with all our modern psychological understandings, our ‘superior’ technologies and institutions of ‘higher learning’, the many ‘modern’ religions, cults or sects which we have successfully crafted, have demonstrated and destroyed entire species of trees, plants, forests, marine life, bird and insect life, ……even entire tribes! All this committed by ‘civilized’ people.
In the late eighties and early nineties, South Africans bore witness to the demise of the apartheid regime, and with it, tremendous violence in the townships. It was this, which resulted in communities ‘taking up arms’ to defend themselves. Umhkonto we Sizwe (MK), APLA (Azanian Peoples Liberation Army), Inkatha Special Protection Units (SPUs) and the ANC-aligned SDU (Special Defense Units) came about, by brave women and men who committed their lives to the liberation struggle and who “survived” extreme violence, dysfunction, torture, imprisonment and worse - some having lived in exile not seeing their families or loved ones for many years. Driven by a deeper passion, they fought for the common good of suppressed & marginalized peoples. They were once our heroes. When they returned, people were scared. It is to each former ‘freedom fighter’ who has come onto these lands, that I offer deep gratitude for the many profound teachings, insights and sharings which I’ve witnessed, participated in, & listened to.
It is in this ‘present’, this gift, that we are called upon to walk a path that shows by example, Love, Truth, Forgiveness and Respect for each other and MotherEarth, for we are merely a microcosmic expression of this beautiful blue-green planet. To walk a path as a SpiritualWarrior, as a RainbowWarrior, is to integrate personal & collective knowledge and to truly stand up & take responsibility. To take responsibility for all of our actions, for all our thoughts, for all of our choices!! This is oftentimes challenging to make conscious decisions in all aspects of one’s life. It requires one to ‘walk and talk in balance’.
Our present & growing interest in environmental & ecological challenges (for there are many) can be viewed as the logical outcome of the awareness in humanity – mankind now more readily embraces that we are not separate from this Earth, but an integrated part which includes all the Kingdoms of Mother Nature. Native tribal communities showed us sustainable methods and highlighted our dependence on the environment and each other, by working in a co-operative way. In Southern Africa, this is called “uBuntu”, or one hears spoken, “Batha Ke Batha Ka Botha”, translated, it says, “You Are because I AM”. Mounting evidence (from authors, healers, spiritual leaders, scientists, doctors, Shaman/Medicine Women & Men, Indian & African mystics, iSangoma’s, prophets and visionaries) who are presenting overwhelming evidence that our thoughts, our spoken word, our feelings and actions are translated into a frequency, an energy which begins the process of manifestation and that we are indeed, co-creating our realities. With this in mind, I submit a vision I hold for the future generations. Let us dream awake our dreams for the future generations and their children’s children, as we seed and nurture a New Earth Mythology.
May your Earth Walk be A Sacred Experience
Blessings in the Infinate Light of GreatSpirit
Leana Mmamarapelo (PrayerWarrior) leana@matlapeng.co.za
The external appeal and accumulation of material possessions has led to an un-parralled crisis in human history. No longer clouded by dominance & fear, but fired with a new understanding, a new ethic emerges. MotherEarth has blatantly been open to exploitation & ownership, and we need not look far to see the destruction that man-kind has unleashed – our ability to disrupt the planet has been well tested – a tsunami of evidence proves that we are systematically destroying the life-support systems on MotherEarth. We are now challenged by a unique opportunity to turn our ability to tasks combining three imperatives : development, sustainability and conservation.
