The Fountain Blog

Kiva Ceremony in the UK

In June 2019, Jyoti participated in a Kiva ceremony alongside elders from across the world. Held in Cambridgeshire, UK, this was the third year of the ceremony which is mandated to run for four consecutive years.

The Kiva is a circular sacred space, dug into the Earth herself to specific measurements with four alters at each of the directions and a gateway in the East. The sacred fire in the centre is lit during the opening ceremony and must remain alive until the closing ceremony. During these four days and nights, prayers and blessings are made to the Kiva at sunrise and sun set, sweat lodges are held twice a day to support the prayers and everyone lives in community, volunteering in the kitchen and participating in the ceremonies and talks offered by the elders. The gathering is filled with music, singing and joy.

As an elder, Jyoti led the prayers and offerings to the Kiva sharing messages of peace, love and harmony to all those gathered. She presented the work of the Fountain to a group of 60 people inspiring an enthusiastic discussion about Sacred Economics.

The invite to participate in the Kiva had a special significance to Jyoti; X years ago aged X she was present for the very first Kiva gathering, supporting its founder, Mexican elder <name>. Back then, the ceremony was known as <complete> and Jyoti wasn’t aware of the connection between the two events until <….>.

Gathering and Declaration from Indigenous Spiritual Elders

In March 2019, The Fountain participated and joint funded a gathering of Indigenous Spiritual Elders from South America & The Abya Yala.  In order to take the next step among the Latin American peoples, native intellectuals and Spiritual Elders from Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica and Guatemala came together in this unique meeting to share insights about the state and future of Mother Earth, and to share knowledge, ideas and actions through the unification process.

What follows is the declaration co-created during this unprecedented meeting:

We the representatives of the First Nations of South, Central and North America, India and Japan, are responding to the call of Mother Earth (PACHAMAMA). As her children we feel the pain she is experiencing. We resolve to fulfill our responsibility to protect and heal Mother Earth and also bring about the healing of humanity.

Around the Sacred Fire, through many days and nights we shared memories of our origin-of times we lived in peace, unity, and in harmony between the peoples and the Universe.

Around the Sacred Fire we shared the pains of many centuries of slavery, colonization, invasions and violence that bathed our territories with blood and tears and disrupted the natural order. All of these were the result of a development paradigm centered on excessive individualism and a fragmented vision of life. Despite these circumstances, we did not lose our ancestral connection; and over time the resistance of our peoples has been growing stronger. We have always lived according to the pillars of spirituality, reciprocity and an integral vision, living in harmony with the cycles of space and time.

It is clear that today Mother Earth suffers from the serious destruction of the rivers, lakes, seas, and the essential sources of life (four elements), putting at risk the existence of everyone and all life on the planet. The cause of all of this is the economic, political and cultural systems that are driven by greed and avarice.

Spiritual disease manifesting in the form of mining-extraction, mono-culture based agro-industries, drug trafficking, hydroelectric plants, war and conflict, and extremist views that disharmonize and generate imbalance. All of these things call us to return to the origin, to the roots, to our sacred sites, and to the original governments, which were based on the great representative council of the four cardinal points (North, South, East and West).

Consequently, we representatives agreed to re-establish the Council of the First Nations and Indigenous Peoples of the World, the legacy of our ancestors, as guiding principles for our self-governments that should consist of wise spiritual elders, men and women, leaders of the original peoples organizations, and the leaders of the four directions.

The word spoken by the representatives guides this Council to help heal ourselves and to heal Mother Earth, to preserve and transmit the ancestral wisdom to the present and future generations. The Council of the First Nations and Indigenous Peoples of the World has the purpose to lead humanity back to the Good Living.

In this way we commit ourselves to weave the knots that connect the local to the global, to revitalize the centers of ancestral thought and knowledge, the centers of the action and knowledge of women, to revitalize ancestral communication, music, songs, dances, rituals and sacred ceremonies of the peoples, the ceremonial lunar and solar celebrations, and the recovery and purification of the sacred sites. We commit to working with sources of energy to re-establish balance and restore natural order.

This is a call from our hearts to the hearts of all those who feel this collective conscience of caring for and protecting our common home. We call upon the following:

1. To the social and political organizations: so that they can listen to this message and realize that the wisdom of our ancient peoples is the solution to heal the illness that our Mother Earth is experiencing.
2. To governments: to recognize and value the wisdom, knowledge, science and ancestral spiritual authority that has maintained the integrity of indigenous territories.
3. To the United Nations: to support the endorsement of the rights of Mother Earth.

The new dawn ushers in unity, happiness, peace and harmony and the continuation of the spiral of life.

We call on all Indigenous Peoples to do translate this document in their native languages.

CHINCHAYSUYU CAJIBIO (ATLANTIDA ECOVILLAGE), CAUCA, COLOMBIA, MARCH 9TH 5527 (2019).

To communicate, spread and fulfill.

#HealingMotherEarth

This gathering has been carried out thanks to the support of the organizations: International Center for Cultural Studies (ICCS US) | Center for Earth Ethics | The Fountain

Payments to Mother Earth

Earth payments, also known as Pagamentos, work to activate, reawaken, heal and balance interconnecting sacred sites (meridians) of the earth body, which are necessary for the well-being of all Life.

In June 2019, the third Earth Payment for Phase 1 of The Fountain’s Pagamentos program was completed in Mt Etna, Italy. This initiative is a collaboration between The Fountain, Forum 21, and the Centre for Earth Ethics, with the support of elders from Colombia’s Sierra Nevada.

One of the key focuses of The Fountain is the support for ancestral spiritual leaders in making payments or pagamentos, ancient forms of ritual and specially prepared offerings that serve to harmonize, balance and clear key Sacred Sites on the Earth, particularly those places where the disruption or termination of ancestral guardianship of sacred sites has been interrupted or ceased these practices altogether.

It is through reciprocity and specifically through ancestral rituals by offerings and payments that Ancestral Indigenous Spiritual Leaders, accelerate and assure the healing process of the earth.

Spiritual Leaders from Mesoamerica and La Sierra Nevada, Colombia are in charge of carrying out this mission, which began in 2013. Phase one completed in June 2019 and Phase 2 will begin in 2020. The Fountain and our partners are seeking supporters and resources to support this important process.

1. Mount Fuji, Japan, completed in June 2017.

From left to right:  Jorge Luis Dib, Ken Kitatani, Luis Noivita, Alejandro Nieve, Mindahi Bastida, Guillermina Hernández, Armando Robles and Agustin Thaay Ranchero.

2. Four Corners, Mount Blanca, USA, completed in September 2018

From left to right: Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Mindahi Bastida, Agustin Ranchero, Armando Robles, Jorge Luis Dib and Luis Noivita.

3. Mount Etna, Italy, was completed in June 2019.

From Left to right:

Armando Robles, Mindahi Bastida, Manuel Coronado and Roberto Nakogi.