The Sun Magazine | Saving The Indigenous Soul

I came across this article in my monthly email from The Sun Magazine. It's free to sign up and contains some of the best writing out there.


The Sun Magazine Saving The Indigenous Soul: An Interview with Martin Prechtel
"If this world were a tree, then the other world would be the roots — the part of the plant we can’t see, but that puts the sap into the tree’s veins. The other world feeds this tangible world — the world that can feel pain, that can eat and drink, that can fail; the world that goes around in cycles; the world where we die. The other world is what makes this world work. And the way we help the other world continue is by feeding it with our beauty.

All human beings come from the other world, but we forget it a few months after we’re born. This amnesia occurs because we are dazzled by the beauty and physicality of this world. We spend the rest of our lives putting back together our memories of the other world, enough to serve the greater good and to teach the new amnesiacs — the children — how to remember. Often, this lesson is taught during the initiation into adulthood.

The Mayans say that the other world sings us into being. We are its song. We’re made of sound, and as the sound passes through the sieve between this world and the other world, it takes the shape of birds, grass, tables — all these things are made of sound. Human beings, with our own sounds, can feed the other world in return, to fatten those in the other world up, so they can continue to sing."



This article seems timely as we've recently welcomed Lily into our family. A family of women welcomes its first granddaughter, its first niece. My mom says Lily makes all sorts of faces- she's busy thinking and dreaming. Perhaps transitioning into this world.

An old Aztec saying is, "That we come to this earth to live is untrue. We come to sleep and to dream." Maybe I was also drawn to this article after vivid dreams of New Zealand friends last night. This morning I woke up wondering where I was and what had happened. And then became a little sad to realise it was just a dream. But the feelings were real.

I like the idea of roots to the other world, of reincarnation, of connectedness. If we are not connected, then why are we all here together? How is it possible to just meet someone and feel you've known them forever? Couldn't that be that we actually have met?

When do you feel most alive? Is it when you're accomplishing something? Or is it when you've gotten yourself out of the usual, into a transition area, a place where time feels slow, light appears altered and life is not what it seems?

I know how I am. Which may explain why I'm content to travel, to sow no roots and to let belongings slide off my back, so that I am free to keep walking. Walking through this earth, contributing to the song, and making connections every day.