Teachers & Mentors, Pt 2: Ancestors & Nature
There were nine of us, women and men of the African Diaspora, in a living room surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. There is a feeling of intimacy and purpose.
Elder Malidoma Patrice Somé enters in a black and white traditional garb, sits in the cream wing chair in the circle, grabs his drum and begins to play. We are all playing something – drums, shakerees, bells, clapping.
He evokes the Ancestors and we begin. We have gathered to turn towards our indigenous ways of being and the wisdom of our Ancestors.
I am thinking of this early Spring day, now almost 4 years ago, because today I learned that Elder Malidoma made his transition early this morning.
My time with him was a reset to my entire life.
A restoration of my ancestral line – not through specific details but reconnection of the signal between my life and theirs.
He taught me that community includes those we can’t see and that they await communication from me.
He guided me in deepening my understanding of indigenous healing technology and in connecting with my unique medicine.
Elder Malidoma offered the group of us a healing of our perceptions, a lens where the leading thinkers, guiding myths, images, ways of being and symbols are not Western and modern.
This healed my fractured illusions-no longer a person of broken ancestry, pillaged country, a by- product of generational violence, surviving.
I am, in the the Dagara tradition, a woman of the Nature Clan, the medicine women & men, that are about transformation & change. We go to nature for our medicine and through that, we heal and assist others in returning to their true nature.
I learned and experienced that the natural realm offers me (us) sanctuary in our healing.
Today I feel loss and grief, I want more time…
I also feel his wisdom, ancestors are a part of the community, we just can't see them.
His transition to the ancestral realm amplifies the call of those of us still embodied.
Our mission is to offer our gifts to the community, “unpack our suitcases all the way” as he would say.
Peaceful transition Elder Malidoma. 🕯🌿❤️
Thank you for your loving, deep presence.
It rained this morning in Los Angeles - Elder Malidoma is of the Water clan. Libations for his journey ahead.