Naomi Katz
Revitalizing our culture
We are living in a time in which our education focuses on the development of the mind. When we are children, we experience aesthetic education - an education of the senses in which we engage with life with the totality of ourselves. In the western world, as we grow, we are encouraged to develop the faculties of our mind. The overdevelopment of the mind separates us from a total engagement with the richness of life and from the inherent wisdom in our bodies.
The supremacy of the mind leads us to believe that wisdom exists outside of ourselves. Yet, in the simple act of observing nature, observing ourselves, we recover our innate wisdom. We know how to make decisions that reflect our authentic selves. We know how to manifest the reality we want for ourselves. We simply need to remember.
In the face of an education that has overdeveloped the mind, we have the possibility to remember through education that engages the senses and engages the totality of the body by:
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Reclaiming our ability to observe and reflect as a central tool for learning.
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Embracing the values of earth, water, air, fire as the source of all life, the elements upon which our life depends.
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Reclaiming our relationship with the course of nature by celebrating the natural calendar.
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Renewing the role of ritual and ceremony on an individual and collective level. Being clear about our PURPOSE when we do a ritual or participate in a ceremony.
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Reclaiming eldership. Recognizing the importance of intergenerational relationships.
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Embracing indigenous wisdom as it is shared with us by others as well as recognizing that it lives within us, within the cycles and rhythms of our bodies and the innate knowledge in our souls.
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Returning our attention to our bodies through conscious movement practices.
Antes, en toda la tierra, antes de que existieran las religiones, las filosofías, las sub religiones, lo que religaba la existencia de nosotros los humanos en la tierra, era la relación a los cuatro valores que hacían posible la creación de la vida, la celebración de la muerte y el sueño del futuro, estos cuatro valores son desde donde se fundamenta la revolución y la evolución del espíritu, la mente y el cuerpo del alimento de toda forma de vida en la tierra. La fe de la vida y su trasmutación en el tiempo, es a través de estos cuatro valores; que son la tierra, el fuego el aire y el agua.
Previously, all over the planet, before the existence of religions, philosophies or sub-religions which made religious our human relationship to the earth, existed the relation to the four values which made the creation of life possible, the celebration of death and the dream of the future. These four values are the basis of the revolution and evolution of the spirit, the mind and the body which nourishes every form of life upon the earth. The faith of life and its transmutation in time, through these four values which are the earth, the fire, the air and the water.
-Carmen Vicente
