In the beginning there was nothing.  There was only darkness.  There was the Mother and She was the darkness.  The Mother bled and the oceans were born; She knew Her own Body and felt Her own Pulse, sensed the richness of Life emanating from Her every Cell.  The gold in Her veins radiated back to the surface the solar fire of the sun.  As the creatures of the Earth came forth and in turn gave themselves back to Her, their forms transformed and provided the Mother with gifts with which to create new Life.   Long after the dinosaurs left the surface of the planet, the coal that once was their flesh and bone became Her bones and they steadied the mantle and crust of the Earth.  The oil became Her vital lymphatic fluids, gave nutrients to soil so that plant life could become abundant.  The Mother saw that Life would beget new Life and she was joyous about the perfection of Life’s Beauty.   Her knowing created an inner world of thought, feeling, knowing.  This inner world is Aluna.

   Aluna was opened to the earliest children of the Mother.  Those races which embraced the knowledge of Her, and took upon themselves to live Her teachings of Harmony and Balance with the natural and spirit worlds; they are the Elder Brothers.  They maintain a connection with the Mother through Aluna and guide their peoples to live in ways that are constantly and consistently aware of all of Life.  Every practical choice, every relationship, every moment determined by the impact of thoughts, words, and actions upon the Earth and upon the web of Being that binds us all.

       The sacred spiritual and cultural leaders of the Colombian Kogi, the Mamas, have been trying to  show us how this way of life is not only possible, but that it is absolutely necessary.*  Without a high level of consciousness about how all intention impacts even the most remote fragment of life, we will not survive.  And when they say “we”, they mean every member of the human race.  When they speak of survival, they are describing something even more vital than physical survival.  The Mamas know that if we do not evolve, inwardly, that we will not survive as spiritual beings.  More than the planet is at risk due to our outer actions.  Our inner state is confused and motivated by low concerns.  Greed, fear, and insecurity rule us and we are therefore not able to make choices that consider the eternal and infinite.  But the Elder Brothers are here to help us understand; to help us make the choice to evolve.  What is happening to the planet is only an obvious outer manifestation of our own diseased state.  We can see for ourselves with every devastation, drought, and natural disaster that it is time to heed their voices.  It is time to come to hear the ancient voice of Aluna.

   From the Heart of the World, the Mamas seek out the wisdom that would help us to see with new eyes.  From the time of their own appointment as Wisdom Keepers, before birth and by divination, the Mamas are taught to think only of the Mother, only of how She maintains all Life, how all living things are sentient beings with souls of their own.  And they learn how it is that human beings can live in harmony with every living being.  A Mama is shown the Nine Worlds, and how they interconnect, how they are interdependent.  Every form of life inhabits one of those Nine Worlds: the etheric spirit beings, plant beings, animal beings, etc…  Every World overlaps every other World.  We are inhabitants of only one world and must be aware of the innate sovereignty of the inhabitants of the other Eight Worlds.

   The choices then, for how human beings ought to live their lives, become limited by what is acceptable and healthy for all of the Nine Worlds.  Any action that disrupts the other beings and their natural way of being in harmony with Life is an ignorant action, releasing a cascade of negative reactions, which impacts everything!  We have not been so broad in our understanding of our role in the miniature Spiral Universe that the Nine Worlds are housed in; we have not taken the time to seek out the “long vision” that could allow us to be in our proper place.  Our proper place is soundly between the earthly material and spirit worlds, accountable directly to both.  We are creatures made of both celestial matter and material spirit.  The Elder Brothers know this, and they gently, compassionately, sternly, lovingly try to tell us what we have such a hard time hearing:

   “Be one with all of Life, in your hearts and minds and with your actions.  Remove the obstacles inwardly and outwardly that keep you from maintaining contact with the Earth.  Keep the Mother in your awareness at all times.  Accept no object or tool or lifestyle that artificially positions you as above Nature or each other.  Realize and accept that you do not understand the effects of your actions: stop all actions that rob the Mother of Her Life-force and rob you of your higher consciousness.  Stop destroying Her body by plundering It’s depths for oil, coal, gems, gasses, and ore.  Make the leap towards compassion and wisdom with your conscience and accept that what poisons you place in the atmosphere will kill the gentle cycle of weather that maintains the ecology of the Earth.  Know that you are diminishing the World and Its ability to sustain Life, faster than you can imagine.  Realize that you are degrading yourselves and your spiritual half by making these choices.  Should you finally rob the planet of all fertility, should you finally completely alter the climate, should you steal away all of the fortunes that lie in the Earth; know that you shall unleash death and disaster upon all beings of all the Nine Worlds.  Because your intent is the catalyst for these destructions, you will suffer far beyond the suffering of those beings of the other Worlds.  You do not know what you are manifesting; you do not understand the Way.  The World does not need to die.  Learn the Way that the Mother has taught us from the very beginning.  Open yourself to Aluna.”

   This Way is one of high concentration and devotion.  It asks of us to never be distracted, always be aware of our motivations and careful with the present moment.  When we are engaged in some work we must think single-pointedly of the movements we must take, the materials we are working with, the impact of our actions and the value of what is created due to those actions.  We must not chatter while we work, or break our concentration with daydreams or wishful thinking.  We must be completely present.

   To follow the Way, one must learn to See again.  We must not ever take the natural world for granted.  Every leaf, every sunbeam, every detail must entrance us and must make us realize the vibrant living sentiency of all other living beings!  We must practice our gratitude for our relationship with the other Worlds.  We must engage our devotion to those beings with real actions and sincere gestures of love.

   We must find the harmony with each other that we have left behind in our social development.  Men and women must never quarrel.  Children must be free of being considered property, or of owing their parents anything but the realization of their own confident Selfhood.  From the earliest moments in each relationship, we must learn how to see the Mother and Father energies in everyone.  We must speak to each other as divine beings.  We must remember that we are all as humble as the dirt beneath our feet and as unfettered as the stars.  Our communications must always begin with a mood of cooperation and our orientation to eachother, postive; even when there is friction present.  When we speak to someone, especially if they are the apparent "opposite" sex, we must choose to offer them dignity and preserve our own without assuming that each person's dignity comes at the expense of the others'.  So all choices become a question:  how will my decisions impact you, who are as the Mother/Father? 

   So too, the living Earth needs our recognition as a divine being.  We must only choose to use tools that do not create more ignorance in us.  There is a powerful truth in the teaching that too much ease and convenience will be our un-doing.  When daily activities and duties become so easy that we need not be fully conscious, we are not following the Way of Harmony and Balance.  How conscious can we be when we are tossing a pre-packaged snack in the microwave?  How much more conscious must we be when we wash and cut and prepare living foods, cook them in pots and pans on a stove, lay out dishes and place the food in pleasing arrangements on the plates, and serve it to ourselves and our families?  How we do something says a lot about the kind of person we are.  What we could gain by practicing a highly evolved discernment is invaluable!  If we choose to do away with or refuse objects that control us by the way they inhibit our creativity and awareness and conscious participation; if we choose instead to embrace only those objects that further our concentration and integration with our higher selves and all other life-forms, we can only manifest goodness.  The Mamas teach their people to accept tools and technologies that will manifest goodness and they do not miss what they do not have.  If we can embrace this Way, we will enact healing for the natural world.  We will further our own growth and make ourselves healthier and more capable than we have ever been as a race upon the planet, and not by having power over anything but our own lower, lustful natures.

   We can live in harmony and balance.  We must live in harmony and balance.  We face the threshold now, when the choice to evolve or self-destruct is upon us with utter clarity.  Let us heed the teachings of the Elder Brothers.  Let us embrace the Mother’s Wisdom and hear how She wants us to care for Her children.  Let us turn towards truth and love, and turn away from the seduction of rampant, thoughtless development.  Let us consider thoughtfully the impact of every movement.  We can see as the Mamas do, if we open ourselves to the truth of our right place.  We can see and hear and feel Aluna, and that inner realm will become our true Home.