Yuca Kati (Cassava Moon )

Yuca Kishibu Kati (Cassava Full Moon) will be on December 26th.

The primary crop cultivated by the Taino Indians was Yuca/Cassava. It was planted in the Conucos (a small plot of cultivated land) using a Coa (a kind of hoe made completely out of wood). From the Yuca/Cassava the Tainos made the baked cassava flatbread, which became a main part of their diet.

When Christopher Columbus and his Spaniard team first arrived to the Hispaniola Island (Dominican Republic and Haiti) in 1492, they found that cassava bread had advantages over their traditional European bread, in that it does not go stale or moldy. For this reason, the Spaniards took this durable cassava flatbread to other parts of the continent as they continued their conquest of America.
excerpt from http://www.hispaniolacassava.com/cassava-story.html

Oviedo recorded that our ancestors planted their Yuca at the start of the lunar month so that the crop grew with the phases of the moon. They also encouraged growth by placing or burying zemi figures of stone or wood in the conuco (garden) to protect the crop and ensure its potency.

Today, in lowland Amazonia, manioc gardens are associated with fertility and sexuality, as places where menstruating women take refuge, unmarried couples have sex, and babies are born. The process of planting hard manioc cuttings in soft, yielding soil is itself seen as full of sexual imagery.

Late November and December is the time when Yuca is harvested.

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Spiritual Significance
"They call him Yúcahu Bagua Maórocoti" is the earliest mention of the zemí taken from the first page of Fray Ramón Pané's Account of the Antiquities of the Indians. 

As the Taíno did not possess a written language, the name is the phonetic spelling as recorded by the Spanish missionaries, Ramón Pané, and Bartolomé de las Casas. The three names are thought to represent the Great Spirit's epithets.

Yúcahu means spirit or giver of Cassava. Bagua has been interpreted as meaning both "the sea" itself and "master of the sea." The name Maórocoti implies that he was conceived without male intervention.
excerpt from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C3%BAcahu

Yuca holds a sacred place in our lives as it symbolises fertility and nourishment, one of our sacred items always presented to the zemi and ancestors.

MEDITATION

This Full Moon represents the harvesting of our nourishing Yuca, reaping the rewards of the work put in from the Rainy season of May. We have prayed, worked and now we receive.

Now you have to harvest at the right time, too early the roots will be young not fit for eating, too long and it may become hard or food for pests so the lesson here is also one of discernment to do things in their alotted time and season.

1. Create Sacred Space - Call on your ancestors, your guides, the ways your ancestors would have. Ask them to help focus your mind and heart to the task at hand, so you may be prepared to show yourself worthy for all that you seek, to attract the energy necessary to manifest your desire with the coming seasons.

2. With your eyes closed while standing or sitting on a chair, Take 7 deep inhales and exhales to clear your mind.

3. Bring attention to your breath, with each inhale receiving life giving oxygen from the plants and with each exhale giving them carbon dioxide.

Visualise a beautiful Conuco (garden) filled with Yuca (Cassava). Find yourself by a plant that is pleasing to your spirit, that represents your plant to harvest based on all the work put in this year. 

4. As you see the Yuca plant before you, take a deep inhale and open your palms, with a slow steady exhale clench your fist and visualise holding the stem .

Take another deep inhale opening your palm, and with a slow and steady exhale clench your fist and visualise your are pulling the stem to pull out the nourishing Yuca root.

Continue to synchronize your breaths and clenching of fist with your visualisation of pulling the Yuca plants root out from the soil.

5. As you pull see all of the obstacles you have overcome, and allow yourself to fill with gratitude for experiencing another beautiful full moon. As you pull the Yuca root out give thanks to your guides for all of the blessings received now to carry you through to the next full moon and beyond.

6. To close place hands before heart and breathe in deeply that gratitude.

Energy is present 2 days before and 2 days after the Full moon so you have time to practice

Cohiba Kishibu Kati (Tobacco Full Moon)

Cohiba Kishibu Kati (Tobacco  Full Moon) will be on November 27th.


Cohiba /Tobacco is a plant that grows natively in the Caribbean, North and South America. It is in the same family as the potato, pepper and the poisonous nightshade, a very deadly plant.

Traditionally, in tropical climates it has been considered that the ideal months to plant tobacco are November and December, since it results in better yield and quality and allows for rain fed cultivation, taking advantage of the rain during this season.


On this Full Moon as it is the season to Plant Cohiba, we honor the spirit of this plant.

Spiritual Significance

In the chronicles of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage –recorded mislabeled in history as the “discovery of America,” he refers that upon arriving in Cuba, his ship was welcomed by canoes steered by men and women who held small bunches of quasi-golden leaves that, given their shape, resembled “muskets lit up on one end” that natives pressed between their lips, delightfully inhaling the aromatic smoke off that exotic plant, totally unknown for the crew at that time.

Those peaceful and innocent people were offering COHIBA to the colonizers as a token of friendship. That used to be their most precious treasure, the underpinning of their lives and a way to communicate with the gods. The Tainos called TOBACCO a two-pronged hollow tubes carved in wood that, unlike the leaves rolled into the shape of a musket, they used to absorb the COHIBA through the nostrils.

That was powder tobacco, what people now call snuff. As Columbus and his men heard the words pronounced by the Tainos, they mixed up the word COHIBA with the instrument called TOBACCO.

Let’s turn time back now to the palenque (party or festival) where the sacred ceremony known as the Cohiba Ritual is about to begin. An areito or ritual chant is being sung as the music fills up the atmosphere. The Kasike (tribe chief) or Behike (medicine man) also acts as the supreme priest. He has inhaled the smoke of the COHIBA, sitting on the ceremonial dujo, a lovely seat that recreates the form of an antediluvian animal. With his head leaning on his chest and his hands on his knees, he remains silent, submerged in somekind of profound trance. When the Kasike or behike begins to speak, his voice sounds celestial and divine. Participants answer out loud to his words, each and every one of them telling what his or her problems are, concerned with the future of the tribe. They are also grateful that the gods –through the Kasike/behike and by means of the Cohiba Ritual- are listening to them and dishing out wise solutions.

excerpt from http://www.revistasexcelencias.com/en/excelencias-turisticas-cuba/t0bacco/reportaje/ritual-cohoba


Meditation

This Full Moon is about wisdom, communication, grounding, thanksgiving.

1. Create Sacred Space - Call on your ancestors, your guides, the ways your ancestors would have. Ask them to help focus your mind and heart to the task at hand, so you may be prepared to show yourself worthy for all that you seek, to attract the energy necessary to manifest your desire with the coming seasons.

2. With your eyes closed while standing or sitting on a chair, Take 7 deep inhales and exhales to clear your mind.

3.Bring attention to your breath, with each inhale receiving life giving oxygen from the plants and with each exhale giving them carbon dioxide. Visualise a beautiful flowering Yuri (cohiba) plant in your minds eye that is feeding you oxygen and you are feeding carbon dioxide under this moon's glow. 

4. As you see the Yuri (cohiba) flower before you, observe as the hummingbird draws the medicine from this plant, many native american cultures teach that the humming bird represents our ancestors and deep wisdom as it feeds from the sacred Yuri (Cohiba) plant. Like the hummingbird feeding on this sacred plant, with each inhale see as a ray of light ,deep wisdom entering your body, with each exhale release worries, fears and doubts to this sacred plant.

5.Continue to do this allowing any insights or guidance to come to you under this moon and this moment in silence. When complete give thanks for guidance and the energy given to you. 

Energy is present 2 days before and 2 days after the Full moon so you have time to practice

Iguana Kati (Iguana Moon )

 The Iguana Kishibu Kati will be on September 29th.

The Jamaican Iguana is a keystone species because of the crucial role they play in cycling nutrients through the ecosystem and the fact that they can make up the largest proportion of the native vertebrate biomass.

History

The animals were once a thriving species and inhabited much of the island, mostly on its coasts, until the mid-1800s. The population declined drastically due to hostile predators, such as mongooses, cats and stray dogs. Additionally, activities like cutting down trees and clearing land for housing and farming contributed to the elimination of many iguanas.

The species was declared extinct in 1948. However, in 1990, the animals were rediscovered in a remote area in the Hellshire Hills, Portmore, St. Catherine. Thus, an intense effort to recover the species and rebuild the population began.

Rescue Efforts

Through the Jamaican Iguana Recovery Programme, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), which is tasked with managing and protecting Jamaica’s biodiversity, aims to release 1,000 iguanas in the Hellshire Hills by 2026, having begun the process in 1996.
excerpt from https://jis.gov.jm/information/get-the-facts/the-jamaican-iguana/

Colonizers saw the Iguana as a delicacy for our ancestors but they did not understand the deep spiritual symbolism for our people. We believe that the sun and moon come from a cave called Iguanaboina and this cave is also the home of twin Cemi (nature spirits) Marohu which rules over clear skys and Boinyael (meaning child of Boina the gray serpent) which rules over rain. 

For Yamaye Taino the Iguana is associated with the dry season and the Sun while the Maha (Boa) or Boina with the rainy season and the Moon.
 
Iguana Kati is the name of the full moon after the Equinox in September as the full moon before the September equinox is always called Karey kati (turtle moon) whether it falls in august or early september.
 

Iguana Kati for our people today is a strong symbol for our resurgence, as like the Jamaican Iguana our people were also thought extinct, but were hiding in plane sight and our numbers were dwindling due to colonization of our people and our spaces.

Spiritual Significance

The spirit of the iguana for our people today represents the sun, resilience, patience, adaptability, transmutation, and  the Yamaye Taino resurgence. Our people, like the Jamaican Iguana were thought to be extinct yet we remain today through Creator's blessings and the Will of our ancestors. 

MEDITATION

This Full Moon is about honoring our ancestors, gratitude for our blessings, celebration of cycles and rebirth:

1. Create Sacred Space - Call on your ancestors, your spiritual guides and protectors, the way in which your ancestors would. Ask them to help focus your mind and heart to the task at hand, so you may be prepared to show yourself worthy for all that you seek, to attract the energy necessary to manifest your desire with the coming seasons.

2. With your eyes closed while standing or sitting on a chair, Take 7 deep inhales and exhales to clear your mind.

3. Take deep breaths to your stomach, allow it to expand and in your mind generate a warm heat from your stomach.

4. Allow each positive thought you declare for your life to be represented by a seed, consume this seed and observe as it moves to your stomach. 
Like the Iguana allow your stomach to refine this desire and with your exhale allow it to move down through your feet and into the earth.

5.When complete give thanks for guidance and the energy given to you. 

Energy is present 2 days before and 2 days after the Full moon so you have time to practice