Whenever I arrive in Harare, there is a landing in my body, a sense of familiarity, a homecoming. I used to wonder why, despite only spending the first 6 weeks of my life in the place of my birth, I feel such a strong bond. My first trips ‘home’ were as a teenager – holiday swaps during the Rhodesian war. My father’s Rhodesian friends coming to stay at his home in La Lucia near Durban, and my father and I going on fishing trips to Lake Kariba in the north of then Rhodesia.
My younger sister refused to go to a war zone – it never crossed my mind. And as I write this, I do wonder what my father was thinking taking me there. He almost lost his life during the war. The flight he was booked on from Kariba to Harare was one of the planes shot down during the war. My dad and fishing friends arrived late with a cooler box of fish that leaked a trail of blood across the airport floor. It delayed their check-in, and they were not allowed to board the flight. That bloody box of fish that saved their lives. It did not stop him returning again and again, and he knew I needed to connect with the land of my birth
So why this deep connection with a land that I have spent a tiny fraction of my life in?
In the cosmology of Peru, it is said that we not only have our biological parents, we also have our energetic earth parents. The Itu and Paqarina are the spirit beings linked to our place of birth – the Itu is the masculine and Paqarina the feminine, our energetic earth father and mother. The Itu is usually a mountain, an apu, and the Paqarina, a river or body of water. Zimbabwe is the home of my Itu Apu and Paqarina.
Our birthplace may be the place our ancestors, the land that has held our families for many generations. When we leave that place or when our ancestors left, part of us may be left behind, making it hard to find home in a new land. Arising from divinations, I have done rituals to fully ground myself in both the land of my birth, Zimbabwe and the land where I live, South Africa. Southern Africa will always be my home
August, in Peru, is Pachamama Month – a month of honouring Mother Earth. Pachamama is more than just the ground we walk on – she is a living being. In the spirit of ayni (sacred reciprocity), offerings are made to Pachamama in gratitude for what has been received and what will be received from the earth. The first day of August is celebrated as Pachamama Day when rituals and despacho offerings are made to Pachamama.
You are invited to join a celebration of Pachamama Day in a Meditative Morning on 1 August – to come and create your own despacho offering to honour and thank Mother Earth for the abundance in your life.
In keeping with Pachamama month, the theme for the Constellation Circle on 20 August is “Land of Birth” – exploring our relationship to our birthplace and meeting with your itu and paqarina. As always, there will be group constellations that flow from the constellation exercises exploring the circle’s theme, and pre-booked constellations for those who want to be sure of having their own constellation (on any issue).
