Page 16 - March April 2015

Dancing The Golden Equinox in Ecuador
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from an email we received from a friend, Ardella Nathanael, who traveled to Ecuador last April to celebrate the Spring Equinox. Her description of her time there was so interesting, we thought our readers would enjoy reading about her adventures.
of their best to all with warmth
and sensitive appreciation of
everything and everyone. Their
art is expressive of their nature,
with exquisite designs of mountains, llamas, alpacas, trees and flowers, all delicately interwoven in the most beautifully combined colors. Quetchua, (pronounced: Ketchwah,) the native language, is very sweet and loving, and is apparently descended from the ancient Lemurian language of the Pacific. A fascinating article (in the A.R.E. magazine “Venture Inward”
at the end of 2012) told of research into details of blood DNA which demonstrated that the peoples of the Pacific rim are all related, and so
probably all came from ancient Lemuria before it sank into the ocean, long before even Atlantis.
The dancers were celebrating Springtime and the Equinox, new life in Nature and the Pakchamama (Mother Nature.)
Here are the themes of some of them:
1. “En el campo mi chola querida esperando estará mi regreso. Ella es todo mi amor en mi vida y esperando estará mi regreso.,”
(In the field my beloved one is awaiting my return. She is my whole love in my life, and will be awaiting my return.) Celebrating Springtime and plowing and love for the bull helping them. To the bull they then sing: “Corre, corre, Toro! Si, señor!” (Run, run, Bull! Yes, Sir!)
2. Adoring the Virgin Mary, and throwing flower-petals on her path, singing, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Heavenly Virgin!”
3. Celebration of love -- love of life, love of the Earth, love between loved ones and to all peoples as brothers.
4. Celebration of Heaven and Earth and all that they give us.
5. Love of the Earth as a living being, love of their culture and dance, and the joy of living on the Earth, and celebrating the Path of the Spirit.
It is so wonderful to experience ever more widely and profoundly our planetary family with whom we are all so intricately connected, so that true understanding and cooperation can spread in our world.
Ever your friend, as we join together to care for our planet Earth family, Ardella
Dear planetary family,
Ecuador was agog with dancing and celebrating the Equinox! Ecuador is THE place in the world to celebrate the Equinox, for the Sun is exactly overhead at 00° 00¨ 00” -- especially in La Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World) where we were....
And since the Earth bulges at the Equator, and here in the Andes is the highest point on the Equator in the whole world, one is closer to the Sun here at this time than anywhere else on Earth...
Since time immemorial, the ancient peoples of the Andes have known exactly where the Equator was, for they could measure the equal number of days the sun was on either side. Quito means Latitude zero, and the people who lived there called themselves Quitus, because they knew that they were in the middle of the world.
We climbed up to one sacred site where the Shaman and others were preparing for the ceremony. The mountains here are 30,000 feet and more, (higher than the Rila in Bulgaria), and it took me a few days to acclimatize from sea level in California.
Next we went to El Palacio del Sol (The Palace of the Sun) built by the “fastest painter in the world” with sculptures of famous ancient Aztec leaders, a large building and steps up and down the slopes from which one could watch performances in the arena below. Here another Shaman and others had prepared the pattern of flowers on the ground, which always marks the center for the sacred ceremonies.
Native American music was being played by a band, and soon the ceremony was underway with purifications by smoke of all attending, prayers to Mother Earth (Pakchamama) and the Four Directions (north, south, east and west) with invocations and blowing a long Australian- style instrument made from a long thick branch of a tree.
The shaman and others walked around the circle blowing water and alcohol over the people to signify purification by fire, and the ceremony finally came to an end with ecstatic dancing for about half an hour around the circle.
We then returned to the village of
San Antonio de Pinchincha, known
as “La Mitad del Mundo”, where in
the center of the town a large stage with an awning had been set up, and beautiful Ecuadorian dancing was
just starting. The costumes were of bright colors and very elegant, and the dancing joyous and symbolic. Most of the dances had a spiritual story to tell. One was of a family who had lost a child, but found the child had been transformed into an angel.
I was impressed by the quality of true spirituality evident everywhere among the native peoples here. They are always joyous and smiling, giving
For information about trips to Ecuador and Paneurythmia here in the North Bay,
contact Ardella 415-499-8027 ardella222@gmail.com
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