When our habitat–our home suffers—we suffer, and vice versa. In Merida today, I learned of a rather painful prehistoric Huastec ritual, a fertility rite to celebrate the rebirth of mortally wounded humans or of their homelands.
A shaman donned the skin of the deceased one to trigger rebirth for that person “like the land itself when it becomes covered with new vegetation.”
What a strange analogy, one that the modern mind can hardly make any sense out of. But this legendary rite for Tlacaxipehualixtli is about renewal and restoration not just about death….
Brother Coyote, OEF
