Revelations from a shaman.

That morning in the sacred city of Teyuna I probably had the most transcendental conversation of my life. Jate Rumaldo talked to me about birth and death, -Where are we before birth?- I asked. Looking in the distance while chewing coca leaves, he smiled as a patient father would do when teaching his beloved children the essential things of life, and after a brief silence said: “-We were in the darkness, it was as dark as the night, as the womb of our Jaba (Mother).-”

Mamo Rumaldo Lozano from Kogui Tribe.

The elders and wises from the Kogi tribe are "Mamos", the highest authority of their social structure. A Mamo, is a 'Jate' -father- leader of the community that represents, physical and spiritual healer and advisor. Jate Rumaldo is the Mamo of the Kogis that currently inhabits the territories around and towards Teizhua, (Teyuna) a colossal capital sacred city known as Ciudad Perdida, located in Colombia (South America), political, cultural and ceremonial temple built as a fortress by their ancestors the Tayronas.

"The word “darkness” kept resonating in my head and it triggered memories from long time ago. I could see myself seated with my grandmother and reading this sentence from a book with a yellow cover. "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." I am not a believer, however, I couldn't help to wonder if there were any underlying relationship with Jate Rumaldo's words and why is the word “darkness” a common reference for the beginning of the universe on sacred books, myths and legends from ancient civilisations and most recently, from science."

Gonawindua, is the aboriginal name of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a coastal mountain range connecting the caribbean sea to the perpetual snows and lagoons from the highest peaks, across big arteries of water that sprouts from the glacials and irrigates hectares and hectares of the most fertile and green lands, sanctuary of thousands animal species, some of them unique of their kind and the homeland of its guardians, Kogis, Wiwas, Arhuacos and Kankuamos, four natives tribes that have a deep understanding and intimate connection with nature.

Sezhankua and Shublue peaks. (Bolívar and Columbus) Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.

Birth, Life and Death.

"Everything in the material world also exists in the spiritual. Did you ever wonder why water doesn't run dry, or the wind never stop blowing? Animals, threes, the elements, even us, everything have its roots planted in the vast infinite immaterial world that we call Shé, the energy source of the universe. The origin of the fire is in the everlasting flames of the spiritual world where darkness is, the light that will never be extinguished and from which everything emerge. The spiritual and material realms coexist in balance and one feeds the other in a infinite circle, same way, birth and death comes from the same source and are profoundly connected, both are passages between the material shapes and the spirit that is pure thought without form."

Since that morning, I couldn't stop thinking about how strangely familiar I was with the words of Jate Rumaldo. Over the days, everything he said brought me back to my memory all the stories I have known about the origin of the universe, the ones from the yellow book of my long readings with granny, the narrations and mythopoesis of J. R.R. Tolkien about the creation of Eä and the First Age I devoured like wildfire a while ago, the tales I heard from a Wayuu native colleague during the long night shifts we did in the middle of Guajira desert two years ago and most recently, the latest discoveries and theories of science, articles, papers, books and documentaries explaining what we know about the cosmos, everything seems to fit perfectly.

Is it possible that everybody has been telling the same story about the beginning of the world? I wonder.

Is this one universal truth about the origin of everything told too many times and therefore, reshaped along the ages?

I wanted answers.

Where should I start?

I was lying on the top of a huge rock, gazing at the sky when the night came dressed with the brightest stars she could find, she brought as well an answer for my last interrogative, it was right there above my written with a language without words: The origin of everything, is a journey that begins from the stars.

I packed all my most existential enigmas and embarked in an expedition towards the unknown, the size and the age of the cosmos are far beyond the limits of human understanding and to find the truth behind its origin, it's necessary to have both imagination and skepticism because, as the scientist Carl Sagan said: "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere." and I parted from there. And speaking about science, what does it say about the origin of stars?

Thank you, Jate Rumaldo, for a morning and a conversation full of insights, for your enlightening words and silences full of wisdom.

Zhenyarle.