Some Notes and Thoughts on Indigenous Spirituality (I)

Fellow Journeyers, hi..

Following rabbi Shefa's letter, I thought of sharing with you a few themes from Indigenous spirituality. Some of it has obvious resonance to our modern-day faith practices. It should help us be more ready and conversant with the cultures and traditions of the Andean Indigenous peoples of the South of Peru.

There is no religion without a given theology of liberation. The use of the term "theology", in this case, is only a device of convenience. The term Theology derives from the Latin, meaning, roughly, a discourse on God. The God we worship however, cannot be talked about, for the moment we make God into an "about" we have made him into an object, an "It" in Buber's terms. We can't talk about God, but we can talk to God. To say that, of course, requires the acceptance of a certain theology about God, and therein lies a critical logical dilemma. There is a very peculiar and interesting Indigenous theology about man's origin, purpose and ultimate liberation or redemption. The Gods of the Indigenous were, much like ours, creators, sustainers and destroyers. That's the theology, but the relationship of the Indigenous person with his God was intimate, very concrete and deeply felt in the here, now and everything.

The Indigenous of pre-Columbian Latin America had a very elaborate religious civilization. Sadly, their religion was all but obliterated by the conquering Christ of the Spaniards. Indigenous temples were destroyed and on top of their ruins, imposing churches were built. The Indigenous priestly class, as the bearers of the secrets of their religions, were especially made to suffer and in most instances, killed. Indigenous languages, names, literature, art, entire cultures, were systematically and methodically distorted by a process of forcible conversions. Priests, by pain of death or torture, were forced to publicly resign their ancestral faiths and proclaim in their stead the new religion of their conquerors. They were forced to help lead their communities away from their ancestral faiths. It is often reckoned that Spaniards, in contrast to recent-history Germans, were not as efficient in record keeping.. we just don't know for sure how many millions of Indigenous were killed during this process.

How much of all that rings familiar to a Jewish ear? temples destroyed, forced conversions, genocide.

But also rebirth. This also rings familiar.

One crucial historic difference however: the Jewish sages of old, when facing pending and real calamities, knew to move on form exclusive reliance on the temple to sustain our religious faith. The Romans believed, as was the case around their sprawling empire, that by destroying the temple, the pesky Jewish rebels would just simply go away, their stage in history closed. Jews, instead, rebuilt their temple, but in a different dimension, one that cannot be destroyed by fire. As Heschel wrote, our new temples were built in Time instead of Space, our temple is the day of Shabbat, the first of the creation to be called "holy" in the Torah. The Spaniards, like their Roman predecessors in pillage and colonialism, successfully relied on this destructive principle.

As I travel, I often converse with Indigenous sages about these tragic historic events their peoples had to endured. It is all of us who lost when they lost. I make reference to their religion having all-but disappeared once their temples were destroyed. What remains of Indigenous spirituality is still recovering from their historic "churban", the destruction of their people. But here lies one of our callings. We, as Jews, can teach and can demonstrate. Sadly, we know only to well about these things. A faith, to survive, to be reborn, and even to thrive and grow and be a light unto the nations, requires nothing but a willing heart and, also, so as not to forget the practical side of history, a good measure of community organizing.

There is still a living religious life in the Indigenous communities of Latin America. Some of it has found expression through a hybrid of syncretic faiths and beliefs, partially Christian, partially ancestral. There is a record of ancient books and beliefs and ceremonies and liturgies. The Indigenous of the Amazons, (not the Inkas, though it did reach the Inkas too), were famous for their use of a mystical plant called the "Ayahuasca". Ayahuasca is a plant the people believed the Gods had left behind on earth in order to reveal/conceal the truth of life and the universe. The jungle is the home of the plant and the entire ecological network its protector and sustainer. But only those spiritually ready and prepared would be called to boil the plant into a drink. The Shamans would drink the Ayahuasca during special ceremonies and occasions, usually when there was a need to access the wisdom of the Gods for a community purpose, never for recreational purposes. For the Indigenous, there were many Gods, and the abode of the Gods was inside the world and outside of the world. The Ayahuasca was the means of communication with the Gods of nature and beyond.

A multi-God culture has no primordial objection to absorbing and incorporating new Gods from other cultures. This sounds alien to a Jewish mind, but in the world of Indigenous faith, the God of the white-man, was, at first, a reluctantly, though somewhat welcome addition. It was only when this new God, aided by cannons, alcohol and bacterial infections, demanded to be, not the chief of all Gods, as in the Inka's divine hierarchies, but the one and only God, that the culture of the Indigenous began the process of its demise.

In subsequent letters I will tell you a bit more about the system of Gods and the role of the Shaman and his Ayahuasca in Andean religions. We are going to witness some of it during our trip. I think there is much we can bring to them and much we will receive from them.

This "them" and "us" is also something to gradually learn to overcome..

in peace and dialogue

Hune