TierraMitica

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Lavanderia

The Lotus Flower

The Lavanderia, also known as the washroom or laundry room in Gringo-tongue, as the name might suggest,
Cleanin' the Lizard
is where Tierra Miticans hand wash their clothes to then hang to to dry in the hot
Fillin' in the cracks
jungle sun. For Loretta, sheer functionality was not enough, and she envisioned a place where people could wash their clothes in style, with panache. A room with color, soul, and heart to match that which is within all of the beautiful people of Tierra Mitica. And so Loretta, inspired, set out to create for us a mosaic that would span the entire length of the washroom countertop. She spent many hours putting her creativity, heart, and love into each carefully chosen piece of broken tile, and what emerged was a beautiful collage of color, lizards, and lotus flowers.
Gracias Loretta!

Mixin' grout

Pollitos y Pequines

Mythic Chicks

The chicks new home.
Our family keeps growing by the day and we recently welcomed seventeen new members to Tierra Mitica. They're adorable, fluffy, and have a voracious appetite for ants and grubs. These days, if you wander the labyrinth, you can feel at easy knowing that fifteen little chicks are on duty protecting your feet from the legion of ants descending from the treetops. In addition to the chicks are two little ducklings (well, we're not entirely sure what they are, "Pequines", so we've been told) who never fail to pull at our heart strings as they swim happily up and down our rivers, scooping up tasty flies and water bugs. Some day soon, the duckling couple will be brave, and as our appointed guard ducks, they will chase away any and all serpents that might be lurking about. *UPDATE: One of our ducklings has moved on and become One With, but his sister is happily making friends with her pollito cousins.*
Soon!
The chicks on the other hand are the first in line of a generation that will provide Tierra Mitica with plenty of new chicks, free range eggs for our breakfasts, and healthy meat for our dinners. Up near the garden where we have a large coop and pecking range, our mature chickens have recently begun to sit on their own eggs and soon we will have even more little chicks cheerfully chirping their way about Tierra Mitica.


In two days we will be welcoming the next group of Argonauts of the July Mythic Voyage and the energy is buzzing around Tierra Mitica as we prepare to embark on what is sure to be another incredible adventure. The August Mythic Voyage is also just around the corner and there are still spots available for any brave and daring Argonauts seeking to embark themselves on a new path of life! Sign Up Here

Overwhelming cuteness.

Farewell Mieka!


Our beloved Mieka made the decision to open a new chapter in her life and headed out into the world in search of new and exciting adventures. It has been amazing having her as part of our family over the past seven months. We will miss her dearly but trust that wherever she finds herself next, her life will be full of vision and inspiration (we have a feeling we will be seeing her again soon ;)). On her last night we held a celebration filled with laughter, live music and dancing around a fire pit, and a half-naked man in the kitchen baking hot and chewy cookies (see picture) which were soon after devoured and washed down with ice cold glasses of milk.
Mieka, we love you and wish you nothing but the best on your path. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the joy, heart, and spirit you provided us and Tierra Mitica!




The Naked Chef

We Love You Miekaki!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The Meditation Labyrinth



Imagine a place where endless corridors made of leaves guide you through thoughts and dreams. A place where every turn may hold the pleasant surprise of a previous traveler's spirit left behind in the form of art - sculptures, painted rocks, mandalas, and poems. A place of privacy to connect and converse with friends, family, and lovers among the lianas hanging from the jungle canopy above.  This place exists: The Meditation Labyrinth of Tierra Mitica.
Mama of the Labyrinth
The walls are growing by the day!

Inspiring words of Rudyard Kippling
The labyrinth is in a constant state of evolution, not just because its walls are currently growing (soon to be over 2m high!) but also because
Moon lovers
everyone who comes to visit Tierra Mitica is invited to create a piece of art to place somewhere within the maze's meandering menagerie of moon people, minotaurs, and magic. Maintaining a jungle labyrinth is no easy feat, but fortunately we are blessed to have our very own Mieka as its mother and caregiver, for whom taking care of the labyrinth is a labor of love. From conceptualizing and

manifesting floating poems, to providing hidden gems of bright eye-catching flower arrangements, and of course keeping the jungle floor clear of leaves and debris, the amount of love and care Mieka gives to her Meditation Labyrinth is evident at every step one makes through its passageways.

We invite you to come add to the magic!


The sun always shines in the labyrinth
Mieka working on the poem
Interactive art!
Hidden treasures
Mieka and her mandala




Thursday, June 27, 2013

A Mythic Voyage, Dancing Shipibo, and New Family Members

Marilyn and Mikis
And so another Mythic Voyage has come to pass, bringing together an entirely multinational group of Argonauts who found love and oneness in each other despite their varied backgrounds and life stories. The June Argonauts inspired us with their bravery as each and every one of them faced their deepest fears and made new choices for their lives. During
Wendy, Sergej "Papa Bear", and Jake
two of our ceremonies, we were graced by Ruben, our head Maestro and the Shipibo Maestras, as they danced triumphantly during the final Icaros of the night. This marks the first time in over seven years of working with the Shipibo that they have ever danced for us and we are beyond honored and grateful because it means that they truly respect and believe in the work we do here at Tierra Mitica.

Papa Bear and Galina
We celebrated the end of our voyage with a spectacular BBQ feast which was followed by a decadent chocolate fudge orange marmalade cake and a concert put on by one of the Argonauts, Jake, a phenomenal percussionist who plays anything from pots and pans, salt shakers, construction items, and paint bucket lids taped to his feet to get the whole room moving and grooving to his rhythms and beats.

As our new brothers and sisters head back out
Laura and the Maestras
into their lives with a new sense of clarity and inspiration, two wanted to prolong their Mythic experience and asked to stay as volunteers. We are happy to welcome Wendy and Jake to our family as well as the musicality and enthusiasm they bring with them.

Congratulations guys!

Marilyn, Joey, and Sara

Argonauts browsing the Shipibo wears!

Bram giving Jake a symbolic haircut.

Joey and Marilyn

Goddesses getting ready for a flower bath
Jake performing in the final concert.


A Mythic Garden - Pt. II

The Man, the Legend.
Abel has been a great boon to our family and our garden. Every day he brings down a large bowl of freshly picked vegetables and herbs for us and it is always wonderful seeing Sara's whole body light up with joy as she looks into the bowl to see what gifts he has brought for us. Not only is Abel a hard worker and a talented gardener, he also has a wealth of knowledge about indigenous and folk gardening practices which have helped us greatly in nurturing our garden (and even our ayahuasca). To a westerner, talk about plant spirits, energies, plant personalities, and their individual likes and dislikes can sound like a bunch of superstitions, but Abel brings to us traditions and practices which have proved to be fruitful for many hundreds of years. These traditions include planting crops following the moon
Red peppers
cycles. Our bean trees for example like to be planted during the crescent moon in order to grow strong and fruitful, or when pulling banana stalks for replanting, this should be done during the full moon. Once, Sara began planting tomatoes. Abel, seeing this, stopped her and told her that the tomatoes, "don't want you to know where they are and so in order for them to grow for you, you must throw the seeds over your back and not look where they fall."

Some plants are very sensitive to the energies of different people. Sara had asked Abel to plant for
Abel and Bruce showing off while harvesting oranges.
us Ruda, a medicinal herb which makes a cleansing tea for women during their moon and is also used in dreamwork, and Abel refused to plant it, telling her, "Ruda does not like me and will not grow if I plant the seeds." Ruda must have an affinity for Sara however, because she took it upon herself to plant some seeds and we now have a very healthy and happy Ruda bush! We are always looking to learn new practices and traditions and one such potential source is the rumor of a local Curandera who knows many secrets about plants. We have sent Abel off on a mission to find this Curandera and learn as much as he can. Abel has truly become part of our family and we grateful for all of his love and dedication.

And now for a mouth-watering list of the many vegetables and fruits we have growing at Tierra Mitica: lettuce, roquette, cabbage, basil, chicory, coriander, parsley, mint, carrots, bell pepper and hot pepper of varying strengths, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, sweet potato, yuca, green beans,
Abel overlooking his crops
tomato, corn, avocado, plantain, banana, papaya, trees of lemon, orange, lima, mandarin, mango, and guanabana, cacao and coffee, just to name a few. Many of the seeds have been sourced from the US, Greece, Italy, and France, and in the future we plan to source our seeds from Kokopelli, an international organization which protects and spreads organic and ancient varieties of seeds.

Good things are happening!

Friday, June 7, 2013

A Mythic Garden - Pt. I



Tierra Mitica's organic garden is one of the most evidently magical locations on our land. This is because it is a place where one has the ability to participate directly in the process of creation and the cycle of life in a hands-on creative way. There is no one more passionate about our garden than its foster mother, Sara. 


 Sara has been intimately involved with the garden since its creation, nurturing it with her vision, inspiration, and love, as well as learning from the many challenges that arise from the reality of rearing an organic garden in the wilds of the Peruvian jungle. The garden has been Sara's favorite place since moving her life to Tierra Mitica and she has many fond memories of sitting in the Mandala garden (the lower field) at the end of a long day of work, admiring the progress made during the day as well as the beautiful views of the surrounding hillsides while enjoying a relaxing cup of Manzanilla tea brought to her from her (now) husband, Ferd. "The garden is our baby," says Sara, who alongside with Abel, our expert Peruvian gardener, have already provided us with the ingredients for delicious salads, stews, and soups using the fresh organic veggies from our soil.


Recently, Sara and Abel have been doing battle with insects who have been eating our crops away. This challenge has been pushing Sara to get creative with her methods of dealing with the hungry pests in an effort to keep our garden organic while at the same time respecting the natural balance and harmony of the native ecosystem. Sara mentions that,"[she] would like to find a way to let the insects eat while allowing us to eat as well," and she has tried multiple times to dissuade the insects from devouring our harvest by using natural pesticide/deterrent methods such as covering the soil with coffee grinds, coating the leaves of our plants with coffee and Mapacho (tobacco rustica) juice, and placing cups of aromatic onion garlic juice at
the base of many affected plants, all to nil or ill effect. The problem, says Sara, is that by clearing the land using slash and burn methods, we destroyed most of the indigenous food supply for the insects in the area who now have no other choice but to eat our food that replaced theirs. Sara is now beginning to look into other possibilities of dealing with the insect problem, "If we really want to eat from our garden, we need to learn from the locals," and thankfully with the help and knowledge of Abel, as well as Ruben our head curandero Maestro and his medicinal garden, we have many exciting avenues to explore!



Coming up in Part II... Plant Spirits, Curanderos, and Old Traditions

Sunday, June 2, 2013

The Grandmother flourishes in Tierra Mitica

Grandmother climbing her way to the heavens!

Ayahuasca and the Shamans' tambo.
During the April Mythic Voyage, Ruben, our Shipibo Maestro and Head of Ceremony, brought with him dozens of living Ayahuasca vine and Chacruna cuttings to be planted all over our property. With the help of Bruce and Abel, two of our dedicated workers, Ruben set out to plant two Ayahuasca vines at the base of
many trees surrounding Baboushka (our outdoor ceremony space), the Shamans' tambo, and various locations hidden by the thick jungle foliage.

Growing off of the beaten path...
A look at the original vine cutting.

















At first glance the Ayahuasca cutting looks like an unassuming stick protruding out of the ground at an angle leaning against its tree, but if you look closely it is possible to see small little green nodes growing out of the lifeless brown bark. These nodes are the site for new vine growth which will quickly climb and braid their way up the tree and ascend up above the jungle canopy to the sky. A few of our baby Grandmas are already flourishing in their
Ayahuasca braiding herself upwards.
new home and have gifted us with multiple vine sprouts and leaves reaching up over 30cm. Over many years, these small vines will grow to weigh hundreds if not thousands of kilos and be thicker than most human arms!




The small Chacruna cuttings are much more difficult to see and are easy to step on unknowingly, so each planting has been placed between two sticks protruding out of the ground to act as barriers and locators for the tiny bushes. Dozens of little
Little Chacrunita
Chacruna cuttings have been planted and spread along the stream-bank just below the Shamans' tambo, where they can enjoy moist soil from the
Basking in the sun.
water flowing its way down from the mountains above. Soon the stream and surrounding hillside will be covered with Chacruna bushes reaching 2-3 meters high and 2 meters wide!

Chacruna with a view of the locator sticks.
Over the next year during every subsequent trip Ruben makes from his home near Pucallpa to Tierra Mitica, he will bring us even more Ayahuasca and Chacruna cuttings - we will soon have hundreds of vines climbing the trees of Tierra Mitica, and in 2 to 5 years when they have matured, we will be able to brew our very own Ayahuasca with the vines and Chacruna growing from our own soil! Not only will we be able to enjoy the best brew for our ceremonies, we will also be one step closer to self-sufficiency as well as doing our part in offsetting the current issue of the over-harvesting of Ayahuasca that has resulted from the Ayahuasca tourism boom in recent years.


Come join us for the June Mythic Voyage - less than two weeks away! Tierra Mitica