Hello, my name is Eliseo Cheo Torres, and this is a part of a series of videos on traditional medicine of Mexico and the Southwest. Today's exciting video is about Latino Afro-Latino healing, and how that has influenced curanderismo. With us today, we have Sina-Aurelia Sao. Sina is a social musicologist, and she will be demonstrating the healing, and how Afro-Caribbean, Afro Latino culture has influenced what we have been studying, and that is curanderismo. Sina, thank you so much for being with you. Thank you so much. We appreciate this. Tell us just a little bit about what we're going to see today, honoring the four directions and what else? Tell me. Thank you so much Dr.Torres. I really enjoy it and have enjoyed studying with you, and also in your curanderismo legacy that you've created. I'm really excited to demonstrate the African influence of curanderismo, Afro-Latino, and how in this particular ceremony, which is a fusion indigenous ceremony, using the sacred name of the most high [inaudible] and also aligning it with the four directions, the elements, and also honoring the four directions in order to bring down a sacred space for the recipient to receive healing. We're so looking forward Sina. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks a lot. We want to thank your drummer. Thank you for being with us. So, always in the beginning, we start with the heart element, which targets a third [inaudible] here, and because we have a master drummer with us, Mensah, that will be opening up the pathways for us in the movement of [inaudible] . We always come and honor our drummers. We do that by targeting the earth elements on the ground. So, really just touching the earth first as you do in the sacred Radha in capoeira, and then also touching the element of the heart to honor the master drummer, or the drummer who's bringing in the element. This element here, drumming or the sound part of kuyumbaya, will fuse with the word that I will speak and sing out into universe, and that will create the power or the energy that is divine, coming in to facilitate the healing. So, after we move through those four movements, it's really just a quadratic equation that's hailing to the north, east, south, west, above, below and also the internal directions. This is an indigenous concept that is acknowledged universally by traditional healers throughout the world. Also in Africa, we begin by a calling or wakening of the senses, and this particular chant is [inaudible] is a celebratory chant that's used to call in energies of divinity, and it's also a sacred practice. So, targeting the air element, we begin with the first equation of kuyumbaya, which is, word plus sound equals power. At this point, you've now opened up the sacred space. You would use four elements: water, you've activated the air component, you've acknowledged the earth in the beginning through the heart, and you would bring in fire. You can use copal, or depending on what you will be treating in this space and the ailment, you might burn a herb or a seed that corresponds to the ailment. For example, if you were treating cholera or extreme anger, you would burn alucema or lavender, in order to create balance and to placate the spirit or energy within that being, and tranquilize or calm it. At that point and time you would think, anything that was more of a calming and soothing aspect. Usually in the mixolydian. So in the mixolydian, you would be singing in. You're walking in a counterclockwise circle, because instead of the opposite direction when we were opening, we're now removing or exchanging and closing the pathway. So, if we were to be working on something such as cholera or tristeza, for tristeza you would use sweet herb [inaudible]. You would then ignite the fire with that capacity by setting it on fire at this point. So after that, you would circle with water, the final element. For water, we can bring in usually [inaudible] preference. Some have a different preference, some would like to bring in holy water that's been blessed. Some like to bring in water from either the sea if they are working with [inaudible] or from a river if they're working with or tune. Depending on what's being treated at that time, you would then proceed with that type of water. So if you do not have water, since we all have all of these elements intrinsically within us, you can use your own saliva or you can use tears of the individual that you are treating. So at this time, we'll do the final closing prayer, right, with the directions. For that, if Dr Torres can comeback. So this particular sacred [inaudible].Thank you sir. You are welcome. You can create one of these with the grass itself and you would just take one, you take the grass and you bind it basically. It's called raffia, and you can get it at a lot of different places in your local havi store. You can also use a string or yarn, something that's durable. You would bind it. Now, when I begin the actual ceremony, because this is the opening where you open the pathways in order to facilitate the healing, I would wrap this around me and begin to do the cleansing with that. But before that, you do a double twist here on the right, if you're opening the right wrist. On the left wrist, if you're removing or closing. Okay. So at that point, you can have the individual that you'll be working with step into the space, we have with us, let him over to you. Thank you for being here. So you'd be seated here, right into the center. Depending on what you're working with, you'll either bind the individual here over the third eye, in order to bind and lure in the healing, or raise your arms please, you would bind them around the waist. At this point in time, you would open the pathways again with the individual in the space. So you would take the earth and you'd begin walking with the earth, scattering it around them twice, and the third time a bit of this sacred earth goes here. Also the inside of the palm, from the inside of the palm, all the way up to the wrist, and on the other side from the inside of the palm, all the way to the inside of the wrist. Then the individual that you're treating will remain in this position if possible, unless they begin to go through some sort of transformative action, in which case you want to try and keep their hands open and their third eye open, not down on the ground or exposed. Then you bring in the air element. So [inaudible]. Third time into this back part, encourage them if they're able to. If they are able to sit up erect, you can get them to be in this position by simply applying soft pressure to their lower back and also pulling back their shoulders if it's possible for them. If you're dealing with an elderly patient, just try and ensure that they are sitting as upright as possible. Then with your hand, let's turn to the right in profile. Thank you, sir. Then with your hand open and your three fingers coming from the top of this spine here to the center, [inaudible]. Repeat the same. [inaudible]. This is an acknowledgment, an affirmation of the soul that resides within his physical body, and we call and bind all energies or things that are ill in the body. We're calling them out and sending them back into whichever direction from which they originated. Whether it was a malady that came from the air, maybe through sight, mal de ojo, or the [inaudible] , which is an energy that travels through air, or if it came through physical touch, through the Earth, we're returning it back to the Earth. If it comes from anger or a transgression that was psychological, you return it back to fire. Finally, if it's an emotional malady or possibly PTSD resulting from trauma that was inflicted in a psychological or emotional capacity, then you return that element to the water. But it's very important that when you remove any malady, you return it from whence it came because everything exists in equilibrium. So then we've activated the earth, the air element through the cante curar, then we would burn the sage or whatever you choose, copal, etc with the fire. Circle that person three times with the fire element and then with the water three times as well, and then we'll turn [inaudible] , the closing. Finally, we're ready to do the limpia. Limpia will occur between every phase or evolution of the process. So for this honoring of the four directions in order to ask that the healing ceremony is going to matriculate, we do this ceremony before anything else, honoring the four directions. So now we're going to do a healing. So we do the limpia to pull them off, [inaudible] , and then stand. I'm doing your feet too. [inaudible]. You're then going to repeat after me the annunciation. We then do the final component, which is the cante curar or the healing that comes through the song. You're activating the inner energies to see out the opening and honoring of the ancestors through the four directions. Okay. You're placing your hand open palms. You're fine. Your hand open palm as you do the ceremony. Here, it's important that you use the left, and then we're going to move to the right and send it out. Okay. So [inaudible] Last time. [inaudible] Breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth now. [inaudible] In through the nose and out. [inaudible] Thank you. So the final utterance is the divine name of the Most High God because all of this healing occurs under that auspice, and that's Yahweh. The Yahweh is comprised of the four syllables, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh. So [inaudible] is the final explosion that honors the four directions. Thank you. Sina, what a wonderful demonstration, Sina. So appropriate, yes. She talked about limpias or spiritual or energetic cleansings that we have seen in some of the videos. Sina also talked about the four directions: east, north, west, and south, Father Sky, Mother Earth, which is very similar to curanderismo. She also used incense or copal. It's a natural resin incense. So there are so many similarities. It's incredible how we all have come from the same culture in some ways and the similarities [inaudible]. Thank you so much for the excellent demonstrations, Sina. Thanks so much. Gracias. [inaudible].
