The Rainbow Circle

As we walked up the hill for our excursion in Santa María de Jesús we were welcomed by Kawoq, a spiritual guide, through a door to his family milpa. We huddled in a big circle and copal incense went up through the canopy trees. All of our Nawals were called and each of us got to lay down white candles as offerings. During the process, I began to get emotional and couldn’t stop crying. This felt different than the other excursions and the cofradías we visited previously. Everything we had been learning about was coming to life. He closely monitored our candles, the energy, and the altar. When he was talking to the gods and to the nature, his native language sounded like music. In this picture, I was interviewing Kawoq about the medicinal plants used during rituals which included rosemary, copal, ruda, cocao, and more. He told me how resilient the Maya have been through climate change and colonization. Even though violent changes have been occurring for centuries, he said these plants still remain in his garden and other family gardens. I learned so much about how energy changes and how real the healing powers of spiritual guides and plants are. At the end of the ceremony, the whole class saw a circle rainbow around the sun and this represented that the cleanse worked for me/ the group. I have never been to something like this before and I learned how important community is. During this study abroad trip, I found family and healing especially through learning about Maya spirituality practices and plants.