The remote cultures, including indigenous people of the Americas, knew how to live in harmony with nature and how to honour the sacredness of all that surrounds them, including the plants.
Many of their legends speak about a heavenly being who walked the earth bringing wisdom. One of them was Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, Lord of the Dawn to the Aztec and Hopi nations.
Quetzalcoatl was the ever-returning God, associated with Venus, the morning star. According to the legend, he returns in every new era to bring renewal and wisdom. He represents our own eternal return to the earth, lifetime after lifetime. His legacy is to continually renew the fertile soil, to nourish our bodies, our thinking, and our village. Quetzalcoatl teaches that mortal existence is brief and that we have to cherish it and protect it, as it is extremely difficult to earn a physical body. You want long-life and good health in order to learn the lessons that you came to learn in this world. The shamans discovered edible plants that are rich in phytonutrients and that ensure good health during our lives. Some of them offered extraordinary healing power.
We see an extraordinary collaboration between human beings and the plant kingdom. We work in harmony: oxygen, the waste product of plant respiration, sustains life for humans, and our respiratory waste, carbon dioxide, sustains life for the plants. Plants turn sunlight into nutrient-dense foods we can use.
For our ancestors, survival in the wilderness was a natural outcome of respectful interaction with nature. Knowing which berries were nutritious and which were poisonous and where to find edible roots required humans to communicate with green life in a way incredible to most of us today.
So how did we lose this intimate connection with Spirit and the natural world? When did we stop speaking with the rivers and the trees? Some trace it back 10,000 years to the agricultural revolution, when humans exchanged the Paleolithic hunter-gatherer diet for a diet based on agricultural grains. This dietary shift might have been a big mistake in the history of the human race. It led to centuries of war and conflict over the fertile land and gave rise to societies of cruel rulers, ruthless warriors, and hapless slaves.
With a diet based on wheat, rice, and corn—grains with a high glycemic index, or blood-glucose elevating potential—our farming ancestors were essentially living on sugar. Our bodies and brains are still suffering the health consequences of this dietary shift. A brain steeped in sugar is sluggish and dull. The grain based diet can be toxic to the digestive system and brain. More and more we hear about harmful effects of gluten, the proteins in cereal grains.
The rise of agriculture brought with it the notion that survival and security depended on a powerful ruler who could rally forces to protect the land, the peasants, and the grain stores. Humans became fearful and belligerent. Direct experience of the divine gave way to religions overseen by intermediaries and power brokers between God and man.
We need to bring our connection to Spirit and natural forces back into the healing equation. To find peace within ourselves and live harmoniously with all beings on the planet, we need to shift our mind-set and our diet. We must go back to the primarily plant-based diet of our ancient ancestors and their way of experiencing the connection with the earth and the cosmos.
For more guidance I invite you to read the book Grow a New Body by Alberto Villoldo.
Ottawa, ON
