The Kogi Guardians of the Heart of the World
81From the Heart of the World on the Sierra Nevada
The Kogi are a truly amazing tribe of people who live high on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain in northern Columbia where they have preserved their unique culture for many thousands of years. The Kogi were not conquered by the invading Spaniards 500 years ago because they hid away high on the mountain where the conquistadors could not get to them.
Since then they have deliberately shunned much contact with the outside world and its people who they refer to as the"Younger Brother." They call themselves the "Elder Brother" and believe they are the guardians not only of the sacred mountain on which they live but also of the whole planet.
The Kogi call the Sierra Nevada their Mother, as is the Earth herself and they believe they were entrusted by their version of the Native American Great Spirit with the ways of living in balance with the natural world whilst at the same time carrying out ceremonies to preserve creation and all life. This they do by meditation, visualisation and by a process of making special payment gifts of certain natural things back to their Mother.
The Kogi, who are the descendants and survivors of the Tairona civilisation, have wise men or tribal shamans known as Mamas or Mamos, who are trained in the oral traditions and knowledge they were originally given. These Mamas are specially selected and spend their first nine years living in dark caves learning all they need to know. The Mamas learn how to enter the spiritual world of "Aluna" and from there how to cause what is needed in this one.
The Kogi work as a collective consciousness and some of the Mamas are said to be telepathic. They are also able to stay awake for over a week in their sacred ceremonies.
Kogi-related photos
The Kogi and Global Warming/Climate Change
The Kogi live entirely on what they can grow on the land they live on and have managed to do this for thouands of years. They live completely in balance with nature and the ecosystem.They have no crime and murder of another Kogi has never happened.
The Kogi were given signs to look out for to know that all is well but they have been able to see that this is no longer the case. They have seen evidence that their mountain home is dying and they believe that if it does so too will the rest of the world.
We may call it Global Warming or Climate Change, and there are those that argue it doesn't even exist, but the Kogi mamas are well aware that the snow and ice that should be on the peak of their sacred mountain has not been there as much as it should. They know that without water that comes from the mountain all will die below.
The Sierra Nevada provides a perfect model of every type of terrain and microclimate on Earth. Its peaks are covered in snow and rise 17,000 feet above sea level but lower down there are forests, desert areas and mangrove swamps and coral reefs on the coast.
The Sierra Nevada acts like a microcosm of the macrocosm of the rest of the planet and the Kogi can tell from signs of its health what that of the rest of the world is like. In1988, alarmed by signs that the health of the mountain was not as it should be the Kogi Mamas knew that it was time for them to give a message of warning to the "Younger Brother." They allowed BBC journalist Alain Ereira to make a unique TV documentary about them, which was entitled From the Heart of the World.
After this they went back to their isolation from the outside world and there was no further contact with any other journalists. Lately, however, the Kogi have seen even worse warning signs that show the life on their sacred mountain is dying, and what makes things worse still is for the first time ever they have been unable to find all the special gifts they need to use in their healing rituals. The Kogi know that it is time to speak to the Younger Brother again.
Singer, musician and radio presenter Sabrina Montanaro has recently made contact with me at Myspace where she has a site. Sabrina is in touch with the Kogi Mamas having actually travelled to meet these amazing people. She has started broadcasting from Italy a series of seven shows in which the Mamas speak and also she has Alain Ereira as a special guest talking about his continued work with the Kogi.
It is my personal belief that the Kogi are probably the best possible advisors the Younger Brother (us) have if we are really going to do anything about saving the world and ourselves.
Copyright © 2010 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.
Ramon's speech
Upbringing of a Kogi Mama described
Kogi links
- Aluna the Movie | Homepage
New film being made by the Kogi - From the Heart of the World
- Guardians of Water (Sabrina's Kogi site)
MySpace music profile for Guardians of Water with shows featuring the Kogi - Tairona Heritage Trust
- Koguis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikipedia entry about the Kogis - The Kogi Of Columbia Are Being Exterminated By The US
Disturbing report from Jeff Rense's site on dangers the Kogi face - http://www.myspace.com/sabrinaandabee
MySpace music profile for Sabrina Montanaro with tour dates, songs, videos, pictures, blogs, band information, downloads and more - The Kogi of Colombia, South America, Labyrinth, Sacred Journeys
Explore the ancient mystical world of the Classical Labyrinth and its connection with sacred sites, holy places, Machu Picchu, earth mysteries, ancient civilizations, megalithic, paganism and goddess lore. - TribalInk - The Kogi
When the Eagle of the North gets together with the Condor of the South, it is time for all the Rainbow Tribes of the world to get together and bring peace upon this world. - Tairona - Kogi - Crystalinks
The Tairona were a precolombian civilization in the region of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the present-day Magdalena and La Guajira Departments of Colombia
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Thanks, Chris! This link is a great help and I am going to watch it all again now!
Brilliant Steve, and really interesting stuff. If only 'younger brother' would listen.
Thanks, Cindy! The Kogi offer the solution to how to live in harmony and in a paradise world and they live long lives too! I would much prefer to live as they do!
Did you watch the entire documentary on CJ's link? It is brilliant!
I will do, but I haven't had a chance to yet as I am way behind in catching up on reading hubs etc since I was out Saturday night so couldn't go on the computer :)
I think you will find it very interesting!
Thankyou Bard of Ely for sharing the Vision of Elder Brother...
Love
Sabrina Montanaro
Thank YOU, Sabrina, for finding me at Myspace - after I had been talking to someone here about the Kogi not so long ago it was a moment of synchronicity magic!
Thank you Bard of Ely!!! I've really been enjoying reading your hubs!! Amazingly informative on soooo many topics! What an adventurous life you lead, and am especially enjoying your hubs on the Kogi Guardians, and Atlantis!! I look forward to reading more....your travels has given you insight and wisdom into many cultures....so diverse. I like that!
Be Blessed,
Kim Garcia
Thank you very much, Kim! With the Kogi I am able to see a lot of what they are talking about happening and am saddened by what the "Younger Brother" is doing even though I am one! This island I live on has many microclimates like the Sierra Nevada and it is being ruined mainly starting on the coast. As a point of interest, if Churchward was right I am also living on what is left of Atlantis, although my late friend Prof Santos would have disagreed about that!
Truly an amazing and intriguing tribe. Sounds like they've tapped into or incredibly in tune with the wisdom of the Universe. Any plans on writing a book on your experiences?
I started an autobiography and did an introduction and chapter, which is on here actually, and that's as far as I got with that! I have so many unfinished projects and far too many things to do and the older I have got the less enthusiasm I can muster for such things, which are often a lot of long hours spent creating something that few end up knowing about and is financially a waste of time. That's not being negative just my reality on stuff I have done that I am finding I am ending up more or less giving away. I have said that if I could get another job as a classroom assistant I wouldn't care much about my music or writing career, both of which have been badly rewarded. You see people are generally not interested in stuff that means a lot to me and a publisher would be very unlikely as they are business people and deal in numbers and how many they can expect to sell. This thread in a way sums it up - it is in my view one of my most important but traffic for it is not that good really even if it did get TV director Chris Everard to find it and contact me. I appreciate your interest in such a book though. If I do start work on a book it will be about the pyramids on this island.
If you wrote a book, I would be sure to read it. So far the hubs that I've read has captivated me, as I'm sure others. I want to write on hubpages, but with authors like you I am having a hard time disciplining myself enough to limit my reading and get to writing.
Thank you, Fastfreta! Yours hubs I read are really good! Yes, it is hard to stop reading here and just do the writing - I know what you mean!
I had to write a paper on the Kogi in college in my philosophy of religions class. I actually watched that entire video in class. Awesome to see this again!!
Thank you for letting me know!
An amazing culture.
But I can't get over the fact that they put some of their newborn babies in dark caves. I know I'm viewing it through my Western cultural lens, but a newborn is a newborn, and if someone in this country did that, they'd be locked away for life and reviled for such heinous abuse.
Can't quite reconcile their peaceful and spiritual enlightenment with this dark ritual.
I hear what you are saying but can see it this way: the mamas are newborn twice within the same life - first time at normal birth and then when they leave their confinement in the caves. It is not dark in their inner worlds.
The culture and system we are in turns out all manner of suffering, insanity and crime but the Kogi's does not so which one works best is what I would ask - theirs or ours?
Probably theirs! But we've set the bar pretty low, so I'm not sure it's saying much. When it comes to producing psychopaths and causing suffering, we take the cake, for sure.
I am wary of putting any culture on a pedestal, indigenous or not. Many indigenous cultures were patriarchal and war-mongering, in spite of a seemingly evolved spirituality. Abuse and oppression are just those, whatever the context of the culture. Take Female Genital Mutilation, for example.
It just seems to me that robbing a newborn of it's mother would cause immense suffering for that child, regardless of how spiritually enlightened an individual that child may become.
I'd like to know more about how the baby us actually raised. Is there someone tending to him 24-7, or is he simply left to scream and cry in the darkness, alone, with no internal process yet set up to soothe him? Who feeds him, changes him, holds him? And What do the individuals who have survived the ritual think of what was done to them? Are they grateful? Happy? Well adjusted? Or simply resigned? I met a man today who has spent a great deal of time with the Kogi people, but didn't have the time to ask him all of the questions I'd like to ask him.
Thanks for your response; I appreciate it, as I really am trying to understand, however limited my own capacity!
Well, first of all the Kogi claim to be the guardians of the rest of the planet and to have been given the correct way of living by their version of God/Great Spirit. So they are already on a "pedestal." They have been put on one by their creator. That what they have works perfectly there could be used elsewhere, and if they are right and they are the guardians of the world then they should not be prevented from carrying out their sacred work which they are currently having problems doing due to the destructive actions of "younger Brother."
The mamas appear to be happy enough with their status. I don't know who looks after the babies or what this entails apart from the mama in the video says that the mothers go to feed the babies and that they (the mothers) must only eat white foods. You ask are they "well adjusted"? From what we can see of them and hear from them then the answer must be, yes! I agree that it is very hard for us to envisage what it is like for a baby and then a toddler and then a boy to be living in darkness locked up in a cave with no playmates, nowhere to run about. I don't know what that is like. It would be bound to heighten mental ability because you would be forced to only live in your mind most of the time. I see the end result though and you can see these men on the videos.
Have you watched the TV documentary linked here? There is a lot more info in it.
Sabrina Montanaro has been spending this month visiting the Kogi again accompanied by author Miriam Delicado and I look forward to her report when she returns. Perhaps she can answer your questions? She has spent a lot of time with these people and knows far more than I do.
I want to watch this film but the link goes to the main documentary site. I don't see it, please help. Is there anywhere else I can watch it online?
Sorry, it has been changed and I can't find it on that site now but I found it here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-521537373
The Kogi tribe were featured in a documentary. They call themselves "the ELDER brothers of the human race" and we as the younger brothers. They stressed in the video that unless the human race change "our ways", we are destroying the balance of life on earth.
Yes, indeed, and the oil spill will have destroyed that balance even further!
A beautiful article. The tribe reminds me of the one described in Jean Liedloff's "The Continuum Concept," a most important work for humanity. Thank you for this excellent introduction to the Kogi, Steve. (Minor typo: "The Sierra Nevada provides a perfect model of very type of terrain . . .")
Thank you for commenting, Jock, and for spotting that typo!
Dear Bard of Ely,
I just found your site - this is beautiful - and I would like to say "Hi".
I started dialogue with Sabrina via myspace and somehow tuned into something thanks to the messages on her site and others ... . Maybe you would like to listen to the following, which is dedicated to The Elder Brothers and Guardians of Water.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIf7utn_YYI
Love, Josephine
Thank you, Josephine! I saw Sabrina last week as it happens. I will have a look at the video now.
Thanks, can I share this link on facebook?
Yes, please do share the link there!
CJStone Level 5 Commenter 3 years ago
Hi Steve, here's a link for that documentary in full: http://www.onlinedocumentaries4u.com/2008/05/kogi-
I saw it when it first came out and I was very impressed. Also the site it's on is a fantastic online resource, with lots of fascinating documentaries, all worth watching.