We Celebrated Taino Indigenous Equinox Ceremony Verona, Pennsylvania March 22 2014

[Miguel Sague Jr]

Takaji My Relatives

It was my honor to officiate this year's SPRING EQUINOX ceremony at the Caney Indigenous Spiritual Circle's Verona Pennsylvania Teaching Lodge near Pittsburgh on Saturday March 22 2014.

We gathered, as we have for 34 years, to celebrate the fertility of our sacred Earth and Water Mother Ata Bey and the rebirth of her divine son Yoka Hu. 

We were joined with Caney Circle Boricua behike and UCTP rep, Rose AnaO Qui~ones of Youngstown, Ohio. She came accompanied by members of her family and brought with her the sacred mayohuakan drum that was given to the Ohio Caney Circle by our spiritual brother the Boricua leader, Urayoel of Pocono Mountain in eastern Pennsylvania.

The initial circle ceremony was followed by the traditional Boa Constrictor Dance of the women.

Our ceremony glowed with sacred energy. I offer Jajom gratitude to AtaBey and Yoka Hu and to our ancestors for allowing me the privilege of leading this sacred ceremony.

The ceremony culminated with the separation of the three-point cemi of YokaHu from the coa hoop that represents Atabey's uterus. With this ritual separation we recognized the birth of our spirit of Life and of the yuca plant.

Our circle ceremony was followed by wonderful hot guanara sweatlodge purification whose sweetness was due mostly to the great fire tending efforts of my spiritual brother Sol Shanti. Sol came to ceremony with his whole family, including his wife, our dear spiritual sister Cherylann Hawk Shanti,

We were blessed with relatively clear albeit chilly weather for our ceremony this year,and more importantly by a marvelous group of souls who sang and danced and prayed in ways that the sacred semies delighted in.

I am eternally grateful for these wonderful people and for the blessings of Yaya.

Taino Ti

Seneko Kakona

Miguel

[Miguel Sague Jr]

Yes Amanda....We invite the participants to bring objects that are meaningful to them and to put those objects in the circle. Sometimes some of the objects are not of Taino origin because the person who brought that object may follow another spiritual tradition. But we honor that individual and we honor their object by allowing that person to temporarily add their object to the ceremony. In that respect we are a bit more tolerant than some others who celebrate Taino ceremony but do not allow visitors to introduce anything in the ceremony that is not Taino. We have been criticized quite severely for this custom and we stand firm by our policy of tolerance.