The Meaning of Rhythm in Our Tradition

[Miguel Sague Jr]

Tau My Relatives
As far as I know, it is an accepted fact by all Indigenous people of the Americas that the repeated cyclical sound of a percussion instrument, especially a drum, reflects and manifests the sound of the human heartbeat and therefore the sound of the very rhythm of life. During my recent experince at the 8000 Drums gathering organized by our sister Monika Mamona in Elijay, Georgia I again was confronted with the full manifestation of what this concept really means to the human beings of the earth. http://www.uctp.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=36&am...
http://indigenousaction.blogspot.com/2008/02/8000-drums-vancouver-m...

The concept of a rhythmic heartbeat sound as the sacred metaphor for the reality of Creation as a whole is an universal element of all Indigenous spiritual traditions.
We in the Taino Resurgence are well aware of the powerful effect that the healing sound of the Taino mayohuakan drum has on our souls.

http://www.uctp.org/index.php?option=com_expose&Itemid=62 http://tainospirituality.magnify.net/video/Caciba-Jagua-Taino-Cultu...
But of course we also know that this phenomenon is universal and the sacredness of this knowledge regarding the power of rhythm is recognized by all Indigenous people of the world. In conversations with my brother-in-law, Melvin John, a renown Cree musician from the Kehewin Reserve in Alberta Canada, I have learned first-hand the profound reverence that our North American Indigenous brothers and sisters have for the concept of sacred rhythm, and the role that the heartbeat sound of the drum plays in that understanding.
http://www.kehewinnativedancetheatre.com/knprn/Welcome.html
The experiences of this musician have taken him and his family, My sister Rosa and their talented children all over the world with their performing group Kehewin where they have encountered other Indigenous traditions such as the maori of New Zeland, who share in this wisdom of the sacred nature of rhythm.

Cyclical sounds are the very essence of cyclical phenomena. Cyclical phenomena are the very essence of the creative powers of the Universe. All Indigenous people understand the profound truth that lies at the core of cyclical phenomena. Our ancestors have taight us that the very secret of creation and life is imbedded within this natural manifestation.

What is a cyclical phenomenon? A Cyclical phenomenon is any event or manifestation that repeats with any amount of regularity. The beating of a dragonfly's wing, going up and down, up and down, up and down many times as the tiny creature moves through the air, is an example of a cyclical phenomenon. The regular rising of the sun at the begning of the day, and its subsequent setting at dusk, is a cyclical phenomenon. The beating of fetal heart within the womb of its mother is a cyclical phenomenon. The regular contractions of a woman's uterus during the delivery of that baby is a cyclical phenomenon.

Cyclical phenomena form the very basis of all existance. Repetitive, regular or nearly regular manifestations form the foundation of all origins, growth, development and evolutionary process on the earth, in fact, in the whole cosmos. Without repetitive and rhythmic natural manifestations there would be nothing in existance. It is the very basis of the Divine Plan for all BEING.

When a Taino listens to the sweet sound of the Mayohuakan drum he or she experiences the most basic aspect of creative energy. As such this experience transforms the person and makes a very real connection between the human essence of creativity on a microscopic level and the cosmic essence of creativity on a Macroscopic level. http://tainospirituality.magnify.net/video/Tercera-Jornada-Indigena...

This was brought home to me on a very personal level in August of 2007, when I spoke to Kasika Elba Anaka Lugo of the Consejo General de Tainos Borincanos as we stood by the sacred fire in the main ceremonial batey of the Third annual Jornada Indigena Taina in jayuya, Boriken. I listened to her wise words concerning what she was being taught by the ancestors and the cemis in regards to these times of global transition. She spoke to me of the end of an old era and the birth of a new one, and she referred to the sacred cycles of the Mayan Calendar as they relate to us Tainos and our own prophecies, including the prophecy of AuraSurey.
As I stood listening to this wise leader I turned over in my own head the words of two other wise women who happened to be present at that same event and wose message I had heard earlier. This is the message of the sacred revelation of the White Cemi. The words of both Margarita Noguera and Johanna Soto Aviles concerning this revelation address a time of resurgence and of renovation that can only manifest within the context of cyclical phenomena.In essence both of these messages (which in my opinion are actually just one message) are manifestations of cyclical phenomena in its most basic form. In my personal opinion, The Chite cemi is a manifestation of Yoka Hu, the Taino spirit of Life and this awakening of Yoka Hu's enegry as the White Cemi is, in fact, nothing more complicated than a birth, a begetting. The birth (or rebirth) of the White Cemi in this current era must occur as all births do, accompanied by the sacred energy of uterine contractions. Uterine contractions, the rhythmic movements that facilitate birth, are the very essence of all beginnings, of all transformation and, of course, of all transition. This applies to the transitions that Kasika Anaka refered to in her words to me in 2007. When one listens to the sound of the mayohuakan one is basically listening to the sound of birth.

I was told by my Quiche and my Kakchikel Guatemalan teachers that in Maya tradition the concept of "birth" as a metaphor for all transition and all evolution is at the very core of Maya culture. The Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiche Mayas is replete with references to cyclical phenomena as the essence of creation and existance. In fact, in the central narrative of the Popol Vuh, the fundamental problem that the sacred Maya twins Hun Ahpu and Ixbalanue are sent to resolve in the hostile territory of the tyranical Lords of Xibalba is the fact that the Lords have established a false "sun" god called Seven Macaw whose very presence at the highest spot in the sky prevents the true sun Kinich Ahau from manifesting its first sunrise. Without the energy of cyclical sunrises and sunsets the energy of sacred time itself can not materialize and therefore Creation itself, as the mayas conceive it, is effectively prevented. The task of the sacred twins is first to defeat the tyranical Lords of Xibalba and then to dethrone Seven Macaw so that there can be a first sunrise and consequently, creation. The terms "Dawning and Sowing" that the ancient Mayas used to refer to their creation legend is a clue at the fact that these two cyclical procedures, the dawning of the sun each day and the sowing of seeds each growing season are both meaphors of the creative process. they indicate that the ancient Mayas and contemporary Mayas equate creation with a rhythmic cyclical process that repeats and repeats in regular patterns.

We are given a hint that this same understanding existed in the tradition of our own Taino ancestors when we are confronted with the Taino sacred narrative of the birth cave IGUANABOINA. This place of emergence and creation is the origin place of the Taino Sun Spirit Boinael. Although alternate theories exist and are maintained prominently by some scholars and some fellow Tainos in the Resurgence movement, we in the Caney Spiritual Circle adhere to the tradition, followed by many others of our Taino brothers and sisters that Boinael is in fact an anceint Taino name that referes to the spirit or the soul of the sun. The Taino sacred narrative of the cave Iguanaboina clearly states that the sun was born from that cave. It also states that the cave is the home of a cemi called Boinael. Some have speculated that Boinael only refers to the concept of moist or wet weather using what ammounts to very compelling linguistic evidence. I admit that the linguistic evidence indicating a connection between Boinael and some sort of climatic/weather condition is very convincing, and I can accept that there may be some ancient association between this meteriological manifestation of nature and the cycles of the sun. But basicaly speaking, the original record left behind by the Spanish chronicler Ramon Pane does not indicate any overt connection between Boinael and rain at all, and simply states that this cave is the origin place of the sun and that a cemi lives there called Boinael. Everything else can only be considered speculation, very well-informed specualtion, but specualtion none-the-less. (see Ramon Pane, "Relacion acerca de las antiguedades de los indios", ed Jose Juan Arrom Mexico: Siglo Ventiuno, 1977)

So even our own Taino ancestors saw a connection between Creation and the cyclical movements of the heavenly bodies (not only the sun but the moon is recorded by Pane as having been born of the cosmic uterine opening at the mouth of the cave IGUANABOINA).
The concept of creativity can not be separated from the element of cyclic phenomena. Even a painting is the result of countless repetitive brushstrokes. Every creative act is a drumbeat. Every moment of emergence is a birth. Rhythm is at the center of it all.
Taino Ti
Miguel Sobaoko koromo Sague