By Rabbi Ohad Ezrahi
Translation by Yasmine Ariel
“The Eagle symbolizes the spiritual path of Native Americans in North America, and the Condor symbolizes the same for Native Americans of South America. There is an ancient prophesy that someday Eagle and Condor will unite,” explains Hernan Braveheart.
I met Hernan during a trip I took with the people of my community, to meet other spiritual communities in the United States.
Hernan was born in Peru, the land of the Condor. As a young man he was already involved with the ways of healing and mystery, known as Shamanism.
He learned with local shaman teachers who later invited him to work with them in a “clinic” on the streets of Cuzco.
In Cuzco, people seek healing from healers, before or after going to modern medicine. They might come after modern medicine failed to help them, or before because some people believe in shaman healing far more than Western medicine.
The Humiliation Test
Hernan worked in this clinic for eleven years. Everyday many patients suffering from every kind of disease, of both body and mind, came for healing. Though the healers at the clinic treated Hernan badly – even humiliating him at times – Hernan was determined to learn from these miraculous people, even if they had decided that he was not worthy of fair treatment.
Then, one day after over two years of humiliation, one morning they suddenly started to treat him as one of their own. It had been a testing period designed to see if his spirit was ready. Someone who sought respect more than depth and wisdom would have left long before.
The Adoption
Family circumstances led Hernan to leave Peru, and travel to North America. Someone had suggested that he meet one of the elder leaders of the Lakota tribe. “There is something similar in the way you both pray” he was told.
When Hernan met this elder chief a deep recognition occurred between them. After some time, the chief asked Hernan to be his adopted son, and continue his legacy.
That is how Hernan from Peru, was given the family name Braveheart. He was adopted officially, and ritually to be a member of the elder chief Basil Braveheart’s family. And, that is how a man of the Condor found himself in the land of the Eagle.
The Community
After a while a community gathered around Hernan and his practice. Together they founded Araqua, a community and sacred space for shaman rituals in New Mexico.
Hernan’s place is a modest one - not that it is small or shabby, on the contrary, it is very big and beautiful, but like Hernan himself, modest. You cannot take pictures, nor is there a web site, and this is intentional.
Hernan invited me to come to Araqua, to a convention held by his community with different shamans, from the lands of both Eagle and Condor.
One of the old shamans, Tayta Martin, was brought from a village in the Andes so remote, that the Spanish Conquistadors never even bothered to occupy it. Even today, there are no roads that reach it, you must hike days up the mountain after a very long drive, and the only thing that grows there is potato.
How Is Araqua
When you arrive at Araqua, you see a large, beautiful earthen structure. It is built in the shape of an arch, and powered by solar energy alone. This is the main building. There is a dining room with a table made out of big stone slabs brought down from the mountain. Before every meal a short prayer of thanks is offered, and a portion of the food is given to the outside nature as an offering to the spirits of the place.
Araqua is spread out over thousands of acres of sacred land, red in color and full of natural crystals. All the other structures are built under the ground. Their meeting places, including a lovely space for the children of the tribe, are all built as simple rooms underground. You can see an opening leading down, and then you realize that the little mound with shrubs is actually a roof with little windows that bring light and air from above.
Male and Female
On one occasion when we sat underground with the elder chief Basil Braveheart, I asked him about male and female roles in the Native American tradition.
The chief answered, “The male is the tepee poles, and female is the canvas. The canvas needs steady and reliable poles, and the poles need trusting canvas that will spread around them and be able to hold everything. Only together can they create a complete home.”
What was important for me was to see the joy in which the people of the tribe accepted things that came from Spirit. I admired the connection between the humble living people, the spirits of their ancestors and the nature that surrounds them.
Longings For The Hebrew Tribe
Being with these people, a longing in me awoke for the long past Hebrew tribe that we lost with the establishment of Judaism as a religion. This longing woke a memory within me, and the memory woke a path, which I am now committed to: A path to the renewal of the ancient Hebrew tribal culture within the reality of our present lives.
Hernan is coming to Israel soon to give a seminar on his way of healing people and the earth. And, next spring, in Araqua he will be opening a learning program for people from all over the world who want to learn the ways of healing others and the earth from Hernan himself as well as his teachers and friends.