Sacred Staffs of the Eagle and Condor
are Passed to Guatemala
From Guatemala;
I’m writing this June 12 2009. After breakfast this morning I held the eagle ‘vara’ in my hands. I was surprised by its lightness, like if I let it go it might float in the air. We are about the same age, the ‘vara’ and I, but it is better traveled, carrying with it the collective spiritual power of indigenous peoples from Alaska and Canada to the south of Chili and South America.
The ‘varas’ are two sacred staffs, made of silver in Bolivia five decades ago. In the photo, Kaqchikel spiritual guide Ronaldo Similox is shown holding the staffs.They are objects of power, one topped with an eagle and the other with a condor. They travel together, the two staffs passed from indigenous nation to indigenous nation, staying with each tribe or country for one year before being passed along. The journeys encompass all the indigenous peoples of all the Americas. The staffs carry with them the collective energy, the spiritual energy, of the hemisphere’s indigenous peoples.
The eagle represents the people of the north and the condor represents the people of the south. There is a well known prophecy among indigenous peoples that they will be empowered, take the spirit of the land back into their own hands and live in a new way, when the red nations of the north unite with the red nations of the south – the eagles and the condors.
This year, the indigenous president of Bolivia, Sr. Evo Morales, passed the staff to Don Antonio and Don Ronaldo, and the Mayans of Guatemala. Today the sacred staffs are honoring the altar shrine of Don Ronaldo in Chimaltenango, the same shrine where I passed the night in my essay the Mayan Dream House. People are finding the ‘varas’ and the shrine without being told of their presence there. Drawn to the shrine, they are found kneeling and praying both inside and outside the small shrine structure. The ‘varas’ bring a unifying power, both for the indigenous peoples between countries and for the people within a host country. The two staffs will travel throughout Guatemala this year, spending one Mayan week, twenty days, in places of honor among the various Mayan races that live in that country.
In the photo, Don Ronaldo is shown with Bill Clarke on the left and the author, Mike Weddle, on the right.
Next February, at the start of the Mayan new year, it will be time for the staffs to move on to their next country. It is the responsibility of the spiritual leaders of the host country, in this case the Guatemalan Mayans, to determine the correct destination where they are next needed. The discernment will take place at a meeting of perhaps thousands of spiritual guides and , in their tradition, with communication between themselves and spiritual beings through ritual fires. A delegation will then carry the ‘varas,’ and the unity they represent, to their new home within the indigenous family.