The Paez cosmology is filled with spiritual beings with supernatural characteristics attributed to men, animals, and natural accidents. In the community, there is a permanent relationship with the lagoons, rivers, plants, serpents, wind, sun, moon and other mythical beings that exercise great influence in their daily lives.
In the Paez cosmology, the lagoons are elements of great value in the culture because they contain a lot of knowledge, to which only traditional doctors can have access. Surrounding them are the plants most used for their cleansing and healing work.
The elements of the cosmos are made up of three main threads that interpret man's relationship with the elements:
1. Nasa u'sh or spirit people, associated with the energy of natural elements.
2. Nasa kiwe or people of nature, refers to the world populated by nature: water, rivers, streams, lagoons, among others, in which the ancestors live.
3. Nasa nasa or people people. In the world of men.
The world is a structure made up of layers or spaces that have different characteristics and components. At the extremes, we find "Yu", the underworld and " Dry ", the sun. The first is associated with death, cold and dirt, the other with life, heat and wealth.
In Paez cosmology, the design of the house ("Yat") is fundamental, as space, refuge and collective construction of life. A grandmother and a grandfather acted as integrators of the whole. The beings were winds and spirits, but grandma and grandpa called them to have a home so they could have bodies. As they collided and hurt each other, grandma and grandpa told them that they couldn't stay divided but had to come together and come together and let everyone have his body.
This is how the universe is and from this model emerge the houses of each, the houses of the animals, the house of the sun and of course the house of nasa, the territory of nasa, the community as a collective house, the house of each family and the body, which is a house, just as the house has a heart (the hearth), eyes (the windows), a mouth (the door), ribs (the walls) or legs (the columns).
Coca Cola in Paez Cosmology
Plant sacred to the Nasa people. From childhood, they learn to "Mambear »(Chew) the leaf.
The shaman is closely linked to it by the interpretation of "Signs". Its consumption produces involuntary muscular movements which serve as the basis for divination.
With her, the Paeces produce cookies, wines, aromatic teas, dehydrated leaf fruits and energy drinks.
Rituals of Paez Cosmology
The traditional rituals intended to strengthen the community: spiritual purification of the body, spiritual refreshment of the rods of command, extinguishing the hearth, making offerings to the dead, the first menstruation and the ritual of fertility have been lost with the splitting of chiefdoms as a form social organization of the natives around the year 1700.
Their ceremonial practices began to recover from 1971, when the Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca (CRIC) was established.
Saakhelu Ne'jwe'sx (Fertility Ritual)
Saakhelu sacred ritual performed in the resguardo of Jambaló, Buena Vista – La Marqueza. August 2018.
Ritual of fertility, gratitude and protection that the Nasas give to the sacred spirits, a spiritual moment that summons children, young people, adults and natives or not, to greet them.
They offer abundant food, seeds, shisha, remedies, dance and sing songs typical of this ritual so that the rains, the moon, the sun and the seeds respond to the call of the community. If the spirits are not filled, they will bring famine and disease.
It is an opportunity to give thanks for the territories, the harvest and to continue to defend the sovereignty of the indigenous peoples.
Ipx Fxicxanxi (Fire extinguishing)
Ritual which traditionally takes place in March of each year.
“It is a ritual of harmonizing order, that is to say that it seeks that our energy reaches a state of balance with nature itself, because we are also nature; but it also seeks to harmonize the fire itself, which must be prepared within the community to enter into the next great rituals.
It develops around the fire and, with the advice of the elders, while using plants and drinks such as coca, chirrincho, chicha and other remedies, we channel the dirty, or rather bad, energies that we collect for some time and offer them to grandfather's fire, which will help us to clean it. (Getting Root: Center for Communication and Popular Education)
Cxapucx (Offering to the dead)
Held in November, it is the offering made to loved ones who have already left.
It is carried out by each of the families accompanied by the whole community, a tribute to the search for harmony with the beings who have accompanied them in the process and the march on the territory.
On a large table they offer the food, seeds and things they liked and are invited to eat. It is said that at night you can hear laughter, people talking and laughing while tasting what is served.
But the next day, the food is intact and then the feast begins with the living beings: each one receives a part of the food prepared for the souls.
The Nasa must not forget their relatives who are already in the spiritual world, they must keep what the ancients taught them: the language, the fabrics, the mode of culture, the consumption and the care of nature.
Other important rituals are the cooling of the "Staff of command" which is performed every year by the Cabildo in the Juan Tama lagoon and that of the spirits when a member of the community is sick and to cure him they must worship either the rainbow or the duende, be thunder according to whoever punished him.
