I have been unknowingly practicing the ways of the ancestors. The ancestors were leading me towards a practice that I didn't know I was going to take seriously. This practice is called, "Peace Circle".
Well, here's a very short story ,placed in numeric order, of how I got introduced into doing peace circle: 1. I was doing poorly at my neighborhood high school and I felt overwhelmed by the adversities which wanted me to get ghost. 2. I decided to take myself out of Kenwood high school and Ms. Kirby (principle) helped me transfer to an art-based charter school, Joshua Johnston (best decision ever, they even employed me after graduation). 3. That's where I met my long term artist mentor, Gwendolyn Pruitt, which I could very much call her my god-mother. 4. This was the place where I got introduced to peace circle. We had it every Tuesday in science class. I noticed how engaging it was for the students to communicate with each other and everyone had their own opinions. This method of conversation was so controlled for these rambunctious students! 5. I got permission from my science and art teacher to take on this method outside of school and use it in my community. 6. I was in New York for 3 months in the summer of 2013, in the month of August, I planned SoulFreePeace and wanted to have a big comeback in my hometown with something very positive. 7. I got permission to hold peace circle in my very own neighborhood with the help of Frontline Books. 8. Then history has been made!
As I was starting to practice the peace circle method in my community in the midst of peace-keeping (which is an act of being the peace-keeper, a person who is the mediator and organizer of the peace circle) I would ask myself: "What is the soul-purpose of this event?", "Is it benefitting my peers and community?", "Was this the right topic to talk about and should this subject be recycled?", and so forth. As the peace circle continues, I usually ask a general question to my attendees of the circle, "Why did you come to the peace circle today?". The answers I receive are so uplifting that I want to cry every time I ask that question. I've never seen so many people attend to this event and be able to unpeel many layers of themselves like an onion. This simple question is what made me dig for more answers as to why this was so important for my community.
As a peace keeper, I want to always stay inspired to hold a peace circle and always be in the right mindset as well. From developing a timeline of the circle, to what I will place in the middle of the circle, thinking about meditations and pranayama exercises, to sage burning and lighting certain candles. At times I felt I was over doing them, or I would get discouraged when only 3-4 people arrived. While holding such an important event, I have to realize that the energies in the circle are meant for the attendees and them only. I had to constantly think, well this is extremely intimate... how can I relax everyone? And for people who didn't expect to speak, how can I open them up?- Which it is not the sole purpose is for you to speak, but enough to have them comfortable enough to speak. Peace circle is about building trust with people you have met or never met. That is the wonders about this circle. Someone can arrive just to tell you something very important you needed to hear. Peace circle is like a therapy circle, literally for people who cant afford therapists, should come to a peace circle. Ha, and this is so funny! I remember growing up, I said I wanted to be some type of therapist. And honestly, peace circle work, is therapy work.
A Photo from SoulFreePeace's Instagram
Peace circle is all about living in the experience.
No one is ever forced to be at a circle. Circles are a way of life.
Circles are existing for a purpose to help you grow in certain areas of yourself.
Peace circles only exist because of the ancestors.
If you have done some research about peace circles, you have found out that it originated with the Native people,
["Circles are found in the Native American cultures of the United States and Canada, and are used there for many purposes. Their adaptation to the criminal justice system developed in the 1980s as First Nations peoples of the Yukon and local justice officials attempted to build closer ties between the community and the formal justice system. In 1991, Judge Barry Stuart of the Yukon Territorial Court introduced the sentencing circle as a means of sharing the justice process with the community. Circles have been developed most extensively in the Yukon, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. They are also occasionally used in other Canadian communities, and in the United States where Navajo peacemaking courts have also used circles. The initial US use of circles in mainstream criminal justice was in 1996 in Minnesota. The process is now used throughout North America and in other parts of the world for both juvenile and adult offenders and in a wide variety of offences and settings."- www.restorativejusitce.org] but this method goes way back to the African culture dating back to slavery (yup, that scene in the Nat Turner movie, "Birth of a Nation" where they meet up in the middle of the night and discuss their escape, even possibly how Harriet Tubman developed that underground railroad, and let's not forget that Haitian revolution ritual).
We can just safely call these circles "Retributive Justice" which is a theory of justice holding that the best response to a crime is a suitable punishment, inflicted for its own sake. The only goal in retributive justice is punishment. Preventing future crimes (deterrence) or rehabilitation of the offender are not important in determining punishment. Let's face it though, you know our recent ancestors couldn't formally hold a peace circle and seek justice, they literally had to fight the oppressor by using the oppressor's tactics. Moreover, this was not the nature or natural personality of our ancestors. They needed peace, we all know that.
And let us not start with slavery, but we can even date this back to when the world was ruled under the Kemetic culture. In many cultures that honored their ancestors, they meet in circle to hold very important village meetings to speak on overall cultural news such as: resolving environmental issues, hunting, plantation, and more. This is where truth is spoken around the midst of the fire, medicine, tea, or etc. I could also consider African traditions such as drum circles, offering ceremonies (as one of them observed, dancing around the offering), ancestral callings (as the reggae band "Midnite" would say in "Ras to the Bone": "long distance I call Jah Upon I blood cell phone"), or any ceremony done in a circle but, this isn't always the case as well. Also, in Africa there are huts that the natives would retreat to solve conflicts; these huts are designed to only crawl inside preventing arguments and physical violence. Nonetheless, the purpose is to build community, communicate with the spiritual realm, and build our spiritual quality as we go through these challenges in life. Remember, life is always here to test us and we have to strive to pass them.
Peace circles are also a given right to anyone whomever within it to build their revolutionary act as a human race against the opposition of politicians. I think that is why most circles are organized by political community activists to obtain "Transformative Justice" which is a liberating approach to violence which seeks safety and accountability without relying on alienation, punishment, or State or systemic violence, including incarceration or policing. I say transformative justice is very useful for political community activists because there's not necessarily interpersonal restoration within the circle, but more-so a transformation in implementing general positive. The is video (above [mobile] right [desktop] is titled Chicago Restorative & Transformative Justice in Action.
solutions and perspectives. However, I am not fully interested in general world politics, yet interested in general city/community politics. I openly support my community and hold social justice based peace circles to help them gather plans, or give ideas for each other to become more politically conscious. I think those circles are important for the community to talk about what is wrong in the system and how can we fix it within our communities. It takes a team to really come up with logical valid ideas.
As I said before, peace circle is therapy work. Peace circles are slowly becoming a norm in the school systems, which I think is amazing! This method of peace circle is called "Restorative Justice" and this is more of an interpersonal process. The exact definition says: a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large. Now, this process can be used in any setting such as jails, schools, work, and a specific group or organization. And these circles can also be very specific to what group it is being presented to. Soul Free Peace mainly holds restorative justice circles for the simple fact that people want to be able to heal themselves. To heal yourself, you must be able to channel your higher self or in my perspective, your ancestors because they are the ones to bring you up to your higher self. I enjoy holding restorative circles people I also get to heal in the process of hearing everyone's uniquely designed story. I observe the most release in these circles and I can see a transformation starting within themselves. That's the beauty of utilizing transformative and restoration justice.
My focus is heavily on the spiritual aspect of the person based off the fact that if your spiritual quality or your ancestors are not cared for, then who is really going to support your well being on this earth?
"...we have to take care of the spiritual world and at the same time take care of the physical world. You have to be walking with both of these in mind and make sure you fit in harmony with it. That’s what is missing in the modern world." - Naba Iritah
The spiritual wealth in holding these peace circles dawned on me when my father's father, "Rafa" invited me to come to a family medicine healing ceremony, Native American style. I was very delighted to come because at this time, I had just met my grandfather about 2 years ago and I wanted to get to know him more. I didn't know what to expect, however, I knew that this circle would enhance me in some ways.
I REMEMBER...
In present time [Sept.14th.17], this event happened about 3 years ago, so as I write this article, most of my memory of this event is coming to me. I remembered when my grandfather called to invite me. I remembered how excited I was to take part in a Native American circle because by then I knew my ancestors had to be Mayan based on the fact that my great grandmother is from Chiapas (In Mexico City, at the National Museum of Anthropology I learned that colonizers from Spain came to conquer the Mayan civilization by forcing them to adapt the teaching of Christianity. Read more about Chiapas's history here). I remembered when my grandfather came to pick me up from my house and also picked up Bou'khepra (my boyfriend at the time, now husband) on the way. I remembered when we arrived to the Native American Church. I remembered the energy of that house and how it was connected to the ceremony space. I remembered may people were there who I had never met but felt like family. And so, I sat on the couch as everyone organized the ceremony. I wondered if my "new" family would all attend but there was only my grandfather, his first wife, and me. Bou'khepra had to leave because we didn't realize that the circle was going to last for 24 hours and he had Earth Center (temple of Kemetic philosophy and spirituality) obligations in the morning!
So, I stayed and kept being exposed to different objects in the space, such as the Mayan Calendar, which highly made me want to learn my indigenous language. I was exposed to many different Native instruments, like the water drum that was mainly used for the ceremony. The water drum was being prepared before the ceremony, the process is placing water into a cast iron kettle, then using a deer hide (or any type of animal hide cloth), and it seem that they wrapped the water drum with a thick cord and as they tie the drum, they wrap it around stones to secure it. The water drum is played at a tilt with a wooden stick. The water drum has such a deep emotion that I can feel my heart opening, but opening layer by layer. And they deeply chant peyote songs along with playing the water drum. Although, I did not know the songs as some did in the circle, I could feel the vibration. As writing this article, I'm assuming that this medicine ceremony was a peyote based ceremony. Peyote is a cactus that is used for healing during these ceremonies. Huichols or Wixáritari ("The People" of Mexico) have traditionally used the peyote (hikuri) cactus in religious rituals. These rituals involve singing, weeping, and contact with ancestor spirits. "It is Wirikuta, where the Huichol go each year to collect peyote." "Before reaching Wirikúta, their final destination, they pass by the sacred springs of Tatéi Matiniéri ("Where Our Mother Lives"), the house of the eastern rain goddess. [Due to the desire to use this traditional plant recreationally, the Mexican government, with the help of international organizations, has input laws allowing for its use in religious practices only and any other use or possession can be a crime worthy of ten to twenty-five years in prison.]
I remembered receiving the peyote, which was bright a green. We took this medicine as a powder and a drink throughout the whole night. I remembered wrapping our own Tabaco with leaves, not remembering what kind of leaf it was. We had to smoke the Tabaco to settle our stomachs after taking the peyote. I remember every time we smoked, it was a wish we were making. We used the smoke to bless ourselves. I was blowing the smoke and hovering my hands over my head. I remember the center of the circle was burning cedar. I remember whenever we walked out or into the circle, we had to enter or leave clockwise. I remember feeling tired during the ceremony and dosing off a lot of times as my grandfather's first wife tapped on my shoulder to wake me. I remember listening to what people had to say and the shaman giving advice. I remember people singing their songs and reciting powerful chants. I remember looking at my grandfather and saying "wow, I'm really here". I remember just the three of us expressing our voids, our regrets, our blame, our hurt and pain, our hearts, our lives with and without each other. I remember crying uncontrollably. I remember expressing unknown pain in my heart for the absence of my grandfather. I remembered the essence of the ancestors present in the ceremony. I remembered saying these exact words to my grandfather "Without you, I have no key to unlock the knowledge I need to know about my ancestry". I remembered when the energy lightened and soon was coming to an end, we had eaten buffalo meat as an offering to the ancestors. This offering was given to the ancestors in the fire that was burning throughout the night. I remembered everyone smiling and wishing that our family would continue to grow.
In essence, this was a peace circle. It was meant for us to heal in that ceremony and that exactly happened for everyone in that room, whether it was minor or major. I thanked everyone in that space for helping us heal because without them, how could we have so openly expressed what was heavy on our hearts? I felt so light. Refreshed. This is a memory that will never leave me.
"In this picture, we see as the shaman when it comes to Wirikuta starting to make your altar in which placed all its offering. Which symbolize all people that they comprise such as the family and presented them before the spirit is inhabiting."
-Artisan Huichol, Mexico