What is zhona gueshi?

What is zhonagueshi? 

Throughout our lives, we use elements of nature: water, fire, plants, trees, animals. We use everything without asking permission and without thanking anyone. Nature constantly feeds us, gives us light, provides us with water, the source of life, and fire to cook our food. It never stops taking care of us. But how do we take care of it? Not only in the material world, but also in the spiritual. We need food. Nature provides it. 

Nature also needs our nourishment. 

What do we give it? In Kogi and Wiwa rituals, the mamos, after Aganguashi (after having been purified, cleansed, and healed), offer different materials to nature. Some materials are physical (hair, nails, semen). Some are spiritual. It is a payment, a giving, an offering, a return. With this payment, we give back to nature what we owe it. When the payment is spiritual, it is made to two energies: positive and negative. We pay for all the elements of nature with both energies. Because each element contains both energies within itself: stones, fire, plants. 

In Kogi-Wiwa cosmology, the word "negative" has no pejorative connotation. It represents the energy needed for many things: to be able to run, to sing loudly, to withstand difficult situations.

"By performing Aganguashi and Zhonageshi, we will direct and heal the wind, cataclysms, earthquakes, rain, animals, and plants. We will heal and cure the sacred spaces that have been damaged in different parts of the world. We help heal humanity's mental illnesses so that it may enter into the awakening of consciousness. We prevent global violence. We purify the seeds of food and of humanity."

The purpose of these practices is to maintain harmony with all people in the world, with the environment, with nature, and with the material universe. These ceremonies heal the energies of water, light, and all the elements we use to live in our material world. It is essential to maintain bodily and personal order, to refrain from disturbing or looting sacred sites, and to help humanity shift its consciousness through our thoughts. Harmony, unity, reciprocity, gentleness, and collectivism are vital in the world.