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Journeying into the Sacred Headwaters of the Amazon 1 2 3 4 Anita & Manari photo cut from video 2017 Source: Photo Credit: Julie Hall - Photographer/Videographer Journeying into the Sacred Headwaters of the Amazon Anita Sanchez with Achuar 2017 Source: Photo Credit: Julie Hall - Photographer/Videographer Journeying into the Sacred Headwaters of the Amazon Ecuador Rainforest - Amazon 2017 Source: Photo Credit: Julie Hall - Photographer/Videographer Journeying into the Sacred Headwaters of the Amazon Tinkias visitor huts 2017 Source: Photo Credit: Julie Hall - Photographer/Videographer

The rainforest of the Amazon, the heart and the lungs of our earth, is cleansing the air and creating a high level of oxygen that is nourishing us.

Journeying into the Sacred Headwaters of the Amazon

By Anita L. Sanchez Ph.D.

Every summer, I have the honor of taking a group of journeyers into the depths of the rainforest of Ecuador in South America – what we call the sacred headwaters of the Amazon. We go to visit two of the 25 indigenous nations living in their ancestral homes, spread across 75 million acres of rainforest. We step out of the tiny plane onto the dirt airstrip surrounded by dense green jungle, and everyone in the village, young and old, comes out to greet us. The Achuar, an indigenous tribe, are strong warriors and loving people who have lived for thousands of years in harmony with the rainforest. As I look into the Achuar’s calm, clear eyes, I see a people who have never been infected by the illusion of separateness, people who have lived in community, knowing the connection of the people, earth, and spirit.

One of the first things that the journeyers notice and say, “What is that? I feel physically different.” And I get to tell them, “It’s the gift of true abundance, an abundance of clean oxygen. The rainforest, the heart and the lungs of our earth, is cleansing the air, and creating this high level of oxygen that is nourishing us.” In a marvel of earth’s abundance, the mists and clouds that hover over the headwaters contain more life-giving water than is contained within the Amazon river itself, from the Andes to the ocean at the edge of Brazil. These clouds, floating rivers as they are called by scientists, impact the weather around the world.

When we awaken at four o’clock in the morning, it’s dark. We join the Achuar tribe who start every day together with their family, and from the littlest ones to the elder, they share their dreams; based on their dreams, they decide what they are going to do that day. My journeyers’ mouths drop open, seeing the power of community.







As the days continue, the journeyers begin to hear and listen more deeply to the different sights and sounds of the trees, animals, birds, and water. The diversity is remarkable: 2.5 acres of rainforest contains a wider sample of tree species than are contained in the whole of the United States and Canada.

And that diversity of life is talking to its inhabitants.

A young Achuar boy asks us if we want to come to see his favorite fishing hole and the translator tells us what the boy is saying: “When we see the frogs and toads moving en masse from the river, we move away from the water, too, for we know the flooding is coming. We listen to each other. We appreciate the animals, the birds, as well as the frogs and toads, who set off the alarm so that we can be safe and live.” Journeyers are amazed by this reciprocity: animals helping people and people helping animals. Totally attuned in the world. Intimately inter-connected.

We make our final stops in the last few days of our journey, as we join another tribe, the Sapara. Again we Journeyers are awed by the richness of the knowledge that they have of using trees, plants, minerals, and insects to cure fevers, aches, wounds, and life-threatening diseases. The Sapara provides their treatments to anyone for their healing because the treatments are gifts of the earth and are meant to be shared by all of us.

We continue to hike for miles; the Sapara shows us how they travel widely to cut down individual trees from different places to build their homes. They tell us, “We don’t cut all the trees from just one spot, because we must maintain and honor the rainforest and the strength of it. For the forest provides for us, and we provide for the forest.”

What becomes so increasingly clear is that the Sapara and the Achuar do not live in the forest, they are part of the rainforest. The rainforest and they are one, inseparable.







When the journey ends, every one of us has been changed; we can see the amazing gifts within the circle of life. We are more able to understand the joy and responsibility of maintaining harmony and connection with all beings.

This responsibility is ever more important in the modern world, where the illusion of progress remains a constant threat to the ancestral wisdom of the rainforest. Our relentless and continual mining and oil extraction stem from a simple failure to understand the importance of Amazon’s people, medicinal gifts, and natural bounty for ourselves, our children, and the children of other species.

We don’t have to travel thousands of miles away to understand, to live this connection, because it is already inside of me and it is inside of each and every one of you.

We have to do is open our hearts, allow those connections in, and begin our actions to be guided by those connections.

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About the Author

Anita L. Sanchez, Ph.D. is the author of The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times

To learn more about and to give support to the Sacred Headwaters Initiative Contact:

Fundacion Pachamama/ Executive Director: Belen Paez, [email protected]

Pachamama Alliance: Bill Twist, CEO, [email protected]

Sacred Headwaters Initiative / Director of Global Strategy: Atossa Soltaini, [email protected]

Amazon Watch: Kevin Koenig, Climate/Energy Director, [email protected]





