Ancient Bridge of Healing
The pagan shrines hold a special place in the Georgian culture. In the mountain region Khevsureti they are not only know as the abodes of the pre-Christian Georgian deities, but are also mentioned as deities themselves. The shrines are animated beings, that change form, fly and relocate their place.
Continue reading “Pre-Christian Georgian Shrines”
Due to their remote placement in the highlands of Georgia, the Khevsuretians have kept many ancient customs, rites and practices that have been dimmed or demolished in the lower Georgian areas through historical layers of colonialism and imperialism. I wanted to explore about my land in more depth and decided to go to the places were indigenous knowledge has been kept for the longest. Thanks to the mobility grant of Culture Moves Europe , I was able to initiate a research project, that focused on the ancient profession of the Qadagis. The research project pertained visiting 20 pre-Christian shrines of local deities throughout the Pshav-Khevsuretian mountainous areas and inquiring about the Qadagi people. The Qadagis were considered as the “tongues of the Gods” and served as an important link between the shrines and the human community. Let me introduce you here to the Qadagis.
Continue reading “Qadagis – The Tongues of the Gods”
Since I landed in my native Georgian lands, I got reassured, that the longing to return, was not merely a nostalgic feeling. My country was calling me and it is happy to have me back. It is happy to have any of us, numerous children, back who left for abroad. Leaving behind domestic chaos, uncertainty, poverty, political messiness, and identity vulnerability. We left for countries with stabler economics, defined structures, and dominant politics in the circulation of educational power.
Continue reading “About Georgian Identities, the Ancestors and Belonging”
Patience is not my strongest suit. And how honorable of me to become judgy with others when they are impatient. I recognize the jugdemental thoughts in my mind – the impatience with the impatience – about others who are impatient, like the sweet, jolly dog Gaia, the children of the place where I am staying at, and with my body when it urges needs… Because impatience is silly, right? You cannot push anything to become faster when time is needed. How logical of me.
Continue reading “About Impatience”
Happy new year, 2023! We have ventured into yet another year. Life charges ahead. Seasons will change, life will change, new will come, and old will go. Exciting, new things, await us, and hope moves us forward. Then life will come and jar some of the expectations, as it so often does. But then it will bring other unexpected gifts, that now are out of our sight. Things will go, and things will come. Life never fails to flow. Through our mere existence, we are learning to meet life, over and over again.
Continue reading “Rocks And Rivers – Meeting Life, Over And Over Again”
I was standing today on a French countryside highway, with a cold nose, wet feet, and sore shoulders, holding a carton in my hand stating “Rennes”. I was disheartened from the presumably two hundredth rejection during three hours attempt to find a lift.
Continue reading “The Power of Prayer”
Why is it so hard to leave the old behind, even when we know, that we are leaving for the better? Even when we know that the path that’s calling us, is the one that we’ve been praying for all along. At last, the prayers have been heard, and here it is, just around the corner, now it is time to embark on it and step beyond that corner, knowing that the path behind will vanish just like sand hills in a wind.
Continue reading “Letting go of the old”
After having been stranded in Hanover for six months now, I’m hitting the road again. Saying my farewells to Baukasten – the respectably shabby house that sheltered me. May the sharing of my tiny adventures here count as a gesture of gratitude.
Continue reading “Farewells. Leaving Hanover and Baukasten”
I was sitting today, watching a tarot reading, as I was surprised by a ladybug on my leg. My bodily reaction was to shake it away. Only afterward, I realized, that I had slung out a ladybug. I searched for where it had fallen and as I found it, it was injured. It had fallen on the ground beside a small paper note, that I made in December during one of Dr. Daniel Foor’s classes on Practical Animism. In that lesson, he was talking about connecting with the other-than-human – the animals, plants, spirits, deities, etc., – who are in our local proximity.
Continue reading “Ladybug Accident”
Let’s visit the majestic Khevsuretian mountains for a moment. Khevsureti is located in the northeast mountain chains of Georgia. The Khevsuretian cosmology is richly informed through the connection of the stars and the earth. The stars were seen as the origins of life on earth. We can read the cosmology through the symbol depictions on old stones and housings, also through mythology, rites, and customs that survived throughout time.
Continue reading “Shibi – Ancient Bridge for the Divine”