Wisdom - One Face

By Nataani Guthrie

The original meaning of the word “vocation” means “the voice within.” Many cultures have ceremonies and rituals as to how to get in touch with this voice.

While this voice tends to emerge during our adolescence, it can speak to us at any stage of our life. The Huichol Indians tell us that there are two kinds of human beings. Those who listen to their inner-voice and those who ignore it.

The ones who listen to their inner-voice move in harmony with the flow of life, which is represented by a magical deer, “hicuri.” They also drink from the magical waters of “teacata”, the place of wisdom. This is the invisible river from which the Monarch butterflies drink in order to find their way in their migration from Canada to Mexico. This is also the water that the Salmon drinks in order to find his way from rivers to the sea and back to their birthplace. To know without being taught.

The Huichol Indians tell us that when we ignore our inner-voice we become ghosts of ourselves. Our mind is in one place, but our heart is some where else. Then, since we have lost our integrity, we become “beings of duality”, and we enter the world of restlessness and perpetual want.

But no matter what we do, and how much we may ignore our inner-voice, our heart never gives up on us. The Mayas tell us that within it lives a Quetzal, the bird of life, and the Quetzal goes on talking to us. The voice becomes more clear during the night, as we sleep and dream. It becomes clear also when we take time to be in silence, when we fast, or when we spend time in solitude. At times it may even assault us when we deal with pain or suffer a breakdown.

Our sickness may be an attempt of our heart to straighten our life.

When we are rooted in our hearts, our faces bear no duality, no concealment. Mexicans call a face with a heart “rostro” because the face is rooted in nature and in truth.

However, when the face is not connected to the heart, it cannot be a “rostro”, and it is called “cara”. In English we only have one word for both of them, “Face”, although, there is a world of difference between them. If you happen to have a rostro, keep shining brightly in this world. And if you happen to have a cara, your heart is out there calling for you. They say that when you find your voice the whole Universe sings. Make the Universe sing!

- Nataani Guthrie

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