[ad_1]
The Mapuche communities of southern Chile are preparing for the eclipse of the sun that for just over two minutes will darken the sky of their territories tomorrow for the first time in more than a century, and that in their worldview implies the death of the sun and the beginning of a new stage.
For the Mapuche, the eclipse – or Lai Antü in Mapundungun – literally means the death of the sun (even if it is momentary) and heralds negative movements for which the communities must prepare with respect and great caution.
The eclipse will be fully visible -if the weather permits it since the forecasts speak of rain and clouds in the area- from 13:03 local in southern Chile in the regions of Araucanía, Los Ríos and in Bíobio areas, more than 500 and 850 kilometers from Santiago, respectively. It will be partially visible in the rest of the country.
Astronomers say that four planets that are close to the sun at this time of year will also be visible – Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn – and that if there is much luck, even shooting stars from the Geminid meteor shower could be seen. this week in that area.
In the Mapuche cosmological vision, parent stars like the Sun “reflect an energy that governs life.” When “there is a death of the sun” is covered, which is not a good thing, even if it is ephemeral, explains Diego Ancalao, weichafe (warrior) of the Lonko Mapuche community Manuel Ancalao and president of the Fundación Instituto Liderazgo y Desarrollo Indígena. .
A fight between the sun and the moon
As he explains, in his community eclipses are interpreted as a fight between the Sun (antü) and the Moon (küyen).
“Antü and Küyen are opposites, but complementary. Both necessary to maintain balance. The origin of the Mapuche people recognizes as the first spiritual family an elderly couple and a young couple who live in heaven and who created humanity ”, he indicated.
According to the Mapuches, during the eclipse the Sun is attacked and if it is completely covered, negative things could happen because the lack of light on Earth can be interpreted as a spiritual change.
Natalia Caniguan, director of the Institute for Indigenous and Intercultural Studies (IEII) of the University of La Frontera, in Temuco, the capital of Araucanía, agrees and adds that “it is a way in which nature expresses itself to send a message” that in It is generally a negative thing to be prepared for.
Ancalao asks to remember that after the eclipse that took place in northern Chile in July 2019 came the social outbreak in October and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The eclipse conveys the message that “we are not doing something right as a society and that the balances that must exist in the relationship between man and nature are not being adequate,” says Caniguan.
The expert assures that for the Mapuche man and the environment are oneself, that is, they must be in a balanced relationship, and when this does not happen, nature manifests itself. “It is closely linked to this knowledge of the indigenous and Mapuche peoples of reading the signs of nature,” he adds.
Those signals, he says, may be due to the damage that has been done to the planet. “The rivers have dried up, the native forests have been destroyed, people no longer perform ceremonies, there has been such a brutal extractivism that it has destroyed mother earth.”
AP However, the Mapuche leader adds that these signs of nature also reveal something positive. In his community’s worldview, “the negative is not bad. It is simply part of the balance of the positive. Negativity is a fundamental component without which there is no balance ”. And, again, balance – internal and individual in this case – is key.
What could follow the eclipse is a series of cosmological changes. “There is a cycle of life and the cosmos that ends, but it is also a transitory death from which new life, new vigor, sprouts, new energies comes,” says Pedro Canales, a historian specialized in indigenous communities. of Latin America and the Caribbean of the University of Santiago (USACH), citing Mapuche educator Elisa Loncon.
Nowadays, indigenous peoples know that “from this great eclipse, life, Earth, human beings assume a new moment and a new journey, there is an element of permanence and change,” affirms the historian.
For all this, the Mapuche communities are preparing for the event.
“It is a day that is lived very reflectively and perhaps some territories or families can make a special prayer,” says Natalia Caniguan.
Unlike what the eclipse would be for a tourist or for members of other communities, for the Mapuches the preparation is related to guarding themselves and not seeing the eclipse because “darkness or darkness implies the loss of certainties, so there is than being in the ruca (home) ”, adds Canales.
Some rituals can also be performed. One of them is known as a llellipun, a plea so that nothing bad happens to people. In this way, Ancalao adds, it allows “the birth of a new type of person who has the ability to change the negative events that have subjugated an entire society, not only Mapuche but also Chilean.”
For Ancalao, this new cycle could mark “the end of a way of exploiting nature for the supremacy of utility and man for capital, which has destroyed this society.”
“The big difference is that the Mapuche, and the indigenous people in general, place life at the center of development. This is the only way to perpetuate the human species ”, he concludes.
[ad_2]
