july, 2024
Event Details
Please join us for a very special Sacred Circle, led by Tata Miguel Teopixque Ehekamitl, known as the Grandfather of the Mexica–Toltec Tradition.
1-4pm, Sunday 7th July 2024
What can I expect at this Sacred Circle?
The circle will open with harmonisations using copal incense, before embarking on a 3-hour, guided journey into Toltec wisdom, including:
- Presentation of the Medicine Wheel
- Teachings on Toltec philosophy and worldview
- Sharing the medicine of cacao (heart medicine)
- Creation of a Tlalmanalli (altar)
- Sacred songs workshop: Flower and Song “In Xochitl in Cuicatl”
- Cosmic Dance (moving the energy of the 4 elements)
- Closing with the Teopathli Akayec Medicine Rapé* (pronounced Ha-pay: tobacco medicine – optional) and meditation.
What is the Toltec Medicine Wheel?
The Toltec Medicine Wheel (4 cosmic consciousnesses) invites us to seek our balance and perception from our inner center, opening us to the four directions of the universe (South, North, West and East). In this way we discover the benefits for our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual body. Seeing life through this lens allows us to be in harmony with ourselves and with everything that surrounds us as we pass through our life on our venerable beloved Earth, known in this tradition as Tonanzin Tlalli.
How should I go?
Shall I leave nothing behind me on earth?
How should my heart act?
Do we come to live in vain?
“Let’s at least leave flowers, let’s at least leave songs”
Who are the Toltecs?
Much has been written about the Toltecs and in truth little is known about them. They say that the Toltecs were “a people” or “a culture”, but the truth is that the Toltecs were a lineage of knowledge holders of the ancestral wisdom of the Cem Anahuac, the name given to the world of the Nahuas/Mexicas (the indigenous people of Mexico). Toltec was a degree of knowledge of the Toltecayotl. What was the Totecayotl? It was the art of living in balance, the philosophical thought that gave meaning to existence.
For the natives, Toltecayotl represented the pinnacle of their worldview. Symbolically, the Toltec is the artist among artists, the one who makes one’s own faces and true heart emerge, the one who illuminates like a smoking torch – the teacher among teachers.
There existed in the Cem Anahuac a group of Toltecs from all towns and cultures. These men and women of knowledge studied and practiced the knowledge of the Toltecayotl. The irradiation centre of Toltecayotl was Tenotihuacan, the place where human beings achieved divinity.
For the Toltecayotl, the human being is metaphorically divided into four parts starting from its centre. From the navel to the head it symbolises heaven and the spirit; it is represented with the Quetzal, the most beautiful bird that flies at the heights desired by human beings.
Do I need any special clothing or equipment to take part?
Please bring: flowers, seeds and/or fruit for the altar, and wear white or light-coloured clothes if possible.
Booking info
COST: £40 full price, £30 concessions. If this is financially unavailable to you, please email the Monastery on enquiries@themonastery.co.uk to ask about special rates.
*Rapé – pronounced ha-pay – is a psychotropic shamanic snuff made from finely ground tobacco and a variety of other herbs. Some snuffs are tobacco-free, making them less likely to act as a purgative.The purpose of a rapé ceremony is grounding and centering of the self and healing, and as such it is vital that your intentions are clearly set before beginning the ceremony. The act of taking rapé is considered sacred and a form of prayer by the indigenous tribes who first introduced it to the rest of the world.
Directions to the Monastery here.