
Jwawika
Jwawika means Heart in the Arhuaco language.
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is a living temple, the Heart of the World, and the home to the Arhuaco Mamos, guardians of the unseen. Rooted in Aluna, the world behind the world, their wisdom carries the memory of balance, the protocols of care, and the original instructions for living in harmony with Mother Earth and the Mother of the Earth. This journey is a ceremonial return, a chance to listen to the mountain, receive teachings from silence, give pagamentos, and remember our role in the weave of life. To walk with the Mamos is to enter a field where thought becomes offering, presence becomes prayer, and the invisible becomes guidance.
Date: March [2026]
Where: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
“The Mamo is a great power who serves all the inhabitants of the world… The Sierra Nevada is the place of origin of the entire Nature.”
“The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta… the heart of the world… the well‑being of the rest of the world depends on it.”
There is a sacred pulse of coherence carried by the Mamos, a rhythm called Jwawika—the heart of the world, the axis of balance, the original blueprint of right relation. Through pagamentos, they make offerings not as ritual performance but as metabolic repair—rebalancing the visible through precise work in the invisible. Their prayers are not for belief, but for alignment. Their presence tunes the field, calibrates the unseen, and reactivates Earth’s memory of harmony. To walk with them is to enter a space where silence is instruction, and the mountain breathes through you. This is not a journey to consume wisdom, but to become responsible to it. To feel Jwawika is to be called into deeper listening—where land, wind, and water all speak the language of equilibrium. This is not ceremony for spectacle, but for systemic coherence. To be near the Mamos is to be reshaped by the pulse of nature’s own intelligence. To offer is to remember. To receive is to be rewoven. To care is to carry.
Meet Your Guides
In this immersion, you will be guided by two Arhuaco men and a large group of other Mamos and community members. As a unit, they will lead you through a transformative sacred and ceremonial journey, including optional workshops and learning of the Arhuaco language, cosmovision and stories.
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Arhuaco cultural guardian
Rogelio Torres is the Governor of the Arhuaco Reservation of the Sierra Nevada.
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Arhuaco cultural guardian
Bunkwaney Maku is an Arhuaco man who has traveled in various parts of the world making pagamentos and calibrating humanity.
Some of our activities
Visiting the Arhuaco village near the sea
Mamo Cosmovision and storytelling workshop
Pagamento ceremonies
Sacred coca learning and offerings
Pilgrimage to various sacred sites
Arhuaco art market
Fire circle
Supporting team
Ryan (Ra) James Kemp