KRISTA ARIAS: "Myth Mending is an ancient, innovative and efficient process of trauma resolution, curative story, ancestral lineage repair, and nervous system re-imprinting. It is a process for resolving trauma, recovering presence and finding your (and the worlds) deeper healing story of the past, but also for the future. The rupture that so often follows trauma in our current world is not a universal and necessary reality. Traumatic rupture is a result of our current dominant paradigm – its deconstruction and removal of the Indigenous and embodied ceremonial arts practiced by initiated individuals and communities as a whole. Our ancestral culture and ceremony were protective and must be restored . . ."
As a child I was constantly reminded by my grandmother, a devout christian, and all my elementary school teachers -- of how the bible tells us that Noah’s ark landed on Mount Ararat. Known as Մասիս (Masis) in Armenia, a snow-capped dormant volcano and the national symbol of Armenian identity. It is the heart of Armenia’s landscape, our songs and poems. The mountain sits on historically Armenian lands; now beyond our official borders (on Turkish territory); although it is visible from almost any vantage point in the country.
THE SPIRIT OF ARARAT IS IMPERVIOUS TO THE VIOLENCE OF YOUR BORDERS
THE SPIRIT OF ARARAT IS IMPERVIOUS TO THE VIOLENCE OF YOUR BORDERS
“Աղջիկս - tell me a story, of our flesh,” she says.
There are many mountains, valleys, and forests that remind me of Armenia’s landscape - but only when I squint, and only on a very windy day. There is something particularly flesh-like about the hills of my homeland that distinguish it from others. It is as if all of our foremothers just finished washing each other’s hair and skin in the waters of Սևանա լիճ (Lake Sevan), then collectively decided to take the longest of naps, thighs and breasts tangled into one another, lying across the plains of the highlands as the bones of our ancestors sing them into their dreamworlds. I often join them in my sleep, where we share our dreams and I am re-born into their world, their time, their flesh. Although it is always the hardest of mornings, because I feel as though I’ve woken up in the wrong place. As for the gale, a close friend of mine told me that they had never experienced such powerful and terrifying wind before; and how they were convinced that it was the voices of our ancestors calling to us, enraged and demanding to be heard. When the sounds in my own ‘head’ become too loud, I stand outside and let their voices drown out my own. One time, I thought I saw the fleshy hip of a mountain twitch under the moonlight. I assumed she was having a nightmare and sang to her until she was once again still.
“Աղջիկս - tell me a story, of our flesh,” she says.
There are many mountains, valleys, and forests that remind me of Armenia’s landscape - but only when I squint, and only on a very windy day. There is something particularly flesh-like about the hills of my homeland that distinguish it from others. It is as if all of our foremothers just finished washing each other’s hair and skin in the waters of Սևանա լիճ (Lake Sevan), then collectively decided to take the longest of naps, thighs and breasts tangled into one another, lying across the plains of the highlands as the bones of our ancestors sing them into their dreamworlds. I often join them in my sleep, where we share our dreams and I am re-born into their world, their time, their flesh. Although it is always the hardest of mornings, because I feel as though I’ve woken up in the wrong place. As for the gale, a close friend of mine told me that they had never experienced such powerful and terrifying wind before; and how they were convinced that it was the voices of our ancestors calling to us, enraged and demanding to be heard. When the sounds in my own ‘head’ become too loud, I stand outside and let their voices drown out my own. One time, I thought I saw the fleshy hip of a mountain twitch under the moonlight. I assumed she was having a nightmare and sang to her until she was once again still.