Re-Conectando: Weaving the Mycelium of the Soul for Peace in Colombia (3)

Van 2018 tot en met 2023 begeleidde Heleen ter Ellen, oud-CIMIC-docent en  -leerling, de Waarheidscommissie in Colombia met bijzondere workshops, genaamd: Re-Conectando: Laboratoria voor waarheid en verzoening in de buik van Moeder Aarde.

Dit proces was onder meer gebaseerd op het Werk dat weer Verbindt van Joanna Macy. Voor een nieuw te verschijnen boek over het belang van dit werk in de wereld van vandaag, schreef Heleen samen met haar collega’s een inspirerend artikel, met het mycelium als leidende metafoor. We brengen dit lange Engelstalige artikel in de CIMIC-Nieuwsbrief, opgesplitst in drie delen. Hieronder deel 3, meteen het laatste deel.

El Acuerdo de Paz: A Walk Towards Peace

Throughout all our activities—whether in heartfelt ‘wild conversations’ amidst nature, during moments of playful interaction, or in the profound silence of our Gaia refuge—we recognize that the soul’s mycelium is weaving together our past experiences, emotions, and beliefs. This intricate process shapes our present and future selves, integrating these elements to foster a sense of wholeness across our life journey.

To deepen our experience of integration and interbeing, both personally and collectively, we have developed another ritual in our laboratories: the Peace Walk.

This walk is inspired by the Peace Agreement, ‘el Acuerdo de Paz’ in Spanish. ‘Acuerdo’ comes from the latin verb ‘accordare’, meaning ‘to unite hearts’ and it reminds us also of ‘cuerda’, the cord that can guide us along the arduous path toward peace. Symbolically, our cord is represented by a fragile woolen thread.

The Peace Walk has emerged as a pivotal activity, symbolizing various facets of our national journey from conflict to harmony with ourselves and the natural world.

Participants are guided to a rugged, untamed natural environment, brimming with challenging terrain—rivers to cross, towering rocks to scale, dense bushes, precipices, dark caves, mountains, diverse vegetation, and fallen trees.

In silence and blindfolded, participants traverse this terrain, one hand resting on the shoulder of the person ahead, the other holding the thread symbolizing the ‘Acuerdo de Paz’ concluded in 2016. Intuitively, each person decides where to grip the cord, leading the way upfront, amidst the group, or following behind, sensing the movement of the thread guided by those ahead.

Guides assist when paths grow too perilous, facilitating a journey into the unknown. This collective endeavour serves to bring the unconscious into consciousness and reveal the unseen barriers within our spirit, heart, and body. It navigates uncertainty toward the horizon of peace and reconciliation—with oneself, others, and the Earth.

Questions arise: What do I need for healing? What must I release? Can I trust those beside me, those leading me? Am I myself trustworthy?

The Misak people of northern Cauca have imparted a profound teaching that inspires us to deepen our understanding about interdependence and deep time: the past is not behind us, but ahead of us. We move forward by tracing the footsteps of our ancestors.

Moving forward does not mean forgetting the past or the ongoing challenges, but rather, learning from those experiences to prevent their repetition and honoring the pain endured by humanity and all living beings. Moving forward entails reconnecting with the ancestral wisdom of indigenous peoples, listening to the Elders who have always understood the deep interconnection among all beings on Earth.

As we walk, one hand rests on the shoulder of the Elder before us, while on our other shoulder, we feel the hand of what could be a child from the future.

Together, we hold onto the delicate cord of peace, which at times breaks when someone stumbles or when the tension becomes overwhelming  – prompting us to pause, reconnect, and then continue our journey towards peace.

We often utilize traditional tales as rich forests of symbols, embedding ourselves in collective rites of passage. The Borneo story of ‘The Half Boy’ has been a guiding narrative for us on many occasions. This traditional initiation tale illustrates the journey from childhood (incompleteness) to adulthood (wholeness), culminating in the community’s joyous celebration upon the return of the fully initiated boy to the village.

During our peace walks, we immerse ourselves in the boy’s trials of initiation from this timeless story. Each participant confronts their fears, pains, feelings of abandonment, vulnerability, fear, and the necessity to trust others for survival.

At one point, we invite participants to pick up heavy rocks symbolizing the emotions or narratives that hinder their personal growth. Uphill, we carry our traumas, pain, resentment, desires for revenge, fears of authenticity, and more.

On other occasions, we pause by the river, using colored clay to mark our bodies with the stories and wounds life has inflicted upon us: feelings of inadequacy, shame, regret, fear, violence, illness, and destructive addictions.

Each person engages in a self-generated ceremony, adorning their body with these marks. Then, with this marked skin, we proceed towards a waterfall or flowing river. When ready, we immerse ourselves, asking the waters to wash away the old skin we wish to shed, allowing us to emerge renewed, cleansed, and ready for a fresh start—a rebirth of self.

Emerging from the waters purified and rejuvenated, as if reborn, we are welcomed into a new village where we sing and celebrate one another. We commit to embracing a new life and nurturing a country at peace with itself and in harmony with nature.

In our laboratory in Sumapaz, something extraordinary unfolded. Former FARC combatants and individuals who had suffered violence at the hands of the FARC as well as the national army (which was notorious for their atrocities in this region), came together.

Among them was Mario Calle, a retired member of the army, now wheelchair-bound due to an anti-personnel mine planted by the FARC. Initially, over the first two days, many harbored resistance, distrust, and even anger toward Mario, symbolizing what many considered ‘the enemy’.

However, as they listened to his profound suffering and learned how he now dedicated himself to making wheelchairs for victims of anti-personnel mines regardless of their affiliation, a process of humanization began to unfold.

As we prepared as a team for the Peace Walk, the challenge arose of how Mario could participate, given the wheelchair-accessibility issues on the path. To everyone’s surprise, three participants—among them a victim of the army and a former FARC commander—stepped forward. They took turns carrying Mario on their shoulders, becoming his legs and enabling him to partake in this symbolic gesture of peace. This act became a powerful manifestation of mutual care that naturally emerged, fostering healing not only for Mario and his ‘carriers’’ but for the entire group.

Icela Durán, a servant from the House of Truth in the Magdalena Medio region, expressed in an interview after the laboratory in which she took part: “If we had established a Ministry of Re-Conectando in our country and given every Colombian the opportunity to undergo this transformational experience, we would all be much better equipped to collectively build peace—and it would have cost significantly less!”

The truth-telling of the Living Earth

One of the significant contributions Re-Conectando has made to the Truth Commission is the recognition of our deep ecological connection, our innate belonging to Earth’s living body.

Miguel Grijalba, a servant of the local House of Truth in Norte Santander, shared after his experience in 2019: “We were really touched by Re-Conectando’s ability to reconnect us with Earth as a living, suffering, sentient, wise, and healing entity.”

According to Miguel, the Commission needed to include nature as an active participant capable of narrating the war’s effects, the pain it has inflicted, and pathways to collective healing inspired by nature’s resilience.

As Mamo Evangelio, one of the spiritual leaders of the Arhuaco community in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, states in the final report of the Truth Commission: “We as indigenous people consider violence to be the reflection of our disconnection with nature. What we call violence today is the detachment from the umbilical thread with Mother Earth and the loss of knowledge of her codes. If we also consider Mother Earth as a suffering body, we should ask ourselves where her pain can be located. How can we hear it? Who can give testimony: a river, a tree, a spirit, a cricket?”

The truth of the living nature and the ancestral wisdom of what are called the ‘ethnic communities’ will indeed be acknowledged as an important source for understanding the human tragedies experienced by different regions.

It is interwoven into several chapters of the Commission’s final report, notably in the chapter ‘Nature wounded by violence’, in the Ethnic chapter focusing on Colombia’s indigenous peoples’ resilience: ‘Resistance does not mean mere endurance’, and in the chapter named ‘When the birds did not sing’.

It is gratifying to know that Re-Conectando has been able to contribute, albeit modestly yet profoundly, to fostering this awareness.

In the Final Declaration of the Commission titled ‘Convocatoria a la Paz Grande’, the metaphor of Colombia’s wounded body is employed, emphasizing that to heal the body of the nation, all of its parts must be healed. This shows how the Commission has integrated the principles of interdependence and interconnectedness  – here at the level of its human.

Navigating Colonial Legacies

Colombia is a country with a strong religiosity associated with various branches of Christianity (mostly Catholics), especially in rural areas. However, beyond the Christian context, it is also a profoundly multicultural country, where numerous indigenous groups and Afro-Colombian communities, descendants of people enslaved by the Spanish during colonial times (representing respectively 3,4 percent and almost 10 percent of the total population) coexist.

These communities maintain strong cultural identities and rituals, honoring a deep and sacred connection to the living Earth, that have been pivotal in their resistance against historical marginalization.

Re-Conectando is a cross-cultural proposal so creating inclusive ritual spaces entails multiple challenges related to this past—and in the perspective of deep time, also this present—colonial context of Colombia. Our practices could be viewed with suspicion or even as a threat if the necessary care is not taken to always present them as invitations to perform them from their own sovereignty.

Practices offered by Animas Valley and The School of the Lost Borders are really helpful in this context. Their proposals of self-generated ceremonies in nature are being woven into the tapestry of Re-Conectando, alternating collective dynamics such as the Work That Reconnects and the Theatre of the Oppressed with these soulful personal practices experienced in solitude.

We observed that invitations like an immersion in their ‘Gaia Refuge’, ‘wild conversations’ with other-than-human-beings, offerings of thanksgiving, aligned with individual paths and intentions, foster self-awareness and personal growth. These ceremonies offer opportunities to confront shadows, fears and weaknesses, gaining clarity on life paths free from judgment or conformity.

All of these practices highlight the incredible opportunity contemporary societies have to transform themselves by drawing from different traditions and streams of symbolic content, allowing participants to craft rituals tailored to their life transitions and spiritual beliefs. We recognize that not everyone may fully engage due to personal convictions or challenges in connecting with the ritual’s energy.

Rather than criticize non-participation or judge it as resistance, we validate this as a way to explore their own cultural and spiritual awareness and personal boundaries. Integrating post-ritual reflections encourages participants to independently evolve their understandings, supported by community resonance and personal storytelling.

In this integration process, no one on the team dictates the meaning of the experiences or symbols discovered; instead, we echo the experiences, encouraging participants to interpret and redefine them as time passes. Sharing our personal stories is crucial, as it fosters mutual understanding and connection.

Our goal is for participants to reclaim tools such as ritual and mythical language, which have been lost in the modern world.

When appropriate, we invite participants from ethnic minorities who still practice these traditions to lead the way.  We’ve noticed that many from urban contexts, with few or no traditions, feel relieved and blessed being guided by those rooted in Earth-based spirituality.

This approach fosters our ‘unlikely dialogues’ and mutual healing in a country where these communities often face invisibility and racism. Despite challenges, these have spurred meaningful dialogue on the enduring impact of colonialism and the imperative of integrating local wisdom and ancestral practices into Re-Conectando’s work.

Carlos Rodriguez—also known as ‘El Diablo’, the Devil—, is the Afrocolombian director of the House of Truth in Tumaco, on the Pacific coast. At the end of the laboratory in Buenaventura in 2019 he reassures us, stating: Re-Conectando allows us to be reborn, reminding us of our own roots. It proposes a reconnection with life, with nature, as a vital source.

We know that for us blacks, afros, indigenous people, for ethnic communities, the territory represents Life. (…) Re-Conectando helps us to reconstruct the truth and above all to contribute to peace inspired by our deep belonging to nature.

Weaving the Mycelium of a Soulful Society

The years of collaboration with the Truth Commission have yielded another potent harvest: the ‘Seeds of Re-Conectando’. From the start in 2018 our intention was to identify community leaders, scholars and artists from different origins who would strongly resonate with our vision and values and could champion our methods in their regions, integrating their own practices and ancestral wisdom.

With dedication, methodological workshops and mentorship, we’ve been weaving a network that already includes more than 50 people. In our online community of practice, ongoing training is offered and open-source knowledge sharing is promoted.

We’ve been empowering several leaders to start co-facilitating in teams under the guidance and mentoring of senior Re-Conectando members and some are now part of the coordination team.

The vision of Re-Conectando Foundation, established in 2023 with the aid of a new donor, is clear: to sustain a flourishing network of people connected to their souls and the soul of the Earth, embodying empathy and interconnectedness.

Together they can weave a tapestry of transformation, enhancing the healing of the pluricultural and multiethnic body of Colombia, holistic peace education and environmental stewardship. Alliances are in the making to accompany efforts for climate adaptation and internationals can now participate in some of our laboratories and connect with our mycelial network.

Our approach is intended to adapt and thrive in diverse environments, mirroring the resilience of mycelium in nature. The soul’s mycelium, once planted, has the potential to transform Colombia’s society, one connection at a time.

Helena ter Ellen

Voor meer informatie: www.reconectando.org

NB: This article will appear in the forthcoming book Coming Together in the Great Turning: Collective Liberation and Work That Reconnects, by Aravinda Ananda, Molly Brown, and Kurt Kuhwald. New Society Publishers. Fall, 2025.

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