Earth Chants & Songs

Transmitted by Beth Garrigus in April 2025

WE DRUM FOR THE EARTH                                    

(Susan Griffin/ Earth Prayers From Around The World)

 

As I go into the Earth, she pierces my heart. As I penetrate further, she unveils me. When I have reached her center, I am weeping openly. I have known her all my life, yet she reveals stories to me… these stories are revelations and I am transformed. Each time I go to her I am born like this. Her renewal washes over me endlessly, her wounds caress me; I become aware of all that has come between us, of the noise between us.  My body reaches out to her. Our bodies speak effortlessly, and I learn that at no instant does she fail me in her presence. She is as delicate as I am; I know her sentience; I feel her pain and my own pain comes into me, and my own pain grows large… I grasp this pain with my hands and open my mouth to this pain.  I taste and I know why she goes on, under great weight, with this great thirst, in drought, in starvation, with intelligence in every act, does she survive disaster. This earth is my sister; I love her daily grace, her silent daring, and how loved I am, how we admire this strength in each other, all that we have lost, all that we have suffered, all that we know:  we are stunned by this beauty, and I do not forget what she is to me, what I am to her.

 

AS ONE WE WALK THIS EARTH TOGETHER (Denean)

 

As one we walk this earth together.  

As one we sing to her our song.  

As one we love her.  As one we heal her.  

Her heart beats with our own as one.

 

 

ALTAR SONG/ Brooke Medicine Eagle

yo hey hi yi yi yi yi yay yo hey hi yi yi yi do

yo hey hi yi yi yi yi yay yo hey hi yi yi yi do

yo hey hi yi yi yi yi  / yo hey hi yi yi yi yi yay  yo hey hi yi yi yi do

 

 

Excerpts from the CHIEF SEATTLE DANCE CYCLE, first shared by Anahata in the dome at Lama Foundation after the fire; adapted by Darvesha

 

Every part of the earth is sacred to my people.

We are part of the earth and it (she) is part of us.

All things are connected.

This we know:  the earth does not belong to us.

We belong to the earth.

We all breathe the same breath.

If the bees were gone, we would die of a great loneliness of spirit.

 

GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING CREATOR  Mic Mac/ Eastern Canada

Good morning, good morning, Creator.  The sun’s coming over the trees.

Thank you, thank you, Creator, for life and loving me.

 

Shared at a women’s camp in Montana (One of Beth’s favorite)

Pine needles and earth beneath my naked feet.

I bow to the mountain.  Her ancientness bows to me.

Obsidian wings of the laughing crow invite the soundless bells of dawn.

 

 

I CAN FEEL YOUR HEARTBEAT  Wind Daughter/ Native American

I can feel your heartbeat, heartbeat, heartbeat.  

I can feel your heart beat–heartbeat. (repeat)

Mother, Mother Earth, Earth.  (repeat)

 

LOKAH SAMASTA SUKINO BHAVANTHU/ Deval Premel and Miten

Lokah Samasta Sukino Bhavanthu

Om Shanti Shanti

May all of my thoughts, words and actions contribute in some way to the happiness of all beings.

 

MOTHER I FEEL YOU/  Native American/ shared by Wind Daughter

Mother, I feel you under my feet.  Mother, I hear your heart beat.  (repeat)

Hey yah hey hay hey yah hey yah hey yah hey yah ho

Hey yah hey yah hey yah hey yah hey yo  (repeat)

 

THANK YOU, MOTHER EARTH, FOR THE BEAUTY I HAVE SEEN TODAY (shared during the early years of Lama Foundation)

 

Thank you, Mother Earth, for the beauty I have seen today.  And I give thanks for the many beings who have given of themselves in this way.

Chant
THE EARTH, THE AIR, THE FIRE, THE WATER RETURN

 

TREES GROW TALL IN THE HEART OF THE FOREST 

(another of my favorites: shared at one of the Women Singing in Circle retreats at Lama Foundation)

 

Trees grow tall in the heart of the forest, high in the sky 

 and their roots grow down in the deep, dark earth.

 

UMA MARIAM /  Dance of Universal Peace

Uma is one of the names of the Great Mother.  Mariam, which is Islamic, is the aspect of the Divine Feminine that was/is the Mother of Christ. Sung in three parts weaving in and out. 

Uma Uma Uma Uma Uma Uma Uma Uma

Uma Mariam Uma Mariam

Uma Mariam Uma Mariam

 

WICHI TA /  Native American (balance)

Wichi ta do yah do yah do yah    /  Wichi ta do yah do yah hey  (repeat)

Washa ta ney yah hey ya hey ya /  Washa ta ney yah hey ya hey  (repeat)

 

WILLOW SONG /  Native American (flexibility)

Sha noon ho ya  sha noon ho yah

Hey hey ya hey ya ya ho ney / Hey hey ya hey ya ya ho ney

Hoy ney / ho ney

 

 

Wah Ta-Ho! Ta-Ho! Ta-Hey (repeat)

Wake ye, arise, life is calling you.

Wake ye, arise, life is greeting you.

Mother Earth, child, she is calling you.

Mother Earth, child, she is greeting you.

 

 

We sat under Masasas and Figs and Mukwa and trees with no name

and saw their wounding, their dying–

nails in their bark, 

swellings where insects are eating their trunks away from the inside. 

The Mukwa (Nyamaropa)–the tree that stood proudly on the hill 32 years ago–

the medicine tree that was visited by nyangas – who stripped off squares of her bark,

now old and tired – surrounded by strong new trees competing for light and space and the grace of her slow fading – the first dead branches filled with life of another kind.

 

We saw their accommodation to spaces in the canopy, a dance of cooperative creative patterning.

We saw their gratitude, hearts open wide, these magical cycling systems that move water and air and light.

 

We felt their prickly rough bark, surprised at its soothing gentle touch.

We saw the immense height of the towering gum, its roots firm, widely rooted in foreign soil at home in this forest of African trees.

 

We saw our childhood: the trees that we climbed, the fruit we had eaten,

the books we will write for the new children, the woodlands we will grow for them to play in…

 

Reaffirming an ancient knowing, that we are connected to the healers of the earth.