These songs are powerful. Just by listening, they can touch the soul and connect us to something greater than ourselves.
Sacred sound creates sacred space. Like prayer, it connects us with the sacred source of life, bringing a sense of divine love and care. This awareness connects us in profound ways to the divine and to those around us, and it can bring peace and comfort, a deeper trust and a sense of well-being.
From the Pachamama Medicine Songbook
Songs have always travelled with the medicines of the forest. They open the circle, call in the ancestors, give thanks and carry us home. Each week we share one: the song, where it comes from, what its words mean, and a simple way to listen with it.
This week’s song
Madre Tierra, Madre Vida
The medicine song by Peruvian composer Alonso del Río: a prayer of gratitude to Mother Earth, sung by the Pachamama Sanga Band.
What a song does in a hapé circle
- OpeningA song gathers the circle and marks the moment we arrive.
- Calling inIt remembers the peoples, the ancestors and the spirits of the forest.
- Sitting with itIt holds the silence after the hapé and gives the breath a rhythm.
- Giving thanksIt closes the circle with gratitude, and we carry it home.
From the archive
- Umbanda · Song of the Week 1Eu Vi um Caboclo na MataThe traditional Brazilian song of the forest spirit, sung in hapé circles.Listen
- Huni KuinHaux HauxChants from the Huni Kuin villages of Acre.Listen
- Huni Kuin · 2024Eskawatã KayawãA Huni Kuin chant that calls on the boa, as sung by Carlos Caruso.Listen
- Yawanawá and Shanenawa · 2024Shaneyawa SaiteIndigenous chants shared between two peoples of Acre.Listen
- Yawanawá · 2024A Yawanawá songThe first song of our 2024 series, from the Centro Yachak.Listen
- Prayer song · 2024Vem JiboiaA prayer song calling on the boa, sung by Francis and Vinicius Rodrigues.Listen
- 2024Reza do VentoThe prayer of the wind, by Ale de Maria.Listen
- 2024O Sopro do RapéThe breath of hapé, sung by Welber Marron.Listen
- Pachamama Circle · 2016Om Namah ShivayaA mantra from our own circle, with the Pachamama recordings.Listen
- Prayer · 2016Saint Francis Prayer“Make me an instrument of your peace”, sung.Listen
Follow the circle on SoundCloud for every recording, or find the blend to sit with while you listen.