A curandera espiritu shares the importance of prayer, and of becoming one with nature


In 2012, Grandmother Flordemayo founded The Path, the manifestation of a vision she had about strengthening the spiritual connection between humans and Mother Earth.

The Path, a nonprofit organization headquartered on 40 acres in rural New Mexico, is dedicated to the conservation and preservation of heirloom and heritage seeds, helping to assure that these important sources of food and herbal medicine will not disappear.

Born into a lineage of healers in the highlands of Central America and now an indigenous elder, Flordemayo travels internationally, sharing wisdom and teaching respect for the earth. Here, she talks with Unity Magazine editor Katy Koontz about her life and her work.


Katy Koontz: You started having visions at the age of 4. What was it like growing up in a family where that was supported and nurtured rather than feared and suppressed?

Grandmother Flordemayo: I was born into a family of healers in the highlands of Central America, on the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. The area was all mountains and rolling hills, with lots of vegetation and beautiful animals.

The wonderful thing about where I was born is that my family wasn’t the only one doing healings—the whole town was involved. A person of medicine in Spanish is a curandero, and the practice or method we use is called curanderismo.

This practice encompasses many modalities, including bone setting, child birthing, massage, herbal remedies, and of course dialogue with the invisible, which is what I do.

The roots of curanderismo come from indigenous spirituality, African spirituality, and also Christianity. So it’s a new word—new as in post-Columbian.

This curanderismo is practiced from Mexico to the tip of Patagonia, but we are especially known for it in the region of Central America where I am from. The land has a lot of crystals there, which have intense energy.

From the earliest time I can remember, as soon as I went to bed I could feel myself start to spiral out into the cosmos. I believe in my heart that some of that ability was inherited, some could be attributed to the land, and some was simply because everybody we knew was speaking the same lingo.

I don’t even have words to describe how grateful I am that I was born and raised where I was.

Training to Become a Maya Priestess

Grandmother Flordemayo, Seed Temple, Estancia, New Mexico, Maya Priestess

KK: Was your training to become a Maya priestess separate from the healing practices you learned from your mother?

GF: Absolutely. My mother passed away before I was 20 years old. We were living in the United States then, and my family members were all in different places. My older brother was still in Central America and my sister, who I am very close to, was in Miami.

So I went into prayer and asked the beloved Creator to help me to find a teacher from my roots—a teacher who spoke the traditional language, who did the traditional ceremonies.

Then I met don Alejandro, a traditional Maya, and he was all of that. In fact, he was the high priest at the time. I met him through something that wasn’t even planned.

I received a phone call from a dear friend in Santa Fe who told me that an elder from Guatemala was traveling with a small group, visiting some of the pueblos and reservations in New Mexico. She asked if I would be available to travel with them and translate, and of course I said yes.

Our meeting was very magical, and a lot of beautiful information started to unfold. And so this elder said to me, “Child, would you like to walk with me?” I asked him what that meant, and he said, “The sacred walk is to go to sacred centers in Central America, and we will learn about prayer and ceremony.”

It was just what I had asked for in my prayers. That was my introduction to Maya spirituality.

KK: What an amazing experience that must have been.

GF: I came to find out in the midst of the teachings that my beloved Creator would take me in different directions.

I would have these spontaneous visions and different prayers would come to me from other sources. I spoke to my elder about it, and he said, “Flordemayo, you have to make a decision whether you want to be open to the universe where all religions speak to you, or if you want to focus just on your Maya heritage.”

A Universal Calling

I took the question into my heart and into my prayers, and a year later I became very clear that I did not want to shut myself down from the universe and just strictly do things one way—because the traditional Maya is, well, very traditional. They have their ways—things that you can do, that you can’t do, ways you must dress, and the way you do ceremony and prayers.

My prayers, on the other hand, are very spontaneous—very in the moment. They’re not repetitive.

So after I prayed on that, I had a meeting with my elder and about 30 or 35 of his students. I told him that I wanted to continue and be open to the Universe, and so he gave me his blessing.

For my soul to survive I needed to hear the Maya prayers and do the traditional ceremony. I continued to learn everything he could teach me, and I held all of his teachings in my heart—but I also continued to receive guidance from the invisible beings.

That’s why I say I’m not traditional, I’m universal.

Indigenous wisdom says you do not do anything without considering nature. We’re constantly listening to everything that’s going on around us, watching nature and making decisions about what to do and what not to do. That kind of attention and consideration is absolutely imperative right now.

KK: Why is indigenous wisdom so important right now?

GF: The indigenous way is all about balance—balance with all of life. And it starts from the beginning of the day with a prayer, with being in a state of gratitude.

Indigenous wisdom says you do not do anything without considering nature. We’re constantly listening to everything that’s going on around us, watching nature and making decisions about what to do and what not to do. That kind of attention and consideration is absolutely imperative right now.

Many humans around the globe have disregarded these teachings, and they’re destroying everything that is essential to life—not only to human life but also to plant and animal life.

Big corporations are behind a lot of this destruction. They’ve eliminated so much life on this planet. They just keep grabbing, and they do not know how to stop.

Now we’re in a real state of crisis. We’re past the 11th hour—it’s like 11:45 already.

Sharing Indigenous Wisdom

KK: What do you think will happen?

GF: The earth is now moving into a synthetic period. For example, our water is so polluted that they have to fill it with chemicals to purify it. By the time they do that, it’s no longer the natural water that we had 200 years ago.

Much of what I experienced growing up in the mountains 70 years ago doesn’t exist anymore. Many of the birds are gone, for instance—there are just a handful of small animals left because if the water and fruit they depend on is contaminated with chemicals, then they can’t live.

It’s difficult to communicate to a group of decision makers that what they are doing is wrong for the future. The sad part is that many of the people heading up these corporations have children or grandchildren of their own, and yet they’re not thinking about them.

KK: What can we as individuals do?

GF: Be mindful of everything—pay attention to everything in nature that’s around you, and remember to be in gratitude for all of it.

Stop using chemicals in the water when you’re bathing, washing dishes, or doing laundry.

Try to make do with less and recycle.

You can also be an example for kids and teach them to be mindful without being too grumpy about it.

And we can pray. Prayer is very important because it unites us, it brings us together. Prayers have no walls, they have no boundaries. They move throughout the globe and we can all connect that way, through prayers.

The Universal Impact of Prayer

KK: You’ve said prayer has an effect on the universe beyond its effect on individuals. Can you elaborate?

GF: When I pray, calling upon the Spirit of all things, I see bands of light move throughout our planet—encompassing everything—and then I see them extend out into the universe.

Everything out there is alive. We are not alone here on earth. We are all part of the One, and I pray for all of that because I was taught from the beginning that we are both celestial and terrestrial children.

We are seed humans. Our roots are here on the earth, but the rest of our existence expands out into the heavens. So not only do we travel on the earth, physically, but we also travel out into the invisible—into the cosmos—when we sleep and when we vision.

We’re travelers of time and space.

KK: Are you referring specifically to medicine people?

GF: No, it’s all of us!

Prayer is very important because it unites us, it brings us together. Prayers have no walls, they have no boundaries. They move throughout the globe and we can all connect that way.

The Gift of Heirloom Seeds

KK: Tell me about the heirloom seeds you store and cultivate in the Seed Temple at The Path.

GF: I call it the Seed Temple because I’m a woman of prayer, and I pray for the future, including for the seeds of the future. The seeds we have here are non-GMO, and they’re in their purest, traditional form.

We have hundreds of varieties. These are types of seeds that indigenous people have been growing for thousands of years—they’re a gift from the Creator.

When you touch them, you can feel that they’re alive. Some people even go into a trance or start to cry.

KK: How do you acquire them?

GF: We collaborate with other organizations and share, but many of them are donated. We receive seeds from indigenous people all over.

For example, we received some seeds that were 800 years old—they look something like fava beans. Indigenous people often stored seeds in mounds and in caves, and so when people who know about us find them, they give them to us. We plant them so we can bring back plants from hundreds of years ago, and then we save some of those seeds and plant more.

These 800-year-old seeds were all white when we got them, but when we planted them, the pods that grew from the plants contained seeds of all different colors—like brown, purple, pink, and yellow, as well as white.

It’s really magical. We just grew a pumpkin that was also from 800-year-old seeds!

KK: That’s amazing.

GF: Not all the older seeds are viable, but even if you have just one plant come up out of a handful, then you get more seeds. With corn, for example, when you plant one seed, you’ll get a plant that will grow three or four ears of corn. Each one of the ears of corn has about 300 seeds. So out of one seed, you can get almost 1,000 seeds. That’s how you feed a community.

Something simple like just planting a handful of seeds and caring for them can help people understand how we, as humans, can’t separate ourselves from nature. If we do not take care of what is around us, it will perish.

KK: You also make seed bundles to give away, right?

GF: Yes, I give out these little bundles of seeds that have one seed each of what we call the three sisters, which are squash, corn, and bean.

I offer that because I live in the Southwest, where they grow. But recently I came up with something I call the grandmother garden, which is seeds from local desert plants for butterflies and hummingbirds. You can grow them in a little pot and put it on your windowsill. They’re just beautiful.

KK: Oh, that’s sweet.

GF: My neighbor gave me something like 10 pounds of them last year, and it was incredible. Some of the seeds are morning glories, and when the sun comes up, you see them bloom. I was so excited last year when I got them that I was like a little kid again! But we don’t ever sell the seeds.

I make bundles to give away, and now my sister has hand-embroidered little seed pouches that people give me donations for, but they can have the seeds for free. We never sell them. We only share them.

KK: Is your hope that people will plant the seeds from the bundles?

GF: Yes. I don’t know how many bundles we’ve made, but I often give them away to the children who come here as part of an educational program, and then they send me pictures of what they grow.

I want them to see the magic of planting a little handful of seeds that you might not know anything about and then watching what happens.

If you put them in soil, put the pot where there’s enough sun, and water them every day, then you get to see the magic of nature. I have this little planter—it isn’t any more than 14 inches across—and I grow the most incredible little plants.

Every moment I watch them brings such joy into my heart. It’s not about farming a thousand acres. It’s about becoming one with nature, wanting to take care of it and protect it, wanting to support it—whether that’s physically, monetarily, with prayers, or by just being conscious and aware.

Something simple like just planting a handful of seeds and caring for them can help people understand how we, as humans, can’t separate ourselves from nature. If we do not take care of what is around us, it will perish. And when nature perishes, we will be gone too.

The truth is that we are all seed carriers by nature.

KK: And, of course, seeds make a great metaphor.

GF: Yes, because seeds are full of DNA, which is information.

I remind the young women who come, even the little girls, that they are carrying seeds—human seeds—of future generations. Their eyes get really wide and they freak out—they have never thought of that before!

But the truth is that we are all seed carriers by nature.

In Maya astrology, I was born under the sign of Q’anil, which means “seed.” That’s about teaching, community, manifestation, and development—all aspects of growing things. Those born under this sign are cosmic germinators.

We are the planters of life.


This article appeared in Unity Magazine®.

About the Author

Katy Koontz is the editor in chief of Unity Magazine.

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