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@gypsyfro

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Bridging Ancestral Wisdom & Sacred Ceremonies
Decolonial Healing & Cultural Preservation
Founder @earthmedicinealliance
In service to the Great Mother

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Across generations, spiritual traditions have developed languages for relationship: songs that call, colors that identify, herbs that carry particular qualities, objects that hold meaning, gestures and movements that teach us something words cannot always explain.

Umbanda is rich in these languages.

Songs, colors, herbs, offerings, movements, objects, pontos riscados — all of these can become ways of approaching the Orixás and the many lines of guides within the tradition. They carry knowledge, memory, and meaning.

But the symbol itself is not the relationship.

Having a Pomba Gira fan does not necessarily connect us with Pomba Gira. Wearing the colors of an Orixá does not mean we understand or embody the qualities of that Orixá.

So the question becomes: what has actually been imprinted in us through our encounters with these forces?

What do we recognize in ourselves after sitting with them, singing to them, learning their stories and characteristics, observing their movements, and experiencing the ways they work within ritual?

When we study Ogum, for example, we can learn his colors, his elements, his songs and offerings. But we also come into contact with qualities associated with his force: courage, movement, discipline, protection, the capacity to open a path and move through what stands before us.

And when life brings us to a moment that requires those qualities, can we access what we have learned?

Can something experienced at the altar become a resource for an internal process?

This is where study begins to move beyond information and symbolism.

The objects and ritual elements help establish connection. They give form to teachings and create a language through which we approach something much larger. But the work is also about what becomes internalized — what we learn to recognize, cultivate, and call forward within ourselves when life requires it.

Over time, what we encounter externally can leave an imprint internally.

And perhaps this is where relationship begins to reveal itself: not in what we wear, carry, or display, but in what we have learned to live.

A little of what we studied together this past weekend in upstate New York.

Axé. 🤍

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The months ahead at Earth Medicine Alliance bring together different altars, lineages, teachers, and ways of approaching this path.

This September and October, Bandeira de Oxalá returns for its fourth U.S. tour with Maracajá, carrying the Afro-Indigenous foundations of Umbanda through a series of daytime giras across the East and West Coasts.

In December, we travel to Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, for Umbandaime — a five-day immersion bringing together studies and practices rooted in Umbanda and Santo Daime.

At the turn of the year, we continue to Brazil to welcome 2027 with the Yawanawá, gathering for a New Year retreat rooted in their traditions, prayer, music, and relationship with Uni.

In May, we return to Chapada dos Veadeiros for The Throne — ten days immersed in the Seven Thrones of Umbanda, studying the Orixás through their points of force in nature.

And from May through July, Shavorã returns to the United States with The Matriarch Tour, continuing a relationship that has grown over several years between EMA, the Yawanawá women who carry this altar, and communities across the country.

Then, in August, we welcome Léo Artese back to Maryland for another weekend of study, prayer, and community within Santo Daime and the Medicine Wheel.

Different traditions. Different histories. Different ways of praying, studying, and building relationship with the spiritual world of plants.

EMA was never created around a single ceremony or a single lineage. It has grown through relationships cultivated over many years, and through the understanding that these paths cannot be separated from the peoples, histories, cultures, and communities that carry them.

Registration is already open for most of these gatherings.

Join our mailing list through the link in our bio to receive registration announcements, new dates, and details as they are released.

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Four years ago, we began organizing Leo Artese’s works in Maryland.
Returning year after year gives us an opportunity to see something that can be difficult to recognize in the moment: growth.
Spiritual work cannot only be measured by the depth of an experience, the places we travel, the teachers we meet, or how many ceremonies we attend. At some point, what we receive has to become visible in the way we live—how we care for one another, how we take responsibility, how we serve, how we navigate differences, and how we learn to build and sustain community.
Otherwise, we risk simply collecting experiences.

This weekend, I found myself looking around and remembering where we began four years ago. I saw people who once arrived as students now carrying responsibilities of their own. People tending the fire, translating, organizing, hosting, preparing, welcoming, and caring for others. Elders sharing what they have learned. Friendships that have deepened through years of showing up for one another.

There are so many pearls of wisdom within Leo’s hymns, but one teaching that returns again and again is love—not only as a feeling, but as something we are asked to practice with one another. His hymns have offered guidance over these years, reminding us that much of the spiritual work happens precisely here: in learning how to live in community.

Teachers can visit. We can listen, study, sing and pray with them. But perhaps one of the greatest ways to honor what they bring is for something to be different when they return.

For the community to have grown.
For people to have grown.
For what was taught to have taken root.

Looking through these moments from the weekend, that is what I feel most grateful for.

Four years later, we are not where we started. And that, to me, is part of the work.

Ari Brasil 🦋

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Umbanda is one of Brazil’s most dynamic spiritual traditions, shaped by resistance, adaptation, and the meeting of African, Indigenous, Spiritist, and Catholic influences.

It emerged in a country profoundly marked by colonization, slavery, and the persecution of African and Indigenous spiritual practices. Its development reflects both the need to preserve ancestral knowledge and the ways different peoples, beliefs, and cosmologies came into relationship on Brazilian soil.

Much of its knowledge has been carried across generations in terreiros, through oral transmission, ritual practice, music, relationship with the Orixás, and the many lines of spirits that form its spiritual world. These are not simply elements of ritual; they belong to a much larger cultural and spiritual inheritance.

As the Bandeira de Oxalá travels across the United States, it carries this inheritance with it—creating opportunities for study, cultural exchange, and a deeper relationship with Umbanda without separating its spiritual practices from the people and cultures that have shaped them.

Want to learn more? Comment OXALÁ and we’ll send you the details.

Bandeira de Oxalá · United States 2026

#umbanda #orixa #plantmedicine #culturaafrobrasileira #afrobrazilianspirituality

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Last chance in MARYLAND, USA ! Leo is a pure loving and deeply devoted elder/ Brazilian Curandeiro, on the path of Universal Shamanism… completed, supported, praying and traveling always together with Madrena Chris his wife, of course.

It’s a powerful and unique offering. We are so blessed to have them come so close to home for this program and ceremonial work.

Especially with the offering if Lucas and Ari for translation service. Both truly become a Channel for the detail of what comes through. This is not always the case when studying with teachers of different native languages than your own.

Entirely catered sacred sustenance- an experiential learning ! The food offering will be curated and prepared with prayer, professionalism and with much consciousness and care… vegan, high-vitality, and gluten-free daily offerings, in a delightful variety to awaken and inspire, prepared by myself (integrative nutritionist, private chef, medicine woman, and devotee of LOVE, with the support of a stellar team of knowledgeable and devoted humans.

💫💫💫registration includes optional daily morning in-person Qi Gong, a celebratory cacao ceremony and ecstatic dance on Wednesday night, and participation in the following weekend’s prayer ceremony, where you will receive your teaching certificate of completion.

If you are feeling the call.. it’s worth prioritizing. The wisdom and deepening on your road to self-realization is priceless in itself, of course. For all of us healers, ceremonialsts, and empaths, your ability to deepen the care and wisdom you carry, and the energetic field you provide, is bound to amplify. You will also be ready and equipped to teach the course yourself, upon completion.
🤍☀️🌕✨

WEEKEND ONLY OPTION AVAILABLE 💕I

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Announcing the next Thursday Medicine Music Masterclass: Ari Brasil & Earth Medicine Alliance Thursday, August 13 at 7pm CST.

Ari has been a student of the medicine path since 2012, and over the years has developed relationships with Indigenous teachers, leaders, and medicine carriers from a variety of Brazilian traditions. Being from Bahia, Brazil herself, she recognized both the privilege of having access to these traditions and the importance of creating opportunities for others to encounter them more directly - through the people and communities who have carried and preserved them for generations.

From that intention, Earth Medicine Alliance was born.

The organization serves as a bridge between Indigenous wisdom keepers and people who genuinely wish to learn from them. Their work extends beyond ceremony to include cultural exchange, educational gatherings, retreats in Brazil, and conversations around reciprocity, safety, responsible practice, and the cultural contexts from which these medicines emerge.

In our conversation we will attempt to answer an important question:

How can we participate in this growing movement while remaining connected to the cultures, histories, communities, and living traditions that have stewarded these medicines?

I’m very happy to have Ari joining us to share some of what he has learned through this work and to open up this conversation with our community.

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I've been blessed to experience traditional indigenous culture from the Amazon, including the amazing Yawanawa women of Shavora last night. So grateful for this trans-cultural exchange of spirituality, music and prayer! Viva forca feminina! So alegria!

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Aloha Obrigada Viva ʻOhana Yawanawá Shavorã!
Aloha Obrigada Viva Kumu Lāʻau Lapaʻau Uni Y Mapachito Tobacito Y Las Plantas Segrada!
Aloha Obrigada Viva Amazonia!🌳🌱🍃🧬
Aloha Obrigada Viva Hawaiʻi Nei!🏝️❤️‍🔥🌋🧬
Āuuuuuū🐗Yeeēhuuuū🤙CheeeHuuuuu
#VivaAmazonia #VivaYawanawa #VivaShavora #VivaAyahuascaUni #VivaHapeTobacito

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Thank you @mpardocastro @eldiegor369 @shavora.arte.medicina @samatheplacewithin for amazing creation ❤️

#myjourney #consciousness #event #yawanawa #plantmedicine

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Hawai’i 🥰🌈🌊🌋

Conhecer essa terra foi um presente que eu nem sabia que seria tão especial.

Existe uma força muito viva aqui. Poderosa, abundante e feroz.

Tem lugares que ressoam com a nossa alma. Aqui foi assim pra mim. Só de sentir a presença de cada ser dessa terra encantada, senti que também pude me transformar um pouco…

E, além de toda essa beleza, ainda tive a alegria de conhecer pessoas incríveis pelo caminho, que levarei para sempre no coração.

Mahalo, Hawai’i. 🌺

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Alguns registros de NY… antes que eu esqueça de postar. 🖤

A vida segue no ritmo dela. Sem a necessidade de ter todas as respostas…
Às vezes a gente acerta, às vezes aprende. Nem todos os dias são perfeitos, mas todos eles podem nos ensinar alguma coisa.

O importante é continuar. Sempre buscando ser uma pessoa melhor, fazer o melhor que podemos e acreditar que o melhor ainda está por vir.

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O tempo é segredo! Senhor de rugas e marcas e das horas abstratas, quando paro pra pensar…
Tem coisas que só o tempo traduz.
E silêncios que apenas ele é capaz de compreender. 🍃

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