Time: 22-25 May 2025
Location: Linnaserehe house, Palmse Manor, Lahemaa National Park
Goal: To introduce the worldview of the Kogis and support the buyback of their ancestral lands
Registration: 31st January is the first deadline, please find more info below, or if you want to register right away, please use the registration form here
Dear friend,
We invite you to meet our rare guests!
Kogi wisdom keepers are coming to Estonia for the first time in this Spring. The Kogi represent the only millennia-old culture in the world that has managed to adapt to radical changes in its environment twice in the last 500 years. The Kogi have succeeded in preserving a caring way of life based on indigenous intelligence that has almost disappeared from our planet. At a time when humanity is facing multiple global crises and serious survival issues, when technocratic worldview prevails and we are entering the world of artificial intelligence, we better turn to the wisdom of the guardians of the “heart of the world” and review our basic knowledge about the health and well-being of ourselves, our home places and our planet.
Who are Kogi wisdom keepers? Mamos and Sakas, the wise men and women, fill the role of the living memory of the Kogi people. They are vision bearers and inspirational leaders who strengthen not only their people but also the larger web of nature. To this day, the sages of the Kogi undergo very specific and thorough training, some of them having spent the first 18 years of their lives in darkness to broaden their understanding and perceptions about the origins of Life.
In recent years, scientific communities around the world have made new discoveries and found connections in nature that were previously impossible to measure or detect by scientific means. In many fields, including architecture and design, a significant shift is taking place – valuing and understanding natural processes in new ways, and exploring the wisdom and skills of indigenous peoples to reduce neglect and correct past mistakes. The vast knowledge of the Earth’s ecosystem as a whole, held in isolation in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, is generating increasing interest among the world’s top scientists and experts in various walks of life.
Welcome to spend four intensive days together with the Kogis, go with them to nature walks at Lahemaa National Park, and enjoy nice surprises in the program!
What can we learn from the Kogis?
- Kogi wisdom keepers are opening the door into the lives of people and a nation very different from us, but with a well-rounded and vibrant worldview. We will discover what perspectives, questions and answers they will remind us of.
- We will explore what underpins the balance with self, family, community and nature that is at the heart of the culture of the Kogis, how this inner work is done and how peace is maintained.
- We get to experience the way of being and speaking of the Kogi elders, their quiet touch and teaching behind the words. The Kogi will decide at the place if they will also guide some rituals.
- We will learn to purify our thoughts and feelings, to heal our relationships, because according to the Kogi, change in the world can only begin with ourselves and those around us.
- We will go on nature walks with the Mamos to learn from their deep knowledge about nature and gain a deeper understanding of the sensitive connections in our natural environment.
- We will delve into the secrets of water, our most important natural resource. According to the Kogi, water connects everything that exists and therefore they use it to connect with all Life.
- We will reflect how to reconcile the supposed contradictions of our modern society and what is meant by the understanding shared by many indigenous peoples: just as we need life to continue on Earth, Earth needs us to live well.
We have deliberately chosen Lahemaa National Park as the venue for the seminar, where water is well represented in its complex and sensitive underground and above-ground systems. From the protected environment here, it is good to reflect on the situation and challenges of water in the whole of Estonia and wider.
“Why are we being taught in the cave? Why are we being initiated in the darkness? The reason is that it is very dark in the cave, and in the darkness are the fathers and mothers of all things. Everything that is alive; the trees, the water, the lakes, the stones, has thoughts, which are their fathers and mothers, and they live in the darkness. And this is where one learns to speak with them. They explain everything to you. The father of the trees, for example, explains exactly how to treat his children, how to make a pagamiento for them, and how to work with them. All the fathers and mothers of all living things live in the dark. I learned to speak to the fathers and mothers because that is where they were.”
Mama Bernardo Mamatacan
“We Kogi are also here to support you to find and restore your roots again, but it is up to you to bring back your own knowledge by constantly having your thoughts focused on it and being receptive to it. This is very important. Then the mother will support you to go where you are supposed to go. Where will you find the knowledge again? It lies hidden in your earth. Your ancestors lived there and the knowledge is connected to these places. That is where you will find it. It resides in the trees, in the stones, in the water. We still know these things, we still live according to them. We humans think that we support each other by helping ourselves to remember our knowledge, but actually we support the earth itself, that is why she will support us.“
Mama Bernardo Mascote-Zarabata
Facilitators and location
We are looking forward to host two-three Kogi wisdom keepers, who are traveling with their own interpreter. The Kogis will speak in Kaggaba language, with translation first into Spanish and then into English.
The Kogis will be accompanied and the workshop will be facilitated by translator, author and founder of the Timeless Wisdom Academy Lucas Buchholz, and co-founder of the Timeless Wisdom Academy Anna Reisch.
The workshop is organised by MTÜ Koosloome Koda in collaboration with Sacred Future and Timeless Wisdom Academy, the non-profit organisation inviting the Kogis to Europe.
Fees and payment
Participation fee:
480€ – until 31st January (advance payment €160 guarantees a place in the group)
530€ – until the end of April
580€ – from 1st May
The participation fee includes the 4-day intensive programme (beginning in the morning on 22nd May and ending in the afternoon on 25th May) and the accompanying nature walks as well as nice surprises. The participation fee covers the travel and hosting expenses of the Kogis, their interpreter and assistants, as well as local costs related to organising the workshop.
In addition, an important part of the fee is a donation through the Sacred Future initiative to buy back the ancestral lands of the Kogis and restore their ecosystem (read more here, currently collecting support for the 108 ha finca mentioned on the page), and to implement various projects (see here) that help preserve Kogi culture and knowledge. The buy-back of Kogi land is also one of the objectives of the event.
If you would like to support the buy-back of the Kogi ancestral lands with a bigger donation, please contact us: koosloomekoda@gmail.com.
Catering and accommodation:
Meals and accommodation are not included in the seminar participation fee. You can choose to stay at Palmse Manor or in the wider Lahemaa region.
A caféteria serving clean and delicious food is open on the site, and the Palmse tavern is also nearby. More information about the menus will be sent to you before the seminar.
Guesthouse at Palmse Manor offers comfortable accommodation: 35€/person in a double room and 63€ in a single room, breakfast included. We will send you a booking link after registration.
More dining options and accommodation in Lahemaa region can be found here.
Registration
Please register early using the link here, as only a limited number of participants can join the group. The early bird fee of €480 will be valid until the end of January.
After registration we will send you an invoice, which you can pay in one or two instalments. We will confirm your place in the group upon payment of the first invoice. If for any reason you are unable to attend the seminar, please let us know immediately and note that a non-refundable deposit of €160 will be charged to cover the costs of organising the seminar.
“To be healthy means to have peace and quiet, to be joyous, to be well in our thoughts, in our body, and in harmony with the land that is our territory. Life has a natural law. We are not alive to live by the way we want; we are alive to fulfill the task that has been given to us as a community and to each and every one of us. This is life. Health means to live well. This is the best medicine for your body. On the path through life it is not about walking just for the sake of walking. It is important to know where we are going. We Indians know where we are going and why we are doing this. Even when we know where we’re going, we must join together and look back to reflect to see whether we’re going in the right direction.
In contrast, the Younger Brother never seems to pause. He never looks back, he is just looking ahead, regardless of what happens to him. Even if it is not the right way he will complete it, and so the way can lead to his own destruction. To pause in order to correct and adjust and to re-explore the direction is very important. So let’s start to consider how our ancestors thought, that’s why we get in touch with those thoughts. However, it is not enough to just examine, order our thoughts and ask for the right way to go, we must also follow it. Also the thoughts reveal various tasks and actions that we will put into practice. They determine how you live, how you behave, how healthy you are, how your thoughts and your life are, and the way you relate to the world.“
Mama Wintukua Kunchanawingumu
Who are the Kogi?
Various information about the Kogi, trailer of the new documentary “Who Are The Kogi”, TEDx talk and book by Lucas Buchholz, Timeless Wisdom Academy etc.
Earlier films by Alan Ereira: “Aluna” (2012) and “From the Heart of the World – The Elder Brother’s Warning“ (1990).
Article “Natural Law and the Jaba Sé: Kogi Cosmovision for an Interconnected World”, by researcher Aili Pyhälä from Helsinki University (30.11.2024)