Ayana Young  Welcome to For The Wild Podcast. I'm Ayana Young. You're listening to Deeply Rooted: Grounding Practices to Weather the Winds of Uncertainty, a series devoted to inviting stillness, balance and abundance into our lives. 

In celebration of the Summer Solstice, you'll be hearing the uplifting voice of Leah Penniman guiding us through a prayer from her traditions. I hope you can create generous space and time to connect with Leah's offering. 

Leah is a Black Creole educator, farmer, author and food justice activist from Soulfire Farm and graft in New York. She cofounded Soulfire Farm in 2010 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim our ancestral connection to land. As Co-Executive Director, Leah is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs, including farmer training for Black and Brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for communities living under food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing towards equity in the food system. Leah has been farming since 1996. He holds an MA in Science Education and a BA in Environmental Science and International Development from Clark University. And as a Manye, invoked in her book Farming While Black: Soulfire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land is a love song for the land and her peoples.

Leah Penniman  Greetings my name is Leah Penniman. I am the farm manager at Soulfire Farm in upstate New York. My spiritual name is [Indigenous name] and I am a Queen Mother in the traditional Vodoun religion of Ghana. Today's offering is an adaptation of a Haitian prayer that comes from my maternal lineage. 

You will need a small glass of water or alcohol to pour libation along with me and we will be honoring the forces of nature and our ancestors. We're going to begin with a few deep breaths together. I ask that you inhale and breathe such that you fill your belly, your back, and all the way down to your toes, and exhale. Breathe in, fill your belly, your back all the way down to the Earth through your feet, and exhale. Breathe in and remember that we are alive right now for a reason, and exhale. At this point, you are invited to salute the Earth. You can bend down and touch your forehead to the ground or kiss the ground to honor the mother of us all, and rise. We begin our prayer by supplicating Papa Legba who is the guardian of the crossroads and the conduit of our connection to the magical realm. [Prayerin indigenous language.] Legba is at the gate. It is you who carries the flag it is you who shields the Lehua from the sun. 

Now we turn together and face the East. Pour a little bit of the water or alcohol from your cup onto the ground. We give honor and respect to the creative spirit who spreads over all the universe. [Prayer in indigenous language.] We give praise and honor and respect to those who witness creation. Prayer in indigenous language.] We, the children of the Earth are grateful for Your blessing. We the children of the universe are grateful for all that you have created. I'll leave a pause here so you can add the prayers of your own hearts to the spirit of creation. Please say them out loud now. [Pause.]

We turn together and face the West. Pour a little bit of your water or alcohol onto the ground of libation. We give honor and respect to the spirits of water who dwell in the West. [Prayer in indigenous language.] We give thanks and praise for the waters of our mother's womb. We give thanks for the oceans and all the salt waters. We give thanks for the waterfalls and rivers and aquifers that nourish us. We are so grateful that we are not thirsty. We're so grateful for the rains that nourish our crops. Please grant us connection and love and strong family. Please wash away strain and frustration. I'll leave some silence now so you can add the prayers of your own heart. Please speak them aloud. [Pause.]

Turn together now and face the North. Pour a few drops of water alcohol from your cup as libation. We give honor and respect to Mother Earth and all of the Spirits who dwell in the north. [Prayer in indigenous language.] We give thanks for the forest full of timber and shade and medicine, full of animals and plants who are siblings. We give thanks and praise for the farm that brings forth our nourishment and brings us joy. We give thanks for all of the medicinal plants that cure and heal and guide us. We pray that you send us health, sustenance, and long life. We pray that you protect us from illness, injury, and disease. I'll pause here so you can add the prayers of your own heart please speak them aloud. [Pause.]

We turn together now and face the South. Please pour out a few drops of water or alcohol into the ground as libation for the spirits who dwell on the self. We give honor and respect to you spirits of fire. [Prayer in indigenous language.] We praise you for your power, your fire, your agency, your courage, your justice and truth. We pray that you bring us wholeness, joy, and courage. We pray that you bring us prosperity and purpose. We ask that you prevent confusion and destruction. I pause now so you can add the prayers of your own heart please speak them aloud. [Pause.]

We turn our attention now towards the sky. Raise your arms, raise your face to the sky. We offer a few drops from our cup in honor of the sky beings. We give respect and praise to You who dwell in the sky. [Prayer in indigenous language.] We give thanks for the storms. We give thanks for change and the way you remove stagnancy and bring about transformation. We are grateful that there is breath in our lungs. Please send the breath of goodness to us. We pray that you neutralize all evil plots and plans against us. We pray for your protection. Pause now so that you can add the prayers of your own heart, please speak them aloud. [Pause.]

We now kneel down, bring our knees and our hands to the Earth. You pour a few drops from our cup as libation in honor of the beings who dwell under the ground. We give honor and respect to the ancestors whose names we know. Please call the names of your known ancestors now. [Pause.]

We give honor and respect to the original people of this land. We give honor and respect to the ancestors whose names are lost in the seas of time. Those who are lost to the Middle Passage, to police violence, to poverty, to mass incarceration, mental illness, those who are lost to transphobia, addiction, slavery in all its forms. We honor you. We call you and pay respect to you Agungun, Grand Bridgette, [Indigenous names]. We thank you for knowing us better than we know ourselves. We thank you for keeping our stories alive. We acknowledge that we did not get here on our own, that we survive and thrive because of your sacrifice an example. Please bring us good character. Bring us wisdom. Transform our challenges into blessings. May your love fill us and overflow from us blessing all those we encounter. I pause now so that you can add the prayers of your own heart. Please speak them aloud. [Pause.]

And finally, we turned our attention inward. Please place your hands on your own heart. Take a drop of water from your cup and touch it to the top of your head. We give honor and respect to our own [Indigenous name] our own [Indigenous name]. We give honor and respect to our own sacred divinity, the spark of God that is within each of us. We pray, please allow us to hear and heed the guidance of this still clear and true inner voice. Please help us to be bearers of light and of truth. I pause now so you can add the prayers of your own heart. [Pause.]

May our prayers and libation today be acceptable and accepted. May there be long life for us, our beloveds, and our lineage. And we say three times, Ase, Ase, Aso.

Ayana Young You've been listening to Deeply Rooted: Grounding Practices to Weather the Winds of Uncertainty. I hope Leah's prayer has given you the chance to reconnect with Earth and ancestors. You can follow Leah on Instagram using the handles @soulfirefarm, @leahpenniman and @farmingwhileblack. Stay connected with our community on social media and sign up for our newsletter by visiting forthewild.world/subscribe. If you've enjoyed today's offering, please rate us on iTunes and consider supporting us on Patreon. 

Our theme music is "Home" by Pure Fe. And you also heard music from Taina Asili. I'd like to thank our podcast production team, Aiden McCray, Andrew Storrs, Carter, Lou McElroy, Erica Ekrem, Francesca Glaspell, and Hannah Wilton.