Essence of Wild Amazon Orchids

Amazon orchid. Photo: BYAE Foundation

by Tamam Kahn

In September, my husband, Shabda, and I traveled to Quito, Ecuador, to guide a Sufi retreat. It was there that I met Tania Shahida. Her name means “Witness.”

She sat at a table next to the meeting room. Her smile was contagious. She was selling some orchid DVDs and small bottles with colorful labels. She told me each bottle contained the Essence of Amazon Orchids from a valley in southern Colombia. Did I know of the Bach Flower Remedies?

Tania Shahida Villarreal. Photo: Tamam Kahn.

Now she had my full attention. That smile again. The red label covered the “Pura Amor” love potion (Tsmin Cora). The vial with the blue label (Elixir Lunar) enhances feminine power; the green label (Ina Jatu) essence restores equilibrium and leads to “Salud Perfecta.” I was ready to try this one since my health had been sliding away from excellence during the retreat.

Where was this place? North, not far across the Ecuadorian border. I wanted to see a map of the valley, there in the lower Andes mountains above the Amazon rain forest. Some names were written in a handout: Valle de Sibundoy, Quindicocha, Colon, Pasto. Pasto was in my big Atlas at 8,000 ft, coming off the steep Andes facing east near Putamayo. Somewhere there in the cloud forests are hundreds of varieties of wild orchids. A few are almost extinct. Nearby is deforested land. So there is real urgency to preserve this precious ecological system and the orchid diversity.

Shahida told me she is part of a foundation: Buenoy Yumartan Aldea Ecologica (Yumartan Buenoy Ecological Village) “BYAE,” which means, “people from this earth with thoughts of their own” [the translation of an indigenous word “kametza”]. She told me that 18 women work in the orchid gardens harvesting and refining the essences. Shahida lives and works there with her husband, who is also from that area.

Photo: Shabda Kahn; photoshop: Tamam Kahn

A foundation called JAN which aims to preserve the orchid lands and learn about the flowers writes this: “We are also committed to always keeping rural woman as leaders, and as providers of support and inspiration in the rescuing, assessing, and cultivation of wild orchids.”

Inspired by what she has learned as a student of Sufism, Shahida has begun to associate the vibration of a flower with that of a wazifa (one of the 99 names of God in Arabic). How do you do that? I asked. “I notice if they look “open” when communicating or sharing the chanted words. There is a connection with spirit and with sun energy collected by the orchids.” She has grown orchids for 10 years and is “enchanted” with the plan of sharing her communication with these flowers.  The work she has done is with Ya Shahid (O Witness), Ya Batin (the hidden), Ya Zahir (the revealed). May there be more!

I love that my new friend, this lovely Eastern-Andean woman, is connecting with the earth in lands alive with wild orchids, and invoking subtle energies in such a fresh and inspiring way. Ya-Fattah! May the path continue to open for this good work!

For more information about BYAE and the Orchid Essences, please contact Darvesha MacDonald (darv@starband.net).

Tamam Kahn is editor of The Sound Journal and author of Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad, Monkfish Books, 2010. She has been married to Pir Shabda Kahn for 35 years.