AY YO LA SEMBRÉ…
If you’ve ever heard the earth-rooting voice of Totó La Momposina, you know you feel her canto in your deepest body. You’re elevated by being grounded; you soar by feeling your roots. La Momposina—like The Empress/La Emperatriz—signals deep alignment with your body, with nature, with all acts of creation and receptivity.
If you get La Momposina in a reading, you’re called to ground yourself in your most delicious self-expression, to dig your hands in your ever-renewing soil, to experience your sublime badassery. Like the verdolaga at her feet—¡por el suelo!—feel yourself expand and flower. Like the flame in her hand—¡la candela viva!—be guided by your burning passions, by what fires you up and arouses you to your core.
What is your most fertile creative power? How do you connect with your capacity for excellence? (Re)read Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.” Consider the words of Puerto Rican poet Angelamaría Dávila, “¿Será que uno no entiende que deshojarse a diario no impide echar raíces?” (“Don’t we understand that the daily of shedding our leaves won’t prevent us from growing roots?”)
♫ “La Verdolaga” & “La Candela Viva” by Totó La Momposina
—
If you didn’t know… Totó La Momposina is an Afro-Indigenous Colombian singer, pictured here with verdolaga/purslane at her feet.
This is part of our Winter 2022-23 issue featuring Chancletazo for Your Soul by Marlène Ramírez-Cancio, The Tarot Issue.
