From Earth Vase Stewards Maggy Kaplan and Olivia Fermi
Prayers for Earth and All Our Relations
In 1990 Cynthia Jurs, a woman from Santa Fe, NM, went on a pilgrimage to Nepal that transformed her life. A young Tibetan Buddhist lama (teacher) brought her to a cave, high in the Himalayas, where she met a 106 year-old lama. She asked the elder teacher, ‘What can we do to bring healing and protection to the Earth?’ He instructed her in the ancient Tibetan Buddhist Earth Treasure Vase (ETV) practice of filling consecrated clay vessels with prayers and offerings, and then burying them in places of need around the world.
An Earth Treasure Vase for BC
BC is unique in its relationships with First Nations and Indigenous peoples.There are 198 First Nations in BC, out of a total of 630 in all of Canada. Ninety-five per cent of BC’s land is on unceded First Nation territories, which means that First Nations people never agreed to give up nor sign away their lands to the Crown or to Canada.
Our intention is for the BC vase’s journey and planting to unfold in an honorable and respectful way for the good of all. Healing our Earth and healing our relationships can’t be separated.
We look forward to local First Nations, and Land and Water Defenders joining us in carrying the ETV for BCto receive sacred objects, prayers, and blessings in ceremonial and ritual space with respect to the protocols of the peoples who choose to join us. With the Earth Treasure Vase practice, once a vase is full, we bury it somewhere on publicly accessible, sacred land, with permission from the First Nation whose land it is. With the vase guiding us, we will eventually plant her.
The Earth Treasure Vase Global Healing Practice is dedicated to bringing healing and protection to the regions where the vases are planted.
Earth Treasure Vase stewards for BC:
Maggy Kaplan – mother, grandmother, and retired social worker and counsellor, with a heart’s desire to leave our Earth in better shape than it is now.
Olivia Fermi – counsellor, coach, teacher, and constellations facilitator, dedicating her life’s work to help us all realize our most healthy, loving, and optimal future possible.
We are both long time Diamond Approach students, have both benefitted from privilege as settlers in Vancouver Canada, living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Being of Jewish origin, our grandparents and great-grandparents were victims of racial oppression, cultural erasure, pogroms, and the Holocaust. We hope our experiences of healing our inter-generational trauma may be of benefit.
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We will be gathering for placing sacred objects into the vase and offering prayers and blessings, until its stewards plant it in the Earth to join the Global Healing Mandala.
