By Elena Sofía Zambrano
When I first arrived in Chile, back in November 2011, I was happily surprised by the awakening of women, the amount of them that were conscious about their cycles and their connection with Mother Earth, and that were working to recover the sacred feminine. It was amazing. Here and there throughout this long country there where women’s circles, workshops, therapies, chanting and dancing and a powerful energy of feminine awakening.
Red Tent in Chile
Although Red Tents where not completely unknown, since some women had heard of them and of moon lodges, they were not usually held or talked about.
The first time I heard about the Red Tent movie, I knew that the message it carried was extremely important; it was universal and it transcended cultural and language barriers since it was really about a genuine journey to the feminine heart. So I contacted Isadora to see if a version with Spanish subtitles was available, and if not, to offer myself as a translator. So many Spanish-speaking women awakening throughout different countries could not miss this movie!
Translating and subtitling the film was a journey of love in which I did my best to keep the Spanish as international as possible and being careful that the words retained the beauty of the original message. It was a job full of emotions and dreams and a lot of joy.
Several months before I had started organizing Red Tents in Curico, the city in which I currently live. Each Red Tent had been magical, healing, and charged with sharing of wisdom. So when I started working on the subtitles, I felt very moved to see that our Tent wasn’t at all different from the Tents portrayed in the film, since our stories and our tears and our joys and our hearts were the same. I felt very deeply how this movement and this blossoming of women is worldwide, and that when love is our guide our apparent differences dissolve away.
Since I wanted to help this message reach as many women as possible, I decided to organize screenings in different regions of the country. I started by organizing a first cycle of screenings in which the film would be presented in four different cities and followed by a Red Tent. In each of those cities I had the wonderful luck of working with wonderful women who have beautiful hearts and are dedicated each in her own way to honoring the sacred feminine. Without Raquel (Palabra Mágica), Paulina and Alfonsina (Mamaluna) and Pamela (Aflora Mujer Sur) this wonderful experience wouldn’t have been possible.
The first screening took place in Coyhaique, a city in the beautiful Chilean Patagonia. The Red Tent movie arrived in Coyhaique with the winter and a beautiful light snow. It was amazing to be able to take this message so far south and to get to know the wisdom of the women there and to feel that the sacred feminine will be restored from the very roots of the planet. It was a marvelous encounter filled with healing tears and in which we shared in lovely gratitude rituals.
The second stop was in the magical city of Valparaiso. And our Red Tent was just as magical. The screening was packed with laughter and tears and with a beautiful feeling of sisterhood. The Red Tent in Valparaiso created a powerful energy, very transforming, cathartic even. It was as if a hurricane passed through, cleaning everything with a powerful force and after it we were left with a beautiful sense of peace and relief. In this fantastic circle we were able to appreciate the magnitude of the power created by women gathering.
The film arrived then in Santiago, the country’s capital. It was a rainy day. The Red Tent was held in a beautiful venue, surrounded by a silent garden that made us feel far away fro the city, sheltered in an ancient forest and gathered around a cauldron. We danced in circle, we sang, we decorated our faces with red paint and we thanked the blessed rain that was falling around us.
The last stop was the city of Pucon, a beautiful place guarded by a stunning snowy volcano and bathed by a splendid lake. There, among red fabric, women of different ages and of diverse nationalities met. But we could all feel that it was the same fire that burned inside us. The night caught us still sharing stories, dancing and singing, and we ended our evening with a beautiful womb blessing.
This first long journey has been magical and renovating. Traveling around Chile raising Red Tents has been an amazing and powerful experience. Every woman that has set a foot inside each of these Red Tents has left her mark, her energy, her story and her lineage. Wonderful networks of love, healing, creativity and sisterhood have been created. Now springtime is arriving in Chile, with its amazing beauty and rebirth and creative strength. And with it, many women are blossoming, too.
Starting next year, a second cycle of screenings will begin, so that more red, sacred spaces can be created in different regions of Chile. We will hold Red Tents to honor the sacred feminine, to remember our magical ancestral wisdom, to carry this message of love and healing and change. And most of all, to continue planting the seed of the joy of being a woman.
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Elena Sofía Zambrano, is a Mexican menstrual wisdom and fertility awareness teacher, facilitator of women’s circles and Red Tents, Moon Mother trained by Miranda Gray, co creator of the project “La Manta Yoni” (The Yoni quilt) and author of the book “Mujeres de aretes largos”.