“A journey into time”

English version © Max Krichanã 2013

preface

Everything that happens isn't but a sign

Life has a sacramental structure. It is full of signs and hidden sacred senses which must be deciphered. It is like the Christian sacraments: they are signs loaded with grace, which is unveiled through them as signs. The present book by Luiz Filipe Tsiipré de Figueiredo has a sacramental dimension. Indeed it encloses a unique autobiography. The facts narrated are facts, but they seem to work here as myths. And every myth reveals the hidden truth of facts, their hidden way.

The author’s indefatigable pursuit of this hidden meaning slowly reveals itself back, upon memories accumulated out on the prairies of South Dakota, in the United States of America, and forth, after a life committed for more than 20 years to the struggle of the indigenous peoples for their rights and with the methods of alternative healing. In all of this, the author gets in communion with the xamanic forces he discovers inside himself.

Everyone is pervaded by those powerful energies. Nonetheless, because of the limits of our rationalist culture, they scarcely come afloat or are taken as gifts from the Universe or from God. But for those who travel along this field of energy, chance doesn’t exist. Everything bears messages which deserve to be deciphered. Tsiipré states it well: “Sheer chance exists only to those who ignore the Laws of the Universe.”

This point of view shows the immovable belief in which traveling over each one of us there is a Star of Bethlehem, guiding us in the path of life. Therefore, the spiritual dimension of the story acquires full centrality. Taking things from this perspective is of paramount importance in the current moment lived by humanity, which feels closer to an abyss.  Only through a spiritual vision of the world, much well represented in Tsiipré’s saga, we can find a saviour way to escape.

This book encourages everyone to discover within himself a hidden master and to try to find his Sacred Smoking Pipe, which, for Tsiipré, meant the greater sacrament. But this master will only be revealed when the disciple is ready. And he will be ready when he begins to listen to his own heart, to the song of the Earth and to the thoughts of the mountains, trees and animals, that thus express their own simple existences. Herein lies the full significance of this interesting and challenging narrative.

Leonardo Boff

Petrópolis, Corpus Christi holiday, 2008

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English version © Max Krichanã 2013

“A journey into time” by Tsiipré Figueiredo

Introduction

The story I am about to tell here is my very own story, on this and other times ... It would seem to be a fruit of a fertile imagination, or a simple tale, if it were not true.

Everything that happens in our lives bears a reason for its being, an impression that is not just good or bad, but brings us to discoveries and transformations, from the moment we make ourselves receptive to the subtle messages of our everyday routine. Such messages, or signs, might be aroused by the flight of a bird, or by looking into the eyes of a child or into the flames of a campfire, or by hearing the words of someone or, still, revealed in a night’s dream... Then you have to know how to decipher them.

Luiz Filipe and Tsiipré are part of the one and same character, bearing distinct origins between each other. The first was my mother's choice, from the time I was born in April 1954 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, then the Federal Capital of Brazil.  The second is the name given to me by the Xavante Indians, in the State of Mato Grosso in the mid-1970s, meaning “Red Bird”.

Once, Mr. Mansur, who is the father of my great friend and godfather Ricardo, told me that the human being, to become complete, must accomplish three basic tasks in life, starting by planting a tree, having a child, and finally writing a book. At the time, I had already planted some trees and was the father of a beautiful creature called Maíra. I believe those words encouraged me in developing this work. However, after its completion, I feel nowhere near that state of wholeness. On the contrary, there still will remain a long way to go, because the journey is much bigger than it looks ...

Whatever may have brought us to this world relates to a specific purpose, connected to Celestial Designs. We are here not by mere chance, and I have compelling reasons to not believe in coincidences ...

The existing phenomena and their multiple manifestations are part of a whole, very well orchestrated by the Creator of Life, the Great Mystery ... In essence, all beings belonging to the mineral, the vegetal and the animal reigns, including our own species, have a well-defined mission in the Universe, performing acts of absolute greatness. Seeking to understand this cosmic order and its interaction with the higher planes of the Mistery represents one more stage up in the human beings’ evolutionary process, concerning the step each one is at.

When accumulating certain experiences and knowledge that might contribute to the flow of life and to the process of expanding consciousness, we consequently increase our responsibility towards people. This knowledge should be passed on, and we should never keep it to ourselves or lock it away.

For these reasons, I decided to write this book, and decided to write it down in a very special place, and in an old-fashioned way. It would be different from working on it inside four concrete walls, in a house or a flat; and in an old-fashioned way because I would be writing it down by hand, instead of using a computer or even a simple typewriter. I find myself in a small forest clearing between the Morro da Urca and the Sugar Loaf, postcards from the São Sebastião of Rio de Janeiro city. As I always enjoyed walking through the woods, I discovered this place in one of these strolls, in 1993.

Its location is off the beaten paths traveled by visitors and climbers, allowing me complete isolation and the necessary tranquility to concentrate myself into writing. Around me, the landscape contrasts between the green lush of the Atlantic Forest and the firm blue of a cloudless sky, in the closure of another Saturday afternoon on a Summer day. A breeze blows gently, while a Yellow-headed Caracara (Milvago chimachima, a certain type of hawk) and crickets soundly announce their presence.

Far away, the roar of fast traveling vehicles reminds me that I am in the heart of a big city, a city like so many others, but blessed by the Universal Architect, considering the luscious nature that surrounds it. A city with its neurotic conflicts and contrasts generated by its inhabitants, but to which I am very grateful for the lot that I've been learning in this life, for all the discoveries that were afforded me, including this clear space, the perfect place to write this story. A story that tells, among other things, of the Indian peoples and the revelations of a past life, also an Indian one, in North America, in the prairies of South Dakota. A story that offers evidence of my previous life.

By the way, this is not another book on reincarnation, whether in the religious or the scientific meanings of the word. I simply intend  to tell what happened to me, the profound experience that I have lived, in a totally spontaneous manner, without never before having searched for such revelations. Seeing it from another angle, my former interest in the spiritual realm of life, including religion, may have influenced my journey. I visited different temples, but today I consider myself a person who acquired religiosity as a principle in its own existence, independently from any doctrine.

Since I was a 4-year-old boy I began to manifest a strong attraction towards anything directly related to Indians. They could be objects, photographs, films or even simple little kid stories, I would get totally absorbed and fascinated by the theme! And that kind of attraction, instead of diminishing over the years was, quite on the contrary, intensified up to the day I became myself devoted to indigenism. Then I lived, worked and contributed to the indigenous peoples quest for over 20 years.

I didn’t have the slightest idea of the bridge I would have to cross in the future … A bridge connecting my present time, as influenced by the native peoples, to an indigenous past, with memorable records in my soul¹ and emerged from the subconscious mind.

Diving into time, I contemplate these majestic and lofty mountains, all of them silent witnesses to those ancient peoples who inhabited this region, called Guanabara² by the Tupinambá Indians of the sixteenth century. And it is here, in this clearing, my natural office and sacred refuge, that I begin to tell my story³.

Rio de Janeiro, or Guanabara
new moon of February, 2003

1- A word to designate the spirit, when incarnated.

2- Name of the sea bay.

3- SOON! This work, with photographs, will be made available in e-book format through Amazon.