The “Roots of the Earth” in Germany

The Council of Elders delegation’s visit in 1992 triggered the desire to participate and so in November 1996 the “Freundeskreis Kanto de la Tierra e.V.” was founded in Munich. Some of the founding members are still deeply connected today and are members of a new association “Roots of the Earth Germany”.

The circle participated in the annual “Medicine Eagle Gatherings” that took place in America at the spring equinox. Medicine people and spiritual elders were invited to Germany several times and fundraising campaigns to support “Kanto de la Tierra” and to purchase a local property.

Der Kreis nahm an den jährlichen in Amerika zur Frühlings-Tag-und-Nachtgleiche stattfindenden „Medicine Eagle Gatherings“ teil, es wurden mehrfach Medizinleute und spirituelle Älteste nach Deutschland eingeladen und Spenden-Aktionen zur Unterstützung von „Kanto de la Tierra“ und zum Kauf eines lokalen Grundstücks veranstaltet.

The elder and chief Fred Drum Contreras from the tribe of the Raramuri del Norte, Colorado, brought his knowledge to the “Freundeskreis Kanto de la Tierra e.V.”, beginning in 1996 with many visits. He gave us his form of the Temazkal (sweat lodge), the Tortuga (turtle) on loan to learn how to deal with ceremonies and especially with the sweat lodge, knowing that there were sweat lodges in Europe in the past, but this knowledge has been forgotten.

For more than 15 years there have been monthly sweat lodges in Olching / near Munich.
Chief Fred’s wish was that the fire of the Tortuga should be returned to him as soon as we had found confidence in handling the sweat lodge, in order to then develop our own European forms. His fire was brought back to him in 2014, four years before he said goodbye to this earth.

Since then, new European sweat lodges have been developed, such as the Drachenschwitzhütte.