Rituals of Arrival: Sanctuary

Artist: Atealia

By: Odessa Betancourt

Pain arrived, urgent,

deep in bone.

Rain struck her shoulders,

threading cold down her back.

The earth opened,

water, wind, and soil broke over her.

Sky dissolved into skin;

cloth and flesh became one.

Her form loosened:

air, water, flame, root.

Around her, Dula moved,

breath circling the womb,

each step a cleansing.

The Amazon held its inhale.

Trees swayed,

the sky roared,

rain struck leaf, skin, soil,

nothing silent.

Through the wails,

moan met melody;

tears became rainfall,

rainfall, tears.

Ancestral sound poured through.

Stripped bare in surrender,

gravity drew her down

until her body met the earth.

Offering the only thing she owned;

pain,

stripped to its light,

rising.

Forehead to soil, hands to womb,

thank‑you reverberating the ground.

To what held her,

a reverent release.

In silence,

woman became sanctuary.

Earth and spirit

communed without sound,

their rhythms entwined,

echoing through all realms.