Our Reason to BE
Together we are co-creating a community that honors, protects and cultivates a loving environment that is a safe place to be vulnerable, creative, empowered and playful as we care for ourselves, eachother, and the earth. A place in nature where our daughters and sons can grow up in a healthy and free environment with many references to learn from.
We are a family that shares the desire to live together in a creative and conscious way, where everything is possible. A place where anyone can fulfill their dreams; a place of self-expression, joy and love. We value community creative practices as life affirming and a unique way to transform our lives inside and outside the place we call 'home'. Where the paradigm of the 'individual' is integrated into the 'collective' and vice versa.
COLECTIVO ATITLAN - TZANABAJ is a community that stewards the land through co-creation, community, cultivation, eco-gardening, hosting workshops, events, and retreats.
OUR NAME
COLECTIVO ATITLAN - TZANABAJ was a name that choose us, instead of us choosing it.
Nicolas: ‘When the term Colectivo just popped into his mind… It was perfect because it is a term that refers to a small-knit group of people working together on a mission. We don’t seek to be a huge community, rather, instead, we seek to be a small but impactful group.
It is our intention that our collective would have a ripple effect- that as our vision and dreams are cast out to the lake- that it would then cause others to also go for their visions and dreams- and in this way- a small project could inspire a big difference.’
‘Tzanabaj means a point of the rocks in Tzutujil language, this is a term that describes the physical landscape of where our collective resides.
You can think of this point as the loving arms reaching out into the lake. Our hopes are that we would send out our love to the lake, as well as that our mission and arms of love would pull people to the lake; to the land to experience a place to call home.
The fact that our name describes the physical landscape where our collective resides is also a reflection of our values to care for the land. We do not view ourselves as the owner of the land, but rather as the guardians of the land. As we steward the opportunity we have to care for the land, one of our main focuses is creating a sustainable eco-farm, where we are able to grow the majority of our own food.’
HISTORY
Nicolas, co-founder of the Coletivo Atitlan - Tzanabaj, was inspired to join a Vision Leadership Quest program where he realized it was to create a place where people would live together in nature and support each other in birthing their individual & community dreams.
It was during this process that Nicolas hit a crisis, he knew he must dive deeper into his purpose. Having Venus, as his partner, he knew that meant that together they needed to go to deeper… in frustration & desperation he brought forth the emotions & questions from his depths:
“What do you want? What do you see?”
Venus was taken aback, she didn’t have the words to verbalize what she wanted, so she got out a piece of paper and began to draw what her heart's desires were.
The incredible thing is that 4 years later, the property, planning, & community that Venus drew, is coming into being:
A Space To Practice THE ART OF LIVING.
Once the vision was clear, it became a matter of looking for a place that the vision to be birthed on.
This led Venus & Nicolas on a great adventure of growing their family; Júlia was already 7 years old, then Léa was borned in 2017, and Lili Charlotte on her way. This last pregnancy revealed to Nicolas and Venus the patience it takes to carry and nurture their dream, so they embraced the process.
In 2018 their patient search eventually led them to Guatemala where Venus has her family roots. Lili Charlotte was born at home in 2019 in Lake Atitlan.
It was on the shores of beautiful Lake Atitlan that they bought two neighboring properties to form the birthing place of the el Colectivo Atitlan - Tzanabaj.
2020-2021: The dream starts to ground when 9 adults and 4 children start to live together on the property, a period of transition, to materialize from thought into a present and growing reality. As part of this transition, there was a focus on beginning to rejuvenate and cultivate the land and flora.
2022: This year has been the time of setting firm foundations and giving the community the opportunity to exercise their resilience & adaptability muscles. A few of the significant foundations that were laid include:
Venus Gathering: This was our first women’s retreat to be held on the property boasting of an attendance of 21 women for 6 days. This women’s retreat will continue to be an annual gathering celebrating the sacred feminine.
12 Kawok - Mayan Altar: We have been blessed to have Nana Feliciana to come and bless the lands, pray for them and liberate them from past energies. With the energy of 12 Kawok this altar was founded at Tzanabaj. The nahual of Kawok brings community together, holds us all, like mother earth itself.
Temazcal: A natural clay sauna was built next to the shores of the lakes. This temazcal is a place where people in the community gather to sing, to play music, rebirth, relax, sit in silence, reflect, and then enjoy a plunge in the cool inviting waters of the lake.
Cacao & Kirtan
In 2022, we decided to bring together communities on the land, and invite the Lake tribe to join together in song & heart. This beautiful initiative was proposed by Mila and Tien, and we have been having great support from Max, and other musicians of the Lake. Every Thrusday we drink Cacao and share devotional songs and mantras.
FAMILIA COLECTIVO ATITLAN - TZANABAJ
Nicolas Aculaax
Epicurien, existentialist… I draw myself into different perspectives, it is not easy to ‘resume’ a man in his life path. Who am I, who do i want to be or what do? I mostly let myself flow into life and get inspired by nature and people.
My purpose is to embody myself, get in touch with my senses, expand my awareness and playfulness, build my strenght. Simply Put, I am here, ‘TO ENJOY / FEEL THE LIFE inside of me as well as with others.
As a leader, I want to impulse this vibration into a collective, bringing people together to co-create The MAGIC OF LIFE through dance, music celebration into EL COLECTIVO TZANABAJ
I mostly learn through the body and experiences … and my practices and skill are:
Contact Improvisation Dancer / Life Coach / Bodywork Therapist (Thaï , Bio Dynamic/Rebalancing, Psoas) . Hatha Yoga Facilitator, / ATB Facilitator (Awareness Through the Body) for children and adults.
Venus Virginia
Venus is a Yoga Therapist, a Dancer and a Sacred Sexuality Practitioner. Her Life is a Ritual. Massage Therapist, Cultural Manager, Doula, Mother of 3 girls and Lover of a beautiful and authentic man. Proudly in love with life and nature.
Her main passion is the relationship with her body exploring through dance, sacred sexuality, yoga, tantra, and her role as a woman and mother. She empowers women through therapeutic yoga, the construction of their sexuality and the healing of the sacred masculine & feminine. Her life experience of birthing three daughters and her passion for yoga has taken her to lead circles in Europe and Central America to accompany women through Pregnancy, Labor and Postpartum, as a Yoga Teacher and Doula. Passionate about anatomy, fertility, pregnancy, breast feeding, sexuality, tantra and co-dependence work. Her spiritual path has taken her to explore and practice Tantra in a devoted way learning about the healing between the Masculine and the Femenine. Convinced that we have the power of self-healing, she practices Sacred Rituals, Psychomagic, Herbalism, Yoga and Breathwork to balance any disequilibrium within the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of the being.
A Space To Practice THE ART OF LIVING.