First off, what a beautiful post, thank you for sharing the ceremony with us. To address the previous question about the West's lack of nature based rituals and why we must go to South America to seek such rituals out, I can point you to the prophecy of the eagle and the condor, which is basically the prophecy that over the past 500 years we have been in an era of darkness with the eagle (the U.S.) becoming too rational and technology based and being disconnected from the love and spirituality of the condor (South America), and that we are now entering an era of lightness where the eagle and the condor are reuniting. Many people (from both North and South America) referenced this prophecy for the past two years when I was traveling through South America, and I have personally experienced this reunion of the spiritual with the rational. "When the Condor of the South comes together with the Eagle of the North, the spirit of Mother Earth - Pacha Mama - will awake, then She will awake millions of her children, this will be the Resurrection of the Dead." (http://www.maitreya.org/english/PNative%20Americans/pInca-Eagle-Condor-Maitreya-Explanation.htm)