Peruvian Shamanic Cosmology -- Part I

I have spent over five years in Peru and Alto Peru (aka Bolivia) and Andean shamanism is probably the closest to what I practice as a shamanic practitioner.  I am an American of Irish descent so Celtic blood flows through my veins.  However astro-astrology locates all of my planets over South America with Venus (my heart) over the Andean regions of Bolivia and Peru and I feel most alive and most at home on the Altiplano. 

In a previous post I wrote a little about Animism, the belief that Spirit indewels in everthing.  Thus it shouldn't come as a surprise that those born in the Andes Mountains are born into a world that is as aware of them as they are of it.  The Andean world is one that is filled with Spirit and Spirits and when we learn to listen these Spirits become our teachers.

Qi Gong practitioners recognize that Qi (Ki in Japan) is the life-force energy that surrounds and enlivenes us. In the Andes that energy is known as kawsay = energy, and we live in the kawsay pacha (your first Quechua words), or the world of living energy. It is expressed as sami and hucha. Sami is the energy of the natural world. Energy that is ordered and refined. If you have studied the Vedic traditions then you might think of sami as being similar in quality to sattva. Hucha on the other hand is human energy, energy that is heavy and disordered. Again, in the Vedic tradition this is a quality similar to tamas.

Cuzco is known as the "Navel of the World" to the Andeans, and it is well worth a visit.  However, if you can't visit it then pay attention to your own qosqo the point, much like a chakra, through which you mediate energy with the world.  Qosqo, not surprisingly is located about two inches below the navel in the same place where Qi Gong practitioners would locate the lower Dan Tien.

Kawsay pacha is inhabited by two primary spirit energies, Pachamama and apus. Pacha  = earth and mama = mother is the Earth Mother, Mother Earth or the First Mother.  Not the Mother Earth that we sometimes use as a term to describe our rock that is flying through space, but the Spirit of the Earth.  Pachamama is everywhere present.  Apus, on the other hand, are sacred beings or lords that are more local in nature.  For example, Mt Illimanai, about 21,122 feet high, outside of La Paz, Bolivia, is/has a powerful apu.  The apus are the medium through which Andean shamans  receive knowledge, healing power, wisdom and counsel. 

To see a foto of Mt. Illimani visit the foto page on my web site at www.dr-dave-nd.com.

More to come . . .