Q’ero

Reprogramming – Day 560

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An idea just pecking its way out – Photo: L. Weikel

Reprogramming

I’m just having a thought – and I want to flesh it out, but I’m not going to have enough time to do it this evening. It’s a sort of weird sense that maybe we’re undergoing a reprogramming.

Ha ha – just rereading that first sentence I have to laugh at myself. “Lisa! You’re having a thought! Good on you, girl! Let’s celebrate!”

Seriously, though. I was just having a brief online conversation with a friend and fellow mesa-carrier. As you may recall, my mesa is my sacred medicine bundle, called a mesa (or misa) in the Q’ero tradition. Anyway, we were talking about the recent suggestion we’d both heard from a respected Paqo (the Q’ero word for shaman or medicine person) that we need to ‘reprogram’ our mesas.

Cosmic Unplug

While I want to contemplate this more extensively for myself, it dawned on me that perhaps at least part of what we’re all experiencing with this pandemic is the equivalent of Spirit unplugging all of us in a huge effort to get us all to re-set ourselves back to a baseline from which we can rebuild a new way of being in the world.

Admit it: how many of us have often freaked the heck out when our computers or cell phones went on the fritz and we couldn’t get them to respond appropriately no matter what we did? In the old days, especially, when these amazing electronic marvels would suddenly stop doing what we were just getting used to them doing, we’d want to melt down ourselves.

“Oh my God, it’s going to cost me an arm and a leg to get this repaired.”

Or “Oh good grief. What if I never get this thing running again? What will I do?”

Miracle Cure

And then our IT person (be it someone literally from the IT department where we work, or – more likely in my case, at least – one of my sons), would ask, “Did you shut it down and restart it?”

We all know, nine times out of ten, that was the Miracle Cure we were looking for.

Well, I’m wondering if the societal ramifications of the coronavirus are forcing us into an involuntary shutdown. Actually, the answer is an obvious yes in a literal sense. Our economies across the world, but especially here, have been forced into a shutdown in order to prevent the spread of the virus.

But I’m wondering if we might benefit from sitting with this concept and playing with it a bit more. How might we choose to ‘restart’ our lives, or what might we want to have our lives look like when we ‘restart’ if this shut down was meant to force us into rearranging the way we think about ourselves. Rethink how we want to BE in the world.

If we were able to reboot ourselves, how would our newly re-ordered internal perceptions line up?

(T-551)

Sacred Responsibility – Day 108

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Don Sebastian blessing my mesa and me in February of 2012

Sacred Responsibility                       

I’ve cut my writing time short this evening. Indeed, I’m lucky I looked up from my books and notes and laptop to check the clock because I’d become so totally immersed in my work that I’d lost all track of time. The catalyst for my intensity was the need to fulfill my sense of sacred responsibility.

I’ll be speaking to a university class tomorrow about Andean shamanism, and more specifically, the Q’ero tradition, which is the lineage into which I’ve been initiated.

In spite of the fact that I’ve been engaging in and living (to the best of my abilities) the teachings, rituals, and ceremonies of this lineage for 15 years, I nevertheless feel like a neophyte. I never know enough for my own comfort to consider myself a worthy messenger of this tradition.

It’s probably connected to some weird thing I have in my own head about teaching – such as one must not only be an expert on the subject but also impeccable in your execution of what you know.

Hmm. Just writing that belief out (which is akin to saying it out loud) gives me pause.

A Pretty High Bar

Nevertheless, it is my curse. Oh wait – what do I say about being cognizant of our use of words? It is my blessing. Ha ha. OK. That’s over the top. It is my challenge. Yes, that works.

Ever since I was asked to speak, I’ve been alternately pondering and fretting over what I would say. My inclination is to go for the intellectual approach. You know, outline various aspects of Andean cosmology. Get into the facts. Sound like an anthropologist.

Be detached and clinical.

So I pull out all my books and I pore over the notes I took in a myriad of courses and trainings and sitting with paqos (what shamans are called in Peru). And I get myself all caught up in conveying everything I’ve been taught just so. The reason I get so caught up is because of how much I care. Acting as an ambassador of any tradition is a sacred responsibility. But I honestly feel that the responsibility is even greater when I am speaking about a tradition that I was not born into, but rather, welcomed into.

Be Real

My response to inundating myself in all of my notes and rereading passages from books is two fold:

First, I become anxious and overwhelmed with getting everything just right.

But secondly – and perhaps most importantly, I remember the lush deliciousness of this path. Yes, I realize there are many things I’ve forgotten – or at least aspects I don’t consciously think about in my day-to-day life. Immersing myself in what I’ve been taught makes me yearn to absorb it even more.

And the ultimate realization is that I must simply show up and be real.

The Q’ero in particular are astonishingly generous in sharing their teachings. And that is probably the single best aspect of this lineage that I can share: their generosity of spirit. Their astonishingly open and generous hearts.

And so, while I will be armed with lots of intellectually oriented facts tomorrow, my perspective will be embodying what I’ve been shown by the Q’ero themselves: generously sharing what I have personally experienced walking the path of heart that is the Andean Way. That’s my sacred responsibility.

(T-1003)

Full Moon Bath – Day Ninety Nine

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Some mesas keeping warm by a fire – Photo: L.Weikel

Full Moon Bath                

Nope. Not for me. It’s frigid outside. (And contrary to what a certain someone might have you believe, I’m not  a Fridgit.)

I’m sitting here in my living room, a fire making it so toasty and cozy that it’s hard to keep my eyes open. Because the sole thermostat for our entire home is in this room, the rest of the house takes on a noticeable chill when we have a fire going in the winter months. But it makes for great sleeping.

As I sit here on the couch, I can see the brilliance of the imperceptibly not-quite-full moon shining in the front window of the dining room/library. Without being able to see the moon itself from the angle where I’m sitting, I can nevertheless see her glow bouncing off the limbs of the trees in the neighbors’ front yard across the street.

It’s the glow that’s calling to me.

Or perhaps not.

Call of the Khuyas

I thought it was the glow calling to me, but I actually think it is my khuyas. Khuyas (pronounced koo-yahs) are stones contained in my mesa, my sacred bundle. Khuyas are the integral cast of characters in my mesa who work with people to effect healing, in whatever form they may require.

I would say khuyas start out as simple stones or crystals, just regular Joe Schmoes who’ve been hanging around in and on the earth for millennia. But I don’t feel that’s true. Sure, perhaps some of the stones or crystals that end up in mesas are newbies, meaning this is their first gig as a team member in a healing mesa. But I truly believe most of these beings maneuvered their way into being discovered by, or coming into the hands of, a person who is called to learn these ancient ways because it is their service.

These stones know what they’re doing. They carry knowledge and experience accumulated over millennia; vast stores of hidden knowledge and wisdom. And they are remarkably powerful.

Regardless of whether they have been carried in mesas of generations of healers or this is their first assignment working with the human realm, these stones have a unique and treasured relationship with their people. (And by ‘their people,’ I mean those who bundle them in sacred cloth and work with them on behalf of their own healing and, in some cases, the healing of others).

From as early in my life as I can remember, I’ve delighted in noticing and picking up stones that have caught my attention. (Same with feathers and other treasures I’ve discovered in nature.) But stones! I think I have stones from every place I’ve ever visited. (And believe me – when I was backpacking around Europe as an 18 year old, this meant I had to exercise immense discernment – and restraint.)

Who Initiates Whom?

But none of those or any other stones I collected over the years could technically be called a khuya. Not until it worked with me on a soul level, one-on-one, and developed a personal relationship with me. Indeed, when I was first building my mesa, the initial set of stones I worked with ended up being initiated into the Q’ero tradition I was learning before I was. The Q’ero elders and those who had been working with and had received rites of initiation from them made a point of initiating the stones– making them khuyas – before even considering initiating me.

But as I have done this work through the years, I have wondered: Did it take an initiation by a human to shift a stone or crystal to the status of a khuya? Or do they know Who They Are and, as I mentioned earlier, present themselves to (or allow themselves to be discovered by) a person when that person is on the path to be initiated by them?

I’m perhaps heading off into the weeds a little here; possibly contemplating the origin of my sacred allies in ways that might not interest a lot of people. I can tell you, embracing the consciousness of my khuyas has brought me immense joy, which I guess is why I love just chatting with you about this stuff.

And all of this originated with my observation of the moon’s glow as I started to write this post.

Yearning for a Full Moon Bath

That’s because, as cold as it is outside (and I can hear the wind causing the chimes on my porch to clatter and clang in more of a cacophony than usual), I hear my khuyas calling me. They’re asking to be set out in the moonlight tonight. They’re nearly giddy with the thought of being exposed to the brace of freezing temperatures and the kiss of a stiff breeze, perhaps even some snow flurries. Most of all, though, they’re yearning to bask in the light of Mama Killa, Grandmother Moon, and be cleansed and revivified in the process.

Yikes. Now that I’m tuned in, I can hear them bitching at me a little bit. They’ve been doing some amazingly powerful work for quite a while and I’ve not been as devoted (there’s a word!) to them as they would like. I’ve neglected them by not allowing them the cleansing serenity of a Full Moon Bath in far too long. And yes, this is true, even if I have cooed over them, kumayed them with florida water, and expressed my gratitude every time I’ve opened my mesa.

So I am off to open Sacred Space, unfold my mesa, and set her out in the glow of tonight’s full moon. May my khuyas dance and be joyful!

(T-1013)