Qechua Shamanism by Federico Andino

The process of learning about Qechua shamanism is one of unlearning. We must first unlearn a lot of concepts which hinder our participation in the full dance of the Kawsay, or sacred energy. And the first one has to do with God, or gods. One great cultural misunderstanding is that the Inka people worshiped several gods; Inti, the sun God, Pachamama, the earth Goddess, Quilla, the moon, etc.

In Runasimi, the Qechua language, there is no word for God. It´s just a concept which didn´t happen in Inkan thought. The existence of spirits (called Waka) was something easily observable. However, the idea of a God, separated for the world was alien to them.

The Inkan though proceeded through observation and experimentation. They observed that basically you can feel two energies, or qualities in everything; the subtle one (called sami) and the dense one (called hucha).

They also observed than sami tends to go into space and back, and hucha tends to go into the earth and back. Therefore, they postulated (and afterwards discovered) the existence of three worlds; the upper one, called Hanaq, the middle one, called Kay, and the lower one, called Ukhu. In the upper world sami was prevalent, and hucha in the lower, but in the middle they both crossed each other, and transcended the duality. That taught them a great lesson: only by the crossing of a dual energy (subtle - dense or male - female) does consciousness come about. But they also found a kind of hucha in the upperworld, and a kind of sami in the lower, so they found another great truth; everything works as a fractal pattern. That is, there´s a lowerworld of the upperworld, in fact, there´s the three worlds into the
upperworld, and three worlds into each world of that, and there´s three worlds into everything.

So the crossing of the energies gave consciousness, which need to manifest itself into spacetime. The Inkas never divided spacetime. They ask always "how can you envision time, without space or vice versa?". They don´t like abstract thoughts that cannot be found in nature, all their knowledge comes
from observation.

The spacetime continuum is called Pacha in Runasimi. In that Pacha, the energy called Kawsay dances between two tendencies. One is nurturing, supporting, but also devouring and clinging. They called that energy the great dragonness, Pachamama* ("Mother of the spacetime"), the feminine energy which brings about birth. The other energy was masculine, and was a energy of order, of boundaries and law, and it was called Pachataita ("Father of the spacetime") or Pachaqamaq ("All-ordering father").

* Most translations made by western people believe that Pachamama means "mother earth". This has been brought by the fact that Pachamama is made mainly of Hucha, and in the earth hucha is strongest. However, it´s not correct to call the earth Pachamama. The mother earth is called Allpamama, and is a subset of the energy of Pachamama, which is more universal (some westerners called her "the daughter of the earth"). Pachamama is a cosmic energy which operates the same way than Shakti works with Shiva.

Most modern adaptations of sincretic shamanism only honor Pachamama, but they forget about Pachataita/Pachaqamaq.

Here´s another part that I´ve translated:

Since for the Inkas the crossing of energies was sacred, and life followed a fractal pattern they sought a symbol which would represent that. And they found it in their guiding constellation, the Southern Cross, called the Chakana in Quechua, and symbolized in a special cross.



Chakana comes from the verb Chakai, which means "crossing" (as in the crossing of male and female) and at the same time could mean "bridge". The Chakana has several features that set it apart from ordinary crosses. For one, the constellation has two set of arms; if you draw a square with the smaller arm, the longer arm is just the size for it´s diagonal. If you use three squares (one for each world) to simbolize it, the difference between the diagonals match the earth´s axis.

That same overall diagonal it´s called Qapaq Ñan, or "Real Path". The concept of a path which is not just up-down or left-right as is the diagonal being the path of transcendence is very important for Qechua shamanism. No direction is better by itself, and all are needed. In fact, the path goes both up into the Hanaq Pacha and down into the Ukhu Pacha, and a Shaman can go either way; it´s not a moral judgment, but a judgment of power.

The kawsay which goes into the Qapaq Ñan can be charged with either subtle or dense energy; that is the sexual energy of the practitioner can be refined or raw. In the Andean world, when they talk of "low-energy working" they´re not talking about a moral quality, but an energetic one. For example, many cleansing or healing rituals use dense energy; they are classified as "low-energy" and fighting and binding rituals use subtle energies, and are classified as "high-energy" . It´s not the intention but the energy used which causes that classification.

Since everything that has a crossing of energy has consciousness, and everything in our material world has, everything can be spoken to (consciousness is a concept more relevant to Qechua shamanism than life, as we´ll see in the spacetime section). The act of communication stems from the matching of energies, which can be verbal, physical or mental. And in fact some objects can have multiple consciousnesses, according to their energy level. For example, there´s a famous table made from a Quebracho (a kind of ironwood) which was used by a very famous and fierce general. Since the table was made from a very big and energetic tree of over 300 years at the moment of making, it still retains much of the memory of being part of the tree. But it also has a new consciousness, bound by it´s form, and it also has part of the waka of the general due to the long and agonizing hours he spent over it.

Hey, people, here´s part 3. As my original article, I´ll keep the division of work for three levels of practitioners, so everyone can take part on it.

• Level 1 practitioner are those who cannot reliably feel the different energy layer of their body (that is, not just feeling energy but also different layers and tentacles of energy).
  
  
• Level 2 practitioner know how to feel it, and the elemental charges attached, but they don´t know how to transmute polarities.
  
  
• Level 3 know how to feel it and transmute it, but haven´t activated the main energy tentacle, or need to shapechange it.

Keep in mind that this is an introductory article, not an advanced one. Covered here are the basics of Qechua energy practices, not any of the more advanced pathworkings like hucha purification, pyro and telekinesis, manifesting energy as a thoughtform, etc.

One last caveat: the article assumes that you know how to enter a light trance through meditation. If you´re not sure that you can do it, or prefer guidance and speak spanish, we have a free recording of our brand of Yoga Nidra which you can download and follow here
http://www.darsana.com.ar/articulos/yoganidra.html

We also have the complete practice of level 1 to see (in the energy sense) also for free to download (also on spanish only, for now)
http://www.darsana.com.ar/articulos/visualizacion_energia.html


That being said, let´s cut to the chase.

The Inkas, by watching the Chakana, found that some spots along it´s path and geometry where the earth communicated with the heavens, with different kinds of energies. And those spots where called pakarinas. Those spots (usually springs, wells and valleys) had a great energy influence, which allowed for some consciousnesses from a higher dimension of being to exist upon the earth. Under their tutelage, the Inkas learned to see and refine their understanding of the energy-bodies that we all posses (a practice that afterwards would find it´s highest expression with the Boddhisatva- like Viracocha). They observed that those beings, while much more advanced energetically than us, shared the same laws of energy use that we did. In fact, they taught them much about spacetime (Pacha) and some were in fact
the ancestors of the Aymará people (something that we will elaborate further on).

With their newfound awareness (bear in mind that they already knew techniques for working the energies, just not so refined) they found that those beings could only manifest in this Pacha near the pakarinas, and their effect would diminish the farther away they were for it. So the forerunners of the Tawantinsuyo (the real name of the Inkan "Empire" which means the four districts or corners) started mapping the pakarinas, and startled, they found out that the pakarinas corresponded with the path of the serpent energies of the bodies!

That is, where in the earth where pakarinas, in our human bodies where spots where our Ukhu Pacha (our Lowerworld) communicated with our Hanaq Pacha (our upperworld). All the Inkan energy workings try to harmonize those worlds and that communication; it´s the spiritual technique of energy economics.
Remember that the Inkas view everything fractally; our bones are our rocks, our rivers the blood, the skin is the earth and our hair the vegetation.

Those pakarinas, like their earth counterparts, exert their influence through a certain section of our bodies. So they named them chumpiñawis, which mean "eyes of the belts". The center of each energy belt is the pakarina, or ñawi (eye). The most powerful one is the Cozco or Cuzco, in the center of the body (near the belly button). The fact that is named just like the city is no coincidence; the Cuzco is the energetic center of the body, as is the energetic center of the Tawantinsuyo and the Qapaq Ñan.

The practice that we´ll try is to feel and expand the energy center. It is divided on the three basic levels of Darsana, so we´ll describe it level by level. You must have reached a light trance through shaking trance, spinning or meditation.

Level 1:
Siting on the moon pose (note: the half lotus position) let your hands rest on your knees, by their wrists so the fingers and palm hang free, facing the floor. Now, concentrate on your own pulse. Slowly, at the rhythm of your pulse, cover your little finger of the left hand with an saffron-like energy, which feels like a heavy glove. Go slowly, and when it covers all your little finger, concentrate on visualizing and feeling the pulse of your heartbeat (which will be slower that normal by now) as a flash of yellow light and a slight constriction.

When you have it, move it until it covers the other fingers, then the palm, and then the hand and the arm up to the elbow. You must never move so fast that you lose the feeling and visualization. If you do lose it, go back a little (say, one finger) and stabilize it.

When you have it all covered, start with the little finger on the right hand, harmonizing it to the other hand´s frecuency (this is very, very important). You must not lose the left hand´s feeling or energy for concentrating on the right. Go slowly, and enjoy it. When you have both arms up to the elbow, move slowly the left hand over the right (which is still lying palms down) and make slow but fluid movements
towards and away from it. You´ll feel the different energy layers and your mind will flash with the colors.

Now, while doing the towards-away movement, start to move it up and down alongside the arm. Try to feel both the energy on the left hand AND on the right hand.

A common beginner´s mistake is to focus too much in the left hand; awareness of the whole body should be cultivated, and with time you´ll even feel with the space between your hands.

If you hit a patch where it´s difficult to move the left hand, that´s dense energy. You´ll feel it also on your mind´s eye. For now, leave the energy on it´s own.

After a while, when you feel tired (and you will, if you´re doing it right) let the hands go into the starting position and slowly awake from the trance. In further sessions, try to feel the different layers more clearly and don´t rush through the practice; it´s the basis for all else. Also, try to feel which element does radiate more.



Level 2:
Start like the level one, but instead of taking the left hand onto the right arm, move both so they´re facing each other and start the towards-away movement. You´ll feel a much stronger current of energy. Now, with the left hand, try to feel the pakarina on the right palm. It´s a vortex of energy, spiral-like, on the palm. When you have found it (and feel it in both the left hand and the response on the right, remember!) try to feel it´s spinning.

Now for the fun part: feel it´s elemental quality, and it´s direction (away or towards). Now, without willing to move the left hand through muscular force, concentrate on making the energy of the right push out. If you do it right, the left hand will move on it´s own accord.

Now, transform it to absorb the energy of the left hand; it will move towards the right.

This is the basics of shamanic energy projection (and combat). After you can change the direction, change also it´s elemental quality. Make it burn and pushing, or absorbing and sticky.

Level 3:
Also start like the level one, but this time, join both hands and get them close to the belly button. You´ll feel near the area a different, more electric energy; that´s the Cuzco. Now, for the fun part; most people are familiar with the idea of the energy bodies, but not a lot know that not only it can be grown by concentrating on the chakras, but that it can be pulled and elongated as if it were a muscle. Using the sticky energy learned in Level 2, pull the center of the Cuzco (which will feel somewhat like a phallic, serpent-like tube) progressively away from the belly button. You´ll feel your Poq´po (your energy bubble) expand.

Go very slowly; like a muscle, you can pull and cramp your Poq´po. You can also lose the feeling of connection, if that happen, go back a little and pull. Start slowly, and on progressive sessions try to get it as far as your knees. Afterwards, your intent will make the Cuzco serpent move and shape itself without your hand, but at first, as always, go slowly! Half an hour of practice everyday is better than two hours every saturday.

In the Inkan participation in the Pacha, the part which time plays is what probably gives most westerners the greatest trouble. That is because, first, there´s no time; spacetime cannot be easily separated; also the Inkas view consciousness as a kind of gravity; it hurtles us backwards in time. Hence, we cannot see what´s in front of us. We can recollect what´s behind us, so we´re always looking at the past. But we´re also destroying and creating Pacha with each moment...so the only moment that there is is an everlasting change of Pachas.

But when we recollect the dreams of before, we cannot find a difference in quality that marks them as different than "waking" memories. That is, save for the memory which we tell ourselves that it was "only a dream"...which could also be a dream. The Inkas view the dreaming and waking states as an unending stream of consciousness. Sleeping is a time when the barrier between the worlds is more elastic; on one hand, we can alter reality more easily, but on the other, the Ukhu Pacha (our lowerworld) becomes more prominent. Therefore, we tend to repress them by the same mechanism that we repress them while waking, so that we cannot recall them. However, since our attention and our energy are in this more elastic realm, they can overpower our conscious mind more easily; while we just can´t recall it.

Therefore, the Qechua dreaming practice strives to unblock the memories of the dreaming state while at the same time training us in the control necessary to maintain our energies focused.

Note:
Bear in mind that this is just the beginning More difficult practices like full-on lucidity, dream telepathy, dreaming mind-melding and oneiric sharing of skills, shapeshifting, tracking in the waking world, the construction of a dreaming fortress, etc, are more covered in detail in both our dreaming manual
http://www.darsana.com.ar/articulos/oneiroi.html
and our forum, where we have weekly dream meetings, and dream meldings
http://www.darsana.com.ar/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=4
(both in spanish)

The practice is as follows:

Level one entails keeping the dream journal (note: the explanation of dream cycles and energies is too long to translate here, running to about 15 pages. You can find it in spanish athttp://www.darsana.com.ar/articulos/oneiroi.html)

Level two is finding objects with dreaming energy in a dream. When we find those objects, we must enter a light trance (again, see the yoga nidra in our page) and must look for them in the waking world. When we find them, first of all, we must ask permission of them AND BE SURE OF GETTING AN ANSWER (via intuition, energy, pendulum, etc). We must take them home, and the next night we must sleep with them above our heart chakra (the Sonqo Ñawi in Qechua terminology) and we must incubate a dream of the object (again, instruction for incubation in Spanish)
http://www.darsana.com.ar/articulos/oneiroi.html

Level three is threefold. First of all, we must complete the bridging process by dreaming a dream with all our objects. When we have that dream, from their power we must distill a knife, so sharp it can cut anything. Now, for the second (and most gruesome for westerners) part; we must, in a dream, with all our objects and the dream-knife, cut our own head, our ego.

Holding the knife in our right hand and our head on the left, we must separate our head until we held it in our left hand. This will train us to let go, and to not fear death. When we succeed, we´ll find that another head has grown up on us; traditionally it´s a mushroom head, hence the classic mushroom headed shaman petroglyph on Salta, in Argentina.


Now, for the tricky part. As you know, Shamanism isn´t a good/bad dichotomy. It´s in fact a warrior system of spirituality. So you must be warriors in both waking life and dreaming. You must, with your new head, incubate a dream of a nightmare that has plagued you. Once you do, you must ask it to surrender and become your ally, or fight you. If the nightmare surrenders, then you´ll be able to summon it, and ask for teachings. If not, you´ll have to fight it. Probably, at first it will overwhelm you, but now that you know the secret of dying in a dream, you can re-incubate the fight at the point where you were destroyed. Eventually, you´ll wear it down, and then you can ask it to be an ally and to teach you. In fighting it, you´ll find a lot of things that you usually repress about you.

Hope you like it! Next time, I´ll write something about Inkan astronomy (will take me a while, so bear with me)

Very good Gonna integrate those exercises to my daily practice. The text is very clear to understand, the last practice is lucid dreaming, the "ensoñamiento" of Castaneda isn't it?