Literally, the word ˝shamanism˝ comes from the space drawn by Mongolia, Siberia, China. However, in general we talk about the “shaman” as a human who works with energies and travels with the spirit in different worlds; he or she is someone who feels deeply and who is guided by the multiple senses.
In North America this job is taken by spiritual healers belonging to the indigenous peoples – they are called medicine men.
The peoples of the Andes, such as the Q’ero, call paqo (we also find it written “paq’o”), healer, this type of man who feels and works with energies. Their emphasis is on the spiritual healing of the soul: the paqo shaman works to bring energies into balance, according to the sacred principle of energy exchange ayni.
The Q’ero people have preserved their traditions and thir way of life since the time of the Inca empire. When the Spanish invaders came, the Q’eros retreated into the mountains, where no one can reach – even now there are no roads to go there. You can take a jeep to the area and then walk toward their villages or they come to pick you up on motorcycles.
One of their myths is that centuries ago they had a paqo who dreamed of the Spanish coming, invading the country, and this paqo was instructed in his dream to build a great stone wall around the Q’ero land, on the mountaintops.
When the Spanish came, a great storm broke out and all the stones rolled down the valley, onto the Spanish, who retreated and have never climbed the mountain since.
The Q’ero people were discovered by the Peruvians only 40 years ago.
The Peruvians discovered at some point that this people still existed, speaking the ancient Quechua language and living in only 6-7 villages, at an altitude of 4500 m. Today, many Q’eros also live in the city of Cuzco, below.
When they were discovered by the “civilized world”, the Q’eros welcomed the first foreigners. Alberto Villoldo, a psychologist and anthropologist, had a great influence, being the first person from the “civilised” world to start looking for healers in this Andean space. He opened Pandora’s box for this people.
Nowadays, representatives of the Q’ero people travel all over the world. One of them is Don Pascual and the other is Don Chino, who has indigenous genes and learned from a Q’ero master. Even among the Q’eros there are few people who have preserved this tradition and this medicine. Through Alberto Villoldo and his school, indigenous medicine reached the world and spread.
The traveling Q’ero shamans are respected people in their homeland. Their shamanic techniques are different from those of the Amazonian shamans. In Amazon shamans live in the jungle and work with water and plants. The shamans who live in the mountains work with stones – the mesa with stones is their medicine and the most sacred thing is the mountain spirits (Apukunata). Apukunata Ausangate is the most powerful mountain in their tradition, a male mountain. They also have female mountains – the largest female is Salkantai. Stones and Mother Earth are the landmarks of the Quero shamans.
Through therapy, they bring balance – ayni – the word also means reciprocity: they receive the harvest from mother earth and give something back to her. When someone gets sick it means they are out of balance and then the healer, Paquo, restores the balance. He feels what has become unbalanced in that person.
Each shaman has his own method of healing, but they have in common the habit of detecting where you are out of balance and working exactly there. These shamans pray to Mother Earth, they relate to the elements, to archetypes, to the spirit of the condor, jaguar or puma (these must be thought of as archetypes, as patterns or energetic fingerprints, in no case as exotic animals). Archetypes are the same, no matter where in the world we are; they are not assigned to a particular religion.
The healer brings balance, a state of well-being. It depends on us how much we can maintain that state of well-being or how much our body helps us remember the state of balance we were in for an hour or for three days.
Does the effect of the healing last?
It depends on the person who receives the healing. It depends on how much this person accepts it and how long he or she can hold that state. The best is to be able to fix it in the body, for example in a light gesture that you do frequently, as walking.
For us Europeans, it’s not easy to replace our habits, even if we already know they’re bad for us. Even if therapy gives us an answer and a good mood, it’s not easy to let go of old stories.
But the Q’ero and especially the Paquo do not have this problem, they live in very close connection with nature – they naturally ask the trees and the stones for help. A thing is certain: what we call certainty does not exist with them.
This should not disturb us, however. Even if the healing effect lasts no longer then a drop of water on a hot stone, this is still important. It matters – even through accumulation it matters. If someone has experienced the state of balance at least once, their desire for balance begins to grow. After all, if you do not achieve balance in this life, it is not a problem. The universe has time: you will achieve it in the next life, or in the tenth next life. There is a kind of cosmic optimism here.
However, with the interest in tourism, ceremonies for tourists also appeared among the Q’ero. I witnessed such a ceremony, a despacho: the person who offered it undoubtedly knew something, but not exactly. So if you are a tourist there, you have the best chance of coming across such a shaman for tourists. You can’t tell the difference if you’re just a tourist and don’t know anything about shamanism. That’s why having a guide there is always a good idea.
Leave a Reply