Shaman Dialogues July 2006

I just had a wonderful month in Peru! My colleague Katina and I attended the Shaman Dialogues, a "conference" of sorts that included shamans from many parts of Peru. It was amazing to learn directly from them, and even more powerful to go to various spiritual sites and do ceremony with the shamans.

What I found exhilarating was that of the many shamans that were there, 4 of them were women, and at an incredibly high level of knowledge. Let's say they were the PhDs of the shaman world. Actually, in most cases, they were either hit by lightning, or rendered unconscious somehow, and "called" by the Apus (mountain spirits) to become shamans.

The women in the picture are Doña Maria and Doña Laura, both altomesayoqs, which means they are about as high as one can go in the shaman world, without being fully and totally enlightened, sort of like the Buddha.

We learned about the different mesas (medicine bundles) each carry, how they use them, how they add or take away items from their mesas. We also learned some healing techniques, which was fascinating for me.

This conference lasted six intense and wonderful days! Hopefully they'll do another one next summer.