*

*

North Coast &

What is our connection to the star nations? When we open sacred space and turn our attention to the great sky above we call in Inti Taita (Father Sun), Mama Quilla (Grandmother Moon) and Chaska Kuna, the Star Beings. Who are the Star Beings and what do we source from them?

The Four Winds Society gave as the "Starkeeper" rite as we learn the way of the medicine wheel.... in this rite we step into our connection to the Stars.  And another of the great Peruvian rites of transformation and healing in Quechua is known as the Kurak Akurak which can be translated as the great masticator.  Who are the star nations who have predigested or masticated their knowledge and energy for us so that we can most easily integrate that energy.

The people of the North Coast and Highlands of Peru look to the very stars as their lineage believing that tens of thousands of years ago, we came from the stars.  And we maintain that connection today.The medicine men and women of the North Coast of Highlands of Peru place staffs and swords on either side of their mesas. They know that the  ancient symbols of staff and sword have been depicted with images of the Lord of Sipon carrying a sword. They know the connection his sword has to the sword hanging from the belt in the Orion constellation.  

Come with us to Northern Peru, September 1-9, 2011.  Find your connection to the Stars and our star brothers and sisters as we visit the pre-Incan sacred sites. Puma Quispe will be our guide.  And we will also derive guidance and inspiration from the great plant/spirit teacher of northern Peru, the hauchuma cactus, called by the Spanish, San Pedro, who felt drinking a tea made of this plant was like  meeting San Pedro, Saint Peter, who holds the keys to the gates of Heaven.

Ancient carvings from Northern Peru, show mighty individuals holding the Hauchuma cactus.  Hauchuma,  a sacred plant able to open the doors of perception, is revered. Huachuma or San Pedro cactus is used in all parts of Peru but the cactus is native to the northern regions and tea made from the cactus that grows there is the most potent, invoking deep insight into the nature of life and our connection to our ancestors.

These older, north Peru cultures are the ancestors from which the Inca sourced.  Some of their sacred sites have only been unearthed in the past 20 years. These older sites were abandoned before the Inca imperialized Peru and made Cusco into the center, the solar plexus of their empire.  When the Spanish came to Peru they quickly discovered the Incan cities of gold and wealth and overlooked the abandoned temples of Northern Peru. This means the Spanish did not strip and deface these temples and their medicine was persevered.

Jeffrey and Cielle have been to Peru 7 times over the past 4 years. We specialize in tours with small numbers of participants. No more than 12 will come with us. We love the flexibility of traveling with a small group.  Spontaneous shifts in our itinerary can be managed when the number is small allowing for the magic of the moment to emerge.

We work with Puma Quispe, a young, powerful, widely respected Peruvian Paqo.  Puma’s English is stellar which is most useful as he is able to answer our questions about the mystical traditions of Peru.

Many people (including Jeffrey and Cielle) arrange tours of the Sacred Valley and Cusco region, the area of the center of the Incan Empire, but few people in this day are arranging tours of the older, pre-Incan, sacred sites. Answer the call of your soul. Join us.

When: September 1-9, 2011
Where: North Coast and Highlands of Peru.
price: $2300, if your $500 deposit is postmarked by June 4th. After June 4th the fee increases to $2500.
included:

• all meals
• 2 flights within Peru
• lodging - double occupancy
• entrance fees to all sacred sites
• 4 Hauchuma ceremonies

It's an area I kept hearing little references to:

“The hummingbird medicine, being ‘in the North’, is a familiar helper here.”

“Unlike Cusco, this is a place where all four of ‘the four winds’ are known to the locals.”

“Stories of the ch'aska kuna,  beings from the stars, teaching, settling, perhaps even intermarrying.”

“An ayahuascero far south, in the jungle, who said everyone's visions and knowledge get mixed with their native culture, and that to really verify your cognitions, you must compare them to the Chavin de Huantar carvings.”

“The Chimu, Moche, and Mochica.- makers of remarkable ceramics that seem to record remarkable visions.”

“The original home of the huachuma (San Pedro cactus) curanderos.”

“Connecting with sources of power, healing, illumination.”

The journey to Chavin is a true pilgrimage.  We begin at sea level, along the North Coast. The regions of Trujillo and Chiclayo, where rivers come down to the sea, were naturally also the sites of habitation centuries ago. We connect, at their sacred sites,  with the energies of healing and transformation as they refined them. Each step, each day, is an opportunity for awakening. Much depends on your intention and attention.

As we ascend into the Highlands, feasting on more useful knowledge at the “ancient medical school”, we draw closer and closer to our finale, the very early “Jaguar Temple” at Chavin de Huantar.  Archeologists date this as the oldest developed culture in Peru, and among the medicine people we have worked with, it is widely acknowledged as “source” --- at least in this dimensional frame....

The trip will be nine days. There will be four days of "deep medicine" - work with the huachuma. Here the teacher plant is on his home ground.  

We’ll be traveling with Puma Quispe, the young elder from Chinchero, who appears with several Q’eros elders in Joan Wilcox’s “Masters of the Living Energy”.  Here’s Puma from last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-qCwPnwNwo

The second teacher who will accompany us is one of the seven recognized “plant teachers” - Grandfather Huachuma,  the San Pedro cactus - the “hummingbird medicine”.  We’ll be working with this medicine four times along the way.

Together these two respected teachers will help us to connect with the huacas,  or sacred sites, and to receive the messages they have for each of us.

Each station of our journey carries a different energy; each constitutes a mesa itself, connecting, “calling in” specific forces.  The climax of course is Chavin de Huantar, the earliest mystical site in the Peruvian tradition.

• Sept 6 Twin lakes - Llanganuco.
• A day in ceremony with Hauchuma Medicine
  
• Sept 7 Chavin de Huantar 1200 - 300 BC. 
• Sept 8 Chavin.
• A day in ceremony with Huachuma Medicine
• Sept 9 Drive to Lima