Sunday, December 30, 2007

Inca Fire Protocol

The Inca Fire can be used at anytime to honor the gifts you’ve been given. It is most commonly done at every full moon, and at the solstices to honor and thank the Great Spirit.

Fire Protocol:

  • The fire is laid out in the form of the Southern Cross.
  • Have a “fire arrow” ready - you will have blown an issue you want to get rid of into a small stick
  • Have a Pachamama stick ready - You will have blown your prayers for Mother Earth into a larger stick as your offering of reciprocity
  • Chant the Inca Fire Chant continuously from the lighting of the fire to when the fire burns out.
  • No speaking
  • The fire must burn out by itself & must not be put out
  • Always walk clock-wise around the fire.
  1. Open sacred space.
  2. Light your fire.
  3. Begin your chant.
  4. Offer olive oil (sweet oil) to the fire three times (in reciprocity)
  5. When fire becomes “friendly” approach fire and offer your fire arrow.
  6. At the fire, bless yourself with the flames and draw the energy from the fire three times to yourself – belly / heart / 3rd eye.
  7. Continue to chant while observing the “life” of your fire.
  8. Just before closing, offer your Pachamama Stick to honor Mother Earth
  9. Close your fire – cease chanting.
  10. Close directions.

INCA Fire Chant

Nitchee – tai – tai ….. N U I

Oro Nika Oro Nika

Hey Hey …. Hey Hey

Oooh Aye

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Body Awareness Meditation


Meditation may seem like a mysterious and difficult practice but it really is neither. Meditation can be as simple as quieting the mind to as mystical as seeking enlightenment or even as productive as seeking the answer to a question.

There are many types of meditation from emptying the mind to journeying so there is no ‘wrong’ way. Sometimes there is so much in your head that it seems impossible to clear the mind of all thought. In those times, I like to distract my mind by focusing on one particular thing.

A nice meditation is Body Awareness Meditation. To practice:
Sit or lie comfortably. Start to focus on any part of your body which draws your attention first. You are practicing non-judgemental awareness. This means everything on your body is just fine, neither good nor bad, you are just noticing it.

Let your focus pull towards your spine, can you sense the muscle, the skin? Let your focus drift upwards to the base of your scalp, into your hair and around your head. Can you feel the hairs on your scalp? Gradually allow your focus to travel over every part of your body, including your tummy and your groin areas, down your legs and arms. Imagine feeling your skin as if you’re running a feather along your body. You may even feel the tickle of energy moving across your skin. Remember: Energy follows thought.

This exercise is a connection to your physical reality, it brings us firmly into the present moment and wonderfully rests the mind. You can allow your focus to include the room around you, what’s in the room? What are you sitting on, how does your bum feel on it? Are there any sounds in the room? Outside of the room? You are not trying to block anything out, you are being aware of it. Nothing is positive or negative, it just is. If you notice any emotions, acknowledge them. Emotions are part of your physical reality as well. Blocking anything will only make it seem bigger. So just acknowledge that it’s there and continue on sensing your body. Whenever you feel complete, take a breath, hug your awesome body and have a great day.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Prayer for creating Sacred Space


To the winds of the South
Great serpent,
Wrap your coils of light around us,
Teach us to shed the past the way you shed your skin,
To walk softly on the Earth. Teach us the Beauty Way

To the winds of the West,
Mother Jaguar,
Protect our medicine space.
Teach us the way of peace, to live impeccably
Show us the way beyond death.

To the winds of the North
Hummingbird, Grandmothers and Grandfathers,
Ancient Ones
Come and warm your hands by our fires
Whisper to us in the wind
We honor you who have come before us,
And you who will come after us, our children’s children.

To the winds of the East.
Great eagle, condor
Come to us from the place of the rising Sun.
Keep us under your wing.
Show us the mountains we only dare to dream of.
Teach us to fly wing to wing with the Great Spirit.

Mother Earth.
We’ve gathered for the healing of all your children.
The Stone People, the Plant People.
The four-legged, the two-legged, the creepy crawlers.
The finned, the furred, and the wined ones.
All our relations.

Father Sun, Grandmother Moon, to the Star nations.
Great Spirit, you who are known by a thousand names
And you who are the unnamable One.
Thank you for bringing us together,
And allowing us to sing the Song of Life

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Creating Sacred Space


Shamans always begin healing ceremonies by opening sacred space. In this space we leave behind the affairs of ordinary life, the bustling world of meetings and schedules, and prepare to meet the divine. Sacred space allows us to enter our quiet inner world where healing takes place. Within sacred space our burdens become lighter and we can be touched by the hand of Spirit. After we finish our healing work, sacred space must be closed by again acknowledging the four directions, Heaven and Earth.

Sacred space is a healing sphere that is pure, holy and safe. I imagine it as a shimmering cupola above the area where I do my healing work. Everyone within this space is protected. Sacred space creates an environment where our defenses can be lowered, where we can explore our soft, tender underbelly. Sacred space also gives us access to the luminous healer - the medicine men and women who assist us from the Spirit world.

You can create sacred space and summon the healing power of nature anywhere on Earth. You can use it while your own prayer reveals itself to you.

The shaman's covenant with Spirit is that when she calls, Spirit answers. Powerful medicine people from the Spirit world appear in the form of luminous beings who assist us in our healing work.

You can employ a smudge stick of sage or a litle scented water if you like. Shamans throughout the Americas accompany their prayer by fanning smoldering sage or incense with a feather in the appropriate direction they are addressing, or holding their hand up to the sky and saluting each cardinal point. You will need to determine the points; ideally this is done with a compass, but a close approximation based on your knowledge of the landscape is fine.

Begin by facing South. Smudge or blow the scented water to the South, then hold up your hand, palm facing out. Recite the first verse, calling upon serpent. Face each direction in turn as you repeat the process. Touch the Earth and look to the Heavens when directing your prayers there. You close sacred space by thanking serpent, jaguar, hummingbird, and eagle. Release their energies and allow them to return to the four corners of the Earth. To connect with the energy of one of the directions, do not close that direction. Instead call on that archetype to enter you and accomany you on your path. (I do this by turning to the East, for example, and instead of closing that direction I blow the spirit of that archetype into my client's crown chakra. I imagine the spirit of eagle entering them and informing their lives.) Then thank Mother Earth and Father Sky.
--- by Dr. Villoldo; www.thefourwinds.com

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Navaho Legend of the Rainbow Bridge


Long, long ago when First Woman the Goddess was created, she became fully grown in four days. It seemed that every Dine (Navajo) Indian tribesman wanted her for his wife.
She did not love any of them, but she did like the handsome ones. Of all the men, however, she thought the most attractive was the Sun-God. Of course, she thought he could never be her husband.
To her surprise, one day Sun-God came up behind her and gently tickled her neck with a feathery plume. She was engulfed with warm sunshine, and in a magical way the Goddess became the wife of Sun-God. He fathered her firstborn, a son.
Not long thereafter, the Goddess was resting beneath an overhanging cliff when some drops of water fell upon her. Soon the Goddess gave birth to a second son, fathered by Water-God. Because the two boys were so close in age, they became known as the Twins of the Goddess.
They lived in a beautiful canyon that later became a part of Dine (Navajo) land. About that time, a Great Giant roamed over the country and ate every human he could catch. He discovered the Goddess but did not want to kill her, because at first sight he fell in love with her beauty.
The Goddess knew of the Great Giant's evil ways and would have nothing to do with him. He became very jealous of her when he saw footprints of the Twins outside her Hogan.
She saw Great Giant approaching, so she quickly dug a hole in the centre of her floor and there hid her two children, whom she dearly loved. She covered the opening with a flat sandstone rock, spreading dirt over it to prevent the Great Giant from finding her Twins.
Another day, Great Giant saw the children's tracks.
"Where did these children come from?" he asked the Goddess.
"I have no children." she replied, because she knew that he would try to kill them if he found the Twins.
"You are not telling me the truth," he said. "I see children's footprints in the dirt, right here."
The Goddess laughed heartily and said "Those are only my hand prints. I am very lonesome for children, so I only pretend by making tracks with the heels of my hand and the tips of my fingers, like this. These are the tracks of my children."
"Now I believe you," he said.
As the Twins grew larger, their mother could not hide them any longer. She was alarmed for their safety because of the Great Giant, who saw them one day and tried to catch them. But the Twins were too quick and got away.
The Spirit who made the Goddess appeared with a bow made of cedar wood for Sun-Child.
"It is time for you to learn to hunt," she said to him.
"We must now make some arrows and another bow for your brother," said the Goddess to Sun-Child.
"Mostly, we want to hunt for our father," said Sun-Child. "Mother, who is our father and where does he live?"
"Your father is the Sun-God, but he lives far away in the East," replied the Goddess.
Another bow was made for Water-Child and many arrows for both Twins. They began their journey to the East and travelled as far as they could, but without success in finding Sun-God. When they returned they asked, "Mother, have you lied to us? In the East, we looked everywhere and we could not find our father, the Sun- God."
"He must have gone to the South," she said. Again the Twins set out on another journey, this time to the South, returning without success.
"Please try the West and then the North, if at first you do not find your father in the West," said the Goddess.
She sent the Twins again on their hunting journey, anxious to keep them away and out of sight of the Great Giant. Many moons later, the Twins came back and said, "Mother, have you lied to us four times? Our father was neither in the North nor the West."
"Now I will tell you the truth, my sons," said the Goddess. "Your fathers, the Sun-God and Water-God, live far away in the middle of the great Western Water. Between here and there are great canyons where the walls of the cliffs clap together and would crush you.
"Even if you should succeed in getting through the canyons, there are the terrible reeds that you must cross. Their long knife-like sharp leaves will cut you into pieces.
"If you should escape the reeds, you can never cross the Grand Canyon, which comes first before you can reach the Great Water. You can never, never cross the water where your father's house is in the middle of the Great Water, the Western Ocean."
"But, Mother, we want to go and try to find our fathers," said the Twins.
The Goddess taught the Twins a song of protection for their next journey:"We are travelling in an Invisible Way to seek our fathers, the Sun-God and the Water-God."
This song she taught them to sing four times, the magic number. Day after day as they travelled along, they sang their song for protection.
One day, as they passed a little spider hole in the ground, they heard a voice say, "Ssh!" four times. The Twins looked into the hole and saw Spider Woman.
"Do not be afraid of me, I am your Grandmother. Come down into my lodge," she said four times.
"We cannot enter your lodge, because your doorway is too small," said the Twins.
"Please blow toward the Eastwind, Southwind, Westwind, and Northwind," Spider Woman called out.
The Twins blew in the four directions and the entrance enlarged enough for them to go through. Inside and to their amazement, they saw the lodge walls covered with bundles of bones wrapped in spider webs, exactly the way spiders wrap flies in a web.
"Do not be afraid, my grandsons," said Spider Woman. "These are the bones of bad men whom I killed."
Spider Woman talked with the Twins about encounters they might have on their trip. She taught them songs for their protection and explained what they could do to overcome obstacles they might meet on their way. "I will give each of you a magic Feather- Plume. Hold it before you as you travel, straight up or sideways to carry you safely forward," she said to the Twins.
"Be on the look out for a little man with a red head and a striped back. He will resemble a sand-scorpion, only a little larger--about the size of a Jerusalem cricket," she explained.
"Thank you, Grandmother, we'll be on our way," said the Twins.
Many days later, the Twins heard a voice from the ground. It was from the little man with the red head.
"Do not scorn me because I am so small," he said. "I can and want to help you. Put your hands down on the ground and spit into them four times. Now close your fists, saving the spit until you come to the Big Water. There you can wash off the spit."
The Twins did exactly as they were told, and after thanking the little man with the red head, they again began their travel. Soon the canyon walls that smashed together loomed ahead of them.
They repeated Spider Woman's prayers, holding the Feather-Plumes sideways. As they moved forward the clapping walls stopped long enough to allow the Twins to walk through safely.
When they came to the jungle of sharp reeds, again they sang the song Spider Woman taught them, touching the tops of the reeds with their magical Feather-Plumes.
Behold! The reeds turned into cattails, which pleased the reeds so much that they quickly opened a wide path for the Twins to pass through. A puzzling encounter for the Twins was the giant cliff. They walked around and around its rim, making a complete circle and finally returning to their starting place.
They were making no forward progress, so they sang songs taught them by their mother and Spider Woman. They prayed over and over again. When they opened their eyes, a beautiful Rainbow appeared, creating a large bridge for them to cross over the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.
After this spectacular adventure, the Twins continued West for a long time, until they saw the Great Water before them. The Water spread so far, they wondered, "How can we ever reach the Turquoise House of Sun-God, which we know is in the middle of the Great Water?"
The Twins walked down to the beach to the edge of the water and washed the spit off their hands, singing and praying at the same time.
Behold! The Rainbow appeared again! A long Rainbow Bridge stretched before them from the beach to the Turquoise House. The Twins raced onto the Rainbow Bridge, find their two fathers, the Sun-God and the Water-God, who welcomed them in the Turquoise House at the end of the Rainbow Bridge.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Munay-Ki, The Healer's Path

The Munay-Ki comes from a Quechua word that means ‘I love you’ – ‘Be Thou as Thou Are.’ The Munay-Ki are the nine rites of initiation to become a person of wisdom and power who has accepted the stewardship for all creation. The nine rites are common to all shamanic traditions, even though they are expressed in different forms and styles in different cultures. They derive from the great initiations from the Hindus Valley that were brought to the Americas by the first medicine men and women who crossed the Baring Straits from Siberia during the glacial period some 30,000 years ago. These courageous travelers were the Laika, the Earthkeepers of old.
The Munay-Ki are the nine gates that heal us and transform our human energy field into that of homo luminous. The prophecies of the ancient Americas speak about a new human appearing on the planet – one who lives free of fear and resides in his or her transcendent nature. The Munay-Ki are the codes for the new human. They are delivered in the form of energetic transmissions.
As you receive the Munay-Ki, your chakras will become clear and you’ll acquire what the Laika know as the rainbow body. This is when your chakras glow with their original radiance. The nine rites are the sum total of attunements that we go through as we transit from the body of a human to the body of angels.These rites were first given to ancient teachers by angelic beings, and now are passed on from teacher to student. When an Earthkeeper gifts the Munay-Ki to a student, it is the lineage of luminous beings that transmits itself, that leaps from the head of the master to the student as they lean into each other and touch, forehead to forehead.

First Rite: The Bands of Power are five energetic bands representing earth, air, fire, water, and pure light. These protective bands are installed in your Luminous energy field, and act as filters, breaking down any negative energies into one of the five elements. The Bands of Power are always ‘on’, and negative energies bounce right off them. In a world filled with fear, the bands provide essential protection.

Second Rite: The Healers rite connects you to a lineage of Earthkeepers from the past that come and assist you in your personal healing.

Third Rite: Harmony rites, in which you receive seven archetypes into your chakras. These archetypes are transmitted into your chakras as seeds which we must germinate and help grow. They help combust the psychic sludge so that our chakras can shine with their original light as we acquire a rainbow body.

Fourth Rite: The Seer rite installs filaments of light extending from your visual cortex in the back of your head to your third eye and heart chakras. This practice awakens your ability to perceive the invisible world, so that you can see with the both heart and mind, love and intellect.

Fifth Rite: The Daykeeper rites links us to the lineage of Laika Shamen who were masters of the ancient stone altars such as Stonehenge to Machu Picchu. The Daykeeper is able to call on the power of these ancient altars to heal and bring balance to the world.

Sixth Rite: The Wisdomkeeper rites connects us to the lineage of medicine men and women from the past who defeated death and stepped outside of time. The job of the Wisdomkeeper is to protect the medicine teachings and share them with others when appropriate. This rite helps you to step outside of time and taste infinity.

Seventh Rite: The Earthkeeper rites connects us to a lineage of archangels that are guardians of our galaxy. They’re reputed to have human form and be as tall as trees. The Earthkeepers, who are stewards of all life on the Earth, come under the direct protection of these archangels and can summon their power when they need to in order to bring healing and balance to any situation. The rite of the Earthkeepers helps you learn the ways of the seer, and to dream the world into being.

Eighth Rite: The Starkeeper rite anchors us safely to the time after the great change that is said will occur on or around the year 2012. According to lore, when you receive this rite, your physical body begins to evolve into that of Homo luminous, the rainbow body. We acquire stewardship of the time to come and all future generations.

Ninth Rite: The Creator rite. When you receive this initiation, you awaken the God-light within you acquire stewardship for all of creation, from the smallest grain of sand to the largest cluster of galaxies in the universe. Although there were individuals who attained this level of initiation, and awakened their Christ or Buddha consciousness, it was never possible to transmit these from one person to another, until today. So while Spirit-to-human transmission happened on occasion, human-to-human transmission was impossible until now. The Creator rite was brought forth and gifted to us by Inka elders in the Andes during the summer of 2006.

For more detailed information on the Munay-Ki please visit http://www.munay-ki.org/