Seti with Q'ero shaman (Paqos) Guillermo Soncco and Julio Flores
I find it very easy to meet people when traveling abroad. Several weeks ago I decided to spend the day above Cusco at an Archaeological site called Q'enqo. While there I met a couple Bob and Doris. Bob is in business and may take a shot at a statewide senate seat and Doris is a PhD at Penn State. We decided to meet for dinner and they brought along a friend from Israel who has been traveling through Peru. She is the author of a very new blog about helping people raise money for travel through travel blogs. Galia asked if she could interview me about The Path of the Sun and the Q'ero. I agreed and the text below is the result of the interview. You can also read it on her blog at Money 2 Travel
M2M: Who are the qeros , what is a “despacho” ceremony and how is it relevant to us “westerns”?
Seti: The Q'eros believe they are the direct bloodline descendants of the Inka. It was in the late 1950's when a group of explorers headed by Anthropologist Oscar Nunez Del Prado went high up into the Andes to meet with the community for the first time. They found that many of the Q'ero lived at altitudes that exceeded 14,000 feet. Their homes were primitive stone huts, had dirt floors and grass thatched roofs. They claimed then and today that their shamanic ways are derived from the same practices of the Inka and tap into universal energy. This energy work is said to heal sickness, predict the future and manipulate their environment. Up until the middle of the 20th century, prior to frequent contact with the outside world they were able to maintain a harmonious, balanced and sustainable relationships with Mother Nature through a reciprocity based system of exchange called Ayni.
One of the ceremonies that the Q’ero perform is called a Despacho. There are hundreds of different types, but in the simplest terms they are offerings to Mother Nature who the Q’ero call Pachamama and the mountain spirits called Apus. Performing a despacho ceremony is similar to prayer and places an individual into an ayni based relationship with both the spirit world and the natural world. Ayni is a form of reciprocity, and by offering food, sweets and intentions prayers will be granted. One of the great differences of the Q’ero belief system is that one needs to be in a “right relationship” with our environment and that of the spirit world for life to function properly. To the Q’ero the earth and the mountains are living beings and in order for the system to work one must take care of oneself, the spirits and the planet. If one of those pieces is not nourished, then eventually life will not be able to be maintained.
We see in the west a system where natural resources are depleted and eventually they will run out. We can learn very clearly from the Q’ero that to maintain our place on the planet we need to give back to the Earth so we can also live in balance, harmony and sustainability with our environment.
M2M: How did you hear about them and what made you come all the way to meet them?
Seti: I heard about the Q’ero through a shaman I know from Chicago. He came to Peru to study with Don Humberto Soncco the Kurak Aquellak or elder grandfather of the Q’ero nation. After hearing many stories about Ananda’s travels with Don Humberto and his teachings I decided that I wanted to learn more about them. I started doing more research on them and read two books; The RETURN of the INKA: A Journey of Initiation & Inka Prophecies for 2012 by Elizabeth B. Jenkins and Masters of the Living Energy: The Mystical World of the Q'ero of Peru by Joan Parisi Wilcox After reading both books I was hooked. I was already a student of shamanism and had been studying with a Lakota Maestro, but somehow the practice of the Q’ero resonated with me and I decided to come to Peru and meet and work with Don Humberto, his family and other Q’ero maestros.
M2M: It seems like the “Shamans” are the new “Gurus” ...what do you think about this phenomena?
Seti: To me all gurus are shaman or maestros and all shaman or maestros are gurus. The term is really interchangeable. Shaman are simply people who practice a non-dogmatic type of spiritual practice. And as Carlos Castaneda said - they are men (and women in some cultures like the Q’ero) of knowledge. They are keepers of ancient wisdom that is handed down from shaman or maestro (or guru) from one generation after another for hundreds if not thousands of years.
If you mean that people from the west are now making pilgrimage to the Q’ero maestros, then I would say that this is a phenomenon of them not being discovered or having outside contact since 1955. i do not think that people have lost interest in Buddhism or other asian spiritual practices, but I do believe that the andean cosmology or the belief system practiced by the Q’ero (and the Inka) is something important for the world to pay attntion too. I think this is why the Dalai Lama himself came to Peru a number of years ago and met with a number of Q’ero leaders.
By the way, the term the Q’ero spiritual practitioner’s use to describe themselves is “Paqo”.
M2M: In addition to the last question, what is different about the qeros?
Most shaman around the world use some form of plant medicine in their spiritual practice. For example, shaman from the amazon basin typically work with Ayahuasca a brew made from two plants the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the Chacruna leaf or Psychotria viridis which has curative powers that range from treating emotional disorders such as depression to effectively addressing alcoholism and drug addiction. The Q’ero, on the other hand, do not work with medicinal plants in this way. The Q’ero work instead with energy. They see energy in all living and inanimate objects. Energy to the Q’ero has two manifestations; sami is light refined energy and exists on our plane of existence, the mountains and upper world (Hanaqpacha). Hoocha, on the other hand is heavy and dense. Hoocha is created by human interaction such as miscommunication or misunderstanding and internal personal conflict. Hoocha is found on our plane of existence and in the lower world (Ukupacha). It is also the world or dreams, subconscious and creativity. Much of the shamanic work of the Q’ero in changing or manipulating energy is to remove hoocha and fill a person’s energy sphere with samil
M2M: The Qero comes from a very different “reality” than the one we live in...what do you think we can learn from them? What do you think they can learn from us?
Seti: Ayni is the core concept of the Q’ero belief system. Ayni is a reciprocal non-monetary system of exchange that enhances relationships between people, families and communities. It comes from a place of Munay or love and allows people to live in a balanced, harmonious and sustainable relationship with the world around them as well as the spirit world. The manifestation of this practice in the west IMHO would greatly address many of societies ills, the contamination of the planet and destruction of natural resources.
The Q’ero learn a lot from us - unfortunately it comes with a price. The Q’ero are an innocent and humble people and see all the goodies our way of life can offer them. From smart-phones to laptops to the variety of consumer goods that can be purchased in the super-market our world to the Q’ero is a virtual treasure chest of things they have never seen. What they don’t see is the price that one must pay. For example, prior to 1955 no garbage could be found in Q’eros because everything there was natural. Now there is a garbage problem with plastic and packaging scattered around the landscape. Some of the garbage found includes a variety of candy wrappers. The Q’ero love sweets and lollipops in particular and because of that like they now have dental issues which were not present prior to first contact. What I believe they can learn from us is how to manage the integration. If proper education is provided then I believe their further integration into society can be managed in a way that limits damage to their culture and way of life.
M2M: The qero are now “discovered”, they are invited to go to different parts of the world to perform ceremonies, soon there may be better roads to their villages, they will have electricity and they will be much more exposed to modern life... Where do you see the Qeros in 10-15 years? do you think that their traditions will survive that?
Seti: In 10-15 years the Q’ero will have roads and electricity and this will inevitably lead to a change in their way of life. Sadly, it is a big question as to whether their traditions will survive or not. I believe the Q’ero way of life will be like any other cultural group that is integrated into a larger society. Some traditions will remain and others will go. They already have experienced the phenomenon of culture loss. In the past the Q’ero would walk two days to Paucartambo prior to their Carnival celebration. On this walk they would sing. Ultimately, one or two songs would rise to the top and then be sung by all during Carnival, and throughout the year. Now that there is a road to their frontier they no longer have the walk prior to the festival, and now old songs are re-hashed.
Part of my work is to preserve their culture through film before more traditions like these are lost.
In the end, like most cultural and religious practice what will be in the future will not be exactly as it was in the past. We as individuals desire to make something new for ourselves from that which was taught to us by our predecessors. We do not dress, talk, act or listen to the same music as our parent, grandparents or great grand parents. Some traditions remain though, but we make them our own. The Q’ero are no different. However, the core concepts of there way of life are here for us to learn now, and we can benefit by that, so it is also our choice as to what of their way of life we integrate into ours.
What is the one thing you want people to know about the Q’ero?
The Q’ero are poor. Dirt poor. They live in stone huts at high altitudes. Their homes are covered by grass roofs and the floors are literally dirt. They cook on open fires and have no firewood for heat. It gets cold at 14,000 feet at night and 40% of their infants die from the low temperatures. There is no electricity, running water or health care. They live in a primitive way under harsh conditions. Yet their outlook on life, their relationship to the natural world and spiritual world is something we can learn from and help us better our lives. Ayni goes both ways. As we learn from them, we can give back by donating funds that can be used for health, education and cultural preservation projects.
Currently, I am raising funds for a program to provide solar lighting for each of the homes in Q’ero. Each individual light can light up a home for 4-6 hours and allow children to study at night and the Q’ero to weave more textiles, one of their sources of income. Each light has it’s own solar panel and costs approximately $50. If you would like to donate to this program you may contact me directly at [email protected]
Seti Gershberg is an Anthropologist, Filmmaker, Photographer, and student of shamanism originally from New York. For the last 18 months Seti has been living in Peru both filming and studying the ancient ceremonial and ritual practices of two indigenous groups of Peruvian shaman for his documentary The Path of the Sun. The feature length film, now in post production, is about shamanism, ancient wisdom and sacred plants and answers the question “what value does shamanism have for the global community in the 21st century?” The documentary will be released to film festivals around the world beginning in the Fall of 2013. More information about the film can be found at the blog for the movie www.thepathofthesun.com and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thepathofthesun
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