Mentors
Gram Twy once shared, "If you want to help others, be an example. For this you must learn your truth and live your truth-no excuses. It is only then you can live your connection with Great Mystery and find the unity of Oneness. This is not always easy or convenient, but it is our life's mission."
There are many who teach. Some teachers have touched me profoundly, albeit momentarily, and we have
never crossed paths again. Still others, though brilliant and charismatic, have taught me what not
to emulate. I eventually learned gratitude for those teachings too because they motivated me through
what don Mariano called the third level teachings-the place of polarity where ego defines and limits
the teachings. Some have been powerful examples of generosity and dignity--sincerely sharing their
cultural information, refined teachings and harmonizing to the integrity of 'the work'. These men
and women, whom I have been blessed to call friend, have taught me to live my life and find my truth-
no excuses.
I stand in sisterhood with the following four women, who sought me out and simply put, changed my life:
- Maya Perez, El Salvadorian Spirit Mystic (now crossed), who imparted training on numerology, the psalms, the power of prayer in the healing process, and how to use breathe and thought to "teach people to purify their inner consciousness in order to visualize and create a new way of life".
- Oh Shinnah, She Who Makes the Song of the Earth, who imparted teachings on the use of crystal healing, the power of the elements and elementals, women's ritual, and who initiated me into an ancient women’s lodge known as the Sisters of the Violet Flame.
- Gram Kitty--Da Keel She Wa, Dark Sun She Walks, Nakota elder (now crossed) who gifted and trained me in the sacred chanunpa and the lifetime vow made by being its carrier.
- Grandmother Twylah Nitsch--Yehwehnode Two Wolves, She Whose Voice Rides the Wind, Seneca Elder. (Grandmother dropped her robes August '07, she will be greatly missed). Long time mentor and friend who counseled on the use of vibration through color and words, based on the Seneca Earthpath Energy Charts--the Pathway of Peace and the Cycles of Truth--powerful tools for expanding awareness within the healing process of self and others. She acknowledged and instructed me in the use of my personal medicine gift, a dreamtime counselor, assisting others to tap and uncover personal terrain by reviewing their dreamscapes. Through Gram I came to understand my involvement since childhood with the Starbeings. [Experiences further delved into with John Mack (now crossed) and Roberta Colasanti of PEER, Program for Extraordinary Experience Research]
I owe deep gratitude to these South American p'aqo brothers, who taught me how to work with the mesa and the Kawsay Pacha-the world of living energy; through a fundamental healing technique called mikuy-- to remove 'hucha', dense energy and impart 'sami', refined energy.
- Dr. Juan Nunez del Prado--Juan is an anthropologist, Kurak Priest in the Andean Mystical Tradition, devout Christian and scholar on multiple topics, especially world religions. Instructed to disperse this body of knowledge from his master teachers'-Don Benito Qoriwaman and Don Andrea Espinoza, he initiated me into the 4th level Andean Mystical priesthood in '94, the Hatun Karpay, Lloque Karpay and as a chunpi p'aqo. Juan's deep knowledge on so very many subjects, his friendship over the past 14 years and his unswerving loyalty to the truth of the Andean teachings has been a constant reflection as I walk this path.
- Don Mariano Apasa Marchaqa (now crossed), who awakened me to the power of munay-- how to forgive and use heart energy as a catalyst to bring union between the left and right sides of the tradition. Don Mariano also bestowed upon me the rite of Pachakuti, and asked myself and my healing partner at the time, to open a new mesa containing two ancient puma carvings, embodying the feminine, for the coming times.
- Americo Yabar-mystic healer and visionary poet, who likewise was mentored by don Benito Qoriwaman and was initiated by the Q'ero as a chakaruna or 'living bridge' between cultures. Americo instructed me in the left hand traditions and in '93 took a group for the first time to Mollomarqa, his ancestral home, where I first met and was initiated by don Mariano Apasa. In '95 he took myself and four other women p'aqos throughout Peru and Bolivia to do personal work at multiple sites from the Nazca Lines, to the Island of the Moon.
Journey with my paq'o sisters meeting with Q'ero elders at Rachqi
