INTRODUCTION TO GUIDE BOOK

When you buy any  book you are actually buying a piece of the author- their interpretation of their experiences and their minds organizing and interpreting the data.

What follows is only my perception of the reality that is the Peruvian Andes--I invite you to journey there, to feel and  interpret for yourself-- I believe that that is what each of our  God/Goddess intended - for each of us to develop our own path to the divinity and our own personal relationship with the divine energy, by whatever name we chose to call it.

This guide book has been generated out of my experiences in many of the major power spots of the Peruvian Andes.  However the attitudes, approaches, and simple techniques I offer should be applicable at any place of power anywhere on our planet.  Our planets' life force is universal and Patcha Mama and Patcha Tata, by any name, are universal.

At first, I questioned the spirits I contacted at these places.  I wanted to know with whom I should share these teachings I was given.  I was told to tell all who seem to want to hear.  At best, the receiver will test the ritual for themselves, and find value, and at worst, they will dismiss my offerings as the ramblings of an amiable fool.  In either case, no harm can be done, for these teachings are protected by the spiritual readiness of the recipient.  It is not necessary for me to judge, nor worry.  My job is to offer, and not be attached to  the degree of its reception.  And, to remain honored, humble, and grateful for what I have been given.

Since not every reader will read every section, you may find some redundancy.  Its my way of insuring that even the casual  reader will gain maximum benefit from this guidebook.  Please forgive me if the careful reader comes across something written twice.

Many years ago, I spent three years living and studying in the energy schools in Nepal and India.  I had been studying with my teacher, Thubten Yeshe, for many months.  I spent every Friday afternoon and evening with him, then journeyed back to my  mud hut in Swayambu,  to live what passes for normal life in rural Nepal.  One time I came to him perplexed.  Someone had loaned me the Tibetan Book of the Dead, by Evans-Wentz, and I'd been trying to read it all week.  How do you "try to read" a book when it's written in your native language?  I knew all the words, yet somehow it made no sense.  The words just didn't come together cohesively.  I couldn't grasp it, sense it, or feel it.

Evens-Wentz was reputed to be one of the finest translators of Tibetan into English.  Other students  reported they valued reading this book.  Clearly there was something wrong with me.

I briefly explained the problem and asked Yeshe what was wrong with me.  "Who wrote  this book"?, inquired Yeshe. "Evans-Wentz . He  is a great scholar."  "What means scholar?" persisted Yeshe.   "He studies languages.  He can translate perfectly from Tibetan into English."

"You mean he reads  book in Tibetan, then he writes book in English?"  "Exactly, he is world famous”.   "What he writes about, he has experienced himself, or he writes only what he reads?"  "I don't know" I replied.  "Aha, that is exactly precisely your problem.  Never ever pay attention to man or book which has not directly experienced what he writes about.  Such a book is good for make fire.  Nothing more." 

This book you are now reading comes from my experience.  I sincerely hope you will find it more useful than merely for starting fires.

TWO LEVELS OF DISCOVERY

Observing the people who have taken my tours, I have discerned two distinct levels of discovery.  One I call healing, the other awakening. For those at the healing  level it is not at all unusual to break out in tears at these sites. The energies present may awaken latent memories of childhood or  past lives, or there may be no clear pictures or memories, simply  very strong emotions.             

If this occurs to you or a companion, be supportive and let the emotions flow.  It is cleansing and is always healing.  Don't medicate unless the situation is life threatening.  Even tobacco[nicotine] can suppress these cleansing emotions.  Emotions are the most powerful cleanser we have. Simply find  a safe place in which you can let them flow.  No matter how powerful they first appear, like the weather, they will pass and the emotional sun will once again shine.   And you will be that much further along in your healing.

I call the 2nd  level- awakening. The energies of these sites may bring voices, visions, concepts, and it is to this level that this guidebook is primarily directed.  I have had tour participants  experience quite remarkable visions or voices which  guided them and counseled them on their  very personal path. Each participant who had such a visitation rejoiced and claimed the experience  was life altering. Such is the potential power of the Andean Places of Power featured in this guidebook. All I, or any guide can do is offer a few suggestions,  point the way,  and encourage. From that departure point  you are on your own personal journey.. 

About  encouragement:  Break down the word and you get "en courage ment" and the core is  courage.  Courage can be lighthearted, almost frivolous.  But the key is to take a chance in your belief system.  Have the courage to believe;  to have faith that the universe is good, kind, compassionate and loving, and there is a place, a niche in it for you. Your job is to find your niche. I pray that this journey to  the power places of Peru will help you in your search.  Bien  viage. Bon voyage. Gute Reiser.

Travel well, Travel Far. Go for  it. 

INTUITIVE OR SHAMANIC  ARCHEOLOGY

Caution: There are different truths on different levels.  Not all  guides to Peru will agree with what I am writing, and your own inner knowing may give you a different version to what I have experienced. While some of my experiences remain constant each time I visit a site, at some sites  my experiences change and broaden each time  I visit.  Shamanic Archaeology is not fixed in stone.  So I urge you to use this guide book on one level as a template to try  on and gauge by your own experience, but more so as an invitation to go within and seek your own answers.  Most importantly, I invite you to use this as a permission giver to your higher self to  speak to you and lead you to your next step on the great and  wondrous discovering of your very own personal cosmology---your  personal pathway to the shaman and god/goddess within. Do not become so enamored by the path that you forget the  goal.  The goal is higher consciousness and a more intimate relationship with the divinity.     

In Machu Picchu and the other sites in the Andes, as elsewhere on our planet, there are different guides teaching on different  levels. 

For example, when you visit Machu Picchu, if you are satisfied with the conventional guides explanation  that "The Condor" was "where the Inca kept their prisoners", and that the two  carved "dish" stones were used “to grind corn and pigments", then I  suspect you will soon discard this book as just too far out and  fanciful for you, and that is fine.  The Inca and their times will conform to your limited concept of reality, and you will still enjoy Machu Picchu's beauty and its astounding feats of architecture, and half  a day there will satisfy you. " Been there, done that", and now you can cross it off your list.

But for those of you who sense there is more to the story, and  more to the mystery and magic of the Inca and pre Inca relationship  to the energies of nature, this guide book will lead you on,  encourage you to take your own path and hopefully open you to discoveries your heart has always longed for, yet your rational  mind prevented you from attaining. So read on, surrendering your  rational, western,  prove it to me twice or 3 times  scientific mind, and take the adventure of “try it and see”. 

WHEN SHALL I PUBLISH?

I'm faced with a perplexing question of at what point do I think I "know enough" to stop taking notes and actually publish this guide book?  Its a rather presumptuous question, for each time I revisit an old site I may experience more, and each new site I visit presents an opportunity to add something, either positive or negative, to this guidebook.  I say negative, because some sites seem to me to have no energy, and not really worthy of visiting.  It  is entirely possible that you will have a different experience, but for me, these sites are energy-less and they  leave me cold . I have either mentioned them not at all, or briefly and disparagingly.

I have not mentioned some sites you may have heard of because I have not visited them yet.  Others are not mentioned  because I did, and I sensed that there is no energy there.  There is no way I could report on every site in the Andes and do justice to them.  Some sites I have mentioned are not power spots but are unique for other merits. The hanging gardens of Tipon may be the best example of this category, and the famous lines in the Nazca Plain another.

So the question remains:  When shall I  publish what I know must, by its very nature, always be an incomplete guidebook?

One answer is: " when I feel I have enough to give you a two weeks. tour".

The other answer is:  "now."