Salkantay — the Wild Feminine!

Woke this morning feeling awful … sore throat and up during the night vomiting. Could have been the ceviche last night didn’t agree with me. Or, perhaps Salkantay is already helping me to shed my “shit” — literally and figuratively!

Fearful of eating breakfast, I had two cups of matte de coca in hope that it would settle my stomach for today’s journey to the holy mountain whose medicine is to “teach” us to ride the wild, chaotic feminine aspect of energy (life).

Along the drive, we stopped to take photographs of this powerhouse mountain of feminine energy. She is certainly breathtakingly beautiful!

We also stopped in a village along the way to view the original Señor de los Temblores (Lord of Earthquakes).

The road up to Salkantay is narrow and dirt. A dust cloud follows us. It is also a rather busy road as lots of trekkers are heading to Machu Picchu via Salkantay since limits have been set on the number of people that are allowed to do the more popular Inka Trail from Urubamba.

After what seemed to be a long time, Walter, our bus driver, was unable to go any further with our bus. A too narrow curve and too steep of an incline were the culprits. Being Peru, there are no worries, as Willy, another of the Rainbow Jaguar drivers picked us up in a van while we watched another large bus, several vans and jeeps navigate the curve and steep incline.​

We also watched with breath held as Walter miraculously turned the bus around with sometimes only three wheels on the ground, and parked it further down the mountain and safely out of the way of other vehicles. Later on, Walter arrived at our campsite having hiked the several miles.

Our campsite is set up in a large field with views of Salkantay and Umantay. When lunch is served, I stick to a bit of bread with nothing on it. Then, go off with Eva to organize our tent. Funnily, this large field in which we are camping is a major thoroughfare with pack trains of hikers and supplies continually going by.

Later in the afternoon we rendezvous near the creek to learn more about salka energy and hold a despacho ceremony. There we learn that Salkantay refers to the oldest state of pre-creation that is willing to come into form. The energy quality of this premiere sacred feminine mountain is “salka.” 

Salka energy propels one beyond ecstasy and into the “NOW.” The medicine teaching of Umantay is the power of knowledge and wisdom. Uman means “wisdom and knowledge that comes from the divination of light (intellect)”. Tay means “power of.”

Don Martin

• Shares that he, too, is here as a student since he doesn’t hold cekes (luminous threads) to this sacred mountain, as well as to pay homage.
  
• Tells us that each apu becomes a portal to invite other spirits or apus to come forth.
  
• “Everything has antiniyoq — personal power — especially old sacred sites that allow us to access it.
  
• You must do your personal work. We come here to clear, cleanse and release.
  
• The mountains bless us. If there are new realities we would like to map, this is the place to do it.”

Adolpho

• “Here we are all paqos, apprentices before this mountain.”
• Umantay holds the medicine of wisdom; information. It is the brother of Salkantay — a wild mountain that embodies tukumunayniyoq (the all encompassing power of unconditional love). “You need to master this energy.”
• Wamanay is the third mountain. These two work like brothers and are mentioned in every prayer. These are the biggest mountains in this region, and they provide service and order. Once this mountain was wild, too. 
• When Salkantay opens her arms, the mountain is clear like today. She also can enshroud herself with clouds. Then she comes to the mesa in a white poncho.
• Long ago, this place was the place of high mountain rites. Giving rites at Salkantay is difficult — as no one can fully embody her wildness. My mentors told me this was a place to do pilgrimage, like Collya R’iti. This mountain is so popular. It is one of the most powerful apus. 
• Only accomplished shamans are able to invite the mountains into their mesa. If you have faith, maybe the mountain will come to your mesa.
• Salkantay is the king of k’intus (agricultural); the protector of coca leaves; and is in charge of the germination process of seeds. Conversely, Ausangate is the king of herds (animal husbandry). These two premiere sacred feminine and masculine mountains, respectively, work in conjunction with each other to form the north/south axis of the Tiwantinesuyu cosmology.
• Everything revolves around the mastery of k’intus — it is tremendously essential. A k’intu directs the quality of a ceke — thus an outcome. It is so powerful you can heal someone with this skill. 
• So, we must be careful with the k’intus we do together in this despacho. Be conscious and present with your prayers.
• Salkantay reveals herself during dreamtime. You may be shown a location in dreamtime. Or, a kuya may show up in an interesting place. Once upon ago, this was the benefactor mountain of great altomesayoqs; not anymore.
• This mountain looks beautiful from the outside. Inside lives the accumulation of yachay (knowledge/wisdom). Here, we receive kausay, which will come from either the Kaypacha (hands or solar plexus) or Uhupacha. If the latter, take off your shoes because the root chakra will become very sensual.
• When a paqo comes to Salkantay, they do so to take back their essence — pre-manifested illya (energy before form; pure potentiality); enka (life-force).​
• Everything I speak comes from my heart. So we are going to work now to cleanse our heart.

Juan

• Greeting to all of you and Salkantay. We come to this mountain. We bring love from the mountain to our homes. In this love there is knowledge.
• We call upon this mountain when we want to reinvigorate our yachay (third eye: vision: dreams) or when love in the home is missingn. Salkantay is a great healer.
• We have followed the threads (cekes) to this mountain. Ausangate, Salkantay and Huayna Kauri are big mountains. These apus are in constant communication.
• The Santa Tierras are not separate from the apus, so through the means of Pachamama we, pampamesayoqs, can request help from the mountains.
• Only your best prayers are welcome, little doves of my heart.

Francesco

• Apu Salkantay has tremendous munayniyoq (unconditional love). Be absolutely present. Bring your love and prayers.
• This mountain has a counterpart in Ausangate. Please don’t forget to bring Ausangate into your prayers.
  
• Pachamama is the Creator of all Worlds, and provides us with nurturing.
  
• And, there are other domains of salka.

Jose Luis

• Enka is energy of the highest refinement and brings forth the essential. Enka is the domain in which the paqo dwells so they can create — a constant state of inspiration. Enka allows shamans to shape-shift the moment.
• Salka is about reclaiming kausay; resetting; rewiring in order to come into fullness. This requires that we disconnect and heal everything that takes our kausay.
• To understand salka is to understand passion; to have passion with no attachment; actively participating in Creation at a different level of engagement.
  
• Conversely, when you create out of already existing conditions, you put blinders on.
• Salka is not conditioned by time. It is everything that lives in nature outside of form.
• Payan is a body of knowledge that needs to be learned; it is the “right” side of our mesa; masculine energy.
• Llokey brings forth illya (formless energy; pure potentiality) so you can create magic; it is the “left” side of mesa; feminine energy. Illya allows one to navigate salka.
  
• Altomesayoqs knows the Universe is fluid and have mastered the left side of the mesa so they can summon illya and enka.
• Salka allows one to go beyond yachay — outside of space, time and our thinking mind — to the non-existent (unmanifested) present. This is important for Pampamesayoqs because they work within the domain of form.
• Accessing salka energy is predicated on our ability to un-harness and expand our heart. It is also the domain of dreams and our highest destiny, and allows us to become active participants in Creation.
• Don Eduardo Calderone says that salka is where you want to live — the place of infinity that can be brought back into the stream of time. When you can bring salka into the present, you can shape-shift into a tree or a prayer.
• To understand salka means you must be dis-membered from all identities. This is imperative to be brought into the Great Mystery. “Empty the receptacle, the container in which you live, so you can contain the “without” within. Dismember from all of your conditions.”
• What are your affinities? Look at the saiwas ... ​

• cheka — what are the truths you hold);
  
• kausay — how does life-force dwell in your sickness;
  
•  kollary  — are there momentums that you are not available to pursue;
  
• munay — how does love live within you; do you hold relationships that bind you — let all of them die so they can be created with more consciousness)
  
• nuña — what holds you conditionally;
  
•  yüya — what are the conditions that define you;
  
• chullya — can you afford to loose your identity in time and space. 

• Bring these saiwas into your k’intus. 
• Don’t dismember conditions by creating other conditions.
• Create k’intus with five coca leaves — five refers to five-pointed stars.
• We will burn the despacho tonight and perhaps salka will come as a large, black feline.
• Write a job description for each of your kuyas (stones). Understand each and every one of them — even those that have not shown up yet. This will given you a full understanding of the coordinates that are held in your mesa.
  
• Re-enact ceremonies and themes.
  
• Regain your kausay as an active dialogue of life.
  
• Your mesa needs to have life. Develop an articulation of power. Make your mesa part of that articulation — it is a living aspect of our cosmology and carries the imprint of power.
• Power talks to you.
• Create a sandpainting — what are the conditions that define you? These are what needs to be dis-membered.

Tonight, after dinner, we hiked to a small, one-room stone hut with a dirt floor. Herem Adolpho called in the apus. It was something out of National Geographic!

One apu whipped Walter because he had not prepared the room perfectly. Then, the apu whipped Adrille because he hasn't stepped up spiritually to become an altomesayoq. I had heard this could happen, but it was a very weird and unsettling experience. The ceremony, however, was powerful — to be so remote in the high Andes and experience apus bursting through stone walls and Santa Tierras rising out of hard-packed dirt floor was beyond supernatural.

We were told to hike back to our campsite in silence — no worries as we were all speechless. With only the light of the moon and stars to guide our jaguar eyes, again I thought of National Geographic articles I had read as a child and now was living such an adventure of discovery. 

In dreamtime I came to understood that our relationship with apus is commensurate with our cosmo-vision. The apus are an expression of energy, which by its very nature is benign. It is only our affinities with duality that we create “stories” about good energy and bad energy or good spirits and bad spirits. In Truth, duality is an incomplete understanding of Creation — All is One; energy. Everything we perceive is an expression of energy based upon our interpretation of the affinities we hold.​