Book Review - Masters of the Living Energy - The Mystical World of the Q'ero of Peru

Have you ever imagined being at the Inca ceremonial site of Machu Picchu? What initiation or revelation awaits the prayerful pilgrim up there, high in the Andes? I'm wondering and imagining it myself, and I'm preparing my prayers.As part of my preparation, I've been assembling books and other material to acquaint myself with the history, mythology, and spiritual practices of the Inca and their representatives today, the Q'ero people. The accumulated material is being posted on a special Web site, /peru. For any given book I encounter, it is not always easy to determine whether or not I'm reading authentic information or a New Age Hollywood interpretation of Inca mysticism. One book in particular has caught my attention, because the Q'ero spokespeople in the book discuss an evolutionary future that is so similar to what I've been able to put together from my meditations on the Edgar Cayce material. The book is Masters of the Living Energy: The Mystical World of the Q'ero of Pe
ru (Inner Traditions) by Joan Parisi Wilcox. The author has done her homework, carefully transcribing notes of interviews, discussing interpretations with other Q'ero, and humbly accepting the initiations offered to her, so that her own awareness could be groomed to be capable of experiencing the data her informants were describing. As a result, one of the eldest of the elders of the Q'ero told her, "You will bring the word of the Q'ero to the world." I think it is true.An interesting attribute of these people is that although they consider their teachings sacred, they don't consider them secret. They seem open to sharing with anyone, humbly, as with equals, mano a mano. In fact, Edgar Cayce would be impressed with their ideal concerning "energy," what they consider to be the supreme reality. Their ideal is to grow into harmony with the energy of life in such a way that you can share that harmony with others, bringing more of the world into harmony as the time of the great s
hift approaches. The Andean prophecy, handed down from the Inca, foresees a change of worlds, timed exactly in accordance with the Mayan calendar of December 24, 2012. They term this shift "The Age of Meeting of Ourselves Again." It sounds like a reunion of the separated selves coming together to realize their oneness in God.They see this emergent new world as an end of boundaries, when people will drop their identification with their physical bodies and will inhabit their energetic bodies more fully. Some of the details echo hints in the Cayce material about the nature of this shift, from an emphasis on the sensory, conscious mind, to more of an emphasis on the intuitive soul mind, known also as the imagination. Can you see with your heart? As you develop this ability, you prepare yourself for the coming shift, according to Andean teachings. You also help the world prepare, because, according to their teachings (and Cayce's, too), it doesn't matter what religion you hold to
- if you hold the intention of realizing harmony, of treating all living things as relatives, loving all as yourself, yourself, then you are helping the world prepare for its evolutionary destiny. Andean prophecy is a welcome mat to all who wish to enter the new world coming.And in the meantime? One of the spiritual practices that touched me was the practice of making "gratitude bundles." Research is fast on the trail of the importance of the emotional patterning that the attitude of gratitude creates in the body-mind, making possible the perception of realities unimaginable to the mind preoccupied with the stresses of the deterministic material world. Cultivating gratitude not only offers respect to what is, but also invites new possibilities and adventures. The Q'ero have formalized a process for planting gratitude so that it will grow the most corn.The process for making this bundle, or despacho, (a Spanish word, like our English dispatch, meaning here a package to be de
livered), is to obtain a white square piece of paper, then place half of a scallop-shaped shell (for the feminine quality) onto the paper, and a cross (for the masculine) into the shell, and then add objects representing the various gracias you wish to offer. The white square serves as wrapping paper, with the bundle tied up with colored thread.Details can be found at the Web site I mentioned, but the general idea is to construct this bundle while praying, and then to prayerfully bury it as an offering, a thanksgiving that will sprout further blessings for all. Burying has a powerful archetypal power, not as in hiding, but as in letting go, for planting the prayer in the earth is an act of faith in the creative forces, that the living energy of the great mystery will act through the earth to bring about transformation and blessing. As with all native peoples, the earth is sacred to the Q'ero, and they feel responsible toward it, a responsibility they are happy to share with
others. It is their gift to us.

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