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The Authentic Spiritual Path of the Andean Shaman: Kapak Ñan

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How does someone become a "shaman," a "yachak" in the Kichwa language of the indigenous people of the Andes? 

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Come spend a week at Pakarinka Ushay immersed in our traditional rural indigenous community in the Andes with a 7th-generation indigenous shaman who speaks English.


In addition to being trained by shamans in his own family, Tayta Willak lived for nine years in the home of Hatun Tayta Alberto Taxo, training to become a shaman until he was authorized to teach and conduct Andean ceremonies independently.

 

Today Tayta WIllak has nearly thirty years of experience that he is happy to share with anyone who has a sincere interest in learning the path of shamanic practitioners.


Tayta WIllak's experience includes performing thousands of ceremonies, sound healing, medicinal plants, plant medicine expertise, holistic health practices, spiritual energy shifting, and living in harmony with intimate connection to Pachamama (divine feminine life force).

 

Tayta Willak also is a leader in international organizations of indigenous shamans who together seek to heal and protect Allpamama (Mother Earth) and preserve the authenticity of their own ancestral cultures' shamanic traditions and knowledge in this time of commercialized neoshamanism.


This January, Tayta Willak will personally guide up to 14 retreat participants who feel called to follow a shamanic path. He will share and demonstrate his own Kichwa Otavalo people's spiritual path KAPAK ÑAN, as taught to him by Ecuador's master shaman Tayta Alberto. In our tranquil rural mountain setting, he will freely share with ancestral knowledge and practices that originated in pre-Incan times.


What kind of training, knowledge, lineage, ethics, and personal discipline are required for someone to become an authentic "shaman?" How long is the journey to becoming a shaman? Who is authorized to confer the title of "shaman" on someone? Can anyone be a shaman? Is it possible for someone to become a shaman through months of training and earning a certificate? How does a shaman work with natural spiritual energies? What roles do shamans play in addition to conducting sacred ceremonies and serving plant medicine in alignment with the Andean cosmovision and centuries of indigenous tradition?

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Sunday, January 19, 10:00 am - Saturday, January 25, 4:00 pm - one full week

 

$1200 per person (includes food and lodging)

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Willak with condor feathers in ceremony.jpg
Willak at WAntun Rumi.jpg
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