Communing at Tinajani, Peru

This is me with Cezarico and Leisa at Tinajani in Peru.  The canyon is made up of fascinating anthropomorphic stone figures with narrow ravines and small streams running through it.  Tinajani is one of our stops on the beautiful drive to Puno from Cusco in Program 2 of our month long trip to Peru.

Cezarico is reportedly over 100 years old and lives with his dogs in a small house at the end of the road deep in the valley.  He is quite a jolly character and walked out to meet us.  He was very grateful to receive the bread and huge avocados we brought for him.

Roberto informed us that he rarely greets visitors but he said we had good energy.  So good in fact, that he asked Leisa to marry him once establishing that she was single!  Rumour has it he already has about six wives.  He invited us back for tea, and to spend the night with him (we're not sure if he was kidding) but as fate would have it, we had to continue our travels to Lake Titicaca bordering Puno that evening.  It was a challenge translating this conversation throughout all of the laughter.

Roberto's teacher Victor said when he was a child he would be playing there and told Cezarico many years later that he was often approached by many different 'big men who said they lived there'.  He asked Cezarico who they were and he informed Victor that they had been spirits; that no one had lived there except him for most of his lifetime.  

The giant stone figures, are mountain spirits incarnate.  We could feel the living energy practically breathing down our necks in this sacred place.  Behind the giant monolith behind us off to the left you can see two stone shapes resembling a mother standing behind her child.  Everywhere you look in Tinajani the faces and shapes leap from the stone and draw you into the ancient energy.  There are also a lot of land spirits in this magical space.

These amazing formations cover about 250 hectares.  A few more families have since moved into the valley but nowhere near Cezarico's little plot.  This particular evening the icy wind whipped through the Stone Gods and beckoned us to return.  We would like to have a fire ceremony here next time and invite all the spirits to join us so we can connect with our Peruvian ancestors and ask them to help us  let go of all the historical baggage that binds us to the past.  We want to honour the past, cleanse the energy that keeps us stuck there and release ourselves into the present so we can flow with grace and ease into our highest and best future. 

Of course we also want to see Cezarico again and perhaps bring him something a little stronger to help keep him warm at night!  

Spinning Into Forgiveness

Raqchi an Incan archaeological site in the Cusco region, also known as the Temple of Wiracocha, is just one of the sacred sites we bring people to during our Spiritual Trips to Peru.  Connecting to the Pachamama (Mother Earth) is an essential part of the Peruvian experience.  Shamanism is part of the rich culture of Peru and we like to honour that by engaging in shamanic ceremonies with authentic Peruvian experienced shamans.

Here I am in one of the 365 colqa's spinning around and around while looking at the top edge of the wall.  In my heart and mind I am asking for forgiveness, for everything I have ever wanted redemption.  Before exploring this part of Raqchi, we went into the walls of another section and chose either the masculine or feminine side depending on which part of ourselves we felt we needed to find more balance.

As I sat in the masculine side, meditating, feeling the energies of the earth pulsing up through me, I was filled with a stream of thought that answered so many un-asked questions from my life.  This happens often in Peru, sometimes we don't even know what we are searching for, yet the answers magically surface.  My business partner Leisa also chose the masculine side, sitting separately having her own train of thought.  Our guiding shaman and colleague Roberto reminded us later that each side were both masculine and feminine as there is no divide, we are all both.  Perception of energy is a relative experience.

Feedback is an essential part of soul-searching and our groups become very bonded with each other as everyone is experiencing life-changing events together.  Leisa and I stood in the "masculine" enclosure comparing notes.  Talking about our realisations with others helps us own them and spurs off even more "aha" moments when we hear others' thoughts and viewpoints in relation to our own.

Once we have connected with the earth and know what our personal theme for the day is about, we venture into the colqa's to spin around throwing off all that we want to let go of and inviting in forgiveness and fresh new light and vision.  We spin as fast as possible (which feels much faster than how it looks on video!) until we simply cannot spin anymore and place our let foot out to balance us while a few people stand close by for steadying purposes.  Meditation in motion!  Afterwards, the feeling is incredible, one of lightness and exhilaration.  I can't wait to go back.

There are 365 colqa's one for each day so the ancients could let go or pray about a different vision every day.  This happens during Program 2 on our stunningly beautiful drive from Cusco to Puno.

Program 1 is May 6th - 19th includes the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Vilcabamba

 

Program 2 is May 20th - 29th includes Cusco, sights to Puno and Lake Titicaca Floating Islands, Copacabana, Bolivia Lake Titicaca Sun and Moon Islands and La Paz, Bolivia 

Program 3 is May 30th - June 5th which is the Amazon Jungle

Dreams Speak

In the early hours of the morning when Japan was under nature’s siege I had a disturbing dream. I was in the kitchen of my childhood home with two people who I didn’t know. Something, a huge force picked me up and slammed me up against the wall. Then I went flying across the room and hit the opposite wall and from there, the ceiling until finally I fell onto the floor. I saw the other two people just watching, helpless. I forced myself awake wondering what on earth that was about. I had to get up and get some water and clear my head. That was about 4-something in the morning.



I managed to get back to sleep and then I dreamed that I had slept through my alarm and sat up in bed and looked at my clock which said 9:11. I freaked out thinking I had just fifteen minutes to get up and ready before a friend was going to arrive. But then I realised I was sleeping, because something just didn’t feel right. Then my actual alarm rang at 8 am.


Later when I was awake the news of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan was everywhere. I was recounting both dreams to a friend and suddenly realised I had been tapping into the earth’s chaotic energies. Last year I had been in Hawaii, boogie boarding with basically no idea or skill as to when to catch a wave and was absolutely splattered onto the sandy floor. I watched myself with arms and legs askew and felt like it was worse than a bad car accident. I surfaced to find concerned surfers waiting for me. I wasn’t hurt, but I was certainly shaken and had a newfound respect for the enormous force of our mamacocha, mother ocean.


There have been other times in my life when I have tapped into disasters happening and I expressly prayed to God to shield me from this insight. I know a woman who receives all of it and she is understandably very stressed out. But these days with the shifts in the polarity of the earth, and the planets disco dancing above us it is difficult to avoid feeling the changing times right beneath our feet.


The important thing is to NOT respond with fear and worry as that will only pour more of that energy out there. We need to access our ability to send calmness, love, strength and healing to the earth and all of the people in it. For centuries humans have learned about love and unity through trauma. Let’s take preventative action and send out that kind of powerful love healing energy NOW. Our planet needs our energetic support.

Balancing Our Mind, Body + Spirit

After last week’s trip to London I feel completely revived on so many levels. In December I went waterskiing for the first time in 33 years. It was great fun, even when I wiped out. After the initial paralytic muscle soreness wore off I realised that my entire left side wasn’t quite right. I am an active, fit person so I didn’t worry too much about this, trusting that my body would re-adjust in time. By early February I was experiencing the first pangs of what felt like sciatica in my lower back and down my left leg. I exercised and hung on the inversion bar but this shooting pain just kept accelerating.

In London all my beautiful therapist friends looked after me. I surrendered to their nurturing and received intensive massage, lymphatic drainage and finally my brilliant cranio/sacral osteopath friend realigned my body. I could feel energy spurt from my toes to my head and back again. It was as though I had a champagne cork wedged somewhere in my left side holding back my natural flow. Ahh finally pain free!



After years of predominantly concentrating on my body, these days it gets pushed to the bottom of my list. I work on my mind, looking at my belief systems and cleaning up my thoughts on a regular basis. I meditate regularly and have been literally clearing in my house which immediately affects every other level.  As a result my spirit has been celebrating, feeling much more connected and in tune with everything and everyone around me. Any body work I ever receive is usually profound. Because I get regular exercise and eat healthily I forget that sometimes my body needs further attention.

We are all mind, body and spirit and it is essential that we engage in caring for all three aspects preventatively in a balanced way so we can be in full flow every day, feeling, thinking and BEING our best. Examine which part of your make-up you need to embrace a little more lovingly. Feel your mind, body and spirit all rejoice together and make you shine in your brightest, fully flowing light.

Full Moon Fire Ceremony

Fire ceremonies are truly enlightening on so many levels from the literal to the symbolic and energetic. My monthly full moon fire ceremony gathering is a lovely night filled with ritual, letting go and creating space for new energy to swirl in. People arrive from 7pm usually bearing gifts of some kind like sacred wine and as in the case last night sacred brownies and cookies. Everyone has a cup of tea and chooses a medicine woman card from a deck based on the tarot but with Native American images and interpretations. Many are astounded by the accuracy of the card picked in relation to whatever is going on in our lives. This gives everyone a focus and most of us share the information from the book so everyone feels a bit more connected.


Then we begin the fire ceremony. Everyone has a rattle that they have either brought or chosen from my bag of rattles. Everyone has a stick. First I open sacred space facing to the east, “The place of the rising sun and the eagle-condor, Apu Chin. Help us become visionary’s each new day rising high above the whole scene getting the bigger picture like the condor yet with clear focus on every detail. Help us soar and trust that out wings will carry us when we leap into the abyss of the unknown. Hi ya ya.”

We face the south, “Sachamama, Serpiente, help us let go of all the energies that do not serve us in one fell swoop the way you shed your skin. Help us birth again, renewed and teach us to walk softly upon the earth and live each day in beauty. Hi ya ya.”

We face the west, “The place of the setting sun. Otorongo, Mother sister jaguar, encircle us, protect us, help us mulch new energies and be rebirthed strong and powerful.”

We face the north, “Huaynakauri Royal Hummingbird, Ancient Ones, Ancestors come and whisper to us in the winds, pass your wisdom through us. Teach us to journey in stillness and drink from the sweet waters of life.”

We kneel to the earth, “Pachamama, pachamamasita, thank you, gracias madre for holding us so strong and steady in your sweet embrace, for taking all the energies we no longer need into your belly and transmuting it to light. Now let us heal you mother with our love. Hi ya ya.”

We stretch up to the heavens, “Inti tai tai, Mama Kia, Grandmother Moon Father Sun, Star Nations shine your beautiful golden love light down through us into the belly of the mother and back up again. Embrace us with your rainbow light connecting us to universes and galaxies and every living thing, creating unity the light that shines within us all. Hi Ya ya.”

Then we start chanting the Nitche Tai Tai chant which I first learned in The Four Winds. I have since chanted many other fire songs but Nitche Tai Tai is very simple for new comers to remember and it makes them feel included when they can immediately join in. Roughly it translates as “We honour you Mother of the Waters, thank you for nourishing our land.” Even though it is a fire ceremony we thank the water who provides the food for the trees we use for fuel. We are honouring the six directions and all the elements when we take the fire into our bellies and our hearts. I bless the fire that I built earlier while lighting it and once lit continue to bless the people who have come and the archetypes and mountain spirits by pouring oil on the fire.

Eventually I approach the fire and open my 2nd, heart and third eye chakras so I can take the fire in and then exhaling and pushing the energy out of each chakra, I release all the heavy blocked energy in each chakra. I blow into one end of a stick everything that I want to let go of personal to myself and in the other side I blow in what I want to attract and invite into my life. I place the stick in the fire. Then I circle my mesa over the fire cleansing it. After that everyone is invited to come to the fire. Someone holds space immediately behind the person praying at the fire so they have an extra private space in which to concentrate on what they are letting go into the fire.

Sometimes people have things written on paper that they put in the fire. I had a stack of financial papers wanting to change my relationship with money. After everyone has had a chance to go to the fire and release then we stop chanting and place the Pachamama stick in, one that everyone has blown their prayers for the earth into during the course of the ceremony. We invite in our ancestors to join us and then we chant again so everyone has a chance to return to the fire to place sticks in (last night we used pinecones), for our loved ones highest and best. I always put sticks in for my sons, family and various friends and clients. After everyone has finished we stop chanting and rattling and bring out the sacred wine. Some people might still be choosing cards if they didn’t have time before the fire.

The most magnificent thing about fire ceremonies is that they really DO shift things! I have met lovely people at these gatherings over the years. They are a great reliever of stress, something happens and the next day you feel lighter. You cannot explain it, but you know something has changed.

Full moons are a good time to create new energetic space for abundance to come in because it is the beginning cycle of another moon. We want to flow with the energies of the Mother Earth as easily as possible. Fire ceremonies help re-connect us to that Universal energetic flow while we honour the beautiful Pachamama.

Three Important Things

Someone on my travels once asked me, “I teach 7 year old children in school. What do you think the three most important things are that I could teach them?”


I said, “Forgive everyone everything, including yourself. Love every living thing, in other words, respect and accept their existence and right to Be as much as your own. And think only positive thoughts because your words and actions will follow.”

Depending on the tones of voice your parents used with you, will greatly affect the tapes you have playing in your head. If your mother continually yelled at you, chances are you will yell at your own children, and not really even be aware of it. If your father always spoke down to you, it’s likely you will do the same to your children. Or, you may go completely the other way if you are self aware and determined not to screw your kids up the way your parents did to you. But generally, at some level, we pass on the same modelling to our children because it is ingrained in us. If we learned how to shut our feelings up inside of us and not communicate, how can we expect our children to communicate with us? It is important to get to your kids in their formative years if at all possible, I am lucky, I got to mine about half way through, but I still see personality traits in them that they picked up from me when I was angry. If your children are already grown, it is better to sort your stuff out now anyway because the present moment for healing and apologising is better than never. If you don’t have children to pass all of this good stuff down to, then for your own sake, clear up your own internal struggles, forgive your parents and embrace happiness.

Love Yourself

The first step in loving yourself is deciding to change. We may want to change a variety of things in our lives, or ourselves but until we make the decision to change, it is not going to happen magically. By making a decision to DO something kick starts the energy and the vibration we are sending out into the universe. Your motivation may indeed have been made from a place of anger or desperation, but that first moment of committing to yourself to change is the moment you start loving yourself. You may feel like you hate things about yourself, your behaviour, your body, your circumstances, but the minute you energise your freedom of choice to DO something about it you have started on an upward spiral and it will grow and grow and you will feel continually better about yourself as you witness your own beautiful transformation.


Take your commitment to change very seriously, but do not take yourself very seriously.  We expect to have major life changing leaps and bounds to enlightenment once we make the decision to change when in fact it is much more like a series of baby steps. It may seem like we are taking two steps back for every step forward and this may discourage us. But we have to remember that we are human.

Humans learn through trauma, so every little thing in our lives can teach us. If you’re on a diet for example and one day you eat chocolate cake, SAVOUR the cake, attempt not to eat the whole thing and get back with the program right away. It does not ruin the whole diet. The same theory goes for soul searching or quitting any behavioural addiction. If we are light with ourselves and become our own cheerleading squad, then we will remain encouraged to continue. Laugh at yourself. I for one provide myself great entertainment on a daily basis. Soul searching and growing spiritually can be fun and really ought to be as it’s a beautiful, joyous thing we are striving towards.