Awakening the Luminous Body: A Journey into the Munay Ki Initiations with Q'ero Elders in Peru's Sacred Valley and Apu Ausangate.

As the mist clings to the jagged peaks of the Andes, and the Urubamba River whispers secrets through the terraced fields of the Sacred Valley, I found myself drawn inexorably to a calling older than the stones of Machu Picchu.

The little town of Pisac, with it’s ancient Incan ruins, vibrant textiles and vibrant celestial energy, was my home for three years, and a doorway into the mystical world of the Q’ero people. It was here that I stepped into the Munay Ki Initiations—a profound series of nine rites passed down by the Q'ero Nation, descendants of the Inca and guardians of an unbroken spiritual lineage. It was an invitation to shed the illusions of separation, to weave ancient energies into my very being, and to emerge as an Earthkeeper in a world teetering on the edge of renewal. This reflection explores the timeless wisdom of Andean shamanism, the transformative power of the Munay Ki and the spiritual tapestry of the Q'ero tradition.

The Eternal Flame: Unearthing the History of Munay Ki and the Q'ero Legacy

The Q'ero people are perched in the high Andes at altitudes where the air thins and the veil between worlds grows gossamer. They are often called the "Last Incas" but their actual lineage is more ancient and mysterious still. Their story is one of quiet defiance: as Spanish conquistadors ravaged the continent in the 16th century, a handful of visionaries foresaw the invasion and retreated into remote mountain dwellings. There, in isolation above 14,000 feet, they preserved the paqos' arts of the shamanic healers who mediate between the human and non-human realms. For over 500 years, this lineage has safeguarded rituals dating back more than 3,000 years, predating the Incan Empire itself.

The Munay Ki rites, meaning "I love you" in Quechua, emerged from this wellspring as building blocks for a new humanity: rites to heal the luminous energy field, awaken intuition, and align us with the cosmos. Their modern transmission began in the late 20th century, fulfilling prophecies tied to the 2012 shift in the Inca and Mayan calendars heralding the dawn of a new cycle where wisdom once guarded in secrecy becomes a gift for all.

In 2004, the last living Kuraq Akullek (master healer), Don Manuel Q'espi, passed into spirit. Yet, in a moment of collective vision on the sacred mountain Salkantay, a group of initiates received the ninth rite directly from spirit. Two years later, in 2006, these transmissions were shared publicly, and now some selected elders continue this sacred handover, ensuring the rites ripple outward like light from a starseed.

What strikes me most about the Q'ero legacy is its relationality. Unlike Western individualism, their cosmovision sees all existence as beautifully interwoven: humans, mountains (Apus), rivers, and stars in constant dialogue. Central to this is ayni, or sacred reciprocity, a principle where every exchange, from a shared coca leaf to a whispered prayer, maintains cosmic balance. Illness, they teach, stems not from invaders like viruses alone, but from disharmony in the poq'po (energy body) or kawsay (life force). In our era of ecological unraveling and spiritual disconnection, this wisdom feels like a lifeline: a call to humility, to give back to Pachamama (Mother Earth) before we take, fostering ethics of care rather than extraction.

The Nine Gates: Weaving Light into Flesh

The Munay Ki are not intellectual exercises but energetic downloads, best felt in the body's quiet knowing. While Westerners tend to conceptualize a lot, these rites live in your bones. Performed at sacred sites like Ausangate mountain, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and the moonlit shores of Lake Titicaca, each rite builds upon the last, upgrading the luminous body like threads rewoven into a sacred mesa (altar bundle).

Here's a glimpse of the nine initiations:

Hampi Karpay (Healer Rites): Your hands become conduits of healing, empowered to mend the world's wounds.

Chumpi Karpay (Bands of Power): Five luminous bands encircle your energy field, shielding against negativity.

Ayni Karpay (Harmony Rites): An attunement to the Andean archetypes; the serpent of the underworld, puma of the middle world, and condor of the upper realms. Each are seeded into your chakras. This rite fosters inner equilibrium, rippling outward as harmony in relationships and community.

Kawak Karpay (Seer Rites): With this rite your intuition sharpens, unveiling the unseen. Visions may come as subtle whispers or vivid dreams, strengthening your perception of energetic flows.

Pampamesayok Karpay (Daykeeper Rites): Serves as a bridge to the feminine divine and Pachamama, connecting you to plants, animals, and the lowlands. It's a reclamation of nurturing power, often evoking deep emotional release.

Altomesayok Karpay (Wisdom Keeper Rites): Links you to the Apus and masculine essence, this rite accesses ancient knowledge stored in snowy peaks. Paqos use it to channel guidance from mountain spirits.

Kuraq Akullek Karpay (Earthkeeper Rites): You join the eternal lineage of planetary guardians, past and future. This rite instills a fierce commitment to peace and balance, transforming personal purpose into global stewardship.

Mosoq Karpay (Star Keeper Rites): Awakening your light body, it renders you more resilient to illness and attuned to solar energies.

Taitanchis Rantis (Creator Rites): The culmination: a thunderbolt of enlightenment.

These rites typically unfold over nine days, accompanied by despacho offerings of intricate bundles of flowers, coca, and sweets gifted to spirits in gratitude. These ceremonies carry the electric charge of direct lineage, far beyond virtual transmissions.

My own journey across the threshold: the Initiations

Although I had been in the Sacred Valley for a while already, engaged in other Shamanic work, and curious about and somewhat familiar with the Q’ero culture and cosmovision, it wasn’t until suddenly the calling awoke in me that I knew the initiations would take place. I had received vague telepathic connections with the Q’ero elders a few times in the months leading up to the initiation, and even delayed my flight out of Peru by a month expecting it would happen, even though the Q’ero are notoriously difficult for making any kind of definite plans, and anything with them is subject to change at any moment!

Then, spontaneously one morning, a shamanic friend of mine called to say his contact, the Q’ero elder I had connected with energetically, was coming later that very morning to offer all the transmissions in one go to a small group of us, all friends, who were all already quite far along our own spiritual journeys and had already undertaken extensive trainings and spiritual initiations in other modalities. I made my way down from my own cabin in the mountains to the venue, the home of a friend, who was hosting the imprompu ceremonial gathering. And there we sat reverently, as a despacho was expertly constructed to call upon the powerful spirits of earth and cosmos. One by one we received round after round of high-frequency initiations and each experienced our own sensations and processes around these powerful transmissions.

Ausangate and Wachuma Ceremony

The following day, a few of us were then called to the great sacred mountain or apu, Ausangate. This felt like ‘phase two’ of the initiation, and again, I had felt a strong calling from that mountain to come and be present there, for initiation directly by the Earth itself.

After several hours of driving through the winding Andean roads, watching the landscape turn increasingly lunar, we found ourselves at 4,900 metres, at the frosty foot of Apu Ausangate. Ausangate is a turquoise-glaciered guardian, considered by the Q’ero to be one of the most powerful mountain spirits on the planet. The next morning we woke up before dawn to mount our ponies and ascend to our ceremonial location — a pastel coloured lagoon at it’s base. Another despacho was made, and we undertook a series of cleansing rituals, including being washed by the sacred waters.

It was time to drink the ancient Andean medicine Wachuma (San Pedro). Prepared and blessed by the elders in the traditional way, this grandfather cactus has been an ally of the highland paqos for millennia. Unlike the sometimes fierce grandmother Ayahuasca of the jungle, San Pedro opens the heart wide and dissolves the boundaries between self and landscape.

As the medicine rose in my system, tears came pouring as though straight from my heart as lifetimes of separation melted into the vastness. We walked the sacred initiation path of that mountain as frost turned into gleaming sunlight, sunlight turned into pouring rain, and rain turned into gentle cloud. That evening, we lit a ceremonial fire under a canopy of southern stars and sat with tobacco, offering our intentions, prayers and gratitudes. With this, we came into an embodied knowing: I am not separate from this mountain, this sky, this lineage.

These two experiences — Ausangate’s towering presence and the tender opening of San Pedro— are not mandatory for receiving the Munay Ki (the rites themselves are complete without them), yet when they are offered in their proper context by authentic Q’ero elders, they act as accelerators. They catapult the transmissions from the subtle-energy field straight into cellular memory. I felt the days following the mountain ceremony as a kind of “second birth”: colors more vivid, my empathy deeper, and an unshakable sense of stewardship for the Earth.

The journey onwards

I’ve come to understand all my travels, whether visiting stone circles in Scotland, or lakes in Java, as all part of this sacred work of remembering connection with the Earth, and activating dormant energies through presence, intention, and love. As I continue to trace the q'ente (energy lines) etched by these rites, I see the Munay Ki not as an endpoint, but as an ignition. In the Q'ero's words, we are all Earthkeepers, tasked with radiating light and facilitating the transformation of consciousness here on Earth. If the Andes call you, answer that call. In the Sacred Valley, where condors soar and stars seed the night, you may just remember who you came here to be.