The Wikis and the Kapak Raymi Ceremony of Ecuador

I have been doing a lot of hard work spiritually lately, on myself and helping others. And Great Spirit seems to be rewarding me. Spirit knows how much I love ceremony and learning about indigenous cultures, so I was gifted the opportunity in Ecuador to attend a private event that included both of these things. It’s held just once a year on or near the Winter Solstice and I just so happened to be in the right place at the right time.

I had arrived in Saraguro the day before, on my weekend off from the zoo volunteer project. I came here because I had heard it was a small traditional town and I wanted to see what their culture was like. As soon as I arrived, I met a kind native man at a coffee house who let me use his wi-fi. He wanted so much to show me Ecuadorian hospitality that I thought he may be a community figure. He introduced himself as Roberto and was excited to tell me about the strange scarecrow looking character sitting in a chair out front whom he called Wiki. But because of the language barrier, I did not understand what he said about him.

Saraguro was a small town, a little bit built up with several shops and a few restaurants and hotels. Like most South American towns, many of its businesses and a large catholic church faced the town square, where people often met to socialize. 

 

After a good night’s rest in a cheap hostel, I thought I would go visit the nearby town of Las Lagunas the next day, to find where I heard there were native crafts. I thought perhaps Roberto could help me get there easily. I just had the feeling I needed to go meet him again, even though either of us really knew the other one’s language. I can always get along okay in these situations regardless. On my walk to the coffee shop, I saw a processional go by. There were people dressed as the three wise men and Mary, holding a baby Jesus doll, was leading it. A truck playing Christmas music from a loud speaker and about fifty people followed behind in traditional dress.

I was glad to see that Roberto was at the coffee shop and soon found out that he was even the owner. He was talking to a group of women at a large table when I entered but he came and greeted me kindly. I asked if he knew a driver that could take me to Las Lagunas and he communicated that he and the women were going there soon and I was welcome to go with them. Of course, I said yes and thank you so so much!

Within a few minutes he introduced me to his mother who began to carry out baskets filled with different traditional foods: potatoes, corn, bread, fresh cheese and a gourd to fill with the chicha from a plastic bottle. Chicha is a type of fermented alcohol that has been a traditional drink in South America for eons. He introduced me to one of the women and pointed to the Wiki out front. In broken English, she explained to me that where we were going we were not allowed to come without gifts for the community. I was being invited to attend a Wiki fiesta with them in Las Lagunas! I could not believe my luck!

Once the food was carefully wrapped in clean white table cloths, we all loaded into the tour van and headed for the Fiesta. The women had come from Cuenca specifically to go to the Kapak Raymi fiesta of the Wikis, which they had heard about for many years and were invited to by our friend Roberto who was also their tour guide. The Kapak Raymi ceremony happens at several different places but this one was held on private land with several esteemed local elders present. It was clear when we arrived that Roberto was a beloved figure in the community.

We were greeted by a native man who brought us to meet the elders who were seated in a row at the front of the festivities. They were dressed in beautiful traditional outfits, the women wearing the iconic white hats of the region. We each shook hands with them, offering them the foods we had brought as we went down the line. 

Then a couple of characters, dressed just like the one called the Wiki, came out and took the huge basket of corn and ran off laughing. One of the villagers chased after them to retrieve it- laughing the whole time. And that is how we met the legendary Wikis.

Wikis are similar to Heyoka, of the Lakota tradition, and are there to lighten things up. I have read that “Being a wiki is an honor because it represents the figure of a strong man, risky, cheerful and infected with good humor. Everyone pays attention to what he asks. He is the most respected character. They relate it to the goodness and evil of human beings, especially when he makes jokes”. They are the village clowns. Wikis speak in high voices and love to tease people. They are always trying to steal kisses from the women and they especially love to drink chicha. The chicha was being served to all of the guests from a bucket, using the same cup for everyone to drink from.

We were then shown to the only table there, and invited to sit down and eat some of the days' first feast. We were served delicious beef stew, corn and boiled yucca root, which we also shared from wooden bowls. When we were full, we left the table to watch the festivities more closely. Soon another group of guests arrived and were ushered to the table to be shown the same hospitality. There was cooking that would be going on all day, in preparation for the bigger feast later. A woman stood outside of the kitchen cooking a few large cow heads sitting in the grass, by pointing a blow torch at them.

 

 

While the elders sat, young children performed traditional dances for them, dressed in fanciful ceremonial attire. One of the elders played a drum and another a fiddle, performing one or two of the same songs over and over again. First, the girls danced and then the boys and then the children Wikis. The dances seemed like they were being performed just as they had for centuries. 

Occasionally you would see one of the elders nod off to sleep, still sitting upright. They had all been up since 2am when the ceremony began. I can only imagine what that part of the fiesta was like. The Wikis kept coming over to us to tease and drink more chichi from the bucket- keeping everyone laughing.

After the dancing was done, the children each came up to the elders with their parents. They were gifted special loaves of bread in the shape of people and the elders spoke to them in a very personable way. I can only imagine that they were thanking them for their honorable performances and offering some sage advice for the children’s future.

During this a few of the men at the center where the dances were, were now stripping a log of its bark. At the top of the log were four flags that looked like they would turn with the wind once the pole was lodged in its hole at the center of the circle. There was another stripped pole outside of the circle with various fruits and large bottles of soda hanging from it. At some point, the children would be challenged to climb the pole to retrieve the sweets for treats.

 

I wish I knew what it all meant, however, I did not understand the language (it was in Quechua, not Spanish) and I really did not have anyone that I could ask questions of. But it was all very beautiful and I felt so blessed just to witness it. It was an added bonus that they allowed us to take photos!

                    

After a couple of hours our group decided it was time to go. Since I was with them now, they invited me to continue on their journey. From there we drove deep into the mountains where we visited another kind indigenous woman at her home. She served us a warm traditional drink of corn porridge while we sat admiring the beautiful valley from her dining area.

This is an image of the Inca Cross that was on her land. Here is what Wikipedia says about it. “The chakana (or Incan Cross) is a stepped cross made up of an equal-armed cross indicating the cardinal points of the compass and a superimposed square. The square is suggested to represent the other two levels of existence. The three levels of existence are Hana Pacha (the upper world inhabited by the superior gods), Kay Pacha, (the world of our everyday existence) and Ukhu or Urin Pacha (the underworld inhabited by spirits of the dead, the ancestors, their overlords and various deities having close contact to the Earth plane). The hole through the center of the cross is the Axis by means of which the shaman transits the cosmic vault to the other levels. It is also said to represent Cusco, the center of the Incan empire, and the Southern Cross constellation.”

An hour later we were off again.

One of the Cuenca, women sat with me at the back of the bus talking to me some but mostly they were all speaking Spanish to each other, enjoying each other's company as old friends do. I just loved being a part of this and watching them laugh together. I never really knew where we were going next.

An hour or so later we were at our next stop, in Saraguro again and enjoying tea at one of the quaint restaurants on the square. The women had agreed to take me back to Cuenca on the bus with them whenever they were ready to go that evening. I was grateful because otherwise I would have had to take a public bus which would probably take twice as long, about five hours. And anyway, the women were all so kind, checking that I was comfortable and sharing chocolate and rum with me as we traveled around.

During tea one of the women jumps up saying, “They are coming! Vamos!” and so I followed them out for who knows what final adventure. It was getting dark and I knew we would be heading home soon.

And guess what we saw? It was the three wise men and Mary with the baby Jesus, coming up to the church. They were followed by several tall puppets and the same Wikis from our fiesta as well as some new characters dressed in large grass costumes and a bear-like figure. I had no idea what those characters were, or the puppets, as we did not see the end of the festivities on the land. The young female dancers were all there and sat sheepishly posing for pictures as one of the elders enveloped them in copal smoke. (Copal is a resin that is often used in ceremonies in South America for protection and purification.) It was such a fantastic ending with all of the main players performing one last time in front of the beautiful old church.

 

It made perfect sense really. The day began and ended with Mary, baby Jesus and the wise men at the church, to include Catholicism in the rites. In many cultures the people were forced to convert to Catholicism and lost their tradition completely but sometimes, as in this case, they would be permitted to continue their own traditions as long as Catholicism was included. They had found a remarkable way to keep practicing their age-old tradition even through colonization.

The characters danced around a bit and with that, all of the villagers entered the church to finish the ritual and end the eighteen-hour day of ceremony.

And I was so grateful, again, that the Universe conspired to treat me to this special experience. A beautiful Solstice gift indeed and one that I never want to forget!

I even bought myself this wonderful Wiki doll to remember it by.

An Unexpected Healing

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We all need healing- even if just from what we have already experienced in this life. But most don’t realize this nor do they understand that through healing ourselves we can also heal our ancestors, our families. 
If you realized that in this life alone your experiences of trauma and pain can also affect your family, you would probably want to do more to heal from those experiences right?
I have been familiar with these beliefs for many years and through ceremony I have done a lot to heal myself. Through ceremony, I have learned that I too am affected by events that happened to my family and ancestors, even those people I did not know existed. Of course, it’s nothing I can prove to you because this was my experience but I have seen great changes in myself from my spiritual healing. 
Recently I had a remarkable experience. I was in Guatemala hanging out with a dear friend and her friend Wendy in her hot tub. I had come to Guatemala with a mild case of bronchitis and still could not kick my cough. 
Wendy asked how long I had had the cough for and I told her a few weeks. She reminded me that sometimes we are sick because we are healing something for our ancestors. She said that the cough meant my throat chakra was probably blocked. We talked some more about our beliefs on the subject and then she asked if anything had happened with an aunt that I was close to recently? “No, I am not especially close with my aunts except one who is an aunt through marriage.”
I could sense that she was an intuitive and was suggesting something that I needed to pay attention to. I went into my head while she and my friend caught up on life. And then I said, “I do have an uncle that died this year that maybe you were perceiving as an aunt? It turns out that he was quite effeminate.”
I had the keen sense that this was exactly who she was thinking of because of what had happened around my Uncle’s death this year. 
Mike was in his 60’s when he passed last summer. He had been estranged from the family for many years, with very little contact with his siblings. He had been married to a woman who he loved dearly and had been by her side as she fought cancer but she had died the year before. He married her a couple of years before that, not even telling his mother or siblings until after their private wedding. I only met her once and it was the only time I had seen Mike in several years. I think that they were both very happy to be together. 
When Mike died, no one knew it. He had not spoken to his family in months. He had been out of work and had no one he was close to. So, his death was only discovered when his landlord realized he had been absent for a while. It had been two and a half weeks since he had collected the mail and that is how long it took for his body to be discovered. He looked as though he had been sleeping on the couch when he died. Unfortunately, his body was so decomposed that the coroner could not determine the cause of death. How sad that he was so estranged from the world that there was no one there to check in on him. Based on some medical records his brother found, we think he might have had a heart condition. I believe he died of a broken heart after his wife died, the only person in the world that he ever loved. 
A few weeks later I went to visit my dad and he pointed to a toolbox that he said was for me from Mike’s apartment. After his body was removed, my dad and his brother and sister went to clean out the apartment. What was discovered painted a picture of him that none of us expected and perhaps is why he was so distant from everyone. When I opened his toolbox, inside was nail polish, dozens of acrylic fingernails, eyelashes, mascara, lipsticks, blush, eye shadows, and makeup brushes- an entire make up kit. My dad said that he had found photographs of him dressed in drag over the years. This evidence and the many many wigs and leather outfits in his closet was enough proof that Mike had probably been a crossdresser. My stepmother had remembered a time in the ’70s when Mike had bought a pair of high heeled, thigh-high silver boots that he was very proud of. But this was all unexpected. 
        I sat in the warm hot tub telling my friends this story and how I thought that Mike had never felt like he could truly be himself. He had to keep this part of himself a secret from us his whole life. It felt like he had never been able to speak about this and that that was somehow linked to my cough and sore throat. As I voiced all of this I also said out loud to Mike that I was sorry he had never been able to talk about this part of himself. I told him that there is no shame in who he is and that I pray he can let go of any shame around it and be free to be fully himself in the next life. I felt myself releasing some of his shame into the warm water. I relaxed and let myself drain any residuals of his pain into the water, that might be left in me. 
        As I was speaking all of this out loud, I could feel my heart open. I could feel my chest releasing phlegm and my shoulders broadening, allowing me to breathe better. Within a few minutes, I felt my breathing become clear and the cough was gone. I knew that I had legitimately understood the message from the universe, through the intuitive, and was able to work through some pain on behalf of Uncle Mike. 
        The next day the cough was completely gone and I could breathe again without any issues returning. It was such a huge lesson in so many ways. I was reminded of just how much or own healing is connected to the healing of our ancestors. I was shown that it does not take a ceremony to be able to heal yourself if you can truly listen to your guidance from Spirit. And that even someone you just met can be an incredible conduit to help you hear your guidance from the universe. 
        And it made me want to learn more about the chakras and what they do for us spiritually. Such wonderful tools to explore, and I have only just begun to tap into this. 
        For my Uncle Mike, “Please know that you are loved no matter what. I hope you are at peace now and free to be truly yourself. I pray that in your next life you do not allow any fear to keep you from this. Thank you also, for helping teach me how to heal myself. Mitakuye Oyasin.”

A Little Bird Told Me

If I told you some of the things I experience in my life daily, you wouldn’t believe me. Some of you may even think I’m crazy. But due to what my elders have taught me, I am not really allowed to tell you much anyway. I want to share some and In the near future, I will share a little more through my writing. For now, just use your imagination. Lol.
Here is a short story anyway,
In my first ayahuasca ceremony, a number of birds came and sang songs to me at dawn. One voice, in particular, stood out but I had never heard it before or since. Until this trip to Guatemala where it follows me all over. It reminds me that I am on the right path, the path that the medicine told me I would be on in that first ceremony almost 15 years ago and that my guides have always whispered to me about my whole life. Thank you brown-backed solitaire. I honor you and all of the bird nation for your guidance.

How The Sacred Plant Teachers Have Changed My Life Forever

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(This story was written more than a decade ago, soon after my first Ayahuasca ceremony. At the time, very few Westerners knew of this plant teacher and I was among the first to bring the medicine and Ayahuasqueros (the shamans who navigate the spirit world through this plant teacher) to the US.

As I am reading this again for the first time in so many years, I sit crying tears of joy. I am reminded that the medicine predicted so many things in my future that are now happening. I remember what an incredible healing it was for me and how it gave me the jump start needed to truly begin my own work as a healer and wildlife advocate. Though I also know now that I have been doing this work my whole life already. And I can see that the universe was telling me that because of my unwillingness to pay attention to my moon cycle and body until then, that something major would happen. A few years later I was diagnosed with a large fibroid that only a hysterectomy would be able to remove.

At my last ayahuasca ceremony, the medicine told me that it would be my last ceremony. She said that I had learned all that I could from the medicine and she had done all of the healing that she could for me. And I believed her. I have not been to another Ayahuasca ceremony since.

I listened and yet still today I am learning from her teachings in those ceremonies. She has truly been a blessing and I will forever be grateful to the sacred plant medicine- Ayahuasca.)

I first read about Ayahuasca about fifteen years before ever coming into contact with it. I was so fascinated with its potential healing powers and the access to the spirit realm that it was claimed to give, that I decided then and there that one day I too would experience this sacred plant teacher.

Ayahuasca, a psychotropic plant from the Amazon, which has been used for eons by shamans, is called “medicine” because it is used for the healing of one’s soul. A shaman I met once said, ”Ayahuasca can restore us to the health that we want so that we can be free to fully live.” Ayahuasca is not addictive and even in Peru today it is being used in special clinics to help treat drug and alcohol addictions.

Little did I know, when I first learned of it, that this ancient medicine would change my life forever and lead me toward my soul’s true path. I did know, however, that it would be a very powerful experience and that I was not going to go looking for it but instead to let it come to me when my spirit was ready for it.

The opportunity finally came in the summer of 2006 when my best friend invited me out to San Francisco for a ceremony. Together we had read about Ayahuasca years before so I was excited to share my first experience with her. The shaman was a curandero from Colombia, South America.

For about two months before the ceremony, I took time to focus on what my intention for working with the medicine was. I knew that this was important to receive the full benefit of the medicine. I also knew that it was important to maintain focus during the ceremony and not allow the mind to wander into dark places easily. I understood that the medicine could teach you in many ways and at times it will force you to visit your deepest fears to work through them, or to have you relive past experiences to work through the trauma that had not been dealt with.

My intention was to better understand what my life purpose was and to have a closer connection with spirit and Mother Earth.

That first night of ceremony I had many beautiful visions and realizations. I visited the cosmos and other dimensions. I remember seeing the shaman dancing around the fire and I could not take my eyes off of him. His work mesmerized me and I could relate to him somehow. I felt like it was a thousand years ago and I was watching him work magic. I knew I had been a part of the same ritual in some life long ago.

When the night was done, somehow I knew that I had much more to learn and so I talked with him about doing ceremony the next night as well.  Luckily there was one space available. That second night was one of the most enlightening experiences of my life.

I met Mother Earth that night. I fell in love with the universe and I was blessed with so much love. Love like I had never experienced before or even knew existed.

It was almost dawn, hours after the others in our circle had finished journeying when suddenly the medicine became very powerful in me. It started when at one point I felt sort of stuck like I needed to get something out of me that was stunting my growth. I thought perhaps it was a demon or something very negative but I felt I could not do it alone. Then I was guided to ask for the medicine mans’ help. He came over to me and began to rub Agua de Florida on my forehead, over the third eye, and on the area above my heart. At first, there was a very hot burning sensation and I kept asking him to put the water on me to cool me down. The sweet flowery smell of it was very soothing and eventually, I felt an opening up inside of me. I began to cry deeply and to release what felt like years of pent up emotion through my tears and then with my laughter. Then I felt my third eye open up and a golden light, like of the sun, began pouring into me. Finally, my heart just blossomed, like a lotus flower, and I could feel generous amounts of love streaming into my being from the heavens. It was the most beautiful feeling I can ever remember having. I knew the healing was a blessing that occurred only because I was so open to it, and that my soul had wished for that connection with spirit for a very long time.

That night the Mother vine (Ayahuasca) spoke directly to me. She told me that my soul’s true path is the ability to heal and that soon I would use it to help humanity in its spiritual evolution. She said that the artwork that I do and my work with rehabilitating wild animals would be the catalyst for this in years to come. From there she also gave me many messages to give to my loved ones, including the shaman, things I could not have known about them otherwise. They all welcomed these messages and agreed that they were much-needed advice and encouragement. Whenever I have journeyed with this medicine in ceremony, I can hear the gentle voice of the Mother guiding me, encouraging me on how to continue on my souls' true path.

After several minutes I became more aware of the world around me, outside of my own experience and I realized that I had been so filled with emotion that everyone in the circle seemed to have their eyes on me.  The shaman decided that after such a release I could use some grounding and so he had me get into the cattle tank that had been filled with water for our afternoon swims. I was very reluctant, being so uncomfortable with the cold, but he reminded me of our talk earlier when I spoke with him about wanting to be free of my fear of the cold. I remember feeling everyone there sending their support to me as I finally lowered myself into the chilly water and began to relax into the feeling of being in the cold. Even the birds seemed to congratulate me by singing to me across the forest. And I sang back. I relaxed and said out loud, “It feels like embryonic fluid, like being in the womb…….only I don’t remember it being so cold in there.” And everyone laughed. Since then I have not feared the cold like I used to.

Once my cleansing was over Alberto told me that it was time for me to go get dressed, that the ceremony was over and everyone was waiting to eat. So I got out of the tub and sort of hobbled over to the yurt to put on dry clothes. I felt like a cavewoman then, crouched over as if I could not straighten my back. It was as though I had gone through a rebirth and was getting back into balance with my new being. I knew I had just been healed more than I had through years of therapy. I had so many epiphanies in that one experience that it is impossible to detail them all here now. But after that night I began to notice many subtle changes in myself: more self-confidence, better communication and the ability to express emotion more, among other things.

When I came out Alberto had me sit next to him and we all ate a wonderful meal after a long fast. Alberto and I became instant friends and I sat talking with him for a couple of hours, sharing my experience with him and the message that the Mother gave me for him. I will never forget the respect he had for me like I was one of his kind.

The next summer I had another enlightening experience in ceremony, when Alberto did a fire blessing for me. This was something he did rarely but as a gift for my organizing the ceremony, he agreed.

I was on my moon (menses) and each time he held the burning rosemary branch to me the fire would go out.  He said that this was because the moon energy is so strong that it literally can put out fire.   “See? This is proof that what we believe is not just superstition.” he said, “It may not work”.  But I wanted a fire blessing so badly. So I focused my will on making it happen. Then the fire on the branch grew strong and he went on with the healing.

He would fill his mouth with alcohol and then blow it onto the burning branch and across my body, from head to feet, all the way down my body and then up the back. People watching later told me that they could see the flame go through my body and shoot out the other side of me. It burned some but only like a minor sunburn and it was gone the next day.

When he was done he had me sit down by the fire as he finished blessing me with the Agua de Florida. At this point, I felt a huge release and I began to sob heavily. I was feeling the love of the Mother once again and I cried tears of joy. In those moments she told me that I had been ill for so long because I had not paid enough attention to my body, especially to my moon time. Throughout my life, I had been through many passing illnesses, from shingles at age fourteen to an impacted colon at age thirty-three.  She said that it was time to give my body the attention, exercise, and nourishment that it needed and that I should do a special ritual each month to honor my moon. I have been following her advice, making several major life changes and now I enjoy a much more balanced life. I feel in better health than ever before.

I continue to learn a lot about myself in ceremony. About two years ago I became acutely aware of the negative effect that drinking alcohol was having on my body and spirit and so when the medicine asked me to stop drinking it, I did.  I was only an occasional drinker but I have always tried to honor her requests because I know that this sacred medicine only wants to help me.

I will admit that this sort of experience can be quite frightening as well. Perhaps just knowing this is what makes it so. But in my experience, it does not always matter what your intention is because the medicine decides ultimately what your experience will be.

One reason why I believe that Ayahuasca is not addictive is because of the possibility of frightening experiences but also because of the purging each time. Typically there is relentless vomiting before you can have visions. Who would want to go through something like that very often? Unless you are an Ayahuasquero and are meant to be a healer through this medicine.

Last year I participated in a ceremony that was pretty scary.  The Ayahuasquero was a man named Ronnie from Peru, who spoke only Spanish. His ayahuasca was very strong. It was thick, not what I was used to and hard to swallow. The Ayahuasca I had drunk before was also terrible tasting but more like a liquid so it was easier to get down. Thank goodness just one tiny cup of the stuff is all that is necessary or I could never do it. Most people puke from it and I do almost every time. It is believed that while the medicine is inside of you it goes around searching for illness and pain to clean out of your system and then you purge it out. Some like to call it “getting well”. 

In this particular ceremony I felt the pain of a friend’s illness. When my journey began I started rocking back and forth uncontrollably and then my hands froze up and I was unable to open my fingers. I could think only of my friends’ rheumatoid arthritis. I began to sort of moan and I knew that this was going to be an intense long journey. So I asked one of the helpers to please bring the shaman over to help me, then I told her, “ You have to take me out of this room. I am disturbing everyone else’s journey.” Although I could not control or stop the pain I was feeling, I was very aware and I knew that I would become louder and more animated soon. Finally, Ronnie came over and began to sing icaros (Ayahuasca songs for healing and moving energy) over me, trying to soothe me. The medicine only became stronger and my pain more intense. So I announced to the helper that they needed to take me to another room this minute because this was not going to stop for a while. (Since then I have learned that it is unusual for someone to be as cognitive as I am with the medicine. Usually, there is no control of your situation at all.)

Finally, the helper put an arm around me and helped me into a small room in another part of the building. I stayed there for the night with my sleeping bag and a candle for light. Ronnie was there too at first and I kept getting up to hug him or caress his face, which he politely allowed me to do. He was very supportive and stood there with me for a long time letting me cry on his shoulder. But then he had to go attend to the others in ceremony and so I was left with the helper. I kept telling her that I could feel my friend’s pain and I could not understand why I had to go through this. I said to her, “I see rainbows over there but I just can’t get to them.” She told me that if I wanted to I could. And I thought, “But you are not me, so how can you know that?”.  I knew I could not because I tried desperately to escape the pain and to reach the rainbows. For some reason, the medicine was teaching me what it is like to feel pain like that and seemed to be showing me that it was possible to take on the pain of someone else. I have learned since then that this is something you do not want to do and there are ways to avoid this from happening. This has been one of the greatest lessons on my path as a healer myself.

For me, Ayahuasca is truly medicine for the soul, helping to restore one to health so that they can live fully. Not to mention how it has taught me to respect my food and my body, my only vessel to navigating this existence until death becomes me.