Salka Wind Blog

Posts on the Andean Cosmovision

Tag: filaments (page 1 of 2)

Podcast Episode 6: River Meditation

This is one of my favorite meditations for it opens up our relationship with nature in a beautiful way.  For this meditation you need to go to a river, stream, or creek, one without industrial pollutants, flowing in its natural river bed. As for the time spent on this meditation, that is us to you. There is a lot to be said for meditating by the river for at least 15 minutes, but 40 minutes or even longer would not go amiss.

To download the episode click on “Download“, if an audio player appears and begins to play the episode, right click on it and then select “Save Audio”.

Donate

Share... Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Cuti…cuti…cuti!! Disconnecting from Other People’s Filaments

This is an Andean meditation that can only be done as a group.

There are times when either on purpose, or as the result of emotional and energetic interactions, other people’s filaments get connected to our own energetic body. The intent of this meditation is to disconnect any such connections from other people, leaving us free to blossom into the beauty and essence of who we each uniquely are. We are still connected to everything else through our filaments but the boundary of our own energy is clear. When our boundaries are clear we can dance in harmony with others in such a way that the whole of the relationship becomes greater than the sum of its parts (us). This concept harkens back to the posts Yin/Yang of the Andes, Warmi-Qhari (Woman-Man), and Tinku–Confirming the Rules of Life.

I have heard from friends who have trained with the Four Winds that this same process is taught there but with a different intent. In retrospect it doesn’t surprise me that the same process can have two different intents. The process is the vehicle and the intent is the trajectory. I’m struggling for a good metaphor here, but I’m afraid the one that has come to my mind is that the same tuba can be used to play many different melodies. Anyway, I am going to share the meditation as I learned it from don Américo Yábar and as I have I have practiced it for many years.

For a small group, one person stands in the center and the rest of the people form a circle around him or her, standing about 10 feet from the person in the center. For a larger group, three people stand close together in the center, facing outwards. One person in the surrounding circle is the leader, initiating the action and everyone else follows along. Here is what we do.

A) The people in the center simply use their intent (sincere pretending) to connect to the Pachamama through their feet and to the Cosmos through the top of their heads. They get all the benefit, everyone else gets all the fun.

B1) We all start moving together toward the person/people in the center. Our intent as we move is to scoop up the filaments of the Pachamama as we proceed. The posture that facilitates this intent is to have our hands to our sides, and our fingers pointing to the ground, with our palms facing the people in the center. It helps to bend forward a bit as we move to really get the sense of scooping up the filaments of the Pachamama.

As we move forward we chant “cuti cuti cuti…” (pronounced “cooty”), this flavors our intent. “Cuti” is a quechua term that means “change” or “a turning of the energy”. Thus our intent as we scoop up the filaments of the Pachamama is to activate or initiate change.

There is something inherently silly about chanting “cuti cuti cuti…” as you approach someone. This whole meditation/process is best done with a good deal of panache. Get into it. Enjoy it.

B2) As we get closer to the person in the middle we bend a little more so that we can pull the filaments of the Pachamama up through their feet, and then we straighten up as we pull the filaments up through their body, and then up through the top of their head. We don’t actually touch the person, our hands are a couple of inches from their body. While we are doing that we chant “ninikiriri ninikiriri ninikiriri…” (pronounced “neeneekeereeree”). The literal meaning of this ancient term has been lost in antiquity but the flavor it adds to our intent is to disconnect and bring along any filaments from the outside that are connected to the person’s body.

B3) Still all moving together, as we get to the top of the person’s head we then energetically toss the energy up into the Cosmos shouting “lloqse lloqse lloqse…” (pronounced “yoksay”). Lloqse essentially means “return to sender”. This is not a violent turning of the energy back on the other person, it is simply an act of “this energy is yours not mine, it belongs to you not me”.

After this, rather remarkable, procedure everyone scurries back to their original position and repeats the process two more times. At that point the people in the center join the circle and others take their place until everyone has had a chance to be in the center.

Describing each step in detail makes the whole thing seem more complicated than it is. Essentially, with a good sense of flair and panache:

  • Walk toward the person chanting “cuti cuti cuti…”, scooping up the filaments of the Pachamama.
  • Pull those filaments up the person’s Being from feet to head, chanting “nidikiridi nidikiridi nidikiridi…”
  • When you reach their head toss the energy up into the Cosmos shouting “lloqse lloqse lloqse…”

Repeat two more times.

The only real meaning of the salka meditations I have been sharing is the effect they have on you, and you are the only authority on who you are and how you want to be. Notice how you feel after the process is over, and decide if you want to add it to your repertoire of tools for navigating through the great mystery that is the Cosmos and our existence within it.

End note: as I write this I remember that Américo (when he taught us this process long ago) said that this meditation/process is from a different Andean tradition than most of the ones he teaches. My memory is that he said it is from the layqas (on the path of power) rather than from the paq’os (on the path of heart)…please see the post Paths to the Other Side of Reality.

Share... Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Las Estrellas (The Stars)

“When we are born we have a star connected to our wisdom (yachay), a star connected to our heart (munay), and a star connected to our physical body (llankay). Everyone has their own three stars.” Don Americo Yabar.

The meditation that I would like to share in this post is one that two or three people can do together. I like it quite a bit. It is a rather advanced meditation, in the sense that it builds upon the experiences that are available in other meditations, and it also involves a larger than usual number of steps.

I think you’ll get more out of this meditation if you have already had some experience in getting in touch with your three centers of Being. The Tuning the Three Centers of Being meditation is a good place to start. It might also be nice to have already had the experience of touching the stars connected to each of your centers, which is available through the Saiwachakuy (Upward) meditation. It is not like some part of your body is going to fall off if you do this meditation without those experiences, it is just that I think you will get more out of it if you have had those other experiences first. But then maybe that is just because that is the sequence in which I learned these things. We are all explorers.

As usual I recommend that you first prepare your energy by doing the Touching Pachamama meditation and then the Releasing Hucha meditation, these take just a few minutes.

I will describe this meditation as if two people are doing it, then I’ll describe how it can be adapted for three people. In this meditation the two people take different roles, one person has the more active role of going through the steps and serving as a conduit for the flow of energy, the other person simply receives the energy. When you are finished you switch roles and go through it again.  The meditation is done with you both standing.  In the description below I use the term waiki, which is an affectionate way to refer to a friend (it is an Anglicized form of a Quechua term that Americo uses to refer with fondness to people of both sexes).

Before you start notice how you feel, what your energy is like, how it feels to be you. This serves as the baseline for understanding the effect of the meditation.

If you are the recipient, then with your intent (sincere pretending) connect to Pachamama through your feet and to the Cosmos through the top of your head, and attend to your experience during the meditation.  That is all you need to do.

Now on to what the other person does:

  1. Place both of your hands on Pachamama and with your intent (sincere pretending) connect with her energy.
  2. Reach up with either hand and with intent connect to the star that is connected to your waiki’s llankay. Place your other hand on your waiki’s  llankay (a couple of inches below the navel). Let the energy flow from the star down through you and into the llankay. Hold that intent for a minute or so, feeling the flow of the energy.
  3. Connect with Pachamama again.
  4. Reach up with one hand and connect to the star that is connected to your waiki’s munay. Place your other hand on your waiki’s munay (heart). When working with a woman I usually ask her to place my hand on her munay so that she may place it where she feels comfortable being touched. Let the energy flow from the star down through you and into your waiki’s munay. Hold that intent for a minute or so.
  5. Connect with Pachamama again.
  6. Reach up with one hand and connect to the star that is connected to your waiki’s yachay. Place you other hand on your waiki’s yachay (very top of the forehead). Continue with the intent of being a conduit to this energy, and feel it flowing through you. Hold that intent for a minute or so.
  7. Connect with Pachamama again.
  8. Reach up with both hands and connect to the energy of all the stars. When you have collected that energy gently take your waiki’s hands in yours and blow that energy into both of your waiki’s palms.
  9. Connect with Pachamama again.
  10. Position yourself between your waiki and Tai Tai Inti (the great Being who is our sun) and face Tai Tai Inti. Connect with his energy through your hands. Kneel and blow that energy into Pachamama, as if into a small hole, into the uju pacha, honoring the star that is closest to us all.
  11. Both of you now take a moment to notice what your energy is like, what it is like to be you right now. The shift in your experience from before the meditation to how you are now is the sole meaning of this meditation.

Now switch roles and go through the process again.

If you are doing this as a trio simply have two people in the active role, working in unison, one works with the three energy centers on the front of the recipient’s body and the other on the back of the recipient’s body.

I pulled this meditation from memory one day while my waiki’s and I were meditating in the woods and I was trying to remember a process I hadn’t shared with them yet that we could do while standing up (to keep out of the mud). We valued the experience (blown away may be a better term) and revisited it a few times over the next couple of months. When I later went back through my notes from my workshops with don Americo I discovered that I hadn’t remembered it exactly like he taught it. He had the waiki who is receiving the energy lie on the ground on his or her back. When the other waiki gathered the energy from each star, rather than raising one hand and putting the other on an energy center, don Americo had us gather that star’s energy with both hands and then lean over and blow that energy into the waiki’s corresponding energy center. If you try one of these two ways of doing the meditation and value the experience, then you might want to explore the other way as well.

Share... Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Connecting with Pachamama

Almost all of the meditations I have shared involve connecting with the Pachamama.  In this post I would just like to share a simple thing that I have found to be useful, it again comes from don Americo Yabar.

There are some meditations, both in the Andean Cosmovision and in other traditions, that take our consciousness ‘way out there’.  Before embarking on such a journey spend a moment connecting to the Pachamama.  Using your intent ask the Pachamama to connect her filaments to your filaments as an anchor that will remain while you soar. This makes it easier to come all the way back when you have finished your journey.  Isn’t she loving?

Share... Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Connecting with a Tree

For this meditation I like to start off already pretty much in my left-side (lloqe) energy. I often, therefore, do this one after one or more of the other meditations.

Sit or stand with your back against a tree, connecting with as much of your spine as you can comfortably. With intent (sincere pretending), connect your energy to the Pachamama through the base of your spine (if sitting) or through your feet (if standing), then connect to the energy of the Cosmos through the crown of your head. Now, let your filaments commingle with the filaments of the tree. Connect with the consciousness of the tree and discover what arises.

Share... Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail
Older posts

© 2024 Salka Wind Blog

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑