Over 500 years ago....

The Laika (the “long haired ones”) the medicine men and women took their high into the Andes to escape the tyranny of the conquering Conquistadores who had arrived in Peru. These were the Q’ero ... the last of the Incas – and for 500 years the elders have preserved a sacred prophecy of a great change, or pachakutti, in which the world would be turned the right side up, when harmony and order would be restored, and chaos and disorder ended.

- The LaikaHeld sacredly Farmer, shepherds weavers

They lived simply in almost total isolation from the world, as farmers, weavers, shepherds but preserved their medicine, passing it down through the generations.

They recognised that the world was changing as the high mountain lagoons dried up, the condor has become nearly extinct, and the discovery of this golden temple occurred in 1949 when an earthquake in Cuzco rent the earth asunder... exposing an ancient Incan temple of gold.

This fulfilled a sign that the prophecies of the Mosoq (the time to come) were now to be shared with the modern world.

This happened during the festival of the Collor Riti.

This is a celebration as the constellation of the Plaides returns to the night sky. All the fires are put out for 3 days, and the shaman gather on the mountain tops to wait for the starlight to shine on the snow. They cut this snow where the light falls and share it with the villagers and the people ... it is the bringing of the light.

About 70,000 pilgrims, healers and medicine people attend this festival and about 50 years ago, the Q’ero came down from their “hiding’ in the mountains ...wearing brightly coloured ponchos emblazoned with the royal emblem of the sun ...which identified them as descendents of the Inca. The crowds parted ...they knew something amazing was occurring and greeted the Q’ero with "We have been waiting for you for five hundred years."

Alberto Villoldo, a psychologist and medical anthropologist has lived among and trained with the Q’ero shamans and he has played a key role in bringing their ritual and prophesy and the Rites of the Munay Ki to the awareness of the modern world.

He has a medicine school ... The Four Winds which teaches the medicine wheel training all over the world. He has written many books ... “Shaman, Healer, Sage” was the first one I read... it spoke to me deeply and I have returned to it many times!

According to ancient prophecy this is the time of the great gathering which is called “THE MASTAY” ...which seeks to re-integrate the people of the Four Directions. They believe that MUNAY or love and compassion will be the guiding force of this great gathering of peoples.The Q’ero are releasing their teachings to the west, in preparation for the day when the Eagle of the North and the Condor of the South will fly together again.

The prophecy holds that north America will supply the physical strength or body, Europe will supply the mental aspect, or head; while the heart will be supplied by South America.

“The new caretakers of the Earth will come from the West, as those who have made the greatest impact on Mother Earth now have the moral responsibility to remake their relationship with her”... said Don Antonio Morales... a master Q’ero shaman, and Alberto’s mentor.

The prophecies speak of tumultuous changes happening in the earth, and in our psyche, re-defining our relationships and our spirituality.

The next pachakutti (Great turning) or great change, has already begun, and it promises the emergence of a new human after this period of turmoil.

The Prophecies are, in general, optimistic.

They refer to the end of time as we know it ... the death of a way of thinking and a way of being and the end of a way of relating to nature and to the earth. In the coming years, the Inca expect us to emerge into a golden age, a golden millennium of peace.

The paradigm of European civilisation will continue to collapse, and the way of the earth people will return. Even more importantly, the shamanic elders speak about a TEAR ON THE FABRIC OF TIME ITSELF This presents an opportunity for us to describe ourselves not as who we have been in the past... but as WHO WE ARE BECOMING... like a hand reaching through time from the future pulling us inexorably towards our future self.