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A Summary of the Journey to
Macchu Picchu
Our
group of fifteen have just returned from this recent journey to Macchu
Picchu with Dr. Carlos Warter,
July 29 - August 6. 2000. It was so successful
that Dr. Warter has decided to do it again August, 2008. . Date TBA.
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A
Summary
of
Our Recent Trip |
We toured the magical Land of the Incas for 10 days and looked at the culture
from many perspectives. We were on a pilgrimage to the Lost City of the Incas,
but we went to many Incan ruins, some much higher than Macchu Picchu and some
much older. Some were as
high as 14,000 feet where we looked down into a vast valley and saw ruins of a
pre-Incan civilization and wondered about these pre-Incan people who
build their city in the shape of a partridge, and whose knowledge had been
assimilated by the Incans. We could very clearly see the shape of the bird,
which made sense in the context of the previously visited Incan ruins
where we had seen many sculptured rocks and reliefs on the faces of mountain
cliffs representing spiritual icons.
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We wanted to see Peru from the perspective of the ancient Incans and
these previous civilizations and from the view of the Kechuan
Indians, the direct descendants of the Incans, who are keepers of
ancient wisdom, handed down over generations by word of mouth since Incan
times. So Dr. Warter asked us to release the preconditioning that we had
learned from our history books and from archaelogists and to try to witness
the perspective of a culture that knew things that we did not. He wanted us to
receive and honor all that we could by connecting ourselves to the land the
way indigenous cultures had, through the sacredness of the earth. He
urged us to take a fresh view that was devoid of preconceptions and a linear,
historical perspective. He coached us on how to witness and absorb this
beautiful place, much as had described he had done in his book, "Recovery
of the Sacred: Lessons in Soul Awareness."
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Our guide, Mariecella, was Kechuan Indian and walked us
through areas of the Andes highlands where only the indigenous people lived.
She taught us all about their history from their view of the sacredness of
Pacchamamma, their spiritual connection to the mother earth deity and this
very acceptable present day connection to Catholicism which was introduced by
the Spanish centuries ago. She showed us how this process happened and
showed us the historical view of the indigenous people. Dr. Warter
contrasted this to the view of the Spanish conquistadors long ago. We were
learning about two different historical views with two very different cultures
which co-exist today harmoniously as one in present day Peru. Yet, we also
learned about the hidden indigenous values through the filter of present day
religious traditions that were integrated with Catholicism.
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The Andes Mountains were majestic. We learned how the high mountain villages
are sacred habitats for the people and all about their way of life. They are a
gentle, open hearted people that live very simple lives and organize
themselves very functionally and spiritually as a community, relying on each
other for support in cultivating and harvesting their mountain crops. They
have over 200 different kind of potatoes and rare grains that grow at high
altitudes. Their farms can often can be seen from afar as terraces on the
sides, close to the top of the highest Andean mountains. They are comfortable
living at high altitudes, and wandering amidst the Old Incan trails, and are
amazingly strong and healthy people as well as deeply connected to nature. |
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We had a lot of fun too. Among other recreational events, we took a rafting
trip down the Urunamba River also know as the Sacred River. In ancient
times, the Incans revered this river. We not only navigated the rapids the way
the Incans had done, but we saw the land from the water and looked onto banks
that were filled with cattle, llamas, and other livestock, houses, and ancient
Incan bridges and trails, all intermixed. |
| After the rafting trip, we visited a
colorful market at Pisac where we saw the everyday life of the people and
sampled the beautiful crafts such as pottery and weaving. Having previously
been to Chinchero, a very high altitude village that was known for its
gifted female weavers (unusual in that weavers are often men), where we
had had a demonstration, we could appreciate the quality of work that went
into the items in the market that were being sold so cheaply. The market was
also the central connecting place for many different populations and it seemed
that much had not changed over the centuries. |
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We witnessed a curandero healing ceremony from the ancient ruins, Palace of the Princess &
Temple of the Sun, above a sacred Incan spring
with ritual baths, where the waters were believed to
have healing properties. This medicine man for a village community, named
Pedro, walked one whole day form his village and then took a bus 150 miles
to show us this traditional healing ritual. In his community, he is
supported as the community healer where he is paid with gifts such as
food and beverage. But half of the year, Pedro is a farmer. Here the curandero
layed out a mat on which he placed sacred objects, many of which he had
recovered during his training as a medicine man which involved a
rigorous initiation, and which was passed down to him verbally from
his father and his father before that, as in ancient times. Pedro is famous in
the area of Cusco as a healer.
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Of the many amazing ruins of architectural feats, that we visited, Macchu
Picchu was spectacular and most beautiful. As with
the Sacsayhuaman Fortress/ Tambo Machay (Incan sites outside of
Cuzco) we
had visited a few days earlier, it was surrounded by
towering peaks and seemed like a navel in the middle of the earth. (The city
of Cusco means navel which was an important theme to the Incans as they
had a connection to mother earth.) Macchu
Picchu had been a sacred city for the ancient Incan civilization, around which
culture flourished. The glory they must have felt was easily apparent in this
magnificent city that was a temple in itself. There we visited the actual
Temple of the Sun and experienced intuitively the energy of the sun and how
the Incans might have viewed it and other properties that were created from
the position of the rocks and mountains. There were several temples and shrines in
Macchu Picchu that were the remnants of a fantastically civilized and
spiritually based culture and which Dr. Warter urged us to experience in the
same innocent way.
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| In the Lima and Cusco
museums, we saw the mummies and artifacts of this Incan
civilization, as well as the ones that were before them. We
saw amazing things that challenged the imagination, like the
manipulation of skulls into different shapes, the brain
surgery that this civilization knew about, the
mummification rituals, the beautiful gold and gemstone
jewelry, the statues that represented earlier culture, and
amazing sculptures of faces that suggested connections to
other world cultures of the time. Dr. Warter
challenged us to see this in a different way and to conceive
of a world that operated in a way that was very different
than our current civilization or even how we view the old
ones. |
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The museums helped us get a feeling of how to experience the ruins from
sensing the values of these amazing Incan culture so that when, for
example, we saw burial caves we could imagine the civilization that
buried their dead outside their cities in these communal graves. The
importance of laying to rest 4-5 people in a mummified sitting position
together in a cave, with caves so numerous that it mystified the imagination,
was deeply sensed. The mummies had been looted over the centuries because of
their unique skull formations and for the clothes and sacred burial
objects, much of which we viewed in the museums. |
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| It is said that there are many other undiscovered cities and burial sites. In
fact, on the other side of the river, on a cliff side directly across from the
Temple of the Sun at Macchu Picchu, another whole city ruins has been recently
discovered. |
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Given the geography of this beautiful place, which is the gateway
to the Amazon, it can be easily understood how there is so much more to be
discovered. But given the experience with Dr. Warter of the teaching of fresh
eyes and approach of a blank perspective, there is even more to be discovered
in the context of our own inner connection to these places and to these
ancient sacred lands. |
For more info:
cwartermd@doctorcarlos.com |
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