Articles by Subject › Spirituality › The Shaman’s Telling: Kawsachiy Pisqo

The Shaman's Telling: Kawsachiy Pisqo

This is madness. I am going mad. I walk this path knowing I will be destroyed. Knowing that all I am will fall like grains of sand through my fingers. I walk painfully, aware that the one that seeks truth within me "matters not" in the face of the Sun, and as I walk my legs and feet hurt, my eyes sting from sweat, and the beating of my heart swells with the joy and sorrow of a journey into Silence. At every step, time and time again, I discover that I am merely a program, a series of images created by a mind, a system of thought that wants to be real, that wants to stay safe. After a certain point there is no denying this anymore, and there is no turning back. Sometimes I am afraid, sometimes I am determined, but always I stand here on the sacred stones of a grand temple looking up and climbing.

I heard once a long time ago of a magnificent bird, an Angel of light and beauty that lived on a mountain top near a cave. With its in breath it created life. With its out breath it destroyed it. This divine being was said to be the first union, the first offspring of Father Sky and Mother Earth; a union between the opposites and the essence of purity. It was a creature so vibrant and perfect in nature that it could only be witnessed by a group of individuals, by men and women of pure will that could merge as one, losing self and becoming whole.

This story originates from madness. It is a ruse. It is something for my illusory mind to hold on to and become distracted by in the midst of the climb. Nevertheless I continue to walk in the direction of this insanity. I walk with my brothers and sisters and together we climb, for a long time ago when we were children our minds were poisoned by madmen, by sacred fools that unravel meaning and destroy order.

The shaman's poison was just enough to leave behind a seed, a virus that grew within us and allowed a glimpse into the chains that confined us as adults. This was done so that we would have a chance to one day tear down the mind that enslaved us—tear down the beliefs, the ideals that veiled the reality in front of us.

When I was very little I had no maps. I had no chains. I was free. I saw everyone and everything around me as new, discovering beauty and life without an end in sight.

Can we be that again? I don't really know, but for my brothers, my sisters and I it is worth attempting, it is worth the climb.

My heart and gratitude to the Sacred Tellers of Old who sacrificed their comfort, their lives, so that we could one day wake up and see the world with real eyes. Thank you Koyote the Blind for honoring the ones that came before and for reminding me of what matters most.

 Star Water

The Tequihua Foundation