Peru & Andes
The word shaman does not quite fit. It comes from Siberia, from a different tradition. In the Andes we are called Paqo — an initiated healer who works with the energy field of the earth and of people. Whoever understands this also understands why a shamanic journey to Peru is something other than tourism.
It is not about seeing something. It is about encountering something. ## What a Paqo Does — and Does Not A Paqo in the Andean tradition does not work with plant medicine in the Western sense. The work goes differently. It goes through the energy field — through reading the signs, opening portals, communicating with the Apus (the mountain spirits), and the direct work on the energy layers of the person.
That sounds abstract. Whoever has been in this work knows: it is the opposite of abstract. In a ceremony at 4,500 meters, surrounded by glaciers, with an Apu that has stood there for thousands of years — something happens that would not have happened at home, in the therapy chair, in years. The energy of the place works with you.
The healer is not alone. ## How the Initiation Works I am not self-appointed. The work I do comes from my line — from the tradition of the Lupaca, one of the oldest Andean cultures. My grandparents taught me the first things. My spiritual teachers — Paqos who in turn learned from Paqos — deepened the knowledge.
That is called initiation: not a course, not a certificate. A transmission from person to person, line to line. On the journeys to Peru I work together with Ricardo and Huica Picchu. Both from the Q'ero region, both initiated in their own lines.
The knowledge they carry is not from books. It is what they live daily. ## What Happens on a Shamanic Journey We begin in Cusco at 3,000 meters. The first night is already different — the body responds to the altitude, to the different frequency of the air, to the light that feels different. That is not imagination.
It is the adjustment to a different reality. Then we go to the portals. Every portal is different. The Moon Temple cleanses the feminine energy — in women and in men.
The higher places at 4,000 and 5,000 meters have other capacities: they release foreign energy, they activate the inner energy centers, they connect us with the ancestral stream. Every ceremony is prepared. The offerings, the language, the permission to ask. What happens then is not predictable — and at the same time what must be shown shows itself.
Condors that come when the group falls silent. Rainbows that appear when a cleansing closes. A tornado that moves toward our huts and turns away just before. That one experiences.
That one then tells. ## What This Journey Is Not It is not an adventure holiday. It is not a yoga retreat with an Andean backdrop. It is not a detox, not a therapy program. It is a journey with intention.
Whoever comes brings something with him — a question, a pattern, a heaviness that has long been unable to dissolve. The mountains, the ceremony, the group — they work with what one brings. Some come and do not know exactly why. Usually that is fine too.
The place knows. And what is meant to come, comes. ## Who Accompanies the Journey I accompany the journey as a Paqo — not as a tour guide, not as an organizer. That makes a difference. I do not know the places from a distance.
I know them from years of work, from ceremonies in every weather, from connections to the spirits of these places that go beyond usefulness. The shamanic journey to Peru that I accompany is set for seven to eight days. A small group — so that the work can go deep. No mass-tourism route.
The places we visit are not known from guidebooks. If you know this call — this curiosity that cannot be logically justified — you will find all the information on the Peru journey page.