The Art of Breathing
Andean Vision and the magic of being conscious.
Sep 14th to Oct 3rd.
Our intent is to show that through the simplicity of breathing and walking, the human can be a channel of change - a self-healer, planetary healer, a healer of consciousness. The human body and the planetary body find fluid movement so that both can dance.
The high altitude of the Andes presents an immediate problem – how to breathe? You can’t simply arrive and move around how you did before. You would end up panting, tired and frustrated. Even if on the first day you want to walk down a small road and walk up again, you have to learn to breathe differently, and to do this you have to think differently.
How to breathe? What energy is being taken in and what energy is going out with each breath? If we want to walk around the lake, up the hill, then we need energy. We learn how to enhance the energy that we take in with our breath through a simple opening of thought, utilising the energies that are around us, above us and below us.
We explore different forms of breathing – the masculine breath, the feminine breath; breath of the earth and breath of the sun, breath of the lake and of the mountain. Breath of the universe. We do this in a spectacular landscape of mountains and the highest navigable lake in the world.
We will ask for the help of the indigenous culture, learning how to access the breath of the earth and of the sky through their traditional ways. Particularly on the island of the Sun, we open to learn how to receive the mystical texture of ‘time’, and through managing the ‘breath of time’ open up possibilities in our personal and planetary futures that would not have been perceived before.
There are two parts of this journey. The first part is a ten day journey to La paz, Tiwanaku, lago titikaka and the island of the sun. This is suitable for people with generally good health. The walks are paced gradually to acclimatise to the altitude. The second part, which has an additional intent described below, is a 9 day Kallawaya treck from Pelechugo to Charazani which is more challenging. Read the itinerary here and you can feel which is right for you.
Itinerary. First part.
Day one is in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Our first walk is down the road, and then up the road. On the first day, this in itself is an event. How do you breathe when you are out of breath? We become babies again. We re-learn how to breathe. The baby does not think, and this is what we have to remember. Breathing without thinking.
We enter today into the Aymara culture. Our guide is Silvia Paz, an expert in Aymara traditions and practises. Silvia will give us a seminar in which the bases of Inca culture are explained so that when it comes to the ceremonies you will understand them. She will explain the Apptaphi banquet, the illias power objects, Akulli coca leaf ceremony, the table offerings to pachamama and the acachllas, permissions of the sacred mountains. We then partake in our first aymara ceremony, which is the Apptaphi, the traditional banquet, a ceremony of giving and receiving.
Accomodation at Diamante Azul hotel.
Day two. Meditation. The word meditation here is used to describe breathing consciously. The work is to listen to the breath and be aware that we are breathing whilst we are breathing. This simple act in itself will open our minds so that we are more able to receive.
We visit Tiwanaku. This is the most important sacred site around the great lake Titikaka. In its simplest form, it is the place where the human ‘received the Gods’. Its sacred geometry and energetic alignments are still in place and we can experience here our relation with our own inner creative forces. Silvia will guide us through the traditional context of the site and with her indigenous curanderos we will make our first ‘mesa’ – offerings to Pachamama.
We travel in the evening to Copacabama.
Accomodation at Ecolodge del lago.
Day three. Copacabama. Lago Titikaka. Lake Titicaka is the highest navigable lake in the world. For the Inca cultures it is sacred for giving life, on all levels. It gives water and food, and on another level the mythical landscape reminds them of their connection with their Gods. Whatever your inner beliefs are, a sense of other worldliness is palpable in this land.
In our first walk around the lake, we open to the coordination of breath and movement. The lake is an opening, and we open to the feminine breath - the breath of receptivity. We look and feel our sensitivity to pace and rhythm and how these reflect our thought patterns and feeling patterns. Deep listening. We can hear the old tapes that dominate the mind and the heart and our inner journey is to the place where we are able to create an opening for all these repeating energies to find their real homes……………
Accomodation at Ecolodge del lago.
Day four. In the Inca ceremony with indigenous curanderos we make our personal offerings to the land and receive personal information through the Akulli coca leaf ceremony. We also make our own personal Illias to focus our attention on our real path on this planet. All these ceremonies are like forms of entrance into a deeper understanding of how you breathe the earth…………and how the earth breathes you
We walk up and around the sacred hills and rocks. We open to the masculine breath – breath of projection. Having liberated the energies held in our hearts and minds, we open to the new birth, the projection of new thought forms into our future.
We visit some of the sacred sites where ceremonies are still held on a daily basis, and witness the daily ceremonies, including their blessings for their vehicles - the contemporary Aymara culture in action, alive and vibrant.
Accomodaton at Ecolodge del lago.
Day five. Island of the sun. This island in the lake is where the sun was born for the Inkas. It is a stunning natural temple and it feels like one is living between worlds. There are no vehicles on this island!!!
On our first day here we go to the centre of the island to witness the gradual movement of the sun as it opens the different energies on the island and in our own human bodies.
Accommodation at Palla Khasa.
Day six. Our crystalline intelligence. In this meditation on the island of the sun we open up the breath to the deeper crystal clarity which connects the human being to the planetary being. Through deepening our conscious breathing we open to the breath in the earth and the breath in the sun. This deep breathing opens our conscious connection with other levels of our intelligence. We are able to listen to and channel the Earth wisdom through our own breathing human bodies.
Accomodation at Phalla Khasa.
Day seven. We visit the island which is the sacred energetic centre of the lake. Don ……….will make a traditional ceremony of the island, which is an interdimensional portal. Many different energies have been witnessed here. It is part of a triangular opening into the underwater cities in the lake which have been physically discovered through satellite photography, as well as energetically witnessed by traditional curanderos on the island. The locals take interplanetary and intergalactic communication as just part of the facts of life, and this is due to the fact that they experience these energies on a regular basis.
We also visit the labyrinth. This is the traditional ancient indigenous school where the male curanderos were attuned to the regular tools of their trade – time travel, lucid dreaming, clairvoyance, utilising their double, telepathy, seeing spirits, developing their sixth sense.
Accommodation at Phalla Khasa
Day eight. Island of the moon. This is the place of the traditional schools of the female curanderos. This beautiful little island has a completely different energy to the island of the sun. We open to experience this change of energy from the masculine to the feminine, and we visit the ancient temples where the curandero’s were trained, learning about the particular tools of the trade for the female curanderos, which apart from the list above, would include the magic of weaving, offerings, sacred childbirth, and the development of intuitive depth.
Breathing in Oneness. We take this day to deepen into this new sense of reality where time opens possibilities and impossibilities. Giving ourselves permission to fly, even for short moments free of our conditioning, we glimpse a deeper connexion with what you may call God, Great spirit, Dharmakaya, Godess, the divine, Unity Consciousness or any other words that express your sense of your highest intelligence.
Accomodation at Phalla Khasa.
Day nine. We take a boat journey to return to the mainland and visit the village of Santiago. Here the group divides in order to stay in the houses of the Aymara, being received in the traditional way, eating the traditional food, deepening in the knowledge of their traditions and seeing from the inside the way that the Aymaras live here and now.
Accommodation in indigenous houses.
Day Ten. For those completing after the first section, you return to La Paz and on this day also we make a bridge between the experiences we have had in Bolivia and our daily lives. What is useful? What can be taken home? Was this just a holiday or did real change take place? How does the movement affect the life that you lead?
Those who are doing the second part journey to Pelechugo. On the journey, we visit the hot springs of Ulla Ulla.
Second Part. Akamani. Sacred mountain of the Kallawaya.
Our intent in this second part of the retreat is to remember the uninterrupted conscious breath in which the human is a channel of spirit movement, an avenue of real time in which trapped energies can be released. In this crystalline clear breath, the human can experience the planet earth in fluid communication with other planets and stars. In this breath we connect tribes, times, dimensions; we connect different parts of the whole so we are no longer held in the illusion of their separate independent existence. The planet is in communication with planets; the human tribe is in communication with other tribes in the universe.
The high mountains are undisturbed uncluttered portals. You can hear the earth being breathed through the mountains. The human being becomes a time avenue through which the earth gives birth to itself. We consciously are able to witness and experience the evolution of the planet Earth and understand and be in the useful human role for the evolution of both human and planetary consciousness.
We have a lot of help to do this. We will be trekking over the most stunning scenery in the Andes. The word – breath-taking – is perfect. Our breath is taken. Offered. Given. We are initiated into another level of who we really are.
Days eleven to sixteen. The kallawari treck from Pelechugo to ………….. past the sacred mountain. This extraordinary trek is of awesome and stunning beauty. The altitude ranges from 3500 to 5300 meters. We do it gradually, six hours a day only, with plenty of time to breathe in pure wonder. A lot of the trek is made in silence with a different focus of the breath each day as we develop more profoundly the techniques learn on the first week and open also to the focus of the medicine wheel as we spiral into the centre of our personal and planetary mandala. Very experienced and informative native guides lead us. In a separate (faster) trek, animals carry your packs and food, our cooks guiding the animals. The camp site will be prepared by the time you arrive at the end of each treck with your tents, toilet, cooking and meeting tents installed. It is all set up so that you don’t have to concern yourself with practical details; you have the gift of time and space.
This is a walking vision quest to the great mountain spirit Akamani. The kallawaya’s call this mountain simply – padre (father). In this trek you receive gradual profound lessons on how to listen to this great ancestral wisdom.
Each day we move our attention through the elements.
Day eleven. North. Opening to the element of Air. Opening the mind.
Day twelve. East. Opening to the element of fire. Opening the spirit.
Day thirteen. South. Opening to the element of earth. Opening the body
Day fourteen. West. Opening to the element of water. Opening the emotions.
Day fifteen. Day of rest and reflection.
Day sixteen. Opening to the centre. The heart. This is the place where we open to the unfettered uninterrupted breath.
We work also with the high spring waters. Each stream has its flavour and its energy. Water is the medium through which the new thought forms arrive. We meditate with the waters and listen to their clear messages as they pass through our bodies. Drinking seeds of change. Rich in minerals and rich in wisdom!
By the time we reach the sacred mountain Akamani, we would be clear enough to breathe it through our bodies and to fulfil the personal and planetary healing intents of our journey.
Day seventeen. Village of Callisaya. Ceremony with the kallawaya The indigenous people of these mountains have a very rich living tradition of herbal medicine and ceremony. Today we share food with them and we receive their ceremony on one of the power points in the mountains. These ceremonies and the indigenous wisdom will help to make sense of some of the huge realisations that have taken place on the walk, and will begin to help you to sense the new pathways from the fresh perceptions. This is a great blessing for all of us as these people are only just opening up to share their wisdom with the outside world.
Herbal medicine. Village of La Curva.The mountain valleys are living pharmacies. We go on a walk to learn about some of the plants with native Kallawaya herbalists. We visit traditional healers and each person receives a consultation for any physical or psychological issues they wish to deal with. In particular what we look for here is the mental, emotional, physical wounds that prevent you embracing the new visions you have received. The herbalist then spends a day collecting the herbs and you receive them in the evening. There would be enough herbs for up to a month’s treatment.
Accommodation in indigenous lodge
Day eighteen. Walk to Charazani. This is a three hour walk to Charazani, the last part of the trek, and it leads us directly to a well-deserved hot spring!!
Accomodation in Charazani lodge hotel.
Day nineteen. The bridge. On this day we focus on grounding our experience and preparing for the journey back to our homes. We intend to bring what we have learnt to our work, relationships, living situation. How do we make the link between dreams?
Accommodation in Diamante Azul hotel.
Depart.
Are you ready for this?
When I first did this trek I was 51 and not exactly at the peak of fitness, but i did have a lot of determination! We will be building for this treck in the first week and i would say that if you are reasonably fit and don’t have any obvious injuries or heart condition, then you could do it. You would need to consider the following.
1. We walk on average six hours a day walking through altitudes of between 3500 and 5300 meters. There are four mountain passes on the route
2. You will be sleeping in tents that either you bring or you rent from the guides
3. Altitude acclimatisation would take place in the first part of the journey. Exercise and breathing development help will also be given from when you book.
4. Part of the function of the breathwork on this journey is to teach you how to generate the energy necessary to be able to climb mountains.
Cost
US $2600. First ten days all-inclusive except flights.
US $4300. Full journey all inclusive except flights.
Facilidators.
Daniel Stone. (see biographies page)
Silvia Paz Soliz Ochoa is a native Aymara Bolivian who speaks fluench Quechua. She studied law at la Universidad mayor de San Andrés. She is also qualified in the history of Art. Her main work has been extensive studies into the historical indigenous identity of Bolivian culture, the many different tradicions of the Andes which have been recognised now officially in the oficial Bolivian constitution. She now devotes her time giving seminars and ceremonies of the authenic Bolivian indigenous traditions.
Other Aymara indigenous curanderos will be giving ceremonies during this journey. In the second part of the journey, indigenous Kayawalla curanderos give the ceremonies.
Percy luis Vasquez Daza is our trek guide. He is a profesional member of the only recognised trecking association in Bolivia. (AGMTB asociación de guías de montaña y trekking Bolivia ) He was born and grew up in Pelechuco, our first stop in the trek. With his father he lead and leads exhibitions in the ecological parks of Madidi and Aplolobamba, so he is a native of the land who has learnt his craft by being and walking in the mountains where he lives, and then later received and official qualification which allows him to practise with international groups.
To book, please respond to this email.