In the Andean tradition, there are three aspects to being fully human: yachay, llank’ay and munay. Yachay is the mind, intellect, reasoning, logic. Llank’ay is the body, action, productive effort. Munay is love grounded in will.

While there are seldom hierarchies in the tradition, in this case there is one: yachay occupies the bottom of the triumvirate, llank’ay the mid position, and munay the top. Munay is valorized as the highest energetic expression of our humanness.

That said, these three expressions of our humanness also operate circularly, since one feeds the other and we need to master each aspect of the self to be whole human beings. It’s also true that we tend to be predisposed to excelling at one of these three, even while we seek to harmonize all three expressions of ourselves. For example, don Benito Qoriwaman was a tukuyyachaynioq, a master of yachay, and he was identified as a supreme paqo of the right-side paña work. Don Melchor Desa was a master of the llank’ay, a tukuyllank’aynioq. His expertise was the left-side work, the lloq’e. Q’ero don Andres Espinosa was master of munay, a tukuymunaynioq, and his mastery was in the chaupi work, the middle path. Don Benito also said that the Q’ero are “owners of the munay.”

It’s no surprise that munay—love—is the pinnacle of human expression. But what exactly is munay?

We know what munay is not.

It is not an emotion. It is not a feeling. It is not only love.

We also know something about what munay is.

It is the foundation of the Andean mystical tradition. It is often described as unconditional love, and the Andean paqos define it as love grounded in will.

We know its importance in our energy work. In the energetic body, munay is not found singularly in the heart (qori chunpi)  but is a fusion of the energy of our heart with our Inka Seed. When these two centers merge, something greater results, and that is munay.

Munay also is infused with the flow of energy from all the chunpis (energy belts) and with the kawsay from outside us, from the cosmos. Our Inka Seed can be thought of as the God/Cosmos Within; the kawsay pacha and world are the God/Cosmos Without. The union of “within” and “without” happens through munay. Only our munay integrates the two.

Because of this energetic back and forth, of the within and the without, it makes sense that munay must include will. Not as in willfulness or willpower, but as in directed intent—as in having the personal energetic power to carry out your intent.  Also, it is will as in direct personal experience.  You don’t develop any of your human qualities or capacities by reading about how others have acquired them or observing others using them. You must participate in life yourself, expressing your humanness.

So far, so good?

Well, I don’t know about you, but I have to admit that this hasn’t been good enough for me. I feel that I have been able to talk the talk, but I have never really walked the walk of munay. Yes, I’m loving. Yes, I am open to receiving the love of others, including and especially God’s love. But really, really, really “getting” munay? Nope.

So I have always been on the lookout for a more meaningful explanation or definition. And I finally found one—in the most unlikely of places!

I was reading François Fénelon, a 17th-century Roman Catholic theologian, when I came across the following words. They could have been written by an Andean paqo!

This explains munay!

“Pure love is in the will alone. It is not sentimental love, for imagination has no part in it. It loves, if we may so express it, without feeling, as faith believes without seeing.” It “abandons the demands of the self. . .”

 Nothing more need be said. Sit with those words, and I hope that you, like me, will drop into a deeper understanding of munay.

In Part 1, I talked about absorbing and radiating the black and white light energies. In this post I continue that discussion and focus on the aura.  I’m no expert on the aura, so forgive any errors or misunderstandings. However, in thinking about the goal of being a paqo—to be able to absorb and radiate all forms of energy—it is inevitable that I started musing about the aura. Here is my take on the aura Andean style.

The aura is a visible glow, usually a colored one, around the body. Many people who can see auras say that the color of your aura reflects who you are, the quality of your energy, and more. However, I am beginning to question that.

If the Andeans have it right that we are in continual interchange with energy, whether consciously or not, and that we are always absorbing and radiating energy, then how can we know what the aura color means? It could have two very different interpretations:

1) It could mean that we are indeed radiating a certain predominate “flavor” of energy, which must be a form of sami, since it is energy that is freely flowing through us and not getting stuck.

2) But it could also mean that we are not absorbing that “flavor” of energy—that this particular energy is incompatible with our energy body—and so it is potentially a form of  hucha for us.

I don’t think we can really know which is the correct interpretation. We have to go back to my previous  post and the metaphor of the electromagnetic spectrum of visible light to understand why.

If we are seeing color, we are detecting the visible light spectrum (the frequencies that appear as the different colors we see with our physical eyes). In order to see color, that frequency of light must be bouncing off an object. Light left to itself, free flowing and not interacting with an object, is invisible to our eyes. You might say it is black. Outer space is full of “light” but we only see it when it reflects off an object, like the moon. Or, I should say, we only see the object because of the light that it reflects back and enters our eyes.

So, anatomical physics tells us that the colors we see are those that are not absorbed by the object.

The yellow rubber duck in the photo is that color because it is absorbing all the other frequencies of visible light except yellow. To anthropomorphize that duck, you could say it is “rejecting” the frequency of yellow.

I think you can see how this applies to the Andean conception of how our energy bodies work. Just to be clear, let me provide an example. Let’s use the color green and associate it with love/munay to examine the possible interpretations.

If we see a person with a green aura, that person may be a master of love. He or she is able to fully absorb the “green” energy and it flows freely, as pure sami, through his or her energy bubble. There is so much of that energy flowing through that person that he or she glows green.

Alternatively, that green aura may be evidence that the person has such difficulty with the energy of love that he or she cannot or will not absorb it, and so it is bouncing back off their energy bubble. It is incompatible with his or her current state of energy.

You can see the dilemma. Relying solely on the aura, unless we are qawaq (able to see reality “as it really is”), we can’t know which of the two energy states is the “correct” one. (We cannot fully trust intuition, as it, too, is dependent on the state of our energy body. Qaway is different from intuitive knowing.)

What does become certain is that we can’t make any judgment. We can’t declare what that green light means. We can only leave it to that person to become aware and determine what’s going on energetically for him- or herself.

And that approach is perfectly in line with the larger Andean cosmovision, which says we can only really know, and take responsibility for, the state of our own energy body. We don’t label or judge another person energetically; we can only sense whether or not we are compatible energetically with that person. (See my earlier post “No More Energy Vampires!”)

Although the Andean tradition is relatively simple in practice, its conception of energy is profoundly sophisticated and far-reaching. I offer this conjecture about the aura as another reminder about the importance of sensitizing your awareness of your own energy body and not labeling others according to preconceived ideas about their energy state.

All we really know for sure about the “aura” from the Andean masters themselves is that a sixth-level being glows, usually a white or golden light, which to my mind means they are perfectly absorbing and then radiating every possible energy. They create absolutely no hucha. According to the tradition, then, we can be certain that a sixth-level being is not “rejecting” all frequencies, but perfectly absorbing and radiating them.

Beyond that, and speaking only for myself, I am giving up having any judgment about the aura, because I think it is not possible, nor is it any of my business, to “interpret” another person’s energy condition. I just can’t know (from seeing with my outer eyes anyway) what the color of a person’s aura actually means.

“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is lead, your whole body will feel of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

This is a quotation from The Bible, from Matthew 6:22-23 (NASB). While, of course, it is not written about anything concerning the Andean mystical tradition, it certainly applies! For me, it is an enlightening (pun intended!) statement about the importance of our attending to the state of our energy bubble, our poq’po, including the chunpis (belts of power) and the “eyes” of the belts, the ñawis.

In this quotation, the light can be equated with sami, refined energy; the lead/darkness with hucha, heavy energy.

In Matthew, I believe the “eye” refers to our perception—our way of seeing and being in the world. The more we cleanse our perceptions, divesting ourselves of hucha and filling ourselves with sami, the more productively  and joyously we can live. We do this cleansing using saminchakuy, the practice for releasing hucha and filling ourselves with sami, and through hucha mikhuy, whereby we transform hucha into sami. The chunpis play a role in this.

The chunpis, or belts, are a bit like chakras, as they are energy centers in our poq’po that interpenetrate our physical body. There are four primary chunpis: the yana chunpi that is like a girdle around the lower trunk and the root of our spine; puka chunpi at the belly (qosqo); qori chunpi at the heart or chest level; and the qolqe chunpi at the throat. There is also somewhat of a fifth belt, called the kulli chunpi, at the forehead that encompasses the two physical eyes and the “third eye.”

Each of these belts has an energetic opening, a ñawi. So in effect we have seven “eyes” in our body, the two physical eyes, the third eye and the four ñawis of the primary chunpis. We can “see” through these seven eyes, and they are related to our conscious evolution. If you remember, there are seven levels to human consciousness, only four of which are manifest so far on Earth. So, if we follow the message of Matthew and apply it to the Andean mystical tradition, there are seven eyes of the body, seven aspects to our energy, to keep “clean” and “light.” Since these eyes are spread across our body, by keeping them cleansed, we keep our entire bubble and body full of light/refined energy.

Notice the last sentence in the Matthew quotation: If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

Matthew is saying that  light can be “dark.” This, to me, is an incredibly Andean way of seeing energy. But we have to make a shift here to view the darkness not as hucha but as willka, the black light energy.

If you viewed my webinars, you may remember in the first one that I spent quite a bit of time talking about the black light energy, willka, which is the “highest” energy and the most difficult to master, according to the Andean masters. This is quite a reversal of most mystical traditions, which place the white light at the pinnacle. What does Matthew mean that light can be dark? Why do the Andeans valorize the black light instead of the white light? What exactly are we trying to do as paqos?

Let’s start by answering the last question first. As paqos, we are learning to be masters of energy absorption and radiation. We want to be able to absorb and radiate every kind of energy, without exception, though our energy bubble without slowing down the energy (turning sami into hucha).

In the webinar, I used a metaphor to explain this. I talked about how in the electromagnetic spectrum of visible light, black is the absorption of all color frequencies, whereas white is the reflection of all color frequencies. I was using this as a metaphor for our task as paqos. You can’t radiate white light unless you can first absorb the black light. You can’t radiate all possible energies unless you can first take all possible energies into your bubble and allow them to pass through without trapping them there and so turning them into hucha.

This, to me, is the brilliance of the Andean tradition. It teaches you to master the “darkness” so that you can be the “light.” (There is no sense whatsoever of the negative, bad, evil in the word “darkness.” Here I am referring to black—the ability to absorb all possible energies, without exception.) We must first be masters of “tasting” every “flavor” of energy of the kawsay pacha before we can hope to radiate the white light of the All.

So the “darkness” in the Matthew quotation can be read two ways in the Andean tradition. First, as lead, or heaviness—as hucha, which is still light energy (kawsay), only trapped or slowed down and so not contributing to our well-being. And second, as willka, the black light energy that is the highest form of nature/earthly energy and the metaphor for our task as paqos—to be such masters of our energy body that we can freely partake of the fullness of the kawsay pacha, the world of living energy.

The training in the tradition is perfectly sequenced to help you master the art of being a paqo, attending to the light within. The first training, paña, teaches you to perceive energy and to work with your energy body and the kawsay pacha. The second training, chaupi, to activate the chunpis and learn to consciously absorb and radiate energy. And the third, lloq’e, to empower the chunpis and ñawis and increase your personal power.

This long post has one main point and one main question/challenge for you: to be a master of yourself and your life, you must “clear” your “eyes” in every sense of perceiving, from your beliefs to your energy body, so that you can freely absorb the ALL and thus be able to radiate the ALL. How are you doing?

In Part 2, in my next post, I will discuss the aura.

During the interviews for my book, Masters of the Living Energy (originally in hardback, Keepers of the Ancient Knowledge), don Juan Pauqar Espinosa said, “We are all just human beings, only our clothes are different.” How true. The Q’ero may be masters of their mystical tradition, but they also are just like you and me.

Jello—What is this weird stuff? Okay, we’ll try it. Wow, sugar! More, please!

Foosball—game on!

A round of pisco—bring it on!

While we rightly put them on a pedestal and honor their knowledge, there’s also every reason to view the Q’ero for what they are—human beings with the peculiarities, peccadilloes and propensities we all share.

I remember a language lesson at one of the breaks during the book interviews. The two youngest paqos, don Agustin and don Juan, were teaching me and two other women words in Quechua, and we, in turn, would teach them the same words in English. They would say a Quechua word, and we would repeat it back, sometimes several times to get the accent or emphasis correct. When we nailed it, they would point to what that word meant: nose, mouth, throat, ear, arm. Then don Agustin mischievously slipped in the Quechua words for breast, big breasts, and vagina, and we all cracked up laughing.

I had rented a lodging for the group during the interviews. We had the entire place to ourselves. In a front courtyard was a foosball table. The Q’ero had no idea what it was, but don Agustin and don Juan were intrigued. With only a little instruction, they were expertly spinning the rods—addicted! Two of the older Q’ero, the brothers Juan and Julian Pauqar Flores, were the cheering section. They were too timid to try the game themselves.

Don Mariano, like most of us, didn’t pay much heed to his elders when he was a kid. During the interviews, when we were talking about Q’ero history and the Inkari lineage, he said, with regret in his voice, “If I had known as a child that I was going to have the opportunity to talk about these things, then I would have listened better. But I was a child who listened to these things and they went in one ear and out the other! If I had known then that I was going to have this opportunity to speak with you, maybe I would have spent even a day learning these stories. I would have asked for these stories, even offering the elders a drink to tell me these stories!”

One time in Cuzco, a few of us were at Juan Nuñez del Prado’s house with some Q’ero. Lunch was served. The Q’ero were decidedly uncomfortable, furtively watching how we used the cutlery to eat. They obviously felt unsure of themselves, not having experience using forks and knives. We made light of it, keeping things playful, but it was obvious that they sometimes felt as uncomfortable in our world as we felt when in their villages, where we were unfamiliar with many of the ways and customs of their daily life.

Masters of the living energy. Yes! Playful, kind, humorous, fallible, self-effacing, doubting, regretful human beings just like you and me. Of course. . .

This blog’s overall theme is conscious evolution, as facilitated through the Andean mystical tradition. The tradition talks about our evolving through seven levels of consciousness. In our world today, we are mostly at the third level, with growing numbers of people at the fourth level.

However, Andean paqos are eagerly awaiting the manifestation of the fifth level: people who have so mastered their interchanges with the cosmos of living energy that they are infallible healers.

The key word here is “infallible.” There can be no imposters to the fifth level because they must be capable of healing every condition, every time—from regrowing an amputated limb to healing cancer, perhaps even raising the dead. We have heard of fifth-level abilities being manifested before—by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) and his disciples, and by Jesus Christ and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, his apostles. So we know infallible healing is possible, and the prophecies tell us we will regain this level of consciousness and energy mastery.

In the Andes, the title of a fifth-level being is Inka Mallku, or more generally Tukuy Hampeq, which means “total healer.” According to the prophecy of the New Humanity, there will be an initial group of 12 Inka Mallkus that appear and band together, six men and six women.

For Juan Nuñez del Prado; his son, Ivan; me and other of Juan’s students, the motivation to share this tradition is partly self interest. As Juan says, “Maybe one of my students will reach the fifth level, and then he or she can pull me up to it!” The more people who are consciously evolving, the greater the chance that the fifth level will manifest in our lifetime—and that we will be helped to attain this level ourselves!

When the Tukuy Hampeqs appear, they will be able to teach and pass on the energy of the fifth level. But while our energetic efforts help raise us to this new level of human expression, at this evolutionary transition point the “initiation” to the fifth level is given only by the metaphysical God, through the bestowal of the Mosoq Karpay.

I know there are paqos out there now who are giving something they call the Mosoq Karpay, but it is not the initiation to the fifth level. Karpay is a transmission of energy; for the sake of convenience we call a karpay an “initiation.” Mosoq simply means “new” in Quechua. So, really, any transmission of energy a creative-minded paqo devises can be called a Mosoq Karpay. The Mosoq Karpay to which I am referring is a special karpay that is foretold in the prophecy of the New Humanity and, initially at least, is transmitted directly from the Holy One. It is not yet manifest on Earth, but we are eagerly awaiting its appearance.

So keep working the practices, refining your energy, evolving your consciousness. The fifth-level beings do not have to be Andean. They could be me, or you, or him, or her . . .