In the Andean mystical tradition, the Quechua word karpay usually is translated as “initiation.” How reliable is that translation? Is that the primary meaning of the word? Just for the heck of it, over the years I have searched this word in various Quechua dictionaries and online translation programs. It never comes up, although recently an artificial intelligence-assisted online translation program returned an answer: its result was that karpay means “tent.” I suspect that is because the Quechua word is close to the spelling and pronunciation of the Spanish word carpa, which does indeed mean “tent.” I also searched spelling variations such as qarpay and qharpay, but if those words appeared, their meanings had no relevance to karpay as initiation. (I purposefully excluded from my online search books, articles, glossaries, and blogs by people who are studying or teaching the Andean sacred arts, as they would likely know the term. I was looking for independent verification of its meaning, and I found none.)

For good measure, in my most recent search I reversed the terms and put the English word “initiation” into a few English-to-Quechua translation programs, and most of them returned the Quechua word qallariy, which was variously defined as “source,” “start,” or “begin.” Ok, fair enough. An Andean initiation opens us to something, such as personal growth or an energetic capacity. But qallariy is not the word the paqos use. 

The failure of this recent search was not surprising, since, as I said, I have done this kind of search before and not found this word. And I knew why. Many years ago, I asked don Juan Nuñez del Prado about its absence, and he explained to me that karpay is a term used only by the paqos within the context of their work in the Andean sacred arts. It does not appear in Quechua dictionaries (as far as we know) because it is not known or used by others.

So, just what are the core meanings of the word karpay? And what is an Andean karpay? We turn to our teachers and the paqos for explanations. This blog post covers the basics, although no doubt there are many other ways to understand the term karpay and carry out a karpay than what I cover in the space allotted here. As always, I focus on the two lineages (Q’ero Wachu and Cuzco Wachu) that I learned through don Juan Nuñez del Prado and on his explanations over the years.

Let’s start with the meaning of the word itself. Karpay can indeed be translated as “initiation,” although that translation provides only a rudimentary sense of the word, which is rich with nuance. There are at least three more expressive definitions of karpay. If we follow a specific sequence of discussing these three meanings, we also will gain an appreciation for what is happening during a karpay.

First, karpay refers to our personal power. We say that our full potential is held within our Inka Muyu, or Inka Seed. Everything that is possible for human beings to express is held as potential in this energetic field. Our work as paqos is wiñay (to germinate) and phutuy (to bloom or flourish): to germinate our Inka Seed, nurture its growth, and bring our human and metaphysical capacities to full flower. Our karpay as our personal power is how much of our Inka Seed potential we have developed and have access to right now. (See my blog post of June 20, 2016, “All About Karpay,” for a specific discussion of karpay as personal power.)

Second, karpay refers to a sharing or transmission of energy between two people or entities (such as a person and a spirit being). Which begs the question, “What energy is being transmitted?” That is the third facet of the definition. What is being shared is some aspect of our personal power, such as our sami or munay. So, the core meaning of the word karpay for paqos means to share their personal power with another person or entity through an energy transmission of some aspect of that personal power. To sum up using the term itself, a karpay (initiation) is the energetic sharing of a particular quality of our karpay (personal power). It is a process somewhat similar to the Hindu practice of shaktipat.

Here’s the rub. During a karpay as an initiation (karpay as verb, we might say), we can only share according to how much personal power we have in the moment (karpay as noun for personal power). If a person is sharing munay during a karpay as an initiation or transmission of energy, that person can only share as much munay as they have developed within. If that person has developed their capacity for love only a little, then they can share only a weak love energy. The same goes for any of our personal powers: if we have a lot of sami available, we can share a lot; if only a little, we can only share a little.

When the sharing is reciprocal—when the teacher shares their energy with the student and then the student also shares their energy with the teacher—it is called a karpay ayni (or sometimes the word order is reversed: ayni karpay). Ayni means interchange or reciprocity. So, a karpay can be either a unidirectional sharing of personal power from a teacher or paqo to a student or other person, or a reciprocal exchange between the two parties.

As I said, a karpay or karpay ayni as a transmission of personal power does not have to involve two human beings. It might occur between a human being and a spirit being or nature being, such as between an apu and a person, or vice versa. The karpay of an apu can, like a human being’s, vary from a small amount of power (as from an ayllu apu) to a midrange level of power (as from a llaqta apu) to an enormous amount of power (as from a suyu apu). Or, a karpay might be a transmission of sami from Creator to a person. There are all kinds of possibilities, but as a transmission or sharing of personal power, any of these situations could be considered a karpay.

So what do karpays among paqos look like in the Andes mountain and Cuzco regions of Peru? I am sure there as many variations as there are paqos, because as a sharing of personal power a karpay can take many forms. I have talked with various paqos who report that during their training they were given karpays that involved being sent by their teacher to spend a night in a cave or on top of a mountain to receive the energies there. Or that they and their teacher went to a specific sacred site or sanctuary and performed certain kinds of energy work there. The most common form of karpay that paqos have shared over the years is the receiving of sami through the immersion in water, such as at the sacred lagoons on the slopes of Apu Ausangate. Karpays tend to be fairly simple in form. That is why I advise people who are working in Peru today to be at least a little wary when a karpay is an elaborate ritual. In the Andes, one of the cardinal rules is to never waste energy. The energy work, even during a karpay, tends to be simple rather than complicated and invisible rather than having much of an outward form.

All that said, there are a few recognized formal ways that karpays are performed or occur. Don Juan has said that according to his paqo teachers, within the overall framework of the tradition there are only five traditional ways to be “initiated” as a paqo. These are the core traditional karpays by which paqos are called to the path or karpays that they receive during their training.

Karpay Ayni: the way of the paña, the right-side practices as taught by don Benito Qoriwaman. The Karpay Ayni takes the form of the teacher sharing their energy with an apprentice and then the apprentice, in ayni, sharing their energy with the teacher. There is another paña karpay form that is unidirectional: the paqo puts his misha (mesa) on the apprentice’s head (or sometimes over their sonqo ñawi or qosqo ñawi) and shares sami with that apprentice to empower them.

Chunpi Away and Ñawi K’ichay: the way of the middle work, the chaupi practices as taught by don Andres Espinosa. The Chunpi Away and Ñawi K’ichay are the joint karpays to become a chunpi paqo (a specialized kind of paqo known for exceptional healing ability, among other abilities). These karpays are done together, and they involve the “opening” of the mystical eyes, the ñawis; and the weaving of the energetic belts, the chunpis. However, it is not really the paqo who is giving this combined karpay. The paqo is pulling up Mother Earth energy, and she is doing the energetic work of the karpay.

Unu Karpay: the way of the lloq’e, the left-side practices as taught by don Melchor Desa. During an Unu Karpay, an apprentice receives the teacher’s sami as transmitted through water. Sometimes hucha is also purposefully released. Often, a paqo teacher will take an apprentice up to the sacred lagoons to do this type of karpay. But it can be done through any source of water.

Kaypacha Qaqya: The extreme left-side karpay is kaypacha qaqya: being struck by lightning and, of course, surviving and being changed. This is one way to be called to the paqo path.

Hanaqpacha Qaqya: A rare kind of this same left-side karpay is being struck by hanaqpacha qaqya, which is to be touched by a metaphorical “lightning” from heaven. As don Juan explained to me, this is not regular lightning, but “lightning” as a white light that comes down from the upper world (from Taytanchis or God) and touches the person, changing them and calling them to the paqo path.

There are other kinds of less formal or traditional karpays. They are more variable because they are used by teachers who happen to do things a certain way. Whatever the form, generally a karpay is some kind of infusion of energy that empowers us in our development. A karpay does not raise us to a new level of personal power; it supports us so that we can better develop through our own efforts. For example, the karpay ayni is the karpay to the fourth level of personal development (which is a stage on the qanchispatañan, a word referring to the stairway of the seven stages of the development of human consciousness). As explained above, usually it is the reciprocal sharing of energy between teacher and apprentice. However, the realization of that karpay to the fourth level comes only when we have our own personal experience of that level of consciousness. That experience might occur soon after the karpay ayni or years or decades later. It all depends on our own developmental process.

To conclude, karpay refers to how much of our personal capacities we have so far developed and thus have available for sharing or bringing to the world. The same word, karpay, refers a form of “initiation” that is a purposeful or even formal sharing of specific aspects of our power to help an apprentice grow on the path or for some other specific reason. It also might be a transmission of energy—usually sami—to us from a spirit being or Creator, or vice versa. At heart, an Andean karpay is an opportunity: it is an infusion of energy that prepares us for growth and even fertilizes our growth. Receiving a karpay or participating in a karpay ayni conditions us to be in more conscious ayni with the living universe, with spirit and nature beings, and with our fellow human beings. Ideally, it helps us develop ourselves so that we can move up the qanchispatañan.