Tales of Dreaming ~ by Paul Thompson
Shortly before May of 2007, I had the following dream: I was in the Andes. The air was crystal clear. I was with two Paqo's (Paqo is the Q'ero/Quechua word for their shaman).
One of the Paqo's looked up into the sky and saw what they thought was a condor. I could see nothing. Then I could make out the speck in the high sky that I recognised as a condor.
We watched as it flew down closer, then saw, as it descended, a man in white, with a white beard and white hair, everything blowing the strong wind.
The Paqo said that it was a great shaman who could fly. The dream ended.
My associations to this dream are numerous and personal. Suffice it to say here that it came one year to the day after a first-time visit to Peru, although I did not come into direct contact with any shamans during that trip, so far as I knew.
Afterwards, I became very interested in Andean spirituality, which by circuitous routes, eventually led me - very thankfully – to spiritual studies with UMS. I began to learn the Andean pipes -the sikku, the toyos, the sem-toyos and the quenacha - and read much about the Q'ero indigenous culture and the horrors of the Conquest.
In Masters of the Living Energy by Joan Parisi Wilcox (Inner Traditions, 2004), I discovered the Estrella . This is the 'star' or spirit manifestation of an Apu, which is a Mountain Lord. A Paqo (Shaman) is called to the sacred path when he or she receives an Estrella; that is, when he or she is summoned by an outward manifestation of the Apu.
Estrellas commonly take the form of hummingbirds, pumas, bulls and condors. In dreams, an Estrella may appear as a glowing man or woman in white clothing.
On other occasions, I had often recently had dreams where I could fly, but very lucidly so, so that the mechanics of flight were clear and simple, yet required a patient, gentle discipline -- like swimming in the air.
Another association to the aforementioned dream is Gandalf the White, in Lord of the Rings. But the dream of Peru had such a lucidity to it that when I awoke, and even now whenever I think back to it, I could have sworn I was actually there.
I felt that I was there in the high, bright sierras and snow mountains of the Andean peaks, which are of course themselves believed to be Apus, or mountain lords.
As a result of this I wrote a poem, which was submitted to and published on the web-site, www.livinginperu, in a respectful homage to the annual festival of Q'ollorit. This is a combined Andean and Catholic pilgrimage in honour of the Apu, the Lord of Q'olloriti, held around the 25th May each year. Very movingly for me, that poem spontaneously drew two very positive comments from Andean people on the web-site about the spiritual connection they felt with the poem, in light of their own heritage. Following is the poem that I submitted:
INVOCATION TO THE LORD OF Q’OLLORITI
I missed the trek to your heartland
I missed the walk to the heights
I could not get out of my sleeping bed
I could not awake to the light
Though the path of the heart glows within us
And to travel without, we must go in
So being here or there does not matter:
Only our integrity is what does.
So one day yet might I come to you
In the quietude of the night; where
Dawn and dusk come together
Flesh and spirit become one.
~ Paul Thompson
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