Epilogue
This book, like my time in Peru, has had an interesting journey. When Wendy and I finished the first version of the book in 2001 we spoke with many agents and publishers in the States who liked the book but felt there was an insufficient market for it. We ended up self- publishing and selling it online and at the Inka workshops I did with Regis and Sergio in South Africa, Canada, USA and Peru.
When I moved to Cusco in 2000 I thought the book would be a vehicle for us to promote the vision of the Centro Espiritual . I envisioned a popular best seller as well as a wealthy donor giving us money to buy land in the Sacred Valley for the Center. Neither of those things happened, but many other wonderful things did.
After living in Cusco for two years, I decided to buy some land in the Valley and build a house. I chose Pisac (where the Millennium journey had been) because of the energy of the Inka temples there. Ruben, an aging farmer agreed to sell me a small part of his farm close to the sacred river and I built my house of mud and wood, stone and glass. As these things go, the project went over budget and by the time I moved in at the end of 2002, I was nearly out of money. I decided to rent my small cottage and two guest rooms to tourists to make ends meet. A few signs advertising the rooms were hung in town and people started to
come, lovely people interested in spiritual things.
I had bought enough land from Ruben to build a small conference center but needed to wait until I had more money. In March of 2003, during my morning meditation, I got a message. “Build the extra rooms first.” The architectural plans included a building with four extra guest rooms to the side of the main conference area. As this would be more affordable, I spoke to my parents about loaning me the money. Two days later at a friend’s café in Pisac a woman talking with us asked if there were any new hotels in town. She was a travel writer updating the Lonely Planet guide for Peru. I took her to see my house, which she loved and promised to include in the guidebook. I told her of my plan to build more rooms and when she asked me what I called my B&B I had to make up a name on the spot. That’s how Paz y Luz (Peace and Light) was born. By the time the guidebook was released, the new rooms were ready. The entry called Paz y Luz “a spiritual place run by a woman who does mystical tours”. I couldn’t have asked for a better advertisement.
In 2005 Ruben sold the rest of his farm to other people who began building houses. As fate would have it, Joyce, one of my new neighbors from Lima read my book in English and felt compelled to translate it into Spanish. She and I became close friends as the project developed, planning to print the book to sell ourselves, like the English version. One day while she was translating however, her daughter came to visit with friends from Lima who worked for Planeta Publishing Group, the largest Spanish language publishers in the world.
The book made its way to Lima and Planeta decided to publish it but requested additional material. Joyce suggested I add questions and answers at the end of each chapter and give people practical exercises to do. Planeta was pleased with the new material and published the Spanish version in July 2006. Though Planeta is a Spanish language publisher, they agreed to publish the English version as well because of the large number of foreign tourists that come to Peru every year.
The book sold well in both languages and is currently in its second printing in Peru. I have received over 200 letters from people in more
than 45 countries, saying how the book touched them. Through the book I have been invited to lead workshops in Argentina, Holland, Denmark, Sweden the USA and England. Because of the book many people have come to Paz y Luz for workshops as well as healing.
This current edition by Book Surge makes the book available in the USA and worldwide via Amazon.
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In 2006 just before the book was published, my friend Howard, a chiropractor, arrived in Pisac and announced we were starting the Paz y Luz Healing Center. I was resistant at first because I was focused on organizing the Interspiritual Gathering planned for early August. Having spent most of 2005 building more new guest rooms, a conference room, and getting the book ready for publication, I was still in my practical mode. Yet, thanks to Howard’s gentle persistence, the Healing Center was born. As soon as we put up a flyer with various types of healing sessions we were offering, people started to come. I was graciously reminded that my calling is to be a healer (not a builder or an events organizer). I knew the building and organizing was important but now that things were in place, it was time to reconnect with this important part of myself.
After nine months of organizing, the plans for the Interspiritual Gathering also took a different turn. Instead of having leaders from different religious traditions come and lead us at a big hotel in Pisac, we were now launching the new Paz y Luz Conference room with a gathering of diverse people who resonated with the idea of Envisioning, Experiencing and Manifesting a new world, the way we want it to be. People came from nearby and around the world, 24 people from six countries. It was an awe-inspiring, powerful experience for us all.
That Gathering along with the expansion of Paz y Luz, the book publication and the creation of the Healing Center made me see that something magical had happened. The vision of the Centro Espiritual that brought me to Peru had been manifest right here at Paz y Luz without me realizing it!
As my friend Wendy says, “God gives you everything you ask for and nothing you expect.”
Something even more unexpected was also about to manifest…
After this book was published in 2006, a guest arrived at Paz y Luz on a spiritual journey, saying she had a message for me. The message was about the next level of my work and how to prepare for it. She also mentioned that “my man” might be close at hand. My reaction was an odd mix of anger and fear. I told her I wasn’t looking for a man. I was happy the way I was. She just smiled which irritated me even more.
My harsh reaction to that part of her message led me to contemplate if in fact, I had really released my desire for romantic partnership.
Perhaps reaching my fifties without committing to a long-term relationship was an indication that some growth and transformation was still needed. In my meditation the next day I sat down with Spirit to discuss the situation. If I could heal whatever it was on my own, great; I would make that my intention. If I needed a relationship to do the work, I asked Spirit to please deliver the appropriate man to my doorstep.
A few months later in June 2007, Christer Lundin arrived at Paz y Luz with his tour group from Sweden. I lead them in a one-day workshop on the Andean Spiritual Tradition. After the morning session, I went over to talk with him. Somehow our hands touched, each right on the other’s left. There was a strong current pulsing through us in a rapid circular motion. We looked into each other’s eyes saying nothing. The workshop continued without any chance for us to process what happened until that evening when Christer approached me and asked, “What was that – the energy flowing through our hands this morning?” My heart started to pound as if it had just occurred to me that I was attracted to this tall, gray haired, handsome Swede. “I don’t know”, I said, “but if you’d like to discuss it, come in.”
We talked like old friends. Christer, a business consultant from Stockholm, was on a spiritual search and open to changing his life. The strength of our energy connection was matched by the connection of personal interests, spiritual journeys and mutual attraction. We talked all night, saying goodbye as his group departed at 6am for their train to Machu Picchu. Two days later we met in Cusco and the rest of his week in Peru was spent together. In September I visited him in Stockholm for ten days and by the end of the year he moved to Peru to start a new life with me.
It didn’t take long for challenges to present themselves. I had lived on my own for years in the house I built and now there was someone living with me. Christer was far from home in a land whose language he didn’t speak without his job, his friends, or his familiar comforts and customs. Adjustments needed to be made. Things were not going as smoothly as we’d planned.
Then, in April 2008, Paz y Luz hosted a second Gathering to Envision, Experience and Manifest the world the way we want it to be. One of the participants, Jamee, led us on a meditative journey to the Upper World, to envision that world; first, on a personal level, then on a community level and finally on a global level. The first part of my meditation was clear and immediate: It was important for me to be part of a loving couple, to allow Christer into my heart fully, without guarding or protecting myself.
On a community level I saw the safe haven I was creating at Paz y Luz, where people came to grow, heal, and transform; where they could discover their true selves, open their hearts, and learn to live in Love and Light, free from fear. This was my vision for the world as well—a place free from fear, where all people live with open hearts, able to express their hurts safely and gently in order to clear them and heal them, instead of inflicting pain on others.
Coming out of the meditation, we were each given a piece of clay and invited to intuitively express our visions with it. I began by molding clay into the torsos of a man and a woman connected at the base as well as by their arms, U-shaped. Next, I formed a flat container with small pieces of clay inside representing the people who come to Paz y Luz. Then, I realized the couple I had built was part of the container so I attached them to the side. As I did so, I saw that couple was also a model for the divine—masculine and feminine energies in perfect balance and union, watching over us all. The importance of my being part of a couple took on greater significance.
When everyone was finished, we came together in our circle to share our visions and clay pieces. Christer made a globe and an attached tower with an opening at the top like a vase, which he called “United Vision,” akin to the United Nations only better. A flower budded at the opening in the top with fully bloomed flowers surrounding the globe. These represented projects inspired by the upper world that came to fruition through United Vision. Christer’s second sculpture was a man whose head was replaced by a flower. The removed head was held in the man’s arms close to his heart. The man represented him, Christer told us, sitting in his office in the tower of United Vision where he worked more from his heart than his head.
On the last day of the Gathering we did a Nia routine, a sort of dance/meditation, called Sounding. The music was an epic story of a warrior who came home resolute to “fight no more” and discover how to live from the heart. As I danced I went into a deep meditative state. I received two very clear messages. The first was, “My gentle heart will fight no more.” I realized at that moment despite all my defenses, I do have a gentle heart and in order to live from it more fully, I need to let go of any form of fighting. The second message was even clearer than the first, “You need to marry Christer.”
When the Gathering was over, I had quieted my logical practical mind enough to know from a very deep place within myself that I would marry Christer if he wanted to do so. One day in early June, a year after we met, Christer said, “Let’s do it.” The strong connection we felt with each other seemed to override our petty irritations. We both felt within our partnership we could be more than we could apart. The work of United Vision requires both of us together with all our differences and commonalities.
We were married on June 26th, 2008, my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary and ten years after my first trip to Peru. The vision of the spiritual center that brought me to Peru and inspired me to build Paz y Luz has expanded now to include United Vision Unlimited. Our work continues to unfold. And so does yours.
Don’t think you are reading this book by accident. However it came to you, it is in your hands for a reason. Experiment, search, cleanse and release. Move beyond your comfort zone to discover your inner wisdom. Remember that the universe, with all its elemental powers is conspiring to assist you every minute of every day, even when you think it isn’t. Learn to fly on the wings of that energy. I promise you that the excitement of your adventure will be matched by your desire and willingness to follow its urging.
The taripaypacha is close at hand, the time of meeting our true selves again. Step through the gateway now.