WHAT IS THE MUNAY-KI?
The nine Munay-Ki Initiation Rites come from the Andean Spiritual Tradition in Peru. These Rites became available to us in this form in 2006 while Alberto Villoldo and the Q’ero shamans with whom he works, were leading a sacred journey in the snow-capped mountains above Cusco.
Alberto Villoldo, who I first met at the talk in Johannesburg in 1998, is a Cuban-American psychologist and medical anthropologist who studied Peruvian shamanic healing practices in the 70s and 80s. He started the Four Winds Society in 1984 and has been teaching shamanic healing and leadings groups to Peru for more than 30 years.
In 2006, Alberto and the Q’ero shamans felt that the time was right to share the energy of the traditional initiation rites in a form that was more accessible to people around the world. They believe that we are at a critical juncture in human history and that sharing these Rites with as many people as possible, will assist in the great transformation known as the taripaypacha, the time of meeting ourselves again.
Alberto says, “These prophecies of the ancient Americas speak about a new human appearing on the planet – one who lives free of fear and resides in his or her transcendent nature. The Munay-Ki Rites are the codes for the new human. They are delivered in the form of energetic transmissions and help us to develop a new architecture in our luminous energy field.”
These Rites are given in this new form, as the next step in the evolution of humanity; to realign and attune the neuro-pathways in the body and truly shift human consciousness. These Initiation Rites, in essence, empower us to step up to the task of being light-workers for the Earth and all creation, during this amazing time of transition.
The Munay-Ki Rites assist the recipient to heal the past and become a person of wisdom and power. As you experience these energy transmissions, you can feel the presence and sense the wisdom of luminous beings who have broken out of linear time and now dwell in sacred time. As you raise your level of vibration, these luminous beings will come to you and guide you.
Traditionally, the lineage Rites in the Andes are given using a mesa, or medicine bundle with power stones from the sacred mountains. The Munay-Ki Rites are given instead with a donut shaped “Pi stone”.
The Pi Stone is symbolic of our luminous energy field. The circular shape represents the archetype for wholeness. The shape also represents the ouroborous, the serpent of light swallowing its own tail, constantly creating itself, and forming a circle. It symbolizes the eternal unity of things, the cycle of life, death and rebirth. The centre represents our energetic spine, the kundalini energy that flows through the centre of our bodies, symbolizing our own spiraling DNA. It is associated with the serpent of light coiled around the base of the spine, approximately 3.142 times (π). When awakened, it spirals up your spine like a figure 8 around your seven chakras, creating a never-ending loop, opening you to higher consciousness.
When you have received all nine Rites, and learned how to give them, you are given a Pi stone. It is asked that you pass on the Rites to others. Once enough people have awakened to a higher level of consciousness, we will then witness the birth of a new form of human on the planet and the dawn of a new civilization, proving the adage that “we are the Ones we’ve been waiting for”.
My own experiences with the Munay-Ki began with some hesitation. When I first received the Rites from Claudia over a period of one week, I felt the energy increasing with each Rite I received. By the time she gave me the last three Rites, I felt a shiver pulsing through my body that surprised me.
What interested me most about the Munay-Ki at that time was learning how to give the traditional Lineage Rites which Regis and Sergio had given to me but had not taught me how to give them to others. If I was going to teach the Andean Tradition in my own way, I needed to know how to initiate other people. But I was reluctant at first to fully embrace the Munay-Ki Initiation as a set of nine Rites because I hadn’t studied with Alberto and knew (as much as an outsider can know these things) that Alberto’s way of teaching the tradition had different aspects than the way I had learned it.
Yet after learning the Munay-Ki, and even more so after teaching it to others, I realized that the energy of these Rites is profound and powerful. The form and substance of the Rites had been codified by Alberto but the energy and purpose of the Munay-Ki is connected to an ancient tradition that reminds us of who we really are, beyond culture and country.
I watched my students transform in amazing ways in the short span of three days as they received the Rites and learned to give them to others. Many of those students began to teach the Rites themselves which changed their lives in even deeper ways. We live in a time when we each can learn from one another how to become our best selves. I teach the Munay-Ki because it empowers me and the ones I teach it to.
I delight in the circular feminine form in which the Rites are given and then shared, because the time of hierarchical control is over. What is special for me about the Nine Munay-Ki Rites is that anyone who wants them can receive them. After learning how to give them, you can share them with as many people as you’d like and teach others how to do the same. People are drawn to the Munay-Ki because they change lives in a positive way. There exists the trust and belief that through these rites we are connecting to a higher source, to become co-creators of the world we are dreaming into being.