Hello! Welcome to the official launch of my new book, Journeying Through The Munay-Ki. In this blog, I’m going to tell you a little bit about the book , offer a sneak peak inside and answer any FAQs you may have.
What are the Munay-Ki?
The Munay-Ki are nine initiation rites, which echo those performed by the indigenous paqos and shamans of the Incan tradition. You can read more about them in my previous posts (particularly the series, Munay-Ki for Newbies). The Munay-Ki are bestowed in beautiful ceremonies which help bring you into balance, aid your spiritual progression and help you on your healing journey. The book teaches you how to gift these rites to others.
So, it’s a teaching guide?
Primarily, it is for people who have already been gifted the rites and who wish to learn how to teach them to others, or who have been on a Munay-Ki course but want to have their memories refreshed about the procedure. However, as I state in the introduction, if you are completely new to the Munay-Ki or, indeed, to shamanism I hope that you will still enjoy the book, as it delves into the background of shamanism, the rites, the Q’ero people and various other related topics.
Why ‘journeying’ through the Munay-Ki?
This reflects the fact that the book is also a comprehensive guide to shamanic journeying (see my previous post, Journeying for Newbies), another passion of mine. Journeying is a life skill which can aid self healing and self development and which has been practiced for thousands of years by numerous different peoples and cultures.
As well as taking you through the process of how to journey, I have also written new shamanic journeys for each Munay-Ki rite, which you can use yourself, to deepen your own connection with each rite, or you can lead your students through them before each rite, in order to strengthen their connection with them.
Why have you added these journeys?
In the past, visualisations have been used by teachers for some rites but not for all of them. Those that were used did not generally conform to the procedure outlined by ‘core shamanism’, a procedure you will find is common to shamans around the world. This is because they were created by followers of the Q’ero (the Peruvian people who inspired many of the Munay-Ki rites), who are unusual amongst medicine folk in that they do not traditionally journey, its why their elders are called paqos, rather than shamans. Thus, any visualisation or journey is not strictly ‘authentic’ because the Q’ero simply do not use them. The journeys I have composed for the book, however, are inspired by the visualisations used by Alberto Villoldo’s followers and by my own experiences, whilst also being crafted to conform to a procedure, which is more authentically shamanic.
We, in the West, cannot hope to recreate the way the Q’ero live in the clouds, or their day-to-day attachment to the land and to the mountains, but, through journeying, we can establish a better, stronger link than by simply tuning in. It is my contention that these new journeys will help your students to discover a deeper connection and better prepare them for receiving the rites.
Is there anything else in the book?
Topics that you would need to cover with your students before gifting the rites, such as the Luminous Energy Field, the Wirracocha, Chakras, the Incan deities connected with the Bands of Protection and the Incan archetypes connected with the Harmony Rite are all discussed in the book.
There are also some optional topics for discussion, which are principally drawn from the Hindu faith (such as Kali Ma, White Tara and Shiva), which I believe enhance students’ understanding of the feminine and masculine.
There are also discussions about the history of the Q’ero, as well as my thoughts on ‘neoshamanism’ and humankind’s future as ‘homo luminous’.
Is it all a bit ‘text heavy’?
Not at all – almost every page has a beautiful photograph or illustration to inspire you to make further connections with the Munay-Ki. There are also diagrams to aid your understanding of how to perform the rites, which I have created especially for the book. Illustrations such as those for the Seer’s Rite and Harmony Rite which have not been seen anywhere else.
Why did you write this book?
Not for the money, I can tell you that! The book is simply too expensive to produce. I could have easily cut costs by reducing the number of illustrations and photographs but I wanted this book to be beautiful. I wanted my readers to be able to feel that, simply by reading it, their connection with the Munay-Ki had been enhanced. So, I found that I was simply not willing to cut corners for the sake of a quick buck.
I love the Munay-Ki rites and I love shamanic journeying, so the chance to write about these topics and to offer my suggestions for how they might be combined has been a real honour. I do not think there is a clear guide out there and, for those who took the course some time ago, I think that it’s always useful to have a refresher.
Where can I buy the book?
The book is available directly from the publisher, Blurb (at the link here), or via Amazon and in some specialist retail outlets.
If it is your intention to bulk purchase the book (e.g. for students on a Munay-Ki course which you intend to teach), I would suggest buying from Blurb, where there are further discounts available:
- 10–19 books – 10%
- 20–49 books – 20%
- 50+ books – 25%
I really hope that you enjoy the book and that it helps you to deliver the best possible version of the Munay-Ki for your students.