I would like to begin by acknowledging the Q'ero and other Indigenous Elders, who have made their ancient sacred teachings available to my teachers, and therefore to me. I also honour the forgotten lineages of my own ancestry, the pre-Viking era pre-Christian medicine peoples of Sweden. 

 

My teachers are/have so far been: Peruvian Inca Priest Don Giuliano Salas (one-on-one apprenticeship), Don Alejandro Apaza & the Apaza Family of the Inca Medicine School (group setting with individual support), Dr. Alberto Villoldo & Ms. Marcela Lobos (+ their team at the Four Winds Society), and my local shaman Dr. Sherif Tawfilis.

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At the moment I am going through matrescence...being born as a mother, after birthing two beautiful boys less than 2 years apart. This is, without a doubt, the deepest journey I have been on so far. I am also working with and integrating the sacred teachings I have received and how my path will look as a shamanic healer and mother. At 40 a core focus for me is embodying, not accumulating...I have been in school since age 6! It can be a theme in the West to always 'want more', but when it comes to the spiritual/medicine path I believe it is important to go deep within a container as to not bypass the core of the medicine. In the future I wish to work even more with breath and breathwork and continue to grow my community through Shamanic Soul Work.

 

If you are called to work with me it is most likely because I carry a piece of the 'medicine' you currently need. That does not mean that I am here to fix you. This work is a dance we do together, not a cure or treatment you receive. My client work is still mostly based on my Four Winds training and what I have learned through spirit and experience since taking the training 5 years ago. However, in the meantime, I am learning to be a Chumpi Paqo (working with Chumpi stones) as well as going through the ongoing training and initiations to walk the Ñusta Paqo path (both through Master Don Alejandro Apaza). However, since I have two babies the training is on pause as I am in the school of life. :)

 

This path is a lifetime commitment, not a course with a certificate. Shamanic Practitioners are tested and yes we doubt if we are meant to stay on the path! However, although we are always evolving, we can do deep work from where we are currently at too...spirit sends me the clients who need the medicine I currently embody.

 

(I wish to point out that I did not intentionally seek out different lineages, but this is what happened through the teachers that came my way. They are, however, all Indigenous to Peru).

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A little more about my story...

 

After close to a decade on my 'spiritual journey', I heard the powerful call to the shamanic path and answered with every cell of my being. Walking the path of the 'medicine woman' comes with great responsibility, hard work, and ultimately changes and challenges almost every aspect of your life and being. The deeper I go the deeper shadows I have to heal within myself. 

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The healing journey is yours to walk, my job is to walk alongside you where required as my healers walk alongside me when I need it.

 

This path is, however, about more than the active one-on-one healing work I do: it comes with the responsibility to live in right relationship with the Indigenous Elders, ancient wisdom traditions, nature, and all of life. I encourage you to take a look at Marilu Shinn (https://www.kawakenergymedicine.com/) and Dr. Rocío Rosales Meza's work (https://www.drrosalesmeza.com/), especially if you are called to walk this path yourself. These amazing medicine women lead the way in honouring the sacred, decolonizing and unlearning white colonial programming.

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As a 'medicine woman' it is also very important that I know my own ancestry (born in Sweden to a Polish grandma who migrated after making it through World War II in a concentration camp). Scandinavia had shamanic practices and people lived in deep connection with nature and spirit and gathered around sacred fires, thousands of years before the era of the Vikings and Christianity. Our lineages may have been lost and the medicine women burned at the stakes, but the medicine still lives in our ancestral memories.

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The Inca Medicine path is an Earth-based tradition, and of course deeply connected to the star beings and all life. It is a peaceful non-commercial spiritual path where we aim to self-transcend and be of service, living from our hearts and walking with beauty and in unity on our planet. 

 

My job is to step fearlessly into the dark, in this world and others, transmuting darkness to light and turning wounds into wisdom. I have had to and continue to face and heal my own fears, karmic baggage, family line stories, and of course my own human struggles like addictive patterns. I am helping others as I continue my lifelong journey of self-mastery, learning, spiritual development, and preservation of Indigenous sacred teachings (shall I be so lucky to keep receiving them!) I also do my best to not centre the medicine on me, but on the Indigenous people it comes from and through. 

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Let's gather in sacred space, around the fire that has burned since the beginning of time. Join me on your healing journey as I continue on mine, let us walk with integrity, and humility, and do the deep work we and our planet need to restore harmony, within and without. Let us begin to live from our hearts and remember our roots, joining in unity and equality where everyone's seat at the table is equally valued. This is the work of all of us and why your own deep (and sometimes painful) inner healing journey is a must, especially if you are on what we call a 'spiritual path', which we all are since we are spirit.

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With love,

Tessa

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(Mona Maria Therese Santalucia)