(Formal qualifications are listed at the bottom of this page)

 

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, Don Alejandro Apaza & the Apaza Family of the Inca Medicine School, Dr. Alberto Villoldo & Ms. Marcela Lobos (+ their team at the Four Winds Society), and my local shaman Dr. Sherif Tawfilis.

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I am currently, with deep gratitude, apprenticing (ongoing) with Inca Priest Giuliano Salas. I am also walking the full Ñusta Paqo path ('Inca shamanic healer path') with Don Alejandro Apaza of the Apaza Family Lineage. I am learning first-hand from Indigenous Elders in order to do the medicine justice and keep the sacred wisdom teachings intact and unconfounded as far as possible. In the middle of all of this, I decided to have a baby which has of course deepened and altered my journey.

 

At the moment I am working with the teachings I have received whilst pausing my official 'ongoing education' to give space and time for my family, my one-on-one client work/events, and integrating all the sacred teachings I have already been blessed with. At almost 39 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 it is best to let that mindset go. We need to pause, go deep, and truly embody the teachings we receive.

 

Education aside spirit constantly puts us through initiations (as does life, motherhood being an example). All this becomes our medicine. My teachers are guiding me in this process and always reminding me not to rush. This is, in the fast-paced modern world, radically beautiful...Eventually, as our children get older I will open up to receive more initiations, journey deeper into nature with them, and eventually also become a Breathwork Facilitator. 

 

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. Whereas my current work is sacred, deep, beautiful, and forever evolving, there is much more to come. Let me explain...

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My client work is still mostly based on my Four Winds training and what I have learned through spirit and experience since completing the training. 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). It may take years till I offer what I am currently learning to clients.

 

The medicine path is slow, deep, and requires many years of practice before new techniques are offered. As I go through the years of ongoing apprenticeships, and initiations and learn to embody these ancient techniques, my medicine is already shifting. This path is not simply about having received teachings, completed courses, and been initiated. That is a start, but does not make you a 'medicine woman'. Many teachings are a door to spend years meditating and forming connections with allies that come through to do the work. This is the shamanic path and it is all-consuming 24/7 and for life. 

 

From Inca Priest Giuliano Salas I am learning to hold the mesa ceremony, work with herbs, magick, and more. When/where possible I bring this to my clients. This path is a lifetime commitment, not a course with a certificate. 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. THIS is healing work - we heal through shining light on the deepest wounds and as a healer spirit will continuously 'place me in front of myself' through my clients should I have an unhealed part of myself that needs attention. To be a bridge for healing we don't have to be perfect, but we must never shy away from our own deep inner work or we will simply project it onto others. This is why this path is 24/7, 365 days a year...it is not a 'career'.

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I am here to be the vessel for spirit to assist in your healing journey. This does not mean that you need me to heal or connect with spirit, but like me, you probably need a healer to assist you where you can't help yourself. The 'medicine' flows through the healer, but what YOU do between sessions is truly what will change your life. 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 healer, 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 highlight the challenges the Sámi in Northern Sweden face and of course what is happening to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

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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)