May 2003

• 5th - Travels to east San Diego County for backpack alterations with Steve Leiserson, President of Kangaroo Products.  Case and NEW STAR backpack customized to secure ISS for long hikes and treks.
  
  
• 15th - Bon voyage Sacred Fire for ISS in Altadena at Full Moon and lunar eclipse ceremony.  Twelve attendees offer prayers and intentions while holding ISS.
  
  
• 26th - Second farewell at New Moon Sacred Fire in Joshua Tree National Monument with more than a dozen participants
  
  
• Impact resistant traveling case purchased for ISS and its backpack at, ironically, a golf supply store.• 5th - Travels to east San Diego County for backpack alterations with Steve Leiserson, President of Kangaroo Products.  Case and NEW STAR backpack customized to secure ISS for long hikes and treks.
  
  
• 15th - Bon voyage Sacred Fire for ISS in Altadena at Full Moon and lunar eclipse ceremony.  Twelve attendees offer prayers and intentions while holding ISS.
  
  
• 26th - Second farewell at New Moon Sacred Fire in Joshua Tree National Monument with more than a dozen participants
  
  
• Impact resistant traveling case purchased for ISS and its backpack at, ironically, a golf supply store.
  
  

June 2003

• 18th – Arrives with Allen in Cusco, Peru, capital of the Inka Empire and oldest continuously inhabited city in the Americas, after being temporarily mistaken for a hunting weapon
  
  
• 19th – Travels by bus to Urubamba, Sacred Valley of the Inka
  
  
• 20th – Temple of the Moon, honoring Pachamama and universal feminine, carried by Allen (Southern California) (see photos below)
  
  
  • Despachos (offerings) are created by the Elders for the four directions
    
    
  • ISS Planted near the Germination Stone and next to “Vagina Rock,” surrounded by the group and the Despacho circles
    
    
  • Q’ero Elders, and 50 Holy Mountain travelers, hold him and pray
    
    
  • Alberto Villoldo of The Four Winds Society proclaims that ISS will “travel the world” invoking and grounding the 5th Sun, a great transitional time characterized by a “new consciousness” brought in by “light beings.”  Every ceremonial planting will activate, make available, and radiate these energies.
    
    
  • Allen (and in absentia Barry) installed as “guardian of the Staff” by Alberto and the Q’ero elders.
    

• 21st – Strenuous uphill hike past tens of acres of the Maras salt mines, carried by Allen, Marcella from Chile, Gabrielle from Switzerland, and Rene from Holland.  Staff bearers contemplate ISS’s “work of the South,” what it (or humanity’s status quo, the 4th Sun) must release to allow the emergence of the 5th Sun.
  

• • Despacho creation and ceremony by Dona Bernadina of Cusco and Don Francisco, the chief of the Q’ero nation, at center bottom one circular temple cavity.  ISS planted in front of Despacho alter.  Carol plants “baby Staff,” a 12” replica, next to ISS at this ceremony and most subsequent ones.  There is talk of making many more like it.
    
    
  • Sacred Fire at Urubamba asking permission, blessing and guidance for journey into Sacred Valley, including Machu Picchu
    
    
  • ISS planted near Fire, everyone (including Elders) prays with it
    
    
  • Elders dance joyfully with ISS
    
    
    
  • Alberto anoints, tempers, and cleanses point of ISS in the Sacred Fire
    
    
  • Unwatched burning of Despacho from Moray as offering to the local Apus
    
    
• 22nd – Ollantyatambo  Temple of the 3 Winds and Temple of the Healing Waters
  

• • Puma Marca, the Place of the Otorango, Mother Jaguar
    
    
  • Exquisite bus ride up narrow valley, ISS rides on Allen up to the recently excavated mountain side ruins.  ISS planted in center of main walled temple by himself for an hour or more. 
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • Despacho ceremony with Dona Bernadina, Don Umberto, and Don Ignacio with ISS prominently planted in front of alter.  Is begins “work of the West” (death and rebirth) that will be continued at Machu Picchu.  ISS loves the hiking and pastoral, mountain range Andean landscape and the Inka temple ruins.
    
    
• The Sanctuary, Ollantaytambo.  Visit transitional housing built by The Four Winds Society for Q’ero shamans that have chosen to descend permanently from their ancestral mountain villages and to start a new life in the Sacred Valley or Cusco area.
  
  
• 23rd - Machu Picchu, after 4:30 AM wake up call and train journey to Aguas Caliente.  Bus up 1500’ to site ruins of the fable City of Light.
   
  • Guard forces ISS to wait at base of Wanna Picchu while Allen, Marcella, Jon, and Shannon climb the treacherous trail to the spectacular peak. They conduct ritual missing the physical Staff but aware of its energetic presence.
    
    
    
    
     
  • Death Stone, 8-10 PM.  ISS lies on ceremonial black poncho-draped ritual Stone and experiences its luminous body shamanically “blown” into the atmosphere toward the West.  Lying “dead” with chanting shaman students and Holy Mountain travelers holding sacred space under the stars, luminous body returns from East, vitalized, enlightened and transformed by the planetary journey.  Luminous body is shamanically reunited with ISS.  Takes its turn leaning against the Sacrificial Stone to support others luminous body journey, receiving a small scratch.
    
    
  • Intiwatana, Hitching Post of the Sun, 10 PM.  Allen holds ISS on the pinnacle of the famous monument for an eternal moment outside of linear time, surrounded by fellow ceremonialists.  Symbolically and literally taking its rightful place as a sacred lightening rod for the next incarnation of our great light and life giving Star, the consciousness of the 5th Sun.
    
    (see photo at http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/South_America/Peru/South/Cusco/Machu_Pichu/photo121981.htm)
    
    
  • Pachamama Stone, 10:30 PM.  Joins the entire Holy Mountain group leaning against the huge, blessed, carved monument to our Eternal Mother, absorbing and radiating energies.  Prayers for support, inspiration, rootedness, and a sacred birth to a new phase of ISS life.
    
    
  • Temple of the Condor, 11 PM.  ISS joins our group’s youngest and eldest males, Ian and Rene, for prayer and intention setting.  Agua de Florida is poured into the running waters for honoring the spirit of the great bird and blessing of coming journeys. 
    
    
• 24th – Machu Picchu peak.  Leaving the ruins for the very strenuous, sometimes treacherous hike, Heather (New Mexico) carries ISS along with ten other good hikers.  Linda leads toward summit high above the famous “Lost City of the Inkas.” 
  
  
  • Michael (New Mexico) follows as a Staff bearer, and Peter (Holland) takes it to the top, a very narrow saddle with 1000’+ drops on three sides. 
    
    
  • Spectacular, profound ceremony with ISS planted in the very highest point of one of seven of the most sacred Apus (mountains) of the Inka.  Everyone holds and prays with ISS, with our mesas and other sacred objects placed around its base
    
    
    
    
    
• 25th – long bus ride toward Apu Ausangate, including a pass well over 1600’.  Beautiful vistas of the countryside of the Staff’s ancestral home and the Sacred Mountain, its spiritual source.  Jon (Northern California) shepherds ISS most of yesterday and today.  Smaller, older van breaks down over difficult dirt road.  We walk awhile. 
  
  
• 26th – hike to the Azul Cocha (see John’s and Allen’s photos), Blue Lagoon (over 14,000’)
  
  
  
  
  • Day begins with sweet, magnificent singing program for ISS and the entire expedition by local school children and their teacher. 
    
    
  • Walk is spectacular with ever closer views of Apu Ausangate around each bend.  ISS seems to vibrate with expectancy and recognition. 
    
    
  • Allen blows prayers and intentions for what ISS may want or need to release before its 5th Sun work can fully begin into a beautiful stone picked up on the trail.  Stone is ceremonially thrown into exquisite Male Jaguar Lagoon in a ritual cleansing at dusk.  The Spirit of Jaguar and the power of the ancient, revered lagoon absorb all that could stand in the way of ISS purpose and service. 
    
    
  • ISS planted in meadow near lagoon, surrounded by the small ceremonial group, and Don Chino leads kuta k’intu ritual; the making, sharing and eating of three leaf bundles of the sacred Coca plant.  These offerings to Sacred Mountain are blessings for new possibilities, new life, all made possible more possible since limiting old ways have been surrendered to the Jaguar Lagoon.
    
    
  • Despacho ceremony with Elders.  Asking Sacred Mountain permission to approach and blessings on our group and our mission. 
    
    
  • ISS planted at head of alter laid out on blankets and ponchos.  Group sitting in a circle.  The otherworldly blue of Azul Cocha stretches out below. 
    
    
  • Apu Ausangate (“the mountain shrouded in storm”) rises high above.  Light snowfall begins during ceremony. 
    
    
  • Magnificent, magical, indescribable.  A fit welcome for ISS by its ancestral home and the birthplace of its medicine lineage!
    
    
    
    

• • The three Inkan aspects of creation, Pachamama (glacial waters), sacred Apu Ausangate, and the Sun (Inti Taita), meet in glorious and unique explosion of beauty that marks one of the Q’ero elders’ most revered pilgrimage sites.
    
    
  • ISS planted next to the lagoon during ritual to the Spirit of Female Jaguar and ceremonially cleansed and blessed in the outlet stream. 
    
    
  • Jon, a frequent Staff bearer and ISS lover, slowly and majestically swims to center of lagoon, jackknifes in a dive to bottom, kisses the glacier in a courageous act of initiation and blessing for himself, the Staff, and all present.
    
    
  • ISS rides on Allen’s back, both ride on majestic white horse, to Alca Cocha, the Rainbow Lagoon at 16,500’ (see Allen’s photos).   Don Nasario is new Keeper of the Lagoon and the “gateway between the worlds of the manifest and the unmanifest” after the recent death of his fabled father Don Mariano. 
    
    
  • Don Chino holds Staff during the ceremony (see Allen’s photos). Don Nasario and his son make Despacho in blessing ceremony and anoint ISS with wine and burning incense.
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • The 5 mile, 4,000’ descent to our camp takes us past stone huts, grazing alpaca and llama and their shepherds, and through meadows laced with streams of glacier runoff, all familiar and comforting to Staff’s ancestral sensibility.  Camp at hot springs at Pachanta Pampa.
    
    
  • Karpai of the “Time to Come.”  Evening Despacho ritual in dining tent is an initiation or transmission of energies through the Elders to ISS and the other Holy Mountain travelers. 
    
    
  • This particular karpai has been conducted only once before, in 1995. 
    
    
  • Formulated by renowned Q’ero Elder Don Manuel, the “Dali Lama of the Andes,” this transmission is a brand new extension of ancient Inka medicine teachings for the 5th Sun, the 21st century and beyond. 
    
    
  • Don Manuel, who is in process of making his passage to the other world and too frail to be with us, can be felt as the real celebrant of transmission ceremony.
    
    
  • ISS, lying on alter in front of Q’ero shamans, is ceremonially “pounded” by each shaman’s mesa and the wrapped offering in act of actual transmission of energies. 
    
    
  • This ceremony embodies the essence of the Staff’s purpose and mission in this life.
    
    
• 28th – Prophecy by the Q’ero Elders.  Destiny readings about the next Pachakuti, the 5th Sun. 
  
  
  • This is the heart and soul of the Staff’s work and continues the unfolding of its purpose and activities.  ISS planted in front of Prophecy alter above the hot springs and anointed with wine and Agua de Florida by the Eders. 
    
    
  • Kuta k’intu offerings are made, dedicated to the Apus, and ingested.
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • Coca leaves are ritually thrown and read in ancient Prophecy ceremony.  Information is gleaned about The Four Winds, United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. 
    
    
  • Similar ceremony linking with the Staff is simultaneously conduct on Mt. Salkantay, female companion to Mt. Ausangate, by our sister expedition more than 100 miles away.
    
    
  • Alberto, Linda and all present at  the two ceremonies will ponder and digest the readings for their import and message.  An announcement about the readings may be released by The Four Winds.  All attendees are honored to be present and inspired by the process. 
    
    
  • The Inka Staff settles into his case and backpack, sated by ceremony and embodying the energy of its homeland.
    
    
  • During a bouncy, noisy van ride back to Ocongate, Alberto and Allen discuss ISS destiny to travel the world and the possibility for information dissemination, including a website. 
    
    
  • Commissioning the casting of many small Staffs, similar to the one Carol carried on this journey, is considered. 
    
    
  • Importance of a “Welcome Home to Southern California” Fire ceremony is mentioned.  They agree that the Staff is now “charged and ready for its work.”
    
    
• 29th – Cusco.  Closing meeting with Elders and the Sacred Mountain group.  Heartfelt and very touching words from the Elders expedition leaders.  Following are their sentiments as recorded in Allen’s journal.
  
  "We have received the love of our Apus, the greatness of this love.  We are very happy that all of you and all of us have received these energies.”  Don Umberto
  
  “You have drunk from the sacred energy of the mountain tops.  We have worked together very hard for the healing of each of us and all peoples.  This healing will manifest in your work and your families.  You will grow corn with it.”  Don Mariano
  
  “We have been blessed with the love of the Pachamama.  We have been received and cleansed by Her.  We are healed by the Pachamama.”  Dona Bernadina, Cusco
  
  “You have received the sacred rites.  We have traveled together and we will remain together.  We wish you strength and power.  When you need power, call on the sacred Apus.  Thank you from the depth of my heart.”  Don Francisco
  
  “You received karpai.  Carry this to your country to help with friends and family.”  Don Pasquel (Pasquelito)
  
  “All of our hucha, our pain, will remain here and you are renewed as you go forth.” Dona Bernadina, Q’ero
  
  “My heart aches for the absence of Don Manuel.  Maybe this is why we encountered such difficulties on Mt. Ausangate.  Our work and munay will help him to the other side.”  Don Chino
  
  “We wove each of you on the Ausangate (the great masculine mountain) trip into our ceremonies on Mt. Salkantay (the great feminine mountain).  You now carry both the masculine and feminine energies from the Sacred Mountains.  You have both of the Apus to call on.”  Linda
  
  “The information from the Destiny Readings on both mountains was weak.  This is a ‘masculine’ part of our Sacred Mountain expeditions and the weakness is expected perhaps.  Patriarchy is dying (with the transition from the 4th Sun, AEH) and apparently its struggling to hold on affected most of us, especially on the Ausangate journey.  Yet the feminine aspects of our journeys, such as the ceremonies and processes, were very strong.  The energy, the process, is most important now.  The Pachamama, the universal feminine, is coming in stronger and stronger.  We will see each other in our Sacred Fires, our open mesas, and in the Apus.”  Alberto
  

July 2003

• 2nd – Return to Los Angeles from Peru, the Holy Mountain Ausangate and the Sacred Valley.  A quiet two months of integration, reflection, and preparation
  
  
• Two day hikes to First Water, Angeles National Forest
  

August 2003

• 29th – Ride to Bishop California, gateway to the High Sierras
  
  
• 30th – First journey into the sacred Apus of western North America.  Five mile, 2500’ elevation gain hike to Muriel Lake, 11, 400’.  Staff’s first mountain journey sharing pack space with all necessary clothes, equipment, and food for three day stay.  No Sherpas or horses.  60+ lb pack. 
  
  
• 31st – ISS planted in rocky point jutting into lake. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• • Sacred Space opened and all present hold ISS and offer their personal prayers and intentions, especially for ISS and his work.
     
  • Allen stays with him all afternoon as he soaks up the silent, solitary beauty and power of the North American Holy Mountains.  ISS bathed and anointed in the lake waters (see photo).
    

September 2003

• 1st – Return to Monrovia, anticipating Sacred Fire in his honor
  
  
• 6th – Ceremonial Fire at Wilderness Park, Arcadia, at the edge of the Angeles National Forest.  Celebrating Staff’s roots trip to the sacred sites in Peru and return to home in Southern California. Twenty five radiantly solemn and joyous friends and lovers of ISS join the oak trees in a gathering around the fire pit for a ceremony of personal healing, transpersonal transformation, and group contribution to grounding the energy and consciousness of the incoming age.  Afterward, many enthusiastic comments could be heard.  “I couldn’t take my hands off him.”  “I was blissfully outside of time and space.”  “The presence of the Inka Elders is in the Golden Staff filled me with joy and awe.” “Being with ISS while everyone chanted sent me deeply into myself where he and I became one.” “This was one of the best Fires I’ve ever attended.”  A shared cuti healing ceremony, a sighting of flying Mother Owl, and the beauty of the wise bird’s call sound the end of a glorious, timeless, group cohesioning evening.
  
  
• 10th – Leaves with Barry on month long car trip across the United States.  In many traditions, water is the life giving "blood" of Mother Earth and the Staff's preference and focus for this trip was rivers; major rivers that connect and flow through the Continent.
  
  
• 11th – In Glenwood Springs, Colorado.  A branch of the Colorado River flows through the center of this mountain town. To commemorate the 9-11 victims of two years ago, a guide intuitively directed the Staff and me to a perfect location along the River, a small park. It was early in the morning and only one other person was at the park.  He joined me in the commemoration. After a brief explanation of ISS, he assisted in opening the sacred directions and ISS was powerfully planted in the River, between the boulders. Together and individually we memorialized the land, ancient ones of the land, ancestors, 9-11 people both alive and dead, and our families and friends. The presence of this stranger was not coincidental.  He was a very serene and powerful individual who brought purpose to being in that exact location.
  
  
• 13th – St. Charles, Missouri is located on the Missouri River and the route of the Lewis & Clark expedition. Again being guided in the early morning to a location along the River for the Staff to be placed, we stopped at a small park. No one was present here except a small marker that read something like this: "Here in 1813 the Lewis and Clark expedition landed to re-supply and rest." Just shy of two hundred years later, we stopped at this location on our expedition as well and instead of getting out of the Missouri River, the Staff and I went into the River to connect with its power and presence and pray for the continuing flow of balancing energies into the North American continent.
  
  
• 18th – The next major artery of the continent was the Ohio River, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Though this area lacked the inspirational experiences of the previous locations, ISS selected a location on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. Intentions here were quite different in that the City's strong energetic influence demanded attention. The strife and conflict of the Civil War and segregation remain active in the aura of this area. Focusing on peaceful and balancing intents was more difficult.
  
  
• 25th – The Mississippi River is the largest, widest, and longest River in North America. It is composed of many rivers including the Ohio. Once again the history of the place and the memories in the ground of slavery, segregation, racism, are strong and unsettling. Strange in ways that I am not able to describe was the experience of exposing the Staff to the energetic environment that one may call "negative", certainly not balanced or peaceful. These depressing and depleting forces remaining from the human history and conflict in this location were a numbing contrast to the powerful uplifting forces one experiences in a natural setting. With ISS planted in the very muddy waters and mud of the Mississippi River, my focus returned to meditate and pray for balance to all peoples of this location - past, present and future.
  

October 2003

• 1st – Return to Los Angeles.
  
  
• 3th – Attends The Four Winds Society’s Medicine Wheel and Healing the Light Body trainings in Santa Barbara, California.  The Staff is held and prayed with at three separate Ceremonial Fires with more than 50 in attendance at each.  For most participants this is a first introduction to the Inka Sun Staff.  ISS has a place of prominence in the Kurak rites, a transmission of Star energy for the embodiment of a new step in human evolution, the coming of a new planetary era and a new human species which Dr. Alberto Villoldo has called “homo luminous.”  The Kurak rites emerged in the Andes only 30 years ago and are linked to the Inkan, Mayan, Hopi and others’ prophecies for the year 2012 CE.  In the Inka Sun Staff project, we refer to these happenings as “Grounding the Energy of the 5th Sun.”  The greatest of living humans already embody this new consciousness and can inform those of us that aspire to the new ways of being and living.  Those that receive the Kurak rites can become a tuning fork to which many others can resonate, stimulating them to do their part in manifesting the incoming energies.  Friends of the Staff are doing this work at each sacred encounter with ISS and potentially, more and more, with each moment of our lives.  ISS appreciates, informs and loves these rites as they embody and carry out its mission.
  
  
• 26th – Barry and Allen take ISS on a steep 3 mile hike to First Water, Angeles National Forest.  Planted in the stream and soaking up the sun’s rays, ISS is cleared, cleansed, and refreshed.  We find being with the Staff in this beautiful natural setting invigorating and enlightening.  Visioning and planning for the work of ISS flows easily.
  

November 2003

• 8th – Sacred Fire at Dockweiler Beach, Southern California, on a night of heavenly significance marked by the Scorpio full moon, a full lunar eclipse, and what has been labeled the Harmonic Concordance (the latter a rare astronomical alignment of six extraterrestrial bodies).  Orange and red sunset is followed by a beautiful, joyous Fire Ceremony with ISS present and planted.  After everyone prayed with the Staff and made their offering to the fire, the Sacred Directions were being thanked and closed one by one.  As we rise from addressing and holding the Pachamama and raise our eyes upward to thank the Sky Beings, Mama Quilla (grandmother Moon) shows her partially eclipsed face through the clouds for the very first time the entire evening.  We gasp in awe and appreciation!  Our hearts are filled with love and a profound experience of connection with the Great Supporters of ISS and the manifestation of the 5th Sun.
  
  
• 9th – ceremonial planted in the Holmquist living room with Virginia Holmquist and Meg Wilber’s Dream Group.  Allen speaks briefly of the Staff and its work, Virginia opens Sacred Space in her traditional way, and all hold and pray with ISS simultaneously.  A simple, beautiful fifteen minute ceremony that marks the beginning of a new, more non-sectarian era for the Staff.  As far as we know, until today, Sacred Space for an Inka Sun Staff ceremony has been opened in a South American, Inkan, and Andean manner.  Barry and Allen see the Staff being asked to be at wider variety of gatherings, including all Native American traditions, all shamanic traditions and, as in this case, at convocations of many sorts in which Sacred Space is opened in the group’s accustomed manner.