Since my latest initiation to become an Altomisayoq Shaman, all my rituals are now executed with an open “Shamanic Mesa”, (this is a mobile version of an altar). Previous initiations to this one have been Q’ero, so my mesa is mostly components of this tradition. This means I have three hand woven mats, a large one which denotes the future and the past, plus the material and the energy that sustains it. Then I have a middle mat which represents the feminine and masculine energies of the creation and finally a small mat that points towards the East, South, West and North.

One thing I had not used in a while, because it’s not part of this tradition is my Native American Rattles. This last year I moved offices and in the middle of all that the rattles got stored away. Today as I opened the Mesa to create a ritual for a client, something deep within me felt as if something was missing. It didn’t take long to remember the rattles. I quickly got up and found them and started adding a little rattling to the concentration and healing intention I was sending off. The results was mesmerizing. The first thing that happened was that my cat sat right next to me and would look around the house almost as if guests were coming in. Next, the rhythm of the rattles steadied with the intention I was projecting. It’s a little complicated to explain, you see in Shamanism, we learn to “feel” a specific situation or desired outcome. This feeling I am talking about is not metaphysical or imaginary, it’s more of a sense of inertia of the situation being treated. Everything in the Universe will have some sort of an innate flow to it. Shamans learn early on to attune to this and an amazing tool is the rattle. As the Shaman rattles, different speeds and combinations are expressed. Up to this point you are just expressing sound with an instrument. After some time though, certain tones and speeds just seem to belong to the moment. Once the Shaman perceives this, the rhythm is in what we call the “sweet spot”. After one or two minutes, everything in the Mesa, and the room where this is taking place just seems to belong. All becomes part of a “One”. It’s a very satisfying sense and yet quite difficult to describe. As I write this though, I can’t but share one of the tenets of Andean Shamanism: “We are all connected, We are all One, We are all well”.

I had never thought about it this way before, but I guess this tenet is not just referring to people, but also to everything else within existence. Literally objects will have and contribute with their resonance to all being well, as long as there is a dominant driving force, in this case it being the Shaman’s intentions.

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