The Paqo Path: Healers, Mystics, and the Initiations of the Q’ero

Walking the Sacred Path

In the Q’ero tradition, the word “paqo” refers to a person who has been initiated into the ancient spiritual practices of the Andes — a healer, mystic, energy worker, and keeper of sacred knowledge. The paqo is not a priest in the Western sense, not a monk who retreats from the world, not a theologian who studies texts. The paqo is a practitioner — someone who works directly with the living energy of the cosmos, maintaining the balance between worlds, healing individuals and communities, and serving as a bridge between the human realm and the vast network of conscious beings that make up the kawsay pacha.

The path of the paqo is not chosen casually. It requires dedication, courage, and a willingness to undergo profound transformation. The Q’ero recognize that becoming a healer requires first being healed — that one cannot guide others through the territory of the soul without having traveled it oneself. The paqo path is therefore a journey of initiation, each step marking a deepening of capacity, a widening of perception, and a strengthening of the healer’s connection to the sources of power.

Two Paths, One Tradition

The Q’ero distinguish between two primary types of paqos, each with a distinct role, distinct gifts, and a distinct relationship to the sources of spiritual power.

The Pampamesayoq: Earth Healer

The Pampamesayoq — literally “one who has a mesa on the pampa (earth)” — is a healer who works primarily with the energies of the earth plane. Pampamesayoqs are the most common type of paqo, and their work encompasses a wide range of healing and divinatory practices.

A Pampamesayoq may specialize in:

Coca leaf divination (Haimutay): Reading the patterns of fallen coca leaves to receive guidance about health, relationships, work, spirituality, and the unfolding of destiny. The Q’ero regard coca leaves as messengers between worlds — when three perfect leaves (a kintu) are thrown toward a sacred mountain and allowed to fall, the movement, position, proximity, and facing of the leaves carry information from the Apus and Pachamama.

The reading of coca leaves is practiced in five essential areas of human life: health, family, work, spirituality, and love. The paqo does not impose interpretation — they receive information through the shape, size, position, and distance of the coca leaves as they fall. The leaves serve as a communication channel between the paqo, the client, and the living intelligence of the natural world.

Pulse reading: Sensing the energy and health of a person through reading the pulse at the wrist, a diagnostic technique with both physical and energetic dimensions.

Despacho ceremony: Creating the elaborate prayer bundles that maintain ayni (reciprocity) with Pachamama and the Apus. A Pampamesayoq may perform hundreds of despachos throughout a year, each one tailored to specific needs and occasions.

Energy healing: Working with the mesa (medicine bundle) and khuyas (healing stones) to clear hucha (heavy energy), restore the flow of sami (refined energy), and rebalance the client’s poq’po (personal energy bubble).

Herbalism and natural healing: Knowledge of the medicinal plants of the Andes and their application for physical and energetic ailments.

The Pampamesayoq inherits their healing powers through a combination of lineage, training, and initiation. The path typically runs through families, with knowledge passed from parent to child or from elder to chosen apprentice. However, the Q’ero recognize that aptitude for the work is as important as lineage — a person must have the capacity to sense, channel, and direct living energy, and this capacity must be developed through disciplined practice.

The Altomesayoq: High Priest of the Mountains

The Altomesayoq — “one who has a mesa on the high places” — occupies a radically different position in Q’ero spiritual life. If the Pampamesayoq is the earth healer, the Altomesayoq is the voice of the mountains themselves.

An Altomesayoq does not choose their path. They are chosen — and the selection process is dramatic, terrifying, and utterly beyond human control. To become an Altomesayoq, a person must be struck by lightning three times and survive. This is understood not as random chance but as a direct call from the Apus — the mountain spirits selecting their human representative, literally branding them with celestial fire.

The lightning strikes must occur out of sight from other people. If witnessed, the tradition says, the candidate’s life would be taken rather than transformed. This detail reveals the deeply personal nature of the calling — it is a private encounter between a human soul and the vast intelligence of the mountains, not a performance for public consumption.

The Altomesayoq who emerges from this ordeal possesses capacities that no training alone can produce. They can:

Communicate directly with the Apus: While a Pampamesayoq works with the Apus through offerings and invocations, an Altomesayoq can summon and receive direct communication, wisdom, and healing guidance from the mountain spirits. In ceremony, the Altomesayoq enters a trance state and the Apus speak through them, their voices emerging from the darkness in tones quite different from the paqo’s normal voice.

Channel celestial energy: The Altomesayoq works specifically with the energies of the stars and the upper world (Hanaq Pacha), bringing cosmic forces into direct contact with those who seek healing and guidance.

Perform the highest ceremonies: Certain rituals — particularly those that affect the entire community or that deal with cosmic-level events — can only be performed by an Altomesayoq.

Serve as a bridge between humanity and the mountain spirits: The Altomesayoq acts as an intermediary, carrying messages in both directions — human prayers to the Apus and Apu guidance to the humans.

The Altomesayoq is highly respected within the Q’ero community, regarded as one of the most powerful figures in the spiritual hierarchy. Their ceremonies often take place at night, on mountaintops or in complete darkness, where the normal boundaries between worlds thin and the Apus can make themselves present.

The Karpay: Initiations of Power

The karpay is the mechanism by which spiritual power is transmitted in the Q’ero tradition. The word “karpay” means “transmission” or “initiation” — an interchange of energy between teacher and student, between the natural world and the human practitioner, between the accumulated wisdom of the lineage and the developing capacity of the initiate.

A karpay is not merely symbolic. It is understood as an actual energetic event — a download of power, a rewiring of the energy body, an opening of channels that were previously closed. The quality and quantity of energy transmitted in a karpay is proportional to the personal power of both the giver and the receiver. This means that karpays are not standardized products — they are living interactions whose effects depend on the capacity, preparation, and sincerity of everyone involved.

The Three Initiations of the Pampamesayoq Path

The traditional Pampamesayoq path involves three primary karpays, each one deepening the initiate’s connection to a different center of spiritual power:

Munay Karpay (The Heart Initiation): The first initiation opens the heart center — the seat of munay, the Quechua word for unconditional love as a conscious spiritual force. The Munay Karpay is typically performed at a sacred Apu mountain, following the ancient tradition of “opening the high love.” This initiation activates the heart’s capacity to give and receive energy freely, to practice genuine reciprocity, and to perceive the world through the eyes of love rather than the eyes of fear.

Munay is more than emotion — it is a state of consciousness, an orientation of being. When the heart center is fully open, the paqo can sense energy directly, communicate with nature beings, and channel healing power through their hands and through their mesa.

Yachay Karpay (The Wisdom Initiation): The second initiation activates the belly center — the seat of yachay, or cosmic wisdom. This is the body’s center of knowing that bypasses intellectual analysis and accesses direct, embodied knowledge. The Yachay Karpay awakens the initiate’s capacity for intuitive perception, for “reading” energy fields, for understanding the patterns of the living cosmos without the mediation of thought.

Llankay Karpay (The Action Initiation): The third initiation opens the upper channel — the connection to Hanaq Pacha (the upper world) through the crown of the head. Llankay means “right action” or “sacred work,” and this initiation empowers the paqo to bring their love (munay) and wisdom (yachay) into effective, world-changing action. With all three centers awakened, the paqo becomes a complete practitioner, capable of working with all three worlds.

Hatun Karpay: The Great Initiation

The Hatun Karpay — “the Great Initiation” — is the most intense and advanced transmission in the Q’ero tradition. It is a multi-day ceremonial ordeal designed to bring the initiate into deep harmonic resonance with the sacred geography of the ancient Inca Empire.

The Hatun Karpay involves ten or more days of ceremony, often lasting ten to twelve hours each day. The initiate is taken to the most powerful sacred sites in the Cusco region — mountains, lakes, temples, and ancient Inca ceremonial centers — and at each site, specific energy transmissions are performed. The initiate’s seven nawis (energy centers, equivalent to chakras) are connected to the power of specific Apus and Nustas (water spirits), creating an intricate web of energetic relationships that link the initiate to the sacred landscape.

The Hatun Karpay is not given lightly. It requires extensive preparation, both in terms of previous initiations and in terms of personal power. Juan Nunez del Prado, who became the first outsider to receive the complete Hatun Karpay, describes it as “a fully integrated profound energetic initiation which opens up pathways of connection to internal processes, external relationships and cosmic inspiration.”

Mosoq Karpay: The Renewal

The Mosoq Karpay — “the New Initiation” — is an act of renewal, a reaffirmation of the initiate’s promises of service and a stepping back into right relationship with Mother Earth. “Mosoq” simply means “new” in Quechua, and this ceremony represents the understanding that spiritual growth is never complete — that even the most advanced practitioner must periodically renew their commitment, clear accumulated energy, and reconnect with the sources of power.

Munay-Ki: The Nine Rites

Alberto Villoldo, through his decades of work with Q’ero masters, codified nine initiatory rites known as the Munay-Ki (from “munay” meaning love and “ki” meaning energy). These rites were adapted from Q’ero transmissions and made available to Western practitioners. They include rites of the healer, the bands of power, the harmony rite, the seer’s rite, the daykeeper’s rite, the wisdomkeeper’s rite, the earthkeeper’s rite, the starkeeper’s rite, and the creator rite. Each one transmits a specific energetic capacity and connects the initiate to a different level of the Andean spiritual lineage.

The Paqo’s Initiation Ritual

Beyond the formal karpays, there are initiatory experiences that the Q’ero regard as essential tests of the paqo’s readiness. One of the most demanding is the solo night vigil on a sacred mountain.

The aspiring Pampamesayoq is sent alone to the summit of a sacred mountain at night, without a flashlight, without matches, without wood, without food or water. They must sit in complete darkness and wait for the Apu to reveal itself. This is not a metaphor for inner work — it is a literal encounter with the mountain spirit in conditions of extreme vulnerability.

The cold, the altitude, the darkness, and the isolation strip away all pretense. The initiate confronts their fear, their smallness, their complete dependence on forces larger than themselves. And if they are ready — if their heart is open, their intention pure, their preparation sufficient — the mountain responds. The Apu makes itself known, and the initiate’s life is forever changed.

The Path Continues

The Q’ero understand that the paqo path has no endpoint. Each initiation opens a door to deeper work, wider perception, greater capacity for service. The great masters — the elders who have spent decades in practice — continue to learn, continue to receive, continue to deepen their relationship with the living cosmos.

This is perhaps the most radical teaching of the Q’ero tradition: that spiritual development is not a destination but a direction. The path does not lead to a finish line. It leads to an ever-deepening participation in the mystery of existence — an ever-widening circle of ayni with all that lives, all that has lived, and all that will ever live.