Shirley Blancke - The Way of Abundance and Joy: The Shamanic Teachings of don Alberto Taxo

The Way of Abundance and Joy

In this era of ecological crisis, the human spirit cries out for teachings and practices that can restore balance between our species and the rest of Gods creation. Drawing from a range of genresinterviews, personal reflection, and storiesShirley Blancke conveys the wisdom of don Alberto Taxo, a revered shaman and spiritual teacher from Ecuador, whose insights can awaken humanity to the interconnection of all beings and our responsibility to live more gently on Earth. His heart-centered perspectives will resonate with people of all faith traditions who seek healing for our planet.

MARGARET BULLITT-JONAS, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, CLIMATE ACTIVIST, AND COEDITOR OF ROOTED AND RISING: VOICES OF COURAGE IN A TIME OF CLIMATE CRISIS

Acknowledgments

My deep thanks go to don Alberto Taxo for trusting me enough to undertake a presentation in English of his life, teaching, and influence, as related in the three sections of this book, and for inviting me to include accounts of my own experience with him. Patricia Noriega Rivera gave me permission to translate the interviews she conducted with don Alberto as well as some other material published in El vuelo del guila y el cndor: Historia de vida del tayta yachak Alberto Taxo. This book would not have been possible without this and I owe her my deep gratitude. Similarly my thanks go to Patricio Guerrero Arias for granting me permission to summarize a long passage on the Medicine Wheel, from his book La chakana del corazonar: Desde las espirituales y las sabiduras insurgentes de Abya Yala, which constitutes my chapter 15.

Hank Wesselman, before his sudden and unexpected passing, gave me a real gift in his foreword for this book, which expresses so well his warm and generous spirit. He will be sorely missed by many.

The third part of this book was made possible by the work of don Albertos students and associates, and I am most grateful for their participation. His students are Susan Cooper, Christiane Gottwald, Caty Laignel, Lucas K., Shari Parslow, Susan Martin, and Jeanne Dooley. His students Julie Bloomer and Martha W. Travers are also authors, and his associates are authors John Perkins and Itzhak Beery.

I also want to recognize the support I have received from Laszlo Slomovits during the gestation of this project. Laz and his late wife, Helen, expressed their appreciation of don Alberto by writing, illustrating, and self-publishing his previous books in English. These include An Invitation from the Andes; Friendship with the Elements; and Reconnecting with Our Indigenous Heart, which are listed in the bibliography under Taxo. As musicians, Laz and Helen also made a CDFriendship with the Elementsof don Albertos singing.

My heartfelt thanks go to Gabriela Ansari for drawing the Chakana diagrams and for helping me with Spanish interpretation; also to Susan Martin and Denis Jenssen who chased typos at different stages of the manuscript. The knowledge that my husband, Timothy, has about computers saved my bacon on untold occasions, and I doubt I could have done this without his support. William Sullivans photograph at the Indigenous Womens Conference and Dori Smiths at the waterfall are great additions. I am also very grateful to all the staff members at Inner Traditions who have helped me through the publication process, and particularly to Jamaica Burns Griffin for her advice in clarifying the text. Artist Iza Paezs lovely photograph graces the cover.

Contents

Foreword

Many years ago I was leading a travel group in Peru where I met a Qechua man in Cuzco, a man from the Andes who was a pharmacist by trade... and who was also a shaman. However, he insisted that he wasnt a shaman, for as many of you know, no authentic shaman ever claims the title. But when weas a group under his directionhad created a despacho offering with coca leaves, cookies, candy, and other things as well, he engaged in ceremony with a sacred fire he had created. And when he offered the collective assemblage of all our offerings to the fire, I watched entranced as the flames actually reached toward his hands to receive them.

In a private moment with this shaman, he informed me that in response to Westernization, his peoples on the altiplano of the Andes were less inclined to live up there in the cold and grow potatoes. He smiled knowingly at me and revealed that his people wished to move down to Lima and Cuzco and engage with the Western world: living in apartments, getting jobs in banks and offices, wearing suits and ties and dresses, and having cars and computers. For them, he said, the shamans path was sometimes like old-fashion hocus-pocus; the practice of shamanism was beginning to fade among the traditional peoples.

Then he brightened visibly and informed me that as the shamans path dimmed among the traditionals, something wonderful was happening. Shamanism was taking root once more in the Western world and we Westerners could very well be the next carriers of the tradition. When I lamented that we had no long-lived tradition of the shamans path, he swept my reservations aside.

It is important to understand, he proclaimed, that if we go far enough back, we are all descended from indigenous ancestors and they all had powerful shamans. Their ability to vision and access the hidden worlds for power, protection, and healing is one of our birthrights, no matter what our cultural origins may be. In addition, each new generation has the responsibility to restore and refresh a continuously re-created tradition, even adding to and changing the accumulating treasure of wisdom and technique. For it was always in this way that the ancient spiritual path of the shaman remained vital and meaningful to those who walked it.

The path will change, it will evolve, he continued, in response to who and what you choose to become during the time given to you here on our world. Its been like this forever; the path is immortal. It will change you as well. He grinned with the delight of it.

In response to his thoughts, I might observe that we live in a time in which the traditional spiritual wisdom of the indigenous people around the world is being rediscovered and reconsidered by increasing numbers of Western people who are involved in an expanding spiritual awakening that is happening among us. We discover that across time, through trial and error, the traditionals created families of techniques that could be called a technology of the sacred. In this technology are bright jewels of great interest to modern mystics and spiritual seekers alikeof many persuasions. These are spiritual methods, not organized religions, which we may practice with reverence and self-discipline to make contact with transpersonal forces that reside in the hidden worlds that we may explore with their assistance.

In response our life is capable of becoming an incredibly enriched adventure.

What a gift for anthropologist Shirley Blancke to have gotten to know shaman-priest don Alberto at a deep level. What a gift for don Alberto to have had such a friend as Shirley Blancke. And what a gift that the beautiful and powerful story of their friendship is now available for us to read and witness. Together they have created a wonderful book, giving us glimpses into a non-Western culture and way of life.