Customer Reviews

Dance of the Four Winds: Secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I found this book to be extremely helpful in understanding or beginning to 'see' within the world of the shaman. The world around us is constantly providing us insights, clues, answers to our most profound questions. Yet we have learned, through rigorous training, to not be able to 'see' these very important clues. As a new student of shamanism, studying with Alberto, I heard the words offered in the workshops and I sensed the essence of the teachings through the experiential practices. But it was by reading this book that I began to renew my relationship with the earth; with intuition, with the contant feedback that is provided us from the natural world.

The book is easy to read and provided great insight into the shamanic realm. I highly recommend it.

I really do not understand the two, short, negative reviews
submitted for this book. They are either ignorant ot have an
axe to grind. I have been studying and practicing energy
healing for over a decade, and read this book along with Joan
Parisi Wilcox's study of Q'ero shamans. I have read many books!
I just read "Shaman, Healer, Sage" as well, and find that the
work of this author is truly an energy wishing to work towards
greater connection and healing in the world. Rome wasn't built
in a day, and it surely must be difficult to translate 25 years
of personal experience into a format that the rather brainwashed
garden variety westerner can understand and appreciate. I
recommend these books people open to understanding other cultures
and to those wishing to learn more about the world of true healing. They are a lovely addition to my home and office
libraries.

This is one of the best book I've read. It's so vivid. So mesmerizing. It really takes you on a journey. Reading this book is like actaully experiencing what the character in the book experience. It is one of the book that has a big impact on me and changed the way I see life and Nature. It's just a great book. I've read it two times and plan to read it again soon.

In this book Villoldo, perhaps one of the most well known teachers of Inca shamanism in the West, describes his initial encounters with the shamanic world. The book is devoted to Villoldo's experiences with two Peruvian healers - don Ramon Silva (an ayahuascero from the Peruvian Amazon) and don Antonio Morales, (a Qero style healer and philosophy professor!). Villoldo's recounting of Peruvian healing practices is gripping and the final chapter, in which he describes the death of his teacher's teacher in a little cottage on the Peruvian altiplano, is simply breath-taking. I also quite liked the description of the "operation" which allowed V. to see energy patterns and his animal allies.

If V. only recounted his experiences with the old shamans, the book would have been superb. Unfortunately, he decided to insert into the book his own personal issues and musings on the nature of reality (which tend to go on and on) and which to me seem to be rather cliche-y. this guy is a doer, not a thinker and all the theory just detracted me from the magic of his experiences. V. also seems to be unduly impressed by his newly acquired Ph.D. in psychology (from a little known local college) as if a degree means anything these days.

Still, I find Villoldo's accounts to be trustworthy and in my opinion this book is a useful read for people interested in Peruvian healing practices and in energy work in general.

I found this book very informative and one of those books that I couldn't put down (as opposed to couldn't pick back up!) and read it cover to cover in a matter of a week.

I found the story very believable and, although it could be construed as someone's acid-trip, based in reality. As a student of the arts, I must commend Alberto on the way he retold a story that is nearly impossible to relate.

I have recommended this text, and The Island of the Sun, to many people interested in seeking Universal Energy outside the bounds of modern religion.

We owe it to Mother Earth and Father Sun to continue the work of the Inca.

Thank you.

On of the best teaching novels I've read. Instructive without being boring. I couldn't wait to see how the story unfolded. I went on to read the full body of Villoldo's work including the newest "Shaman, Healer, Sage". All are good. I'd recommend any reader not versed in Shamanic teachings to start with the novels and progress to the newest work to reap the greatest benefit.

For anyone interested in central or south american beliefs or mysticism, this book will be an absolutely wonderful read. As with any book of this nature, the first question is: how authentic is this person? Can we believe what they have written about, or is it a work of fiction? The only way that I've been able to pass that judgement is simply through the feeling of whether the prose evokes authenticity. This book (and their other book, Island of the Sun) create images which are a wonder to experience, and take you on a journey which sweeps you right into the author's shoes. I enjoyed every minute of the book and have recommended it to many folks.

I absolutely loved reading this story, and haven't read any story as stimulating since The Celestine Prophesy.... the difference, of course being - that this book recounts true life experiences. This was an engaging, enjoyable read with many eye opening insights into other ways and worlds. I have vivid memories of the images and experiences described in this book. Fascinating!

a great and by-now classic book on the theme of shamanism by an anthopologist and psychologist. I LIKE THIS BOOK BECAUSE HE TRIES IN IT TO DECRIBE HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCES IN COMMON WORDS

The author likes to package multiple concepts from various places and then posit them as authentic traditional wisdom. The medicine wheel is a North American concept. In South America the iconography and cosmology are instead the Chakana. So when the author comes up with 'Inca Medicine Wheel' he is actually taking native traditions and making something that is not native. In the Chakana system there are three levels of consciousness including serpent, jaguar, and condor. This mix from Alberto of snake, jaguar, hummingbird, and eagle is not even Andean. Condor is the Andean mystical bird.

So what you have here is mostly New Age adventurism. It is very similar to Serpent of Light: Beyond 2012 - The Movement of the Earth's Kundalini and the Rise of the Female Light, 1949 to 2013. Both books make high claims about the authors expertise and/or authority to be master teachers in the world. Instead it appears the truths the books contain (the reader will have to discern what truth there is) are not always conveyed accurately and are second fiddle to the persona (some may say ego) of the author. I cannot recommend either celebrity.

Folks, please be careful and do some research. Things like Munay-ki (ki being the Japanese word for energy) is an invention, not tradition. Andean rites have meaning through the paqos that live amoung the people. There are no shamans in the Andes. Shamans is a correct term only in Siberia and Mongolia. It's hard to tell how much of what he is teaching is authentic and how much is invented.

If you want true Andean mysticism here are the clear authentic works:
Gate of Paradise: Secrets of Andean Shamanism
Andean Awakening: An Inca Guide to Mystical Peru