Customer Reviews

Masters of the Living Energy: The Mystical World of the Q'ero of Peru

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Yes, this IS the same book as Keepers of the Ancient Knowledge, BUT it contains a sizable new section about the mesa and the path of the paqo, written by Freddy "Puma" Quispe Singona. This is a valuable book despite it's flaws, and in my opinion the new material merited buying this new edition. If you are interested in the spiritual traditions of the Andes, this book is a great starting point.

This work is a serious research into the Q'ero mystical tradition of Peru. There are a few folks out there who claim that everything we read in English on the Q'ero is just wrong. They decry even mixed bloods (mestizo) who are the current leaders of getting the Q'ero ways out into the world. Problem is, most of the complainers are not explicit in what is 'wrong' with the material presented and do nothing themselves to promote understanding. It's easy to complain, not so easy to communicate mystical or spiritual truth. And in today's world pure-bloods are disappearing and so too would all their spiritual traditions if not for works like this.

What the author has done is to document her experiences in talking directly with the Q'ero who represented a genuine lineage behind an ancient tradition which probably reaches back to the Inka. This book is a combination of interviews and reliable information on Q'ero worldviews. The challenge here is that to really step into a living tradition such as that of the paqo/shaman, you need something more than a book, you need some face time, not necessarily in Peru, and not necessarily speaking Quecha, but time with someone who knows their stuff. The author presents information in this book that she knows hers.

Over the last half of the 20th Century, alternative religions and spiritual practices have found increasing numbers of followers in Europe and North America. The practices of Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Meditation and Yoga have spread rapidly giving millions of people, who were once socialized in a more traditional Christian or Judaic philosophy, a new way to "connect" to the spiritual, find answers within themselves, and ultimately find meaning in today's world. Some people, whose religious philosophy and practice were rooted in European based religions, even found a preferred spiritual expression in the Native American traditions of the medicine wheel, spirit guides, ceremonial rituals, and dream prophecy.


However, this religious force has moved predominately from the East to the West. It has been only in the last few years that there has been a growing interest in spiritual healing and shamanic practices from below the equator, namely from the Amazon and the villages of the Andes in South America.


In her exceptional book Masters of the Living Energy, Joan Parisi Wilcox captures the ancient and sacred traditions of the Andes, namely the mystical world of the Q'ero of Peru. Of all of the Andean communities, the Q'ero Inca seemed to have been singled out to be, what Wilcox calls "the keepers of the ancient knowledge." What is extraordinary about her book is, by writing this book in a purist and painstaking way, that she too has become a keeper of this ancient knowledge. Through dozens of persistent and careful interviews with the most powerful Q'ero shaman, she has preserved not just the core of the Q'ero healing practices, but every detail of their rituals, the hierarchy of Q'ero paqos (shaman), the comprehensive energy body, the levels of Apus, the meaning and gift of the mesa, the despacho, and a comprehensive semantic which explains the intricate architecture of the Q'ero's spiritual cosmological system.


Masters of the Living Energy is a work of enormous integrity. You feel it on every page. The glossary in the back of the book emphasizes the meticulous detail and discipline of the Q'ero mystic ideology. The traditions of the Q'ero have been passed down by word-of-mouth for centuries from generation to generation. No book, no written record, has recorded this ancient oral tradition so well. The pure ancient Q'ero traditions have been unspoiled in the modern world's search for quick spiritual meaning in the name of healing, unlike offshoots of pure Buddhism, Yoga, and other spiritual practices, which have become popularized to appeal to a more universal following. Joan Parisi Wilcox has recorded the authenticity and complex sacred traditions of the Q'ero Inca. To her enormous credit, she has captured the Q'ero as they were centuries ago and as they struggle to remain.

John M. Weiskopf
Author of "The Ascendancy"

Having been to Peru and studied with shamans (coastal highlands, Q'eros and Amazonian), I found this book to be very accurate in its portrayal of the Q'ero. The rituals apparently haven't changed much since she did her research. Contrary to other reviewers, I noticed that the Q'ero are very adamant in trying to not change and adapt to the influx of westerners. Please keep researching and writing Joan.

Thanks. Munay.

This is a valuable book written by a Westerner who, for a change, allowed the Q'ero to speak for themselves. The book is composed of several sections introducing the Qero reality archetypes, energy body, the system of energy fibres (ceques) connecting the awareness and material world and working with the spirits of the mountains (apus). Another section is devoted to the Qero mesa and its stones; this includes very practical advice on how to establish rapport with a stone and about the importance of reciprocity (ayni, a key concept of Andean shamanism); at the end there are some additional instructions on clearing the luminous body of unhealthy energetic imprints, "metabolizing" heavy energy, communicating with the ancestors and gathering energy from nature. A large part of the book is devoted to interviews with a group of respected Qero pampamesayoqs and altomesayoqs.

Taken together, the book is a valuable (easily obtainable) resource for people interested in altiplano shamanism. For people more interested in the practical aspects of the Northern Coastal tradition I'd recommend Matthew Magee's Peruvian Shamanism; there is also the more scholarly Joralemon's work). The book is respectful of the Qero but at the same time shows them with their human faces, humor and foibles. Thankfully it avoids both the supernatural crap that one finds in the New Age market and the dryness of professional scholars and sceptics...

There are problems with this book, too. The author herself, a member of the so-called "Nunez mafia", is a beginner and is not in a position to achieve a synthesis of what she heard from the paqos (healers) and her experience. As a result, the accounts are sometimes inconsistent and at other times unclear. The material for the book seems to have been collected in a single interview conducted over 3 days with a single group of Qe'ros; not speaking Quechua Wilcox was forced to rely on translations of her mestizo companions, who sometimes pushed their own (incorrect) interpretations (see the section on "pushing the kausay") which are duly recorded in the book. Basically, Wilcox is trying to run before she has learnt to walk and one could, perhaps somewhat uncharitably, attribute to her self-promoting motives which are not necessarily in line with self-effacement that characterizes altiplano shamans. Moreover, the book appears hastily written and would definitely benefit from more editing. Be that as it may, there is a lot of valuable information (particularly in the chapters written by Freddy Puma) and the book is worth reading. it was written by an amateur committed to the Andean worldview and practices.

Whatever you think of the content of this book, you can't fault the author for poor scholarship. One reviewer who does is so wrong on so many fronts that I feel compelled to correct several false and unfair charges. That reviewer obviously hasn't read the book, or he or she would know that Wilcox makes it a point in her text to discuss her choices for transcribing the Quechua. She tells the reader outright that she is using an English convention for plurals instead of the Quechua "-kuna" ending. Quechua is not a "sacred language" as the reviewer suggests. It is among the most widely spoken languages in South America, the language of the indigenous Andean peoples, and was adopted by the Inca during their rule as their administrative language. To claim it is some kind of "sacred language" is not only naive, but is wrong. However, Quechua wasn't a written language until after the Spanish conquest, and so there are various schools of spelling. The author even tells us which academic dictionary she is relying on for her spelling choices, so she covers that aspect of her scholarship, too! Wilcox also mentions why she calls "outsiders" to the indigenous culture "Westerners," which is a catchall term used by some in the Andes to refer to mestizos and to lump together others from the developed, non-rural world who come to work with the indigenous paqos. What is more, Wilcox hired a world expert on gathering Andean oral histories, Ricardo Valderrama, as her Quechua translator, so you can't fault her for the translations. And just to educate the reviewer about his or her own errors, the Spanish word "don" (which means something like "Mr." in English and is a sign of respect) is always lowercased except at the beginning of a sentence, as is the word "indigenous." Again, you may not like Wilcox's views on things, but if you are going to trash her scholarship you should at least be accurate and informed! In my view, if you want a carefully researched and respectful approach to the Andean spiritual tradition, and not some New Age sentimental interpretation, this is a book you can trust in both its scholarship and its respect for the tradition and the paqos she interviewed.

Having recieved rites from the Q'ero I found Joan's book to be an impressive body of work.

Her intention to share the teachings of the shaman in an unbiased informative way felt impeccable to me. The work is devotional in presenting their truths as she struggled through two language translations. Her pointed questions allowed these masters to convey their wisdom within our frame of reference.

Her book is a reminder of our deep connection to the divine, at once a resource and a tool for our own work. I feel grateful to her for putting this divine mystery into words. I have not found any other resource to be as detailed reguarding the message the Q'ero wish to convey to us.

I recommend this book to anyone on the path of seeking more light for this universe.

I found this book to be an intelligent and respectful, as well as enlightening, overview of the Andean tradition, which I have studied for many years both here in the States and in Peru. This is not a romantic, New Age version of a mystical tradition, but a well-researched and fair presentation that is based on interviews with the paqos (Andean practitioners) themselves (Q'ero and one non-Q'ero). The paqos come across not only as masters of their tradition, but as human beings, too, each with their own personality. I appreciate that balance. The author isn't at all starry-eyed dealing with the paqos, putting them on a pedestal and taking everything they say at face value. She isn't afraid to prod them for clarifications or more information.

I also was impressed that the author, who doesn't claim to be an expert, hired experts to assist with translations during the interviews. For instance, her Quechua translator was Ricardo Valderrama, an anthropologist from Cuzco who is known in the academic community as an expert in gathering the oral histories of the Andean indigenous peoples and whose book "Andean Lives" is an acclaimed oral history. I noted, too, that Dr. Jorge Ochoa, another major figure in the anthropology community of the Andes, is among those who have written an endorsement for this book (see the back cover).

The information in this book has a depth and breadth that I have not found anywhere outside of academic tomes about the Andes. Most of the meat of the book is found in the two long sections where the paqos speak for themselves, and Wilcox only expounds on her own theories or understandings of the tradition to set the stage for these interviews. She also provides a very useful glossary of Andean spiritual terms at the back of the book. If you are interested in the Andean sacred tradition, this book is an excellent resource.

This is an awesome book containing information that is very timely and much needed to save our planet. - Only one criticism - this is an updated version of Keepers of the Ancient Knowledge but the only way to find out is by reading the introduction. Unfortunately I ordered both books and had to return Keepers. It would be awesome if Amazon had a way of letting customers know about updates with different names.

Thank you.

Dear author, reader, brother, sister, friend,

I apologize for being the bearer of bad news, but the traditions in the Andes just aren't quite what they used to be. The author of this book conducted her so-called research in 1996, but a lot has changed in less than ten years. The communities of Qeros have changed a lot too, and the supposed Reality the author tries to come to terms with in this book is very different from what she describes.

Tourism and the Mystical Tourism industry in Peru have severely transformed the spiritual climate in Qeros, as well as elsewhere. Most, but not all, so-called traditions that exist today are for the benefit of foreign tourists with money. (I find it hard to believe that the author is unaware of that fact, though she doesn't mention it much.) The supposedly mystical experiences and knowledge herein Must be received as one receives a report from a tourist. In other words, take this book as the information gathered by someone who does Not speak the language, hasn't done her homework, got some of the names wrong, and interpreted what she saw through decidedly western eyes.

While claiming to present the Andean Mystical tradition as a self-contained and unromanticized whole, the author does little more than reveal her own lack of cultural immersion and over-simplifications in the face of an entirely alien religious, mystical, and spiritual system (as bound, importantly, in a deep, ancient, and wholly unique cultural framework). What little she does to reveal spiritual insights (and frankly, many of these insights are just cases of poor interpretation, or simply incorrect, period) is perverted by a lack of cultural awareness and sensitivity, paramount in giving the spiritual issues context.

For many years I have studied firsthand with and have close friends among the Qeros, conversing in their language (Quechua), not mine. What I have come to understand is that it is NOT vital that we understand their spiritual tradition-- in our western arrogance and self-importance, indeed it is insulting-- unless we are willing to do what it takes to KNOW the traditions.

The author seeks to explain and understand, but just doesn't know at all. I wish her well on her continued spiritual journey, but truly wonder what she hopes to gain by furthering a romanticized and westernized image of a very distinct spiritual and cultural tradition. I give her the benefit of the doubt, though, and lament that perhaps she truly has no idea how far from the truth she is.

(...)