Donna Quesada: Well Karen, it’s wonderful to see you again. It was a pleasure to meet you the last time.
And it’s even more special today because you are going to share with us the wisdom of the Munay-ki, the shamanic people, that has been hidden for so long. And Alberto Villoldo told us that you were uniquely qualified to share with us this wisdom and it’s just so exciting because it was hidden for so many years. For centuries.
Karen Hoza: Yes, it was. When the conquistadors came, it all disappeared with the Q’ero Shamans up into the mountains. And it wasn’t until recent times that it has really come back to us. I’m super excited to share this information with you and it’s a pleasure to be with you again. Thank you, Donna for having me today.
DONNA: Last time we met it was just before the pandemic, so today we are not going to talk about any of that at all. We are just going to unpack these initiation rites. And it will take some time and I just can’t wait to get into it. But first… What is awakening to you, Karen?
KAREN: For me, it is when we are really able to strip away all the roles that have defined us. And those roles come to us from society. They are put on us. Or perhaps, we step into them, ourselves. And it’s when we are able to strip all those roles away, and really tap into our authentic self… the soul parts. And there are times when that part of ourselves, that is so authentic, has had to step back because of some trauma in our lives.
So, as we begin to do our healing… and the Munay-ki helps us with that… we are able to bring those parts of ourselves back into consciousness and be connected to our soul. And it’s that soul that really allows us to awaken and really find that joy and passion in our lives.
DONNA: You know, this is such a theme… No matter what tradition I study or dig in to… There is this theme of coming back to our true selves. In Zen, it’s compared to the beginner’s mind. This state of purity that lies beneath all of the cultural conditioning and all of the things that bring us away from our own destiny.
KAREN: Absolutely, Alberto will talk about how we just need to get entrained with the cultural trance. It’s so important that we step out of that. So that we can step into our own becoming that is waiting for us there.
DONNA: It’s so fascinating. We could go off on a million tangents. Just to push it a little further, before we get into the Munay-ki rites… what pulls us? Why do we allow ourselves to get pulled away from our authenticity? Is it lack of courage? Is it lack of knowing yourself? Is it fear?
KAREN: I think that it’s a combination of the things you said. I think a big piece of it is our belief system. What happens is that our beliefs come in starting from when we are born. They are coming from our cultures. They are coming from our families. Our churches. Our schools. Communities. Cultures. And all of these things that create beliefs about ourselves begin to be filed away in the subconscious. And we just create our lives by these things. And until we can really bring all of that into consciousness and make a decision… Wow… Does that belief serve me? Do I need to live by something else? Until we can really do that, we aren’t connected. Living by this unconscious belief that may or may not be true.
DONNA: Hence, the need for a practice that allows us to tap into that conscious awareness. So, we can be discerning in terms of which beliefs we take to be true.
KAREN: Absolutely. Beliefs are everything. They are the foundation of our whole life. Our whole world. We create. If we can see it out there. It’s not possible. So, we limit ourselves. All the possibilities that are out there for us. We are limited. We aren’t even able to see it. Because of those limiting beliefs.
DONNA: Amazing.
KAREN: Munay-ki… Those rites, themselves, as they come in. They come in as blessings or empowerments that really start to shift our vibrational energy and they clear our karma and our ancestral inheritances and they begin to clear all of these things that create those beliefs. It’s so important because of how they help us to clear all of this so that we can step into our birthright… our destiny, that we were born with.
DONNA: The authentic self. What is the Munay-ki? What does the word mean and where does this wisdom come from?
—KAREN: Great question. So, Munay-ki—the name comes from the Q’ero or Quechua, which means “deep love.” Ki comes from the Japanese for “power.” So, it’s the “power of love.”
DONNA: Chi, healing energy. Life force. Absolutely.
KAREN: Absolutely. You also see it translated as I love you or I love you as you are. So, it’s that unconditional power of love. And you know, the Munay-ki… these rites are ancient and they have shown up in cultures all over the world in different forms. So, it’s the form that changes but the essence of the rite and what they bring has always remained the same. The rites come originally from the Indus Valley, 85,000 years ago.
DONNA: So, from India?
KAREN: Yes.
DONNA: Or the Himalayan area?
KAREN: Well, they made their way from the Indus Valley to the Himalayas. They made their way to Australia. They made their way to Europe and then 30,000 years ago, across the Bering Strait into the Americas, where they are now, and the story says that they were brought across the Bering Strait by 14 men and women.
DONNA: Mind boggling, truly.
KAREN: It is.
DONNA: And so, now they are home in Peru. They call Peru their home? Did it come from the Incan People?
KAREN: Because that shift in consciousness runs like a snake… That energy has moved all the way where the tail is… down in Chile. And the head is all the way up in Denali, way up in Alaska. It is amazing. It’s so exciting. You know, the rites are ancient, and they really awaken our latent capabilities, as humans. Those unique capabilities… and as they raise our vibration and as they shift our whole being… what happens is that they connect us with luminous ones. They connect us with Arch-Angels. They connect us with the first people who were with those rites, who were really ordinary people like you and I.
DONNA: Let me just stop and make sure I understand… and I’ve read that there are the Kundalini hotspots around the globe. So, it’s made its way to Peru, as I understand it, or the Amazon?
KAREN: The Amazon and the high mountains.
DONNA: Which is the Kundalini hot spot…
KAREN: You got it. And then coming all the way up.
DONNA: So, it finds… maybe because the people there are receptive to it and are able to guard it and transmit it.
KAREN: That’s great, what you brought up. They are able to guard it. So, what happened is that these rites, this medicine, all of these blessings, empowerments… were all with the Laika or Q’ero people of Peru. And when the conquistadors came in, all of that energy and medicine and wisdom was taken by these people, way up into the high mountains to be guarded and preserved. It stayed there and no one was even aware of it being present any longer. They said it had all been wiped out.
And in the 50’s, during the solstice celebration down in Peru… these medicine people came down from the high mountains bringing these rites to share. And people were amazed because they thought that they had all disappeared. And so, it all began to come out at that time. There’s a prophecy. And the prophecy said that when the eagle and the condor fly together, the energy is going to be taken out into the world.
And so, that was the start of it coming back in. And then all the way up into the 90’s, when Alberto was actually in Peru with his Mentor, Don Manuel, who is the keeper of the High Mountain… and Alberto was taking students to the high mountains…and Don Manuel was giving the rites to the students… and Alberto asked, “Don’t you think we should share these rites with more people?” “Maybe we could take them out to all of our students, not just the ones that are able to come to Peru?”.
And Don Manuel said “You know, if we do that, it puts us out into the light. And people are going to know we are here and it might be a negative thing. Or it might be fearful for us. It might be a hard thing for us to do.” And in his next breath, he said, “Let’s do it.” The world needs these rites. It’s time. And so, starting then, these rites begin to be spread throughout the world and we had at that time seven rites.
And in 2006, on another journey into Peru, the last rites were brought down from the high mountain. And as we get into what the rites are and we talk about them, you will see that the last rite was the Creator Rite. The God Rite, which had never been passed on from Human to Human. Only from spirit to human. And so, in 2006, it began to be passed on from human to human and that’s how we came to the whole body of the nine rites.
In 2006, they were brought back and Alberto began to share the rites and spread them. And they are all over the world now. You will see people passing on the Munay-ki in all countries. It’s so beautiful.
DONNA: It’s always risky too… because we see what happens when we institutionalize precious wisdom.
KAREN: Absolutely.
DONNA: Yeah. It can get diluted, at best. Twisted and used.
KAREN: The rites were all brought out. Alberto’s whole mission was for them to be gifted. That’s how the Q’ero wanted it to happen. We have a little Munay-ki website. And that particular website lists people all over the world who have the rites and are able to pass those rites on to others. So, it’s a place, if you are interested and you want to see if there is someone near you. You can receive those rites. One of the things that is interesting to me is how the rites get passed on. The form can change. The essence stays the same.
So, it’s like the flame on a candle. That energy of that flame stays the same. But the candle might take on all kinds of different forms. So, we are seeing a change, even right now with the rites. Because we used to be giving them person to person, in person. And now, we are passing the rites on energetically with all the things that have been going on and how things are shifting. The rites are now being passed on one to another, even online. It’s beautiful. It’s so increased, how they can spread in the world. And as we know, as those rites spread and it shifts our vibration… we are then in a place where we are able to help shift the world.
DONNA: Let’s start. What is the first rite?
KAREN: So, the first rite is the Bands of Protection. You may have it written down in a different way.
DONNA: The Healer’s Rite?
KAREN: We can go with Healer’s Rite. I always think of that as the Second Rite. But let’s go with that as the first one. There is no…
DONNA: I do see Bands of Power. So, it’s not absolutely fixed where one and two are in a certain order?
KAREN: Yes, that is correct. Let’s go with The Healer and then we can talk about how those two change around a bit. The Healer’s Rite is a rite that is passed on into the hands and it awakens the healer within. So, it awakens the healer within and connects us to a lineage of earth keepers. So, the beauty of the rite is how we are connected as a lineage. A healing lineage… So that it’s not just us on our own, but we have that help. And as we awaken that healer within, and as we connect to those ancient healers… What happens is that we have access to their knowledge. We have access to their stories. So, we might even start to imagine and see the ancient plains or Siberia or where ever they have come from because we… So, we connect to those luminous ones, those gate keepers who have gone on to become almost like angels.
DONNA: Amazing… so we tap into their energy field, in a sense? Would that be correct to say?
KAREN: I’d say yes because we have that field where we connect and that is how we are able to work out of time. And that is the beauty of the rites. They let us step out of ordinary time. They let us step into all possibility. Yes, so we have access to that wisdom. Yes, that wisdom that they carry is available to us when that rite is passed on.
DONNA: So, that’s the first step of the nine rites… is to tap into the ancients so that we can know what they know and tap into the energetic powers they had.
KAREN: Absolutely, and we attune is how we say it. Pass those rites on. If I was to pass that rite on to you, I would hold that rite. I would attune to it. I would call it in and attune to it. And then pass it on to you. So, it’s that tuning to that energy, yes.
Read and Watch Part II Here: Awaken Interviews Karen Hoza Pt 2 – Homo Sapiens Into Homo Luminous
Read and Watch Part III Here: Awaken Interviews Karen Hoza – Pt 3 – Only From A Position Of Non-Ego, Can We Truly Be Of Service
Karen Hoza is an Energy Medicine practitioner and Reike Master, trained by Dr. Alberto Villoldo. She is a graduate of The Four Winds Light Body School and also holds their Master Certification. Karen is currently working as an Alternative and Complementary Health Counselor at The Sanctuary at Sedona, an integrative addiction recovery and trauma healing center. Karen incorporates creativity in all aspects of her healing work, and loves spending time bellydancing and gardening.
