The Q’eros Community: The Last Descendants of the Incas

Located in the heart of the high Andes Mountains in the Cusquenian province of Paucartambo

paqosshaman

Located in the heart of the high Andes Mountains in the Cusquenian province of Paucartambo, there is a magical place where the inhabitants are called “The Q’eros”. The people of Q’eros speak Quechua, one of the most widely spoken languages of indigenous people throughout America, with a total of 4.4 million speakers in Peru alone. The Q’eros Nation is made up of five communities in the Peruvian Andes and has a population of around 2,000 people.


Q’ero people are widely known as the last living direct descendants of the Incas, having survived the Spanish conquest by receding high into the mountains. The Q’eros community is a place where you can still find and feel the spiritual energy from the Peruvian ancestors. According to the Andean cosmovision, once there was one man who fought when the Spanish conquerors attacked the region of Cusco. When there was no more hope, he escaped to the high mountains and founded the Q’eros Community there. It is believed that this man was the last person who received the wisdom of the ancestors, and who continued sharing his ancient knowledge with the future generations of the Q’eros Community. The man is known as “Inkarry Q’ollary”, which is a special expression remembering the Inka (Inkan ruler) and the Qolla (Southern leader).


According to this myth, the man is a living spirit that is kept alive by the Q’eros people and will recapture the ancient culture and powerful reputation of the Incas. This moment will happen whenever the Andean culture lives their traditions proudly and shows these to the world without fear.



A Paqo (shamanic Master healer) from the Q'eros Nation with his traditional clothes.




Today they are the last inheritance of the wisdom and knowledge of our ancestors in the Andes of Peru. That is why they are highly respected in other regions of Peru, since they are the ones who maintain the power to heal people in spiritual and physical ways. 


In the Q’eros Community you can find special people who are called Paqos (shamanic healers). They dedicate themselves to the ancestral wisdom and knowledge they have learned from their ancestors and use their wisdom for healing purposes. There are basically two types of Paqos that can be distinguished:


The Alto Misayoq Paqo: They are the most powerful healers who received wisdom and knowledge directly from heaven through some divine sources as for example the lightning. There are only very few Alto Misayoq Paqos. Today we just have one or two in the region of Cusco.


The Pampa Misayoq Paqo: They are the ones who have received wisdom and power from their ancestors, for example from their parents and grandparents. They usually receive their healing power through several Karpay ceremonies. In these ceremonies you receive the celestial power and knowledge of a sacred initiation from an Andean healer. The Karpay Ceremony marks your spiritual path as the actual beginning of your mission in life and allows the Paqo to work as a shamanic healing Maester.



Example of the Mother Earth Offering, a ceremony of gratitude.




Each inhabitant of the Q’eros Nation has a great knowledge about the performance of several types of sacred ceremonies. For example, the Mother Earth Offering is one of the most important ceremonies that a shamanic healer, but also each man or woman can perform by themself. It is a ceremonial offering with the purpose of showing gratitude to Mother Nature and everything she has been giving to us.


The Q'eros do not follow a specific religion, they are highly spiritual, worshipping the Apus (mountain spirits) and Pachamama (Mother Earth), who cares for us as their children, giving us food, water and protection to continue with our path as humans on this beautiful earth. If you want to know more about the Mother Earth Offering and how to perform this ceremony by yourself, you can find more information HERE. We created a Shamanic Teaching Online Course with Paqos from the Q'eros Nation, so everyone has the opportunity to learn how to express and show gratitude to Mother Earth, our beautiful Pachamama.