Spiritual Keeper & Magic Guide
by Mark & Kristine Wilkerson
When Juan de Dios “Kucho” guided six of us to the center of Machu Picchu, he asked us to do two things. First, he asked us to do it backwards. Second, he asked us to approach the first view of the most iconic ancient sight on the planet…without looking. What?
Okay, the backwards part was a matter of practicality: “The crowds all go in the opposite way so we have an uncrowded experience if we tour in reverse,” said Kucho. But not looking when looking is what we came here to do? “Trust me,” Kucho said in his calm, knowing voice. “Wait to look up until I tell you. And then, like the ancients who built all this, you will feel the mountain gallop into your heart like a herd of wild horses.”
So we did. We waited. He was absolutely right. None of us will ever forget the moment he told us to look up from our boots. The moment Machu Picchu, the mountain not the Inca citadel, galloped into our hearts and souls. Quite simply, breath leaves you as the vision and the spirit fills you. This is one of the many reasons Juan de Dios “Kucho” is the Spiritual Keeper of Machu Picchu.
The following is a deep dive into wisdom with Juan de Dios Garcia, “Kucho:”
Q: Who are you and where do you come from?
A: Where do I come from? I come from the stars! [laughs]
Well, this is a daily question I ask myself: “Who am I?”
Also, I always ask myself: “What am I doing here?” But, in this third world about which I believe you are asking, I was born in Cusco, Peru. I lived more than half my life there. Later, I moved here to the Sacred Valley of Machu Picchu at Aguas Caliente, and I’m still navigating this place.
Q: What do you do?
A: I am a medicine man, a spiritual practitioner, although I now prefer to be known as a magic guide. After my personal initiation when I was a young man, I have spent most of my life here in these mountains, in contact with these mountains of Machu Picchu. In a first stage it was partly out of subsistence, having a job, and partly because the responsibility of having entered on this path. I called myself a spiritual guide. But after some time, I needed to identify myself in a different way. The mountain gave me a message to be no a spiritual guide, but a magic guide. And this gave me a strength, a sense of direction, a consistency, that’s much more stable, much more conscious.
I try to first understand the nature of this place, to comprehend the dimension of this place. In this process I have been given a lot of opportunities, a lot of path have opened, especially with the people who arrive here with all their good intentions. People who come here from all over the world. And just like any of us, they try to understand a little more of all of this. Thanks to the messages I have received and receive every day from these mountains; thanks to the wisdom of this place; to the spirit and ancestors of this place, I am guided to help people to learn and understand the magic.
The most important thing about this place is that is has a dynamic of change and constant transformation that the human senses don’t fully reach, can’t go beyond into that dimension. It seems we are navigating the third dimension, but beyond it there is more; the dimension of nature is like the dimension of the sky. Constantly changing and evolving, sometimes one doesn’t completely understand.
This place transforms you into a constant practitioner, to be a constant spiritual practitioner of the dimension of nature. And so wen we speak of the dimension of nature it’s not just mountains and the elements, the plants, it also includes all that was left to us by our ancestors: their temples, their altars, all of these marvelous works of engineering and architecture. This all gives you a mission, a projection, to see these dimensions, this time that was in the past, and this time in the present. This is one way to be able to understand a little of the magic that this place gives you.
I think that understanding a little of all this, it’s a responsibility in the face of humanity, with nature, in the face of the great problems we have on the planet, and the great responsibility each and every one of us must face. In our personal transcendence, the fruits are there for us on the path we make for ourselves, that teaches us more and more. Before evolving, I think that man, in the personal and the collective, has to embark on a journey of personal re-volution, more than e-volution.
Q: How do you share teachings with others?
A: I think teachings are spontaneous. In the understanding I have, knowledge is for the intellectual planes, but I think in the field we must guide ourselves with wisdom, which is different, a different perception, a little further on. What I want to say is that no one owns truth, nobody owns wisdom. Wisdom comes spontaneously and lands as messages. The medicine, the magic, is full of knowledge and wisdom. And healing, of course. So we have this transparency, this clarity that guides those who come in search of this medicine. We must all walk together because this position of shaman or curanderos or spiritual guide or guru, all this is history. In the present, the most important thing is the listener and the speaker. They must walk together.
Q: How does one balance the divine masculine and divine feminine?
A: In this dimension that we are talking about, there are these two aspects, divine aspects, this duality inside us, in our being. This search, this approach, is beyond duality: the Divine invites us to move past it.
Very well: you have found the feminine, you have found the masculine – what do you do with balance? The most important is creativity. Once you find the essence of the perfect equilibrium of these two aspects, then you get creativity. And so I believe that the task is in finding balance, of balancing these aspects. It’s in the name, the Divine. This search for perfection (even though nothing is perfection), this search for divine balance invites us to go beyond. That is to enter other realms of awareness, even in one’s own consciousness; to create an opening, a doorway of awareness. So the essence is that it’s not about finding balance, but going beyond it.
Q: How does one balance these supposed opposites of masculine and feminine?
A: They are not polarities, but complementary forces. It is a very Western thought, a very divided thought, to consider them polarizing. They are complementary. It’s like saying the earth and the sky. We are taught to see these as separate things. But they are integrated within us, it’s just one. Earth and sky, like masculine and feminine, are reciprocal but part of one whole. They complement one another.
Q: How does one get to balance?
A: Balance is reached thanks to the state of awareness. A state of consciousness where each being, each person, can realize the real dimension they can reach. What dos this mean? When you are aware of everything you do, when you have consciousness, you have a state of tranquility, of peace. That’s balance.
Being in peace with oneself, with others, with everything, takes you to this goal of balance, tranquility, purity. The purity of simple things. How we see, how we speak, how we hear, how we move, how we unfold before others; this I believe is the maximum equilibrium we can rescue as humans. In the simple things. I think balance is attained not in the completion, but in the search through simple natural things.
Q: What inspires you?
A: Appreciating all this nature, the plants, the animals, the humans, these mountains. The greatest thing is to live inspired. Or the world becomes too mechanical. Inspiration comes when you begin to focus your awareness, your attention, in the things closest to you: perhaps a plant, in the flight of a bird. This can show you so much. Living with inspiration is the most marvelous thing in human life. A lot of us don’t realize this. We think by knowing a lot about a lot of things we are enriching our life, our being. But the truth is, the wisdom, the medicine, the magic is that just the flight of a little fly can inspire many things. The daily things that one does…one has to live life with inspiration, always opening to creativity.
Q: I know you are working on creating your School of Andean Spirituality; how did the inspiration for the school come to you?
A: Things happen when we as humans give ourselves space for reflection – we call these “retreats” or “dietas.” Well it was like this for me. The message came to me that I needed to retreat to the mountain. I was invited to go up the mountains to explore the message. A message that was already spoken, but that was refreshed that night, by the mountains, by the nature. This special night with a full moon, then rain. Nature was set on fire and I could feel it and smell it in the smoky air. I was guided to reflect, and like a decree it was made clear to me to make this School of Andean Spirituality. This was ratified because this message had landed years ago, but when I went up the mountain that special night it was ratified that this must be done.
The person receiving this ancient wisdom sets the conditions. It is born of them willingly. That’s it. Through will. When one receives through will, when one takes action, one does things with greater strength and with love. Like one might say “I’m going to do some volunteer work over there to help the indigenous of that place.” Do it with tenacity, with your will, voluntariado expecting nothing in return. This is the way of the Andean spirituality, to do things, things born free from our will. Giving and receiving the wisdom, the magic, voluntariado. This is what we propose to do here in this school, in this place.
Juan de Dios “Kucho” – magic indeed.
intiwasispiritualcenter.com
Special thanks to An Ka Amaru and Oona Chaplin for their assistance in the interview and translation.
The focus of the Andean School of Spirituality is wakening of the Ancestor’s Path of Wisdom. This is an experiential path, not led by a guru or spiritual leader, but by experiences of unmediated connection with the natural world so a living, breathing wisdom may be received and implemented. The keys are based in life principles of nature that contribute to the harmonious way of life in the Sacred Valley as they have for millennia.
For more information about curated tours working with Juan de Dios “Kucho” and immersion in the Tawantinsuyo, contact An Ka Amaru at anka333amaru@gmail.com