Heart of the Shaman: online class series
Join us from wherever you are
Each year, we offer this series of online classes that share some of the foundational teachings of the Medicine Wheel, and give you an opportunity to make (or tend) your own relationship to this beautiful lineage.
Each series is different. In our most recent series, which we hosted in February and March 2025, each session began with Chris sharing some of the foundation teachings of the lineage — and then we were joined, live from Cusco in Peru’s Sacred Valley, by Don Pascual Apaza Flores. In each session, he created a healing Despacho ceremony for the group.
These classes are open to everyone – no prior experience is necessary. You are welcome to join us for the entire series, or week by week whenever you can.
In this lineage, the foundations remain essential to our practice, no matter how experienced we are. You’ll often find members of the teaching teams and past Medicine Wheel students in these classes, all of us continually learning and deepening our understanding, and grateful to be with our friends and teachers from this wonderful tradition.
A community of kindred spirits
These gatherings are about building a community, a tribe, or a village of like-minded people who want to create positive change — both within ourselves and in the world around us. The magic of these series lies in the simple yet powerful techniques you will learn, which require no specialist equipment — just a stone or two from your garden!
Read on, and you’ll find more about the kinds of topics that we cover.
Awakening harmony and balance within
When we set out on a journey like this, it is useful to have a map. The Andean Chacana is a map for life, a map of human consciousness, and is a sacred symbol that we find all across Peru’s Sacred Valley, most commonly as stone and water altars. To modern people, the idea that everything is alive – like stones or water – is one largely consigned to our ancient ancestors. To the Q’ero, this remains their everyday reality; everything has meaning, everything has a spirit, and their world is deeply connected to Mother Earth (Pachamama). The Chacana is their map to these connections, and Chris explores how the chakana helps us to find peace, harmony and balance in our own world.
The power to heal in your own hands
Do you find yourself collecting stones wherever you go? One of the main tools that our Q’ero shamans work with are the stone people: in Quechuan, medicine stones are called Khuyas. Some stones speak to us; they seem to call us and these may become our healing allies. We share a process using stones to help cleanse your luminous energy field, which, if you have ever been with us to Peru and received a personal healing session from one of our shamans, you’ll know they do this at the start of every session.
Connecting with the universal forces of nature within
The four unifying principles of creation, archetypical energies that inform our luminous energy field become powerful allies in helping us to stay deeply connected to Mother Earth, and come into balance and harmony with our world. These principles have names, Serpent, Jaguar, Hummingbird and Eagle-Condor, but they are not animals that we can domesticate! They are forces of nature, that help us to see the world with new eyes. In our training we have a personal relationship with them that we grow over time so that we know we are held and supported by the same energies that create all life.
The path of rites and initiations
This lineage is a tradition of rites – energetic initiations that are shared by those who have received them, most commonly through a medicine bundle called a ‘Mesa’. Chris tells the story of the initiations that we receive on our Medicine Wheel training programmes, on our Peru journeys, and in the Munay Ki class. We always approach them with beginner’s mind – so you’ll find our group includes people new to this work and people who have trained with us for many years.
A path of fire and deep transformation
Since the beginning of time, we humans have gathered around fire, to dance, to tell stories, to connect, to warm ourselves and to hear the voices of our ancestors. We share with you how we can use fire as a great ally to assist us in releasing those things that no longer serve us and how we honour through the fire ceremony our own healing. The spirit of the fire brings us together in circles and helps us to remember our soul’s longing for connection and belonging.
“I have self-confidence and boundaries now, something I didn’t have before. Working with this medicine has changed my health, and my life.”
Debbie
The essence of a lineage
In these series, what Chris shares is the essence of this lineage; fundamental practices, principles and elements of this tradition. Each session is unique, and somehow always speaks to what feels most needed by those present. Over the years, it has proved to be a welcoming introduction for those completely new to the tradition as well as a great way for past graduates of our shamanic practitioner training to reconnect.
Stay connected with the tradition
Whether you are dipping your toe into this deep healing lineage for the first time or staying connected to the traditions you’ve already explored, these online workshops offer a wonderful way to engage with the teachings. If you’re considering joining the Medicine Wheel practitioner training, which begins in Spring each year, these sessions provide a perfect introduction. We look forward to gathering with you around our virtual fire and making this journey together.
