An Alto Missayoq is the highest-ranking Andean priest, attained through years of dedicated work in healing others.
An Alto Missayoq is not born
They become one through:
- Daily hard work
- Learning more each day about the surrounding elements.
- Sensing their living presence
- Acquiring the skill to understand each element’s intrinsic value.
It interprets the flight of birds and the movement of stones.
The Alto Missayoq can listen to the dialogue of plants and knows their magical properties
Where does this skill come from for the Alto Missayoq?
From extraordinary discoveries and the gifts received in very casual ways.
Hanaj Pacha illa Rumi
It is a fragment of a meteorite. When someone sees it falling, they don’t hesitate and head straight to the likely location where the special stone landed.
They search intensely, calling it with affection and begging for it to be seen and collected to benefit the community. It always happens that those who search diligently find the cherished stone. That grants its holders the ability to predict future events.
When someone receives this gift from the heavens, the villagers recognize them as trustworthy. They have gained enough knowledge to be consulted as a Paqo.
Kuntur Chuchillo
It is a crystallized mineral, a kind of medium greenish or dark glass, shaped like a dagger or knife. It is found very rarely in the roughest mountain ranges where the eternal snows lie.
The people of the Andes believe that the aukis, or spirits of the Andean landscapes, bless anyone who finds this sacred mineral three times with the gift of prophecy, and they call them “sonk’oyok” or seer.
Khuyak Rumi
Or humanitarian stone, is a mineral with an exaggerated weight and a black or dark green color. It is extraordinarily fortunate to possess one of these stones, as the person who has it can change anyone’s bad luck, make a business prosperous, and bring fortune to marriages.
Missayoq Rumi
It is invariably white, with defined shapes that can be extraordinary, including square, round, oval, and sometimes star-shaped. Those fortunate enough to find one of these stones achieve general recognition, as only a person who has possessed other virtues can receive the gift granted by these stones.
The stone is generally the home of a spirit, so whoever finds it can communicate with that spirit. There exist inexplicable beings in the spiritual world that take the form of condors and other animals capable of conversing with us—ancient figures of knowledge and surreal abilities.
Their own longevity is their greatest skill. They defy the boundaries of our reason and remind us that we are not alone; there are other worlds coexisting alongside ours.
