Inca Cosmology & the Quechua Language

A Preparatory Workshop for the Jaguar Path Six-Month Training

October 24, 2026 | 9:00 am - 12:00 pm EST

Long before our modern language of psychology, ecology, and holistic well-being, the peoples of the Andes developed a profound cosmology for understanding the human being and our relationship with the living world.

In this special preparatory workshop, we will explore some of the foundational teachings that inform the Jaguar Path Six-Month Training and begin developing a new vocabulary for understanding ourselves, our relationships, and our place within nature.

At the center of our exploration will be the Chakana—the Andean Cross.

More than a symbol, we will approach the Chakana as a map and compass for living—a way of understanding direction, balance, relationship, transformation, and our connection between Earth and Sky.

We will explore its relationship to the four directions and their archetypal energies—Serpent, Jaguar, Hummingbird, and Condor—as well as Pachamama beneath us and the celestial world above.

We will also begin learning an essential Quechua glossary of words and concepts that carry ideas that cannot always be translated directly into English.

Qechua

The Ancient Language of Mother Earth

Words such as Ayni, Munay, Pachamama, Hucha, Sami, and Kawsay invite us into a different way of perceiving life—one based on reciprocity, relationship, living energy, love, responsibility, and our connection with the natural world.

Language shapes thought.

And sometimes discovering a new word gives us access to an entirely new way of seeing.

These concepts can literally begin to change the way we think, helping us move beyond some of the assumptions of modern life and rediscover a worldview in which the human being is not separate from nature, but an active participant within a living, interconnected world.

This workshop will lay another important piece of the foundation for the Jaguar Path training—giving us a shared language, a shared map, and a deeper understanding of the Andean cosmology from which so much of this work emerges.

Come curious. Come open. Come ready to see the world through a different lens.