Don Juan Apaza

We are excited to be welcoming Q'ero priest and Pampamesayok, Juan Gabriel Apaza from Peru to the Gathering!  Don Juan was an apprentice for 30 years with the great Altomesayok, Don Manuel Q'espe. He will share traditional Q'ero teachings and offer ceremonies and healings with us.

Don Valerio Cohaila

A native Aymara from Tacna, Peru, Don Valerio Cohaila (Freddy) is a teacher of this ancient wisdom.  He is an YATIRI (priest), born in the Khallawaya community, 13,000 feet high in the Andes, the frontier for Peru and Bolivia.  As an heir to the Andes/Amazon tradition, when the 10th cycle of the Pachacuteq Calendar started, in1992 he was sent to Europe and North America by his Elders to share their traditions and to fulfill the Hopi Prophesy that states:  When the Condor of the South meets the Eagle of the North and they fly together, then it will be the sign that the Children of the Mother Earth are reawakening. We are honored to have Freddy at the Gathering this year as he has been from the very beginning of this event.  This year, he will share The Message of the Inca Elders.

Dennis (Rocky) King

Dennis is a Bear Clan Healer of the Oneida Nation.  His great-grandfather Daniel Denny and his son (Dennis' Grandfather), Comey Denny, were also healers of the Oneida Nation. Since 2000 he has been learning traditional healing methods and energies handed down by his Great-Grandfather and Grandfather as well as those of others he's met on his journey.

"Earlier in my life I used alcohol in ways that put me through more tests than I care to remember.  However,it taught me that I could be a stronger and better person, and through my experiences I have learned how to help other people.  I've been sober for over 17 years now and daily, the beauty of Creation shows itself to me.  The flow of energy available for healing purposes is as old as time itself.  I continue to learn how to use this energy, how to recognize Spirit in all of Creation, and how to utilize it for the benefit of others. I have had many roles over the years, and within the past 10 or so, I have come into my own path, speaking of my ability to heal with the knowledge of traditional healing.  It is the understanding of my people that we all have gifts before we step foot upon the earth.  Sometimes there are those of us who learn of these gifts at an early age, whereas for others they come to us in time. This is the case with me.  I have matured into this gift of healing. I have had the opportunity to work with people from many different areas to assist me in my knowledge of healing."

At this year's Gathering, Dennis will speak about the traditional healing methods he practices and be available for private healings.

Sylvia Sharma

Sylvia Mayahuel Sharma is a healer and ceremonial leader. Her commitment to individual and community healing is through cultural arts. She focuses her work on women's leadership, immigrant rights and ceremonies such as Dia De Los Muertos (the day of the dead) and the Moondance.

Her passion is the Moondance, a women's ceremony from Mexico that takes place over the full moon, bringing women together to dance, sing, pray and find their Nagual (human consciousness). The dance is held each year in Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia and Minnesota.  Sylvia received a staff from the council of elders in Zocalo, Mexico to bring the tradition to Minnesota.

Sylvia will present on the traditions of the Moondance and how we as women can step into our feminine power.  Embracing core values of balance, internal allowing, creativity and action thus opening our hearts to compassion and collective work for the common good.

Mary Stoffel

Mary Stoffel left the corporate world to pursue her spiritual path in shamanic and energy healing.  She offers holistic healing services for the spiritual and emotional aspects of illness in both people and animals to restore balance, harmony and life-essence vitality, including:  Shamanic Healing, Energy Interference Patterning, Past-Life Clearing, Heart-based Possession and Entity Clearing, Shamanic Practice Training, Animal Communication Consultations and Classes and Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils.

She is the author of Direct Revelation:  A Practical Guide to Solving Problems with Shamanic Journeying and Helping Rescued and Adopted Animals Heal: Physically, Emotionally and Spiritually. Mary will speak about her practical applications of shamanism. Deepening our spiritual practice is wonderful and enlightening, but what do you do when you are laid off from your job, or a health issue crops up, or you have recurring relationship problems?

Lena Swanson

Unfortunately, due to a recent injury to one of her dogs, Lena has had to cancel her presentation at the Gathering this year.

Lena has been a full time shamanic healer, professional animal communicator, past life regression facilitator, Reiki master and consultant in the use of flower essences and essential oils since 2002.  Her holistic health care practice focuses on achieving and maintaining wellness for both people and animals. She is a graduate of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies' intensive three year program, one of the last taught by founder Michael Harner.  She has also studied extensively with Sandra Ingerman and completed her two year shamanic teacher training. Lena is especially interested in Ingerman's visionary work Medicine for the Earth and teaches ongoing journey classes based on this 'spiritual environmentalism'. Her presentation will provide an introduction to Medicine for the Earth.

Vance Gellert

Vance Gellert is an accomplished fine arts photographer whose work has been shown and published internationally. He is also a published pharmacologist. While still in graduate school he became interested in studying the rituals associated with indigenous medicinal plant use as a way of understanding how they work and could be incorporated into western biomedicine. Since 2004 he has spent over 10 months studying this in Bolivia and Peru with his cameras and video.  Enlightening and extraordinary experiences with shamans, traditional healers and a jaguar have led him to concentrate on the importance of ritual and belief in the healing process.  Spirituality is the foundation of shamanism and is practiced through ceremony, ritual and belief in addition to its medicines and techniques. Science is the foundation of western biomedicine and also practiced through ceremony, ritual and belief in addition to its powerful technology and medicines. Gellert is currently focusing his camera on these unacknowledged but important rituals in biomedicine's hospitals and clinics. he will do a special presentation of images and ideas for the Midwest Shamanic Gathering distilled from his experiences and range of work.

Lee Hilfiker

Lee Hilfiker, M.Ed, P.D., is a psychotherapist, shaman healer, ceremonialist, and international teacher.  She holds a Masters Degree in Education - Art Therapy, licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Expressive Arts Therapist, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Integrative Medicine Practitioner, Healing Touch and Reiki Practitioner, and is an initiated divination reader.  She integrates her Western clinical experience with traditional, shamanic healing ceremonies.  Now, in her 65th year, Lee dedicates her life and teachings to the truest, most Sacred Way of living and healing.

Lee's ancestral roots are of the indigenous Sami of Lapland, Sweden. She was initiated as a shaman prior to birth, again when struck by lightening when she was 16 years old, and has survived an aggressive cancer and other life threatening challenges.

Lee has studied shamanism and traditional healing through her extensive travels internationally (ex: the Sami noaidi/shaman, Mexico currandero/healers, Peru and Ecuador Paqo/mystic of the Andes and the Medicine people of the Amazon and North American Tribal Elders) in depth for more than 40 years.  In addition to her studies, she has presented on shamanism at universities and conferences as well as taught shamanism internationally.  She is a Founding member of The Society for Shamanic Practitioners, Co-Founder of the Midwest Shamanic Gathering and a Founding adviser to Northland Shamanic Society. To learn more about Lee and her medicine work, go to www.SacredWay.net

The Sami and Their Magical Medicine

Lee will be leading a three round, Sami "House of the Ancestors" sweat lodge.  She will also be teaching a session on Sami, their folk and magical medicine which will include drum, divination, herbs, animals, singing (yoik), the sweat lodge and the elements of earth, water, air, and fire.  Please bring your drums and rattles to the teachings, if you have them. A limited number of drums will be available for use. This session is recommended, but not required for the Sami sweat lodge.

Jackie Red Woman

Jackie Red Woman, Native American from the Ottawa Nation, lives in Central Wisconsin

"In 1991 Creator chose people from all races, from every corner of the world and from all walks of life.  They were gifted with an energy never felt on Mother Earth before.  Their lives would be turned upside down, and chaos would rein for them until they turned their lives in a new direction, to their new 'mission' as healers.  Thus forming a 'web' of healers around the Earth"

Thus Jackie's journey as a healer began in 1991, although she would not learn of the 'prophecy' involved until years later.  She will share her life experiences as a healer and the lessons she has learned along the way.

Dan Hull

Dan is an Anishinaabe and is a volunteer mentor for at risk youth. He's also a spiritual adviser for the department of social services treatment facilities.  He facilitates spring and fall ceremonies as given to him in dreams. Dan will be performing with his drum troupe and will facilitate sweat lodge and give traditional teachings.

Chaizong Lor

Chou Lor is a Hmong new generation shamanic practitioner. he experienced spiritual callings in his dreams and has used it to guide his practice. In essence, he did not choose to study to become a shaman, but the spirits chose him to bring forth and lead a new generation of shamans. His specialty is providing procedures, techniques, and interpreting dreams to assist the new generation of shamans to become successful. He currently practices out of his home and through word of mouth only. Being a new generation shaman, the procedures and practices are different from the older shamans, but the healing concepts are the same.  This year he will speak about the process of diagnosing an individual's illnesses.

Mary Rutherford

Mary Rutherford has been a seeker of the mystery traditions for 40 years.  She has studied the shamanic ways of various cultures, focusing especially on Peruvian and Native North American peoples, with a special love for the Q'ero people of Peru.  She has traveled to remote areas of the Andes Mountains and the Amazon Rainforrest to work and study with indigenous shamans and healers. She believes that the connection with elemental forces is a an important part of the work to balance our connection to heaven and earth.

Mary has taught workshops across the United States and led travel groups to study esoteric spiritual ways.  The center of her healing work is the Soul Retrieval, the restoration of one's Vital Essence. Mary has assisted in this process for hundreds of people over 25 years, having developed a unique process to restore the integrity of the energy body as well as the spirit.

Dr Rutherford combines her expertise in anthropology, psychology, and transformational healing methods to guide people to new vision and deep personal change.  Her passion for these healing traditions radiates through her daily life.

She is the founder and director of Crescenterra health Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she is a chiropractor.

Kari Tauring, Volva

Minneapolis based Kari Tauring is an American staff carrier, Volva (Old Norse), studying, reconstructing and practicing her indigenous Northern European spiritual traditions for over twenty years.  Runes,songs, dances and mythology, dream work, herbalism, martial arts and the philosophy of her folk soul have culminated in the creation of Volva Stav, the use of staff and cross stick in rhythm for healing and journey.

There is a great longing in every human heart for the deep traditions that bind us to the Earth as our mother and to our deepest ancestors.  Many people of European descent do not realize that we have an indigenous pre-Christian tradition.  The dysfunctions that are passed down through the generations are a result of this severed relationship to our historical traditions and tribal ways. Healing this inherited cultural grief has been a major focus of Tauring's work in the last four years.  Her work in healing this grief continues to make national headlines in Norway and she is sought out throughout the United States for teaching, training, and healing.

Her second publication "Volva Stav Manual" (June 2010) was designed to accompany her intensive workshops.  Her first book "The Runes: A Human journey" (2007) was re-released in January 2010 as an iphone application. Her cds "Volva Songs" (2008) and "Kari Tauring and Huldre Live at the Capri" (2009) are available online or at the Gathering.  Taruring has undergraduate degrees in philosophy and English and a Master of Arts in education.

"My work as Volva gently pulls the threads of our indigenous European tapestry, mends them to our immigrant memories, and spins a new thread for our children that is true, restores identity, and creates cultural healing."

Misha Dancing Waters

Misha Dancing Waters is a life-long student of the cultures, spiritual beliefs, and healing practices of the native peoples of the Americas. her educational background includes a wide variety of traditions and teachers:  Alberto Villoldo, Jose Luis Herrera, the Sinte Gleska People (Rosebud Sioux), and numerous others. Misha brings a worldly-vision to her work and teachings as she has lived and taught in Ecuador, has traveled extensively throughout Central, South America, and the Caribbean. Currently, she is offering personal healing sessions, classes on Shamanism, Native American Spiritualism, and personal healing methods and techniques in Madison, WI and beyond. She will facilitate a PowerStones Healing Circle this year at the Gathering.

Join me in creating a circle of Kuya stones from numerous powerful places, gathering together their energy and power in a temporary vessel, and dissolving ourselves into the everything for a moment. We open to an experience of a sacred connection outside of linear time and physical space during a guided meditation and visualization.  The energy of our intention created within that circle is exponentially magnified and sent outward in all directions.

Timothy Cope

Timothy Cope is a Twin cities writer, storyteller, firewalker and shamanic practitioner who has been exploring the shamanic path for over 25 years.  Currently he is a guest faculty member for the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and teaches workshops for the Foundation throughout the upper Midwest. he lives and maintains a healing practice in Minneapolis.

Timothy will moderate an open discussion about the nature of evil and the shamanic response to it.

Mike Bourgeit

Mike has been studying Active Dreaming with Robert Moss for more than 6 years and is a certified Robert Moss Dream Teacher.  He has been studying and practicing shamanic techniques as part of his personal spiritual path for over 15 years. This year his presentation will be Dreamgates!

Dreamgates:  "There's a place of the imagination and it is entirely real."  Dreamgates are the portals Active Dreamers use to enter and explore the shamanic dreamtime. The dreamtime is the place of imagination, magic, and creation. Our world is created from our collective dreaming and our dreams change the world. Active Dreaming is a syntheses of Shamanism and modern dreamwork. In this presentation, we will use Active Dreaming to explore dreamgates to the imaginal realm for healing, personal growth, and community service.  Bring your imagination and a desire to explore the dreamtime.

Anna Laabs(Preston)

Anna Laabs(Preston) is an initiated mesa carrier in the Andean tradition and Kultrun carrier who has been studying herbs and plant medicines for healing since 1996 and has studied shamanic practice with Lee Hilfiker, Luz Clara, and numerous Amazonian shamans. She is also a certified therapeutic bodyworker and Reiki practitioner specializing in an eastern traditional approach. Her passion lies in working with the plant medicine spirits in sacred ceremony, wildcrafting/harvesting medicinal plants and flower essences to help facilitate healing in our lives.

Allen Brown

Allen Brown is a shamanic practitioner, hypnotherapist and professional photographer. He has explored shamanism through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Sandra Ingerman, Lee Hilfiker, Don Theo Parades, Don Valerio Cohaila, and Jose Luis Herrera. he has learned with numerous Andean healers and participated in many plant ceremonies with numerous Amazonian Shamans.