María Apaza Machaca, affectionately known as Mamita María, is the last living Altomisayoc, the highest rank within the Andean priesthood. At 100 years of age, she stands as a living guardian of ancestral wisdom, serving as an intermediary between the human and spiritual worlds through her profound relationship with the Apus & Pachamama, the spirits of the Andes and the Great Cosmic Mother. Chosen from childhood for this spiritual path, Mamita María underwent decisive initiatory trials that sealed her destiny as a Highest Priestess. In 1943, at the age of sixteen, she was struck by lightning while tending her animals in the highlands of Paucartambo, Peru. In Andean cosmology, lightning—known as Illapa—is not merely a natural phenomenon but a sacred force of fire, sound, and rain. This event marked the beginning of her formal initiation through twelve Karpay rites, which strengthened her communication with the Apus and the elemental forces of nature. Her centennial marks not only a personal milestone, but the enduring strength of an ancestral lineage

In Maria Apaza's lineage, we have her five children and grandchildren, who continue to share Maria Apaza's method. In the photo, we can see Rosita, Maria's daughter (45), and her granddaughters Segundina (21) and Marta (23). We also have Manuel Jerillo (47), Maria's youngest son, who has more than 30 years of experience as a Pampa Paqo or Andean priest, present at our retreats and classes for priests. With generosity and dedication, Mamita María has devoted her life to transmitting this wisdom, training Pampamisayok—practitioners prepared to dialogue with nature and co-create their own ceremonial universe through the Andean Misa. Her teachings preserve a living tradition where knowledge, ritual, and life itself are woven upon the sacred ceremonial altar. The tutelary mountains of Cusco, Ausangate and Salkantay, have been her spiritual teachers among others. She learned to communicate with the mountains, heal with rocks, and work with the energies of the different dimensions. Through offerings to Pachamama, coca leaf readings, and Andean ceremonies, she has served her communities by safeguarding health, harmony, fertility of the land, and social balance within the ayllu, the traditional Andean social unit.

I was born in the high Andean community of Chumo in Sicuani, Cusco - Peru. My grandmother Jesusa, of Quechua lineage, was a healer, midwife, and Altomesayoq (a high grade of priestess). She was struck by lightning, and in Andean tradition, lightning is a symbol that represents the spiritual leader. I was privileged to have her assist in my birthing that happens in her house.In my childhood I spent time with my grandmother, climbing hills and trees, planting and harvesting. She taught me that wealth is the management of resources. She grew her own food, made her own clothing and medicine, and lived in harmony with the spirits of nature. She has been my lifelong inspiration on my spiritual path. My spiritual quest led me to walk the Qhapaq Ñan (“The Path of Sovereignty”), an ancient path of evolutionary ascension for the Human being, designed by the ascended masters of the Andean World who learned this knowledge from the Pleiadian brothers, and which was the seal of the Lemurian system and civilization.