Introduction
Salka Wind is an apocheta (a Quechua term for doorway or portal) into the Andean Cosmovision. The Andean Cosmovision is a way of perceiving and interacting with reality found in the indigenous culture of the high Andean mountains. It provides a path for exploring profound aspects of ourselves, Nature, and the Cosmos. In our modern, western, society it resonates with people who are drawn to it by its simplicity and its beauty, by the way it expands our understanding of who we are, and by the loving and mutually supportive relationship it nourishes between ourselves and Nature and the Cosmos.
For the past 30 years I have been exploring, teaching, and writing about the Andean Cosmovision. I created this web site to serve as the hub for my endeavors to share the Cosmovision with my Western society. There is no moral imperative within the Andean Cosmovision that this path should be pursued. It is not a matter of shoulds and shoudn'ts, it is a matter of harmony and beauty. If you wander a bit down this path and find that it touches what you deeply value, then keep going, it only gets better. If not, then try a different approach, for no path is right for everyone. It is my intent to give you enough of an experience of the Andean Cosmovision for you to decide whether or not this is a path you would like to explore, and to serve as a guide for you if you do.
About the Author
Oakley Gordon holds a doctorate in cognitive psychology (the study of perception, attention, memory, and consciousness). For thirty years, he has been studying the Andean Cosmovision under the mentorship of the Peruvian poet and mystic don Américo Yábar and his son Gayle Yábar. In his trips to Peru, Oakley has also worked with many other Andean paq’os (mystics/shamans) and healers. He has shared the Andean Cosmovision with Western society through papers at academic conferences, presentations to the public, journal articles, the Salka Wind Blog, several hundred experiential classes and workshops, and two books: The Andean Cosmovision: A Path for Exploring Profound Aspects of Ourselves, Nature, and the Cosmos (2014) and Peeking into the Cosmos (2026).
More Information by Oakley about Salka and The Andean Cosmovision.
Book. The Andean Cosmovision: A Path for Exploring Profound Aspects of Ourselves, Nature, and the Cosmo (2014). The Andean Cosmovision is fundamentally different than the Western worldview. The Cosmovision is not a set of concepts or beliefs. It cannot be described or encompassed by words. It can, however, be experienced and it can be explored. This is a guidebook for exploring the Andean Cosmovision through simple meditations. For this path you don’t need a guru. You need the Pachamama (the great being who is the mother earth); you need the Apus (the great beings who are the majestic mountain peaks); you need the stars, the wind, the trees, the rivers, the sun. This book will open the door to new territory and give you a map and some advice.
Book. Peeking into the Cosmos (2026). For over thirty years, I have been exploring the Andean Cosmovision under the mentorship of don Américo Yábar, a mystic and poet from the high Andes, and his son Gayle Yábar, a person of great heart and power. The stories in this book recount my adventures in Peru with don Américo and Gayle, with the land and the people who live there, and the beautiful and mysterious reality in which they live.
Blog. The Salka Wind Blog. Some 150 posts I've written over the past 15 years about the Andean Cosmovision.