Vilma Pinedo

Vilma Pinedo comes from a long line of shamans from the Andes Mountains in Peru, on both her mother's and father's side. Vilma's grandparents are highly regarded, renowned shamans, and she was called to this path before she was born, when lightning struck her mother while pregnant with Vilma. When Vilma was 4 months old, lightning struck their house. It was then that her grandparents said that  Vilma had a very important mission to accomplish. She grew up surrounded by highly regarded master shamans, learning from them. When Vilma was 12 years old, she made a trip with her aunt to the land of her father, searching for her roots and the lineage from which she comes. After an 8 hour bus ride, they would continue their trek by horse. When her aunt went to find horses, Vilma waited alone by the side of the road.

After some time, she saw a very big twirling wind coming her way, it was like a small tornado. She stood still, without fear, looking at what was coming her way. The people who saw her told her to move away, but she was not scared. When the wind came her way, she had the strange sensation that time had stopped, when suddenly she saw above her a huge Condor flying in circles looking directly into her eyes. Vilma felt very peaceful, as if the Condor was looking after her, connecting her. Without taking their eyes from each other, the Condor started flying between two mountains, in the direction of her father's community, till the Condor got lost in between the mountains.

Since that day, the condor became her protector and guide. In the Andean spiritual tradition, the condor is the Guardian of the Upper World (including lightning and rainbows). Vilma started her path as a “curandera” (healer) at age 12, reading coca leaves and using her intuition to tell people how to heal themselves, often with amazing results. Through her dreams she would receive guidance and messages for healing work. Vilma uses her gifts in a humble and generous way to raise conscious awareness in everyone she encounters. Because Vilma speaks English (a rarity in the Andes) she is able to share her wisdom of the ancient traditions in a direct way with North American. Vilma was one of the people asked to accompany the Dalai Lama to Machu Picchu.

We are honored to host this amazing woman and have her in our midst