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Guillermo’s change of heart began with a trip to Belgium when he was thirteen years old. He and his brother had been given an opportunity to perform traditional Kichwa Otavalo music in Europe. A man who had been taking photos of the young musicians introduced himself, then invited the boys to come visit his home. Jack and his wife Simone later asked them if they would like to stay, and Guillermo ended up spending the winter with the couple in their Belgium home.

 

Simone taught Guillermo how to speak French, and Jack taught him the importance of eating healthy food. The couple encouraged Guillermo to learn the history of the Incas, a topic not taught in Ecuador schools at that time. It was his experiences in Belgium that first prepared Guillermo to work internationally as a yachak in cultures unlike his own.

Returning to Ecuador with an opened mind and new respect for his mother’s experiences,
Guillermo began asking her about her work and special abilities. His mother decided that at the age of fourteen, her son was ready to train with an experienced hatun tayta (master) yachak.

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Before traveling to meet the hatun yachak in Cotapaxi for his training, Guillermo and his younger brother hiked up the Imbabura volcano while fasting. During this fast on the mountain, Guillermo had a dream, and the message of this vivid dream still provides definition for his work as a yachak.

In this dream, Guillermo met a man with long loose hair who was dressed all in white and wore a red necklace. This man brought Guillermo to his home. Inside was a long table laden with abundant food. The man’s wife also had long hair. She wore a white blouse with a dark green anaku, a traditional long wraparound skirt worn by the Kichwa Otavalo women of the Imbabura province. The couple told Guillermo that it was essential to always leave nature just as he found it.

 

During the dream, Guillermo realized that the man was the spirit of Tayta Imbabura and the woman was the spirit of Mama Cotacachi, two large dormant volcanoes that tower over the cities of Cotacachi and Otavalo. 

A second dream while fasting on the mountain also influenced Guillermo in his future work. In that dream, he had a clear vision of the house he later designed and built from organic materials with his brothers atop a sacred hill in their community. This building was the original Pakarinka center.

As the boys returned home, Guillermo and his brother stopped to eat the fruit of a Shanshi tree. In small amounts, Shanshi fruit is safe. However, in large amounts it can cause nausea, vomiting, an itchy rash, and hallucinations. Since the brothers were coming off a fast and very hungry, they ate too much of this fruit and became ill.

When the boys finally arrived home very sick, their mother asked a local yachak named tayta Pedro to come help her sons. Guillermo’s body had broken out in a severe rash. He didn’t believe tayta Pedro’s ancestral medicine could help him. The yachak did a cleansing ceremony including a sauna treatment for Guillermo. To his amazement, the rash disappeared. This experience was sufficient to change his former opinion about the validity of ancestral medicine. He was now ready to be trained as a yachak.

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Guillermo’s older sister introduced him to  hatun tayta Alberto Taxo, a "master shaman" in Cotopaxi and a highly-respected leader of Ecuador's 1990 hatariy (leventamiento). Hatun tayta Alberto told Guillermo that he had two choices: the boy could stay with hatun tayta Alberto as a paying guest, or he could live there like his son, helping out in the home and on the land while receiving training at no cost. Not having much money, Guillermo decided to stay with hatun tayta Alberto as his son. For nine years, he lived and trained with the renowned master "shaman" in his Cotapaxi home.

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Guillermo first began working as an independent yachak after some guests came to their home for a healing ceremony with tayta Alberto. Tayta Alberto was out of town, but over the phone he encouraged Guillermo to perform the healing ceremony himself. He did so and it was successful. 

Along with other apprentice yachakkuna (shamans), Guillermo worked for another two years with hatun tayta Alberto, building a house and school. When the house and school buildings burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances, hatun tayta Alberto decided it was time to send tayta Willak and the other young yachakkuna out into the world to work independently. He asked them to build their own ceremonial centers and teach others what hatun tayta Alberto had taught them.

 

Since that day over twenty years ago, tayta Willak has worked full-time as a yachak at Pakarinka in his home community of Agato, as well as around the world in countries such as Korea and Canada.

When asked about the guiding principle of his work, tayta Willak informed us that it is “to be present.” He hopes that his legacy will be leaving behind happy people grateful for what life gives them. Educational programs at Pakarinka Ushay are another way to teach people to heal nature and heal with nature. Here he shares his people’s pre-Incan ancestral wisdom and traditions with modern people who suffer when they are not living in harmony with nature. He also embraces and shares hatun tayta Alberto's teachings about the prophecy of the reuniting of the Condor and Eagle. 

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Tayta Yachak Willka Willak Guillermo Santillán is a multilingual seventh-generation Andean yachak. He speaks Kichwa, Spanish, English, French, and Italian.

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Please go to our PROGRAMS section to read about the workshops, sessions, and retreats available during our first quarter  (September through November) led by tayta Willak.