--- title: "Our Tradition | Church of Yachay Apus" description: "Our lineage was carried from North America into the Andes, and handed to us through training, apprenticeship and initiation." url: https://coyason.org/tradition/ updated: 2026-11-01 language: en format: a Markdown copy of the page at the url above --- Our Tradition | Church of Yachay Apus Our lineage # Our Tradition A road that runs from North America into the Andes, carried south by teachers. [The Four Altars](https://coyason.org/four-altars/) [Connect](https://coyason.org/connect/) ![A natural rock arch opening onto a range of dry mountains.](https://coyason.org/media/openings/the-andes-through-the-arch-mobile.jpg) The lineage ## The road south Our tradition was kept alive in North America by the peoples of this continent, across generations in which keeping it was punished. From there teachers carried the lineage south into the Andes, where it took root in those mountains and in the people who pray on them. Both of its forms made the journey. We hold them still: Spirit Walks out on the land through the day, Spirit Circles around the fire through the night. [How we gather](https://coyason.org/gatherings/) The legend ## The Eagle and the Condor An eagle of the North, a condor of the South, and the sky they come to share. ![A man in a striped poncho and knit cap stands at the rim of a canyon, his hands together in prayer, clouds over the mesas beyond.](https://coyason.org/media/photographs/prayer-at-the-canyon-rim-1024x576.jpg) A story is told across the Americas, in more than one people's telling, about an eagle and a condor. The peoples of the North flew as the eagle and the peoples of the South flew as the condor, and for a long age the two flew apart. A time comes when they fly together in one sky, wing to wing, and what each knows alone they come to know together. Our lineage is one of the ways that meeting is kept. The road came south out of North America carrying the staff, the rattle and the tobacco, and in the Andes it met the mountains and what grows on them. Ours is a meeting of mountains, and of the people who go up to them. That meeting was handed to us already made, kept on one altar and in one circle for longer than there has been a Church of Yachay Apus. The name ## Yachay and the Apus Our theology rests on two central pillars, from which the Church takes its name. Yachay is the pursuit of sacred wisdom and higher knowledge, understood not as abstract learning, but as a lived, embodied realization gained through disciplined spiritual practice. The Apus are the mountain spirits of Andean cosmology, venerated as guardians of the land and teachers of the community. We regard communion with the Apus as a central expression of our reverence for the natural world and the wisdom it holds. It is why we gather outdoors, on the land, in whatever weather is there that day, and not in a room built to keep the weather out. ![Close fitted stonework in a wall, each block cut to meet the ones around it without mortar.](https://coyason.org/media/photographs/inca-stonework-1024x768.jpg) What it carries ## The defining elements Every one of these was handed down. - ### The prayer staff Held by whoever is praying, so the circle always knows where the prayer is. - ### The gourd rattle Carries the song and marks the time the circle keeps. - ### Tobacco and cedar The oldest offerings of this lineage, and the ones that open the day. - ### The Four Altars The shape a Spirit Walk and a Spirit Circle both take. - ### The fire For the nights, tended without break from the moment it is lit until the morning. [The Four Altars](https://coyason.org/four-altars/) How it is carried ## Handed from one person to another A teacher hands this to a student over years, in training, apprenticeship, and initiation, and the student is present for the whole of it. Whoever takes it up is committing for good. This is why our elders hold the prayer: the strongest prayers come with time. ![Two hands resting on the skin of a frame drum, the beater held between them.](https://coyason.org/media/photographs/hands-on-the-drum-1024x683.jpg) ### A word about the Red Road This lineage is sometimes called the Red Road, a descriptive term used across many related traditions rather than the name of a single organization. It is not the road of one country; it runs the length of both continents. The Church stands on its own: its teachings and its prayers are passed down through training, apprenticeship, and initiation within its own lineage of teachers. Who this is for ## What we ask That our teachings are yours, and that what brings you is sincere. Everything we do out on the land is held for our community, and everyone who walks out with us is screened first. Everyone in the circle is responsible for everyone else in it, so we ask about your health, your history and your intent. ![A person standing with both arms open toward a range of mountains.](https://coyason.org/media/photographs/arms-open-to-the-mountains-desktop.jpg) ![A wide valley seen from high ground, ridges falling away into haze.](https://coyason.org/media/photographs/the-valley-from-above-1024x683.jpg) Next ## Write to us Tell us who you are and where you have sat before. [Connect](https://coyason.org/connect/)