The Way of the Sacred Tree
A Year Long Shamanic Apprenticeship
with Amy Mermaid Isakov
Sanctioned Teacher in the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition
“The times are urgent; let us slow down.”
— Bayo Akomolafe
The only thing we truly get to decide is what stories we tell ourselves.
Our choice is always available in what narrative we are feeding.
What story do you live inside of?
How old is that story?
Is it the one you’d choose?
The Pachakuti Mesa Tradition provides a universal template of alignment and welcome rooted in over 5,000 years of tradition.
Let’s become the people we have been waiting for.
A shamanic apprenticeship like no other.
It will be emergent, responsive, transformative, and deep.
This is an opportunity to become an agent of practical magic.
What would it be like to step into deeper relationship with the planet?
What does it really mean when you say “all my relations”?
Animal allies. Trance work. Healing techniques.
Understand yourself and the world, more, and with compassion.
An Invitation
The Way of the Sacred Tree is a year-long apprenticeship in deep listening and embodied spiritual practice.
Through ritual, ceremony, nature connection, energetic prowess, and community practice, participants will cultivate a more intimate relationship with themselves, the natural world, and the unseen forces that co-create life with us.
This apprenticeship is designed to deepen your capacity to listen at the threshold of consciousness, enabling a heart-centered truth to become the guiding force of your life.
Interconnected awareness and intuition are foundational human gifts and, for most of human history, they were at the forefront of what was known. Through presence, patience, and practice, we can restore our ancient future capacities as earthstar stewards.
Together we will explore ways of perceiving that extend beyond the thinking mind.
Rational thought can only cover so much. It can only explain a limited amount of our experience. The mental knowledge we have is just a fraction of the wisdom that breathes in our universe.
Through dedicated practice we will learn to feel first, and then understand.
To listen with the body is to discover gifts we’ve been carrying and never knew we had.
Give yourself the chance to cultivate a cellular knowing that includes the soul, the body, the heart, the senses, dreams, nature, and spirit.
This level of work requires commitment, humility, and surrender. It asks us to slow down enough to hear what has always been speaking.
As one of the great thinkers of our age, Bayo Akomolafe reminds us:
“The times are urgent; let us slow down.”
Over the course of the year, participants will engage in personal practice, ceremony, mesa work, community learning, and guided exploration designed to foster a deeper relationship with their own medicine and unique path.
Deep Listening
Deep Listening to hone intuition by listening at the threshold of consciousness as it abides in your body.
This class is designed to deepen your capacity to commune with the natural world — both inner and outer.
This level of work requires commitment and surrender.
It takes practice and patience.
It also yields a much broader depth of understanding as you learn to feel first, and then understand.
The Living Wisdom of Trees
What would it be like to step into deeper relationship with the planet?
What does it really mean when you say “all my relations”?
Throughout this apprenticeship, the Tree becomes both teacher and guide.
Beginning with roots and ancestry, moving through trunk, branches, flowers, leaves, and fruit, and ultimately into canopy and forest, each stage offers a different doorway into relationship, consciousness, belonging, resilience, and interconnected wisdom.
All weekends may include outings to local nature preserves.
The Six Weekends
Weekend I: Roots
Foundation, ancestry, belonging, interconnectivity
This weekend initiates participants into the underworld, and the living wisdom of Trees.
Focusing on creating and working with mesas for self-empowerment and transformation.
You'll explore the three worlds of the Andean cosmovision, shamanic journey work, and begin building a relationship with Oak.
Weekend II: Trunk
Strength, integrity, purpose
Apprentice in the center of the mesa, focusing on the kaypacha (middle world) and unpacking the structures of collective consciousness.
This weekend covers elemental matrixes, the evolution of consciousness, and the nature of death and rebirth.
Weekend III: Branches
Growth, exploration, relationships
Apprentice into the upper realms of the living matrix of trees and the cosmic hierarchies.
This weekend offers time to reflect on our growth patterns, relationships, and sense of identity within a cosmic worldview.
Weekend IV: Flowers, Leaves, and Fruit
Learning, exchange, vitality, photosynthesis
Explore the wild and wonderful world of exchange, working with the flow of creative energy.
How do you metabolize light?
This weekend includes energy practices, healing work, and creating despachos to honor Mother Earth and all our relations.
Weekend V: Bark
Boundaries, protection, resilience
This weekend focuses on finely tuning energetic awareness, discernment, and time tested energetic protection techniques.
Deepen your experience of soul and spirit through ritual processes, breathwork techniques, music, and empower your connection to cosmic awareness.
Weekend VI: Canopy and Forest
Vision, connected wisdom, stellar alignment
Our final weekend brings our work into the planetary level.
Expand your capacity to live in all three worlds simultaneously, embodying the wisdom of trees.
What is it like to make decisions from a felt sense of alignment and collaboration?
The Apprenticeship
Amy will provide seasoned shamanic guidance through her role as a Sanctioned Teacher of the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, while also drawing upon her three-year apprenticeship with the Trees and decades of personal spiritual practice and study in anthropology, ecology, and world spiritual traditions.
Previous experience with shamanism, yoga, bodywork, energy work, meditation, or related spiritual practices is helpful, though sincere commitment and openness are what counts the most.
This is an opportunity to deepen your relationship with:
Animal allies
Trance work
Healing techniques
Mesa work
Nature connection
Ritual and ceremony
Energetic awareness
Intuition and deep listening
The three worlds of the Andean cosmovision
Your own medicine and unique path
The Language of Birds
To understand the language of birds one needs not ears,
not cochlea and tympanum,
but a cellular hearing,
where the organs of perception have expanded
to include skin, hair follicles, heartbeat,
and whatever it is
that is all of it together.
— Dale Pendell, The Language of Birds
2027 Year-Long Apprenticeship
January 2027 – December 2027
In-Person Gatherings
Second Weekend of Every Other Month
Friday, Saturday & Sunday
January 8–10, 2027
March 12–14, 2027
May 7–9, 2027
July 9–11, 2027
September 10–12, 2027
November 12–14, 2027
Zoom Calls
Second Tuesday of Alternate Months
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
February 9, 2027
April 13, 2027
June 8, 2027
August 10, 2027
October 12, 2027
December 14, 2027
Prerequisite
Must have completed the foundational apprenticeship in the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition or complete an Intro to Mesa Building workshop.
Intro to Mesa Building
November 14–15, 2026
Waxing Crescent
First call for everyone » Intro Zoom Call
December 1, 2026
7:00–9:00 PM
Investment
Early Bird: $2,888
Regular: $3,333
Come Become an Agent of Practical Magic
What story do you live inside of?
Is it the one you’d choose?
The invitation is to slow down.
To listen.
To feel first, and then understand.
To enter into deeper relationship with the living world.
To remember that we are not separate from the web of life, but participants within it.
Let’s become the ones we have been waiting for.
Apply
If you are interested please apply via the application below. Once received Amy will schedule a phone or zoom call with you.