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DAVID

David Wiley is a Marakame (Shaman) in the Huichol Indian tradition of the northwestern Sierra Madre of Mexico and a Granicero, or Tiempero (Weather Shaman), and healer in the Nahuatl Indian tradition of the highlands of central Mexico.

In 1996 David began his apprenticeship to become a Marakame under the guidance of Don Lupe Gonzales Rios. Over a period of years he received instructions while completing a rigorous series of pilgrimages to many prescribed sacred sites before being initiated as a Marakame. He continues this work with Huichol Shamans Don Jose Sandoval de la Cruz and Eliot Cowan after Don Lupe's passing in 2002 at the age of 78.

Along with this work David was guided to become a Granicero under the instruction of well known Nahuatl Indian Shaman Don Lucio Campos Elizada. Shortly before Don Lucio's passing in 2005 at the age of 93, Don Lucio gave David the responsibility to continue his work as a teacher, initiator and healer in this aspect of the Nahuatl tradition.

Besides practicing as a village healer, counselor and ceremonial leader in Tepoztlán, Mexico, David is a leader and advisor to an international community (www.sacredfirecommunity.org) whose purpose is to preserve and promote the wisdom of ancestral traditions while teaching how these perspectives and processes can be integrated into modern life to generate balance, openness and health. He is also recognized as being a spiritual conduit for the elemental deity of fire known by the Huichols as Tatewarí or Grandfather Fire (along with many other names in various other cultures).

David was raised in the East Tennessee community of Oak Ridge. In his adult life he worked in business, developing team performance models for clients and by the early nineties was an established management consultant working in Atlanta, Georgia and later as an international trade consultant in Mexico. Devoid of any predisposition towards spirituality in his life, this calling and transformation came about in a rapid and unusual manner, changing his world completely. Click on the link below for a more complete story.

David's Story