THE ROOTED MASCULINE
INSTANT REPLAY👇🏽
Session One: Opening Ceremony + Intention Setting
During this session, Barbara opened the space with an Icaro, calling in the sacred plants of the Amazon and the Andes. Afterward, both Barbara and Krystal shared their intentions, inviting us all to do the same.
We then took time to journal, share as a group, and listen to one another’s stories — weaving our voices together in reflection and connection. The session closed beautifully with a song to the Willow Tree, sung by Krystal, bringing gentle grounding to the space.
Journal Questions:
What is your relationship to the masculine?
Whose voice do you hear?
What is true for you today?
How does the masculine show up in your life?
See you tomorrow for Session 2: Teaching + Ancestral Wisdom!
Session Two: Teaching, Storytelling, and Ancestral Wisdom
To understand masculinity in relation to femininity, we first return to two truths: duality and definition.
In the Andean cosmo-vision, life is built on Yanantin, sacred duality, where masculine and feminine are not opposites, but partners in Masintin, harmony. The masculine offers direction, structure, and protection; the feminine offers receptivity, intuition, and creation. Together, they form the rhythm of life, which is Ayni, sacred reciprocity.
Across Indigenous traditions, this balance has always been rooted in devotion. In Mesoamerica, among the Maya, Mexica, and Teotihuacan peoples, masculine power was expressed through self-offering, not domination. These acts of sacred sacrifice ensured fertility, abundance, and the regeneration of life. Masculinity was never about control, it was about relationship and responsibility.
In contrast, the Western view has often reduced masculinity to production and performance — man as worker, hunter, provider truly stripping it of the sacred.
But true masculinity, in its Indigenous sense, is a force of service, strength, and balance. It is a devotion to life itself, to the feminine, to the Earth, and to the harmony that sustains creation.
Masculine and feminine are not opposites; they are partners in the dance of life. When both energies move in reciprocity, we return to wholeness, to living in Yanantin once again.
Journal Question:
Where in my life are these forces in conflict, and where are they in harmony?
As we prepare for the final session, we invite you to share any questions that have come up for you whether inspired by our conversations or something uniquely your own. Please submit your question before 11:30am EST to hello@barbieenruta.com. If you’d like your question to remain anonymous, please let us know in the email and we’ll honor that.
You’re also welcome to ask your question live during the call if you feel called to share in the moment.
See you tomorrow for Session 3: Closing Ceremony and Q&A!
Session Three: Closing Ceremony + Q&A
In our final session, we opened with an Ícaro to ground and align the group, followed by a brief recap of Sessions 1 and 2.
We then entered a spacious, trauma-informed Q&A (not recorded to honor privacy), where we explored:
Whether ancestral practices like bloodletting are still active within Indigenous communities
How the wounded masculine and wounded feminine express themselves in relationships
The power of naming, vulnerability, and speaking truth
Understanding traditional gender roles within some Andean and Amazonian communities
How to support women during their cycles through presence, listening, and attunement
The session closed with a medicine song to seal the energy and honor the teachings that came through.
Thank you for walking this journey with us. Your presence, your questions, your stories — they are what make these spaces so alive.
With love,
Barbara + Krystal
SPECIAL INVITATION 💌
Join us in the Ecuadorian Andes on a six day immersion into Sumaq Kawsay, the ancestral Andean philosophy of living in beauty and harmony.
So many of us are craving grounding — real grounding.
Not the idea of it. Not the aesthetic of it.
But the felt experience of being held by the land, by community, by something bigger than ourselves.
Sumaq Kawsay was born from that longing.
It’s a place where you return to your essence.
Where the noise of the world dissolves.
Where the teachings of the land meet you exactly where you are.
Where your masculine becomes rooted, your feminine becomes honored, and your truth becomes undeniable.
If you felt moved by this workshop… if something in your heart whispered “this is for me”… then this is your invitation.
From now until November 30th, when you apply and register, you’ll receive $1,000 off your retreat experience.
This is your yes, the one that meets you at the edge of who you’ve been and who you’re remembering you always were.
Retreat Details:
📍Ecuador
📅 February 12th - February 17th 2026
Led by Barbara Sanchez & Krystal Sandoval
