Since the Incas civilization arose from the highlands of the Andes Mountains in South America and their concept about the world was significantly different from the ones coming from the Old World.
They used a distinct variety of methods, from conquest to peaceful assimilation to incorporate a large portion of Western South America, centered on the Andean Mountain Ranges, including besides Peru, large parts of modern Ecuador, Western and South Central Bolivia, NorthWest Argentina, North and Central Chile, and a small part of Southern Colombia into a state comparable to the historical empires of Eurasia.
The term Inca means "Ruler." And they referred to their empire as Tahuantinsuyo, "the Four Corners of the World," symbolizing a group of four powers taken together. The empire was divided into four quarters whose corners whose corners met at the capital, Cuzco.
The name Cuzco is derived from the Quechua phrase "QusQu Wanka" ("Rock of the Owl"), related to the city's foundational myth of the Ayar siblings. The city is located on the Eastern end, its elevation is around 3,400m (11,200ft). The city was planned as an effigy in the shape of a puma, a sacred animal.
The Incas had no written language so they did not record their myths in writing. Instead they developed a high degree of understanding in things pertaining to the dream world, the world of the spirits. They developed a class of professionals storytellers and performers trained to recite the powerful words that transcended the physical world in order to teach the official state history entrusted to them from old, even before the creation of the World. Their myths taught significant truths within each cultural group that represented their specific landscape. All that is known from it, is based on what was recorded by priests, from the iconography on Incan pottery and architecture, and from the myths and legends that have survived time and is still active among the descendants that continue with their customs.
At the center of Inca religion and mythology was the worship of the Sun, believed to be the ancestral father of the Inca people. They were told that in the most ancient of times the earth was covered in darkness. Then, out of the cosmic waters of the Lake Collasuyo, the god Con Tici Viracocha emerged, bringing some humans with Him. Viracocha then created the Sun (Inti), the moon, and the stars to light the World. Then, out of great cosmic rocks, Viracocha fashioned more human beings. Then He sent these people off into every corner of the World. He kept the male and female forces with him at the center of the universe, creating its replica in the earth, naming the city "Cuzco" meaning "the navel of the World."
The god Viracocha was in the form of a man without bones, and the forms or entities belonging to that dimension were numerous, and varying in their importance, but all in same way connected with Him and the world of man. Some were shape-changers, transformed from or into humans or natural species or into natural features such rocks, living something of their spiritual essence at the places where they were assigned.
They ancestral beings were described often as giant animals or people belonging to the dream world. Mountains, rivers, animals and plant species, and other natural and cultural resources came into being as a result of events which took place inside the world of shadows. The routes taken by this creatures in the dream world across the land were duplicated in a very sophisticated way along the Incan territory because they linked all the sacred sites into a web of a great spiritual power strong enough to maintain the union of the whole empire. It came from the ancestral time and was passed down to the next generations in a continuous line. The underlying relationships between the sacred places in the upper world and certain landscapes in the middle world were eternal. This was a spiritual identity, rather than a matter of mere and superficial belief. The spiritual world pre-existed the physical world and was designed to persist while the world of the humans was only temporary.
The Inca civilization learned from the stories recited to them that a society must not be human-centered but rather land centered, otherwise they forget their origin and purpose. It was understood that humans are prone to exploitative behavior if they are not constantly reminded that all of us are interconnected with the rest of the universe, that humans as individuals are only temporal in time, and past and future must be included in the perception of their purpose in this life.
The Inca empire and culture was largely destroyed by a race prone to exploitative behavior. They destroyed what they couldn't understand.
People come and go but the Land, and stories about the Land, stay. This is a wisdom that takes lifetimes of listening, observing and experiencing. Only then a deep understanding of human nature and their sacred environment is achieved. It cannot be described in physical terms. They are subtle feelings that resonate through the bodies of these people when talking and being with them, then these feelings can truly be appreciated. This is the intangible reality of the People of the High Andes that still exists.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Monday, December 28, 2015
INCAS RESPECT FOR THE PLANETARY SYSTEM.
If we look at the planetary system in the way that astronomers do, we will never be knowledgeable to decipher the purpose of everything in it. The recent planetary research through the probes revealed a shocking real knowledge about the contents of the cosmos. The slow and steady movement of the respective planets around the Sun is a sign of the clock-like regularity and order in the Solar System.
The Incas and the civilizations before them were sky watchers and their description is recorded in countless sacred traditions from every corner of the their world. The planets were surrounded by ancient folklore that overlooked the vital substance of their beliefs that kept them alive. Everything that surrounded them had a prominent role in their mythological traditions and religious rituals. For them this world was a world of opposing forces, a world of duality.
The stars seemed to them a unique example of this duality, and they held forces represented by animated entities. The details of the complex movements of them served as important harbingers of agricultural and herding calendars, war and peace, feast and famine, pestilence and health. They learned to watch every nuance for the clues they could bring and the nature they had in store. They learned to predict accurately, for years and decades to come, the rising, setting, dimming, brightening, and looping of every celestial bodies that were very familiar to them, since the cosmos' appearance hardly changed for millions of years.
Two important factors have the Inca's observations of the stars and constellations. First , the Inca Empire lay almost entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. The Sun sat comfortable in the middle (Cuzco) of its extremes borders. It defined the equinox, the point equidistant between the extremes of the North and South Solstice rise and set exactly points. They knew in detail many of the stars and constellations belonging to the Southern Hemisphere. The Second Factor is that the Inca projected from the cosmos the identities of the animals, birds, and other objects of nature and culture that made up their own world. For instance, they recognized in the cluster of stars known to us as The Pleiades as a cosmic storehouse ("Collca"), also as a pile ("Cotu"), or as a sign of sickness ("Oncoy"). This star group was observed very closely for the cosmic agricultural calendar. The V-shaped group os stars we call The Hyades was also referred as a cosmic storehouse. Both the Southern Cross and the Belt of Orion were identified as cosmic bridges or upright stakes ("Chacana"). As bridges, these two star grouping were considered to span the Milky Way, which was know as "the sacred celestial River" ("Mayu).
If you like planets, as the Incas did, you can witness an awesome planetary event during the month of December 2015, if you are in North America. The two most noticeable planets Venus (brightest) and Jupiter (second-brightest) are going to be dazzling in the sky, all month long.
The Incas and the civilizations before them were sky watchers and their description is recorded in countless sacred traditions from every corner of the their world. The planets were surrounded by ancient folklore that overlooked the vital substance of their beliefs that kept them alive. Everything that surrounded them had a prominent role in their mythological traditions and religious rituals. For them this world was a world of opposing forces, a world of duality.
The stars seemed to them a unique example of this duality, and they held forces represented by animated entities. The details of the complex movements of them served as important harbingers of agricultural and herding calendars, war and peace, feast and famine, pestilence and health. They learned to watch every nuance for the clues they could bring and the nature they had in store. They learned to predict accurately, for years and decades to come, the rising, setting, dimming, brightening, and looping of every celestial bodies that were very familiar to them, since the cosmos' appearance hardly changed for millions of years.
Two important factors have the Inca's observations of the stars and constellations. First , the Inca Empire lay almost entirely within the Southern Hemisphere. The Sun sat comfortable in the middle (Cuzco) of its extremes borders. It defined the equinox, the point equidistant between the extremes of the North and South Solstice rise and set exactly points. They knew in detail many of the stars and constellations belonging to the Southern Hemisphere. The Second Factor is that the Inca projected from the cosmos the identities of the animals, birds, and other objects of nature and culture that made up their own world. For instance, they recognized in the cluster of stars known to us as The Pleiades as a cosmic storehouse ("Collca"), also as a pile ("Cotu"), or as a sign of sickness ("Oncoy"). This star group was observed very closely for the cosmic agricultural calendar. The V-shaped group os stars we call The Hyades was also referred as a cosmic storehouse. Both the Southern Cross and the Belt of Orion were identified as cosmic bridges or upright stakes ("Chacana"). As bridges, these two star grouping were considered to span the Milky Way, which was know as "the sacred celestial River" ("Mayu).
If you like planets, as the Incas did, you can witness an awesome planetary event during the month of December 2015, if you are in North America. The two most noticeable planets Venus (brightest) and Jupiter (second-brightest) are going to be dazzling in the sky, all month long.
Sunday, December 27, 2015
THE INCA'S GALACTIC CENTER : THE MILKY WAY
The impressive glowing band of our galaxy -the Milky Way- with its patches of light and dark that stretches across the Andes Mountains in the Southern Hemisphere, were very important to the Incas religion. They identified constellations and individual stars and assigned them a purpose. They grouped the stars into constellations. Also the Incas were one of the very few cultures who found constellations in the absence of stars. In addition, they also recognized the dark clouds (Llana Phuyu). The non-luminous part of the Milky Way called the Great Rift (The Dark River), and it is made of overlapping dust clouds containing about 1 million solar masses of plasma and dust at a distance of about 300 light years from the Earth.
For the Incas, whose empire at its height thrived in the Andes in Western South America, and stretched from present day Ecuador and Colombia, to Chile, the Milky Way ("Mayu") was a sacred live-giving River in the cosmos with its earthly counterpart -the Urubamba River- in the Sacred Valley, high up in the Andes Mountains (in Peru).
The Incas grouped constellations into two different types -luminous and dark. The luminous was made up of sparkling stars that depicted geometric forms. They were seen as inanimate. The dark cloud (spots) and streaks were contained within the dark blotches of the Milky Way, and were considered living forms, representing silhouettes of animals the Incas knew that came to drink from the waters of the celestial River, obscuring the heavenly glow of the Milky Way ("Mayu").
Many of the stars in the constellations were there to protect their animals. Every animal had a corresponding star or constellation which would look out for it. The Incas believed that the Creator God "Viracocha" had planned all the cosmos for the protection of all living things.
One of the most important dark cloud constellations was -The Llama ("Yacana")- which rises exactly above Cuzco, the ancient capital city of the Inca Empire, during the month of November. The constellation consists of two llamas, a mother and baby. They are a large series of dark streaks West of the "Yuthu" (partridge), with its suckling baby stretched out beneath it. The mother Llama has a long neck with its eyes in its neck (there is no head). The eyes -Alpha and Beta Centauri- were known as its eyes (Llamacnawin). Llamas were of great importance to the Inca, they were food, transportation, clothing material, and sacrifices to their divinities. These sacrifices often took place at certain times with astronomical significance such as equinoxes and solstices. Llamas herders were particularly attentive to the movements of the celestial Llama and offered it sacrifices.
Another dark constellation known to them was -The Serpent ("Mach'aguay"), a wavy dark band (black ribbon). It emerges head-first above Cuzco during the month of August and sets in February, when its earthly counterparts become visible and more active in the area, because, interestingly, this mirrors the activity of real snakes in the zone, which are more active during the Andean rainy season. The dark contellation "Mach'aguay," according to Inca beliefs, was in charge of all the snakes and vipers on Earth, and offerings were made by the Incas to create an energy shield to protect themselves from snake powerful bites. Close by was a small dark spot called "Hanp Atu" (toad); and near that was another dark spot, at the foot of the Southern Cross, called ""Yuthu"(partridge).
The Incas thought of themselves as descendants of the Sun ("Inti"). They did know that the spirit of their god was a gigantic ball of energy inside their celestial River "Mayu" at the speed of 225km per second. The sun and moon were sacred and temples and pillars were laid out specifically so that their heavenly bodies would pass over them or through windows on certain days, such as the Summer Solstice.
The reason why the Incas revered the cosmos and the celestial events was that their observations of stars, constellations (dark and stellar), and of the movements of the sun and the moon, provided them with units of cosmological time, and a calendar system which helped them plan agricultural and herding activities.
The Festival of the Inti Raymi is still celebrated in the Andes. "Inti Raymi" was celebrated by the Incas on the shortest day of the year during the Winter Solstice, and was the most important event in their lives.
For the Incas, whose empire at its height thrived in the Andes in Western South America, and stretched from present day Ecuador and Colombia, to Chile, the Milky Way ("Mayu") was a sacred live-giving River in the cosmos with its earthly counterpart -the Urubamba River- in the Sacred Valley, high up in the Andes Mountains (in Peru).
The Incas grouped constellations into two different types -luminous and dark. The luminous was made up of sparkling stars that depicted geometric forms. They were seen as inanimate. The dark cloud (spots) and streaks were contained within the dark blotches of the Milky Way, and were considered living forms, representing silhouettes of animals the Incas knew that came to drink from the waters of the celestial River, obscuring the heavenly glow of the Milky Way ("Mayu").
Many of the stars in the constellations were there to protect their animals. Every animal had a corresponding star or constellation which would look out for it. The Incas believed that the Creator God "Viracocha" had planned all the cosmos for the protection of all living things.
One of the most important dark cloud constellations was -The Llama ("Yacana")- which rises exactly above Cuzco, the ancient capital city of the Inca Empire, during the month of November. The constellation consists of two llamas, a mother and baby. They are a large series of dark streaks West of the "Yuthu" (partridge), with its suckling baby stretched out beneath it. The mother Llama has a long neck with its eyes in its neck (there is no head). The eyes -Alpha and Beta Centauri- were known as its eyes (Llamacnawin). Llamas were of great importance to the Inca, they were food, transportation, clothing material, and sacrifices to their divinities. These sacrifices often took place at certain times with astronomical significance such as equinoxes and solstices. Llamas herders were particularly attentive to the movements of the celestial Llama and offered it sacrifices.
Another dark constellation known to them was -The Serpent ("Mach'aguay"), a wavy dark band (black ribbon). It emerges head-first above Cuzco during the month of August and sets in February, when its earthly counterparts become visible and more active in the area, because, interestingly, this mirrors the activity of real snakes in the zone, which are more active during the Andean rainy season. The dark contellation "Mach'aguay," according to Inca beliefs, was in charge of all the snakes and vipers on Earth, and offerings were made by the Incas to create an energy shield to protect themselves from snake powerful bites. Close by was a small dark spot called "Hanp Atu" (toad); and near that was another dark spot, at the foot of the Southern Cross, called ""Yuthu"(partridge).
The Incas thought of themselves as descendants of the Sun ("Inti"). They did know that the spirit of their god was a gigantic ball of energy inside their celestial River "Mayu" at the speed of 225km per second. The sun and moon were sacred and temples and pillars were laid out specifically so that their heavenly bodies would pass over them or through windows on certain days, such as the Summer Solstice.
The reason why the Incas revered the cosmos and the celestial events was that their observations of stars, constellations (dark and stellar), and of the movements of the sun and the moon, provided them with units of cosmological time, and a calendar system which helped them plan agricultural and herding activities.
The Festival of the Inti Raymi is still celebrated in the Andes. "Inti Raymi" was celebrated by the Incas on the shortest day of the year during the Winter Solstice, and was the most important event in their lives.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
THE ASTRAL WORLD OF THE INCA RELIGION
The Inca Religion was capable of incorporating the religious features of most absorbed cultures along their territory. The setting for their beliefs throughout the whole Empire had been preordained over the previous two thousand years. Two principal foundations governed it : a general recognition of certain Creator deity and a whole pantheon of natural forces (related spirits, minor deities and demons).
The main religious novelty introduced with Inca domination was their demand to be recognized as direct descendants of the Sun god (Inti). As such, they had no need to destroy Huacas and oracles of the conquered cultures; on the contrary, certain sacred sites were recognized as intrinsically holy, and as powerful places for communication with the spirit world.
There were distinct layers in the Inca religious beliefs : -the highest level. -the astral level. -the earthly level.
The highest level corresponded to Viracocha, the Creator god who brought Live (Sacred Consciousness) to the World.
Below this, the astral substance. Before incarnating into the physical level, the descending soul was thought to have a journey through the astral layers collecting enough forces used as a vehicle to incarnate into matter. The planets and all the manifestations in the cosmos were considered to be the physical bodies of some very large beings. The spirits of them were the celestial gods: -The sun as the head. -The moon. -And certain stars, particularly, The Pleiades.
The earthly level corresponded to the man world, and at the same time, the manifestation (mirror) of all the forces that existed in the spiritual world.
Everything was thought to have a soul and was considered part of the whole astral substance from which each of these celestial gods took a part of it. From each of these gods came channels of interaction between the individual human being and their surroundings and between groups of individuals and their surroundings, making a whole sacred balanced forced capable of unify the whole Empire.
The position of the planets and any movement in the celestial world was acknowledged with extreme care because it had a direct correlation to the Earth balance and the seasons. Andean agriculture was based on this calendar and, since food grown at such altitude required a very balanced climate and an enormous strength in manpower, they were and still are the best in the world in achieving it.
The main religious novelty introduced with Inca domination was their demand to be recognized as direct descendants of the Sun god (Inti). As such, they had no need to destroy Huacas and oracles of the conquered cultures; on the contrary, certain sacred sites were recognized as intrinsically holy, and as powerful places for communication with the spirit world.
There were distinct layers in the Inca religious beliefs : -the highest level. -the astral level. -the earthly level.
The highest level corresponded to Viracocha, the Creator god who brought Live (Sacred Consciousness) to the World.
Below this, the astral substance. Before incarnating into the physical level, the descending soul was thought to have a journey through the astral layers collecting enough forces used as a vehicle to incarnate into matter. The planets and all the manifestations in the cosmos were considered to be the physical bodies of some very large beings. The spirits of them were the celestial gods: -The sun as the head. -The moon. -And certain stars, particularly, The Pleiades.
The earthly level corresponded to the man world, and at the same time, the manifestation (mirror) of all the forces that existed in the spiritual world.
Everything was thought to have a soul and was considered part of the whole astral substance from which each of these celestial gods took a part of it. From each of these gods came channels of interaction between the individual human being and their surroundings and between groups of individuals and their surroundings, making a whole sacred balanced forced capable of unify the whole Empire.
The position of the planets and any movement in the celestial world was acknowledged with extreme care because it had a direct correlation to the Earth balance and the seasons. Andean agriculture was based on this calendar and, since food grown at such altitude required a very balanced climate and an enormous strength in manpower, they were and still are the best in the world in achieving it.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
THE INCAS WERE PROFOUNDLY RELIGIOUS.
The Incas gave cohesion to the Empire by practicing an inclusive form of religion. Having respect and understanding of the Spirit-Gods associated with places and objects and profound religious roots that let them have a clear view of the spiritual language of the new cultures conquered by them simply they absorbed into their pantheon the spirit-gods that governed the lives and lands of the conquered ones creating a powerful pantheon of deities.
The Inca deities occupied the three realms : Hanan Pacha, the celestial realm; Uku Pacha, the inner earth; Kay Pacha, the outer earth where humans live.
The Incas believed that the spiritual realm was governed by two sorts of gods: Greater Gods, who were individual, specific deities who ruled as a sort of pantheon, and the Lesser Gods or Huacas which were Spirits tied to a place or object such as a cave, river or boulder. Of the Greater Gods, only Viracocha (The All Powerful Creator God) and the Sun God were considered more powerful than the Thunder God.
The Inca Royal Family was venerated as semi-divine and had a very complicated system of ancestor worship.
The most important deities of the celestial realm (Hanan Pacha) besides Viracocha (The All Powerful Creator God) were Inti, the Sun God, and the moon goddess (Mama Quilla). The Inti Raymi was the festival of the Sun God (Inti) in the realm where humans live (Kay Pacha), and the largest and more important Inca Festival.
The Thunder God (Chuqui Illa), responsible for rain, hail, thunder and lightning also resided in the celestial realm was carried in the form of an idol by his priests during important rituals. During the Inti Raymi Festival The Thunder God got an equal share of the sacrifice animals (usually Llamas) along with Viracocha and the Sun.
He was known as a man who lived in the cosmos and that he was made up of stars, with a war club in his left hand and a sling in his right hand. He used to dress in shinning garments which gave off the flashiness of lightning when he whirled his sling and when he wanted it to rain. The Milky Way was the river from which the The Thunder God would draw the water to make it rain. He was in charge of all the weather and thunderbolts, lightning, rain, hail, rainbows and other weather-related phenomena. His will was constantly under scrutiny. If a rain shower appeared in one town before passing somewhere else, the town was considered blessed. If an object was found to hold water when it rained, such as a stone or a piece of metal, it was said to have been specially blessed by the god and worshiped as a Huaca.
On the other hand, when The Thunder God was angry he brought disasters such as water shortages, floods or frost. When this happened, priests would communicate their auguries to determine what sort of sacrifice the god was demanding to restore the harmony of the land.
The Thunder God selected his priests in a very special way. Any boy born during a thunderstorm had been specially selected by the god for his priesthood. He took the priesthood when he had grown old and no longer have to work. This was a common practice for any priesthood discipline. Inca priests were older men who no longer did manual labor.
The Inca deities occupied the three realms : Hanan Pacha, the celestial realm; Uku Pacha, the inner earth; Kay Pacha, the outer earth where humans live.
The Incas believed that the spiritual realm was governed by two sorts of gods: Greater Gods, who were individual, specific deities who ruled as a sort of pantheon, and the Lesser Gods or Huacas which were Spirits tied to a place or object such as a cave, river or boulder. Of the Greater Gods, only Viracocha (The All Powerful Creator God) and the Sun God were considered more powerful than the Thunder God.
The Inca Royal Family was venerated as semi-divine and had a very complicated system of ancestor worship.
The most important deities of the celestial realm (Hanan Pacha) besides Viracocha (The All Powerful Creator God) were Inti, the Sun God, and the moon goddess (Mama Quilla). The Inti Raymi was the festival of the Sun God (Inti) in the realm where humans live (Kay Pacha), and the largest and more important Inca Festival.
The Thunder God (Chuqui Illa), responsible for rain, hail, thunder and lightning also resided in the celestial realm was carried in the form of an idol by his priests during important rituals. During the Inti Raymi Festival The Thunder God got an equal share of the sacrifice animals (usually Llamas) along with Viracocha and the Sun.
He was known as a man who lived in the cosmos and that he was made up of stars, with a war club in his left hand and a sling in his right hand. He used to dress in shinning garments which gave off the flashiness of lightning when he whirled his sling and when he wanted it to rain. The Milky Way was the river from which the The Thunder God would draw the water to make it rain. He was in charge of all the weather and thunderbolts, lightning, rain, hail, rainbows and other weather-related phenomena. His will was constantly under scrutiny. If a rain shower appeared in one town before passing somewhere else, the town was considered blessed. If an object was found to hold water when it rained, such as a stone or a piece of metal, it was said to have been specially blessed by the god and worshiped as a Huaca.
On the other hand, when The Thunder God was angry he brought disasters such as water shortages, floods or frost. When this happened, priests would communicate their auguries to determine what sort of sacrifice the god was demanding to restore the harmony of the land.
The Thunder God selected his priests in a very special way. Any boy born during a thunderstorm had been specially selected by the god for his priesthood. He took the priesthood when he had grown old and no longer have to work. This was a common practice for any priesthood discipline. Inca priests were older men who no longer did manual labor.
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