The Cosmos was seen as a powerful Spirit that connected and influenced everything in it. It was divided into three realms or 'pachas' : Hanan Pacha (heaven), Kay Pacha (earth), and Uku Pacha (underworld). The three realms represented the three distinct planes of existence, interconnected and bridged by both physical and spiritual elements. Together, the three realms shaped the foundation of their religion, the concept of the divine Inca's blood and the cosmos, the spiritual force that governed it, and the day-to-day world view of both the divine Inca leader class and priests and the common man.
The main concept about the Cosmos' spirit was the duality of its force. The human body served as a symbol and mediator of this dualism of forces in the cosmic structure and processes. The structure of the human body with cosmological relevance included the duality of right and left and the integrated unity of the body as a whole. The processes included reproduction, illness, and sensory perception.
Inca festivals and rituals expressed and enacted this corporeal and cosmic order.
One aspect of the Inca empire's identity was its idea of being a collective component of forces unified with the purpose of maintain harmony with the cosmological forces acting in it, whereby the adherents of the Inca religion also conceived themselves as a particular force bounded together by a chain of forces of divine origin descended to the earth in the person of the Sapa Inca.
With the arrival of the Europeans, the Incas were confronted with a radically different image of the body and the cosmos. The clash between the two bodies was experienced by the Incas as a confrontation of the two opposite forces and the consequent chaos in the cosmological order projected in the earth. These humans representing the state of chaos made its arrival to the New World in a state of fear, because they couldn't comprehend how so many people in such challenging environment were connected in a solemn union with a supernatural power that intimidated them.
They were reluctant to teach their fundamental beliefs that put them on the verge of extinction to the Inca population, instead they plot a different way of approaching to it. They used the Inca's religion foundations about the existence of the world in order to gain power over them and use that power in their own benefit, to make them rich. Europeans learned new ways to advance in their own religious notions. They built the Catholic faith as a panacea to cover up their lust for the Inca treasures and using Inca's beliefs as foundation stones, within the Catholicism, they gained acceptance among the people who still preserved their connection to the other cosmic force.
Many aspects of the Inca's belief are still preserved intact in the bodies of the ones who continue its ways and will remain as part of it as long as the earth exist.
Europeans did exactly what the Cathedral in Cuzco shows to us in our days. It still houses the Spirit of its fundamental builder that set the foundation stone in which the actual building rest, and continue its existence by simultaneously giving support to the european nature baroque structures set over it, as long as the foundation exists.
Ancient ruins help us learn about the religion beliefs of the pre-Incas and Inca civilization. It comes alive through it. We do not need writing scripts to understand the foundations of their beliefs. It is plain and simple. We need just to understand the forces that act inside of our bodies and how they are connected to the creative force that unified everything.
In Machu Picchu, the famous Inca complex of plazas, temples, and homes, are set in a majestic setting give us understanding about the mind projection of the builders. The Incas developed the idea of them mapping the cosmos over their ground. More of this mind projection awaits at Ollantay-Tambo fortress, and the Sacsay-Huaman Temple, both with some of the best examples of Inca masonry.
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