Andean traditions was and still is inseparable from society in general. All facets of community life is closely connected with it. One such continuing Andean tradition is the belief in a specific founder of the community and an association with a particular spot where that person had emerged from the earth.
Shamans, with their feared ability to cast spells and particular skill at predestination by reading the signs in fires, llama's intestines and such like, remains important in the Andean world.
The Andean people were and still are keen observers of celestial bodies mastering their movements and cycles. Accordingly, stars, constellations, and planets has their personified representation of power, especially the Pleiades (Colca), the Milky Way (Mayu), Orion's Belt, and Venus. They believe that all creatures have their own particular stellar equivalent which somehow governs and protect all its physical equivalents on earth.
The identification of such equivalence of power was the task pursued by many ancient Andean groups who built immediately a sacred structure to perform ceremonies, prayers, offerings to the entity in charge of that specific divine force. A hierarchical priesthood conducted such ceremonies, their status depending on the power of the force they were serving.
The Sun (Inti) in Inca time was the most important element in the Creation of the visible world. For the Inca themselves, the world began at Lake Titicaca (picture above), long previously considered a divine place for the Andean people and visited by the Inca rulers in regular pilgrimages. The Creator god (Viracocha) one day, on the sacred Island of the Sun on Lake Titicaca, made a race of giants but, finding these too big for his purpose, instead made humans on a smaller scale. This first race of humans upset the Creator god with their greed and arrogance and so as punishment the Creator turned some of them to stone and others into the earth and natural features. Then the Creator sent a great Flood to wipe the earth clean, saving only 3 humans so that they might start the race again. Also at the divine Lake Titicaca, the Creator then made the Sun, Moon and Stars in the visible world. Next, the Creator went traveling around disguised as a beggar and known as Kon-Tiki, among many other names. The Creator made carvings at Tiahuanaco, established Cuzco by directing the Inca founding couple (Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo) there, and taught the Andean people the art crafts of everything. Then, when the Creator arrived at the Coast, his being mysteriously walked away across the sea to the West, promising one day to return.
The Sun (Inti) then got the respect of the Andean people since it was considered the central power of life on earth in the visible world. In the invisible world, the entity home was also the destination in the next life for those who lived good lives in this one. The representative of this life power on earth was the Inca and all the Andean civilization legitimized the Inca rule as a divine one. A symbolic gold statue of the Sun, represented as a small seated boy (Punchao), with rays projecting from his head, was kept in the Temple of the Sun, at the Coricancha sacred complex at Cuzco. The rays were decorated with gold jewelry as a representation of the divine line of power from which the Inca race came from. The figure's stomach was used as a receptacle for the ashes of the burned vital organs of previous Inca rulers. Each day the statue was brought outside of the Temple to bask in the sun as a connecting feature with the divinity source. In addition to the Coricancha, the Sun (Inti) had the Temple-Fortress complex of Sacsayhuaman dedicated to his power, located just outside Cuzco.
The well-being of the ruler and the Empire and the guarantee of a good harvest (picture below) were entirely in the divine power of the Sun. The power was served by a dedicated High Priest, the most reverent religious figure, who was aided by a team of young virgin priests (acllas or acllayconas), exercising the duality of the entity and its power. Each major town had a temple and a vast amount of resources were dedicated to the source of the power. Even land and herds were reserved especially for the divinity and a whole province near Lake Titicaca was set aside for the divine power of the Sun. Inside the Coricancha a maize field complete with life-size llamas and shepherds was constructed out of pure gold symbolizing the purity of their service to the land and dedicated to the sacred power of life invested in the Sun (Inti).
One of the most important ceremonies in worship these sacred power of life is the Inti Raymi. The 8-9 days of thanksgiving is still held every June (winter) solstice on a plain outside Cuzco. The beginning of the ploughing season is marked by the festivity.
Deities still important in their particular domains, includes the earth goddess Pachamama in whose honor farmers built a special place in the centre of their fields where they could easily offer the best that they can in the hope of a good harvest.
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