Of the big civilizations of the New World, the Maya, one of the first in Middle America, had to cut its way out of the jungle. The Aztecs had to conquer their way through Mexico. Far to the South, other mighty civilization, the Andean, thrust upward through some of the world's most forbidding terrain: the towering mountains and desert coast of Andean Peru.
The Inca Empire, which crowned these early civilizations of the Southern half of the globe, ruled from a capital 11,152ft/3,400m in the clouds, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes, Peru.
The Andean civilization centered far more than that of Middle America on the material techniques of life: - Planning big cities and irrigation works, - Building highways and a network of communications, and - Perfecting the domestic arts of weaving and pottery making.
The Inca passion for organization in every field extended even to their art work. The best in Andean art was produced by the Andean peoples who preceded the Incas and they simply absorbed and perfected the technique.
Civilization around the world traces their origins to the time when men settled down and started cultivating rather than hunting their food. The early people of South America showed a versatile talent for domesticating plants, many of them unknown in the Old World. Some 5,000 years ago they were already cultivating squash, peppers, gourds, beans, and cotton on the Coast of Peru.
By the time of the European invasion, these early people of South America were already better farmers that their Europeans contemporaries. They had domesticated the potato, the corn, the tomato, the yam, and the lima beans. They found a source of wool by taming the llama and the alpaca. They terraced the mountainsides and built vast irrigation systems.
Since very ancient time Pre-Inca civilizations of the Central Andes occupied an area, at over 4,000 m of elevation, which today is regarded as marginal for many basic crops. The ancient People of the Andes were able to build a dense population that supported both a city life and a highly organized social and economic society as evidenced from archaeological findings. Part of it lie in the type of agricultural technology employed, together with the choice of food plants, which together ensured both quantity and quality of sustenance. A strong economic base was in existence from at least 2000 years before the present time.
The extensive agricultural cultivation and irrigation system still work today and produce just like they did long time ago. The vast majority of these agricultural terraces are built on the sides of mountains and hills, and required hard work for creation, but ensured food production over a long period of time. The reason for creating stepped agricultural fields are various. For example, the Sacred Valley region, in which the Vilcanota River, the main artery of life, flows surrounded by abrupt mountains that are over 4000 m high, the sun's rays don't reach deep enough in the Valley, which remain cooler in their bottoms. Then the mountain sides ensure more intense sunlight for longer time during the day. In some parts there is little space in the Valleys, so the usage of steps actually increases the area available for agriculture.
The benefits of the steeped technology included defense against landslide and floods. In this way the water did not accumulate and run down over the towns below. The rocks used for creating the steps strengthened the sides of the mountains, that protecting what was in the Valleys from possible mudslide during heavy rainfall. Higher grounds protected the plantations from disasters.
The Vilcanota River is terrifying when its affluent and intense rain increase its volume. During the glorious period of the Inca Empire, the Sacre valley of the Vilcanota River was one of the most agriculturally productive region of the world. When Europeans waited for the rain to come, the incas were controlling the irrigation of the terraces by diverting small quantities of water from mountain rivers, making a sort of balance in the ecosystem of the land. The threat of drought was practically eliminated.
Up to this point in history, no culture in the world had spread a civilization over a similar terrain conditions like the whole of Peru's arid Coasts and High Mountains.
Saturday, September 10, 2016
THE PARACAS PEOPLE OF PERU.
Paracas is a desert peninsula located within the Pisco Province in the Ica region, on the Southern Coast of Peru.
The Paracas culture was an Andean society between approximately 1000 to 100 BC, with an extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management and significant contributions in the textiles arts. Most information about the ancient lives of Paracas people comes from excavations at the large seaside territory of the site on the peninsula.
It is here where Peruvian archaeologist, Julio C. Tello (1880-1947), discovered 429 mummies bundles from two clusters in the subterranean structure (necropolis) at Wari Kayan, during excavations in 1927-8 on the Northern side of the Red Mountain (Cerro Colorado) area of the Paracas Peninsula.
It was a massive and elaborated graveyard containing tombs filled with the remains of individuals with the largest elongated skulls found anywhere in the world. The mummified bodies were swaddled in colorful fabrics, some of which were richly embroidered with wool to create elaborated patterns, which are among the best South American textiles ever found. The individuals were then placed in baskets in a sitting position, and interred facing North; as with all South American mummies. Their preservation is due to natural desiccation. Almost 400 embroidered cloths were recovered. All the burials were of males and the quality of their grave gifts suggests that they were of high status.
The men interred in the graveyard had conical, and so unusual elongated skulls. The cranial volume were measured and they were up to 25% larger and 60% heavier than conventional human skulls, containing only one parietal plate, rather than two.
The parietal bones are two bones in the human skull which, joined together at a fibrous joint, form the sides and roof of the cranium. Each bone is roughly quadrilateral in form, and has two surfaces, four borders, and four angles. The external surface of the parietal bone is convex, and marked near the center by an eminence which indicates the point where ossification commenced. The parietal bone is ossified in membrane from a single center, which appears at the parietal eminence about 8th week of fetal life. Ossification gradually extends in a radial manner from the center toward the margins of the bone; the angles are consequently the parts last formed, and it is here that the fontanelles exist.
A 19th century doctor Johann Jacob Von Tschudi claimed that the parietal bone found on the skulls was an evidence of a very ancient race of people inhabiting the land. The skulls had two abnormal holes and only one parietal plate instead of two. The little holes appeared to be a common human variation allowing the passage of veins connecting the venous system inside the skull to that on the outside.
DNA tests for the skulls were performed and they had concluded that the individuals were not fully humans, because other examples of cranial deformation did not alter the size, wight or cranial volume, as seen in the Paracas skulls. Although, the test did not confirm they were from one of our earlier ancestors instead. But there is a little more to say about of these Paracas skulls. The fact is the remains were found almost a century ago, but since the 1850's the idea of the elongated skulls has been around for a very while.
David Forbes wrote and submitted a research paper, "On Aymara People of Bolivia and Peru" to the Ethnological Society of London in 1870. In it he describes not only his examinations of the skulls, but those of his predecessors Mariano Eduardo de Rivero & Ustariz and Johan Von Tschudi who also had investigated the elongated skulls as early as the 1850's. Undoubtedly, the People of the Andes knew about them long before the Europeans put their feet in South American Lands.
The average cranial capacity of the skulls from the necropolis is about 1600 cc. Normal human cranial capacity varies widely, with 1350 cc. being the modern average.
The human skull has 3 bones (plates) that comprise the spherical shape of the skull. They are the frontal lobe, the parietal bone (left and right) and the occipital bone. The main difference in elongated skulls is that they have 2 major skull bones, the frontal and the back plates.
The Peruvian archaeologists, Julio C. Tello had previously excavated at Chavin of Huantar and recognized that there were cultural afinities between its products and those found at Wari Kayan and suggested that the Paracas People was related to the largely Chavin Culture. Comparisons have also been made between the later Paracas textiles and those of the Nazca Culture, suggesting another relationship. The pottery was largely plain and thin walled; and very similar to ceramics found in the Canete and Chincha Valleys, to the North of Paracas.
A Paracas Necropolis settlement has been found at White Sand (Arena Blanca), in the Coastal Plain below the Red Mountain (Cerro Colorado). It covers an area of some 5 hectares, divided into 20 separate districts, with buildings made from cobbles in dried mud. Its inhabitants had cultivated plants, while cotton nets may be evidence for fishing. Further settlements are known in the Ica Valley to the South.
The Ica Valley of Peru is one of the driest places in the world. Ground water is provided by the Ica River, rising in the Mountains of Huancavelica. The Mountain People there is already lacking water because of the British and American mining pollution and depleted ice caps which feeds the River. Much of the water supply is diverted to the British funded asparagus farms in the Ica Valley, as a result wells are drying up and water rate prices are astronomical high, forcing farmers to sell their farms to the asparagus trade. Supplies are severely rationed, yet one giant asparagus farm can use much water as the entire city of Ica every day.
Greed as an inordinate or insatiable longing, especially for wealth, status, and power did not exist in this region of Peru. The ancient individuals interred in the land graveyard came from a time when the world were completely different than the one we live today, and there is a common belief that they will return and do justice to people of all kinds and the land entrusted to them.
The Paracas culture was an Andean society between approximately 1000 to 100 BC, with an extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management and significant contributions in the textiles arts. Most information about the ancient lives of Paracas people comes from excavations at the large seaside territory of the site on the peninsula.
It is here where Peruvian archaeologist, Julio C. Tello (1880-1947), discovered 429 mummies bundles from two clusters in the subterranean structure (necropolis) at Wari Kayan, during excavations in 1927-8 on the Northern side of the Red Mountain (Cerro Colorado) area of the Paracas Peninsula.
It was a massive and elaborated graveyard containing tombs filled with the remains of individuals with the largest elongated skulls found anywhere in the world. The mummified bodies were swaddled in colorful fabrics, some of which were richly embroidered with wool to create elaborated patterns, which are among the best South American textiles ever found. The individuals were then placed in baskets in a sitting position, and interred facing North; as with all South American mummies. Their preservation is due to natural desiccation. Almost 400 embroidered cloths were recovered. All the burials were of males and the quality of their grave gifts suggests that they were of high status.
The men interred in the graveyard had conical, and so unusual elongated skulls. The cranial volume were measured and they were up to 25% larger and 60% heavier than conventional human skulls, containing only one parietal plate, rather than two.
The parietal bones are two bones in the human skull which, joined together at a fibrous joint, form the sides and roof of the cranium. Each bone is roughly quadrilateral in form, and has two surfaces, four borders, and four angles. The external surface of the parietal bone is convex, and marked near the center by an eminence which indicates the point where ossification commenced. The parietal bone is ossified in membrane from a single center, which appears at the parietal eminence about 8th week of fetal life. Ossification gradually extends in a radial manner from the center toward the margins of the bone; the angles are consequently the parts last formed, and it is here that the fontanelles exist.
A 19th century doctor Johann Jacob Von Tschudi claimed that the parietal bone found on the skulls was an evidence of a very ancient race of people inhabiting the land. The skulls had two abnormal holes and only one parietal plate instead of two. The little holes appeared to be a common human variation allowing the passage of veins connecting the venous system inside the skull to that on the outside.
DNA tests for the skulls were performed and they had concluded that the individuals were not fully humans, because other examples of cranial deformation did not alter the size, wight or cranial volume, as seen in the Paracas skulls. Although, the test did not confirm they were from one of our earlier ancestors instead. But there is a little more to say about of these Paracas skulls. The fact is the remains were found almost a century ago, but since the 1850's the idea of the elongated skulls has been around for a very while.
David Forbes wrote and submitted a research paper, "On Aymara People of Bolivia and Peru" to the Ethnological Society of London in 1870. In it he describes not only his examinations of the skulls, but those of his predecessors Mariano Eduardo de Rivero & Ustariz and Johan Von Tschudi who also had investigated the elongated skulls as early as the 1850's. Undoubtedly, the People of the Andes knew about them long before the Europeans put their feet in South American Lands.
The average cranial capacity of the skulls from the necropolis is about 1600 cc. Normal human cranial capacity varies widely, with 1350 cc. being the modern average.
The human skull has 3 bones (plates) that comprise the spherical shape of the skull. They are the frontal lobe, the parietal bone (left and right) and the occipital bone. The main difference in elongated skulls is that they have 2 major skull bones, the frontal and the back plates.
The Peruvian archaeologists, Julio C. Tello had previously excavated at Chavin of Huantar and recognized that there were cultural afinities between its products and those found at Wari Kayan and suggested that the Paracas People was related to the largely Chavin Culture. Comparisons have also been made between the later Paracas textiles and those of the Nazca Culture, suggesting another relationship. The pottery was largely plain and thin walled; and very similar to ceramics found in the Canete and Chincha Valleys, to the North of Paracas.
A Paracas Necropolis settlement has been found at White Sand (Arena Blanca), in the Coastal Plain below the Red Mountain (Cerro Colorado). It covers an area of some 5 hectares, divided into 20 separate districts, with buildings made from cobbles in dried mud. Its inhabitants had cultivated plants, while cotton nets may be evidence for fishing. Further settlements are known in the Ica Valley to the South.
The Ica Valley of Peru is one of the driest places in the world. Ground water is provided by the Ica River, rising in the Mountains of Huancavelica. The Mountain People there is already lacking water because of the British and American mining pollution and depleted ice caps which feeds the River. Much of the water supply is diverted to the British funded asparagus farms in the Ica Valley, as a result wells are drying up and water rate prices are astronomical high, forcing farmers to sell their farms to the asparagus trade. Supplies are severely rationed, yet one giant asparagus farm can use much water as the entire city of Ica every day.
Greed as an inordinate or insatiable longing, especially for wealth, status, and power did not exist in this region of Peru. The ancient individuals interred in the land graveyard came from a time when the world were completely different than the one we live today, and there is a common belief that they will return and do justice to people of all kinds and the land entrusted to them.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
THE STARGATE OF HAYU MARCA.
A huge mysterious door-like structure in the Hayu Marca mountain region of Southern Peru near Lake Titicaca, and hour drive from the city of Puno, has long been revered by the locals as the "City of the Gods." The door has been carved out of a natural rock face and in all measures exactly 23' in height and width, with a smaller alcove in the center at the base which measures 6' in height.
The remote area is known as a Valley of the Spirits, or Stone Forest, made of strange rock formations that resemble animals, beings, buildings, dinosaurs, and artificial structures.
The local people of the region had a legend that spoke of a 'Gateway to the Land of the Gods', and in that legend, it was said that in times long past great heroes had gone to join their gods, and passed through the gate for a glorious new life of immortality, and on a very rare occasions those men returned for a very short time with their gods to inspect all the lands in the kingdom, through the gate.
Dreams about the use of the doorway appears to be common by the local population and in them they see a pathway made of light colored marble, with a small door open with a brilliant blue/white light coming from what looked like a shimmering tunnel. Others see that the Gate is made of two doorways, almost in a T shape. The larger door is for the gods themselves and the smaller door is for the mortals, to pass through.
Another legend of a mortal passing through the doorway appears to lend credibility to the alleged dreams of the locals about the gate. The legend tells of the time when European invaders arrived in Peru in the 16th CE, looting Inca sacred places taking their gold and precious stones along their way.
One Inca priest fled his temple with a sacred golden disk known as "the Key of the Gods of the Seven rays," and hid in the mountains of Hayu Marca. The priest eventually came upon the gate which was being watched by shaman priests. He presented to them the golden disk, and a ritual was performed immediately by them, with the conclusion of a supernatural occurrence initiated by the golden disk which opened the portal, and behind it was a tunnel that shone with an intense blue/white light. The priest handed the golden disk to the shaman priests and then passed through the portal and never to be seen again.
Investigators have observed a small, round, hand sized, circular indention in the rock on the right hand column of the small entrance doorway. The examinations led them to believe that should a disk shaped object be inserted into the indention, it would be held in place by the surrounding rock.
It is interesting to note that the structure resembles the Gate of the Sun at Tiahuanaco and 5 other archaeological sites which link together a cross by an imaginary straight lines crossing each other exactly at the point where the plateau and Lake Titicaca are located. Locals report glowing blue spheres and bright white and rainbow-colored objects sighted over the Lake.
The aforementioned legend concludes with a prophecy that the door of the gods will one day open many times bigger than it actually is, and allow the gods to return in their Sun Ships and all the Americas once united by a common spiritual tradition and leader, will be again reunited in the same spirit.
Peru is a land steeped in ancient prophecies and wisdom. Life in the inca Empire was measured by a 1000 year cosmic cycle called an Inti (Sun). This cycle was then divided into halves, each of which was referred to as a Pachacutec.
The cosmological vision of the Andean world is the conception of duality that is in permanent opposition, but complementary. The same principle applies to each Pachacutec. However, Pachacutec also is used to refer to the transitional time that divided each Pachacutec and this is characterized as a time of great changes.
During the 500 years of the 8th Pachacutec cycle, Pachacutec, the greatest leader of the Incas, ruled. This was a time of Light when the Inca Empire flourished and there were expansion and good fortune. The 9th Pachacutec cycle, on the opposite side of the duality, brought with it the 500 years of darkness when the European invaders looted the land and its resources. We are now entering the 10th Pachacutec cycle, which the local people refer to as the returning to Light, and the sacred Solar Disk is going to be re-activated accessing the cosmic wisdom and reaching again a higher level of spiritual consciousness making the Andean people flourish again but this time in the spiritual realm.
The remote area is known as a Valley of the Spirits, or Stone Forest, made of strange rock formations that resemble animals, beings, buildings, dinosaurs, and artificial structures.
The local people of the region had a legend that spoke of a 'Gateway to the Land of the Gods', and in that legend, it was said that in times long past great heroes had gone to join their gods, and passed through the gate for a glorious new life of immortality, and on a very rare occasions those men returned for a very short time with their gods to inspect all the lands in the kingdom, through the gate.
Dreams about the use of the doorway appears to be common by the local population and in them they see a pathway made of light colored marble, with a small door open with a brilliant blue/white light coming from what looked like a shimmering tunnel. Others see that the Gate is made of two doorways, almost in a T shape. The larger door is for the gods themselves and the smaller door is for the mortals, to pass through.
Another legend of a mortal passing through the doorway appears to lend credibility to the alleged dreams of the locals about the gate. The legend tells of the time when European invaders arrived in Peru in the 16th CE, looting Inca sacred places taking their gold and precious stones along their way.
One Inca priest fled his temple with a sacred golden disk known as "the Key of the Gods of the Seven rays," and hid in the mountains of Hayu Marca. The priest eventually came upon the gate which was being watched by shaman priests. He presented to them the golden disk, and a ritual was performed immediately by them, with the conclusion of a supernatural occurrence initiated by the golden disk which opened the portal, and behind it was a tunnel that shone with an intense blue/white light. The priest handed the golden disk to the shaman priests and then passed through the portal and never to be seen again.
Investigators have observed a small, round, hand sized, circular indention in the rock on the right hand column of the small entrance doorway. The examinations led them to believe that should a disk shaped object be inserted into the indention, it would be held in place by the surrounding rock.
It is interesting to note that the structure resembles the Gate of the Sun at Tiahuanaco and 5 other archaeological sites which link together a cross by an imaginary straight lines crossing each other exactly at the point where the plateau and Lake Titicaca are located. Locals report glowing blue spheres and bright white and rainbow-colored objects sighted over the Lake.
The aforementioned legend concludes with a prophecy that the door of the gods will one day open many times bigger than it actually is, and allow the gods to return in their Sun Ships and all the Americas once united by a common spiritual tradition and leader, will be again reunited in the same spirit.
Peru is a land steeped in ancient prophecies and wisdom. Life in the inca Empire was measured by a 1000 year cosmic cycle called an Inti (Sun). This cycle was then divided into halves, each of which was referred to as a Pachacutec.
The cosmological vision of the Andean world is the conception of duality that is in permanent opposition, but complementary. The same principle applies to each Pachacutec. However, Pachacutec also is used to refer to the transitional time that divided each Pachacutec and this is characterized as a time of great changes.
During the 500 years of the 8th Pachacutec cycle, Pachacutec, the greatest leader of the Incas, ruled. This was a time of Light when the Inca Empire flourished and there were expansion and good fortune. The 9th Pachacutec cycle, on the opposite side of the duality, brought with it the 500 years of darkness when the European invaders looted the land and its resources. We are now entering the 10th Pachacutec cycle, which the local people refer to as the returning to Light, and the sacred Solar Disk is going to be re-activated accessing the cosmic wisdom and reaching again a higher level of spiritual consciousness making the Andean people flourish again but this time in the spiritual realm.
Monday, August 22, 2016
ANDEAN MYTH ABOUT THE TIME BEFORE CREATION.
There is no single creation story among Andean peoples. Some tales hold that the Earth was created by the Most Powerful of the Gods of the Spirit World, others that particular and powerful entities were created by the Most Powerful of the Gods to be in charge of His House.
There was a time when everything was still, and all was dark. There was no life, no death.
All the spirits of the earth were asleep -or almost all, and the earth was a bare plain. The spirits of the sun, moon, and the stars slept beneath the earth. All the eternal ancestors slept there, too.
The great Father of All Spirits was the only one awake. Gently he awoke the spirit of the Cosmic Sun Mother. As she opened her eyes a warm ray of light spread out towards the sleeping earth.
The Father of All Spirits said to the Cosmic Sun Mother, "Mother, I have work for you. Go down the Earth plane and awake the sleeping spirits of the eternal ancestors, and give them forms." They woke themselves out of their own eternity and broke through to the surface and wandered the earth plane waiting for the Cosmic Sun Mother.
The Cosmic Sun Mother glided down to Earth plane, which was bare at that time and began to walk in all directions and everywhere she walked spirited plants grew. After returning to the field where she had begun her work the Cosmic Sun Mother rested, well pleased with herself.
The Father of All Spirits came and saw her work, but instructed her to go into the caves and wake the spirits that were sleeping inside them. This time the Cosmic Sun Mother ventured into the dark caves on the mountainsides, created in the spirited world. The bright light that radiated from her awoke the spirits and after she left insects of all kinds flew out of the caves. The Cosmic Sun Mother sat down and watched the glorious sight of her insects mingling with her flowers, having a mind on their own.
However once again the Father of All the Spirits urged her on. This time the Cosmic Sun Mother ventured into a very deep cave, spreading her light around her spirit. Heat from the Mother melted the ice and the rivers and streams of the Cosmic World were created.
Then the Cosmic Sun Mother created the cosmic minds of fish and small snakes, lizards and frogs. Then she awoke the cosmic spirits of the birds and animals and they burst into the sunshine in a glorious array of colors to mingle with the cosmic minds of the ones already created by her.
Seeing this the Father of All Spirits was pleased with the Cosmic Sun Mother's work. She called all her creatures to her and instructed them to enjoy the wealth of the earth plane and to live peacefully with one another. Then she rose into the sky and became the celestial Sun.
The living creatures watched the Sun in awe as she crept across the sky, towards the West. However when she finally sunk beneath the horizon they were panic-stricken, thinking she had deserted them.
All night they stood frozen in their places, thinking that the end of time had come. After what seemed to them a lifetime the Sun Mother peeked her head above the horizon in the East. Their children learned to expect her coming and going in the seasonal cycle's she formed, and were no longer afraid.
At first the children lived together peaceful, in complete harmony, but eventually envy crept into their spirited hearts. They began to argue and, harmony was broken forming two opposed natures in the Cosmical World.
Darkness appeared again and engulfed everything but the powerful Light from the Cosmic Sun Mother prevailed in the heart of all the children that loved the time of peace and harmony that they once had.
The duality of the cosmic forces were born due to the conflict and formed itself two entities , the one with the Light and the other with the rebellious Darkness.
The spirits in the earth plane mutated into half animal and half plant entities, and were shapeless bundles, vague and unfinished, not able to settle, lying near where water holes and salt lakes could be created. Their mind force were able to adopt a complete tree form, sometimes human shape, sometimes as part animal and human, and sometimes as part human and plant.
The Sun Mother was forced to come down from her home in the sky to mediate in the laws now controlling the middle plane, the earth, since the upper plane was the domain of the cosmic forces, and the lower plane, the domain of the rebellious forces.
She then agreed to have an agreement between the earth's plane and the forces governing the destiny of the universe, giving them freedom to act in each soul knowing that her powerful minded children will maintain the laws of harmony and peace in the earth's plane, as long as they were able to.
However she was not so pleased with the end result. The rats she had made had changed into bats; giant lizards and large fishes began to appear in a physical form, governed by the mind of the underworld. As a consequence the soul of every man and woman in the earth's plane became a descendant from the bundle of which they were formed, owing allegiance to it, making their journey on the earth's plane harder.
So the spirit of the Sun Mother looked down upon the Earth's plane and thought to herself that she must create new creatures less the Father of All Spirits be angered by what she now saw.
Then the spirit of Sun Mother gave birth to two children, a son and a daughter. The son god was the spirit of the Morning Star and the goddess was the spirit of the Moon. Then two more children were born to them and these spirits she sent to the Earth's plane.
The spirit of the Sun Mother made them superior to the spirit of the cosmic animals because they had part of her cosmic and universal mind. They became the physical form of the Sun, the Moon, and the stars.
There was a time when everything was still, and all was dark. There was no life, no death.
All the spirits of the earth were asleep -or almost all, and the earth was a bare plain. The spirits of the sun, moon, and the stars slept beneath the earth. All the eternal ancestors slept there, too.
The great Father of All Spirits was the only one awake. Gently he awoke the spirit of the Cosmic Sun Mother. As she opened her eyes a warm ray of light spread out towards the sleeping earth.
The Father of All Spirits said to the Cosmic Sun Mother, "Mother, I have work for you. Go down the Earth plane and awake the sleeping spirits of the eternal ancestors, and give them forms." They woke themselves out of their own eternity and broke through to the surface and wandered the earth plane waiting for the Cosmic Sun Mother.
The Cosmic Sun Mother glided down to Earth plane, which was bare at that time and began to walk in all directions and everywhere she walked spirited plants grew. After returning to the field where she had begun her work the Cosmic Sun Mother rested, well pleased with herself.
The Father of All Spirits came and saw her work, but instructed her to go into the caves and wake the spirits that were sleeping inside them. This time the Cosmic Sun Mother ventured into the dark caves on the mountainsides, created in the spirited world. The bright light that radiated from her awoke the spirits and after she left insects of all kinds flew out of the caves. The Cosmic Sun Mother sat down and watched the glorious sight of her insects mingling with her flowers, having a mind on their own.
However once again the Father of All the Spirits urged her on. This time the Cosmic Sun Mother ventured into a very deep cave, spreading her light around her spirit. Heat from the Mother melted the ice and the rivers and streams of the Cosmic World were created.
Then the Cosmic Sun Mother created the cosmic minds of fish and small snakes, lizards and frogs. Then she awoke the cosmic spirits of the birds and animals and they burst into the sunshine in a glorious array of colors to mingle with the cosmic minds of the ones already created by her.
Seeing this the Father of All Spirits was pleased with the Cosmic Sun Mother's work. She called all her creatures to her and instructed them to enjoy the wealth of the earth plane and to live peacefully with one another. Then she rose into the sky and became the celestial Sun.
The living creatures watched the Sun in awe as she crept across the sky, towards the West. However when she finally sunk beneath the horizon they were panic-stricken, thinking she had deserted them.
All night they stood frozen in their places, thinking that the end of time had come. After what seemed to them a lifetime the Sun Mother peeked her head above the horizon in the East. Their children learned to expect her coming and going in the seasonal cycle's she formed, and were no longer afraid.
At first the children lived together peaceful, in complete harmony, but eventually envy crept into their spirited hearts. They began to argue and, harmony was broken forming two opposed natures in the Cosmical World.
Darkness appeared again and engulfed everything but the powerful Light from the Cosmic Sun Mother prevailed in the heart of all the children that loved the time of peace and harmony that they once had.
The duality of the cosmic forces were born due to the conflict and formed itself two entities , the one with the Light and the other with the rebellious Darkness.
The spirits in the earth plane mutated into half animal and half plant entities, and were shapeless bundles, vague and unfinished, not able to settle, lying near where water holes and salt lakes could be created. Their mind force were able to adopt a complete tree form, sometimes human shape, sometimes as part animal and human, and sometimes as part human and plant.
The Sun Mother was forced to come down from her home in the sky to mediate in the laws now controlling the middle plane, the earth, since the upper plane was the domain of the cosmic forces, and the lower plane, the domain of the rebellious forces.
She then agreed to have an agreement between the earth's plane and the forces governing the destiny of the universe, giving them freedom to act in each soul knowing that her powerful minded children will maintain the laws of harmony and peace in the earth's plane, as long as they were able to.
However she was not so pleased with the end result. The rats she had made had changed into bats; giant lizards and large fishes began to appear in a physical form, governed by the mind of the underworld. As a consequence the soul of every man and woman in the earth's plane became a descendant from the bundle of which they were formed, owing allegiance to it, making their journey on the earth's plane harder.
So the spirit of the Sun Mother looked down upon the Earth's plane and thought to herself that she must create new creatures less the Father of All Spirits be angered by what she now saw.
Then the spirit of Sun Mother gave birth to two children, a son and a daughter. The son god was the spirit of the Morning Star and the goddess was the spirit of the Moon. Then two more children were born to them and these spirits she sent to the Earth's plane.
The spirit of the Sun Mother made them superior to the spirit of the cosmic animals because they had part of her cosmic and universal mind. They became the physical form of the Sun, the Moon, and the stars.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
THE NATURE AND INSTINCT OF THE ANDEAN CONDOR.
The Andean condor is the largest flying bird in the world by combined measurement of weight and wingspan. It has a maximum wingspan of 3.3m/10ft10in, and weighing up to 15kg/33lb.
The structure of the wings and the placement of the feathers allows this large bird to soar when it catch thermal air currents that rise up as the sun heats the ground. On the wing the movements of the condor are graceful. The lack of large sternum to anchor correspondingly large flight muscles identifies it physiologically as a primary soarer. The bird flaps its wings on rising from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they seem to sail on the air. The condor's huge wings allows the bird to stay aloft for hours, scanning the fields below. The average flying speed that a bird can reach is up to 88km/55mi per hour, at an altitude of 4,600m/15,000ft or more.
The Andean condor is also one of the world's longest-living birds, with a life-span of over 70 years and mate for life.
The adult plumage is uniformly black, with the exception of a frill of white feathers nearly surrounding the base of the neck which meticulously kept clean by the bird. The male has large white patches on the wings. The head and neck are nearly featherless, which exposes the skin to the sterilizing effects of dehydration and solar ultraviolet light at high altitudes. The skin has a dull red color, which flush and therefore change color in response to their emotional state, which serve to communicate between individuals. In the male, there is a wattle on the neck and a large, dark red fleshy growth or crest on top of the head.
The middle toe is greatly elongated, and the hinder one but slightly developed, while the talon of all the toes are comparatively straight and blunt. The feet are more adapted to walking as in the case of their relatives the storks, and of little use as weapons or organs of prehension as in birds of pray. The female, contrary to the nature and usual rule among birds of prey, is smaller than the male. One or two eggs are usually laid. They nest at elevations of up to 5,000m/16,000ft on inaccessible rock ledges.
Sexual maturity and breeding behavior do not appear in the condor until 5 or 6 years of age. The young are covered with grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after 6 months, but continue to roost and hunt with their parents until age 2, when they are displaced by a new clutch.
There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a 'pecking order' by body language, competitive play behavior, and a wide variety of vocalizations, even though the condor has no voice box. The bird also is known for its extraordinary eyesight, and inquisitive and engaging intelligence.
Wild condors inhabit large territories, often traveling 250km/160mi a day in search of carrion, large carcasses, such as those of a deer or cattle, are their preference. In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for a few days without eating, then gorging themselves on several kilograms at once.
In Andean mythology, the Andean condor was associated with the sun deity, and was believed to be the ruler of the upper world.
The structure of the wings and the placement of the feathers allows this large bird to soar when it catch thermal air currents that rise up as the sun heats the ground. On the wing the movements of the condor are graceful. The lack of large sternum to anchor correspondingly large flight muscles identifies it physiologically as a primary soarer. The bird flaps its wings on rising from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they seem to sail on the air. The condor's huge wings allows the bird to stay aloft for hours, scanning the fields below. The average flying speed that a bird can reach is up to 88km/55mi per hour, at an altitude of 4,600m/15,000ft or more.
The Andean condor is also one of the world's longest-living birds, with a life-span of over 70 years and mate for life.
The adult plumage is uniformly black, with the exception of a frill of white feathers nearly surrounding the base of the neck which meticulously kept clean by the bird. The male has large white patches on the wings. The head and neck are nearly featherless, which exposes the skin to the sterilizing effects of dehydration and solar ultraviolet light at high altitudes. The skin has a dull red color, which flush and therefore change color in response to their emotional state, which serve to communicate between individuals. In the male, there is a wattle on the neck and a large, dark red fleshy growth or crest on top of the head.
The middle toe is greatly elongated, and the hinder one but slightly developed, while the talon of all the toes are comparatively straight and blunt. The feet are more adapted to walking as in the case of their relatives the storks, and of little use as weapons or organs of prehension as in birds of pray. The female, contrary to the nature and usual rule among birds of prey, is smaller than the male. One or two eggs are usually laid. They nest at elevations of up to 5,000m/16,000ft on inaccessible rock ledges.
Sexual maturity and breeding behavior do not appear in the condor until 5 or 6 years of age. The young are covered with grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after 6 months, but continue to roost and hunt with their parents until age 2, when they are displaced by a new clutch.
There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a 'pecking order' by body language, competitive play behavior, and a wide variety of vocalizations, even though the condor has no voice box. The bird also is known for its extraordinary eyesight, and inquisitive and engaging intelligence.
Wild condors inhabit large territories, often traveling 250km/160mi a day in search of carrion, large carcasses, such as those of a deer or cattle, are their preference. In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for a few days without eating, then gorging themselves on several kilograms at once.
In Andean mythology, the Andean condor was associated with the sun deity, and was believed to be the ruler of the upper world.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
THE NAZCA CULTURE AND ITS GEO-GLYPHS.
Some billions of years ago the earth's crust and surface figures began to form and shift into a semblance of what we know as the Earth planet today. The shape of the continents and the climate were quite different as well. South America began to form and then, at some point in the southern part of Peru, lush valleys, and gorges, began to appear, and between them all dry elevated plains. These plains were covered in dark red surface stones that would be polished by the desert wind.
About 2,000 years ago the Nazca people inhabited this area. Most people of today learn about them because of the famous geo-glyphys etched in the desert between the Ingenious (Ingenio) and Nazca River Valleys.
Stretching across the Nazca Plains -like a giant map or blue print left by a superior mind of ancient andean people, lie the famous geo-glyphs. They are also known as Nazca lines, figures, pictures, or images, and are shown in direction of the rising of important stars and marking planetary events like sun solstices.
The geo-glyphs are located in the Pampa region, the desolate plain of the Peruvian coast which comprises the Pampas of San Jose (Jumana), Socos, the Ingenious (el Ingenio), and others in the province of Nazca, which is 400km/640mi South of the capital city of Lima. They cover an area of approximately 450 square kilometers of sandy desert as well as the slopes of the contours of the Andes.
The geo-glyphs were first spotted when commercial airlines began flying across the Peruvian desert in the 1920s. Today people sometimes fly in hot air balloons to view the splendors of the geo-glyphs.
The plain is unique for its remarkably ability to preserve the markings upon it, due to the combination of the climate (one of the driest on Earth, with only 20 minutes of rainfall per year), and the flat, stony ground which reduces the effect of the wind at ground level. With no dust or sand to cover the plain, and little rain or wind to erode it, the geo-glyphs drawn here tend to stay drawn. In any other climate, these geo-glyphs would have been obliterated in months, but Nazca is one of the driest and most windless regions on earth.
These climate factors, combined with the existence of a lighter-colored subsoil beneath the desert crust, formed an enormous drawing board for the Nazca people upon which huge lines, trapezoids, and animal figures were etched, and the nature of their mind ideally suited to the ones who wanted to leave a mark for eternity.
The geo-glyphs are the most impressive ones in the world, because of their numbers, characteristics, dimensions, and cultural continuity as they were made and remade by removing the oxidised darker surface stones and top soil to expose the lighter colored underneath floor. In this way the geo-glyphs were drawn as furrows of a lighter color, even though in some cases they became prints. In other cases, the stones defining the lines and drawings form small lateral humps of different sizes.
About 300 figures made of straight lines, and geometric shapes, are etched in the surface of the desert pampa sand. The concentration and juxtaposition of the lines and drawings leave no doubt that they required intensive long-term labor as is demonstrated by the stylistic continuity of the designs, which clearly correspond to different stages of cosmological changes.
There appear to be two kinds of designs:
- One design consists of figures of various beings, trees, plants, flowers, objects (such as tripods, looms and fans) and other strange figures as yet unidentified, such as anthropomorphic ones (that include deformed animals) of colossal proportions made with well-defined lines. Examples of animal designs are a humming-bird, condor, monkey, llama, duck, lizard, spider, and even a killer whale.
- The other design forms lines that could be single (straight and curved) or in groups and could cross each other in complicated networks. The width and length of them could vary, one of the longest straight lines is 20 km long and the total combined length of the geo-glyphs has been estimated at over 1,300 km. Those lines used to describe a specific shape are generally composed of a single continuous line. Designs could be geometric shapes such as triangles, spirals, trapezoids, arrows, and zig-zags.
The geo-glyphs are an enigma, for their exact purpose and meaning remains unknown. It has inspired fantastic explanations like they were done by semi-gods, a landing strip for returning beings, a celestial calendar used for religious rituals related to cosmological dates and seasons, confirming the spirit embodied in the clans (ayllus) who made up the sacred population of Nazca people and to determine through rituals their religious functions held up by reciprocity and redistribution of the energy forces trusted to them, or a map of underground water supplies mapping the orientation of the cosmic energies trusted to them.
How were they created so precisely? Some of the lines continue for kilometers on end only varying by a few degrees. It is possible that these lines were created before the Nazca, but it is somehow difficult to prove it.
About 2,000 years ago the Nazca people inhabited this area. Most people of today learn about them because of the famous geo-glyphys etched in the desert between the Ingenious (Ingenio) and Nazca River Valleys.
Stretching across the Nazca Plains -like a giant map or blue print left by a superior mind of ancient andean people, lie the famous geo-glyphs. They are also known as Nazca lines, figures, pictures, or images, and are shown in direction of the rising of important stars and marking planetary events like sun solstices.
The geo-glyphs are located in the Pampa region, the desolate plain of the Peruvian coast which comprises the Pampas of San Jose (Jumana), Socos, the Ingenious (el Ingenio), and others in the province of Nazca, which is 400km/640mi South of the capital city of Lima. They cover an area of approximately 450 square kilometers of sandy desert as well as the slopes of the contours of the Andes.
The geo-glyphs were first spotted when commercial airlines began flying across the Peruvian desert in the 1920s. Today people sometimes fly in hot air balloons to view the splendors of the geo-glyphs.
The plain is unique for its remarkably ability to preserve the markings upon it, due to the combination of the climate (one of the driest on Earth, with only 20 minutes of rainfall per year), and the flat, stony ground which reduces the effect of the wind at ground level. With no dust or sand to cover the plain, and little rain or wind to erode it, the geo-glyphs drawn here tend to stay drawn. In any other climate, these geo-glyphs would have been obliterated in months, but Nazca is one of the driest and most windless regions on earth.
These climate factors, combined with the existence of a lighter-colored subsoil beneath the desert crust, formed an enormous drawing board for the Nazca people upon which huge lines, trapezoids, and animal figures were etched, and the nature of their mind ideally suited to the ones who wanted to leave a mark for eternity.
The geo-glyphs are the most impressive ones in the world, because of their numbers, characteristics, dimensions, and cultural continuity as they were made and remade by removing the oxidised darker surface stones and top soil to expose the lighter colored underneath floor. In this way the geo-glyphs were drawn as furrows of a lighter color, even though in some cases they became prints. In other cases, the stones defining the lines and drawings form small lateral humps of different sizes.
About 300 figures made of straight lines, and geometric shapes, are etched in the surface of the desert pampa sand. The concentration and juxtaposition of the lines and drawings leave no doubt that they required intensive long-term labor as is demonstrated by the stylistic continuity of the designs, which clearly correspond to different stages of cosmological changes.
There appear to be two kinds of designs:
- One design consists of figures of various beings, trees, plants, flowers, objects (such as tripods, looms and fans) and other strange figures as yet unidentified, such as anthropomorphic ones (that include deformed animals) of colossal proportions made with well-defined lines. Examples of animal designs are a humming-bird, condor, monkey, llama, duck, lizard, spider, and even a killer whale.
- The other design forms lines that could be single (straight and curved) or in groups and could cross each other in complicated networks. The width and length of them could vary, one of the longest straight lines is 20 km long and the total combined length of the geo-glyphs has been estimated at over 1,300 km. Those lines used to describe a specific shape are generally composed of a single continuous line. Designs could be geometric shapes such as triangles, spirals, trapezoids, arrows, and zig-zags.
The geo-glyphs are an enigma, for their exact purpose and meaning remains unknown. It has inspired fantastic explanations like they were done by semi-gods, a landing strip for returning beings, a celestial calendar used for religious rituals related to cosmological dates and seasons, confirming the spirit embodied in the clans (ayllus) who made up the sacred population of Nazca people and to determine through rituals their religious functions held up by reciprocity and redistribution of the energy forces trusted to them, or a map of underground water supplies mapping the orientation of the cosmic energies trusted to them.
How were they created so precisely? Some of the lines continue for kilometers on end only varying by a few degrees. It is possible that these lines were created before the Nazca, but it is somehow difficult to prove it.
Sunday, August 14, 2016
DEATH, AN IMPORTANT PART OF INCA LIFE.
Like many ancient Andean people before them, the Incas viewed Death in two ways. One was biological death, when the body ceased functionally and was mummified. The other was the passing of the soul to a place active only in the mind, souls and daily lives of the living until they were replaced by other prominent figures. However, some of them were never forgotten. They were considered heroic figures who gave the Inca their identity.
As long as they maintained alive in their minds the world beyond the living world, deities, supernatural, powers and curses were an active force very much entwined with human nature, such beliefs and practices have somehow continued alive to the present day.
Death was considered an important part of life in the realm of the living and mummification was a rite of passage into the abstract, or the non-physical one, the world of the spirits.
The mummification processes were precise and complicated. One of the things that made this process complicated was that every civilian had to be mummified. All of the people of various places on the social ladder were buried. Tombs and mummies were well preserved, revered and considered extremely sacred. Ancestor veneration frightened the European crown and clergy, because their minds were already corrupted by the belief that human power dominated the world beyond the living and no entity or force was able to punish them in their wrongdoings. They destroyed the burial chambers of these important corpses and robbed them in an attempt to undermine the spiritual power of the Inca religion founded in ancestral veneration and worship. They portrayed themselves as being sent by their ancestors in order to establish a proper order in the world of the living. At the beginning it worked out but at the end they themselves brought the Inca curses to their own lives and to the crowns responsible of the destruction behind the curtains.
The intention of the curse, according to Inca beliefs, was to submit the soul of the inflicter to the proper supernatural power in charge of the ancestral tree of souls from which the individual belonged to. This supernatural forces then inflicted misfortunes of any kind to the person and the descendants according to the weight of the wrongness done by the individual or community of people.
Curse was a powerful phenomenon, viewed as the summoned wrath of the beings in the upper world towards the wrongness of humans against the law of nature, or the presence of evil forces using nature as a weapon to defied the power of the upper world.
The reason why some of mummies survived from the hand of the Europeans and for so long is because most of the mummies were buried in the high peaks of the Andean mountains, symbolizing the power of nature against the power of man winning nature over him. The high mountains being a very cold place by nature, the mummies were kept frozen and this frozen estate kept them from deteriorating.
To help them in the afterlife, the mummies were bundled with offerings of food, tools, and precious items inside of their wrappings. Their internal organs were kept inside of their bodies and then buried or put in an above ground tombs called 'chullpas.'
If the person were a king he would be seated on a special throne, with the arms across their chest and their knees up to their chests. They would be dressed in fancy clothes and adorned with pieces of silver and gold and parts of animals would be put on the outer layer of him and onto it offerings to the gods. Fake heads also and masks would be put on the face.
The mummies of the Inca rulers were among the holiest objects of Inca religion. They were actually treated as if they were still alive. They had servants, maintained ownership of their property, were consulted as oracles, and were taken to major festivals or to visit other mummies.
If the deceased was not from the ruling class their mummies were placed in a tomb above the ones in the ground. They were accessible and people could leave gifts, food, or belongings.
If they were a religious sacrifice they were put in a long fancy robes that were so big so it allowed room to grow in, during the afterlife. Then they were wrapped up and some of their belongings were placed inside the wrappings. They were then put into the ground in many high peaks of the Andes. They were considered like demigods with a specific mission in the afterlife.
As long as they maintained alive in their minds the world beyond the living world, deities, supernatural, powers and curses were an active force very much entwined with human nature, such beliefs and practices have somehow continued alive to the present day.
Death was considered an important part of life in the realm of the living and mummification was a rite of passage into the abstract, or the non-physical one, the world of the spirits.
The mummification processes were precise and complicated. One of the things that made this process complicated was that every civilian had to be mummified. All of the people of various places on the social ladder were buried. Tombs and mummies were well preserved, revered and considered extremely sacred. Ancestor veneration frightened the European crown and clergy, because their minds were already corrupted by the belief that human power dominated the world beyond the living and no entity or force was able to punish them in their wrongdoings. They destroyed the burial chambers of these important corpses and robbed them in an attempt to undermine the spiritual power of the Inca religion founded in ancestral veneration and worship. They portrayed themselves as being sent by their ancestors in order to establish a proper order in the world of the living. At the beginning it worked out but at the end they themselves brought the Inca curses to their own lives and to the crowns responsible of the destruction behind the curtains.
The intention of the curse, according to Inca beliefs, was to submit the soul of the inflicter to the proper supernatural power in charge of the ancestral tree of souls from which the individual belonged to. This supernatural forces then inflicted misfortunes of any kind to the person and the descendants according to the weight of the wrongness done by the individual or community of people.
Curse was a powerful phenomenon, viewed as the summoned wrath of the beings in the upper world towards the wrongness of humans against the law of nature, or the presence of evil forces using nature as a weapon to defied the power of the upper world.
The reason why some of mummies survived from the hand of the Europeans and for so long is because most of the mummies were buried in the high peaks of the Andean mountains, symbolizing the power of nature against the power of man winning nature over him. The high mountains being a very cold place by nature, the mummies were kept frozen and this frozen estate kept them from deteriorating.
To help them in the afterlife, the mummies were bundled with offerings of food, tools, and precious items inside of their wrappings. Their internal organs were kept inside of their bodies and then buried or put in an above ground tombs called 'chullpas.'
If the person were a king he would be seated on a special throne, with the arms across their chest and their knees up to their chests. They would be dressed in fancy clothes and adorned with pieces of silver and gold and parts of animals would be put on the outer layer of him and onto it offerings to the gods. Fake heads also and masks would be put on the face.
The mummies of the Inca rulers were among the holiest objects of Inca religion. They were actually treated as if they were still alive. They had servants, maintained ownership of their property, were consulted as oracles, and were taken to major festivals or to visit other mummies.
If the deceased was not from the ruling class their mummies were placed in a tomb above the ones in the ground. They were accessible and people could leave gifts, food, or belongings.
If they were a religious sacrifice they were put in a long fancy robes that were so big so it allowed room to grow in, during the afterlife. Then they were wrapped up and some of their belongings were placed inside the wrappings. They were then put into the ground in many high peaks of the Andes. They were considered like demigods with a specific mission in the afterlife.
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