Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, November 2002

Another natural phenomenon is the rainbow, in Quechua called Cuichi. No crock of gold lies at its end, rather misfortune for him or her that follows the rainbow, Cuichi: the devourer of people. Totemic animals included the Puma, the Jaguar, the Snake (very important), and the Bear (of which there are still a few left) but this last one is considered part human. Also monkeys, toads, foxes, various birds, most prominently the condor, followed by eagles, hawks and raptors. Hummingbirds, but more as a symbol of royalty, most parrots, certain woolly red caterpillars that abound in the bogs where the alpacas, small members of the camel family, feed. Also mermaids were very important.

So one can go on noting numerous instances of the sacred: various trees and plants, in most cases useful for their medicinal properties; oddly shaped or mutated vegetables, such as bizarre looking potatoes and other tuberose; oddly shaped ears of maize, certain coloured ears of maize, blue, purple but particularly red being used only for ceremonial purposes; supreme among plants, the coca 'Mama Coca', particularly useful for divining the future.

Flowers too, especially the fuchsias and certain kinds of orchids. Also textiles, with threads spun right to left for normal use; those with threads spun left to right only for magico-religious purposes. In woven cloths, the colour combinations as well as the amount and sequences of stripes could all carry religious messages. The divine was also seen in most malformed humans, dwarfs being considered messengers of the gods and de rigueur company for any princess or queen. Hunchbacks followed in prestige. There is as well a one-legged black imp, the Muki, who dwells in caves and corners and is responsible for things lost, practical jokes, sprained ankles.

In short, if one scratches just below the surface of the sensate world, the basic mystery is there. Animals, rocks, trees, rivers, mountains, springs, caves, plants, rain, the sun, the moon, fire, sex, birth, death; everything is 'supernatural' at that initial and barely underlying level. Even the ancient people of the region apparently had clues or were close to the perception of the cyclical character of nature: the seasons, lunar and planetary cycles, tides, etc. The growth of knowledge gradually prepared the way for a vertically structured society and an equally vertical spiritual infrastructure and interpretation of the cosmos as we find in the fully developed Inca rule. This development probably speeded up with the growing power of religious intermediaries (priests), part in turn of a hierarchical evolution, peripherally linked to intelligence, but directly related to strength, to material possession and power, to technological advantages like weapons and tools.

The tourist will probably not contact the deeper levels of life of the mountain people, but some are visible even to a casual glance. Before any enterprise, the people will make the offerings to the earth and the Apus. On a cloth woven only for that occasion they may offer coca leaves, sugar, tobacco, various flowers, llama grease, perhaps a llama foetus, frankincense. Even on a daily route, for example climbing a pass, they will make a very small toast, a shot glass of strong cane alcohol. First a drop on the ground and the words 'Pacha Mama, Santa Tierra' (Holy Mother, Sacred Earth); then, looking directly at the summit of the Apu looming above, the person blows gently over the rim of the glass in the direction of the Apu, again with one or two other Apus by order of importance. Then 'salud'! (Good health) to all. Then they drink and pass on their way.

What the deeper spiritual insights of the Andean tradition are, or were, we really cannot say. Today, many people in the highlands still turn to spiritual healers and shamans for their material and spiritual wellbeing. We know there were and are hermits, mystics, no doubt sages. Their teachings and life-stories are not readily accessible. But from the discussion in the final section of this article, we will see that the yogic vision undoubtedly was there since ancient times.

Some five hundred years ago, the Europeans arrived. With them came Christianity. The life and culture of the local people was disrupted, and in most cases devastated. Part of the devastation was certainly due to the greed, intolerance, and murderous intent of the Europeans. Another stark reality is that the native population were equally decimated by imported diseases like smallpox, influenza, measles, etc. to which they had no immunity. It is thought that more native Americans perished during the years of conquest through disease than by warfare.

At first it was not difficult to convert the monotheistic upper Inca caste to parallel Christian concepts. For example, Santiago (Saint James), the warrior saint on horseback, became quickly identified as another manifestation of Illapa, the thunderbolt. The various Virgin Marys were Pachamama, Mother Earth.

But the first wave of conquistadores brought with them Dominican monks, the extreme fundamentalist element in the Christian church. The Dominicans set out to eliminate, violently, all expressions of paganism. Going further, they attacked the root of the problem and began a campaign of gradual extermination of the intelligentsia as well as an attempt to eliminate the native Quechua language, and to make the natives into Spanish- and Latin-speaking people. Even today, in Cusco for example, one can see where Inca buildings were torn down, their stones often used to build churches.

Ironically, the monks ran into opposition first of all with the conquistadores themselves. The soldiers had conquered a vastly rich empire with minimal effort. And as a bonus, the empire came with a large population of docile, skilled labourers for whom the new masters were, at first, no different from the old ones.

In fact, the other ethnic groups hated the Incas so much that they did much of the fighting for the Spanish; even the Inca aristocrats were so divided that they betrayed each other to the conquerors. Spanish soldiers also married the Inca princesses, the dowager empresses, the widows, the noble women. The children of these marriages were half conquistador, half Inca. Many of the families were stable and respectable; the Spanish did not display the same prejudice against mixed race marriages as did the Anglo-Saxon invaders of North America.

The Dominicans started accusing everyone of heresy; they forced many women to become nuns; they brought such a reign of terror that the native population went into shock and the system started to collapse. The Spanish military authorities could no longer tolerate such policies: they had no wish to turn Peru into a barren wasteland. So the Dominicans were restrained, and Jesuits and Franciscans instead put in charge of the Peruvian church.

The Jesuits in particular, at that time a new order, changed history. They compiled the first Quechua-Spanish dictionaries; they built schools and hospitals; they began to officiate the holy mass in Quechua. They made the learning of the Quechua language an obligatory requirement for any European priest coming to America. They even allowed religious syncretism to start appearing. Further they supported a large class of native craftsmen, and also encouraged all the old indigenous iconography to be incorporated into Christian compositions. For example we find renditions of 'The Last Supper' where instead of a fish, Christ and the Apostles have a large guinea pig, the local delicacy of the Andes, on the plate.

The filigree work on the altars becomes composed of coca leaves, passion flowers, fuchsias. The Virgin Marys begin to sport feather headressess and the columns of the churches are full of mermaids, monkeys, sun symbols. And the worship of meteorites and boulders? They commissioned small paintings of Jesus crucified or some such episode to be painted somewhere on the boulder. The Indians continue going to the same boulder every year but now they are worshipping the boulder and Jesus at the same time. Many examples of fine schools of religious painting, for example the famous Cusco School, can still today be seen in churches, cathedrals, and art museums.

Syncretism can also be seen at festivals, for example at Corpus Christi, the greatest celebration in Cusco. For several days, the three- or four-metre-high 16th century images of the saints and virgins are paraded around Cusco. The images visit each other, spend the night as guests in their respective churches, play cards and dice.... and all Cusco swims in a sea of chicha, the original fermented maize beer of the Andes. Five hundred years ago, in the same month of June, it was the mummies of the Incas, finely dressed and attended, that were paraded, visited each other and honoured. The Dominicans had burned all of the Inca mummies, but within a few years time, the native craftsmen had made Christian saints to replace them.

To this day, the carriers of San Cristobal or the Virgin Mary, before shouldering the large image for the next stretch, stuff a lot of fresh coca in their mouths, and blow gently over the rim of their cane alcohol, toasting to the Apus, then to the Virgin, and pray in Quechua.

Twenty million or so people still speak Quechua in the Andes today. It was the Jesuits who turned the tide on the language issue also, otherwise Quechua would have followed the same fate as so many other native tongues. But if you preserve the language, the oral tradition, the lore and poetry of a people, you preserve their identity, or a great part of it. In fact, Quechua is far more widely spoken today than it was at the time of the Incas. The Incas did spread Quechua as a language of Empire, much as the Romans promoted Latin throughout Europe; but it then co-existed with local languages. Under the Spanish, the other local languages virtually died out, and Quechua was tolerated as the alternative language of the non-Europeans.

The Roman Catholic Church, albeit with some syncretistic elements, is now the professed religion of more than 90% of the population (most of the rest are Protestant). It has had its saints and devout priests; also much criticism for its alignment with the ruling classes. In the 1960s, the political ideas of the South American church were shaken by the new movement of 'liberation theology', some of whose early exponents were Peruvian. They called for an end to elitist politics, and declared that the Church should work only for the poor and the marginalized, even to the extent of supporting socialist and revolutionary movements. This reformist, radical element in the Church has since played a major role in numerous progressive social movements throughout the continent.

Nevertheless, from random visits to churches, cathedrals, festivals, and museums, the overwhelming impression one gains of Peru's Church is its devotion to Mother Mary. One sees Her image at all levels, in statues and paintings. Sometimes a single church will have dozens of such images, overpowering the images of Christ or other saints. Perhaps there is some modern resonance with the ancient traditions of the Holy Mother of the mountain peoples.

In addition to the Andes mysticism and the Roman Catholic Church, Peru has a heritage of religious practitioners who are healers, seers, spirit-mediums, and teachers. They are often known as shamans in English-language descriptions, although of course they have different names in Spanish and local language: curanderos (healers); altomisayoq (ritual specialist); kumu (Sun Priest); paye (spirit-guide). One shared characteristic is that they all make extensive use of hallucinogenic plants in a ritualised, sacramental setting.

Hallucinogenic substances form an integral part of social and religious life for numerous cultures; in the Americas especially so, for example the well-known mescalin and peyote of Mexico. Their chemical composition and ritual use has been much studied by modern researchers. One has written: 'Tropical forest cultures of South America are remarkable in that they use far more hallucinogenic drugs and integrate the use of such drugs in their religion in a more complex way than any other peoples on earth. ... Visions and experiences achieved through the use of these drugs are of great religious importance, both in ceremonials binding the living group to the collective body of dead relatives, and in curing rituals.¹

Still today, even educated, modern Peruvians will often take a trip to a remote village to consult with one of these practitioners for healing, or perhaps for advice. Sometimes the visitor will be requested to use hallucinogens; sometimes the shaman alone will do so, and will display some healing or perhaps clairvoyant power during his or her trance. A few descriptions of these people illustrate their powers:

On a much higher level than the 'ordinary shaman', the kumu is a luminous personage who has an interior light, a brilliant flame that shines and unveils the intimate thoughts of all people who speak to him. His power and his wisdom are always compared to an intense light that is invisible but perceptible through its effects. The manifestation of this luminous energy is the 'penetrating glance' that is attributed to the kumu, his capacity of fathoming the psyche of a person and of thus knowing his intimate motivations. ... His apprenticeship lasts several years, and in it are emphasized the interpretation of images produced by the drug [in this case yage, a hallucinogenic vine], the giving of constructive advice, and the power of conviction in the settling of social conflicts. The kumu's province is of wisdom and meditation.²

At times, a whole community will imbibe the drug in a ceremonious ritual, and under the guidance of the kumu they will share a 'visionary journey', travelling back in their minds to the origins of the universe and a sense of mystic unity.

Shamanism is of course widely practised in many cultures, from Siberia and Mongolia, through other parts of Asia, to the Americas. Characteristic of most shamans is that they will be familiar with plants both as hallucinogens and as medicines; that they enter trances, where they often come into contact with powerful spirits, often animal spirits; and they use their skills for the benefit of the community, being the repositories of much tribal history and culture. The most frequently depicted animal spirits are those of jaguar, condor, and snake: they represent many dimensions, for example earth, sky, and underworld. Much South American religious iconography makes use of a bewildering series of designs incorporating these, and other animals.

Their role is more pragmatic than spiritual in a conventional (Indo-European) sense. Typically the shaman has learned through years of experience to understand the needs of the tribe, and also how to use hallucinogens to undertake visionary journeys or trances. During trances, the spirit will fly to different levels of consciousness, where s/he appears to communicate with a multitude of beings:

In order to become a shaman an individual must have demonstrated since childhood a profound interest in the religious traditions of his culture...he must know how to 'sit on his bench' and reflect; he must practise sexual abstinence...he must channel his sexual energy towards other goals; however, he should be a family man. The most necessary quality is that he 'should' have the capacity to achieve well-defined hallucinations when he takes a concoction, and to be able to interpret them. Also, in the learning of myths and traditions, what is involved is not so much a good memory but a capacity for interpreting their symbolism. ... The office is not hereditary but depends on personality type, recognized early in childhood by other members of the group, observed and evaluated in detail and, from that time on, fostered by the older men.³

The shaman typically has to seek the spirits' help in healing disease and wounds; settling community disputes; communicating between the living and the dead; ensuring a good afterlife for the departed; praying for success in hunting and fishing; and praying for the well-being of the environment.

There are some signs that these ancient traditions, dating back to humanity's earliest pre-history, are adapting to the contemporary world. A number of people interested in 'New Age' spirituality in the West have studied with shamans, some of whom have been invited to the West to give seminars. It is hard to say how many of their hosts are interested in esoteric rituals, and how many are interested in hallucinogens! Anyway, it is all symptomatic of a post-modern world....the only sad aspect is that the tropical jungle is disappearing at an alarming rate under the pressure of the expanding populations. Peru does better than most countries at preserving what is left, but the situation is still dire. The whole environment faces catastrophe. Shamans and their tribes will be among those to suffer directly, and the human race will lose a remarkable living history.

The above accounts refer mainly to religious ceremonies, beliefs, and external observances. There is, however, a rather strange byway in the world's religions which is known in Indian terminology as kundalini, the 'serpent power' that climbs through mystic centres in the human body, to produce what is felt as a union with divine consciousness. In an earlier article discussing Indian and Chinese religions, I noted that the same concept, using different symbols, evolved in China as well as India. It is not clear which culture evolved the concept first, whether there was communication between the two, or whether they evolved independently.

I was surprised to learn that probably by far the earliest known documentation of the kundalini phenomenon comes from Peru, dated to approximately 1,000 BCE. Chavin de Huantar was a fortress temple of the Chavin culture, which dominated Northern Peru for several centuries: artefacts survive from the period 1,000 to 600 BCE. In 1985, the archaeological finds over seventeen acres were designated a World Heritage Trust site by UNESCO. Several carvings are of great interest; perhaps the most famous is now known as the Raimondi stela, named after an Italian naturalist who studied the area. The US scholar Joseph Campbell made a detailed investigation of the inscriptions, and has shown that they constitute a fascinating depiction of a serpent power rising through seven chakras. For the full discussion, see Joseph Campbell, Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Volume Two: The Way of the Seeded Earth, New York: Harper and Row, 1989, pp. 377-79.

The stela is an exceptionally well-preserved, detailed carving on stone. At first sight, the carving seems to be of images relatively familiar within the regional pantheon. We see a standing figure, who is clearly a deity. In each hand he holds a staff; this icon identifies him as a Staff God, of which other examples are found in the same region. He has a feline face, probably representing the Jaguar power. He seems to be wearing a rather extraordinary head-dress, with five sections, some of which again look feline, while some are abstract figures. Finally, there are numerous serpents entwined around the god's arms, body, and head: some fifty-two of them according to Campbell's count. Thus far, we seem to be looking at a deity of popular religion, an anthropomorphic god with features common in the local religious culture.

The amazing revelation is seen by turning the carving upside down; and we should remember that it is a large, heavy stone fixed into the ground. In other words, in its time presumably nobody could ever have seen it turned upside down (of course it can be achieved by using a careful drawing). Instead of the popular god, the image reveals a sequence of linked sections, connected by serpents, with a symbolic culmination at the "crown" of the new image. One of the things we observe by inverting the image are hidden faces. For example, the deity's face inverted is seen to contain images of Jaguar, Bird, and Serpent: three aspects of God, perhaps, in a concealed unity.

Even more surprising, the inverted image appears to clearly depict seven chakras. At the very foot of the picture, we see what is clearly a caduceus, two snakes intertwined. They emerge at the top of the picture. And in general, the picture is now alive with serpent images.

The lowest chakra in the inverted picture is simply a base; the next two are snouts of some kind, looking rather similar, and perhaps not of any recognisable creature. The fourth and fifth chakra (if we are following the Indian model, the heart and throat chakras) are abstract in design, the fifth being the smaller and looking similar to a larynx. The sixth and seventh chakras are the largest and most vivid. The sixth shows another face, which again looks like a Jaguar/God, but this time beatific and smiling. It is the largest section, and the most imposing. Above it rises the final section which is not animal or godlike, but is a subtle geometric pattern: suggesting to Campbell the idea that consciousness rises above an anthropomorphic idea of the divine, to an abstract one.

Of course, nobody can prove that these ancients had experienced a subtle yogic body, either through meditation or spirit-journeys mediated by hallucinogens. But it certainly seems a strong possibility and a reasonable interpretation of the iconography. Research on the Americas shows that we still know very little about the migration patterns and cultural contacts of early peoples. For example, it seems established by anthropologists that certain strains of cotton and peanuts came to Asia from the Americas about five thousand years ago; pottery went from Japan to Ecuador even earlier; raft-building techniques may have travelled from South India to Brazil at the same epoch. Where and how the mystic sages of earlier generations moved, God alone knows. At the very least, these things should keep us humble so that we never think 'my' culture discovered this or that. It is always 'our' culture; our shared culture.

1. Lathrap, Ancient Ecuador, Field Museum of Natural History, 1975.
2. Reichel-Dolmatoff, Amazonian Cosmos, University of Chicago Press, 1971, see pp. 135-38.
3. Ibid, 127.