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Incan Myths and Legends
The Beginning| The Sun God|
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The Beginning
A long time ago, the nameless god reflected and thought he should create a world. He had earth, water, and fire and this was enough to form anything he wished to create. So he created the world, with 3 planes that composed a unique universe. In the upper plane, he put the gods, which shown brilliantly as the Sun and the Moon, the stars, the comets, and all that shines from above in the heavens. Between the upper plane and the middle plane were the gods of thunder, lightning, rainbows, and all phenomena that have no further explanation than what the gods wanted to be known. This upper world was named Janan Pacha. In the second plane, or second world named Kay Pacha, the god of creation put the humans, animals, plants, and all that lives, including spirits. In the third plane, the inner world named Uku Pahca, were closed spaces reserved for the dead. The three planes interacted, but there were some very special avenues that gave access from one to another. The son of the Sun, the Inca named Intí Churín, could access the upper plane. The interior world could be accessed from the middle plane through all natural conduits that open from the interior to the exterior, conduits from which water springs forth from the earth such as springs, caves, fissures, and volcanos. These were the primitive avenues of access for the first human beings, for the seeds that bore animals, and for the seeds that gave life to all plants that grew in the second world. The outline of this Incan universe is:
JANAN PACHA
Intí Churín
KAY PACHA
Pacarina
UKU PACHA
The cycle is closed by this flow from above to the world Uku Pacha through a spring, in order that the men could penetrate from the second world via the birth of the Incan Emperor. The founders of this empire were Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo at the head of humanity. With them at the top, one could be directed to the upper world in order to communicate with the gods.
Just like the Chibchas with Bochica, the Aztecs with Huitzilopchtl, the quinches with Hun-Apu-Vuch, the Quechuas of the Inca Empire had a sun god on the first rung of the celestial ladder. His sacred name was of Intí. Although later this god evolved into a more complex and universal personality, the final personality became a nameless divinity of creation, giving passage to Ira Cocha, an abbreviation of the complete name of the god Apu-Kon-Tiki-Wiracocha. This new and much more powerful sun god wasn't alone in his reign. He was accompanied by his wife and sister, as an Inca should be. The moon accompanied him in equal rank in the heavenly court under the name of Killa. The Sun god was represented as an ellipse of gold, which could also radiate rays as a manifestation of his power. The moon was represented as a disc of silver. The Sun as creator, was adored and revered, but also sought out for his favor and his help in resolving problems. Therefore, only the Sun could make the harvests ripe, cure sickness, and give shelter to the anxious human. Naturally, the goddess Quilla was assigned to direct the religious fervor of women. The women formed the nucleus of the god's faithful followers. Therefore, no one better than the goddess Quilla could understand his desires and fears and give the sought out help.
In the new legend of the world's creation by Wiracocha, Wiracocha started his work on the banks of Lake Titicaca, in Tiwanaku, carving figures of the first humans in the stone. These first men and women would be the cement of his work. Wiracocha placed these statues in their corresponding places and then brought them to life in the darkness of these first borns' world, darkness because this god hadn't yet taken the time to put light on earth. The earth was only illuminated by the splendor of Titi, an ardent and wild animal that lived on earth (surely, the jaguar which mixed with other animals in the totemic representations of the Incas and earlier cultures). This world was yet in fog because Wiracocha postponed all of his work on the world's complete construction to work on the birth of these human beings who would later enjoy the fruits of his labor. Satisfied with the humans, the god proceded with his project, now putting the Sun, Moom, and infinite starts in their places, until all the heavens were covered with light. Later, Wiracocha left behind Tiwanaku and went North, on the Cacha Road, in order to call to his side the creatures he had just endowed with life. Leaving Tiwanaku, Wiracocha delegated the secondary tasks of creation to his 2 assistants, Tocapu Wiracocha and Imaymana Wiracocha, who ventured out immediately on the routes from East to West across the Andes. While in their passage on this long road, they gave names to all of the plants and animals that would appear on the face of the earth, in a beautiful mission. This beautiful auxilliary and complimentary mission was accomplished before their god and lord, Wiracocha, a mission that the 2 assistants finished together on the shoreline and was terminated in the royal waters as was ordered by this creator of the universe.
As in almost all of the more elaborated myths on man's creation, ingratitude is the only payment for the infinite goodness that the god received from his creatures of the universe. At his call, not one of the newborn ran toward the light. The god found himself alone and saddened at the site of Cacha, with the reality of his children's disobedience. The evidence is irrefutable and the essential formula for making understood who ruled the world was bound to come in a devastating form, a rain of fire, an act of punishment and purification, that served as much to remind them of the power of the supreme being as much as to show the good road to the haughty humans. The rain of fire that left the bowels of the earth through the volcanoes of Cacha spread fear amongst the humans, trying to avoid the possibility of more and greater punishments for their blindness. The men, on seeing their folly and clumsy behavior, had brought on the destruction of their marvelous environment, abounding with the recent creation of vegetable and animal life, including putting in danger their own recent existence. To be totally penitent for their deficiencies before their benfactor Wiracocha, they asked for clemency, humbly begging his forgiveness for their arrogance. The good god was happy to have achieved their desired return to the good road and ended by giving them a very special lesson on modesty, since he had shown them now, what they received so easily, they could also lose at the god's will.
Now with the humans grouped around, he turned towards Cuzco, where the Inca Wiracocha established his first kingdom. To one of the penitent men, he gave control and command of the first city and center of the first empire existing on the planet. This first boss, the first Inca directly designated by the divine and legendary Allca Visa, would be himself the generator of the long and powerful Incan race.
