Q'enqo

"In the rain forests of Peru, an ancient manuscript has been discovered.  Within its pages are 9 key insights into life itself - insights each human being is predicted to grasp sequentially, one insight after another, as we move toward a completely spiritual culture on Earth." 

 

A growing number of people believe a pre-Columbian paradise existed for indigenous people of the Americas.  They believe that before Europeans arrived, North and South America nurtured Gardens of Eden where hunter gatherers lived in harmony with nature and in peace with neighboring tribes.

Trail from Cuzco

In Peru, the Incas had reached the First Wave of civilization, the development of agriculture, so they were no longer a nomadic culture depending on migration to find food.  Among their advanced techniques were irrigation and the terracing of steep mountainsides into tillable tiers like we saw at Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu.  With their system of roads that crisscrossed the empire, connecting mountains to jungles, they instigated trade routes which fostered a type of specialization of resources and labor that increased overall prosperity.

To bring about this trade network, however, the Incas had militarily conquered their neighbors with battles and threats of violence, and some consider their subjects working together in their local tribes to produce their crops or craftworks to have been little better off than slaves.  They had a somewhat utopian approach similar to the Marxist credo, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," within their own regions, but like the Russian Politboro under the communist system of the USSR developed centuries later, the Inca rulers definitely enjoyed a more privileged lifestyle than their subjects, who paid their rulers 10% of their total production.

I would surmise that the Incas probably earned their tax by increasing the overall economy through their trade network, and the attitude of the tribes may have been like Scottish clans, where the sharing may have been just as compulsory as for USSR satellite states but with at least a more pronounced illusion of freedom and tribal autonomy.

Even today, Peruvian farmers in the Andes like our guide Adriel's family, have a similar tribal commune system.  Adriel and his ten siblings all abandoned the farm to pursue the potential greater prosperity of the city, and the communal land they farmed is now worked by a different family.  Productively using the land essentially dictates ownership, and apparently these mountain farmers manage to work within that system.

The farming tools of the Incas were primitive, because that civilization had not reached an age of forging any metals into useful tools for any purpose.  They apparently even used harder rock hammers to smooth huge boulders that could be fit together perfectly without mortar in order to construct their massive rock temples and fortresses.  How impressive it is that these structures were built when they still literally lived in the Stone Age, as opposed to the Bronze or Iron Age?

And the sad truth is that native Americans frequently treated each other and the environment as brutally as their European conquerors, and possibly more so. 



Q'enqo

Before the birth of Christianity, the Bible speaks of blood sacrifices to appease God.  Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, crucified for the "sins of the whole world," and thank God we Christians need not be involved in such blood thirsty rituals. 

Despite some obvious virtues, the Incas were not flower children living in the Garden of Eden.  They were primitive pagans who practiced blood sacrifice of llamas and other animals on a regular basis.  Human sacrifice was required to appease dozens of gods and to accompany to the afterlife Inca rulers when they died.  There were two major ceremonies requiring human sacrifice.

"Itu" was conducted at times of great joy, such as a royal marriage, or due to a disaster like an earthquake or epidemic, hoping to escape that doom with blood offerings. 

"Qhapaq Ucha" was to worship Inti, the sun god, and Wiraqocha, the creator, also reinforcing the belief in the lineage of Inca leaders to the gods from whom they received their right to rule.  These were drunken celebrations that continued for many days.

A boy and girl child were brought from cities throughout the kingdom to Huaycaypata, the central plaza in Cuzco that now bears the Spanish name Plaza de Armas, to participate.  The children would parade around in fine clothes of the colors associated with their home regions, as if they were married couples.  The Hunger Games comes to mind, although it seems these Inca children were only about ten years old and didn't have a chance to possibly win and move to Victors' Village.

Outdoor Altar at Q'enqo

In Quechuan, the native tongue of Peru, Q'osco (usually spelled Cusco or Cuzco) means "Navel of the World," a fitting title for the city from which the Inca Empire grew.  From this navel, the celebration spread to the four quarters of the kingdom as priests led processions in four directions, until they reached markers 500 leagues (about 1250 miles) away, which was considered the edge of civilization.  Because Cuzco is less than 300 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the west or south, these could not have been the four cardinal directions in which the parties departed, but they were direct routes straight over natural barriers like mountains and ravines which would pass holy places called "wak'as." 

As the parties continued through regions, local people would bring treasures like objects made of gold, silver and shells for the Inca rulers, who traveled on the royal road and would meet up with the devotees at shrines.  At the most "exalted" locations, children would be sacrificed. 

Q'enqo was the largest of the wak'as in the Cuzco region.  It is only about 4 miles from Cuzco (which undoubtedly seems a lot further when walking uphill over rocky terrain), so you can imagine how many stops must have been made to sacrifice children and collect donations. 

Sacrifice Altar is cold to the touch

Q'enqo means zigzag in Quechuan, and the site is a labyrinth of carved tunnels within natural rock formations.  There is a flat slab of stone where animals and humans were sacrificed.  The stone table in a dark cave is always ice cold, even when it is blazing hot outside.

Observing human sacrifice for these specific celebrations or to please random pagan gods on other occasions would certainly have been as appalling to the Spanish Catholics in the 1500s as to our civilized world 500 years later, and most of us would agree that nothing could justify such brutality.  For me, that puts Catholic saving of souls into a more practical and humane perspective.

A long time ago I read a James Michener novel in which he spoke of the Mesoamerican hero of a soccer-like game being sacrificed to the gods, so that the young man could go to paradise at the peak of his earthly life as a fit offering.  Similarly, the Incas sacrificed their most beautiful children believing they were being delivered to the gods to live in the afterlife.  It was considered an honor.

At Q'enqo, there's also another type of zigzag, carved crevices in a stone where oracles would pour a liquid (some say chicha or holy water, but I would guess most likely blood) and predict the future based on which path it took.  Possibly these oracles, in a manner similar to fortunetellers in other places and times, made vague predictions about a great emerging empire that the Inca assumed must portend their victory over the pitiful 168 Conquistadors rather than the imminent doom of the Inca Empire.

In the 21st Century, many would like to believe in a perfect world that existed before the arrival of the "white man," but the truth must be told.

The quote at the top of this page is from the cover of The Celestine Prophecy, a novel that I happened to find in the used book section of the library.  Having just returned from Peru, the quote piqued my curiosity, especially since an old friend had several times recommended the book to me.  To say the author, James Redfield, takes liberties with history is a considerable understatement, but he does make some interesting, thought-provoking conjectures.

In essence, he advances the idea that we each come into this world to a unique set of circumstances in order to learn what is necessary to advance the evolution of the world.  We select our parents before birth and grow essentially to be the average of our two parents in some ways and a counterbalancing force to them in others, and then we progressively follow seemingly coincidental introduction to people and circumstances to evolve into a higher state of consciousness that advances all of humanity.

It is potentially the never-ending improvement of humanity and civilization.  Rather than believing the best is behind us, we should appreciate how far we have come and optimistically move into the future.



Should I mention that Redfield makes a rather huge leap at one point in The Celestine Prophecy to say the Mayans (for some reason he has them in the jungles of Peru) had become so in tune with the cosmic vibrations that they had vanished into a higher consciousness, leaving places like Machu Picchu completely deserted?  Nah.