Tag: Amaru

The symbolism of the double serpent and the "guardian of the treasure"

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Esotericism, Mito, Psychology, History of Religions

Within the vast mythical corpus concerning the ophidic symbolism there are some mythologems, recurring all over the world, conveying certain initiatory knowledge whose universality goes beyond the spatial and chronological boundaries, such as that of the double serpent (Caduceus of Mercury, Iga and Pingala), that of the serpent who, standing beneath the worlds or surrounding the earth in the form of Ouroboros, holds the entire cosmic manifestation, and that of the dragon in the function of "Guardian of the treasure" that the hero must subdue and defeat in order to save the "Princess ".

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Pachacuti: cycles of creation and destruction of the world in the Andean tradition

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Anthropology, Esotericism, folklore, Mito, History of Religions

di Marco Maculotti
cover: Paracas culture textiles (coastal Peru)


A central concept in the Andean cosmogonic tradition is the belief in regular cycles of creation and destruction that would initiate and end the various cosmic eras. Time was conceived in a circular way; according to this doctrine, it had only two dimensions: the present (Kay Pasha) which at its end leads to the "ancient time"(Nawpa Pacha), from which we will return again to the present time [Carmona Cruz p.28].

This doctrine, comparable to that of the Indian Yuga and to the Hesiodic one of the ages, is based on a principle of cyclicality that would govern everything in the cosmos and which is called by the Andean tradition pachacuti, literally "a revolution, a procession of space and time". With this term, in the myths, a series of catastrophic events are described that foresee the general destruction of the humanity of the sky and its subsequent replacement with a new humanity - see the myths of origin of Lake Titicaca, in which it is said that Viracocha exterminated a previous race of giants with the flood or with a rain of fire to then create a subsequent humanity, the current one [cf. Viracocha and the myths of the origins: creation of the world, anthropogenesis, foundation myths].

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