Religious Tensions in Peru - Saqsayhuaman - August 23rd, 2013

      Saqsayhuaman, here was a site that had been torn apart for the building of cathedrals and the fighting of the Incas after the conquest of Cuzco. It was here the Inca resisted for a month before all the underground tunnels were finally discovered by the Spanish. In a way it became a symbol of resistance. Like most of the other places we'd been to this place also had religion signifigant to the Inca. The first was the "Giant Head" of the Ancestor. It looked like it had one eye and represented wisdom and the masters who had come before. It was really cool. On the sides were carved chairs in which the priests could sit.

   After Puma told us this about the place we played a quick game of hide and seek (the area is huge) before making our way to the area that once an artificial lake. To get there we had to pass through the darkest cave I have ever gone through.

    After leaving the cave and entering the bright day once more it felt amazing. It was waking up almost since the darkness had been so confining. It was a pretty neat experience.

    Once we got the artificial lake we walked over it to the main area. In the main area there were llamas grazing and a volcanic altar across from the terraces where the llamas were eating. The area was huge and it was here we learned about all the stones that had been taken from the site to build the cathedrals. It was interesting how the old religion became building blocks for the new here and how even those buildings in the context of colonialism could not destroy the amazingness of the site. As much as has been lost, all the more remains strong and expansive.

     It was here Puma told us the story of how Pope John Paul II had come here and given a speech and placed a cross on the site that had been struck by lightning later on due to metal below the surface. He also talked about how the cross had angered the elders who saw it infringing upon a place sacred to them and their ancestors.

     As part of Saqsayhuaman a large White Jesus Christ was built. By Rebi, Puma and others it has been nicknamed "The Sexy Women" another name for the site. It is beautiful, which is where I think the name might come from. The Jesus and the history of this site show the tension that very much still exists between Christianity and the native religions in the area...and given the history, it understandably will probably never fully go away.

Oracle Temple - August 23rd, 2013

      The next day we headed to the Oracle Temple. The Oracle Temple had symbols on the top representing time and space and how the Inca's saw it. There was a Puma who was awake, a serpent leaving the center and a condor with wings outstretched on one side. On the other side where the puma was asleep there was the Eagle and the serpent going away.This was all on top of the Temple carved into a rock.

       Puma described the Condor side as the side that was awake, the old wisdom of the ancestors and the side of the Eagle and sleeping Puma as the side that was to awaken and how people held both inside of them. He described how Medicine women were said to have predicted the future at that place.

   It was also a place of birth and after we went inside the Temple. It was here that the women laid on the table and Puma did a ceremony. It was comforting and relaxing. I ended up meditating inside of one of the sections of the wall.

   After we left the 3 symbols embraced our exit. With a serpent carved going into the Temple and one going out and likewise with a Puma and Condor. A baby condor was carved into the entrance.

     The importance of symbols became all the more apparent in my time there. The three symbols of the Condor, Puma and Serpent are such an important and large part of the Inca and indigenous religion that it was hard not to see the power behind it. The power of others beliefs and also the power of the symbols themselves.

     After the ceremony we made our way to Saqsayhuaman for the final adventure of the day.

Machu Picchu - August 22nd, 2013

    Machu Picchu, there is a reason it is considered one of the Wonders of the World. I was glad I got to spend a whole day here, with all its rewards and challenges. The day began with Rebi and I meeting the group who had just got off the Inca Trail near the Sun Window. We weren't able to make it all the way up to the Window before the tour began though. It was great being with everyone in the group again.  

       The first place we visited in the Temple were the agricultural terraces before making our way over to the first sacred area. The area was supposed to represent the center of the world and had a rock that a compass could be placed upon. The area was large too and had unfinished windows (not all the windows had the three sections to represent the Puma, Condor and Serpent), but it was still really cool. From there we worked our way higher up.

     At the top we reached the Sun Altar and the the Altar to Wayna Picchu. Wayna Picchu is the huge mountain that you see in the background in every picture in Peru, it is a huge peak and it was used for initiation ceremonies for youth. Once you reach the top after crossing through the Puma Cave you are seen as initiated. The altar in the picture above is for those who couldn't climb the mountain cor ceremonies. Being at this mountain was seen as symbolically making the climb, since the Altar is the highest point in Temple area.

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                                                      The Sun Altar

                                             Wayna Picchu

    After we were at the Temple the group separated with a few of us choosing to make the climb to Wayna Picchu. I was one of the folks who decided to do it. What an amazing climb it was! Most of it was completely uphill and through caves and around the face of the mountain. When I reached the top I felt alive. There is nothing quite like reaching the top of a mountain.

                                           Machu Picchu from Wayna Picchu  
 It was here I took pictures with my Mom, Step-Dad, brother and another member of our group who had made it to the top. It was great to sit and reflect, and for some time it was just our group up there.

  After that we decided to make our way down. Seeing a sign to the Sacred Cave we decided to visit there too. It was there I hit trouble. I was almost out of water and completely ran out when we reached the caves.

     The first cave was the Moon Goddess Cave. It was here I rested and recuperated. It was a peaceful place and there birds who had made this cave their home.

      The final stop was the Sacred Cave which was full of meteors where we all meditated for a while to get rid of thoughts or feelings that didn't serve our growth in anyway. The thoughts of course are always with us, but it did help me get rid of my worry about the climb I was about to make to get back without water.

    The journey back to Machu Picchu was physically the most difficult thing I've done. With our limited water supply and me completely out we eventually made it back after 2 hours of mostly climbing uphill from the Sacred Caves which were at the bottom and backside of Wayna Picchu. It was here I learned how to make the most of my body and just how powerful the mind can be for pushing forward. It was hard but, the visit to those caves was worth it nonetheless.

                                            The Condor's head in the Temple of the Condor

     The last place we visited was the housing area and the Temple of the Condor. Both were beautiful areas and emphasized once more just how religious this place had been. One of the theories I learned was that it was a Monastery for religious Inca and with all the religious sites there (seven, plus the Sacred Caves) I could see why it was. Each area is made to compliment the land and honor the symbols that are supposed to be mean something more than just the physical world (though there is a chance there might be all there is). I learned the power of endurance, and even found peace in physical hardship on the trail while at the same time got to walk through history. Machu Picchu, I shall return.

Journey to Machu Picchu - August 21st, 2013

       After visiting Cathedrals and experiencing the big city it was in a complete change of pace that I found the most connection.

        An essential part of Incan Spirituality is honoring the land. The land itself is seen as a Temple, which is why the buildings were built to compliment the mountains or to use the pros and cons of any given location and make the most of it.

     I was not able to do the Inca trail proper, but with my guide Rebi we did our own version of the trail. A more modern version where the railroad and the river were our guides to Aguas Calientes. The journey to Machu Picchu was religiously siginifigant for the Inca. It was a pilgrimage where at the end and arriving there you were supposed to find yourself and connect to the spirits. This would be my version of this.

      Along the way we would pass tons of Inca Sites and at least one Holy Site where we would take lunch. First, I shall start at the beginning though.

     After taking a bus for an hour we got off in a small village and began our trek along the railroad. To our left was the river and many times donkeys and horses sitting idly by watching us. After about an hour we reached the first site which was an Inca Fort along the river. We explored this place for a bit before continuing onward.

     Our next stop was into the desert. It was here Rebi pointed out the different things that were used for coloring the Alpaca and sheeps wool. It had a rugged beauty to it and reminded me a lot of exploring Zion or Arches National Park in Utah. We also ran into an Inca Barracks and Noblemen's house while all along the way passing cows and farms. We also passed Inca farming terraces on the other side of the river that were probably used for feeding the armies that were posted here.

      Next we arrived in a tiny village where there were sections of an Inca Wall that was almost completely invisible because of the overgrowth. It was after passing here that we arrived at an Inca Holy site, which was the halfway mark.

    The Inca Holy site was an altar and a giant black stone. The stone had been carved to have a puma, condor and serpent on its snake to represent the 3 worlds the Inca honored. It was here we talked and took lunch. Before us was the rainforest and a complete change in landscape.

     The forest was beautiful. We saw a snake at one point and tons of birds. The one disadvantage was it soon got dark as we passed out of the forest into the Jungle. It was here that trust key. Rebi's light through his phone was the one thing keeping the path clear. Time was lost in the dark and with it understandable fear. I was going somewhere I had never been to before and we'd passed a few places that were covered with big steel gates. I had no idea what Aguas Calientes looked like or if we would have to go through a gate and passed security to get there too.

    Thankfully that was not the case and the arrival was one of the best experiences I can describe. There is nothing like earning the right to go to a place by physically walking there, and this was one of those times. I can see why it was seen as religious. Its a lot of work to go over the mountains to get to where you want to go. Not to mention physical excretion is a great way to clear the mind.

     After arriving we talked family, the past and treated one another to drinks and disco. It was the end to a great journey. We had finally arrived and the next day would be a place covered in Holy Sites. The city of Machu Picchu.

Cathedral of San Blas - Cuzco, Peru - August, 20th, 2013

                                              Cathedral of San Blas

   The last Catholic Church I would see on the trip was the Cathedral of San Blas. It was here where there was the  most blending of indigenous and Spanish within Catholicism. In one of the main praying areas there was a Peruvian Mary, a Peruvian Jesus and the alter in the center of  the Church was carved from a single tree stump. It had awareness of the land that the other main Cathedrals clearly did not. It was small and homy and the symbols spoke to more than just the Spanish immigrants.

    It was here that I did a prayer at the Peruvian Jesus to center myself. I'd been going all over Peru that day and in-taking so much information. It was nice to finally start calmly taking it all in and reflecting on it. Also, I have a soft spot for small churches.

   One of the other cool things this Church had were a tiny catacombs where there were a bunch of bones. It felt very Indiana Jonesish being there and as usual. I always feel peace when being faced with mortality in the situation of catacombs or cemeteries. This was one of those times and after centering myself with the prayer this was part of the exploring the Church both above where the bells are, and below where the catacombs where made the day complete.

  

A Tale of Submission and Resistance - Monastery of Saint Catherine of Siena - Cuzco, Peru - August 20th, 2013

                                          The Monastery of St. Catherine of Siena

     My visit to the Monastery of St. Catherine of Siena would be one of my favorite visits during the trip, at least in hindsight of the blog (and also being one of the most disturbing too). It was here that the face of colonialism was most obvious (one of the walls that makes up the Monastery used to be a place where Inca Women were kept who had taken vows of chastity).

     First, the Monastery is very beautiful. It is a collection of art that is almost Zen like in its simplicity in capturing the major events of the Gospel.
    
     Second, The Monastery itself has almost ceased to be one. It now functions as a museum showing how the members of Catherine's order lived. The immediate thing that became obvious was power dynamic. Much like the cloistered Inca women were beholden to the Inca Priests, so to the nuns. It was here that there was  tiny confessional tied to the wall so the nuns would never see a man or the man responsible for their souls and confession. The abbess may have had a lot of power within the Monastery, but the lowliest of Priest would still wield more power than her.

    In both cases it is complete control of a women's sexuality by men and seeing that them losing that will somehow lessen them. Purity becomes a form of control so great that an entire segment of a populace is cut off from the opposite sex. 

     This tangent is actually tied into a story that we were told the day before by Puma. There was a woman who wanted to become a medicine women, but the village elders rejected her. Keep in mind, before this they had done nothing as she suffered from an abusive husband too. They laughed her away and it was only when she'd faced the darkness and contemplated killing herself that she had the experience of the Spirits of the Mountains talking to her and teaching her, she came back and confronted the elders and today she is now respected as a medicine women in the surrounding communities.

     Saint Catherine also shows power within the Church as a teacher, even if she could never speak for Christ the way a Priest could during Mass. I guess for her era she fought for power as best she could. One does not become famous sitting down, a person has to be active and fighting in some way, even if it is by removing oneself from the game the way the Taoist and Buddhist Masters did, just like many of the Catholic Saints.

     The final bit is about Tupac II the last Inca King. It was today that I went to the museum and learned about his resistance against the Mita slave system that the Spanish had committed against the native population. His aims were extreme, but sadly I don't know what other alternatives were really available to a native man who had no power within Spanish society. Well, what does this have to do with Saint Catherine Monastery? Well the time the Church could have brought about peace rather than backing the oppressors, tehy back the oppressors. Saint Catherine Monastery gave a blessed Jesus figurine to clear the souls of the men who brutally executed Tupac, and the local Dies labeled Tupac and heretic and let that excite the mob leading to his execution.

      The Jesus on the Cross that was given to the exectuionors now sits in the Regional Museum of Cuzco. The Monastery out of guilt refused to take it back and so it as people realized what Tupac II had been trying to do to change an unjust system (even if it was in an immoral way). People, and the Monastery at least realized they'd been immoral doing nothing and allowing the slavery of the native populace to continue leading to Tupac's revolution in the first place.

      

Companion of Christ Cathedral - Cuzco, Peru - August 19th, 2013

                                             Companion of Christ Cathedral

   It was at this time that the rest of the group took off on the Inca Trail. I was last minute as far as my going to Peru and to do the Inca Trail you have to sign up at least a month ahead of time. In total about 500 are allowed on the trail a day. This was not a bad thing, as I would learn later, I was in no condition to do the trail. I had not trained on Mt. Rainer like the rest of the group had. Thankfully though, 2 days later I would do my own easeier version of the trail with one of our guides. Before that time though, I had a day and a half in Cuzco.

      With a half day in Cuzco (and it being a bit too late to visit the museums) I decided to visit one of the Cathedrals in the Square. I would happen to do Companion of Christ Cathedral. The Cathedral itself is beautiful inside, but very Spanish. All the Saints and figures from the Gospel are made to look like white Spanish shepherds or medieval style mothers. It fit for the time period when it was built, and also due to the fact that it was the Spanish conquest that brought over Catholicism in the first place.

   What role does Companion of Christ Cathedral play today? Well part of what it does is provide schooling for the homeless kids on the street in Cuzco, and also provides a market for the local people to present their wares. It is very much a part of the Cuzco community.

    Later on I'll get into more of the darker side of what was done, and also the fact that everything I write about here was what I saw or read about it in the museums. There are no doubt things at all the holy sites (be it Pre-Incan, Incan, or Catholic) that I don't know about.