THE REGENERATION OF LIFE: THE UNION OF THE HERO AND MOTHER EARTH
The primordial union, that which must be repeated again and again, is the sacred joining of mythical beings that enables the continuation of the cycle of life. In the art of the cultures that occupied Peru’s northern coast, we find the hero Ai Apaec, who followed the path of the sun, where he joined with Mother Earth to inseminate her in a union from which the tree of life was reborn, and life in this world was regenerated.
• In the art of ancient Peru, a scene depicted in relief on clay bottles offers us, in visual detail, the moment when the cycle of life is regenerated. This is an episode in the mythology of the Moche, a culture that emerged on Peru’s northern coast some 1500 years ago.
• Following a journey filled with adventures and heroic feats in pursuit of the sun, which from the celestial world of Hanan Pacha had sunk into the world of darkness, the hero Ai Apaec dies as he enters the underworld, Uku Pacha, where the ancestors dwell. There, he manages to recover his powers with the help of a female shaman, and finally he is able to join with Mother Earth. She, Pachamama, receives him and they copulate in fertile union beneath the celestial vault, represented by a great two-headed serpent. A tree of life grows and connects the Earth with the heavens. That moment is witnessed by a group of three individuals, who arrive on foot to offer water with which to douse the tree and ensure the growth of the fruit of that union.
• This scene of meeting and renewal, or tinkuy, probably represents an important moment in the agricultural calendar of ancient Peruvian societies, when two opposite and complementary forces, male and female, come together to enable renewal through a new cycle. It may be related to Andean ceremonies associated with agricultural fertility, conducted around the month of September, when sowing has been completed and the soil must be watered so that plants can germinate. It may also refer to the moment when the sun, having arrived at its farthest point in the northern sky during the southern hemisphere’s winter solstice, between June 20th and June 23rd, must be halted so that its return can be ensured, beginning on June 24th, when a new solar cycle begins and the renewal of life in the earthly realm is assured.
• It is interesting to note the marked similarities between this calendrical event and the representation of the Nativity celebrated on December 25th in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, with its clear connection to the December 21st winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. A comparison of these two scenes brings to mind how, over time, the human experience has been expressed through specific cultural filters, while retaining its universal essence.
SEXUAL REPRESENTATIONS AND THE REALMS OF THE ANDEAN WORLDVIEW
Sexual representations in Pre-Columbian art are associated with fertility and sacrificial rites, and with the ancestor cult, and they are an important source of information as we seek to better understand the worldview of ancient Peruvian societies.
In the Andean worldview, the beings that inhabited different worlds interacted with each other and engaged together in sexual activity.
The deities or mythological beings of the celestial world
• The god Ai Apaec copulates, creating life. As a divine being, he inseminates Mother Earth, Pachamama, depicted as a woman, and from this union the earth’s first fruits are produced.
• In the same way, mythological animals including toads and jaguars are joined, just as the earth and water are, making possible all plant life.
The humans of this world
• In the earthly world of humans, the couple, complementary opposites, or “yanantin”, come together to procreate. Their joining, the union of man and woman, makes possible the renewal of life. The couple are depicted in their bed, together with the fruit of their union.
• Humans also engage in sexual acts unrelated to procreation, such as fellatio and anal penetration, activities which unite symbolically the world of the living with the world of the dead.
The dead in the underworld
• The dead are depicted as sexually active beings, interacting among themselves, and also with the living. The sexual activities in which the dead engage, such as masturbation, are not procreative.
• The goal of these acts is not insemination, but rather the emission of semen, the fecundating fluid that must be offered to the earth, where the dead dwell.