The Quest: Ruminawe the Inca Pilgrim

Between his hands he held a cane, whose handle was shaped like the Sun, signaling his untouchability throughout the Inca empire, a medallion hung from his neck in which a Sun surrounded by snakes stood out, it had the appearance of a snap, the light corridors that joined the empire of Viracocha. She covered her body with a nightgown that reached her knees, crossed by horizontal colored lines. On her shoulders she carried two bags criss-crossed, one full of qhipuyes. Ash-brown hair fell to her shoulders, skin tanned by the sun. The face betrayed a deep resignation. The earthy and fallen eyes showed the stillness that nested in his heart, typical of a man who has lived through lonely storms. Thus, we found the pilgrim among the paths of the jungle, while we were walking and passionately discussing with Nezahualcóyotl. We tried to understand what the pilgrim was saying, he spoke a mixture of languages ​​and answered our questions with strange gestures. Our teachers spoke to him in other languages, but all his efforts were useless. Tired, they began to speak in languages ​​of the mountain range, because that man looked like a mountain man. Upon hearing those languages, he smiled and began a lively conversation with the wise men, they were translating what the pilgrim told them. From that moment I wanted to know the snow-covered mountain ranges, home of the pilgrim. He was a messenger of the Inca, called Ruminawe, Stone Eye. Over time I realized that he had been born between mountain ranges, feverish from knowing that a dream had revealed him.We were struck by the drawings of animals that he made on an amate leaf, recently prepared to copy a manuscript, he described them covered in wool and as beasts of burden, they recalled the dreams that worried the Lord of the Navel of the Moon. In them they also described beasts with many legs and arms, who breathed between clouds, and lethal rays burst from their eyes. They had arms that looked like the tentacles of an octopus, and they pierced the warriors’ bodies from side to side with spears.The skin was hard as rock, the batons, arrows and bucklers bounced without damaging their bodies.With crosses painted on their bodies they destroyed and enchanted the bodies of the warriors… They were similar beasts that Moctezuma, the living God, had dreamed of. Our teacher took Ruminawe under his wing, and he became our guide. As we approached the temples of the South, we learned the rudiments of that musical language.Upon reaching the temples of knowledge of the mayab, he knelt down and placed the palms of his hands on the ground, then brought them to his mouth and kissed them. While we jumped, laughed and hugged each other with happiness for arriving at the temples of the Mayab lands, we were exhausted from such a long pilgrimage. Only a few of us remain, Itzcoatl with his surviving warriors had decided to abandon us long ago. The wise men who received us approached Ruminawe, he gave them the qhipuyes that he had with him. Inside the temple there were many bundles of knotted ropes, of various colors and sizes. Like us, he was in search of knowledge that would help him answer the doubts of our rulers about the future. He had been one of the novices in the service of the Inca. For many moons, around the fires, he told us about his travels. He told us about the existence of men who lived hidden in the thick jungle, on the shores of the seas and in the heights of the mountain ranges.The story of the Kogis, who lived scattered among snowy mountains that touched the sky with their peaks, worshiping a Goddess, opened new worlds for us with their words, only on the threshold of my existence could I come to understand them. The Kogi called themselves the guardians of humanity, on their backs rested the weight of the cosmic order. The discipline of Calmecac was not very rigorous compared to the life of those men. Violence was prohibited in any of its forms. They worshiped the Goddess Gaulchovang, Ruminawe said with a strong voice, the Kogis say that the Mother Goddess created from the primeval sea the Cosmic Egg within which the earth is found. First there was the sea, everything was dark. There was no Sun, no Moon, no people, no animals, no plants. Only the sea was everywhere. The sea was the Mother. She was the water and water everywhere and she was the river, broken lagoon and sea, so she was everywhere. Thus, first there was only the Mother. His name was Gaulchovang. The Mother was not people, nor anything, nor anything. She was Aluna. She was the spirit of what was to come and she was thought and she was memory. Thus, only the mother existed in Alúna, in the world below, in the last depth alone…. That’s how it was all that. That is how Sintaná was born and that is how the Mother pulled out a hair from below her body and smeared it with the blood of her month. Thus he formed the first man. But the first man was without bones, the second without a body, the third without strength. But the fourth man was a man as they are today. That story by Ruminawe allowed me to compare how Quetzalcoatl created man and how the Goddess created him. For Gaulchovang, giving the blood with which she would create the first humanity did not require sacrifices, the fluid of life emanated from her body, as in that of every woman with the cycle of the moon.But the gods of the North demanded sacrifices from them and their conquered, to create and fertilize the earth, the blood did not flow from their bodies naturally, it only did so when opening the chest of the sacrificed to offer their hearts to the Sun. That is why it existed the Florida War, to capture alive those who would be sacrificed. This explained the flight of Quetzalcóatl, son of the Goddess who refused human sacrifice. That is why some goddesses whose faces had not yet been covered with sinister masks were so loved by the people, because they were against flowery wars. The way of life of the Kogi, filled us with admiration, we saw crystallized in them the ideals that we had longed for so much. They did not seek perfection, for them the world was a battlefield between opposing forces, the universe was divided between Mu and Se, light and darkness, women and men, fire and water, evil and good. …The search for balance between these forces was his destiny. They accepted good and evil, every act of their lives was guided by that longing. Ruminawe’s stories transformed my life, until then I had only fled from what I considered evil, I was wrong. There is no good or pure evil. Didn’t the remains of the man and woman who would create the new humanity mix with Quetzalcoatl’s flight from the underworld? To flee from death and evil was to give him strength. Learning Nahuatl, Ruminawe told us about his life. Many moons had passed, between jungles and mountain ranges, collecting the stories of the origin and prophecies of the end of the Age. When he was still a child they consecrated him to the temple, in his adolescence he got tired of the mountain ranges and the intrigues that surrounded the Inca. Realizing this, his teachers entrusted him with a mission that no priest of the temple had dared to carry out. Collect the prophecies about the future, the omens indicated that something serious was about to happen. The last omens seen by Ruminawe were made in the festival of Inti, the Sun, which began when the Inca’s priests had already started it. Before dawn, in the square were the astrologers, the augurs together with the nobles. They waited for the first rays of Inti to caress the tops of the mountain range. Motionless and silent, they waited. When this happened they knelt down, they extended their supplicating hands to Inti, kissing his first rays.At that moment the Inca took in his hands cups full of maize chicha fermented by the virgins of the temple, facing Inti he offered the drink to his father. It was the expected signal to start the sacrifices. They tied tightly to a black llama, so that its face would point to the East, when it was still, an accurate blow tore its life, then they tore out its heart and lungs. Seeing them, the fortuneteller’s face paled and his body began to tremble. The silence was endless. With sure gestures he ordered that other black llamas be brought. He repeated the sacrifice several times. At the end he broke his silence.-Inti is angry with his children, the future is stormy, and there will be no way to escape from it. They left the square in fear. Nothing so disastrous had ever happened before. Seeing these events, Ruminawe agreed with his teachers of his departure, but he replied: -The only thing that’s wrong around here seems to be me, and apparently you found the solution to your problem… Send Ruminawe out there, to ask indiscreet questions of the others. If it is so important to find out, why hasn’t any of you thought of going on a pilgrimage? There is no need for them to answer, I know by heart what they will say: The balance of the universe depends on the rites we perform! And what would the Inca be without us? They have repeated it to me ad nauseam. They are just lies and with them they try to justify their passivity. Yes, it is true that the grains indicate dire omens, remembering the death of the Age. So what? Isn’t our destiny death?-Enough Ruminawe!, interrupted the Villca Smoke, cousin brother of the Inca. -Until when are we going to put up with your arrogance and your biting tongue. The sign of the grains falling to the ground is related to death, but there is something more, they are always accompanied by a cross.-And what’s so strange about that? -Perhaps the cross does not represent the totality, the directions of the cosmos, their intersection, it is the point of communication between gods and men: Cuzco, the navel of the earth. It also reminds us of the four Eras through which humanity has made a pilgrimage in its history. -You’re right, Ruminawe, perhaps that for you is nothing curious. But in other lands, to the North, crossing the mountain ranges, the prophecies of the Chilam relate the end of the Age to a bleeding cross, and before that happens we must collect all the stories of this humanity, if it dies there will be no trace of us in the future. And as long as our memory survives, even if only in qhipuyes and memories, we will exist. Do not forget that all of us in the temple have continuously dreamed of the origin of Lake Titica. You will remember that in that place, in the beginning, there was a proud city, with numerous canals for the cultivation of corn, potatoes and vegetables, until some ragged old men prophesying the destruction of the city, exclaiming: -The destruction of your city by earthquakes, floods and fire will come! Everyone ignored them except the elders, who upon seeing them could feel the love of truth in their angry gazes. They were the only survivors after the destructive rain that fell on Titicaca. Something similar is about to happen in Cuzco, the golden rod buried in the center of our city will be destroyed with all of us if we do not do something. You have rarely done your duty, in the temple, you refuse to acquire the discipline that makes the flame of your spirit burn. We believe to do you a good by sending you to know and hear the wisdom of other lands. Thus, we come out of a thorn in our throats, Ruminawe.Lately you see everything with contempt, Villca Hume continued, even our advice, but you have no choice, if you do not do what we order you, we will send you to the temple of the warriors, to see if you at least learn to defend the Inca.At the end, the Villca Humu made a gesture with his mouth and clapped his hands to be taken to the temple of the warriors.-I don’t believe in such crazy things, answered Ruminawe, but I’m willing to follow your advice.-It’s not advice, listen well, it’s an order! I will do what they ask of me as long as I don’t go with the warriors. Ruminawe had heard many stories about the excesses of the war: brains destroyed by batons, limbs severed. The painful operations they performed on warriors to try to save them, with gold plates replacing the broken bones in their heads. All of this repelled him, his teachers knew this very well.Have the informationon instantly on your cell phone. 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