Quote from Masters of the Living Energy

Masters of the Living Energy: The Mystical World of the Q’ero of Peru

 by Joan Parisi Wilcox

Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont, 1999.   336 pages


"Despite their more than four hundred years of bondage, the Q’ero retained their sense of community and their historical identity as the grandsons of Inkari, the mythical first Inka. Their mystical system, however, had undergone an inevitable syncretization with the Catholicism introduced by the Spaniards. As the story of their recent history will make clear, the Q’ero feel no contradiction calling themselves Catholic even as they perform ancient ceremonies to establish their connections with the apes and Pachamama, make ritual offerings to supernatural beings, and interact with a natural world that is alive and responsive.

The Q’ero’s willingness to embrace the best of both their ancient, animistic traditions and more modern Catholic ceremony and doctrine is a testament to their adaptability—an instinct, perhaps, that allowed them to retain, as few other communities in Peru have, their ethnic, cultural, and mythic ancestral memory. The Q’ero’s reputation as the 'keepers of the ancient knowledge,' comes not only from among local populations in the south-central highlands of Peru, but even from such an unlikely source as the U.S. Library of Congress. In the library’s encyclopedic tome on Peru—one of a series of statistical books about the countries of the world—the Q’ero are singled out as one of the few Andean communities to 'preserve many ancient practices and life ways.'

This achievement can best be appreciated when considered in light of the Catholic Church’s bitter campaign to suppress indigenous beliefs and practices, a campaign that included destroying mummies and ancient deities—which they replaced with saints—and building Catholic churches over the sites of Inka temples. In one year alone (1617-1618) it was reported that in a single coastal region of Peru, 603 wakas and 617 mummies were destroyed."  (p. 84)

-- quote submitted by Sharry L.

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