Inca Mythology - Inca Symbols

Inca Symbols

  • Chakana (or Inca Cross, Chakana) is the three-stepped cross equivalent symbolic of what is known in other mythologies as the Tree of Life, World Tree and so on. Through a central axis a shaman journeyed in trance to the lower plane or Underworld and the higher levels inhabited by the superior gods to enquire into the causes of misfortune on the Earth plane. The snake, puma, and condor are totemic representatives of the three levels.

Read more about this topic:  Inca Mythology

Famous quotes containing the word symbols:

    “Eloquence must be grounded on the plainest narrative. Afterwards, it may warm itself until it exhales symbols of every kind and color, speaks only through the most poetic forms; but first and last, it must still be at bottom a biblical statement of fact.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “For all symbols are fluxional; all language is vehicular and transitive, and is good, as ferries and horses are, for conveyance, not as farms and houses are, for homestead.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)