19/10/2024
Legend of the Andean Goddess, Oryana - La Orejona
They say that on the shores of Lake Tititaca, the God Viracocha begins the task of creating life in the dark because he did not allow the light to show his work until it was completed. To create the first humans, he carved into the stones the message in codes of how humans should be, and threw the stones with fire into the earth, falling on the shore of the lake so that the water would soak them and shape the bodies. Once created men, Viracocha, was satisfied with his work, and opened the heavens to give way to the light of the sun, moon and stars.
Over time, the gods realized that the creation of men was not perfect, they lacked intelligence and lived like the rest of the animals. For this reason, they sent the goddess Oryana, who lived in the deepest part of the Hanan Pacha to rectify the mistake. Oryana perhaps could resemble a woman like those of the earth, some say she had her skin covered in snake-like scales and had four fingers in each hand. But everyone agreed that she had a long head and big ears, so they called her Oryana (the orejona), a goddess whose face radiated tenderness and magnanimity.
Oryana came in a huge firebird to earth and joined the imperfect men. She had about 70 children, who did not have big ears and long heads, but their intelligence. These men were giants; they say that in one day and one night, they built a city near Lake Tititaca called Tiahuanaco. He taught them to communicate with his language, the sacred language of the universe, and asked them to preserve it forever to be able to maintain his teachings, knowledge, and way of creating things in generations to come. She taught her children the value of solidarity and love, to create like the gods, to love Pacha Mama (mother nature), to grow plants and to tame animals. And above all things to love Viracocha and the other gods, and obey their rules. When Oryana considered her children had learned what was necessary, she asked them to populate the world, so many of them left Tiahuanaco to build new cities. Then she returned to the depths of heaven in her firebird and never returned.
The children of Oryana and her descendant, moved away to the remotest part of the world to where the earth is allowed to be trampled on and can provide water and food. Many got isolated and lost the language he inherited. They disobeyed Viracocha, mocked and turned against him, so the almighty got angry and sent disasters to our world. The earth shook, the volcanoes erupted covering the whole sky in ash and for a long time passed nights without days. Then came the flood, it rained non-stop for almost a year. Then came the cold that froze everything. When all this happened, Pacha Mama restored order in the land and men continued to build cities and roads. But we stop understanding each other, we stop being the same in ideas. People are blinded by their selfishness.
Picture: Felix Andrade