Earth Mother - Pachamama

The theme of this feature is about Pachamama. For those who do not know who Pachamama is, She is the Mother Earth Spirit held in high reverence by those who live in the Andes Mountains of South America. Her blessings and love bring forth a bountiful crop from the farms in the country to those who believe. She gives life to Planet Earth. Many Bolivian folk songs and legends are about Pachamama.

Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. Pachamama is usually translated as Mother Earth, but a more literal translation would be "Mother world" (in Aymara and Quechua mama = mother / pacha = world or land; and later widened in a modern meaning as the cosmos or the universe). Pachamama and Inti are the most benevolent deities; they are worshiped in parts of the Andean mountain ranges, also known as Tawantinsuyu (the former Inca Empire) (stretching from present day Ecuador to Chile and northern Argentina being present day Peru the center of the empire with its capital city in Cuzco).

In Inca mythology, Mama Pacha or Pachamama is a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting. She causes earthquakes. Her husband was either Pacha Camac or Inti, depending on the source. Llamas are sacrificed to her. After the conquest by Spain, which forced conversion to Roman Catholicism, the figure of the Virgin Mary became united with that of the Pachamama for many of the indigenous people. Roman Catholicism is a syncretic religion, and the people worship Pachamama through it, in an indigenous ritual in some parts of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru.

Since Pachamama is a "good mother", people usually toast to her honor before every meeting or festivity, in some regions by spilling a small amount of chicha on the floor, before drinking the rest. This toast is called challa and it is made almost everyday. Pachamama has a special worship day called Martes de challa (Challa's Tuesday), when people bury food, throw candies, and burn incense. In some cases, celebrants assist traditional priests, known as yatiris in Aymara, in performing ancient rites to bring good luck or the good will of the goddess, such as sacrificing guinea pigs or burning llama fetuses (although this is no longer common). The festival coincides with Shrove Tuesday, also celebrated as Carnevale or Mardi Gras.

Below are some artworks from some highly talented deviants depicting the many emotions of Pachamama. Mankind has not been the best of planetary stewards. We have polluted the world. We have been mean to eachother. We are greedy and careless. We have taken and not put back. Our children will inherit a world full of the problems we have wraught. Is there still hope for mankind, or have we reached a critical crossroad, a point of no return? You decide...

The central ritual to Pachamama is the Challa or Pago (Payment). It is carried out during all the month of August, and in many places also on the first Friday of each month. Other ceremonies are carried out in special times, as upon leaving for a trip or upon passing an apacheta. According to Mario Rabey and Rodolfo Merlino, Argentine anthropologists who studied the Andean culture from the 1970s to the 1990s, "The most important ritual is the challaco. Challaco is a deformation of the Quechua words 'ch'allay' and 'ch'allakuy', that refer to the action to insistently sprinkle.

In the current language of the campesinos of the southern Central Andes, the word challar is used in the sense of "to feed and to give drink to the land'. The challaco covers a complex series of ritual steps that begin in the family dwellings the night before. They cook a special food, the tijtincha. The ceremony culminates at a pond or stream, where the people offer a series of tributes to Pachamama, including "food, beverage, leaves of coca and cigars.

Rituals related to the Pachamama are practiced together with those of Christianity, to the point that many families are simultaneously Christian and pachamamistas. Pachamama is sometimes syncretized as the Virgin of Candelaria.

I hope you have gotten some profound feelings about the fragile world around you by examining this powerful art from fellow deviants depicting the Earth Mother, the one all Native Andean people know as Pachamama. Remember to step back from the hussle and bussle of city life and stop to smell a flower or admire a sunset. Listen to a bird singing or feel the cool wind on your face. Know that we are such a small part of the world around us. We are living on a tiny blue marble, flying through a remote corner of the cosmos, our lives but the a blink of an eye, all members of one family of man, all astronauts aboard the same delicate spaceship called planet Earth. There are no national boundaries from space...

Espero que hayan tenido algunos sentimientos profundos sobre el frágil mundo a su alrededor mediante el examen de este arte de gran alcance de pervertidos compañeros que representa a la Madre Tierra, la que todos los nativos pueblos andinos conocida como la Pachamama. Recuerde que debe alejarse del bullicio y ajetreo de la ciudad y dejar de oler una flor o contemplar una puesta de sol. Escuche el canto de un pájaro o sentir el viento fresco en tu cara. Sabemos que somos una parte tan pequeña del mundo que nos rodea. Estamos viviendo en un mármol azul pequeño, volando a través de un remoto rincón del cosmos, la vida, pero un abrir y cerrar una de ojos, todos los miembros de una familia del hombre, todos los astronautas a bordo de la nave espacial delicada misma llamada planeta Tierra. No hay fronteras nacionales desde el espacio ...