Muisca religion and mythology

The terms Muisca religion and mythology refer to the pre-Columbian beliefs of the Muisca indigenous people of the Cordillera Oriental highlands of the Andes in the vicinity of Bogotá, Colombia. The tradition includes a selection of received myths concerning the origin and organization of the universe. Their belief system may be described as a polytheistic religion containing a very strong element of spirituality based on an epistemology of mysticism.

Main article: Muisca religion

Main article: Muisca mythology

See also: Indigenous peoples in Colombia

Moon goddess Chía
preliminary sketch by Alonso Neira Martinez

Monument to Bachué by Luís Horacio Betancur, Medellín (Colombia)

Monument to Bochica, Cuítiva (Boyacá)

Muisca religion

Creation of the universe

Bachué ("the Grandmother") is a non-material principle of creation, the will, the thought and the imagination of all the things to come. She is a similar concept to the principle of tao in the Chinese mythology.

The time of unquyquie nxie ("the first thought") is the time of the cosmic origin, when the thoughts of Bague became actions. This is the time when Bague created the builders of the universe and ordered them to create.

Beginning of the world

The world started with Chiminigagua, from whose belly bloomed light, of which were created the stars, land and stone

Origin of mankind

According to Muisca legends, mankind was originated in Lake Iguaque, when grandmother goddess Bachué came out from the against the divine laws, Chibchacum brought forth a flood that covered the world and nearly destroyed the human race. Then, the protective god Bochica drove away the waters through the Tequendama Falls, and taught humans the basis of civilization, agriculture, religion, the arts, and crafts. When he was about to leave to his heavenly kingdom, Cuchavira (the rainbow) appeared and Bochica announced his second coming, far away in the future, in an event marked by death and disease. These events are similar to the biblical histories of Genesis and Apocalypse.

Deities

The first gods, constructors of the universe, built the first quyca or ceremonial temple. They were:

• Bachué ("The one with the naked breasts"): the mother goddess who raised from the underworld to give birth to the human race
• Bochica ("The father of civilization") also called Nemqueteba, Nemquereteba, Sadigua, Chimizapagua
• Chía: the Moon goddess of the Muisca.
• Suá: The sun god of the Muisca.
• Chibchacum ("The one who holds the earth"): The universal legislator.
• Chiminigagua: creator of all, from them emerged the light, from which Sua and Chía were sacredly formed.
• Cuchavira: god of the rainbow.
• Cuza ("The one who is like the night"): the male principle of creation.
• Huitaca: rebelling goddess of sexual liberation
• Nencatacoa ("The protector of festivities, fapqwa, and the arts") God of fapqwa (Muisca beverage), celebrations and artistic expression. Necantacoa had the shape of a bear-fox.
• Suetyba: Deity that the Spanish inquisitors associated with the devil, probably a deity related with magic and the night.

The gods danced a very long dance (sas quyhynuca), with the music of the fo drum, in the first ceremony. This ceremony gave origin to space and time.

Then, the gods created the first materials of the universe: fiva (the air), faova (the cosmic cloud) and ie (the smoke). Then, they created the six directions of the material dimension, and in the middle of itugue, the emptiness, they created the centre of power tomsa (bellybutton of the universe). But, still the universe had no consistence, and they waited many bxogonoas aeons until the sas bequia, the beginning of the world.

See also

• El Dorado, a legend that grew out of a Muisca ritual
• Lake Iguaque, a lake involved in creation, in the mythology of the Muisca
• Lake Guatavita, a sacred ceremonial lake of the Muisca
• Guarani mythology