Photo credit: M. Ciavardini.
The Brawny Sherpa and I are not long in Peru when we notice recurring images of condors, pumas, and snakes. These are the figures in the Incan trinity, our guide informs us. These Inca symbols are on contemporary art and found in the Incan ruins we are about to explore.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini.
What Is the Meaning of Inca Symbols Condor, Puma, and Snake?
In these three animals, sky, earth, and the underworld are represented. Condor, we learn, is the only bird strong enough to fly up to the heavens and deliver messages to God. Also, condor does not hunt and only eats the dead. What condor eats comes harmlessly from the earth and goes back to it. Puma has patience and strength. The snake travels to the underworld, and when it sheds its skin, is reborn, transformed. This is a circle of life I can embrace.
—Lori Tripoli
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A condor, the messenger to the gods, over a door in Pisac, Peru.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini.
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini.
Considering a trip to Peru?
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thanks for the explanation of the peruvian trinity. I had a souvenier from my past peru trip, of a stone disk. It has various icons such as corn, leaves, farming, moon… and a puma, condor all encircled by a snake around the entire disk. It has always fascinated me as the meaning. this is a step in that direction.