Let us consider the year 1531, in the magnificent city of Cuzco, high in the Andes,
500 miles inland from where the pacific laps the South American shore. There the previous year Pizarro, the
Spaniard, had landed, enticed the Inca king Atahualpa into his camp,
slaughtered his retinue, and held him for ransom.
The price of the king's liberty was a room full of
gold. The treasures poured in, hundreds
of llama trains were on their way laden with golden temple vessels. But the Spaniards grew impatient, strangled
Atahualpa, and the llama trains turned back.
Treasures which are still hunted, but seldom found, were hidden in
caves, buried in secret spots, thrown into the river; anywhere that would
deprive the invaders of their spoil.
The Incas, themselves, were an invading ruling class, who
after long struggle had gained dominion over a population of ten million. Like the ruling caste in other lands, they
looked to the wisdom of the priests for guidance. These priests were custodians of the Stellar
Wisdom gained from the Pre-Incas, the older superseded people who left
distinctive relics and characteristic walls of stone that yet may be found in
various places in the mountains.
The Stellar Wisdom held that gold was the metal of the sun,
and that the sun was ruler of the king.
Thus to the populace, as is taught in Japan today, the royal family was
descended from the sun.
As the sun is astrologically supreme, in the capital city, Cuzco, the most
magnificent temple was dedicated to it.
The roof was of precious woods plated with gold. A six-inch freize of gold ran outside around
the building. The doors opened to the
east, and at the far end above the altar was a golden disc with human
countenance shaped and graved to represent the sun, and studded with precious
stones. It was so located that, at the
equinoxes, the rays of the rising sun falling on its polished surface gave a
reproduction in the temple of the brilliant source of light.
Around this central edifice where homage was paid to Inti,
signifying both sun and light, were smaller astrological temples. Most important of these was one dedicated to
the moon, consort of the sun. Instead of
gold, its great disc was of silver. Its
ornaments and decorations also were of this lunar metal.
Still further bespeaking precise astrological knowledge,
around the sacred city of the sun were placed twelve great stone columns, on
each of which successively the sun was deemed to rest.
Even the Incas, the ruling class, were privileged to gain
only a portion of the Stellar Knowledge.
A priesthood dedicated to the light, and having rigid requirements for
initiation, were the custodians of this Pre-Inca wisdom, and held many another
precious secret.
Not too distant from the temple of the sun stood a
magnificent structure which housed the temple virgins. They were high-born girls, selected for their
beauty and dedicated to temple service, and like the vestal virgins of ancient Rome, next to the king
were the most sacred persons in the land.
This was the setting when the predatory conquistadors,
having slain the Inca king, and thus instead of hastening, had turned back the
flood of gold, marched into Cuzco. Each mail clad soldier ripped gold from the
temple walls. The great disc of precious
metal which served to mirror the equinoctial rising sun became the stake for
which the soldiers brawled and gambled.
Then, when each had gathered to himself such gold as he
could reach, he grabbed a lovely treasure of the flesh. The virgins of the sun were roughly seized,
were hunted when they fled, and made the prey of the bestial soldier crew.
Not all, however, suffered such degrading fate. One hundred of them vanished, not all the
Spanish search could find a trace of them.
They were there, they had gone; and for four hundred years that
disappearance was a mystery.
Not only the knowledge of the stars and the spiritual
teachings of the constellations, but many another precious secret, was in the
custody of the Stellar Priests. Cuzco had not always been
the empire's capital. Seven hundred
years before, still earlier Peruvians had built a most amazing citadel. Finally abandoned in favor of Cuzco when certain perils
had passed, for 200 years it had been forgotten to all except the Stellar
Priests, who kept it in repair for secret refuge.
It was to this white-granite city, over secret trails, that
the priests led the 100 fleeing virgins.
They gained the 14,000 foot crest of the Continental Divide, and then,
for some distance, descended the tropical Urubamba
canyon toward the Amazon. Here was a
city of 400 hewn-stone houses. The
temple was built of irregular, dissimilar, many joined stones of gigantic size
fitted with Pre-Inca nicety. One block
in it is 14 feet long and 8 feet high.
Manchu Picchu, as the city is called, is an incredible
place. It is built on a spur, with
precipitous sides dropping 2,000 feet all around except for a narrow strip of
rock connecting it with the main mountain range. Across this narrow strip was built a stone
wall, by which soldiers could protect its only approach. It was the best spot in all the Andes from which to repel invasion. Built 700 years before the fleeing virgins
reached its then deserted houses, outside the wall were small terraced gardens
which gave food supply, and limited the old time population to about 9,000.
At the very apex of the place is a stone sun dial three feet
in diameter, with a square hub a foot high in the center. This ancient astronomical instrument was
called Intihuatana---Inti, meaning sun, and huatana, meaning tied---"The
place where the sun is tied." Those
who built the city and used this observatory were well versed in stellar lore.
Here, untouched by the outside world, the 100 fleeing temple
virgins lived out their span of lives.
Their graves reveal the story.
One by one, as the hand of age laid heavily upon them, they died, still
inviolate virgins to the sun, leaving no issue.
Those surviving performed the last rites until, after scores of years,
the last one passed on, with none left to bury her.
The Stellar Priests likewise lived out their span of years
in this lost city of the mountains. And
when they died, they too were gathered to their fathers, taking with them the
knowledge of their caste, the priceless Stellar Wisdom.
Only by an archaeological accident was the city ever
found. In 1911, nearly four hundred
years after the virgins fled the embrace of the mail clad Spanish soldiers, to
be seen no more, Manchu Picchu, the impregnable city of white-granite houses
where the sun is tied, was discovered by Professor Hiram Bingham of Yale.
Astrological Lore of All Ages
- Elbert Benjamine -
