Muisca mythology

The Muisca mythology includes the beliefs, myths and legends of a polytheistic, animistic and pantheistic nature that are part of the Muisca religion. The beliefs of the Muiscas are not based on a divine revelation; Rather, they have been transmitted through their oldest stories, it has been preserved in the Chronicles of the Indies, written by the Spaniards during and after the Christianization process.

On the other hand, folklore and popular tradition have maintained a good part of the Muisca mythology, they have been partly revitalized by movements related to Muisca neopaganism. It has also served as an inspiration in literature, theater, sculpture, among other arts.

Creation Myths

Myth of Bague

In the beginning there was only Bague, the Mother Grandmother. Then Bague shouted, and various gods appeared, light, plants, animals and the Muiscas. Then the gods filled a pot with seeds and stones, and sowed stars in space. They took the crumbs that were left in the pot and threw them far away, and that was the origin of the stars. However, everything was still, nothing moved. Then the gods went to visit Bague, and they told him of her sorrow because nothing moved, nor grew, nor sounded. Mother Grandmother prepared a drink that the gods drank until they fell asleep, they began to dream and have visions, and in their dreams everything moved, the birds sang, the waterfalls made noise and men toiled in their daily tasks. When the gods woke up, the light spread throughout the universe, and everything had movement, as in their dreams.

Myth of Chiminigagua

When it was already night, before there was anything in the world, the light was inside a big thing called Chiminigagua, from where it later came out. Chiminigagua began to come out and show the light that it had in itself. The first thing she created were large black birds, which she commanded to have beings and to go all over the planet breathing out of their beaks. And the air they blew out was lucid and resplendent. And after they had traveled the world, everything was clear and illuminated. Then he created Chiminigagua all the other things in the world, and among all of them, the most beautiful were the Sun and the Moon.

Myth of the chiefs of Sogamoso and Ramiriquí

Temple of the Sun in Sogamoso during a celebration of the Feast of Huán, which commemorates the events narrated in the myth of the Sogamoso and Ramiriquí caciques.

In the provinces of Hunza (Tunja) and Sogamoso, there was a creation myth according to which, when the world dawned, there was already heaven and earth, and everything else, except the Sun and the Moon, so that everything was in darkness, and there were only two people in the world: the Cacique of Sogamoso and the one of Ramiriquí (or Tunja). These caciques created human beings: men from yellow earth, and women from tall grass with a hollow trunk. Later, to give light to the world, the chief of Sogamoso ordered that of Ramiriquí, who was his nephew, to go up to the sky and light up the Earth transformed into the Sun. But seeing that the Sun was not enough to illuminate the night, he Sogamoso went up to the sky and became Moon. This happened in the month that corresponds to December, and since then that event has been celebrated, especially in Sogamoso, with a festival called Huan.

Myth of Bachué

Bachué transformed himself into a serpent, the work of Rómulo Rozo (1925).

From the Guateque Lagoon, shortly after the creation of the world, came a woman named Bachué, also known as Furachogua, which means "good woman." She brought with her a child by the hand, about three years old, and together they went down from the sierra to the savannah, where they built a house in which they lived until the boy was old enough to marry Bacheé. They later had many children, and Bacheé was so fertile that at each birth she gave birth to four to six children, so that very soon the Earth was filled with people.

Bacheé and her husband traveled through many places, leaving children everywhere, until after many years, being old, they called many of their descendants to accompany them back to the lagoon from which they had left. When they were next to the lagoon, Bachué spoke to everyone, exhorting them to peace, to live in harmony and to keep the precepts and laws that she had given them, especially the worship of the gods. At the end of her speech, she said goodbye to the tears of both parties, turning her and her husband into two large snakes that entered the waters of the lagoon to never return, although Bachué later appeared in many places..

Myths of civilization

Myth of Bochica

Monument to Bochica, a civilizing hero (and/or god) of the Muscas, in Cuítiva (Boyacá).

According to this myth, from the eastern plains, a long time ago, an unknown man arrived in the Sabana de Bogotá, with white skin and blue eyes, with long hair and beard down to his waist, his hair tied up with a headband, with bare feet, and wearing a calf-length blanket or tunic, tied in a knot over the right shoulder. He entered through the town of Pasca, and from there he went to Bosa, where a camel he was bringing died, whose bones the Muiscas preserved. This man, known as Bochica, received other names, such as Chimizapagua (which means "messenger from Chiminigagua"), Nemqueteba, Xué, among others.

Bochica taught the Muiscas to spin cotton and weave blankets, because before this, they covered themselves with coarse sheets of raw cotton, tied with fique cords. From Bosa he went to Fontibón, Funza, Serrezuela (now Madrid, Cundinamarca) and Zipacón, from where he headed north. In Cota he spent a few days teaching a large number of people from all the neighboring towns. There he spoke from a high promontory, which was dug for more than two thousand paces so that people would not run over him and he could speak freely. In that place they later made a sanctuary. At night, Bochica slept in a cave at the foot of one of the mountains that surround Cota. Then he continued his journey to the Northeast, until he reached the province of Guane, in the current department of Santander, and from Guane he turned towards the East and entered the province of Hunza and the Sogamoso valley, where he disappeared.

Myth of Sadigua

According to the chroniclers of the Indies, Bochica was known as Sadigua in the provinces of Hunza (Tunja) and Sogamoso. Sadigua would mean "our relative". He was also known in those provinces as Sugumonxe ("who becomes invisible") and Sugunsua ("man who disappears").

The first town he arrived in that region was Ganza (now Gámeza), in a place called Toyú, where he spent three days in a cave. There the caciques of Ganza, Bubanza (Busbanzá), Socha, Tasco, Guaquirá and Sátiva came to visit him, in that order, achieving greatness for their towns as they arrived. Among them, Sogamoso was superior to the others. When Sadigua arrived at the site of Otga, Nompanen, chief of Sogamoso, came out to receive him with all his people.

Sadigua taught how to spin cotton and weave blankets, as well as moral precepts and community life. When he arrived at the town of Iza, he disappeared, leaving the imprint of one of his feet on a stone.

Myth of Huitaca

Some time after Bochica disappeared, a woman of disturbing beauty arrived, called Huitaca, or Xubchasgagua, sometimes identified as the goddess Chía herself, or as the daughter of Chía. Huitaca taught doctrines contrary to those taught by Bochica. She affirmed that one could have a relaxed life, dedicated to pleasures, games and drunkenness, and that they should not help those in need, even if they were her own parents.

Myth of the Tequendama

Salto del Tequendama, created, according to myth, by the power of Bochica.

Since the Muisca had lost respect for the gods, they offended Chibchacum, who had previously been the most beloved of their gods. He decided to punish them by flooding the savannah, for which he caused the Sopó and Tivitó rivers to be born, which joined their beds to the Funza (old name of the Bogotá river). The flood ended many crops and human lives, until the people cried out with fasting and sacrifices to Bochica to free them from that calamity. Finally, one afternoon, in the midst of a great roar, Bochica appeared over the rainbow, with a golden rod in her hand, which she threw towards the mountain range that blocked the water, instantly opening the Tequendama Falls, which gave way to the waters. As punishment for the flood caused, Bochica sentenced Chibchacum to carry the world on his shoulders, so that every time he changes shoulders to rest, an earth tremor occurs. Bochica punished Huitaca by turning her into an owl.

Cosmology

According to Muisca beliefs, the world, called Quyca, is made up as follows:

• Quyca: The world itself said.

• Guatquyca: The world above, where Sua (gods of the Sun) and Chie (god of the Moon), in addition to other deities.

• Tynaquyca: The world below, where the deceased dwell. According to this belief, the dead, after crossing a dark ravine, must cross a river mounting a raft made of spider cloth, called Sospquazine, until reaching a place, in the bowels of the earth, full of fields of cultivation, illuminated by a new Sun.

Deities

Monument to the Chibcha Race in the main park of Chía (Cundinamarca). At the top, Bachue.

Statue of Sie, goddess of water, on Avenida Las Américas de Bogotá.

Bachué Statue in Medellín.

• Scooter: Mother Grandma.

• Chiminigagua: Higher God, principle of light. He has no physical representation; from him comes all created. He spread the light through all creation using two black birds that came out of their own being, before the Sun and Moon existed.

• Chibchachum, Chibchacum or Chibchacun: Controls the rains, makes the rivers come out of its channel and produces the tremors of land, after Bochica condemned it to carry the world over its shoulders.

• Suaor Sué: The Sun god. It is not the light, because the light resides in Chiminigagua.

• Chíaor Chie: The Moon goddess. Preside the night. It symbolizes the principle of human passions, appetites and desires. Sometimes it is identified with Huitaca, cast by Bochica, who transformed it into lettuce, or in the same stars of the Moon. Some authors even have it for Bochica's wife.

• Bachuéor Furachogua: Mother of the human race. It represents the female germinating principle of nature. It anticipates the growth of plants, seedlings and legumes.

• Sugunsua: According to the researcher Darío Rozo, Sugunsua is the name of Bachué's husband, whom she raised without being her mother. It symbolizes the male germinating principle. Do not confuse with one of the epithets that gave Sadigua (Bochica) in the province of Sogamoso. Sugunsua means, according to Fray Pedro Simón, "man who disappears."

• Bochica: Hero/god civilizer of the Muscas, arrived from the East. White skin, with abundant beard, blond hair and blue eyes. He taught useful arts and moral principles. It symbolizes the principle that determines human intelligence.

• Chaquen: God of the limits, the terms and stages of the races; he presides over the pilgrimages, the ceremonies, the sacred feasts and the war. It symbolizes the principle that inspires joy.

• Nencatacoaor Fo: God of drunkenness, irreverence, music and dance. It transforms things with other appearances. Preside the wipers, protect the weavers and fabric printrs. It sometimes manifests itself in the form of fox, and that is why it is called Fo.

• Cuhuzafiba: Known by the Spanish as CuchavivaHe is the god of rainbow and medicine, mediator between gods and men. He was called by fever patients and women when they entered labor.

• Guahaioque: God of death. It infuses turkey, and the Spaniards identified it as the devil. He was represented with various forms and horrible aspects.

• Amount: God who determines misfortunes and misfortunes; he embodies the spirit of evil.

• Huitaca: Daughter of the goddess Chía, although it is also identified as another aspect of the same Chía but blue.

Mythical characters

• Gorancha: Son of the Sun who was born in the form of emerald, in Guachetá.

• Tomagata: Known as "Cacique Rabón", he realizes that he was a nut, had four ears and carried a long tail. He was very virtuous and loved by the Muscas.

Mythical Animals

• The two birds that came out of the interior of Chiminigagua, radiating the light through the Universe and spreading the quinoa and corn seeds.

• Tota Lake Monster: Strange creature that would live in Tota Lake. one of the most important lakes.

Sacred places

The Muiscas revered some natural sites such as rivers, lagoons, mountains or hills.