Shamans, Supernaturals & Animal Spirits: Mythic Figures From the Ancient Andes

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Fragment from a Tunic
Solar Deity with Feline Traits and Cactus
Headdress
Tiwanaku style, Southern Highlands
AD 200-400
Camelid wool; interlocking tapestry weave
7½" x 10½"
The charismatic personage portrayed on the Sun Portal at
Tiwanaku was apparently envisioned in other forms as
well. In this vibrant, visually complex interpretation, the solar
face is reimagined as the countenance of a fierce cat, either a
puma or a jaguar (based on markings around the mouth). Small,
realistically rendered spotted cats, standing in poses of alert
tension, flank the focal image and reinforce the characterization.
The connotations of the image are manifold. The Aymara word
titi (as in Lake Titicaca or Titikala, the sacred rock located on the
Island of the Sun) means "puma." The terms underscores the
feline’s association with water, stone and the lake of "cosmic and
human origins" among highland peoples. 1 Indeed, teardrops
signifying rain or water flow from the animal’s eyes.
Rays and plumes encircling the face are delineated as winding,
serpent-bodied creatures. Each features a different geometric
pattern and shape, matched with the head of one of three
animal archetypes corresponding to a specific cosmological
domain. The striped “feathers" emerging at ear level terminate
in a condor or raptor (Sky). The adjacent motif, rendered as a
stepped triangle, features a puma head with a prominent snub
nose and snail antennae (Earth). The third segmented form,
shown from above, has the flat head and sinuous body of a
snake (Water).
The shamanic underpinning of the image is revealed by other
symbols. Most significantly, a crown of cactus sprouts from
the top of the feline's head (detail below). This multi-trunk,
columnar form is tipped with triangular motifs representing
the white flowers that bloom at the top of the night-blooming,
hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus. This sign appears in other
Tiwanaku iconography, notably on an engraved monolith
known as the Bennett Stela or Monolith.
This mind-altering plant (typically consumed in a brew mixed
with chicha, a fermented corn beer) is known to be an important
aspect of Tiwanaku and Wari ritualism. The symbolic link
between feline and cactus is an ancient one in the Andes, and
can be traced to Chavín art. Clearly that association was true
of Tiwanaku ritual and iconography as well.
1 John Wayne Janusek, Ancient Tiwanaku (2008): 4.135
San Pedro cactus symbol
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