Andean Legends
of the Inner Earth
by Kathy Doore
© Labyrinthina 1998 - 2007The highland Andes have been known through myth and legend as one of the access points for vast underground subterrenaen cities, the domain of inner-earth beings who from time to time, emerge from their lower worlds into the upper atmosphere of our third-dimensional density. These ancient legends speak of vast networks of tunnels criss-crossing the entire length and breadth of the planet. Traditions of vaults, labyrinths and buried treasures of remote antiquity are found in Crete, Egypt, Tibet, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. Inca prophecy tells of the upper, middle, and lower worlds, other realities existing in both physical and astral/etheric form.
Several places in the Andes mountains are considered gateways to these realms and doorways where emergence and entrance are possible. Included among this distinction are the famous sacred sites of Sacsayhuaman in the Peruvian Andes and the ancient pre-Incan city of Tiwanaku near the shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.
The Jesuit chronicler, Agnelio Oliva, recorded the words of an old Inca quipu reader to the effect that "the real Tiahuanaco was a subterranean city, far exceeding the one "above ground" in vastness."
Tiwanaku Bolivia near the shores of Lake Titicaca.My adventure began in the spring of l990 on my first pilgrimage to the Peruvian Andes. I didn't realize at the time that I would have an adverse reaction to the altitude on my first day and merrily hiked the length and breadth of Sacsayhuaman, the ancient temple site above Cuzco, at an altitude of nearly l2,700 feet.
I spent my first night in the Andes with my head in the toilet. During my exploration of the citadel I walked a "circular labyrinth" of stones believed to be the remains of a long forgotten obelisk called the "watchtower." It was here that I noticed an odd little man watching my every move.
Sacsayhuaman Temple overlooking Cusco, Peru.At first I simply felt his energy upon me but quickly realized I was being checked out. I was filming the Cusco panoramic landscape when I accidentally caught this fellow in my video lens. Something about him was not quite right.
He was of diminutive stature, in his early twenties, with a swarthy, olive complexion. He wore a wind breaker and jeans, and a baseball hat. And then I realized what my senses had already known, he had a small hunch on his back.
At first I thought he was with the party of South American tourists who were wandering nearby, but wondered why they ignored him. I began to feel sorry for him and thought that his friends behaved badly.
There was something else I sensed about the entire senario but just couldn't put my finger on, I was already light-headed from oxygen deprivation and didn't dwell too long on these feeling.
End part I.
Or is it?
For years I've had the peculiar idea that I was the only one who saw him.
Two years later in 1992 I had the opportunity to travel to Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian side with my friend Mari whom I'd met on the previous journey to Peru. I had an overpowering feeling that I would see the strange little man on this trip and gingerly mentioned this to Mari, hoping that she would see him too, and confirm his existance. Mari is a professor of Latin American history at our local University, she's very logical and analytical, with an open, inquisitive mind. Growing up in Transylvania in her early childhood she had heard many peculiar legends from her ancestoral lore. She wasn't fazed by my announcement of a potential visit from a diminutive hunchbacked man, and offered to help me in any way she could.
Kallassasaya temple walls at Tiwanaku.About half way through our Bolivian odyssey we paid a visit to the village of Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca, home to the Indian Virgin known by natives as "La Mamita del Lagoto," "Virgin of Copacabana," and the "Patroness of Bolivia."
The Virgin is a representation of the Black Madonna well known for her miracles (which pre-date Christianity). The Cathedral, built upon an earlier holy pagan site, is at the apex of converging "ley lines" and has been the destination of sacred pilgrimage for over two millenia.
Protectress of Mariners and the Bolivian Navy.I was standing in front of the Cathedral waiting for Mari to exit the church when quite suddenly, and to my utter astonishment, the little hunchbacked man appeared -- right in front of me!
As he darted off, I hollared for Mari to follow me and set out after him.
In another moment he was gone!POOF!
He was nowhere in sight. He'd eluded us effortlessly.Out of breath and shaking our heads in disbelief, we sat on the curb laughing.
"Are we nuts? It couldn't be the same guy, could it?"Neither of us got a really good look at his face, but I had more than a sneaking suspicion something utterly bizarre was afoot -- wearing tennis shoes and a baseball cap.
The Indian vendors shook their heads too.
The Gringa's looked thoroughly ridiculous dashing through the street after some phantom that no one else apparently saw.Having no success locating the illusive one, we eventually gave up and returned to the important task of shopping for hats. A short time later we were stunned when he appeared again just before us, smirking no less! And this time I got a very good look at his face!
New Hats!Mari wasted no time and set off after him.
I could see that she was next to him, pacing his every stride.Breathless, she returned with her proof.
"OK!" I said. "Tell me everything!"
"Well, he has the baseball hat on, yes! And the wind breaker and jeans too.
And...
he has a small hunchback!""How old was he?" I pressed.
"Not very old, huh?""Oh no, he wasn't very old at all, maybe 60."
"What? I yelled. NO WAY! He couldn't be more than 25!"
"No, No, NO," she insisted. "He has deep lines in his face, he's at least 60!"
This is what we surmised:
We had in fact seen the same man and he changed his appearance at will.
He moved uncommonly fast and may have become invisible.
He most assuredly had a small hunchback.
But the strangest thing of all was -- he knew where to find us that day on the shores of Titicaca, three years from the day I first saw him in Sacsayhuaman, Peru, several hundred miles away.
I began to wonder if he was some kind of Elf? Fast forward - Spring l998
After rummaging through my old boxes I came across the video tape from Peru l990 and found the footage of Sacsayhuaman. There in the Cusco panorama, in living color just as I remembered him, is the little hunchbacked man.
He's real. I've got him on tape!Or do I?
As I panned the Cusco landscape accidentally catching him in my lens, he nonchalantly bends down to tie his shoe, and in that exact moment, turns his face away from the camera.
Ugh! He knows.
He won't let me film his face because eight years in the future, I will need this confirmation, and I won't have it.Fast Forward - summer l998 Urubamba, Peru.
I'm speaking with my friend Pepe who lives in Cusco about his most recent journey to Lake Titicaca. During our conversation I bring up my tale of the little hunchbacked man and the odd synchronicity of meeting him in two unlikely places years apart, to which my friend Pepe smiles slowly and says, "Have you seen the small carved huacas [sacred objects] they sell at Tiwanaku, of the little men?"
"No. What little men?" I implore.
"Small, carved, hunchbacked little men! They're supposed to be the miner's from the inner earth," he laughs. Loving the folly of it all.
Perhaps my little elfman is the embodiement of "Kokapeli" the hunchbacked flute player from Native American lore, or the gnome of Great Britain protecting his "pot of gold." Afterall, the richest gold mines on the planet come from this area, this "inner-earth" area, repleat with its tunnel systems believed to connect the sacred centers of Sacsayhuaman, Tiwanaku, Copacabana, Machupiccu, and more!
I mused, "If I catch him do I get to keep his gold?"
Or, just maybe I'll get a front row seat to the Inner-Earth arena.
Two days after that first encounter in 1990 my life as I knew it would be forever changed by a sudden and spontaneous kundalini awakening during a late night visit in the sanctuary of Machu Picchu.
Today I wonder if the little hunchbacked man was some sort a goodwill ambassador welcoming me to the world of the cosmic unknown. A world whose terrain I've come to navigate but whose mysteries are as elusive as the little elfman himself.
The Inca Queen and her attendants
including a small hunchback man.
Excerpt from, "Mystic Masonry And The Bible" by C. Heline:
"The position of the Holy of Holies in the center of the Earth, is a mystic allusion to the Path of Initiation, which takes the Initiate to the inmost Center of the Universe and to the creative Power from which it springs. There is an old Masonic legend stating that the biblical Master Initiate, Enoch, made excavations through the entire nine layers of the Earth. In each of these excavations he placed a four-square door, and in the ninth door he set a golden triangle bearing the mystic four-letter name of Deity. He then fashioned two columns wherein he placed secret instructions on how to find the nine excavations with their closely guarded four-square doors; in other words, how to pass through Earth's nine layers and so reach its central core."
The Incas remember the Great Flood - "The water rose above the highest mountain in the world. All created things perished except for a man and woman who floated in a box. When the flood subsided, the floating box was driven by the wind to Tiwanaku (Lake Titicaca) about 200 miles from Cuzco. [Gaster, p. 127]. According to some Amazonian Jivaro, the flood was survived by a man and woman who took refuge in a cave on a high mountain, along with samples of all the various animal species. [Gaster, p. 126]
"Order of The Labyrinth" by Rami Sajdi "The Order of the Labyrinth" is a specific secret society which has existed in various forms for the last 25,000 years. In its latter period, this Order built the many labyrinths and catacombs that roam beneath the cathedrals, monetaries, druidic mounds, and other ancient ruins interconnecting a network of passages and chambers. Such gridworks are beneath the sacred structures of every land mass of our world. The other function of the chambers were ritualistic in nature but based upon scientific laws and knowledge of the forces of the universe. The 'Khazneh Acoustical Design' - are the inner chambers for a resonating field of consciousness that was brought closer to the surface of our world for the purpose of inviting our participation, however subtle, in the act of receiving from the living Earth.
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