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| Our cabin just by the petroglyphs, near Guasca, Colombia. |
In what must be the rarest of
opportunities, we are living for a week right next to a site of
ancient petroglyphs! We got a couple-hours tour of the carvings
from the landowner (who takes great care of his charges.) These
remarkable images were created by the Muisca people (the most
prominent culture at the time in this part of the world) sometime
between 800 and 1538, when the Spanish came and broke up the party
for everybody, and constitute some of Colombia's most important, located just downstream from a natural hot spring that was no doubt popular for hundreds of years.
In pre-colombian times his area (around
Guasca, Colombia) was an important confluence of indigenous travel
routes and thus was the site of important rituals, some involving as
many as 10,000 individuals congregating from all over this part of
the continent.
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| Circle figures refer to stars and are repeated around the world. |
This set of petroglyphs are some of the more important
ones, depicting the dominance of the sun over the other 4 critical
elements, earth, fire, water and air. There appear some standing
dancers that honor the sun's power. There are also figures depicting
stars (concentric circles with long vertical stems) that are actually
common to indigenous petroglyph sites around the world. Spirals (to
the left indicate the spirit life, to the right that of the body).
Also visible here is the frog figure––an important totem
animal––in what is seen as both a festive position and one of
alertness.
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| A frog appears beneath a figure. |
These ancient symbols––looming over
my days and nights––fills my heart with cosmic thoughts. The
plebian modern concerns that so preoccupy us are lost among these powerful, mute reminders of
the great arc of time that also forms part of our true story, though
vastly more subtle. Here I am connected with these unknown ancestors by
their powerful, speaking symbols, peering centuries on end from the
cliff-face over the landscape, calling to eternity.
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