Glossary of Terminology
of the Shamanic & Ceremonial Traditions
of the Inca Medicine Lineage

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Use the Firefox browser with the CoolPreview add on. CoolPreview will give a magnifying glass icon at every link when you put your cursor on the link. Click on the icon and it will open a separate, smaller window with the definition of the term in it. You can either lock the window by clicking the padlock icon in the top bar of the little window, or move your cursor off the window and it will automatically close. This is almost as good as mouseovers.

machacausa: (n) The snake louse, a mariri used in marupa sorcery as well as by healers to convey messages. AYV

Mach’ácuay: (n) The Dark Cloud Constellation of the serpent. Its earthly counterpart is probably Tachymenis peruviana, the only indigenous snake above 12,000 feet. However, the historical literature mentions that inhabitants of the Inca empire living in the Amazon brought huge reptiles (amarus) to the Inca as tribute. Mach’ácuay is observed at the beginning of the rainy season. Because the snake is equated with the rainbow, there is a coincidence of reptilian behavior with the water cycle and the heavenly cycle. It is believed that rainbows arise from a spring and the other end descends into a spring; the rainbow appears and disappears with the rain. The rainbow is seen as a two-headed snake. Snakes come out of the earth during rain so they do not drown and return when the rain ends. The periodicity of the celestial serpent’s rising out of the earth and reentering it during the night brackets the rainy season. There is synchronicity between Mach’ácuay, k’uychi, and terrestrial serpents in the Andes. ACES (See, yana phuyu, pachatira.)

Mach’áquay (Tachymenis peruviana)

machasqa, machaq: (adj) Drunk. (n) Drinker. QP

machay: (v) To get drunk. QP

mach’ay: (n) Sacred caves from which it was believed the ancestors came and in which the mummies (mallquis) of the dead were placed.  MAN ROR (See, Cajatambo.)

mach’aqway, mach’acuay: (n) Snake. ROR

machu: (adj) Ancient, old. (n) Old man. An ancient spirit, either malevolent or benevolent. ROR RS

Machukuna: (n) Old Ones; quasi-demonic survivors of a previous race. THLH

Machula Aulanchis: (n) The Old Grandfathers; the benevolent aspect of the Machukuna (sp). A more general and less personal category of ancestor; they have been dead much longer and lack individuality, like the bones mixed together in the communal pile of the cemetery. THLH

Machu Picchu: (n) Literally, old peak, the name of one of the most sacred of the Inca sites. It is home of the talking heads and represents the cosmos on Earth. JLH Built by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, it served as a royal estate and sacred site until just before the arrival of the Spanish and remained hidden and forgotten until rediscovered in 1911 by Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham. It contains several sites of archeological importance, including the inti watana and the Temple of the Three Windows. MAN (See, Tambo Toco.)

Video above from National Geo's "Lost Temples" series.


Video about controversy over Machu Picchu artifacts.

machu wayra: (n) Literally, wind of the old ones. an ambivalent sickening/fertilizing wind that blows over a cemetery, yet is good for the potatoes. THLH

maestro (Span): (n) A great sorcerer. THIM A teacher of shamanism or vegetalismo.

mak’alinakuy: (v) To hug each other. QP

mak’alliy: (v) To hug. QP

mal aire, mal viento (Span): (n) Literally, evil air, often associated with the spirit of a dead person and can produce illness. The aires are the owners of and command the spaces where they live and can occupy trees, rainbows (k’uychi), thunder, caves and springs (paqarina). They can cause soul loss, pregnancy, fever, etc. The vegetalistas believe the air is alive and conscious. AYV

mal aire de agua (Span): (n) An illness caused by an evil breeze from the water. AYV

mal aire de difunto (Span): (n) Literally, bad air of the deceased, an illness produced by the spirit of a deceased person. AYV (See, Chai Cullkimama.)

maligno (Span): (n) An evil spirit which usually hovers over quiet spots of riverbanks in the summer and may be recognized by the high pitched whistle it gives out. AYV

mallki: See, mallqui.

mallku: (n) Spirit of the condor; leader of a group of condors. ROR (2) Male shamans of the fifth level. (See, Inca mallku.) (2) Tree. QNO

mallqui, mallki: (n) (1) Mummy of an ancestor. The care and veneration of the lineage ayllu mallquis was central to Incan religious practice. Usually stored in caves seen as sacred, at festivals they were dressed in rich clothing, put on display and offered food and drink. MAN Their souls were thought to keep in touch with the living, so the Inca dead were well tended. NGEO3 It was customary for the dead to retain their personal possessions. In the case of royal mummies, that meant keeping their own palaces; their heirs were expected to build themselves new ones. There the preserved corpses would sit in state, cared for by their clan (panaca). To maintain the illusion that normal life continued, the mummies would pay social calls on one another, and on important ceremonial occasions, would be brought out to attend the festivities in Cusco’s main square. IAWS (2) Forest. QP Tree; shrub; bush; plant; also ancestor. RS (See, falsa cabeza, mummy bundle.)

Mallqui with
falsa cabeza

mama: (n) General name for a female spirit or deity.  All plants, animals, lakes, rivers, mountains, and meteorological phenomena possess such a spirit. The suffix -mama, added to the name of any animal, is used to designate a gigantic prototype of the species or closely associated with them. Disturbing these animals is dangerous and detrimental to the environment. For instance, if a great anaconda believed to be the mother of a lake is killed, the lake will dry up. Important food plants, psychotropic plants, plants used in medicine and poisons for hunting and fishing are considered to have especially strong mamas. AYV

Mama Allpa: (n) A fertility goddess depicted with multiple breasts. EFD A harvest and earth goddess. Her many breasts were indicative of fertility and the nourishing powers of the earth. WMO

mamacha: (n) Female saint. QP

Mama Coca: (n) The early Spanish observer Francisco de Toledo, ca. 1570 related a myth of coca's origin as follows: “Cocamama was first a beautiful woman whose body was evil so they killed her, dividing her in two. From these halves a tree was born, named Cocamama. Anyone eating these leaves, eats her. We carry her in a bag, which we cannot open until we have had intercourse with a woman in memory of her. This tree has many branches, so we call it coca.” (1882, Memorias Antiguas Historales de Peru.) PUE She is the symbol of our spiritual food. IGMP (See, Mama Sara, mama.)

Mama Cocha, Mama Qocha: (n) (1) Sea; ocean. RS (2) Sea Mother was the sea and fish goddess, protectress of sailors and fishermen. Her husband was Wiracocha. EFD (See, mama.)

Mama Cunas: See, Mama Kuna.

Mama Igneos: Also known as Lady Candelaria and Lady of the Three Fires (combustion, electricity and solar). She is the mama of the Origin of the Fire (sp). IGMP

Mama Killa, Mama Quilla: (n) The moon, as an expression of the divine feminine. KOAK As wife to the Sun God, the Inca revered her as a near-deity. THIM Mother Moon or Golden Mother was a marriage, festival and moon goddess and daughter of Wiracocha and Mama Cocha, as well as wife and sister of Inti. By Inti, she was the mother of Manco Capac, Pachakamak, Con and Mama Ocllo. The Empress of the Incan Empire represented here on Earth. EFD She oversaw marriages, feast days and the calendar. She had her own shrine in the Coricancha. It was decorated with sheets of beaten silver and served by its own priestesses. The Chimu of Ecuador had long venerated the moon as their principal deity and were less than pleased when she was forced to take on a secondary role to Inti by the might of the Inca. IAWS (See, mama.)

The temple to Killa, the moon goddess, at Machu Picchu.

Mama Kuna, Mama Cuna: (n) Matrons of the Sun who oversaw the akllas, they were themselves the class of aklla known as Guayrur Aklla.  HOI

Mamamtúa (Amaz): The Mother of all human beings. AYV (See, Pachamama)

mamanchispa q’apaynin: (n) A phrase meaning our mother’s fragrance. It is another name for the coca leaf. Hallpay was invented, according to folklore, when Our Mother lost her child. Wandering aimlessly in her grief, she absentmindedly plucked some coca leaves, chewed on them, and discovered that this eased her pain. Andean people have chewed coca ever since, for life is hard, especially in the puna. Coca helps alleviate life’s pain and draws people together in mutual support. THLH

mamani: (n) Hawk. PSL RS

Mama Ocllo: Wife and sister of Manco Capac, legendary founder of the Inca lineage and founder of Cusco.

Mama Oello: A mistransliteration of Mama Ocllo.

Mama Pacha: (n) Earth mother goddess. Pachakamak, the primordial creative spirit, emerged from her. WMO (See, Pachamama.)

mama q’epe: (n) A bundle of ritual paraphernalia wrapped in a colorful cloth. ROR (See, q’epe.)

Mama Quilla: See, Mama Killa.

Mamarit’i: (n) the female counterpart of the apu. The princess of a snow-capped sacred mountain. (See, ñust’a, paqarina, itu apu.)

Mama Sara, Zaramama: (n) Peruvian goddess of grain. Her name means grain mother and she was occasionally incarnated in her own fields in the form of strangely shaped ears of corn or ears that joined in multiple growths. Sometimes these goddess images were made even more like Mama Sara by being dressed as human women in a robe and shawl with a silver clasp. Sometimes, she came to earth in cornstalks which were hung by her worshippers on willow trees; festive dances were held around the willows, then the cornstalks were burned, assuring a plentiful supply of corn. WPO She is the symbol of our physical food. IGMP (See, Mama Coca, mama.)

mana: (adv) Negation, no, not. RS

mana allin: (adj) Bad. QP

mana allin yuyayniyuq: (adj) Stupid. QP

manan imapas: (n) Nothing. QP

manan niy: (v) To deny. QP

mana puñuy atipay: (n) Insomnia. QP

mana samayniyuq: (n) Breathlessness. QP

Mancca Pacha (AYM): (n) The Ukhupacha. Mancca means to eat, therefore, this is named for the aspect of Pachamama that eats our heavy energies. IGMP (See, mikhuy.) Manco Capac: (1) The name of the first Inca king, founder of Cusco. Son of Inti, husband/brother of Mama Ocllo. Also known as Ayar Manco. MAN God of fire and progenitor of the Incas. GM He and his brothers (Ayar Anca, Ayar Cachi and Ayar Uchu) and sisters (Mama Ocllo, Mama Huaco, Mama Raua and Mama Cura) lived near Cusco and united their people to conquer the tribes of the Cusco Valley. With his sister-wife, Mama Ocllo, Manco Capac had a son named Sinchi Roca (who is believed to be historical). WIC Legendary name of the first Inca sent from Hatun Inti. The name derives from Mallku, meaning the leader who flies, and Qhapaq, meaning the one who has the power. IGMP At the end of his life, he was turned into stone. IAWS (2) The last Incan Emperor was also named Manco Capac. He was the son of Huayna Capac, and was crowned in 1534 by Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador. He was allowed to rule only as a puppet of the Spanish Empire, however, until he escaped and raised and army, attacking Cusco in 1536. The unsuccessful siege lasted ten months and destroyed the city. Manco Capac then launched a guerilla campaign until being murdered in 1544. (See, Appendix H.) WIC

manchakuy, mancharikuy: (v) To be afraid. PSL

manchari: (n) Fright, one of the reasons for soul loss. AYV

mancharichikuyniyuq: (adj) Awesome. Imposing.RS

mancharisqa: (adj) Fearful and frightened. TGOP

manchay: (n) Danger. QP

manguaré (Amaz): (n) A drum made of a hollow log used as a jungle telegraph and to invoke deities and wake up the spirits of the ancestors.  THIM

manqhue chuyma (AYM): (n) The interior of the heart or thoughts. ASD

manqu wasi: (n) Temple. QP

manta: (n) Blanket. RS

mañakuq: (n) Prayer. QP

mañakuy: (v) To ask for something, to pray. QP

mañaqa: (n) Offer. Offer of marriage. RS

mapacho: (n) Nicotiana rustica, a strong jungle tobacco used ceremonially by tabaqueros and other vegetalistas. The vegetalista places tobacco as an offering to the ayahuasca spirit before cutting it. AYV The food of the mariri: if not nourished with mapacho smoke the mariri can come out of the mouth of the vegetalista, exposing him to the danger of having it cut off by a brujo, and thus remain unprotected. EMM

map’a: (adj) Awful. QP

maqchhiy: (v) To wash (general, not personal). QP (See, t’aqsay and armakuy.)

Maras Toco: (n) The salty cave at Tambo Toco. NFL The cave, as represented as a chamber in the Ukhupacha, where one goes to view the deeds and misdeeds of the client, as well as his/her soul contracts and personal past. JLH (See, Tambo Toco, Sutic Toco and Capac Toco.)

mareación (Span): (n) (1) The visionary effect of ayahuasca. (2) Such a vision. AYV

maripuri: (n) The spider, a mariri used in marupa sorcery as well as by healers to convey messages. AYV

mariri: (n) (1) Healing stones. JLH (2) Magical phlegm; an enchantment. Icaros are a form of mariri. The magical phlegm could be one more element of a postulated shamanistic complex of vast temporal and geographical amplitude -- perhaps of Amazonian origin -- including the use of psychotropic plants, the jaguar-transformation motif, and representations of anacondas and other forest animals. AYV (See, runauturuncu.) The magical phlegm of a vegetalista, a rather mysterious substance that can be regurgitated at will, which work as spiritual and energetical defence. It is the ultimate defensive weapon of a curandero. In essence the mariri is used for protection from virotes: when a curandero feels he is under attack from a virote, he immediately calls up his mariri. Like the icaros, the mariris can be received either from the plants or from a maestro. When inherited from another maestro, the mariri is physically passed on from mouth to mouth, via the hands. It can be either used as a defense, to return the attack of an opponent, or to heal. EMM (See, yachay, mapacho.)

markachana: (n) A small cave in a ceremonial corral used to burn an offering. Also called q’oyana. ROR

Markawasi: (n) A small plateau (about two miles long by a little over half a mile wide) in the Andes, towering above the town of San Pedro de Casta (50 miles northeast of Lima), at an elevation of over 12,000 feet supporting reputed ancient monumental stone sculptures. Here, some claimed, were to be found the remains of a lost culture that dates back thousands of years, if not tens of thousands of years or more. Supposedly they created monumental carvings from the granodiorite cliffs, boulders, and outcroppings on the top of the plateau – carvings of an anthropomorphic and zoomorphic nature, including peoples of many different races and animals found not just in the immediate vicinity, but from other continents as well. If these reports were true, this would indicate a pre-Columbian culture that had transoceanic ties, and just perhaps it represented a branch of the primordial global lost civilization of which many writers and philosophers have speculated over the centuries. RSN

Stone heads at Markawasi.

marmicuña (AYM): (n) Husband and wife. ASD

marupa (Amaz): (n) An animal sent by a sorcerer to inflict harm. AYV (See, hechicería marupa.)

marupa machaco (Amaz): (n) A mythic, multi-colored serpent whose icaro is sung by vegetalistas who swallow the virotes they extract that are made from poisonous snakes, fish quills, or wasp and scorpion stingers. AYV

masha-yakuruna (Amaz): (n) A yakuruna ally of the murayas, he teaches them how to rescue people lost in the watery depths. AYV

masi: (adj) Equal. (n) Comrade; colleague; friend; fellow; peer. RS

masichakuy: (n) The act of joining two similar energy bubbles. (See, yanachakuy, yanantin, masintin). RS

masintin: (n) A relationship of two similar things. Harmonious relationship between similar things; homologous. ”Yanantin is the ring, masantin is the resonance inside the ring.” Masintin is also a dissimilar quality that is complementary. The zero point of this is ranti. JLH RS

maskhay: (v) To look for. TLD

maskaypacha: (n) Looking for the essence of the cosmos. (1) The Inca's headband. IGMP RS (2) Insignia on a head-piece. TLD (See, llautu, accorasi.)

mast'ay, mastai: (v) (1) Make oneself available to. To reveal oneself. (2) To spread out, to extend. PSL
(n) An aperture.

mastana: (n) A blanket used as a covering for the mesa. OMQ (See, lliklla, unkhuña.)

matecllu: (n) A water plant whose leaf juice was used to clear the eyes. A poultice made fromt he bruised leaves was very effective in correcting some forms of blindness and relieving eye pain. ACA

Mauqallqta: (n) The name of the modern town near the sites of Pacaritambo and Tambo Toco. MAN

maycha: (n) (1) Medicinal high-altitude plant also used to start fires for offerings. (2) A pejorative reference to a healer of dubious ability. ROR

mayco (AYM): (n) King. ASD

maycoña (AYM): (n) Kingdom. ASD

Mayta Capac: The name of the legendary fourth Inca emperor of the later 12th Century. MAN

Mayu:(n) (1) River. ROR JLH RS (2) The Milky Way, a celestial river, whose movements were observed by the Inca from the Coricancha in Cusco. In Inca cosmology, the movements of Mayu were the starting point for calendrical correlations with natural changes on the earth. From these observations they organized daily, seasonal and annual labor and ritual. This is in contrast to most cultures that took their charting from the closest celestial bodies of the sun and moon. The intercardinal axes of Mayu corresponded to the routes out of Cusco to the Tawantinsuyu and ceke alignments. MAN During the 24 hours that it crosses zenith, Mayu forms two intersecting, intercardinal axes (NE - SW and SE - NW). These great luminous axial lines create a grid for the entire celestial sphere, dividing it into four quarters, called sayu. All other astronomical phenomena can then be plotted and characterized by the quarters in which they occur or travel across. MAR The Inca also recognized dark cloud constellations (see, pachatira). The Incas were convinced that their fate was intertwined with the movements of the stars and planets. The stars foretold their civilization's doom in 1532 in nothing less than a dire warning of an impending precessional event that, to the Incas, predicted future ruin. Drawing on their ancient mythological database, the Incas reasoned (from the principle “as above, so below”) that loss of contact with the ancestors, upon which their religious beliefs were founded (see, mallqui), would mean their way of life would be destroyed on Earth. The gate or bridge to the land of the ancestors -- that is, the rising of the December solstice Sun with the Milky Way -- was about to be washed away. Drawing on their ancient mythological database, the Incas reasoned that loss of contact with the ancestors would mean their way of life would be destroyed on Earth. SIMA (3) Mayu is the shaman’s road. The celestial river passes beneath the Earth after first entering the cosmic sea in the west. We can well imagine the tremendous mixing and crossing of subterranean water, earth and animals which occurs as Mayu passes beneath the earth and how, therefore, the animals in the sky are intimately connected with the animals of the earth. Mayu is actually made up of two rivers, not one. The two Mayus originate at a common point in the north, flow in opposite directions from north to south, and collide head on in the southern Milky Way. The bright stellar clouds in this part of the Milky Way represent the foam resulting from the celestial collision. Both “ends” of the Milky Way are subterranean for a period of time in their revolution around their respective pole. But since the Milky Way is inclined with respect to the plane of the earth’s rotational axis, one center of the Mayu will be above ground while the opposite center is below ground. The water in the Celestial River enters the celestial sphere when the northern end of the Mayu is underground (i.e., when it is in the cosmic ocean) since the point of origin of the Celestial River is in the north, whereas the point of union of the Rivers is in the south. Thus, while terrestrial rivers conduct water downward (rain > streams > rivers moving downward), the Celestial River recycles water upward (Cosmic Ocean > northern Milky Way moving upward). The Milky Way is therefore an integral part of the continual recycling of water throughout the Quechua universe. ACES  (See, Southern Cross.)

Def. 2.

(Def. 3) The cosmic circulation of water via Mayu as it would be seen from space.
The earth is visualized as an orange floating in a bowl of water. ACES

medicina (Span): (n) Medicine.

medicine: (n) (Eng) (1) The mastery of the uses of the realms of space/time, energy and spirit for healing, personal power, divination, and protection. (2) Shamanic healing. PGO

medicine wheel: (n) (Eng) A name first applied to the Big Horn Medicine Wheel located on a ridge of Medicine Mountain, part of northern Wyoming's Big Horn Range. It is a sacred site built about 200 years ago. BGH The Medicine Wheel is representative of American Indian Spirituality. The Medicine Wheel symbolizes the individual journey we each must take to find our own path. Within a medicine wheel are the Four Cardinal Directions. CHE Medicine wheels are used all over the world (Stonehenge is a medicine wheel), although the English term comes from Native Americans of the United States. A Tibetan will call it kalachakra; a Hindu, mandala; a Taoist, pa qua. All medicine wheels are representations of the universes of space/time and of energy and spirit. With the exception of the pa gua, every medicine wheel represents (at least) the four directions and the four elements (earth, air, fire, water), with the center representing the individual. PGO

menstruation: (n) The monthly bleeding of human women is so attractive to water spirits that many native women in the Amazon rain forest will not travel by boat or even cross the water during this time. There are beliefs that such spirits will kidnap menstruating women to impregnate them. AYV (See, bufeo colorado, yakuruna.)

mermaid (Eng): A common belief among mestizo and native Amazonians, mermaids are often invoked in ayahuasca sessions. It is believed that some powerful shamans are the offspring of mermaid and human unions. Mermaids serve murayas and are themselves the rulers of fish and dolphins. They may adopt the form of a human woman in order to seduce a man and take him to her watery abode. Some vegetalistas summon mermaids when performing love magic. Although the mermaid was almost certainly borrowed from the Europeans, there were surely existing female water spirits in the indigenous belief system. The European church associated mermaids with the Devil, but they are a common motif in the church art of southern Peru and Bolivia. Mermaids only come out in sublime trances to cure sicknesses of the water. AYV (See, wiracocha mermaids, awka sirenas, picture at yakumama.)

Mermaids in the river, a detail from a painting by vegetalista Pablo
Amaringo of one of his visions. AYV

mesa (Span): (n) (1) Literally, table. A derivation of misa, the Spanish word for the Catholic Mass. TP ACES Ritual or medicine bundle containing khuyas and other objects of power which the shaman uses to assemble his/her reality and uses in ceremonies and healing. The mesa is used in the Andes and on the coast, but not in the jungle; the Andean mesa is small. TP (2) The ritual space with ceremonial objects. EMM (3) Sacred dialogue. KOAK AVO JLH

A closed mesa with the outer cloth folded
in the traditional manner.

An open mesa in a four directions configuration.

Both images from mesaworks.com

mesarumi: (n) From mesa (Span), table, and rumi, stone. A sacred altar. ROR

mesayoq, mesayoc: (n) Quester of power thru the mesa. RS Mesayoqs develop a mesa and cosmology of power relationships. The mesa is an alter ego. It is medicine of the right, the mystical. JLH (See, kamayoq.)

mihuy: See, mikhuy. QP

mikhuchiy: (v) To feed. RSL

mikhuna: (n) Food. PSL

mikhuna wasi: (n) Restaurant. QP

mikhuy, mihuy: (v) To eat; shamanically, the digesting of hucha from a person, place or situation in order to cleanse it and bring it back into ayni. KOAK AVO (n) Food. QP (See, mikhuna.)

Millaipa-huarmi: (n) Literally, ugly woman, who performs a great task in the curanderismo, since she gathers the sickness that the curandero extracts from the patient. In the image below, the younger one, dressed in sky-blue, picks up the sickness and contains it in her hands. If the patient does not diet, she returns the sickness, as she hasn’t enough power to hold back the evil spell, and the sick one gets worse again. But if the patient cooperates with the master curandero and diets, this woman places the evil spell in the lap of the aged woman, dressed in lilac, who makes it disappear inside the whirlwind of her large dress and the evil spell returns no more. AYV

millanayay: (n) Nausea. QP

millu: (n) Rock of aluminum sulfate used by shamans to diagnose illnesses by its color change when thrown into a fire. PSL

Millu, also known as aluminum sulfate.

milluy: (v) To use the millu to diagnose a sickness. PSL

mink’a: (n) Communal labor done for communal good; service; mutual work given for returned work. JLH RS Reciprocal agreement under which a person invites others to work for him in return for providing food and drink; a work bee [like a barn-raising]. The beneficiary is usually obligated to return labor when called upon. (Also known as ayni, though this has a slightly different meaning in some areas.) CSCR

mink'ay: (v) To hire work for returned work instead of pay; to hire a substitute. PSL

miña (Amaz): (n) The primordial world. AYV

misa: (n) Catholic Mass (sp). QP  (See, mesa.)

Miscayani: (n) A mythical city that is the dwelling place of the Inkari; the feminine counterpart of Paytiti. KOAK The mythical city inhabited by highly evolved and extremely beautiful spiritual women, revealed in Q'ero mythology, the female counterpart to the myth of Paytiti. RS

misk'i: (adj) Sweet, good tasting. (n) Honey, sugar. PSL QP

mismarumi: (n) A sandstone representing the celebrants in a ceremony (sp.). SAI (See, rumi.)

Misminay: The name of a town in Peru 16 miles south of Cusco where the people still observe Mayu and apply cosmological and mythological meaning just as their ancestors did. The nearby Vilcanota River is regarded as a reflection of Mayu and the two are seen as conduits for recycling water from earth to sky and back again. MAN (See, pachatira, yana phuyu.)

mitayo: (n) One doing mit’a labor (sp). GPA

mit’a: (n) Public labor; tribute to the Inca empire, which included working land and herding llama on imperial land and performing a quota of work at a state installation. MAN Labor taken in turns. ICC Under the Incas the mit’a was a labor tax by which the state enlisted workers in return for providing a measure of social security. Under the Spanish the mit’a became forced labor in the mines, so onerous that it is known to have killed several million people and depopulated large areas of the Andes. CSCR (See, ayllu, cargo.)

mitima: (n) A person who has been relocated. ICC (See, mitimaes.)

mitimaes, mitmacs: (n) Groups of people of one province whom the Inca settled in another part of the empire in order to organize social and economic control.  This practice had an impact on the homogenization of spiritual beliefs within the culture. MAN (See, hatun runa.) Spy-in-residence technique of control. By means of this constant control, the enemies of the Inca were shorn of their capacity for conspiracy. EOTI

mocura: (n) Taken orally or used in floral baths to raise energy, or take you out of a saladera. This plant gives mental strength and you can feel its effects as with ajosacha -- both are varieties of garlic and have a penetrating aroma. Mental strength means it could be good to counter shyness, find one’s personal value or authority. Medicinal properties include asthma, bronchitis, reduction of fat and cholesterol. Considered a great plant teacher. SCU

moroy urco, muru-urco: (n) A great woolen chain of many colors, garnished with gold plates and two red fringes at the end, approximately 150 fathoms long, used in public festivals to encircle the Inti Cancha. HOI

morphic field: (n) A pattern that governs the development of form, structure and arrangement. A mode of transmission of shared informational patterns and archetypes. A morphic field might provide an explanation for the concept of collective unconscious. Morphic fields are defined as the universal database for both organic (living) and abstract (mental) forms. WIKI

mosoq, musuq: (adj) New. PSL RS

mosoqchay: (v) To make new. PSL

mosoq karpay: (n) Literally, new initiation. Rites of passage of the times to come which raise your consciousness to the fifth level. According to the prophecies, at this time the Inca Mallkus will emerge. KOAK

mosoqmanta: (adv) Again, newly. PSL

mosoq wata: (n) New year. PSL

mosoqyay: (v) To become new. PSL

mosqokuy: See, musqukuy.

mosquchay, mosqochay: See, musquchay.)

mosquq: See, musquq.

mosqoy, mosqhoy, mosqoj: See, musquy.

much’ay: (v) To worship, to kiss. QP

much'ana: (n) Place of worship, altar.

muchanaco: (n) A ceremonial exchange of gifts. Literally, joint worship. HOI (See, muchani and nacu.)

muchani: (v) I worship. HOI

muchuy: (v) To suffer. PSL

muhu, muju: (n) Seed. PSL QP Can be a literal seed for planting, or the spiritual seed within each person. Living energy is necessary to germinate this seed. QNO (See, wacho, winay.)

Muki: (n) Elemental organizing principle. A guide to belly of Pachamama. JLH There is as well a one-legged black imp, the Muki, who dwells in caves and corners and is responsible for things lost, practical jokes, sprained ankles. SRK (See, Urcaguary, Supay.)

mulla: (n) Child of a woman’s brother. ICC

mulli: (n) The resin of this tree, common in the Cusco region, was used with remarkable results on wounds, which it caused to heal rapidly. ACA

mullu: (n) Spondylus, a thorny oyster found off the Ecuadorian coast and prized by the Inca because their shells evoked the ocean and life-giving water in the dry climate of the Andean altiplano. NGEO5 Along the Pacific coast of South America, Spondylus grows only in the warm waters of the Ecuadorian coast, but it was traded south to Peru for at least 3,000 years. The Peruvian government recently chose Spondylus to symbolize the new integration with Ecuador. SAAO

Necklace carved from mullu shells, buried with a

qhapaq hucha sacrifice in Argentina. NGEO5

mullu khuya: (n) A specific set of five stones, progressively carved with one to five humps, used to open the human energy belts, tools of the chunpi paq'o. RS [Also called chunpi khuyas.]

mummy bundle: (n) A funerary bundle of the Inca culture in which more than one person could be interred; bundles have been found holding as many as seven individuals. Bundles have also contained many objects for use in the afterlife. NGEO3 (See, mallqui, falsa cabeza.)

muna: (n) A variety of a native mint that after being rubbed on the hands releases a scent that when inhaled offers relief to those who are experiencing dizziness, nausea, headaches and other undesirable symptoms due to the altitude. The plant is also utilized to make medicinal infusions for diarrhea and dysentery because of the cold; the leaves are used in a poultice and are an effective antiflammatory. WAC

munakuq: (adj) Kind, nice. QP

munakuy: (v) To love. PSL

munanakuy: (v) To fall in love, QP

munaña (AYM): (n) Will or intent. ASD

munapayay: (v) To covet. PSL

munaq: (n) Lover. QP

munaqi, munaqe: (adj) Beloved; promised in marriage. RS

munay: (v) To love, to want, to desire. PSL QP (n) Unconditional, eternal, unreasoned love. Located at the heart center, it is the exercise of power for the shaman.  (See, yachay and llank’ay.) One of the major organizing principles. The first of the Three Inca Laws. It is the law of love. Rather than an emotion, munay is seen as an attitude of respect and appreciation for everyone and everything. (See, saiwa, nuna, chekak, yuya, ch'ulla, kallari, kawsay.) JLH AVO We can speak many languages with the heart. We can communicate with all of the five kingdoms (mineral, vegetable, animal, human and Apukunas, or Light Beings). IGMP

muña: (n) Sweet smelling sage brush. PSL

muraya, meraya, mueraya (Panoan): (n) One of the levels of vegetalista, this shaman is a master of the water and jungle realms. Knowledgable about plants and animals, he is able to live for periods of time in the subaquatic realm, but is unable to ascend to the sky. The muraya must commune with water spirits. The subaquatic realm is considered to be of great importance as a source of power. The muraya rides the Yakumama to the deepest bottom of the water. AYV (See, sinchi runa, Tsugki, picture at yakumama.)

muraya-cai (Panoan): (n) Literally, shaman-makers, psychotropic plants that reveal the real world, while the ordinary world is considered illusory. AYV (See, entheogenic, ordinary reality.)

murui-huaira: (n) A whirlwind spirit that takes the soul of anyone who is afraid of him. The victim will have headaches and suffer other bodily illnesses. Only a vegetalista can heal the person with the appropriate icaro. AYV  (See, Killo-runa)

muscuna: (n) Visionary experience, which the individual must balance with yuyana. WCE (See, musquy.) (See, also, yachaj.)

muskhiy: (v) To smell. QP

muspay: (v) To be disoriented. PSL

musquchay, mosquchay: (v) To appear in another person's dream. RS

musqukuy, mosqokuy, mosqukuy: (n) A dream. (v) To dream. RS

musquq, mosquq, mosqoj: (n) The dreamer. RS

musquy, mosqoy, mosquy, musqhuy, musqoy: (v) To dream, (n) A dream. PSL Dreamtime; dream world; alternate realms of consciousness. RS JLH

musqhuy: See, musquy.

Musuq Watapi sumaq kawsay, Mosoj Watapi sumaj kawsay: (expression) Happy New Year. RS

mut'uy: (v) To blossom; to sprout; to break forth. PSL

muyu: (adj) Round, circular. QP

muyukancha: (n) A corral used for rituals. ROR

muyuriy: (v) To turn. QP