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

NAVIGATION TIP:

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.

q'anchaykuriy: See, k'anchaykuriy, RS

q’anchay: See, k’anchay.

q’apachi: (n) Incense. ROR

q’enqo, q'inqu: (n) Zig-zag, labyrinth. (adj) Sinuous; meandered; zigzag; complicated. RS

Q’enqo: (n) A sacred site located above Cusco near Sacsayhuaman. The Inca carved a zig-zag channel on the top of a rock. By pouring blood or chicha on it, the Inca forecast the future. THIM (See, Inti Watana for another image.)

q’epe, q’epi, q’ipi, quipi, qipi, qepi: (n) A bundle carried on the back supported by the shoulder and tied across the chest. TLD Bundle; luggage; load carried on the back; package. RS

q’ero, kero: (n) Ceremonial wooden vase carved from dark wood. THIM

Wooden figure, dating from

ca. AD1000, found at a Chimu

burial site, holding a q’ero.

Q’ero, Quero: Name of a farming community, the members of which have stubbornly refused the civilization imposed by the conquerors. THIM A town and people in the Cusco Valley. The second place that the staff thrown by Inkari stuck in the ground. Although it did not come down straight, Inkari established the town of Q’ero. This infuriated the Apus, who punished Inkari. MAN (See, Roal.)

Q’ero paq’o kuna.

q'ipi: See, q’epe.

q’iyachay: (v) To become infected. QP

q'oa: (n) Sagebrush, incense burned to a virgin or saint. PSL

Q’ollori’ti: See, Qoyllur Rit’i.

q'osñi: See, q’usmi. PSL

q’oyana: See, markachana. ROR

q’uchukuy: (v) To celebrate. QP

q'uñi unquy, q'oñionqoy: (n) Fever. RS

q’usmi, q’usñi, q'osñi: (n) Smoke. QP

qhapaq, qhapaj, capac: (adj) Rich, powerful. PSL QP

qhapaq hucha, capacocha: (n) Human sacrifices were rare and intended as special offerings. Children were considered purer than adults; a sacrificed child was believed to have become deified -- a representative of the people, living with the gods forever. Such children would be worshiped. NGEO5  Ritual practices that involved human sacrifice, usually children of high-ranking kinship ayllus of the provinces, bringing them to Cusco to be trained for the ritual, sanctified in the Coricancha, and then marched along cekes to their homes and killed.  There are three major theories concerning this practice. (1) It reconfirmed and reasserted Inca sovereignty over the provinces. MAN (2) 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. (See, mayu.) The Incas used war and human sacrifice in an attempt to forestall the cataclysm that would destroy their world, representing an attempt to halt the march of time and prevent the apocalyptic events foreshadowed by changes in the night sky. Therefore, qhapaq hucha means plea of the Inca. SIMA (See, qhapaq.) (3) The fact that many high elevation sacrificial sites are located near trans-mountain roads suggests that sacrifices were also made in conjunction with the expansion of the Inca civilization itself. The extensive roads in the southernmost regions were integral to the expansion of the empire southward. Especially important were the trans-mountain, or east-west, roads, which linked north-south running ranges and valleys over high-mountain passes. Near such routes, the Incas chose high peaks, climbed them, built their platforms, and made sacrifices to assure safe continued passage and to bless the roads. The mummy of a young boy discovered in 1985 is near one of the most important trans-mountain paths which today is virtually the same route as the major international highway linking Argentina and Chile. NPM The typical methods of ritual killing were strangulation, live burial and blows to the head. WP2 (See, Ampato and Llullaillaco.)

Qhapaq Raymi: (n) The December summer solstice celebration in honor of Inti which focused on initiations for boys of royal lineage.  Plotting and confirmation of the date were done by observations from the Coricancha.  (See, Inti Raymi, qhapaq.) MAN

Qhapaq Toco: See, Capac Toco.

Qhapaq Usnu, Qhapaq Ushnuo: The navel of the universe, it stood in the sacred Coricancha in Cusco, the center of the empire.  It was the first huaca on a sacred ceke line that connected it to two stone pillars on the city’s western skyline, and from there to the huaca at Catachillay spring. The Qhapaq Usnu comprised a stone pillar and stone seat that was the throne of the Sapa Inca. The usnu also served as a sighting point for astronomical observations.  Through the pillars on the skyline, the setting of the Pleiades on or about April 15  and other astronomical phenomena could be observed and plotted. MAN

qhaqya: (n) Thunder. QP  (See, illapa.)

qhari: (n) Man, husband. QP  (See, warmi.)

qhari warmi: (n) Man and wife. PSL

qhawachiy: (v) To show. QP

qhawakin: (n) The energy of the Creator. TP (See, qhawaq.)

qhawaq, kawak: (n) (1) Guard; watcher; keeper. (2) Clairvoyant; visionary; seer of living energy. RS (See, Appendix I.)

qhawariy: (v) To look, to look after. QP

qhaway, kaway: (v) To look, to watch, to see. (n) Sight, vision. QP RS

qhilli: (adj) Dirty. QP

qhusi rumi: (n) Turquoise ; literally, blue stone used in ceremony. RS JLH