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

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Yacana: (n) The Llama, one of the dark cloud constellations, or Pachatira, recognized in Mayu. MAN ROR

yachaj, yacha: (n) The one who knows; the possessor of knowledge. IGMP The one who balances ricsina with yachana, and muscuna with yuyana. WCE

yachachi, yachachej: (n) Teacher. HOI

yachachiy: (n) Principle, teaching. (v) To teach. PSL

yachachiykunawan tratokunawan: (n) Doctrine and covenants (sp. trato). PSL

yachai sami rumi: (n) A shaman’s stone that contains the kawsay of a dead shaman, a spirit, or a soul, or some combination thereof. AYV (See, yachay, sami, rumi, khuya, encanto.)

yachakuy: (v) To learn. PSL

yachana: (n) Schooling. RS Cultural knowledge which the individual must balance with ricsina. WCE (See, also, yachaj.)

yachana wasi: (n) Schoolhouse. RS

yachanaway, yachay: (v) To learn. RS

yachay, yachai: (n) (1) Wisdom, the impersonal application of knowledge. Head, intuition, seeing. Shamanic yachai is the wisdom of open spaces. There is nothing out there for you to discover because it is already known. The power of intellect grounded in experience. AVO JLH (See, llank’ay and munay.) (2) A magical phlegm the novice vegetalista receives (as an empowerment) at some point in the initiation, either from the senior shaman or from the spirits. It is then coughed up as needed during ceremonies, acting as a magnet to attract a virote, which is then sucked out by the shaman. It also stores a sorceror’s virotes and marupas. As yachay increases, the vegetalista gains increasing access to the underwater world. AYV (Also, yausa, mariri.) Don Dimitrio [the teacher] regurgitated during a ceremony what looked like a small coiled millipiede! When I met [the initiate], he confirmed it was like a physical thing, and he still feels it inside him. The yachay received by [another initiate] was passed on to him by smoking a pipe filled with flowers of a special plant that don Ruperto gathered from the river, once they naturally fell in water. The dry flowers were mixed with mapacho (and we don't know what else) and smoked. This was the way don Ruperto himself got his second yachay, and passed it on to [initiate], who maintains that the yachay received directly from the mouth of the maestro is weaker and less effective than the one that is obtained by smoking the pipe. OT from EMM: (3) The upper energy center comprised of chakras six, seven and eight. JLH (adj) Wise, intelligent. PSL

yachayniyoj: (adj) Wise, intelligent. PSL QP

yachayniyoj palabra: (n) A word to the wise (sp). PSL

yacu: See, yaku.

yagé, yajé: (n) See, ayahuasca.

yagecero: See, ayahuascero.  

Yagé Woman: According to Tukano belief, she is directly responsible for providing the Amazonian tribes with yaje, or ayahuasca. Impregnated by the sun, when her son was born she rubbed him with leaves from special plants until he shone bright red. She then took him to the first men, each of whom claimed to be the father and each taking a piece of the child. Thus each tribe acquired the plants used to make the psychedelic brew. MAN

yahuar, yawar: (n) Blood, blood lineage. PSL RS

yahuar-piripiri: (n) (Eleutherine bulbosa) The spirit of this plant is the yahuar-toro (blood bull); its icaro serves as a cure for those who suffer mal aire or who have been harmed by the ayañawi, ch’ullanchaki or maligno. AYV

Yahuar Huacac: Also known as Inca Yupanqui, was the legendary seventh Inca king, probably sometime in the 14th Century. MAN

Yahuar Huacac, from a drawing
by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala.

yaku, yacu: (n) Water; spirit of water element. RS All bodies of water are feminine. When water falls vertically to the ground as rain, it is considered masculine. IGMP

yaku-lancha: See, supay-lancha.

Yakumama, Yacumama: (adj) Left, feminine, magical. (n) A giant anaconda, the mother (spirit) of waters, mother of rivers. Deity of the river. This mythical being lives exclusively in the water. RS Yakumama means Mother of the Water. This water goddess was portrayed as a snake. When she came to the earth's surface, she transformed into a great river. She could also pass to the upper world. In that shape she was called Illapa. MJO She is a huge anaconda thought to live at the bottom of lakes and rivers. It's the water counterpart of what the Sach’amama is on earth. EMM The Yakumama can dive deep into the water and become a submarine or travel on the surface of the water as a steamboat. AYV (See, Wayramama for definition and another picture, mama, purahua.)

Yakumamas. Detail from a painting by Pablo Amaringo, an ayahuascero, of one
of his visions. Here, the mamas are guarding the gates of a golden city beneath
the waters, into which a muraya is being led by two mermaids. The mamas are
guarding the city with their tongues, and they capture anyone who tries to enter
by force. Yakuruna can be seen eating fish (lower right corner). AYV

yaku phajchay: (n) Waterfall. PSL

yaku puma: (n) Giant river otter, also called a water jaguar and river wolf. AYV

yakuruna: (n) Mythical amphibious, humanoid and hairy (ape-like) water denizens, who, along with mermaids and the pink river dolphin (bufeo colorado), help the jungle vegetalistas. Yakuruna are reputed to kidnap people to keep as consorts, taking them to their underwater cities. They use boas stretched between trees as hammocks, turtles as benches and their shells as sandals, alligators as canoes, and pink dolphins as horses and messengers. Very powerful and sovereign in their water environment, they can shapeshift at will, ascending to the highest clouds to cause storms. Responsible for tearing up large trees with heavy arms, they are also responsible for the whirlpools which overturn heavily laden canoes. There are several types of yakuruna: masha yakuruna, taksha yakuruna, yana-sacraruna, puka-ninaruna. AYV (See, pictures at jenen-yushinbaon carcel and yakumama.)

yaku warmi: (n) Underwater spirit wife of a vegetalista. (See, warmi.)

yana: (n) (1) Girl-friend; boy-friend. RS (2) An Incan serf. GPA (adj) Black. RS Dark, obscure. ACES Sometimes translated as black; however, in the Quechua conception of light or color classifications, yana is thought of as dark (or obscure) in opposition to light, rather than as black opposed to white. ACES

yanachakuy: (n) (1) Wedding. QP (2) The Andean ritual for joining together two different energy bubbles. (See, masichakuy, yanantin, masintin.) (v) (1) To come together in marriage. (2) To drink the second glass of alcohol. RS (See, yananchanakuy.)

yanakuna: (n) Literally, the blacks (yana, black + -kuna, plural suffix). The servant class in Inca society. The association of the color black was with people who had no kinship to the Inca ruler, not with race. The yanakuna were the male equivalent of the akllakuna, although their tasks were mainly secular. They were not necessarily of low status; some scholars see them as the beginning of an upwardly mobile middle class. CSCR Slaves; people forced to compulsory service for the landlord; home servants. RS

yananchaku: (n) Union. RS

yananchanakuy: (v) To meet, reunite. RS

yanantin: (n) Unconscious side. Relationship of dissimilar energies. Harmonious relationship between different things; what we usually conceive as opposites the Incas conceive as complements; ie, male and female, light and dark, right and left. A pair; bride and groom. RS ROR “Yanantin is the ring, masantin is the resonance inside the ring.” Yanantin is also a similar quality or equivalence. The zero point of this is hapu. JLH What we usually conceive as opposites the Incas conceive as complements. NND

yanapay: (v) To help, assist. QP

Yana Phuyu: (n) Literally, dark cloud. (1) The collective name for the dark cloud constellations within Mayu. MAN Pachatira are still thought of as animal constellations. The movement of the dark cloud constellations across the sky is used to predict zoological cycles on earth and to time fauna related activity. This traditional knowledge was kept by the Misminay. MAR They are listed here in the order in which they rise along the southeastern horizon (see fig. below): Mach’ácuay (Serpent), Hanp’átu (Toad), Yutu (Tinamou), Llama, Uñallamacha (Baby Llama connected to mother by umbilicus), Atoq (Fox), and Yutu again. ACES (2) "We’ve known that it [dark matter] exists for more than 25 years," says astronomer Virginia Trimble... How can astronomers be so certain of something they have never seen? The answer comes from observations of how stars and galaxies move.... Within spiral galaxies, individual stars and clouds of gas are orbiting faster than they should if they were only being affected by the gravity of the galaxy’s visible matter. The same is true for clusters of galaxies: The motions of individual galaxies can’t be explained by the gravity of what astronomers can see.  To explain these observations, astronomers have deduced that galaxies are surrounded by vast halos of a different, unseen kind of matter. This so-called dark matter is invisible to us because it does not radiate energy. But it does have mass, and that means it can supply the extra gravity necessary to hold galaxies, and clusters of galaxies, together. Even in the bizarre world of cosmology, it’s a strange proposition. WSC1 Mysterious dark matter is spread around the universe just like regular matter... The studies show that both forms of matter work in concert to build delicate filaments (see, ceke) in space, with dense junctions where galaxies cluster together.... The resulting structures look something like spider webs... [D]ark matter and galaxies trace out the same shapes and structures. They become sculpted into nearly identical sheets and filaments, with vast expanses of near-nothingness in between. WSC2 Astronomers have deduced that galaxies are surrounded by vast halos of a different, unseen kind of matter. [See, image below of such a halo.] Dark matter is invisible and non-reflective, it cannot be seen directly. The technique astronomers used to find the ring pictured below is called gravitational lensing. No one has ever seen dark matter. LAT1 Dark cloud constellations are located in that portion of the Milky Way where one sees the densest clustering of stars and the greatest surface brightness and where the fixed clouds of interstellar dust (Pachatira) which cut through the Milky Way therefore appear in sharper contrast. ACES

(Def. 1) The Yana Phuyu as viewed from Misminay. ACES

(Def. 2) A ring of dark matter photographed by the Hubble Telescope
and released to the public May ‘07. This ripple of dark matter was
formed by the collision of galaxy clusters.

(Def. 2) Although shaped like a kidney, the dark
cloud known as Barnard 68 appears to beat like
a heart, pulsing once every 250,000 years.

Yana Puma: (n) The black jaguar that mythically lives both on earth and in water and is considered by Amazonians to be a bridge between the two elements. It is destructive and voracious. Its icaro is used for mal aire and to put an hark'ana on the newly born to ensure strength, to make it easy for pregnant women to give birth, and as a defense when one is attacked by a sorcerer during a trance. She can make people sleep in order to devour them. AYV (2) The black jaguar.

yana-saqraruna: (n) Literally, black evil people. This type of yakuruna is so named because he is a practitioner of black magic. His sole purpose is to kill, and he take great pleasure in causing riverbanks to collapse. The yana-saqraruna is an ally of the sorcerers. He lives in the deepest, darkest caves of the underwater world and uses a red conch as a fan to cast his evil spells. AYV (See, saqra.)

yanaymi: (n) My equivalent one. JLH

yana yaku lobos: (n) Black water wolves used by healers as guards of the aquatic hark’anas because they move very quickly in the water (sp). AYV

yangunturo: (n) The giant armadillo of the Amazon, also called Carachupa Mama. AYV

yankallan: (adj) Free, no cost. QP

yapanapukuna:(n) All the holy mountains. JLH

yatichatha (AYM): (n) Teach. ASD

yatichiri (AYM): (n) Teacher. ASD

yatiña (AYM): (n) Science. ASD

yatiri: (n) Medicine woman from the Island of the Moon in Lake Titicaca. They are known to melt lead and drop it into cold water, divining forms and invoking Koa. JLH (See, Appendix B for map of Lake Titicaca, yatichatha, yatichiri, yatiña.)

yausa: See, yachay.

Yauyos: (n) One of the legendary lineage ayllus of Cajatambo. MAN

yawar: See, yahuar.

yawarchay: (v) To bleed. QP

yaya: (n) Priest, God. QP

Yaya-Mama: (n) Literally, Father-Mother. A religious tradition which endured for centuries (ca. 800 B.C. to ca. 300 A.D.) and that unified the diverse peoples living around Lake Titicaca for the first time. It is named after a tall carved stone monument from a site at the Northern end of the lake. Because it displays stylized male and female figures on opposite faces (see image below), this monument is called the Yaya-Mama stela. The beliefs were perpetuated by the Tiwanako cultures and later repeated by the Inca. The longevity of Yaya-Mama aesthetic forms reflect the depth and power of the ancient beliefs and practices. TAI (See, loandino.)

The Yaya-Mama stela which gave the
religion its name. TAI

yclesia (AYM): (n) Church/Sacred place (sp). ASD

ychuri, ychuiri: (n) The revealing of misdeeds, usually to the priestly attendants (ychurichuc) of huacas. If the confessor felt that the person was telling less than the whole truth, he or she might resort to divination to settle the issue and would use a stone to pummel the bent back of anyone considered to be lying. IAWS NMHI

ychurichuc: See, ychuri.

yellow ayahuasca: See, cielo ayahuasca.

Ynti: See, Inti.

yoc, yoq: (n) The power subscribed to and that flows through the shaman. JLH

-yoc, -yoq: (suff) With; possessing; having; having as property. RS

yocalla (AYM) : (n) Young man. ASD

yoq: See, yoc.

yoqsi: See, lloqsi.

yumbo (Ecua): (n) A fierce native of the jungle. Villagers dress as Indians and “attack” the loa and the patron of a festival by throwing sugar and candy, trying to hit their faces and draw blood. TAV

yunka: (n) Jungle, forest. PSL QP

yupaycatha (AYM): (v) To honor. ASD

yupaychana: (n) Punch’ay, sabbath. QP

yupaychay: (v) To honor, to worship. PSL

yupaychay wasi: (n) Church, temple. QP (See, wasi.)

yura-aya: (n) Literally, plant (or bush) spirit. This creature has four horns as antennae that pick up all kinds of supernatural bodies. (See, picture at allpa-pishco.) AYV

yurag: (n) Plant spirit.

yuritha (AYM): (n) Birth. ASD

Yutu, Yutu-Yutu: (n) The tinamou (a partridge-like bird) -- one of the pachatira, or dark cloud constellations. MAN One of the Yana Phuyu. The Yutu of Quechua astronomy is equivalent to the Western constellation of the Coalsack (one of the few dark spots recognized and named in Western astronomy). The partridge-like yutus resemble a game bird with short legs, compact body and small head with slender neck. They lay eggs of all the colors of the rainbow. In Mayu, which is considered the equivalent of of a nocturnal rainbow, Yutu is located at the top of the arc. ACES

yuya: (n) Wisdom, primary meaning. Acquisition of knowledge through observation and knowing. One of the major organizing principle(s). JLH (See, saiwa, munay, nuna, chekak, ch'ulla, kallari, kawsay.)

yuyachiq, yuyacheq: (n) Reminder; remembrance. RS

yuyachiy, yuyachina: (v) To remind. RS

yuyana: (n) Memory, idea; supposition. RS Learning, which the individual must balance with muscuna. WCE (See, also, yachaj.)

yuyaq, yuyac: (n) Adult; elder and wise adult. RS

yuyariy: (v) To remember. QP

yuyay: (n) Thought, memory. (v) To think, to remember. PSL

yuyay pantay: (n) Mental confusion. QP

yuyayquy: (n) Advice. QP

yuyayukuy: (v) To realize. QP

yuyaychay: (v) To counsel. QP

yuyaychaj: (n) Counselor. PSL