Notes on Supay, Incan God of the Underworld, Ruler of Ukhu Pacha

 

Art by Adrian Castro

Note: This was written on November 8.

Prayers and Spells to Supay  Սուպեյ, 𓇓𓊪𓂝𓏭

Holidays:

November 8 - Día de las Ñatitas

Epithets:

Ukhu Pacha (the name of the underworld He rules but also an epithet, not unlike Hades)

El Tio

Offerings:

Note: He, like most Gods of the Incan pntheon, prefers his offerings to be buried, not consumed.

Gems

Cigars

Cigarettes 

Liquor 

Beer

Greetings, and happy Dia de las Ñatitas. This holiday dates back to the Incan empire. Around the time of autumn planting, the Aymara people–under Inca rule after the fall of the Tiwanaku empire–would call upon Supay, the God of death and ruler of the Ukhu Pacha, the Inca underworld, splashing alcohol on the fields “to give more fertility to the soil and humans, and to be more productive in mining.” Upon arrival in the 16th century, the Spanish tried to suppress these practices which they considered veneration of the devil. The expression of beliefs persisted, but underground. The festival involves carrying the skulls of deceased loved ones dug up from their graves and decorating them as well as giving them offerings, in irder to give the dead one more day among the living. While there are a lot of key differences in how they are celebrated, in principle, it is much like Mexico’s Dia de las Muertos. In Andean culture there is an attitude of acceptance about death that may even rival that of the ancient Egyptians. It is customary for example, to keep the skull of a loved one on display in your home to ward off evil spirits. You can read more about it in this article:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/la-paz-natitas-things-to-do-skull-festival-cemetery

I have not a drop of Andean blood in me, nor do I speak Spanish, besides what I picked up through cultural osmosis growing up in California. But my wife is half-Peruvian, making my son a quarter Peruvian, so I thought it behooves me to learn about their culture. Both the Armenians, Egyptians, and the Incans called themselves Children of the Sun, which kind of makes us distant siblings in a weird way. And one God of their pantheon I gravitate toward is Supay, God of the Underworld. He is still venerated today, particularly by people working in mines. The underground is His domain, and often a statue of Supay will be set up at the entrance to a mine, which will be gifted cigars, cigarettes, coca leaves and alcohol among other things, in hopes that he will protect the miners from disaster. It is said though, tht once you enter an agreement with Supay, you had better not go back on it. The repercussions can be deadly. 

If you have the time, I recommend reading this short story collection, told to the author by Peruvian miners. Read these and you may see why I feel like Supay and Set would probably see eye to eye on a lot of things. They’ve both been accused of being Satan, for one thing. My favorite is the story about a young miner who didn’t believe in Supay and disrespects the statue, only to receive comeuppance from Supay Himself. 

https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2220&context=isp_collection

To Curse or Not to Curse?

The following is a post for my new spiritual blog on Facebook, Set of the Oasis. 

 To Curse or Not to Curse

𓋹֍֎𓋹

An interesting post on the Kemetic subreddit, asking whether or not casting a curse was within Ma’at, got me thinking about where I stand on curses. A lot of Wiccans and pagans will caution against doing curses due to the “Three-Fold Law” or whatever number-fold law they believe in, and some will carry this belief with them into Kemeticism. In my experience, karma doesn’t work that way. In fact I sometimes wonder if you first have to believe you’ve done something bad before you recieve negative karma for your actions, but I don’t know if that’s true. It just seems to me that people completely get away with committing all sorts of deplorable acts in this cold and indifferent world. I say this as someone who’s people, the Armenians, have endured centuries of continuous genocide with seemingly no external force choosing to step in to help the victims or punish the perpetrators, which was exact thing that made me first question monotheism. 

In Kemeticism there is no particular taboo against casting a curse. I find that a lot of the ancient Egyptian curses are of the “if you do x, all this bad stuff will happen to you” variety. Maybe that protects the caster from karmic backlash, at least partially, because it depends on the target committing a wrongdoing for it to be activated, so it’s not really an attack, it’s more like setting a trap. They had lots of curses that were more like the attack variety too, but I think I like the style of the Egyptian curses you would often find in tombs or on sarcophagi. Many Set followers I’ve spoken to have said that Set does not discourage His followers from casting curses, or in some cases actively encourages it. While it is like Set to go against the grain and never “turn the other cheek”, this hasn’t been my particular experience. Perhaps that’s because I haven’t really been compelled to cast a curse since making Him my patron. 

You see, the one time I decided to outright curse someone, I got negative backlash. Several years ago I was mistreated and fired from a workplace, and I was so furious that I cast a curse on the business. My wife and I were keeping hamsters as pets, and within the week, all four of our hamsters died of wet tail, a normally fatal disease they can get. I never got to revel in whatever negative consequences the curse may have caused the business either, all I was left with were dead pets. Since then I’ve found it safer to do binding spells, execration rituals, wear a protection amulet, or ask the Gods for help in exchange for offerings and hymns, and it’s worked for me thus far.  My life has improved since Set helped me climb out of the abyss that I was in. While there are people I know of who probably deserve to be cursed, I have not felt the need to curse anyone. I merely list those names during execration rituals to repel them from me, which is more of a binding spell than a curse. 

I think that rather than the “three-fold law”, a better way to understand karmic backlash from casting a curse is the Hermetic Principle of Rythm. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Like a pendulum. However, you can always choose to reach out and stop the pendulum, by not retaliating against every little slight, and making peace with an adversary, as Set and Horus did once their battles were over. That may not work for every situation, but perhaps there are other methods to stop the pendulum besides an attack or a curse. I see it as a last resort, a self-defense. I consider self-defense to be within Ma’at. Walking around cursing people left and right for every little offense would be isfet. While curses have their time and place, never curse someone over something petty, first think about the consequences of your actions. That’s my stance on curses. 

𓋹֍֎𓋹

~ Siamanto the Foreigner

 𓋷𓅁𓈖𓏏𓍯𓀭𓈖𓐎𓏺𓈉𓏏𓅂𓌙𓀀

Սիամանթօ Օտարը