Paccariscas of Peru

The Paccarisca was usually saluted with the cry, "Thou art my birthplace, thou art my life-spring. Guard me from evil, O Paccarisca!"

An Oracle Spirit was present near these holy stones so the paccariscas were treated with great reverence and people were loth to stray too far from them.

Worship of stones is common no matter where you are in the world. The rocks are the very bones of the earth and hold the mysteries of creation, of unimaginable time and the space between the stars. Many Native American creation myths place humans as coming forth from the womb of the great terrestrial mother. From earliest times people everywhere have sought refuge in caves, lived in them and raised their children, rejoiced around the fire and learnt the subtlety of the human psyche.

Paccariscas are found at Callca, in the valley of the Yucay, and at Titicaca there is a great mass of red sandstone on the top of a high ridge with almost inaccessible slopes and dark, gloomy recesses where the sun took refuge in the time of the great flood. The rock of Titicaca is the Paccarisca of the great Sun himself.