Who doesn’t love a rainbow? So, let’s talk about rainbow energy.

Let’s start by putting to rest one of the biggest and most persistent myths about the rainbow: that it was a symbol of the Inkas and of the Tawantinsuyu, the Inka Empire. The information circulating on the Internet that the Rainbow Flag, which you can see flying around Cuzco and nearby areas of Peru, was in any way associated with the Inkas and the Tawantinsuyu is false. As the National Academy of Peruvian History says: “The official use of the wrongly called ‘Tawantinsuyu flag’ is a mistake. In the Andean World there did not exist the concept of a flag, [and] it did not belong to their historic context.” The Congress of the Republic of Peru concurs. So how did the rainbow flag come to be the “official” flag of the city of Cuzco, which historically was the administrative center of the Tawantinsuyu? Chalk it up to marketing—by a radio station!

The rainbow flag seen around Cusco was created in 1973 through the influence of Raúl Montesinos Espejo on behalf of the Tawantinsuyu Radio station, which wanted something special with which to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of its creation. Raúl Montesinos Espejo claimed that the rainbow was an emblem of the Inkas, but never produced any evidence to support that claim. However, that claim entered the stream of misinformation that plagues the Internet.

So, what can we say about the rainbow from an Andean perspective? Here’s what I have discovered. Although I assess sources as carefully as I can, I cannot attest that every fact about the rainbow shared below is accepted by the majority of scholars, anthropologists, folklorists, and others who share information about the Andean concept of the rainbow.

Depending on the dialect of Quechua you are using, the most commonly used words meaning “rainbow” include k’uychi, kuychi, chuychu, cuichu and kurmi. In the Amazonia regions, it is chirapa. Originally, the rainbow as a spirit being was not considered a “high” spirit or on par with the gods. But, the story goes, eventually the Inka nobles elevated it to equal stature because they considered it a symbol of the beauty of nature—but beauty that was reserved only for the nobles. Even once elevated in stature, K’uychi’s ranking was less than that of the two great yanantin deities, Tayta Inti (Father Sun) and Mama Killa (Mother Moon), and he was considered to be in service to them. Some scholars say that Chinceros, a village in the Sacred Valley not far from Cuzco, was considered the birthplace of the Inka rainbow deity, and so Chinceros is sometimes referred to as the “community of the rainbow.”

The Inkas generally came to see K’uychi as an important deity associated with agriculture, fecundity, and fertility in general, since during the rainy (agricultural) season it was common to see a rainbow stretching across the sky. The Inkas saw K’uychi as responsible for regulating the cycles of rain and sunshine, which are so important for the health of crops. They even considered the rainbow a protector of the crops. He is celebrated and venerated in festivals devoted to him, the main one occurring in December, which is in the rainy season in Peru. During this time, and at others, the Inka and the common people honored K’uychi by offering him sacrifices of llamas or other animals (and, as some sources indicate, perhaps even child sacrifices).

You may have notice I used the pronouns “he” and “him” in relation to K’uychi. The rainbow god was considered male. The attribution of the male gender to K’uychi may have had something to do with how the Inkas associated this spirit being with the Amaru, the anaconda. They sometimes represented K’uychi as a double-headed serpent: the head on each end of its sinuous body burrowed into the earth (submerging into underground springs) and the body arced across the sky. In other representations, the rainbow as serpent is depicted as held aloft by the jaguar god. K’uychi, though, is represented in its more common form as an arc of seven colors in its own temple within the sacred sanctuary of Qoriqancha.

Rainbows are associated with the occurrence of storms, and so with lightning, thunder, and hail. These same associations are attributed to the black (female) cat deity, Choque-Chinchay. Since both Choque-Chinchay and K’uychi were the harbinger of storms, and the forecasters of rain, hail, thunder, and lightning, an association formed between these two heavenly deities as well.

Andeans identify two kinds of rainbows: the celestial or hanaq pacha rainbow and the terrestrial or kay pacha rainbow, and their import for human beings could not be more different. The celestial rainbow was seen as a bridge between the hanaq pacha and kay pacha, and is associated with joy, healing, and beauty (as well as rain and fertility). The terrestrial rainbow is one created by light striking the surface of water, such as a river, puddle, or even the water filling the basin of an ornamental fountain. Seeing such a terrestrial rainbow can be dangerous, even causing illness. The Q’ero confirmed this view of earthly rainbows, but also ascribed danger to celestial rainbows as well. Back in 1995, I and a few friends were spending an evening sitting under a starry sky in the Raqchi sanctuary and talking with a group of six or so Q’ero paqos who (through a translator) told us about the rainbow, sharing information that is not found in the anthropological literature and, in some cases, contradicting that information. Here are how their comments were translated:

“When the rainbow emerges, all the magic of the sky weakens and withdraws; the sun even weakens. That’s why a rainbow is so powerful and dangerous. You should never watch a rainbow being birthed, because you can go mad, lose your mind. The rainbow is birthed of the water and the stars, and it is not until it puts on its disguise, its clothes, that anyone can see it. Without its disguise, it is invisible. You can never see its original form; you can only see it when it puts its clothes on, its cloak.

“On Tuesdays and Fridays, seeing a rainbow is good luck, but on [Mondays], Wednesdays and Thursdays it can make you sick, giving you diseases that even the doctors cannot recognize or treat. However, paqos are the only ones who are supposed to read the message of the rainbows that come out on Tuesday and Fridays. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, sorcerers [called layqas] can manipulate the power of the rainbow. On Tuesdays and Fridays, the rainbow is on the left-hand side of the mesa, and on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays it is on the right-hand side of the mesa.”

The paqos even described some of the illnesses a person can get from seeing a rainbow on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday: gum disease or mouth ulcers and stomach ailments of various kinds. It is interesting to note that, according to information I have received over the years, many paqos hold their healing “clinics” on Tuesdays and Fridays. I don’t know if there is any connection to the power of the rainbow. I believe that the reason these two days are seen as auspicious for healing has more to do with each day’s connection to a specific planet. However, that these two days devoted to healing work are associated with the left side of the mesa [paqo path] makes perfect sense, as the left side is the path of action, including healing. One comment specifically about terrestrial rainbows came from another Q’ero paqo at another time: if a woman happens to see a rainbow reflecting from the surface of a river as she crosses the river, the rainbow can impregnate her. (Another sliver of evidence that the rainbow is considered a male spirit!)

As you can see, we risk misunderstanding the Andean culture, past and present, if we project our own nature myths onto them. For most Andeans, there are no pots of gold at the end of celestial rainbows. Just healthy, thriving crops. And the only thing we should do if we see a rainbow shimmering on the surface of an earthly body of water is avoid it!