Kosko Casa and the Temple of the Snake

Inca wisdom at the Serpent Temple (Temple of the Moon)

There is no written history from the Incas. Rather, a lived past carved into the landscape, leaving much to grasp and understand. On the last evening of our stay at Kosko Casa, Romulo led us on an evening visit to the Serpent Temple and its surroundings.

The stones of this archaeological site are imposing and carved into altars, channels, monkeys, pumas and temples and speak of how the Inca perceived the cosmos.

This site isn’t a ruin for tourist consumption. It is a manifestation of a worldview forgotten by modern society. You don’t just look at it, you move through its logic, a zig zag stoney path, navigating an alternative reality. It is ritual, the careful steps forcing a state of mindfulness, disorientation before revelation. Shedding the mundane on that path before embracing a cosmic rebalancing.

The heart of this wisdom I found inside the Serpent Temple. A chamber where beams of moonlight illuminate held up hands and a central altar. Astronomy of the highest order, not magic, an expression of ayni (reciprocity), a dialogue between the Inca and the Cosmos, a space created with effort and precision. In return, the cosmos converses and fills it with light for generations.

Compare this to our modern relationship with the Earth, one of observation and exploitation, we have forgotten how to live and speak to our surroundings.