Pachakuti: The Overturning of Space-Time

The two cultures that developed in the Andean region, Aymara and Quechua, were rich in their traditions, myths and knowledge of astronomy, which they lived by. In the Andean concept of time, it was believed that long periods of time were linked by severe events which they called Pachakuti, from the Aymara/Quechua word Pacha, that means both space and time (also world or earth), and kuti, that means to overturn or turn back. Together Pachakuti means the overturning of space-time; a millennial moment in which one world ends and another begins; a total transformation of things.

This concept was so entrenched in Andean life that during the Inca period an Incan ruler had taken the name of Pachakuti Inca Lord over-turner of space-time and set out to transform the Inca empire. Although the concept of pachakuti doesn't really relate to music, with the realities we are living with in the beginning of this millennium - world political and religious events as well as natural disasters - one would think that we are going through a pachakuti.