Goddesses of Rain
The Muisca are very in tuned to nature, specifically water, and Chiminigagua created all things.
Chia
Chía (the moon goddess), and Sué (god of the sun) were the first two gods made and were therefore the two that were praised most highly, as they were a direct line to Chinigagua.
Bachué
She's the goddess mentioned most often in the book. She came out of Iguaque Lake with a baby boy. When the boy grew, she married him and, together, they bore the whole Muisca people. When she felt her job was done, she and her husband went back into the lake as serpents, and she became the moon. Seeing a pattern?
Though, they have many gods like Bochica, who molded the Muisca into civilized people. He taught them morals and laws, farming, building, and crafting. The "morals and laws," are what are important to this book though.
Huitaca
Huitaca was the goddess of happiness, pleasure and sexual liberation. She rebelled against Bochica because he tried to stifle everything she stood for (in my opinion). She taught the people how to live a long life full of arts and dances. When Bochica found out about her "rebellion," he turned a once beautiful woman into a white owl, or alternatively, the moon.
Tripple Goddess
All three goddesses can be referred to as The Triple Goddess, though, that title applies across mythical, classical, pagan, etc periods throughout history, symbolizing the different phases of a woman's life. At many times the three are depicted as the maiden, mother, and crone.
1450
The Muisca, aka Chibcha, began The Muisca Confederation in 1450. They were the people of the Altiplano Plateau on the Colombian Andes' eastern cordillera. They ruled only themselves and had no one ruler over them all, thus a confederation and not an empire. The territory was separated into two regions, the Northern, ruled by the zaque and the Southern, ruled by the zipa. The first of these is the origin of this story.
Eastern Range of the Colombian Andes
Altiplano Plateau amidst the mountains
Muisca territory across the plateau
1537
In 1536, the Spaniards residing in Sana Marta, launched an expedition in search for the rumored city (or man) of gold i.e. El Dorado. In 1937, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and his brother, Hernán---second in command, stumbled upon the Bogotá Savannah. Most Muisca lived in the Savannah and zipa Tisquesusa kept headquarters in the city of Funza. Tisquesusa was found there by Jiménez after fatally wounded in the recent battle with "the white men with thunder and lightning." The Muisca, once with at least 90,000 guecha warriors, lost. However, The Spaniards, who began with 800 soldiers and a delegation of 900, came back with only 175 men. Small victories... The last leader of the confederation, zaque Aquiminzaque, was beheaded in 1540 and the Muisca capital, Bacatá, was renamed Bogotá by the Spanish and is still the capital today.
The Golden
The story of El Dorado was intended to explain a ritual of the Muisca to the Spanish. When a new zipa was initiated, he was covered in gold dust and put onto a raft loaded with gold, emeralds, and tunjo (offerings). Once in the middle of Lake Guatavita, the raft was flipped to in a sacrifice to the water spirit that dwelt there.
Lake Guatavita
Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada
Bogotá Savannah
Questions That Lead to Symbolic Answers
1. What might the triple goddess represent in relation to the Book?
2. What makes Bachué the most relatable to Rain?
3. What does Eduardo have in common with the Quesada brothers?
4. What does saving her (Rain's) people from Evil do to avenge and provide absolution?
5. What are Rain, Cabello, Nora, and Ariana? Why them?
6. Why is Ariana what she is?
7. What do a person's primary instincts (or primary adjacent) have in common with the most essential meaning of the story?
8. What are the two meanings of the story that complete the symbol of the book.
9. Why is the last confession that's frequently admitted to themselves evil?