Supay

What Supay actually means

Supay is the *Andean archetype of the deity-of-the-below-world-mistranslated-as-evil* — the sovereign of *Ukhu Pacha* (the third-level of the Andean cosmos, the world-below-the-surface) whose canonical-pre-conquest character was neither benevolent nor malevolent but *jurisdictionally-distinct from the surface-deities*. His jurisdiction is: the dead-ancestors (the *malqui*, the mummies of the past-Sapa-Incas, kept in their palaces as if still-alive and consulted at major ceremonies), the seeds-in-the-ground (every potato-and-quinoa-and-maize-seed germinating beneath the surface is in his jurisdiction), the mines (every silver-and-gold-and-copper-vein in the Andean mountains is part of his body, and the *mit'a* miners who descend into the shaft are entering his territory), the unseen (the canonical-Andean reading of unseen forces is that they inhabit *Ukhu Pacha* and are sovereign-to-Supay). The Spanish missionaries — Domingo de Santo Tomás writing the first Quechua dictionary (1560) and Ludovico Bertonio writing the first Aymara dictionary (1612) — needed a Quechua-and-Aymara word to translate *the Devil*. They chose *Supay* — because Supay was the *deity of the below-world* and the Catholic Devil was *the lord of Hell*, and these seemed parallel. This was the canonical-mistranslation that justified centuries of cult-destruction. The miraculous-paradox: Supay survived as the *Diablada-dance-figure* — the elaborate-mask-dance of the Carnaval de Oruro (Bolivia), the largest pre-Lenten carnival in South America, in which miners-dressed-as-devils dance through the streets and end the procession at the shrine of the *Virgen del Socavón* (the patron-virgin of the mine-tunnel). The theological-reading: the Diablada is the *folk-Catholic continuation of the Supay-cult* under a Catholic-demonic-mask, and the dancers know-but-do-not-publicly-say that they are honoring the Lord-of-Ukhu-Pacha who keeps the mine-shafts from collapsing.

The canonical story

In the canonical Andean cosmos, *Pacha* has three levels: *Hanan Pacha* (the upper world of Inti, Mama Killa, the stars, the Apus above the snowline), *Kay Pacha* (the middle world of humans, Pachamama, the living-surface), *Ukhu Pacha* (the lower world of the dead, the seeds, the mines, the unseen). Supay is sovereign of *Ukhu Pacha*. He is neither malevolent nor benevolent in his canonical pre-conquest character; he is *jurisdictionally-distinct*, the appropriate-deity-of-petition for matters-of-the-below-world. When the Inca *mit'a*-miners descended into the silver-shafts of Potosí (after Cerro Rico's discovery in 1545 and the Spanish-organized *mit'a forzado* that conscripted highland-Quechua-and-Aymara men in eight-month forced-labor rotations), they performed the canonical *challa* not to Pachamama but to Supay — because they were entering his territory, and the offering had to be made to the sovereign-of-the-jurisdiction-being-entered. The Spanish missionaries, observing this, classified Supay as the canonical Devil-equivalent and translated his name into the first Quechua-dictionary (Domingo de Santo Tomás 1560) as *demonio* / *diablo*. This translation became the linguistic-and-theological scaffolding for centuries of cult-destruction. Yet Supay survived. The Carnaval de Oruro, the *Fiesta de la Candelaria* in Puno, the various other Andean pre-Lenten Diablada-dances all carry the Supay-cult-content under a Catholic-demonic-mask. The Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage 2001 designation of the Carnaval de Oruro is the canonical-international-recognition of this Supay-survival.

The lesson

The Supay-lesson is *the deity-of-the-below-world is not evil; it is jurisdictionally-distinct, and the appropriate-relationship is petition-to-the-sovereign-of-the-territory-being-entered*. The post-conquest Western reading of Supay as the Devil is the canonical-mistranslation — and similar canonical-mistranslations operate in many contexts (the Shadow demonized as the Evil, the Unconscious demonized as the Bad, the Below-World demonized as the Hell). The work is to *de-demonize the below-world-deities in your life* — to recognize that the Shadow, the Unconscious, the seeds-in-the-ground, the dead-ancestors, the mines, the unseen all have their own sovereign-deity who is jurisdictionally-distinct-not-evil, and that the appropriate-relationship is *canonical-petition-to-the-sovereign-of-the-territory-being-entered*.

In love

Supay in love is the *partner-as-Lord-of-the-below-world-of-the-relationship* — the sovereign of what is unseen, what is grieved, what is the shadow-side, what is the mine-shaft below the daily-surface, what is the ancestors-still-present. The shadow: the Supay-partner who has been *demonized-into-the-Devil* — whose canonical-jurisdictional-distinctness from the surface-deities has been mistranslated by the imperial-religion of the relationship as *evil*, and whose offerings have been redirected to a Christianized-virgin-of-the-mine-tunnel rather than to him directly. The deeper shadow: the *Diablada-survival* pattern — the partner whose below-world-sovereignty has survived only by wearing a Catholic-demonic-mask, dancing through the carnival as the Devil while privately holding the canonical-Lord-of-Ukhu-Pacha role.

In work

Supay in work is the *founder-or-colleague-as-Lord-of-the-below-world-of-the-institution* — the sovereign of the unseen-budget, the unspoken-decisions, the ancestor-decisions that still-shape current-architecture, the institutional-shadow that everyone-acknowledges-privately-but-no-one-names-publicly. The shadow: the Supay-colleague who has been *demonized into the Devil of the organization* — the official-mythology has cast their jurisdiction as evil, their offerings have been redirected to Christianized-substitutes, the canonical-petition-rituals have been outlawed. The deeper shadow: the *Diablada-survival* pattern — the below-world-sovereign survives only by wearing the institutional-demonic-mask, the canonical-Lord-of-Ukhu-Pacha-work is being done under the cover of cynical-or-ironic Carnival-performance. The application: Supay calls for the *de-demonize-the-below-world-deity* discipline — recognize the jurisdictional-distinctness, restore the canonical-petition-protocols, stop redirecting offerings to Christianized-substitutes.

The shadow — honest about modern misreadings

Supay has been the *most-aggressively-demonized of all Andean deities* — the canonical-mistranslation by Domingo de Santo Tomás (1560) and Ludovico Bertonio (1612) into the first Quechua-and-Aymara dictionaries scaffolded centuries of cult-destruction. The *Cerro Rico* silver-mining of Potosí (1545-1825) killed ~8 million indigenous *mit'a* miners in conditions so brutal that the canonical phrase *vale un Potosí* ("it's worth a Potosí") entered Spanish meaning *priceless* — measured in indigenous-lives. Every mine-entrance was-and-is the canonical-petition-site for Supay (under his contemporary nickname *El Tío*, "the Uncle"), and the contemporary *Cerro Rico* miner-culture still includes *El Tío* shrines at the entrance of every shaft, where miners offer coca-leaves, alcohol, and cigarettes before each shift. The Carnaval de Oruro and the *Diablada* dances preserve the Supay-cult under Catholic-demonic-mask; the Unesco 2001 designation was an important canonical-recovery. The contemporary lithium-and-copper extraction is the canonical-modern *entering-Supay's-territory-without-petition* — the mines being opened across Bolivia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina for the EV-battery-supply-chain are being opened without the canonical *challa-to-Supay*, and the resulting mine-collapses, miner-deaths, and ecological-disasters are read in the Andean cosmovisión as Supay's canonical-response. The contemporary literature on the Supay-mistranslation: Sabine MacCormack's *Religion in the Andes* (1991), Frank Salomon and Mercedes Niño-Murcia on Andean-religious-text-survival, Catherine Allen on the *paqo* tradition.

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