Neyza Hurtado was only 3 years old when lightning struck her. Now, 40 years later, sitting by a bonfire atop a 13,700-foot (4,175-meter) mountain, she wears the scar on her forehead with pride.

“I am the lightning,” Hurtado said. “When it hit me, I became wise and a seer. That’s what we masters are.”

Each August, hundreds in Bolivia turn to Andean spiritual guides like Hurtado to perform rituals honoring “Pachamama,” or Mother Earth, rooted in the Aymara Indigenous worldview.

Believers say Pachamama awakens hungry and thirsty after the dry season. To honor her and thank her for blessings, people offer gifts at home, in fields, and atop mountains.

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“We come here every August to follow our elders’ footsteps,” said Santos Monasterios, who hired Hurtado for a Pachamama ritual near La Cumbre, about 13 kilometers from La Paz. “We ask for good health and work.”

Offerings, known as “mesitas” or “little tables,” are crafted from wooden logs and topped with sweets, grains, coca leaves, and small items symbolizing wealth, protection, and health. Sometimes, llama or piglet fetuses are included.

The spiritual guide then sets the mesita ablaze while devotees pour wine or beer over the offerings to quench Pachamama’s thirst.

“Performing this ritual brings relief,” Monasterios said. “I believe in this, and I will keep sharing a drink with Pachamama.”

Burning the mesita can take up to three hours. After the offerings turn to ash, they are buried to become one with Mother Earth.

Carla Chumacero, 28, traveled with her family to La Cumbre and requested four mesitas from her spiritual guide. “Mother Earth demands this from us, so we provide,” she said. Chumacero explained that sensing Pachamama’s needs is difficult to describe—“it’s a feeling.” She noted that accidents and family troubles often signal the need for offerings.

For María Ceballos, 34, devotion to Pachamama came from co-workers at a gold mine where she works. “We make offerings because our work is risky,” she said. “We use heavy machinery and travel often, so we entrust ourselves to Pachamama.”

Anthropologist Milton Eyzaguirre traces Pachamama rituals back to 6,000 B.C., as early settlers faced unique soil and climate challenges in the Southern Hemisphere.

“In Bolivia, winter is cold and dry from June to September,” Eyzaguirre said. “This shapes our relationship with Pachamama.”

August marks a time when Pachamama is believed to be asleep; devotees hope to renew her strength to support the sowing season beginning in October. Harvest rituals follow months later in February.

“These dates reactivate the bond between humans and Pachamama,” Eyzaguirre said. “Unlike elsewhere where land is a commodity, here there is balance—you must honor Pachamama, and she will provide.”

The rituals also honor the “apus,” or mountains, seen as protective spirits by Aymara and Quechua people.

“Everything in nature has a soul,” Eyzaguirre said, referring to “Ajayu,” the spiritual essence of natural elements.

Spiritual guides like Rosendo Choque, a “yatiri” for 40 years, believe apus watch over the people. Becoming a master requires special skills and Pachamama’s permission.

“I gained my knowledge gradually, but now the coca leaves speak to me,” Choque said.

Hurtado inherited her wisdom from her grandmother, also a yatiri, who witnessed Hurtado’s survival of the lightning strike.

“She is the holiest person to me,” Hurtado said. “She made me who I am.”

Helping others find a good future brings Hurtado comfort, but her deep connection with Pachamama is her greatest joy.

“We respect her because she is Mother Earth,” she said. “We live in her.”

Source: Agency