I recently had my mind blown after a visit to the planetarium in Cuzco. For several reasons…

There is something magical about the mountains in Cuzco, and especially at night. The Inca’s believed that their god was the sun and the stars their ancestors. And therefore being in the mountains was indeed sacred as it also means being closer to the sky.

I was able to relate a lot of information at the planetarium to two separate theatre projects of mine. Firstly an opera about an American astronomer who after going deaf, travels to Peru to see a whole new set of stars, because here in the southern hemisphere they are upside down! It spins a whole new perspective on the universe.

And my more immediate project is They Call Me Nina. A devised work I am directing in Lima this February with my company In Transit Theatre inspired by the phenomena El Nino. (This is a severe weather pattern that affects the globe conversely, and interestingly when it floods in Peru, there is a severe drought experienced in Australia).

And again being in Cuzco it is hard not to feel the immediate presence of the extreme landscape surrounding you. I have never been this high up in the mountains before (and for my first week was very weak with altitude sickness, as there is 28% less oxygen). Peru also contains over half of the microclimates of the world within its borders. In a way I was reminded of Australia in terms of its, at times, brutally harsh climate.

But getting back to the planetarium… a big part of what I found fascinating was the place of astrology within Inca culture. What set the Inca’s apart from the rest and perhaps one of the reasons behind their rapid rise to power was their thirst and talent for knowledge sharing. They united the region in a collaborative sharing of ancient knowledge as they understood the key to survival in a harsh landscape was intelligent agriculture. And a big part of creating harvest calendars and predicting the weather came from looking up to the stars.

Their architectural, astrological and in turn agricultural technology was incredibly advanced. Though much of this knowledge was lost after the Spanish invasion, partly as nothing was written down but mostly as it is often the educated who are first killed in the conquering of a civilisation, so oral lines of passing on knowledge were also broken down. A lot of what we can learn from the Incas is speculation.

But from the stories that we do know and can piece together, the Incas were the only ancient civilization to also see constellations in the sky inversely, so in the darkness, between the stars.

There is one great example called The Big Black Llama in the sky (below).

The story goes that in the winter he dips down at night to drink from the rivers and lakes, rationing the water to protect against flood. And in the summer he lets it down (llama pee!) which is why we have the rainy season.

This reminded me of the Aboriginal story which explains floods and drought, about Tiddalik the frog who drank all the water and all the animals of the bush have to make him laugh to get it back again- to which it finally floods out.

When I was at home in Australia recently I watched a fantastic documentary on aboriginal history called The First Footprints; fantastic because they were creating a dialogue between scientists and the traditional owners and descendents of the land to compare scientific facts with dreaming stories.

It changed what I thought I knew about the dreamtime, that dreaming tracks were not only a powerful spiritual link to the past but a web of important history and knowledge for survival. And survive they did, in harmony with the natural world for forty thousand years which is so incredible it is hard to comprehend.

I just find ancient cultures that are so deeply in tune with their natural surroundings fascinating. Especially because it is a type of knowledge that is so valuable and I fear we are loosing in our contemporary urban society.

I think it is so important as human beings who are currently overpopulating the planet to remember that we are just part of something much bigger. We are a very small part of a very big universe.

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