by Terry McCombs

Terry McCombs ran the God/dess of the Month Club (GoM) on soc.religion.paganism from 2003 onward, posting a monthly profile of a deity from a different tradition each month. His method was consistent: name, symbols, usual image, holy books, holy days, place of worship, areas of influence, synodeities, and a substantial "Details" section drawing cross-cultural connections and personal reflections. The profiles ranged across every inhabited continent and drew on his wide reading.

Urcaguay was the Incan god of hidden underground treasure, described as a massive serpent with the antlered head of a red deer and a segmented tail draped with golden chains. His post here was filed at the end of November 2003 and served as the December profile. It is a meditation on the horned serpent as a recurring figure across pre-Columbian American religion — from the Inca to the Iroquois, from the Tewa to the Cherokee — and asks whether Urcaguay stands behind all of them or whether each is an independent emergence of the same deep archetype.

McCombs ends, as he often does, with a personal note: his hope is that the horned serpent tradition is more like Sint Holo — the Cherokee invisible serpent who appeared to gifted young men and gave them inspiration — than like the terrible rattlesnake that cannot be killed. He is thinking of Sequoya, the Cherokee linguist who invented a written language for his people. That is the kind of hidden treasure worth digging for.

Name

Urcaguay

Symbols

Gold, snake glyph, cavern, horn.

Usual Image

A huge snake with the antlered head of a red deer, bearing a segmented tail draped with golden chains.

Holy Books

Unknown.

Holy Days

Unknown.

Place of Worship

Temples, or before the mouths of caves.

Areas of Influence

Guards the treasures hidden in the Earth. Treasure, hidden knowledge, secret power.

Major Taboos

Disrespect.

Synodeities

Avanyu (Tewa), Sint Holo (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and adjacent tribes), Quetzalcoatl (Mayan), along with many other Mayan serpent gods and goddesses, the Serpent of Obsidian Knives (Aztec).

Details

Urcaguay was the Incan god of hidden underground treasure, described as a huge snake with the head of a deer and a tail bearing golden chains. Not much more is known about this deity.

However, he is one of a number of Incan gods whose influence seems to have spread widely across the American continent. The Inca had four major godly animals: the eagle, the jaguar, the condor, and the snake. There were many gods and goddesses linked with each animal, but the snake was especially important, as shown by the many glyphs depicting other deities emerging from a snake's mouth.

But what about the unique form of a snake with a mammal's head that Urcaguay took? It can be said that the Inca and Mayan civilizations were as great an influence on the people of pre-Columbian America as the Greeks and Romans were to the tribes of Europe.

Might the many other horned snakes who appear as gods, spirits, and monsters in other tribes be Urcaguay interpreted by others? Or is Urcaguay just another version of a great unnamed being?

With the Tewa tribe we find Avanyu, a lightning-spitting god who brought art, agriculture, and science to the People.

Among a number of Southeastern tribes we find Sint Holo, a giant invisible horned serpent who appeared to specially gifted young men in the tribe who had shown knowledge and drive beyond the norm, giving these few outstanding ones even greater inspiration.

There are also tales of less divine horned snakes — sometimes with a huge jewel lodged between the antlers — that hide in deep water and destroy all who come near, until only the best of warriors challenges them alone, after which great knowledge and power is given to the victor.

There are even modern stories in the Central Rocky Mountain Region about a still-existing tribe of "Serpent People" who remain separate from others so they can take on the odorous task of appeasing a powerful entity who takes the form of a giant rattlesnake that cannot be killed, and who, if his power were ever released, would lay waste for thousands of miles around.

Whatever the case — whether connected with Urcaguay or some other serpent-shaped god of the Incas — a look at the Serpent Mounds that dot the American landscape gives evidence that this is an important form in the psyche of the inhabitants of Turtle Island.

Me, I'm hoping it's more along the lines of Sint Holo, who was said to have inspired Sequoya to construct the Cherokee written language.

Colophon

Posted by Terry McCombs to soc.religion.paganism, November 2003. Part of the God/dess of the Month Club series. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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