^“The cult of caves is one of the most ancient of the Pan-Mesoamerican world.”²⁷ There is a prehistoric emergence mythistory of Chicomoztoc, the place of Seven Caves. This Uto-Aztecan creation story states that mankind emerged from a layered underworld in a northern land of mountains, lakes, and caves. This tiered universe can be seen in the rock art of the Pueblo people, ²⁸ in the Chihuahuan Desert rock art panels, ²⁹ in Huichol symbology and social structure, ³⁰ and in Aztec³¹ and Mayan philosophies³² among others.³³ The concept of emergence from Seven Caves was transported by the Uto-Aztecans down the Sierra Madre Corridor³⁴ and has come to represent the very basis of ethnic identity for Indians across Pan-America.

 

Historically, evolving Uto-Aztecan cultures systematically created artificial grottos to serve as replicas for the caves of Chicomoztoc wherever they settled. Huge earthen or brick pyramids were later constructed by affluent Pan-American cultures to be the physical representation of the original world-mountain which housed the Earth womb and was the connection to the Earth navel. Engineered caves were cut under their pyramid temples and great complexes. It was inside these man-made reproductions of Chicomoztoc where religion met state and where the ethereal was infused into the material awareness of the masses and pilgrims.  It was here that political power, through lineage appointments, often in the form of initiations and prestige goods, was bestowed.

 

The Popol Vuh, the Quiché Maya Book of Council, states that the Chichimeca were hunters and gatherers, ³⁵ or “…wild hunting people.”³⁶ Tollan Zuiva or Seven Caves denotes the Maya place of origin.³⁷ The translocation of the Seven Caves or world-mountain concept by the migrating Uto-Aztecans presents a historical account of their southern diffusion, and the link back to the ancient shamanic Cult of Caves.

 

Belief in the spirits and elements flourishes best in those cultures that exercise the least control over the external world.³⁸ The Paleolithic Indians’ world view was that the whole universe was endowed with the same breath; this Life giving breath was in all animals and humans, in all rocks, trees, grass, and in the Earth. To link these parts together there must be rites, ceremonies, and stories. These rituals were repeated regularly, since the important juncture was always in the present, even though karma originated in the past.³⁹ Communication with the spirits and gods began in a “hunting and gathering” context; ⁴⁰ it seems logical to look for the root belief in transforming spirits and religion in conjunction with hunting customs.⁴¹

 

Irrefutable archeological data reveals that shamanic religious practices were present among the Neanderthals more than 78,000 years ago.⁴² As Furst says, “…mysticism, or religion, has always been a fundamental aspect of the human condition, with its beginnings reaching back perhaps to the primitive origins of self-consciousness.”⁴³ Shamanic beliefs sprang from the concept that transformation rather than creation was the impetus of all phenomena. With the event of transformation so prominent in the origin of traditional belief systems, it is easy to see why animals that transform in shape and plants capable of radically altering human consciousness would be deified and stand at the very root of ancient ideology.