Ancient Peruvian societies firmly believed in the existence of a world above and a world below that were in constant interaction with one another. In a figurative sense, human beings go up and down to these worlds in a stepped spiral movement. The logarithmic spiral is a structure of great importance to Andean ideology and applies to the relationship between time and space, the way in which mental process are connected. These stepped symbols that are found in drawings portray mountains as a vital element, a place where contact is made with the other worlds.
When we die, we descend to the world below – Uku Pacha. Once there, we are born and must transform ourselves in order to reach the astral plane, Hanan Pacha, as symbolised by the majestic Condor, a powerful scavenger bird with acute vision who is able to transcend the earthly physical state. On the other hand, the world below is understood to be a very active place, where our ancestors dance and celebrate the cyclic nature of life, thus promoting the growth of plants from within the Earth and boosting the fertility of crops.