Mama Quilla

Mama Quilla

Ancientwell-documentedInca religionAndean mythAndesPeru (Inca Empire)
Origin

In the genealogical framework preserved in the sources, Mama Quilla is a daughter of the creator god Viracocha and is paired with Inti, the sun. She is named as the mother of Manco Cápac and Mama Uqllu (Mama Ocllo), the mythical founders of the Inca empire and culture; through this maternal role she participates in the origin and legitimization of Inca rulership and social order. The sources present her both as a celestial power (the moon) and as an ancestral progenitor whose familial relations tie lunar agency to the foundation myths of the Inca polity.

Appearance

The provided sources supply no iconographic or physical description for Mama Quilla. No consistent anthropomorphic features, garments, symbols, animals, or pictorial attributes are recorded in the supplied material; her presence is attested in genealogies, calendrical roles, and social functions rather than in surviving descriptive imagery from these excerpts.

Abilities

Sources identify Mama Quilla primarily as the goddess of the moon, indicating her agency over lunar cycles and their social implications, and state that she was important for the Inca calendar. She is described as the goddess of marriage and the menstrual cycle and as a defender of women, framing her as a divine regulator and protector of female social and reproductive domains. As mother of culture-heroes, she also functions within myths that confer lineage and political legitimacy to the Inca ruling order. The supplied material does not enumerate additional supernatural powers, techniques of interaction with humans, or specific miracle stories.

Weaknesses & Wards

Weaknesses

  • other
    none recorded in provided sources

Wards

  • other
    none recorded in provided sources
Entity Network
IIntiVViracochaMCManco CápacMQMama Quilla
related
Related Entities
Further in the Grimoire

Apu Illapu

Apu Illapu (also Illapa, Ilyapa, Ilyap'a, Iyapa) is a major Inca deity associated with thunder, lightning, rain and other atmospheric phenomena. He was invoked in agricultural contexts and during drought; temples, pilgrimages, prayers and sacrifices were offered to secure his favor or to halt destructive storms.

Inti

Inti is the principal Inca solar deity — a politicized and multilayered sun-power central to Inca state religion, agriculture, and dynastic legitimation. Treated as both the divine Sun and an ancestral source for the ruling lineage, Inti was worshipped in temples (notably Qurikancha), honored in seasonal rites such as the Inti Raymi, and served by an institutional priesthood.

Mama Killa (Mama Quilla)

Mama Killa (Quechua: Mama Killa / Mama Quilla, 'Mother Moon') is the Inca lunar goddess and a high-ranking divine figure whose cycles regulated time, ritual order, and aspects of women's social life. She is depicted as a moon-personified woman, served by priestesses, and figured in myths explaining lunar spots and eclipses.

Urcuchillay

Urcuchillay is an Inca pastoral deity venerated by herders as a protective llama spirit associated with the wellbeing of herd animals; the name was also applied to the constellation Lyra and in modern times adopted for the star Zeta2 Lyrae.

Mama Ocllo

Deified mother and fertility goddess associated with the establishment of the city of Cusco and foundational power within Inca society. (Note: - Power tier: Primordial (due to her association with creation and foundational power) - Abilities: The text only mentions reproductive and maternal care powers, but it is likely that Mama Ocllo's abi)

Mama Ocllo Coya

Mama Ocllo Coya (fl. 1493) is recorded in the supplied sources as a princess and queen consort (Coya) of the Inca Empire, wife of Sapa Inca Topa Inca Yupanqui and mother of Huayna Capac. Described in historical and legendary accounts as politically active and influential, she is credited with a stratagem in a Chimor episode and with decisive action to secure her son's succession.

Mama Pacha

Mama Pacha (commonly Pachamama) is an Andean/Inca deity and cosmological principle representing space-time, a maternal force that sustains life, fertility, and nature. She is presented in sources as an omnipresent, generative principle within Andean worldview rather than a narrowly localized spirit.

Mama Qucha

Mama Qucha (Mama Cocha) is an Inca water mother deity, personifying the sea and other bodies of water. She functions as guardian of sailors and fishermen, provider of fish and calm seas, and is counted among the principal female elemental mothers in Inca cosmology.

Mama Raua

No attested information about an entity named 'Mama Raua' appears in the provided source set. The supplied materials include Inca mythological figures and Māori archival items, but none mention or describe Mama Raua.

Mama Uqllu

Mama Uqllu (Hispanicized Mama Ocllo, Mama Occllo, Mama Okllo) is an Inca mother-figure and culture-founder associated with fertility, marriage, the menstrual cycle, and the transmission of domestic and civilizing arts (weaving, house-building). She is paired with Manco Cápac in foundation myths and appears in variant genealogies as child of either Inti and Mama Killa or of Viracocha and Mama Qucha.

Mamdo Bhoot

The ghost of a Muslim person in Bengali Hindu folk belief — 'Mamdo' deriving from 'Mahmood.' The Mamdo Bhoot occupies a unique place in Bengal's supernatural taxonomy: a cross-religious ghost in a deeply syncretic tradition, with its own distinctive characteristics and ward practices that follow the ghost's religious tradition rather than the observer's.

Mami (disambiguation)

The term "Mami" in the supplied sources is a lexical form found in multiple unrelated contexts (personal names, popular culture, and as part of the compound "Mami Wata"). The provided documents do not support a coherent folkloric entity named solely "Mami." The nearest folkloric referent in the material is the water-spirit complex Mami Wata, mentioned only briefly in the sources.

Community Record

Sources
  1. [1]
    Mama Killa (Wikipedia). Wikipedia, 'Mama Killa' (accessed source provided)wiki
  2. [2]
    Wikidata: Q1137398 (Mama Quilla). Wikidata entry for Mama Quilla (Q1137398)other
  3. [3]
    Mama Quilla II (Wikipedia). Wikipedia, 'Mama Quilla II' (modern usages of the name)wiki
  4. [4]
    Deity of the Week: Mama Quilla. Deity of the Week blog post on Mama Quillaother
  5. [5]
    Godchecker: MAMA QUILLA - the Inca Goddess of the Moon. Godchecker entry for Mama Quillaother
  6. [6]
    Archive items and modern usages referencing 'Mamaquilla' and 'Mama Quilla'. Archive.org recording referencing 'Mamaquilla' (modern/archival item)other
  7. [7]
    Archive: Ancestralidad y medios. Versión radiolibre. Archive.org reference to modern program using the nameother
  8. [8]
    Meeting Point · Altered Vision pres. MAMA QUILLA · 4 Mar 2023 · Kuala Lumpur. Event listing using the name 'Mama Quilla' in contemporary contextsother
well-documented