Ancestral Philosophy of Health

In ancient Peru, the cosmic order was organized into four parts. To ensure health and  proper relationship to the external world, each person had to be in harmony with this order. According to this conception, life depends on four aspects: the elements from above and from below; and from the masculine and feminine. This concept was commonly called the principle of the four winds, or also of the four suyos (regions) or the four pachas (sources or times) of life, which act in unity.

The elements from above are associated with the energy that is behind all things, and those from below are associated with the material realm. There has to be harmony between what is material and what is behind everything that is material (what is material being nature). The balance between the feminine and masculine, which is in nature and also within the human being, produces the harmony of life, the harmony between the internal world and the external world. In this way, the four parts, when in circulation, produce a «non-rupturing» of the individual with themselves and those around them, with the surroundings and with nature. It is a model of coexistence and permanent development; a subtle balance. It is called Causay Puriy.

In the indigenous conception, health is a state of dynamic and harmonious balance between the individual and their ecological and sociocultural environment, including the natural and the spiritual in a flow of energies that make up life. Practically, health is associated with the behavior of hunting animals as a model for human behavior, and disease with the behavior of animals that flee (preying animals).

In ancestral medicine, healers and or shamans also use distinct medicinal resources to restore health (the vital balance) so that the internal and external energies flow again within the person, generating harmony and health.