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Based on historic facts from the book by Dr. William Sullivan "The Secret of the Incas: Myth, Astronomy, and the War Against Time"

Inca God Viracocha and the Broken Bridge to the Cosmos

This painting was inspired by my lifelong interest in the Andes Mountains, Peru, the Inca Empire and facts from the book by Dr. William Sullivan, “The Secret of the Incas: Myth, Astronomy, and the War Against Time”.
From 1438 to 1532 the Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America and once spanned as far North as Ecuador and as far South as southern Chili, mostly in the Andes Mountains. Like a lot of ancient civilizations, the Inca were very much connected to the cosmos. The Inca God Viracocha was the creator of the universe and to the Inca, the planet Saturn was thought to be Viracocha as seen in the night sky. During the 94 years the Empire lasted the Inca studied the cosmos and had an unprecedented view of the night sky, the capital Cusco is over 11,000 feet above sea level. So on a clear, moonless night the Milky Way Galaxy (Willka Mayu) was so bright and detailed that the dark gas cloud constellations that ran through the center of The Milky Way were given names because the Inca began seeing animals among them and one was called the “Llama” which was named after the large indigenous Andean animal that they domesticated and became very dependent on. The Llama constellation was aligned with the rays of the early morning sun during the summer solstice. It was thought that this was the bridge that Viracocha and the spirits of the dead Inca ancestors used to leave the earth and go into the cosmos. But the rotation of the Milky Way relative to the location of earth, which is located in one of the spiral arms, objects closer to the center of the galaxy such as stars, nebula and the dark gas clouds would very slowly move across the horizon, which is called "precession of the equinoxes". In 650 ACE priests of the tribes of Andean people who evolved into the Inca Empire passed on this knowledge in the form of myths and in one myth there was a prophesy that a new Empire would grow, banding together all the Andean tribes. So, when there was a conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and the Earth in a specific place in the night sky this was the sign read from the cosmos that the creator God Viracocha gave the Inca the right to rule. In 1438 ACE the Inca Empire began with the reign of Emporer Pachacuti because the conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and the Earth was in the exact same place in the night sky as it was in 650 ACE. The prophecy written 788 years before came true. But Pachacuti noticed that the Llama constellation was about to depart the alignment with the rays of the rising sun during the summer solstice and just a small piece of the bridge was connected. He made a prophesy that only 5 Inca Emperors would succeed him and also predicted that in about 100 years the bridge to the Milky Way will be broken and the connection to the cosmos would be lost. This would signal the end of the Inca Empire and the strongest proof of how much knowledge the Inca had about the cosmos and how the were influenced by it. In 1532 the brutal Spaniard Francisco Pizarro (an uneducated ex-pig farmer) and a small army of Conquistadors arrived in Cusco and the Inca Emperor Atahualpa (the fifth as predicted) knew this was the end that Pachacuti had predicted. Atahualpa ordered his army of tens of thousands not to defend the Empire because the prophesy had come true and Viracocha was gone forever. Small battles did occur but Pizarro with his modern weapons and experienced Conquistador army took control and imprisoned Atahualpa and conquered the Empire with ease and killed at least a million Inca over the next few years. Pizarro was free to steal tons of gold and silver, mostly incredible works of Inca art, and he ordered his men to melt the gold down into bricks for easy transfer. He took this huge booty of riches back to Spain making the King, Charles V, very happy. Pizarro also brought back various species of potato plants which was the main diet of the Inca. The potato plant grew throughout Spain and the rest of Europe which saved many Europeans from starving. Pizarro became famous. He moved back to Peru and founded Lima and lived his life as governor for a few years until he was murdered by a group of Spaniards who supported Diego de Almagro II who wanted revenge because Pizarro caused the death of Almagro's father.
So, by Pizarro conquering the Inca Empire and Cortes doing the same to the Aztec Empire in Mexico a few years earlier, the stolen gold and silver helped Spain prosper and grow at the cost of the amazing Inca Empire. The Inca became yet another group of indigenous people destroyed by the Spaniards because of their lust for gold supposedly following the Christian faith, but were really following Satan with their brutality and lack of empathy for indigenous people. But the Inca would get their revenge on the Spanish years later in an unexpected way when pirates from England and The Netherlands began raiding Spanish treasure galleons.