The Huaraz Plateau in the Western Cordillera has long been considered the secret refuge of the sorcerers of Peru. They say they know how to summon the spirits of the dead and materialize them. They can sharply increase and decrease the temperature of the surrounding air, which is necessary for the appearance of "shining carts, guided by heavenly patrons." Unfortunately, few of the foreigners managed to become participants in these magical rites. One of them, the Englishman Joseph Ferrier, visited the mysterious underground settlement of Kolobros in 1922. And he was so shocked by what he saw that he was not too lazy to write a lengthy essay for the magazine "British Pathfinder", preceded by an oath assurance: "I vouch for the absolute truthfulness of the above."
Joseph Ferrier is silent about how he managed to become a guest of the forbidden system of underground labyrinths, “very confusing and cramped, almost unsuitable for free breathing and movement, but with salts in which they are forced to live from birth to death. Because the life of every hereditary sorcerer has a special meaning, nowhere else, except on the local plateau. What is this meaning? According to Ferrier, as follows:
“Underground sorcerers do not draw a line between the world of the living and the world of the dead. It is believed that both the living and the dead are only spirits. The only difference is that until the moment of death, the spirit of each of us languishes in a bodily shell. After death, it is released, becoming a spirit outside the body. Therefore, by special methods, sorcerers ensure that the spirits who have taken flesh can be near us, among us. You may not believe, but copies of these once living are found in labyrinths, walking among the living. I myself have repeatedly confused phantoms with people. Only the Kolobros sorcerers do not confuse”.
Rituals of materialization, the creation of phantoms, are practiced in a large hall shaped like an isosceles triangle. The walls and ceiling are covered with copper plates. The floor is paved with wedge-shaped bronze slabs.
“As soon as I crossed the threshold of this ritual room,” Ferrier writes, “I immediately received eight or ten electric shocks. Doubts disappeared. The metallized room did not differ much from the metallized inner volume of the condenser can, and, apparently, was needed by the sorcerers-mediums for their afterlife rites. I was convinced of this when they stood in their loincloths, clasped their hands, and began to sing a song without words. My ears buzzed. I bit my tongue when I saw thin silvery bands spinning around the heads of the sorcerers, scattering wet, cold sparkles. Sequins fell on the brass underfoot, forming a kind of spider web, red as blood. Faintly visible likenesses of human bodies slowly sprouted from the web. They stood, vibrating shaky from the drafts of the galleries. The sorcerers, having opened their hands and stopped singing, began,while dancing, rub the resin columns installed in the center of the hall with shreds of wool. Several minutes passed. The air was filled with electricity, began to flicker.
Finding the power of speech, I asked the sorcerer Aotuk, what will happen next? Aotuk said that further the shadows of the summoned dead will become solid, suitable for being in our world. " The sorcerers of the Kolobros dungeon have achieved the impossible. Obeying the most ancient magical techniques, discharged, light as smoke, shadows became completely indistinguishable from people - thinking, with beating hearts, capable of lifting and carrying weights weighing up to ten kilograms, sometimes more. The rituals of "humanizing disembodied spirits" seemed to Ferrier to be similar to the European medieval rituals of summoning the dead. Whether this is so can be judged from an excerpt from the sketch:
“The most dangerous ritual for sorcerers to lure the dead takes a lot of bodily strength. Best of all, the Sabbat is successful in the period between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. The magical New Year in the labyrinths of Kolobros begins on November 1 with a "silent supper" around the altar table covered with a triangular canvas, on which are a pewter goblet, black cord and censer, iron trident and knife, hourglass, seven burning candles.
Each sorcerer wears on his chest a protective golden pictogram in the form of a grinning skull, framed by four lead bones. As soon as it is closer to midnight, the upper vessel of the clock is freed from the sand, the sorcerers kindle incense and begin to invite guests to the meal. When they approach, the trident begins to flash with a blue light, the knife - red. The cord burns out completely. Flames erupt from the floor, repeating the contours of the Egyptian sacred cross, symbolizing eternal life. Throwing a wooden skull and bones into the fire - the sign of Osiris - the sorcerers loudly exclaim: "Rise from the dead!" The chief sorcerer pierces the flaming cross with a luminous trident. The flame is extinguished immediately. The candles go out too. Silence, saturated with the smell of incense, disappears. A strong phosphoric glow spreads under the ceiling.
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“Go away, go away, shadows of the dead. We will not allow you to come to us until you become alive for us. May there be agreement between us. Yes, be that! - the sorcerers shout deafeningly. There are no shadows anymore. Instead of shadows, there are detailed body repetitions with which to consult when important decisions are required.
Ask why underground sorcerers in clothes prefer loincloths? Because negotiations with the resurrected ones thin the fabrics of the clothes, no matter how good the fabrics are. I had a new linen suit. Several conversations with the resurrected, a few touches to them - and my suit fell into disrepair, as happens under the influence of decay."
Ferrier argues that the resurrected are not eternal. Everyone lingers among the Kolobros sorcerers for at least a year: “When the figure of the“neighbor”fades, when his inner energy is depleted, a rite of return to the shadows is arranged for him - a quick, purely formal one. How else? Knowledge gained. "Neighbor" is not needed. He, no matter how much the sorcerers want, will never return. " However, it is from this fleeting rite that the main rite - the heavenly carts - begins. Ferrier does not write anything about the magical components of this action. He only reports that he saw how in the sky over the Huaras plateau "with a terrible roar and grinding, the fiery wheels rushed and crashed into the edge of the Kolobros canyon." The sorcerers did not allow him to meet with the "gods of the seventh heaven", citing the fact that mere mortals cannot communicate with immortals. Ferrier's objection that the sorcerers themselves, being mortal,nevertheless, they meet with the heavenly gods, the inhabitants of Kolobros replied that contacts are not frequent, they are carried out only at the initiative of immortals who make meetings safe. Describing the level of knowledge of the gods, Ferrier says that they have gone so far ahead that "they have long forgotten what the best minds of mankind are just beginning to think about." Even experienced speleologists do not risk visiting the labyrinths of Kolobros. One of them, American Michael Stern, dreams of being there. The expedition plans for the summer of 2008, not paying attention to the more frequent natural anomalies. These are local earthquakes, and nightly above-ground glow, and mud geysers in the area of labyrinths, and flights of fireballs, and "landing" of ghosts with pear-shaped heads. The locals have no doubt that the Kolobros dungeons are still inhabited. The way there is ordered by a stranger without the knowledge of the owners. Stern persists: “I am not a slave to superstition, I do not believe in sorcerers. For me, Kolobros is just a system of deep, difficult to pass caves, nothing more. " At the beginning of the last century, Joseph Ferrier also thought so. And I met a miracle.
Alexander Volodev