What child doesn’t know the existence of Pandora? The first woman created by Zéus is a symbol of mistakes, greed, bad curiosity, disobedience, regret, hope, and maybe even innocence. However, I don’t remember hearing a Venezuelan variant when I was younger.
Legends about the creation of the world abound, however. They are in all cultures, in all mythologies, but the first humans always seem to be the ones responsible for shaping the environment they inhabit, demigods for having been born before any other. This is the case of the Venezuelan Pandora, Caribay, who forever changed the Venezuelan Andes because of her greed.
Five eagles, five snowy peaks
According to the legends of the Mirripuyes, Indigenous people of the Venezuelan Andes, the first woman to exist was called Caribay, daughter of Zuhé (the Sun) and Chía (the Moon). She was considered a genius of the aromatic forests, able to imitate the song of birds.
A bald eagle in flight [Seaq68, Pixabay]
According to legend, Caribay was in the forest like any other day, when she suddenly saw five white eagles flying through the sky. Eager to adorn herself with the exotic feathers of animals, Caribay chased after them by following their shadows on the ground. In some versions of the story, she asks her mother Chía, the Moon, for help, and in others she decides to sing, making the animals fall in love with her, including the eagles.
Each of them perches on a peak, so Caribay decides to get closer to finally take the feathers. When she tries to pull them out of the first one, she realizes that the animals have frozen and are now made of ice. With a cry of terror, Caribay runs in horror, as the moon darkens and the eagles come back to life.
Enraged, the birds fly around their respective peaks, and when Caribay looks back again, she finds that the eagles have scattered their white feathers, and the peaks have been covered with ice and snow. According to what they say, this was the origin of the snowy mountains of the Mérida state: Pico Bolívar, Pico Humboldt, Pico el Toro, Pico el León, and Pico la Concha.
We are Caribay
To me, this is a legend that perfectly explains the dangers of human greed, and how it backfires on those who employ it. Since I was a child I was taught to respect nature, not to abuse it, and the history of Caribay is a perfect example.
I particularly remember that when I liked a plant, it would pluck leaves and flowers from it, and my family would always say to me, “Would you like your hair to be plucked?” When I stepped on an anthill because it was fun to see the ants open it up again, they told me it was “like someone kicked your house in, and your parents have to rebuild it”.
I always liked zoos very much, and I remember perfectly when I went to one with my parents and a peacock caught my attention. I liked going to the circus to see the animals that were there. Later, I found out that they are often mistreated animals, that they live in harsh conditions, and that they are separated from their families since they are young, forced to do things that they would never have to do in their natural world.
A bald eagle perched on a branch [JanTremmel, Pixabay]
As time went by, I learned that humans are not above nature, but rather part of it like any other plant and animal. The great problems of humanity have arisen as a result of believing ourselves to be more than what we really represent: a part of a delicate ecosystem.
Like Caribay, we want to have, do, possess, and we reach absurd limits in order to fulfill our whims, and like her, we are horrified when we see the impact of our actions. Many times, we do not realize that we are Caribay.
Her story also reminds me that, as Witches, we can be capable of certain things, we can do something that others cannot, but that does not mean that we are all-powerful. We are just humans who develop certain abilities, just like artists, athletes, mathematicians, and so on.
That has been one of the hardest lessons I have had to learn. I have spoken several times about my father, how cancer destroyed him, and how many times I blamed myself for not being able to save him. At the time, I was sure that if I could do things that only happen in fantasy novels, if I had powers, then they should be good for something, but they weren’t.
As time went on, I tried to accept that I would never have made a difference. However, I always remembered the people I was able to help with lesser things, and I felt that I had failed as a Witch because, of all those I’ve been able to help, I failed to help the man who gave me life.
For me, the story of Caribay and the five white eagles teach about the limits that we must impose on our actions. We ignore what we are capable of until we are pushed to the limit. As a person who works with spirit animals, it also means that the eagles become defenders of nature and agents of divine justice, snow being their punishment.
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