Killa

History & Origin

Killa is the Quechua word for moon, and as a name it directly invokes Mama Killa — the Moon Mother, one of the principal deities of the Inca empire and a goddess of profound cultural importance across the Andean world. The Encyclopædia Britannica describes Mama Killa (also spelled Mama Quilla) as the Inca goddess of the moon, the moon of marriage, and a defender of women. She was the older sister and wife of Inti, the Sun, and the mother of Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo, the mythical founders of the Inca empire. In Quechua the word killa serves a double purpose: it names the moon itself and gives its name to the months of the Inca lunar calendar, each of which was called a quilla. Mama Killa's phases governed this calendar, making her essential not only to religious observance but to the agricultural timing that sustained Andean civilization. Her temple in Cusco — the Coricancha, "Temple of the Sun" — contained a great silver disc covering an entire wall in her honor, and was served exclusively by priestesses dedicated to her cult. Mythology recorded by Spanish colonial chroniclers describes Mama Killa as a goddess who cried tears of silver, and explained the dark patches visible on the moon's surface as the marks left when a fox fell in love with her beauty and was squeezed against her as she rose into the sky. Lunar eclipses were understood as attacks on her, and people would make noise to frighten away the attacker. As a living given name, Killa is used in contemporary Peru and Bolivia, honoring this ancient and luminous tradition.