THE OLDE GODS
CELESTIAL MECHANICS, FEATHERED SERPENTS, and THE SQUARE ROOT OF 3
Where to begin? In a word, ‘heliocentrism’ and the lost history of how the knowledge of ‘celestial mechanics’ affected the evolution of consciousness and the belief systems that shaped the different ways early civilizations were organized. When it comes to analyzing Mayan art and Mesoamerican belief systems, inserting this missing piece of the puzzle into the narrative reveals a systematic encoding in myth and art of a particular set of core beliefs or body of knowledge. This body of knowledge includes celestial mechanics, something not only unknown in the west until Aristarchus of Samos announced his discovery in the mid 3rd century BCE, but also something not thought to have been known by ancient Mesoamericans. What I am proposing is that by the time Teotihuacan was sited c.150 BCE and certainly by the time of Pacal’s reign at Palenque 615-683 CE, the knowledge of earth’s celestial mechanics was existent in Mesoamerica, possibly as early as c.1500 BCE when the Olmec civilization first made its appearance. Most, if not the entire suite of celestial mechanical knowledge that describes the equinoctial alignment of earth’s tilted polar axis with the plane of the ecliptic would very likely also include knowledge of the ‘pole star’, which by Pacal’s time was Polaris but was Thuban when G1 of the Palenque Triad, “… entered the sky”, “prepared/dedicated the Raised-up Sky Place”, and “set in motion Raised-up Sky Heart” (Linda Schele 1997, Understanding Maya Inscriptions, pg.143) as documented on the Tablet of the Cross with the date 3112 BCE, the same century as the founding of Egypt, 3150-3050 BCE. The Palenque creation story (Fig.78) and the Mayan Long Count Calendar, beginning August 11, 3114 BCE, seem to be referencing either a particular point in historical time or anchoring the calendar to a specific point in celestial time, possibly both. If any of this is true, the similarity with Egypt’s founding date is unlikely to be merely coincidental, especially considering the fact that Thuban was no longer the pole star during the time of either the Maya or the Olmec.
Over a very long time the knowledge of earth’s celestial mechanics and the understanding of what causes the seasons to come and go, the bringer of life and death, that intensely visceral, ancient reality genetically encoded into human consciousness over hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years, became deeply embedded and deified in an emergent Neolithic consciousness that was eventually absorbed and incorporated into the belief systems of the world’s earliest civilizations. Who knew what, when, and why did some humans begin watching the night skies more closely than usual and measuring time more accurately than by just watching where the sun set on the western horizon as the seasons came and went? I think it is more than likely that ancient Mesopotamians, at the very least, after millennia of watching the night skies and observing where the stars, constellations, and planets rose and set on the near featureless horizons would have deduced that the earth rotates on a tilted polar axis, something especially evident during times when there is a pole star, the appearance of which essentially proves the existence of earth’s axial tilt along with the fact that the earth orbits the sun, not the other way around.
Fig 1A
Fig 1B
PYRAMID TEXTS
226 RECITATION, Glider is entwined by glider, the toothless calf that emerged from
the garden is entwined. Earth, swallow up what has emerged from you!
Monster, lie down, crawl away!
The Sunshine’s Servant falls in the water. Snake, overturn, that the Sun may see
you! (Ca. 2360 BCE)
The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, James P. Allen, SBL Press,
Atlanta, Georgia, 2015, p.19
COFFIN TEXTS
Spell 1
HERE BEGINS THE BOOK OF VINDICATING A MAN IN THE REALM OF THE DEAD.
Ho N! You are the Lion, you are the Double Lion, you are Horus, Protector of his Father, you are the fourth of these four gods who are powerful and strong, who bring water and make the Nile through the power of their fathers. ON, raise yourself on your left side, put yourself on your right side. (Ca. 1750 BCE)
The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, R.O.Faulkner, Aris&Phillips/Oxbow
Books, Havertown, Pa., 2015, p.1
THE CREATION OF THE EARTH
THEN came his word. Heart of Sky arrived here with Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent in the darkness, in the night. He spoke with Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent. They talked together then. They thought and they pondered. They reached an accord, bringing together their words and their thoughts. Then they gave birth to humanity. Then they arranged for the germination and creation of the trees and the bushes, the germination of all life and creation, in the darkness and in the night, by Heart of Sky, who is called Huracan.
First is Thunderbolt Huracan, second is Youngest Thunderbolt, and third is Sudden Thunderbolt. The three together are Heart of Sky. Then they came together with Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent. Together they conceived light and life:
POPOL VUH, The Sacred Book of the Maya, Allen J. Christenson,
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 2003, p.70
Heart of Sky, being the Pole Star, arrived and spoke with Sovereign, representing the ecliptic, earth’s orbit around the sun, and Quetzal Serpent, the earth’s rotation on its tilted polar axis, came to an accord and gave birth to humanity, germinated the trees and bushes and all life and creation…
Thunderbolt Huracan, Youngest Thunderbolt and Sudden Thunderbolt, ‘The three together are Heart of Sky’. Depending on context, three of anything seems to suggest the locations on the horizon of the rising and setting sun on the solstices and equinoxes, with Youngest Thunderbolt being the new sun born the dawn after the winter solstice. If thunderbolts are actually rays of light, then Sudden Thunderbolt probably refers to the first ray of light at dawn on the Vernal Equinox, leaving Thunderbolt Huracan representing the summer solstice, all dependent on the earth’s axial tilt. ‘Together they ‘conceived’ light and life’:
VISION IN LONG DARKNESS (RG VEDA 1.164)
ASYA VAMASYA HYMN
(At the time of the morning Sacrifice)
1. Here, the Lord of tribes I behold,
A benign, greyhaired priest with seven heroes as sons,
Flanked by his two brothers:
Lightning and the oil sprinkled fire.
2. He rides a one-wheel, seven-spoked chariot;
A horse with seven names draws this triple-naved,
Ageless and uncheckable wheel;
All these worlds rest on her.
3. Seven steeds draw the seven-wheeled chariot,
Sounding with seven sacred notes.
Seven sisters call out to the place
Hiding the seven names of the cows.
4. Who was there to see the structured one
When the unstructured one first bore him?
Where was the Earth’s life, her blood, her breath?
Who may seek some light on this from a sage?
5. I, simpleton, asking this in ignorance,
Meditate on the footprints set down by the gods.
Wise singers have spun a seven-stranded tale
Around the Sun, this calf from heaven.
6. I, ignorant, unknowing, seek knowledge
From those seers who may know.
What was the One? Who was the Unborn One?
Who propped apart the six regions?
10. Solitary he rises with three fathers and mother’s on his shoulders;
The weight does not wear him down.
On top of the distant sky there stands
The Word (Vac), encompassing all,
Yet she does not enter all.
11. Never does the twelve-spoked wheel of Rta wear out
As it keeps revolving in the heavens.
Agni, look, there stand seven hundred
And twenty sons in pairs.
12. Some call the Father, with five and twelve forms,
Affluent, residing in the far side of heaven.
Others say, the white-seeing One
Is moving on the seven-wheeled six spoked chariot.
13. On the five-spoked wheel as it rolls, are the world’s supported;
Though heavy-laden, the axle hardly grows hot;
Even from it’s very start, as it is fitted right
With its navel, it is unbreakable.
14. The undecaying wheel with its felly
Has been drawn upwards by the ten-yoked ones.
The eye of the Sun, though covered in darkness,
Rolls on; on it are the world’s kept in motion.
15. Besides the months in pairs, there is a seventh, born singly,
The six set of twins are god-born rsis,
Their sacrifices set in harmony with definite rules,
Alterations introduced by arrangement.
18. Who has ever known the Father,
Who is below what’s above, and above what’s below?
This mystery, who explains it as a seer?
The knowledge of the gods, where does it begin?
19. They say that future sacrifices are also ancient,
And that the ancient are also present.
Soma, all you and Indra have done
Is carried back and forth as yoked to the chariot pole of the Sky.
20. Two birds with fair wings, inseparable companions,
Have found refuge in the same sheltering tree.
One incessantly eats from the fig tree;
The other, not eating, just looks on.
22. The sweet berry grows at the top,
On that tree where the honey-sucking birds roost and breed.
No one reaches the top
Who does not know the Father.
23. They alone gain immortality
Who know that the gayatri foot is based upon the gayatri hymn;
The tristubh foot is shaped from the tristubh hymn;
The jagat foot is based on the jagat hymn.
24. With the gayatri foot a hymn is fashioned, with the hymn a chant;
With the tristubh foot a unit of chant.
With double or quadruple units, a chant.
From the primary unit (aksarena) they fashion the seven tones
(vanih).
25. With the jagat the river in the sky is fixed.
One beholds the Sun in the rathamtara chant.
They say the gayatri has three kindling sticks;
And so it has excelled in its immense power.
33. The Sky was my progenitor and Father.
The navel, the place of union; my Mother was this great Earth.
The space between these two outstretched regions was my womb.
Here the Father has made his own daughter pregnant (Dawn)
34. I ask you: What is the ultimate limit of the Earth?
I ask you: What is the central point of the Universe?
I ask you: What is the semen of the Cosmic Horse?
What is the ultimate dwelling of Language?
35. This altar is the limit of the Earth.
This Sacrifice is the navel of the Universe.
This Soma is the semen of the Cosmic Horse.
This Brahman (singer) is the center of Language.
42. From her (Vac) flow the oceans,
By her live the four regions.
From her flows the aksara;
On it the entire universe stands.
44. The three long-haired ones appear at the right time.
One of them consumes all in one year’s run,
Another cast his glance of power on things,
And the third lets his trail be seen, but not his form.
48. Twelve spokes, one wheel, three navels.
Who can comprehend this?
On it three hundred and sixty pegs rest;
They do not wobble in the least.
49. From your inexhaustible breast, Saraswati,
You cause the best nourishment to grow with vigor;
You grant wealth and bring treasures;
Give us your breast here that we may suck.
50. With the Sacrifice the gods sacrificed the Sacrifice.
This was the first Norm.
That power (thus generated) reaches the top of heaven,
Where the ancient sadhyah, the gods are.
Meditations through the Rg Veda, Antonio T. de Nicolas, Nicloas Hays
Ltd, Stony Brook,N.Y., pgs. 200-205
This chant begins with the number seven mentioned in the first three verses. Verse 2 begins with, ’He rides a one-wheel, seven-spoked chariot’. The number seven, depending on context, very likely refers to the earth’s yearly 364 day orbit around the sun which divided by seven equals fifty two, a number seen in Mayan time keeping. Though the Maya were familiar with the 365 day year, 364 divides more evenly, perhaps ritually, and is intimately related to a particular mathematics that describes the earth’s axial tilt. (See Part IV Portal Gematria) Vision in Long Darkness is composed of fifty-two verses for a reason.
Verse 4 Earth ‘before’ or without its tilted axis. Verse 5 Wise singers ‘spinning’ a ‘seven-stranded tale around the sun’.
Verse 6 Who created the Creator?
Verse 10 The solstices and equinoxes?
Verse 11, never does the twelve-spoked wheel of Rta wear out as it keeps revolving in the heavens. Is this the Precession of the Equinoxes? Next it mentions seven hundred and twenty sons in pairs. This equals 360 pairs of sons, a number possibly referencing the 360 degrees in a circle and precession.
Verse 12 Father with five (?) and twelve forms, 5x12 = 60 degrees in a circle, and or the twelve constellations (?),‘seven wheeled’ – orbit, six spoked chariot – rotation?
Verse 13 ‘On the five-spoked wheel, as it rolls are the world’s supported;’ - 365 days/5 = 73, Though heavily laden, the axle hardly grows hot, with its navel, it is unbreakable. - the earth’s polar axis?
Verse 14 ‘The undecaying wheel with its felly, the celestial equator?
Verse 15 Months in pairs, set in harmony with definite rules and alterations introduced by arrangement’, - calendars and extra leap days?
Verse 18 ‘The knowledge of the gods. Where does it begin?’, - the circle and its geometry?
Verse 19 ‘Soma, all you and Indra have done, is carried back and forth as yoked to the chariot pole of the Sky,’ - the seasons?
Verse 20 ‘Two birds with fair wings, inseparable companions, have found refuge in the same sheltering tree’, - the earth’s rotating celestial equator and the pole star sheltering in the same tree, the earth’s axis?
Verse 22 ‘The sweet berry grows at the top, on that tree…’, - the relationship between the earth’s axis and the pole star?
Verses 23, 24 and 25; Verse 25 With the jagat the river in the sky is fixed ‘, - the axial tilt? If this is true, Gayatri and Tristubh probably refer to earth’s orbit around the sun and it’s daily rotation. Verse 24 ‘With the gayatri foot a hymn is fashioned, with the hymn a chant, ‘With the tristubh foot a unit of chant’ – both are units of measure, the gayatri foot is one year or 365 days and the tristubh foot is one day and or 24 hours.
Verses 33, 34, and 35 are a Vedic version of the Vernal Equinox dawn. Verse 33 ‘The navel, the place of union’ is where the celestial equator and the ecliptic intersect. ‘The space between these two outstretched regions was my womb’ is the 23.4 degree ‘v’ shaped ‘opening’, the Golden Womb’, between the two. See Fig. 1 above and compare the plane of the ecliptic with earth’s celestial equator. Verses 34 and 35; ‘What is the ultimate limit of the Earth?’, ‘This altar is the limit…’ – where one stands facing the horizon. ‘What is the central point of the Universe?’, ‘This ‘sacrifice’ is the ‘navel’ of the Universe’, - ‘calculation’(?) of place and time and the pole star. ‘What is the semen of the cosmic horse?’, ‘This Soma is the semen of the Cosmic Horse’, - the life force created by the sun and uniquely manifested by the earth’s celestial mechanics.
Verse 48 ‘Twelve spokes, one wheel, three navels’; twelve spokes - twelve constellations, one wheel – the earth’s rotation , and three navels - the sun on the horizon at sunset on the solstices and equinoxes . ‘On it three hundred and sixty pegs rest’ implies something circular or cyclic, while ‘They do not wobble in the least’ suggests stability. ‘The wobble’ in modern parlance refers to the gravitational effect the sun and moon have on the earth and its tilted axis throughout the roughly 26,000 year cycle of precession. Depending on translation, did Rg Vedic poets really know about the wobble, and by using that term were they contrasting the concept of roughly calculating the length of the year using the sun’s solstice and equinox locations on the horizon versus using certain stars to more accurately do the same which also over time would reveal precession where each constellation takes its turn setting on the horizon at dawn on the Vernal Equinox? ‘Stability’ may mean longevity.
Verse 50 ‘With the Sacrifice the gods sacrificed the Sacrifice’ This became the first Norm’, describes the creation of the earth’s tilted polar axis from the earth without one, also similarly described below when Indra splits open the side of the mountain. ‘That power reaches the top of heaven’, the pole star, ‘Where the ancient sadhya the gods, are’, seems to reflect the cosmological importance of the pole star.
RG VEDA 10.121
HYMN TO PRAJAPATI (FATHER OF ALL CREATURES)
1. In the beginning was Hiranyagarbha (Golden Womb)
Only-lord of all that was born.
He upheld the heaven and earth together.
What god shall we sacrifice?
‘In the beginning was Hiranyagarbha, the Golden Womb’. This is the 23.4 degree ‘V’ shape opening’ between the plane of the ecliptic and the earth’s celestial equator. (Fig.1.) The‘Only-lord of all that was born’,‘He upheld the heaven and the earth together’ is masculine and very likely represents the earth’s tilted polar axis.
Meditations through the Rg Veda, Antonio T. de Nicolas, Nicolas Hays
Ltd, Stony Brook,N.Y. 1976, p.226
RG VEDA 1.32
HYMN TO INDRA
1. Let me sing what Indra did,
The first deed the thunder-wielder performed.
He killed the Dragon, released the Waters,
He split open the side of the Mountain.
2. He killed the Dragon hiding in the Mountain;
His thunder-bolt Tvastar made for him;
Like cattle lowing for their calves,
The Waters rushed, roaring and tumbling to the sea.
3. With the strength of a bull he took Soma,
As it lay pressed in three full vats;
Powerful, he took thunder for his weapon
And killed the first-born of the dragons.
4. Indra, when you killed the first-born of the dragons,
You uncovered all that lay hidden;
You created the Sun, the Dawn and Heaven,
And you did not find anyone who could stand against you.
5. Indra with his powerful and deadly thunder,
Dismembered Vrtra, most powerful dragon.
Like the trunk of a tree fell by the axe,
The Dragon lies limp on that spot of the earth.
15. Indra is king of all that moves and stands still,
Of tame creatures and horned things.
Over all the people he is the ruler,
Encircling all, like a rim the spokes.
Meditations through the Rg Veda, Antonio T. de Nicolas, Nicolas Hays
Ltd, Stony Brook, N.Y., 1976, ps.195-197
Verse 1 ‘Indra killed the dragon, released the waters and split open the side of the mountain’. Referring back to Fig.1, ‘splitting open the side of the mountain’ is a metaphor that resulted in the creation of the ‘Golden Womb’, that 23.4 degree ‘gap’ between the plane of the ecliptic and the celestial equator. ‘Releasing the waters’ suggests rain and the seasons caused by the axial tilt.
Verse 2 ‘The Dragon hiding in the Mountain’ probably refers to a type of demonic or belligerent entity representing earth’s orbit around the sun. ‘His thunder-bolt Tvastar made for him’; in this scenario, Tvastar is the pole star helping Indra in the creation of the celestial equator. Interesting that we find the term thunder-bolt appearing in both this Vedic chant and the Mayan Popol Vuh. Waters rushing to the sea, rivers.
Verse 3 ‘Strength of Soma laying pressed in three full vats’ – the three vats, imply something circular, and ‘full’, a type of accumulated gravitational cosmic energy that very likely references the earth’s orbit around the sun, its rotation, and its axial tilt at, or just before dawn on the Vernal Equinox.
Verse 4 Indra created the Sun, heliocentrism, the Dawn, earth’s rotation, and Heaven, the pole star axis.
Verse 5 Indra dismembered Vrtra, most powerful dragon, like the trunk of a tree fell by the axe, the ‘Dragon lies limp on that spot of earth’, - the plane of the ecliptic.
Verse 15 ‘Indra is king of all that moves and stands still’, ‘Encircling all like a rim of spokes’ – very much like the feathered serpent, Indra and ‘all that moves’ probably means rotation and the celestial equator and ‘stands still’, possibly refers to the tilt in the earth’s axis which doesn’t really change.
Antonio de Nicolas; “The Battle of Indra and Vrtra “The battle was fierce and Indra was wounded when Vyamnsa (who is Vrtra, 1.32.3) broke his jaw (4.18.9). Indra broke Vrtra’s jaw (10.152.3;1.52.6) and his face or nose (1.32.6), split his head, and left him lying there dead (amuya). His weapons pierced twenty-one mountains (8.96.2) – which means that he slew Vrtra.” (Meditations; p.119)
Compare this with the ‘Defeat of Seven Macaw’ just below.
POPLO VUH
THE DEFEAT OF SEVEN MACAW
THIS, then is the blowgun shooting of Seven Macaw by the twins. We shall now tell the story of the defeat of each of the prideful ones.
This is Seven Macaw and a great nance tree. This, then, is the food of Seven Macaw. Each day he would rise up to the top of the tree to knock down some of the fruit from the nance tree, and it is there he was seen by Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
The twins watched for him beneath the tree, hidden in the leaves. At length Seven Macaw perched on the nance tree to feed and was shot by one of them. Hunahpu directed a pellet straight from his blowgun into his jaw. Seven Macaw cried out, sailing over the top of the tree and landing on the ground.
Quickly, Hunahpu ran out to seize him. But instead Seven Macaw tore off the arm of Hunahpu. He wrenched it back, bending it back at the shoulder until it was torn free from Hunahpu.
So then Seven Macaw went to his home holding his jaw in his palms.
“What have you got there?” asked Chimalmat, the wife of Seven Macaw.
What is it?
“Two demons shot me. My jaw is dislocated by them and now my teeth torment me in pain”.
POPOL VUH, Allen J. Christianson, University of Oklahoma Press,
Norman, Oklahoma, 2007, p.97
As mentioned above, the mythological number seven, depending on context, can symbolize the 364 day year and would suggest the plane of the ecliptic and the deity which represents the earth’s orbit around the sun. The blowgun could be synonymous with Indra’s thunderbolt and the angle at which Hunahpu is shown holding it on some Mayan vases implies the earth’s celestial equator, discussed in much more detail in Pt.III’s Art Motifs. A remarkable coincidence is the breaking of Vrtra’s and Seven Macaw’s jaws. Referring again to Fig.1, the ’V’ shaped opening between the ecliptic and earth’s celestial equator, the Golden Womb, can also be imagined as being a pair of hinged jaws, the opening measuring 23.4 degrees between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer. The breaking of Vrtra’s and Seven Macaws jaws metaphorically represents the creation of the new celestial equator.
The Egyptian Pyramid Texts, carved onto the tomb walls of Unas, the last pharaoh of the 5th Dynasty, date towards the end of his reign ca. 2323 BCE. These texts are the earliest known examples of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. From the RECITATION quoted above, ‘glider is entwined by glider, the toothless calf that emerged from the garden is entwined’. These three entities encode the earth’s celestial mechanics. Glider entwined by glider implies the relationship between the earth’s orbit and it’s daily rotation gliding around the sun, both used to measure time. The toothless calf emerging from the garden, also entwined, suggests the axial tilt of the planet and possibly the Vernal equinox that brings new life. Toothless because the tilt itself does not change and is not as efficient at measuring the time. The 2325 BCE date closely approximates the transition from Taurus to Aries in the precession cycle of the equinoxes.
The Coffin Texts date to the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, 2040-1782 BCE, by which time the Osiris cult evolved and elaborated on the triadic theme of the earth’s celestial mechanics found in the Pyramid Texts by adding a fourth element. The first, ‘you are the Lion’, represents the earth’s orbit around the sun. Second and third, ‘you are the Double Lion’ is the twin dynamics of the earth’s rotation on its tilted axis. And fourth ,‘you are Horus’, very likely represents the relationship between the axial tilt and the pole star, which at the time was either a dimming of the star Thuban in the constellation Draco or the star Kochab, in the constellation Ursa Minor, taking it’s place.
The Egyptian New Kingdom, 1570-1069 BCE, version has a total of five actors involving a slightly more nuanced interpretation of events. There are two sets of twins, twin brothers and twin sisters married to each other. This is similar to the ‘Double Lion’ found in the Pyramid Texts. The two brothers are Set, married to his sister Nephthys, and Osiris, married to his sister, Isis. The fifth actor is Horus. Set kills Osiris, cuts him into fourteen pieces, and makes him ruler of the Underworld. Set is ‘Glider’ and also the ‘Lion’ from the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts respectively. He represents the earth orbiting the sun and the plane of the ecliptic. Set’s twin brother, Osiris, represents the earth’s tilted polar axis, an explicit geocentric creation story incompatibility that Set could not tolerate, so much so that through Osiris’s dismemberment he eliminates the northern half of the polar axis, leaving Osiris ruler of the Underworld. This is very likely the meaning of the ‘T’ symbol, the lower vertical half representing the ‘underworld’ located between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn where the sun goes in the winter, with the upper horizontal part symbolizing, depending on context, either the equator or the eastern horizon on the Vernal Equinox. Isis finds and reassembles most of Osiris’ body and somehow through some re-incarnation phallic event becomes impregnated and gives birth to Horus. This fertile event very likely encodes the celestial mechanics involved the very moment the zenith passage of the sun ‘returns’ to either hemisphere on the day after the Vernal Equinox, the first day of spring. This phallic solar event, the birth of Horus, taking place just above the equator reestablishes the symbolic relationship between the pole star and the celestial equator. Isis represents the planet’s rotational celestial equator that straddles the plane of the ecliptic at the 23.4 degree angle, recalling the ‘Golden Womb’, found in Rig Veda (10.121) above. See Fig.1. Isis’s twin sister, being married to Set, represents the female component of the earth’s orbital plane. Verse 33 above, from the Rg Veda’s ‘Vision in Long Darkness’ (1.164) seems to be a description of this possibility at the Vernal Equinox dawn.
33. The Sky was my progenitor and Father.
The navel, the place of union; my Mother was this great Earth.
The space between these two outstretched regions was my womb.
Here the Father has made his own daughter pregnant (Dawn).
(de Nicolas, p. 204)
Immaculate conception? Verse 8, also from The Vision in Long Darkness, seems to describe a scene found on several Codex Style Mayan vases.
8. The Mother (the Dawn) following the Norm (Rta),
Yielded to the Father (Sky) his share, as in the beginning with one
mind.
A ‘reluctant prude’, she got pregnant when pierced,
In reverence the worshippers applause her fecundity.
(de Nicolas, p. 201)
The narrative above seems similar to one found on a Mayan vase, Fig.105, where there is an image of a woman wrapped in the coils of a serpent in a posture of resistance. There is also the ‘T ‘symbol that appears to be rising from a semi-circle on her, mostly horizontal, sloped forehead. Also note the feather coming out of the top of the ‘T’ looping back down into the cross hatching of the serpent’s skin. The hieroglyph, just above composed of several circles, was the first clue that led me to suspect that celestial mechanics (Rta?) was known in Mesoamerica, at least by the time this vase was created ca. 700 CE. The semi-circle and the ‘T’, along with the glyph and the serpent most likely encode earth’s celestial mechanics approaching dawn on the Vernal Equinox.
The Mayan Popol Vuh’s version of events involves a similar number and type of actors as the Egyptian Coffin Texts. ‘Then came his word, Heart of Sky arrived here with Sovereign and Quetzal Serpent in the Darkness, in the night’. (Christensen p. 70). Both Lion and Sovereign symbolize the earth’s orbit around the sun. The Double Lion and Quetzal Serpent represent the earth’s celestial equator rotating on its tilted polar axis.
GENESIS
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters”. 7And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.
11 And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is there 14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”. And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights, the greater to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also.
The Genesis creation story, similar to the Vedic and Popol Vuh versions, begins with a void, then light and dark and the coming of days, the beginning of life and signs for the seasons. This is celestial mechanics. Both the Rg Veda and Popol Vuh narratives involve multiple actors whereas Genesis involves only one, God. Was the Old Testament written at a time when there was no pole star, or is there another reason for Judaic monotheism? Is there any similarity or connection to Pharaoh Akhenaten’s mono-cult that he attempted to abolish the Osiris cult with?
Who were the first to notice or care that one star in the night sky does not move while all the others move at the same angle relative to the horizon? This human consciousness creation story begins with the realization that the earth rotates on a tilted polar axis. Without a pole star, that supposition could be challenged in a court of cosmological law. Cosmologies based on understanding and utilizing this ‘trinity’ could provide a basis or framework for designing a more stable socio economic alternative to monarchy, one more suited to a city-state. Teotihuacan from its inception was a planned community that very likely incorporated this cosmological trinity in its design, something that may possibly explain the many triadic architectural groups spread throughout the city. The Masons who created American democracy and its tripartite form of government may have been similarly inspired by some sort of idea or notion about an Old World type of social organization with a relatively progressive consciousness based on the mutually exclusive complimentary nature of earth’s celestial mechanics with the Executive branch representing earth’s orbit around the sun, Sovereign, the two branches of Congress managing the day and night affairs of earth’s tilted rotation, The Feathered Serpent, and the Judiciary representing earth’s tilted polar axis, the giver and taker of life, with the added inclusivity of a voting public possibly representing the pole star?
The gallery of Art Motifs that follows below is arranged somewhat chronologically but with a particular emphasis placed on comparing similar motifs or iconography between Old and New World cultures whether they follow a particular timeline or not. I have added comments for most images but have left some of those with similar iconography little or no comment that the interested reader should compare and research for themselves the possible connectivity between these cultural artifacts.
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