Recovering the Lost World,
A Saturnian Cosmology --Jno Cook
Part 16: The Book Of Chilam Balam Of Chumayel.

[Table of Contents]

$Revision: 23.11 $
Contents of this chapter: [Introduction] [The Katun Cycle] [The Start of History] [Author's Introduction] [The Thirteen: Saturn] [The Nine: Jupiter] [Nine Lives: Mars] [The Four Trees] [Katun 9-Ahau: Ten-Sky] [Katun 7-Ahau: Venus] [The 2349 BC Event] [The Moon] [Katun 5-Ahau: Jupiter Returns] [The Burning Tower] [The Planted Timbers] [Katun 3-Ahau: the Sun] [The 8th Century BC] [The day of Kan] [The Flowers] [Saturn] [Jupiter] [The End of History] [Recap of Book 10] [Endnotes]

Introduction

The "Chilam Balam" books are a collection of post-colonial (16th century AD) native manuscripts in the Mayan languages, using the Latin script, which recorded histories and prophesies, many dating back with certainty for hundreds of years, while Books 10 and 11 plus some single pages, recollect events dating back thousands of years but presented in terse and obscure language.

Book 11 recalls events leading to the creation in 8347 BC of the ball plasmoids of the south. This is the "first creation." Book 11 may include events dating back to ca 30,000 BC. A separate single page of the "Chilam Balam" recalls the "survey of the world" during the period of perhaps ca 8300 BC to 5000 BC, while yet another single page recalls the fall of the Absu in 2349 BC. These three items are addressed in Chapter 17.

What follows below is an attempt to 'read' Book 10 in terms of the chronology of celestial events which I have already established on the basis of information from the eastern Mediterranean region, India, and China. Book 10 deals with the "second creation" and subsequent events, including the "third creation."

"The Book Of Chilam Balam Of Chumayel" was translated into English by Ralph L Roys in 1933, based on original sources, and compared to other extant documents and other copies of the "Chilam Balam." It is not easy to read, even though the text is supplemented with extensive footnotes and added commentary. One of the stumbling blocks is the mention of many Maya Gods which are still obscure and difficult to identify today. A copy of "The Book Of Chilam Balam Of Chumayel" is on line at [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/cbc/].

I first looked at the "Chilam Balam" after I had written most of the text of these pages. In Book 10 of the "Chilam Balam", labeled (by Roys) "The Creation of the World," I ran into a phrase which caught my attention..

"Then there came great misery, when it came about that the sun in Katun 3-Ahau was moved from its place for three months."

If there is one thing for certain, it is that since the Sun first appeared, it has never moved, acted up, or changed its look in human memory -- except, of course, in 685 BC, as I had already established. Could this be a record of the nova event of Venus of 685 BC (680 BC in eastern Mediterranean chronology), when the polar axis relocated, the dome of the sky twisted, and the vernal equinox moved suddenly to another zodiac sign?

A calculation showed that the first 20-year Katun 3-Ahau period after 747 BC started in 687 BC (6.3.0.0.0), two years before my estimate for the Venus nova event of 685 BC. A closer reading of the remaining text soon convinced me that this Book retold events dating back to before 3100 BC and probably to before 4200 BC.

The clearest indication of this was a description of the interaction between Jupiter and Saturn which can be placed in 3147 BC. It is described with uncanny accuracy -- if we are allowed to transfer the names of two sets of obscure Gods, "The Thirteen" and "The Nine," to Saturn and Jupiter. The remainder of this text provides the details. This Book of the "Chilam Balam" recounts what is known among the people of Mesoamerica as the "second creation" and subsequent events of the "third creation" and through 685 BC. The "first creation" is recounted in Chapter 17, "The Earlier Olmec Record of the Past," along with another retelling of the "third creation."

The Katun Cycle

First a word should be said about the cycle of 13 Katuns in use by the Maya at the time of the Spanish invasion. After Classical times (ca AD 900), the Maya dropped their 'Long Count' dating and reduced their calendar to a repeating cycle of 13 Katuns (which was in use already before AD 900). Each Katun consists of twenty Tuns, that is, twenty 360-day years (not the 365-day Haab years) and thus 19.71 of our Gregorian years, each named after the last day of the period in the Tzolkin day nomenclature. This, as it turns out, is always one of the day-numbers 1 through 13, followed by the day-name Ahau. The Katuns are named, in order, 11-Ahau, 9-Ahau, 7-Ahau, etc, skipping a day number for each consecutive Katun. The complete cycle of 13 Katuns is approximately 256.26 actual current years.

Because of the Maya philosophy of cyclic time, only this single cycle of 13 Katuns was recognized, and all events placed within this cycle, although at times other Books of the "Chilam Balam" texts will list Katuns as a series extending over many cycles. But often events separated by 256, 512, or 1024 years are all listed for the same Katun. Thus when an event is said to occur in Katun 4-Ahau, it could have happened in any 256 year interval of the past, or even be a prediction for the future. It is, in fact, the predictive value of this calendar that forced the Maya to consider that all events of the past had been accomplished in a single repeating cycle, and would happen again. [note 1]

In the text below, I have added corrections to the (retrocalculated) Gregorian years to show solar years, based on the indication that the Long Count was started in 747 BC, on a day matching similar efforts at calendar reform in the eastern Mediterranean. The Olmecs added 6 Baktuns to a count set at 0.0.0.0 on February 28, 747 BC (the completion of the disturbance). Thus to correct for our insistence in calculating backward in time under the assumption that the year was always 365.24 days (as the Classical Era Maya also did), we can place the Long Count date of 0.0.0.0.0 at 6 Baktuns before 747 BC, at 3147 BC.

The corrections are then made by counting forward in time with 3147 - 400*{Long Count Baktuns} - 20*{Long Count Katuns} up to 747 BC (even though the year 747 BC on which this is based is actually -747).

Retrocalculation for dates from the sculptures at Palenque (ca AD 700) require a different method. This has been covered in Chapter 9 "The Career of Jupiter," and takes into account the difference between 360 and 365.24 days in the year. The recalculated dates in this chapter match the corrected eastern Mediterranean chronology, with some exceptions, which can be attributed to the attitudes of the Maya to the very concepts about time, and which will be explained below.

Katun 11-Ahau: History Starts

Bishop Diego Landa had destroyed 27 Maya glyphic manuscripts in AD 1562, but it is likely that many remained, for even 100 years later missionaries were reading prophesies from original bark books (as, for example, the Spanish missionary Avendaño, in AD 1696).

The "Chilam Balam" books had a different status than the original bark books. Written by the Maya in European notebooks, in the European script, but in the Mayan language, these formed a greatly condensed record of the histories, rituals, and prophesies from the time before the invasion of the Spanish in AD 1517. It was an efficient method of keeping in touch with the past. The books were kept from the Spanish priests, recited at village meetings, and copied and recopied for 300 years. The readers knew the context of the information of these notebooks, although likely this was slowly lost over the next few hundred years. [note 2]

The "Chilam Balam" books all insist that the cycle of history starts with Katun 11-Ahau. Although Maya history recorded on monuments does not reach back before AD 300 or 400, their calendar was in universal use throughout Mesoamerica probably since 600 BC or earlier, and the predecessors to the Maya, the Olmecs, were probably responsible for the concept that history started with Katun 11-Ahau. Roys claims that this is so because the first day of Katun 11-Ahau starts with the day 1-Imix which is the first day of the 260 day Tzolkin cycle of naming days. But in the grammatical construction of Indian languages, a date (or Katun) does not exist until it is completed, which is why Katuns are named after their last day, not the first. [note 3]

I think the reason for starting history with Katun 11-Ahau is that the ending of a Katun 11-Ahau coincided with a calendar change in 747 BC, when calendars were changed world-wide, and in many cases initiated. It turns out that this guess was correct, a Katun 11-Ahau ended in 747 BC, in fact, on February 28th. This is the ending date for the Roman annual calendar, and the day after the date of the start of the 'Era of Nabonassar' used in the Babylonian Chronicles, and presented by Ptolemy in about AD 150 for his list of Kings of Babylon and his list of eclipses. This is the date that the year changed from 360 days to 365.25 days. [note 4]

This is not just a coincidence. The odds of a single 20 year Katun, out of a cycle of 13 Katuns, ending in the year 747 BC, is small. That it should fall exactly on the date before the start the "Era of Nabonasser" is astounding. The Babylonian day started at nightfall. The first day of the Long Count is actually the day following 6.0.0.0.0.

Considering that the nova event of Venus in 685 BC also coincides with the Katun period of the correct name, I thought that perhaps some faith could be placed in these Katun dates, although I expected much of the information to be out of place. In fact, as I read through the text, I realized that most of the very old events were arbitrarily assigned to Katun 11-Ahau. I did not initially expect any of the other celestial events to be placed in Katuns which corresponded with known dates from the Middle East. But at the conclusion of investigating this text, it looked like all except two of the events were correctly placed. One was, I suspect, a transcription error, and the second was a deliberate change made during classical times to coincide the date of an important event with a certain day of the Tzolkin.

Many of the events recorded in Book 10 of the "Chilam Balam," however, seem to be in the wrong order in going from one event to the next. It is as if some canonical source was misread, perhaps reading the left page before the right page from a book meant to be read from right to left (which, in fact, was the case for the Maya codexes). It would seem that in some cases only the information of single sentences occupied a full page of the original. That suggests an illustrated codex with a text in glyphs.

Additionally, it looks as if the author had accessed three or four separate original sources, which do not match in format, although none of the events are repeated. I will indicate the suspected shift from one source to another where I have become aware of them. [note 5]

As you can imagine, the "Chilam Balam" represented a giant sequencing puzzle, both because of the obscure sequencing of history and because of a few errors which were incorporated by the original copyist. It took me six months to get through the text initially, and I had to make a number of changes afterwards. Often a resolution of textual elements involved attempting to place myself in the position of a copyist who is earnestly trying to make sense of a document which related events from thousands of years ago.

But thanks to a cultural continuity, we can identify element which were once identified as actual and which (from our point of view) had shifted to become metaphors. The greatest help in this was reading Linda Schele and David Freidel's book "Maya Cosmos" (1993) prior to tackling the "Chilam Balam," for the authors identify many element from the Classical Maya era, 1500 years ago, which still appear among the contemporary practices of Maya shamans.

In "Maya Cosmos" Schele and Freidel where eventually forced to consider the stars as a major element in Maya cosmology and show that these were part of religious practices of the Classical era and are still in current use. Thus when I ran into the "timbers at the crossroads" and the "precious objects," the equivalent in our terminology instantly jumped to mind, and without question. It has likewise been shown by Schele and Freidel that many concepts and ideas (more properly would be to say 'images') of the 16th century AD Guatemalan "Popol Vuh" were already being depicted in Classical times. See Chapter 20 for an analysis of the "Popol Vuh."

In the following I have kept the "Chilam Balam" text in the same order as it exists, with a few alternate readings by Bolio (see below), and some footnotes by Roys, added.

The specificity of Roys' translation can be compared against a more recent translation, by Suzanne D. Fisher, made from an earlier translation into Spanish made in 1930 by Antonio Mediz Bolio (see [http://myweb.cableone.net/subru/Chilam.html]. Bolio has the distinction of speaking one of the Mayan languages, but this earlier Spanish translation by Bolio seem to be a composition based on the assumption that the original was written in similes and metaphors.

In a preface to a translation of Bolio's text into French, J. M. Le Clézio wrote, "At times ... he seems to prefer the beauty of the expression to the literal meaning, which results in a profoundly emotional and poetical version."

At times the Fisher translation after Bolio parallels the translation by Roys and is much more readable, but often it is altogether different. Thus the sentence I quoted above, about the Sun..

"Then there came great misery, when it came about that the sun in Katun 3-Ahau was moved from its place for three months. After three years it will come back into place in Katun 3-Ahau."

.. is rendered by Bolio as ..

"That is what is coming, when three moons have fallen in the time of the 3-Ahau Katun, and after three portions of years, trapped within the 3-Ahau Katun; ..."

Bolio, in the text shown directly above, assumes that the original is a comment on the sense of a previous sentence, which speaks to the coming of an "unending bitterness". Roys assumes the sentence starts with the mention of the "great misery" and places the agent in this phrase. Both the sense and the punctuation have been rendered completely differently. At cause is the original text, where there is no indication of the starting and ending of sentences or paragraphs. Both Roys and Bolio had to guess at the implied punctuation. Bolio has the advantage of speaking Mayan, and often he has polished the text, but I too feel he has frequently lost the specific details. In Roys' translation, on the other hand, the tense and number of the verbs and nouns often bounce back and forth unpredictably. I will use Roys' text and augment it with the Bolio text as needed.

A copy of Book 10 is available [here] which collates the text by Roys with some rephrasings by Bolio, some of the material from Roys' footnotes, and a few additional insertions, but without my extensive comments. I have added the numbered Katuns. The author starts in Katun 11-Ahau and continous in order to Katun 1-Ahau (11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1), then skips even numbered Katuns, and repeats Katuns 13-Ahaw, 11-Ahaw, and 9-Ahau.

The Author's Introduction

Book 10 of the "Chilam Balam" is the history of the "second creation" of the world, and the appearances of the planetary Gods. With some exceptions, the information never deviates from the purpose of this presentation. The text is introduced by the original writer with a note of urgency. The information is presented in the context of the new Christian God.

"It is most necessary to believe this. These are the precious stones which our Lord, the Father, has abandoned. This was his first repast, this wine, with which we, the ruling men, revere him here."

"Very rightly they worshipped as true gods these precious stones, when the true God was established, our Lord God, the Lord of heaven and earth, the true God."

This section of the "Chilam Balam" is distinct from most of the other texts of the books in offering an introduction. The comment about the "precious stones" suggest that stones were used to represent events and represent the gods. The first Christian missionaries also told that the Maya "worshipped stones." The author here turns the "stone worship" of the Maya into a misdirected earlier effort. It might also be suggested that the Maya knew very well that the planetary Gods which were worshipped were indeed nothing more than large rocks. The close passage of Mars would have demonstrated that. In Book 11, "The Ritual of the Angels," a Maya author has the Christian 'God the Father' emerge from one of the "holy stones" seen in the sky. Bolio in this case interprets "tun" as a "holy stone." In that case it might serve the reader to think of "tun" or "stone" not as material ("made of stone") but as a shape, form, or container. [note 6]

The author continues with the introduction..

"Nevertheless, the first gods were perishable gods. Their worship came to its inevitable end. They lost their efficacy by the benediction of the Lord of Heaven, after the redemption of the world was accomplished, after the resurrection of the true God, the true Dios, when he blessed heaven and earth. Then was your worship abolished, Maya men. Turn away your hearts from your (old) religion."

"(This is) the history of the world in those times, because it has been written down, because the time has not yet ended for making these books, these many explanations, so that Maya men may be asked if they know how they were born here in this country, when the land was founded."

NOTES:
() insertions by Roys in the translated text,
[] insertions are by me from footnotes or from Bolio.
I have broken up Roys' long paragraphs.

The writer acknowledges that his sources are other books. He then proceeds to list events, starting, naturally, with Katun 11-Ahau, where the cycle of history starts. The first few lines relate events which happened in 5800 BC and 3100 BC. He then progresses through additional Katuns in turn, but only up to Katun 3-Ahau, which Roys thinks is an interpolation (in this particular version of the "Chilam Balam"). He then very briefly speaks of the miseries of Katun 13-Ahau and touches on Katun 11-Ahau and Katun 9-Ahau as a recitation of more recent history. This is followed by portraits of Saturn and Jupiter as the two ruling Gods. Here is a list of topics, in brief outline:

• Katun 11-Ahau - The Bee Gods and The Thirteen; the fire, the rope; the capture of The Thirteen by The Nine; Nine-Lives escapes; flood and fallen sky; four trees.
• Katun 9-Ahau - Ten-Sky appears;
• Uuc Chek-nal comes; Earth and Heaven touch, 1492 BC.
• Katun 7-Ahau - A new world created, after 1442 BC.
• The "third creation," the Moon rules all of Earth (wrong Katun).
• Jupiter seated, 2349 BC; fire on high, 2250 BC; gravediggers, crossroads revealed.
• Katun 3-Ahau - The Sun leaves its path, 685 BC.
• Katun 13-Ahau - Misery, foreigners.
• Katun 11-Ahau - Nine-Lives shows, 776 - 747 BC.
• Katun 9-Ahau - Nine-Lives descends, flowers, 747 - 727 BC.
• Fall of the Absu, 2250 BC (wrong date).
• The rulership of the Thirteen.
• The rulership of the Nine.
• The return of Kukulkan.

For my previously developed chronology of celestial events see the [Brief Chronology] listing.

At first I was not always certain of how some of the descriptions translate to the chronology I had set out earlier in these pages. But allowing for the author's error in reading the order of the original texts, the insistence of sorting events by Katuns, and the additional quirk of failing to note repeating events, all of it eventually fell into place. What I am certain of is that very little seems metaphorical. Much of it is simply descriptive, even though the language is one of the Maya's environment of stones, trees, flowers, and plants.

The distinct advantage, to us, of the "Chilam Balam" -- as a source for a history of the "Age of the Gods" -- is its insistence, based in the original Mayan language, of describing actions rather that static states. In contrast, Egyptian or Mesopotamian sources deal almost entirely with static states.

The Thirteen: Saturn

The following are the first lines. The author starts at the very beginning, the first clear sight of Saturn before 5800 BC. I am translating "Oxlahun-ti-ku" as "The Thirteen" on the basis of Roys' footnotes. From the remaining context it is obvious that "The Thirteen" is Saturn, just as "The Nine" will turn out to be Jupiter. Together with the next few lines, we have here a condensation of the 3000 years of history of the Saturnian apparition to a few lines.

"It was (Katun) 11-Ahau when the Ah-Mucenca [the bees] came forth to blindfold the faces of the Oxlahun-ti-ku [The Thirteen]; but they did not know his name, except for his older sister [Uranus?] and his sons [the other planets?]. They said his face had not yet been shown to them also."

Only after reading ahead did I realize what was happening here. First, about the bees. "Ah-Mucenca," Roys relates in a footnote, are supernatural bees or bee-Gods. In conjunction with the following lines, these are likely to be satellites of Saturn, buzzing around the hive like bees. (These bees, and the hive, occur elsewhere in the "Chilam Balam" when much earlier history is being discussed.) [note 7]

"Oxlahun-ti-ku," Roys notes, "literally the Thirteen Gods, are probably the gods of the thirteen heavens of the Maya cosmos, but they are usually treated as a single god."

I would suggest that "The Thirteen" is Saturn, represented by the seven most prominent satellites which could be visually distinguished because of the proximity to Earth, plus the count of Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, and Mars (a count of six). All of these planets are recognized on other pages of the "Chilam Balam" as part of the stack of planets since before 9000 BC, and noted also in the "Popol Vuh." If Uranus is his sister, then perhaps the other planets above and below Saturn would be his sons. [note 8]

"The Thirteen" may also represent (as Roys notes) the thirteen levels of heaven imagined to be located physically above the Earth in the Maya cosmology, although I think this is likely a more recent addition to the theology. That the upper reaches of the sky are assigned to Saturn would follow from the fact that Saturn had stood above the Earth for a thousand years or more. On the other hand, Jupiter (known as "The Nine") is assigned to the nine levels of the Underworld, for he was only seen on the ecliptic, and thus dipped below the Earth.

The arcane text about "not knowing his name" may relate to the fact that a theology of these Gods was never adopted by the Maya. It has been noted (Schele and Freidel) that the earliest archaeology of the Pre-Classical Maya shows no signs of the Gods of the (later) Classical era, but I am not so sure of what that means. It is clear (at least to me) that by classical times the Saturnian planets were incorporated into the theology. A look at the "altars of the cross" at Palenque, erected in ca AD 690, show that the concern is entirely with the most recently active planets: Jupiter, Venus, and Mars. Saturn has been reduced to an old man. [note 9]

Similarly the concern with directional trees (see the text further below) has been found as four trees set in sockets at the top platforms of the earliest temple platforms of the Maya dating back to 200 and 100 BC. The iconography of the four trees first shows at Olmec La Venta, ca 650 BC, carved as four small sprouts surrounding a central figure, although archaeologists tend to identify the four sprouts as corn seedlings. In terms of this book of the "Chilam Balam," this would signify a continuation of Gods, for the directional trees are part of a mythology or history stretching back to 3100 BC -- some 1500 years before the Yucatan was first populated.

It should be recognized that the Maya, like the surrounding peoples of Mesoamerica were 'converted' at some point after 600 BC to the theology expounded by a set of graphical books which were obtained from centers in the Valley of Mexico, Veracruz, or Oaxaca. This was absolutely convincing, since the books so obtained matched their own recollections and records. I'll expand on this in following chapters.

I assume here that "they" means the sons and sister, not the bees. Saturn thus was revealed only after all the other members of the group were identified and counted. This is consistent with the information of the "Popol Vuh," except that Saturn itself is named, even if this never really happens in the "Chalam Balam." Bolio assumes that The Thirteen did not know the name of the Bee God (which he has as singular).

The "older sister" is likely to be the much larger Uranus, which was involved with this configuration from the very start, and would look to have long hair because of the outpouring of plasma from one end. The smaller outpouring at the other pole is not identified as a bird beak, as in European Upper Paleolithic and early Neolithic iconography. The "sons" would the other planets which traveled with Saturn. If these, together with Saturn, add up to six, then Venus would be included among them. Thus we can date this description to after 4200 BC, since Venus would not show up until after 4200 BC, although the wording here seems to be speaking of an earlier time.

The text continues with the obvious, that this, by declaring that this time is already after the creation of Earth, that is, the world. I should point out that the Olmecs were certain of an earlier creation, a "first creation," which is detailed in Book 11. The purpose of the book considered here (Book 10), obviously is to provide the history of the Gods which were honored in Classical times, and thus will describe the "second creation" (of 3147 BC) and the "third creation" (of 2349 BC). Other pages or books of the "Chilam Balam" will also separately describe the "first creation" and again the "third creation."

"This was after the creation of the world had been completed, but they did not know it was about to occur."

Strange as the tense of this sentence is, it seems to say that something 'unknown' preceded the existence of Oxlahun-ti-ku, Saturn. This is not unlike the myths of other people where we see 'creation' proceding from a misty chaos in the sky. The "Popol Vuh," the story of the ball playing twins, written in Guatemala about the same time as the "Chilam Balam," starts creation with the sense of an undifferentiated mass of water or mist as the 'chaos' found in other creation myths elsewhere in the world.

Thus the blindfold stretched across the face of Oxlahun-ti-ku, Saturn, is possibly the creation of the rings in 4200 BC. At that time the satellites (the Bee Gods) would be clearly seen (if Earth were mostly below Saturn at that time). If these lines were presented from sources in the eastern Mesopotamia or Egypt, I would immediately suggest that the "creation of the world" as mentioned above would be in reference to the 'land' of Saturn -- Upper Earth. But I never get a sense the stupendous object in the north skies being equated to anything other than a god-person. (With the exception of an equation of directional bees with a bee hive or pot of honey at the island of Cozumel. This is found in Book 1 of the "Chilam Balam." See the next chapter.)

"Then Oxlahun-ti-ku [Saturn] was seized by Bolon-ti-ku [Jupiter]."

"Then it was that fire descended, then the rope descended, then rocks and trees descended. Then came the beating of (things) with wood and stone."

Jupiter (Bolon-ti-ku, The Nine) is introduced here, but his mention seems out of place (Jupiter appears again a few lines later). It is also possible that we are being notified of the agent involved in the sudden nova event of Saturn in 4200 BC. It is possible that an earlier near electrical collision with Jupiter started the mass expulsion and explosive plasma discharge of Saturn, although I doubt it.

This is followed, in correct order, by the "descent of fire" and, after the extinction of the plasma flow in arc mode, by a continued discharge in glow mode as a connection to Earth -- the "rope." The 'rope' will continue into post-Classical times as a symbolic connection to heaven which delivers grace and other celestial dispensations to the Maya. The concept is still in use today among Maya shamans.

I have not made much, in the text of previous pages, of differentiating the extreme arc mode plasma discharge from the glow mode plasma, since there is little indication of how long the arc mode plasma lasted. Both are recorded in the petroglyphic records from remote antiquity (although apparently the petroglyphs specifically are in reference to an earlier south polar column; see Chapter 5, "Saturn and Archaeology") and would physically seem to follow the order as presented here -- first the "fire," then the "rope."

• "Trees and rocks" -- Here I am again beset by the fact that repeatedly the order of things seems reversed in lines which follow each other. The "trees" is a phenomenon associated with the plasma instabilities during the time of the "descent of fire," that is, a plasma stream in arc mode (but also associated with high level glow mode), but the "rocks" is more likely a descent of Mars and his followers during the lowering of "the rope." Of course I am reading these lines as sequential because they appear in the text as one following the other. But a story with an orderly sequence in time was never a strong concern of the Mesoamerican languages.

• "The beating of things with wood and stone" -- The "wood and stone" appear again later in the text in a description of the rulership of Saturn, and obviously refer to Uranus as the wood and Venus as the stone. Both might be seen as flailing about Saturn if the rotational axis of Earth and saturn did not line up (and after an earlier enclosing coma had 'evaporated' to reveal Saturn and its satellites when the planet went nova). Saturn would have been seen revolving (or rocking) in the sky. Vedic sources state that Saturn "rotated without cease." The "Chilam Balam" will address this perambulation later in the text, in a description of Saturn's rulership. What we have here, however, is a description of the visual effect of the rotational axes of the two planets not lining up. The "things" being beaten are the rings which would seem to wobble as seen from Earth. In the "Popol Vuh" the wood and stone are the magical gardening tools of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. [note 10]

In Classical times rulers are shown holding a "Venus scepter" -- a puppet-like head crowned with a jester headdress of three points and with the tail of a snake. The spikes of the headdress were recorded at other times, as in this example, from the Tang dynasty of China..

"On the morning of March 18, [AD] 904, Venus was observed near the Pleiades blazing like fire. The next morning, to observers, Venus appeared to have developed three horns, somewhat resembling a flower, and then began to tremble and shake."

-- Charles Raspil "Planetary observations of the T'ang" 1994

The three spikes are a cone of plasma extending from the pole of a planet, shaped sort of like a chalice. Only the outer edges of this shape are seen, where the plasma is visually more dense in profile. The third spike is a stream of dense plasma central to this. The plasma flowers will show predominate at the north magnetic pole. The problem with this reading of the "three horns" is that Venus does not today have a magnetic field which would be needed to support such a display. [note 11]

The 'wood,' is Uranus, seen besides Saturn, and is probably represented by a jade god-face hung by a chain from the rear of the belts of the rulers in Classical times. Notice that many features of the 'polar configuration,' such as Uranus in this instance, are differently interpreted in different instances in this text, a clear indication that the scribe was looking at illustrations which may not have been captioned.

The Nine: Jupiter

The next line again introduces Jupiter. Saturn is attacked by Jupiter, so we are now in 3147 BC.

"Then Oxlahun-ti-ku [Saturn] was seized by Bolon-ti-ku [Jupiter]."

This line exactly repeats one of the lines above, which I noted as being out of place. If so, it is an old transcription error.

"Then Oxlahun-ti-ku [Saturn] was seized, his head was wounded, his face was buffeted, he was spit upon, and he was (thrown) on his back as well."

"After that he was despoiled of his insignia and his smut."

About the above text Roys notes..

"Bolon-ti-ku, or Nine Gods, appear to be treated as one god. We find them represented in the inscriptions, and it seems likely that they represent the nine underworlds and correspond to the Nine Lords of the Night of the Mexicans."

"The inscriptions" mentioned by Roys are probably the Dresden Codex and other Maya glyphic books which had come to light before 1930. The Nine Gods is Jupiter plus its visible satellites (eight seen before the 20th century AD). [note 12]

Jupiter rises in the east from the Caribbean, and sets west in the Pacific, and travels through the sky almost overhead because the Yucatan is at a latitude of 18 to 20 degrees. Jupiter thus seems to travel in a circle over the Earth and underneath. The Maya conceived of the world as floating on water, being aware that they were bordered by the Pacific and almost surrounded by the Caribbean. And they specifically noted water from below welling up in the subterranean limestone caves and surface cenotes. The region below ground became for them the Underworld, as nine levels below ground, each level controlled by one of nine Gods. See also my notes further below on the Absu, the "House of Nine Bushes."

• "Oxlahun-ti-ku [The Thirteen] was seized" -- Saturn was held in close proximity by Jupiter. The actual close contact between Saturn and Jupiter would have lasted very little time. The shock of the electrical repulsive forces would have disturbed the orbits but this separating force would have stopped very quickly with an change in the induced voltages, the equalization due to electrical arcing, and the separation of the planets. "Seized" likely describes an extension of plasma as lightning reaching from Jupiter to Saturn.

• "... his head was wounded, his face was buffeted" -- This is the initial plasma interaction, probably in large sheets of plasma impinging on Saturn in visible glow mode, or as contacts in arc mode. Jupiter at this point, moving beyond its original orbit at 0.7 AU, was in need of electrons, and Saturn was still discharging its accumulated negative charge acquired earlier in deep space.

• "... he was spit upon" -- As Saturn distanced from Jupiter, the plasma connection initiated by Jupiter would have switched to long-distance plasmoid strikes. It might have looked like spittle, since these would take time to travel through space. Egyptian legends make this image into the sperm of Seth (Jupiter) and Horus (normally Mars, but here probably Saturn). When some of the predynastic 'kings' of Egypt take on names like "Crocodile" and "Catfish-Chisel" we are seeing similar interpretations from the other side of the globe. Plasmoid bolts look amazingly like catfish, or like crocodiles with open jaws.

• "... he was (thrown) on his back as well." -- At first of the spectacle would have been viewed in the north skies, since Earth was still below Saturn by some three million miles, and probably over four million miles below Jupiter. But as Earth was released to travel its own path around the Sun, the orbit of Earth would be lifted to have the Sun again be one focus of the orbit. At that time the perspective of the two battling planets changed and they would have been seen in the ecliptic with Saturn viewed edge-on -- equivalent to having been thrown on his back.

  The earliest Egyptian account of the death of Osiris (Saturn) is found among the fifth dynasty pyramid texts of Unas (2345 BC), where it is related that Osiris dies by falling on his side -- at the river bank. This is not the Nile river, but the river of the ecliptic.

• "After that he was despoiled of his insignia and his smut." -- "Smut" is the face paint used by priests during a period of fast and consecration, Roys notes, although Bolio reads it as plumage, which is more likely to be correct. More on the "insignia" below.

Roys has extensive footnotes on "the despoiling of the insignia," relating the insignia to "something held in the hand" -- a scepter carried by rulers, in the form of a dragon or manikin with a snake tail. The name of the "canhel" scepter translates as "dragon" or "serpent." "Something held in the hand" is most likely Venus connected to Saturn with a plasma trail. This is the scepter held by Maya rulers. This shows up also in the predynastic iconography of the pharaohs of Egypt as the cudgel wielded to strike enemies. Some writers have simply equated "canhel" to Kukulkan, the plumed serpent Quetzalcoatl.

Bolio translates the line as...

"And their [The Thirteen's] Serpent of Life, with rattlers in its tail, was stolen and with it was taken its quetzal plumage."

The "quetzal plumage" of Bolio comes close to referencing the "insignia" to Quetzalcoatl -- the "feathered serpent" of the Mexicans, transliterated as Kukulkan in Mayan, and identified as Venus. The "Serpent of Life" scepter is Venus, as Schele and Freidel have noted. [note 13]

The Maya purposely avoided any reference to Quetzalcoatl (or Kukulkan) in the "Chilam Balam" books, for the Spanish priests were on the lookout for any references to Quetzalcoatl, whom they considered as the chief object of idolatry among the Maya, based on their experience with the Aztecs. Other books of the "Chilam Balam" blame idolatry on the Itza who had moved into the Yucatan 800 years earlier and at some point supposedly brought the worship of Quetzalcoatl from Tula. But Venus (Kukulkan) had already been part of the Maya sacred iconography in Classical times as the Vision Serpent and the double-headed serpent bar. [note 14]

Nine-Lives: Mars

Next, and still in Katun 11-Ahau, we are introduced to "Nine-Lives" -- actually, the first "Nine-Lives." This paragraph is clearly out of place for the text describes events earlier before the close of the "Age of the Gods" -- before 3147 BC.

"Then shoots of the yaxum tree were taken. Also Lima beans were taken with crumbled tubercles, hearts of small squash-seeds, large squash-seeds and beans, all crushed."

"He wrapped up the seeds (composing) this first Bolon Dzacab ["Nine-Lives," Mars], and went to the thirteenth heaven."

"Then a mass of maize-dough with the tips of corn-cobs remained here on earth."

"Then its heart departed because of Oxlahun-ti-ku [The Thirteen, Saturn], but they did not know the heart of the tubercle was gone."

Roys translates "Bolon Dzacab" as "nine generations" and suggests it means "forever." Bolio translates "He who is eternal." Fisher's text has a parenthetical insertion which reads, "Yax Bolon Dzacab -- 'Great Nine-Fertilizer'." "He," at any rate, seems to refer to "Nine-Lives," Mars, not some other undefined God. Schele and Freidel also identify Yax Bolon Dzacab as God GII of the Palenque Triad, which is Mars. In footnote 11 to Chapter 2 of "Maya Cosmos," Freidel and Schele identify (on a somewhat different matter, and as a verb form) "Bolon Tz'acab" as possibly meaning "nine manifested" which makes a lot more sense.

• ".. this first Bolon Dzacab" -- Without a doubt Nine Lives is Mars. Like Horus of the Egyptians, who is called "the first Horus" when he is listed among the first gods, Mars is here called "this first Bolon Dzacab." He is also called (or implicitly regarded as) 'eternal' for he will reappear for ages to come. Although the Sumerians and Egyptians counted repeated visitations of Mars as repeated incarnations, the Maya neglect repeated visits, both in the period before and after 3100 BC and in the 8th and 7th century BC. It is likely that the 'nine' of "Bolon Dzacab" should tell us that this event happened nine times -- one more than the Sumerian "kings before the flood." For the Mesoamerican writer there was no reason to tell of repeated visits of Mars. Additionally, it is perhaps the nine risings to Saturn which are counted here, not the eight lowerings, as in Sumer. [note 15]

• "Then shoots of the yaxum tree were taken... etc" -- and other assorted small granular matter. On the one hand, the look of a planet wrapped in squashed beans and seeds would be the look of the lower half of Mars which is pockmarked with craters. But I will suggest another understanding further below.

• "Then a mass of maize-dough with the tips of corn-cobs remained here on earth." -- This obviously has reference to the 'creation of humans' events recorded in the "Popol Vuh" and other sources, when humans were fashioned by the Gods out of maize dough. Bolio makes it read as, "And then his [Mars'] skin and the tips of his bones fell here on the land."

If what is described here records the descent of Mars before 3147 BC, then the "skin and bones" would represent the massive uprising of water in the north Atlantic or the inverted dome of plasma (at the same location) which is featured as a mountain in other creation myths. The Yucatan is located ten degrees further from this site than Mesopotamia or Egypt. The clouds reaching beyond the stratosphere, if they were seen, would easily have looked like a mountain of corn mash. This is also the location of the "Seven Caves," which repeatedly show up in other Mesoamerican creation myths down to the time of the Aztecs (as well as the Incas), where humanity originated.

• "Then its heart departed because of Oxlahun-ti-ku [The Thirteen]." -- Both translators have the heart of Mars depart for the highest heaven. Bolio has, "...because the Thirteen gods [Saturn] did not want his heart and seed to be gone from them." This is the departure of Mars from Earth, and seemingly composed of the image of Mars climbing up the plasma stream in the era before 3147 BC. If this is so, then the "shoots of the yaxum tree, etc," mentioned above, might also represent the nodes in the plasma stream which seem to follow Mars on the returns.

Note that the Mars events described here are out of place. The return of Mars to Saturn happens before 3147 BC, not afterwards. In fact, the visits of Horus which the Egyptians experienced after ca 3050 BC are missing here, although they are described further below.

The close of the drama of 3147 BC is the second battle described by Hesiod. This probably took place within 100 to 150 years. The four planets retreating from the inner reaches of the Solar System had to move through the asteroid belt, with the consequence that asteroids were 'attacked' with plasma strikes -- with plasmoid bolts by Jupiter, as would be likely under the circumstances of enormous amounts of ionized material and increasing amounts of fine silicate dust in the ecliptic at the location of the asteroid belt -- formed by the plasmoid bolts of Jupiter (and the others). Plasmoids can travel millions of miles through space.

"After that the fatherless ones, the miserable ones, and those without husbands were all pierced through; they were alive though they had no hearts. Then they were buried in the sands, in the sea."

Roys notes that two other "Chilam Balam" versions read "fell to pieces" for "pierced through." The "fatherless ones" might have been asteroids large enough to be distinguished. That is hard to believe, except that when individually surrounded with a coma they could perhaps be seen from Earth. Alternately if might refer to Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus receding through the asteroid belt.

The "sea" is the whole of the southern sky below the equatorial, identified as the Absu by the Sumerians and the Duat by the Egyptians -- alive with glowing moving concentric wavy rings of particulate matter looking like a sea.

The "sand" (strand) is then the edge of this sea, or the glowing ecliptic, (which dips into the Absu for part of its length). The ecliptic would start to glow as the dust of plasma contacts from Jupiter (and the three other giant planets) started to accumulate.

"Have you no fear of me?" says the Lord; "will you not shudder before me, before me who made the shimmering sand to bind the sea, a barrier it can never pass? Its waves heave and toss but they are powerless; roar as they may, they cannot pass." -- Job 5:22

The last rings of the Absu defined a barrier between the celestial sea and the sky above it (and the oceans below). Both the Bible and the Quran identify the barrier as a strand, as here.

"There would be a sudden rush of water when the theft of the insignia of Oxlahun-ti-ku [The Thirteen] occurred."

The narrative has backed up a page. This is the massive flood which I have placed in the year 3147 BC in the narrative, the flood of Gilgamesh. It would, in any event, happen immediately after Earth managed to break away from the gravitational effects of Saturn. Again we have here, as above, a dislocation of the order of events, as if, as I have suggested, the folio pages of a book were read in the wrong order.

"Then the sky would fall, it would fall down upon the earth, when the four gods, the four Bacabs, were set up, who brought about the destruction of the world."

Here the "fallen sky" is related to the time directly after 3147 BC. I presume that this mention is not more of the "rush of water," but represents what the Olmecs understood as a collapse of the sky above Earth, and not a darkened sky as later recollected from 2149 or 2193 BC, when Akkad and Egypt both collapse economically.

The four Bacabs are the gods of the cardinal points. They will hold up the sky, and set up four trees holding up the sky. These trees now hold up the dome of the overhead and northern stars -- something perhaps never seen before. The following text will also repeatedly note that the four trees are set up as "a sign of the destruction of the world."

The Four Trees

The text here launches into a description of the four colored trees which are set up at the cardinal points, each surmounted with a bird (of the same color), and also a central tree and bird. We should welcome this side-trip into geography. Mapping the Earth is a very central element to the Mesoamerican (and American Indian) conception of the world, and as a result we have details not available in other parts of the world. Besides, the 'trees' were absolutely huge -- the largest entity ever seen in the skies.

"Then, after the destruction of the world was completed, they placed (a tree) to set up in its order the yellow cock oriole."

"Then the white tree of abundance was set up. A pillar of the sky was set up, a sign of the destruction of the world; that was the white tree of abundance in the north."

"Then the black tree of abundance was set up (in the west) for the black-breasted pi¢oy to sit upon."

"Then the yellow tree of abundance was set up (in the south), as a symbol of the destruction of the world, for the yellow-breasted pi¢oy to sit upon, for the yellow cock oriole to sit upon, the yellow timid mut."

"Then the green tree of abundance was set up in the center (of the world) as a record of the destruction of the world."

My first inclination was to suggest that these trees were versions -- real or not -- of the tree seen in the north, connecting Earth with the Saturnian planets. Saturn at the top would look like a bird, for the equatorial outpouring of plasma (the rings) of Saturn (before 3147 BC) looked like the colorfull plumage of a bird. The ball-shape of Venus connected with a long thin swirl to Saturn (as in the Egyptian "Eye of Ra") could pass as the head of a bird (as could Uranus).

When the tree of the north with Saturn on top disappeared after 3147 BC, another stellar bird appeared in its place, the constellation Ursa Major, with the location of the axis of the sky piercing the center of its body.

At a later date the Maya substituted the Milky Way for the "white tree" of the north. The Milky Way rotates through the night sky on a daily basis, starting off at different angles at different seasons, standing as a tree in the sky at the solstices, stretching from north to south horizon, and is described in Classical times. (See especially the book "Maya Cosmos" by Schele and Freidel.)

Other have suggested that these four directional trees are imaginary markers, implicit in the solstitual rising and setting of the Sun, some 25 degrees north and south of the east and west cardinal directions.

However, in previous text I have already presented details of the four trees (under the subject heading of "The Return of the Axis Mundi"). The north and south trees can be described in some detail as plasma plumes. These match the descriptions of a bird at the top, as seen here in the "Chilam Balam," and from illustrations of either a manikin or a ball at the end of the bent-over plume from Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Initially, after 3147 BC, the white tree of the north was probably the most significant as well as the most prominent plasma plume. The first tree of the north is mentioned in the sculptures at Palenque, and held at equal value with the end of the previous epoch, and the appearance of the planetary Gods (their births) 700 years later.

In a footnote Schele and Freidel translate the event of 3112 BC (a year and about six months after the start of the present epoch), known as "Wacah chan xaman waxac na GI," to 'raised-up-sky north-eight-house GI,' but also translate "Wacan chan" as 'six-sky.' The 'raised-up-sky' is based on reading "Wacan chan" as "Wac ah chan." Schele also identifies 'raised-up-sky' as the Milky Way. "GI" is Venus.

If "wacan chan" is read as six-sky it would make a closer fit to the practice in the "Chilam Balam" of prefixing celestial objects with the number of times they will appear in 3000 years of history. "Six-sky" would have appeared six times, if the plasma column were to be generated with the six known changes in the Earth's orbit (3147 BC, 2349 BC, 2193 BC, 1492 BC, 747 BC, and 686 BC). But add the change in the electrical field of the Sun of 685 BC, and there are seven. However, this reading leaves the sense of north-eight-house unresolved, which is better supported by the name of the north tree -- "Nine Successions" -- of the ball court markers at Copan (noted in Chapter 7). [note 16]

The raised-up-sky north-eight-house (edifice) of Venus (GI) was dedicated a year and a half after the start of the current era, as retrocalculated by the Maya. It is within expectations that it would take perhaps a year to develop a plasma stream in glow mode in response to a change in the electrical field surround the Earth's plasmasphere. The event is noted here (and in other records) because the raised-up-sky north-eight-house was much larger than anything else ever seen in the skies up to this point in time. It rose far above the previous polar location of Saturn. Seen from Mesoamerica, the Saturnian planets had hovered only some 20 degrees above the north horizon. "Saturn entered the sky," is noted because the planet had now moved (within a year and 9 months) across the sky and to the south. This had to be established first (in this text) because otherwise Saturn (God GI-prime of Palenque) would not have been able to construct his edifice. [note 17]

About the tree which "was set up in the center," Roys writes, "This last tree was remembered by the Maya." The green celestial tree is the massive outpouring of plasma from the south pole of Jupiter, which I have noted in earlier texts. This was seen directly after 3147 BC, and again twice after Jupiter had passed through the asteroid belt, although at these later times the 'mountain' had turned red. There is a fourth appearance in 685 BC. Note that 'green' is not one of the directional colors of the Maya. This 'tree' is located elsewhere than at one of the cardinal points.

Initially the green tree of Jupiter with its lower plasma outpouring was seen between 3147 BC and 2880 BC, before Jupiter entered the asteroid belt. The mountain was topped by two owl-like eyes peering out from the top of the head of the coma, and a beak-like form below it. These were recorded in profusion at this time -- carved on the interior walls of barrows, as petroglyphs, and as carved as amulets. Also notice that the green tree did not include a bird.

"Peratt ... identified the 'eye mask' as a 'low opacity torus' or thick ring, seen from a vantage point substantially off-axis, not too far from the plane of the torus."
-- Talbott and Thornhill, "Thunderbolts of the Gods" (2004)

In the first hundred years or so after 3147 BC, the planet Jupiter is here the green tree of the center, whereas in later text Jupiter and its lower plasma expulsion are specifically noted as being red. Both the green and red colors can be generated by excited hydrogen ions at diffuse densities.

In Egyptian mythology and funeral imagery Osiris is almost always shown as a mummy wrapped in green. In early Egyptian iconography, and in phrases recorded in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Jupiter is identified as Osiris (actually since the fifth dynasty).

Jupiters green plasma tail is designated as the "tree of the center" because it was first seen in the east or northeast, and then moved, over the course of some months, past the south to deminish again in the west or northwest. The tree was obviously 'in front of' the trees of the east. south, and west.

The image of a tree of the center will reappear in much later Olmec iconography, as seen at La Venta (ca 650 BC). Here Jupiter, which developed another plasma outpouring in 685 BC, is shown with a headdress of three flower-like petals, and legs composed of the open jaws of a crocodile. The crocodile form is the much more extensive plasma at the south pole of Jupiter (its magnetic north pole).

In much later Classical era Maya imagery the "tree of the center" (at that time represented by the Milky Way) is frequently transformed into an upended crocodile with its jaws at the bottom and branches at the top sprouting from its tail. It is, however, a direct transcription of the imagery recorded by the Olmecs in 685 BC. The "center" of the "tree of the center" is denoted in Olmec stela and inscribed celts with the addition of four sprouts (trees) at the corners of the image.

The east and west trees are very likely the toroidial belt of trapped particles (the Van Allen Belt) above the Earth's equatorial. Viewed directly overhead this would be nearly invisible because the toroid would be viewed as larger and more diffuse -- it would disappear. Seen toward the east or west, it would be much more substantial. In the east and west the edges of the toroid would be seen to rise up from the horizon, as two parallel lines or a uniform flat strip, with a circle shape at the top, looking not unlike the ball plasmoids at the ends of the polar plumes -- but without the three-pronged extensions. The east and west trees also did not move.

At the latitude of the Yucatan these would rise almost straight up into the sky. The repeated phrase of the text, "set up as a record of the destruction of the world," suggests, however, that the trees appeared suddenly. This would certainly be true for the polar plumes, which would switch from dark mode to glow mode suddenly. This also suggests that the toroidial belt also was in glow mode.

It is possible to take a hint that this might be so from Egyptian sources, as from an illustration of the "Book of the Dead," where four lights or plumes with the required bent-over shape are carried by four persons. There is also a glyph, known as "Khet," depicting a bent-over plume coming out of the top of a form identified as a lamp or brazier. [note 18]

Implicit in the imagery of the four trees at the cardinal points is the fact that they were established to hold up the dome of the sky and the stars. They (or the four Bacab Gods responsible for the cardinal points) last unharmed through other destructions of the world.

The four trees were represented in Maya temples before the start of the Classical era in AD 300 or 400 as actual tree trunks socketed into the upper platform of temples (as at Cerros before 50 BC). At the close of the Classical era, in AD 900, these had been replaced by stelae (te-tun -- tree stones), now associated with the commemoration of the passage of time and with the celebration of various rulers.

By the time of the Spanish invasion the trees signify the geographical division of the land into four quadrants, and define the local domain of individual rulers. The trees also represent the winds from the four directions. The Gods of the four trees are all named after the God of rain, Chac. These Gods also held up the sky in the form of an altar. Maya shamans today still construct these altar tables in 'creation' ceremonies. The imagery dates from the Olmec era, where stubby gods hold up 6 foot high stone altars like atlantes, as, for example, at San Lorenzo, the oldest Olmec site, dating to 1450 BC. In one instance an Olmec table edge is carved with cloud glyphs.

A listing of the directional trees, or the colors of the cardinal directions, occurs three times in the text. Each happens (as we shall see below) at a new creation, signifying a radical change in the skies, or a renewed sky.

Mesoamerica uniformly professed a belief in four creations, called "suns," except for the Aztecs who counted their own arrival at the central Mexican plateau as the fifth creation. If the 'creations' are equated with the appearance of the Sun, or a renewed Sun, then the "first creation" happened in ca 4200 BC, the "second creation" in 3147 BC, the "third creation" in 2349 BC, and a fourth may have been attributed to 1492 BC. (The actual event of the "first creation" is dated to 8347 BC, as the creation of the southern ball plasmoids.) The cardinal direction trees and colors are invoked three times in the "Chilam Balam," each time when a new sky is established, after 3147 BC, after 2349 BC, and after 1492 BC. I will return to the question of ages and eras below.

Other researchers have suggested that the tree imagery was inherited from the Mexicans (meaning, perhaps, the very late Aztecs), and it is true that a concern with geography and directions runs deep throughout the Americas. This is unlike the concerns with "paths" as a world view seen in Indo-European and Semitic languages. The directional Gods occur also among North American Plains Indians. Schele and Feidel suggest that wherever the Maya finds himself, is the center of the world.

The text above listed only three distinct trees (plus the green tree of the center). The tree of the east is not mentioned (it would have been red), but the yellow tree of the south is mentioned twice -- once at the beginning and once at the end of the list of four trees. This is likely to be a very old transcription error, for apparently other "Chilam Balam" books make the same mistake.

There is, however, a much more elegant solution, which is to suggest that in 3147 BC the east tree was indeed yellow because the Absu was yellow, like the rings of Saturn and Jupiter are yellow, golden, and buff.

I should point out that Bolio here reads the first mention of the yellow tree as,

"The four gods, the Four Bacab leveled everything. At the moment when the leveling was finished, they were secured in their places in order to ordain the yellow men."

The distinction of the Maya as yellow men, differing from the Europeans as white men, seems like a modern imposition. I doubt if the distinction dates from the 16th century AD, although mention of the "white men" is found in Book 5 of the "Chilam Balam," but the reference is probably to the white-robed priests of Quetzalcoatl.

Bolio's translation differs in some other respects. Of interest is the altogether differing translation of..

"A pillar of the sky was set up, a sign of the destruction of the world."

Bolio has that as...

"And the arch of heaven was raised, sign of the destruction below."

This may describe the rings of debris surrounding the Earth, the Absu, although these obviously existed from long before 3147 BC, as recounted (graphically) by other people at earlier dates. It is also likely, if "arch" is correctly translated, that this refers to the remnant ring of the Absu which appeared (or remained) after the fall of the Absu in 2349 BC.

This concludes the events of Katun 11-Ahau. I don't doubt the veracity of these sources, even though often presented in somewhat disorderely fashion, and describing events much older than the earliest recognized archaeology of the Maya or the Olmecs. This is not unexpected, since, as recounted in the "Popol Vuh," individual tribes acquired their own copies of the history books which had been kept at certain important sites.

In the text of the following Katuns additional details are developed, which again, with some extension of the strange names we are presented with, can be matched to worldwide catastrophic events we know from other sources. But the following events are more difficult to sort out. Whereas events before the start of the current era (3147 BC) are all listed as happening in Katun 11-Ahua, the text which follows reads as if events separated by a thousand years or more are simply listed by the Katuns during which they might have occurred -- Katun 9-Ahau, 7-Ahau, 5-Ahau, and 3-Ahau. Following these are two sections separately describing the rulership of Saturn and Jupiter.

Katun 9-Ahau: Ten-Sky

The next Katun in order, Katun 9-Ahau, is introduced with..

"The plate of another katun was set up and fixed in its place by the messengers of their lord."

The "plate" is often used to reference a Katun together with "cup," as in, "nine was its cup, nine was its plate," used to describe Katun 9-Ahau, and similar readings in the "Chilam Balam" for other Katuns. The "cup and plate" may be the "dot and bar" of the Mesoamerican numerical notation inherited by the Maya from the Olmecs. Tedlock reads "plate and cup" as the dedicatory vessels used at shrines.

At this point the four trees of the cardinal points are introduced again...

"The red Piltec was set at the east of the world to conduct people to his lord."

"The white Piltec was set at the north of the world to conduct people to his lord."

"Lahun Chaan was set (at the west) to bring things to his lord."

"The yellow Piltec was set (at the south) to bring things to his lord."

In the third line quoted above, "Lahun Chaan" (Ten-Sky) is not one of the colored trees of the cardinal points, but is Mars. So thinks Roys, who writes, in a footnote on this matter...

"Lahun Chaan is doubtless the same as the 'Lakunchan' described by Cogolludo as an idol with very ugly teeth. 'Lahun' means ten in both Maya and Chol, and 'chan' means sky, heaven, and serpent in Chol. The Maya word for sky is 'caan'."

He continues at length, and adds..

"We recall that a fleshless jawbone is one of the symbols of the number ten on the monuments; but the figure appears to be the regent of the second Venus period in the Dresden Codex, and the regent of the first of these periods in the Mexican Codex Bologna also has a fleshless lower jaw. Since the above passage in the Chumayel implies that Lahun Chaan was set in the west, the translator is inclined to believe that this god was closely connected with the appearance of Venus as an evening star."

I doubt that "Ten-Sky " is a reference to Venus, for Venus is seen both in the east and in the west, not just in the west as an evening star, as Roys' insertion suggests (although, because of its brightness, Venus was clearly seen crossing the sky at this time). Mars is also seen crossing the sky. The phrase "at the west" is, in fact, an insertion based on the fact that a tree of the west is not mentioned. The line actually reads, without the addition by Roys..

"Lahun Chaan was set to bring things to his lord."

I think "Ten-Sky" is Mars. We see nothing else of the repeated close calls by Mars during the period of 3000 BC to 2700 BC except the title "Ten-Sky." From Egyptian and Mesopotamian records it appears Mars/Horus cruised close to Earth some ten times after 3100 BC. My estimate for the first appearance of Mars/Horus is the year 3067 BC. The Katun 9-Ahau period -- when "Ten-Sky" first appeared -- ends in 3033 BC, but the date should be corrected to end in 3067 BC. [note 19]

To "bring things to his lord" is mentioned for all four (or three) trees, and not for the other instances of these trees elsewhere in the document. The question then is, Who is the "lord?" Since we know already that during the first 150 years when Mars drew close to Earth, Jupiter stood in the sky as a globe on top of a green mountain, after which it entered the Asteroid Belt, and the mountain form disappeared, it is likely that the "lord" is Jupiter. His reign is attested elsewhere (the "second reign"), but there is no other mention of Jupiter.

Interestingly, in the "Popol Vuh" the celestial twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque defeat the mountain giant Zipacna directly after they remove the Celestial Bird of the north pole. See Chapter 20, "The Popol Vuh." Mars, known as Earthquake in the "Popol Vuh," is their next target.

Katun 9-Ahau or 7-Ahau: Venus

The next lines are without question about Venus. But this Katun 9-Ahau ends in 1497 BC, not 3033 BC, as above. However, the corrected Katun 9-Ahau ending date is 1507 BC. This grouping of events by Katun names, or some other parameter other than chronology, is typical of the other books of the "Chilam Balam," as it is, for example, of the "Popol Vuh." The "Chilam Balam" continues..

"But it was (over) the whole world that Ah Uuc Cheknal was set up. He came from the seventh stratum of the earth, when he came to fecundate Itzam-kab-ain, [the Earth] when he came with the vitality of the angle between earth (and) heaven."

Roys translates "Ah Uuc Chek-nal" as "he who fertilizes the maize seven times," which suggests that "Ah Uuc Chek-nal" appeared seven times. I suspect "Ah Uuc Chek-nal" is Venus.

"Itzam-kab-ain" is the Earth, the whole Earth, designated as a "crocodile-footed whale." The Maya conceived of the Earth as floating on water, and as supported by a giant whale-crocodile creature. Bolio translates this passage as..

"At that moment, Uuc-cheknal came from the seventh layer of the sky. When he came down, he trodded on the backs of Itzeam-cab-Aim, so-called. He came while the earth and sky were being cleaned."

The imagery is not far removed from a 'close passage' of Venus, except that Venus would never have come as close as the phrasing here implies. The phrase "while the earth and sky were being cleaned" suggests hurricanes and tsunamis, which would certainly have been experienced on the four or more approaches by Venus between 2349 and 2193 BC and again in 1492 and 1442 BC. The first approach (2349 BC) involved the fall of the Absu -- the 'flood of Noah' -- but this is handled separately and out of proper sequence further below.

If this, as I suspect, represents the contact of 1492 BC, the compressive contact would have been in the South Pacific, and immense amounts of water vapor would have been carried into the atmosphere. The path of arcing would have angled up (because of the Earth's gyroscopic reaction), swung through the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and angled southwest again through the Atlantic. The experience of Mesoamerica would have been two-fold, first a Pacific tsunami from the southwest, followed by billowing clouds from the east, the last arriving less than a day later. Attributing these to a celestial interloper is fully within the realm of what other people did. The planet was seen -- as if approaching -- and the local effects were interpreted as if Venus were close by.

Roys suggests another translation of "when he came the vitality of the angle between earth and heaven," which reads, "then he descended while the heavens rubbed against the earth." That makes sense as the condition of a fallen sky after 1492 BC. But, in fact, it makes more sense that the "rubbing" represent the huge shape seen in the night skies, the inner Van Allen belt toroid in glow mode, seen more or less in the center of the sky, on both sides of the equatorial, and stretching from the east horizon to the west.

Elsewhere I have assumed that approaches by Venus happened repeatedly between 2349 BC (the 'Flood of Noah') and 2193 BC (the fall of Akkad), for a total of four contacts. Earlier occurrences of Katun 9-Ahau do not match these dates. Katun 9-Ahau in Baktun 1 ends in 2523 BC (corrected to 2547 BC), too early for the 'Flood of Noah' by 200 years, and Katun 9-Ahau in Baktun 2 ends in 2266 BC (corrected to 2287 BC), too late for the Fall of Akkad by one hundred years.

I have assumed, so far, that this event fell in a Katun 9-Ahau, for nothing in the text signifies that a Katun of a different name is under discussion. Katun 9-Ahau in Baktun 4 ends in 1507 BC, when corrections are applied, and thus only comes close to the time of the Exodus of 1492 BC (or other estimates from 1495 to 1491 BC). That would place the Exodus of 1492 BC 15 years after the end of the Katun.

I think, in fact, that it was not Katun 9-Ahau, but the next Katun, 7-Ahau, but the text is silent about this. There is a pattern developed in the text of assigning appearances of planets to Katun 9-Ahau, at times by inference and at times by neglect of naming the actual Katun. This becomes obvious when it is realized that the event of 2349 BC (the "third creation") is assigned to a Katun 9-Ahau in complete error, as I will describe further below.

This is what we have: Since all of pre-history is assigned to a Katun 11-Ahau, the start of the current era (from 3147 BC) is assigned to the assumed first Katun of the era, 9-Ahau. This despite the fact that the current era started with Katun 4-Ahau. But the next event, the ten close passages of Mars (Ten-Sky) are then correctly assigned to Katun 9-Ahau, and the Katun is named. The next event, the electrical contact of Venus in 1492 BC, is, however, assigned to the same Katun 9-Ahau only by the fact that no mention is made of a new Katun. The text shifts to this event as if it belonged to Katun 9-Ahau. But, in fact, the corrected ending date for Katun 9-Ahau in Baktun 4 is 1507 BC, 15 years before 1492 BC. The next Katun in order, Katun 7-Ahau of Baktun 4, spans the date of 1492 BC, plus any of the variations of this date as calculated in antiquity -- 1491 BC, 1495 BC.

Now it is possible that the scribe making the transcription simply neglected to mention that the event, "Ah Uuc Chek Nal rubs the earth," occured in Katun 7-Ahau. But it is significant that the shift of events to Katun 9-Ahau happens 4 times, one by an implication, two by neglect, and one as a purposefull falsification. This last, the Katun year for the "third creation" stands out, for it involved moving the event so that the "first day of Kan" of the Katun would fall on the Gregorian equivalent of July 26th. Only Katun 9-Ahau of Baktun 1 does this in all of the 5200 years of the 13 Baktun cycle of time. Since this last event is also displaced in this text, it will be detailed further below.

I have to make note again of the fact that, because of the Maya understanding of the cyclical nature of time, repeated appearance of visiting planets are not separately listed, except in their titles, as in "Nine-Lives," "Ten Skies," and "He Who Fertilizes the Maize Seven Times." That would seem to explain why there is no notice of Venus between 2349 and 2293 BC. The other events of this same period are listed separately further below.

To return to the seven appearances of "Ah Uuc Chek-nal," I count four appearances of Venus between 2349 BC and 2193 BC, and, 700 years later, two in 1492 BC and 1442 BC. This adds up to six overflights. It is possible that the nova event of Venus in 685 BC, another 755 years later, represented the seventh. But this last event is not attributed to Venus in the "Chilam Balam." Only mention is made of the Sun going off course in 685 BC (further below). I think, however, that all references to Venus in 685 BC, when Quetzalcoatl lived and died, were carefully deleted from the record for fear of revealing information to the Spanish priests.

The other likely explanation is that the 'cow' form associated with Venus, the change of the Van Allen Belt to glow mode, appeared also directly after 3147 BC, since at that time the Earth would have switched to experiencing the electrical field of the Sun from the prior experience of only sensing the electrical field of Saturn (that is, being within the plasmasphere of Saturn). This initial event was not associated with an actual electrical contact by Venus, except by inference. Interestingly, since all of pre-history was held to happen in a Katun 11-Ahau, this first cow would have been assigned to the next Katun, 9-Ahau. [note 20]

The "Chilam Balam" continues with how the people walked in darkness...

"They moved among the four lights, among the four layers of the stars. The world was not lighted; there was neither day nor night nor moon. Then they perceived that the world was being created. Then creation dawned upon the world."

"They" probably refers to the people, but could also refer to the Gods. That they (the people) "moved" may suggest a migration, as is likely under the conditions of the climatic turndown of 1492 BC. The whole of the paragraph seems almost lifted from the Bible -- speaking of the wanderings of Israel in the desert after 1492 BC.

The "four lights" might be the great luminaries -- the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn, although the same paragraph reads that there was no Moon yet. True, in 1492 BC there was a Moon. Roys suggests "candles" also for the "lights." Bolio uses "the fourth fire" for the "four lights." I think that the "four lights" are the four "trees" at the cardinal points, the two impinging plasma plumes and the edges of the equatorial toroid (the Van Allen belt). If a cloud cover obscured the Sun and the stars, as seems implied, then perhaps we are seeing the north and south plasma plumes at least in glow mode, possibly in arc mode near Earth. That might then be true for the east and west plumes also, if these are associated with the toroidial Van Allen belt. This also suggests that the plumes may have lasted for decades.

The use of "the four lights," even if meant to signify the directional trees, might thus be a simile for wandering over a wide geographical area. The language in this case, especially when the following line is considered, which suggests an enormous time span of 5200 years, seems lifted from Book 11 of the "Chilam Balam" which relates the time leading up to the "first creation." (Book 11 is detailed in Chapter 17, "The Earlier Olmec Record.")

"During the creation thirteen infinite series (added) to seven was the count of the creation of the world. Then a new world dawned for them."

The word translated as "series" can also mean "steps" or "degrees." The "seven" might be the count of the next Katun. "Infinite" is often the translation of "400," a Baktun. 13 Baktuns would be 5200 years. Thus the "infinite series of steps" might represents a very long time. On the other hand, thirteen plus seven is 20 years -- one Katun. Other Mesoamerican sources speak to "a generation" of darkness. Bolio translates as..

"Infinite rungs of the ladder of time and seven moons later were counted since Earth woke up and then the dawn came for them."

Seven moons would only represent a half year. Most of this phrasing remains unclear except to suggesting the passage of a lot of time, or, as I have indicated, some twenty years.

The 2349 BC Event

The following, although grouped with the start of a new creation, is, I suspect, from a different source. It details events starting in about 2400 BC, and events at the time of Noah, but not all of them. Some are listed further down in the text. The events are also not introduced by listing a Katun name. We would have to assume that Katun 9-Ahau continues.

I think, from the following text, that the copyist is opening a new book, perhaps one titled "The Third Creation." Unlike before, he copies the pages in the correct order, but leaves out the fall of the Absu, which is recounted much later.

The information is, in fact, not out of 'literary' order, since the previous text ended with mention of the start of a new creation, although the reference is to 1492 BC. (We see this sort of connection used much later to describe events of the 8th century BC.) The "third creation," however, points to events in 2349 BC, and all the events listed over the next few paragraphs belong to 2349 BC, not 1492 BC.

The text starts with..

"The two-day throne was declared, the three-day throne."

The phrase "two-day throne, three-day throne" is used elsewhere in the "Chilam Balam" to denote short-term leadership, especially in reference to the governing councils of the Itza. Bolio, however, has a more sensible reading..

"the reign of the second period, the reign of the third period was felt."

That makes a lot more sense. The alliteration of the text makes it look like a chapter heading. The question will be, where are we in the Katun counts? They are not mentioned in the following texts. Suggesting that the text simply continues with the next Katun in order should be used (Katun 7-Ahau or 5-Ahau), results in events which cannot be placed at dates known from other sources. I will therefore suggest that the listing of events continues to be assigned to a Katun 9-Ahau, as had been implied for the event of 1492 BC.

But of course this is incorrect. The "third reign" started at the time of the "third creation," in 2349 BC. This should have been Katun 4-Ahau, not Katun 9-Ahau. But there is a reason for this. As I will detail further below, the Katun name was changed in antiquity to conform with the notion that the events involving the "third creation" had to have happened on a "day of Kan." This was an important aspect in later analysis of older texts. It was an important notion because it was apparently held that the Tzolkin calendar governed celestial events, rather than the other way around. The "third creation" was the most important event of the past, celebrated with ball courts and site names, and therefore had to start on the correct day. The later Chapter 19, "The Day of Kan," will also suggest that the notion of the Tzolkin governing the action of the planets was held as an article of faith.

There are five events listed before we return to naming Katuns. These are the plasma mountain of Jupiter (starting and presumably correctly dated to a Katun 9-Ahau ending in 2547 BC), the appearance of the Moon (at which time the coma of Jupiter had disappeared), the return of a coma for Jupiter, the extinction of Jupiter (a hundred years out of order), and the first view of the "planted timber" (also out of order). In actuality some of the the events fall in even numbered Katuns (mention of which is generally avoided throughout the book of the "Chilam Balam") and are either separated from each other by large spans of time, or happen in rapid sequence.

There is still a question if this represents the "second creation" or the "third creation," because we are, in fact, first presented with what seems to be an elements of the second reign. Saturn, the "Chilam Balam" reads, develops a cometary tail. I think there is an error here.

"Then began the weeping of Oxlahun-ti-ku [Saturn]. They wept in this reign. The reign became red; the mat became red; (because of them) the first tree of the world was rooted fast."

Bolio has,

".. the tree became red."

And Bolio also has,

"And then the three gods began to cry."

The "three gods" would have been Jupiter, Mars, and Venus. These are the "three gods" of the Classical era of the Maya. Roys, however, only has Saturn (not one of the "three gods" above) crying, which perhaps makes more sense. The "three" of the "three gods" could be a misreading of the "three" of "the thirteen" by Bolio. "Crying" has to represent a plasma discharge -- a coma and tail.

But I wonder if what we read here is a transcription error, that is, the author meant to write that "Bolon-ti-ku," that is, Jupiter, developed a coma and a polar tail (started weeping) rather than "Oxlahun-ti-ku," Saturn. We have no record of either Saturn or Mars ever developing a coma or tail, even when Saturn was 'attacked' by Jupiter in 3147 BC. I don't think that Saturn is meant above. Saturn by this time had receded into insignificance.

The (corrected) date of 2567 to 2547 BC for Katum 9-Ahau (in Baktun 1) coincides with the time when the Egyptian pharaohs first add "Re" to their names -- around 2600 to 2500 BC. "Re" is the sun, the midnight sun, Jupiter.

Thus in this instance, the supposition that we are in a Katun 9-Ahau is correct. This is a record of the re-appearance of the plasma discharge of Jupiter after it had cleared the asteroid belt in receding from the Sun -- about 500 years after 3147 BC. My diagramatic estimate of when Jupiter first exited from the asteroid belt (shown in previous text) is the year 2589 BC, which is about 20 years before the start of this Katun 9-Ahau.

The redness of the apparition cannot be neglected. Although Mesopotamian sources do not mention colors, the Egyptians always depicted Jupiter as a huge red ball. This huge red coma (and tail) lasted for about 300 years, from about 2550 BC (Katun 9-Ahau in Baktun 1) to about 2250 BC (Katun 7-Ahau in Baktun 2), with one interruption some time before 2349 BC. The interruption will be noted in the text.

The "tree," which Bolio translates as a "red tree," is probably what Mesopotamian cultures had identified as a mountain. It is the plasma discharge of Jupiter from its southern polar regions. Notice that the plasma expulsion has changed from green to red. This could mark a change in the ionized gasses at the outer edges of the plasmasphere, but it could as likely be a change in the density of these ions. This last is more than likely with a change in the experience of a lower external (solar) electrical field.

What the Egyptians called a mountain, the Olmecs identified as a tree. This 'mountain' first appeared directly after 3147 BC, but would have disappeared after 150 years as Jupiter entered the asteroid belt, to reappear 350 years later, as described above.

That the "Chilam Balam" places this renewed plasma discharge of Jupiter in a Katun 9-Ahau, and equates it with the "third creation," or the "third reign," rather than the actual date of the fall of the Absu in 2349 BC (in a Katun 7-Ahau), might make sense for someone sorting out events at a much later date who is forced conceptually to place the return of Jupiter in a Katun 9-Ahau. I will get back to the alteration of records further below.

The Moon

At the following part of the text we still seem to be in the time of the "third creation," the period after 2349 BC. But again, a Katun name is not disclosed. It suggests that we are to understand that events of Katun 9-Ahau continue to be listed. The following text is about the Moon, and reports that Jupiter was not weeping. The "Chilam Balam" reads...

"The entire world was proclaimed by Uuc-yol-zip; but it was not at the time of this reign that Bolon-ti-ku [Jupiter] wept."

There is no indication, from the translators, of who "Uuc-yol-zip" is. I would make a wild guess and suggest that, if we are chronologically in the period around 2349 BC, that Uuc-yol-zip is the Moon, which was an independent inner planet already orbiting the Sun at the location to which the Earth moved after 2349 BC. (Lunar calendars are established worldwide only after 2349 BC.)

Earth suddenly picked up a satellite, or, more properly, started to share an orbital location with the Moon, for the Moon travels in the ecliptic, not on the Earth's equatorial. A rapid discharge of the Earth via the Moon, could have destroyed any of the remaining Absu in record time. More on that below.

Uuc-yol-zip is never mentioned again and remains unidentified, unless, as I suggested, it is the Moon. Roys, on the basis of other informants, suggests a Deer God, which makes some sense if you have never seen the Moon before and you are suddenly confronted by its changing shape and speedy movement through the night skies. The Moon will relocate from the southeast sky to the northeast in the course of a week. But what Katun are we in?

The first appearance of the Moon (the Deer God) should be placed to ca 2350 BC, but this date falls in a Katun 4-Ahau, rather than the implied Katun 9-Ahau.

I should point out another source, in fact the only other Maya source of ancient history other than the "Popol Vuh." The Temples of the Cross at Palenque (built in ca AD 690) claims that Jupiter, Mars, and Venus were all born in 2360 BC (corrected to 2337 BC). The Moon was their mother. The Moon "let blood" in 2325 BC (corrected to 2303 BC) and the Moon "crowns herself" as ruler ("Ahau") in 2305 BC (corrected to 2277 BC). [note 21]

We don't know exactly what these last two events were. But they can be placed, the first ('letting blood') in Katun 11-Ahau (ending in 2286 BC, corrected to 2307 BC), and the second event ('crowning herself') in Katun 9-Ahau (ending in 2266 BC, corrected to 2287 BC). Probably the second Palenque event records the regularization of the Moon's orbit. The wording, "the entire world was proclaimed," of the "Chilam Balam," suggests the same assumption of rulership, which was as deep a concern of the Maya as it seemed to have been for most civilizations in the world. I would thus suggest that the event quoted from the "Chilam Balam" above should probably be assigned to Katun 9-Ahau, and equated to the Palenque record of the Moon 'crowning herself' as ruler. This would place it in Katun 9-Ahau (a Long Count of 2.3.0.0.0), even though this is later than what I think it should be. The following will elucidate where this concern comes from.

That Jupiter did not "weep" at the time the Moon appeared (or assumed rulership) is interesting. It suggests that Jupiter had lost its coma and tail. I know that this happened at some time after 2400 BC, but I have been unable to determine exactly when. In my diagram of the recession of Jupiter, the date when Jupiter encounters the last clump of asteroids at 3.9 to 4.0 AU is shown as 2509 BC to 2489 BC. This may be a high date because I have used a radial recession for the calculation. The actual date when Jupiter may still have been within the last clump of asteroids might be a hundred years later.

In Egypt the title 'Son of Re' had been in use already by the pharaohs who completed the Giza pyramids before 2500 BC, and was used by all the following pharaohs. During the following fifth dynasty, which spans 2490 BC to 2350 BC, 'Sun Temples' were built along with the pyramid graves of the first six pharaohs, 2490 BC to 2445 BC. 'Sun Temples' are squat pyramids on a flat base. In Egypt these pyramids are the 'symbol' of Re, Jupiter, representing the mountain form of the plasma outpouring below the south pole.

Further construction of 'Sun Temples' was abandoned before the end of the sixth dynasty. These dates suggest that the coma and tail of Jupiter (Re) might have disappeared by 2445 BC (the last 'Sun Temple'), but we do not know exactly when, or how long it took before this showed up as a change in religious monuments.

On the basis of the above information the loss of a coma would be placed some time after 2445 BC. The Chinese "Annals of Shu" speak of Yao (Jupiter) gaining the throne as 'emperor' in 2357 BC, as if to say that Jupiter again developed a coma at that time. The first few dates of the "Annals of Shu" should probably be placed about a decade later, thus the above date should probably be nearer to 2349 BC.

There is also an interesting passage in the Babylonian "Enuma Elish" which recalls the disappearance of Jupiter's coma tail (as a garment) and its reappearance. See Chapter 9, "The Career of Jupiter," for details. Since the "Enuma Elish" clearly recounts the contact by Venus in 2349 BC, it would be suggested that the disappearance of the coma tail of Jupiter should be placed before 2349 BC.

Katun 5-Ahau, Jupiter Returns

This has to be Katun 5-Ahau, if the Katuns are taken in order, that is, as if this text is a recital of prophesies associated with various named Katuns. But the naming of Katun 7-Ahau has been skipped, perhaps by accident. The present Katun 5-Ahau starts with the seating of Jupiter, as follows...

"Then came the counting of the mat in its order."

"Red was the mat on which Bolon-ti-ku [Jupiter] sat. His buttock is sharply rounded, as he sits on his mat."

The "counting of the mat" is the start of a new Katun. The proper order of this Katun cannot be ascertained with any certainty. It ought to be Katun 5-Ahau, as I indicated above. But it should be Katun 7-Ahau if the appearance of the Moon is dated to Katun 9-Ahau as I suggested above. (Otherwise this is Katun 2-Ahau, following a Katun 4-Ahau for the Moon.)

Now we have another plasma outpouring of Jupiter, and again without a clear reference to what Katun has turned. If I am correct, this is a return of a coma and tail in 2349 BC, not the start.

Roys suggests that "his buttock is sharply rounded" could also mean pointed or rounded like a hat. I do not know what to make of this except that it would perhaps fit the emblem -- a circle above a horizontal line -- used for Jupiter (Marduk) in Mesopotamia, and one of the magic symbols of the Egyptians, called the 'shen,' where the circular part is rendered in red. Both look like hats in outline. In Egypt Re (Jupiter) is always shown as a large solid red disk.

Jupiter must have remained prominent in the sky until some time around 2250 BC (a hundred years after the 'food of Noah,' see below). A few centuries later the Babylonian priests write the "Enuma Elish," elevating Jupiter to the position of chief God. This could be used as an index of how long Jupiter had remained clearly in view. Unfortunately we have no indication of the first date of the composition of the "Enuma Elish." Jupiter is assigned this third period of rulership, after Saturn, in the "Chilam Balam." His rulership, as elsewhere in the world, remains secure until the arrival of the Christian God.

"Then descended greed from the heart of the sky, greed for power, greed for rule."

The phrase, "Then descended greed from the heart of the sky, greed for power, greed for rule" exactly expresses the earlier parallel experience after 2700 or 2600 BC in Mesopotamia (the kingship at Uruk) and Egypt (the third dynasty which starts the Old Kingdom). It was coincident (within a hundred years) in both cases with the return appearance of Jupiter on his mountain that the first kingships developed.

Although it is possible that the complaints here deal with the period after 2349 BC, I would guess that in this case we are in the period after 1500 BC. First let me point out that the lowland Maya (of AD 1500) were well aware of the individual leaders who had reigned over various cities or cult centers in the past (600 years earlier) and the Maya seemed to have had no particular liking for this aspect of the past. This attitude is repeatedly expressed by the writer of this history. The Itza who had invaded the northern Yucatan after AD 1000 were similarly despised -- 500 years later -- as is very evident from later paragraphs of this text as well as other books of the "Chilam Balam." This points up the phenomenal capacity of the Maya to hold grudges (as they still do today). Thus complaints about leadership dating back 2500 years or more do not surprise me.

The period after 2300 BC saw the predecessors of the Olmecs establishing sites in the tropical region along the Pacific coast of Guatemala, some of which are today dated to about 2000 BC. In 1450 BC the first site on the Caribbean coast in Veracruz, Mexico, was established, San Lorenzo. It seems strange that complaints about leaders would be part of a history of the Gods except that this is also a history of the world.

In Chapter 19, "The Day of Kan," I will show that the course of primacy of the ceremonial centers (called the 'may') among the Olmecs and the people of the Valley of Mexico can be traced back from well established dates of, for example, Teotihuacan, to San Lorenzo in ca 1400 BC, and before that to Monte Alto in coastal Guatemala in ca 1900 BC. Monte Alto is one of some 8 sites in the Soconusco region of Guatemala, most dating back to the period of 1850 BC to 1650 BC. The establishment of San Lorenzo as a ceremonial center was a huge undertaking. The complaints about leaders and their greed for power might reflect the reaction against the Soconusco sites, but likely they are specifically against the endeavors at the San Lorenzo site. Tres Zapotes was the next site in Veracruz to hold primacy after San Lorenzo (ca 850 BC). Tres Zapotes shared in the art forms of the Soconusco sites.

Based on the complaints about leaders, as suggested above, I think we are in the period directly after 1492 BC here, and thus in the period when San Lorenzo was developed. Here also follows the third listing of trees. The remainder of this section deals with rulers, in association with the color of the trees at the cardinal points.

"Then the red foundation was established; the white foundation of the ruler was established; the black foundation was established; the yellow foundation was established."

"Then the Red Ruler was set up, he who was raised upon the mat, raised upon the throne."

"The White Ruler was set up, he who was raised upon the mat, raised upon the throne."

"The Black Ruler was set up, he who was raised upon the mat, raised upon the throne."

"The Yellow Ruler was set up, he who was raised upon the mat, raised upon the throne."

This is followed by more complaints about these rulers, and their limitations. It is interesting that the geographical concerns (the colors of the cardinal directions) have shifted to actual personages or sites at this time. [note 22]

"As a god, it is said; whether or not gods, their bread is lacking, their water is lacking. There was only a portion (of what was needed) for them to eat together (...) but there was nowhere from which the quantity needed for existence could come."

"Compulsion and force were the tidings, when he [Jupiter] was seated (in authority); compulsion was the tidings, compulsion by misery; it came during his reign, when he arrived to sit upon the mat (...)"

NOTE: "(...)" above represent a lacuna in the original text.

There are similar sentiments about rulers expressed in a later section. I should point out that later text will claim the rulership of Saturn extended over the era before 3147 BC, and the rulership of Jupiter extended from after 3147 BC to the time of the arrival of the Spanish. Thus Jupiter's rulership extends over all of the "second creation" and the "third creation" -- and a fourth which is not explicitly mentioned.

The above text, and the ones following below, will seems confusing if the actual sequence of events in the era of 2500 BC to 2200 BC are lost sight of. To orient the reader, let me list a summary of events of the "Fall of the Absu" -- what is otherwise known as the 'flood of Noah.' The details of these were developed from more extensive sources from the eastern Mediterranean region, India, and China, and presented in Chapter 9, "The Career of Jupiter."

• Near the beginning of the third dynasty in Egypt, Jupiter exits from the main portion of the Asteroid Belt, and again assumes a gigantic lower plasma outpouring -- the mountain. Pharaohs of this dynasty, which built the pyramids at Giza start to add 'Re' to their names. This happened in a Katun 9-Ahau, ending about 2500 BC.

• This event of Jupiter again showing as a enormous globe on a mountain is taken in the "Chilam Balam" as the "reign of the third period." This event is taken as an anchor by the "Chilam Balam" to list other events related to the later events of 2349 BC. The reason why the Olmecs or other people of antiquity selected Katun 9-Ahau will be detailed further below.

• I should note that a separate page of the "Chilam Balam" actually recounts all the events of 2349 BC, and in the proper order. This was noted in Chapter 9, "The Career of Jupiter," and is detailed in Chapter 17, "The Earlier Olmec Record."

• At some time before 2349 BC the coma and tail of Jupiter disappear again. From the fact that no additional "Sun Temples" were built in Egypt after 2445 BC, we can suggest that Jupiter since that time had neither upper plumes nor a lower mountain of plasma. Jupiter was dead. My diagramatic analysis of Chapter 9, "The Career of Jupiter," places this at 2489 BC, about 40 years before the 'flood of Noah' in 2349 BC. Thus when another event of 2349 BC is recounted (the appearance of the Moon), the "Chilam Balam" notes that Jupiter was "not crying" at that time.

• In 2349 BC a transition of Venus caused an Earth shock, tilting up of the equatorial, which was hit by a plasmoid from Venus, identified in the middle east as a gigantic dragon who waded in the blood of humans for days. The initial plasmoid is followed by some nine additional, lesser, plasmoid lightning bolts. This was described in Chapter 9, "The Career of Jupiter."

• The Absu turns red, and lightning bolts fired across the rings. The equatorial rings disappeared soon after, and the southern stars first showed. Most prominent was the appearance of the Pleiades, high in the sky in the south at midnight. This is described in the section labeled "The Third Creation" in Chapter 17, "The Earlier Olmec Record."

• Three days later Jupiter flared up; its coma, upper plumes, and lower mountain form had returned. Jupiter was back from the dead.

• The Moon showed up near Earth soon after. This was listed in the text above.

• As the Absu collapsed, the Pleiades appeared for the first time -- an event used as a signal for celebrations of the "Day of the Dead" worldwide. At the same time the roofbeams of the sky -- the intersection of the equatorial and the ecliptic -- showed up as a yellow road (the ecliptic) and a blood-red road (a remnant ring below the equatorial).

• One additional event, although it happened 100 years later, is noted in this collection of associated events: the giant disk of Jupiter flared up and blazes as if on fire and disappears to assume the look of a star. This is described below as "The Burning Tower," and is correctly placed in Katun 7-Ahau. The appearance of the Moon, or, more likely, its settling into a regular orbit, is also (above) assigned to Katun 7-Ahua, and this might in fact be so.

The Burning Tower

Still in (what is assumed to be) Katun 7-Ahau, we have a strange incident described..

"Suddenly on high fire flamed up. The face of the sun was snatched away, taken from earth."

"This was his garment in his reign. This was the reason for mourning his power, at that time there was too much vigor. At that time there was the riddle for the rulers."

This duplicates the "Tower of Babylon" stories worldwide. We are between the year 2500 BC and 2000 BC. Since it follows the description of the rulership of Jupiter, it suggests the sudden demise of Jupiter, especially when we consider the phrase, "The face of the sun was snatched away, taken from earth." The Sun's face, after all, has not been taken away from Earth. This could only be a reference to Jupiter, who was still called "the Midnight Sun" by the Maya in Classical times, and "Lord Sun."

In Chinese mythology, Yao dies in 2257 BC. In other text I have suggested that the Chinese dates for Yao should probably be moved 10 years into the future, thus to 2247 BC. Katun 7-Ahau (2266 to 2246 BC, corrected to 2287 to 2267 BC) would match this date, as it also matches Ussher's estimate for the 'Tower of Babel' event which he places "after 2247 BC." At least, close enough.

The Planted Timbers

The following text follows on the 'burning tower' without notification of a change in Katun. I think, however, considering what we know of the fall of the Absu in 2349 BC, and the events which accompanied this, that the sequence is incorrect. The planted timber and the crossroads mentioned below, follow directly on the removal of the Absu (the 'flood of Noah') in 2349 BC, and have nothing to do with the flare-up of Jupiter. The coincident events are..

• The collapse of the "House of Nine Bushes" and the "baptism from the center of the sky" -- listed further below

• The appearance of the Pleiades -- listed directly below.

• The appearance of the ecliptic and the equatorial in the south skies.

• The appearance of the Moon -- listed above.

• The north and south polar plumes -- the "timbers" below,

• The return of Jupiter -- already listed above.

"The planted timber was set up. Perishable things are assembled at that time. The timber of the grave-digger is set up at the crossroads, at the four resting places. Sad is the general havoc, at that time the butterflies swarmed."

Roys reads this paragraph as a local event, suggesting that rulers were assembled and executed at the intersection of two roads in the land of the Maya. I doubt if it has this specificity, for the few other political events which are recalled on other books of the "Chilam Balam" list the names of the actors, in one instance from 700 years earlier. If this execution of chiefs had happened within the last 1000 years, we would have been told the names of the assailants and victims. The language of the Maya (and other people of the region) demands identification of an action in terms of the agents.

The "assembly of perishable things" are the Pleiades. Even in postclassical times the Maya held that the Pleiades were a sprinkling of seed maize. Certainly "precious things" is appropriate, for maize held the highest status in all the Classical Maya iconography. Since 2349 BC the Pleiades were located at the intersection of the ecliptic and the equatorial, that is, at the location of the equinox, at the start of the constellation Taurus, as I have pointed out in other texts. As I have also pointed out previously, both the ecliptic and the equatorial were outlined as bright bands still 1500 years ago, with the band of the ecliptic lasting into the 19th century.

The equatorial showed at night as a band of glowing matter because of the debris still circling the Earth far above the equator -- left over from previous ages. After the Absu collapsed and the material dispersed away from Earth, a single band remained, blood-red in color. The red ring is identified as the celestial snake Apep or Apophis in the eastern Mediterranean region.

The remnant ring would probably show as spikes rising up into the sky at the east and west cardinal points. These regions, being beyond the edges of the Earth, would be lighted by the Sun (the west band being in shadow). These might have been the two 'trees' of the east and west cardinal points.

Near the time of the equinox the shadow of Earth would fall on the equatorial band but not on the band of the ecliptic. Thus it looked like the red equatorial band crossed behind the ecliptic, although in actuality it was just the reverse. These crossed bands, with one band falling behind the other (a graphical representation known as the "Saint Andrew's Cross"), were used by the Olmecs and Maya as graphical indicators of the ecliptic throughout remote antiquity and through the Classical Era.

The ecliptic showed as a band of reflecting material which did not fade away until AD 1840. This is the "Yellow Road" of the Chinese. The two bands intersected at Taurus, below the Pleiades. Mention of the assembly of "precious things" occurs directly before the mention of the timbers at the crossroads. In southern Mexico and the Yucatan these two band were displaced only some 20 degrees from being directly overhead where they cross.

In remote antiquity these bands appeared only after the Absu had fallen. The Maya saw them as the roof timbers to the sky (and are the roof timbers of the house of the mother of Hunahpu and Xbalanque in the "Popol Vuh"), and, because the planets traveled in one of the bands, called them crossroads.

Two timbers are mentioned. The "planted timber" is the north polar plasma plume, the other, the "beam of the gravedigger" is the south polar plume, located at the crossroads, since the event of the fall of the Absu happened at the fall equinox. At a much later time (AD 400 to AD 700) the Milky Way was substituted, which became a primary symbol of creation and access to the underworld for the Classical Maya. The Milky Way had not been seen in the south skies before the fall of the Absu.

The word "gravedigger," Roys notes, can also be translated as "hiders" -- "anyone who buries or hides things." I have no idea what the Maya had in mind in attributing the new view of the bands of the sky (or the south polar beam) to the action of "hiders," but, typical of Mesoamerican grammatical constructions, anything that appears has to be attributed, via an action-oriented tense, to some being. Perhaps the Absu or the moving waves of the rings were meant as the "hiders." However, from the "Popol Vuh" we have the interesting tale of the Giant called "Mountain" who effectively digs a hole for the Four Hundred Lost Boys and is nearly impaled by the timber which was to be the center post of the house of the Four Hundred Boys. This timber was set up at the crossroads, under the crossbeams of the sky but also under (or possibly intersecting) the crossbeams of the house of the Four Hundred Boys.

The swarming butterflies probably visually represent the dispersal of the Absu.

Interestingly, although we have here been presented with the "third creation" of 2349 BC, the events have all clustered around both 2349 BC and 2250 BC. It would be assumed from the text that the events progressed from Katun 9-Ahau through Katun 5-Ahau, but if such a sequence is followed, some of the dates do not match any information from other sources. The exception is the demise of Jupiter, which could be assigned to Katun 7-Ahau, a time period which correctly includes the date of 2250 BC. As repeatedly promised, there will be more on the discrepant dates below.

Despite his demise, Jupiter certainly remained as the chief celestial deity. Of course his status of the ruler of creation would be reinforced by the returning plasma, called a "flower" later in the text, and the plasma bolt delivered in 685 BC. He will appear in Classical times as "God GIII" of the Palenque triad, and be called "Lord Sun."

Katun 3-Ahau: the Sun

The following describes the flare-up of Venus in 685 BC. It is, however, also listed out of place, because the event of 685 BC follows the repeated close calls by Mars and Mercury in the 8th and 7th century BC, which are described (out of place) further below. The Katuns are here named, but the individual pages are again being read in the wrong order.

"Then there came great misery, when it came about that the sun in Katun 3-Ahau was moved from its place for three months."

First, as I have noted earlier, the period of three months (60 days) exceeds the best estimate (from Zoroasterian sources) of the duration of the flare-up of Venus by a month. Since the movement of the Sun was most likely charted to sunset locations along the horizon (see Chapter 17, "The Earlier Olmec Record"), this would represent the earliest time that the axis of the Earth had started to relocate. I doubt if the phrase "moved from its place" deals with the flare-up of Venus per se. The sixty days deal with the horizon setting location of the Sun. It is not a comment about Venus blazing in the sky.

The time interval given here is one of three instances in this Book of the "Chilam Balam" where the interval is given as an inclusive count. I first realized this for another instance, which caused me to look again at the other two. The three months of 20 days are thus an interval of two 'Uinal, months of 20 days, a total of 40 days. Having determined, individually, the ending date of the flare-up of Venus and Mercury as July 25th, and a starting date as the first new Moon before that, June 15th, it was satisfying to realize that the "three months" mentioned here represent (as two Maya Uinal months) the 40 day interval between June 15 and July 25 (Gregorian calendar dates).

I think we can suggest the veracity of these data from the fact that in all three instance, by allowing for inclusive counting, the intervals can be matched against other known dates and made sense of. This also again verifies the fact that the Long Count existed only since 747 BC, for no such accurate dates or intervals exist before 747 BC. (The inscriptions at Palenque were, I feel sure, retrocalculated.)

"After three years [three heaps of years] it will come back into place in Katun 3-Ahau. Then another katun will be set (in its place)."

Roys notes that "three years" literally reads "three heaps of years" which could be a longer period than three 'Tun' years (of 360 days), or it could mean a longer period, but apparently not longer than the 17 or 18 years it would take to reach the end of Katun 3-Ahau. I think a "heap" is likely to be a group of five, but of the 260 day Tzolkin calendar. (As explained by other contemporary commentators on the mathematics of the Maya, this would be a 'bundle' -- a line representing a count of five dots in the numeric notation. Of course a group of 20 is also called a bundle, as is, in later central Mexico, a group of 52 years.)

The fourteen 'years' (three heaps of five counted inclusively) is probably a measure on the Tzolkin calendar which rotated the same day-name and day-number combination into place at the same horizon sunset location for a zenithal passage of the Sun. (I am assuming a zenithal passsage because these were deemed to be very important to each ceremonial site. See Chapter 18, "Olmec Alignments.") In actuality the location along the horizon of the zenithal sunset remained the same after 685 BC as it had been before 685 BC, within a fraction of a degree, but the calendar day (our calendar) would move back by 10 to 17 days, as follows, depending on the latitude.

zenithal passage of the Sun difference location latitude before 685 BC after 685 BC in days Izapa 14.960 August 21 August 11 10 Monte Alban 17.033 August 16 August 4 12 La Venta 18.125 August 14 July 31 14 Teotihuacan 19.638 August 10 July 25 16

The Tzolkin calendar, not being an annual calendar, would rotate a different day-name into place each following year. Normally, after 20 rotations of the Tzolkin, the same day-name would appear again on the same day of the Gregorian calendar (without accounting for the slippage due to leap days).

As so tersely expressed by the "Chilam Balam," it would take 14 rotations of the Tzolkin ("bundles of years"), not the normal twenty, for the Sun to again return to the same day-name and day-number combination. We can find this easily, for we do not need to access the Long Count calendar, and we do not need to know the starting date or ending date. But we will have to 'discount' the author's quirky inclusive accounting. As already pointed out above, 'fifteen years until' will mean a difference of 'fourteen years.' This is the second instance of an interval expressed as an inclusive count. It is then a simple matter to subtract 14 multiples of the 260 day Tzolkin from multiples of the 365.25 day year, until a difference is found which matches the differences in calendar days in the chart above.

In fact, 14 Tzolkin rounds are 12.5 days short of ten 365.25 day years. 14 * 260 - 10 * 365.25 = - 12.50 days. This is the change in days experienced at Monte Alban. Monte Alban may thus be the source of the lowland Yucatan Maya author's original books. Already 600 years old at the time they were read in the 16th century AD, the original sources dated back to 685 BC.

The first date of a zenithal passage of the Sun at Monte Alban, before 685 BC, would have been August 16, 686 BC, 6.3.3.6.11 7-Chuen. Fourteen times 260 days is 0.0.10.2.0 days. Adding, this gives 6.3.13.8.11 7-Chuen. This falls on August 3rd, 676 BC. One more day needs to be advanced to complete the month, thus August 4. (This calculation is unaffected by the change in the calendar instituted at a later date by Monte Alban, in 607 BC. See Chapter 19, "The Day of Kan and the Course of the May.")

The same addition of 14 Tzolkin periods to the pre-685 BC dates results in (subtracting 12.5 days as 13 days):

• Izapa: August 9, not 11;
• La Venta: August 1, not July 31;
• Teotihuacan: July 22, not 25.

La Venta is close, however, and might stand as an alternate source for the original glyphic books from which Book 10 of the "Chilam Balam" was eventually composed. La Venta is also at nearly the same latitude as Monte Alban.

This Katun 3-Ahau start in 689 BC and ends in 669 BC, bracketing the nova event of Venus in 685 BC, corrected from 680 BC in eastern Mediterranean chronology. (The Katuns require no correction for this period.) Only a short paragraph is recorded for all of Katun 3-Ahau, although the writer will repeatedly return to the event of Katun 3-Ahau. This was the one of the most monumental events in prehistory. It changed the religions and probably the enterprises of Mesoamerica and started people on a path of independent thinking, as elsewhere in the world. Details of this in Chapter 12, "Modern History."

The writer continues with laments, presumably related to Katun 3-Ahau..

"The 'ramon' fruit is their bread, the 'ramon' fruit is their drink; the 'jícama cimarrona' is their bread, the 'jícama cimarrona' is their drink; what they eat and what they drink."

"The 'ix-batun,' the 'chimchim-chay,' are what they eat. These things were present here when misery settled, father, in Tun 9."

The foods listed are those eaten at a time of famine. Roys notes, however, "Most of the preceding paragraph concerning Katun 3 Ahau appears to be an interpolation. It is not found in the Tizimin and Mani versions," and notes that two other versions of the "Chilam Balam" list the misfortunes ("for each of the twenty years") of Katun 5-Ahau instead.

The Katun 3-Ahau text missing from other copies of the "Chilam Balam" may reflect the care the Maya took in hiding all notice of Kukulkan (Quetzalcoatl) from the Spanish priests. Is the meaning of "father" from a statement about of the exact genesis of Kukulkan, made to a Spanish priest? [note 23]

It might very well be that this interpolation is a confession to a Spanish priest. If so, we have here the most valuable aspect of this document, a clear statement about the Kukulkan event -- the earthly appearance of Quetzalcoatl and his death.

If "Tun 9" is the ninth year of Katun 3-Ahau, then "these things" would happen in 680 BC, following the nova event of Venus in 685 BC. The scribe has the Tun date wrong; here we have a misreading of a Tun number. The event happened in Tun-4 of Katun-3 (6.3.4.5.15), not in Tun-9 (6.3.9.5.15). This year can be established from the date of the arrival at the Sun of the plasmoid from Jupiter (July 25, 685 BC) detailed further below, and from the investigation of the "Tablets of Ammizaduga" undertaken in Chapter 11, "Quetzalcoatl." It is a matter of seeing a bar with the four dots ("9") where there is none ("4"), which, coincidentally, I also entertain as an error in establishing the "day of Kan," addressed further below.

The importance of this short paragraph about the Sun can be gaged from the inclusion of three specific date values, it lasted "three months," the Sun "returned" in 14 Tzolkin periods, and it happened -- ended -- in year (Tun) four (not '9') of Katun 3-Ahau -- 685 BC. Two more data points will be added further below: the date of the release of the plasmoid by Jupiter will be identified and the interval between the last sighting of Mars and the day the plasmoid arrived will be given.

At this point the list of Katuns in interrupted. Up to this point the phanthom Katuns have progressed in the correct order, that is, Katun 11-Aau, Katun 9-Ahau, Katun 7-Ahau, Katun 5-Ahau (though I have some problems locating Katun 5-Ahau), and Katun 3-Ahau. Katun 11-Ahau was used at the beginning simply from the notion that all history starts in Katun 11-Ahau. (Other historical listings of the "Chilam Balam" books also start in Katun 11-Ahau.) But Katun 3-Ahau can certainly be assigned to a definite time in the past which matches what we know from other sources.

The next Katun should have been Katun 1-Ahau, but now the writer introduces Katun 13-Ahau, with a single line about foreigners.

Introducing Katun 13-Ahau, the "Chilam Balam" continues with a radically different listing of events. Events are now listed by Katuns in order, in the manner of the 'prophecies' of the other Books of the "Chilam Balam." This has all the look of an additional record from another original source. Near the end, when the writer restarts in Katun 11-Ahau, yet another primary source is accessed.

"At that time there were the foreigners. The charge (of misery) was sought for all the years of (Katun) 13 Ahau."

It is possible that the mention of Katun 13-Ahau is a very early transcription error, or this may be a reflection of the expected content similar to other Books of the "Chilam Balam," where Katun 13-Ahau is indeed associated with prophesies of foreigners, the Spanish. In another Book the foreigners arrive in Katun 5-Ahau and are Caribs. Other copies of the "Chilam Balam" have nothing on Katun 3-Ahau, and list 'miseries,' year by year for Katun 5-Ahau, which is missing from this copy of the "Chilam Balam" -- "The Book Of Chilam Balam Of Chumayel."

The 8th Century BC

The approaches by Mars in the 8th century BC (and the 7th century), which devastated Persia, Anatolia, Greece, and Italy, at 35 to 40 degrees latitude, did the same damage in Central America, as indicated by the fact that the number of villages in Mesoamerica decreased markedly in the 8th century BC.

But the "Chilam Balam" at this point is given over to descriptions of flowers, colors, and fragrances -- arcane celestial details never noticed (or mentioned) in the Middle East. Perhaps we are now seeing the transcription from yet another source, "The Book of Flowers." Mars is only mentioned twice.

From dates extracted from the records of the Middle East the destructive events of the 8th and 7th century should be spread over four Katuns, from 747 BC to about 687 BC -- if we start in 747 BC. This would be the time span of Katun 11-Ahau (767 BC to February of 747 BC), Katun 9-Ahau, Katun 7-Ahau, and Katun 5-Ahau (ending in 687 BC). There is no reference to the last two, but the first two are listed and the events are described.

If, on the other hand, we start with what seems to be the full record, based on archaeological data of destructions in the eastern Mediterranean, in 806 BC, the record would have to include the additional Katun 4-Ahau (ending in 806 BC) through Katun 13-Ahau (ending in 768 BC). (Katun 4-Ahau, Katun 2-Ahau, and Katun 13 Ahau.) But there is no reference to these Katuns. This most likely is because there were no Long Count records compiled before 747 BC. Checking back at later times, nothing was seen of the first four close passes of Mars, except as implicit in the name "Bolon Dzacab," "Nine Lives" -- for Mars did show up a total of nine times.

It is interesting that Mars is known as "Nine Lives" during the 8th and 7th century BC -- when he appeared close to Earth nine times (as I surmised from eastern Mediterranean sources). At first I thought that it was the nine appearances in the 8th and 7th century BC that became the basis for his name. But it seems to be a coincidence, and his name was selected before 3147 BC, later known as "this first Bolon Dzacab". The giant greenstone mask-shaped floors at Olmec La Venta, apparently buried as a means of warding off or appeasing Mars, represent the face of a Jaguar in the form of the glyph for 'nine.' Thus this name existed before it could have been determined how many times Mars would show up during these two centuries.

It is strange that the first four close passes of Mars between 806 BC and 747 BC were not recorded and, in fact, there were apparently no preventative ceremonial sculptures dedicated to Mars in the Olmec Veracruz region of Mexico during this period. Tres Zapotes, which had taken over primacy from San Lorenzo in about 850 BC, continued to carve 'Venus heads' during the 200 year period before 747 BC, and thus only paid attention to the simultaneous appearance of Venus and Mars in 776 BC.

But the close pass of Mars in 747 BC seems to have destroyed Tres Zapotes, and La Venta was established to celebrate (or ward off) the comings and goings of Mars. La Venta was aligned to a sunset over the mountain Popocatepetl for the day of the Earth shock of 747 BC, when the length of the year changed and the Olmec Long Count was instituted. The close pass of 747 BC, plus the next four (a total of five), were all celebrated at La Venta.

The actual date for the alignment at La Venta is February 28th, but for an angle representing a sunset under the condition of an axial inclination of 30 degrees for the Earth. There are two additional alignments, representing a sunset on April 19th, to the mountains Citlaltepetl and Volcan La Malinche, also representing an axial inclination of 30 degrees. After 685 BC, when the axis of the Earth changes to an inclination of 23.5 degrees to the normal of the orbit, La Venta was reconstructed to have its long axis at right angles to a sunset on February 28 for the current axial inclination of 23.5 degrees. See Chapter 18, "Olmec Alignments," for details.

Thus the close pass of Mars in 747 BC was noted in the construction of a ceremonial center, and the visit is recorded in the "Chilam Balam," appropriately in a Katun 11-Ahau -- the Katun which ended the previous era on February 28, 747 BC. This Katun name is correct for the completion of the Katun on February 28, 747 BC. A little later in the text the nine concurrent visits by Mercury are recorded as the descent -- with Bolon Dzacab -- of Bolon Mayel, Nine Fragrances. I'll detail Bolon Mayel further below.

"Then it was that the lord of (Katun) 11 Ahau spread his feet apart."

"Then it was that the word of Bolon Dzacab [Mars] descended to the tip of his tongue."

Bolon Dzacab ("Nine Lives") is Mars, to be distinguished, from the Mars seen before 3147 BC who is called "this first Bolon Dzacab," and also differing from Lahun Chaan ("Ten Sky") who appears to be Mars shortly after 3100 BC. The "tip of the tongue" is the bottom of the electrical arc from Mars. Mars, as God K or God G-III, is often depicted in Maya iconography with a single leg, acknowledged as representing lightning. (On the much later Aztec "Calendar Stone" he is presented with his tongue hanging down.)

The text here is perhaps with reference to all of the period of 806 BC to 747 BC. But notice that, as elsewhere, nothing is said of the change in calendars which happened after 747 BC. There is, however, a note about the introduction of a calendar at the time of the "third creation," listed on a separate page of the "Chilam Balam." Except for the families of rulers imposing themselves on the Olmecs or Maya, no civil events are ever touched upon in Book 10.

With respect to the phrase "tip of his tongue," there are some Olmec rock carvings from this era of an iguana (or what looks like an iguana) with his tongue reaching up and touching the bottom of cloud glyphs. Cloud glyphs look like pancakes with down-curled edges. It would be appropriate of Mars appearing in the skies, reaching down to Earth with a sustained lightning bolt.

But the following Katun 9-Ahau, from 747 BC to 727 BC (further below) includes a surplus of observations, mostly in terms of flowers. Fragances are also mentioned, which we recognize from Velikovsky's collected anecdotes, although Velikovsky places these in 1492 BC during the interaction with Venus. [note 24]

The day of Kan

Another event is inserted here, related, as the text states, to Katun 9-Ahau, but we are no longer in the 8th century BC. It is, in fact, in error. The event listed below, the fall of the Absu -- the flood of Noah -- happened in Katun 4-Ahau of Baktun 1 (1.19.0.0.0) ending in 2345 BC (corrected to 2367 BC). There is, of course, a Katun 9-Ahau before the 'flood of Noah,' 148 years too early, just as there is a Katun 9-Ahau after the 'flood of Noah,' 83 years too late.

This event may be transcribed in error from an original glyph reading of "4" (for 4-Ahau) to a reading of "9" (for 9-Ahau). I am more inclined, however, to suggest an alteration of the original text which was made on purpose in antiquity. More on this below.

"Then the charge of the katun was sought; nine was its charge when it descended from heaven. Kan was the day when its burden was bound to it."

"Then the water descended, it came from the heart of the sky for the baptism of the House of Nine Bushes.

Except for the fact that we are presented with a deluge, the rest does not make much sense at first.

Bolio translates these two lines as...

"Nine were their cargoes when he came from the sky. The day of Kan was the day when his cargo was tied up. It was when the water came from the sky for the second birth, from the house of the one of the "innumerable years."

This relates the fact that we are in a Katun named 9-Ahau, as well as the fact that the event, the baptism, happened on the day of Kan. The author of the "Chilam Balam," on the basis of his sources, has full confidence that the "day of Kan" should be associated with the "second baptism." I will address this first.

The "second birth" is a second flood (Bolio) suggests. The history we are dealing with ignores hurricanes and tsunamies, and has so far only listed one other flood, the event of 3147 BC. The flood mentioned here is the only other mention of a flood. Notice that it "came from the center of the sky" and that it baptizes the "House of Nine Bushes." Elsewhere, the use of the term "house" invariable means a celestial mansion, including among the texts of Palenque.

I think we are looking at the event which in other parts of the world is recognized as the 'flood of Noah.' The "house of nine bushes" is the Absu or Duat, the last described in Egypt (at 30 degrees latitude) as consisting of seven rings. In the Yucatan (at 20 degrees latitude) it was seen as consisting of nine rings -- or rows of bushes. The Maya or their predecessors saw an additional two rings closer to the earth's equator. (See an endnote to an earlier chapter for number of rings seen at 20 degrees latitude.)

The seven rings of the Duat or Absu were in Egypt and Mesopotamia understood to be the 'Underworld,' but also as an ocean in the south. In the Yucatan the 9 layers were also the underworld, the domain of 'The Nine.' But the Olmecs or Maya did not equate the rings to a sea, as far as I know. This may be because of the steep angle at which the rings stood in the sky, and the intimate contact of the Maya with real oceans.

This passage, like so many others, is not only displaced from its proper sequence, but also seems referenced to the wrong double decade (Katun). The question thus remains, if most of the other events are properly slotted in Katuns of the correct names, why is this 'flood' event, the appearance of the Moon, the first showing of the Pleiades, the appearance of the rafters of the sky, and the polar plasma plumes -- all of which deal with the Flood of Noah -- late by 83 years? The 'Flood of Noah' can be placed with good certainty in 2349 BC from the efforts of many chronographers of the Mediterranean region (and matches good guesswork from China in 200 BC).

First it could be suggested is that the assignment of the "second baptism" to Katun 9-Ahau is a transcription error and that Katun 9-Ahau was misread from Katun 4-Ahua.

Image: 4-Ahau and 9-Ahau

It is perhaps strange that the writer of the "Chilam Balam" would have seen an additional bar in the original source. It is more likely that the change from Katun 4-Ahau to Katun 9-Ahau had happened at an earlier time. It could be suggested, for example, that some scribe hundreds of years earlier had looked at the glyphic texts and determined that "4-Ahau" had to be in error, for nothing of interest had ever happened in a Katun 4-Ahau, except for the repeated displacement of the Itza tribe after AD 900.

Errors in transcription, both at the time the "Chilam Balam" was written and at earlier times, are certain. Roys notes a number of them for the "Chilam Balam" text. J. E. Thompson has noted some dozen errors in the Dresden Codex, dating from about AD 1200. Vincent H. Malmström, in "Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon" (1997), has noted a transcription error in Stele C from Tres Zapotes -- carving three bars rather than two to accompany the three dots for the glyph Kin. The task of transcribing the codexes to new plaster coated bark books by painting the glyphs, illustrations, and diagrams, must have represented a mind-numbing task which could easily result in subtle errors, like the addition of a bar to the glyph for 4-Ahau.

But there is a more elegant solution which comes forward to resolve the "Katun 9-Ahau" issue. The details, which I have promised a number of times in this text, follow.

The day-name 'Kan' is the fourth day of any Katun. The first day of Kan in the Katun 9-Ahau after the 'flood of Noah' is July 26, 2286 BC -- 2.2.0.0.4 2-Kan, on the 'August 11' correlation (which suggests that it was a very old alteration of the text). If the year is wrong, it is the only one in all of the "Chilam Balam." With both the Katun and the day listed, it would seem to pinpoint a very certain date. It could signify the completion of the fall of the Absu, but this would have been accomplished in a few days, or at most 3 years as recorded in the eastern Mediterranean, not 83 years later.

July 26th was the celebration of New Year (as "the day of Kan") among the Maya when the Spanish invaded in the 16th century. Bishop Landa (in ca AD 1590) mentions that the new-year day of the Maya was on July 26 and always fell on the Tzolkin days Kan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac -- in rotation. July 26 was celebrated as the new-year day, not only by the Yucatan Maya and regulated by the priests of the ceremonial center of Edzna, but also at Teotihuacan in Mexico. Teotihuacan was established in ca 200 BC as an Olmec outpost. Of course it should be understood that this was not our calendar date of July 26th, but is the day when the Sun rose and set at a certain location along the horizon. For both Edzna and Teotihuacan this included the passage of the Sun directly overhead. (See Chapter 18, "Olmec Alignments," for more on this.)

The resolution of why Katun 9-Ahau was understood to be the date of the "third creation," rather than the correct date of Katun 4-Ahau, probably lies in three ideas. First, it was known that a calendar had been instituted at the time of the "second baptism" (as was true worldwide). Actually, this was the addition of 13 numbered days to the established 20 day names of the Tzolkin calendar.

Secondly, the start of the year was celebrated among the Maya, as at Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, on July 26th. July 26th actually celebrated the day after the delivery at the Sun of the plasmoid from Jupiter in 685 BC. If this last was a "fourth creation" of the world, it might seem reasonable to the Maya that the previous creation of the world would also start on the same Tzolkin day name.

Third, the Maya and the Olmecs seemed to have been convinced that the Tzolkin calendar determined celestial events. I'll explore this more in Chapter 19, "The Day of Kan." It was this thinking which let to what I think I am seeing as active searches by the Maya (or more likely, the Olmecs) for the "day of Kan" among the records of the past.

We must allow that the Maya were perfectly capable of calculating backwards to discover on what day in prehistory the rising Sun on July 26th coincided with the fourth day, named Kan, of a newly started Katun.

Of course, a day named Kan falls on July 26th every four years (at about 20 year intervals). However, the Long Count date of 2.2.0.0.4 2-Kan is the only instance in the whole Long Count calendar -- 5200 years, to today -- that this first day of Kan falls on July 26.

"The day of Kan," July 26th, marked the end of the nova event of the Sun in 685 BC (the termination by the plasmoid of Jupiter) as it was celebrated a few hundred years later. Even though July 26 did not fall on a day of Kan in 685 BC, it became celebrated as the "new year day" among the Maya, having inherited this significant date from the teachings of Olmec Teotihuacan. [note 25]

Much later, after 685 BC and before perhaps 300 BC, scribes assigned this "important date" to the event of the "second baptism." The Katun, during which July 26 fell on the first day of Kan, was researched and found to have occured only once in five thousand years since the start of the current era -- in the second Katun of the second Baktun (2.2.0.0.4). [note 26]

This has to be the solution to this apparent error in chronology. We are looking at a correction to the historical records, made in antiquity, which seemed eminently reasonable at the time. There is no way that we can manipulate Katuns and Baktuns to account for the difference of 83 years and find the 'day of Kan' elsewhere in the past. We could attempt to add together surplus days to the solar year for the periods between 747 BC, 1492 BC, 2193 BC, and 2349 BC, but these will not add up to 83 years. [note 27]

If the Olmecs, in antiquity, investigated the "day of Kan" for the start of the "third creation," they must have had something to go on besides the notion that the recreation of the world would (or should) have happened when the first day of Kan of a Katun fell on July 26th. I would suggest that, because Jupiter had shown up in a full display three days after September 8th, 2349 BC, this would be "day three" of a Tzolkin calendar round which started with the plasmoid from Venus. The next day is the "day of Kan" -- always the fourth day of a new Katun, and new-year's day for the "third creation."

The error in asignmemt in the "Chilam Balam" stems the fact that the day of the "third creation" simply could not be retrocalculated 1600 years later when the Long Count was adopted, and certainly not another 800 years later, when the Maya attempted it (using a 365.24 day year), for the length of the year had changed three times since 2349 BC.

What would also have been assumed by a people who really thought that their Tzolkin calendar governed creation or the Gods responsible for creation, was the new Katun would have been a Katun 9-Ahau. This was logical since it was well known from 747 BC that all of pre-history could be assigned to a previous Katun 11-Ahau. (It is also possible that a Katun 9-Ahau had actually started at the time of the "second creation" in 2349 BC.)

Thus if a "day of Kan," which coincided with an equivalent calendar date of July 26th, was found as the fourth day of a Katun 9-Ahau, then the Olmecs would have been justified in suggesting that during this double decade the world had been recreated. Even though 83 years late, only Katun 9-Ahau (2.2.0.0.4) qualified in the complete record of the 5200 years of the cycle of 13 Baktuns.

The following sentence ..

"Kan was the day when its burden was bound to it."

.. may need to be separated from the the previous sentence. The day of Kan here is 6.3.4.5.4 17-Chen 2-Kan which is July 14, Gregorian, 685 BC (July 21, Julian). It is the day the plasma bolt left Jupiter in 685 BC. The "burden" which "was bound to it" is the plasmoid from Jupiter. The day of binding was the start of the travel from Jupiter. "It" is the day, Kan, not any other entity.

The "day of Kan" had been known to be the day that creation ended in remote times, both in 2349 BC (although later assigned to the wrong Katun) and in 1492 BC (of which the time-keepers were more sure). A change to the August 13 Tzolkin calendar had found that the equivalent calendar date of the latest change, July 14, 685 BC, also happened on "the day of Kan."

This note about the "day of Kan" when "the burden was bound to it" -- bound like a pack carried by a trader -- is the fourth chronological reference to the events of the year 685 BC.

The calendar dates mentioned above become clear on an inspection of alignments with horizon location for Olmec coastal and Valley of Mexico ceremonial sites, spanning dates from 1440 BC through about 300 BC. Alignments were made, at different sites, for April 19th (representing the Earth shock of 1492 BC), February 28th (the shock of 747 BC), and July 9th, 21st, and 25th (all dealing with Jupiter in 685 BC). The start of the flare-up of Venus in 685 BC, 40 days before July 25th, was not celebrated.

The Flowers

The next few lines attribute the deluge to Mars. The reading seems to presents a simultaneous close passage of Mars, as Bolio's translation, above, suggests. Any passage of Mars would have brought torrential rain storms and hurricanes to the region, in addition to destruction. The next few lines do not return the topic to Mars, but introduce a new player, Mercury. [note 28]

"With it descended Bolon Mayel [Nine Fragrances]; sweet was his mouth and the tip of his tongue. Sweet were his brains."

I suspect that the insertion further above is meant to relate the "water from the sky" (at the time of Noah's Flood) to Mars in the 8th century BC (or Mercury, as here), even though no mention is made of rains or hurricanes associated with Mars -- except the phrasing "with it descended...." I have a note further below on the sudden topical grouping of events by the author. The collation of these events, located diversely in time, would presume the existence of references to hurricanes in the original codex which were not copied over to this written text.

"Sweet was his mouth, etc" -- This celestial agent was not a threat to humans, or the sweet mouth is associated with the "fragrances."

"Bolon" -- nine -- suggests nine appearances of Mercury. After 747 BC Mercury would have been on an orbit which came to within 250,000 to 500,000 miles of the orbit of the Earth, or crossed over Earth's orbit, and would have been seen close to Earth nine times. As I have suggested earlier, the orbit of Mercury was elongated since 3147 BC, extending past the orbit of Earth, -- rather equivalent to what Mars was doing. (This suggests that perhaps Mercury did not come to within the orbit of Venus in perihelion.) It was also apparently in sync with Mars, possible showing up near Earth directly after Mars did so. The Earth shock by Mercury in 686 BC follows directly on an appearance of Mars, as substantiated by a note on the timing of this further below in the "Chilam Balam."

More on Mercury after another interruption. At this point the text returns to Mars, or the satellites of Mars, rather than Mercury, except that the "honey of the flowers" would have to refer to Mercury.

"Then descended the four mighty supernatural jars [or, two mighty demon bats], this was the honey of the flowers."

Roys' footnote reads,

"For this sentence the following is substituted in the Mani and Tizimin versions of this narrative: 'Then descended two mighty demon bats who sucked the honey of the flowers.'"

That might make sense in representing the two satellites of Mars, which are elsewhere in the world described (during this period) as raging spirits, scorpions, snakes, and chariot wheels. Mars, lacking a magnetic field, would have had a closely held plasmasphere (coma), which might very well have consisted of ionized dust (as is seen today). Once Mars entered Earth's plasmasphere the coma of Mars would have expanded to meet the Earth's electrical field, rather than subjected only to the Sun's much lower electrical field outside of Earth's plasmasphere. The two satellites of Mars would have continuously distorted the coma of Mars. Seen on the day side of Earth, this might have presented itself as a flapping dark shape.

Thus, after having mentioned the appearance of Bolon Dzacab, Mars, in 747 BC, the "Chilam Balam" now has reference to the four additional appearances of Mars -- as "Mighty demon bats" rather than as Bolon Dzacab. This coincides with the four giant heads found at La Venta, which were buried in a line north of the pyramid.

Since the Mighty Demon Bats suck the honey of the flowers (mentioned above), it suggests the simultaneous appearance of Mars and Mercury in the skies. The Olmec Jaguar sculptures at La Venta, and later, add the snout and fangs of a snubnosed bat on the jaguar face. [note 29]

Of course I have here selectively taken the number of appearances from one source (four jars) and the description from another (two bats). But I think the number 'four' is completely justified from the number of heads found at La Venta, and the 'bat' description is justified from the sculptures of bat-faced jaguars at La Venta. (More on the archaeological details of La Venta in Chapter 19, "The Day of Kan.")

In the next few lines, all about flowers, the text clearly refers to Mercury, which has a minor magnetic field, and would thus support a tri-lobed plasma form at its poles -- looking like a flower. Mars, without a magnetic field, would not, but might have bat-like flares of planetary dust reaching far out into space when coming close enough to interact with the Earth's magnetic field within the Earth's plasmasphere.

"Then there grew up for it the red unfolded calyx, the white unfolded calyx, the black unfolded calyx and the yellow unfolded calyx, those which were half a palm (broad) and those which were a whole palm (in breadth)."

The four colored "calyxes" again look like a distribution to the four compass directions. The half palm and full palm widths describe the lower and upper tri-lobed plasma cones below and above the magnetic poles of Mercury. The north magnetic pole would have a much larger size ("a whole palm") flower form. If these represented the polar plasma forms of a planet, the planet need not have come that close Earth, since Mercury's coma might easily have been ten or twenty times the diameter of the planet itself, and the polar plumes much larger. Yet, what a threatening image this presents! A "palm" in width is about 15 degrees of the sky. It is a palm held at arm's length. The "whole palm" representing the size of the flower shape at the top, and the "half palm" representing the width of the flower shape at the bottom.

"Then there sprang up the [1] five-leafed flower, [2] the five drooping (petals), [3] the cacao (with grains like) a row of teeth, [4] the 'ix-chabil-tok,' [5] the little flower, [6] 'Ix Macuil Xuchit,' [7] the flower with the brightly colored tip, [8] the 'laurel' flower, and [9] the limping flower."

On a whim I decided to count the specific flower species, as listed above, to see if this would account for the name Bolon Mayel, "Nine Fragrances." I have a count of nine, but it is very uncertain. "Ix Macuil Xuchit" might be the name of "the little flower."

Bolio has..

And at the same time blossomed [1] the flower that is watered and [2] the one that has holes; and [3] the wavy flower of cocoa and [4] the one never sucked on [Ix Macuil Xuchit, "Five Flower," Mexican god of music and dance], and [5] the flower of the spirit of color, and [6] the one that always is a flower, and [7] one with a crooked stem."

With Bolio's rendition we are two flower species short of a count of nine, and obviously there is a pun inserted in the middle of the list. It is interesting that these flower forms could be counted over a period of 120 years from 806 BC, if, as I have assumed, Mercury accompanied Mars in these instances, even though the record of Mars is only shown for the instances after 747 BC. The last appearance of Mercury, in 686 BC, was aborted, of course.

"After these flowers sprang up, there were the vendors of fragrant odors, there was the mother of the flowers."

Fisher adds the following to Bolio's translation,

"These flowers that came out were the 'Comayeles' [Ah Con Mayeles, "the offerers of perfume"], the mother of flowers."

Roys notes,

"In the Tizimin and Mani versions we find: 'there was the house of the flowers'",

.. meaning that it was seen as a celestial house.

This is followed by yet additional complaints about rulers. But first let me point out again that both the "flowers" and the "fragrances" could only refer to a planet with a magnetic field and with an atmosphere. This could not be Mars. In fact, I will also suggest that the "house of flowers" is Jupiter, to which the text will get soon. On about June 9th Jupiter developed a coma and became a "house of flowers." The lightning bolt to the Sun did not leave Jupiter until July 14th. The selection of these dates is developed in Chapter 18, "Olmec Alignments."

"Then there sprang up the bouquet of the priest, the bouquet of the ruler, the bouquet of the captain;"

"...this was what the flower-king bore when he descended and nothing else, so they say. It was not bread that he bore."

"So they say," is a reflection on earthly rulers. Bolio has,

"When the latter [the flower God, Mercury] came down he had no equal. 'Look at him,' they said, 'he does not spill his cargo.'"

.. which has a somewhat different sense. It suggests that the flower shapes were not dropped to Earth, or (more likely) that no electrical contact was made with Earth. How Bolio arrived at this reading, which seems correct, is inexplicable. It would seem to suggests that the close passages of Mercury were harmless to Central America -- in clear distinction to the destructiveness of Mars. (The last contact with Mercury was felt in sourhern North America. See Chapter 11, "The eighth century BC and Quetzalcoatl," as well as Appendix B, "The Celestial Mechanics.") From this, too, we would get the sense that the text has shifted entirely to a description of Mercury, and perhaps the reference to the satellites of Mars, above, is in error.

The sense to me is that the lines about the rulers are an editorial comment on the crop surpluses required by the ruling elite and the luxury goods being extracted from the citizens by the Maya (or Olmec) ceremonial centers and through the long distance trade which flourished since about 1500 BC. Unlike Egypt, and especially Mesopotamia, where feathers, metals, and precious stones were collected for the benefit of the gods of the temples, these goods (plus the food staples required to sustain both the trade functions and the leadership) were for the personal consumption and adornment of the rulers. This is similar to the situation in China. The rulers, in their shamanistic functions, were more important than the Gods. [note 30]

A few more lines on flowers, but now we turn to Jupiter...

"Then it was that the flower sprang up, wide open, to introduce the sin of Bolon-ti-ku [Jupiter]."

"(After) three years was the time when he said he did not come to create Bolon Dzacab [Mars] as the god in hell."

These lines, with one interruption of the text, follow directly on the line about the day of Kan when "its burden was bound to it," and these two together probably express a continueity in imagery.

Is this the ninth flower? Notice that the text has returned to naming Mars as Bolon Dzacab. The "sin of Bolon-ti-ku" is a plasma display, but it was initiated by Jupiter, not Mars. This text seems out of place and recalls the concluding event of the Venus nova event, except that mention is made here of Mars, not of Venus (as in the Mediterranean). In Appendix B, "Celestial Mechanics," I have spelled out the details of how this event was differently seen and understood in Mexico from how it was seen and understood in Europe and Asia.

The sentence makes it clear that Jupiter, who was still considered the reigning God, has decided that Mars would not be the agent of death for the current creation, "the God of hell". As the Sun's electrical field expanded outward into the region of the planets, it not only caused Venus and Mercury to blaze like suns, but Jupiter suddenly needed to adjust to a completely different electrical potential. The flower which "sprang up" to initiate ("introduce") the plasmoid is the coma and funnel-like plasma extensions above and below the poles of Jupiter. This is clearly shown in the earliest iconography of the Olmecs, after 650 BC, and can be dated to the Gregorian equivalent date of July 9, 685 BC (see Chapter 18, "Olmec Alignments").

The flareup of Jupiter was followed by a plasmoid bolt directed toward the Sun ("the sin"), and although it was understood to be directed at Venus by the people of the Mediterranean region, it was understood to be directed at Mars by the people of Mesoamerica -- a difference of a half day in seeing the plasmoid land.

The timing of the plasmoid event was carefully preserved in the original documents and is quoted by the "Chilam Balam," probably as a matter of pride in how the cycles of the Tzolkin constituted high science. But the numbers initially do not add up.

Mars was in inferior conjunction with Earth on February 22, 686 BC. If we add three solar years (of 365.24 days), or tun years (of 360 days), or even three Tzolkin cycles (of 260 days) to the last date that Mars was seen, we will pass beyond the year of the Venus nova event in 685 BC. The word "after," however, was added by the translator, Roys. The sentence could as well have the meaning of "in the third year," in effect another inclusive span of time.

I certainly don't think we are dealing in years here, but in Tzolkin cycles. If we add just two Tzolkin cycles of 260 days, we reach July 25, 685 BC on the Gregorian calendar -- the traditional day before new year's day of the Maya and Olmecs, and the day when the lightning bolt of Jupiter landed at the Sun. This is no mere coincidence. The records of the past as maintained by the Olmecs and subsequent Maya have proven repeatedly to be dead accurate.

This is also the third instance of inclusive counting in reporting an interval. Since we are dealing with Mesoamerican concepts and language, we have to recognize that the first Tzolkin cycle is completed on the day after Mars was last seen on February 22, which is 6.3.2.15.16 14-Uo 1-Cib on the Long Count (August 13 correlation). The day of 1-Cib has to be counted, for it completes the previous Tzolkin cycle. This is how "three years" is arrived at. The "three year" represent an interval of 520 days, two Tzolkin cycles. This reference to the 520 day interval is the fifth instance of mention of chronological details of the events of the year 685 BC.

The text about Nine Fragrances starts with a shift to Katun 9-Ahau, the next in order after Katun 11-Ahau, when the first recorded approach by Mars was made (in 747 BC). This would propose that the nine descendings of Mercury are a count extending only from 747 BC (the close of the previous Katun 11-Ahau) to 687 BC (the end of Katun 5-Ahau), where the first and the last visits are properly identified as Bolon Dzacab, Mars. That would extend the visitations to a total period of 60 years, ending with the last visit in 687 BC. The date of 687 BC (actually -686) is the year which Velikovsky had identified as the year of the second Earth shock received from Mars, although actually this last contact was by Mercury.

Reconsidering, now, the comment about Mars, it might be suggested that it was the sacrifice of Venus (Quetzalcoatl) which appeased (or controlled) Jupiter. This could certainly have set the tone for human sacrifices for the next 2000 years. Quetzalcoatl, Venus, not only died, but was fully expected to return from the dead. The reappearance of the coma of Jupiter, which had not been seen since ca 2489 BC, had demonstrated that. Jupiter, too, had died by fire.

Was the decision by Jupiter "not to end the world," or, as the "Chilam Balam" reads, "not to create Bolon Dzacab [Mars] as the god in hell," the promise of a new religion, a new religious practice, or a new contract between God and man? This certainly was the reaction in the eastern Mediterranean region, as it was in China and India. Perhaps it was also understood this way by the later Maya, who listened to the recital of this text, that Kukulkan had been the saviour of the world. This suggestion would be fully in line with the other couched references to Kukulkan -- Quetzalcoatl -- found in the remainder of the text.

Saturn

The next section, which continues with descriptions of flowers, is, I feel, completely misplaced, perhaps placed here at an early time when the actual sequence of event was already no longer understood. I suspect that the following sections are from a source completely different from the text above.

What here follows is a portrait of Saturn from the earliest time in remotest antiquity. This is followed by a portrait of Jupiter. The portraits of the first two stationary Gods on their mats is deserved. The visitations made by Venus and Mars are ephemeral in comparison. It was Saturn and Jupiter who were the two supreme Gods who sat in rulership in the sky, a thousand years for Saturn, 4500 years for Jupiter, although during Jupiter's reign there are, as elsewhere in the world, numerous other Gods who acted as his agents or provide the role of intermediary. This is followed by a section which turns 'rulership' over to the God of the Christians.

The portrait presented of Saturn is more than descriptive, for it records a sequence of events which is missing from the first description of Saturn at the start of this document: the changes from the time the bees blinded his face to the descent of fire and the rope, and to the point of his demise at the hands of Jupiter in 3147 BC.

"Then descended Pizlimtec to take the flower [the root of the flower]; he took the figure of a humming-bird with green plumage on its breast, when he descended."

As will have been noticed, over the last few paragraphs the collection of events has been sorted topically into like images -- Mars followed water from heaven, and the flowers of Saturn in 4200 BC follows the flowers of Mercury in the 7th century BC.

Pizlimtec is the God of music and song, or a human revered as a musician. So says Roys. This might also represent one of Peratt's plasma instabilities represented by the Kokopelli petroglyphs, the flute player, which have been carved as petroglyphs and painted on cliffs worldwide. Except, of course, that here he is transformed into a quetzal bird.

The humming bird with green plumage can be equated with Venus, although as an overall description of the bird on top of the central tree of heaven, and thus the whole Saturnian configuration. But in the limited context of this description, the "descent" is more likely the visual lowering of Uranus as the Earth starts to take up an orbit below the Saturnian System. That started to happen around 5800 BC. Because of the offset of Uranus's axis from the rotational axis of the other Saturnian planets, by 4200 BC Uranus was probably visually located just above or adjacent to Saturn, despite the fact that it was physically located far above Saturn.

"Then he sucked the honey from the flower with nine petals."

"Then the five-petaled flower took him for her husband, Thereupon the heart of the flower came forth to set itself in motion."

Uranus (if he is Pizlimtec) is male here. In the previous text he was identified as Saturn's sister. This suggests, of course, diverse sources for the "Chilam Balam" texts, or differing 'readings' of glyphic texts and especially illustrations. The "heart of the flower" is Mars, which as we know from Mesopotamian and Egyptian texts, will start to lower itself toward Earth.

The observation of a flower of nine or five petals, with Uranus lowering into the flower, taken together with the bees which wrapped the face of Oxlahun-ti-ku, Saturn, is a reminder of one of the oldest insignias of the pharaohs of Egypt, the bee and the sedge, neither of which has ever been explained as a symbolic source of power or majesty, and has only with difficulty been related to bees of Lower Egypt and the sedge of Upper Egypt by archaeologists.

The flower of nine and five petals can only be the rings of Saturn. These became visible to Earth only after Saturn went nova, and the glow mode plasma surrounding Saturn disappeared, to be replaced by an arc mode plasma outpouring. It thus could also be (as the five petals, or the 'four' listed below) plasma streams in arc mode impinging on Mars located below Saturn. This might place the nova event (allowing Uranus to be seen as a distinct entity) much earlier than my estimate of 4200 BC, and well before the Earth had taken up a station below Saturn, for there is no other way to record the visual effect of seeing Uranus being lowered into Saturn. But it depends on how "and" and "then" are translated from the Mayan. We should also realize that the author was reading old books which conveyed little sense of the scope of time, so that 1000 year and 2000 year intervals passed unnoticed.

"Four-fold [four branched] was the plate of the flower, and Ah Kin Xocbiltun was set in the center."

Ah Kin Xocbiltun is Pizlimtec, claims Roys. But Bolio translates the last line as, "When the chalice of this flower was opened, the Sun [Ah Kin Xochiltun] was within and in its middle his name could be read." The glyph for Sun, "Kin," looks like a flower with four petals and a small central circular area, like a four-petalled daisy. The dot in the center is Mars. The sign or hieroglyphic for "Sun" used elsewhere in the world (Egypt, Mesopotamia, China) is a circle with a central dot, but here we have the addition of the four streams of plasma in arc mode impinging on Mars. It is amazing that the illustration from thousands of years ago was misread in this manner, but not totally unexpected.

"At this time Oxlahun-ti-ku [Saturn] came forth, but he did not know of the descent of the sin of the mat, when he came into his power."

"The flower was his mat, the flower was his chair."

The sin of the mat, again, is a plasma discharge to Earth. The flower mat resounds throughout other people's mythology too. The Gods of the Canopic jars of the dead pharaoh sit on a lotus flower, as do the creation Gods of the Hindus. The flower mat is, of course, the rings of Saturn. I suspect that the previous line and most of what follows is placed here in the text to give reasons for why Saturn has to give up rulership at some point. The Maya of the "Chilam Balam" are notorious complainers anyway.

"He sat in envy, he walked in envy. Envy was his plate, envy was his cup. There was envy in his heart, in his understanding, in his thought and in his speech."

"Ribald and insolent was his speech during his reign. At that time his food cries out, his drink cries out, from the corner of his mouth when he eats, from the back of his claw [hand] when he bites his food."

"He holds in his hand a piece of wood, he holds in his hand a stone."

The stone is Venus, the piece of wood is Uranus. Both are depicted in Egypt (the Narmer palette and the Eye of Ra), Mesopotamia, and earlier in Europe (the Grand Menhir of Carnac).

"Mighty are his teeth; his face is that of Lahun Chan, as he sits."

Lahun Chan is God B, the rain God, Venus. The teeth are possibly the lightning strokes crossing the rings. To look like teeth, Saturn's rings would have to have been viewed partially as edge-on, which was probably the case initially before Earth fell into an orbit entirely below Saturn, as I have already suggested.

"Sin is (in) his face, in his speech, in his talk, in his understanding (and in) his walk."

"His eyes are blindfolded. He seizes, he demands as his right, the mat on which he sits during his reign."

"Forgotten is his father, forgotten is his mother, nor does his mother know her offspring."

As elsewhere in the world, there is no history before Saturn shows up. Thus he has no parents or has forgotten them. This more or less contradicts what is found on another page of the "Chilam Balam," where, if not parents, at least there is a long lineage of sacred stones leading up to Oxlahun-ti-ku (Saturn). (This is detailed in Book 11 of the "Chilam Balam," see Chapter 17, "The Earlier Olmec Record.")

"The heart is on fire alone in the fatherless one who despises his father, in the motherless one."

His "heart is on fire" is an exact expression of the change to arc mode of Saturn which occupies all the early mythology of Egypt.

"He shall walk abroad giving the appearance of one drunk, without understanding, in company with his father, in company with his mother."

The drunken walk is also recalled from Vedic sources which claim that Saturn traveled in a circle in the north sky. I cannot explain the sudden addition of the mother and father, unless this is another reference to Venus and Uranus.

"There is no virtue in him, there is no goodness in his heart, only a little on the tip of his tongue."

"He does not know in what manner his end is to come; nor does he know what will be the end of his reign, when the period of his power shall terminate."

Bolio translates the last few lines as..

"His heart burning only among the orphans, insulting his father, he must walk in the midst of the homeless, his countenance drunk, his understanding lost, to the place of his father and his mother. He has no kindness; there is no good in his heart; only a little bit on the tip of his tongue. He does not know how he must end up; he does not know what there will be at the end of his reign, or what is going to end in time with his power."

The drunken walk among the "orphans" and "homeless" catches the circular movement of Saturn ablaze in the middle of its satellites.

Before leaving this section, I should point out my suspicion that this extensive description of the faults of Saturn is starting to sound like a prophetic analogy for the hoped-for fate of the Spanish invaders.

Jupiter

The following portrait is of Jupiter, but almost at once changes to a couched prediction of the return of Kukulkan.

"This is Bolon-ti-ku [Jupiter]."

This line reads as if it is a caption to an image in a codex.

"(Like that of) Bolon Chan [Lahun Chan is meant here] is the face of the ruler of men, the two day [or, second] occupant of the mat and throne."

"The two day occupant" is, as before, probably a misreading of "second occupant" or "second reign," which would place the description as starting in 3147 BC.

Roys thinks that 'Bolon Chan' (nine sky) is a transcription error, since this name occurs nowhere else in Maya documents or inscriptions, and that 'Luhun Chan' ("Ten-Sky") was meant. "Ten-Sky," as I suggested above, is Mars. "The face of" just means "looks like," it does not mean "is." The concept, in fact, is that the face of Jupiter looks red, like Mars. This was probably not true initially, since at first, from 3147 BC to ca 2900 BC, Jupiter was green. But on its return as a giant entity in the sky in about 2550 BC, it certainly was red. Bolio accepts Nine Sky as meaning 'nine faces' and ends up with a reading of..

"These Nine gods ['Bolon-ti-ku'] will be manifested in nine faces ['Bolon Chan'] of Men-Kings, of the mat of the Second time, of the throne of the Second Time, came inside the 'beast Ahau Katun.'"

The "Chilam Balam" continues with the following, where Roys reads 'beast' as 'three'..

"He came in Katun 3 Ahau."

I initially did not think that Jupiter was meant by "he" here. I thought the author was talking about Kukulkan and referring to the nova event of Venus in 685 BC, which falls in Katun 3-Ahau. But the Bolio's "mat of the second time" or Roys' use of "two day throne" is probably meant as the second reign (not to be confused with creations), and thus the reign of Jupiter. What we are being told here is that Jupiter reappeared in 685 BC in Katun 3-Ahau.

"After that there will be another lord of the land who will establish the law of another katun, after the law of the lord of Katun 3-Ahau shall have run its course."

"At that time there shall be few children; then there shall be mourning among the Itza who speak our language brokenly."

"Industry (and) vigor finally take the place, in the first tun (of the new katun), of the sin of the Itza who speak our language brokenly."

The first tun is the first 360 day period of the next Katun. It could be the next Katun after 685 BC, or it could be any Katun in the future. "Industry" had traditionally attributed to the enterprizing Itza.

"It is Bolon-ti-ku [Jupiter] who shall come to his end (with) the law of the lord of Katun 3-Ahau."

Take note of the three references to Katun 3-Ahau (and more below), and especially the line, "After that there will be another lord of the land who will establish the law of another katun, after the law of the lord of Katun 3-Ahau shall have run its course." This is a veiled reference to the return of Quetzalcoatl, Kukulkan of the Maya, who disappeared in Katun 3-Ahau, but over the next few paragraphs this is turned into the God of the Christians. The "lord of Katun 3-Ahau" is Venus -- Kukulkan -- who shall, in time, that is, at some time in the future, end the reign of Jupiter, substituting another -- but not himself. This will fit history as it was played out with the arrival of the Spanish.

The End of History

A few lines of prediction, in effect incorporating the 16th century condition of the conversion of the Maya to Christianity, complete the section. The prediction of another flood and the descent of Jesus on a cloud are perfectly in line with the history of the elder Gods.

"Then those of the lineage of the noble chiefs shall come into their own, with the other men of discretion and with those of the lineage of the chiefs."

"Their faces had been trampled on the ground, and they had been overthrown by the unrestrained upstarts of the day and of the katun, the son of evil and the offspring of the harlot, who were born when their day dawned in Katun 3-Ahau."

This is the fourth reference to Katun 3-Ahau. Some of these lines repeat text from the section "Interrogation of the Chiefs" elsewhere in the "Chilam Balam."

Bolio renders this a little more cohesively, although no clearer, as...

"When the Katun has ended, one will see the lineage of the noble Princes appear, and new wise men, and the descendents of the Princes whose faces were crumbled against the ground, who were insulted by the rage of the time by the crazy ones of their Katun, by the son of evil who called them "children of indolence"; those who were born when the Earth awoke, inside the Three Ahau Katun."

"When the Earth awoke in Katun 3-Ahau" is an interesting concept, and stands as the only reference to a change in the religious philosophy of Mesoamerica in the 7th century BC, although it is clearly demonstrated in the change in alignments of the ceremonial centers after 600 BC. (See Chapter 18, "Olmec Alignments.")

Clearly, in the above quoted paragraph, "those" refers to the Princes. In Roys' rendition it is not clear who "who were born" refers to -- it could be read as the "son of evil" and the "offspring of the harlot". "When their day dawned" becomes, with Bolio, "when the Earth awoke." That in effect suggests a "fourth creation." [note 31]

Roys' text continues with an 'end of creation' scenario..

"Thus shall end the power of those who are two-faced toward our Lord God."

"But when the law of the katun shall have run its course, then God will bring about a great deluge again which will be the end of the world."

"When this is over, then our Lord Jesus Christ shall descend over the Valley of Jehoshaphat beside the town of Jerusalem where he redeemed us with his holy blood."

"He shall descend on a great cloud to bear true testimony that he was once obliged to suffer, stretched out on a cross of wood."

"Then shall descend in his great power and glory the true God who created heaven and earth and everything on earth. He shall descend to level off the world for the good and the bad, the conquerors (and) the captives."

Typically, once again there will be a new creation, for God will level off the world.

Recap of Book 10

It should be clear to the reader that this Book of the "Chilam Balam" is only tendentiously in chronological order, and, from our perspective, the mark is missed. The copyist did not have counts of Baktuns (periods of 20 Katuns) available or neglected them. This seems odd, for the texts of the Temple of the Cross at Palenque correctly place events in the proper Baktun. Otherwise we would have to assume that, for example, the reason the events of 1492 BC and the events after 2349 BC (the "third creation") were listed in reverse order was simply to adhere to the late Maya historical format of lumping all events of the same-named Katun together.

Some chronological order exists, as in how the prehistory (the "first creation") is grouped at the beginning and in correct order, and the events of the 8th and 7th century BC are placed near the end (with the fall of the Absu in 2349 BC inexplicitly added). And another form is used also. Events are sorted into activities and like imagery. Thus, near the end, all the flower episodes are grouped together.

The conclusion is reached compositionally, calling up the imagery of Kukulkan, starting with the event of the Sun going off its course in 685 BC. The ending reads as a subtle attempt to simultaneously satisfy the politics of the new Christian overlords and not counter the traditions of the Maya citizens.

I have appended lists of Katuns for the time period of 3147 BC through 668 BC, with the events inserted. [note 32]

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Endnotes

Note 1 --

The Maya, as well as other Mesoamerican people, certainly recognized the continuous progress of time along a single axis, as we do. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that time was conceived of as a series of Gods, which not only delivered the separate Katuns, but carried with them certain qualities which predetermined the conditions of the world when a Katun arrived. This would be similar to recognizing the seasons of the year as a repeating cycle, where each month brings with it certain weather conditions. The 'weather' of the Maya Katun cycle extended over twenty year periods.
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Note 2 --

Munro S. Edmonson, in "Some Postclassic Questions About The Classic Maya" (Fifth Palenque Round Table, 1978), writes about this..

"The Colonial texts produce the impression that their obscurity may have been partially designed to keep Maya traditions from the Spanish. They were not at all intended to be secret from the Maya peasantry, who are frequently apostrophized directly. And there are even now in Quintana Roo Mayas who can read and understand them."

But he immediately qualifies his opinion by pointing to an earlier tradition..

" It seems to me quite possible therefore that the glyphic texts of the Classic period could have contained a substantial esoteric and metaphoric element without necessarily impeding their intelligibility for the commoners and laymen to whom they must have been in part addressed. A certain deviousness and indirection may well be part of Mayan tradition. Flies are ancestors; the moon is the end; the sun is the beginning; stalks are lineages; monkeys are peasants."

My feeling is that Book 10 includes very little metaphorical material, although Book 11 and two other short pages of the "Chilam Balam" (dealing with mythical history) do, at a severe cost in the ability to understand. See Chapter 17, "The Earlier Olmec Record," where I have made an attempt to make sense of these sections.
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Note 3 --

More recent archaeological finds have placed the first Maya monumental construction at 150 to 50 BC, and in some isolated cases as early as 800 BC (Takalik Abaj, in clay) and 600 BC (El Mirador, in stone).

Monuments raised in Palenque (in ca AD 700) present dates before 3114 BC, note celestial events in 2360 and 2305 BC, and record the birth of a 'prehistoric king' of Palenque in 993 BC.

The first Tzolkin date inscriptions were in use at the Zapotec site of San José Mogote in the Oaxaca region by about 600 BC. By 400 BC the Tzolkin and Haab calendars were in use at Monte Alban (Oaxaca). The earliest Olmec long-count is depicted on Stele C from Tres Zapotes as 32 BC.
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Note 4 --

Precisely, the long count date of 6.0.0.0.0 11-Ahau 8-Uo ends a Katun 11-Ahau, and occurs on February 28, -747 (on the Gregorian calendar). I am using the 'August 11' correlation. This is astronomical year -747, thus actually 748 BC. See my notes in Chapter 15, "The Maya Calendar."
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Note 5 --

The "Popol Vuh" clearly notes that the authors had used four source books, and in fact spend more than half of the text with descriptions of events from the first two books, "The Dawn of Life" and "Our Place in the Shadows." This is not the case here for the "Chilam Balam," although Book 11, and two additional pages (addressed in Chapter 17) do specifically source these two. But the information for Book 10 seems to rely on subdivisions or abstracts from the last two books, "The Light that Came from Beside the Sea" and "The Council Book." It would be expected that the Maya had already consolidated events by same-named Katuns, for this represents the layout of Book 10. It would also be expected that the significant event of 2349 BC would be sourced from a separate book. But this event is inexplicably split up to different sections of the text.
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Note 6 --

In the "Popol Vuh" the tribal gods of the Quiche turn to stone when the Sun first shines. The Quiche continue to feed these stones with blood.
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Note 7 --

To consider the bees as satellites holds if Saturn (and later Jupiter) were close enough to Earth to be seen clearly. There are enough references to the satellites of both these planets among 'mythological' sources from other parts of the world to confirm that this would have been the case.

I have only seen "bee iconography" among Olmec carvings or stelae, although there are some Maya murals depicting bees. Bees recur, however, in other pages of the "Chilam Balam" dealing with the history of the remotest times. There is an instance of wasps being used as a defensive weapon in the "Popol Vuh," which might be the recollection of a particularly busy meteor shower.
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Note 8 --

The prominent satellites of Saturn (those discovered before the 20th century AD) number 7. Adding Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, and Venus, the number adds up to 13. I originally (before 2010) excluded Neptune (as not visible) and Mercury (not discovered by me until 2009), and added Iapetus (at a radius of 3,561,300 km) and Phoebe (orbit at 12,952,000 km) to make up the count of 13. But I have removed these two distant satellites from consideration, although listed below.

  Moon      Radius (km)   Mass (kg)   Distance (km)   Discoverer   Date
  -------   -----------   ---------   -------------   ----------------
 - 7 satellites known before the 19th century, in order...
  Mimas        196       .380e+20       185,520       W. Herschel 1789
  Enceladus    250       .840e+20       238,020       W. Herschel 1789
  Tethys       530       7.55e+20       294,660       G. Cassini 1684
  Dione        560       10.5e+20       377,400       G. Cassini 1684
  Rhea         765       24.9e+20       527,040       G. Cassini 1672
  Titan      2,575      1350.e+20     1,221,850       C. Huygens 1655
  Hyperion 205x130x110   .177e+20     1,481,000       W. Bond 1848
 - 2 satellites at extreme distances...
  Iapetus      730       .188e+20     3,561,300       G. Cassini 1671
  Phoebe       110       .040e+20    12,952,000       W. Pickering 1898
 

Iapetus and Phoebe (the last two listed) should not qualify, because of their extreme distance from Saturn. That would reduce the number of satellites to 7, which is the traditional number recognized in antiquity, as, for example, the "seven helpers of the king (Osiris)" in Egyptian mythology.

It was known in more remote antiquity among the Olmecs that Neptune was one of the stack of planets as related in Book 11 of the "Chilam Balam" -- See Chapter 17, "The Earlier Olmec Record"). Then the planets (Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Venus, Mars) plus the "seven helpers of the king" add up to 12. It has long been my suspicion that Mercury should probably be added to the 'Saturnian planets' if for no other reason than the obvious fact that, until 686 BC, Mercury was on an orbit overriding the path of Earth, and frequently accompanied Mars. That makes 13.

The "Popol Vuh" identifies the northern planets as five in number during the time of the negotiations between the southern ball plasmoids and the northern planets, but seems to misidentify Mercury as Venus (they were both white spheres) calling Mercury "Sovereign Plumed Serpent". See Chapter 20, "The Popol Vuh."
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Note 9 --

See Linda Schele and David Freidel, "A Forest of Kings" (1990). The temple images at Palenque are named as the Tablet of the Foliated Cross, the Tablet of the Cross (the World Tree), and the Tablet of the Sun (the War Stack) -- in three separate temples of the same names, of which the Temple of the Cross is the central structure.

Images: Palenque, ca AD 700. Tablets of the Temple of the Foliated Cross, the Temple of the Cross, and the Temple of the Sun. Representing, left to right, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter.

The tablets above are flanked with figures of the ruler Chan-Bahlum and his (dead) father. Both the accompanying texts and the iconography make it clear that the three panels are dedicated, in order (left to right), to Mars, Venus, and Jupiter. These are the 'Palenque Triad' of gods, named GII, GI, and GIII.

God GI-prime, who is seen in the third panel above on the right, upholding the bar supporting the crossed spears of the 'War Stack', is Saturn the father of GI (Venus). The aged God L is also most likely Saturn (or may be Uranus). Mayanists tend to say things like, "God X has properties of God Y," without ever conceding that this is often enough to equate the two.
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Note 10 --

I have assumed a synchronous rotation Earth and Saturn, which means that in effect Saturn's period was 24 hours, not 10.6 hours which is the period of rotation today. The speeding up of the rotation of Saturn can probably be justified from the loss in orbital rotational momentum due to its later relocation to 9.5 AU.

In Appendix B, "The Celestial Mechanics," I have proposed that the Earth's polar inclination was about 30 degrees since before 3147 BC. That would certainly account for the "beating of things with wood and stone," for Saturn would be seen as rotating in a circle of about 10 degrees diameter around the center of the Earth's polar rotation on a daily basis.
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Note 11 --

Wal Thornhill has suggested that the weak magnetic field of Mercury is probably due it wildly eccentric orbit. This would also apply to Venus before it circularized.
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Note 12 --

The easily seen satellites of Jupiter number 4. These are in excess of 3000 km in diameter and were noted by Galileo. The next four in size and prominence, ranging from 50 to 200 km in diameter were discovered by the beginning of the 20th century AD. The satellites are listed below in order of distance from Jupiter. There are many more small and odd satellites.

           Distance  Radius    Mass
Satellite     (km)   (km)     (kg)   Discoverer   Date    comment
---------  --------  ------  -------  ----------  -----    -------
Metis        128,000      20  9.56e16  Synnott      1979   close in, small
Adrastea     129,000      10  1.91e16  Jewitt       1979   close in, small
Amalthea     181,000      98  7.17e18  Barnard      1892   1
Thebe        222,000      50  7.77e17  Synnott      1979   2
Io           422,000    1815  8.94e22  Galileo      1610   3
Europa       671,000    1569  4.80e22  Galileo      1610   4
Ganymede   1,070,000    2631  1.48e23  Galileo      1610   5
Callisto   1,883,000    2400  1.08e23  Galileo      1610   6
Himalia   11,480,000      93  9.56e18  Perrine      1904   7
Elara     11,737,000      38  7.77e17  Perrine      1905   8
Lysithea  11,720,000      18  7.77e16  Nicholson    1938   9
Leda      11,094,000       8  5.68e15  Kowal        1974   smallest
Pasiphae  23,500,000      25  1.91e17  Melotte      1908   too far
Sinope    23,700,000      18  7.77e16  Nicholson    1914   too far
Carme     22,600,000      20  9.56e16  Nicholson    1938   too far
Ananke    21,200,000      15  3.82e16  Nicholson    1951   too far 
 

It should be suggested that the satellites of Jupiter seen in antiquity consisted only of those relatively close to the planet, large enough to be seen, not obscured by rings, and not at extreme distances. That suggests the numbered satellites listed above.

A number of mythological sources (Asia and Africa) claim nine satellites or Gods who accompany Jupiter. This doesn't work out too easily. But the nine "companions" of other mythological sources could also represent a transfer of the count of satellites from Saturn to Jupiter (the seven plus Iapetus and Phoebe).

Since Thebe was not discovered until 1979, it might be left off the list. Then "the nine" would consist of 8 satellites plus Jupiter.
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Note 13 --

See Linda Schele and David Freidel, "A Forest of Kings" (1990), and "Maya Cosmos" (1993).
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Note 14 --

The two-headed serpent uses Venus as one head and the Sun as the other. This may represent the conjunction in the day-time sky of Venus and the Sun in 685 BC, but more likely represents the plasmoid bolt of Jupiter in July of 685 BC.
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Note 15 --

Although it is possible that the 'nine' of "Bolon Dzacab" refers to the rising of Mars to Saturn, which is specifically noted by the "Chilam Balam," it is also possible that the 'nine' refers to the nine close approaches of Mars in the era of 806 BC to 687 BC.
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Note 16 --

Schele and Freidel, "A Forest of Kings" (1990), endnote 33 to page 246. To repeat a previous endnote: Ballcourt A-IIb at Copan in Honduras was built during the sixth or seventh century AD, and soon remodeled. The remodeling preserved three central alley markers.

A tree is shown on the outside area of the north and south markers. Suspended from each tree is a playing ball. The tree of the north is labeled "Nine Successions;" the tree of the south is labeled "Seven Successions." If, as I suspect, the trees represent the plasma plumes of the north and south, then we have here an inventory of how many times the Axis Mundi reappeared. It would be appropriate to reappear more frequently in the north, since the north magnetic pole would facilitate a larger influx of electrons.

The dates are..

• (1) after 3147 BC (trees mentioned)
• (2) after 2349 BC (trees mentioned)
• (3) after 2193 BC
• (4) after 1492 BC (trees mentioned)
• (5) after 1442 BC
• (6) after 747 BC
• (7) after 686 BC
• (8) after 685 BC

The date for the return of the directional trees are noted above. The date of 686 BC is not certain. The date of 685 BC was added to the list. There was no change in the Earth's orbit in 685 BC, but the electrical field of the Sun changed significantly (see Chapters 11 and 12). I also have the suspicion that there might have been two additional changes in the orbit of Earth between 2349 BC and 2193 BC, which have remained unrecorded. The name "Nine Successions" is one more 'succession' than noted in the records at Palenque, where the first northern plasma plume is called "north-eight-house."

I would think that there was probably a transfer from the north polar plasma plume to the Milky Way after the plasma plume disappeared permanently.
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Note 17 --

The choppy transliterations of the dedicatory texts of monuments of the Maya seldom are very clear on purposes, except to prove the exceptional nature of the Long Count calendar. In this case, too, it is unknown why the 'raised-up-sky north-eight-house GI' had to be invoked.

In the quoted text, the glyph 'GI' is used with other modifiers, and it is uncertain what it would mean. It could be a possesive, "the eight-house of Venus." This would match the first recognition by the Egyptians of Venus flying around the tree of Biblos in the north. It could also read as 'raised-up-sky north-house eight-GI,' but GI (Venus) shows up seven times near Earth, as I will detail in this text, not eight.

Maya representations of Gods as face-glyphs are called God GI, GII, GIII, and God A, B, C, etc, by archaeologists because it has not been easy to identify the faces with well known and named Gods. But based solely on iconography I can readily associate some of these numbered and alphabetically identified face-glyphs with the planets as follows..

         named God      planet
            GI          Venus
         D, GI-prime    Saturn
         K, GII         Mars
         L, GIII        Jupiter
         

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Note 18 --

The four flames which surround the cosmos, an illustration from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
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Note 19 --

The period before 3147 BC does not end in a Katun 11-Ahau, but in Katun 4-Ahau. Philosophically, however, the Maya could only place 'prehistory' in Katun 11-Ahau. But by coincidence, Katun 9-Ahau is actually the fourth Katun after 3114 BC (as retrocalculated) -- Katun 2-Ahau, Katun 13-Ahau, Katun 11-Ahau, Katun 9-Ahau -- thus completing the 80 years of 'negotiation' which the Egyptians claim as the delay before Horus/Mars takes control of Egypt. Counting 80 solar years (as Katuns of solar year Tuns) forward from the more likely date of 3147 BC, reaches 3067 BC as the ending date of Katun 9-Ahau.
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Note 20 --

If Hathor in Egyptian iconography and literature can be identified with electrical contacts by Venus, then the occurrence of the "Seven Hathors" (as sculpted, for example, at the Roman Period temple of Denderah in Egypt) might signify a similar recognition of the repeating nature of interferences by Venus.

In Copic "Hathor" is the name for the seven stars of the Pleiades.
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Note 21 --

In the texts at the Maya Temples of the Cross in Palenque (AD 690), the Moon, although born before creation according to the texts (in 3121 BC) and bearing planetary children in 2360 BC, becomes 'ruler' ("crowns herself") in 2305 BC. After correction (see below), this date would fall in a Katun 9-Ahau. Saturn is her husband; he is also born before the nominal retrocalculated date of creation -- 3114 BC.

The dates used at Palenque are obviously selected for their numerological value, although I would think that probably the correct era was used -- that is, the correct Baktun and the correct Katun. The inscriptions were meant to be seen by local Ahobs and visiting dignitaries from other Maya ceremonial centers -- all of whom where literate and aquainted with the written history of the world.

That the three planets were "born" in 2360 BC would suggest that they became visible at this time, that is, as star-like objects, but more importantly it would mean that they were freed from the obscuring Absu into which the ecliptic dipped for half the course of each year. This suggests that the Absu had disappeared at this time. As I have pointed out in another chapter, the date of 2360 BC is incorrect by 22 years. It should be 2337 BC, which places it after the 'Flood of Noah' of 2349 BC by 12 years. The 'Flood of Noah' is the removal of the Absu from the skies.

The "corrections" noted in the text are based on the assumption that the Palenque dates were retrocalculated on the basis of a 365.24 day solar year, whereas the Olmec who instituted the Long Count used a 360 day solar year. Thus the retrocalculations places all the calculated Baktuns and Katuns too far into the past by 5.24 days per year since 747 BC.

The crowning of the Moon as Ahau in 2305 BC should be corrected by 22 years to 2283 BC, which, by the way, is close to the date that the Moon 'Shun' joins the Chinese emperor (God) Yao (Jupiter) on the throne (2287 BC traditionally, corrected to 2277 BC).
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Note 22 --

But note that in Chapter 19, "The Day of Kan," I identify Monte Alto in Guatemala, dating to 1887 BC, as an earlier important ceremonial center. Monte Alto was destroyed or left behind after 520 years of use, to be replaced by San Lorenzo, after 1440 BC.
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Note 23 --

It is also possible that this is an address to the audience in the manner of the wording found in the 'riddles' section of the "Chilam Balam."
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Note 24 --

The sweet smells are quoted by Velikovsky from the Papyrus Anastasi, Ginsberg's "Legends," and the Vedas. It is reminiscent of the smell of the exhaust of diesel engines, thus the burning of hydrocarbons.
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Note 25--

July 26, 685 BC Gregorian, falls on 6.3.4.5.16 9-Yax 1-Cib. This is 12 days after a day named 'Kan.'

I have had to use the August 13 correlation. Previously, for the date of February 28, 747 BC, I had used the August 11 correlation. The August 11 correlation does not work out for the dates in 685 BC. This may be an indication of the fact that at this time there were already two Long Count calendars in use. The opinion on the historical validity of a "day of Kan," which seems to have prevaled throughout most of Mesoamerica, would thus have been well established by 600 BC.
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Note 26 --

July 26 (actually July 25) represents the overhead passage of the Sun at Edzna in the eastern Yucatan, as also at Teotihuacan in the central Valley of Mexico. Both are located at a latitude of 19 degrees and 40 seconds north.

The new calendar, or actually, the end of an era, was the celebration of July 26, 685 BC (Gregorian), when the day fell on 1-Cib of the Tzolkin. The New Year's Day subsequently rotated through the calendar, skipping 4 days every year, and periodically 5, depending on the vagaries of the backward extended Gregorian calendar, reaching the series of Kan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac every twenty years or so. At the time of the Spanish invasion after AD 1556 it was rotating through the days Kan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac (using the August 13 correlation), reaching the day of Kan on July 26, 1557 (Gregorian), as Landa reported. But it would not have mattered what Tzolkin day name fell on July 26th. It was known as "the day of Kan" -- as the day the world was destroyed and recreated.
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Note 27 --

I attempted to apply any number of corrective measures to the calendar calculations, but only the substitution of 365.24 days for the 360 days, as assumed both by us and the Classical Era Maya for the period prior to 747 BC, yielded results. Thus the scribal "error correction" for the day of Kan was accomplished well after 650 BC.

In researching the "day of Kan" over a span of 5000 years I became aware of how relatively easy it was to access the Long Count for particular combinations of the Tzolkin and Haab.
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Note 28 --

The appearance of Mercury in this century, in the company of Mars, reflects its accompanyment with Mars in the earlier era of 3067 BC to ca 2700 BC.
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Note 29 --

We should be able to check locations of Mars and Mercury with an ephemeris program, however, accurate results cannot be expected, for even though the Earth's orbit was determined by 747 BC, the orbits of Mercury changed in 686 BC. The location of the planet Mercury for the date of March 23, -686, the second Earth shock, was "off" by some days, as I show in Appendix B, "The Celestial Mechanics." Since this is likely to have been the last alteration of the orbit of Mercury, it can be expected to be close to today's values.

But earlier positions cannot be readily found for the simultaneous appearance of Mars and Mercury. This is to be expected for an ephemeris based on the current tight orbit of Mercury. It is amazing, nevertheless, that a point of coincidence was found with the orbit of Earth in 686 BC. If the earlier orbit of Mercury was simply an elongated version of today's orbit, that is, the same orbit with extreme eccentricity, then the orbital period would be the same, although the location of the planet at any point in time along its orbit would vary considerably.

Certainly both planets would appear together in the skies on occassion, since Mercury (today) has a fairly short orbital period, and even Mars would pass Earth approximately every two years. An inspection of the series of the Julian (ephemeris) years 748, 733, 718, 703, and 688 BC, shows Mercury near the sky location of Mars in four out of five years in March or February. It does not happen in 688 BC but happens two years later. (The series was developed by repeatedly subtracting 15 years from astronomical year -747.)

I am adding this note only to demonstrate that the condition of the simultaneous appearance of Mars and Mercury is possible. In all these cases an ephemeris program will show Mars outside the orbit of Earth and both planets in line with the Sun.
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Note 30 --

Schele and Freidel (in "A Forest of Kings") are of the opinion that the accumulation of wealth, resulting from harvest surpluses and wider trading, which had come into effect after 300 BC, constituted an unprecedented crisis among the Maya, whose social interactions were based on egalitarianism. They write of "a culture which regarded the accumulation of wealth as an aberration," and note..

"We know that the problem the Maya were trying to resolve was one of social inequality because that is precisely the state of affairs that the institution of ahau defines as legitimate, necessary, and intrinsic to the order of the cosmos."

Acceptance of this social sinkhole for wealth did not keep Maya scribes from complaining incessantly, as we see in the "Chilam Balam" texts, both in this Book and elsewhere.

The surpluses of maize, by the way, are astounding. Typically, in well watered territory, only one third of the corn crop is needed to feed the family of the farmer year round -- a family which could easily consist of 10 people. That means 20 people could be fed for a year from the surplus crop.
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Note 31 --

If we assume that the "lineage of the noble chiefs" and those whose "faces had been trampled on the ground" represent the orthodox upholders of the relationship between the Maya and the cosmos, then the "unrestrained upstarts of the day and of the katun," who had inflicted the overthrow of the orthodox nobility, most likely represent a second wave of religious philosophy entering the Yucatan from the west.

The archaeological record of the Classical Era show the arrival of emmissaries from Teotihuacan (in Mexico) some time before AD 700. They bring the flayed human face shield and the dart thrower, which were in general use in the Valley of Mexico at that time. The Maya adopted these to some degree, but it is more likely that they adopted aspects of the religious philosophy and practices of the westerners.

Of course the Maya had already adopted both the temple mound and the script and time keeping of the Olmecs by ca 100 BC (and possibly much earlier). And the later invasion by the Itza, after AD 900, certainly brought with them a religion of hope for the return of Quetzalcoatl which differed from the concept about Venus which the Classical Maya had already established.

In the main text I have postulated the changes in attitudes toward the older Gods in China, India, and the Middle East after 685 BC, which spread in waves of new religions. I have suggested that the same would have happened in Mesoamerica, and would propose that the first and primary epicenter was Olmec Veracruz. The changes in alignments of monuments after ca 600 BC can be easily seen. These in effect attempted to establish new controls over the course of the Sun (and were demonstrable effective), something the Maya were also intent on.

It could therefore be suggested that, as elsewhere in the world, a number of different solutions came forward. We certainly see this in central Mexico in the period after 600 BC, with new interpretations of the control of the Gods established at intervals through to the time of the Aztecs.

We have no clear idea from the text of the "Chilam Balam" of when new philosophies were introduced which would have caused the overthrow of the older nobility, although the Itza are repeatedly blamed for "introducing idolatry" to the Yucatan, possibly to cast blame away from the indigenous Maya. But what is interesting is that this is referenced to the events Katun 3-Ahau -- in 685 BC. Since Katun 3-Ahau would repeat, any number of other incidents could be tied to this. This history certainly holds Katun 3-Ahau as significant.
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Note 32 --

The following lists every one of the ending years of Katun 9-Ahau, 7-Ahau, 5-Ahau, and 3-Ahau. I have listed the years as 'BC' rather than in their astronomical nomenclature. The Katuns all start 20 years earlier. Where I skip a range of Katuns, I have placed a series of dots.

The corrections listed on the right of some lines are based on the assumption that the Olmecs had listings of Baktuns and Katuns available which reflected solar years, so that a Baktun would be 400 years, and a Katun would be 20 years, without regard to the actual length of the year. Thus the corrections below are based on subtracting 6 Baktuns (2400 years) from 747 BC to arrive at 3147 as the year of the end of the "Age of the Gods." The correction is thus 3147 - 400*{Long Count Baktuns} - 20*{Long Count Katuns}. The corrected years are shown as "sb" -- "should be."

Before 3114 BC (0.0.0.0.0)                      sb: 3147 BC
	Oxlahun-ti-ku (Saturn) is blindfolded.
	Bolon-ti-ku (Jupiter) attacks Saturn.
	Nine-Lives (Mars) rises 9 times.
Katun 11-Ahau ends in 3055 BC (0.3.0.0.0)         
............
Katun 9-Ahau ends in 3033 BC (0.4.0.0.0)	sb: 3087-3067 
	Ten-Sky (Mars) arrives.
Katun 7-Ahau ends in 3015 BC (0.5.0.0.0)
Katun 5-Ahau ends in 2996 BC (0.6.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in 2975 BC (0.7.0.0.0)
............
Katun 9-Ahau ends in 2779 BC (0.17.0.0.0) 
Katun 7-Ahau ends in 2759 BC (0.18.0.0.0)
Katun 5-Ahau ends in 2739 BC (0.19.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in 2720 BC (1.0.0.0.0)
............
	-- The Third Creation -- 
Katun 9-Ahau ends in 2523 BC (1.10.0.0.0)	sb: 2567-2547 
	Jupiter clears the asteroid belt and develops a coma and tail
Katun 7-Ahau ends in 2503 BC (1.11.0.0.0)
Katun 5-Ahau ends in 2483 BC (1.12.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in 2463 BC (1.13.0.0.0)
............
Katun 4-Ahau ends in 2345 BC (1.19.0.0.0)	sb: 2387-2367 
	(no exact Katun:) The Moon appears.
        Fall of the Absu (misplaced below).
Katun 2-Ahau ends in 2325 BC (2.0.0.0.0)	sb: 2367-2347 
	(no exact Katun:) Jupiter develops a coma again.
Katun 13-Ahau ends in 2305 BC (2.1.0.0.0)
Katun 11-Ahau ends in 2286 BC (2.2.0.0.0)	sb: 2327-2307 
	(Palenque:) The Moon "lets blood" 
Katun 9-Ahau ends in 2266 BC (2.3.0.0.0)	sb: 2307-2287 
	(Palenque:) The Moon "crowns herself" 
        Fall of the Absu (misplaced event).
Katun 7-Ahau ends in 2246 BC (2.4.0.0.0)	sb: 2287-2267 
	Jupiter flares up and extinguishes.
Katun 5-Ahau ends in 2226 BC (2.5.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in 2206 BC (2.6.0.0.0)
............
Katun 9-Ahau ends in 2010 BC (2.16.0.0.0)
Katun 7-Ahau ends in 1990 BC (2.17.0.0.0)
Katun 5-Ahau ends in 1971 BC (2.18.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in 1951 BC (2.19.0.0.0)
............
Katun 9-Ahau ends in 1754 BC (3.9.0.0.0)
Katun 7-Ahau ends in 1734 BC (3.10.0.0.0)
Katun 5-Ahau ends in 1714 BC (3.11.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in 1695 BC (3.12.0.0.0)
............
Katun 9-Ahau ends in 1497 BC (4.2.0.0.0)	sb: 1527-1507 
Katun 7-Ahau ends in 1478 BC (4.3.0.0.0)	sb: 1507-1487
	Ah Uuc Chek Nal (Venus) rubs the earth.
Katun 5-Ahau ends in 1458 BC (4.4.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in 1438 BC (4.5.0.0.0)
............
Katun 9-Ahau ends in 1241 BC (4.15.0.0.0)
Katun 7-Ahau ends in 1221 BC (4.16.0.0.0)
Katun 5-Ahau ends in 1202 BC (4.17.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in 1182 BC (4.18.0.0.0)
............
Katun 9-Ahau ends in 985 BC (5.8.0.0.0)
Katun 7-Ahau ends in 965 BC (5.9.0.0.0)
Katun 5-Ahau ends in 945 BC (5.10.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in 926 BC (5.11.0.0.0)
............
Katun 11-Ahau ends in 747 BC (6.0.0.0.0) 	actual
	Mars contacts Earth; (start of Long Count).
Katun 9-Ahau ends in  729 BC (6.1.0.0.0)	actual
	Further sightings of Mars.
Katun 7-Ahau ends in  708 BC (6.2.0.0.0)
Katun 5-Ahau ends in  688 BC (6.3.0.0.0)
Katun 3-Ahau ends in  668 BC (6.4.0.0.0)	actual
	Venus nova, Kukulkan disappears.

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