http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== IFRAME: http://ad.yieldmanager.com/st?ad_type=iframe&ad_size=728x90§ion=20 9094 Nahua/Maya Number system The Maya Creation Home World Tree Axis: Dzibilchaltún AMAZING DISCOVERIES at EARTH'S EQUATOR On the Mexican Calendar and its Cycles The Maya Cycles The Maya Creation The Zuni and Hopi Calendar Time On the Maya number system Codex Mendoza / Mexican Numbers The Calendar Wheel The Calendar, The Seasonal Round, and Moon Ceremonies Sun Calendars of U.S. First Americans Maya numbers / Maya Mathematics The "Five Suns', the Mexican Calendar, and Mexican Creation Story The Skull Motif and the Mayan Discovery of Zero Roman Numerals On Numbers, the Syllabary, and Symbols Oldest Known Maya Mural Index of Links to Mexican and Mayan Codexes [& on the Number System] VI. The Creation Just as the notion of great astronomical cycles shadowed forth eschatological cataclysm, so it reverted to cyclic eons of the past in which the world came to its present form. There is no such wealth of creation myth preserved from the ancient Maya as from the Nahua, but enough is recorded to make it clear that the ideas of the two peoples were essentially one: indeed, they clearly belong to a group of cosmological conceptions extending as far to the north as the Pueblos of the United States, and not without influence beyond, into the prairie country. Possibly the whole complex conception had its first telling with the Maya; it is with them, at least, that the numerical and calendric ideas with which it is logically associated received the greatest development and give the most natural raison d'etre to the mythic lore. Something of the nature of the Maya conception is intimated by Cogolludo and Landa, as noted in a preceding paragraph. More is given in Tozzer's account of Maya religion as it is today. According to information obtained from Mayas of Valladolid, the world is now in the fourth period of its existence. In the first, there lived the Saiyamkoob, "the Adjusters," the primitive race of Yukatan, who were dwarfs and built the cities now in ruins. Their work was done in darkness, when as yet there was no sun. When the sun appeared they were turned into stone, and their images are to be found today in the ruins. In this period there was living rope extending from earth to sky, by which food was brought down to the builders. Blood was in this rope; but the rope was cut, the blood flowed out, and earth and sky were parted. Water-over-the-earth ended this period. It was followed by the age of the Tsolob, "the Offenders;" and these, too, were destroyed by the flood. The third age was that in which the Maya reigned, but their day likewise passed amid waters of destruction, to give place to the present age peopled by a mixture of all the races that have previously dwelt in Yucatan. It is easy to align these notions with what we know of Mexican myth, though it is evident that history rather than genesis is its present significance. But purely cosmogonic is the fragment from the Book of Chilam Balam of Chamayel published by Martinez Hernandez with its suggestions of the Thirteen Lords of the Day captured by the Nine of the Night as the first great act: "During the 11 Ahau, Ahmucen-cab came to cover the faces of Oxlahun-ti-ku (thirteen gods); his name were unknown except those of his sister and of his children: and they said that the faces also were equally not visible; then, when the world was made, they knew not that they would be entirely cast away; and Oxlanhun-ti-ku was captured by Bolon-ti-ku (nine gods); then he brought down fire; then he brought down salt; then he brought down the stones and trees and came to play with the stones and trees; and Oxlanhun-ti-ku was caught and they broke his head and buffeted him, and also carried him on their backs; and they despoiled him of his dragon and his tizne [black paint or soot]; and they took fresh shoots of yaxum and white beans, tuberous roots cut up small, and the heart of small calabash seeds and of large calabash seeds cut up small, and of black beans cut up small. This first Bolon-tsac-cab (nine orders of the world) made a thick covering of seeds and went away to the thirteen heaven, and the surface of the earth remained formed, and the peaks of the rocks of the world. "And the heart of Oxlanhun-ti-ku went away, the hearts of the tuberous roots refuse to go. And there came women without-fathers, with those who have hard work, the without-husbands, who, although living have no heart; and wrapped in dog's grass, they were buried in the sea. "All at once came the water after the dragon was carried away. The heaven was broken up; it fell upon the earth; and they that Cantul-ti-ku (four gods), the four Bacab, were those who destroyed it. Then, when the universal destruction was past, they placed as dweller Kan-xib-yui, to order it anew. And the tree, the white Ymix, was place standing in the north; and he placed the supporting poles of the heaven; and it was said that this tree was the symbol of the universal destruction." Four other trees, each of a different color, each symbol of a destruction of the world, were planted at the remaining quarters and the center; and the form of the world was then complete. "'The whole world,' said Uh-uuc-chek-nale (he who seven times makes fruitful), `proceeded from the seven bosoms of the earth.' And he descended to make fruitful Itzam-kab-ain (the female whale with alligator feet), when he came down from the central angel of the heavenly region. The four lights, the four regions of the stars, revolved. As yet there was not light; absolutely there was no moon. They awoke; and from then began the world. At that instant the world began. Thirteen numeral orders, with seven, is the period since the beginning of the world." Taken From: Gray, Louis Herbert. The Mythology of all Races. 14 vols. Boston: Marshall Jones, 1916-32. See volume 11: Latin-American. 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