thedarkavalonbooks Blog Page for August Hunt's Dark Avalon Books Skip to content Home ← THE PRE-ROMANCE MOUNTAIN OF MYRDDIN My new Kindle Ebook Titles: → MATWIL AND THE GODS OF PALENQUE Posted on July 21, 2011 by August Hunt By August Hunt NOTE: The following is not to be viewed as a true piece of scholarship, in so far as a) I am not a Maya scholar and b) Maya scholars do not at all take seriously the notion that very ancient dates mentioned by the Maya actually relate true cosmological events. Instead, they consider these non-historical dates to have been randomly selected – or selected for some reason not now apparent to us – and any celestial events ascribed to them are not a reflection of actual events which may have taken place on those dates. What I have done is assume, for fun, that the Maya DID know what was happening during these remote dates, and have used my astronomy program to plot what I perceive as events that match what the Maya records describe. What I’ve come up with will be of interest, then, only to those who do not object to speculative approaches to arcane subjects, and who have some acquaintance with the dates and events I describe. [All astronomical events were viewed from a CyberSky ‘observatory’ positioned virtually at Palenque, Chiapas; dates/actions involving Palenque supernaturals courtesy the list compiled by Peter Matthews. All dates given below are Julian and the correlation is 584283. Several other constants were initially applied, but only the 584283 correlation revealed truly significant events and so I have tentatively settled on this particular correlation as the correct one.] Birth of GI on 10 November 2360. On this day, the sun and Mercury are very close together at the intersection of the galactic equator and the ecliptic in the heart of the Milky Way. Both planets are in Sagittarius, a location designated as Matwil by the Maya of Palenque (see below). Mercury rises first at 6:11 a.m., while the sun rises at 6:13. Mercury would thus not have been observable, but its position could certainly have been predicted. Mercury sets at 5:45 p.m., and the sun at 5:50. As the births of these gods are also called ‘arrivals’ or ‘earth-touchings’, I interpret the births as a moment when a heavenly body descends from the sky and “touches” the earth, immediately prior to setting. While earth-touching could denote the appearance of a heavenly body on the horizon just after it rises up from the underworld, I think this interpretation is less convincing. So, as Mercury “earth-touches” first in the evening, GI (for ‘God I’) = the planet Mercury. Since Lounsbury’s time, it has been customary to equate GI with Venus. A nice summary of the various scholars who have supported this idea can be found in Susan Milbrath’s ‘Star Gods of the Maya’ (p. 205). But Venus does not rise or set first on the birth date of GI and we will see below that the otherwise inextricable “delay” in the birth of GII can only be accounted for by the birth of Venus on 28 November. There I will also point out the ‘body double’ nature of Venus and Mercury, the two minor planets that also appear on the Creation date of 8 September 3114 B.C. as the Paddlers. Venus and Mercury are unique among the planets in being viewed as Evening and Morning Stars and thus companions of the sun. The birth of GIII on 14 November 2360 B.C. On this day, both the sun and Mercury have advanced beyond the intersection of the ecliptic and the galactic equator. Both still reside in Sagittarius, and are still in the heart of the Milky Way. However, the rise and set order is reversed. The sun now rises at 6:14 a.m., while Mercury rises at 6:23. The set times are similarly reversed in order, with the sun setting at 5:48 p.m. and Mercury at 5:50. The solar attributes of GIII have been noted before by several major Mayanists and I will not repeat their work here. Suffice it to say that the second born of the Palenque Triad would appear to be the sun. The Birth of GII on 28 November 2360 B.C. David Stuart has said of the Palenque gods GI, GII and GII (_Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya_) “We do not know why their birth-order disagrees with the order in which they are always named…” Or again “…He [GII] was the youngest of the three members of the Triad… even though he is always named and depicted as the middle member of the three gods.” Why is this so? On GI’s birthday, Jupiter has just entered the same end (or “head”) of the Milky Way wherein the sun and Mercury reside. We find Jupiter in Ophiuchus very near Antares, the very bright star of the constellation Scorpius. On GIII’s birthday, Jupiter is pretty much in identically the same spot in the sky. These three planets, then, occupy this “head” of the Milky Way/Cosmic Monster at the same time. No other planets are present in this head of the Milky Way. In each case, Jupiter rises before both Mercury and the sun. Milbrath and others have made their case for GII or God K being Jupiter, or having Jupiter as his planetary aspect. I do not believe that this is correct. On the birthdate of GII, something rather unusual happens. Mercury has left the Milky Way and is residing in Capricorn. The sun is still in Sagittarius, but on the very edge of the Milky Way. Jupiter is still stubbornly hanging out in Ophiuchus. Venus, however, has just entered this head of the Cosmic Monster and is also in Ophiuchus. So what has happened is that Venus has replaced Mercury within the confines of this head of the Cosmic Monster. What are we to make of this substitution, and how does it help with our identification of GII? Milbrath (in her ‘Star Gods of the Maya’) mentions both how Mercury and Venus, being the two inferior planets, could act as ‘body doubles’ for one another. The fact that the Palenque Maya held off allowing GII to be born until 28 November tells us with a fair degree of certainty that Venus is the one being born on this day, not Jupiter. According to my CyberSky program, Venus reaches the edge of the Milky Way on November 25. The 28th is the first day the planet is actually completely within the Milky Way. Thus the evidence for viewing GII as Venus is rather overwhelming. That Jupiter was present in the same end of the Milky Way as was Mercury (GI) and the Sun (GIII) and rose and set before both, yet was not given a birth date prior to these two planets, also argues forcefully for seeing Venus as the planet being born on 28 November. The Location of Matwil David Stuart has rendered Matwil, the location of the births of GI, GII and GIII, as the “Place of Cormorants”. As such this was a watery place, and may have been the heavenly model for part or all of Palenque itself. We know the Maya could conceive of the Milky Way as a heavenly body of water (see the famous Tikal bones, for example, which depict the deceased king and other planets passing through the Milky Way water on the ‘ecliptic canoe’). The fact that all three planets – Mercury, Sun and Venus – are all born within the Milky Way strongly suggests that the Scorpius-Sagittarius head of the Cosmic Monster is Matwil. The Accession of GI on 6 April 3309. A Palenque text mentions Itzamnaaj as supervising GI the Elder’s “seating” or sitting in kingship in the heavens on this date. David Stuart has Itzamnaaj “overseeing/governing/tending to” the accession event, which “comes to pass” “in the heavens”. In “At the Court of Itzam Nah Yax Kokaj Mut: Preliminary Iconographic and Epigraphic Analysis of a Late Classic Vessel” (October 30, 2008), Erik Boot suggests the Palenque inscription may be depicted visually on a vase. On this day, Mercury rises at 5:32 a.m. The planet resides in Aries with Mars. I will have more on the possibility that Mars may be the planetary aspect of Itzamnaaj below. Muwaan Mat’s Birth on 2 January 3120 B.C. It was once believed that 2 January 3120 B.C. was the birthday of Sak Kuk, or “White Quetzal”, mother of the Palenque king Pacal, presumably an incarnation of the moon goddess. The name Muwaan Mat was taken as an epithet for Sac Kuk. However, David Stuart has recently suggested that Muwaan Mat is a male figure and that the dates relating to him do not, therefore, have anything to do with Pacal’s mother. Stuart does concede, however, that Muwaan Mat may be the ‘Mother-Father’of the Palenque Triad. The concept of the Mother-Father is well known in contemporary Maya belief. Another reading for Muwaan Mat’s name may be ‘Lady of Split Place’ (see Dennis Tedlock, ‘2000 Years of Mayan Literature’). Michael Grofe of the Maya Exploration Center, equates Matwil with Tamoanchan, ‘Land of Rain and Mist’. While I would not go as far as Grofe in identifying ‘Lady of Split Place’ with the tree from which the gods were born, we CAN place her birth in the Great Rift of the Milky Way. I would then say there is a fair degree of probability that the Great Rift was designated by the Maya as the ‘Split Place’. As the Triad gods are clearly born at Matwil, i.e. the Sagittarius-Scorpius head of the Milky Way monster, and Muwaan Mat is termed the ‘Lord of Matwil’, the presence of the moon near the center of the Milky Way in Ophiuchus on 2 January 3120 B.C. should be noted. The moon is the only visible planet in this head of the Cosmic Monster. Eight years after Muwaan Mat is born, this personage undergoes a blood-letting rite (private communication from Dr. Michael Carrasco of The University of Texas at Austin). This happens on 1 March, 3112 B.C. The day before, on February 28, the moon had been paired with Mars in Sagittarius within the Milky Way. On the 1st of March, the moon leaves the Milky Way. Muwaan Mat is said to accede to power on 27 September 2325. On this day, the moon is 3.3 days before New Moon (13.1% illuminated) and resides in Virgo with Mars. The action attendant upon this event consists of the tying of white paper bark onto the head of Muwaan Mat. Such a white paper bark headband was the Palenque equivalent of a crown, and thus denoted kingship. Could such white bark have represented the crescent moon? I would remind readers of the iconographic motif known to Mayanists as the moon’s “theft” of the God L’s regalia. Typically, either the moon goddess or her rabbit is shown with the regalia of God L, who is often depicted in abject prostration before her, as if imploring the goddess to give back his usurped possessions. His regalia includes a muwaan bird or muwaan bird cloak. Sometimes God L pleads with the Sun for his owl hat, robes and staff. It has been theorized that the motif records a conjunction of Venus (or Mercury; see Milbrath) and the moon. Perhaps the moon dressed as the Muwaan bird might help explain why Muwaan Mat is, apparently, designated as male, rather than as female? Given the strictly astronomical evidence, I would have to say that Muwaan Mat is the moon. Creation Day (8 September 3114 B.C.; viewed from Quirigua via CyberSky) On Quirigua Stela C, four gods lay three stones, and ‘The face/image at the sky’s edge, at the First Hearth Place, is changed.’ The Paddler Gods lay one stone which is the “Jaguar Throne Stone” at a ‘Five-Sky House’ (?), an otherwise unknown god called Black House First (?) lays the second stone at ‘Earth-town’ (?), which is called the “Snake Throne Stone”, while Itzamnaaj sets the third stone, the “Water (or Ocean) Throne Stone”. This Water Stone is referred to at Palenque as the ‘Shark Stone’. It is been customary to identify these three stones with the hearth stones of the contemporary Quiche Maya, namely Rigel, Saiph and Alnitak in Orion. David Stuart himself (most recently in his “The Order of Days”) has expressed concern over identifying the Classical period ‘First Hearth Place” with the modern Orion hearth. Still, I think a good case can be made for retaining the hearth stones for the Classical period. To me, the Paddlers would seem, fairly obviously, to be Mercury and Venus, the two inferior planets that are here, on Creation Day, nearly in conjunction: Mercury rise 5:03 a.m. transit 11:29 a.m. set 5:54 p.m. Venus rise 5:05 a.m. transit 11:29 a.m. set 554 p.m. This notion is confirmed by the statement from the Tila panel (see “Understanding Maya Inscriptions”) to the effect that the Jaguar Paddler and Stingray Paddler “were companioned” on the day of Creation. While none of the rise, transit or set times of Mercury and Venus correspond with those of Orion’s three hearthstones, it has been observed that on this day when the sun is exactly at zenith, Orion is at nadir. The sun rises at 5:42 a.m., is at zenith at 12:02 a.m. and sets at 6:22 p.m. Given the proximity of the conjoined Venus and Mercury to the sun when it is at zenith, it is likely the placement of the Jaguar Throne Stone refers to a particular Orion hearthstone that corresponds to the sun’s position while at zenith, i.e. a hearthstone which itself could be found at zenith when the sun was at nadir. ‘Five-Sky House’ is probably a reference to Rigel, Saiph and the three bright stars of Orion’s Belt, in the center of which is the Orion nebula, which the Maya saw as the smoke arising from the celestial hearth. Itzamnaaj would appear to be Mars (see Accession of GI above, and the discussion of Itzamnaaj as the Principal Bird Deity below, and as the prototype for 7 Macaw). On the Day of Creation, Mars resides in Sagittarius on the very edge of the Milky Way (the location of the watery Matwil). It may be that the stone was associated with water because on Creation Day Mars set at 10:37 p.m. The stars of the hearth in Orion rose at this time: Rigel at 10:13 p.m., Alnitak at 10:19 and Saiph at 11:47. If they were viewed as rising from the sea in the east, then this may explain the designation ‘Water/Ocean Throne Stone’. In other words, the last of the three stones was set in place just as Orion was appearing/manifesting itself when it rose above the eastern horizon. Specifically what was of interest to the Maya was exactly where on the horizon this particular hearthstone rose when the sun was at zenith and Orion was at nadir. Can anything be said about the unknown god, Black House First (?), and the Snake Throne Stone at Earth-town? Given the ‘earthly’ location of this stone, and the fact that nadir was the direction that pointed towards the center of the earth in the opposite direction from zenith, it is likely this stone was placed when one of Orion’s three hearthstones lay at nadir, supposedly “inside” the earth. If so, what supernatural agency would have overseen such a “planting” of the Snake Throne Stone? I think this must be Saturn, who is also close to the sun when the latter is at zenith. For if the Paddlers (Mercury and Venus) place the stone in the sky at the point where one of the Orion stars is situated when Orion is at zenith, then it must be Saturn as ‘Black House First’ who places the stone of Orion when the constellation is at nadir below/inside the earth. I would view the Sun in this instance as the otherwise unidentified Wak Chan Ajaw (Six-Sky Lord or, perhaps, ‘lifted/hoisted/erected/stood-up lord’) who oversaw the placement of all three hearthstones. This was, after all, the day of the sun at zenith, so he was the ‘Lord’ who supervised the creation of the Cosmic Hearth. Dedication of the House in the North on 3 March 3112 B.C. On this day GI/Mercury is said to dedicate his Raised-Up (or Six) Sky Place. Also mentioned in this connection is Eight Chak House and the House in the North. It has been customary to identify all three designations as names for the same place, but this is not at all certain. Some think that the House in the North may actually refer to a temple at Palenque, but as such a temple would have been modeled on a celestial counterpart, such an interpretation of the name is not particularly helpful. As Chaks were associated in Maya religion with the cardinal directions, the Eight Chak House has plausibly been identified with the sky divided into the 8 directions: W, E, N and S plus NE, NW, SE and SW. Schele thought Raised-Up (or Six) Sky was the Milky Way, but others see it merely as the heavens in general. The House in the North has been linked with the Pole Star, in 3112 B.C. not Polaris, but Thuban in Draco’s Tail The “Heart” of Raised-Up Sky Place was “set in motion” by Mercury on this day. This again could well point to the Pole Star Thuban as the ‘heart’ of the sky. Mercury would then be credited with having initiated the turning of the sky. The sky had been “raised-up” (lifted, hoisted, erected, stood up) in the same sense a tent is raised or set up on its poles: the sky had been hoisted up onto the axis mundi, the top of which is the Pole Star. There is, however, a problem with all of this. Creation Day had been all about the laying of the three cosmic hearth-stones at Orion. We know that the center or ‘heart’ of the Maya house was the hearth. We also know from the Popol Vuh that the corn was symbolically planted in the center or ‘heart’ of the house. The Quiche associate Orion with the deity Heart of Sky, and the ‘centrality” of either Orion or Heart of Sky is emphasized again and again in Maya. I would maintain, therefore, that the ‘Heart’ of Raised-Up/Six Sky Place is merely another name for the location of the Classic period three-hearthstones, which would appear to have been in Orion. Indeed, we have iconographic evidence for the hearth-stones being on the back of a turtle (Orion; see below under my discussion of the Palenque Crosses) – and the emergence of the Maize God from a turtle’s back. While some argue that the Maize God’s turtle is the earth, we must again remember that the heavenly drama was a precursor to the earthly one. But how does this help with the House in the North? Simple: the constellation of Orion is a preeminent northern constellation. In other words, the House in the North = the house in which are found the three hearth-stones. Eight Chak House is a reference to the eight bright stars that compose Orion, and the young Maize God’s head, whose portrait glyph stands for the number 8. Thus the “Heart” of the sky which is set in motion by Mercury in 3112 B.C. was Orion, which the Maya considered the center of the sky. Raised-Up/Six Sky Place would appear to represent the Milky Way. The same word for ‘raised-up” is used for stelae or ‘tree-stones’. After 5 a.m. on 3 March 3112 B.C., the Sagittarius/Scorpius rear head of the Cosmic Monster is high in the sky. But at 5 p.m. the hearth-stones of Orion are high in the sky. Thus Orion, along with the front head of the Cosmic Monster, has been ‘raised up’ from the underworld into the center of the sky. Mercury/GI rises at 5:58 a.m. and sets at 5:14 p.m. The Maya Exploration Center has posited that on the Day of Creation the Sun was at zenith and Orion at nadir in the center of the Underworld. In 3112 B.C., Orion was at zenith and the Sun at nadir. It is theorized that these positions established the Center, the axis mundi or World tree. Team members have since observed the importance of zenith and nadir alignments at other Classic sites. Important as zenith and nadir alignments doubtless were, we will see below when investigating the nature of the Crosses of Palenque that the upright of the ‘tree’ does, indeed, represent the Milky Way. The Crosses of Palenque and the Identities of the Gods GI, GII and GIII [historical dates are Julian] The Temples of the Sun, Cross and Foliated Cross were all dedicated on 20 July 690 A.D. (or 21 or 23; going by peter Matthews’ Julian date list). This was not long before the completion of the thirteenth k’atun on 15 March 692. Two other dates may be important when it comes to interpreting the iconography of the tablets in these temples: the two figures flanking the crosses and the sun-shield with two crossed spears are now known to represent K’inich Kan Bahlam as a child being designated heir to the throne on 14 June 641 A.D. and as a king being inaugurated on 7 January 684. In 7 January 692, the anniversary of the earlier 684 date, in the year of the period ending, K’inich underwent another ritual which Matthews’ refers to as ‘Sanct. Dedication’ Temple of the Sun The crossed spears of the Temple of the Sun, which was sacred to GIII/sun, may be the easiest to interpret. If we go with dates in the 7th century A.D. and bring up the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, we immediately see that the celestial equator and the ecliptic intersect at the center of the sky, forming on both occasions a perfect “crossed spears” pattern. Of course, this occurs only at exactly 12 noon with the sun present at the intersection point of the equator and the ecliptic. The sun cannot be shown in this context as a bird atop a tree, because on neither of the equinoxes is it on/within the Milky Way. The two figures holding up the spears and shield on a serpent bar are standing on the cab or earth band, which is here symbolic of the horizon. The serpent bar bearer on the left has been identified (see, for example, Justin and Barbara Kerr’s _The Way of God L: The Princeton Vase Revisited_) with God L, wearing his Muwaan bird headdress and his chevron cloak. The muwaan bird was Bird 2 of the Maya Zodiac (see Susan Milbrath’s _Star Gods of the Maya_) and this sign has been identified with Gemini. The other bearer of the serpent bar – on the right – is God N as turtle, here Orion. When viewed as if the sun at equinox point is at the “top” of the image, and Gemini and Orion are “standing” on the eastern horizon, the ecliptic (one of the spears) goes straight through Gemini, while the celestial equator (the other spear) goes right through Orion. On the Spring Equinox at around noon, Gemini is on the left and Orion is on the right. On the Fall Equinox around 10:30 a.m., Orion is on the left and Gemini is on the right. Thus the only match to the Temple of the Sun configuration is the Spring Equinox. As Gemini and Orion are on the earth band, they have just appeared above the eastern horizon. The horizontal serpent bar here represents the sky they appear to be holding up, and this serpent bar/sky is the platform upon which stand the ecliptic and celestial equator spears. It is unlikely the serpent bar here stands for the Milky Way, as that stands vertically, not horizontally, in relationship to Gemini and Orion. GIII the sun god is, in the temple of the sun, the sun god of the Spring Equinox. Although on the Spring Equinox itself night and day are of even length, the time represents that moment when the day begins to grow longer than the night. The symbolism thus suggests that not only was sacred warfare seen as mimicking the eternal conflict between night and day, darkness and light, but that the sun god GIII was the champion or chief warrior of day and light and that his power began to dominant his foe on the Spring Equinox. The katun ending on March 15, 692, fell a couple of days short of the Spring Equinox on the 18th , and as the whole Cross Group was aimed at a celebration of the ka’tun ending, and as no other Spring Equinox dates are supplied on the temple texts, I would argue that it is the March 15, 692 date close to the Spring Equinox that is depicted on the Temple of the Sun’s tablet. If the shield and spears of the Temple of the Sun show the sun on the k’atun ending date, what does the iconography on the main tablets of the other two temples portray? According to the Maya Exploration Center, the Temple of the Sun is actually aligned to nadir passage as well as the Moon at maximum elongation. The Temple of the Cross and the Temple of the Inscriptions are aligned to equinox. I do not think the presence of such alignments at Palenque in any way damages the interpretations I have offered above for the tablet iconography of the Temple of the Sun and below for the tablets in the remaining two temples. In fact, one would expect multiple alignments of the architecture and I would be surprised if further alignments could not be traced. Sometimes these alignments may be mentioned or hinted at in texts giving astronomical data and sometimes not. Temple of the Cross The 14 June 641 date for the initiation rites of the heir apparent K’inich Kan Bahlam comes close to the summer solstice date for this year on the 19th. On 14 June 641, Mercury is technically in Taurus, but is actually closer to Orion, and is almost upon the intersection point of the galactic equator and the ecliptic in the heart of the Milky Way. Venus, the Sun and the moon (just past New Moon) are all in Gemini, also within the Milky Way. Mercury is here to be viewed as the bird atop the Cross. I will discuss the actual configuration of the Cross below. The base of the Cross is the so-called Quadripartite Badge Monster, with the kin or ‘sun’ bowl atop its head. This is the rear head of the Cosmic Monster, i.e. the part of the Milky Way that is crossed by the ecliptic at Scorpius-Sagittarius (see Milbrath). A fire dedication took place on 15 June 692, and this may have been chosen because of the earlier 14 June date. At this later time, Mercury was in Orion near the intersection of the galactic equator and the ecliptic, while the sun was in Gemini in the Milky Way and Venus was in Taurus just on the outer edge of the Milky Way. Temple of the Foliated Cross K’inich Kan Bahlam as a child stands on a shell that is described as the ‘precious shell of Matwiil’. We have seen that Matwil, the watery “Place of Cormorants” (see above), was the Scorpius-Sagittarius head of the Milky Way. The Foliated Cross itself sits atop a base which reads “precious pool or sea”. The adult king stands on a Witz Mountain. The two 7 January dates, one for the year 684 and the other for 692, also point to something happening in or near Matwil. The Winter Solstice in both 684 and 692 occurred on 18 December, quite awhile before the dates in question. On 7 January 684, Venus or GII is in Ophiuchus in the Milky Way. On the same day in 692, Venus resides in almost exactly the same place in Ophiuchus. The “house” or temple of GII/Venus, then, stands for Matwil, the Scorpius-Sagittarius head of the Cosmic Monster. By associating himself with these temples in this way, K’inich Kan Bahlam could essentially say that at the time of his initiation rites when he was 6 (14 June 641) and on nearly the same date in 692 (15 June) he was the human incarnation of Mercury/GI. He could also say that at the time he was inaugurated as king in 684 and on the same date in 692 he was the human incarnation of Venus/GII. When in the Temple of the Sun, celebrating the k’atun ending of 692, he was, of course, the sun/GIII. The Configuration of the Crosses David Stuart in his book on Temple XIX at Palenque discusses a tablet from Tonina: “…where the same MUT[= mat] bird with -ti suffix displays the head of God D, read ITZAMNAAJ. The combination is almost surely ITZAMNAAJ-MUT, which I have suggested on the basis of other inscriptions to be the probable name of the so-called Principal Bird Deity.” It is surely not a coincidence, then, that on the day of the death of the great Pacal (August 28, 683 A.D.), Mars/Itzamnaaj was in Gemini at the top of the Milky Way tree. Itzamnaaj is here quite plainly being portrayed as the Principal Bird Deity for this particular scene. Recently, the identification of Itzamnaaj with the Principal Bird Deity has been called into question by Karen Bassie-Sweet (see her book, ‘Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities’). However, it would appear to be the case that when a planet occupied the ‘top’ of the tree, it was by virtue of possessing that position at that particular point in time the Principal Bird Deity. Other planets (like Mercury and Venus) could also assume the nature of the celestial bird. Dr. Karasik of the Maya Exploration Center (via personal correspondence) has brought up some interesting points regarding my reading of the Pacal sarcophagus iconography. Firstly, what can we say about the significance of the image if the sarcophagus were carved BEFORE Pacal’s death? Would I then be implying that Pacal’s death date had been manipulated? And, finally, what would I make of the view espoused by most contemporary Maya scholars, who now hold that the lid is merely an apotheosis statement, although a grand one at that? These are not easy questions to answer – and they are impossible to answer with any certainty. However, I would counter with only one question of my own: would the creators of the lid have portrayed a bird deity atop the tree without knowing the bird’s identity? As other birds atop trees have planetary associations, it is logical to assume the same was true of the bird atop the tree on Pacal’s sarcophagus. The symbolic configuration of the Cross of Pacal’s sarcophagus (A) and that of the Temple of the Cross (B) and Foliated Cross (C) can now be described in detail according to the sky maps for the days in question. A) On August 28, 683 A.D., Mars/Itzamnaaj at the top of the Milky Way tree in Gemini. The “centipede” ecliptic arches slightly from east to west. The celestial equator or arms of the cross hang under the ecliptic, the two intersecting on the eastern and western horizons. The Milky Way is roughly perpendicular to both the ecliptic and the celestial equator running NW to SE. B) On June 14 (or 15), Mercury at the top of the tree in Taurus, but hard by Orion, in the Temple of the Cross. C) The bird atop the Foliated cross is Venus, here in Ophiuchus. Hence, the tree is a seasonal reversal of those found on Pacal’s tomb and in the Temple of the Cross. NOTE: Some Maya scholars are choosing to see the vertical column of the cosmic tree not as the Milky Way, but as a metaphorical representation of a line drawn from nadir to zenith of any given celestial object. I have not found this to be the case, but it is important to mention the possibility as we do not yet have a firm grip on some of the iconography employed by the ancient Maya. ???K’IN, GI AND THE HEART OF THE DEATH GOD On Palenque’s Temple of the Inscriptions, two interesting dates are brought into connection with each other. The first is a historical date: October 15, 675. The other is a mythological date: July 16, 3023 B.C. Drawing from Stanley Guenter translation of the relevant text (which he gives in literal and free translation forms), we know that on the historical date someone name ??? K’in (Sun) arrived on 7 Cimi 19 Ceh. It has been inferred that whoever this personage was, he may be been sacrificed upon his arrival. The mythological date falls on 1 Cimi 19 Pax. Mark Zender noted that this pairing of 1 Cimi/1 ‘Death’ and 7 Cimi/7 ‘Death’ reminds us of the 1 and 7 Cimi death gods in the Popol Vuh. At this time the god GI throws the extracted heart of the death god into the sea. When we look at these dates on an astronomy program, a couple of interesting observations can be made. For the mythological date, we note that the sun is only a couple of days from the Summer Solstice. [If we go by the 584285 correlation, which yields July 18, 3023 B.C., the sun is right at the Summer Solstice point.] On the other hand, on the historical date, when we might expect to see something notable regarding the Sun, instead we see Venus in Ophiuchus very near the Galactic Center, i.e. in the heart of the Milky Way where I have situated the watery world of Matwil. Mercury, whom I have identified with GI, is just outside the Milky Way band in Libra, with the Sun behind it in the same sign. Mercury is at 97.3% illumination, while Venus is at 26.9% illumination. As Venus often assumes the character of a death god, it would appear as if Mercury/GI has ‘thrown’ Venus into the sea/ocean that is Matwil. ??? K’in’s arrival may be meant to match up with the arrival of the Sun at the Summer Solstice. But again, these associations would necessitate a strange reversal of the dates and the events that are thought to pertain to them. I cannot account for this reversal, unless it is intentional on the part of the Maya, or the wrong date has been paired with the wrong event by modern translators. I should add that Geraldo Aldana (in The Apotheosis of Janaab’ Pakal: Science, History and Religion at Classic Maya Palenque, University Press of Colorado) makes a case for this all being a matter of numerology. Advertisement Advertisement Like this: Like Be the first to like this post. About August Hunt August Hunt has a lifelong passion for the Arthurian stories and has been studying them since his youth. He has lectured extensively on King Arthur at colleges and for re-enactment organizations. His articles on British Dark Age topics are also featured on various award-winning websites. Drawing on his considerable knowledge of folklore, heroic legend and myth, as well as place-name studies, history and archaeology, August is providing new and challenging material which illuminates many of the previously shadowy areas of the Arthurian tradition. August holds a degree in Celtic and Germanic Studies, and is a member of the International Arthurian Society. When he is not engaged in research and writing, he enjoys designing and building stone circles and other monuments that reproduce the celestial alignments of their ancient European counterparts. His other Arthurian books include: The Mysteries of Avalon: A Primer on Arthurian Druidism (Amazon and Kindle) The Arthur of History: A Reinterpretation of the Evidence (Amazon and Kindle) View all posts by August Hunt → This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. ← THE PRE-ROMANCE MOUNTAIN OF MYRDDIN My new Kindle Ebook Titles: → Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Not published) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of follow-up comments via email. 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