Jewel Eye: Seven Macaw

Seven Macaw: Jewel Eye and Turquoise Teeth

     The Popol Vuh is explicit. Seven Macaw was quite proud of his metallic Jewel Eye and his Turquoise Teeth. In the picture above, there is a broad line between a nighttime fire rains [thought to be burning turpentine, or hot resin] and the following fall of the meteorites, here shown as arrow points. Seven Macaw, tied in knots by the twin comet, Hunahpú and Xbalenqué, is about to lose his metallic eye decoration and his life.

     Such images of this once beautiful bird of turquoise teeth and a single jewel eye, was rampant in the codices. The Nuttall Codex was the most surprising. On Lamina 55, there is a small identification glyph with the burning star at the bird's ankle instead of in his barely decorated star-eye. It could be an eagle not a macaw, but the fire star,. like an insect, is to be found at its ankle. The "ankle" or "wrist" of the appendage is an important key to finding out who or what Seven Macaw really was in the night sky. The war path glyph behind the bird is a convulsing constellation which identified its home; probably the upper left quadrant where his one eye is located.

Seven Macaw with the insect like star at its "ankle" and 
having the appearance of an eagle on a crossed War Path glyph.

     Here more that a simple identification glyph for the larger figure near it, we see a graphic description of what occurred just before he died. The gradual disappearance of his eye decoration.  It also has a numbered name, that of Thirteen Deer, in this instance a Doe, probably an indication of its androgynous status.  The Old Fire God, in a previous post, shows not only his ancient age, but also his similar bi-sexual status by showing his pendulous dry breasts, no longer capable of supplying milk for babes.

     The Laud Codex, related to the Borgia group not only has several representations of the Jewel Eyed bird, but also contained another surprise related to a bird, This bird, golden in color [Lamina 30], was feeding a golden, nude, pregnant woman. Since this bird image is so similar to brilliant shining angels,  it may have been a monk in a monastery attempting to Christianize the codex by inserting a "virgin birth" scenario that the natives would understand immediately.  The art work is isolated from each other and not the type used in the older codices,. Such Codices have images compressed into smaller and smaller areas, so that all the historic details would never be forgotten.

     Is it a blatant assumption without evidence, that the Jewel Eyed bird is sitting upon the Northern Cross, as Cygnus? Maybe, but if one considers how important astronomy was to the natives, both for horoscopes and for strange sky events, like the ball game in their Popol Vuh, where most of the story revolves around a great sky event. The Aztecs called such a sky event, the arrival of Quetzalcoatl and his twin Xolotl, So it is not difficult to translate the star information into the story of the young, brash Twins, Huanhpú and Xbalenqué who dared to engage the Lords of the Underworld in a ball game. by which they finally lost their lives in the "fire cauldron of the Gods."  That "fire" might well be in the great bowl tied to the forehead of the Fire God'.

     The question then remains, when exactly do the glyphs, both carved into stone and drawn in the codices, remain names and when do these glyphs become statements of location, of events, or just of rainy days during the year?  It is my opinion that each glyph is actually but a small part of a larger picture story that could be told if we understood them better.

Shaman Authority Staff

Shamans, Curanderas and Bone Setters

What is a Maya Shaman?

     The best definition of a Shaman, I found far to the north in the Arctic Circle, with a group of Eskimos who called themselves Ihaumiuts, now a lost civilization. 

     It was written in 1968 by Farley Mowat, long before Linda Schele taught her first class how to read the Maya glyphs at the University of Texas at Austin, or Dennis Tedlock and his wife, Barbara, decided to become Day Keepers. 

     The definition of the shaman in the Arctic was a revelation after reading so much nonsense about those oddly powerful people in tribal societies.

      Farley Mowat, in 1965 wrote a book about the time he spent with the Ihaumiuts of  the northern lands of ice and snow. He went into the Arctic as a young boy with his uncle and decided to return to the Barren Lands, a very isolated part of the area. He met with two trappers there and began his "internship" with them.

     By the time he left, he was appalled that the native population had been systematically decimated with the free aid of welfare services; by hard working missionaries, and the few entrepreneurs who thought they could make a living off the natives by employing them with different Arctic resources.

  When '"knowledgeable people" took the Ihaumiuts completely away from their sustaining diet of deer meat and the fats necessary for their ability to live in the Barrens.  The first "industry" introduced to the natives was the need for white fox pelts.  Hunting the deer, their main food staple became secondary. Later, the fishing industry employed these people in the seaside towns until other resources became more lucrattive, By the time the Ihaumiuts returned to their lands they had lost much of their ability to hunt.

     The fats that enabled them to survive the harsh weather of the land were depleted with their more modern foods, like fish, and other commodities. Illness struck the Ihaumiuts until only one woman remained who was considered fertile. After her death,  the whole culture disappeared off the face of the earth.

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The Shamans of the North

     The Shamans of the Ihaumiuts were described in plain, honest terms, together with some of the horror stories of welfare communities who tried to help these people with modern housing and commodities with little or no understanding of their needs. Missionaries told "civilized people" of the 1940's wild tales of "devil worship" and other horror stories based on a lack of understanding of the cultural mores  necessary for the people's survival.

   Shamans, whose main role is to create a cooperative atmosphere, were the primitive psychologists, who conducted ceremonies for the dead, [i.e. deaths, of a child, wife or mother; celebrated the birth of a child], created an atmosphere of public confessions [not of sins, but of broken taboos] when bad times struck the tribes; acted as local physicians [as Curanderas]; or as those who dealt with broken bones [as Bone Setters.] 

Jawbone Staff of
Authoity for Shaman

     They also know the basic components of nearby medicinal plants and were never asked to plead with the gods about lack of animals along the hunting trails, or any other special favors. The Eskimos believed that both humans and animals have free will. Hence, their gods do not tolerate "whining messages" from humans. Their survival was dependent, not upon gods of the weather or the land, but upon the ability of the natives to use all the resources of the land to the best of their ability.

      One of the standard pieces of equipment for shamans, world-wide is a "Bull-Roarer" a piece of notched wood that when swung overhead roars like a tortured animal, similar to a bull. Their jobs are basically the same. And, on the side, they also can prove their power with a bit of magic, aided by shuffling, dancing and/or drumming, when needed.

     A symbol of their position in a tribe is sometimes demonstrated by a staff, [such as the one illustrated here], a magnetic stone; a magic bone; a special tone of a single drum, or of many drums during group dancing  or a solitary shuffling dance of the shaman him/herself.

     Shaman take note of the weather and will advise if a proposed journey that week or day, would be successful. They are wise about such conditions by noting the clouds, the dampness in the air, and a myriad of small details people may miss due to an emergency of some sort.

     However, "a power-hungry shaman" is seldom appreciated since their main role in any community is to help and aid the people under their care. There is a story of a curandera who lived in the desert near several mineral springs  It was an old Indian remedy that helped people for many years. She learned to help many who came for such assistance. 

     But as it was, an entrepreneur heard about the springs and was cured of his ailment. At first, he would talk to his friends and send them to the springs. She had gotten busy; and she was running short on time and energy. The entrepreneur suggested she turn the area into a spa with proper housing, and such luxuries like proper beds and private bathrooms.

     Everything went according to plan until opening day. when the future owners decided to light a fire in the new fireplace. The room was suddenly filled not only with smoke but also with enough ash that necessitated a complete restoration of the building.

     It had not been just old ash expelled from an old fireplace since it was a completely new chimney.  The result was, the person who had helped so many people at the waters of the springs, eventually lost all her clients and even the land where the mineral waters were located. The business end of the proposed health spa was utterly destroyed. Hookum? or the Universe did not approve of such business arrangements.

     

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                                 The Maya Version of Shamans

     Shamans are found in many cultures around the world. It was in the dictionary section of I. U. Knorozou's 1963 book, Writing Indian Maya, which contained a word: "Pacal." The name of the now popular ruler of Palenque was translated at that time as "a medicine store." A translation that has been totally ignored ever since.

     But it was an early book before Linda Schele showed us how to read the glyphs and long before the Maya Shamans began to demonstrate their rituals to the public during planned tours of scholars; those souls who were just vaguely interested in Mesoamerica; or just those people who didn't care as long as they were going somewhere. Even after I had visited Palenque twice, I never heard anything said about a "medicine store." 

     Neverltheless, there were apparently Shamans who were called the priests of Ay May at the Temple of the Inscriptions. I believe that this temple, just recently discovered some thirty or forty years ago is the one referred to as the place of the Oracles in José Castillo-Tortre's book of 1955 called: Por la Señal de Hunab Ku: Reflejos de la Vida de los Antiguos Mayas.

     The Temple of the Inscriptions appears to have been the temple of oracles since it contained a tube from the burial room of Pacal to the top of the stairs [hidden under a huge stone slab.] Oracles have to come from somewhere sacred. It cannot just be a priestly incantation, the speaking tube from the tomb, fit the bill perfectly.

The Ay May priests who were in charge of the Temple, proclaimed prophecies through their miraculous Oracle, doled out medicines and in general helped the people through some very tough times when the harvests were poor. Apparently, the seasons were out of synch just before Pacal appeared on the Maya stage of rulers. 

Was Pacal a ruler, or was he just a stranger without any Maya ancesters who came into the land in ships with the men portrayed on the wall of Temple XIX. Was it he who helped the Maya to adjust their calendar system to agree once again with the seasons;  and who may have trained the Ay May priests in a new role; that of physicians like those in the other world across the seas.

But, Oh my, do not breath a word about such connections from over the sea. The Maya WERE isolated, and everyone KNOWS that they were primitive people that suddenly learned everything from the Conquistadores and their schools. Hm.m.m.m. . . . .Really?

________________________________________________

Mowat, Farely, (1968, 7th printing 1971) People of the Deer. Pyramid Books, NewYork: Pyramid Communications, Inc.

Castillo-Torre, José (1955)  Por la Señal de Hunab Ku:  Reflejos de la Vida de los Antiguos Mayas. Mexico DF, Mexico: Libreria de Manuel Porrúa, SA.

Knorozou, |. V. (1963) Writing Indian Maya / Uzdatelbctvo Akademia Hayk, CCCP [Edition Nzdatelbctvo Akademia Hayk, CCCP.}

The Birth of the Twins: Hunahpu and Xbalenque

Dresden Do-47 the Origin of the Double Comet

     Obviously, the Dresdon D-47 does not illustrate two young strapping ball-players, either on the ground or in the sky ball-court. Nevertheless, there is a "twin" element just before the end of the glyph segment above the death god's head. The double glyph, near the grieving figure of a human indicates that the most important part of the message is in the headdress of the figure at Do-. It appears to indicate two comets, one more important than the other, even though it was a "twin." The insignificant part of the story is also mentioned in the saga of the Father, One Hunahpú and his twin brother, Seven Hunahpú, who is not considered very important in the tale.

     The younger Twins, Hunahpú and Xbalenqué, killed Zipacna, [the maker of the earth; the maker of mountains] by turing him to stone in a deep canyon. These Twins later became a constellation near the 400 boys [who rose into the sky as the Milky Way] They had been killed by the Earth Caiman, his younger brother, Kab'raqan [or Earthquake; the breaker of mountains] who was also destroyed by the Twins with the help of a bird covered with clay and cooked as a savory dish.

     The text in the Dresden, over the head of this death god, contains the burning sun of the east, with the night jaguar of the underworld [as the fires in the night sky here]. It is possible that it is inferring that the "sun" was also the sun of the underground lava flow from the volcanoes, not the daytime sun from the east. The twin elements at the end of the text segment indicate that the two [twin] elements had something to do with making the human [the last glyph] very unhappy.

     Why say the human at the end of the text is unhappy?  Well, for one, with his bowed head, he does appear to be unhappy. He is not angry [with fire around his head], as in other glyphs. And, two, in order for the people to understand the glyphs they need a marker of some sort to indicate where the event in the Dresden Codex occurred.

     Since the Dresden is Aztec, and not Maya, we can assume that the volcano Popocatepetl just found out that his true love, Iztaccíhuatl, the other volcano, died and was separated from him forever. Such a "love story" would be appropriate for even those who do not read the glyphs properly. It is verified by an event of geology called a  "sheer thrust" that slashed through the earth from the Puerto Rican Trench in the Atlantic Ocean; splitting those two mountains apart; not by other glyphs. The sheer thrust ended at the Baja California coastline.  It also gives a good reason for Kab'raqan to have died by the actions of the Twins.

     Personally, which would be more interesting to remember, the terminology for the "sheer thrust" or the very romantic tale of a warrior prince who fought bravely and honorably, who when returned to his love, only found her dead?  To say there was no "love' interest in Maya lands, or any other Mesoamerican area is sheer nonsense. Not all marriages are arranged by parents. [This romantic tale was also told all the way south in Inca lands. The fanciful tale was made into a poem in Peru.]

The Birth Process of the Twins

     Since the Twins "became" a constellation, it stands to reason that their birth was in the stars in the very beginning. If we refer to world myths, it can be found that Kronos was emasculated by Zeus, his son. If they both were also star entities, then his bloody phallus would have been seen falling from the sky.

     One does not have to look very far for the origin of the event, even though we cannot see it any more. Hubble did the world a huge favor by naming a newly discovered nebula, the "Hand of God." It shows the left hand with two fingers and the thumb.  And since. in some cultures, especially sea-faring folk, the left hand is considered the symbol for the male phallus. As such, it is often considered "evil," "dirty" or impaired in some manner. As a common-sense symbol, it is nothing more than a health factor. The left hand is used for body functions, while the the clean and proper right hand is used for bringing food to the mouth. In the Popol Vuh, the god who supplied the food was also present in the storyline. He produced the re-birth of maize.

     With this in mind, let us use that image without asking the Maya "si o no." Temple XIX at Palenque shows a series of panels that indicate shipwrecked sailors were asking for help from a ruler who was wearing a false nose piece, but only a sliver. Even if they brought this iconography into Mexico, it is during an unknown time in Pre-classic or even Classic Maya.

[As the bones given to the Jaguar of the Night in Xibalba's Jaguar House?]

     If the birth began as usual with the "semen" leaving the male member, then it came from the "Hand of God," aptly named by NASA.  Stars are supposed to be born of stars.  From there, somewhere near the bull, the semen [meteorites] traveled to NGC7000, a nebula near Deneb of the Northern Cross. NGC7000 has the appearance of an open mouth of a skull [the head of One Hunahpú, Hunahpú's dead father] and from there it reached Blood Moon, the mother of the twins when she was near the Milky Way, [the Cosmic Tree of all myths; but here two corn stalks that the twins had lplanted for their grandmother]

     The net Blood Moon had "placed" under the magic maize stalks was the sparkling tail of the double comet. The multiple cobs of maize was the debris the exploding star hand blown onto the tail as it was passing after it had been freed of the dying star's erratic gravity pull.  In this story, it did not matter if the tail was attached to the double comet or not. The glittering comet tail with its appearance as a net was one of the magical events that occurred in the story to create interest. Here it was for the gradmother to accept Blood Moon into the family of the Hunahpú "men."

     It could have been the real moon colored red by the blazing double comet, or it could have been the new nebula that was created as the star itself died out. It was here, in the blackness of the sky, that Hunahpú almost lost his life when the bi-polar jet came out as a knife from a similar blazing "toddler" star, that bounced and rattled all over the ball court. It was similar to the one shown twisting and turning in  short movie found on www.nasagoddardspace.com/100_0567.MOV. An awesome sight it would have been.

      The Popol Vuh tells it as the House of the Knives. Other houses of Xibalba also indicate the trajectory in a different format.  I believe it is just so if one does not recognize the actual trajectory, the symbolic orbit through the various "Houses" will fill in the data. this event of the slashing knives was part of the First Ball-game in Xibalba for the Twins.

     Later, the  stage of the fluctuating  gravity created by the bi-polar star form sucked the double comet into its bosom and released it various times. When it was through playing with the dying gravitational force, the star spewed out its debris and died by turning into a benign white gleam in the sky again. The double comet picked up that debris and carried it to earth as the chopped up body of the Moon Goddess on a disk displayed at the Templo Mayor in Mexico City.

     Instead of Seven Macaw whose blazing blue turquoise teeth were replaced by the Twins with white maize kernels. the Moon Goddess appears to be  the same story as the Popol Vuh found in different areas of Mesoamerica. Each told the epic tale in the vernacular of the area, village, or family, where the story was discovered.

    Persian artists made sure the event was captured. They incorporated the ""Hand of God" in a stone story-panel about their main god Mithras who was born of a stone, just Huitzilopoctli was in Mexcio. That panel also illustrated the size of the telescope that was used to watch the meteorite fall-out. Their telescopes were nothing like our Palomar, Chandra-NASA, or NASA-Goddard Space Observatories. They were small compact and could be easily carried by a man anytime,  anywhere.

     Such a story is in the Popol Vuh, ready to be read and appreciated without fancy complex technical words that are not understood by the native populations.  Other codices confirm that  many things were well known a long time ago. But since they have never occurred in our lifetime, we choose not to believe what we read.  It is Grandpa's "fish that got away" story.  And everyone knows that Grandpa exaggerated during his lifetime.

   The trajectory of the double comet is told in great detail, with a little bit of magic thrown in for good measure. The magic holds one's interest better than dull tomes of our astronomy languages.

The Eyes of El Zotz iconography

The Sun God who frightened the world enough
that the native population had to destroy,  not his eyes, but his voice.

      Stephen Houston of Brown University in Rhode Island, noted that the masks on the walls of a buried temple at El Zotz had the most amazing masks that he believes to be those of the Sun God in it various forms as it crosses the sky.  It is true up to a point. Familiar symbols tend to be used when a strange event has no earthly explanation. The symbolism is true in every detail, except its origin as the Sun, even rhough the sun puts on a bright sunny display with scurdding clouds and much wind, until the hurricane itself hits land. When the eye of the hurricane passes over, the birds come out twittering, happy to see the sun and blue skies during the day, or the bright stars at night.They hold a long sessions among themselves to find out how every other bird survived, and if any of them gott hurt.

     One of the masks shows its Eyes as a coil within the eyeball of each. Normally, this is called a "Serpent's Coil" and is not related to the Sun God but to a hurricane. The Maya were well aware of the rotary power of a hurricane and were glad to give that powerful rendering as a source of authority to its new rulers.

     It also refers to the status of a strong-minded person who took over the rule of his tribe when all others died from the "rain of fire;" the "rain of resin;" or the "rain of turpentine, that burned as it fell." Oddly enough, this stinging rain of fire, sticky resin or turpentine that burned, was noted in the Popol Vuh and was an integral part of the destruction of the tribes called manikins of the ancient rulership. They was those elite who failed to listen to the astronomer-priests believing that their stone houses were safe from minor events like hurricanes and flooding. They did not expect earthquakes at all.

     The final demise of the manikins came after the "birth of the Sun, which is not that which we see today." The sun, the burning sun [prior to its birth low on the western horizon] created deserts where there was once green foliage. This superior Sun God (a blazing comet that hugged the new low horizon) became the main power source (A modern  newspaper called such a brilliant comet like "that of a thousand transformers that exploded at once.

     The rulers had protected their people in the mountain caves, until the land was no longer  impossible to walk on due the the flooding that followed the burning "bee-like" stinging rains prior to its birth low on the western horizon. A comet of such strength and power that it orbited around the world three times.

Is the following glyph mask a "Square Eye of Amazement?

Another mask either an eye without a jaw,  or a fang curled upside down

     Since the eyes are supposed to be destroyed on this temple wall,  and one side of this mask seems to be the other eye but since fangs do not usually turn upside down by themselves, this may truly be another eye symbol.

I can only think of one analogy that fits: t'hat of absolute surprise.' The idiomatic phrase used here was told me by a gentleman from Texcoco. He said "Mis ojos son cuadrados!" about something amazing that he had just witnessed.  I did not think it was so amazing but he seemed to. And he explained it in such a way that he understood it as a very old idiomatic phrase from his homeland.

    Such "square eyes" are found on a stela of Izapa, which is shown on Stela 22 as an over-sized glyph called "the raising of the sky." the sky is tilted at 23.5 degrees. The serpents that surround the raised sky all have square cornered eyes, similar to the one above. What was so amazing?  The "birth of those eyes called "serpent coils" of the sun god or was it the catastrophe of the ages, which even today strikes fear in all humanity?

     It might be interesting to trace this event further within the glyphs and the codices that are available.