The Cosmic Tree

The Cosmic Tree, the Miracle of the Sky
[See March 27, 2014 Also for this.]

      The flowers above, are similar to Those on the face of a sky god, thoght to be the Planet Venus in the  Dresden, on page 37 This sky god has one foot on the moon eclipse and the other on the sun eclipse. There can be no sky eclipse for either since the planet hides behind the sun for eight [8] days every rotation. On the other hand, in order that produce an eclipse of the moon, the planet must come between the moon and our earth. Since Venus is larger than Earth, it would probably completely destroy the earth.

      On February 26, 2014,  William T. Gassaway, in the Dept. of Art History & Archaeology at Columbia University!  wrote the Aztlan listserv through the Help Us paraphrased comments.

    The "panel" above is part of an Aztec altar, Of ​​which all four lateral sides are carved. It is Identified in the Aztec Empire catalog (Guggenheim, 2004: Plate 79) as "Altar of the Sacred Tree" (Aztec,! Approx. 1,300 stone, 58 x 72 x 67cm, Imnaha 10-81641). Esther Pasztory labeled it "Box with Ornate Tree and Bird, and Other Emblems" (Chalco! Morelos, 1200-1521; see Aztec Art, 1983: Plate 163).

      Along with the image of this bird in a "sacred" or "ornate tree" (aka! "world tree" or axis mundi), the altar features a "flower-and-shells emblem" with tendril-like stamen, and an abstract "trapeze-and-ray emblem" resembling (William Gassaway) either a stylized butterfly or a conch shell / Venus pectoral with possible date glyph (or bar numeral ').

      William has personal  Pasztory notes (1983: 212) Which read:

    "The ornamental quality of Chalco style is well  shown by the base on Which this statue [of Xochipilli, the "Flower Prince"]  sits (not found with the statue) to a stone replica of a wooden drum (see  Plate 256) a nd to a stone box (Plates 163-65).

    The double outline  surrounding all the forms, the rich floral ornament, and the Curvilinear  shapes differentiate Chalco styles from That of the Mexica. Chalco style is  direct continuation of the style of Classic Veracruz. Double outlines as well as design elements as dry shells recall the styles of Xochicalco and beautifully carved ball-game objects (see Plates 14, 15) ... 

   Motifs of Chalco art are flowers, shells, and butterflies rather than symbols of blood sacrifice. The practice of copying wood or clay objects in carved stone april have begun at Chalco with its tradition of fine stone-carving, which was probably influential on the nascent art of Tenochtitlán. Chalco, a traditional enemy of the Mexica, was finally conquered by Motecuhzoma I. "

     Except for the terminology found in the sentence:  either a stylized butterfly or a conch shell / Venus pectoral all the infomation is accurate, even the name 'Venus' but without the capiitalized letter. 'V'. 

      

      The 'butterfly' image brings to mind two different cultural references: that of the Mixtec And that of the Aztecs. In the  Codex Magliabechiano, he Lamina 18, the 'mari posa' [sic] is Identified as a "mariposa" a butterfly. 

Lamina 18, and 'mari posa' or Mariposa: A Butterfly

     Lamina 18 shows the center of this simplified butterfly, as the eye in the sky, or as a star, as found in Aztec, Maya, Mixtec and other Codices, murals, etc.. 

Lamina 07 A similar expanded many-legged blue butterfly
with a more formal rversion on the left

     While Lamina 17 shows an expanded version of a stellar bi-polar jet is basically a star tht is in the process of exploding. The bi-polar aspect is the central core of the blue version on the right with its center no longer the Mesoamerican star forms, but instead, it indicates either of the poles [north of south] where the gasses Began to expand outward, before this star disintegrated and left a huge nebula called the Ring Nebula it its place. 

Astro-artist's version of a Bi-Polar Jet.

     An excellent version of a bi-polar jet can be found at www.nasa.goddardspace.gov as Orionis V-1647 in the McNeil Nebula 100_0567 10-1.mov at http://www.nasa.goddardspace.gov   

     As the star Became a fireball inthe sky, the process was explained as a stellar "ball-game" in Mesoamerica or as a "battle" for a fire-ball between two sky dragons [comets] as found on the blue-tiled mural on a mini-wall in a Beijing park in China. 

At a Beijing Park in Chaina

     The "butterfly" aspect can also be related to fallen women as warriors who fell in the battle. This battle of the game-like fluctuating gravity of the bursting star was described by Mary Miller and Karl Taube In Their 1993 book published by Thames and Hudson, Inc.in New York and found on page 167 long before I discovered it in the ball games Popol Vuh of the.

  Tlaltecuhtli and blue goddess who arms and legs were torn apart and dropped on earth [comet debris] is described even better than I did in my book as I described the second ball-game of the twins Hunahpu and Xibalenque in A Ten-Sun Day , published under the auspices of www.lulu.com. and available on Amazon.

     The Aztecs took Tlaltecuhtli's story to heart and created what is now called the Moon Disk to A. Beam, and M. Simons in 1978 under an article titled "Digging up a Goddess" found in Newsweek, on page 96.

      Putting together all these pieces of information is a daunting task That took me over 35 years and i have posted dry information as early as March 27, 2012 here on my Google Blog. If there are any corrections, please let me know at Comments found below. Thank you.    

Oh My, The Sky Will Fall In!

          We are told now, that The Sky will fall In on us in a little while. An asteroid is on its way already. 

So keep your telescopes on the sky, but don't look down. If you look down at your feet, you will see that the land is dying, an acre at a time. The Oceans are not doing much better. 

           Coral Reefs have died sixty or more acres at a time. Of course, the big fish are still swimming strong. We can replace reefs with old cars and other metallic items that have cubby holes. The small fish can hide there from the big ones.  But can they eat the metal autos?

          Look to the Skies, the meteorite (or asteroid) is going to hit us soon enough.

But have no concern for the land under your feet. The acres that can no longer be planted with food.  What will you do when there is no food or even water to drink? What then?

          Look to the Skies, the meteorite (or asteroid) is going to hit us soon enough.

 No one should care about what is happening to the lands we live on. The fish are happy in tainted water and they can live for a while longer. But will we be able to eat the tained fish? Or any tainted food that comes from altered seeds?  Will not the food from bad seed hurt us?  Oh, no.

the food is great.  But how many people are already dying.  From what?  Altered medicines that have so many caveats that one will acquire a different disease to cure the one? Oh, but we will not worry about that. we don't have to.

          Look to the Skies, the meteorite (or asteroid) is going to hit us soon enough.

People were told that a long time ago. The Chicken Little going around telling her animal friends that the sky wall falling in.  She did not worry about the food supply. Until she turned into the Little Red Hen and found no one would help her to grow the wheat, not harvest it, nor grind it; not even to help her bake it.  And would not share with the lazy animals, because they did not help her. She ate the bread she made and her children ate that bread also.

          Look to the Skies, the meteorite (or asteroid) is going to hit us soon enough.

We have atomic power to help us with electricity, but the snow storms have taken the electricity and many people have had to be without. There nice clean fuel will not fire up without the electric starters. But no one should care. 

          Look to the Skies, the meteorite (or asteroid) is going to hit us soon enough.

What else is new?  Not very much as long as you look to the skies for your demise. Those tall building you all live in, with nice, neat elevators that will not work without electricity. No one needs them now. But who cares? People need the exercise. Climbing stairs is fun. But what if the food cannot be bought?  The prices are too high, as high as those stairs?

         Look to the Skies, the meteorite (or asteroid) is going to hit us soon enough.  

There is a tale from long ago. that the people knew when they were going to die, and no one wanted to do anything because, there would be no use to make furniture or grow food, or milk a cow, or a goat. What for? So God decided to take that knowledge away from the people. If they wanted to suffer by not planting food, or making themselves comfortable, that was fine with Him. They get ill and are no longer happy about how God is helping them?  As they watch the fertile lands disappear and the farm yards rot. "God is not helping us anymore," they say!

         Look to the Skies, the meteorite (or asteroid) is going to hit us soon enough.

The rule that we were given is Pray all you need to, but get up off your knees and do something about your problems, if you can. The hardest will be to ignore your problems, but the reality is that is the easy way out. It is expected that you will take hold of your life and your food and water supplies and make sure they are not tampered with. But who cares?

          Look to the Skies, the meteorite (or asteroid) is going to hit us soon enough.

   

The Turtle with Lamat Glyph as the Great Star [Venus?]

A Turtle and  Lamat Inflated

        After searching for the Turtle constellation in Richard Allen's 1963 book called Star Lore and Their Names, I turned up practically nothing. I knew that the Ring Nebula, next to Vega in the Lyra constellation, had been a nova, hence the Great Star, but could find little to substantiate it as "turtle."

         I had continued to read through the Lyra pages and discovered what I had missed. The languages older than Medieval Latin, had a great variety of names that actually led back to the Latin terms, but never the English. It was as if the Hermes myth of the music of the stars that was invented from a turtle carapace only existed in Middle eastern sky charts of long ago—and in Maya codex and ceramic art  Many times, the power of the Turtle and the Lamat glyph was used for a certain group of warriors.

         Aratos the ancient Greek astronomer who named many constellations, called Lyra: Chelos Alige, Little Tortoise. Other words in Latin, are Lutaria = Mud-inhabiting; Marina  and Testudo; Galapago, Mus and Musculus; Testa referred to the Upper Shell but Pupilla was strangely switched over ot Aquila. In fact, more than one reference claimed to be from other distant constellations even though they were originally the Testa, or Testudo variety.[Allen, 1963, 287]

Twins with a Turtle and an emerging God
NOT the Corn God.

      Nevertheless, the Eagle and jaguar soon overrode the power-image of the Turtle with the Lamat on its back. But not before some ceramic images were introduced to show that the turtle was indeed a very powerful figure when it was associated with the Twins, Hunahpú and Xbalenqué in their role as the “double sun” [as a double comet].

      Two Great fiery eyes on the Turtle carapace indicate that this emerging god may be or may not be the Corn God. while  the spots on both Hunahpú and Xbalenqué show that they were the double comet of the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl. The fact that the Twins are holding the hands of the "god" may infer their sky birth as a double comet that passed through the mouth of a nebula called NCG 7000 which has the semblance of a cinnabar covered skull. Again, this nebula infers by its shape that it is the skull of their father. The hand-holding of the god emerging from the carapace of a turtle, could well be the father of the [comet] twins, since they reached their mother-to-be through the mouth of that skull.

     Yet, the “holding of the hands’ of the central figure, who is supposed to be the corn god could also be correct because the “corn god” produced food when the land was destroyed by the waters that carried fish and other marine elements to the mountain tops, an item mentioned in INAH’s explanations about the Aztec Sun Disk, noted below:

Atonatuih (Sun of Water) (676 years) (Translation) A = No entiendo, or “I do not understand.”  At = aço = In the future, or above, high up  Tonatuih = Sun “This means the fourth epoch, represented by the head of Chalchiuhtlicue, goddess of water, feminine aspect of Tlaloc, at the end of which everything perished in the terrific storms and torrential rains that covered the earth. Reaching the peaks of the highest mountains the gods changed men into fishes to save them from this universal deluge…” “The discovery of different fossilized species of marine fauna on the top of the mountains, created the basis for this belief. ” 

   Since no one actually knows the age of the “corn god” or when he first appeared in the pantheon of the Maya gods, "fossilized species of marine fauna on the top of the mountains” should not be a surprise to anyone. The Popol Vuh does tell us that the flood came after the “caves slammed shut in the faces of the second creation of humans [and animals probably] who ran to the mountains for the safety of such caves.

       This was a time when Seven Macaw identified himself. He described himself when:

“This was when there was just a trace of early dawn on the face of the earth there was no sun. . .The sky-earth was already there, but the face of the sun-moon was clouded over. (Tedlock, 1996, 73)

     In Tedlock’s Note  regarding Seven Macaw, he does not comment on the lack of sunshine, only on the fact that Seven Macaw was named k’inich k’ak mo or the “Sun-eyed Fire-macaw.” by the Yucatec Maya mostly for its coloring. (Ibid, 237) When this author did not understand the context as related to reality, he wisely did not comment on it, since it was all part of what he considered to be a fanciful myth.

       Earlier, I inserted the information about Sahagun’s identification of the Great Star, which was not Venus Planet, but a nova that appeared in Lyra, next to the brightest star, Vega. This nova exploded, as all novas do, and became the branch of the Milky Way, called the Quetzalveixochitl, the beatutiful rose tree and the other branch was rightfully called the Tree of the Warrior, implying Orion. [Christensen, Alec,  (1883, p.35, note 21)]

The “rose tree” nova actually became a flower in the sky as a nebula called the Ring Nebula.

Quetzalveixochitl, the beatutiful rose tree

 Greenwich Royal Observatory, The Night Sky for November ,

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/rog/2007/11/the_night_sky_for_november.html, 2007.

                  Eric Thompson stated:

There was also a Maya constellation called the Turtle. which according to an informant,is the suare of Orion.  Even though the Motul dictionary has "ak ek" 'the stars that are in the sign of Gemini. which with others form a turtle.'

              Richard Allen gives us the information that the Ring Nebula IS VISIBLE [as a flower form] only with the largest telescopes. (Allen, 1963, 287.) This is true today but with the Hubble and those large telescopes it has been seen and recorded.  as is another Southern constellation the Compass that contains a nebula called the “Hand of God.”

                 To ignore such information that the Old Fire God gave us, and that which Sahagún had set out in Book Seven, Chapters III and IV of his translation of the Florentine Codex translation is ignoring the fact that the Maya, Aztecs and all of Meso-America may only be describing a “myth,” and that Eric Thompson, Dennis Tedlock, Alec Christensen, Allen Christenson, Recinos and Goetz and Morley, and those who attempted to translate the Popol Vuh made it all up in their collective imaginations.

I doubt very much if the informants gave out only fairy tales to each and every translator of the Popol Vuh. It would seem unlikely that they all (over many years of research) said the same thing, with only one change by Tedlock with grave reservations about replacing the Turtle with the Squash for Hunahpú’s head and repeated by Allen Christenson in his version.

____________

Chandra Observatory, Harvard University.for the “Hand of God” designation  through the NASA web pictures of Nebulae. This nebula is located in a southern constellation near the south pole, called the Compass.

Christensen, Alec,  [excerpts from Phillips, Jr, Henry, (1883, p.35, note 21) [The Codex Ramirez] The History of the Mexicans as told by Their Paintings. 

Christenson, Allen J.  (2007) Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People. Electronic version of original 2003 publication. Mesoweb: www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf.

INAH [Spanish-English].  Cuauhxicalli (Eagles Bowl)  The Aztec Calendar Stone. 

Goetz, D. & Morley, 'S. (1957)  Popol Vuh:  The Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiché Maya, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press  

(1954) Popul Vuh “The Book of the People” Translated into English by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus Griswold Morley, from Adrián Recino's translation from Quiché into Spanish  Plantin Press, Los Angeles [1954, copyright not registered or renewed] .

Sahagún, Bernardo de (1956). Historia General de Las Cosas de Nueva España. México, DF, México: Editorial Porrua, SA.       

Tedlock, Dennis (1996) Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Thompson, Eric (1971,116,) Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, [Fifth Edition] Norman, Oklahoma.

         

Zemis of the Taino

        In February, 2014 of the Institute of Maya Studies [or IMS], Peter Barrat submitted an interesting article about the Taino and their relationship to the Maya. He also, inadvertently included their relationship to their view of astronomy.

         He included some of their ancient history which told of their stay in the caves, just as the Maya did in the Popol Vuh prior to the flood. Dennis Tedlock translated the Popol Vuh and included the story of how the Maya ran from the rains of ¨burning resin¨ or ¨burning turpentine¨ and headed through the forest for the caves. They arrived at the cave entrances, but discovered to their dismay that the ¨caves had shut in their faces¨ and there was no longer any way to get inside. (Tedlock, 1996, 73)

          The Taino did survive the flood by being in the caves of Hispaniola and they later explored the new islas throughout the Westward Islands.  One can assume that many of these smaller islands were a result of the meteorite fallout into the Gulf of Mexico, that followed the ¨burning¨ rains.

* * * * * * * *

            In memory of the great disaster, the the natives created a Zemis, which was a triangular image with an eye incised on one side. The triangular shape was created as a sacred stone that could bless and honor the stars. It also was a great talisman for religion and for healing. This. it was  an excellent reminder of the the location of the nova within the Triangle that caused all the trouble on earth. (See also Sahagún below.)

           The description that fits the event from the point of the nova itself was translated by Mary Miller and Karl Taube in their book in 1993: called  The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Meosamerican Religion.

          Mary and Karl's book  has four paragraphs that not only described the goddess as the goddess, Tlatecuhtli, but also what happened to her as two comets passed by. The event was such that I had spent almost three years attempting to decipher the hidden narrators in the Popol Vuh. I had decided that the words themselves had to be the narrators and had discovered that the gravity forces from that nova fluctuated as it was dying. The book by Mary and Karl described that part of the event. as if  I had copied it straight from their four paragraphs. (p. 167)

         Their version was that Tlaltecuhtli had her right arm and left leg pulled off by one god and the left arm and righT leg torn off by the other. The debris then was carried to earth and dropped there. The other sky gods (meteorites) came down to commiserate with Tlaltecuhtli about her dismemberment and her eviction from her star position.

          Even earlier, A. Beam and M. Simons wrote an article for in 1978 after they had investigated the Moon Disk found when the engineers were digging a new route to the Metro Rail system in Mexico City.

          A sculpture of the Aztec Moon Goddess, Coyolxauhqui decapitated,  with arms and legs cut off. is the same story as that of the Maya Hunahpú, a male entity who was decapitated by the inhabitants of the Bat Cave in Xibalba. The role change came about because the Maya women never played the ball game on land and therefore could never have played it in the heavens The two Huitzilopochtl and Coyolxauhqui both fell from the same comet as debris from the exploding blue star called Tlaltecuhtli. It may well be that the star was as bright as the moon, and thus became our eternal image of an extra moon during a single month called the Blue Moon.

The Moon Disk from Metro Rain System
in Mexico City

             The Zemis was made of a tree called the lignum vitae, or guayacan, which is referred to as blue mahoe, the “holy wood” or “wood of life.” The interesting thing about this wood is it is a blue, color just as the latest statue of Tlaltecuhtli is painted blue.(See IMS, February 2014, p. 5)

             As a translator-prisoner in the monastery of Sahagún during the Conquest of Mexico, a scribe we now call Sahagún, added his own description of the star that burst asunder and he called it the Great Star. He gave the coordinates of the three stars that enclosed it as time on a clock. To make sure that everyone knew it was the one mentioned in the Popol Vuh, he also included the star locations in the next chapter of the Florentine Codex, i.e. Chapter IV, number IV,  That inferred that Seven Macaw was the bird in the burning Cosmic Tree instead of the Blue Lady who was born [and died] there as the Earth Lord, a male entity, in the first line of the first page of the Bodley Codex. (Alfonso Caso, 1960.page 1-III, 26)

             Sahagún also noted one very minor detail that has been overlooked.  He stated in Chapter III that  that star was in el signo de toro. One must read the star charts of the era to find out that Taurus was a well-known designation for that constellation. So Sahagún's phrase to inform us where the Great Star was located, was passed by the Inquisitors since everyone knew that toro meant Taurus.

          There are four idiomatic phrases associated with the signo de toro, but only one gave the information about Chapter IV, Number IV. The other phrases inferred the duties of the scribe himself. They indicated his compliance to his mentors in the monastery. A good scribe who was also a good translator was an important person there. He valued that position enough to keep it.

The Fifth Sun With its Last Trajectory Across the Mixtec Sky

         Another Mixtec manuscript named all of the rulers of Apuala and Tilantango known from the beginning of time. The list ended just after the Conquest of the area. The scribe, gave even more information about the Great Star and included enough details to what had occurred so that the event was traceable even to Lake Texcoco.
          The dynastic rulers are situated on the left side of a map thought to be a copy of the map-making techniques of the new regime. Each name is listed as glyphs. To the right of the ruling families, that round map was very ugly and difficult to read. However, at its top, was an arc with a blazing sun in the northwest. A small wooden cradle marks its birthplace.
        The arc contained the trajectory of the blazing comet (as the Sun, ''



')/  It also showed at the end of the trajectory, two mountains of the rim of Lake Texcoco that were split asunder with a sky axe.  Ignored as a decorative feature. it confirmed the existence, not of the Sun, but of the comet, and a new growth of the Milky Way behind Orion. (See the Blog here dated March 23, 2013)
              There is much more to astronomical connections between political areas of Mesoamerica but the one that was most surprising, was that of the Tainos, who were not supposed to know anything about astronomy or the stars above them. Badlerdash! The Americas had a better view of the skies and higher mountains to use for star watching plus a host of educators for mathematics and astronomy within their own tribes. They also knew their histories better than those who conquered them.
_________________________________
Barrat, Peter (2014, 5) Let´s Explore the Taino, Institute of Maya Studies [or IMS] Newsletter, February. 2 (43) 3-5.

Beam,. A &, Simons, M. (1978, 96) Digging up a Goddess, Newsweek

Caso,  Alfonso, (1960, 1-III, 2-28) The Interpretation of the Codex Bodley #2858, (Transl by Ruth Moraless,and revised by John Paddock) Ciudad de México: Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia

Mary Miller and Karl Taube (1993, 167) The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of  Meosamerican Religion.

 Sahagún, (1956) Bernardo de (1956). Historia General de Las Cosas de Nueva España. México, DF, México: Editorial Porrua, SA. The Florentine Codex Volumes I through IV.

 Tedlock, Dennis (1996, 73)   Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. New York: Simon and Schuster.