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.

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            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.
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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.