A Church called Santa Prisca, Part II

Church of Santa Prisca
Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero, Mexico

          Not being an astronomer, in the mathematical sense of the word, I avoided all references to the subject for years, even though, through a friend, Jan Adams, I had given a lecture or two about the stars in spite of my disbelief. 

          While looking into a list of rulers mentioned on various ancient stelae in different Maya polities, I found many of those names to be specific star descriptions. Sometimes no relatives were mentioned at all.  Yet, again I ignored the task of looking into astronomy as a research project.

          Then, one day, I was looking for an item in some of my previous work, and I realized that I was reading about glyphs and more often than not, most referred to a certain star or stellar event that had a solution to its meaning. But the definition of that event came from a source far from the Maya world and even further from Mesoamerica. 

          When I attempted to explain what I had found with others involved with Mesoamerucan astronomy, I was corrected and told I could not possibly have a solution from sources so distant from the Americas. However, the more I saw in the glyphs, the more often I saw that there were too many similarities to ignore. At times, geology or geography was implied or inferred.

          Nevertheless, I ran into more and more students of astronomy who swore that the sightings of the star locations at various temples were sacrosanct. Even the Planet Venus in the Dresden Codex was considered as the main star of the Maya, although those numbers had to be adjusted over and over agains with a great variety of calculations. Each attempt at proving the planet became more complex than the other. Why? 

          At the present time, the Church of Santa Prisca has proven itself to be something of great interest. Above the main altar is a domed cupola. It is painted with golden ribs and a blue background with an Eight-pointed star in each segment of the dome. When I looked up the word 'Prisca" in Italian, it became 'ancient' or 'previous.' Nothing to think twice about. But when I went into the Latin dictionary, it was quit a bit different.

           The Latin definition was a bit more specific: PRISCUS: as an adjective, old, ancient, old-time, old-fashioned, former,  previous; as an adverb:  In the previous fashion. The word "former" stuck out like a sore thumb. Is it possible that Sta. Prisca is also one of the former 'postiso' saints that never existed in human form. To confirm her miracle in the arena, on the side of the Summer Triangle is the constellation Leo, the lion who is often illustrated in a seated position. And sure enough, the lions of the Roman Coliseum reclined in front of the blessed saint, instead of mauling her. Hm.m.m..m. How many of the ancient gods and goddesses were nothing more than constellation stories in order to teach star locations?

Cupola of Church of Santa Prisca

          My complaint with astronomy in the Mesoamerican world is that information in the codices, the stelae, and other written records is ALWAYS considered as the Maya stars. Even when there are references with similar indications of a disaster, in other cultures, the emphasis is forever only Maya, even though the stars have always been universal outside of our world. What happens in one part of the world, also occurs in another within the twenty four hour of the calculated spin AND TILT of our orbit's star view.

        The first official description of the Great Star is found in Sahagún's translation of the Florentine Codex. It location is in the "signo del toro." Since then the constellation, Taurus and is companion star Sirius, has been targeted as the place where the Great Star was located.  I say 'was' because, if the star was a bursting nova, it no longer exists in its destructive fiery self.

           In Brazil there is an ancient cave with new wall paintings. Why do I say new?  Because many people had to repair to the caves when the deluge reached their shores. The Gulf of Mexico was hit the hardest and the waves went up and over the mountains that were in the way. Both the men of mud and the wooden manikins died in the same floor. There was no other that was so catastrophic within the Maya world or even within the records of the rest of the world. 

Brazil's Eight pointed Star with the New Milky Way

          The cave is purported to be from 5,000 years ago, however, as all caves that old, there is no reason to believe that the Milky Way incised on the walls of that cave are just as ancient. The blazing star on the cave wall is too similar in shape as the star on the cupola of the Church of Santa Prisca in Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico. Did the architect of Mexico know about the Great Star and know that its color was blue, or did he copy the cave star and put on a sky blue background to indicate that a star was the inferred image on the cupola?

Akkadian, the Eight Pointed Star
[Labat,  (1953, 13 [is] the Great star, 129 as NAB and
347, in a house.]

Egypt: Seshaet, as the Eight-pointed Star

That a special count of Eight-sided stars that appear constantly in the ancient world is not an accident. It was an observation by the astronomers of the event that literally rocked the world.

Hittite: Shala or Shalak: of the Eight-pointed Star, with many stars as her head

Marduk is in a position of breaking earth between two pillars and
 a deluge is occurring over one of them.
[grain cuneiform is associated with TU-TU the god Marduk and  URU the deluge (Labat 1952  , #58)]
Larousse, World Mythology, (1974. 68)

           Similar stars from various countries around the world, said to be more ancient than the Maya, but they were not.  They all saw the same star in the sky and used it for their appropriate governing bodies; and for their religions. There is much more to research than the little bit that I have accomplished here. Dates of antiquity were usually for the financial aids that could be acquired, and from the ego of the scholars who wanted to have discovered the oldest cultures in the world. Many dates were produced from the estimated Jewish calendar, and even Carbon 14 had that as its half-life designation. It worked for a while, but it never was as accurate as propounded.

           In the meantime, priests and friars of Taxco wanted a church for Mass and Christian celebrations, so they agreed to the stranger terms of the financiers and builders. Enough altars for the saints and several versions of Mary, the mother of God were added to take precedence over the strange altar prepared for another version of Mary, as the Virgen del Pilar. It had many scallop shells around it and it was as impressive as the other altars. But the concept came from furtherest northern location in Spain. 

          Pilgrims who went along the pilgrimage route to visit the shrine of Santiago de Complostella, many times went to the smaller church, 500 miles to the western shore where a stone boat was said to have been that which miraculously carried Santiago to that beachhead.[Encicl.Universal.1968, 297) The feast day of Nuestra Señora del Barco [y del Pilar] was October 12, Wasn't it Christopher Columbux who discovered America on October 12, 1492? (Stone,  (1927, 95-96)

          With the Great 8-pointed Star being on the cupola of a church that honors "previous times," under the guise of a Saint called Prisca, with an altar for a Pilgrimage church on the northwestern corner of Spain, whose version of Mary is Nuestra Señora del Pilar with a feast day that casually agrees with the date Columbus's landed on the shores of the New World, the Americas. It seems to make a very strong indication of subterfuge and defeating power with the need of putting up another expensive church in an area where silver ruled the area, not gold.

          Was Columbus telling the refugees who fled to the New World earlier, as "certified dead men" in the churches of the pilgrimage route. Their payment for their paid passages was to be the longitude and lattitude of wherever they found themselves. [Summers, (1974, 76)]  Their Eden was soon to be occupied by the very people who sent them from their homes in Europe? Were they to flee to the hinterlands further north? [Smithsonian, October 2008 SCIENCE & NATURE]

          What better gift could the migrant-pilgrims have given the defeated native population of Mesoamerica, than their sacred Great Star in full view of the enemy, the friars, who insisted their beliefs were stronger?  There was reciprocal feelings and protection for those who understood the importance of the Great Star. And it was another way of saying the Great Star would return in it full glory some day to bless them all for keeping the faith of their father/mother creators.
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Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada, Volume LIV, p. 247, Santiago de Compostela 42° 52’ 30” North8° 32’ 0” Longitude oeste, Symbols are seven stars around chalice Tomb with an eight-pointed star.

Labat, René (1953, 129, 129-a) Marduk is also associated with the words Nab or Nap. The word Nab is written as Naab in Egyptian glyphs as a bird-headed fire god. In Mayalands, Naab is associated with salt water and the ceiba tree. Both produce a fluffy-looking substance in the tree and in the sea as floating greenish oil clumps that in fact with a firebrand or
lightning strike would create a huge fire, even when it is a small clump.

Stone, R. J. S. (1927, 95-96). The Cult of Santiago Traditions, Myths and Pilgrimages. London: Longmans, Green and Company. Coast of Death (named by Gallicians is a wild rocky wreck- strewn shore) located at Iria Flavia and Mugia (where Santiago’s body landed) near Cape Finisterre. Church of Nuestra Señora de la Barca or Our Lady of the Pillar. Barca (boat) was turned to stone.

Summers, (1974, 76) Schools of medicine and philosophy cloaking judicial astrology, divination by the stars and magic sciences at Saragossa and Toledo. University of Salamanca (XII century founded) necromancy, sorceries schooling Guazzo tells of Black arts and Magic taught, destroyed by Queen Isabella in 1451 - 1504. Morgante Maggiore by Poet Pulci 1432 - 1474 has detailed poem

[Necromancy is calling forth of the dead. If the pilgrims had their death certificates passed on to the governing authorities, and took a ship in one of the many coves along the pilgrimage route, then their fee for both the certificate and the ship's passage would have been paid by a letter from wherever they landed with the latitude and longitude of their location. In this way Alfonso X, was able to add 8,000 locations to his re-edited Ptolemy maps. His wife, Volenta was his Jewish agent in one of the hospitals along the pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela's shrine.]

Smithsonian magazine, October 2008 SCIENCE & NATURE The 'Secret Jews' of San Luis Valley In Colorado, the gene linked to a virulent form of breast cancer found mainly in Jewish women is discovered in Hispanic Catholics  Photographs by Scott S. Warren . It was well known that during the late Middle Ages the Jews of Spain were forced to convert to Catholicism. According to a considerable body of scholarship, some of the conversos maintained their faith in secret. After Judaism was outlawed in Spain in 1492 and Jews were expelled, some of those who stayed took their beliefs further underground. The exiles went as far as the New World.. . . . ." . . . The discovery of the 185 delAG mutation [specific to Jews in Europe] in the valley and subsequently in New Mexico hints at a different story, with its own trail of blood and persecution. . . . For 300 years, as the territory passed from Spanish to Mexican to United States hands, there was almost nothing in the historical record about crypto-Jews. Then, because of probing by younger relatives, the stories trickled out. "It was only when their suspicions were aroused decades later," Hordes writes, "that they asked their elders, who reluctantly answered, 'Eramos judíos' ('We were Jews').' 

A Church Named Santa Prisca, Part I

Church of Sta. Prisca
 Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero, Mexico

          Many of the post-conquest building that were constructed were functional buildings like monastic prisons, palaces for the foreign government, so they could compete in importance with the old rulers of Mesoamerica, and even European style churches for proper adoration of the new euro-christian churches.

          The strange thing about many mission churches is that many had an open area above the altars or near the sides of the churches that were screened from the worshipers below. They were not choir areas. I visited one old hospital in Puebla and discovered that there was such an extension near the back of the chapel. It seemed to be a reasonable explanation since even the sick would have wanted to hear about God and His plans for the after-life.

          It made perfect sense that above the backs of regular worshipers, the space would have not only the sick and ailing, but also their attendants, and a physician or two, since for some, the angel of death might have arrived quite unexpectedly.

         Walking around churches in the town, I found some areas were usually high above the altars, but not always. It made some sense since thundering voices from preachers would rise above the congregation and could easily be heard in the open shielded rooms. Since some areas had beautiful lattice-work screens in front, facing the worshipers, they seemed to be for a feminine audience. Women, were in the congregation below, so why were there women above?

          Hospitals had patients that might have needed emergency care; but ordinary churches did not have that option. One possibility would have been, an ancient version of our current churches. A "crying room" for mothers who wanted their children to hear about God as soon as possible. Such a "crying room" would have the same attributes as the church below, The noise of squalling infants would rise to the ceiling, ard not even be noticed by the congregation below. It seemed to be natural reasons for such separate areas in churches or temples.

          In a town of Taxco de Alacrón in the state of Guerrero, there was also a church with special requirements before any part of the church could be built. Whether it has a "crying room" area of not, I do not know. The church may have been once used for another purpose before the Conquest. Not only is dome over the main altar an indication that this was true, but also Sta. Prisca's name is suspect.

        Nevertheless, a special contingent of financiers demanded certain privileges for their donations of available cash. The syndicate who were supplying the funds for building the church, insisted that the workmen would NEVER be publicly identified. The 'workmen'? That was a new twist to a building requirement.[3]

           It was also agreed that there would be no investigation as to where the money would come from. And the designs of the altars would not be negotiable. The altars? That was even a stranger demand from the financiers. Was it some miracle cure that one or several of the money men experienced, or maybe a difficult birth of one of a child that such a vow; even together with the other conditions, there was no solid evidence as to why the demands were so stringent.

            Usually it is the reverse. Once the design was created, owners then presented their plans to those who might finance the costs. If one group of financiers would decide against the design. Then, it stood to reason was that either the design would be altered or the designers would find another finance company to supply the money.

          The thing that held my attention was the need for special altars in the church?  Such information was never recorded either; the source of the building funding, the names of the workmen and finally, the designs of the altars. How strange.

          One particular altar held my attention. Its description was more than just interesting; it was a nudge to look backwards at my previous research.    

Cupola de la Iglesia de
Santa Prisca, in Taxco de Alarcón,
Guerrero, Mexico

          Not so long ago, I researched the war cry in Mexico using Santiago de Compostela. What was interesting after I went through all the pilgrimage stops along the way, Santiago may have been the Mesoamerican war cry and NOT of the conquering Spaniard's. One can tell what sort of information will turn up when one goes so far afield.

          Another thing that turned up with the pilgrimage route was that Sahagún was not only a early merchandise center for incoming and outgoing ships, but it also was known as a monastery in Spain. So was the Sahagún monastery in Mexico, a Basque holdout before the Conquest? Or was it just a new new from a European site?

          In a cave in Brazil, a wall is covered with what appears to be the Milky Way. On one side of that image is a blazing star about the same shape of the above cupola of the church of Santa Prisca.

          The altar of Nuestra Señora del Pilar (or del Barco) has a multitude of sea shells as its decor. One much refer back to the pilgrimage to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. The general mode of dress for such pilgrims to the site of the Saint included a seashell similar to that of the altar. The pilgrims wore a strange wide-brimmed hat with the front turned up.

             Santiago de Compostela 42° 52’ 30” North 8° 32’ 0” Longitude oeste Symbols are seven stars around chalice Tomb with an eight-pointed star. Again, a star form that is similar to the cave and the cupola of the Church of Santa Prisca.{Encicl, Universal Ilustrada, Volume LIV, p. 247.]

             Come to think of it, there is also a similar star form in Egypt called Sesht.  As I searched Egypt, I not only found a reference back to Mesopotamia, but also to Akkadian, Sumer and Persia on several roll-out seals. So I have decided to do another Blog for Santa Prisca, Part II.    

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Barretto, Pierson (2000, 1) Arqueoastroniomia, Cometa, Encke, Phaeton, Rupestre Representiações Rupestres de Cometa em Pernambuco, Membro da Sociedade Astronômica da Recife - SAR. 

Regarding the Cave in Brazil with the Milky Way, as a single leg with a blazing star, said to be 

5, 000 years old. [However, the single spiral of the Galaxy did not appear until after the second run of the comets when they dropped the meteorites onto the land and the ocean floor. So the cave is from eons past, but the artwork is new.]

Castrejon, Diez, Dr. Jaime and Dra. Ruby Nickel de Castrejon, (1984, 23) Santa Prisca Taxco, México, DF México, Impreso in México, regarding Our lady of the Pillar Nuestra Señora del Pilar (o de la Barca.) altar and other altars, The picture of the altar is opposite p. 23.

bid, (1984, 13-14)

Church of Prisca in Taxco, México that contains an altar dedicated to Nuestra Señora and was rebuilt in the XVII century, “with one condition, that no religious order or any of the Viceroy's council should interfere with the building or managing of the money. The names of the workers will remain a mystery.” The carvings around the altar of Sta. Prisca, show shell iconography, [My Note: Similar to over-sized versions of the shell used during the pilgrimage to the shrine of Santiago de Composotela..]

Stone,Stone, R. J. S. (1927, 222). The Cult of Santiago Traditions, Myths and Pilgrimages. London: Longmans, Green and Company.  A  [?wool] cowl, fastened by a broad belt. On cowl they wore a red cross. Broad brimmed hat with front up-ended, held by scallop shell, a staff, a sack and a gourd to Santiago de Compostela. The walking stick used by pilgrim's on the Way of St. James to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.  Generally, the stick has a hook on it so that something may be hung from it. The walking stick sometimes has a cross piece on it. The pilgrim's staff has a strong association with the veneration of Saint James the Great and the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Cortada, p. 45, In 1072, Dona Urraca, sister of Don Alfonso fled to Sahagun Monastery, then transladose to Toledo beneath the ampara of the Moorish kings.

Xolotl and the Corn God

Zapotec Funeral Urn

          Urns were usually buried in a special areas of Zapotec tombs. All presented in the positing of the Aztlan listserve, were found as grave urns; sometimes in specially niches prepared for this purpose or with members and associates discovered in Monte Albán, in Oaxaca, Mexico. Urns are decorated with images of various deities: the god of maize, the god of rain  Cocijo  or the deity  Xipe Totec. The urn above came from the collection of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. It clearly shows tlacuache  (Didelphis marsupialis), which often appears in the mythology of Mesoamerica and was associated with procreation, fire and corn. (Aztlan Listserveas an e-mail from Poland.)

         Here the dog, that at times also accompanies a dead person to the grave appears to be part skeletal; a normal aspect of death. The corn god, implied by the maize ears had another purpose however, they were indicative of a continuing life.  But not from a second life of the deceased. Instead, it may have been that the Maize god actually saved his followers from starvation with the help of Xolotl, who was part of the comet called Quetzalcoatl. Thought to be the sun, Quetzalcoatl  had carried in one hand a fan of feathers (implying fire) and in the other, a scythe. Such picrorial information told us about the ancient history of the Mexica, when many people died when he [Xolotl, as part of a blazing comet], flew over the land.

        Since a scythe is a specific Eurasian tool for cutting down the crops, and the Mesoamericans were more accustomed to the machete tool; the european version of a scythe may have been a post-conquest example of the tools brought over by the monks as their farming tools. It would have been the only way that the native scribes could date the codex without drawing attention to the fact that the codex was a fraudulent edition, even though it contains actual historic events.

        However, the scribes also left another message about the turmoil in the sky. Even though there was no mention of Xolotl in the Vaticanus 3738, Lamina 6, Xolotl was said to have fallen from the sky in order that the Sun, as Quetzalcoatl, would live to shine another day.

Quetzalcoatl over the Cave of the Mother-Father Ancestor/Survivors.

          It was a sun that Eric Thompson, commented on in his book: Maya History and Religion. The discovery of clay mines possibly used for ritual potting is recalled in a report from an ancient informnt:

Elsie McDougall's report to J. Eric Thompson of an old Kekchi woman who attributed skulls in a cave near Coban [Copan] to people living before the creation of the sun. When the sun appeared they stayed in caves, “By day they made pots; at night they came to the surface” was for the light too bright for them and they could not see. [2] 

        It was with this Sun that the Maize god gained his important status: that of a life giver. It seems that the small kerneled maize cobs were disregarded as useless for eating. They were probably at the bottom of the storage baskets and when found, it was after a time of rationing of the food and water. Such small cobs were literally tossed out of the caves as trash. But the Maize god had other plans for it. He, with the great heat of the new-born "sun," produced popcorn that prevented total starvation. He was then honored, even until today, with popcorn flowers, and other decorations. It was noted that it was he, the Maize god, that was reborn on the earth as a food provider.

       Other cave experiences around the world tells us of the rationing that was necessary to survive the long year or years after the appearance of the great blazing star, when the fifth sun was born. The Koran was one that claimed to have spent 300 years in the caves, but if that was the case they all would have died. Another religious text tells us the exact measures that were used to feed the cave dwellers. but that is story for another time.

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[1]URNS Zapotec

 Zapotec urns were set sometimes in specially prepared for this purpose niches or at the entrance to the tombs. All urns presented here come from tombs discovered in Zapotecs - Monte Albán , in the present state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Urns are decorated with images of various deities: the god of maize, the god of rain Cocijo or deity Xipe Totec . Last urn from the collection of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City shows tlacuache (Didelphis marsupialis), which often appear in the mythology of Mesoamerica and was associated with procreation, fire and corn.  (Aztlan, 2013-4)  

[2]Thompson, J. Eric S. (1970, 344) Maya History and Religion. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,

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