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The Northern Journey of the Radish
When I was preparing my presentation about the Nasca Lines for the University of Calgary, I realized there were two long radish-like images with three lobes on the top of the greenery, on the Nascaplain. These were separated by a huge empty space. I had seen copies of the Mixtec and Maya codices but I could not find such an image in those codices.
Many years later, as I laid out a zodiac through the astronomy website NightSkies, I found two serpents both sides of a constellation called Ophiuchus but not the radish-like configurations I had seen on the Nasca drawings.
However, I had to go to the dentist. The Nasca paper had to wait a bit. In telling the dentist about my newest sky project, he made the comment that he and his wife had gone to New Zealand. On the way back, lying home his wife was looking out the window and commented Orion was upside-down. When asked why, she said: “Well, because the constellations we see are actually upside down south of the Equator.
In India, Praji Pata was a horned, seated constellation before the Earth shifted 23.5 degrees, Praja Patic acquired feet. I read a description of Ophiuchus in Richard Allen’s Star Names and found one of the names identified for Ophi was Orion. Another name for it was the "blind god." So I went searching for a blind god in the Maya codices The Dresden Codex has one with three cloths, knotted over its eyes.[D-50b]
Over its had a pair of gods, one with the "sun" headdress of the God in the Land of the Dead [D'-47b]; the other, wearing a jawless skull as a headdress on his spotted, diseased body (of the sun we see every day).[D-50a] In Kaye Almere Read's poem, the Aztec version of the Birth of the Fifth Sun, this diseased sun god would peel off and throw those scabs away. [In Astronomy, the process is known as "sun flares" often seen being blown off the face of our sun.]
Between these two glyph pictures is a text beginning with the Hand thought to have been the Moon, while from the west, came the blazing comet, carrying two gods, Tecuiçiztecatl, the ashy moon, and Nanahuatzin, the sun, as the eyes of the "venus" glyph. In Maya, these famous Twins are Hunahpú and Xbalenqué. They can be found earlier in the Dresden: as a headless Hunahpú, [In the Maya Popol Vuh. it was in the bat house of Xbalba where and when he lost his head] Here, his arms are roped; Xbalenqué behind him with the comet's rattle [noisemaker] in his hand.[D-02a].
That was easier than searching for radishes. Usually, the blind god wore a blindfold over his eyes. In the Madrid, a jaguar image was used to indicate the night time skies, where such astronomy figures are to be found. But, there is no Ophiuchus associated with the Twins.
Radishes, cabbages and other vegetables, south of the Equator are huge. Not the tiny commercially grown vegetables that we have in the states. So the placement of a radish image is justifiable. Was Nasca the “triangulation from the sky to the earth” practice area for the Peruvian astronomy school?
I wrote up the presentation along those lines, collected the pictures for it and put it on my web site after the presentation was over. I called it “The Radish.” Then I forgot about it. It was a little later when Bodley page 26 popped up. I had acquired books from John Pohl’s class about the Bodley Codex, and started to browse through it during my lunch. Hm.m.m, John had mentioned a year sign (the A/O) that had acquired the shape of a serpent for decorative purposes only.
I got the page off my CD and blew it up in Paint and started to fill in the missing segments of the images. It is easier for me to “understand” what I am looking at, if I trace out the details . . . even if I do not draw the whole image, I get a better view of what is there that way.
I had finished the top line and was about to close the program when suddenly I “saw” the upside down star viewer the astronomers used. Oh. . . and the footprint path was white. It either meant “death” or “snow” Now where would the Maya find snow?
And why was the viewer upside down? The dentist! The constellation was upside down for the star viewer. Another tidbit of information made itself known. In Oaxaca, there is a carved radish festival every Christmas season. The radish image and Christmas would only be important if the “radish” image was associated with a god or with a star formation.
In Oaxaca, Orion was the Christmas star formation at this time, but, in Peru during the same season, Ophiuchus as the "blind " god with his two serpent figures? Where----the radish-forms were on the plain----was the Peruvian constellation Ophiuchus or Orion? A different constellation appears in the Spring time north of the Equator and was called the Summer Triangle. No wonder nothing in Maya astronomy seems to work out correctly.
Checking my older notes, I found that Oaxaca to the Yucatan had the transmission of metallurgy from Peru. They were using such techniques for a long time. The Bodley Codex, yes, informed the Maya of their marriage, but instead it was the story of their legal son, Three Dog. They were to send him to school in another land.
Their son was to be their personal astronomer/astrologer. For this reason, he was sent over the snow to the southern mountain government located at Nasca. The codex is telling us about the history of student astronomers who traveled from other countries, including Mexico. to learn the fine points of star triangulation. They go to Observation Hill on Sandy River for their triangulation from sky to earth lessons.
It is probable that the Peruvians had to erase Ophiuchus from the plains and instead of the serpents, placed the “radish-like” forms because they had their own radish festival to honor of this constellation. A festival that was probably wiped out intentionally by the Inquisition as well.
As it was, Ophiuchus, the constellation that bisect the two “radish-like” images are seen and accepted as right-side up in Nasca, Peru. . . because it is directly on the equator and has a star on the top often drawn as his pointed hat AND the Peruvian view of this constellation. So that both Orion and Ophiuchus have a very similar shape. Except that Ophiuchus often is shown with a star on its chest. The main image therefore changes to a house with a pointed roof. The star is a benign star often called Good Luck. [Maybe when Seven Macaw lost his turquoise blue teeth?? But again, how did Seven Macaw get into this part of the story????]
During the time I was in Ecuador, I had no idea Naosca even existed. [When I was in Quito, Ecuador I would walk through the zocalo ["market" in Mexico] in awe of the huge vegetables in front of the farmers. I would stand near the buyers and listen to the prices, amazed. Although not expensive using US money, They were always beyond the money in my pocket at the time.] These veggies----the super-sized radishes----were not so different in size from those measured out on the plains of Nasca.
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The Radish Festival in Oaxaca 2007
The Summer Triangle, [The Corn God,
missing here] Three Dog and The Goddess
of the Twisted Headdress
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A harvest festival that was probably wiped out eventually by the Inquisition as well, but later, created in Mexico as a fun thing by the homesick princess named Xonaxi Quecuya [or coya] discovered by Joyce Marcus in one of her Mixtec tax tables. The princess lived in a town called Tacolula, Mitla..[Table 7.6]
