THE TIKAL BONES AND THE CALENDAR ROUND DATE OF 6 AKBAL 16 ZAC: ENTERING THE MILKY WAY AS A CELESTIAL FLOOD

 

Parallel scenes from three carved bones from Tikal Burial 116: (a) frst scene, TIK MT-38a; (b)

second scene, TIK MT-38c; (c) third scene, TIK MT-38d. (https://www.academia.edu/44046566/Disaster_Deluge_and_Destruction_on_the_Star_War_Vase)

Ever since I proposed that the Paddler Gods, "companioned" (that is, in conjunction) on the Creation Day, were Mercury and Venus (see https://firstjaguaronelord.blogspot.com/2021/12/creation-day-8-september-3114-bc-and.html), I've been intrigued by the Tikal bones.  Three of these portray a canoe journey of the Maize God and various animals.  I did not know enough about these bones to venture making any kind of guess as to their meaning until I read Marc Zender's excellent "Disaster, Deluge, and Destruction on the Star War Vase", published in 2020.

Zender has shown that this canoe event involved "a heavenly ‘deluge’... at the core of the ‘star war’ verb."  He relates the scene portrayed on the Tikal bones to one depicted on the Star War Vase.

Rollout image of the Star War Vase. Photographs by the author, orthorectifcation and composition

by Simon Martin.

(https://www.academia.edu/44046566/Disaster_Deluge_and_Destruction_on_the_Star_War_Vase)

The first thing that occurs to me is that if we are talking about Mercury and Venus as the Paddlers, then the canoe of the Tikal bones with its seven passengers pretty clearly must represent the ecliptic - or a portion of the ecliptic - and the seven visible planets.  It is probable that the Maize God is, in this context, the Sun.  It has been surmised that he may also stand for the dead king Jasaw Chan K'awiil I (Ruler A).

The next question I asked myself was this: where might the ecliptic canoe carrying the Sun God and the other planets encounter a heavenly Flood?   The only place I could think of was the Scorpius-Sagittarius head of the Milky Way, a watery place designated as Matwil or 'Place of Cormorants' by the Maya of Palenque (https://firstjaguaronelord.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-gods-of-palenque.html). 

The calendar round date 6 Akbal 16 Zac is critical to our understanding of this astronomical motif.  As Zender points out, the date is applied to the action on the vase as well as to that on all three Tikal bones.  Clearly, something very important was thought to have happened anciently, in the remote mythical past, on this particular date.  It involved the Sun being subjected to a deluge, i.e. his exposure to or submersion in the Scorpius-Sagittarius end of the Milky Way.  

Unfortunately, the number of possible dates for 6 Akbal 16 Zac are many.  Without the patience to sift through every single one of them, I found myself looking for other clues.  The first was that the various canoe scenes all present us with a different ordering of the passengers.  And that means that each has a different ordering of the planets.  The only possible conclusion we can reach regarding this change of order is that each scene shows a different 6 Akbal 16 Zac occurrence.  

Now, we know (I'm here going by CHRONICLE OF HTE MAYA KINGS AND QUEENS by Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube) that Ruler A celebrated his accession on 682, while his son and successor acceded to the throne in 734.  The 6 Akbal 16 Zac dates that occurred during Ruler A's reign were as follows (NOTE:  I am using the FAMSI converter at http://research.famsi.org/date_missing_parts.php; different correlations used there still result in 4 dates happening within the lifespan of Ruler A):

09.12.14.07.03 Sunday, September 5, 686 AD 6 Ak'bal 16 Sak

09.14.11.17.03 Wednesday, September 12, 723 AD 6 Ak'bal 16 Sak

09.14.17.00.03 Wednesday, September 5, 728 AD 6 Ak'bal 16 Sak

09.15.02.01.03 Wednesday, August 30, 733 AD 6 Ak'bal 16 Sak

It is possible, therefore, that the three different occurrences of the 6 Akbal 16 Zac event portrayed on the bones can be assigned to three of these dates.

However, that doesn't really help us with learning more about the original mythological event that underpins the significance of 6 Akbal 16 Zac.

This is where I come back to the image found on the Star War Vase.  Why two Maize Gods?  And why are they, as it were, divided or separated from each other by the monkey?  As remarked upon above, the monkey is one the seven visible planets.  But here he seems to play another role: that of a celestial marker of some kind.

Suspecting that the deluge event was the Sun entering the Milky Way, I began to wonder if the two Maize Gods might perhaps be the Sun of Summer and the Sun of Fall, with the Fall Equinox differentiating them.  Could I find an instance, then, when the Fall Equinox fell at or very close to the point where the Sun entered Matwil at a 6 Akbal 16 Zac date?

Well, there was one such:

01.11.18.06.03 Saturday, October 14, 2485 BC 6 Ak'bal 16 Sak

(Correlation 584281)

This appears in the sky like this:

The moon is not significant here, being at 0.1% illuminated fraction or 0.2d before new moon at noon.  It is new moon at 3:40 p.m., well before it sets.  And we must bear in mind that the planets on the ecliptic canoe travel east to west, despite the fact that as the days progress, the sun enters and sinks deeper into the Milky Way.  The Sun was at the equinox point  on the 12th, and enters the Milky Way between the 15th and the 16th.  Between the 14th and the 15th, Jupiter is right next to the sun.

What we have, then, is this:

Mercury    Mars    Sun/Jupiter    Venus

We may compare this with the configuration of the Star War Vase:

Paddler    Dog    Two Maize Gods/Monkey    Paddler

Once again, I realize this might all be coincidence.  However, there does appear to be a distinct correlation between the planets and the figures on the vase.  

Jupiter as a monkey is rather surprising.  But I do recall that the days for monkey in the Aztec and Maya calendars  - Ozomahtli and Chuen, respectively -  have a connection with the Nahuatl god Xochipili.  This 'Flower Prince' deity has strong solar associations.  Otherwise, we find monkeys in Aztec religion more closely associated with the wind god, Ehecatl, who was an aspect of Quetzalcoatl. Dennis Tedlock thought that the monkey twins in the POPOL VUH were the planet Mars. 

                    THE AUTUMN EQUINOX AND TROPICAL STORMS/HURRICANES

Historically, September (of the Autumnal Equinox) was the worst of the storm and hurricane months.  The following selection is from 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264365159_Chan_Ik_Hurricanes_as_a_Disruptive_Force_in_the_Maya_Lowlands:

"Historical records of hurricanes in the North Atlantic are reasonably accurate after about 1871, though accuracy is suspect until airborne tracking began in the 1940s.1 Records indicate that 56 hurricanes struck the Yucatan Peninsula between 1871 and 2005, not including an even larger number of less-severe tropical storms (Neumann et al. 1999; Pereira and Vester 2000; Boose et al. 2003; NOAA/ NHC 2006). Thus, on average, hurricanes strike the Yucatan Peninsula about once every 2.5 years. Furthermore, hurricanes or tropical storms strike on average one per year. Yet, these averages mask considerable irregularity in frequency. Within the period of record there are years with multiple hurricane strikes and periods of up to eight years without a single strike. September has experienced the most frequent and strongest hurricanes, with slightly lesser rates of occurrence in August and October; however, hurricanes can and have struck the Yucatan Peninsula in June, July, and November (Boose et al. 2003)."

Interestingly enough, in Taino religion the great spirit of the year dies on the Autumnal Equinox:

"The dance of the Sun’s Path is celebrated by observing the four seasonal stations of the year: Spring Equinox (considered the birth time of Lord Yoka Hu the Spirit of Life), Summer Solstice (considered the moment when Lord Yoka Hu reaches maximum power and glory), Fall Equinox (considered the end-moment in Yoka Hu’s life at the climax of the deadly hurricane season when he dies and begins his journey to the land of the departed ones, the abode of the ancestors, Coa Bay at the very womb of his mother, the spirit Ata Bey), and finally Winter Solstice (considered the moment when Yoka Hu finally reaches the warm nurturing place of re-conception, the place in which he will then gestate in fetal form for about three months until he is again re-born at Spring Equinox just to start the cycle all over again)."

"We believe that Yoka Hu is born of his Earth-and-Water Mother, Ata Bey, at Spring Equinox. He rises to full maturity and strength at Summer Solstice and then decilnes during the stormy, hurricane-blown weeks at the end of the summer season to finally die at the Autumnal (Fall) Equinox.

The Autumnal Equinox represents the moment when our beloved Life Spirit, Yoka Hu begins his journey to the realm of the dead. He descends to the watery underworld at the center of Ata Bey's womb

called "Coa Bay", a place that can be accessed spiritually through sacred caves. Yoka Hu goes there to be finally re-united as a germinal embryonic being with his mother's uterus. At Winter Solstice, this powerful male spirit overcomes the rigors of Death and Hardship that characterizes the hurricane-driven late Summer and Fall. There he awaits rebirth during the dry Winter months, a period of time which, in the Caribbean, hold very little rainfall and constrain the ability for plant-life to regenerate. Finally in the

Spring Equinox Yoka Hu is re-born from his mother's womb and the cycle begins all over again.

The first ceremonial date is the date of Fall Equinox itself, usually around the 20th or 21st of September. That is the actual date when Yoka Hu dies and crosses over. Yoka Hu is an agricultural plant spirit (his name means "Soul of the Yuca Plant"), a spirit that represents the natural life-cycle of a plant, from cultivation to harvest. The soul of the Taino's most important food item, Yoka Hu, is the very spiritual manifestation of LIFE iteself because Life depends on the success of the yuca harvest. When the yuca plant is harvested it dies and in death it manifests its ultimate destiny, to feed the people. This moment of destiny is actually the manifestation of sacred personal sacrifice, a concept that plays a very important role in ancient Taino spirituality. The fact that the living of one generation eventually die to contribute to the success of the life of the next generation is a central ideological concept in the cyclical configuration of the spiritual mentality of our ancestors. We honor our Lord Yoka Hu on this day for his personal sacrifice and thank our Lady Ata Bey for her generosity in offering us the product of her ever-fertile womb, the nurishing gift of divine Life, the fruits of another year's harvest. During this season of storm and death we recognize the fact that the sacred cycle is completed and that this completion, harsh as it may seem, is the moment when the slate is wiped clean to make room for a new

story, a new adventure of Life and Energy...

It is the time of sacrifice when the plant spirits give up their lives at harvest time that we may live. It is the time when we look forward to the celebration of the ancestors in November’s Day of the Dead...

The second ceremonial date that emerges during the Fall season takes place at the beginning of November, on a date that we now call "DAYOF THE DEAD".

That day signals a moment when the living render respect and tribute to those who have made the same journey upon the same road that Yoka Hu now finds himself, to the realm of Coa Bay. On the holiday of Day of The Dead we honor the ancestors and other departed loved ones who dwell in Coa Bay. We eat guayaba (guava fruit) in all of its manifestations. We offer the guayaba fruit to the hupias (spirits of the dead) by putting bits of guava or guava paste in front of the memory tablets that we keep to honor our

departed ones. "

[http://www.caneycircle.org/sunpath/, https://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-meaning-of-autumn-equinox, http://indigenouscaribbean.ning.com/profiles/blogs/2030313:BlogPost:12915]

Could it be that, like the Taino with their god Yoka Hu, the Maya thought that their Maize God had been defeated/died on the Autumnal Equinox?

 

                                                        

ESSAYS COLLECTED TOGETHER IN NEW BOOK AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

 

https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Planets-Time-Ancient-Religion/dp/B09PKQBTM8/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

The study of the religion of the ancient Maya is a highly specialized discipline best left to trained scholars capable of penetrating and navigating its astonishing intricacies. Interested laymen all too often operate under the dual constraints of ignorance and naivety. Yet on occasion, when due caution is observed, a novice can contribute something of value to the field. New ways of looking at things can provide keys to unlocking long-standing mysteries.

The author of this collection of essays hopes that his "thinking outside the box" approach to some of the outstanding problems facing archaeologists, epigraphers and anthropologists may lead, ultimately, to a better understanding of some aspects of Maya religion. Although the method he employs (taking a rather literalist view of monument or artifact dates in relationship to celestial phenomena) is generally frowned upon, and his application of purely speculative interpretations to otherwise unknowable divine events falls outside the purview of proper academic method and scientific objectivity, the results of his researches do seem to suggest a perhaps valuable alternate approach to some of the more important unanswered questions.

If we are to understand the ancient Maya, we must try to think like they did. With that precept in mind, August Hunt seeks to uncover new meanings embedded in the otherwise confounding riddles posed by the actions of Maya gods, planets and time.

XBAQUIYALO OR 'LADY BONE RAIN': A PROPOSED NEW ETYMOLOGY

It has become customary to see in the Ki'che Mayan goddess name Xbaquiyalo the etymology first proposed by Dennis Tedlock.  Allen Christenson, in his edition of the POPOL VUH, summarizes Tedlock's derivation as follows:

"Xbaquiyalo. The likely etymology of this name is x- (lady), baqi (bone), ya' (water/river), lo
(perhaps), yielding Lady Bone Water. Tedlock notes that in Yucatec, bak ha' (also “bone water”) is the snowy egret or snowy heron, and thus translates the name as “Egret Woman” (D. Tedlock 1996, 250 n. 91)."

There was some excitement early on about a possible connection of this snowy egret goddess with a divine lunar egret at Palenque.  However, subsequent research has dispensed with Lady Egret as the name of the Triad Progenitor.

And there is a major problem with Tedlock's etymology, best summaried by Professor Simon Martin (via private communication):

"Christiansen’s suggestion that -lo is "perhaps" is not very grammatical and is not widely accepted. Possibly this is another K'iche'ized Western Mayan or even Nahuatl term. If is it indeed K'iche' the suggestion that a final vowel like -m or -w may have been lost is not unreasonable. Because Maya words end in consonants."

Because of all this, I would instead propose as an etymology for her name the standard 'Lady' (K'iche X-), plus bak(i) 'bone' (the /u/ being a relic of Spanish/Latin orthography) and the word for 'rain', itself a borrowing from another Mayan language.  Examples in the Mayan languages show that y- often substitutes for h-.

For Classic Mayan, we now know that such a word for rain existed from early on:

https://www.mesoweb.com/resources/handbook/IMH2020.pdf  

Ha’al and ha’ha’(al) are definite terms for ‘rain’

ha’al HA’-a-la HA’-la HA’AL ha’al ha’al ha’al n lit. “water-y” or “waterlike” but specifically refers to “rain” ha’ha’al HA’-HA’AL ha’-ha’al n lit. “water-rain” or “very rainy” refers specifically to the “rainy season”

From the various Mayan languages, the word for water can be spelled as follows.  Note that 'yal' occurs fairly frequently: 

http://www.famsi.org/reports/01051/pmed.pdf

pM *Ha7, *r-Ha7-aal WASw ja7 s agua // YUK ja7 /h/(m) s agua // [mq] LAK ja7 s agua // ITZ ja7 agua [OKMA] ITZ ja7 ri*o [OKMA] ITZ ja7 lluvia [OKMA] MOP ja7 agua [OKMA] EpM /ha7/ water pCh *ha7 s // water [K&N 140] CHR ja7 s agua // CHR ja7 agua [OKMA] CHT #ha s agua // [m] CHL ja7 s agua // TZO ho7 (weak h) s agua // [tk] TZE ha7 (weak h) s agua // [tk] TOJ ja7 s agua // CHJ ha7 s agua // CHJ ha7 agua [OKMA] QAN ha7 s agua // QAN hay-ej agua [OKMA] AKA ja7 agua [OKMA] AKA ja7 ri*o [OKMA] POP ha7 s agua, ri*o // POP ha7 agua [OKMA] MCH #ja7 s agua // [st] TEK a7 agua [OKMA] MAM a7 s agua // MAMt a7 agua [OKMA] MAMo a7 agua [OKMA] MAMc a7 agua [OKMA] MAMi a7 agua [OKMA] AWA a7; -a7a7l s agua // AWA a7 agua [OKMA] IXL a7 agua [OKMA] USP ja7 agua [OKMA] KCH ja7; u-wa7-aal s agua // [tk] KCHq ja7 agua [OKMA] KCHc ya7 agua [OKMA] KCHk ya agua [OKMA]    KCHa ya7 s agua // [tk] SIP ya7 agua [OKMA] SIP ya7 ri*o [OKMA] SAK ya7 agua [OKMA] TZU ya7 agua [OKMA] KAQ ya"7 s agua // [tk] KAQp ya"7 agua [OKMA] KAQc ya7 agua [OKMA] KAQi ya7 agua [OKMA] PQMp ja7 agua [OKMA] PQMj ha7 agua [OKMA] PCH ha7 s agua // PCH ha7 agua [OKMA] QEQ ha7 agua [OKMA] QEQw ha7 s agua // QEQc&l ha7 agua // [TK71] QEQcah ha7 mollera // [TK71] QEQcah ha7al r-uh la*grimas // [TK71] QEQ ha7-al ruh la*grimas CHL ja7-al s lluvia // TZE ha7-al s lluvia //

"WATER of FACE" = tear(s); pM *r-Ha7-aal Haty ITZ ja7il uyich la*grimas [OKMA] CHR uya7ra nak'u7t la*grimas [OKMA] CHJ yal sat la*grimas [OKMA] QAN yal satej la*grimas [OKMA] AKA yaal sat la*grimas [OKMA] POP yal sute la*grimas [OKMA] TEK ta7l nwutz la*grimas [OKMA] MAMt tzaaj ta7l nwutz la*grimas [OKMA] MAMo ta7l twitz la*grimas [OKMA] MAMc ta7l qwutz la*grimas [OKMA] MAMi t'al witzb'aj la*grimas [OKMA] AWA ta7aal witzaj la*grimas [OKMA] IXL ta7lvatz la*grimas [OKMA] USP ra7l jb'aq'wich la*grimas [OKMA] KCHn uwa7l b'aq'wachaaj la*grimas [OKMA] KCHq uwa7l b'oq'ochaaj la*grimas [OKMA] KCHc uwa7al wachaaj la*grimas [OKMA] KCHk uwa7al uwach la*grimas [OKMA] SIP rya7l wochaj la*grimas [OKMA] SAK ya7l b'a7 wach la*grimas [OKMA] TZU ruya7aal wachaaj * la*grimas [OKMA] KAQp ruya7al wachaj la*grimas [OKMA] KAQc ruy'al runaq' wachaj la*grimas [OKMA] KAQi ruya7al wachaj la*grimas [OKMA] QEQ xya7al u la*grimas [OKMA] MOP k'a ich la*grimas [OKMA]  

 "WATER of MOUTH" = `drool'; pM *r-Ha7-aal tyii7 CHR uya7ra ti7 baba [OKMA] CHJ yal ti7 baba [OKMA] QAN yal tihej baba [OKMA] AKA yaal ti7eh baba [OKMA] POP yal ti7ch baba [OKMA] TEK ta7l ntzii7 baba [OKMA] MAMt ta7l ntzii7 baba [OKMA] AWA ta7al tzi7aj baba [OKMA] IXL ta7l tzi7 baba [OKMA] USP ra7l jchi7 baba [OKMA] SAK ya7l chi7eej baba [OKMA]

 EM+GQ "WATER of BEE" = `honey'
 CHJ yal chab' miel de abeja [OKMA]
 QAN yal kab' miel de abeja [OKMA]
 AKA yaal kab' miel de abeja [OKMA]
 MAMi t'al wiinaq miel de abeja [OKMA]
 IXL ta7l kab' miel de abeja [OKMA]
 KCHc uwa7al kaab' miel de abeja [OKMA]
 KCHk uwa7al kaab' miel de abeja [OKMA]
 QEQ xya7al kab' miel de abeja [OKMA]  

Hue "WATER of TIT" = `mother's milk' CHJ yal im leche de mujer [OKMA] QAN yal imej leche de mujer [OKMA] QAN yal imej leche (cualquiera) [OKMA] AKA yal imeh leche de mujer [OKMA] POP yal yim xo7 leche de mujer [OKMA] POP yal ime leche (cualquiera) [OKMA]  

In Yucatecan, we find hail and haail for 'rain':

https://books.google.com/books?id=GdfCRh2nfN8C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=ix+hail+yucatec&source=bl&ots=r-xrG2Ui_2&sig=ACfU3U1PEu1cmeeIVXGQBU-T-aQ4lPPJTw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwitsIHGs_X0AhVfDjQIHZqdDNAQ6AF6BAgoEAM

https://www.academia.edu/25282797/Composition_and_Artistry_in_a_Classical_Yucatecan_Maya_Creation_Myth_Prehispanic_Ritual_Narratives_and_Their_Colonial_Transmission

hun uadz hail, hu[nJ lom haail 'one fetching of rain, one lancing of rain'.  

https://books.google.com/books?id=8YfgCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=%22haail%22%2B%22Chumayel%22&source=bl&ots=I0uniwByZg&sig=ACfU3U0-w1k4ykyHH3iMbit3jwZhTu7RoA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwihqvCa6vX0AhXDCjQIHY0YD9wQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22haail%22%2B%22Chumayel%22&f=false

I would, therefore, not hesitate to derive Xbaquiyalo from Ix, 'Lady', Bak(i), 'Bone', yal, 'Rain.'  The terminal -o can really only be explained as yet another vestige of Spanish/Latin orthography.

As Lady Bone Rain, I would tentatively identify this goddess with Ix Chel.  In the codices, the latter is portrayed as wearing a skirt adorned with crossed bones as she pours rain (and possibly the deluge) out of a jar.  Here are images of Ix Chel from http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/codices/dresden.html:

In Yucatec story, the goddesses Ix Bak, Ix Ha'il and Ix Chel appear to be identified (rough Google translation provided here from the source quoted below):

Then Ix Bak, the mother, to create the world, turns around, and transforms

in Kab, verlan de bak and projects his son K’in who becomes the first man.

But this one is alone and withered, he falls asleep and dreams of a wonderful

young girl enclosed in the trunk of the yaxche ’,“ first tree ”, the cheesemonger

(Ceiba pentadra). He immediately falls in love with her and she tells him

how to deliver it: you have to open the trunk with a stone. He wakes up, incises

the trunk and the wonderful maiden appears, X-ha’il, Sacred Water, Ipomeo (Dzul

Poot 1985), or Ix chel, Dame Arc-en-ciel in another version (Rosado

Vega 1934), who is none other than the (re) young mother. She gives K’in her

Rain body, he becomes Ah K’in Chak and falls in love with X-ha’il forever,

even if she leaves him periodically, forcing him to dream again to

renew his body of rain.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286693033_Au_pays_des_Mayas_metis

In this account of the creation of the world, Ix Bak, Lady Bone, Ix Ha'il, Lady Rain (not Lady Water) and Ix Chel, Lady Rainbow, are either interchangeable or may represent different aspects of the moon goddess. Ybaquiyalo, in my opinion, as a name merely combines Ix Bak and Ix Ha'il into one entity, Ix Bak Ha'il or Lady Bone Rain.

For my idea that Ix Chel is also called Xmucane/Lady Knotted Serpent in the POPOL VUH, see https://firstjaguaronelord.blogspot.com/2021/12/xmucane-as-knotted-serpent-alternative.html.

THE IDENTITY OF HUNAHPU AND XBALANQUE OF THE POPOL VUH

 

The Classic Period Hun Ajaw Shoots Down Itzam-Neh

Over the years, there has been a great deal of controversy over the identities of the Hero Twins in the K'iche epic the POPOL VUH. While the story itself associates Hunahpu or One Blowgunner [1] with the Sun and his brother Xbalanque or Little Jaguar Sun [2] with the Moon, various scholars have attempted to "correct" the tradition. Venus, sun and moon have all, at one time or another, been brought into the debate.  Complicating the efforts to clarify the nature and function of these gods is their relationship to the Classic Period twins, Hun Ajaw or One Lord and Yax Balam or First Jaguar.

Most of the disagreement settles on Xbalanque.  Why?  Because while the jaguar is a nocturnal animal, and Yax Balam is linked in his iconography and glyphic representations to the lunar number 9, there is conflicting evidence from the K'iche people themselves.  As Tedlock observed in his edition of the PV:

"Contemporary Quiches regard the full moon as a nocturnal equivalent of the sun, pointing out that it has a full disk, is bright enough to travel by, and goes clear across the sky in the same time it takes the sun to do the same thing."  

In this sense, then, the Full Moon could be seen at the Night Sun.

On the other hand, Tedlock reminds us (in his Breath on the Mirror) that

"In Kekchi, the sun is called b'alamq'e when it is hidden at night."

Dr. Ruud van Akkeren (in "Xibalba y el nacimiento del nuevo sol") has taken this last to heart, proposing that Hunahpu is the daytime sun, while his brother Xbalanque is the nighttime sun, i.e. the Ki'che version of the Classic solar Jaguar God of the Underworld.

Might there be a way to settle this, once and for all?

Well, if we go to a decent sky program and enter in the date for the shooting down of Itzam-ne (the Classic counterpart of the K'iche Vucub Caquix or 'Seven Red Feathers', i.e. the Scarlet Macaw), both gods can be rather easily identified.  This date is found on the illustrated pot depicted at the top of this article.  While Maya longcount date correlations vary somewhat, it became evident pretty quickly that going with a June 21, 3149 B.C.  Julian for the pot date made the most sense.

Here is what is happening in the sky on the date, at 3:41 p.m., when Mars sets:

Now, Tedlock has suggested - quite astutely, as it turns out - that the jaguar paw projecting from behind the tree belongs to Yax Balam.  The word balam for jaguar has the literal meaning of 'the hider', and related words mean 'hidden.'  This is an apt word for a silent, nocturnal animal that is rarely seen.  But when it comes to the moon, the association with the jaguar may go deeper and involves another pun.  On this particular night, the moon is a waning crescent, 2.5 days before new.  The new moon is the invisible moon, the truly hidden lunar body. And, as with the jaguar paw on the pot, it is just starting to emerge from the Milky Way tree.

The only planet occupying the Milky Way is red Mars.  As we have seen, caquix for Macaw means red feathers.  Mars is, of course, noted for being decidedly red.

And where is Hunahpu?  He is the Sun, with Venus and Mercury, the Paddler Twins (see https://firstjaguaronelord.blogspot.com/2021/12/creation-day-8-september-3114-bc-and.html, directly in front of him.  What is happening is that Mars/Seven Macaw is being shot down from the Milky Way tree, i.e. is setting, at exactly the time Hunahput shoots him with his blowgun and Xbalanque begins to reach out his paw from behind the tree.  This is, literally, a perfect comparative description of what is happening on the pot for this date, and it is doubtless the same story that we find preserved in the PV.

Admittedly, the K'iche identify Vucub Caquix with the Big Dipper, but this is almost certainly a later development and cannot (or should not) be back-written into the Classic period.  

I would say, then, that based upon this evidence, Hunahpu is the Sun, and Xbalanque is the Moon - exactly as the Ki'che have insisted all along.

[1] The best etymology for Hunahpu is Hun, 'One', 'aj', signifying agency (an ungendered someone who does something; information courtesy Dr. Allen Chistenson), and puh, ‘reed’, used to refer to reed blowguns (private communicatio via Professor Danny Law).  The Twins are shown several times in Classic period iconography as blowgunners. 

[2] The -que at the end of Xbalanque must be 'sun.'  I say this because we have two variants of the name (from the Totonicapan document and Las Casas), one ending in -quej and the other in -quen.  We can dispense with the Colonial Spanish/Latin /u/.  Kej, deer, does not work, as we can't account for the /n/ of -quen.  But Classic k'in, Yucatecan kin (etc.), is found in K'iche as q'ij.  Both for sun.  Although X- as a diminutive prefix has been objected to (because it appears to be feminine), it is also found in some MSS. fronting Hunahpu's name.  Thus is seems fairly certain that it does imply smallness or youth, as one would expect for boys like the Hero Twins.  Balan, given how common it is for m to be mistaken for n, is transparently balam, 'jaguar.'

THE CROSSES OF PALENQUE

The Temples of the Sun, Cross and Foliated Cross were all dedicated on 20 July 690 A.D. (or 21 or 23; going by Peter Matthews’ Julian date list).  This was not long before the completion of the thirteenth k’atun on 15 March 692.  Two other dates may be important when it comes to interpreting the iconography of the tablets in these temples: the two figures flanking the crosses and the sun-shield with two crossed spears are now known to represent K’inich Kan Bahlam as a child being designated heir to the throne on 14 June 641 A.D. and as a king being inaugurated on 7 January 684.   In 7 January 692,  the anniversary of the earlier 684 date, in the year of the period ending, K’inich underwent another ritual which Matthews’ refers to as ‘Sanct. Dedication’

[NOTE:  For my treatment of the gods of Palenque, please see 

https://firstjaguaronelord.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-gods-of-palenque.html).]

Temple of the Sun

The crossed spears of the Temple of the Sun, which was sacred to GIII/sun, may be the easiest to interpret.  If we go with dates in the 7th century A.D. and bring up the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, we immediately see that the celestial equator and the ecliptic intersect at the center of the sky, forming on both occasions a perfect “crossed spears” pattern.  Of course, this occurs only at exactly 12 noon with the sun present at the intersection point of the equator and the ecliptic.  The sun cannot be shown in this context as a bird atop a tree, because on neither of the equinoxes is it on/within the Milky Way.

The two figures holding up the spears and shield on a serpent bar are standing on the cab or earth band, which is here symbolic of the horizon.  The serpent bar bearer on the left has been identified (see, for example, Justin and Barbara Kerr’s _The Way of God L: The Princeton Vase Revisited_) with God L, wearing his Muwaan bird headdress and his chevron cloak.  The muwaan bird was Bird 2 of the Maya Zodiac (see Susan Milbrath’s _Star Gods of the Maya_) and this sign has been identified with Gemini.  The other bearer of the serpent bar – on the right – is God N as turtle, here Orion. 

When viewed as if the sun at equinox point is at the “top” of the image, and Gemini and Orion are “standing” on the eastern horizon, the ecliptic (one of the spears) goes straight through Gemini, while the celestial equator (the other spear) goes right through Orion.  On the Spring Equinox at around noon, Gemini is on the left and Orion is on the right.  On the Fall Equinox around 10:30 a.m., Orion is on the left and Gemini is on the right.  Thus the only match to the Temple of the Sun configuration is the Spring Equinox.

As Gemini and Orion are on the earth band, they have just appeared above the eastern horizon.  The horizontal serpent bar here represents the sky they appear to be holding up, and this serpent bar/sky is the platform upon which stand the ecliptic and celestial equator spears.  It is unlikely the serpent bar here stands for the Milky Way, as that stands vertically, not horizontally, in relationship to Gemini and Orion.

The katun ending on March 15, 692, fell a couple of days short of the Spring Equinox on the 18th , and as the whole Cross Group was aimed at a celebration of the ka’tun ending, and as no other Spring Equinox dates are supplied on the temple texts, I would argue that it is the March 15, 692 date close to the Spring Equinox that is depicted on the Temple of the Sun’s tablet.  Here is how that looks on my CyberSky program for 10:50 a.m.:

If the shield and spears of the Temple of the Sun show the sun on the k’atun ending date, what does the iconography on the main tablets of the other two temples portray?

Temple of the Cross

The 14 June 641 date for the initiation rites of the heir apparent K’inich Kan Bahlam comes close to the summer solstice date for this year on the 19th.  On 14 June 641, Mercury is technically in Taurus, but is actually closer to Orion, and is almost upon the intersection point of the galactic equator and the ecliptic in the heart of the Milky Way.  Venus, the Sun are in Gemini, also within the Milky Way. The Moon (just past New Moon) is just outside the Milky Way in Gemini. 

When the Sun is at transit (11:54), the order of the planets from east to west is Moon, Sun, Venus and Mercury.  The Principal Bird Deity is facing to the right, and our human figures flank the Cross.

Now, we may compare this image with what appeared in the sky at noon on this day.  Obviously, the planets would not have been visible, although their positions relative to the Sun would have been predictable.

The Principal Bird Deity, of course, in facing right is indicating the direction in which the planets are moving.  I would surmise, therefore, that the bird represents the planet Venus, here at the top of the Milky Way 'tree'.  The flanking human figures (K'inich Kan B'alam II on the right) here symbolize the Sun and Mercury.  The arms of the tree and the 'centipede' arching over them, and hanging down from them, represent the celestial equator and trhe ecliptic, respectively. 

A fire dedication took place on 15 June 692, and this may have been chosen because of the earlier 14 June date.  At this later time, Mercury was in Orion near the intersection of the galactic equator and the ecliptic, while the sun was in Gemini (transit time exactly the same, i.e. 11:54) in the Milky Way and Venus was in Taurus just on the outer edge of the Milky Way.  

In this case, the order of the three planets within the Milky Way has changed.  Whereas on the earlier date we had Venus flanked by the Sun and Mercury, on the later date we have Mercury being flanked by Venus and the Sun.

Temple of the Foliated Cross

K’inich Kan Bahlam as a child stands on a shell that is described as the ‘precious shell of Matwiil’.  We have seen that Matwil, the watery “Place of Cormorants” (see above), was the Scorpius-Sagittarius head of the Milky Way.  The Foliated Cross itself sits atop a base which reads “precious pool or sea”.  The adult king stands on a Witz Mountain.

The two 7 January dates, one for the year 684 and the other for 692, also point to something happening in or near Matwil.  The Winter Solstice in both 684 and 692 occurred on 18 December, quite awhile before the dates in question.

On 7 January 684, Venus is in Ophiuchus in the Milky Way.  Mercury and the Sun are outside of the Milky Wat, with Mercury being between Venus and the Sun.  

On the same day in 692, Venus resides in almost exactly the same place in Ophiuchus.  But Saturn is very near the galactic center in the Milky Way, with Mars to the west of Venus and Jupiter betwen Saturn and the Sun.  Both Mars and Jupiter are outside of the Milky Way.  

Note that the Temple scene shows the Principal Bird Deity facing left this time.  This is because the planets are travelling from east to west.   

As there is only one panel and two dates, it is difficult to figure out what exactly is being depicted on the former.  We can say that on the earlier date, we have Venus-Mercury-Sun west to east, while for the latter date we have Venus-Sun-Mercury west to east.  This is discounting Saturn and Jupiter for the latter date, and these two planets were important, being asscoiated with God K/K'awil.  

If the child king is standing on Matwil, then he must be in Matwil, i.e. the Milky Way. The adult king is west of him, but not in Matwil. Allowing for the Principal Bird Deity planet between them, then, we are probably looking at the adult king as Mars, the bird as Venus and the child king as Saturn.

The Pacal Sarcophagus

On the day of the death of the great Pacal (August 28, 683 A.D.), the king was portrayed as falling into (or rising out of, in apotheosis?) Xibalba.  The imagery employed involves once again a cross, a Principal Bird Deity, etc.

Firstly, our Principal Bird Deity here is facing left, we we know we are looking at the sky with east to our right and west to our left.

On this day, when Venus rises at 8:53 a.m., Mars is in the Milky Wat in Gemini. When Venus sets at 8:32 p.m., the Sagittarius end of the Milky Way is in the sky, but no planets are within it.  One of only two times a Principal Bird Deity is present (note that the ecliptic and celestial equator are reversed in position) is when Venus is rising.  Thus Pacal is not being shown falling into the Underworld, but rather rising from it, perhaps as Venus.  

However, the Milky Way tree/cross appears utterly straight in the sky only when the Sun rises.  At this time, Mars also resides within the Milky Way.  For this reason, I would opt for Pacal being identified with a king whose eartly existence has ended, but whose divine life as the Sun has begun on this particular day.

THE GODS OF PALENQUE

                                

The Hero Twins and the Birth of the Maize God

[NOTE:  All astronomical events were viewed from a recent CyberSky ‘observatory’ program positioned virtually at Palenque or Quirigua; dates/actions involving Palenque supernaturals courtesy the list compiled by Peter Matthews.  All dates given below are Julian and the correlation is 584283.  Several other constants were initially applied, but only the 584283 correlation provided the best results and so I have tentatively settled on this particular correlation as the correct one.

The author is aware that this kind of literalist approach is frowned upon nowadays.  The very remote Mayan date numbers tend to be thought of as of symbolic value only, examples of an extremely complex system of calendric-based numerology, and the notion that they could refer to actual events in the far past is no longer seriously entertained.  

However, for the sake of the exercise alone, I decided to see what I could find out if I did investigate celestial events occurring on the remote dates.  I ask my readers to bear this in mind and to resist drawing any conclusions from the data I've produced. Modern Mayan studies are quite advanced and I realize only too well that anything I  think I may have "discovered" can easily be shown to be nothing more than fanciful constructions deriving from ignorance and naivety.

Still, that same field of study is in a state of healthy flux, so one never knows when this or that well-intended contribution, while initially frowned upon or disparaged, may prove to be of some value after all.  It is in that spirit that I offer the following piece.  If nothing else, hopefully it will at least be marginally entertaining.

For my treatment of the "crosses" of Palenque, please see 

https://firstjaguaronelord.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-crosses-of-palenque.html).]

Rebirth of GI on 10 November 2360.

On this day, the sun and Mercury are very close together at the intersection of the galactic equator and the ecliptic in the heart of the Milky Way.  Both planets are in Sagittarius, a location designated as Matwil by the Maya of Palenque (see below).  Mercury rises first at 5:58 a.m., while the sun rises at 5:59.  Mercury would thus not have been observable, but its position could certainly have been predicted.  Mercury sets at 5:35 p.m., and the sun at 5:40.

As the births of these gods are also called ‘arrivals’ or ‘earth-touchings’, I interpret the births as a moment when a heavenly body descends from the sky and “touches” the earth, immediately prior to setting.  While earth-touching could denote the appearance of a heavenly body on the horizon just after it rises up from the underworld, I think this interpretation is less convincing.   So, as Mercury “earth-touches” first in the evening, GI (for ‘God I’) = the planet Mercury.

Since Lounsbury’s time, it has been customary to equate GI with Venus.  A nice summary of the various scholars who have supported this idea can be found in Susan Milbrath’s ‘Star Gods of the Maya’ (p. 205).  But Venus is not in Matwil at this time. Milbrath (in her ‘Star Gods of the Maya’) mentions how Mercury and Venus, being the two inferior planets, could act as ‘body doubles’ for one another. The two minor planets also appear on the Creation date of 8 September 3114 B.C. as the Paddlers ('companioned', i.e. conjunctioned).  Venus and Mercury, the two minor planets, are unique among the planets in being viewable as Evening and Morning Stars and thus companions of the sun.  

Venus, in other words, is "reborn" on this date as Mercury, its twin, so to speak.

The birth of GIII on 14 November 2360 B.C.

On this day, both the sun and Mercury have advanced beyond the intersection of the ecliptic and the galactic equator.  Both still reside in Sagittarius, and are still in the heart of the Milky Way.  However, the rise and set order is reversed.  The sun now rises at 6:01 a.m., while Mercury rises at 6:09.  The set times are similarly reversed in order, with the sun setting at 5:38 p.m. and Mercury at 5:41.

The solar attributes of GIII have been noted before by several major Mayanists and I will not repeat their work here.  Suffice it to say that the second born of the Palenque Triad is definitely the sun.  As with the rebirth of GI, GIII's birth occurs in Matwil.  

The Birth of GII on 28 November 2360 B.C.

David Stuart has said of the Palenque gods GI, GII and GII (_Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya_) “We do not know why their birth-order disagrees with the order in which they are always named…”  Or again “…He [GII] was the youngest of the three members of the Triad… even though he is always named and depicted as the middle member of the three gods.”

Why is this so?

On GI’s birthday, Jupiter has just entered the same end (or “head”) of the Milky Way wherein the sun and Mercury reside.  We find Jupiter in Ophiuchus very near Antares, the very bright star of the constellation Scorpius.  On GIII’s birthday, Jupiter is pretty much in identically the same spot in the sky. These three planets, then, occupy this “head” of the Milky Way/Cosmic Monster at the same time.  No other planets are present in this head of the Milky Way.  In each case, Jupiter rises before both Mercury and the sun.

It is well known that GII is God K or K'awil.  As I find in Milbrath and elsewhere, the chief planet of God K was Jupiter (although, Saturn could substitute for Jupiter). 

Now, on the birthdate of GII/Jupiter, something rather unusual happens.  Mercury has left the Milky Way and is residing in Capricorn.  The sun is still in Sagittarius, but on the very edge of the Milky Way.  Jupiter is still stubbornly hanging out in Ophiuchus; indeed, it hasn't moved much at all since the rebirth of GI.  Venus, however, has just entered this head of the Cosmic Monster and is also in Ophiuchus.  On the 29th, the sun exits the Milky Way.

So what has happened is that Venus has replaced Mercury within the confines of this head of the Cosmic Monster.  What are we to make of this substitution, and what does it have to do with the delayed birth of GII?

Well, it is interesting to put all of this into columns that are arranged as the planets are arranged in respect to each other in the Milky Way on each of the three dates, from first rising to last, and then to note what planets are found in the middle column in each instance:

Jupiter                            Mercury (= Venus)           Sun

Jupiter                            Sun                                  Mercury (= Venus)

Venus (= Mercury)            Jupiter                            Sun

The idea seens to have been, then, to have three sequential births happening in Matwil, with each planet born being flanked by two of the other planets.  The symmetry here is fascinating.  In this scheme, Jupiter/K'awil/GII/God K simply could not have been born until the 28th, when he was properly flanked by the other two gods.  
 

Another possibly important actor in this heavenly drama of birth may be the moon, which as a waning crescent (2.4 days before new) is in very near conjunction with Jupiter in the Milky Way at 10:00 a.m. on the 23rd.   By sunrise on the 26th, the moon, just past new, has left the Milky Way. In other words, the moon was the new moon only while inside the Milky Way.  

The Location of Matwil

David Stuart has rendered Matwil, the location of the births of GI, GII and GIII, as the “Place of Cormorants”.  As such this was a watery place, and may have been the heavenly model for part or all of Palenque itself.  We know the Maya could conceive of the Milky Way as a heavenly body of water (see the famous Tikal bones, for example, which depict the deceased king and other planets passing through the Milky Way water on the ‘ecliptic canoe’).  The fact that all three planets – Mercury (= Venus), Sun and Jupiter – are all born within the Milky Way strongly suggests that the Scorpius-Sagittarius head of the Cosmic Monster is Matwil.

Muwaan Mat’s Birth on 2 January 3120 B.C.

It was once believed that 2 January 3120 B.C. was the birthday of Sak Kuk, or “White Quetzal”, mother of the Palenque king Pacal, presumably an incarnation of the moon goddess. The name Muwaan Mat was taken as an epithet for Sac Kuk.  However, David Stuart has recently suggested that Muwaan Mat is a male figure and that the dates relating to him do not, therefore, have anything to do with Pacal’s mother.  Stuart does concede, however, that Muwaan Mat may be the ‘Mother-Father’of the Palenque Triad.  The concept of the Mother-Father is well known in contemporary Maya belief.

Another reading for Muwaan Mat’s name may be ‘Lady of Split Place’ (see Dennis Tedlock, ‘2000 Years of Mayan Literature’). Michael Grofe of the Maya Exploration Center, equates Matwil with Tamoanchan, ‘Land of Rain and Mist’.  While I would not go as far as Grofe in identifying ‘Lady of Split Place’ with the tree from which the gods were born, we CAN place her birth in the Great Rift of the Milky Way.  I would then say there is a fair degree of probability that the Great Rift was designated by the Maya as the ‘Split Place’.

As the Triad gods are clearly born at Matwil, i.e. the Sagittarius-Scorpius head of the Milky Way monster, and Muwaan Mat is termed the ‘Lord of Matwil’, the presence of the moon near the center of the Milky Way in Ophiuchus on 2 January 3120 B.C. should be noted.  The moon is the only visible planet in this head of the Cosmic Monster. 

 
Eight years after Muwaan Mat is born, this personage undergoes a blood-letting rite (private communication from Dr. Michael Carrasco of The University of Texas at Austin).  This happens on 1 March, 3112 B.C.   The day before, on February 28, the moon was in Sagittarius within the Milky Way.  On the 1st of March, the moon leaves the Milky Way.

Muwaan Mat is said to accede to power on 27 September 2325. On this day, the moon is 3.3 days before New Moon (13.1% illuminated) and resides in Virgo.  The action attendant upon this event consists of the tying of white paper bark onto the head of Muwaan Mat.  Such a white paper bark headband was the Palenque equivalent of a crown, and thus denoted kingship.    Could such white bark have represented the crescent moon?

I would remind readers of the iconographic motif known to Mayanists as the moon’s “theft” of the God L’s regalia. Typically, either the moon goddess or her rabbit is shown with the regalia of God L, who is often depicted in abject prostration before her, as if imploring the goddess to give back his usurped possessions.  His regalia includes a muwaan bird or muwaan bird cloak. Sometimes God L pleads with the Sun for his owl hat, robes and staff.  We have also seen the muwaan bird as the constellation of Gemini.

It has been theorized that the motif records a conjunction of Venus (or Mercury; see Milbrath) and the moon.  Perhaps the moon dressed as the Muwaan bird might help explain why Muwaan Mat is, apparently, designated as male, rather than as female?  Or why the moon might be best interpreted as “Mother-Father”?

Given the strictly astronomical evidence, I would have to say that Muwaan Mat is the moon.

CREATION DAY (8 SEPTEMBER 3114 B.C.) AND THE THREE "HEARTH-STONES"

Mayan Hearth-Stones

It is been customary to identify the three hearth-stones of the ancient Mayan Creation story with the hearth stones of the contemporary Quiche Maya, namely Rigel, Saiph and Alnitak in Orion.  David Stuart (most recently in his “The Order of Days”) has expressed concern over identifying the Classical period ‘First Hearth Place” with the modern Orion hearth.  I agree with him, and for the reasons he has expressed in some detail.  I here quote liberally from his book, where he discusses the text of Quirigua Stela C:

"jehlaj k’oj baah,

the face-image changed 

Rather enigmatic, to be sure, and we’ll come back to it. Next comes a glyph with the number three, but it’s not a date. It’s another sentence that reads:

ux k’ahlaj tuun

thrice are bound(?) the stones 

This refers to an important ceremony of stone dedication, common in history during a period ending, when the twenty stones (tuuns) of a K’atun or its subdivision were gathered and bound together as a mark of its completion. Here, three stones were similarly set together in primordial time. According to the glyphs that follow, these three stones were thought of as three different monuments, probably upright stelae, dedicated by a pair of rather enigmatic deities we know of as “the paddlers.” (In one of their few portraits, they are shown rowing a canoe bearing the maize god and several animals, clearly a scene from a myth now lost to us.) In numerous other ritual texts the same paddler gods are said to watch over the calendar ceremonies of the kings, sanctifying the ritual through a metaphorical “bathing” of time and its celebration. Stela C shows that their important roles as godly patrons of period endings in historical time was a continuation of their much older mythological tasks as participants of Creation. The three monumental stones carry names that still elude decipherment, but each appears to be classified in a different way: One is a “jaguar stone,” planted into the ground by the paddler gods in a place known perhaps as the “Five Sky House” or “Five Sky Houses.” The second is a “snake stone,” planted by a god whose name, frustratingly, appears nowhere else in Maya mythology, The third stone is called a “water stone,” and this was “bound” with the others, perhaps, by the great celestial god we call Itzámnaah, who ruled the heavens from a cosmic throne in the sky. The idea of binding means that this was the completion of the set, in some sense the fastening together or gathering of the individual stones. The text concludes by telling us that the overall occasion of Creation and the setting of the three stones were overseen by the “Six Sky Lords.” We do not know who these deities were, but the number six suggests a solar arrangement of some sort, perhaps referring to the four solstice points along with zenith and nadir. Alternatively, it might relate to the fact that the dedication date of Stela C fell on the day 6 Ahaw (9.17.5.0.0 6 Ahaw 13 K’ayab). Two glyphs provide important information about where this “image change” happened: 

ti’ chan, Yax Yoket Nal(?)

(at) the edge of the sky, (at the) New Hearth Place(?). 

This final place name has received a good deal of attention from Mayanists in recent years. As Linda Schele points out, the main component of its glyph represents three stones arranged in triangular fashion, surely a visual cue to the three rocks that make up a hearth in any traditional Mesoamerican house (what is sometimes called a tenamaste). In modern Mayan languages close to what we know was spoken by ancient scribes, the word for the three hearthstones is yoket, which can be a very provisional reading in this setting. Stela C is not the only text to refer to these ideas of “image change” and hearths. In fact, the notion is found throughout the Maya region at many different sites of the Classic period, usually distilled to its essentials, as in this phrase from a text at Palenque: 

jelaj k’ojbah ti’ chan Yax Yoket Nal(?)

The face/image changed at the sky’s edge, at the First Hearth Place. 

I think that we’ll be debating the precise meaning of this opaque phrase for a long time. At the very least it refers to some type of replacement or switch from a previous state (jel) involving “images” or “masks,” at or near the “First Hearth.”

In their influential book Maya Cosmos—the first work to offer a coherent interpretation of this Creation event—Linda Schele and her colleagues advocate for an astronomical interpretation of the phrase, which she translates a bit differently than I have here.d Schele links the “First Hearth” reference to the modern K’iché’ Maya belief that a triangular arrangement of three stars in the constellation Orion (Rigel, Alnitak, and Saiph) represents a hearth, its “smoke” being the Orion Nebula, visible in the center of the triangle. In making this association, she proposes that the date of Creation was the centering of the cosmos by the gods who dedicated the three stellar hearthstones in Orion on 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahaw 8 Kumk’u. Schele and her colleagues go much further, making a number of related astronomical readings of mythical events cited in the art and inscriptions at Palenque and other sites. I remain somewhat skeptical of many of their astronomical interpretations, to be honest (I explore these ideas further in chapter 10). The reading of the three stars of Orion as a hearth arrangement seems reasonable, perhaps, but it simply grafts modern K’iché’ ideas onto the mythology of the Classic Maya. Significantly, other Maya of today do not see a hearth in that location, which raises a number of questions and doubts in my mind. We’ll need far more than a simple one-to-one parallel to make a firm interpretation of the still obscure contents of classic Maya Creation mythology. Another possibility worth considering is that the three stones of the Stela C text refer to the establishment of a geometric ideal that’s reflected in several different kinds of triadic arrangements and dimensions in Maya cosmology. As we’ve seen, three-part divisions of space are common in the Mesoamerican worldview, most obviously in the fundamental division of the world into sky, earth, and Underworld. I’m reminded also of the basic three-part movement perceived in the coursing of celestial bodies across the sky, emerging from the east, running above the earth at noon, and setting in the west, what K’iché’ Maya of today call “the three sides, the three corners.”8 In other words, we need not link the hearth of Maya Creation mythology to a specific constellation of stars. To me, the sense is more general and overarching, clarifying that on the day of Creation, the gods established a three-part dimension to the universe, complementing the other sacred numbers, such as four, five, thirteen, and twenty, reflected in the structures of the cosmos. Returning to the textual description of the episode, just what is meant by the “changing of the image” or “changing of the mask”? This is difficult to know. Perhaps the word k’oj refers to masks, images, or faces that should be equated in some manner with the three sacred stones dedicated on that day by the gods. I suggest this as a possibility because we’ve long known that three stone heads or masks along a celestial band comprise an important cosmological symbol for the Classic Maya, most often manifested as small portrait heads attached to “sky-belts” worn by Maya kings as part of the ceremonial costume for period-ending rituals. The “change of masks” might, then, refer to the idea of the cosmos getting a new identity of some type—a makeover of sorts—which in turn became symbolically reflected in the ritual dress of Maya kings, and especially in their cosmic belts. The nature of these seminal events related to the Creation base date of 3114 BC—the stones, the “images,” the hearth, and so on—will be studied over and over for the foreseeable future. Mythology is one of the more exciting aspects of ongoing work in Maya decipherment and art history, where confident pronouncements of a final answer or a complete understanding are always going to be met with some skepticism and doubt."

I think that I may be able to propose a solution to all these problems that might satisfy Mayanists.  But to do so, I first have to engage in a rather detailed description of what was going on in the heavens on Creation Day.

To begin, it will be observed that the sun is at zenith on this day (at 12:02 p.m). This is extremely significant, given that the sun is flanked by Mercury and Venus in conjunction to the west and by Saturn to the east.  All four of these planets are situated in the constellation of Virgo.

                             rise                  transit                set
Mercury           5:03 a.m.          11:29 a.m.        5:54 p.m.
Venus               5:05 a.m.          11:29 a.m.        5:53 p.m.

Sun                  5:42 a.m.          12:02 p.m.        6:22 p.m.

Saturn              6:06 a.m.          12:25 p.m.        6:44 p.m.

Here, the Paddlers are definitely designated by Venus and Mercury (not, as tradition would have it, by the Sun and Moon).  This notion is confirmed by the statement from the Tila panel (see “Understanding Maya Inscriptions”) to the effect that the Jaguar Paddler and Stingray Paddler “were companioned” on the day of Creation.  The phrase "were companioned" I take to mean they were in conjunction.  The Sun and Moon are NOT in conjunction on Creation Day.  

The clue to solving the mystery,  I believe, is the Jaguar Stone name. One of the Paddler Twins is distinguished by patches of jaguar skin, and for this reason the conjoined Paddler Twins were envisioned as binding themselves to the ecliptic. The reference to image or face changing at the edge of the sky is a way of describing one planet being replaced by another planet on the horizon as one rises after the other.

The Sun or Kinich Ahau was associated with Itzamnaah, and for this reason must be the Water Stone.

The unknown Black House God would be Saturn. According to Susan Milbrath in her Stars Gods of the Maya, Saturn was a double of K'awil's Jupiter and the retrograde periods of these two planets had something to do with determining the length of the katun. Saturn is the Snake Stone.

Virgo is, doubtless, Five Sky House.

We would have in this scenario the presence of the Palenque Triad in the Creation story (see https://firstjaguaronelord.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-gods-of-palenque.html),  binding themselves as the hearth stones to the ecliptic. I will show in a future article why I believe Mercury should be identified with Venus in the Palenque birth story of GI, GIII and GII.  

For now, I would (admittedly, somewhat fancifully) arrange the stones and gods of the Quiriguan stela like this:

Paddlers/Mercury-Venus:   Jaguar Stone/Moon

Itzamnaah-Sun:  Water Stone/Mars

Black House God/K'awil-Saturn:  Snake Stone/Jupiter 

I understand and appreciate that all of the above is highly theoretical and may be objected to in any number of ways.  But there may be something to it, as otherwise I can see absolutely nothing else happening in the heavens on Creation Day.  And, indeed, that has been the problem for all investigators.  Most have simply not been able to see anything at all on this day in the Mayan calendar, and so they have had to resort to assuming the date did not, in fact, relate to what was happening in the heavens at all!  Instead, it has been proposed, quite reasonably, that an incredibly complex calendrical numerology was being employed.  This idea has gained currency for an obvious reason:  no one really believes the Mayans could possibly have known what what the sky looked like on 8 September 3114 B.C.