The Sun Stone
The Aztec Sun Stone
The Aztec Sun Stone has been a bit of
a mystery, ever since it was found. On this huge basaltic monolith, having an
approximate weight of 25 tons, the Aztec calendar was carved. Its diameter
is 3.60 meters.
It was found buried on the south-east corner of the Zocalo (the main square),
of Mexico City, on December 17th, 1760. The Viceroy of the New Spain at the
time was Don Joaquin de Monserrat, Marquis of Cruillas. Afterwards it was taken
to the Metropolitan Cathedral and placed on the west wall of the tower, where
it remained until the year of 1885, when President General Porfirio Diaz
ordered its transfer to the National Museum of Archaeology and History. During
the reign of the 6th Aztec Monarch, Axayacatl, it is said that this stone was
carved and dedicated to their principal deity, the sun which was both
a mythological and astronomical character.1.
It is the astronomonical aspect that remains the mystery.Even though
the Sun Stone is supposed to be dedicated to the "principal deity, the Sun,
there is no sun image on the disk at all. The center is actually, Coatlique,
the Eater of Filth. A goddess who consumes all that died. Her tongue, and the
tongues of the two serpents that surround the disk, are flint kniives that also
indicate "death."
To emphasize its astronomical nature, along the left side of the stone,
on its unfinished section, there are a series of peck marks that is thought to
indicate the stars. There is no explanation to be found about those marks, but
it has been inferred that they were placed there when the stone was found.
Several astronomy experts have attempted to decipher the pecks, but were
unsuccessful in combining all the elements found there. This year (2008)I went
to the Maya Meetings at the University of Texas at Austin and was introduced
to the "avian fire-serpent" of Karl Taube. He told us that this type of serpent
image was found most often traveling on a flower-filled path, many times its
source is indicated by a triple mountain glyph.
David Stuart, on the other hand, included in the workbook a serpentine
version of the steps at Copan as they arched over the "Reviewing Stand." At
one end of the serpentine form, the "Tau-eyed" god was carved
and at the back end was a Macaw head.
Since the Sun does not act as a serpent at any
time, but follows his path calmly in regular 24 hour cycles, the "Tau-eyed"
glyph cannot be considered as a "sun" glyph. With the Copan carving, the
"Tau-eyed" figure then becomes a comet or a meteorite that slithers across the
sky, fairly quickly; sometimes on a regular orbit, and, at least once it was
said to have moved erratically and such an event was noted in the myth of
"The Birth of the Fifth Sun."
The names of the two comets that wavered at the entrance to the "oven of
the gods" were Nanahuatzin and Tecuiciztecatl. The first followed
the path of the sun and the second apparently rammed into our moon creating the
rabbit
image.
Nanahuatzin became the one who followed the path of the sun.
He had diseased skin that he peeled off and tossed away. At first I thought
it was the sun flares, but with the new avian fire-serpent images of Karl
Taube, IF Nanahuatzin, was only an avian fire-serpent, meteorites were
the discarded pieces of its skin, here probably meteorites or tektites.
Tecuiciztecatl, on the other hand, stayed at the horizon for such
a long time that a human took a rabbit and threw it at him. He then moved out
into the stratosphere and apparently either hit the moon as a direct hit, or
dropped meteorites in such a way that the image of the rabbit was seen thereafter.
2
On the Aztec Sun Stone are two fire-serpents who were reported to have
battled in the sky for supremacy. The "battle" would have been much like the
wavering of Tecuiciztecatl, as he hesitated "to enter the oven of the
gods" four times.
Taking a second, longer look at the Sun Stone, and seeing the peck marks
on the side in a new light, I began to investigate the various star
configurations in Professor Robbins Astronomy text.3
In Appendice C, to the left of map 8, the star/constellation sequence
seems to match the peck marks on the Aztec Sun Stone, IF the curvature of the
stars at the edge of the Milky Way are used as markers.
It seems that the Aztec Disk is not the sun disk, but instead it is the
complete dates of the five "avian fire-serpent" events that occurred and almost
destroyed the earth. Two of the periods are the same number of years (or days)
The other two, added together equal the same number as each of the first two. Does
that mean that there were only three events?
1Silvia Gomez Tagle 13th edtion, 1995 and a pre-1982 text by an anonymouns Author.
2Read, Kay Almere (1998) Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec
Cosmos At the end of the poem, Birth of the Fifth Sun, a human, who
sees that the [false] blazing sun is not moving, throws a rabbit at the red glowing mass. As a result, it moved on and apparently strikes the moon with meteors and meteorites that created a rabbit image, allowing the true sun to continue its normal passage across the day times skies.
3 Robbins, R. R., Jefferys, W. H., & Shawl, S. J. (1995). Discovering Astronomy (Third Edition)New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Appendice C, Map 8.