Cancer as "BI" In The Sky

By Jan Adams

The Maya Wai Glyph, done as Cancer in Las Miniaturas de la Aratea de Leiden

Recent interest in the "Wai" glyph, basically created by Graube and Naum in their article in Volume Four of the "Maya Vase Book, A Complete Inventory of Way Glyphs. . ." has spun off additional interest creating other variation of the "wai" glyph that has an infixed quincunx which has the phonetic sound "bi".

This glyph would then read either "waiab" or "waibi"l. The consensus seems to be that it is a sleeping place, or just another euphemism for a tomb.

According to Stuart and Houston, Center for Maya Research Report, #30, although rare, there are a number of known occurrences of this particular glyph.

What I propose for consideration is that this "waiab" glyph does not refer to an earthly tomb, but perhaps a heavenly resting place in the constellation Cancer. This constellation is not in the shape of the "bi"/quincunx - the center is M44, a bright open cluster of stars appearing from earth as one point of light; it is surrounded by four stars varying in brightness from magnitude 4.2 to 4.3, all visible to the naked eye. Another point of interest is that a Comet appeared in the center of this star grouping after leaving the area of Cygnus. Sesti, The Glorious Constellations, p. 270, shows this older version of the constellation and to date, there never has been any conflict with the modern sky form of Cancer and this older version that does not even fit. Were the ancient astronomers looking at our modern Cancer, or the older variety with five stars in a box-like configuration?

(My Note: This constellation actually seems to be a completely different constellation, that called Ophiuchus.