rabbit

The Rabbit and the Mirror

By D. M. Urquidi

K0559

Although the Maya have been acknowledged, together with the Egyptians, as the greatest primitive astronomers in the world, those peopling the glyphs and the iconography are only accepted as gods and goddesses. It is a rare event when there is a full-blown discussion about the astronomical aspects of any Mesoamerican codex or art form.

Basically, such a detailed report should contain many examples of the star and the constellations found there. "Star Wars," named by Linda Schele, was one seminar that attempted to connect star information with worldly events in the Maya culture, because, as she drew the different glyphs on paper, she saw that the "Venus" glyph was very prominent on many stelae, and in several of the codices.

Linda also did a seminar on the Dresden Codex, that she regarded as, first: a fortuneteller's sourcebook and second: the star watcher's record book about Mars and Venus. Mars orbits were precise, but there was still a glitch with the "Venus" glyph. Was it a scribal error, or was it something more? She knew that she still did not have the answers that she as she seemed to be seeing in the glyphs as she drew them.

In spite of her enthusiasm about the stellar aspects of the texts, little else has been deciphered in the glyphs. Dates, place names, ruler names, their families, conquests, birth, accession and death dates are mainly what has been deciphered. Simon Martin found the "cave of sustenance." It was very similar to Diego Rivera's painting of a corpse with a corm stalk growning out of his heart. Apparently, the Mesoamericans are well aware of the relationship between human death and the growth of new plants.

The year she died, Linda insisted that the Mormon group conduct their own seminar. It was to see if they had found anything new. If the Maya were indeed star watchers, then those stars that were viewed by them had to have been viewed by other star watchers somewhere else. Instead of referring to their finds in the archaeology and anthropology world, the Mormon group emphasized grammar. The star information may have been in the texts, but the grammar took precedence with a whole new set of nomenclature, even the simple gerund was no longer recognizable.

Bruce Love probed into the badly deteriorated Paris Codex, and another group in Tampa, Florida is now investigating in detail, the Madrid Codex. Anthony Aveni went into Peru to check out the Nasca Lines, etched onto the floor of the mesa in the Andes. He believed, as did Maria Reiché, that the location might be a major site for archaeoastronomy. However, other researchers in that area have determined that those lines follow water channels that might have been used for irrigation, not astronomy.¹

Ancient sky elements have been identified all over the world as gods and goddesses with human attributes, having little to do with their place in the cosmos. To redirect this frame of reference is almost impossible because although the planets, stars, sun and moon are overhead ALL over the world, few written historical documents are available to determine the validity of odd sky phenomena that had been seen. Most of the strange sky events are recorded as mnemonics: fanciful stories about people iinvolved n ordinary daily activities. At times, a bit of risque behavior is tossed into the tale to enhance one's ability to remember. Because of the mnemonics, such stories have been altered to the extent that the original concept of the tale is almost invisible.

Epigraphers who are dealing with foreign languages, should first do a world search, long before they do a word search. There was once a poem about a brown girl who was called "green" by one desiring to become her suitor. The teller of the tale did not understand why the descriptive color was "green" when she was obviously a "brown-skinned" girl.

"Green" is an almost universal word (including in China). Its common meaning is: "new," "fresh," or as with the girl "untouched," meaning "still a virgin." Anyone knowing about the more basic aspects of cultural concepts, knows that "green" is new plant life, and, as with all humans, this concept has been transferred to people: i.e. "young sprout' usually means a young child, etc. not only of the Xiu family in the Yucatan, but in most parts of the word.

In the Aztec world, the Sun Stone and the Borgia Codex are two calendars that are specifically about the years. Kay Almere Read, was one who recognized the Aztec "The Birth of the Fifth Sun" was about archaeoastronomy. However, she also assumed that it was only a myth to explain the time changes in the seasons.

It is at the very end of that poem, that the entity named Tecuçiztecatl, refused to move away in the sky, so a human took a rabbit and threw it into his face. The ancient writer just wanted to justify why the image of the rabbit can be seen in the moon, and so a vase was created.

In Justin Kerr's rollout of the K0559 vase, the rabbit is viewing his appearance with a lady who has a glyph

that indicates the returning year, (not the moon,) in the obsidian mirror, earthly astronomers used to view the stars. The other half of the vase story, shows Goddess O, thought to be the midwife, holding out the rabbit to be nursed by a lady with a moon glyph upon her upper arm. Not only is her skirt pattern different from the first, but also her headdress.

The fact that Goddess O sits on a twisted star studded throne with a strange flower-like glyph under the seat indicates that she is a woman of power in the sky, not an ordinary midwife. Her headdress is also strange, having the appearance of a pair of sun glasses the the markings on her arm are undecipherable. Apparently she had not yet been named by the Maya, (the epigraphers have named her Goddess O) even though she sits on a star throne. The flower image under the throne may indicate that she lives in the Milky Way (The Cosmic Tree) in the land called Tamoanchan [in the "place of the descent"].

It has been said that "Since the gods are merely a reflection of human life and since the rabbit is divine, it has emerged from the birth canal seeing only itself in the mirror. The Moon Goddess has watched the process herself in this same mirror."

First of all, a dragon tree (the Cosmic Tree or Milky Way) is emerging from the mirror. This tree is also part of the star throne of the unknown lady. According to the myth, the rabbit was not divine, but an earth creature thrown into the sky to thwart the cowardly Tecuçiztecatl who then became the new moon. The Maya considered that the moon was a female entity, not a male, hence the differences on the vase. The rabbit is being held to the mirror by a woman with a returning

year sign on her arm. She is not the Moon Goddess. She may be no more than a servant of the lady on the throne called Goddess O.

The scene on the vase is not a divine one, but in fact, specifically a perfectly normal every day human scenario, The enthroned lady is presenting the rabbit to the Moon Goddess to nurse, to insure that the rabbit stays with her and does not leave. It can get awfully lonely on the moon. The only thing about this that is mytological is that rabbits have very, very sharp gnawing teeth. It is unlikely that the lady would be happy being a wet nurse to a grown animal.

The Moon Goddess, identified by the glyphs on her arm and the gibbous moon image on her face, is informed that she should nurse the rabbit, and the animal would stay near her for her time on the Moon. It was the custom of the Maya women to nurse young fawns and small dogs, so that they would stay near the houses after they became adults.² (See Figure 2)

As for a Maya woman giving birth, watching herself in the mirror. The mirror has never been part of the birth scene until the hospitals put women into the stirrups on the table, the most uncomfortable position possible to have a baby. Mesoamerican women, giving birth, were usually in a squatting position, not lying on their backs as in a hosptial. An Aztec jade statue shows such a woman shouting and/or grimacing against the pain. . It is not necessary that she be Mesoamerican. Any sensible woman giving birth would prefer to be clean and neat when her husband first sees her with her child, and not as a bloody mess or with groans and tears.

An Aztec or Maya woman during a birth delievery would not have much interest in mirrors. She would be more interested in having s person there to make sure her child is healthy according to native standards. It is only recently that mesoamerican midwives have been trained in supine deliveries and to use injections to ease the pains of childbirth.³

So the scene on the vase is not very accurate if it is a birth scene. However, if it is an "arrival" scene, the year-bearing person, probably a maid of Goddesss O would be the logical entity to show the rabbit where he had come from, or where he was at the moment. He was then passed toGoddes O who could affirm or deny his right to be there. And since that entity agreed that he could stay, she, in turn, gave him to the Moon Goddess for companionship on the condition that he would not run away. . . . hence, he had to be nursed according to Maya customs.

The dragon-tree, apparently is new. It grorws around the mirror, the rabbit and the year personage, and up the back of the star throne. It does not include the Moon Goddess in her new role as nurse maid. But then, the moon is at the gibbous stage, as seen in her face paint.

It is on the other side of the world that the Greek story of Phaëthon claims the young boy took the chariot and horses of his father Helius for a turn around the heavens, Zeus, being ever watchful of the lesser gods, saw almost immediately that the brash teenager could not handle the horses. He sent a lightning bolt down on the child of the sun (not a comet with the appearance of the sun as in Mexico), who died as he fell into the Po (or Eridanus) River, in the land of the cranes.

In Palenque, the west panel of the temple of the Inscriptions, at O-11/P-12 a deciphered phrase stands out:

G-I took the heart of the Death God and threw it
into the Ocean-sea.⁴

The Madrid Codex has a similar section. It shows the locations of the three hearthstones on the back of the turtle (Lyra?) under two blazing suns, Tecuçiztecatl and Nanhuatzin who as comets, are streaming towards them. Next to this, on the right side of the same panel, G-I sits admiring his handiwork, the mummy of the Death God (shown by the collar of bells that he wears around his neck). The heart area is empty.⁵

Madrid, p. 71A

This story appears to agree with the Hawaiian identification of a nova in the Northern Cross (or wing of Cygnus). The Turtle Constellation is that of Lyra, not Orion. The "oven of the gods" has recently been identified between Deneb, Altair and Vega, the stars of Cygnus, Aguila and Lyra, that make up the Summer Triangle.⁶

The problem with identification seems to occur because the astronomy school for triangulation probably was on the Nasca Plains in Peru. This is a well-known site south of the Equator. When the astronomers came home, (north of the Equator,) the Summer Triangle was not visible in December, only in the

Summer time. The December constellation north of the Equator is Orion. They had learned their lessons well, though and may have concluded that since those who learned astronomy the proper way could understand the data, so they did not bother to change anything to fit the northern hemisphere. It would probably take years of compiling the numerical data all over again.

After all, it was the same latitude north as it was in the south, except that it was upside down, so it made sense not to make the changes. The younger astronomers, fresh from their studies, knew the radish images on the floor of the Nasca plains were to be evaluated, not the stars of Orion that was the main constellation visible in the north at Christmas.

It was in 1999, when Barbara Tedlock first identified Orion as the locations of the three hearthstones of the Maya.⁷ Barbara is not an astronomer, although she is very well versed in Maya literature and culture. Her main interests are the Popol Vuh, the Maya story of the creation, and together with her husband, she became a Maya Day Keeper.

I am not an astronomer either, but I deal with more basic concepts. Once it is understood that there was communication between Peru, Oaxaca and the Yucatan,⁸ then it is sometimes just a simple matter of comparing the pictures with the data that could have been exchanged during that time.

The Milky Way does not appear to be part of the Peruvian astronomy images; however, it may just be that the real data had been deliberately destroyed during the Conquest. In both gold-bearing countries, Mexico and Peru, a lot of important information was burned. No problem, as long as the pictures and iconography are still avaiable, even on the plains of Nasca.

Modern astronomy with ancient Maya and Aztec astronomy should also be compared. The Aztec story, "The Birth of the Fifth Sun" has a description of Tecuçiztecatl and Nanahuatzin, the two entities that were to become the Sun and the Moon. The two "comets" or asteroids, or meteorites,⁹ (whichever you prefer) were to enter the "oven of the gods"¹⁰ in order to attain their special status of the Sun and the Moon.

Tecuçiztecatl, the more ornately dressed of the two, became afraid and although he came close to the "oven" he backed down four times. On the other hand, Nanahuatzin, poorly dressed in paper, grasses and rubber decorations, with scabs on his unhealthy body, had little to lose. He flew into the oven the very first time he approached it. Tecuçiztecatl,followed immediately. They emerged as they entered: Nanhuatzin was first to come out and Tecuçiztecatl was right behind him.

Nanhuatzin, with his scabs peeling off, became the Sun while Tecuçiztecatl, with the erratic behavior of a "rabbit" became the Moon.¹¹ We know why the rabbit in the moon is there. A human threw a rabbit at the comet when it refused to move away from the earth, because the entity, although dressed in the finest jade and cloth, had been afraid.

On the other hand, Nanhuatzin, with his scabs peeling off, is a different story. It fits our modern version of Sun flares as they flake off from the surface of the sun and fly off into space.

The obvious, that may not be recognized officially, is that the astronomers of those times used the obsidian mirrors to watch the sun's reflection and were able to see the sun flares as they blazed up and skittered away from its surface.¹²

The Obsidian Mirror (in a Bowl)

With only this small bit of information, one can infer that the obsidian mirrors were used for day and night viewing of the stars. There is an onyx bowl (K4692) that shows a head emerging from the depths of such a bowl for.

The glyph of the "bowl" with a face was thought to be a "canoe" because of the curved line with two small circles on the side. In the Madrid, such small circles are to be found under the rim of the ollas under the sky band of heaven.¹³ However, if it is a mirror, then that symbol should mean "polished jade" or here "obsidian," not wood of a canoe. The glyph for wood is actually two lobs on the surface of a tree trunk or of an object such as a mountain, both of which are open on the side of the tree, not closed as the circles above. The "wood" glyph was often used for wooded mountains.

Here the two closed circles on the side of a bowl (or the mythical sky "canoe"¹⁴) should mean "shining" or "reflective." The text on the bowl includes the glyphs for the nine lords of the night, thereby reinforcing the idea that the bowl is used to view the stars and constellations for good (or bad) omens in one's horoscope.

As the figurine from Tehuantepec, also with a face in a bowl, and the vase (K0559) both of which show that by slanting the bowl away from the querant's prying eyes, the "priest" or astrologer can keep the "secret" of the stars for his own reference and enhance the mystery of the stars for his clients.

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Since there are no women in most obsidian mirror scenes, it is doubtful that they are used for a birth ritual. Later, after a child is a bit older, his/her horoscope would be cast with such a bowl-shaped object and the future for the child ensured. When the Maya gods made use of the bowls, it probably was to find out if their rituals were assured.

A book put out by INAH in 1991 called Eclipses in Mexico. Benjamin Pédro Gonzaléz relates that in many regions of the country, containers of water were used to watch an eclipse. Some areas used obsidian to watch the eclipses.¹⁵ Can we assume obsidian bowls were used in the more affluent areas or in those areas where obsidian was more readily available. Less affluent persons, or non-astrologer/parents, may have been trying to show their children how to view an eclipse without destroying their vision. In such a case, the container of water would be most appropriate.

Sam Eggerton claimed that he had tried both water, and oil in containers or bowls but the star results were inconclusive. His conclusion was that neither substance could be used effectively to observe the stars. The Codex Becker Colombino shows a blazing star form being seen in a lake or a river.(pp. B07, B08 as stars reflected in the water and C08 which appears to identify the river where the star was first seen in the water, while C22 - C23 (not shown here) as meteorites hitting the water and raising nine great waves or tsunamis.)

The Madrid Codex has a strange picture that may verify the Maya emphasis on stellar identification. Their jaguar is thought to be the "Jaguar of the Night Sky" because of the many circular markings on its fur. Here then should be a glyph of a star or a constellation in his mouth. We find here that the god in the mouth is one without eyes.¹⁶ This full version shows the full jaguar figure with the face (with radish type earplugs) in its mouth facing the "oven" of the sky. The numbers around this figure show us that there were two blazing stars at the time.

Both the Madrid and the Dresden show this "blind" entity in various situations, at times showing eyeless sockets as a face-in-th-mouth-of-an-animal glyph and at other times, as complete with a cloth tied over the eyes. No explanation has ever been offered for such a configuration. The blind god is called the Blinding One who was slain by Hercules and celebrated on the other side of the world by Dante in the Inferno This constellation, called Ophiuchus, is associated with more than one comet.¹⁷

Richard Allen goes on to say that the Chinese called it Hwan (enclosing) Chay (chai) (tea) or the Teapot.^18. And, it does look like a teapot, with its spout (or opening) or a beehive in the area of the Milky Way. If the Milky Way is the great cosmic tree of the world, then the Beehive would be more appropriate: bees coming and going collecting honey from the flowers of that tree. The teapot image would be less important.

The constellation Cancer, according to Allen, was once called the Beehive, but he could find no confirmation in any almagest. Since then, modern astronomers have placed the name Beehive on the other side of the Milky Way opposite to the constellation Ophiuchus. Old sky charts show Cancer as a dot in each corner of a square and one directly in the center. The whole was outlined by the image of a blue crab, that of a rounded shell, and proper claws and feet but no lobster-type tail for this crustacean. This image fits Ophiuchus very well.

Today's Constellation Cancer is a small tent (the legs) with a long pole from the center of the smoke hole (the body). No arms or head are in this characature. It is very close to Orion on the other side of the Milky Way.

The old Cancer is strongly reminescent of the constellation Ophiuchus that does have the appearance of a Beehive, or similar to the Peruvian god with a pointed head who holds either a radish form or a serpent in each hand. The case for this conclusion becomes even stronger when one sees wedding rings from the Middle Ages. There is an image of a house with a pointed roof and a star in the middle of the front doorway. The ring bears the message, mazaltov or "good star:" In plain English, it means "good luck." For some reason or other, the constellation Ophiuchus had to go underground. The astronomers of the day re-drew it as Cancer and only in China is the constellation at that location called the "Teapot," that has the general appearance of a Beehive.

Conclusion

Somewhere along the almagest trail (including in China) we will find constellations that had their original locations. As it is, the ancient star charts that are still extant, probably also gave the longitude and latitude of the squared Cancer form. It was for this reason, the current "teapot" is located on the other side of the Milky Way exactly opposite to Ophiuchus, probably its original configuration. This new Teapot was mechanically located by using the European zodiac changes of 16 degrees as discussed in other segments of this web site, instead of the Arabic and Middle Eastern measurements that would place Cancer directly upon Ophiuchus's longitude and latitude.

This would place the Summer Triangle, as part of Cygnus (The Northern Cross). Lyra (the Turtle) and Aguila, the Eagle, where the "oven of the gods' was located by the Aztecs and Maya. And by containing the fires of the "Oven of the Gods," their sole mythic purpose can be inferred as the hearthstones of the Maya Cosmos.

¹ Aveni, Anthony (2000) Between the Lines, Austin, Texas, University of Texas Press, p. 152.

² Tozzer, p. 127, They raise other domestic animals and let the deer suck their breasts by which means they raise them and make them so tame that they never will go into the woods.
Needham, Science in Ancient China, 2:4/3, p. 542. contains information about the Guatemalan custom of breast feeding the deer.

³ Huber, Brad R, and Sandstrom, Alan R.(2001) Mesoamerican Healers, Austin, Texas, University of Texas Press, p. 201-205

⁴ Epigraphers in Palenque.

⁵ Madrid Codex, p. 71.

⁶ The "Summer Ttriangle" rises over Peru in December (upside side to those in the north) and in Maya lands in the springtime.

⁷ Tedlock, Barbara, (1999) Maya Astronomy: What We Know and How We Know It. in archaeoastronomy, the Journal of Asstronomy in Culture, XIV (1), pp. 48 - 58.

⁸ Hay, Linton, Lothrop, Shapiro and Vaillant, Chapter III,. 426 - 427, (Bibliography: 1937 Lothrop, S. K. "Zacualpa: A Study of Ancient Quiche Artifacts Carnegie Institute of Washington publication 472, Washington DC . 1937. Coclé, "An Archeological Study of Central Panama" (part 1, Memoirs Peabody Museum of Harvard University,: Vol. 7 Cambridge) Figure 181 Table XII) emeralds and gold from Ecuador in Coclé. South American emeralds in Mexican loot. Gold ornaments from Coclé and Colombia at Chichen Itza in Yucatan; Peruvian goldwork in Guatemala and Oaxaca in Mexico

⁹ For those purists who insist that a star can not be a meteorite, one must remember that when a Nova explodes, the star acquires a equatorial belt that squeezes it tight. Out of the North and South Poles, stone and [metallic] matter from the explosion can be and has been expelled into outer space. In this way, a star can start as a comet, then become a meteor, then an asteroid, and finally it dies somewhere (on the moon, on the earrth, etc.) as a meteorite of its on accord.

¹⁰ Allen, Richard Hinkley (1963) Star Names and Their Lore and Meanings, New York: Dover Publications, Inc. p. 195.

¹¹ Read, Kay Almere (1998) Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos, Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana, Indiana University Press. pp. 49-58.

¹² Walker John (2003) Index Librorum Liberorum, Contents of http://www.formilab.ch/ 5th November, http://www.fourmilab.ch/ Naken Eye -Spotting: On rare occasions near the peak in solar activity, a sunspot group large enough to be glimpsed without optical assistance (other than a safe solar filter) traverses the Sun's disc. The document chronicles the extraordinary sunspot group of late September 2000 and provides tips for observing the next such event.

¹³ Madrid Codex, p. 34-37.

¹⁴ The carved bones of Tikal show various paddler gods in a canoe of the sky, thought to be the shape of the Milky Way.. (My Note: The canoe has the line with the two attached circles.)

¹⁵ INAH (1991) Tata Jurhiata Angantani In Eclipses in Mexico by Benjamin Pédro Gonzaléz , pp. 92 and 94.

¹⁶ Madrid Codex p. 39

¹⁷ Allen, R. H., p.298.

¹⁸ Ibid., p. 301-302.