An eclipse is called "chasing the dragon who swallows the Moon
or the Sun.". However, in the Nuttall Codex of the Mixteca, there may be
another definition: "the dragon that swallowed the stars of the Milky Way and created
the Road to Xibalba of the Underworld."
At the Maya Meetings of 2005, Linda tried to show me the proper method for
investigating the "square nose beastie," my star-eating dragon.
was going through every monument picture she could find and finding both the square-nosed
beastie with a jaw-bone and more than several with no jaw-bone. However, with such
a process, all she did was find picture references but could make no conclusion.
My method was a bit different. I had John Pohl and Father Bob as teachers.
They went through the painted manuscripts with a fine tooth comb. Following their
lead, I discovered that the Square-nosed beastie was in the Nuttall Codex in
four different locations. in all, he was eating the ball court. . . .The first time
(p. 15 LB) they were the halved red and white balls that indicated stars.
In the third and fourth times (pp. 18 LM-19 LT) it was eating tiny colored balls of light.
The second time (p. 17 MM), they were no star balls around the ball court in its mouth
(assumed here to save space since the page has very complex drawings.). . . the same ballcourt
that he was in the process of swallowing.
With such picture layouts, it is perfectly obvious that the Mixtec knew
that the Square-nosed beastie was a star-eater. The stela that Linda found probably
has other versions of the story of why or how he ate those stars. I say "other versions"
because all the stelae came from different locations.
As it is, the closest dates that I could find (and I might be wrong) is the
star-eating dragon appears from A-O 10-Reed, 10-Wind to A-O 10-House, 12-Wind,
roughly about 45 years. Since 10-Reed is translated as 1139 AD in this manuscript,
and 10-House appears 45 years later, then the ending date of this phenomenon
should be 1184 AD. In Barry Hetherington's book, A Chronicle of Pre-Telescope
Astronomy, a black spot was discovered on the sun both on the beginning date
and the ending date, and four years earlier there was an eclipse of the sun.
However, the black spot was only found in the Chinese records, which can be
off by many years if the hour element is missing. (Needham, p. 177)
By computing 52 years backwards, I arrived at 619 AD to 664 AD.
Four years earlier in 615 AD; there was a black comet seen that sparkled
in the night. It flew from Ursa Major and back to Ursa Major. This was
seen by the Chinese but also by the Irish astronomers of the day. Four
years may be a miscalculation probably from adjusting the information in
similar manuscripts and codices of the Mesoamerican corpus.
The only way a black comet can be seen in the night is if it obliterates
a group of many stars. The only place there are thousands of stars together is
in the Milky Way. There is a rift identified in that area of the heavens already.
by modern astronomy, filled with gasses that have obliterated the stars.
One can posit that the "black comet" was the "dragon who ate the stars" in the Milky
Way, not during the Nuttall history of Eight Deer in the eleventh century, but from
the time of creation in the beginning of the codice. It seems that it was a memorable
occasion to be included as a reference point, not once but four different times.
Four times, the Ball Court is being eaten; but only the first occurrence has the normal
red/white star forms. The others have abreviated forms of the stars or none at all. Fire is seen
emanating from the hands of the dragon twice, (p. 15, LB and p. 18 LM)
on the first and on the third version of the dragon. This dragon as a human impersonator seems to
appear again with the hand of fire (p. 25TM) in the same seating, but reversed, sequence as the
two enthroned lords on the K-0319 Vase, The first wearing an eagle feather headdress as in
p. 25 TM and the other with a bifurcated tongue pendant on his chest to indicate the dragon.
(See Dwarf or Child)
(Nuttall Codex, pp. 15, 17,18 and 19, as fire-hand, p. 25 TM).
As confirmation, there are many underwater and heavenly scenes
within these particular pages which under normal human circumstances are
impossible. That would indicate that these particular pages are of a
mythological nature and indeed, the "eating of the stars" could be an
astronomical event that occurred long before the eleventh century.
One can assume that the first instance is when the
"square nosed beastie" ate up a Mixtec constellation
that was outlined as the 'ball court" but is unknown
to our astronomers for lack of information. It
probably took a few days, months, or years to do it.
It also was probably an event worth remembering and
the formation was duplicated on the earth.
The ball (the larger version) was maybe a ball of fire
that the two Chinese comet dragons fought over as the Aztec Quetzalcoatl
and Xolotl, maybe as Nanahuatzin and Tecuiciztecatl, who were to enter the "oven
of the gods" in the poem "The Birth of the Fifth Sun" or as the Maya Hunahpu
and Xbalenque before they became permanent stars in the sky according to the Popol Vuh.
The first two dragons of the Nuttall contain and element of ash in the center disk,
the second two dragons have an even arrangement of points around the disk,
as if the disturbance was completed and the star dust settled permanently
into place. Other strange mythic events continue to occur until
the god Tlaloc passes information to a human person called Nine Eagle
with a personal name containing "cut flower branches." From this point
onward the dynasty of Eight Deer and his relatives begins. The later
magical journey of Eight Deer to the palace of the Sun God can be found
explained in
The Solar-Lunar Calendar
