NP: mayan symbols

[Glenn Scheper]

This page has a huge amount of facsinating information:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18973/18973-0.txt

- Quadrants.

- Wow! Having seen Apocalypto.

- Birds / Winds / autofellators / divine wisdom / quetzacotal.

- Regarding the monkey mystery, one day a particular tantric event yielded
a vision of an huge gorilla, very hairy with long black straight bristly hair
everywhere, and amidst the darkness of his right side facing me, a distinct
and varying eye-like feature, as if he was masturbating, suggesting a tantrist
that actually succeeded in being covered all over with the targeted pussy hair.

- STAIRS ARE TEETH.

- much, much more.

The strict regard paid to the position relative to the cardinal points by savage and semicivilized people is too well known to require any proof here.

As proof that it indicates the earth or underworld, there is shown on plate 73 of the Borgian Codex an individual, whose heart has been torn from his breast, plunging downward through the open jaws of the monster into the shades or earth below. On plate 76 of the same codex, the extended jaws open upward, and into them a number of persons are marching in regular order. These apparently represent the thirteen months of the sacred year. One has passed on and disappeared from view, and the other twelve are following with bowed heads. It would seem from these to be not only symbolic of the earth or hades, but also to have some relation to time.

The bird, as is well known, is a wind symbol with many peoples. It has been so esteemed among several tribes of American Indians, and also by peoples of the Old World.

The form of the Mexican symbol, as above indicated, shows that in selecting it reference was had to the bird bill, to which possibly may have been added the idea of blowing forcibly from the mouth, a common method of indicating wind.

We may remark incidentally that a curious coincidence is found in the fact that there appears to be a relation between the wind and monkeys in the mythology both of the Hindu and of the natives of Central America, or at least of Mexico. Hanuman, the Monkey god, who plays such an important part in the Ramayana, was the son of Pavana, the chief Wind deity. According to Brasseur, in his introductory essay to the _Popol Vuh_, it is stated in the Codex Chimalpopoca that the men were, on a day _Ehecatl_, changed by the wind into monkeys.

The method by which Dr Brinton brings this and the Tzental names into harmony with the idea of darkness or night is as follows: The house is that which is within, is dark, shuts out the light, etc. Possibly the derivation was symbolic. Votan was called "the heart of the nation," and at Tlazoaloyan, in Soconusco, he constructed, by breathing or blowing, a "dark house," in which he concealed the sacred objects of his cult. In this myth we find an unequivocal connection of the idea of "darkness" and "house."

_Xul_ signifies the end, the point; _xuulul_, to end; _xulah_, _xulezah_, to bring to an end; _xulub_ (that with, which anything ends), horns, or he who has horns, the devil; _xulbil_, jests, tricks, deviltry. We see, therefore, that this word contains doubtless a reference to something unholy, uncanny, demoniac. To the Central Americans the bat was not merely a nocturnal animal. The Popol-Vuh speaks of a Zo'tzi-ha, "bat house," one of the five regions of the underworld. There dwells the Cama-zo'tz, "the death-bat," the great beast that brings death to all who approach it, and also bites off the head of Hunapu.

remarks as follows: _E_, _ye_ signifies "the edge," "sharpness," "the notch;" _eb_, _ebil_, _ebal_, _yebal_, "a row of notches," "flight of steps," "stairs." In Quiche-Cakchiquel _e_ signifies "the tooth," "the edge;" _ee_ is the plural form in Cakchiquel of the word, as _eeb_ of the Quiche; _euob_ is also a plural form in the Tzental, as I think, from a singular _eu-ee_. The name must denote the same thing in all the languages, i. e., "a row of teeth," "flight of steps"--a signification which harmonizes excellently with many Mexican forms of the character

one of which is shown in LXVIII, 41, appear to favor Seler's idea.[250-2] THE FIFTEENTH DAY Maya, _men_; Tzental, _tziquin_; Quiche-Cakchiquel, _tziquin_; Zapotec, _naa_ or _A!aa_; Nahuatl, _quauhtli_. Landa's figure is so imperfect in this case that it is not given. The usual forms and variations are shown in plate LXVI, 50 to 54. The last two, which show the widest variation, are from the Dresden Codex. The Tzental and Quiche-Cakchiquel, _tziquin_, signifies "bird" in general, and the Nahuatl, _quauhtli_, "eagle." The Maya and Zapotec names are more difficult to bring into harmony with the others. Dr Brinton thinks that the Zapotec name is derived from _na_, "to know, to understand, to be able through knowledge." This, he says, "exactly corresponds to the Maya _men_, which means to understand, to be able to do ...; hence in this latter tongue, _ah-men_ means the man of knowledge, the wise one, the master of wisdom." "The bird," he adds, "was the symbol of wisdom and knowledge." Dr Seler says it is difficult to determine the Yucatan name. However, from the form of the symbol he concludes it is intended to represent an aged face, by which he connects it with an aged goddess, Ixchel, the companion of Itzamna, and with certain Mexican deities. In his subsequent paper he says the Zapotec name furnishes linguistic proof of the above conclusion. "I had concluded," he says, "that the Maya hieroglyph represented the image of the old earth mother, the universally worshipped goddess called Tonantzin, 'our mother,' who is connected in the Codex Vienensis with the eagle symbol." He then adds that the Zapotec term _naa_ or _A!aa_ signifies "mother," and thus finds the connection between the calendar names. It is probable we will not be far wrong if we assume that reference to the bird as used in this connection is not so much to it as an animal as an augury, sign, or portent. The birds introduced in the Dresden and Troano codices, especially those (...continues...)

columns of these five plates should be taken into consideration as types. The Nahuatl name _cozcaquauhtli_ is the "royal zopilote" (_Sarcoramphus papa_ of ornithologists). Drs Seler and Brinton agree in the supposition that the Zapotec name is derived from _balloo_, "the raven or crow." Dr Seler says that the Quiche-Cakchiquel word _ahmak_ seems to signify the vulture, "who pecks out the eyes," "who makes deep holes;" while Dr Brinton maintains that the Quiche _ahmak_ means "the master of evil," referring to the owl, which is esteemed a bird of evil omen and bad fortune. The Pipil _tecolotl_ also denotes "the night bird or owl." [Illustration: PL. LXVII COPIES OF GLYPHS FROM THE CODICES] The Maya and Tzental names, however, present a difficulty not so easily explained. The signification of the former is "wax, gum, or copal gum," and also, according to Henderson, "root." According to Brinton the Tzental radical _chab_ means "honey, was, bee, a late meal." He refers, however, to the Cakchiquel, where he finds that _ch'ab_ means "mud, clay, mire," and suggests that "as red and black clays were the primitive pigments this may connect the Tzental day name with the Maya." Seler, however, derives the Maya name from _ci_ or _cii_, "to taste good," "to smell good;" and as _ci_ is also the name of the maguey plant, and likewise refers to the pulque or intoxicating drink from this plant, he concludes that _cib_ must have been formed by the addition of the instrumental suffix, and hence refers to that which is used for wine, "either the honey, or, more correctly, the narcotic root."

In the Tzental Pater Noster which Pimental gives, we find the phrase "to us come Thy kingdom (Thy dominion)" expressed by the words _aca taluc te aguajuale_. The primitive meaning of _ahau_ is certainly "man," "lord," and the two roots of similar significance, _ah_ and _vu_ (see _uinic_, _vinak_, "man") seem to concur in this word. He explains the Quiche-Cakchiquel _hunahpu_ by _hun_, "one," and _ahpu_ "lord of the blowpipe," or "blowpipe shooter." Dr Brinton translates it the "One Master of Power." He brings the Mexican name into harmony by rendering it "the flower of the day"--that is, the sun; and the Zapotec by rendering it "eye," meaning "the eye of the day"--i. e., the sun.


Yours truly,
Glenn Scheper
http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
Copyleft(!) Forward freely.