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There are several crater holes on Easter Island, but only 2 which obviously belong to the sacred geography, viz. Rano Kau in the southwestern corner of the island and Rano Raraku on the slopes of Poike in the east. The larger one is Rano Kau. In Rano Raraku the moai statues were hewed out. The statues were 'born' there (from mother earth), which is in harmony with the meaning of the direction east. The statues were 'sky proppers' according to van Tilburg: ... The moai as Sky Propper would have elevated Sky and held it separate from Earth, balancing it only upon his sacred head. This action allowed the light to enter the world and made the land fertile. Increasing the height of the statues, as the Rapa Nui clearly did over time, would symbolically increase the space between Sky and Earth, ensuring increased fertility and the greater production of food ... Hotu Matua had his 'spirit leaping place' (reiga) at Rano Kau, and maybe we could say that there the great hole 'swallowed' him. 'Fire' (he was a Sun king) went down into the 'watery abyss'. 4 months later the whole year apparently was swallowed by the 'mouth' (vaha kai) in the west:
The name of the great crater was alternatively spelled Rano Kao:
The 3 islets outside the southwestern end of the island (presumably Nga Kope Ririva, the 'zero' kuhane station) could represented the 3 stars of Orion's Belt (where the 'whirlpool of X' is located). Moving from east to west we will encounter Orion before we come to Hydra. But the kuhane of Hau Maka went in the other direction, from west to east. Therefore she first found the 3 islets (which did not belong to Hau Maka but to Te Taanga) before she arrived to the island proper. Reaching the mainland she saw the fish Mahore 'who was there to spawn (?)' and then Rano Kau. Manuscript E has 'te mahore ka noho i roto i te pu'.
The central of the 3 islets (Motu Iti) could be where the 'water was boiling' - the star Alnilam where 'pearls' were streaming upwards like small eggs. Iti means 'little', though the smallest of the islets is Motu Kaokao (closer to the mainland). Glyph line Ga8 begins with day number 205 + 64 = 269 and lots of 'bubbles' (hua poporo, 'black berries') are presented:
Yesterday I learned from watching TV that Popocatepetl, the active volcano close to Mexico City, means the 'smoking mountain', i.e. the Aztecan popoca means smoking. I take this as one more example of how closely some key Polynesian ideas are related to similar ones in other languages. Tezcatlipoca ('the Smoking Mirror') was the 'tanist' of Quetzalcoatl. When you pour water on a fire smoke is produced. The idea of a watery hole at Virgo could - I suggest - have been incorporated into the sacred geography of Easter Island (they were great navigators and therefore must have known all the stars extremely well). Her place - which once was at midsummer - has been gradually moved towards autumn (north of the equator), and 2 months (64 days) of the precessional cycle means ca 4,500 years. But Virgo is now at 12 hours (at autumn equinox), which means 3 months beyond midsummer. I.e., ca 6,500 years before today was the time of the Golden Age. Pare in *Qa2-40 can possibly be understood to illustrate the watery hole of Virgo. Since the Dendera zodiac was drawn precession has moved the stars 1 month further ahead in time. I suspect we can see the hole at Taurus, because he obviously is falling downwards:
The staff at Pisces comes 2 months before the fall of Taurus and the staff of Orion is 3 months from Pisces. From spring equinox to midsummer there are 3 months and the last of them appear to mean the 'fall' of Spring Sun. He falls because a new season must be born (Gemini is approacing). The new season should be the season of Moon (who corresponds to Gemini in being 'twins'):
Manu rere in Qa3-4 has a beak which could characterize him as being a 'her' (Moon), and the undulating wing has a sign of vaha kai oriented upwards, as in *Qa7-16:
The great 'joints', from which arms are growing, could be referring to the great 'hole' in pare. The open hands are left hands and the henua signs are bent instead of straight. Here we could stop discussing the meaning of the 'hole'. But we must also remember Polyphemus (cfr at hanau) whose single great eye was pierced by Odysseus: ... 'Then', declared Odysseus, I thrust in that stake under the deep ashes, until it should grow hot, and I spake to my companions comfortable words, lest any should hang back from me in fear. But when that bar of olive wood was just about to catch fire in the flame, green though it was, and began to glow terribly, even then I came nigh, and drew it from the coals, and my fellows gathered about me, and some god breathed great courage into us. For their part they seized the bar of olive wood, that was sharpened at the point, and thrust it into his eye, while I from my place aloft turned it about, as when a man bores a ship's beam with a drill while his fellows below spin it with a strap, which they hold at either end, and the auger runs round continually. Even so did we seize the fiery-pointed brand and whirled it round in his eye, and the blood flowed about the heated bar. And the breath of the flame singed his eyelids and brows all about, as the ball of the eye burnt away, and the roots thereof crackled in the flame. And as when a smith dips an ax or adze in chill water with a great hissing, when he would temper it - for hereby anon comes the strength of iron - even so did his eye hiss round the stake of olive ... Among the clues we should notice the reference to boring in a ship. The location is indeed close to the center of the 'canoe' shape of the bluemarked signs in the Dendera zodiac. The previously mentioned number 22 which certainly is a clue, probably means that 24(0) ('midnight') is approaching: ... He bore a grievous weight of dry wood, which he cast down with a din inside the cave, so that in fear all fled to hide. Lifting a huge doorstone, such as two and twenty good four-wheeled wains could not have raised from the ground, he set this against the mouth of the cave, sat down, milked his ewes and goats, and beneath each placed her young, after which he kindled a fire and spied his guests ... Orion was the only prominent ancient god who had lost his eyesight. |
