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3. A turtle has also two shells, an upper and a lower, and we know that the Turtle had the Belt Stars on its upper half:
At Parehe I presented another picture too, a collage with the same Turtle placed below the Tree:
Directly above her is the 'quincunx' diagram: ... The priests place the stones in a very particular order. First the stone that corresponds to the sun in the eastern, sunrise position of summer solstice is set down; then the stone corresponding to the western, sunset position of the same solstice. This is followed by stones representing the western, sunset position of the winter solstice, then its eastern, sunrise position. Together these four stones form a square. They sit at the four corners of the square just as we saw in the Creation story from the Classic period and in the Popol Vuh. Finally, the center stone is placed to form the ancient five-point sign modern researchers called the quincunx ... In the 'three stones of the hearth' in the picture above the first stone (for sunrise at summer solstice) evidently is Rigel with the second (for sundown at summer solstice) as Saiph. Canopus and Sirius are rising later. But I am not very pleased with the top of the triangle (presumably an addition by a modern mind). A triangular form would disfigure the quincunx. The 'hearth' should instead be at the triplet of 'Golden Nuts', where a cycle of 492 days probably is ending and beginning anew. That is where Canopus ignites a new fire in his wife Al Jauzah:
The 3rd stone, Betelgeuze, is placed at the sunset position of winter solstice. The 4th, Bellatrix, has the same right ascension as Saif al Jabbar. At winter solstice and sunup (Ga1-16--17) has been drawn the outline of an egg (in the day of Venus) followed by the same type of sign as in Ga1-21, though here with a maro hanging down to indicate the limit. When a new one is safely inside the darkness of the egg, then the old - perhaps manu mata e toru - should leave. The reversed marama could refer to a canoe leaving. Or it could mean the daytime - not reversed it means 'night' (= 'day') and if there was a need to draw a sign for only the 'front side' of the 'night', then, maybe, a reversed marama would do. The 3 mata could stand for 3 times 100 daytimes in a year: ... Hesiod named their first six sons and six daughters the Titans, the three one-hundred-armed giants the Hekatonkheires, and the one-eyed giants the Cyclopes. If we imagine an outline drawn from Rigel to Saiph, then up to Betelgeuze and right to Bellatrix, and finally straight down to Saif al Jabbar it would look like the 'hand' at the end of the horizontal 'branch' on the female side of the Palenque Tree cross:
At the horizon in the west there is a waiting palm (Chikin). The female side is in the west: ... Later on in this series of rituals, the Chorti go through a ceremony they call raising the sky. This ritual takes place at midnight on the twenty-fifth of April and continues each night until the rains arrive. In this ceremony two diviners and their wives sit on benches so that they occupy the corner positions of the cosmic square. They take their seats in the same order as the stones were placed, with the men on the eastern side and the women on the west ... At the horizon in the east there could be another open hand ready to take care of Moon. |
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