MAY 3 4 (124) 5 6 (*46) 7

Ga2-13 Ga2-14 Ga2-15 (45) Ga2-16 Ga2-17

WEZEN (Weight) = δ Canis Majoris (107.1), τ Gemini (107.7), δ Monocerotis (107.9) no star listed (108) λ Gemini (109.4), WASAT (Middle) = δ Gemini (109.8) no star listed (110) ALUDRA (Virgin) = η Canis Majoris (111.1), PROPUS = ι Gemini (111.4), GOMEISA = β Canis Minoris (111.6)

July 6 (187) 7 8 9 10

°July 2 (183) 3 4 5 6 (*107)

'June 9 10 (161) 11 12 13 (*84)

"May 26 27 28 (148) 29 30 (*70)

NAKSHATRA DATES:

NOVEMBER 2 3 4 5 (*229) 6 (310)

Al Baldah-19
AL BALDAH = π Sagittarii, ALPHEKKA MERIDIANA = α Cor. Austr. (290.1), β Cor. Austr. (290.2)
ALADFAR = η Lyrae (291.1), NODUS II = δ Draconis (291.5), ψ Sagittarii (291.6), τ Draconis (291.7), θ Lyrae (291.8) ω Aquilae (292.1), ρ Sagittarii (292.6), υ Sagittarii (292.7) π Draconis, ARKAB PRIOR = β¹ Sagittarii (293.0), ARKAB POSTERIOR = β² Sagittarii, ALRAMI = α Sagittarii (293.2), χ Sagittarii (293.6) DENEB OKAB (
Eagle's Tail) = δ Aquilae (Ant.) (294.0), α VULPECULAE (Little Fox) (294.9)

January 5 (*290) 6 7 (372) 8 9

°January 1 2 3 (368) 4 5 (*290)

'December 9 10 (*264) 11 (345) 12 LUCIA

"November 25 26 (*250) 27 28 (360) 29

... In the inscriptions of Dendera, published by Dümichen, the goddess Hathor is called 'lady of every joy'. For once, Dümichen adds: Literally ... 'the lady of every heart circuit'. This is not to say that the Egyptians had discovered the circulation of the blood. But the determinative sign for 'heart' often figures as the plumb bob at the end of a plumb line coming from a well-known astronomical or surveying device, the merkhet. Evidently, 'heart' is something very specific, as it were the 'center of gravity' ... See Aeg.Wb. 2, pp. 55f. for sign of the heart (ib) as expressing generally 'the middle, the center'. And this may lead in quite another direction. The Arabs preserved a name for Canopus - besides calling the star Kalb at-tai-man ('heart of the south') ... Suhail el-wezn, 'Canopus Ponderosus', the heavy-weighing Canopus, a name promptly declared meaningless by the experts, but which could well have belonged to an archaic system in which Canopus was the weight at the end of the plumb line, as befitted its important position as a heavy star at the South Pole of the 'waters below'. Here is a chain of inferences which might or might not be valid, but it is allowable to test it, and no inference at all would come from the 'lady of every joy'. The line seems to state that Hathor (= Hat Hor, 'House of Horus') 'rules' the revolution of a specific celestial body - whether or not Canopus is alluded to - or, if we can trust the translation 'every', the revolution of all celestial bodies. As concerns the identity of the ruling lady, the greater possibility speaks for Sirius, but Venus cannot be excluded; in Mexico, too, Venus is called 'heart of the earth' ...

... At a rather isolated place at the edge of the desert, about 2.5 kilometers ... south-west of the modern town, lies what Dendera is famous for, a mostly Graeco-Roman temple complex known in ancient Egyptian as Iunet or Tantere. The modern Arab town is built on the ancient site of Ta-ynt-netert, which means 'She of the Divine Pillar'. It was once the modest capital of the 6th Nome (Pharaonic province) of Upper Egypt, and was also called Nikentori or Nitentori, which means 'willow wood' or 'willow earth'. Some scholars believe the name derives from the sky and fertility goddess Hathor, also associated with the Greek Aphrodite, who was especially worshiped there. The official deity of the city was a crocodile ...

Horn

α Virginis (Spica)

Crocodile

(202.7)

Oct 9 (282)

... February 14 is still remembered as All Hearts' Day (St Valentine's day) and in addition to our usual associations at this date we can now add the idea of a beginning for all the cycles - as we know from the corresponding Hathor 'heart' ...

In "May 28 (148) the Sun's arrows (rays) were opening up a new season. The arrow in the front paws of the Little Fox was pointing up and the arrow of the boy Antinous was pointing down, and together they were creating a sign of expansion (<) like that of an open jaw:

Vaha
Hollow; opening; space between the fingers (vaha rima); door cracks (vaha papare). Vahavaha, to fight, to wrangle, to argue with abusive words. Vanaga.

1. Space, before T; vaha takitua, perineum. PS Mgv.: vaha, a space, an open place. Mq.: vaha, separated, not joined. Ta.: vaha, an opening. Sa.: vasa, space, interval. To.: vaha, vahaa, id. Fu.: vasa, vāsaà, id. Niuē: vahā. 2. Muscle, tendon; vahavaha, id. Vahahora (vaha 1 - hora 2), spring. Vahatoga (vaha 1 - toga 1), autumn. 3. Ta.: vahavaha, to disdain, to dislike. Ha.: wahawaha, to hate, to dislike. Churchill.

Heyerdahl and D'Alleva can give us more pieces to this corner of the great puzzle:

Tahoga

Figurine made of wood or of stone, in the shape of a heart, which used to be worn on the chest. Vanaga. Spherical pendant of wood worn around the neck. Fischer.

Kaona, a Hawaiian word that means 'veiled meaning or symbolism'. The pantheon of creator gods, the spirits of deified ancestors, and the adventures of legendary, semi-divine heroes are central to spiritual life in Polynesia. Extant figures of gods and deified ancestors often bear scant resemblance to their original presentation, for they were frequently wrapped in barkcloth and ornamented with tufts of feathers as a sign of their tapu or sacred, restricted status. Some figures were kept hidden in god houses, or, in the case of ancestral spirits, in the homes of lineage heads; others were displayed prominently in temples. Many of the figures are richly layered in meaning, referring both iconographically and stylistically to concepts of power, history, time and space, the land, gods, and ancestors. These multiple-allusions may be expressed by the concept of kaona [taoga], a Hawaiian word that means 'veiled meaning or symbolism', which is a well-known feature of poetry, music, and dance. D'Alleva.

All Polynesian cultures share a concern not only with their own genealogy and history, but also with understanding the nature of the creation of the earth and the beginning of time. Throughout Polynesia, elite lineages trace their ancestry to the gods. Among the Maori, tribal accounts of their history extend back to creation; these stories share similarities, and all are presented in art works, known as taonga, 'the treasures of the people'.

Appropriately, given the mana of war canoes, the stern and prow ornaments depicted central themes in Maori cosmogony. Many prows depict the creation of the earth and sky.

The openwork spirals on the main panel may represent the entry of light and knowledge into the world when the god Tane separated his parents Papatuanuku and Rangi, Earth Mother and Sky Father. The foremost figure depicts a male with aggressively protruding tongue. He may represent Tuumatauenga, the god of war and man. D'Alleva.

Although stone specimens do occur, most tahonga are carved from toromiro ... Great numbers have been collected, some of considerable antiquity, although commercial production was started in the late eighties of last century. Basically, the form is that of a somewhat egg-shaped ball with a central projection at its thickest end perforated for a suspension string.

The resemblance to an egg is reduced by the fact that the tahonga is divided longitudinally into four equal sections by four narrow ribbons or ridges radiating symmetrically from the most pointed end of the ball. At the rounded transition to the thicker end each ribbon forks into two branches as wide as the original ones, and these curve in both directions to run uninterruptedly into the meeting branches from the two neighboring ribbons.

Seen from the rounder end of the ball, these interlocked branches outline a star-shaped square with concave sides and corners drawn out into points. Placed centrally in this modified square is the small rounded or cylindrical projection perforated for the suspension string. In some specimens this projection is shaped into either a single or a double human head, and sometimes also into the head of a bird with a large upturned bead. Obsidian disks with bone rings are inlaid as eyes in these heads. The surfaces are polished and left unpainted. Tahonga balls are commonly about 3-4 ins. (8-10 cm.) along the axis, although they may vary somewhat in size.

Possible origins: The tahonga was supposed to be a feminine ornament, although Métraux's (Ibid., p. 233) modern informants believed this was not universally so. Specimens with a bird's head projecting from the top (Fig. 43 center) suggest a cracking egg about to fall into four equal parts as the chicken emerges. Some tahonga have a rather striking resemblance to a coconut covered with its outer husk, although a husked coconut has a rounded triangular cross section. The theory that the pendant is an imitation of coconuts which grew in the homeland of the ancestors has been both defended and rejected (loc. cit.). In either case we would have had no guide as to the origin of this purely local ornament, since coconuts grew in a restricted grove on Easter Island itself prior to missionary arrival (Heyerdahl, 1961, p. 30). As concluded by Métraux (1940, p.236), the wooden tahonga seem to be paraphernalia entirely peculiar to Easter Island.

Since some tahonga have a twin human head emerging from the top (Fig. 43 right) it is interesting to recall the belief prevailing in some parts of the Inca Empire, that the first Inca and his sister-wife originally emerged from an egg. The association seems pertinent when we note that Hotu Matua, the traditional founder of the Easter Island dynasty, who was recalled to have come from the direction of Peru, was remembered as the son of a king named Tupa-ringa-anga (Métraux, 1940, p. 127). Anga means to 'create' on Easter Island, and Tupa-ringa strongly suggests Tupa-inga, a name frequently given to Inca Tupac, the late Inca who sailed with a fleet into the Pacific to visit islands known to his coastal merchantrs. This late Tupa-inga had only taken his name from several of his own predecessors, since there were no less than 20 kings with this name in the Peruvian genealogical lines, most of them going back into pre-Inca dynasties (Monesinos, 1642) ...

... And now, they learned, it was Maui's idea to enter her very body. He proposed to pass through the womb of Great Hine the Night, and come out by her mouth. If he succeeded, death would no longer have the last word with regard to man; or so his mother had told him long ago. This, then, was to be the greatest of all his exploits. Maui, who once had travelled eastward to the very edge of the pit where the sun rose, and southward over the great Ocean of Kiwa to where he fished up land, and all the way to the dwelling-place of Mahuika - Maui now proposed a journey to defy great Hine in the west. Taking his enchanted weapon, the sacred jawbone of Muri ranga whenua, he twisted its strings around his waist. Then he went into the house and threw off his clothes, and the skin on his hips and thighs was as handsome as the skin of a mackerel, with the tattoed scrolls that had been carved there with the chisel of Uetonga. And off they went, with the birds twittering in their excitement.

When they arrived at the place where Hine nui lay asleep with her legs apart and they could see those flints that were set between her thighs, Maui said to his companions: 'Now, my little friends, when you see me crawl into the body of this old chieftainess, whatever you do, do not laugh. When I have passed right through her and am coming out of her mouth, then you can laugh if you want to. But not until then, whatever you do.' His friends twittered and fluttered about him and flew in his way. 'O sir', they cried, 'you will be killed if you go in there.' 'No', said Maui, holding up his enchanted jawbone. 'I shall not - unless you spoil it. She is asleep now. If you start laughing as soon as I cross the threshold, you will wake her up, and she will certainly kill me at once. But if you can keep quiet until I am on the point of coming out, I shall live and Hine nui will die, and men will live thereafter for as long as they wish.' So his friends moved out of his way. 'Go on in then, brave Maui', they said, 'but do take care of yourself'.

Maui at first assumed the form of a kiore, or rat, to enter the body of Hine. But tataeko, the little whitehead, said he would never succeed in that form. So he took the form of a toke, or earth-worm. But tiwaiwaka the fantail, who did not like worms, was against this. So Maui turned himself into a moko huruhuru, a kind of caterpillar that glistens. It was agreed that this looked best, and so Maui started forth, with comical movements. The little birds now did their best to comply with Maui's wish. They sat as still as they could, and held their beaks shut tight, and tried not to laugh. But it was impossible. It was the way Maui went in that gave them the giggles, and in a moment little tiwaiwaka the fantail could no longer contain himself. He laughed out loud, with his merry, cheeky note, and danced about with delight, his tail flickering and his beak snapping. Hine nui awoke with a start. She realised what was happening, and in a moment it was all over with Maui. By the way of rebirth he met his end ...