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TRANSLATIONS
To continue with the perspective from South America, it is interesting to find that where we have our Cetus (the whale) the Indians have their 'jaguar' (atugo), and as we remember: "... The hero of the Bororo myth [M1] is called Geriguiguiatugo, a name whose possible etymology I have already discussed ... I indicated at that point that the etymology put forward by the Salesians would eventually be confirmed. They break down the name into atugo 'jaguar' (a detail whose significance has been stressed, since the Bororo hero occupies the position of master of fire, like the jaguar in the Ge myths) and geriguigui 'land tortoise' which is also the name of the southern constellation, Corvus. It is therefore possible that Geriguiguiatugo is Corvus, just as Asare is χ Orionis ..." I have earlier discussed the possibility that the jaguar (or the puma) is the South American counterpart of the lion (Leo): '... In South America there are no lions and the closest animal in the family is the jaguar. But he prowls in the night and cannot be the symbol for the noon sun. Furthermore: "It is strongly associated with the presence of water and is notable, along with the tiger, as a feline that enjoys swimming." (Wikipedia. Internet) Another - more promising cat - is the puma.
"The principal attribute of the signs 'Puma' and 'Wari-Willka' is the sign 'Star' representing, when it is the depiction of 'Puma' the moon, and when it is 'Wari-Willka' the sun. Due to this circumstance and many other peculiar things which have been observed ... it is correct to assert that the Tihuanacuans held the belief that a feline (Puma), who lived in the center of the earth swallowed the moon. Indeed its last quarter was the same as the form of the jaws of a beast of prey which had sunk his teeth in it, a belief quite explainable in peoples with a relatively limited degree of culture. The last quarter probably represented the moon after it had been eaten by the supposed animal, and the first quarter, the growth of the moon while the animal, replete with the first bite, left it in peace." "... can be seen two different animals together, and on the edge of the piece of ceramic work a beast of prey (Puma) is seen with a yellow disc hanging from its neck - the moon; and lower down a fissiped (Wari-Willka) with a white disc - the sun." (Posnansky) The jaguar on the other hand does not take just a little bite: "The jaguar has developed an exceptionally powerful bite, even relative to the other big cats. This allows it to pierce the shells of armoured reptiles and to employ an unusual killing method with mammals: it bites directly through the skull of prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain." (Wikipedia) I wonder if the jaguar could crack a coco-nut? "High overhead circle the menacing, effortless shapes of hawks, occasionally one drops suddenly on a kill. I have been told that the name of the hill comes from these birds, that it means Hawk, Eat Your Fill, from waman, 'hawk' and the verb saqsay, 'to be sated'. But there's an archaic word saqsa, meaning 'royal'; Royal Hawk is probably a better translation. The name, however, has very little to do with the physical presence of raptorial birds. In the scheme of Cusco, Saqsaywaman represents the puma's head; the zigzag ramparts are the big cat's jaws. Why then is the hill not called Puma's Head? The puma, a creature of the earth and night, is lower moiety. He therefore cannot represent something that is whole; to do this a composite being must be called into existence - the 'bird-feline', a figure that first appears in Peruvian iconography on the carvings of Chavin. Waman, the hawk, is of the day and air, hence upper moiety. It is therefore fitting that the highest part of Cusco should include the name Waman, and there are those who go so far as to suggest that the zigzag walls represent not only a puma's fangs, but also the tail markings of the hawk.
There's an interesting footnote to all this: though he does not say so, it seems that the writer Felipe Waman Puma assumed the same combination of names for the same reason - to express symbolically that in his plea to the king [of Spain] he was representing the people of Tawantinsuyu as a whole." (The Two Worlds of Peru) If we reflect on the puma as an animal which corresponds to the lion of 'noon', we should recognize that at that time south of the equator it is 'midnight' - at least if we think about the year. How nice then that the puma is an animal of the moon. Moon is the inversion of sun. But wouldn't the jaguar have been a better choice than the puma? No, the coast of Peru is like a stony desert, not the place for a jaguar. (Ref. Wikipedia)
I have now established a plausible link between the Egyptian sun-lion and the Peruvian (and also the Tiahuanacian) moon-puma. Next step should now be a jump from South America over to Easter Island. Thinking about that we could reason like this: Easter Island is south of the equator. If they followed the lead from South America that means we should search not for a lion but for a creature of the moon. Leo has now moved from spring equinox to autumn equinox, half the precessional circle as counted from 10,500 BC. If we are standing on Easter Island and searching for Leo in the sky, we could look towards east in the early dawn - given that we timed this search to the end of September. But at that time it is not autumn equinox but spring equinox (south of the equator). It would be similar to 10,500 BC in Egypt. However, the puma tells us that this must be wrong. Autumn equinox it should be, not spring equinox. Because the moon (puma, darkness) should rule, not the sun (lion, light). OK. Then we watch for Leo (thinking of it as the Puma) and we will do it at autumn equinox (i.e. at the end of March). Where shall we look? We must look towards west and do it in the evening just after the sun has gone down. Crossing the equator changes everything and we are left in uncertainty ...' With our new star map and the idea of the ceiling of the sky changing place with the floor we should think again:
The 'jaguar' has 'the fire' they say. But if he has 'the fire' (the sun I believe), then he surely must loose it. Because he is a creature of the night, because he occupies the position just after autumn equinox, and because he is down in the 'water' (below the celestial equator). "M119. Cayua. 'The jaguar's eyes' The jaguar learned from the grasshopper that the toad and the rabbit had stolen its fire while it was out hunting, and that they had taken it across the river [probably the Milky Way]. While the jaguar was weeping at this, an anteater came along, and the jaguar suggested that they should have an excretory competition. The anteater, however, appropriated the excrement containing raw meat and made the jaguar believe that its own excretions consisted entirely of ants. In order to even things out, the jaguar invited the anteater to a juggling contest, using their eyes removed from the sockets: the anteater's eyes fell back into place, but the jaguar's remained hanging at the top of a tree, and so it became blind. At the request of the anteater, the macuco bird made the jaguar new eyes out of water, and these allowed it to see in the dark. Since that time the jaguar only goes out at night. Having lost fire, it eats meat raw. It never attacks the macuco - in the Apapocuva version, the inhambu bird, also one of the Tinamidae ..." (The Raw and the Cooked) Raw is the opposite of cooked. Raw represents the state of the animal (nature), while cooking is done with fire, implying the state of man (culture). The eyes of the sun is fire, while watery eyes cannot cook. The jaguar had fire (sun), while the puma represented the moon. But the puma had a yellow disc hanging from its neck (and the fissiped Wari-Willka a white disc) which Posnansky explained represented the moon respective the sun. I have never accepted that, the sun should be gold (and the moon silver). Now I dare make the suggestion that both jaguar and puma represent the sun: '... the Tihuanacuans held the belief that a feline (Puma), who lived in the center of the earth swallowed the moon ...' The Puma (the sun) has swallowed the moon at the time of new moon, because then the moon is invisible. We know that indeed the sun is responsible for the disappearance - sun is located behind the moon and no reflection of the sun is seen in the moon. Those 28 night when moon is visible imply that moon is 'living' thanks to the sun. Indeed, the moon might be said to be the left eye of the sungod: '... According to Wilkinson very early sun and moon were understood as the eyes of the falcon god Horus. Later these eyes became differentiated and sun became the right eye (the eye of Ra), while moon became the left eye (the eye of Horus) ...'
Once again we find 'twins', here jaguar (Cetus, darkness) and puma (light). Earlier we had 'crab' (Leo, water) and 'land tortoise' (geriguigui, Corvus). North of the equator the whale (Cetus) is seen down in the 'water', south of the equator the jaguar is prowling in the night.
(Wikipedia) Maybe we have arrived at the explanation why there are so many twins, and why one of them is a god and the other human? 'God' should mean that part of the sky which is above the 'water', e.g. puma and land tortorise, while 'human' should be lower down (where the water assembles). Gemini once could have symbolized this, the constellation once was at spring equinox. Castor (α) - the human - is rising before Pollux (β) - the god. Not until the god arrived did light won over darkness (the 'giants'). |
