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TRANSLATIONS
The Cosmic Dragon and Milky Way the text says. I have thoroughly searched in Maya Cosmos for a more explicit explanation, but the book is not clear. The Dresden Codex picture shows the water pouring out both at left and at right:  The top band presumably is the Milky Way and the dragon head at left is then a continuation of the Milky Way, in which case dragon and Milky Way is the same entity. A closer look shows, moreover, that water is flowing out from three sources, also above the head of the Old Moon Goddess. The two sources at right both are drenching the moon goddess, both her head and 'tail'. I think her head means growing moon and her back (tu'a) descending moon. On the other hand, an even closer investigation reveals the middle stream to flow on past her head down into a kind of golden bucket, and it then continues in a new form onto the head of the bird of prey on top of the head of God L. The larger stream at left must be used to drench the sun. Is he God L? A black sun-god? Only one more bit of information about God L, but a rather important one, is delivered in Maya Cosmos:  "... On Stela C, however, the Quirigua scribes evoked a much more commonly used Creation image [than of First Father emerging from the cracked carapace of a turtle shell] - that of 'three stone settings'. They named each stone, and told us who set them and where they were set, as follows: The Jaguar Paddler and the Stingray Paddler seated a stone. / It happened at Na Ho-Chan, the Jaguar-throne-stone. The Black-House-Red-God seated a stone. / It happened at the Earth Partition, the Snake-throne-stone. Itzamna set the stone at the Waterlily-throne-stone. After reading the books written by our colleagues who specialize in the study of the ideas and practices of contemporary Maya peoples, we deduced that these three stones of Creation are symbolic prototypes for the hearthstones used in Maya homes for over three millenia. As the hearthstones surround the cooking fire and establish the center of the home, so the three stone thrones of Creation centered the cosmos and allowed the sky to be lifted from the Primordial Sea. The text on Stela C goes on to tell us many more things - that all these actions happened at a much larger place called 'Lying-down-Sky, First-Three-Stone-Place' (Ch'a-Chan Yax-Ox-Tunal), that 'thirteen cycles ended' on that day, and that these activities were done because of a being called 'Six-Sky-Lord' (Wak-Chan-Ahaw). The setting of the first of these three stones of Creation is shown on an extraordinary pot [cfr picture above]. The scene on this pot depicts six gods seated in front of a wizened personage whom scholars have dubbed God L - one of the principal denizens of the Otherworld. Large bundles, two marked with a Nine-Star-Over-Earth glyph, rest on the floor in front of them. [And - I notice - marked also with upside down 'Venus signs'.] The aged God L, complete with his cigarette and Muwan Bird headdress, sits inside a house made of mountain-monsters with a crocodile on its roof. Behind him is a bundle called ikatz, 'burden', representing the weightiness of his office. He sits on the jaguar-covered throne mentioned in the Quirigua account of Creation. The text that accompanies the imagery on this remarkable vase begins with the Calendar Round date 4 Ahaw 8 Kumk'u, assuring us that we are, in fact, seeing the Creation. The verb in the first phrase reads tz'akah, which means 'to bring into existence' and 'to put in order'. The place 'brought into existence' is called ek' u tan, 'black (is) its center'. Remember that in these first moments of the Creation the sky is still 'lying down' on the face of the earth, so that there is no light. The black background of this vase is meant to express that darkness. In this case, the things being put in order are the seven gods themselves, all described as ch'u, 'god' or 'holy being'. They are organized in the heavens in the following sequence: first God Sky, then God Earth, God Nine-Footsteps, God Three-Born-Together, God Ha-te-chi, and the Jaguar-Paddler, who is named as one of the stone-setters on Stela C at Quirigua. The name of the seventh god didn't fit at the bottom of the list and was put in the corner in front of the upper row of gods." The 7th god was of another nature, I believe. Only 6 * 60 = 360 days fit into a solar year. The jaguar-skin covering the stone throne explicitly informs us about the office of God L. The Jaguar has the fire, we should remember (according to South American mythology): ... 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. 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 ... What is the excrement of the 'Jaguar'? According to Ogotemmêli: ... 'The sun's rays,' he went on, 'are fire and the Nummo's excrement. It is the rays which give the sun its strength. It is the Nummo who gives life to this star, for the sun is in some sort a star.' It was difficult to get him to explain what he meant by this obscure statement. The Nazarene made more than one fruitless effort to understand this part of the cosmogony; he could not discover any chink or crack through which to apprehend its meaning ... God L is smoking his cigarette, therefore he must have fire. The Olmec picture makes clear that the 'Shark' (bottom of the cosmic tree = the Milky Way) - otherwise known as the kaiman or crocodile - is not the same entity as the cosmic snake (carried in the arms of the 'tree'):
Probably the snake represents the ecliptic, which appears like a sinus curve for an observer orienting himself against the horizon. For an observer orienting himself against the starry background the ecliptic is straight, I think. The 4 corners surrounding the central Olmec 'tree' have interesting symbols, in the middle there seems to be an eye, and from the eye a droplet appears. The 'weeping eye motif' may be involved in the fluid of Aa6-66:
And in Aa6-68 the 3 stones of creation maybe are illustrated (with sun light shining on them from the left). First comes the deluge (Aa6-66), when the old 'fish' is engulfed (Aa6-67) and then a new creation is established by placing three stones (probably originating from the three stars of Orion's belt). When sun is rising in Orion's belt a new era begins. When the cosmic tree is turning over into an east-west orientation the jaw of the kaiman is in the east (no longer in the south). The jaw is in the east and there the creation occurs. Maybe Aa6-67 also alludes to this fact, vaha mea means the red mouth. The snake head is in the other direction, in the west. Sun moves towards west and his head must be there. There are three stones, however. The Jaguar-throne-stone probably is in the east (no one has more powerful jaws than the Jaguar) and the Snake-throne-stone probably is in the west. The third stone is the Waterlily-throne-stone, which Itzamna set. I guess it is in the south, down in the watery Underworld. First comes the Jaguar (horizon in the east), then the Snake (horizon in the west) and then sun goes down into the water. No wonder if he vomits up water later on (in Aa6-66). |
