It is time to
move on with the
pages about
ragi in the
glyph
dictionary:
|
There now remains
only one more period with ragi to investigate in the Keiti
calendar, viz. the 4th period:
Metoro named
these two glyphs manu ragi rima respectively manu ragi.
The 'heavenly bird' (manu ragi) in Eb2-25 depicts the moon
(judging from the form of its beak), and - we may guess - the following manu ragi therefore
could be the sun.
Ragi
at right in these two glyphs has legs, a sign of vitality (in
contrast to the bottomless ragi at the end of the old year).
Possibly the idea expressed is 'walking sky'.
|
Movement, a sign
of life, is what
spring is about:
spring1
... A. A place
of rising, as of
a stream ... B.
action or time
of rising or
beginning ...
†C. young growth
... D. (repl
LENT) first
season of the
year ... E.
rising of the
sea to its
extreme height
... F. elastic
contrivance ...
OFFSPRING,
upspring
rising of the
sun, beginning
of day etc ...
spring2
... bound, leap
... issue
forth; grow
... originate
... cause (a
bird) to rise
... relation
with Gr.
spérkhesthai
hasten,
sperkhnós
has been assumed
... (English
Etymology)
Rising the sky
roof up is in
harmony with the
spring season:
|
The 'walking sky'
makes me remember a myth from North America, where the tribe had
moved far away from their original home and the appearance of the
sky therefore had changed. In period 4 the 'walking sky' would
rather refer to the fact that the sky (together with the orbits of
moon and sun) moves with the seasons.
Makemson:
"In
Mexican cosmology the sky fell down as the result of a prolonged
rainy spell. Two gods changed themselves into trees with which it
was then supported. Rain also caused the collapse of the sky in a
story told by the Kato of the northwestern United States.
Naga-itcho, Great Traveler, saw that the old sky which was made
of sandstone and badly cracked in places was about to fall, so he
and Thunder constructed a new sky. They supported it on pillars with
openings at the cardinal points for clouds, winds, and mist to pass
through and laid out winter and summer trails for the Sun to follow.
Then it rained for many days and the old sky fell as they had
anticipated. Water covered everything on the earth.
When the rains ceased
Naga-itcho and Thunder raised the new sky and set it in place.
'It was very dark', the curious myth continues. 'Then it was that
this new earth with its long horns got up and walked down from the
north'. With Naga-itcho riding on its head, it traveled far
south and settled down in the place where it now lies, surrounded by
the Great Waters ...
The American Indian myths,
anthropologists have suggested, symbolize man's early efforts at
house building. The evolution from pit houses to terraced pueblos
still seen in the Southwest is indeed an achievement worthy of
commemoration. Among the tropical Polynesians house building was a
fairly simple problem and architecture reached its highest
development in New Zealand where materials were abundant and the
climate necessitated structures capable of excluding the winter
cold.
The myth in question must have
originated in the remote past and was brought from the Asiatic
mainland where somewhat greater extremes of temperature marked the
progress of the year. Tu
the Sky-propper used arrowroot trees to support the sky after it had
collapsed. So, too, men learned by trial and error how to plant
posts firmly enough in the ground to support the rafters on which
the roof rested. It could not have been easy to make a stable
structure which would withstand wind and rain, and doubtless many a
roof collapsed which its builder had considered rather a neat job.
Consequently, as primitive man
strove to hew out posts and rafters with half-shaped stone axes and
to fasten them together in some manner so that they would carry the
weight of the thatched roof and not blow down in the first hard
wind, he must often have looked up at the sky and marveled that it
stood so firm through tempest and hurricane and have speculated as
to how it was ever raised so high above trees and mountain tops in
the first place. As his repeated efforts to keep a shelter over the
heads of his wife and children, as well as his own, ended in
disaster, perhaps he consoled himself with the thought that even the
gods must have suffered many failures before they finally succeeded
in making the sky stay up there where it belonged."
The 'new earth
with its long horns got up and walked down from the north'. Time is
the frame, not space, in the rongorongo texts. To walk down
from the north means - translated to Rapa Nui - to walk down
from winter solstice. |
Naga-itcho,
the Great
Traveller, ought
to be Mars,
whose strange
manœvres
fascinated the
peoples of old,
while Thunder
must be Jupiter.
The 'long horns'
are present in
spring. In
autumn the
'horns' are gone
(cfr vero).
The symbol for
Mars has no
'horns'.
If the 'long
horns' in
ragi glyphs
express the
presence (or
rather domain)
of the moon -
signifying how
its rule is
close to its end
- then vero
glyphs -
signifying the
end of the sun
rule should not
have 'long
horns' (because
moon has not
been ruling
during summer).
Mars is a
warrior and
certainly has a
'spear' of some
sort. Should we
not, then,
assume the week
to be located in
the domain of
the moon, i.e. a
calendar to be
used only during
winter?
Sirius will
induce spring to
arrive, Mars
will induce
autumn to
arrive. These
two 'gods' may
be the 'pillars'
(tree stems)
necessary for
holding the sky
roof in place:
... Two gods
changed
themselves into
trees with which
it was then
supported ...
... They
supported it on
pillars with
openings at the
cardinal points
for clouds,
winds, and mist
to pass through
and laid out
winter and
summer trails
for the Sun to
follow. Then it
rained for many
days and the old
sky fell as they
had anticipated.
Water covered
everything on
the earth ...
Mercury (the
liquid god)
follows Mars in
the calendar of
the week.
