TRANSLATIONS

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Now to rona:

 

A few preliminary remarks and imaginations:

1. If I had chosen another label than rona, then it could have been hakarava. I would like to draw attention to the expression hakarava hakaturu for 'quadrangular'. At first rava seems to have nothing to do with 'geometry'. Upon reflection, though, we can 'see the light':

Rava

1. Enough, sufficient; ku-rava-á, that's enough, it is sufficient. 2. To be satiated, to be satisfied; ku rava-á te tagata i te kai, the man has eaten his fill. 3. Used very commonly before verbs to express someone much inclined towards this action: tagata rava taûa, quarrelsome person; rava kai, glutton; rava haúru, sleepy-head; rava kî, chatterbox; rava tagi, cry-baby; rava keukeu, hard-working; vara is often used instead of rava. Vanaga.

Metoro said hakarava three times at GD84, but he said it also at 13 other types of glyphs, which made me decide rona had to be the label. Moreover, wordplays involving (haka)rava and its reverse variant vara seem to occur: kavahaa, vari, hakavari, hakareva, hakaraoa.

The essence of rona as an idea apparently is to be in contrast to runu, and I guess the pair represents the 2 halves of a 'bicycle' (a month, a year, etc), maybe with rona as the 'front wheel' and runu as the 'back wheel'.

Together they will then form the 'quadrangular earth' - growth ('eat until you are satisfied or die') respectively stagnation ('the season of straw') - the 2 sides of reality. In 'spring' everything grows but in autumn the priority is 'offspring':

"Stagnant ... (of liquid) †that is at rest in a vessel; not running or flowing ... L. stagnant ... f. stagnum pool ..." (English Etymology)

"Straw¹ ... (coll. sg.) stems or stalks of cereals ... Straw² ... (arch.) scatter ... cover with something scattered ..." (English Etymology)

 

 

2. We have identified other kinds of 'head down' figures earlier:

moe rau hei Ea2-17

Such glyphs evidently mean 'descending', and moe glyphs - we have seen - apparently are located 'inside the doorstep' to the new 'room'. Ea2-17 is probably also inside the 'doorstep' to the new season, because 217 = 3 * 72 + 1. Spring has 3 'feathers' and autumn 2 (and then 5 * 72 = 360).

The new 'limb' will always begin before the old one vanishes completely:

... The final day of the month ... carried not the coefficient 20, but a sign indicating the 'seating' of the month to follow, in line with the Maya philosophy that the influence of any particular span of time is felt before it actually begins and persists somewhat beyond its apparent termination ...

The head down motif in rona glyphs probably was used in the same way, and rona glyphs should therefore stand immediately inside the border line to a new season.

rona nuku kara etahi

The bottom of rona is in my prototype presumably a nuku sign. In autumn there are no rima (arms, 'fire'). Nuku would then, I think, correspond to hakaturu (in the expression hakarava hakaturu) or to Runu ('the back wheel of the bicycle'). The appearance of 2 vowels u seems to be a sign for the 'back wheel' (and U means Moon in Mayan).

The peculiar situation is that rona glyphs could have been used to indicate the end of runa when rona already has taken over - reminiscent of how moe indicates the end of the old season where the new season already has begun.

The 'arms' in my rona example are to be understood rather as 'wings' than 'arms'. But with 2 wings it cannot be Spring Sun, because he has only one wing (kara etahi).

 

 

3. My glyph catalogue contains all sorts of strange 'persons' which have the abnormal body orientation characterizing rona. The head can be oriented in various ways and empty hands are not unusual:

One of the alternatives to nuku at bottom is vae:

Vae was used at the end (the 'going away') of the old year (Sun), which strengthens my idea of rona glyphs being located at the threshold to a new season. In vae there is 1 leg and in nuku there are 2.

The twisted body shape could be a sign of how 'the pendulum of time' must move in the other direction after having come to a full stop. Maybe a pendulum or a see-saw (or any oscillating movement in mother nature for that matter) can feel beforehand that the direction is going to change? How should one else explain why the old movement is slowing down? Can we civilized people explain it better?

The variety of forms in rona indicates these glyphs are compositions incorporating several signs. There are many oscillations in mother nature, not only between waxing and waning lights in the sky. In order to differentiate between them it is necessary to add signs.

 

 

In the niu chapter Chalchihuitzli ('Precious Stone of Sacrifice') was mentioned, and for various reasons there is reason to repeat the story:

"...the great high priest and monarch of the Golden Age in the Toltec city of Tula, the City of the Sun, in ancient Mexico, whose name, Quetzalcoatl, has been read to mean both 'the Feathered Serpent' and 'the Admirable Twin', and who was fair of face and white of beard, was the teacher of the arts to the people of pre-Columbian America, originator of the calendar, and their giver of maize.

His virgin mother, Chimalman - the legend tells - had been one of the three sisters to whom God, the All-Father, had appeared one day under his form of Citlallatonac, 'the morning'. The other two had been struck by fright, but upon Chimalman God breathed and she conceived. She died, however, giving birth, and is now in heaven, where she is revered under the honourable name of 'the Precious Stone of Sacrifice', Chalchihuitzli

Quetzalcoatl, her child, who is known both as the Son of the Lord of the High Heavens and as the Son of the Lord of the Seven Caves, was endowed at birth with speech, all knowledge, and all wisdom, and in later life, as priest-king, was of such purity of character that his realm flourished gloriously throughout the period of his reign. 

His temple-palace was composed of four radiant apartments: one toward the east, yellow with gold; one towards the west, blue with turquoise and jade; one toward the south, white with pearls and shells; one towards the north, red with bloodstones - symbolizing the cardinal quarters of the world over which the light of the sun holds sway."  (Campbell)

The complete myth can be read in the Index under Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca (alternatively at hahe).

In an extraordinary picture of myth Chalchihuitzli appears together with a person (of obviously central importance) who has a twisted body shape:

She is here the Aztec version of Chalchiuhtilicue as she was called in their language:

"... In Aztec mythology, Chalchiuhtlicue (also Chalciuhtlicue, or Chalcihuitlicue) ('She of the Jade Skirt') was the goddess of lakes and streams. She is also a patroness of birth and plays a part in Aztec baptisms. In the myth of the five suns, she had dominion over the fourth world, which was destroyed in a great flood. She also presides over the day 5 Serpent and the trecena [a 13-day period] of 1 Reed.

Her husband was Tlaloc and with him, she was the mother of Tecciztecatl and ruler over Tlalocan. In her aquatic aspect, she was known as Acuecucyoticihuati, goddess of oceans, rivers and any other running water, as well as the patron of women in labor. She was also said to be the wife of Xiuhtecuhtli. She is sometimes associated with a rain goddess, Matlalcueitl.

In art, Chalciuhtlicue was illustrated wearing a green skirt and with short black vertical lines on the lower part of her face. In some scenes babies may be seen in a stream of water issuing from her skirts. Sometimes she is symbolized by a river with a heavily laden prickly pear tree growing on one bank ..." (Wikipedia)

The curious man in the middle of the flowing tail of Chalchiuhtlicue shows by his legs at left that he must be swimming on his back (tu'a), but at right he is turned around with his stomach below.

I can count to 13 'flames' issuing from her long flowing 'skirt', and in addition there are 16 sun symbols. 13 + 16 = 29, suggesting Moon.

Moving from top left and counterclockwise sun symbols and 'flames' (maybe droplets?) alternate in a regular pattern (with a sun symbol arriving before a 'flame'). After the 7th sun symbol, however, another sun symbol (the 8th) arrives. Equally: after the 13th 'flame' the 15th sun symbol is followed by another (the 16th) sun symbol. We recognize 8 and 16 as cardinal numbers from the rongorongo texts.

The crack in the body of the swimmer (Sun) comes after 3 segments, and then follows 4 more. (They cannot be ribs, because such are 2 * 12 = 24 in number.) He represents the year and his position is midsummer. Spring is in the past (therefore at left and on its back) and autumn lies in front. Further on is a mysterious coffer, maybe a coffin, for the time when he becomes tired and his face will fall down.