TRANSLATIONS

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We live in a happy time, when thanks to vernal equinox at Pisces - a quarter away from the Milky Way - our souls will be able to easily move along the 'spoke' of the wheel (and then up as spirits to Heaven and down again to Earth when the event is due). According to English Etymology 'spook' is of unknown origin. I suggest a wordplay involving spoke: a spook is a ghost who is waiting for the spoke.

Pisces is a long constellation covering ca 3 hours or 3 / 24 = 1 / 8 of the year. The lines forming the gap between the 2 fishes has a vertex pointing forward in time, i.e. the opening is towards the past:

When Ragi and Papa were torn apart and the black cloth of the Sky no longer was embracing Earth the arrow of time should point forward towards summer. But the opening between the fishes has its gap towards winter, and we can recognize that the Dendera zodiac is stating the facts correctly when the 'face' of Pisces is 'oriented' (i.e. facing the rising sun):

The staff of the bluemarked figure, from which the Pisces vertex emerges, has no visible constellation in the sky, and I think this kind of staff corresponds to the sign in form of a vertical straight line ('for measurement' as I have provisionally labelled it):

'staffs for measuring'

In the Dendera zodiac I can perceive the staff type to be was, an emblem of power Wilkinson says:

 

The text of Q has only 736 glyphs, which I have read as 368 days. The cycle of time as presented by the text of G is probably 472 days long. This number of days can now be explained not only as a consequence of 16 * 29.5 = 472 (and half that, 8 * 29.5 = 236 days, coinciding with the cycle of Venus, cfr at niu) but also by referring to the distance to the Golden Age.

Because the long stretch of Pisces makes it easy to state that a 'quarter' has elapsed since the Golden Age. 471 (the number of glyphs in G) - 91 (= 364 / 4) = 380 is quite close to 13 * 29.5 = 383½ (Roto Iri Are). I suggest the kuhane stations from Roto Iri Are up to and including Hanga Takaure (16 * 29.5 = 472) are representing a dark 'quarter' alluding to the dark ages between the present and the Golden Age. 4 out of 16 stations is equal to ¼.

I will also take the opportunity to clearly state that the 'backward' moving time sequence beginning with Khnum in the Dendera zodiac presumably is representing the Hydra constellation, a kind of water serpent associated with Moon - with its head in the east and its tail in the west. The Egyptians identified it with the Nile (according to Allen). Also this sequence (beginning with Khnum and ending with Satit) has 4 signs out of a total of 16.

The hole in pare in *Qa2-40 could therefore possibly be identified with the head of Hydra (because Metoro has told us that vai, water, should be drawn like a hole).

318
*Qa2-40 (63) *Qa2-41 Qa9-41 Qa9-42 Qa9-43 (385) Qa9-44

Furthermore, it seems possible to associate this pare with Rano Kau:

... They all climbed to the top of the hill. They climbed up on the tenth day of the month of June ('Maro'). They reached the side crater (te manavai) and looked around carefully. Makoi said, 'This is the Manavai of Hau Maka'. They climbed farther and reached the top. They saw the dark abyss and the large hole (of the crater Rano Kau). They all said, 'Here it is, young men, the dark abyss of Hau Maka.' They made camp and constructed a house.  Kuukuu got up, worked the ground, and heaped up the earth for the yam roots ...

The '10th of the month of June' refers to solstice twice, not only because of June but also because of 10 (presumably a clue hinting at the number of months of Sun). A dark (watery) abyss is opening up 'ahead'. June literally would be winter solstice, but the meaning could equally well be 'the month of summer solstice'.

Poko could be alluding to puoko (head) and Te Poko Uri could refer to Rano Kau (cfr at haati).

8 kuhane stations later comes Hatinga Te Kohe. Half a year (measured as 16 kuhane stations) have passed. Counting 8 'blue' figures forward in time (clockwise) from the one with his staff 'broken' (at Pisces) we come to Khnum, which seems to be an Egyptian variant of Kuukuu. Down at the bottom of the crater lake there is no light (and Easter Island is down in the 'water'). Virgo once stood at summer solstice (north of the equator) and at her could have been a 'dark hole' (maybe Corvus or Crater) to plant 'yams' in:

The location of the 'dark quarter' (after the 'collapse' of the Golden Age) could be in the 'sky' and then possibly represented by the 4 signs Scorpio - Aquarius (in winter north of the equator). Or it could be in the 'water', and then perhaps at Hydra (below Leo in his boat).

The 'feathered serpent' in the sky apparently has a 'tanist' in form of the 'water serpent' down below. Roto Iri Are, I have suggested (cfr at hoea), is an 'incarnation' of Ophiuchus, the 'snake bearer' (the 13th and nowadays abolished zodiacal sign). This constellation occupies a place between and slightly above Scorpio and Sagittarius, where the Milky Way crosses the ecliptic. In the Golden Age it would have been at autumn equinox (north of the equator), but in our age it is a 'quarter' later and at winter solstice north of the equator. The constellation was also thought of as a 'stork' and beyond Roto Iri Are comes the 'baby', Tama:

13 * 28 = 364 and 13 * 29.5 = 383½. If we count with 32 days in a month we have 12 * 32 = 384 and the 13th month has been abolished (while Virgo remains a virgin). But somewhere in these surroundings the year must be ending, and then a new year must be arriving.

With Hercules dying at summer solstice and his tanist taking over until winter solstice there should for symmetry reasons be two halfyears to consider, two points where the 'year' is ending and regenerated anew. Also the watery serpent Hydra should (like Ophiuchus) be a place for regeneration.

At honui the stretch of time from Ga5-10 to the beginning of the back side was measured as 4 months:

54 54
Ga5-10 (121) Ga7-6 Ga7-7 (177) Gb1-2 (232)
112 = 4 * 28
98 76 183 = 6 * 30.5
Gb1-3 Gb3-15 Gb6-26 (409) Ga5-10 (121)
177 = 6 * 29.5

...The basic structure of the G text - with lunar months (16 * 29.5 = 472) - has an alternative reading based on a year with 360 days, completed with a calendar defined by fortnights: 6 * 60 + 8 * 14 = 472 ...

In G, it seems, a time of regeneration comes at the end of side a (close to the end of Sun's 10 months, counted from winter solstice). If in a calendar north of the equator the end of the year is thought of to be followed by 4 dark 'incubative' months (which allude to the dark ages in the past), and if we have as an axiom that the birth of Sun comes with winter solstice, then, on Easter Island there should also be 4 dark months when winter solstice is approaching.

300 days (or 295 days, or some other similar number of days) counted from Gb6-26 could include 4 extra months (above those 6 which correspond to half a year). Then, next half year (another kind of 6 months) will be the time of the 'tanist' (Moon). The ecliptic is the path of Sun and our wellknown and familiar zodiac is solar, therefore the 'quarter' caused by precession should belong on the 'front side' of the year.

The beginning of the 'back side' of the year evidently is characterized by a great 'hole' (as seen in the *Qa2-40 pare), which can be contrasted with its opposite during spring, viz. a 'staff'. The hole is a female property and watery, the staff is male and fiery. Haati (cfr Qa9-43) has no toes (because such contain 'fire' as the myth about Maui and Mahuika has told us).

haati vae

 

There are several crater holes on Easter Island, but only 2 which obviously belong to the sacred geography, viz. Rano Kau in the southwestern corner of the island and Rano Raraku on the slopes of Poike in the east. The larger one is Rano Kau.

In Rano Raraku the moai statues were hewed out. The statues were 'born' there (from mother earth), which is in harmony with the meaning of the direction east. The statues were 'sky proppers' according to van Tilburg:

... The moai as Sky Propper would have elevated Sky and held it separate from Earth, balancing it only upon his sacred head. This action allowed the light to enter the world and made the land fertile. Increasing the height of the statues, as the Rapa Nui clearly did over time, would symbolically increase the space between Sky and Earth, ensuring increased fertility and the greater production of food ...

Hotu Matua had his 'spirit leaping place' (reiga) at Rano Kau, and maybe we could say that there the great hole 'swallowed' him. 'Fire' (he was a Sun king) went down into the 'watery abyss'. 4 months later the whole year apparently was swallowed by the 'mouth' (vaha kai) in the west:

Gb5-7 Gb5-8 Gb5-9 Gb5-10 (364) Gb5-11 Gb5-12

The name of the great crater was alternatively spelled Rano Kao:

Kao

1. Side, edge, rim; kao gutu (or just kao), labia minora. 2. Steep, almost perpendicular; thin, skinny. Motu Kaokao, name of one of the islets opposite Orongo, with a steep shape. Vanaga.

Cloth, clothing, garb. (Perhaps a variant of kahu.) Kaokao, side, flank, ribs, lateral. P Pau.: kaokao, the side, flank. Mgv.: kaokao, the side, flank. Mq.: kaokao, id. Ta.: aoáo, id. In Nuclear Polynesia this is particularized, in Samoa to the armpit, in Tonga and Futuna to the sides of the canoe. Therefore it may be considered a borrowing from the Tongafiti. Churchill.
Kau

1. To move one's feet (walking or swimming); ana oho koe, ana kau i te va'e, ka rava a me'e mo kai, if you go and move your feet, you'll get something to eat; kakau (or also kaukau), move yourself swimming. 2. To spread (of plants): ku-kau-áte kumara, the sweet potatoes have spread, have grown a lot. 3. To swarm, to mill around (of people): ku-kau-á te gagata i mu'a i tou hare, there's a crowd of people milling about in front of your house. 4. To flood (of water after the rain): ku-kau-á te vai haho, the water has flooded out (of a container such as a taheta). 5. To increase, to multiply: ku-kau-á te moa, the chickens have multiplied. 6. Wide, large: Rano Kau, 'Wide Crater' (name of the volcano in the southwest corner of the island). 7. Expression of admiration: kau-ké-ké! how big! hare kau-kéké! what a big house! tagata hakari kau-kéké! what a stout man! Vanaga.

To bathe, to swim; hakakau, to make to swim. P Pau., Mgv., Mq.: kau, to swim. Ta.: áu, id. Kauhaga, swimming. Churchill.

The stem kau does not appear independently in any language of Polynesian proper. For tree and for timber we have the composite lakau in various stages of transformation. But kau will also be found as an initial component of various tree names. It is in Viti that we first find it in free existence. In Melanesia this form is rare. It occurs as kau in Efaté, Sesake, Epi, Nguna, and perhaps may be preserved in Aneityum; as gau in Marina; as au in Motu and somewhere in the Solomon islands. The triplicity of the Efaté forms [kasu, kas, kau] suggests a possible transition. Kasu and kas are easy to be correlated, kasu and kau less easy. They might be linked by the assumption of a parent form kahu, from which each might derive. This would appear in modern Samoan as kau; but I have found it the rule that even the mildest aspirate in Proto-Samoan becoming extinct in modern Samoan is yet retained as aspiration in Nuclear Polynesia and as th in Viti, none of which mutations is found on this record. Churchill 2

The 3 islets outside the southwestern end of the island (presumably Nga Kope Ririva, the 'zero' kuhane station) could represented the 3 stars of Orion's Belt (where the 'whirlpool of X' is located). Moving from east to west we will encounter Orion before we come to Hydra.

But the kuhane of Hau Maka went in the other direction, from west to east. Therefore she first found the 3 islets (which did not belong to Hau Maka but to Te Taanga) before she arrived to the island proper. Reaching the mainland she saw the fish Mahore 'who was there to spawn (?)' and then Rano Kau. Manuscript E has 'te mahore ka noho i roto i te pu'.

Mahore

A fish (small, silver-coloured). Vanaga.

Ta.: mahore, to peel off. Sa.: mafoe, to be skinned. Ma.: mahore, to be peeled. Churchill.

The central of the 3 islets (Motu Iti) could be where the 'water was boiling' - the star Alnilam where 'pearls' were streaming upwards like small eggs. Iti means 'little', though the smallest of the islets is Motu Kaokao (closer to the mainland).

Glyph line Ga8 begins with day number 205 + 64 = 269 and lots of 'bubbles' (hua poporo, 'black berries') are presented:

Ga7-30 (264) Ga7-31 Ga7-32 Ga7-33 Ga7-34 (204 + 64 = 268)
Ga8-1 Ga8-2 Ga8-3 Ga8-4 (272) Ga8-5
Ga8-6 Ga8-7 Ga8-8 Ga8-9 (277) Ga8-10 Ga8-11
Ga8-12 (280) Ga8-13 Ga8-14

Yesterday I learned from watching TV that Popocatepetl, the active volcano close to Mexico City, means the 'smoking mountain', i.e. the Aztecan popoca means smoking. I take this as one more example of how closely some key Polynesian ideas are related to similar ones in other languages. Tezcatlipoca ('the Smoking Mirror') was the 'tanist' of Quetzalcoatl. When you pour water on a fire smoke is produced.

The idea of a watery hole at Virgo could - I suggest - have been incorporated into the sacred geography of Easter Island (they were great navigators and therefore must have known all the stars extremely well). Her place - which once was at midsummer - has been gradually moved towards autumn (north of the equator), and 2 months (64 days) of the precessional cycle means ca 4,500 years. But Virgo is now at 12 hours (at autumn equinox), which means 3 months beyond midsummer. I.e., ca 6,500 years before today was the time of the Golden Age.

Pare in *Qa2-40 can possibly be understood to illustrate the watery hole of Virgo. Since the Dendera zodiac was drawn precession has moved the stars 1 month further ahead in time. I suspect we can see the hole at Taurus, because he obviously is falling downwards:

The staff at Pisces comes 2 months before the fall of Taurus and the staff of Orion is 3 months from Pisces. From spring equinox to midsummer there are 3 months and the last of them appear to mean the 'fall' of Spring Sun. He falls because a new season must be born (Gemini is approacing). The new season should be the season of Moon (who corresponds to Gemini in being 'twins'):

Qa3-4 Qa3-5 Qa3-6 Qa3-7
Qa3-8 Qa3-9 Qa3-10 Qa3-11

Manu rere in Qa3-4 has a beak which could characterize him as being a 'her' (Moon), and the undulating wing has a sign of vaha kai oriented upwards, as in *Qa7-16:

*Qa7-15 *Qa7-16 *Qa7-17 *Qa7-18 *Qa7-19 *Qa7-20 (274)

The great 'joints', from which arms are growing, could be referring to the great 'hole' in pare. The open hands are left hands and the henua signs are bent instead of straight.

Here we could stop discussing the meaning of the 'hole'. But we must also remember Polyphemus (cfr at hanau) whose single great eye was pierced by Odysseus:

... 'Then', declared Odysseus, I thrust in that stake under the deep ashes, until it should grow hot, and I spake to my companions comfortable words, lest any should hang back from me in fear. But when that bar of olive wood was just about to catch fire in the flame, green though it was, and began to glow terribly, even then I came nigh, and drew it from the coals, and my fellows gathered about me, and some god breathed great courage into us. For their part they seized the bar of olive wood, that was sharpened at the point, and thrust it into his eye, while I from my place aloft turned it about, as when a man bores a ship's beam with a drill while his fellows below spin it with a strap, which they hold at either end, and the auger runs round continually.

Even so did we seize the fiery-pointed brand and whirled it round in his eye, and the blood flowed about the heated bar. And the breath of the flame singed his eyelids and brows all about, as the ball of the eye burnt away, and the roots thereof crackled in the flame. And as when a smith dips an ax or adze in chill water with a great hissing, when he would temper it - for hereby anon comes the strength of iron - even so did his eye hiss round the stake of olive ...

Among the clues we should notice the reference to boring in a ship. The location is indeed close to the center of the 'canoe' shape of the bluemarked signs in the Dendera zodiac.

The previously mentioned number 22 which certainly is a clue, probably means that 24(0) ('midnight') is approaching:

... He bore a grievous weight of dry wood, which he cast down with a din inside the cave, so that in fear all fled to hide. Lifting a huge doorstone, such as two and twenty good four-wheeled wains could not have raised from the ground, he set this against the mouth of the cave, sat down, milked his ewes and goats, and beneath each placed her young, after which he kindled a fire and spied his guests ...

Orion was the only prominent ancient god who had lost his eyesight.