The
Mayan
and Venus
by José Antonio Poot
The Cult to Venus
(the celestial
star of the mayans)
The Mayan people of Mesoamerica where avid star gazzers
who strived to understand the cosmos as a way to understand their creation.
Through out Central America ancient observers know as Shaman, began looking
at the heavens for answers to the age old riddle of where do we come from?
This question lead this mathematically advanced civilization arrive at conclusions
that would have marveled the great European stargazzers like Galileo among
others. The mayas like many other ancient people noticed a peculiarity with
the motion of the planet Venus's rotation. It is the only planet visible
to the naked eye that has both a retrograde motion and is as birght as a
star. This special quality of venus lead the mayans to develop myths and
stories, that would eventually lead them to the mythical explanation of their
creation.
The mayan people had alot of names for this planet.
The first and most important one of these names is, nok ek (red star),
followed by; sastal ek (bright star) and xux ek (wasp star). This
star was the object of worship for the entire mesoamerican culture. In the
maya vocabulary this planet/deity is depicted by the serpent god Kukulcan.
This god who inspired fear and awe to the people of ancient yucatan.
Kukulcan
was a character who was half jaguar and half deity. His legend, which was
well known through out the region, was in many ways similar to the planet
venus. That is to say that Venus disapears 8 days every 260 days is a star
(for the mayans) that was elusive to the celestial order. Thus demostrated
superiority as did Kukulcan. He too rose in the in the east and disapeared
in the west to one day reapear in the east. This legend, latter picked up
by the aztecs foretold the comming of the spanish, who they misunderstood
for gods, and proceded to become royal subjects to the crown.
To the mayan Venus was both a good and bad star, (one
must not take the western meaning of good or bad for in the time of the
mayas this would just be seen as night or day with out reference to the
christian concept of a sin). That is to say that this celestial object could
not only bring the gods of corn and water together but also make them tide
their resourses to the
more poweful god of venus. This actual act of tiding their resources
would happen exactly when the planet would disappear for 8 days. During
this time the maya believed that by proforming ritual sacrifices, could
apease the gods and make them not cast disease upon the land. This was thought
to be a way to pay their debt, and thus compensating the gods for interceding
on their behalf for the return of venus.
The Venus star was also monumental to the regulation
of sacred warfare. Only during the dissaperence did and could the priests
of wage wars of religion. This group of sacred warriors were thought
to be selected by the venus god Kukulcan and thus only this elite group of
warriors would wage war. Pictures of wars depicted in Bonanpak and Cacaxtla
in Mexico depict these battles showing these warriors dressed in ceremonial
venus garments, that even the women of these warriors wore.
Depiction
of the mayan Venus God in Chichen Itza
The Dresden Codex
Actual tables from Germany
The Codex is one of the most important surviving
books relating to the mayan's view of the cosmos. This book's sole purpose
is the describe and depict the calender of the mayan. In order to properly
understand the workings of this calender it is important to understand the
simbols of which only those relating to days, and periods will be shown.
Mayan day gliphs 
lmix
Ik Akbal
Kan
chicchan cimi
Manik
Lamat
Muluc
Oc Chuen
Eb
Ben
Ix
Men
Cib
Caban Eznab
Cauac
Ahau
Mayan Period Glyphs
KIN
Uinal
Tun
Katun
Baktun
Pictun
Kinchiltun
Calabtun
Alautun
The Explanation of the
Mayan Calendar
The above illustracion depics the actual places of the gliphs.
El Haab
The Haab in composed of 18 months (uinales)
of 20 days (kines), plus one month and 5 remaining
days (uayeb).
1 KIN = 1 day
1 UINAL (month) = 20 KINES
1 HAAB (year) = 18 UINALES (months)
de 20 KINES (days) + 1 UAYEB
(5 KINES, remaining days)
|
20 KINES
(days)
IMIX
IK
AKBAL
KAN
CHICCHAN
CIMI
MANIK
LAMAT
MULUC
OC
CHUEN
EB
BEN
IX
MEN
CIB
CABAN
EZNAB
CAUAC
AHAU
|
18 UINALES
(months)
POOP
UOO
ZIP
ZODZ
TZEC
XUL
YAAXKIN
MOL
CHUEN
YAAX
ZAC
CEH
MAC
KANKIN
MUAN
PAX
KAYAB
CUMKU
UAYEB
|
The following calender is an interpretation done by a
spanish sailor that was shipwrecked of the coast of the yucatan before the
spanish know that this civilization existed. He was a literate priest who
later with la malinche helped Cortez invade and conquer mexico.
The above like will take you to a web site where you
will be able to calculate the actual mayan long count date of today.
The Venus Tables
The venus tables were designed by the ancient mayan
astronomers to as the key to decode the enigmas of time in reference to
creation. In order to understand these tables on needs to recognize two characteristics.
The first being their division of the cycles and the other being their observations
relative to the movements of venus.
The mayan calender is divided in 584 day cycles and is divided in four
parts and the fact that venus repeats itself every five periods of 584 days.
This means that during 8 seasons the cycle of venus coincides exactly with
the calendar. These tables account for the transition that venus makes from
being the morning star to being the evening star. This 4 cycle repetition
is further divided by the following.
The interval of apperences as the moring star which
they set as a 236 day period. The dissaperience of the venus which is accountes
for 90 days. The appearence of venus as the evening star which accounts for
250 days, and finally the second relatively breif dissaperence of 8 days.
This makes a total of 584 days thus giving the calendar a mathematical basis.
The ancient maya viewed Venus as the celestial center
of their universe. To understand this it is important to realize that unlike
the heliocentric perception of the earth that the western world acquired with
the renaissance, venus is infact more consecuention due to its apparent independance
from the sun. This planet as seen and understood by the mayans is thus more
important than the sun itlself. They based their view of religion, worship
and even creation as a result of this cycle.
The Popol Vuh
The story of the Popol Vuh, is in essence the story of
the two hero twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who represent the Venus and the
Sun. These two characters are portrayed as the heros who protect the world
from the wrath of the gods. They fight the gods for the chance to live. They
fight the evil gods in order to buy time for the mayan people in order continue
living. The idea is that life is borrowed and thus one must either apease
the gods or fight them in order to survive as long as possible. These fights
and apeasements are directly correlated with the rise and fall of venus. When
Venus dissapears, the hero twins are in the underworld fighting for it to
comeback. Wh
en venus is the morning star, the hero twins managed to buy some more time
for their people to live, when it is the evening star the gods are beginning
once again to get upset and require more sacrifices. Then it dissapears and
once again the story begins. The point to be taken from this is not the actual
facts or myths, but the idea that time is cyclical and that history will and
is prophesized to repeat itself. This idea very foreign to the western civilization
is also used by the hebrew people in their alegory of the creation. In the
genesis time is said to repeat itself. That is when human nature becomes evil
and is corrupted it will once again be destroyed to create anew. Today, however
this idea is not necessary focused on, since this does not correspond with
the idea of free will.
The alegory of the birth of venus and the aid of the
sun for survival is in essence the cosmological explanation, for the quiche
mayans. Their idea that the sun protects yet hides the planet is richely
depicted in their stories and mural in cities like
Bonampak (5)
and Tikal (near Guatemala City)
, even the little understood glyphs of Copan(8)
depict this idea. The book itself is a way of explaining to their people
the mathematical concepts that made the classic mayan the great scientists
that they were. Compared to Europe the Mayan people were far ahead. In Europe
the scientists were using the cumbersum roman numerical system for calculations
yet the mayans with their complete understanding of the "0" were able to use
their point vantesimal system to calculate in the millions to an unprecented
accuracy. They were the first ancient people to accuratly calculate dates
and conceptualize time in millions of years instead of thousands which was
the limit for the Europeans.
Stellar Architecture
The stars played an impotant role for the mayans. This
order in relation to venus and the sun determined everything in terms of planing
and building thier temples. The mayan were well aware of the poles and of
the North-South orientation
of the forces. They
however did not know much about magnetisim nor did they find a need to consider
or develop a way of measuring this. They were more concerned about the actual
alignement of the stars and the sun at any given time in the year. They did
however give extreame importance to the change in season or the equinox. This
they were able to measure and use to their advantage with astaunding accuracy.
They built cities like
Chichen-Itza
and Dzibitzaltun
so as to use the change in positions to reflect the sh
adow the sun casts in order to make of it a religions ceremony. Clarifying
the idea that the cosmos is directly related to humans in relation to their
creator who guides them via the stars namely venus
The remaining and discovered mayan temples indicate to
us that they had an impresive understanding of the cosmos. They built them
in order to be able to better view the stars from whithin.
They used windows and narrow tubes in order to pin point the exact possition
of venus and other stars at any cerimonial date in time. These observation
points, once thought to point out the cycles of the moon or other celestial
objects were later found to be placed to follow the movements of venus. One
example is in the
Caracol
which was decifered by american anthropologists be
tween 1973 and 1975 show that tubes and holes in the door and sides
actually have a view to venus every 8 years. This temple is also built at
a 27 1/2° north of west which puts it in line with venus allowing a perfect
observation of this planet every 8 years. The above picture is an actual picture
taken during the alignment of venus. This temple is aligned differently according
to the hight. That is to say that the lower platform aligns simetrically with
the sun and the upper platform with the motions of venus. The interior however
is totaly consecrated to the observation of venus. In order to achieve this
the temple has 4 openings that align with this planet at the 8 given positions
it will take thoughout time. Currently archiologists are only able to understand
the 3rd and 4th vantage points, the rest are thought to be linked to solar
eclipses as well as other observed positions of both venus and the sun. What
is certain about windows 1 and 2 is mark the precise location of the nothernly
and suthernly standstills of venus.
During the post classic period most rules designed cities in order to replicate
what they though were the dwellins or ancesters and deities of the night sky.
The reason these were built at a hight was to depict the several dimentions
of life and the cosmos that to them was the essence of their religion.
The castle
in chichen Itza for example is built at a 29 1/2° angle which allows
for it to be 2° off centered with the sun. This allows for what appears
to be a shadow to decend from the temple twice a year during the equinox,
and allows also the ability to observe venus as the morning star or as the
evening star. The top of the temple is also skewed to a degree that allowed
the ancient priests to better see the coming and going of the venus star.
Both of these temples are thought to have been adorned with black and red
colors which indicated where the sun shadow or venus's prime observation point
might have been.
This window depicted to the left is one such orifice
from where the acient mayan are said to have seen venus.
The origin of the Popol Vuh, even though it was written
many years after the conquest and in the quiche region of what is today modern
Chiapas, Belize and Guatemala, is said to have been written in accordance
with the Dresden Codex, which is the work of scientists from an area somewhere
in the middle of Chichen Itza (1) and Uxmal (2).
Chichén Itzá
| 1 |
Cenote Sagrado |
| 2 |
Juego de Pelota |
| 3 |
Templo del Jaguar (superior) |
| 4 |
Templo del Jaguar(inferior) |
| 5 |
Plataforma de los tigres y Aguilas |
| 6 |
Plataforma de Venus |
| 7 |
Templo de los Guerreros |
| 8 |
El Castillo |
| 9 |
La Casa Colorada |
| 10 |
El Caracol |
| 11 |
El Anexo de Monjas |
|
|
Uxmal which is in fact the largest of mayan cities in Yucatan is said to
not only have the most beautiful achitecture but also the most
precise. The temple of the governers is another of those buildings that
was built at a different angle. This temple lines up to the 9th and 10th degrees
respectively to the east of north axis. This alignment allowed the mayan
astonomers to better view the changing positions of venus. The actual spot
in which this can be seen is in the middle of the quad. In this location every
8 years venus is seen from precisely with in. The platform located at
the steps of the entrance is directly aligned with venus when it is the morning
star and the top of the great pyramid
is aligned with the evening star. The exact reason of why this was
built like this remains a mystery to this day, yet archeologists believe that
i
s has to do with the actual places of celebration and sacrifice realted
to de dissapperence and reapperance of venus. Another curiosity is that in
the entire city of Uxmal the only place where one can see the depiction of
the heliacal decent of venus is on this pyramid next to the depiction of
chac mol, the rain god
. This deity was said to be the one to collect the sacrifice made to the
venus god and the one to renew the cycle.
