I hope many of you got to see this yesterday.  I unfortunately missed it, which is too bad, because now I have to wait until 2017 for another one.  This eclipse was not a total solar eclipse, as the moon didn't cover the outer portions of the sun, giving it a ring appearance.  It happened around sunset and was fairly quick.  For photos you can go to www.nasa.gov

The Maya were no strangers to eclipses of the sun.  They knew when they were going to happen and they tracked them for many years.  Yesterdays solar event was one they definitely would have celebrated. 

The Return of Quetzalcoatl-Tlaloc as Venus

I found a photograph of a dated Aztec stone tablet, that depicts what might be an image of the prophesied return of the dualistic (Venus God) Mesoamerican god Quetzalcoatl-Tlaloc, returning to earth as a killer comet, at the end of the Fifth Sun, according to the Five Suns cosmogonic accounts.

The carved image depicts the Mesoamerican god Tlaloc, who can be easily identified by his trademark goggled eyes, feline fangs, and handlebar mustache. In the carving above, Tlaloc is likely depicted as the Evening Star aspect of the planet Venus, and the god of ritual decapitation, by the way the artist has shaped Tlaloc's eyebrows and nose to create a Venus symbol which halfway surrounds his goggled eyes. Tlaloc's goggled eyes represent I believe, the vision of divine immortality, the vision of Tlaloc's paradise, called Tlalocan.

Note that just to the left of Tlaloc are two flint knifes shaped like footballs, symbolizing his connection with decapitation, period endings, and the completion of time in the ritual calendar. On the right in the upper right hand corner is an image I would argue represent the artist's conception of a doomsday comet. The fact that the artist has created an image of a fiery killer comet shooting down to earth, just above an icon that can easily be identified as Quetzalcoatl's "Wind Jewel" , links both Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc with a doomsday comet associated with the planet Venus, and the completion of time. The "Wind Jewel" which represents one of Quetzalcoatl's most famous trademark attributes, is a cross-cut section of a conch shell worn as a pectoral by priests associated with the cult of Quetzalcoatl. Just above Quetzalcoatl's "Wind Jewel" are two swirly dots which I'm certain represents 2-Wind in the Five Suns cosmogonic accounts.

In the Codex Chimalpopoca, Quetzalcoatl is referred to as a spirit of regeneration and as the Morning star. A passage from that Codex reads..."Truly with him it began...Truly from him it flowed out...From Quetzalcoatl all art and knowledge" (Thomas 1993, p.183)

Quoting Spanish chronicler Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, (Florentine Codex, Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España 1547-1582)

"The ancients worshiped an idol called Quetzalcoatl who was a ruler of Tula they named Topiltzin. He was a man; he was mortal, for he died. He is no god "His body died, here on earth it became dust."

“Although this Quetzalcoatl was a man [the Indians] they held him to be a god....This Quetzalcoatl who was a mortal and perishable man they called a god. Although he had some appearances of virtue, judging by what they say he was nevertheless a great sorcerer, a friend of demons…and deserves to be assigned to the flames of Hell… When your ancestors said that this Quetzalcoatl went to Tlapallan and would return, that you must await his return, they lied, for we know that he is dead, that his body was reduced to dust and that Our Lord God hurled his soul into Hell where he suffers eternal torment.” ( Sahagun, 1969, book 1, chapter 5)

“Only one was their god; they showed all attention to, they called upon, they prayed to one by the name of Quetzalcoatl. The name of one who was their minister, their priest [was] also Quetzalcoatl. "There is only one god" [he is] Quetzalcoatl (Sahagún, 1950-75,10:160).

In my examination of pre-Columbian art I have discovered that the gods that appear to be linked to mushroom imagery are clearly linked to the planet Venus as both a Morning Star and Evening Star. The name Quetzalcoatl has been interpreted to mean "Precious twin," indicating that the Morning Star and Evening Star are one and the same (Caso, 1958:.24; Duran:325).

According to anthropologist Daniel Brinton, (Myths of the New World, 1876, pp. 234-235) these ominous events [comets] were believed to occur on the last night of each of the 52 year calendar round cycles. In order to prevent this cosmic catastrophe, the Aztecs and likely all Mesoamericans, performed a New Fire ceremony on the last night of the 52 year calendar round cycle, in which every fire was completely extinguished, and then a new fire was rekindled by friction. If the rituals of the New Fire ceremony at the end of the 52 year calendar round failed, the sun would cease to rise, and that death and darkness would descend upon the world, and that the god Quetzalcoatl, he who had created the world, would destroy it.
~~by Carl de Borhegyi


For more on the return of this doomsday comet at the end of the Mayan calendar read my 2012 ALERT! at mushroomstone.com

Yep, you heard me right, my grandmother turned 104 years old yesterday.  That is two Maya lifetimes.  When she turned 99, 100, 101, & 102 she rode on the back of a Harley motorcycle.  On her 103rd birthday she went horseback riding.  And this year on her 104th birthday she went for a 4wheel ride.    Many people ask her what her secret is, and she never tells, but I think it's a multitude of things: she goes to church every Sunday, she breathes fresh mountain air every day, she eats chocolate when she wants, she has a cocktail when she wants, she does crossword puzzles, she plays cards (and she'll whoop your butt at it too), and she doesn't let anyone tell her what to do.  She's pretty amazing, inspiring, and admirable, but best of all....she's my grandma. 

My son had his 13th birthday a few days ago.  He was so excited to be 13, I however was not so thrilled.  He's my youngest and I'd like to keep them as young as long as possible.  It's hard to watch your children grow up and depend on you less and less, although it's quite a nice sense of new freedom. 

In our American culture our children live with us as long as we allow.  Sometimes this means they move out of the house when they are finished with college and find that first job, where they can live independently. For others they move out right after high school. 

For the ancient Maya childhood was quite different.  By the time the children were 5 years old, they were already helping out with the responsibilities.  The boys helped farm and hunt and the girls help cook and clean.  It's hard to imagine a 5 year old doing such chores, but for the Maya it was a way of survival. 

When a Maya child turned 13 it was a pivotal year for them.  13 was considered a sacred number.  The Maya children did not experience teenage adolescence.   At 13 they were having "puberty ceremonies" and being prepped for marriage.  13 was the beginning stage of becoming an independent member of Maya society.  By the age of 15, when our kids are just learning how to drive, an ancient Maya child was considered an adult and expected to provide for themselves and their family if they had one at that age. 

13 and 15 seem quite young to us to being such things and having those kinds of expectations for such a young child, but when you consider the grand scheme of things, life expectancy was only 52 years old.  And if you lived to 52 that was considered living a very long time.