tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9512229.post110541396495034709..comments2023-09-16T05:28:35.423-07:00Comments on Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan: The Great MawPaul Kekai Manansalahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17929956945080453339noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9512229.post-84659329705815701082010-06-23T07:07:18.124-07:002010-06-23T07:07:18.124-07:00My research of Olmec influences on Easter Island a...My research of Olmec influences on Easter Island and transpacific contacts, led me to your web page.<br /><br />You make a great statement in which you mention that the cleft head motif probably has reference to the anterior fontanelle, a "hole" or soft spot at the top of the skull that hardens as one ages. In many cultures, the anterior fontanelle was viewed as an opening through which the soul ascends to heaven. <br /><br />You also mention that the opening to the underworld in Mesoamerican cultures takes on an interesting form known as the double merlon or double step motif. The motif which somewhat resembled a letter "U" or "V" in upright or inverted form. A symbol which forms the "twin peaks" profile, examples of which are depicted on carved Olmec faces (baby were-jaguars) were both the "frowning" mouth (Olmec snarl) and cleft head form inverted and upright double merlon motifs respectively. <br /><br />As a result of my study (see mushroomstone.com) which follows up on my late father's research Maya archaeologist Stephan F. de Borhegyi, I now believe that Mesoamerica and Easter Island shared, along with many other New World cultures, elements of a Pan American belief system so ancient that many of the ideas may have come from Asia to the New World with the first human settlers. These include ideas concerning resurrection based on observation of the constant cycle of death and rebirth in nature, and veneration of the planet Venus based on its predictable cycle of death and rebirth as both an evening star and as a morning star. By the time the first native Mesoamerican religious texts appeared, whether in pictorial codices or, at the urging of various Spanish priests and chroniclers, in Spanish or one of the indigenous languages, there is evidence that this religion was identified with a supreme creator deity. This deity, although known by different names in different languages and culture areas, is clearly identifiable by his attributes. He is probably best known by his Toltec/Aztec name, Quetzalcoatl. I have chosen to call this ancient belief system the Mushroom-Venus/Quetzalcoatl-Tlaloc religion. This Olmec/Maya inspired religion of Venus worship can be found on Easter Island.<br /><br />Venus was the central component of Maya cosmology. The late Maya archaeologist J. Eric S. Thompson (1960:170-172, fig. 31 nos.33-40) identified the Maya quincunx glyph as a variant of the Central Mexican Venus sign. This symbol found on Easter Island is of great antiquity, having been found at the Olmec site of San Lorenzo on Monument 43 dated at 900 B.C. The quincunx is a design that archeoastronomer Susan Milbrath (1999:187) refers to as a reference to the "fiveness" of Venus in the five Venus cycles of the Venus Almanac in the Dresden Codex. The quincunx design also appears frequently in Maya glyphs symbolizing the four cardinal directions and a central entrance to the underworld. The Maya believed that It was through this central portal identified by the color green that souls were resurrected by the planet Venus in its guise of Quetzalcoatl as the Morning Star. According to Maya archaeologist David Freidel (1993, p.124) the Maya called this sacred center, mixik' balamil, which means the navel of the world". Coincidentally the quincunx is a symbol and altar which I mentioned is found on Easter Island. The words "navel of the world" were used by the Easter Islanders to describe their island and their place in the universe. <br />Carl de Borhegyi <br /><br />For more visit mushroomstone.comCarl de Borhegyihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01988311749706376046noreply@blogger.com