The Indigenous History of El Salvador

The Maya Discovered Center of the Galaxy Through Orbit of Mars

Of all the celestial objects, the Maya have held the Milky Way with the most reverence. The Maya have many names for the Milky Way, depending on its position in the sky which changed throughout the night and by season. Those names include Canoe Paddler, World Tree, Crocodile or White Boned Serpent, and Lying Down Sky, with World Tree being the most common. The Maya created images of the World Tree intersected at the top by the solar ecliptic, in the appearance of a Christian cross.

The Milky Way was called yaxte' in Ch'orti' Maya, which means clear tree or living tree. Yaxte' is also the name for the ceiba tree, one of the most sacred trees of the Maya. Images of the World Tree are modeled after the ceiba.

Within the Milky Way, one spot has had special meaning for the Maya, an area devoid of the same star haze as the rest of the Milky Way, located between the constellations of Scorpio and Sagittarius. This happens to be the center of the galaxy where a massive black hole is located. For the Maya this spot was associated with creation, especially the creation of the Mayan world. Other names or symbols that the Maya gave it include the void, cleft, black hole, the mouth of the crocodile, the mouth of the jaguar that leads to the underworld, and the great cleft of the Great Mother. Most likely the Maya daysign Ik' or Ik'ar, which means air or wind, represents the center of the galaxy.

The Olmec and Maya also determined that it is the location where two great celestial objects become perpindicular – the solar elliptic and the galactic elliptic. This will occur on December 21, 2012, just as the Olmec and Maya predicted over 2000 years ago. In fact it was through figuring out the orbit of Mars that the Maya were able to establish the location of the galactic plane and determine the 2012 convergence. The Maya interpret this event as the sun being reborn and ushering in a new age. In 2012, the sun and our solar system will be touched by the galactic force – i.e. the mass of the galaxy concentrated at the center of the galaxy and the plane of the galactic elliptic, the combined forces that interact with every star in the galaxy. The sun and its solar system are being renewed and regenerated with the force, the energy, and the volition of the galaxy, as embodied by the black hole at the center of the galaxy.

Before discussing how the Maya discovered the galaxy’s center, a description of the black hole there would be helpful. The galaxy center black hole is by far the largest body in the galaxy in terms of mass. It is estimated to be 4 million solar masses (4 million times greater than our sun). For comparison, the star with the largest mass has between 100 and 150 solar masses. This means that the black hole at the galaxy center is at least 25,000 times more massive than the largest star in the galaxy.

In physical terms, this black hole affects our solar system by its gravity and by the various radiations that it emits. Due to its mass, it has by far the largest gravitational field in the galaxy. For the most part, this is a constant force. The large distance between it and our solar system limits its gravitational on our solar system. However, its gravitational pull is greatly augmented by the stars that are within the galactic elliptic. This combined gravity does have a pull on the sun and planets. In fact, it causes the extreme elongation of Mars’ orbit, something which the Maya discovered thousands of years ago, as we will see. And I think that we are able to sense this gravity under special circumstances like meditation. I also believe it is this gravity acting upon the planets and each human that causes astrology "to work".

Black holes also emit radiation and cause radiation to be emitted from their surroundings. Black holes emit thermal radiation, known as Hawking radiation, which has a very low temperature. The galaxy center black hole also likely emits electro-magnetic radiation of two frequencies – x-rays and radio waves. In addition, there are likely gamma rays which have the same frequency as x-rays. All three of these radiations are caused by the same thing – matter being sucked into a black hole. The most common of these are gamma rays, caused by the matter entering the black hole, similar to solar flares. It appears that the galaxy center black hole also radiates x-ray radiation. Scientists have determined flares of x-rays from the dust cloud near the black hole. X-rays come from the electrons of the matter and gamma from the nucleus. In 2005 scientists discovered radio waves coming from Sgr A*, the astronomical name for the black hole at the center of the galaxy. While this radiation can be sensed with radio telescopes, perhaps someday we will learn that humans can also sense it if especially intuned.

The pre-Maya/pre-Lenca discovered the center of the galaxy in another way: watching the motion of the planets. I believe that they made this discovery in about 8500 BCE in El Salvador. Mars has an average synodic period of 779.93 days – the time it takes until it turns backward, retrograde, again. It has a very elongated orbit, meaning that its synodic period can vary anywhere from about 750 to 810 days. In the time of pre-Maya, Mars’ synodic period was 779.96 days but declined to about 779.93 days sometime in the millennium prior to 0 CE, most likely due to a meteor collision.

Using fingers and toes as counters, as well as sticks, rocks, and face and body paint, the pre-Maya/pre-Lenca counted how many days between the retrograde motions of Venus and Mars. After many years of watching Mars, using tattoos and body scarring to keep track, and passing knowledge to next generations, they determined that its synodic period is divisible by 20, the base of their counting system. There were 39 of their 20 day weeks in the Mars synodic period. The 780 days became three 260 day years eventually, divided into 20 13-day weeks.

Here’s where the center of the galaxy comes in. The pre-Maya/pre-Lenca figured out that the Mars retrograde always happened within the same four 13-day weeks of their calendar, but when the Mars retrograde occurred when Mars was close to the Milky Way, it happened at the beginning of those four weeks. And when Mars turned retrograde very close to the center of the Milky Way, it would occur one day earlier than it ever had before, tracked by body scarring or tattoos and by oral tradition. This would happen about every 52 years. This formed the basis for the original Mars long-count calendar that preceded the current solar-based long-count calendar that has been used since at least 500 BCE, when the accuracy of the Mars calendar was altered due to something like a meteor strike. My earlier blog entry explains in much more detail about the Mars long count calendar.

It was this knowledge, demonstrating their mental prowess, which allowed the pre-Maya/pre-Lenca to overcome their Xibalba enemies and become the leading people in the Americas.

The shamans interpreted these discoveries as proof of god. The first proof of god was that the synodic period of Mars was divisible by 20, the number of fingers and toes of human beings. Second, when they determined that the blank spot in the Milky Way caused the irregularity in Mars’ synodic period and caused their long-count calendar to click one day backward, they know that the location of this god was at the center of the galaxy.

The center of the galaxy, 4 million solar masses, whose elliptic will cross the solar elliptic on December 21, 2012, and which emits four kinds of radiation that have been reaching the surface of the earth since earth came into existence, was one of the first powerful gods of the pre-Maya/pre-Lenca people and still is today.

A death and resurrection story from the Popol Vuh

On this Good Friday during Easter week I am reminded that many ancient traditions had death and resurrection stories, including the Maya-Lenca. This one comes straight from the Popol Vuh, Part 3:

When One and Seven Hunahpu went back before One and Seven Death, they were asked:

"Where are my cigars? What of my torch? They were brought to you last night!"

"We finished them, your lordship."

"Very well. This very day, your day is finished, you will die, you will disappear, and we shall break you off. Here you will hide your faces: you are to be sacrificed!" said One and Seven Death.

And then they were sacrificed and buried. They were buried at the Place of Ball Game Sacrifice, as it is called. The head of One Hunahpu was cut off; only his body was buried with his younger brother.

"Put his dead in the fork of the tree that stands by the road," said One and Seven Death.

And when his head was put in the fork of the tree, the tree bore fruit. It would not have had any fruit, had not the head of One Hunahpu been put in the fork of the tree.

This is the calabash, as we call it today, or "the skull of One Hunahpu," as it is said.

And then One and Seven Death were amazed at the fruit of the tree. The fruit grows out everywhere, and it isn't clear where the head of One Hunahpu is; now it looks just the way calabashes look. All the Xibalbans see this, when they come to look.

The state of the tree loomed large in their thoughts, because it came about at the same time the head of One Hunahpu was put in the fork. The Xibalbans said among themselves:

"No one is to pick the fruit, nor is anyone to go beneath the tree," they said. They restricted themselves; all of Xibalba held back.

Popol Vuh, the Maya Book of the Dawn of Life. Trans. by Dennis Tedlock. 1996.

In this story the resurrection happens in the form of calabash squash. Central America is precisely where squash were first domesticated.

I believe parts of this history allude to historical fact, some parts are symbolic to agriculture and some are symbolic to astronomy.

On the historical side, I think that there was a leader of the Hunahpu family - the 1 Hunahpu is more of a family reference than an actual name of one person. I believe that this person was tested through a series of astronomical tests by the archenemies - the previous passage spoke of being put through five tests. I think the reference above to the cigars going out means that an astronomical event involving Venus or Mars did not occur as 1 Hunahpu said that it would. I think another translation for the word torch (chaj in Quiche) is 'red object' (chak in Chorti), which seems to provide a clue toward Mars. 1 Hunahpu came to be reverred so much because it was his insight and error that allowed future Maya-Lenca astronomers to advance beyond the Xibalban lords. Still to this day (possibly 9,000+ years later) Maya communities visit the cemetery on Hunahpu day.

In terms of when this occured, I think that the Popol Vuh uses the convention of family name then date, in many cases where two names are presented together. In this case the date referenced was 7 Hunahpu, a day in the 260 day calendar, but also a day in the Mars retrograde long-count calendar, which would be the equivalent of about 7500 BCE.

I also believe that the place that this occurred is eastern El Salvador. I think that the town of Corinto (corintoy in Chorti) translates as 'place of game sacrifice'. This is near to La Gruta del Espíritu Santo, which I think was the original site symbolized later as Xibalba. In fact a few kilometers west of Corinto is a village named Calavera, which means 'skull'. I would propose that this is the precise place where 1 Hunahpu's skull was placed. By the way, it's not clear that it was placed on a tree, the original words are unclear.

In addition to the other meanings described here, I think that the Popol Vuh provides a date for when squash was first domesticated. In that sense the 7 Hunahpu date, 7,500 BCE, may correspond more as a date for squash than as a date for the story of 1 Hunahpu. That is certainly possible. Evidence of squash and corn were both found in the Rio Balsas site in western Mexico which dates to 6,700 BCE.

By using an easy name/date convention, such as "1 Hunahpu 7 Hunahpu" to associate with squash, it was simple for future generations to know when squash was domesticated. Unfortunately it appears that the Mars calendar fell out of use a few hundred years before writing became common, so there is no written or oral record of its use, except, I believe, in the Popol Vuh.

The story of the Hunahpu's head growing into a squash is full of irony and humor, based on word play, which is so common to the Maya. In the Popol Vuh, recorded in Quiche Maya, the name of 1 Death is 1 Kame, which means death or dead person. In the Yucateca calendar, this day sign is Cimi, which also means death. However, Yucateca derived from Ch'orti' (Cholti) Maya, and in Ch'orti' cimin or tzimin means 'tapir'. This makes sense as tapir is the symbol for death and sacrifice in Maya cosmology and tapir is a fitting animal to symbolize the cave-dwelling Xibalbans. I would guess that tzimin might be a word that came across from Asia and originally meant bear.

Well the word used for squash in the Popol Vuh is tzima, clearly a play on tzimin. It still means 'thick-skinned gourd' in Ch'orti'. To name a squash after your enemies and then say your dead leader's head turned into a squash that then grew into a plant and reproduced at great length, was an ultimate insult and spoke of the Maya superior abilities in agriculture as well as language.

Finally, one can see traces of the story of 1 Hunahpu in the Day of the Dead tradition of Mexico and now the United States. The prominent use of the skull in Day of the Dead festivities is a reminder of Hunahpu's sacrifice but also ongoing life in the form of squash vine. Just as Hunahpu's people were able to laugh at the purveyors of death, today celebrants of the Day of the Dead are able to laugh at death.

Tracing the Mesoamericans’ Travel through Names and Spirituality

The Mesoamerican people were travelers. They made balsa rafts from the balsa trees that grow along El Salvador’s La Libertad coast. They constructed reed boats from the reeds along the Torola River. They made dugout canoes, including large catamaran canoes for ocean-faring. They traveled to nearly every continent, and nearly every major river.

They went first of all to know the four corners of the earth, to know the beauty of the earth. Second, they went to share their knowledge of agriculture, earth’s bounty. Third, they also went to share their science and their spirituality, which for them was inseparable. And these were not things that could be forced on anyone, since that was contradictory of the spirituality itself.

In order to find the traces of the Mayans-Mesoamericans, one can look for at least four things:

• Place names, especially islands, since they were the most sacred places. I will look along coast lines and rivers, since that is how they traveled. I will be looking at lakes, mountains, and towns. For one example, a town with a Mayan name along the Rhine River.
• Examples of sea-faring people that would otherwise seem to be an anomaly. Other legends or stories of mysterious sea-faring people. For example, the Lukka people in the Mediterranean Sea in about 1200 to 1000 BC.
• The names of fruits and vegetables, especially outside the sphere of the well-know agricultural societies. For example, the name of the cranberry will have significance in Ch’orti’ Maya.
• Vestiges of the Mayan-Mesoamerican science and spirituality. In order to trace this, I will need to describe in more detail what it consisted of. It would be better that a Mayan, Lenca, or Zapotec leader do this, but I will do my best to outline it.

Early Mayan – Mesoamerican Spirituality

While there are many great books on Mayan and Mesoamerican spirituality, I wish to take the approach of trying to determine the key points to the spirituality by 2000 BC, that is before most of their expansion throughout Mesoamerica and before most of their travels around the globe on their ocean-faring rafts. The major exception is their travel and establishment of a community on the coast of Peru in about 3500 BC or 3000 BC.

I will use Mayan in this description, but these things would hold true for all Mesomerican groups, such as Lenca, Zapotec, Olmec, etc. Most of this early spirituality is identified in the Popol Vuh, the Mayan holy book:

• Four Original Leaders. There were four original civilizing families or bands that led the Mesoamerican people to greatness. Three came out of the jaguar room of the Xibalba cave and one came out of the bat room. Two other families came out of the bat room but they decided not to join the Mayan-Mesoamerican way of life. The four Mesoamerican leaders were Balam Kitze, Balam Akbar, Balam Ik’, and Maza Manix. They are revered above all ancestors and remembered in all things.

• Three Gifts from the Gods in the East. The Mayans received three gifts from the gods, Tohil, Hacawitz, and Auilix. These were tobacco, which kept people from starving; flint stone from Mount Usulután, which allowed them to make fire during the cold of the last of the Ice Age; and a collapsible raft which allowed them to cross rivers and streams. These were usually called three separate gods but at times were also called a three-fold god. The Mayan people survived to become the people they were only due to these three gifts from the east of El Salvador.

• Looking to the East to Remember their Founding. The early people survived years in the wilderness and then were able to cross the sea as the sea descended due to the last mini Ice Age and make it to the islands in the Golfo de Fonseca. They settled on an island they named 'Balam' (Isla Tigre). This is where they built a tower in honor of the first jaguar leaders and where they founded their spirituality of remembering the three gods who gave them the gifts to survive in the wilderness. Once they left Isla Tigre they went west and always lived west of Isla Tigre. They never failed to look east to remember where they became a people.

• The Leader whose Death Led to the Liberation of the People. One Hunahpu was a great early leader of the Quiche, I believe in about 7500 BC. He was one of the first astronomers and tracked the Mars cycle in the sky. Using the 260-day tzolkin and the Mars retrograde long-count calendar, he became good at predicting when Mars would turn retrograde when it was nearing the center of the galaxy at its retrograde cycle. He challenged their enemies that he could name the day of the retrograde motion and in return, the Mayan people would be free from the constant threat of the Xibalba lords. Unfortunately he was wrong and he was killed, his head place on a tree at the crossroads. But through his mistake later astronomers, such as Ixbalamque, were able to predict Mars motion and was able to once and for all defeat the Xibalba lords. One Hunahpu is revered as the ideal of sacrificing oneself for the good of the people, whether actual or symbolic.

• Supreme Being at the Center of the Galaxy. The orbit of Mars was elongated by the dense gravity along the elliptic formed by the center of the galaxy, causing Mars’ retrograde to occur on the earliest possible date when that retrograde happened at the hole, the void, at the center of the galaxy. This spot, which we now know to be a massive black hole, is where the Supreme Being resides. The Mesoamericans commune with the Supreme Being through a sweat bath – a “bath” of steam and incense.

• Mother Earth or ix (pronounced ‘ish’). There is a reverence for the earth which allows itself to be broken open so that life – corn, beans, squash, and cacao – can spring out.

• The 20 day signs and the Mars long-count calendar. The Mayans had a base 20 counting system and a 260-day calendar that consisted of 20 weeks of 13 days each. In addition there were calendars to track Mars, Venus, and the lunar cycles, including an eclipse cycle. The Mars long-count calendar was a way to keep track of thousands of years – it would take nearly 700 years, and over 900 tzolkins, for this calendar to pass through one sign of 13 days.

• Water, Rainbow, and the Serpent. Water has significance since the time of the escape from the cave and the people fled north to the Torola River. Their pursuers, the Xibalbans or Xibahkhans, could not swim and the people were safe. Those that stepped into the water, that immersed themselves, were saved. Xibahkha means ‘men afraid of water’. One of the four islands that the Mesoamerican people settled on was called Tammakchan, or 'deep inside the rainbow'. It was in Lago Coatepeque, a crater lake in western El Salvador. Makchan or 'rainbow' in Ch'orti' means "serpent that blocks" or "stops up" (the rain or the Xibahkha attacks). Both the rainbow and the serpent are associated with rain and with security. The rainbow also came to be symbolized by the plumed or feathered serpent.

• Pyramids. The Mesoamericans gained access to flint stone on a volcano, Mount Usulután, provided by the god Hacawitz. Flint stone provided fire as well as being a cutting tool. Along with the jaguar, the earliest spiritual buildings took the form of a volcano. At times the volcanoes were represented with a flat top and at other times with a more pointed top. Ceremonies involving symbolic cutting or fire were typical on a pyramid to remember the gift from Hacawitz.

• The Flood. One of the four Mesoamerican islands was at the mouth of the Rio Lempa. The oceans rose following the last of the Ice Age. In particular the flood and tsunami event of about 6400 BC when Lake Agassiz drained into the oceans may have caused the island of Teokan, founded by Balam Ik', to have been wiped out. The Mesoamericans always remembered this founder and re-established a community at the mouth of the Lempa.

• Obsession with Pure Blood. The early Mayan leader One Hunahpu intermarried with another race. Many hundreds - thousands - of years later, his descendants, the Quiches, were the first to suffer from pellegra, a deadly niacin deficiency. The other Mesoamerican groups wrongly blamed the earlier inter-racial marriage as the cause, when in fact it was caused by over reliance on untreated corn. The Quiches were banished, starting tension and conflict, and an obsession with pure blood started. This obsession was shared with many of the people that the Mesoamericans visited.

The Mayan Long Count Mars Retrograde Calendar

Before the Mayans developed the well-known Long Count calendar sometime between 300 BC and 100 AD, they were using a long count calendar based on the orbit of Mars. The Mars tables in the Dresden Codex might provide more information, but there are also clues of this in the Mayan history book, the Popol Vuh. In fact, I believe that this calendar was developed in El Salvador and dates back to somewhere between 7500 BC and 9500 BC, which I think would make it one of the oldest calendars known to humankind. My guess is that the calendar might have been developed by about 7500 BC and then "a rope was tossed backward in time" to estimate dates of previous events. 

The proto-Mayans began using a base 20 counting system, most likely while still in La Gruta cave in eastern El Salvador, i.e. 9000 or 9500 BC. The counting system of bars and dots shown on Mayan Classic-period stella were likely sticks and rocks in the beginning. In the cave, the proto-Mayans were given a challenge, make the stars stand still and you will be liberated. While their liberation from the cave itself was likely a typical escape scene, even on the outside the Mayans were not able to be totally free from the rule of the cave dwellers until they could make the stars stand still, in order to win over the respect of the underlings, the "manikins" as the Popol Vuh states, of the cave leaders.

The proto Mayans would have noticed that at least three stars (planets) did stand still and move backward - Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, and maybe Saturn as well. They might have noticed Mercury but it is never high above the horizon and is hard to see, especially in a hilly landscape.

Venus has a synodic period - the length of time from one retrograde motion until the next retrograde motion - of about 584 days. One could track Venus with 73 8-day weeks, and eventually the Mayans probably did this. But 584 is not evenly divisible by 20, so it was not possible to predict its retrograde motion with a base 20 system.

Jupiter has a synodic period of just under 399 days. That is close to 20 20-day weeks, but is not close enough to being evenly divisible by 20 to serve as a long-count calendar. Saturn has a synodic period of 378 days and is close to 19 20-day weeks, but, like Jupiter, would not serve as a long-count calendar.

Mars has a synodic period of 779.96 days. This is almost exactly 39 20-day weeks. Embedded within that 780 day cycle are three 260 day segments, and this likely gave rise to the 260 tzolkin calendar, with 13 20-day weeks in each segment. At some point very early, perhaps when they also began tracking the tides which have a 13 to 14 day pattern in El Salvador, this was switched to 20 13-day weeks. 

The three 260 day segments are:

1. Middle night to evening star: station (turn) retrograde, retrograde, station direct, direct
2. Evening star to invisible: evening star, heliacal setting, invisible (conjunct Sun)
3. Morning to middle night star: heliacal rising, morning star, to middle night star

Based on the characteristic of the week in relation to the first segment, the retrograde period, the weeks of the tzolkin can be placed in four groups. Mars always stations retrograde within the same 52 day span (4 13-day weeks) of the tzolkin, Group 'A' in the table below. And it stations direct each time within the same 52 day span, Group 'C', below.

The following table describes how the four groupings of weeks fall within the three 260-day cycles of Mars. Note: I will use the following convention when referring to day signs (Chorti/Quiche/Yucatec/Aztec/English). The four weeks mentioned below are: Cimin/Kame/Kimi/Miquiztli/Tapir; Tahsib/Tijax/Ets'nab/Tecpatl/Flint stone; Kanoa/K'at/K'an/Cuetzpallin/Canoe; and Kilis/Ajmak/Kib/Cozcacuauhtli/Falcon.

Phase . . . . 1. Middle night to evening star 2. Evening star to invisible 3. Morning to middle night star		Group A Second half of Cimin to first half of Tahsib 52 days . Turns retrograde . Evening star . . Heliacal rising		Group B Second half of Tahsib to first half of Kanoa 26 days . Always retrograde . Early evening star . Morning star		Group C Second half of Kanoa to first half of Kilis 52 days Turns direct . Heliacal setting . Early morning star		Group D Second half of Kilis to first half of Cimin 130 days Late evening star . Invisible or briefly visible Middle of night star

The key driver of the Mars calendar is the station retrograde. When Mars is ready to turn retrograde it rises in the late evening - between 8:30 pm and 10:00 pm. Because Mars' orbit is highly elliptical it probably took some to track it with the calendar. The elliptical nature of Mars' orbit is due, in part, to the gravitational pull of the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Visually this is located at the dark spot in the middle of the Milky Way, the 'void', which is, literally, a large black hole.

When Mars stations (turns) retrograde opposite the center of the galaxy, i.e., in Taurus or Gemini, its retrograde station occurs very late in the tzolkin, but when it stations retrograde in Scorpio or early Sagittarius the retrograde station occurs very early in the tzolkin. It's important to use the tropical zodiac rather than the sidereal zodiac since the impacting force is the center of the galaxy not individual stars which are precessing through the galaxy's elliptic. Every 7th or 8th Mars' synodic period, every 15 to 17 years, will produce a retrograde in Scorpio or early Sagittarius.

A Mars station retrograde is considered significant in the calendar when it moves the Mars calendar backward by one day. For example, on March 24, 1952, the Mars retrograde station occurred on 8 Ak/Aj/Ben/Acatl/Reed (the 8th day of Cimin/Kame/Kimi/Miquiztli/Tapir week). It was a significant retrograde since previously the calendar was set on 9 Ix/Ix/Ix/Ocelotl/Earth (the 9th day of Cimin week). Considering for the moment only Mars retrogrades that occurred in Scorpio or early Sagittarius, 15 years later, on March 7, 1967, Mars turned retrograde on 9 Ix (Cimin week); this was not significant. Seventeen years later, on April 4, 1984, Mars turned retrograde on 7 Ch'ak/Kan/Chikchan/Malinalli/Tooth (7th day of Cimin week); this was significant. Fifteen years later, on March 17, 1999, Mars turned retrograde again on 7 Ch'ak (Cimin week); this was not significant, since it did not lower the day in Cimin week. Today we are still at 7 Ch'ak on the Mars long count calendar.

Generally anytime that the Mars retrograde starts between March 19 and April 8, it will be a significant retrograde for the calendar. This corresponds to a location of Mars between 13 Scorpio and 0 Sagittarius.

There is a significant problem with the Mars retrograde calendar - it is extremely sensitive to changes in either Earth's or Mars' orbit. For example, if the synodic period of Mars changes from 779.96 days to 779.92 days, it will essentially cut in half the length of time that it takes the calendar to go through one 13-day week, from 675 years to 338 years. And Mars' orbit did shorten, moving slightly closer to the sun 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, and its synodic period is now closer to 779.94 days. The Mayans may have discovered this between 500 BC and 200 AD.

Thus, the Mayans decided to replace it with the solar elliptic based long-count calendar. The Mayans tried to estimate the length of time it takes for one day to precede through the Mars retrograde calendar by constructing the calendar round, which consists of 73 tzolkins, 52 365-day years, or 51.9644 Julian years.

How did the proto-Mayans keep track of time for thousands of years? I guess that they did it by body painting, body piercing, and scarring. It would have been necessary to track only two calendars: the tzolkin and the Mars calendar date, in order to keep track of the Mars long count.

The tzolkin, which changed each day, was likely tracked in a non-permanent way, such as with body paint on people's toes and fingers. I'm not sure how the name of the day was tracked, perhaps early glyphs were used or perhaps each day name had a number associated with it.

The Mars long count itself was most likely tracked with piercings or scarring, since a change in the count would occur only every 30 to 60 years. This was probably done only on the shaman-astronomers themselves. They probably used the body parts least likely to be lost - the face, chest, and abdomen. In fact, I think that the later practice by the priests of cutting themselves on the ear or genitalia was a symbolic reference back to the days when shaman kept track of the Mars long count in that manner. When a new shaman was being initiated part of the initiation was to repeat the scarring or the piercing of the outgoing shaman so that the historical record was not lost.

When Mars rose an hour or two after sunset, i.e. about to turn retrograde, and nearing the center of the galaxy, several days of celebration would ensue as people waited to see if it heralded a new calendar day. The shamans were able to predict the exact date of the retrograde motion by seeing how close Mars was to the center of galaxy when it was about to turn. The Popol Vuh describes precisely this "ball game" contest with the lords of Xibalba, when Hunahpu (Sutz') and Xbalanque (Ixbalamque) were in the razor room and made the razors stand still. (Tedlock, pg. 123). Note: the page numbers that I reference are from the Revised Edition, 1996, of Dennis Tedlock's English translation of the Popol Vuh.

The Popol Vuh appears to embed dates from the Mars long count calendar by using pairs of names and by using other symbols that appear to be placed in the narrative for no apparent reason. The most obvious pairing of names are "One Cimin, Seven Cimin" (Cimin/Kame/Kimi/Miquiztli/Tapir), "One Sutz', Seven Sutz'" (Sutz'/Junajpu/Ahaw/Xochitl/Lord or Bat), and "One Monkey, One Artisan" (Ma'x/B'atz'/Chuen/Ozomatli/Monkey) and (Manix/Kej/Manik'/Mazatl/Artisan). In the case of One Sutz', Seven Sutz', the Popol Vuh states (pg. 91) that Seven Sutz' "has no wife. He's just a partner and just secondary; he just remains a boy." That to me is a clue that it is a date reference rather than an actual person.

Because the calendar is moving backward through the signs, the week identifier does not start until the calendar is down to the first day of the week. For example, we are now in the 1 Makchan (Makchan/Kawuq/Kawak/Quiahuitl/Rainbow) week, which started with 1 Makchan and continues from the 13th to the 2nd day of Cimin week. This helps explain why the Mayans later used the last day of a time period to identify that period rather than the first day.

Prior to about 400 BC it took about 52 years for Mars to move backwards one day in tzolkin, since it is slightly less than 780 exact days. This would be the equivalent of about 675 years, or about 948 tzolkin cycles, for it to cycle through one 13-day week. Using 675 years for the weeks prior to 430 BC and 440 years for the weeks after 430 BC, I constructed this first draft of the Mars Calendar dates.

Historic Era-Week in the Mars Calendar (Ch'orti/Quiche/Yucatec) 1 Ak/Aj/Ben 1 Sutz'/Junajpu/Ahaw 1 Manix/Kej/Manik' 1 Ix/Ix/Ix 1 Imix/Imox/Imix 1 K'ante'/Q'anil/Lamat 1 Sih Muahn/Tz'ikin/Men 1 Ik'/Iq'/Ik' 1 Tokar/Toj/Muluk 1 Kilis/Ajmak/Kib 1 Ak'bar/Aq'ab'al/Ak'bal 1 Tzi'/Tz'i'/Ok 1 Nok/No'j/Kaban 1 Kanoa/K'at/K'an 1 Ma'x/B'atz'/Chuen 1 Tahsib/Tijax/Ets'nab 1 Chan/Kan/Chikchan 1 Ch'ak/E/Eb 1 Makchan/Kawuq/Kawak

Approximate Start Date 9200 BC 8500 BC 7900 BC 7200 BC 6500 BC 5800 BC 5200 BC 4500 BC 3800 BC 3100 BC 2500 BC 1800 BC 1100 BC 430 BC 10 AD 450 AD 900 AD 1337 AD 1779 AD

It may take another look at the original Quiche text of the Popol Vuh to tease out more of the embedded Mars long count dates. The repeated references to "One Cimin, Seven Cimin", which Tedlock translates as "One Death, Seven Death", may refer to the date that the Mayan and other people liberated themselves from the cave. Seven Cimin would occur about halfway between 1 Ak and 1 Sutz', which would be about 8800 BC, using the calendar above.

The date 7 Sutz' (Sutz'/Junajpu/Ahaw/Xochitl/Lord or Bat) also appears to be an embedded date which refers to two occurrences. The first, on pages 96-97, is One Sutz' (leader of all four Mayan clans) making a mistake when predicting the motion of a planet - most likely Venus, following Tedlock's note. One Sutz' is beheaded and his head stuck on a tree at the crossroads. But the Popol Vuh states that his death was not in vain, the Mayans learned from it in terms of becoming better predictors of planetary motion. His sacrifice helped to later save the Mayan people. One Sutz's head then becomes a calabash, a squash. This may be indicating that the Mayan people first domesticated the squash at this same time. The date 7 Sutz' falls about halfway between 1 Manix and 1 Ix or at 7500 BC. This date is certainly plausible for the first domestication of squash.

It will take more careful reading of the Popol Vuh, as well as other ancient texts and glyphs on monuments and stella, to determine if there are more embedded Mars retrograde long counts. I continue to look for a more accurate ephemeris - please let me know if any of you readers know a good source that dates back to 9000 BC.

The Rooms and Colors of the Corinto Cave

The Mayans, and by extension, many other people, emerged from a cave called Xibalba, a place of great suffering. We know that this cave is not just allegorical, due to the fact that the word Xibalba means, 'those men who are afraid of water' and that the Mayans fled eventually to islands, including Teopan and Teotipa in far western El Salvador. Teopan is located in Lago Coatepeque whose name in Chorti was Tammakchan, 'deep inside the rainbow', where rainbow means 'stopping up the rainstorm'. On the islands the Mayans perfected corn by hybridizing it with teosinte grass, which means 'plants in a row on an island'.

By looking up place names in the online Chorti' Maya dictionary, I have been able to locate a cave in eastern El Salvador called La Gruta del Espíritu Santo near the town of Corinto. Corinto means 'place of game sacrifice' in Chorti Maya. Before moving on to what the Popol Vuh says happened to the civilizing people once they left the cave of Xibalba, it will be helpful to describe the cave. All of the people who can trace some of their lineage back to the Mayans will share some of these specific cultural icons.

The Popol Vuh describes five sections in the cave, the first being the Dark 'House', which appears to be where the leaders stayed as well as guests. Next is the Razor House, perhaps in reference to pointed rocks or stalagmites. Then is the Cold or Whistling House, in obvious reference to a draft that whistles as it blows in. This area would have been several degrees colder then during the Ice Age period. The next room is the Jaguar House. As I mentioned in a previous post this might refer to those who will later be forced to fight for the entertainment of the cave leaders. Finally is the Bat House, which is probably a literal reference to an area where bats flew around.

The Popol Vuh tells us that three of the four original Mayan came out of the Jaguar House and I will demonstrate that one also came out of the Bat House. In some versions of the Popol Vuh description there is a sixth fire or smoke house, an obvious reference to a cooking space. The cave people would have kept a constant fire going since it was so difficult to start a fire. Consistent with the Popol Vuh, the Bradshaw Foundation documented that the cave consists of several galleries or sections.

The Bradshaw Foundation also says that there are five paint colors on the cave drawings in the cave. These are the same five colors mentioned throughout the Popol Vuh and to this day used by the Mayans in their ceremonies: white, black, yellow, red, and green. My guess is that the colors represented clans or groups of leaders.

When the Popol Vuh mentions the roads to Xibalba and calls them the white, black, yellow, and red roads, it may be the road for which a particular color clan is responsible for controlling. Later, probably after the Mayans left the cave, green paint was added in the cave. It is only in a later passage of the Popol Vuh that the green road is mentioned. The green road is the one of choice. This would seem to be a reference to going off-road, through the woods, to avoid the Xibalba marauders. Even today one can hear Central Americans make a joke about taking the green road when going off a beaten path.

Raphael Girard, who lived among the Chortis for a long time, documented a near-forgotten play called 'the History' performed at Christian feast days very close to the summer and winter solstice celebrations. In the play, the Mayans are opposed to a white giant and a black giant. And move around as if stars and planets. The Mayan 'king' has a gold crown with ten points, a yellow cloak, rose or red trousers, and a blue 'bonnet' with a long (30 cm) red veil hanging over his face. There are other solar and celestial symbols on his clothing. First the white and black giants battle each other, with the black giant winning. In the end the Mayan king is able to defeat the black giant.

While Girard considers this to be entirely metaphor, I believe it corresponds to glimmers of human history: that the white giant represents the leader(s) of the humans as they crossed over the Bering Strait. That as they progressed down toward Central America, there was a struggle for power and that the black giant represents the victor clan which established a legacy of control over the entire traffic of the isthmus between North and South America, the Central American isthmus. The black giant clan had their base out of the Gruta cave in Corinto, El Salvador.

The Bradshaw Foundation found that some of the drawings had feathered headdresses. Some had an elongated left wrist - perhaps a club reference. At the very deepest point in the cave is a large black and white hand, using the black rock with white paint stenciled around it. The symbol of those who controlled the cave.

This cultural reference also existed in El Salvador until recently. During the 1970s, prior to the armed conflict in El Salvador, the death squads used the drawing of either a black or white hand, 'El Mano', to identify the house of somebody that they intended to kill. When your house was selected it was said that you were fingered out.

It appears from the references in the Popol Vuh of lights, fireflies, and torches that the Mayans were able to demonstrate knowledge of the heavenly skies to the Xibalbans. The Xibalbans counter with their own somewhat simple knowledge of the skies, a white dagger, which I would guess is the sun. It would appear that although the Xibalbans may have been cruel, they were intelligent.

Ultimately it was a test of knowledge rather than a test of strength, that allowed the Mayans to free themselves of the cave. Each time that they visit the cave it is for several days and there are references to staying up all night. This would have been necessary to watch the night skies, in order for the Mayans to demonstrate their prowess of astronomical knowledge.

It would appear that the specific knowledge that the Mayans developed that allowed their freedom was the ability to track Mars and predict when it would turn retrograde in the sky.

One can imagine the conversation, "We don't need to do anything differently. The sun will come up tomorrow. That is our reality. Why sit there and count to 20 by painting on your fingers and toes. See our hand, this is our counting. If you think you have a better system than us, go back where you came from. If you think you're so hot, make the stars stand still."

In the razor room the razors are moving back and forth but the Mayans are able to make the razors stand still. This was done by developing the 260 day calendar and the Mars long-count calendar. It was not brute force but an astronomical calendar, pulled by the gravitational force of the center of the galaxy, the void in the Milky Way, the tree of life in the sky, that led to the liberation of one of the world's earliest people. This is the 'ball game equipment' of the Mayans. Game on!

Entering the Underworld Hell - a Look at the Cave Beginnings of Xibalba

It is not by accident that I reached the point in my series on El Salvador indigenous history and got stuck at 600 AD, with the description of Joya de Cerén, the Pompeii-like Mayan classical site which was frozen in time following a volcanic eruption which covered the farming village. The next topics to cover - the spectacular building of Cihuatán in the mid 8th century, its violent destruction about 100 years later, and then the arrival of the Pipiles from Mexico - did not make sense. The Pipiles, for example, told early Spanish chroniclers that they resettled in El Salvador as a form of retribution against all the Olmecas for causing them so much suffering. How does that fit? The Olmecs were from the Gulf of Mexico coast of Veracruz and Tabasco. And who would have attacked Cihuatán in such a fashion? The Pipiles did not have that military capacity.

That is why I have needed to take a big step back and look at the history of corn and the world of the cave dwellers. The history of corn has included an examination of the distribution of teosinte as a place name which was found to be centered in the Guatemala-Honduras-El Salvador triangle area (i.e. Chorti Maya area). Then by determining that teo means 'island' in Chorti' Maya, it was possible to see that teosinte, in fact, means 'plants in a row on an island'. The two islands of Lago Coatepeque ('serpent hill lake') and Lago Güija ('navel' or 'source' lake), both in western El Salvador, were used to continually hybridize corn with teosinte from a variety of local sites. Corn had undergone significant hybridization by 1500 BC, therefore these two islands are extremely early Mayan agricultural sites, i.e. pre-Pre-Classic.

And now the cave. The Popol Vuh offers a very detailed view of Xibalba, the underworld, the cave that the Mayans came out of. Dennis Tedlock, in his very good translation of the Popol Vuh into English, states that the first part of Xibalba means 'fright'. That's an important clue. Xibalba is an evil place, as described in the Popol Vuh, perhaps similar to Hades. Tedlock translates the leaders' names as One Death and Seven Death. Other leaders are called Demon of Pus, Blood Gatherer, Demon of Jaundice, Bone Scepter, Skull Scepter, and so on. You get the picture. And this is men describing Xibalba - you can only imagine what life was like for the women.

The Xibalbans did not just stay in the cave. The Popol Vuh discusses the road(s) to Xibalba as crossing various rivers, but especially mentions Pus River and Blood River, and says that they were traps put there by the Xibalbans. Given the leader names of Demon of Pus and Blood Gatherer, it is clear that the Xibalbans used rivers to ambush people and keep control of the roads, as is typical in "pre-civilized" societies. They controlled the countryside.

In Chorti' Maya, which is the oldest and purest Mayan language and the language of the inscriptions at Tikal and most Classic-era sites, xib is a plural male pronoun, as in 'those men of' or 'those men who'. It is pronounced similar to 'she' in English, with a 'b' at the end. But xib also correlates with the syllable xi. To show the impact of xi in the Mayan psyche or culture, it is helpful to see how it shows up in various words, with meanings in English:

• baxi        'pull out'
• haxi        'roll into a twist'
• ha'xi       'snare with a rope'
• hixi         'pull off with the fingers'
• huxi        'pluck'
• k'uxi       'gnaw on'
• muxi       'grind on the metate'
• see quxi  'lay an egg'

Following Tedlock's lead, in Chorti' the middle syllable is ba'k' which means 'fear' or 'fright'. The 'a' at the end could be ah, as in 'one who does'. But that is only used as a prefix in Chorti', not a suffix. The closest suffix sound is ha, which means 'water'. So Xi-ba'k'-ha means 'men who make water afraid' or more likely 'men who are afraid of water'. This is a derogatory name, something seen over and over again in the names of one's enemies in the Popol Vuh.

But more importantly, putting it together with the fact that some of the earliest Mayan settlements were built on islands, a very clear picture comes about. The earliest Mayans escaped from Xibalba, were pursued, and were only safe after entering water and swimming to safety to islands, because xibakha, the men were afraid of water. The islands were the only place that the Mayans were safe from the xibakha reign of terror. This is made even clearer by the Chorti' verb 'to swim', which is luhxih, giving a directional reference point, i.e. away from xih.

I write this as tears fall down my face. One can only understand the meaning of Xibalba if one understands El Mozote massacre, the Rio Sumpul massacre, the matanza of indigenous of 1932, the nearly 200,000 Guatemalan indigenous killed in the 1980s, the suffering caused by the US government in Central America, the repression of anti-coup leaders in Honduras, and the current murders against Salvadoran anti-mining activists. And then learn to swim.

I recently wrote about various caves in the Mesoamerica region, including La Gruta del Espíritu Santo cave in eastern El Salvador. The Popol Vuh also offers clues regarding the location of Xibalba. The Popol Vuh describes two early Mayan leaders being killed at Xibalba and buried nearby at 'Place of Ball Game Sacrifice'. The Popol Vuh was written in Quiche. Some of the words and syllables have changed from the original, which would have been Chorti' or very close to Chorti'. In Quiche, the 'Place of Ball Game Sacrifice' is Pusb'al cha'j. But let's look at it in Chorti'.

In Chorti', just as in English, there is a connection between the words used for hunted animals and a ball game. In Chorti' korom is hunted animals and kor is ball or pellet. Perhaps the subjects of the Xibalban lords were actually forced to "play" each other, as wild animals, to the death. This may have been both a form of entertainment and a means of population control. The naming of one of the rooms or houses in Xibalba as 'jaguar room' gives this connotation. This interpretation also would be consistent with the evolution of the later ball game fields at Mayan Pre-Classic and Classic sites.

In addition to kor, 'place' is irah, and 'sacrifice' is toy. So the full name would be kor-irah-toy. Two kilometers from La Gruta del Espíritu Santo cave is the town of Corinto. Further confirmation of this connection is the word for 'game place' in Chorti', koromtar.

This placement of Xibalba is consistent with the Popol Vuh. The early Mayans in the Popol Vuh always traveled east from their homes to Xibalba when summoned by the lords there. The Xibalba cave is in northeast El Salvador and one of the roads to Xibalba went from Isla Teopán and Isla Teotipa in west and northwest El Salvador. But the Popol Vuh makes it clear that there were four Mayan clans that escaped from Xibalba. And it turns out that they each went to a different island to escape the men afraid of water.

1 Mono, 1 Goriletti, Líder Corrupto de 3200 A.C.

Hoy dia es 1 Mono en el calendario maya de 260 dias, el tzolkin. Es el dia de "Goriletti", como es conocido el político hondureño, Roberto Michiletti, que tomó poder despues del golpe del estado el 28 de junio. En el Popol Vuh los monos son asociados con el tercer Tiempo, o sea antes del año de 3114 antes de Cristo - que es la fecha iniciadora de este cuarto Tiempo de civilización de los chortis y los lencas.

En el Popol Vuh los lideres del tercer Tiempo son muy astutos y listos - descubrieron como hacer hamacas y redes, como curar los infermos. Pero son sin valores y la ética. Gente maliciosa. Es el Tiempo en la historia cuando se comenzó la práctica del sacrificio humano. El uso de la palabra 'Goriletti' por la Resistencia hondureña muestra que es muy bien enterrado de la cultura indígena que nunca ha sido borrada por los usurpadores.

Por fin, el Popol Vuh dice, los dos líderes corruptos son atraidos por los gemelos héroes, Hunahpu y Ixbaramque, al arbol madre de cacao (q'ante). Allí son bureados por los gemelos, y cambiados a ser monos, 1 Mono (m'ax) y 1 Artesano (manix). Así termina el tercer Tiempo, que tambien marca el comienzo del cuarto Tiempo de civilización.

El libro maya Chilam Balam de Chumayel dice que nueve dioses dan fin al Tercer Tiempo. El número nueve siempre es femenino por los maya. La diosa nueve crea mujeres sin familia, o sea diosas femeninas, que dan su vida por la gente sufrida para terminar el tercer Tiempo corrupto.

El pueblo es listo por dar fin al tercer Tiempo. ¡Qué llegue el cuarto! y la restoración de la democracia por medio de la Asamblea Constituyente. El Goriletti puede descansar en su hamaca muy bien hecha.

Transforming the Gods

The beginnings of the Mayan religion were tumultuous. As the Chortis, the Mayans along the Pacific Coast, became more adept at agriculture - hybridizing corn, beans, and squash, and introducing yuca (manioc), peanuts, and cacao from areas to the south - adoration was given to Mother Earth, ix, who provided all good things. The Chortis named corn, ixim, which means something similar to 'fruit of Mother Earth'. Corn came from teosinte, ixim ka, 'wild fruit of Mother Earth'. 

But as people ate more corn, a disease appeared (pellegra - a niacin deficiency) and destroyed entire villages. Leaders became lesioned, weak, demented, and died. After many deaths, much sacrifice, the gods seemed to reveal a solution to help the Mayans overcome the awful disease - soaking corn in ash. A new creation narrative was developed to explain how this happened, gods were transformed, and new language was created.

While still female, Ix was transformed from mother earth to jaguar god, the spotted (lesioned) god that came from the underworld, the land of death. This was done through creating the legend of Ixbalanque - the spotted (lesioned) jaguar hero twin. Balan means jaguar - clearly the linking of ix and balan in this hero twin was a way of transforming this god from the generous and beneficent Mother Earth to the clever and death-dealing jaguar. Likewise, it is likely that at this time Ixbalba, also written Xibalba, came to mean 'the underworld'. The new theology and philosophy was carried with the Mayans to help convince neighboring peoples to trust their new discovery of the cure for the diseased corn. And it clearly worked, as civilization spread at a tremendous pace from 1500 to 1300 BC.

Everyday language was transformed as well. A new word was created for corn, nar, to differentiate it from the diseased corn, ixim, the corn of the jaguar god. The term nixtamal, the process of soaking corn in ash or lime, was created and means "to cure the corn of the disease ix." Ix refers to pellegra, the disease of spots, the disease of the lesioned jaguar god of death. Nir means 'to cure' in Chorti and nian means 'none' or 'not any'.

The Popol Vuh, Theology in a Time of Disease

[Este mismo cuento en español.]

I have discussed how the early Chorti Mayans of coastal El Salvador and Guatemala discovered or highlighted the discovery of soaking corn in ash in about 1500 BC, and their promotion of this discovery led to one of the fastest civilization expansions in the history of the pre-modern world.

However, this expansion was only possible with an ideology or theology attached to it. By about 1700 BC, the Chortis were rapidly advancing due to improved agriculture from constantly improving corn and bean production through selective hybridization. In addition, their efficiency at fishing and ocean harvesting was greatly enhanced by their discovery of the 13 to 14 day tidal cycle, which led to the creation of the Tzol'kin calendar.

Finally, their correlation of eclipses with 52-day periods of slack tides and very poor fishing, allowed them to begin long trade journeys to central Mexico, the Veracruz coast, the Peten, and the Yucatan without missing out much on the best fishing. On these trade trips, the Chortis, the master agriculturalists, were always pushing the latest corn hybrid and encouraging more corn production. Corn seed from the most recent harvest was likely one of their major trade products on these trips.

Yet, by 1500 BC or just before then, they faced a major crisis in the legitimacy of their leadership. That was because the very same Chorti elite, those who consumed the most corn, were becoming diseased. They became weak and they became lesioned, with bloody sores all over their bodies. Not only that, but the people in their communities and the people who they convinced to give up hunting and gathering and produce more corn were also becoming diseased. They didn't know yet about pellegra (also called pellagra), the disease caused by niacin deficiency common among those who rely on corn as a staple in the diet.

But due to this disease, throughout Mesoamerica people were rejecting Mayan leadership, rejecting corn and the agricultural lifestyle, and reverting to hunting and gathering. Neighboring peoples who relied on hunting were defeating the weakened Mayan and mocking their diseased leaders. No doubt, civilization was delayed by hundreds of years by pellegra. The Chortis had discovered what seemed to be a cure, but many did not believe them. That is, they did not believe until the Mayans developed a story, a narrative, that explained meaning and truth, despite the scourge of pellegra. This narrative is best described by the Popol Vuh, the sacred text relayed by the Quiche after the arrival of the Spanish.

The early chapters of the Popol Vuh read like a description of the symptoms of pellegra and in each case the conclusion is that the creator beings failed. That is, it wasn't the fault of the people who became diseased nor was it the fault of the Mayan leaders who promoted a new lifestyle. One chapter describes humans who were dry, with no sweat and no blood. Dry is also a word meaning extreme skinniness in Mesoamerica and weight loss and weakness is one symptom of pellegra. Another chapter describes the rain washing away the substance of the skin and organs of the humans - a symptom of pellegra is the wasting away of the skin.

Yet another chapter goes into horrid detail of symptoms of dementia, with the animals speaking back to the humans, even the corn grinding stones - the metates and manos - speaking back and saying that they would grind up those who usually did the grinding. Dementia is one of the advanced symptoms of pellegra.

The Popol Vuh explains that all of these attempts to create human beings failed. A new attempt to create humans was made and it was successful. In this way, the Mayan creation story is parallel to the Poton Lenca creation story of central and eastern El Salvador that I have already described. Ixbalanque, one of the hero twins (the other is Hunahpú) in the Popol Vuh, represents the diseased leader who had lesions all over his body.

By associating this hero, Ixbalanque, with the jaguar, the most powerful animal in the Mesoamerican ecosystems, but also an animal with spots (similar to lesions), the Mayans were legitimizing their diseased leadership. The jaguar people are the powerful people with the lesioned leadership. Many people had to die before the gods revealed the secret of corn soaking, thus the concept of sacrifice was incorporated into the cosmology.

Most importantly, the Popol Vuh reassures people that it is not the fault of the people in the first agricultural villages that they were hearing voices, that they were lesioned, that they were weak and dying. Nor is it the fault of the corn or the agricultural way of life. Rather, it was the fault of the creator beings. Now they had finally succeeded with a new being, a being made of corn dough, corn that has been cured of the disease by soaking it in ash. The narrative of the Popol Vuh helped to convince both the Chorti Maya villagers and neighboring peoples to trust the diseased Chorti leadership and to accept the strange new practice, sent by the gods, of soaking corn in ashes.

[PostScript, Jan. 27, 2010. To remember those who died in this epidemic and to give thanks for the one true answer to overcoming it, the Mayans put a touch of ash on their foreheads.]

It Took a Directiva to Create the World

One of the surviving creation stories from El Salvador is the Lenca creation story. It is a story about Akú, the creator who is frustrated in his/her efforts to create the world. Nothing seems to go right while Akú is working alone. But as soon as Akú forms a council, the Kanel, or directiva, he/she begins to make progress. In fact, each Kanel is given a consort. I read this to be a directiva. So, not only does Akú create a directiva but then each directiva (Kanel) member is part of a directiva themselves.

After five days of fruitless work, Akú created the four divine beings that were collectively called, Kanel to assist in surveying the measurements of the first square of the universe called Anamerike or Ajkmerike. The task was so great that an assisting consort was created for each one of them. Together, they celebrated council and after meditating on the task at hand, in unanimity they decided to create a circle of time.

This is so Salvadoran! If you can’t get something done, call a meeting. For those of you not familiar with the rural organized communities of El Salvador, such as those of CRIPDES, let’s just say that directivas kick butt. They get things done. One person in charge of each thing happening in the community and each one representing a certain portion of the community. The directiva brings the community together and organizes the collective action, whether that is working in the fields, forcing the army to leave the community, or campaigning against domestic violence.

I really like how the Lenca creator is not able to create the world, at least not right away. Akú tries many different things until finally something – the directiva – works. The story provides some clues to the most valued attributes among the Lenca: humility, patience, experimentation, teamwork. “Akú made a mountain but this crumbled on itself.” How many creation stories include such a clear admittance of failure. The Lenca are not afraid to fail, to learn, to try again, this time with a team.

First posted, Dec. 9, 2009 on BlogBox