Giant Serpent. Chichan (Ch'orti'), Kan (Quiche), Chikchan (Yucatec), Coatl (Aztec). When the Mesoamerican ancestors, including the Maya, arrived in El Salvador in about 8700 BCE they were quickly captured by the Xibalbha, symbolized by the daysign 7 Chamer (Death) in the Mars retrograde calendar. The Mayan ancestors escaped and made their way the conjunction of the Lempa and Torola Rivers. They were somewhat safe because the Xibalbha could not swim and if they approached the Mayan ancestors would retreat into the Lempa River.
After several years they found a better spot - the Tecapa volcano, which had both a crater lake they could retreat into and a protective ring of the volcano, which they named the chichan, the giant serpent. They named the day sign that followed 7 Chamer in the Mars retrograde calendar, 6 Chichan, to honor the protective ring of the volcano that surrounded them, protecting them from their Xibalbha enemies. (The Mars retrograde calendar goes backward through the tzolk'in at the average pace of one sign per 26 years.)
The next time that the Chichan sign was indicated in the Mars retrograde calendar was about 8130 BCE and the four Mesoamerican lineages, including the Maya, had each moved to an island home. Three of the four island homes were in lakes surrounded by a ring of mountains: Guija, Coatepeque, and Olomega. The protective ring of the mountains looked
like the body of a giant serpent forming a ring around the lake. This was especially true of Coatepeque (right). In the case of Tehuacan, where the Zapotec ancestors lived, the island was in the middle of the Lempa River near its Pacific Ocean mouth. For the Zapotec ancestors, the Lempa River was the giant serpent that protected them.
Later in 7836 BCE when the San Diego volcano erupted at Guija causing a mudslipe, flood and tzuhnami, some of the imagery of the giant serpent may have changed to that of dragon.
Chichan is the merging of the elements of earth and water. It signifies unity as a ring and protection. Mohandas Ghandi was born on a Chichan date and the United Nations became effectively operational on a Chichan date.
Chichan is opposite Tz'ikin - Clay and Sticks - in the tzolk'in. In 130 days, one-half the tzolk'in, we arrive at 1 Tz'ikin. Tz'ikin looks back at human evolution, the origin of people, the suffering of people. The protective ring of Chichan allows us to look to the future.
In the Mars retrograde calendar the date associated with 1 Chichan is 3336 BCE.
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