Part 2 (1/2)
Figure 10.
The night of the winter solstice, the longest of the year, yielded alone a symmetrical figure. It resembled the well-known triskelion, the companion-symbol of the swastika (figs. 10 and 11). Just as this had proved to be the most natural of year symbols, so the triskelion revealed itself as a natural sign of the winter solstice, the period recognized and celebrated by most inhabitants of the northern hemisphere as the turning-point of the year. In a climate like that of Mexico and Central America, however, where the year divided itself naturally into a dry and a rainy season, it is evident that the winter solstice would be less observed and that the ardently-desired recurrence of the rainy season, after a long and trying period of drought, should be regarded as the annual event of utmost importance. Indeed, if carefully looked into, the entire religious cult of these people seems to express but one great struggling cry to the G.o.d of Nature for life-giving rain, and a hymn of thanksgiving for the annual, precious, but uncertain gift of water.
[Ill.u.s.tration.]
Figure 11.
To these supplicants the winter solstice betokened little or nothing and it is not surprising to find no proofs of the employment of the triskelion as a sacred symbol in ancient Mexico. On the other hand, it has been traced by Mr. Willoughby on pottery from Arkansas, and in Scandinavia, where the circ.u.mpolar constellations have doubtlessly been observed from remote times, and the winter solstice has ever been hailed as the herald of coming spring, the triskelion is often found a.s.sociated with the swastika.
[Ill.u.s.tration.]
Figure 12.
I am indebted to Prof. Thomas Wilson's work already cited for the two following ill.u.s.trations of objects exhibiting this a.s.sociation. The first is a spearhead found in Brandenburg, Germany (fig. 12). The second is a bronze brooch from Scandinavia, to which I shall presently revert (fig.
13). It exhibits, besides the triskelion, swastika and circle, the S-shaped figure which was, as I shall show further on, the sign actually employed by the ancient Mexicans and Mayas as the image of the constellation Ursa Minor, whose outline it indeed effectually reproduces.
Before referring to the Mexican and Maya representations of the star-group, I would next demonstrate that the sacred numbers of Mexico, and of other countries situated in the northern hemisphere, coincide exactly with the number of stars in the circ.u.mpolar constellations themselves and in simple combinations of the same.
Ursa Major and Ursa Minor each contains seven stars, and the number seven is the most widely-spread sacred number. Ancient traditions record that the race inhabiting Mexico consisted of seven tribes who traced their separate origins to seven caves, situated in the north. In memory of these, at the time of the Conquest, there were seven places of sacrifice in the city of Mexico. I shall recur to the number seven further on, in discussing the native social organization, and now direct attention to the five stars of Ca.s.siopeia and to the fact that the combination of the stars in this constellation with Polaris and Ursa Major yields the number thirteen. This result is specially interesting since the entire Calendar-system of Mexico and Yucatan is based on the combination of the numerals 13+7=20, the latter again being 45.
[Ill.u.s.tration.]
Figure 13.
On the other hand the same number, 13, is also obtained by the combination of the Ursae star-groups with Polaris. The number 5 is constantly yielded by Ca.s.siopeia and the four-fold repet.i.tions of the groups supply the suggestion of the number 4. The combination of Ursa Minor and Ca.s.siopeia yields 12. The accompanying figure exhibits swastikas composed of Ursa Minor accompanied by Ursa Major and Ca.s.siopeia separated and combined (fig. 14). I next direct attention to the peculiar difference in the numerical values of the Ursae swastikas.
In the first, the central star, surrounded by four repet.i.tions of the seven-star constellation, yielded a total of twenty-nine stars-4x5+9.
Further combinations will be seen by a glance at the Ursa Major swastika (fig. 4). The a.n.a.lysis of the Ursa Minor swastika is not so simple and occasions a certain perplexity.
When I had first combined the four positions of this constellation, I had, naturally, and without further thought, figured Polaris but once, as the fixed centre, whereas I had repeated the other stars of the compact group four times. It was not until I began to count the stars in the swastika that I realized how I had, unconsciously, made one central star stand for four, and thus deprived the composite group of the numerical value of three stars. On the other hand, if I repeated the entire constellation four times, I obtained a swastika with four repet.i.tions of Polaris in the middle. In this way, however, Polaris became displaced, and the idea of a fixed centre was entirely lost. A third possible method of composing the swastika was to allow one central star for each cross-arm. But this gave two central stars, each of which would represent two stars. Unless enclosed in a circle and considered as a central group by themselves, the four and the two repet.i.tions of Polaris could not convey the idea of a pivot or fixed centre. The three respective numerical values obtained from these experimental combinations were 46+1=25, 47=28, and finally 213 or 46+2=26. In each swastika the central star forcibly stood for and represented two or four (fig. 15).
[Ill.u.s.tration.]
Figure 14.
In the triskelions the same perplexity arose: if Polaris was repeated, the idea of a fixed centre was lost (fig. 15); if figured singly, it nevertheless necessarily and inevitably stood as an embodiment of three stars. Reasoning from my own experience, I could but perceive, in the foregoing facts, a fruitful and constant source of mental suggestions, the natural outcome of which would be the a.s.sociation of the central star with an enhanced numerical value, and a familiarity with the idea of one star being an embodiment of two, three or four.
[Ill.u.s.tration.]
Figure 15.
As the evolution of religious thought and symbolism progressed, this idea would obviously lead to the conception of a single being uniting several natures in his person. In this connection it is certainly extremely interesting to find the serpent a.s.sociated with the Calendar in Mexico and Yucatan, its Nahuatl name being h.o.m.onymous for twin, _i. e._ two, and the Maya for serpent, _can_ or _cam_, being h.o.m.onymous for the number four.
The serpent was, therefore, in both countries the most suggestive and appropriate symbol which could possibly have been employed in pictography, to convey the idea of dual or quadruple natures embodied in a single figure.(3) Added to this the circ.u.mstance that, to the native mind, the serpent, upon merely shedding its skin, lived again, we can understand why the ancient Mexicans not only employed it as a symbol of an eternal renewal or continuation of time and of life, but also combined it with the idea of fecundity and reproductiveness. In Yucatan where the Maya for serpent, _can_, is almost h.o.m.onymous with _caan_=sky or heaven and the adjective _caanlil_=celestial, divine, the idea of a divine or celestial serpent would naturally suggest itself. It is therefore not surprising to find, in both countries, the name of _serpent_ bestowed as a t.i.tle upon a supreme, celestial embodiment of the forces of nature and its image employed to express this a.s.sociation in objective form. In Yucatan one of the surnames of Itzamna, the supreme divinity, was Canil, a name clearly related to _caanlil_=divine and _can_=serpent.
In Mexico the duality and generative force implied by the word ”coatl” are clearly recognizable in the native invocations addressed to ”Our lord Quetzalcoatl the Creator and Maker or Former, who dwells in heaven and is the lord of the earth [Tlaltecuhtli]; who is our celestial father and mother, great lord and great lady, whose t.i.tle is Ome-Tecuhtli [literally, two-lord=twin lord] and Ome-Cihuatl [literally, two-lady=twin lady”]
(Sahagun, book VI, chaps. 25, 32 and 34).