Mayan Connections

Mayan Glyphic Writing (Left) and Mayan Glyph "Hunab Ku"(right). According to Mayan calendars on October 21, 2012, there will be an astronomical alignment of our sun and center of the Milky Way which will culminate on the winter solstice, December 21, 2012. On this date, the tail of the shadow serpent descending the northern steps of the pyramid at Chichenitza will be pointing exactly to the Pleiades star cluster which will be located straight over the structure.

As Melissa and I just returned from our Costa Maya trip, we were surprised at our old guide's photographic pictures of the precise solar alignments with the buildings architecture which occured on the winter solstice. Astronomers, architects and mathematicians were working toegher in a very organic and synergistic way with builders and the wider environment

The Mayas seemed to tie a lot their philosophy to what they observed in the heavens. They thought that the center of our galaxy was a "Cosmic Mother Womb" that gave birth to our world which went through cycles of birth, death and rebirth. October 21, 2012 will end one cycle and begin another. Perhaps this will be the time to visit Chichen Itza with the family for another vacation.

This weekend Melissa and I went to see Mel Gibson's Apocalypto for the opening night premiere. Apocalypto is a fascinating, beautiful, somewhat disturbing but also deeply metaphoric and realistic portrayal of the Maya shot incredibly and entirely in Yucatec Mayan. The landscape of the rainforest civilization is sublime. The movie begins with the quotation "A Great Civilization is not Conquered from Without Until It has Destroyed Itself from Within" (Will Durant).

I am currently finishing Micheal Coe's Breaking the Maya Code and about a quarter ways through Arthur Demarest's "Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization". Synergies.

Yuri Knorosov (b. Kharkiv, Ukraine),1922-1999, Key Paper in Breaking Maya Hieroglypic/Phonetic Code: 1952, "Drevnyaya pis’mennost’ Tsentral’noy Ameriki. (Ancient Writings of Central America)". Sovetskaya Etnografiya 3 (2): pp.100–118. Dresden Codex (1st 14 pages, 10 megs)

Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1909 -1985), Architect, Mayanist Scholar, Archeologist. Took her architectural training and turned this mathematical/drawing/imaginative ability and precision towards the ruins

Ruin Photograph, Proskouriakoff reconstruction