Post by 1dave on Feb 25, 2018 8:03:06 GMT -5
An interesting interpretation -
www.alignment2012.com/HOWWHY1994-2014.pdf
John Major Jenkins (1964- 2 July 2017)
www.alignment2012.com/HOWWHY1994-2014.pdf
John Major Jenkins (1964- 2 July 2017)May of 1994 was a busy month and a shift-point in the focus of my work.
Up to that point I had been primarily involved in elaborating and exploring the “Root Principle Cosmology” embedded in the Maya calendar and was just finishing my 1994 book called Jaloj Kexoj and Phi-64 (later reissued as Mayan Sacred Science in 2000). In addition, my 1992 book Tzolkin was just about to be reissued with Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (which happened in June, just in time for some presentations on a trip back to Chicago).
But something else was percolating up through my process. Since writing Tzolkin in 1991-1992 I had been chewing on the Long Count’s astronomical properties and trying to account for the fact that the cycle ending in 2012 fell on a solstice.
This required an ability to track the shifting seasonal quarters of the Tropical Year. In Tzolkin I shared a periodicity within the Long Count I had discovered, which easily could have been employed by the Maya to identify the December solstice on 13.0.0.0.0 in 2012. This method is reprinted in my 1994 “breakthrough” article, written in a few days May 21-23, 1994.
Up to that point I had been primarily involved in elaborating and exploring the “Root Principle Cosmology” embedded in the Maya calendar and was just finishing my 1994 book called Jaloj Kexoj and Phi-64 (later reissued as Mayan Sacred Science in 2000). In addition, my 1992 book Tzolkin was just about to be reissued with Borderland Sciences Research Foundation (which happened in June, just in time for some presentations on a trip back to Chicago).
But something else was percolating up through my process. Since writing Tzolkin in 1991-1992 I had been chewing on the Long Count’s astronomical properties and trying to account for the fact that the cycle ending in 2012 fell on a solstice.
This required an ability to track the shifting seasonal quarters of the Tropical Year. In Tzolkin I shared a periodicity within the Long Count I had discovered, which easily could have been employed by the Maya to identify the December solstice on 13.0.0.0.0 in 2012. This method is reprinted in my 1994 “breakthrough” article, written in a few days May 21-23, 1994.
When I was able to re-launch my EZCosmos program I tracked how the December solstice sun’s position was shifting with precession and aligning with the Crossroads in the years around 2012. Terence had pointed to the year 2000, but I realized that the process was slow, thus 2012 was within a zone of alignment. And, seeing that the alignment involved the astronomical features so important within the Maya Creation Myth, a eureka moment happened in which the pieces fell into place.
One important piece was that the December solstice sun was no doubt the primary Maya Sun Lord, the main Ahau guy, the father of the Hero Twins named One Hunahpu. I thus saw the Popol Vuh as a metaphor for precessional shifting. And at the end of the story, One Hunahpu gets resurrected or reborn, so they must have thought about 2012 as the rebirth of the world, or Era, when the sacrificed god was returned to, or reborn on, his throne. I was emboldened to read that a scholar of Mesoamerican literature, Gordon Brotherston, also considered the Popol Vuh to express a precessional World Age concept.
One important piece was that the December solstice sun was no doubt the primary Maya Sun Lord, the main Ahau guy, the father of the Hero Twins named One Hunahpu. I thus saw the Popol Vuh as a metaphor for precessional shifting. And at the end of the story, One Hunahpu gets resurrected or reborn, so they must have thought about 2012 as the rebirth of the world, or Era, when the sacrificed god was returned to, or reborn on, his throne. I was emboldened to read that a scholar of Mesoamerican literature, Gordon Brotherston, also considered the Popol Vuh to express a precessional World Age concept.
In my naïve way I felt the new breakthrough needed to be published ASAP and I began casting about for some magazine that might publish it. A friend told me that the offices for the Mountain Astrologer magazine were in Boulder. I looked them up and rode over on my bike.
They liked the idea and agreed to publish it in their December issue. And so it was done! But the real work had just begun. By August I was posing questions that would advance the investigation. Namely, when and where was the Long Count invented? I read in Michael Coe’s book that the “Izapan civilization” was likely involved in the formulation of the Long Count.
Izapa? I recalled passing through Izapa four years previously, on my way to Guatemala. It wasn’t that impressive. But I diligently searched the stacks at CU and was amazed to find the three hefty volumes from the BYU New World Archaeology reports. I recall pouring through them while house-sitting for a friend in September, and having another eureka moment when I realized that Stela 11 was showing the rebirth of One Hunahpu from the maw of the Dark Rift (the upturned frog-mouth glyph that means “to be born”). And I could see from the maps in the BYU book that Stela 11 faced the dawning December solstice sun along the horizon!
This was astounding confirmation for what I’d earlier suspected about One Hunahpu — in the oldest calendrical and mythological context, he was the December solstice Sun God, the First Father, the primary solar Lord of the Year. I was now armed with empirical evidence from the site that was relevant to the 2012 calendar’s origins.
They liked the idea and agreed to publish it in their December issue. And so it was done! But the real work had just begun. By August I was posing questions that would advance the investigation. Namely, when and where was the Long Count invented? I read in Michael Coe’s book that the “Izapan civilization” was likely involved in the formulation of the Long Count.
Izapa? I recalled passing through Izapa four years previously, on my way to Guatemala. It wasn’t that impressive. But I diligently searched the stacks at CU and was amazed to find the three hefty volumes from the BYU New World Archaeology reports. I recall pouring through them while house-sitting for a friend in September, and having another eureka moment when I realized that Stela 11 was showing the rebirth of One Hunahpu from the maw of the Dark Rift (the upturned frog-mouth glyph that means “to be born”). And I could see from the maps in the BYU book that Stela 11 faced the dawning December solstice sun along the horizon!
This was astounding confirmation for what I’d earlier suspected about One Hunahpu — in the oldest calendrical and mythological context, he was the December solstice Sun God, the First Father, the primary solar Lord of the Year. I was now armed with empirical evidence from the site that was relevant to the 2012 calendar’s origins.
My writings and presentations on my 2012 alignment reconstruction have obviously improved and evolved since 1994, but this article remains as the first expression of how the ancient Maya likely thought about 2012. This approach, always a concern of mine, was not how 2012 got branded in the marketplace (the doomsday meme got a boost from Cotterell and Gilbert’s flawed Mayan Prophecies book of 1995, which led to the solar flare hysteria courtesy of Lawrence Joseph’s Apocalypse 2012 book of 2006). The approach of reconstructing authentic Maya beliefs wasn’t even a concern of McKenna or Argüelles, who each had already presented their own models about 2012 (see Appendix 2).
Originally published in the Dec. '94 issue of Mountain Astrologer
Why did the ancient Mayan or pre-Maya choose December 21st, 2012 A.D., as the end of their Long Count calendar? This article will cover some recent research.
Scholars have known for decades that the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan "Long Count" system of timekeeping was set to end precisely on a winter solstice, and that this system was put in place some 2300 years ago.
This amazing fact - that ancient Mesoamerican skywatchers were able to pinpoint a winter solstice far off into the future - has not been dealt with by Mayanists.1
And why did they choose the year 2012?2
One immediately gets the impression that there is a very strange mystery to be confronted here. I will be building upon a clue to this mystery reported by epigrapher Linda Schele in Maya Cosmos (1993). This article is the natural culmination of the research relating to the Mayan Long Count and the precession of the equinoxes that I explored in my recent book Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies (Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, 1992/1994)
Why did the ancient Mayan or pre-Maya choose December 21st, 2012 A.D., as the end of their Long Count calendar? This article will cover some recent research.
Scholars have known for decades that the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan "Long Count" system of timekeeping was set to end precisely on a winter solstice, and that this system was put in place some 2300 years ago.
This amazing fact - that ancient Mesoamerican skywatchers were able to pinpoint a winter solstice far off into the future - has not been dealt with by Mayanists.1
And why did they choose the year 2012?2
One immediately gets the impression that there is a very strange mystery to be confronted here. I will be building upon a clue to this mystery reported by epigrapher Linda Schele in Maya Cosmos (1993). This article is the natural culmination of the research relating to the Mayan Long Count and the precession of the equinoxes that I explored in my recent book Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies (Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, 1992/1994)
The Mayan Long Count
Just some basics to get us started. The Maya were adept skywatchers. Their Classic Period is thought to have lasted from 200 A.D. to 900 A.D., but recent archeological
findings are pushing back the dawn of Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica. Large ruin sites indicating high culture with distinctly Mayan antecedents are being found in the jungles of Guatemala dating back to before the common era. And even before this, the Olmec civilization flourished and developed the sacred count of 260 days known as the tzolkin.
The early Maya adopted two different time keeping systems, the "Short Count" and the Long Count. The Short Count derives from combining the tzolkin cycle with the solar year and the Venus cycle of 584 days.3
In this way, "short" periods of 13, 52 and 104 years are generated. Unfortunately, we won't have occasion to dwell on the properties of the so-called Short Count system here. The Long Count system is somewhat more abstract, yet is also related to certain astronomical cycles. It is based upon nested cycles of days multiplied at each level by that key Mayan number, twenty:
Number of Days . . . . . . . Term
1 . . . . . . . .Kin (day)
20 . . . . . . . Uinal
360 . . . . . . .Tun
7200 . . . . . . Katun
144000 . . . . . Baktun
Notice that the only exception to multiplying by twenty is at the tun level, where the uinal period is instead multiplied by 18 to make the 360-day tun. The Maya employed this counting system to track an unbroken sequence of days from the time it was inaugurated. The Mayan scholar Munro Edmonson believes that the Long Count was put in place around 355 B.C. This may be so, but the oldest Long Count date as yet found corresponds to 32 B.C.4
We find Long Count dates in the archeological record beginning with the baktun place value and separated by dots. For example: 6.19.19.0.0 equals 6 baktuns, 19 katuns, 19 tuns, 0 uinals and 0 days. Each baktun has 144000 days, each katun has 7200 days, and so on. If we add up all the values we find that 6.19.19.0.0 indicates a total of 1007640 days have elapsed since the Zero Date of 0.0.0.0.0.5
The much discussed 13-baktun cycle is completed 1872000 days (13 baktuns) after 0.0.0.0.0. This period of time is the so called Mayan "Great Cycle" of the Long Count and equals 5125.36 years.6
But how are we to relate this to a time frame we can understand? How does this Long Count relate to our Gregorian calendar?
Just some basics to get us started. The Maya were adept skywatchers. Their Classic Period is thought to have lasted from 200 A.D. to 900 A.D., but recent archeological
findings are pushing back the dawn of Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica. Large ruin sites indicating high culture with distinctly Mayan antecedents are being found in the jungles of Guatemala dating back to before the common era. And even before this, the Olmec civilization flourished and developed the sacred count of 260 days known as the tzolkin.
The early Maya adopted two different time keeping systems, the "Short Count" and the Long Count. The Short Count derives from combining the tzolkin cycle with the solar year and the Venus cycle of 584 days.3
In this way, "short" periods of 13, 52 and 104 years are generated. Unfortunately, we won't have occasion to dwell on the properties of the so-called Short Count system here. The Long Count system is somewhat more abstract, yet is also related to certain astronomical cycles. It is based upon nested cycles of days multiplied at each level by that key Mayan number, twenty:
Number of Days . . . . . . . Term
1 . . . . . . . .Kin (day)
20 . . . . . . . Uinal
360 . . . . . . .Tun
7200 . . . . . . Katun
144000 . . . . . Baktun
Notice that the only exception to multiplying by twenty is at the tun level, where the uinal period is instead multiplied by 18 to make the 360-day tun. The Maya employed this counting system to track an unbroken sequence of days from the time it was inaugurated. The Mayan scholar Munro Edmonson believes that the Long Count was put in place around 355 B.C. This may be so, but the oldest Long Count date as yet found corresponds to 32 B.C.4
We find Long Count dates in the archeological record beginning with the baktun place value and separated by dots. For example: 6.19.19.0.0 equals 6 baktuns, 19 katuns, 19 tuns, 0 uinals and 0 days. Each baktun has 144000 days, each katun has 7200 days, and so on. If we add up all the values we find that 6.19.19.0.0 indicates a total of 1007640 days have elapsed since the Zero Date of 0.0.0.0.0.5
3
I considered the Short Count to refer to the Tzolkin-Haab-Venus system; I quickly realized that the Short Count should refer to a truncated version of the Long Count used in post-Conquest Yucatan, and began referring to the Tzolkin-Haab as the Calendar Round and, with Venus added, is the Venus Round calendar (of 104 Haab).
4
The Stela 2 monument from Takalik Abaj may be as early as 39 BC, certainly no later than 19 BC. There is a 37 BC Long Count date from Tres Zapotes.
I considered the Short Count to refer to the Tzolkin-Haab-Venus system; I quickly realized that the Short Count should refer to a truncated version of the Long Count used in post-Conquest Yucatan, and began referring to the Tzolkin-Haab as the Calendar Round and, with Venus added, is the Venus Round calendar (of 104 Haab).
4
The Stela 2 monument from Takalik Abaj may be as early as 39 BC, certainly no later than 19 BC. There is a 37 BC Long Count date from Tres Zapotes.
The much discussed 13-baktun cycle is completed 1872000 days (13 baktuns) after 0.0.0.0.0. This period of time is the so called Mayan "Great Cycle" of the Long Count and equals 5125.36 years.6
But how are we to relate this to a time frame we can understand? How does this Long Count relate to our Gregorian calendar?
This problem of correlating Mayan time with "western" time has occupied Mayan scholars since the beginning. The standard question to answer became: what does 0.0.0.0.0 (the Long Count "beginning" point) equal in the Gregorian calendar?
When this question is answered, archeological inscriptions can be put into their proper historical context and the end date of the 13-baktun cycle can be calculated. After years of considering data from varied fields such as astronomy, ethnography, archeology and iconography, J. Eric S. Thompson determined that 0.0.0.0.0 corresponded to the Julian date 584283, which equals August 11th, 3114 B.C. in our Gregorian calendar. This means that the end date of 13.0.0.0.0, some 5125 years later, is December 21st, 2012 A.D.[1]
When this question is answered, archeological inscriptions can be put into their proper historical context and the end date of the 13-baktun cycle can be calculated. After years of considering data from varied fields such as astronomy, ethnography, archeology and iconography, J. Eric S. Thompson determined that 0.0.0.0.0 corresponded to the Julian date 584283, which equals August 11th, 3114 B.C. in our Gregorian calendar. This means that the end date of 13.0.0.0.0, some 5125 years later, is December 21st, 2012 A.D.[1]
The precession of the equinoxes, also known as the Platonic Year, is caused by the slow wobbling of the earth's polar axis. Right now this axis roughly points to Polaris, the "Pole Star," but this changes slowly over long periods of time. The earth's wobble causes the position of the seasonal quarters to slowly precess against the background of stars. For example, right now, the winter solstice position is in the constellation of
Sagittarius. But 2000 years ago it was in Capricorn. Since then, it has precessed backward almost one full sign. It is generally thought that the Greek astronomer Hipparchus was the first to discover precession around 128 B.C. Yet scholarship indicates that more ancient Old World cultures such as the Egyptians (see Schwaller de Lubicz's book Sacred Science) and Babylonians also knew about the precession. I have concluded that even cultures with simple horizon astronomy and oral records passed down for a hundred years or so, would notice the slow shifting of the heavens. For example, imagine that you lived in an environment suited for accurately demarcated horizon astronomy. Even if this wasn't the case, you might erect monoliths to sight the horizon position of, most likely, the dawning winter solstice sun. This position in relation to background stars could be accurately preserved in oral verse or wisdom teachings, to be passed down for centuries. Since precession will change this position at the rate of 1 degree every 72 years, within the relatively short time of 100 years or so, a noticeable change will have occurred.
The point of this is simple. To early cultures attuned to the subtle movements of the sky, precession would not have been hard to notice.[2]
The Maya are not generally credited with knowing about the precession of the equinoxes. But considering everything else we know about the amazing sophistication of Mesoamerican astronomy, can we realistically continue to deny them this? Many of the as yet undeciphered
hieroglyphs may ultimately describe precessional myths. Furthermore, as I show in my book Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies, the Long Count is perfectly suited for predicting future seasonal quarters, indefinitely, and precession is automatically accounted for. Some of the most incredible aspects of Mayan cosmo-conception are just now being discovered. As was the case with the state of Egyptology in the 1870's, we still have a lot to learn. In addition, Mayanists like Gordon Brotherston (The Book of the Fourth World) consider precessional knowledge among Mesoamerican cultures to be more than likely.
Sagittarius. But 2000 years ago it was in Capricorn. Since then, it has precessed backward almost one full sign. It is generally thought that the Greek astronomer Hipparchus was the first to discover precession around 128 B.C. Yet scholarship indicates that more ancient Old World cultures such as the Egyptians (see Schwaller de Lubicz's book Sacred Science) and Babylonians also knew about the precession. I have concluded that even cultures with simple horizon astronomy and oral records passed down for a hundred years or so, would notice the slow shifting of the heavens. For example, imagine that you lived in an environment suited for accurately demarcated horizon astronomy. Even if this wasn't the case, you might erect monoliths to sight the horizon position of, most likely, the dawning winter solstice sun. This position in relation to background stars could be accurately preserved in oral verse or wisdom teachings, to be passed down for centuries. Since precession will change this position at the rate of 1 degree every 72 years, within the relatively short time of 100 years or so, a noticeable change will have occurred.
The point of this is simple. To early cultures attuned to the subtle movements of the sky, precession would not have been hard to notice.[2]
The Maya are not generally credited with knowing about the precession of the equinoxes. But considering everything else we know about the amazing sophistication of Mesoamerican astronomy, can we realistically continue to deny them this? Many of the as yet undeciphered
8
Whatever the details, it is certainly true that the Long Count was NOT inaugurated back in 3114 BC — a contention promoted by Zechariah Sitchin as part of his ancient aliens belief, and repeated by many of his students and others even up to an essay posted on Graham Hancock’s website in November of 2012.
Whatever the details, it is certainly true that the Long Count was NOT inaugurated back in 3114 BC — a contention promoted by Zechariah Sitchin as part of his ancient aliens belief, and repeated by many of his students and others even up to an essay posted on Graham Hancock’s website in November of 2012.
hieroglyphs may ultimately describe precessional myths. Furthermore, as I show in my book Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies, the Long Count is perfectly suited for predicting future seasonal quarters, indefinitely, and precession is automatically accounted for. Some of the most incredible aspects of Mayan cosmo-conception are just now being discovered. As was the case with the state of Egyptology in the 1870's, we still have a lot to learn. In addition, Mayanists like Gordon Brotherston (The Book of the Fourth World) consider precessional knowledge among Mesoamerican cultures to be more than likely.
The Sacred Tree
We are still trying to answer these questions: What is so important about the winter solstice of 2012 and, exactly how were calculations made so accurately, considering that precession should make them exceedingly difficult?
If we make a standard horoscope chart for December 21st, 2012 A.D., nothing very unusual appears. In this way I was led astray in my search until Linda Schele provided a clue in the recent book Maya Cosmos. Probably the most exciting breakthrough in this book is her identification of the astronomical meaning of the Mayan Sacred Tree.
Drawing from an impressive amount of iconographic evidence, and generously sharing the process by which she arrived at her discovery, the Sacred Tree is found to be none other than the crossing point of the ecliptic with the band of the Milky Way.
Indeed, the Milky Way seems to have played an important role in Mayan imagery. For example, an incised bone from 8th century Tikal depicts a long sinking canoe containing various deities. This is a picture of the night sky and the canoe is the Milky Way, sinking below the horizon as the night progresses, and carrying with it deities representing the nearby constellations.
The incredible Mayan site of Palenque is filled with Sacred Tree motifs and references to astronomical events. In their book Forest of Kings, Schele and Freidel suggested that the Sacred Tree referred to the ecliptic. Apparently that was only part of the picture, for the Sacred Tree that Pacal ascends in death is more than just the ecliptic, it is the sacred doorway to the underworld. The crossing point of Milky Way and ecliptic is this doorway and represents the sacred source and origin. In the following diagram of the well known sarcophagus carving, notice that the Milky Way tree serves as an extension of Pacal's umbilicus. The umbilicus is a human being's entrance into life, and entrance into death as well:
We are still trying to answer these questions: What is so important about the winter solstice of 2012 and, exactly how were calculations made so accurately, considering that precession should make them exceedingly difficult?
If we make a standard horoscope chart for December 21st, 2012 A.D., nothing very unusual appears. In this way I was led astray in my search until Linda Schele provided a clue in the recent book Maya Cosmos. Probably the most exciting breakthrough in this book is her identification of the astronomical meaning of the Mayan Sacred Tree.
Drawing from an impressive amount of iconographic evidence, and generously sharing the process by which she arrived at her discovery, the Sacred Tree is found to be none other than the crossing point of the ecliptic with the band of the Milky Way.
Indeed, the Milky Way seems to have played an important role in Mayan imagery. For example, an incised bone from 8th century Tikal depicts a long sinking canoe containing various deities. This is a picture of the night sky and the canoe is the Milky Way, sinking below the horizon as the night progresses, and carrying with it deities representing the nearby constellations.
The incredible Mayan site of Palenque is filled with Sacred Tree motifs and references to astronomical events. In their book Forest of Kings, Schele and Freidel suggested that the Sacred Tree referred to the ecliptic. Apparently that was only part of the picture, for the Sacred Tree that Pacal ascends in death is more than just the ecliptic, it is the sacred doorway to the underworld. The crossing point of Milky Way and ecliptic is this doorway and represents the sacred source and origin. In the following diagram of the well known sarcophagus carving, notice that the Milky Way tree serves as an extension of Pacal's umbilicus. The umbilicus is a human being's entrance into life, and entrance into death as well:
We may also remember at this point that the tzolkin calendar is said to spring from the Sacred Tree. The Sacred Tree is, in fact, at the center of the entire corpus of Mayan Creation Myths. We should definitely explore the nature of this astronomical feature. The first question that came up for me was as follows. Since Lord (Ahau) Pacal is, by way of divine kingship, equated with the sun, and he is portrayed "entering" the Sacred Tree on his famous sarcophagus lid, on what day does the sun come around to conjunct the crossing point of ecliptic and Milky Way? This would be an important date. In the pre-dawn skies of this date, the Milky Way would be seen to arch overhead from the region of Polaris (Heart of Sky) and would point right at where the sun rises. This (and the corollary date 6 months later) is the only date when the Sun/Lord could jump from the ecliptic track and travel the Milky Way up and around the vault of heaven to the region of Polaris, there to enter the "Heart of Sky." It should be mentioned that 1300 years ago, during the zenith of Palenque's glory, Polaris was much less an exact "Pole Star" than it is now. Schele demonstrates that it wasn't a Pole Star that the Maya mythologized in this regard, it was the unmarked polar "dark region" symbolizing death and the underworld around which everything was observed to revolve. Life revolves around death - a characteristically Mayan belief.
The dates on which the sun conjuncts the "Sacred Tree" are thus very important. These dates will change with precession. Schele doesn't pursue this line of reasoning, however, and doesn't even mention that these dates might be significant. If we go back to 755 A.D., we find that the sun conjuncts the Sacred Tree on December 3rd. I should point out here that the Milky Way is a wide band, and perhaps a 10-day range of dates should be considered. To start with, however, I use the exact center of the Milky Way band that one finds on star charts, known as the "Galactic Equator" (not to be confused with Galactic Center). Where the Galactic Equator crosses the ecliptic in Sagittarius just happens to be where the dark rift in the Milky Way begins. This is a dark bifurcation in the Milky Way caused by interstellar dust clouds. To observers on earth, it appears as a dark road which begins near the ecliptic and stretches along the Milky Way up towards Polaris. The Maya today are quite aware of this feature; the Quiché Maya call it xibalba be (the "road to xibalba") and the Chorti Maya call it the "camino de Santiago". In Dennis Tedlock's translation of the Popol Vuh, we find that the ancient Maya called it the "Black Road". The Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque must journey down this road to battle the Lords of Xibalba. (Tedlock 334, 358).
Furthermore, what Schele has identified as the Sacred Tree was known to the ancient Quiché simply as "Crossroads."
The dates on which the sun conjuncts the "Sacred Tree" are thus very important. These dates will change with precession. Schele doesn't pursue this line of reasoning, however, and doesn't even mention that these dates might be significant. If we go back to 755 A.D., we find that the sun conjuncts the Sacred Tree on December 3rd. I should point out here that the Milky Way is a wide band, and perhaps a 10-day range of dates should be considered. To start with, however, I use the exact center of the Milky Way band that one finds on star charts, known as the "Galactic Equator" (not to be confused with Galactic Center). Where the Galactic Equator crosses the ecliptic in Sagittarius just happens to be where the dark rift in the Milky Way begins. This is a dark bifurcation in the Milky Way caused by interstellar dust clouds. To observers on earth, it appears as a dark road which begins near the ecliptic and stretches along the Milky Way up towards Polaris. The Maya today are quite aware of this feature; the Quiché Maya call it xibalba be (the "road to xibalba") and the Chorti Maya call it the "camino de Santiago". In Dennis Tedlock's translation of the Popol Vuh, we find that the ancient Maya called it the "Black Road". The Hero Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque must journey down this road to battle the Lords of Xibalba. (Tedlock 334, 358).
Furthermore, what Schele has identified as the Sacred Tree was known to the ancient Quiché simply as "Crossroads."
... to the New Guys from The ChatBox V.2 Crew