The Cosmology Behind the Temple Facade at Holmul

Photo: courtesy Proyecto Arqueologico Holmul,

Clifford C. Richey August 2013 Revised 8-12-2013

It might be helpful to read: http://www.scribd.com/doc/125076415/Universal-Prehistoric-Depicted-SignLanguage when reading this paper as it explains the use of Form, Imagery, Gesture signs, Stance, allusion and position as used in composing glyphs.

Illustration 1: Temple Facade at Holmul, Guatemala

Illustration 2: The Mayan Cosmological Center This facade was found to have been carefully buried in AD 600 at Holmul, Guatamala. Basically the facade was a graphic conceptualization of a aspect of Mayan cosmology. The message relates to a part of the cosmology that related to warrior-priests and their afterlife. In today's terms the message would be considered psychologically supportive for the warriors and their status in the culture for their important role in protecting their community. The facade represents a cosmological center -a place of emergence for the spirits of deceased warriors. Mayan warriors were warriors of the Sun that was considered a powerful spirit. The Sun was represented on earth by powerful lineages or Houses such as the Jaguars and the Eagles. The Jaguars represented the Sun in its nighttime phase when it was beneath the earth. The Eagle represented Sun in its daytime phase. The facade pictured in Illustration 1 shows a dual or two sided aspect that related to Venus. Warriors served the Sun during the lifetime and the nature of the Sun's relationship to Venus was used as a model for the cosmology. Venus arose in the east before the Sun and also arose in the west after the Sun set. Metaphorically, Venus was viewed as serving the Sun as a kind of scout or spy. Because stars were viewed as the abode of the ancestors Venus, as a servant of the Sun, was an ideal model. We can see the two Forms of Feet in the Facade. In gesture signing the left hand represents the east while the right hand represents the west. Thus these large feet represent the great walk of Venus in the east and west. We also not e the Large Serpents that Frame the Feet. One Serpent, the associative imagery for a stream of water, faces east while the other faces the west. The gaping mouths of the

Serpents represented a source of of subterranean water that had risen to the surface such as a spring on a hill or mountainside. Such sites were considered doorways or portals for the deceased who upon their death found their spirit diving into the underworld. These spirits were caught up in the underground streams or currents of water that carried them through a number of levels until they once again arrived at the surface. These spring sites were consider the doorways to the sky because it was from here that the Feathered Serpent arose. The meaning of the Feathered Serpent was a stream of water whose parts (feathers of a bird) flew as particles of water up to the sky as evaporation. This understanding of the water cycle became a metaphor for a phase of the cosmology the afterlife.

Illustration 3: The Mayan Cosmological Center The Facade at Holmul with its (green) Horizontal Rectangle (a horizontal-place) in its middle was erected at a place that was considered a cosmological center for the culture and, most likely, near a source of water. At the bottom of the Facade there is a break in the rectangular place sign and a head can be seen emerging from below. There is another break at the top of the Rectangle where we can see the large Face (his great appearance) with his wings in the Stance of flying. The Wings are in the Form of multiple Quetzal Bird feathers. Such feathers with their iridescent blue-green sheen must have looked like water streaming through the air and were thus used to depict evaporating water.

Illustration 4: Mud-skipper Imagery

Illustration 5: Actual Mud-skipper

The Lower Jaw of the Left Serpent's Mouth is in the Form of a Mud-skipper or Gobi, The Fish, the swimmer, the one that walks out of the water and leaps upwards. The Form of the Body is in the shape of the gesture sign for arising. The Vertical Rectangle that alludes to the Eye (the place of the eye of the Sun, Venus). The fact that Mud-skippers live in burrows made in the soft mud must not have

been lost on the Maya. As an amphibian Fish it is able to walk out of the water, skip, and jump up to two feet in the air. This behavior provided a handy metaphor which was used to describe the behavior of the spirits of the deceased as they swam upward in the waters of the underworld, emerging from a watery hole in the earth. The spirits walked out of the water and leaped upwards. The pectoral Fin of the Mud-skipper has signs from the top down, for horizontal-places, A Foot for a, positional, walk. on the side. This is followed by a Severed Finger pointing a direction, here. At the base of the Fin is another Foot, a walk and below it are the small signs for a horizontal-place, and the Circular sign for the one, his location. In the following translation of parts of the panel within the Foot Form on the left (the great journey in the east) we will see how the Associative Form and Imagery was built up though the use of gesture signs to compose a message that related to the warrior's emergence from the underworld and his ascension to the sky to join with the warrior star Venus. In oder to keep this translation readable and brief the signs will not be discussed to any great extent. However reading the paper located at the above listed URL should assist the reader in understanding the meaning of the various signs and the manner in which they were joined to provide a system of communication. The translation has been printed in blue so one can read it by itself without being too distracted by the accompanying explanations.

Illustration 6: The One Who Waits

1. A Sitting Figure (the one, Stance, Sitting, waiting). 2. On the, positional, (yellow) Roof of the Unseen Cave. 3. Bare Foot (tan) the unsafe, walk or journey, positional, on its side 3. Leg (tan) Form: Whale, the great , relative size, diver. 5. Knee (light blue) The male-spirit, positional, on the side. allusion to the Knee, that which opens and closes. 6. Horizontal-Rectangles, (green), the horizontal-places positional, the levels. Count equals Four, in a all four directions, everywhere. 7. The Count of Three, the many, (light blue) male-spirits signs. 8. Sash (white) (Form unknown) The Cord, the tie or knot that binds together. 9. Horizontal-Rectangle, a horizontal-place, Double Lined, the unseen place. 10. Within it, positional, The X Form indicates, transformation while the Leftward Slanted Rectangular (green) stopped or stopping-place sign was positioned between two Triangular (red) earth-female signs meaning the middle or in the center of the earth.

Illustration 7: The One Who Waits

11. A (green) Rectangular, horizontal-place sign with a (black) hole in its center. The place of the hole, the center. This place with a hole was also positioned, in the center between another place of transformation with a Rightward Slanting (green) Rectangle meaning, the waiting-place, the center of the earth. 12. Above, positional, is a Large (red) Triangle indicating the great (relative size) earth-female that was incorporated into the Figure and alluded to as its Back. 13. The Figure's Arm is the sign for a warrior while his Hand is the sign for a steward of the Sun (a Sun-priest). 14. The Figure's Bracelet was composed of a (light blue) male-spirit sign coupled to the Form of an (orange) Eye (the eye of the Sun, a metaphor for Venus). Followed by a (green) Vertical Rectangle, a vertical-place, followed by a Vertical Half-Circle side sign positioned as on the side of the place sign.

Illustration 8: The One Who Waits

15. The Figure's (light blue) Two Hands, the stewards of the Sun, are also in the Form of Two (light blue) Birds (flights) in the Stance of Sitting (awaiting their flight). 16. The Hands are in the Stance for held-in. 17. The Clay Vessel (the earthen container, a metaphor for the earth). 18. The Body of the Vessel contains the (green) was made in the Form of the gesture sign for all or everything. Within it, positional, are Two Fish (the swimmers) on the Left (east) and Right (west) of the Body. Between the V shaped (the openings) of their Mouths (a water-source) is the Form of an (tan) Egg, the unborn or the one who will emerge. Next is the Double Lined sign for the unsee cave (a metaphor for the womb of the earth). The cave sign is up side down (refer to the (yellow) cave sign upon which the figure is sitting) which may mean its upward opening. 19. Within the cave opening is a (green) Vertical Rectangle indicating a vertical-place. The place sign was positioned at the Neck or Throat (a tunnel or tube, connecting the bowels of the earth to the surface) of the Body of the Vessel. The Neck and Lips of the Vessel was composed of two horizontal-place signs in the Form of a T which is the sign for. Below.

Illustration 9: The One Who Waits

We now move on to the Head or Face of the Figure. 20. The Figure's Face (his appearance). 21. His Hair (his growth or progression). The Figure's hair was composed of sign elements that made the Form of a Sitting Bird (awaiting or preparing for flight the Bird's Stance )with a Long Tail (long time behind or past?). 22, Beginning at the Figure's Chest we see the (orange) Form of an Eye (the eye of the Sun) and the (light blue) sign for a male-spirit. Above this is a (brown) Foot indicating a walk or journey. 23. The Figure's Pony Tail was composed of three signs that appear to mean, a Feather (a part in flight), a male-spirit sign and an Eye Form (Venus). Next we find an Egg shape next to, positional, the sign for a hole. The hole sign was positioned over the area of the Ear and alludes to it as an orifice. The sign above the hole is the sign for a Breast (metaphorically, the breast of earth-female, a hill), a hole in a hillside. The Head of the Bird Form has its beak pointing upwards and is the Stance a long Tailed or Boat tailed Grackle assumes just prior to taking flight. The Bird's Beak, its Mouth (a water-source)connects to a Fish Form (the swimmer) that is on the side of another Breast (a hill) Form. The breast Form is positioned over the area where the Figure's Eye would be located and through

Illustration 10: The One Who Waits

allusion indicates that the eye of the Sun is on the hillside. The Nose of the Figure alludes to the nostrils as orifices or the dual holes. The Form of the Nose appears to be one of a Tadpole, the changeling or a transformer and it was located next to a hole sign just below the Nose. Parts of the signs around the Figure's Mouth appear to have suffered some damage so they will not be translated. However, the (green) Horizontal Rectangle, a horizontal-place can be seen as a Tooth in the Mouth (the water-source). The association for the Tooth in this context is not known. 24. Above the Figure's Head is an Oval (all or everything) composed of Double Lines (unseen). 25. Above and next to the Oval is the Form of a Large Fish (the great swimmer). The Mouth of the Fish connects to the Oval so it is plausible that everything that is unseen was considered within the water-source. The signs within the Oval cannot be resolved due to their size in the photograph.