Andrew McKillop, The Market Oracle – FAST BURNOUT Wikipedia tells us that the Spanish conquest of Yucatán and then other Mayan regions in today’s Guatemala and Belize was above all rapid – it took at most 20 years – but was much slower than the two-year total wipeout of the Aztec, further south in central America, through 1519-1521.
The main reason was not the military organization or willingness to fight of the Maya, which was even lower than the Aztecs but the decentralized, semi-independent, amorphous structure of what are called the “Late Postclassic” Mayan states. Already impoverished and disorganized, in constant decay. they offered little of interest and almost no resistance to the Spanish: as late as 1550 AD there were only about 1500 Spanish civilians and military living on a permanent basis in all of the new colonial provinces of the Mayan regions. Economic opportunities for the Spanish, from pillage to agriculture and commerce were very low.This was a degenerate culture which had collapsed, long before, and had widely depleted its natural resources – soil and water – before it fell.
The Mayan civilization had already “peaked”. The “Late Postclassic” Maya states and polities had lived through, and survived the Ancient Maya period, probably ending about 1100 AD and lasting around 400 years, whose own degenerative decline was shown by an ever more complex, always more sombre and menacing set or pantheon of mostly bizarre and often duplicated deities whose worship demanded constant human sacrifice. Rulers were embodied descendants of the Gods and their worship needed blood: either through symbolic bloodletting of royal family members, or through ever rising blood sacrifice of massive numbers of captives, who were firstly tortured. “Late Postclassic” Mayan states had veritable bloodfests, during which several thousand persons could be ritually murdered in a couple of days. Relative to the Maya, the gory antics of Syria’s Bashr el Assad are small beer.
POPOL VUH – THE MARTIANS CAME The Maya vision of the universe or cosmology, like that of most other “world civilizations” to date, included the concept of human souls and the Underworld. The Mayan underworld, Xibalba, was a place of fear, fright and panic where solely sinister gods tested and tricked their unfortunate visitors. Rebirth and escape from Xibalba was as rare as any escape from, for example, the Hades of Ancient Greeks, another world culture which had degenerated, on the ground, in the real world to dictatorial and repressive mini-states constantly seeking war for overseas conquest and pillage, and as a way to unite the people, before they collapsed themselves.
As with other civilizations, Mayan cosmology included the concept of extraterrestrials coming down from other worlds, realms or dimensions either once, or on a periodic basis. Their descent to Earth is for mythical reasons which include organizing the planet – but as with many other degenerative civilizations, the “entropy function” was an integral part of Mayan cosmology. Decline was “hard wired” into Mayan culture. The Popol Vuh story tells of extraterrestrial Gods who firstly create Man in the image of themselves, the Gods. These first human beings are men so perfect, so long lived, so clairvoyant and so perceptive, that they were almost the equal of the Gods, but Decline and Fall or “entropic decline” quickly followed.
The Mayan story explains this by the concept of the Gods becoming paranoid that they had made dangerous unwanted competitors, almost as smart as the Gods themselves. So the Gods destroyed these Proto Men, and started over again by creating present day inferior men. These, like the Myrmidon or Ant Men of Greek myth are only good for battle, as cannon fodder, for slavery, or for bloodletting in mass killings. Mayan myth says that the subhuman race, that is ordinary human beings were only functional as a servant race or plaything of the Gods, who demand constant blood sacrifice.
Within the Mayan culture, as others, the need for legends of visiting gods from outer space was basic. This in turn required a Supreme God with supreme powers. For the Maya this was a half bird-half snake known as Quetzalcoatl the Feathered Serpent, a god which in fact the Maya borrowed from the Aztec. One strange twist with Quetzalcoatl, like the Mayan-only version called Kukulcan, when they have human form, was that these two gods were depicted as having light-colored skin, were tall, and often sported a white beard – comparable with bearded male deities and prophets in many other cultures – of Europe and west Asia, not north or south America.
Blood sacrifice was built-in to late Mayan culture. The cosmological concept of this was that the bird-snake creator god firstly stopped a process of destruction of the sun, or in fact suns. Mayan myth said that Quetzalcoatl, after the Fourth Sun had been destroyed, created the Fifth Sun using his own blood, and bones of previous earthlings. In return, Man had to pay blood sacrifice and prepare charnel houses for this earth-saving and earth-prolonging act.
Despite this evil or laughable cultural degeneracy. little different from Nazi German degeneracy but lasting for hundreds of years, many persons claim to admire the high precision of the Mayan calendar system. Interestingly enough, this precision was partly due to the Maya taking the planet Venus as one of their 3 “reference bodies” along with the Sun and Moon. This choice was helped by Venus being brighter than any other star (except the Sun) that is visible from Earth making it easily observable at almost all times, to the Maya, who were incapable of inventing, or using the telescope.
ALL EMPIRES MARCH ON THEIR BELLY Venus was called the Afternoon Star, and was selected and named by Quetzalcoatl, who also created or selected a restricted number of other founding deities. These especially included Ehecatl, the god of wind, and Chac, who like Quetzalcoatl was also part-reptile, the god of rain and lightning. For the Maya, wind and rain were the two basic motors of agriculture and food production. Chac was often depicted with a silex knifeblade in his hand, a symbol of lighting and of agricultural implements for cutting maize and other crops – and the throats of sacrificial victims. Chac worship was at sacred wells and at ceremonies during which lifegiving rain was falling. Chac was credited with discovering or revealing the the first ear of maize by creating the associated junior or child deity, Yumil Kaxob.
Very significantly the Mayan sun god, Kinich Ahau, who was also called Sunface Fire Macaw, was highly ambivalent in his relations with Man. The number associated with the Sun God was 4, double duality. Kinich Ahau was the controller of disease as well as health, drought as well as the evaporation which feeds rainfall. The animal associated with Kinich Ahau was the jaguar, thought of as a silent and stalking presence, able to kill at any moment.
Yumil Kaxob the child deity Maize God represented already ripe grain – the entire basis of the Mayan food system. The god is a Youth god, similar to the early forms of Eros in Greek myth, wears body paint, a headdress of maize, is linked with flower and fruit deities, but is powerless by himself. His fate was commanded by rain and drought. Although protected by Chac, Yumil Kaxob was constantly tracked by Yum Cimil, the Death God, who directly controlled drought and famine and was also the God of the Underworld, with several other names, including Ah Puch and Hun Hau.
Yum Cimil’s underworld was only a world of death, the lowest and most horrible of the nine Hells set by Mayan cosmology and religion. Cimil, like any witch doctor of the comic strip world was skeletal and wore a neckless made up of miniature skulls with eyeless sockets. Other iconic portrayals of Cimil included a bloated figure suggesting advanced states of decomposition.
The Mayans believed that Yum Cimil, like Kinich Ahau stalked them as a jaguar stalks its prey. Pushing back Cimil at all times was the main form of Death worship, to keep Cimil at bay, and to avoid the only other fate. This was symbolized by Ixtab, the Mayan Goddess of Suicide, always depicted with a noose around her neck. Ixtab is the protector of those who commit suicide or die by hanging, as well as slain warriors, sacrificial victims, priests, women who die in childbirth, and persons dying from a certain number of other misfortunes. Ixtab is above all a Releasing God, from the strains and sufferings of existence, and takes released humans to the delectable shade of the cosmic Yaxche tree. It was always a pleasure to die – for the Maya!
IMPORTED GODS The Mayan god Kukulcan, also called the Snake God, was a second or twin Supreme God and had many functions. Kukulcan means “The Feathered Serpent” exactly like the originally-Aztec Quetzalcoatl, borrowed by the Maya, but Kukulcan incorporates several different or modified powers. One major difference was the belief that Kukulcan could resurrect the dead – symbolized by his origin as a sea serpent that emerges from the ocean before flying, and then disappeared back into it.
Kukulcan is one of the three gods with Quetzalcoatl thought to have created the Earth, but after a brief period of presence on Earth, Kukulcan returned to his ocean home, telling the Mayans he would come back at an unspecified latter date. The Mayans, some historians claim, perceived the Spanish and their galleons as the return or second coming of Kukulcan, and this helps explain their stunning passivity facing the conquistadores – like the passivity of the Aztec. The most baffling question is, why would the Mayans think that the Europeans were Kukulcan? Did they look anything like Mayan Kukulcan?
Kukulcan’s human form, outside his serpent-like form is a tall fair-skinned human male with a long white beard and grey hair, nothing like a Central American, but similar to male Caucasians! This is possibly a fascinating accident of History, and theory on this subject ranges far and wide, for example comparing it to the clear but unexplained links between Madagascan and Indonesian culture.
Kinich Ahau, the Sun God, was immune to the charms of Ix Chel, the “highest ranking’ female deity. With many similarities to several Greek myths, Ix Chel pined for the Sun God over aeons, but through her obsessional watching of Kinich Ahau gliding across the sky, the worse the weather became on Earth, reflecting the long, almost constant degradation of Mayan water resources, mostly due to Mayan population growth and poor organization of water resources. As Ix Chel chased after him, climate change accelerated, rains diminshed or became more unpredictable, tidal flooding increased causing saltwater contaminated coastal fields, and crop failures increased. Mayan myth says that Ix Chel did not notice the havoc she was causing on Earth.
The Mayan pantheon’s highest ranking female deity was a Moon Goddess who, taking on other identities such as the Weaver, was able to beguile the Sun God with her beautiful cloth. Becoming lovers, Ix Chel bore the Sun God four sons. They were the Jaguar Gods conceived as completely silent and nocturnal, and tasked with holding up the four corners of the sky. Unfortunately, Ix Chel’s love affair with the Sun God drew the ire of the Sun God’s brother, the Morning Star (Sirius), who was her husband. His punishment of Ix Chel was to incapacitate her for long periods, as long as 183 days per year, making her further unable to help the Maya with their deteriorating climate and failing agriculture – in fact mainly due to declining freshwater resources.
Mayans viewed the God of Knowledge, Itzamna, as a possible alternative source of support. Again very similar to other cultures, not of north or south America, Itzamna is portrayed as an old man with an aquiline nose, fair skin, sunken cheeks and a beard. Also significant, and the base of the Mayan 4 x 5 = 20 numeral system, equal to the number of easily counted toes and fingers on most human beings, this God brings day number 20, the last day of each Mayan month, called Ahau. Other roles of Itzamna included being the Lord of Night and Day, making it possible this god was only a duplicate manifestation of the Sun God, Kinich Ahau. At least as important, the God of Knowledge was probably not a Mayan god, but imported or borrowed from some other culture.
COUNTING FROM ZERO As with Hindu culture, Mayan culture used the concept of ‘zero’ for mathematical notation from an early date. The Mayan “interacting cogwheels” system for day and date calculation is well known, combining several cycles meshing together and based on the apparent movement of the Sun, and the movements of Venus and the Moon. The Mayan calendar year was based on a 13 x 20 sequence of 260 days, able in theory to repeat endlessly or infinitely. Major ritual combinations of day and date cycles however occurred, enabling the interpretation, almost certainly not by the Maya, of their Tzolkin calendar implying “the end of time” or a complete stop on the night of the winter solstice 2012, or about that date, in the Gregorian or modern western calendar.
To be sure, 2012 in the Greorian calendar system is 1729 in the Coptic calendar, 5113 in the Kali Yuga, 1434 in the Hegire Islamic calendar, and 4345 in the Korean calendar, among others.
The claim by New Age mystics, astrologers and journalists short of copy is that the Mayan Tzolkin calendar has special divinatory powers and significance. Of course, Maya-watchers will note that the Mayan calendar measures the solar year to within minutes of real solar time – only tens of thousands of times less accurately than an atomic clock.
Archeologists believe the ancient Maya began their date count, possibly in the period of 500-700 AD, from the retrospective start date of 3114 BC. This, for the Mayan calendar system in the so-called Long Count was the base year, given by the numerals 13-0-0-0-0. This in fact means that after 13 cycles of 400 years, another Long Count will start (if there were Maya to count it), making the crossover date closer to December 26 or 27, 2012 rather than the Solstice. This “date count” can of course also be operated from other base years, to get other year dates for the so-called Mayan end of time.
One favourite New Age mystic claim is that Winter Solstice 2012 (only in the Gregorian calendar) also coincides with the day on which the solar meridian crosses the galactic equator. The Earth, Sun, and the galactic center of the Milky Way are in so-called “perfect alignment”, with the Sun directly between the Earth and Galaxy center. This center is however in fact an area spanning approximately 8.3 parsec with an observational variation, in any direction, of about 0.33 kiloparsec (1075 light years distance).
Further New Age mystic claims are many, for example that Mayan prophecy would include massive solar flares “every 5125 years”, neglecting the fact that on the most generous of counts, Mayan civilization lasted for less than 3750 years, and probably far less than that. We can note that Mayan numerology, cosmology and astronomy made no prediction nor observation of the Crab nebula supernova SN 1054, dated as July 4, 1054 AD. This was the most recent supernova, most visible from Earth, in our Galaxy.
SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL Admiring the Maya is respecting the degenerate. Attempts to present the Maya as far-seeing prophetics, rather than degenerates whose culture slumped into massive human bloodletting and was totally unable to repulse very small numbers of Spanish conquistadores, are probably revealing of at least one thing. The fascination with decline and degenerate mass violence which also explains the huge annual business turnover from the production and sale of fake Nazi cult objects and trash memorabilia.
Mayan prophecy, we can note, was produced by a culture and civilization with an almost permanent obsession concerning water shortage – made worse by the karstic geology and lack of surface water of Mayan regions. By an easily explained febrile and child-like switch of logic, Mayan prophecy sees the End of Time, or the end of the world as due to The Great Flood!
Persons living in what can be called western science-based “technological” culture and civilization need have little respect for the Maya’s other major discoveries, due to their astronomy. These especially included the knowledge of solar system movement, of our solar system, but with no inkling of Galactic movement or galactic dimensions. Claiming that calendar and astronomical time notations either due to and used by the Maya, or imagined as being possible within Mayan culture, somehow exempt their degenerate rulers from having committed constant and massive crimes against humanity, and having been disastrously incompetent administrators of society and the economy, are a pure waste of time.
Mayan degeneracy may be “amusing” for those who are degenerate and simple minded themselves, but Mayan society was so incompetent that it invented the wheel – only as a childrens’ toy, not for use in the real world, where slaves were harnessed to drag wooden sledges along the Mayan highways!
By Andrew McKillop
Contact: xtran9@gmail.com
Former chief policy analyst, Division A Policy, DG XVII Energy, European Commission. Andrew McKillop Biographic Highlights
Co-author ‘The Doomsday Machine’, Palgrave Macmillan USA, 2012
Andrew McKillop has more than 30 years experience in the energy, economic and finance domains. Trained at London UK’s University College, he has had specially long experience of energy policy, project administration and the development and financing of alternate energy. This included his role of in-house Expert on Policy and Programming at the DG XVII-Energy of the European Commission, Director of Information of the OAPEC technology transfer subsidiary, AREC and researcher for UN agencies including the ILO.
© 2012 Copyright Andrew McKillop – All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisor.
*The Views Expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Silent Crow News editorial policy.
