For those interested, I’ve started another blog dedicated exclusively to my experiences with Ayahuasca. I’m currently living in the jungles of the Peru, and working with the medicine as frequently as I am able. The blog is intended to present as full and accurate an account of my experiences with the brew as possible. So! For anyone interested, take a look:
http://strangertravels.wordpress.com/
My next book, entitled Chinkana: The Subterranean World of the Inkas, is due to be released in the coming months. In it, I discuss the multitude of historical records, myths and legends that testify to the existence of a vast network of subterranean tunnels which are said to run throughout the ancient Incan Empire. So, get ready, and tell your friends!
– Ian
From the back cover: “In 1532, the greatest existing civilization in the Americas was overthrown by fewer than 200 conquistadors. Literally tons of gold was plundered and shipped back to Spain, for the glory of the crown. But rumors have persisted since the conquest that the treasure obtained by the Spaniards was only a grain of sand in comparison to what was secreted away by the surviving Incas in mysterious underground chambers, supposedly built long before the arrival of the Spanish by a people unknown. Chinkana: The Subterranean World of the Inkas, collects in one place all of the myths and legends surrounding the vast networks of subterranean roads and temples that from Cusco, the capital of the Inca empire, extended north to Quito, Ecuador; south to the ancient citadel of Tiwanaku, Bolivia; and east, deep into the Amazon jungle.”
The debate between what’s been termed “independent invention” and “diffusion” came to a head in the first half of the twentieth century. Those advocating independent invention claimed that although cultures worlds apart may have come to similar conclusions and may have employed similar religious practices, they did so only because they developed in similar environments and thusly had like experiences…the conclusions which these cultures reached were only “natural” according to the independent inventionists. The diffusionists, on the other hand, stated that although certain similarities could be explained by environments and experiences that were akin to one another, many details could not so easily be dismissed as a natural product of the human mind. As Darwinism (which promotes slow, gradual, and above all, linear evolution) took hold and a lack of interest and imagination settled in, independent invention emerged as the clear victor in the minds of many. Today, a good sixty years from that great debate, diffusion has been relegated to the theories of the past, as asinine to most anthropologists and archaeologists as the fringe theories of alien landings and Atlantis. The case, however, is not nearly as open and shut as it may seem. When viewed objectively, I believe there is more than enough evidence to suggest the diffusion of culture from a common source. To fully grasp who we are as a race, we must first know what and where we’ve come from. I believe cultural diffusion to be integral to this knowledge. To illustrate this assertion, I shall now endeavor to outline some of the basic anthropological evidence in the Old World and the New (both archaeological and mythological) which substantiates the theory of cultural diffusion. For the sake of brevity, I will focus mainly upon the connections between the societies of Mesoamerica (the Aztec, Maya and Inca) and the more well known civilizations of the Old World (chiefly Egypt, but also Asia, India, Sumeria, etc…).
Throughout the cultures of Mesoamerica there lurks a fair-haired, white-skinned civilizing deity. Called Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs, Kukulkan by the Maya, and Viracocha by the Inca, the story always runs roughly the same: the great man (usually the son of the sun) came to them from the east, bringing with him a wealth of knowledge. He taught the people the art of agriculture, architecture, the working of precious stones and metals, astronomy, language, and everything that we would associate with civilization today, and then he abruptly returns to his homeland for one reason or another. Quetzalcoatl (of whom we know the most thanks to the Spanish record-keepers) met his downfall in a plot by his enemy, Tezcatlipoca, who, in one version of the story descends from above on a spider web and offers Quetzalcoatl a draught of pulque (a native intoxicant)[1]. Quetzalcoatl accepts the drink and commits a grievous sin (the particulars vary), and in shame resolves to leave the way he came, setting off for his homeland of Tlillan Tlapallan (the place of red and black) in the east[2]. This is certainly of interest, as the two names for ancient Egypt are kmt and dsrt, meaning “black land” and “red land”. He is met on the journey by a company of Nahua deities, who engage him in the following conversation:
“Where do you go?” they asked him. “Why do you leave your capital?”
“I go to Tlapallan,” replied Quetzalcoatl, “whence I came.”
“For what reason?” persisted the enchanters.
“My father the Sun has called me thence,” replied Quetzalcoatl.
“Go, then, happily,” they said, “but leave us the secret of your art, the secret of founding in silver, of working in precious stones and woods, of painting, and of feather-working, and other matters.”[3]
But Quetzalcoatl not only refused to oblige them, he hid, burnt down or otherwise destroyed all of his sacred jewels and possessions and continued on his way to the coast. He there embarked upon a raft made of serpents, and amid promises to one day return, he sailed away into the sun. In some versions, his raft catches fire and in his death he becomes the Morning Star (i.e. Venus).[4] Some, however, say that the great civilizer voluntarily threw himself onto a pyre and after he burnt, and his heart ascended to the sky with the same result.
Having covered the myth itself in a very broad fashion, let’s take a closer look at some of the specifics, with a mind towards world-wide mythological comparisons. Beginning first with Quetzalcoatl, we find him described generally as a tall, bearded (usually) white man, with a handful of followers and dressed in a long robe. Juan de Torquemada, a Spanish chronicler around the time of the conquest, wrote in his Monarchichia indiana that the natives believed Quetzalcoatl to be “a fair and ruddy complexioned man with a long beard”[5]. He is also said to be
a tall, bearded white man who taught people to use fire for cooking. He also built houses and showed people that they could live together as husband and wife; and since people often quarreled in those days, he taught them to live in peace.[6]
Torquemada also wrote that Quetzalcoatl was, according to native tradition “era Hombre blanco” (a white man) and possessed “la barba grande redonda” (a great, round beard)[7]. The idea of a bearded stranger is substantiated by the presence in Mexico of carvings depicting nobles adorned with false beards. Perhaps the nobles wore false beards as an homage to the fair gods from afar, or as a sign of their supremacy over the common people, just as the gods had been superior. James Bailey writes on this subject:
Widely in Central America, a false beard was worn as a badge of office. There are carvings of priests and other notables wearing false beards, though Indians today are not bearded and cannot achieve a beard. Constance Irwin has suggested that the practice sprang from the prestige bestowed by the bearded bringers of culture.[8]
Edward H. Thompson, the author of the book People of the Serpent, wrote of a similar tradition held by the modern peoples of the Yucatan. Writing of the arrival by ship of the People of the Serpent (a group of civilizing deities who have much in common with the myths of Quetzalcoatl) he states that
In these craft were light-skinned beings, and some of the traditions have it that they were tall of stature and blue-eyed. They were clad in strange garments and wore about their foreheads emblems like entwined serpents. The wondering natives who met them at the shore saw the manner of their coming with the symbol of the Sacred Serpent, which they worshipped, on their brows, and knew the strangers to be their gods come down from their home in the sun to teach and guide them.[9]
The description of the entwined serpents upon the brows of these fair strangers immediately brings to mind the uraeus-serpent of the Egyptian pharaohs which symbolized Lower Egypt and was worn on the brow along with the vulture which symbolized Upper Egypt as the symbol of divine power.
The fact that Quetzalcoatl had a physical appearance markedly different from that of the natives of Mesoamerica is made absolutely certain by the story of Cortez and Montezuma. In 1519, as Hernando Cortez was sailing towards Mexico afflicted with feverish bloodlust and an unquenchable desire for gold, he was completely unaware what awaited him upon his arrival. Having spotted his ships from afar, the servants of the great Aztec ruler Montezuma rushed hurriedly off to report to him. Montezuma was not surprised. Omens had been plaguing the Aztec kingdom for years, including the close passing of three comets.[10] According to reports, Cortez had landed at Veracruz, the very spot where Quetzalcoatl was prophesied to return. Cortez also was fortuitous in his choice of the year of his arrival, which in the Aztec tongue was Ce Acatl (One, Arrow Reed), the same year that Quetzalcoatl was expected to return.[11] If all this was not enough, Cortez’s physical appearance was the deciding factor. In the minds of the Tlaxcala natives who initially opposed but finally assisted Cortez in his conquest of the Aztec empire, the minds of many of the Aztec people and eventually the mind of Montezuma himself, Cortez was Quetzalcoatl returned, just as prophesied those many years ago. This is illustrated in the speech given by the Aztec ruler at one of his initial meetings with Cortez:
For a long time we have known from the writings of our ancestors that neither I, nor any of those who dwell in this land, are natives of it, but foreigners who came from very distant parts; and likewise we know that a chieftain, of whom they were all vassals, brought our people to this region. And he returned to his native land.
And we always held that those who descended from him would come and conquer this land and take us as their vassals….And in the land that lies in my domain, you may command as you will, for you shall be obeyed; and all that we own is for you to dispose of as you choose.[12]
In an earlier speech, Montezuma was said to have addressed Cortez:
O our Lord, thou hast suffered fatigue, thou hast endured weariness. Thou hast come to arrive on earth. Thou hast come to govern thy city of Mexico; thou hast come to descend upon thy mat, upon thy seat, which for a moment I have watched for thee, which I have guarded for thee….O that one of [the previous rulers of the Aztecs] might witness, might marvel at what to me now has befallen….I do not merely dream that I see thee, that I look into thy face….The rulers departed maintaining that thou wouldst come to visit thy city, that thou wouldst come to descend upon thy mat, upon thy seat. And now it hath been fulfilled; visit thy palace.[13]
Quetzalcoatl was considered to be the father of the Toltecs. He was said by some to be the seventh son of the “Toltec Abraham”, whose name Iztacmixcohuatl means “White Grass Snake Nebula”, which some take to refer to the Milky Way.[14] In other myths, Quetzalcoatl is said to have been conceived when his mother swallowed a green stone.[15] Again in other versions Quetzalcoatl appears as the son of the sun, as referenced above. This idea of being descended from the sun is nothing new. Osiris, Buddha, Rishabhdev (the founder of Jainism) were all said to be sons of the sun[16]. Quetzalcoatl was said to have brought with him the gift of civilization, thus ranking him as what is termed a “culture-hero”. Much like his Mexican counterpart, the chief god of the Egyptians, the god Osiris, was also a civilizing deity. Sir James G. Frazer writes of him:
Reigning as a king on earth, Osiris reclaimed the Egyptians from savagery, gave them laws, and taught them to worship the gods. Before his time the Egyptians had been cannibals. But Isis, the sister and wife of Osiris, discovered wheat and barley growing wild, and Osiris introduced the cultivation of these grains amongst his people, who forthwith abandoned cannibalism and took kindly to a corn diet….Eager to communicate these beneficent discoveries to all mankind, he committed the whole government of Egypt to his wife Isis, and travelled over the world, diffusing the blessings of civilization and agriculture wherever he went.[17]
The cult of Quetzalcoatl was intimately connected with the concept of green stones, called chalchihuites. Bernardino de Sahagun, a conquest-era chronicler, writes regarding this that
the vassals he had were all artisans and skillfull in working green stones that were called chalchihuites, and also in melting silver and doing other things, and all these arts had their origin in the one named Quetzalcoatl.[18]
This green stone imagery is quite important, as it tends to crop up in other religious systems, particularly Egypt. Certainly Horus, the son of the risen god Osiris and the personification of Venus is referred to in the Pyramid Texts (which date to the third millenium BCE) as “Lord of the green stone”[19]. The Eye of Horus itself was originally conceived of as a green stone, used to open the mouth of dead in an elaborate ritual.[20] And in both Egyptian and Pre-Columbian culture, the natives were in the habit of placing a green stone in the mouth of the dead.[21] As was discussed above, Quetzalcoatl himself is associated with the planet Venus, the “Morning Star” so important in Old World cultures. The following excerpt from the Codice Chimalpopoca describes his identification as the “Great Star” in more detail:
It is said that when it burned, at once its ashes arose….When the ashes were finished, at that moment they saw Quetzalcoatl’s heart rise. According to those who knew (the ancient sages), he was in the sky and he entered into the sky. The elders used to say that he was transformed into the star that comes out at dawn….They say that when he died, he did not appear for four days, because then he was dwelling amongst the dead (Mictlan); and that also by the fourth day he was provided with arrows; so that on the eighth day the great star appeared (Venus, the Morning Star), that they call Quetzalcoatl. And they added that it was then that he was enthroned as Lord.[22]
The mention of the numbers four and eight in relation to a god personified as the Morning Star also appears in the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Utterance 670 reads:
Osiris speaks to Horus, for he has removed the evil [which was on the King] on his fourth day, he has nullified what was done to him on his eighth [day, and you have come forth] from the Lake of Life, having been cleansed [in the Lake] of Cool Water and having become Wepwawet.[23]
Again in Utterance 535 we read:
…you have been cut up (?) into three (parts) in these your four days and your eight nights.[24]
The Morning Star is also referred to as being “Green” in the Popul Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiche Maya.[25] Venus was also personified in the Aztec tradition as Citlalpol (The Great Star) and Tlauizcalpantecutli (Lord of the Dawn). Spence describes the representation in this way:
In several of the pinturas he is represented as having a white body with long red stripes, while round his eyes is a deep black painting like a domino mask, bordered with small white circles. His lips are a bright vermilion.[26]
The planet Venus, then, is associated with the colors red, black and white in Aztec tradition. In its role as the Evening Star it apparently has a negative connotation, being occasionally portrayed with a skull[27], and considered to be “malignant” in nature[28].
Quetzalcoatl is associated with the direction of east, as that is where he is said to have come from and that is where he returned to. He is also, however, a god of the cardinal points, and is often portrayed in connection to the symbol of the cross.[29] Accordingly, the four sons of Horus were also said to be gods of the cardinal points.[30] On a related note, the four Becabs or Chacs (the deities of the cardinal points) not only served as funerary jars which held the internal organs of the deceased just as did the four sons of Horus in Egypt,[31] but also were associated with the color red,[32] just as were the four sons of Horus in Egypt.[33]
The name Quetzalcoatl literally translates as “Plumed Serpent”[34], but can also mean “Precious Twin”.[35] His twin is sometimes portrayed as Xolotl, a monstrous dog-like creature who is seen as the personification of the Evening Star just as Quetzalcoatl is seen as the personification of the Morning Star.[36] Xolotl is described as either “fire rushing down from the heavens or light flaming upward”. He is not a “natural dog” and one authority identifies him with the tapir. Lewis Spence relates that
Sahagun speaks of a strange animal-being, tlaca-xolotl, which has “a large snout, large teeth, hoofs like an ox, a thick hide, and reddish hair” – not a bad description of the tapir of Central America.[37]
This cannot help but bring to mind the many descriptions of the unknown animal associated with the Egyptian Set, the murderer of his brother Osiris and enemy (though sometimes portrayed as twin[38]) of Horus, his nephew. The animal associated with Set has been variously described in the following ways:
The first certain attestation of Seth can be found on the protohistoric votive mace head of King Scorpion on which appear clear depiction of dog-, pig-, or ass-like socalled Seth animals with the typical long, curved snout, truncated ears, and raised tails.[39]
Plutarch, in his De Iside et Osiride, has an interesting passage concerning the alleged resemblance between the ass and Set. He says (the translation is the old one of Squire):
Hence their ignominious treatment of those persons, whom from the redness of their complexions they imagine to bear a resemblance to him; and hence likewise is derived the custom of the Coptites of throwing an Ass down a precipice; because it is usually of this colour….In a word, this animal is in general regarded by them as unclean and impure, merely on account of the resemblance which they conceive it bears to Typho…[40]
Whilst [Ra and Horus] conversed there passed them a black hog, a huge, sinister animal, ferocious of aspect, and with eyes that glinted with cunning and cruelty. Now, though neither Ra nor Horus was aware of the fact, the black hog was Set himself, who had the power to take upon him the shape of any animal he chose.[41]
All desert animals and those which inhabited the waters were regarded as the children of Set, as were animals with red hair or skins, or even red-haired men.[42]
That said, we must also give heed to the words of E.A. Wallis Budge, who wrote:
Heru-ur [Horus], as we have already seen, was the god of the sky by day, and Set was the god of the sky by night; this fact is proved by the figures of the double god which are found in mythological scenes whereon the head of Heru-ur and the head of Set are seen upon one body.[43]
To summarize, what we have are two sets of gods (Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl, Horus and Set) who were seen not only as twins, but as dual aspects of the planet Venus. Quetzalcoatl and Horus both being associated with precious green stones, the four cardinal points, and birds (Horus being a falcon deity), Xolotl and Set both being associated with the perceived negative influences of the Evening Star and a curious animal who resembles at once a pig, a dog and an ass, and who is red in color. Is this a “natural” conclusion for cultures worlds apart to make? No, certainly not.
Quetzalcoatl, like the Egyptian Horus, is also closely related to his nemesis, Tezcatlipoca. In many mythologies, the two are so entwined as to take on the characteristics of one another[44], sometimes suffering the same hardships and assisting each other in their trials. In one particular myth, the two gods work together to create earth. They change themselves into two great serpents and tear apart the goddess of the primordial waters, Tlaltecuhtli, creating the world from her various appendages.[45] This immediately brings to mind the Sumerian creation myth revolving around Marduk and the destruction of Tiamat[46], along with the various other giant/world mythologies such as those found in the Rig Veda of India[47], the Eddas and Sagas of the Nordic races[48] and the creation mythologies of the Chinese.[49] Tezcatlipoca is the god of the air or wind[50], and his name means “Smoking Mirror”.[51] He is so named because he is said to be in possession of what most scholars assume to be a mirror made of obsidian, possibly used for divination.[52] Tezcatlipoca was also associated with the green stone, just as was Quetzalcoatl. He is described as possessing a green stone which was positioned in his navel.[53] This too harkens back to the Pyramid Texts of the Egyptians, in which the Eye of Horus (originally a green stone) is referenced in the following way:
O little finger of the King, pull out this which is in the navel of Osiris.[54]
Yet another similarity to Quetzalcoatl is Tezcatlipoca’s association with the colors black, red and white, the same colors used chiefly to denote the planet Venus, of which Quetzalcoatl was a personification.[55]Tezcatlipoca is also said to be missing a foot, which in one version is replaced with a serpent.[56] This, of course, is also of interest, for the chief opponent of Osiris/Horus was Set, who was associated with the great celestial serpent Apophis.[57] Continuing the similarities with Set, Tezcatlipoca was also considered to be a god of the north,[58] as was Set.[59] And perhaps the most curious similarity of all, both Tezcatlipoca and Set were considered to be the gods of the constellation known as the “Great Bear” or “Big Dipper”.[60] And as though the above were not sufficient, there also existed a form of Tezcatlipoca known as “Red Tezcatlipoca”[61], thus identifying him with that primary color just as is Set.[62]
To sum up once again: we have here two gods who are the chief opponents of the great civilizing son of the sun. Both are identified with serpents, both are gods of the north, both are gods of the constellation known as the “Great Bear”, and both are associated with the color red. Is this simply a “natural” conclusion that two cultures would come to through independent development? It seems rather doubtful.
I will now proceed to enumerate a few of the other mythological oddities common to both Egypt and Mesoamerican civilizations before moving on to the most convincing archaeological evidence for cultural contact: The scribal god of Egypt was called Thoth. He was associated with the moon and portrayed as both an ibis and a baboon.[63] The most common Mayan representation of scribal deities was the monkey,[64] with the rabbit occasionally used as well – the rabbit being closely associated with the moon in the minds of the Maya.[65]
The idea of the water-confining dragon was also present in the New World just as in the Old. The following illustrations illustrate the common theme present in both Mesoamerican and Egyptian society:
The picture on the top is of the Mayan water-confining serpent (the glyph in the center denoting water) and is taken from Donald A. Mackenzie’s Migration of Symbols (p.99), the picture on the bottom is of the Egyptian water-confining serpent (the figure in the center being Hapi, the god of the Nile) and is taken from William R. Cooper’s Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt (p.47). Certainly the myth of the water-confining serpent is not simply limited to either of these two cultures, the best example being the Indra and his slaying of the drought-causing dragon Vritra in the Rig Veda.[66]
Now we come to the best piece of archaeological evidence for transatlantic contact between the Old World (specifically Egypt) and the cultures of Mesoamerica prior to Columbus: drugs. In 1976, the mummified body of Ramses II (who reigned during the 19th dynasty in Egypt, or roughly the 13th century BCE) was shipped to the Museum of Mankind in Paris, France. A scientific team was assembled in order to repair and restore the mummy. This team included Dr. Michelle Lescot of the Natural History Museum of Paris. She received bits of bandages from the mummy and discovered a plant fibre within the fragments. As she examined the plant more closely, she discovered that it was tobacco. Her first thought was that a mistake had been made, so she tested the plant fibre further. Upon receiving the same results, she announced her findings. The idea of a New World plant in an Old World mummy was too much for most academics to take, and the idea and the evidence was dismissed as quickly as possible. But then, sixteen years later in 1992, a German toxicologist named Dr. Svetla Balabanova carried out testing on the mummified remains of Henut-Tawy, Lady of the Two Lands, who had lived during the 18th dynasty, roughly the 14th century BCE. The results were astonishing. Dr. Balabanova found traces of both nicotine from the plant Nicotiana tabacum and cocaine from Erythroxylon coca. Despite severe criticism, academic chastisement and critical analysis from the opposition, the results have held up.[67][68] The results of the tests of both Balabanova and Lescot should be enough for us to seriously reevaluate the relationship between the Old and New Worlds prior to Columbus, but it seems that the academic world is not ready to face facts, dismissing the finds as fraudulent and faulty despite clear evidence to the contrary.
As I stated in the beginning of this paper, I believe that when viewed objectively, there is enough evidence to warrant a serious and scholarly examination of possible cultural contact and diffusion between the Old and New World prior to Columbus. Unfortunately, objectivity has been nearly completely obliterated in most academic circles, with many specialists as entrenched and dogmatic as any religious fundamentalist ever was. Thus, it is left to those who are still interested in truth (not simply the preservation of the status quo) to force the academic world to both admit the evidence and to critically examine it. If the theory of diffusion is found wanting, then so be it. If, on the other hand, the theory of independent invention is found to be fundamentally flawed, we must reexamine our entire history from the ground up, so to speak, and be prepared to accept our mistakes and begin again. To sacrifice our history, our very heritage as a race, due to pride and arrogance would be disastrous. If we do not know what and where we have come from, we cannot hope to know who we are and where we’re going, and in these turbulent times the knowledge of ourselves is something we cannot afford to be without.
[1] Spence, L. (1994). The myths of Mexico and Peru. New York: Dover Publications. p.79
[2] Florescano, E. (1999). The myth of Quetzalcoatl. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p.42
[3] Spence, Mexico and Peru, p.65
[4] Mackenzie, D. A. (1996). Myths of pre-Columbian America. Mineola, N.Y: Dover Publications. p.258
[5] Quoted in Irwin, C. H. F. (1963). Fair gods and stone faces. New York: St. Martin’s Press. pp.37-38
[6] Bierhorst, J. (1974). Four masterworks of American Indian literature: Quetzalcoatl/The ritual of condolence/Cuceb/The night chant. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p.161
[7] Irwin, Fair Gods, pp.37-38
[8] Bailey, J. (1973). The God-Kings & the Titans. NY: St. Martin’s. p.51
[9] Thompson, E. H. (1932). People of the serpent: Life and adventure among the Mayas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p.77
[10] León-Portilla, M. (2009). The broken spears: The Aztec account of the conquest of Mexico. Boston: Beacon Press. p.5
[11] Collins, A., & Rohl, D. M. (2000). Gateway to Atlantis: The search for the source of a lost civilization. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. p.212
[12] Carrasco, Quetzalcoatl, p.202
[13] Ibid. p.201
[14] Collins, Atlantis, p.208; Spence, Mexico and Peru, p.79
[15] Florescano, Quetzalcoatl, p.39
[16] Mackenzie, Pre-Columbian America, p.31
[17] Frazer, J. G. (2008). The golden bough: A study in magic and religion. S.l.: Penguin Books/Paw Prints. p.421
[18] Florescano, Quetzalcoatl, p.36
[19] Faulkner, R. O. (2000). The ancient Egyptian pyramid texts. Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Publishing. Utterance 301
[20] In Budge, E. A. W. (1972). The book of opening the mouth: The Egyptian texts with English translations. New York: B. Blom. Vol. 1. p.358
[21] Mackenzie, Pre-Columbian America, p.206
[22] Bierhorst, J. (1998). History and mythology of the Aztecs: The Codex Chimalpopoca. Tucson, Ariz: Univ. of Arizona Pr.
[23] Faulkner, Pyramid Texts, Utterance 670
[24] Ibid. Utterance 535
[25] Christenson, A. J. (2003). Popol Vuh. Winchester, U.K: O Books. p.218
[26] Spence, Mexico and Peru, pp.96-97
[27] Ibid. p.97
[28] Florescano, Quetzalcoatl, p.19
[29] Miller, M. E., & Taube, K. A. (1997). An illustrated dictionary of the gods and symbols of ancient Mexico and the Maya. New York: Thames and Hudson. p.141
[30] Spence, L. (1990). Ancient Egyptian myths and legends. New York: Dover Publications. p.28
[31] Ibid. pp.28-29
[32] Mackenzie, Pre-Columbian America, p.243
[33] Faulkner, Pyramid Texts, Utterances 513, 440, 481
[34] Is it a coincidence that a unified Egypt (Upper Egypt symbolized by the vulture and Lower Egypt symbolized by the snake) also produces a “Plumed Serpent”?
[35] Florescano, Quetzalcoatl, p.64
[36] López, P. J., Sodi, M. D., & Díaz, I. F. (1982). Quetzalcoatl, in myth, archeology, and art. New York: Continuum. p.45; Collins, Atlantis, p.209
[37] Spence, Mexico and Peru, pp.93-94
[38] Budge, E. A. W. (1969). The gods of the Egyptians; or, Studies in Egyptian mythology: Vol. 2. New York: Dover Publications. pp.242-243
[39] Redford, D. B. (2003). The Oxford essential guide to Egyptian mythology. New York: Berkley Books. p.333
[40] Spence, Egypt, pp.101-102
[41] Ibid. p.96
[42] Ibid. p.100
[43] Budge, Egyptian Gods, Vol. 2, pp.242-243
[44] Mackenzie, Pre-Columbian America, p.271
[45] Florescano, Quetzalcoatl, p.179
[46] Dalley, S. (2008). Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the flood, Gilgamesh, and others. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.256-257
[47] Doniger, W. (1981). The Rig Veda: An anthology : one hundred and eight hymns, selected, translated and annotated. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books. Hymn 10.90
[48] Guerber, H. A. (1992). Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and the sagas. New York: Dover Publications. pp.5-6
[49] Willis, R. G. (2006). World mythology: The illustrated guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.90
[50] Spence, Egypt, p.59
[51] Mackenzie, Pre-Columbian America, p.272
[52] Ibid. pp.272-273
[53] Ibid. p.280
[54] Faulkner, Pyramid Texts, Utterance 204
[55] Mackenzie, Pre-Columbian America, p.280
[56] Ibid. p.281
[57] Budge, vol 2, pg.247
[58] Mackenzie, Pre-Columbian America, p.287
[59] Spence, Egypt, p.101
[60] Mackenzie, Pre-Columbian America, p.276; Budge, Egyptian Gods, Vol. 2, p.249
[61] Ibid. p.272
[62] Spence, Egypt, p.100; Budge, Egyptian Gods, Vol. 2, p.247
[63] Müller, W. M., & Müller, W. M. (2004). Egyptian mythology. Mineola, N.Y: Dover Publications. p.33
[64] Miller, An Illustrated Dictionary…, p.148
[65] Ibid. p.142
[66] Doniger, Rig Veda, Hymn 1.32
Russia’s main consumer watchdog organization, Rospotrebnadzor, yesterday suspended the import of all American grown, Monsanto GMO corn, following the publication of a French study in the Food & Chemical Toxicology Journal which found that even minimal exposure to genetically modified corn caused severe liver and kidney damage, as well as mammary tumors (breast cancer) in lab rats.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has also ordered an evaluation of the peer-reviewed study, and has promised to petition the European Union to block the import of all GMO corn should the findings be substantiated.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Caen, took a full two years to complete, and investigated the effect of genetically modified food on the rats over the span of the entire lives. Previous studies have evaluated the safety of GMO crops based upon only a small portion of the lives of the test subjects.
Monsanto, for its part, has disparaged the study, calling it “insufficient” and scientifically unsound, and producing a whole array of associated, pro-GM scientists who call into question the study’s findings. The agro giant has been forced to engage in international damage control since the publication of the study one week ago.
Among the accusations of bias aimed to discredit the study’s conclusions is that the particular breed of rat used in the study is naturally more prone to mammary tumors than other breeds, and that this was not taken into consideration by the researchers when they compiled their conclusions.
But now Dr. Michael Antoniou, a specialist in molecular genetics and leading member of Criigen (Committee of Research & Independent Information on Genetic Engineering) has come out in defense of the study’s scientific credibility, stating that
“The key is that there were both quantitative and qualitative differences in the tumours arising in control and test groups. In the former they appeared much later and at most there was one tumour per animal, if at all…Many animals in the test groups had to be euthanised for welfare legal reasons due to the massive size of the tumours; none of the control animals had to be euthanised but died in their own time. One should not ignore these biological facts…[T]here are big differences between the tumour frequencies in the control and the experimental groups. Claims that the results are just the result of random variation in a rat line that has a high frequency of tumours is not valid.”
Dr. Antoniou further lauded the study for its breadth and scope, saying that it was unique among other studies of its kind for evaluating the potential risks associated with GMO corn over the life spans of the rats, rather than for just a limited period of time:
“This study used more rats in test groups, for a far longer duration than any previous investigation employed by industry to obtain approval for this and other GM crop products.”
Meanwhile, Jose Bove, ranking member of the European Parliament’s commission for agriculture, has called for an immediate halt to all cultivation and importation of GM crops throughout the European Union, stating that “it is urgent to quickly review all GMO evaluation processes.” He encouraged the European Parliament to act on the study’s findings, saying:
“National and European food security agencies must carry out new studies financed by public funding to guarantee healthy food for European consumers.”
GM crops have already been outlawed in the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Peru, Venezuela and Bolivia. And now Russia has joined the list. Whereas, in the United States, repeated efforts to require that GM foods simply be labeled as such have met with failure.
But then, perhaps it’s no wonder, as President Barack Obama only recently appointed a former vice president of Monsanto to a senior advisory position at our own Food and Drug Administration.
Brandon Raub, the 26-year-old Marine and Iraq war veteran who is currently being indefinitely detained because of inflammatory posts made on his Facebook page, faces yet another hurdle following a psychiatric “evaluation” on Monday.
Raub is being held against his will and without charges at John Randolph Psychiatric Hospital in Hopewell, Virginia, following an arrest (though some have challenged the technical accuracy of this word) by numerous FBI agents and the Chesterfield County Police Department on the 16th of August.
He was lead away in handcuffs without being read his rights, and it was only following his detainment that his mother received a call from FBI Agent Sherry Grainger, who informed her of the following:
“We have taken your son. He has been arrested by the Chesterfield County Police Dept because he assaulted an officer and resisted arrest. He has been arrested and taken to the Chesterfield Police Department.”
As was reported previously, the CCPD initially told a different story, claiming that the arrest was spearheaded by the FBI, with Chesterfield officers only assisting the agents involved. Additionally, CCPD claims that Raub has not been charged with either resisting arrest or assaulting an officer, directly contradicting the claims of Agent Grainger.
Some have observed that one of the more disturbing aspects of this case is that neither the FBI, nor the CCPD, nor the Secret Service which assisted with Raub’s initial interview after he was taken into custody, seem to want to take responsibility for his detention. The Richmond spokesperson for the FBI stated unequivically:
“When we left we had not arrested him, we had not placed our hands on him, we did not detain him and we did not charge him.”
Brian Leary, Secret Service representative, released the following statement:
“The Secret Service assisted the FBI with the interview. He was not arrested by the Secret Service. The Secret Service will continue to monitor the situation. We have no further comment at this time.”
And the CCPD also effectively washed their hands of the matter, writing that:
“Raub was evaluated by a Chesterfield mental health official, who determined that he should be held under a temporary [detention] order and transported to John Randolph Medical Center for additional evaluation.
Raub was not arrested and he faces no criminal charges in Chesterfield.”
On Monday, Raub was forced to undergo a psychological “evaluation” at the psychiatric hospital where he is currently being held. According to his mother, the evaluation “was 15 minutes long, and basically the evaluator said that he was not ready to go back into society and he needed additional psychiatric treatment.” The evaluation resulted in Raub being sentenced to a minimum of 30 days in the mental hospital, despite the fact that no charges have been brought against him.
According to Russia Today, the government is utilizing state legislation (Virginia State Code §37.2-808) which states that authorities may indefinitely detain a person without charges in a mental institution upon obtaining a recommendation from a medic.
The Rutherford Insitute, a civil rights watchdog group, has begun to assemble a defense on behalf of Raub. A statement posted on their website from the executive director of the Institute, John Whitehead, reads as follows:
“For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights [to freedom of speech], but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon.”
Rutherford Institute lawyers decried the government’s decision to hold Raub without charges for the next month, saying that “government officials again pointed to Raub’s Facebook posts as the sole reason for their concern and for his continued incarceration.”
Raub himself, during a telephone interview with the Times-Dispatch, had the following to say:
“I really love America, and I think that idea that you can be detained and sent somewhere without due process and a lawyer … is crazy.”
A former Marine and veteran of two wars, Brandon Raub was arrested late Thursday evening at his house in Virginia for inflammatory comments that he made on Facebook.
The arrest was made by numerous FBI agents in conjunction with the Chesterfield County Police Department. Raub was not read his rights, according to numerous witnesses, and was initially taken to an undisclosed location. It has since emerged that he is being held indefinitely and without charges at John Randolph Psychiatric Hospital in Hopewell, Virginia.
His mother, Kathleen Thomas, was reportedly contacted by FBI agent Sherry Grainger, who informed her of the following:
“We have taken your son. He has been arrested by the Chesterfield County Police Dept because he assaulted an officer and resisted arrest. He has been arrested and taken to the Chesterfield Police Department.”
However, upon contacting the CCPD, Thomas was told that her son was arrested by the FBI, and that “[the arrest] was an FBI matter and [CCPD officers] were just there to assist them.” Additionally, the CCPD states that Raub has not been charged with either resisting arrest or assaulting an officer.
Agent Grainger went on to tell Thomas that the comments which appeared on Raub’s Facebook page had been deemed “terrorist in nature.” Thomas then asked the agent whether or not free speech still exists in the United States of America, to which Grainger responded: “Yes, we still have freedom of speech.”
Brandon Raub had been outspokenly critical of the US government’s official story surrounding the events of 9/11, and was a vocal advocate of what some have referred to as “the Ron Paul Revolution.”
His Facebook comments included references to the coming of a new American revolution, a 9/11 cover-up, and the necessity of honest government. Some examples of his more recent posts follow:
Courage. Loyalty. And Honor. [August 16th]
The Revolution will come for me. Men will be at my door soon to pick me up to lead it. 😉 [August 14th]
Do you know why the American people will win the civil war that is coming? Because we are Americans. [August 12th]
Whether or not one agrees with the sentiments expressed by Brandon Raub, his defenders are quick to point out that what he has said on Facebook is not illegal, nor do his comments justify his indefinite detention without charges at a mental hospital.
His mother reports that Raub is due to see a judge on Monday, but as of now still has no idea why he’s been arrested or held against his will.
Civil rights activists are concerned that this arrest may be a sign of things to come under the government’s seemingly limitless power to detain American citizens without charges, as specified by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed into law on New Year’s Eve 2011 by President Obama.
The Obama administration has been engaged in a fierce courtroom battle over the legislation since a May 2012 injunction against the “indefinite detention” provision was issued in federal court.
The injunction was issued after a lawsuit was brought against the federal government on behalf of such notable plaintiffs as Noam Chomsky and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, which argued that the NDAA was unconstitutional.
Judge Katherine Forrest agreed, saying that indefinite detention “failed to pass Constitutional muster” and issued an injunction barring the administration from arresting and indefinitely detaining American citizens without charges or trial. Judge Forrest stated:
“In the face of what could be indeterminate military detention, due process requires more. An individual could run the risk of substantially supporting or directly supporting an [anti-American] force without even being aware that he or she was doing so.”
The White House, however, is challenging the injunction and demanding that their power to indefinitely detain anyone they deem a “terrorist” be restored.
Worse, the Obama administration is refusing to disclose whether or not the government has abided by the federal injunction. Journalist Tangerine Bolen, a plaintiff in the suit filed against the NDAA, stated in an op-ed that:
“Obama’s attorneys refused to assure the court, when questioned, that the NDAA’s section 1021 – the provision that permits reporters and others who have not committed crimes to be detained without trial – has not been applied by the US government anywhere in the world after Judge Forrest’s injunction. In other words, they were telling a US federal judge that they could not, or would not, state whether Obama’s government had complied with the legal injunction that she had laid down before them.”
So despite a federal injunction prohibiting the Obama administration from acting upon the “indefinite detention” provision, could the arrest of Brandon Raub and others like him be the first sign of things to come in the new United States? And more importantly, what is our role now, as active and informed citizens of a democracy apparently under siege?
At Moray, in front of the largest group of circular depressions, is a rectangular building (apparently) which was divided into two rooms. The length of the smaller room is 20.75 feet. The length of the larger room is 34 feet. The length of the entire building is roughly 55 feet. 55/34 = 1.617. 34/20.75 = 1.63. So, what looks like the ruins of an ancient building is actually a golden rectangle, laid out on the field in front of an enormous circular terracing system that archaeologists have no complete explanation for. I don’t have the time (or the technical expertise necessary) at present to fully work this out. The best I could do was create a golden spiral from said rectangle and see if that made any difference. It does seem to describe the placement of the other two main circular formations, with the tail of the spiral going through the center of one and touching on the edge of the other. But that’s all I’ve got. Any geometers want to have a go at this one?
The Catholic church has had a tough week. And on Pentecost, too!
Rome was rocked by yet another in a series of scandals, as it emerged that Father Thomas Williams, the public face of the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order begun in 1941, fathered a child that the Church attempted to keep secret for at least the past 7 years.
The Legionaries suffered a similar humiliation back in 2009, when it was revealed that their founder, Father Marcial Maciel, had lead a double life throughout his association with the Church, and was not only a pedophile and drug addict, but started two families that he concealed from the Holy See.
Father Thomas Williams, an American based in Rome who has made numerous speeches and written several books on Christian morality, was allowed to continue his public ministry by the current leader of the order, Father Alvaro Corcuera, even after his illegitimate child was revealed.
Father Corcuera stated that he found out about Williams’s child “early in [his] new assignment” as leader of the order, in 2005. Although Corcuera had urged Williams to “start withdrawing from public ministry”, critics and activist groups charge that such a recommendation was not severe enough.
One such group, named the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), released a statement calling strongly on the Pope to fire Corcuera, saying:
“Virtually nothing will change if the Pope and other Church officials continue to let their colleagues and underlings act recklessly and deceitfully – year after year after year – and get by with saying, when they’re caught, ‘Oops, sorry, I goofed.'”
The Legionaries scandal comes on the heels of the arrest of Pope Benedict’s personal butler on charges of spying. The butler, Paolo Gabriele, is accused of contributing to an enormous dump of classified information, since dubbed “Vatileaks”, which revealed internal financial corruption and bickering about money.
Additionally, it was reported last week that the chief Vatican exorcist, appointed by Pope John Paul II, has implicated the Church in the unsolved murder of a 15-year-old girl, allegedly to cover up regular orgies participated in by high-level Church officials.
The Vatican has yet to officially respond to each allegation.
Question Everything 