Teotihuacán, Gateway of Gods
The following is an introduction to the celestial architectural meaning of the sacred city of Teotihuacán. The plans for the city coincide with the beginning of the Christian epoch. The evidence is overwhelming that the architects of the city saw the same vision as the founders of the modern epic of Western Civilization. (This introduction assumes that the reader has read the Rapa Nui and Maya stories.)
The sacred city of
is laid out at an angle of
degrees east of true north.
The detail below shows the
of the Dead" bounded by the pyramids of the sun and moon, and the citadel
containing the pyramid of the Feathered Serpent."
The following star chart shows that this orientation exactly duplicates the orientation of the galaxy on the day of the vernal equinox in 4400 AD (or 21,600 BC, etc.), when the top two stars on the west side of the hat in the constellation of Cepheus, the king, are on a line with the celestial north pole, which is between them. Additionally, the vernal equinox position of the sun rests precisely where the Maya ball court scene depicts the ball at the front knee of a running man similar to Aquarius. On the east southeast horizon is the bottom of the galaxy, and the man holding a staff. On the southeast horizon, the Phoenix is rising. On the west northwest horizon the top of the galaxy is setting, with the hand of Virgo touching right at the west horizon.
On the horizon at the northwest direction is the asterism of
the Big Dipper with seven stars symbolizing the strength of the ancient
metaphysical paradigm of Seven Macaw. The city and the stars are shown as
viewed from beyond the heavens, and is a mirror image of the view looking
upward from earth.
Between Virgo and Sculptor are the participants of the Teotihuacán and Mayan myths, including the ball player's winning hip shot. The hip shot can be seen as the reverse path of the zenith, going from Pisces on the east horizon to the cornfield (Coma Berenices) on the west horizon. This scenario can be "seen" by looking at the sky and reading the story from east to west. Xbalanque's hip thrust into the "zenith ball" (Andromeda and Pisces) causes him to fall to the bottom of the world, where he acquires the staff of wisdom (Sculptor) and passes it to Hanahpu for the journey to the top of the world with the soul (Aquila/Antinous) of First Father (Ophiuchus). This celestial picture tells the story of the return passage from Xibalba as the brothers are rejoined with First Father at the top of the world. It is a fabulous metaphor, but because there are stars, monuments, and the myth, it is a "scientific" reality.
Under Teotihuacán at the same celestial moment, the reverse zenith metaphor passes between Pollux and Castor, the head stars of Gemini, as it descends under the galaxy. Then it passes through the Hyades near Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus the bull. Thus, the constellation of the bull represents the entrance to the underworld of Xibalba.
Simultaneous to the design of Teotihuacán in the 1st Century, the Romans were under the influence of the same revelation to Mithras, who also conquered the bull of Taurus. Now, two millennia after the "scientific discovery" of the precession of the equinoxes in Western Civilization, we are made aware that the people of Teotihuacán, were fully aware of the westward march of time. Aztec and Roman imperialism would eventually lead to the conquest of these "gentle priest-kings," who cared enough to create a Gateway of Gods. A ball game in the heavens translated into imperialism and scientific discovery on earth. This competition between ethereal cosmic truth and mundane earthly reality is a world wide phenomenon, which has left behind a clear record of its passages.
As incredible as these alignments are, they pale by comparison to the events which take place on the zenith at Teotihuacán between 3114 BC and 5400 AD. When the Way of the Dead in Teotihuacán perfectly aligns with the Milky Way, the zenith constellation is that of the eagle and the serpent, Aquila and Serpens. These are the modern symbols of the country of Mexico, indicating that the ancestors of the Aztecs still rule the Mexican sky. Centered on the zenith is the head of the young king, as he is taken back to the Milky Way. In a rationalization of words, the hip shot worked and the king's head sits squarely on the sky pole over Teotihuacán. The myth is true science in cosmic mythological form. But this is cosmic reality, not tinsel town fantasy, or the apparent confusion of the Greeks. This story never ends. It repeats and repeats in 26,000 year cycles, until the stars have spread so far from their current positions that a new story must be fabricated.
Nearly all native American peoples traditionally believed that the
souls of the dead returned to the Milky Way. At the moment memorialized in
Teotihuacán, the Gateway of Gods is swung wide open. These alignments
should be sufficient to lessen the doubt of even the most severe skeptic,
but they fade when compared to the message written by the movement of the
heavens over the eight millennia shown in the star chart
Click on figure to animate.
Below the torso of Antinous are lines which show the relative position of the celestial equator between 3114 BC and 5400 AD. The lines indicate that the young king's legs drop below the celestial equator continuously until 1 BC, then the young king rises above the equator through 5400 AD. There the young king has risen completely above the equator. This is an obvious metaphor of a king coming down to earth and then rising back up to heaven. The locus of the celestial equator never goes above the swaddling cloths around the hips of Antinous. One would be led to conclude that a Teotihuacán would recognize this as the culmination of the hip shot witnessed around the world. In this metaphor, the hip ring is still the galaxy, but the ball becomes the planet earth. There exists a connection between Antinous and Aquarius in the Teotihuacán traditions, just like there was in the Greek myths of Ganymede. It is very important to realize that the Teotihuacán constructions began when Antinous initiated his return up from his lowest position at the equator, and they signify the moment when the feet of the asterism are on the equator as the head crosses the zenith. A clear message for the union of heaven and earth.
Above the head of Antinous is the locus of intersections for the zenith and galactic plane. At the latitude of Teotihuacán, the zenith intersection rises above the head of the young king until 1 BC, then it proceeds back to the head of the young king in 4400 AD. These cosmic events leave no significant room for doubt that the mighty Teotihuacán nation was a culture of gentle priest-kings. There example was that of sons of a priestly king returning to the earth to save their father from the Lords of Xibalba. When the great celestial event in 4400 AD comes, there will be the image of a young king passing through the Gateway of Gods over the Way of the Dead in Teotihuacán. His image will continue to rise until approximately 14,000 AD, when the young king will begin a return to the earth once more. From there the journey will be a repeat of the journey taken after Atlantis began to fall into the sea from beyond the Pillars of Hercules 26,000 years earlier. Listen to the stars over Teotihuacán, and you can hear the ancestors of Plato discussing the lost civilization of Atlantis. Teotihuacán tells us that Atlantis represented a culture of cosmically oriented human beings who watched as the celestial Son's of a King descended to the earth to live in the hearts of humans, forever. After Hercules (Osiris, Xbalanque) performs his twelve labours, it will be time to bring Atlantis back from the Abyss. Could the experiences of Egyptians and Teotihuacáns have been more in tune with the cosmos than the "scientific" naivete of the Greeks?
During this whole voyage, the young king on the wings of the eagle never dips the top of his swaddling cloths below the equator of the earth, and he only does that when the vernal equinox makes the hip shot in the great cosmic ball court. Whether you accept the Mesoamerican metaphoric journey toward the heavens does not much matter, they have proven themselves worthy as one of the very greatest scientific and literate civilizations. They proved it by creating the monuments in Teotihuacán which show when to expect the goal to be scored as the hip shot bounces up and out of Xibalba. Can any modern academic institution come close to their perfection of metaphor and science? There is reason to doubt that the modern world would even care. We are, after all, the ones in the grip of Seven Macaw rationalizing (Gemini) the Lords of Xibalba as shaman superstition in order to get back to work in our gold mines (Taurus). Teotihuacán fell to these lords of the underworld, as their truth was lost to the Aztecs. Have we, the descendants of Egypt, had a similar experience with the Romans?
As a final shot from the hip so to speak, consider the image of Antinous resting in his lowest position with respect to the celestial equator, or the earth. Would we, if we were Teotihuacáns or Rapa Nui, expect to hold that lonely spot, at the central focus of the cosmic metaphor, for ourselves alone? It is not likely, for all the hard evidence of life clearly indicates that human animals, though predators on top of the food chain, are also the most affectionate of all the earth's creatures. True affection is not a "scientific" process, but if rational science is more important to us than our affection from and to the world, then were are of less value than the fallen stone statues on Rapa Nui, and the broken monuments of Teotihuacán. Look again at Antinous as if he were one of many along a ridge or shore of the galaxy, and see if you can see "three" souls awaiting their chance to rise from the dead once more. If you can, then maybe there is a place where you can join in the game, and give your best shot, too.
The ultimate truth behind the ancestral shamans of the Teotihuacáns and the Mayas, is that they chose to worship life in all its attributes. They did not run away from Xibalba, or the potential for insanity. They knew that to run away was the essence of insanity. Instead they dove head long into the abyss with the faith that one day their children would come ashore and see a world inspired by a desire for life. Unlike our modern "egomaniacs all" approach, the ancient shamans knew the folly of too much rationality, and preferred to bask in the light of a benevolent sun in the garden of a benevolent earth.
Maybe the Moai of Rapa Nui are in fact the synoptic reminder of Hanahpu bringing the good news that the spirit of First Father has returned to earth. If so, then Moai statues on Rapa Nui were designed to indicate the "coming ashore" event in life, as a synopsis of a cosmic happening. They are a record of the moment when life becomes more than just a dream to the dreamer; a moment of acceptance of cosmic spirituality in a mundane world.
Considering the use they put their wealth to, it is sure that the First Father images of the Teotihuacáns, Mayas, and Rapa Nui revealed a greater appreciation of what this great cosmic sea has to offer, than did the First Father images of their conquerors. Descendants of the conquering Lords of Xibalba have taken over the cosmos, and the message of Hanahpu is all but lost on children who appreciate gold and deny the Cosmic Spirit.
The Teotihuacáns built a monument to record the 4400 AD arrival of the resurrected king on the celestial "feathered serpent" directly over Teotihuacán. That monument is now known as the Feathered Serpent Pyramid in the Citadel. Although the images we have come to understand through modern archaeology do not show the resurrected king, it should be self evident that the Sacred City and its monuments were constructed to raise the soul of one human civilization to it highest achievement. That achievement is the coming down to earth as a child of ancestors for the sake of generations to come.
The following is an excerpt from the Teotihuacán Home Page that demonstrates the importance of the eagle, the serpent, and the child, to people who created the Sacred City.
The Feathered Serpent Pyramid was the third largest pyramid in Teotihuacan. Although significantly smaller in size than both the Sun Pyramid and Moon Pyramid, it was one of the most elaborate monuments in the city. Manuel Gamio's excavations carried out between 1917 and 1922 (Gamio 1922 (1979)) revealed that the principal facade had been covered with carved blocks, including impressive three dimensional sculptures. The excavations by the Proyecto Arqueológico Teotihuacán 1980-82 of the Instituto National de Antropología e Historia confirmed that the facades on all four sides of the pyramid had been decorated with carved stones depicting the motifs discovered earlier by Gamio. These discoveries indicated that the construction of the monument - quarrying, transporting, arranging, and carving heavy stone blocks - represented a remarkably high energy expenditure of the state.
The Feathered Serpent Pyramid was the principal pyramid at the Ciudadela , one of the largest enclosed precincts in Mesoamerica. Ceramic analyses indicate that both were constructed sometime during the Miccaotli to Early Tlamimilolpa phases (A.D.150-300). However, precise chronological relationships between the pyramid and the Ciudadela remain unknown because of the lack of direct stratigraphic and architectural data. Recent research simply suggests that most of the platform that encloses the Ciudadela may have been built somewhat earlier than the Feathered Serpent Pyramid.
The Feathered Serpent Pyramid complex consists of the pyramid (stepped platform), it's surmounting temple, and the Adosada platform which was later built onto the main facade of the pyramid. All four sides of the pyramid had been covered by an elaborate facade of stone carvings which includes a series of large sculptural heads. The facades that originally existed on the lateral and rear faces have been almost completely destroyed. Fortunately, the principal (western) facade of the pyramid was covered by the Adosada platform in ancient times, which was therefore uncovered in an excellent condition of preservation. Thanks to these conditions, we know that the Feathered Serpent Pyramid, measuring 65 m on a side (about 4225 m2 at the base), depicted important mythico-religious entities - Feathered Serpents and a form of sacred headdress.
Apparently, the Cosmic First Father agreed with the Ancients' way of life. Why else would he have called the place where they came ashore, Easter Island? The Rapa Nui predicted with stunning accuracy when they would come ashore. Is there any doubt that the Teotihuacáns will have their day in the sun some 2200 years from now? Even now when the sun ceases to shine upon this human civilization, nothing under the heavens can close the Way of the Dead to souls that cherish life, as children of gentle priest kings.
Before you close the door on these fantasies of kings, consider the following questions sincerely and profoundly. How is it possible that a simple human culture can choose all the stars in the heavens to tell a coordinated story that represents a way for a culture to pass on its heritage to its children? Was the big bang an accident or a precedent? Was it chaos or design? If it was chaos that created the fabulous celestial vision of the Ancients, then the forces of the abyss are beyond amazement. If it was a Divine Plan that organized the graffiti on the cosmic blackboard, then the forces of heaven are within the realm of conscious amazement, and as the shamans indicated, there was an accomplishment worth memorializing.
Even with these incomprehensible truths, there is one fact more awe inspiring than either of these scenarios. We have inherited a certain unalienable right. We are given the freedom to choose what to believe, while, at the same time, being denied freedom from believing. Belief is not an option, for truth is never a complete picture to a mortal being, and a shot from the hip must be made in order to achieve progress. Belief is simply a process of "shooting from the hip" and following a chosen path. The way we play the game after the "ball leaves the hip" determines whether we get our hip shot into the goal. That very fact eliminates the potential that the goal is going to be made by chance.
Napoleon Hill summarized these fantasies of kings with the immortal words, "What ever the mind can conceive and believe, it will achieve." We do not have to imagine that the stars exist. Nor do we have to believe in the celestial messages as read by the ancients. By their example, they were suggesting, "give it your best shot," then follow up by engraving a record that can help the children to come. What is a parent to a zygote, if not a god? It is our children who will become the parents of tomorrow, as they pass through each and every Gateway of Gods .
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Feathered Serpent Pyramid