Effigy-blogs

Tezcatlipoca Overthrown By 2012 Eclipse

There it is – that tell-tale dark orb slipping across the bright sun-disk in the sky. It reaches, stretches, smothers the sun until only the outer ring of fire can be seen – but not without eye protection of course. 90% of the sun hides behind the moon’s shadow, and yet it’s powerful brightness will not be outdone. We just witnessed an eclipse.

It isn’t every day we get to witness the astronomical alignments that create eclipses. They are sure to attract attention when they do occur. But this year’s particular eclipse had been special, something ancient Mesoamerican cultures had been looking forward to for a thousand years. But why?

A look at Toltec cosmology can answer that.

Keep in mind, the Toltec center of creation was the zenith – that portion of the sky directly above. Any heavenly bodies that crossed the zenith were of particular interest, specifically, the star cluster, Pleiades. In Toltec mythology, the Pleiades symbolized Quetzalcoatl, the infamous Feathered Serpent deity. Their New Fire Ceremony that was held at the end of their 52 year Calendar Round cycles were actually markers intended to keep track of the Pleiades crossing the zenith at midnight. This ritual tracking was necessary to stay on track with precession, which shifts the position of the stars (including the Pleiades) over time.

Why did the Toltecs keep track of the Pleiades-zenith conjunction at midnight? Because it was important to them to calculate the Pleiades-zenith conjunction at noon – which came 6 months after the midnight alignment. But having the Pleiades cross the zenith at noon wasn’t enough. The Toltecs were interested in the Pleiades-zenith conjunction meeting with the sun at high noon. The pyramid of Kukulkan in Yucatan’s Chichen Itza marked the exact spot on the globe this conjunction was to occur in 2012. But what did this Sun-Pleiades-zenith alignment above Chichen Itza mean to the Toltecs?

The fabled return of Quetzalcoatl.

In Chichen Itza, the Toltec and Mayan cosmologies came together and according to mythology, there are 5 world ages, each age contested over by Quetzalcoatl and his twin, Tezcatlipoca. The world age before the 2012 eclipse was the 5^th world age which has been ruled by Tezcatlipoca for over 5,125 years . (That’s the world age duration calculated by one cycle of the Mayan Long Count Calendar) However, when the Pleiades meets the sun at the zenith, that alignment heralds Quetzalcoatl’s return to the world age throne, bringing a renewal of the new age cycles.

Now, anyone who’s familiar with precession will tell you that the sun-Pleiades-zenith conjunction over Chichen Itza will occur for approximately 200 years, starting right around the turn of the century. The slow process of Precession didn’t bring them into alignment over night, so they won’t fall out of alignment over night either. So why was 2012 the year designated as the launch of Quetzalcoatl’s new age?

Well, remember yesterday’s eclipse? Not only did the sun and the Pleiades meet in the zenith directly above the Pyramid of Kukulkan in Chichen Itza, the moon was there too! Perhaps the rarest of all astronomical alignments!

And that is why the 2012 solar eclipse was so important to the Toltecs one thousand years ago. Welcome to the New Age of Quetzalcoatl!

Devin Lee Carlson Interview

It's no secret that some writers write under a pen name, or an alias to which their works are attached to. I don't know the statistic on how many writers do this, but I'd venture to say its more than you might think. Even Stephen King briefly breached this area as Richard Bachman. But did you know that once in a while, you come across a team of writers working under the same pen name?

That's the case with this month's interview with Laurie Allen, otherwise known as one half of the keyboard-pounding duo known as Devin Lee Carlson. Laurie visits with us this month to talk about what it's like to write a story with a partner and to introduce their paranormal thriller, 2012: MAYAN RESURRECTION.

THERESA: Welcome Laurie! It's always a pleasure to introduce other writers, like myself, who dabble in the open field that is 2012. What inspired you to write 2012: MAYAN RESURRECTION?

LAURIE: My love of Mayan mythology compelled me to write about their mysterious calendar. On February 27, 1997, I fiddled with an idea about a team of young scientists trying to solve an unexplained mystery dealing with 2012. My sister and I wracked our brains together and came up with the where, why, who, what, when.

THERESA: Ah, so your sister is the mysterious partner behind the pen name! Why did the two of you choose to write under one pen name?

LAURIE: My sister, Debra DeCosta, and I decided to use a pen name instead of listing coauthors to keep the title page simple. Carlson is our maiden name. With our initials: D and L, we selected genderless names to derive Devin Lee Carlson.

THERESA: How do you and Debra coordinate on a story? Do you each have your own specific writing specialties that you incorporate into the story?

LAURIE: We both have vivid imaginations, Debbie more so with her fantastic dreams. Before she moved, we lived like the Waltons. We would stay up late talking about ideas for our books, and then pick a part to write about, passing it back and forth until satisfied. At first, Mom could tell who wrote what, but after years of writing together, she can no longer tell. My strength is dialogue while Debbie's is her deep insight into the character's psyche.

THERESA: Tell us a little about the story you and Debbie colaborated on, 2012: MAYAN RESURRECTION.

LAURIE: Galen Stewart and Miguel Torrez must convince a team of scientists to perform a human sacrifice to stop a legendary Mayan entity that kills millions, thus reinforcing the doomsday prophesies of December 21, 2012.

THERESA: What do you hope readers will come away with after reading your book?

LAURIE: Pure entertainment for starters, but if you're looking for something like a "moral" of the story, I would have to say the concept of sacrifice - not in the sense of a martyr, but genuine sacrifice.

THERESA: There certainly is a sense of giving oneself for others in the book. What inspired you to write about the Maya 2012 phenomenon in a paranormal setting?

LAURIE: Honestly, it was difficult selecting a single genre for our novel. Besides being a Thriller, 2012: MAYAN RESURRECTION contains Horror, SF, Mystery and Fantasy. With ancient spirits possessing our heroes throughout the storyline, we thought a better description other than a SF Thriller was a Paranormal Thriller.

THERESA: Have you ever developed a character that freaked you out?

LAURIE: Not yet. We have grown to adore even some of our protagonists. Maybe we both have a dark side.

THERESA: What characteristics do you like most about your hero characters?

LAURIE: Both have major flaws. Galen has low esteem but pulls through in the end. Miguel is selfish, whereas he wishes he could be in Central America, oblivious to the signs that he is actually in the hottest locale for the winter solstice. He, too, pulls through with his willingness to sacrifice his life to save humankind.

THERESA: Do you write in genres other than paranormal?

LAURIE: Sure do. Besides the Paranormal Thriller, my sister and I have written a SF Gothic (or Dark Urban Gothic) and a Suspense novel (both are complete but in re-editing). Solo, I'm juggling a Fantasy, a children's story (or two), and another Thriller.

THERESA: I love books that bring out the research behind them. What surprised you most while researching for this book?

LAURIE: In the beginning, as the story unfolded, each researched turn of event presented an uncanny connection to the story. Several coincidences gave me the chills as we wrote the story.

THERESA: Such as?

LAURIE: For instance, I didn't realize the sun crosses the path of the dark rift (of the Milky Way) every year, so had to write that into the book; and after we wrote about the "invisible beam" coming from a black hole, NASA announced their suspicions of a black hole in the center of the Milky Way to be true in 2002.

THERESA: Truth can be stranger than fiction, but it's great when they both align to make a great story! If someone wants to read 2012: MAYAN RESURRECTION, where can they find it?

LAURIE: Right now, 2012: MAYAN RESURRECTION is offered as a Kindle download on Amazon. We plan to have it available soon at Barnes and Noble for the Nook, and eventually in print.

THERESA: Thank you, Laurie, for taking the time to share your writing experience and your book with us.

Anyone interested in learning more about Laurie or her works can find her at any of these online sites:

Website: www.coltonbooks.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Colton-Books/252862571427440

Blog: http://www.devinleecarlson.blogspot.com/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/2012-Mayan-Resurrection-ebook/dp/B006SRR7QE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335583406&sr=8-1

Twitter: Devin Lee Carlson@ColtonBooks

Mesoamerican Calendars: The Calendar Round

The 260 day Tzolkin calendar may have connected earthly rhythms to heavenly stability, but its importance to the cultures of ancient Mexico didn’t end there. The Tzolkin’s simple genius was extended to incorporate the 365 day solar cycle in yet another layer of cosmic connection. One cycle of the Tzolkin-haab system (Haab being the Maya name for the 365 day calendar) lasted 52 years, a time frame that’s also been called the Aztec “century”, or the Calendar Round.

An interesting Calendar Round feature to note involves New Year’s Day. New Year’s Day in Mesoamerica did not land on what we now call January 1^st. Instead, the solar (Haab) calendar began on the winter solstice, when the sun makes its turn from its most southern position and the days become longer once again – the cycle renews. When combined with the Tzolkin on the 52 year Calendar Round, there are only 4 of the Tzolkin's 20 day-signs that New Year’s Day lands on. If you draw the 20 day signs of the Tzolkin into a wheel, you would see that these 4 special day-signs quarter the wheel. To the Aztecs, these year signs were House, Rabbit, Reed and Flint. These 4 signs then become year-bearers. In other words, the names of these signs label the years in Mesoamerican calendrics.

Though the Maya are known to use the Calendar Round, it was the Nahuatl-speaking people of Central Mexico, the Toltecs and the Aztecs, who placed the highest degree of importance on it. This is where calendars connected to their perception of world ages, which in turn were used to explain the movement of the stars.

How did they do this?

Essentially, through the New Fire Ceremony. Behind the gory ritual (details of which I will have to share with you another time - if you haven't yet read EFFIGY), the New Fire Ceremony was an elaborate means of tracking the position of the Pleiades star cluster as it moved through the Zenith directly overhead in the night sky. What was so important about the Pleiades? Well, mythology can explain that one, but with no space to indulge in lore here, allow me to summarize for you – a conjunction of the Pleiades with the sun in the Zenith directly overhead marked the legendary return of Quetzalcoatl to his throne at the start of the next world age.

In short, the Mesoamericans knew of the slow shift in the position of the stars, scientifically known as precession. The Calendar Round was used to gauge this shift every 52 years in anticipation of the magical alignment that would hail the new world age and the cosmological ordination of Quetzalcoatl. For over two thousand years, the Calendar Round has been endlessly counting down to May 20,2012.

So where does all the hype about December 21, 2012 come from? That can be explained by the third Mesoamerican calendar, the calendar featured in DEITY – the Mayan Long Count Calendar.

Mesoamerican Calendars: Tzolkin

From azteccalendar.com

When we look at the calendar systems around the world, both past and present, we generally find an astronomical foundation to them. In a world full of chaos and disaster, it only makes sense that our ancestors might try to harmonize their lives to the unwavering cycles of the heavens. From the Greeks to the Egyptians to the Mesoamericans, man has tried to mimic the order in the heavens with their calendars.

We are all familiar with the 365 day solar calendar, but the cosmic influence on ancient calendars far exceeds the cycles of the sun. One such example would be the 260 day calendar known to the Maya as the Tzolkin. The Aztecs and Toltecs of central Mexico knew it as their “Book of Days.” This calendar is a prime example of the Mesoamerican’s attempt to unite human and heavenly cycles. For instance, 260 days is the approximate length of human gestation. Meanwhile, two Tzolkin periods (520 days) measure 3 eclipse periods.

This sacred calendar was in use long before the Maya or Toltecs even established themselves culturally. Nearly 3,000 years ago the 260 day calendar was in use by the Olmecs, who are credited for using the calendar alongside the 365 day solar (agricultural) calendar. Their influence spans even today as some devout groups of Maya still follow the old traditions.

So how did the Tzolkin work. Simple. The days were marked by a number and a day sign. There were 20 day signs that ran alongside the number 1 through 13. With this system, it took 260 days for the calendar to run through its cycle of numbers and day signs before the first day sign aligned with the number 1 again.

The day signs differ slightly between the Nahuatl-speaking people of central Mexico and the Maya. In fact, there are even slight variations between Mayan sub-cultures. But for illustration purposes, and in keeping with simplicity, I'll share the 20 day signs of the Nahuatl Book of Days, which are: Crocodile, Wind, House, Lizard, Serpent, Death, Deer, Rabbit, Water, Dog, Monkey, Grass, Reed, Jaguar, Eagle, Vulture, Earthquake, Flint, Rain, Flower.