There are examples of sacred sites all over the globe where ancient cultures constructed pyramids, ceremonial buildings, cairns and monoliths aligned with major planetary orbits and the celebration of equinox and solstices. Perhaps they knew something much deeper and more intrinsic to their culture than we do, that they were part of a larger cycle, not just of seasons and years - but of planets and galaxies and thousands of years.
Jose Arguelles wrote in The Mayan Factor, "The Maya computed the length of the Earth's revolution around the sun to within a thousandth of a decimal point of the calculations of modern science. This, we are endlessly told, they did without our precision instruments. Not only that, but they kept calendars of the lunation and eclipse cycles; and even more, they maintained calendars recording synodical revolutions and synchronizations of the cycles of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. And, on certain of their monuments, we find the recording of dates and/or events occurring as much as 400,000,000 years in the past." Why they did this we could debate for years! Suffice it to say, it was important to their way of being in the world.
I've been fortunate to visit over 14 different Mayan sites throughout the Yucatan of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize since 1993. Their buildings and ruins are enigmatic and unforgettable, so much so that my next book will delve into their wisdom and teaching. Archeologists excavating areas along the Caribbean coast have found lithic tools, animal bones and teeth that date man's presence in the area to 8,000bc or even earlier.
At the well known site of Chichen Itza, each year at the spring and fall equinox, pilgrims are given the sight of the Feathered Serpent Quetzalcoatl descending the great pyramid of Kukulkán in the central square. The Mayans, who created the most accurate calendar of any society, literally built their calendar into this great ‘wonder of the world'. Four sides of 91 steps each lead skyward, toward a central platform, to equal 365. There are nine corners on each of the sides of the pyramid face formed by the platforms, and 9 was one of the key fractals in their harmonic calendrical numbering. The 52 concave panels represented a calendar round of 52 solar years.
The Mayans used many ways to express the passing and recording of time. The ‘Tzolkin', the 260 day ritualistic calendar, and the ‘Haab' containing 18 months of 20 days followed by a five day period called the ‘Wayeb', and the ‘Long Count' which kept a count of their elapsed days from their Creation Day. The Mayans sophisticated calendar code measures more than just the passage of time, it is a harmonic module that describes galactic streams of energy that identify earthly, solar and planetary c
ycles.
According to the website mayasites.com, "On the days of spring and fall equinox, the edge of the shadow from the sun, falls exactly on the corner of the pyramid, leaving one side in total sunlight and the other in total shadow. Furthermore there is a shadow running down the north staircase taking the form of a snake; hence the carved snakeheads at the bottom of the staircase as well as the pyramid's Mayan name Kukulkán, the plumed serpent god." Enjoy the photo of Chichen Itza courtesy of mayasite.com.
Though I haven't been there - yet - I also found a fabulous video of the spring equinox marking the passage of the sun across backstone at the Megalithic site of Cairn T at Loughcrew.
Click on the link below to view a video of the event which has been compressed from 50 minutes to 40 seconds. The file is 3.8mb in size and is in WMV format (Windows Media Video). http://www.knowth.com/images-loughcrew/loughcrew-39sec.wmv
According to the site, "clusters of Megalithic Cairns are dotted around the Slieve na Caillaigh hills at Loughcrew, the main concentrations are on Carnbane East where Cairn T is the centrepiece and Carnbane West where Cairn L is located. The illumination of the passage and chamber at the Winter solstice sunrise in Newgrange is world famous. Less well known is the Equinox illumination at sunrise in Cairn T at Loughcrew. The backstone of the chamber is illuminated by a beam of light at sunrise on the Spring and Autumnal Equinoxes. The sun light is shaped by the stones of the entrance and passage and descends the backstone while moving from left to the right illuminating the solar symbols. The Loughcrew cairns are located 52 miles north west of Dublin, close to the town of Oldcastle."
Why this focus on the Equinox? To recognize what the ancients knew...that we are all part of a larger cycle, our dance with the movement of the heavens so grand that we can't help but be touched by it....for we are the fabric of its illumination, the Sun's reason for being.
