PAGE DESCRIPTION
the symbolism of the sanctuary’s architectural components
with a focus on ancient Mesoamerica related symbolism
NOTE Significant cross symbolism between components will be found based on overlapping concepts and a shifting frame of reference (for example: overlapping concepts of the center found in earth navel, cosmic throne, world axis, heart center symbolism, embodied by the sanctuary, platform, Serpent-Tree, or Crown Vessel). Selective choices were made to avoid repetition, distinguishing between concepts and components that ultimately cannot really be divided.
COMPONENT NAMES
sanctuary / shrine
power-plant
artform
[primordial shape] circle
mandala (circle, enclosing the essence): that which organizes the space-time continuum within a single disc, offering an all-embracing cosmovision
sanctuary (holy place)
cathedral (seat of a higher authority)
temple as space-time structure where we can con-temp-plate realities that paradoxically transcend space-time
abode as dwelling place of a god
locus of powerful supernatural forces beyond human understanding and control
temenos (sacred space)
omphalos (world navel)
World Mountain with the regenerative seed at its center
Place of Emergence, that which we are born from and return to
Mound of Creation, preserving the memories of the Earth
Living Mound, dwelling place of manifest spirit
World Egg / Cosmic Egg
unus mundus (one world), the underlying unified reality that everything emerges from and returns to
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
First True Mountain associated with the first moment of creation, inside which the fundamental necessities for life are hidden
Flower Mountain: mountain located at the world's centre, associated with a tree of life
Witz Monster: symbol of the living mountain
Tamoanchan (Place of the Flowering Tree): mythical paradise, the primogenital place of origins and creation where exists a single, great, hollow tree
chalchihuitl (precious blue green stone) embodying tlalxicco: blue-green earth navel, the energizing renewing transforming primordial central hearth
Snake Mountain / Snake Hill: Place of Origins: associated with Tollan (Place of Reeds), the mythical foundational city
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[Hopi] sipapu
[Native American] Turtle Island
[Judeo-Christian] Garden of Eden
[Buddhist] Place of Awakening
[alchemy] lapis philosophorum, Solid State Mandala of the Great Work
[metaphysics] Transcendental Object at the End of Time
dome-shell / shell / earthdome
Earth Mound, Earth Island, Primeval Mound, Primeval Hillock: mound of earth floating on a great primordial ocean
shape of planet Earth
protection
sacred enclosure separating the earth world from the otherworld, the secular from the sacred ― between mutually incompatible environments with different spiritual air pressure
fertility / potency
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
shell of the Cosmic Turtle-Earth
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[Native American] shell of Turtle Island
DOME-SHELL (inside)
COMPONENT NAMES
dome / inside dome
SYMBOLISM
[primordial shape] circle
curvature of space-time
dome of the sky
anima mundi (World Soul) / Universal Spirit / global consciousness
Earth-Sky Mother
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
jaws of the sky iconographic motif
sky band iconographic motif
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[Chinese] heavens
[Egyptian] Nut, Hathor, Isis
[Greek] Aphrodite Ourania as Cosmic Mother, the Queen of Heaven
COMPONENT NAMES
cave-chamber / womb-tomb / vessel
SYMBOLISM
sanctuary as womb-chamber
womb of the Great Mother: fertile feminine cosmic center / womb-tomb of the Great Goddess who swallows and gives birth to the Resurrected God / womb-house as place of birth vs womb-tomb as place of burial, rebirth and regeneration [counterpart to SERPENT-TREE as Son/Father and sacrificed immortal being]
the creative-destructive complex of the Mother-Goddess concept in its totality
reservoir of Sky-bound and Earth-bound spiritual energies
vessel / pod
interdimensional vessel bridging worlds through Space & Time
otherworld: underworld vs upperworld
Cave of Emergence / Cave of Origins
sanctum sanctorum / holy of holies: innermost part of a temple where the image of the deity resides
dream chamber
initiatory chamber: place for the symbolic death and rebirth of an individual; for psycho-spiritual processes of integration and individuation
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
Heart of the Mountain
Cave of Emergence / Cave of Origins
cave-mouth
pib nah (underground structure) / waybil (dreaming place, resting place) : small interior spaces holding gods and ancestral images
Great Mother goddesses of life, death, and fate, both generative and destructive: Coatlicue / Tzazolteotl / Tlaltecuhtli / Cihuacoatl / Xochiquetzal
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[Hindu] Vishnu (original god who dreams the universe into creation)
[Buddhist] Tara
[Tibetan] Shamballa
[Egyptian] Nut, Hathor, Isis
[Greek] Aphrodite Ourania as Cosmic Mother, the Queen of Heaven
[Judeo-Christian] Eve / Mary
[Christian] Virgin de Guadelupe
[Christian mysticism] Vessel of Honor / Mystical Rose / Holy Vessel
[alchemy] vas hermeticum / the Philosopher’s Stone as vessel
PLATFORM
COMPONENT NAMES
platform / pedestal / podium
SYMBOLISM
[primordial shape] square
that which marks the center and the 4 directions/corners of the world
Cosmic Throne at world’s center
seat of a higher consciousness
altar: that upon which an offering or sacrifice is laid out at the center
that which supports aspiration toward enlightenment
that which supports knowledge through mastery
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
kun (seat aspect of a temple) upon which is seated a deity
scaffold, the elevated structure upon which the deity is seated
pyramid structure as Green Stone Place: bundle of 3 throne stones representing living elemental energies, revolving time, cosmic center and cosmic throne
censer (incense burner) as Turquoise Enclosure: the energizing, renewing, and transforming central hearth
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[Hindu + Buddhist] lotus throne
[Chinese] earth
[Chinese] bixi: stone tortoise used as pedestal for important stele
[Sumer] ziggurat (eg. Temple of the Foundation of Heaven & Earth)
ENTITY (overall)
Serpent-Tree / Serpent-Jaguar
COMPONENT NAMES
(OVERALL)
serpent-tree / serpent-jaguar-tree
tetramorphic tree / tetramorphic serpent / tetramorphic dragon
organism / life-form / entity / enthroned entity
Serpent-Jaguar / dragon
Quetzalcoatl-Tezcatlipoca
CROWN VESSEL
crown vessel / crown / cup / bulge / pod / navel / heart center
Fountain of Life
PILLAR
pillar / central pillar / tower
SPINE(S)
spine / dorsal
MANTLE
mantle / robe / skirt / cloak / skin
HEAD(S)
dragon head / serpent king (nagaraja) head
WHEEL OF TIME
Wheel of Time / Wheel of Time organ
SYMBOLISM
AS PRIME SYMBOL OF PERENNIAL WISDOM, PANTHEISTIC WORLDVIEW AND AGONISTIC INAMIC UNITY
[overview] No distinction is made between reality and divinity. All-things (reality, the cosmos) are composed of an all-encompassing, immanent sacred power, force, or energy: dynamic, vivifying, eternally self-generating and self-regenerating. Not a perduring, static state of being but one characterized instead by motion-change.
The continual becoming of the cosmos is the product of this force continuing shamanic self-shape-shifting and self-transforming. This force the weaver of reality, the weaving of reality, and the woven reality. The resulting cosmos a grand weaving in progress: the product of the ceaseless agon between being and non-being, creation and destruction, order and disorder.
This force is characterized by the continual and continuous cyclical struggle of paired opposites and polarities. Dualities locked in a process of agonistic, dialectical alternation with one another. Balance is generated by the back-and forth movement between them resulting in an overarching, dynamic equilibrium that stabilizes the center.
Each inamic pair is mutually arising, mutually engendering and conditioned, inter-dependent, symmetrically related, and complementary, while at the same time mutually competitive and antagonistic with its partner. Each inamic pair is inherently and irreducibly ambiguous: neither purely one nor the other yet both one and the other at the same time. Their ceaseless movement represent different paths of energy circulation and interaction (and thus different patterns of change, becoming, and transformation). Ordering, arranging, putting stuff into place.
AS WHEEL OF TIME
[ see WHEEL OF TIME ]
AS FOUNTAINHEAD
[ see CROWN VESSEL ]
AS SERPENT-JAGUAR AND TWIN ENTITY
Serpent-Jaguar as nahual (spiritual co-essence) aspect of Quetzalcoatl-Tezcatlipoca
an irreducibly ambiguous twin being: an agonistic inamic unity, pair, and quadricity, result of nepantla-defined weaving proces: neither Serpent nor Jaguar yet both Serpent and Jaguar at the same time; neither Quetzalcoatl nor Tezcatlipoca yet both Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca at the same time
AS AXIS MUNDI
Axis Mundi (World Axis): evolutionary pivot in Space and Time: the place of passage to-and-fro motion-rest, time-eternity, separation-union
World Tree: the sacred tree at world’s center
World Tree or World Mountain that brings stability and continuity
quadripartite architecture of the universe and its cyclic nature / 4 Pillars of the Cosmos: fourthfold support of the universe, the power that sustains the world with a central supporting pole and the arms of the 4 quarters
Pillar of Heaven & Earth: supporting the sky once earth and sky have been separated but also bridging the now 2 differentiated realms (helping to bring heaven on earth)
Principle of Civilization (that upon which civilization is established) and its organizational template
World Tree as a rope, pole, ladder, or stairway linking the 3 realms (telluric underworld, middle world of Earth, cosmic upperworld) or the 2 worlds (heaven and earth, intangible and tangible realms), enabling vertical transmission (ascent and descent) between them
World-Bridger through Space & Time interweaving dimensional realms, leading to a unified field of consciousness
multidimensional portal
AS TREE OF LIFE AND SERPENT ON THE TREE
[primordial shape] (as Tree) T-cross
[primordial shape] (as Serpent) spiral / wave / weave / ...
Serpent Tree / Serpent on the Tree of Life / Serpent of the Tree of Knowledge
Tree of Life: the central life-giving column of the world
Serpent slithering up and down the Tree of Life: channel for the passage of vital life energy travelling up and down the World Tree / River of Immortality
Serpent who dies and is resurrected, shedding its skin and renewing its life: lord of the central tree where time and eternity come together vs the devolvement of eternity into time, the breaking of the one into the two and then the many
/ embodiment and bestower of the liquor, milk, food, fire, grace, of indestructible life
serpent spine as spiraling axial ladder: vertical transmission and movement along the Tree
descending vs ascending spiraling life-force: its propagation and spending vs its regeneration
spreading out of the world of phenomena vs returning back to mysteries beyond the reach of sight, sound, word, or symbol
serpent’s skin or mantle as the fabric of space-time: the field of space and the field of time / as the appearance or face of the time-space continuum, ie. the world of matter / as the field of time-space which like a web both allow and supports but also traps the world of matter
mantle as the fecundizing powers of nature, the fertility of the earth / materialization
AS CADUCEUS
caduceus: a dual force with opposed directions of rotation, the central unifying principle around which life is organized / the manifest duality of life wound around an unifying central pillar / cosmic dance: the motion of life revolving around a fixed center, between the dynamic and the static
to-and-fro complementary movement of winding and unwiding, ascending and descending, centrifugal and centripetal, inbreathing and outbreathing, going out from and returning to the center, beginning and end
the Two That Are One and the One That Becomes Two / the interconnection of the one and the many
opposition and complementarity of all dual concepts (e.g. being/non-being, order/chaos, separation/union, subject/object, life-giving/death-wielding)
gravity vs levity: materialization of Spirit vs spiritualization of Matter / exteriorization of Spirit vs Interiorization of Matter: the downward and outward path of physical manifestation interlinked with the upward and inward path of spiritual transmutation
ever evolving while ever engaged on the path of the Eternal Return
Eros-Thanatos: the life-force and the death-drive (a force too great to leave unleashed on Earth)
Initiator
Staff of Life embued with divine authority
AS SACRIFIED AND RESURRECTED IMMORTAL BEING
Son/Father: masculine cosmic center
Son-Lover of The Goddess: the Resurrected God birthed and swallowed back
the Immortal Body, the Resurrected Body
sacrifice and rebirth into immortality / the all-transfiguring vision of immortal being
Ancestral Father / archetypal shaman god-king who both embodies and connect with past ancestors and future generations / the reborn king enthroned in the mouth of the Otherworld
spinal column and outstretched arms of the Resurrected Body / backbone of immortal man
the savior-healer raised on the Tree of Life / the consecrated fluid body of the redeemer flowing toward the opposite poles of creation
Lord of Life
AS REALIZED BEING
absolute consciousness / eonic consciousness
the Omniscient One
enlightened being: the truly awakened, truly wise
“I am that I am”: awakened self-awareness
Realized Self / the embodiment of Universal Consciousness / Ascended Master
union of the divine masculine & feminine into the Solar androgyny of Cosmic Consciousness
wholeness of the integrated and balanced self founded upon the 4 primary and complementary archetypes of the mature psyche: Warrior, Lover, Magician, King (for the male psyche) and Mother, Lover, Wise Woman, Queen (for the female psyche)
Lapis Exilis: the Philosopher's Stone
the Great Shape
apotheosis
Flower of Higher Consciousness: flower as highest form and perfection of a plant, which in turn reveals or reflects the perfection of the Sun / that which is born and revealed at the height of an evolution
Mastery of the world of spirit in physical form
omniscience and omnipotence
AS GUARDIAN AND MARKER
Watcher: its lidless eyes eternally awake and watchful
Guardian at the Gate: guarding the Great Mystery at the center of it all, incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces, the numinous nuclear source
Keeper of the Equinox: markers and guardians of the stability of the rising equinoctial sun
great maw which swallows the sun at night and regurgitates it anew in the morning
great maw which swallows the sun during eclipses
Keeper of the Great Cycle: markers and guardians of the precessional stations
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
[overview] The serpentine flow of teotl (sacred power/energy/force/stuff) is characterized by 3 types of movements involving agonistic yet complementary dual (or quadral) polarities:
― Olin motion-change (pulsating / oscillating / undulating / swinging, ...) is a four-fold biorhythm of cyclical generation, fulfillment, degeneration and regeneration, defining the shape of a thing’s path through its life/death cycle, horizontally ordering around a center point.
Examplar: pulsating hearts
― Malinalli motion-change (twisting, spinning, spiraling, coiling, drilling, ...) are the passageways for vertical energy transmission and transformation between different conditions of the same thing, allowing for the circulation and recycling of vital energies, vertically ordering around a central axis.
Examplar: weather conveyance systems
― Nepantla motion-change (weaving, interlocking, middling, mixing, fusing, ...) combines horizontal olin-defined and vertical malinalli-defined processes to bind together inamic pairs in an action that is unifying and balancing.
Examplar: weaved garnments
cut conch shell, muyal motif, stepped mountain-pyramid motif, and xicalcoliuhqui (twisted gourd vessel) represented as step-fret motif or zoomorphized as feathered serpents and fire serpents, symbolizing several interrelated notions of spiral unfolding and the interaction of complementary opposites:
― waves and rolling rain clouds (water)
― breath volutes (air)
― lightning (fire)
― descent to the underworld vs celestial ascent
― water vs fire (aquatic vs igneous realms)
― sky pyramid (cloud terrace) mirrored by earth (mountain) pyramid / earth mountain cave mirrored by cave cloud
malinalli: channel for the passage of vital life energy travelling up and down the world tree
downward channel (heavy, cold, wet) vs upward channel (light, hot, dry)
emerging breath serpents from jade earspool vs twisted grass generating turquoise fire
breath serpents emerging out of Flower Mountain
raingod wielding lightning serpent: the creative power of water and fire elemental interaction
Tree of Life or Cosmic Maize Plant in Heart of the Mountain inside Flower Mountain
Flowering Tree at Tamoanchan consisting of 2 unified trunks (before splitting in half) and 2 entwined streams twisted in helicoidal fashion
Wakah Chan (Raised Up Sky): the World Tree with 4 additional trees oriented to the cardinal directions
4 Chikchans: rain gods in serpent form associated with the 4 directions, year bearers [time] and sky bearers [space]
Quetzalcoatl (Plumed Serpent and Precious Twin) in its various-yet-ultimately-unified incarnations and associations: feathered serpent, maize god, wind god, Ce-Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, ...
Tezcatlipoca (Dark Smoking Mirror) in its various-yet-ultimately-unified incarnations and associations: Kawil, Tepeyollotl, Itztlacoliuhqui-Ixquimilli, Chalchiuhtotolin, Xipe Totec, ...
Central Mexico creation myths: Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca each or combined as a 2-fold and 4-fold entity:
― Q. and T. as the 4 children of the dual creation god Ometeotl
― Q. and T. as 2 great serpents piercing and dismembering the Earth Monster to create the manifest world
― Q. and T. as a dual Tree of Mirrors (tezcacuahuitl) and Quetzal Tree (quetzalhuexotl) to support the sky
― Tezcatlipoca’s mirror as alternately Dark Mirror (Tezcatlipoca) and Bright Mirror (Tezcatlanextia)
Maya creation myths:
― Palenque Triad mythology and iconography (involving Kawil, world tree, serpent and jaguar)
― Popol Vuh genesis account
― concept of twinness in the Popol Vuh Hero Twins account
serpent and jaguar combined as dual motif in iconography (eg. jaguar biting bicephalic serpent rope, Witz Monster)
serpent and jaguar combined as hybrid creature (eg. raingod, War Serpent)
bicephalic (double headed) serpent: ubiquitous motif connected to many interrelated concepts: the Nahua concept of twinness, sky and Ecliptic, rulership, rain road and lightning
entwined twisted serpent rope motif as kuxan sum (living cord): celestial rope, umbilical cord and birth rope linking earth world to the otherworld ― used for the conjuring of supernaturals or the birth of human beings
New Fire drill
conflated serpent and maize ear fetish
Cosmic Maize Plant as axis mundi
resurrection of the corn as power of regeneration
newly born king enthroned in the mouth of the otherworld or in the ancestral mountain-cave, or standing or dancing: the reborn First Father, embodiment of the world tree
First Father as maize god emerging from split turtle shell / figure of Hunahpu (One Lord, First Lord)
Coatlicue (Snakes-Her-Skirt) as creative-destructive complex: progenitrix of life and the ultimate destroyer of all that she creates
serpents skirt or skull-and-crossed-bones decorated skirt as fertile ground and nepantla-weaved process of material creation
turtle shell or reptile skin patterns as fertile earth + jade beads as precious seeds = garment 'dressing' of the god by the female powers of nature
vision serpent: portal to the otherworld connecting to ancestors / bearded dragon
manikin scepter of rulership embued with divine authority
figure of the shaman-king and huei tlatoani (Great Speaker) who has achieved a 'face and heart' and become the rightful representative and expression of ch'ul ajaw (Lord of Life)
Olmec bar-and-four-dots motif / quincunx pattern: symbolising a 4-directional cosmos (in time and space) with a pulsing heart center or central axis
quatrefoil flower
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[Hindu] Mount Meru
[Hindu] Ashvattha: upside down tree having neither end nor beginning nor stationariness, the expression of Brahman (Universal Principle and Ultimate Reality)
[Buddhist] Bodhi-tree: under which Gautam Buddha meditated and gained enlightenment: tree of the Waking to Omniscience
[Norse / Scandinavia] Yggdrasil, the world tree
[Judeo-Christian] Serpent on the Tree of Life & Knowledge in the Garden of Eden
[Egyptian] djed pillar embodied by Osiris
[Kabbalah] Tree of Life diagram
[overall] serpentine flow of sacred power/energy/force/stuff variously called chi, prana, kundalini, holy spirit, baraka...
[Judeo-Christian] the 4 rivers flowing from the center of Eden as from an inexhaustable spring
[kundalini yoga] sushumna comprised of 2 entwinded nadi channels (ida + pingala) ― ascending and descending entwined streams of the Kundalini
[Chinese] Dragon King: watery and chthonic forces and zoomorphic incarnation of the 5-fold manifestation of the supreme go ― comprised of a central dragon being surrounded by the Dragon Kings of the 4 Seas (each presiding over a cardinal direction)
[Hindu] Nagaraja (serpent king)
[overall] concept of the dying-and-rising male deity (he who seasonally descends and disappears into the underworld before rising again seemingly resurrected) often found as son/consort/lover of a Great Mother goddess: Osiris, Dummuzi, Adonis, Attis, Dionysus, Jesus, Green Man / also female deities: Innana, Persephone, ...
[Hindu] churning of the milky ocean: central myth involving a world axis and a serpent rope pulled in opposite directions to obtain amrita, the elixir of immortality
[Greek] caduceus
[alchemy] Mercurius as Mercurius Quadratus, the four-in-one element
[Hindu] Rahu and Ketu as head and tail of the dragon snake swallowing sun and moon during eclipse
[Egyptian] Horus/Seth as opposite aspects of the same fundamental energy centered in Osiris
[alchemy] the androgyne as goal of the Great Work: the recombination of the primordial male/female polarities into a state of wholeness and completion
[modern science] DNA, the molecule of Life
[Egyptian] ankh cross symbol, the key of life
[Hindu] the trinity of Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva as Creator/Preserver/Destroyer of the universe
[European Christian mysticism] Grail Castle
[European Christian mysticism] the sword plunged in sacred ground
[alchemy] Philosopher’s Stone as Diamond Body or Immortal Body: the ultimate perfected creation generated by the Great Work
(entity as) WHEEL OF TIME
COMPONENT NAMES
Wheel of Time / Wheel of Time organ
SYMBOLISM
no-beginning-no-end model of cyclic and fractal time that gives the measure of sacred time ― its tone and rhythm
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
Mesoamerican calendrical cycles (in their individual and intermeshed aspects) based on sacred entities of 4, 13, and 20:
― 260-day count (tzolkin or tonalpohualli): counting the sacred entities of ‘kin’ (sun, day, time)
― 52-year cycle (xiuhmolpilli): marked by New Fire rites leading to new era
― Long Count: deep time calendar of collective historical unfolding
260-day calendar date 4 AJAW: transitional marker, marker of the center, directional marker in time and space
52-year calendar years 1 REED, 2 REED, 12 REED as related to, respectively, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, Coatlicue
Long Count calendar date 13.0.0.0.0: ending of 13th baktun cycle
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[Buddhist] Kalachakra (Wheel of Time)
COMPONENT NAMES
crown vessel / crown cup / crown / cup / bulge / pod / navel / heart center
Fountain of Life
SYMBOLISM
[primordial shape] point
Great Mystery / the unconceivable, the unfathomable
Divine Ground of Being / Unmanifest Transcendent
the unformed, unmade, unborn, undifferentiated
the Absolute, the non-manifested Potence
eternity and infinity: the Eternal Now, the Infinite Point
Heart Center / Source (in space) and Origin (in time), the spatial and temporal cosmic center
place of non-duality: the undivided point of origin and unity of the quaternary cosmos
Alpha-Omega point: beginning as end, end as beginning / “I Am All that Has Been, That Is, And That Will Be”
genesis-apogenesis (ultimate collapse)
Universal Fire / Elixir of Life
Heart of Creation / Point of Infinite Creation / Inexhaustible Point
Vesica Pisces Vessel / Cornucopia / Chalice
Fountain of Life: fountainhead from which flows the Living Waters of Life; from which the energies of eternity pour into the world of time
seed / seed pod / Place of the Seed: that which holds the seeds of cyclical rebirth
Crown of Creation
enlightenment
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
xicallli (navel, depression, hollow, vase or cup): the central aspect of the xicalcoliuhqui (twisted gourd vessel)
conch shell: out of which flows the breath of life
serpent water vessel
the underworld reservoir of primordial waters
dark water at the place of duality
mirror: as water (mirror bowl), as fire, as fire-water (brazier, burning water), as sun, hearth, and portal
Turquoise Enclosure: the energizing, renewing, and transforming central hearth
New Fire brazier: the energizing, renewing, and transforming central hearth fire
generative flint
k’an cross sign: marker of the center and place of the seed
V or U shaped cleft: opening or crack in the Cosmic Mountain from which the seed sprouts / decapitated head as seed pod for the sprouting of new life
cuauhxicalli (sacrificial offering vessel): the sacrificed heart it holds becomes fountainhead for the irrigation of new life
Omeyocan (the place of duality): 13th and highest heaven, dwelling place of the dual creator god Ometeotl
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[Buddhist] sunyata (nothingness)
[Hindu] akasha
[alchemy] ether, the material-immaterial quintessence
[metaphysics] zero point
[Hindu] amrita: the elixir of immortality
[Greek] ambrosia
[Kabbalah] Keter: the vessel at the summit of the Tree of Life diagram that holds the light of illumination and is the source of all life
[European Christian mysticism] Grail Cup
[alchemy] coniunctio: sacred marriage, the joining of two into one to form the perfect vessel
[Hindu] Nitya-Kali (Endless Time)
COMPONENT NAMES
connector
SYMBOLISM
umbilical cord linking to the host
birth canal for human beings
threshold passage between the earth world and the otherworld, the secular and the sacred
transition zone allowing adaptation between 2 different environments with different spiritual air pressure
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
pyramid stairway + kuxan sum (living cord) motif: celestial rope, umbilical cord and birth rope enabling passage between the earth world to the otherworld
great maw of the Witz Monster on temple doorway swallowing he who enters into the otherworld of the Living Mountain
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[overall] temple gates and access corridors
BAY AND HOST-ROCK (host site)
COMPONENT NAMES
bay
host-rock ― surrounded by primordial earth / primordial desert / primordial wilderness
SYMBOLISM
bay as primordial ocean out of which rises the Primeval Hillock (earth mound)
bay as shelter
host-rock as host
REPRESENTATION IN THE COSMOLOGY, ICONOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE OF ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
primordial ocean at the center of which floats Cosmic Turtle-Earth
EXEMPLES OF REPRESENTATION IN OTHER WORLD CULTURES
[Native American] primordial ocean surrounding Turtle Island
MAIN SOURCES (OVERALL SYMBOLISM)
Jean Chevalier, Alain Gheerbrant, The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols
J. C. Cooper, The illustrated Encyclopedia of Symbol
MAIN SOURCES (MESOAMERICAN SYMBOLISM)
Karl Taube
James Maffie, Aztec Philosophy: Understanding A World In Motion
IMAGE CREDITS (MESOAMERICAN GALLERIES)
see individual image credits
Caduceus, World Tree, Fountain of Life
raised at the desert heart of the world
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