hopi maya egyptian connections
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Hopi-Maya-Egyptian Connections
The Tau (or T-shaped) Cross: Hopi-Maya-Egyptian Connections
By Gary A. David
The T-shaped doorway or window appears as a common architecturalmotif in stone masonry villages all across the Anasazi (ancient Hopi)
Southwest. It is found, for instance, at Chaco Canyon in northern New
Mexico and Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado.
In Greek the letter T is called tau cross, which echoes the name of the Hopi sun god
Tawa. Every day the sun emerges from the Underworld through a T-shaped doorway,
the horizontal bar serving as the horizon.
At some point in the past the form of the Hopi kiva (subterranean prayer chamber)
changed from round, like the one at Chaco Canyon, to rectangular, located on an east-
west axis. The floor plan was sometimes widened at one end to reflect the T-shape.
Hopis say that this form represents the traditional male hairstyle of bangs falling downover the ears.
Steps leading through a T-shaped doorway down into Casa Rinconada,
the Great Kiva at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.
http://www.theorionzone.com/t_shape_doorway.jpg
Masau’u is the name of the Hopi god of the Underworld, fire, and death. His head is
sometimes carved in rock art as a modified rectangle to suggest a stylized skull.
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Petroglyph of two humanoids, Perry Mesa Ruins north of Phoenix, Arizona.
The figure on the left with the T-shaped head may represent Masau’u.
[http://www.theorionzone.com/perry_mesa_t_shape.jpg]
We also find the T-shaped cross far to the south at the Mayan city of Palenque in
Chiapas, Mexico. Specifically, a number of T-shaped windows were incorporated into
the building called the Palace.
T-shaped windows in the Palenque Palace.
Photo courtesy of George Delange. Visit The DeLange Home Page
filled with gorgeous travel photography: http://www.delange.org
[http://www.theorionzone.com/maya_t_shaped_windows.jpg]
The Mayan daykeeper, artist, and historian Hunbatz Men explains the meaning of this
motif:
“A transcendental synthesis of human religious experience is inherent in the word te,
Sacred Tree, which emerged from the words teol and teotl the names of God the
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Creator in Mayan and Nahuatl. These most revered and sacred words of the ancient
people, symbolized by the Sacred Tree, were represented in the Mayan hieroglyphs as
the symbol ‘T.’ Additionally, this symbol represented the air, the wind, the divine
breath of God.” [1]
In other words, the T-shaped doorway or window symbolizes the Sacred Tree at the
Center of the World (axis mundi) upon which the shaman’s spirit may climb. Inaddition, it functions as the portal leading to the Great Spirit, through which the breath
of life may pass.
Breast-like fruit growing from the trunk of the sacred yaxche tree.
Bird as spirit messenger perched on top.
[http://www.theorionzone.com/tau_cross.jpg]
In numerous cultures tau was connected to abundant water or rain-deities. For
instance, Augustus Le Plongeon, one of the first archaeologists of the Maya, writes
that the T-shape corresponded to Crux, or the Southern Cross. This constellation
appears shortly before the beginning of the rainy season in southern Mexico.
“The ancient Maya astronomers had observed that at a certain period of the year, at the
beginning of our month of May, that owes its name to the goddess MAYA, the good dame, mother of the gods, the “Southern Cross,” appears perfectly perpendicular
above the line of the horizon. This is why the Catholic church celebrates the feast of
the exaltation of the holy cross on the third day of that month, which it has consecrated
particularly to the Mother of God, the Good Lady, the virgin Ma-R-ia, or the goddess
Isis anthropomorphized by Bishop Cyril of Alexandria.”[2]
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Is it more than a coincidence that the name of this Mesoamerican tribe should be the
same as the Sanskrit word for the veil of illusion? The Mother Goddess Shakti,
otherwise known as the Divine Mother Devi, gives birth to all phenomenal forms that
we mistakenly perceive as being real. Queen Maya was impregnated by a white
elephant entering her side and subsequently gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama the
Buddha.
Furthermore, Maia was the Greek goddess of spring and the Roman goddess of the
earth or growth. Her fertility celebration is either the 1st or the 15th of May. She was
also the eldest sister and the brightest star of the Pleiades. In the land of the Maya
tribe, the sun in conjunction with the Pleiades passes through the zenith during the
month of May.[3]
In Egypt the ankh, or ansate cross, was the “key to the Nile” by which Osiris, husband
of Isis, accomplished his annual riparian inundations. The upper loop represents the
womb, and the lower straight portion represents either the birth canal or the phallus.
Ankh between two pairs of was scepters carved on temple wall, Egypt.
https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0513/5af8166d17384/5af8167178ce9.jpg
It is interesting to note that when Moses entered the Sinai desert, he found the
Midianite tribe (also called the Kenites) wearing the T-shape on their foreheads. This
sign, which represented their god of storms (bringing water) and war (thunder), later
became known as the “Yahweh Mark.”
Much later Jesus may well have been crucified on a Tau or St. Anthony’s cross instead
of on the Latin cross we think of today, though this will probably be forever debated.
In his classic book Atlantis: the Antediluvian World, Ignatius Donnelly states
that tau was an important icon signifying “hidden wisdom” for Mexicans as well as for
Peruvians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Chaldeans. In general, it was emblematic of
rejuvenation, freedom from physical suffering, hope, immortality, and divine unity.
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Thus we have seen how many cultures associate the T-shape with burgeoning new life,
the rising sun, psycho-spiritual journeying, and ultimate resurrection. Sometimes the
simplest symbols contain the deepest meanings.
Excerpt from The Orion Zone: Ancient Star Cities of the American Southwest
Copyright © 2006 by Gary A. David. All rights reserved
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[1] Men, Hunbatz, Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion, translated by Diana Gubiseh
Ayala and James Jennings Dunlap II (Santa Fe, New Mexico, Bear & Company
Publishing, 1990).
[2] Le Plongeon, Augustus, Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas And the Quiches,
(Minneapolis, Minnesota: Wizards Bookshelf, 1973, 1886).
[3] Jenkins, John Major, Maya Cosmogenesis: the True Meaning of the Maya
Calendar End-Date (Santa Fe, Bear & Company, 1998)
Gary A. David is an independent researcher and writer living in northern Arizona. The
Orion Zone: Ancient Star Cities of the American Southwest is now available
from Adventures Unlimited Press. This book discusses a correlation between the stars
of Orion and the Hopi villages and ruins in the Four Corners region of the US.
Recently Mr. David’s articles have appeared in Atlantis Rising, Fate, and World
Explorer magazines.
Email: [email protected]
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