This picture is The Temple of Kukulcan at the Chichen Itza Maya ruin site located in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Occupied during the Terminal and Late Classic periods of the Maya empire (roughly 600-1000 AD), Chichen Itza rose to prominence during a time when most Mayan cultures were in decline.
The Temple of Kukulcan (also known as El Castillo) is said to be a physical embodiment of the Maya Calendar. For instance, there are 91 steps on each of the four sides of the pyramid (totaling 364) plus the top platform giving us 365 to match the days of a solar year. There are many other representations of time within the construction of the pyramid as will be pointed out later.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Kukulcan pyramid is the famous decending serpent illusion which can be seen on the Spring and Fall equinoxes. An equinox occurs when the Sun is located in the middle of the transit between solstices. A solstice occurs when the tilt of the Earth's axis is either closest to or farthest away from the Sun. It is on these days when the Sun's apparent movement north and south through the sky appears to halt and reverse direction, signaling the changing of seasons. An equinox is the midpoint between solstices (usually March 20 or 21 and September 22 or 23). Equinox and Solstice dates can be found here.
The Mayans thought that the world was created and destroyed 3 times and we are in the latest creation. To get an "absolute" date one uses:
THE LONG COUNT
(The first day begins on August 13th in the year 3114 BC)
In writing a date for an event the date is the Initial Series Introductory Glyph
1 Bak'tun=20 K'atun=144,000 days
1 K'atun=20 Tun=7,200 days
1 Tun=18 Winal=360 days
1 Winal=20 K'in=20days
1 K'in=1 day
Monday, January 1, 1996 was 1,865,799 days after the starting date or 12 bak'tun, 19 k'atun, 2 tun, 13 winal, and 19 k'in
This can be written as 12.19.2.13.19
Dresden codex: On page 74, there is an + and X cross in the sky band as well
as the 8 pointed cross.
The zodiac cross rotates during the precession of the equinoxes against the backdrop of the Galactic Cross with one revolution in 26.000 years (length of a Great Year or Platonic Year). The Galactic Cross rotates with one revolution in 220 million years (time of the revolution of the Solar System around the Galactic Centre). That’s why the Galactic Cross is regarded as a fixated cross during a precession cycle, its rotation can be neglected.
The two crosses (Zodiac Cross and Galactic Cross) form an eight pointed cross and four times during a precession cycle they overlap. The moments of conjunction are called a Great Celestial Conjunction (for details see our paper ‘Crucifying the Earth on the Galactic Cross’ - Smeykavov, Wicherink 2006). It’s the cosmic event that is associated with John Major Jenkins Galactic Alignment. The next one is occurring right now during era-2012 on the winter and summer solstices
The eight pointed cross becoming a four pointed cross during a
Great Celestial Conjunction. The blue cross represents the Earth Cross
while the red cross represents the Galactic Cross. Qs(blue circle) represents plane of the Solar System and the ecliptic, Es( green circle) represents the plane of the Galaxy.
The points Z and Z’ in the picture above are the intersections of the ecliptic with the Galactic Plane and these crossings have been associated by Schele with the Maya Sacred Tree, they are the Gemini-Taurus (Z’) nexus and Sagittarius-Scorpio (Z) nexus. As we will demonstrate later in the Maya artefacts these points are often depicted as two separate crosses XX. We add to Schele’s observations that the Maya Sacred Tree is also identical to the red cross in the picture above, the intersection of the Galactic Plane with the Solar System’s plane and it’s perpendicular axis to this intersection. This cross is the cross that occurs in the Fejérváry-Mayer Codex with the Sacred Tree symbols on it
The Galactic Cross and the Maya Sacred Tree therefore are interchangeable concepts!
We have found abundant X, XX and 8 pointed crosses in the Maya artefacts and in all cases they are associated with the Maya Sacred Tree! These examples express the idea of a rotating zodiac cross against the backdrop of a Galactic Cross. The occurrence of these crosses in the Maya artefacts and their association with the Maya Sacred Tree in their astronomical context can be explained by the Earth Cross and the Galactic Cross as proposed in this article.
Earth Cross
One could argue that the Maya couldn’t possibly have understood that the Zodiac’s equinox and solstice axis form a cross and that this cross rotates along the ecliptic during a precession cycle. We have named this cross in our paper ‘Crucifying the Earth on the Galactic Cross’ the Earth Cross.
The crosses under the armpits of the Maize God depicted at the Lower Temple of the Jaguars at Chichen Itza represent the crossing places of the ecliptic and the Milky Way (as we will demonstrate later). But there is one very remarkable detail about this picture. Left and right of the face in the centre we see two crosses, one vertical aligned, and one slanted. They suggest the rotational movement of the four pointed cross (the Zodiac Cross).
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