In my ebook Jesus as the Sun throughout History, I provide evidence that the New Testament figure of "Jesus Christ" has been perceived as the "sun of righteousness" (Mal 4:2)
since the formation of Christianity, appearing in numerous solar roles,
possessing an abundance of solar attributes, and perceived by a variety
of cultures as a sun god. Among these cultures who easily saw in Christ
the face of their own solar deities are the peoples of Central America,
including the Aztecs and Maya. In Jesus as the Sun,
I include a section entitled "Christ as the Sun in Native Traditions"
in which I quote prominent scholars and anthropologists of the Americas
concerning the native perception of the Christian messiah. For example,
the Canadian natives the Montagnais/Innu were related in 1627 as
believing Jesus to be the sun. In this same regard, the Christianized
Mexican natives the Nahua "combine the sun and Christ into a composite
personality who is the masculine creative force in the Nahuat universe."
"The
Mexicans 'combine the sun and Christ into a composite personality who
is the masculine creative force in the Nahuat universe.'"
One of the authorities I cite in my
article is Dr. James M. Taggart, a professor of mine at Franklin and
Marshall College, who discusses Mesoamerican celebrations in his book Nahuat Myth and Social Structure (57-68):
The annual movement of the sun toward the north from its lowest point on the horizon at the winter solstice is concordant with the annual festival cycle. The major winter solstice ceremony celebrates the birth of Christ and the annual re-birth of the sun as it begins to move north bringing more heat and light with gradually longer and warmer days. The annual movement of the sun along the horizon is analogous to the movement of the sun during the 24-hour period, so that the winter solstice is to the summer solstice as midnight is to noon. The climactic moment of the Christmas celebration—a procession carrying the Christ child from the house of the mayordomo (ritual sponsor) to the church—occurs at the time of the day (midnight) analogous to the corresponding time of the year (winter solstice). Other major festivals fall on or near other major events in the solar year. The Easter celebration occurs near the vernal equinox; the festival in honor of San Juan [St. John] occurs just after the summer solstice; and All Saints’ Day in honor of the dead is near the autumnal equinox.
"The
major winter solstice ceremony celebrates the birth of Christ and the
annual re-birth of the sun as it begins to move north bringing more
heat and light with gradually longer and warmer days."
It is obvious that the native peoples, so in tune with their environment, recognized in Christ a solar deity whose attributes, we have seen elsewhere,
represent mythical motifs of pre-Christian gods and goddesses from
around the Mediterranean and beyond. Because the Mesoamericans developed
their culture, religion and mythology in isolation, they retained the
nature-worshipping and astrotheological meaning and symbolism behind the
anthropomorphized myths and readily saw that Christ was more of the
same such elemental-spiritual configuration.
The Maya and Christianity
When
the Mesoamerican peoples called the Maya were conquered by the Spanish
beginning in the 16th century and subjugated under the Catholic Church,
they did not simply remove their vast and ancient knowledge of the world
and cosmos to replace it with the biblical and Christian worldview.
Instead, like the Indians, the Mesoamericans simply absorbed Christian
doctrine and myths into their own perspective, as part of the cosmic
play of the time. Like the Spaniards, who were astonished at the
parallels between the Catholic and Mesoamerican religion, the Maya
recognized the similarities between their gods and the biblical God the
Father, Jesus, Virgin Mary and various saints. Thus, rather than
forgetting their enormous body of knowledge dating back thousands of
years in favor of a supposedly superior spiritual tradition which in
reality pales by comparison, the Mesoamericans merely merged this
relatively minor perception into their vaster cosmic comprehension.
"Like
the Spaniards, who were astonished at the parallels between the
Catholic and Mesoamerican religion, the Maya recognized the similarities
between their gods and the biblical God the Father, Jesus, Virgin Mary
and various saints."
In this syncretism of religious ideas
and deities, which exemplifies behavior found globally for thousands of
years, including in pre-Columbian America itself, the Maya added the new
Spanish god called "Dios" to their pantheon, along with his son, the
Sun-Christ. The figure named Jesus merits two gods, younger and older
brothers, in the Mesoamerican pantheon. In this way, although the god
Halal Dios is equivalent to "God Almighty" - likewise equated by the
Maya with the sun - he represents merely another aspect of divinity,
brought by the Spaniards into the equation, as part of a much more
universal concept significantly revolving around the World Tree or Milky
Way, from which we emanate and to which we return. In this regard, the
Maya were accurate in their perception that we are all "star stuff" and
that the Milky Way is the center of a galaxy in which our Earth is
located.
Quetzalcoatl/Kukulkan, the Maize God and Christ
The
Mesoamericans such as the Maya and Aztecs recognized in the figure of
Jesus Christ brought to them by the Spaniards an echo of their various
gods, including and especially Kukulkan or Quetzalcoatl,
who was syncretized with the ancient Maize God, depicted as entering
the underworld, dying and being resurrected, as is appropriate for a
seed being planted and grain bursting forth. The Maize God was central
to the Maya religion, which acknowledged the plant's massive importance
to the Maya civilization. Hence, he was essentially the savior of the peoples, and important myths were constructed around him (or her, as maize was depicted also as a goddess,
likewise appropriate). The maize god is a dying and rising savior whose
head, when he is killed, is hung on a tree. This common archetype or
pattern, with a different expression based on locale and era, can be
found in numerous places globally, based on observation of natural
phenomena.
The maize god is also solar, as is the
figure of Quetzalcoatl or Kukulkan, and this story of death and
resurrection or rebirth can be associated also with the cycles of the
sun. In this regard, the cross as a solar symbol can be found around the
globe dating back many thousands of years, representing the four
directions or cardinal points, ruled by the sun. The cross was a central
feature to Maya religion, as a solar symbol as well as the World Tree
or Milky Way, the origin of all life. Hence, the sacred cross was
depicted widely and is, indeed, the Maya glyph for "sun." As the
foliated tree, the cross could be found carved on stela and tombs. Thus,
when the Spaniards arrived under the sign of the cross, the Maya
believed they were part of the "cosmic play," so to speak.
"The
cross as a solar symbol can be found around the globe dating back many
thousands of years, representing the four directions or cardinal
points, ruled by the sun."
In their subjugation, the Maya
syncretized Christ to their solar and maize god, recognizing Jesus's
dying and rising essentially as the same theme, albeit it the Christian
myths had lost their more cosmic meaning, since they had fallaciously
been historicized and depicted as revolving around a human of a
particular ethnicity. This latter type of anthropomorphization was quite
common to Maya myth as well, obviously, since the sun and corn, along
with many other natural and celestial elements and bodies, likewise were
changed into "real people" about whom fabulous tales were told. Thus,
the Mesoamericans were not surprised by the stories, and they saw them
as quite similar to their own - as do comparative mythologists to this
day.
Yahweh as One of the Many
Providing an example of how the Maya did
not simply forget all their cosmic knowledge - which included close
scientific observations of numerous planets, stars and constellations -
but merely added the Catholic divinities to their pantheon, Mayanist Dr.
Eric Thompson describes a Maya ritual that continues to be practiced,
and remarks:
All-night vigils are part of the many Maya ceremonies of aboriginal origin, and except for the fact that the God of the Christians is added to the old list of pagan deities invoked, there is no evidence of the ceremony being of post-Columbian origin.
"The God of the Christians is added to the old list of pagan deities."
The Sun-Christ
In
this way, we discover the Maya carrying in procession an image of what
is called the "Sun-Christ." As Mayan Dr. Linda Schele recounts:
For three days,
Duncan and I watched the Pasiones and the Flowers run the flowered
banners that are the Sun-Christ around the square of Chamula. (Freidel,
Schele and Parker, Maya Cosmos, 117)
Describing figures of monkeys who are
"creatures from a previous Creation," Schele remarks: "They are
pre-cultural beings who tear down the order of the world in order to
prepare for its recreation when the Sun-Christ is brought out of the
underworld." (Freidel, 118) It should be noted that in Christian myth,
Jesus is depicted as spending three days in the underworld, called the "Harrowing of Hell,"
a mythical motif found in Egypt, the Levant and elsewhere. In this
dying-and-rising motif, the Maya recognized the same natural symbolism
of the solar rays, rain and other elements reaching into the
underworld/ground to sprout the seed and bring forth the life-giving
foliage. This same tale is used also to describe various celestial
landmarks and events, as the Maya truly believed that "as above, so
below."
"In the highest levels of heaven dwells Almighty God the Sun who traverses his flowery path across the sky once a day."
In the highest
levels of heaven dwells Almighty God the Sun who traverses his flowery
path across the sky once a day. The rising of the sun is the daily
affirmation of the dynamic and participatory presence of beneficial
spiritual forces in the lives of the people. This general concept is
universal among the Maya. The sun is so central in the mythology of the
Tzotzil Maya that they believe north and south, the "sides of heaven,"
were first defined when the sun made its original journey across the
cosmos. To these contemporary Maya all the directions have sacred
properties. West is the entryway into the earth where the Sun-Christ had
to go before he could rise in triumph. South is nadir, the darkness
where the Sun-Christ first traveled before arising from death in the
east. Ascending to the zenith in the north, Christ slew his mythological
enemies with his curative heat. (Freidel, 128)
"West is the entryway into the earth where the Sun-Christ had to go before he could rise in triumph."
There is much more to this fascinating story, including numerous important correspondences between
Further Reading
Jesus as the Sun throughout History2012: A New Beginning
Our Lord and Savior Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl/Kukulkan and Christ
Maya watchtowers discovered to align with solstices and equinoxes
December 21, 2012 is coming - are we all going to die?
The Mayans and the Milky Way (radio program)
Astronomers catalogue 84 million stars from a new image of our Milky Way galaxy
The 2013 Astrotheology Calendar: The Wonders of the Milky Way
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