by Carl de Borhegyi
Above is a Late Classic Maya Vase K1185, (600-900 C.E.) photographed in roll out form by Justin Kerr, is from the Nakbe Region in
Guatemala. The Maya scribe portrayed holds a paint stylus in one
hand and shell pot in the other, has an elongated head, reminiscent
of the Maya Maize God. As a headdress he wears what appears to be an
abstract bearded feathered serpent with bifurcated tongue. A closer look however,
reveals that the scribe also has a mushroom encoded into his headdress.
This encoded mushroom may be an esoteric reference to an elite school
of calendar priests who were skilled in prophecy and divination.
Maya centers were ruled by a priestly caste whose duties seem to have been obsessively concerned with astronomical observations and mathematical calculations. Maya calendar priests were typically known throughout Middle America as the "enlightened ones." The Aztecs attributed this divine enlightenment to a single god named Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, who was the legendary leader of the Toltec empire. In the 16th century Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagun recorded in his Florentine Codex, a multi-volume compilation of priceless Mexica ethnographic information, that the Toltecs were, above all: "thinkers for they originated the year count, the day count; they established the way in which the night, the day, would work; which sign was good, favorable; and which was evil, the day sign of wild beasts. All their discoveries formed the book for interpreting dreams."
While I may be the first to call attention to this encoded mushroom imagery, these images can be viewed and studied with ease on such internet sites as Justin Kerr's Maya Vase Data Base and F.A.M.S.I. ( Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc).
Maya centers were ruled by a priestly caste whose duties seem to have been obsessively concerned with astronomical observations and mathematical calculations. Maya calendar priests were typically known throughout Middle America as the "enlightened ones." The Aztecs attributed this divine enlightenment to a single god named Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, who was the legendary leader of the Toltec empire. In the 16th century Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagun recorded in his Florentine Codex, a multi-volume compilation of priceless Mexica ethnographic information, that the Toltecs were, above all: "thinkers for they originated the year count, the day count; they established the way in which the night, the day, would work; which sign was good, favorable; and which was evil, the day sign of wild beasts. All their discoveries formed the book for interpreting dreams."
While I may be the first to call attention to this encoded mushroom imagery, these images can be viewed and studied with ease on such internet sites as Justin Kerr's Maya Vase Data Base and F.A.M.S.I. ( Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc).
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