Translation:True History of the Profound Mexico/9

by Guillermo Marín Ruiz

8. KNOWLEDGE DEVELOPMENT.

The knowledge developed by the six Mother civilizations, from approximately 10 thousand years ago, has been the foundation of all human knowledge. The man on the Moon and computers, are only its continuity and its fruit. The ancient grandparents, without assistance from any people and from the methodical and systematic observation of the nature and the sky vault, managed to "weave" an incomparable knowledge network, that through centuries and from generation to generation, conformed the Cultural heritage of our civilization.

"Astronomy was well known among Mesoamerican peoples, especially the Toltec. <The Toltec were wise men, their works were all good, all rightful, all well planned, all wonderful... they knew their influence, they knew well how the sky works, how it turns... Natural phenomena observation, which invariable repeated, among which especially were the numbers 4, 7 and 13. Thus, from their combination a large number of cycles were obtained." (Maria Elena Romero Murguía. 1988)^[1]

The ancient grandparents had two knowledge strands, one was male the other female. One was accurate, cold and distant: celestial mechanics. The other was kind, generous and capricious: nature. From the sky observation, from nature and the essence of human beings, the ancient grandparents built all their knowledge.

"If we take four cycles of 13, we obtain 52; seven periods of 52 days makes a total of 364... In relation to 13, there are 13 moon periods in a year. If we take rounded figures of 28 days: 28 x 13 = 364. Thirteen are the Nahuatl cosmogony skies as described in the Latin Codex or Ríos Codex; 13 years make up a tlalpilli and by multiplying 7 times 13, yields 91 <number of elements in a Nepoualtzizin>, which represents the number of days in a season, from equinox to solstice and from solstice to equinox. If 91 is doubled, we have 182, which symbolizes the maize cycle number of days; If tripled, the result is 273, thus the pregnancy required number of days, or a ritual 260 days count, plus thirteen; if quadrupled, we obtain 364; hence, 91 x 4 = 364, or else 91 months equal to seven years <2,548 days>, 91 years <33,124 days> or 91 four-year cycles, 364 x 364, making a total of 132,496 days. Therefore the main computations of prehispanic calculation: four, seven and 13 are emphasized." (Maria Elena Romero Murguía. 1988)

Agriculture.

Maize invention, is perhaps was one of their greatest achievements, since from wild grass, the ancient grandparents, produced the splendid corn plant through what we now call biogenetic engineering.

Development of hydraulic engineering in agriculture, the invention of the corn plant and the Chinampa. The development of health, food, education and social organization efficient systems, represent the great achievements of our ancestors at the early stages.

"The chinampas are the most developed forms of crops rotation and mixed crops, as well as the more intensive use of plant and seed. This type of cultivation is found in production during the entire year, year after year; surely it's one of the most permanent cultivation systems, intensive and productive in the world." (A. Palerm 1990)

In the Anahuac, hydraulic engineering reached advanced levels, not only by the irrigation extensive use, but in the Chinampa concept, advanced even in our days. Definitely we cannot imagine the wonders of Teotihuacán or Chichen Itza, without the basis of an efficient food system, that supported the challenge involved in the construction of the many knowledge centers that existed throughout the Cem Anahuac. The Mexico—Tenochtitlan city known by the spaniards in 1519, built during the decadent postclassical period was an example of engineering and architecture use and application.

"In Spain, and throughout Europe, did not then exist urban conglomerates comparable with Mexico, although some claim it had a population of a million and a half inhabitants, it is likely that it had around half a million (London did not have more than 40 thousand and Paris, the largest city, barely had 65 thousand), and that does not include other cities of the Valley, that also had large populations, such as, Texcoco, Azcapotzalco, Iztapalapa, Tacuba, etc." (Jose Luis Guerrero. 1990)

The hydraulic engineering works required to divide, contain, and regulate the Anahuac Valley Lakes represented a technological advance unknown to Europeans; as well as the reticular street concept, avenues, roads, channels. This decadent postclassical period city, had drinking water, plazas, schools, markets, cultural centers, courts, libraries, Zoo, temples, ballgame courts, museums, community barns, everything that for people of our time implies a "modern" city.

"This city has many plazas, where there is a continuous market with buying and selling deals. It has another plaza as large as two times the city of Salamanca, all fenced around with portals where there are daily over sixty thousand souls...There is a large house in this large square, as if for hearings, where they are always seated ten or twelve people, who are judges...There are many mosques or idols houses with very beautiful buildings in the sections and neighborhoods... among these mosques there is one which is the main, that there is no human language that can explain its greatness and particularities... There are a good forty high towers and well-constructed, the main has fifty steps to climb to the body of the Tower; the principal is higher than the Tower of the Church of Seville... There are many good and very large houses in this great city.... On an avenue entering this great city, there are two mortar pipes, two steps wide each, and as high as a person and by each of them flows very good fresh water, as wide as a man’s body, that goes to the body of the city, from there all are served and drink. The other, which is empty, is used when they want to clean the other pipe." (Hernán Cortés, 1519)^[2]

Mathematics and time count.

Mathematics was a fundamental knowledge field of our ancestors. Necessary not only for construction of monumental and exquisite knowledge centers, but in the field of calendars and time measurement. Indeed, the Mayans invent the mathematical zero, and in their calendar measurements the figures used are both incredible and perfect. The ancient grandparents had three different calendars, the three assembled into a perfect one. The first was 260 days and in relation to the Moon. The second was 365-¼, related to the earth orbital movement around the Sun. The third was 52 years and was perfectly synchronized with the earth orbital movement around the group of stars called "The Pleiades" or Seven Sisters (Messier object 45). Must also mention the Venus cycle.

"We also know the relationship that exists between the architectural disposition of Teotihuacan and the passing of the Pleiades zenith every 52 years, as a big year in the Taurus constellation, this great year is the exact time at which both counts unite: the 260-day ritual that relates to Venus and Earth orbits, and solar agricultural of 365.25 days, which happens every 18,980 days, i.e. one Xiuhmolpilli." (Maria Elena Romero Murguía. 1988)

The calendar was so perfect that, when Europeans arrived and knew it, they realized that their Julian^[3] calendar was wrong and adjusted their calendar to ours, and called it Gregorian^[4], since it was Pope Gregory XIII who ordered the reform to the Julian calendar in 1582.

"The origin of the prehispanic computation has been traced from its Olmec roots. Remember that the word Olmec derives from two words: ollin: movement and mecatl: rope (mecate), in reference to rope measurement; thus the measure of movement or the movement measure. This means that the Olmecs were probably known as cosmic movement measurers and its expression in geometric shapes...". (Ma. Elena Romero M. 1988)

Mexico possessed 75% of the planet's biodiversity. Our ancestors knew the medicinal uses of food, utilities, surprisingly almost all plants, minerals and animals; which inter alia allowed them to develop one of the perfect and ancient medicines of the world, which has survived to date. The Codex de la Cruz-Badiano^[5] (1552), the amazing cranial trepanning found in burials, the massagers, those using plants (yerberos) and healers, is testimony of the permanence of this millenary wisdom that has resisted disappearing. It can be stated that global Pharmacology^[6] foundations were built on contributions from three civilizations: China, India and Anahuac. To appreciate the complex and sophisticated knowledge ancient Mexicans had of the human body will cite from the book "Human body human and ideology”, the Nahuatl names of the eye parts and thus infer the knowledge degree about human medicine:

“IXTELOLOTLI.

1. Eyebrow (piloso set) Ixcuamolli.
2. Eye lash, Cochiatl.
3. Pupil, Ixneneuh. Ixttouh. Teouh, Yoyolca.
4. Eye lid, Ixquimiliuhcayotl.
5. Sclera, Iztacauh.
6. Iris, Tlilticauh.
7. Eyebroe (prominent part without hair) Ixcuatolli.
8. Circular socket between the orbit and the eye, Ixcomol. Ixtecocomol. Ixtecocoyoctli.
9. Eye socket, Ixcallocantli.
10. Internal palpebral face, Ixquempalli.
11. Eye lid free edge, Ixtentli.
12. Tear, Ixayotl.
13. Lacrimal bone, Ixcuichilli, Ixtencuilchilli, Ixomoljuhcantli?
14. Conjunctiva, Ixtocatzahuallo” (Alfredo López Austin. 1980)^[7]

Engineering with our ancestors reached unimaginable levels. Our civilization mixed very well engineering with astronomy and religion. In fact, beyond the physics laws challenge, mathematics and nature perfection; the Anahuac monumental constructions had the goal of harmoniously uniting mankind with earth, planets, and stars, in an amazing and wonderful approximation to the divine and universe sanctity. Because our ancestors lived for thousands of years with a spiritual sense and in harmony with the universe.

"There was no doubt for him^[8] that the Mayans had been accomplished mathematicians, astronomers and navigators, and who were familiar with flat and spherical trigonometry, that placed them in a position to calculate the world size, calculate the distance from pole to pole, and estimate a Meridian length. He believed that, as the Egyptians, the Mayans had added their cosmogony and religious conceptions to their sacred buildings, particularly the pyramids". (Peter Tompkins. 1981)^[9]

The three knowledge circles.

There are three knowledge circles in ancient civilizations of the world. Three levels where wisdom is expressed and transmitted. In the first circle is the "word".

"The word masters, the tlatolmatinime, as they were called in their language, were priests, poets and sages, speech authors, dedicated to dominating the difficult art of expressing thought with the appropriate tone and the metaphor that opens the way to comprehension. They were, as an ancient text reads, lip and mouth artists, owners of the noble language and careful expression. Many of them were also teachers in prehispanic education centers, where, along with the best of prehispanic cultural traditions, also taught tecpillatolli, or noble and careful language. These same word masters created what was then called icniúhyotl, fraternities of poets and sages..." (Miguel León Portilla. 2001)

In fact, from the very origins of human wisdom, it is has been guarded—transmitted in the language of the peoples. As example we will say that the Bible, the oldest printed book in the world, was guarded—transmitted throughout centuries by the Hebrew people.

"The Mesoamerican people had developed oral capabilities which were manifested in various circumstances, in songs, speeches and divine or human important events remembrance. Such oral abilities can be described as a form of oral tradition systematically learned in schools and temples.

For transmission, priests and sages used their books or codices. The Mayans read their books in the strict sense the logo syllabic sequences. "The Nahua and amoxohtoca Mixtecs, “followed" the paintings and glyphs sequences also included in their codices". (Miguel León Portilla. 1968)

In the word, knowledge is transmitted directly. In the Nahuatl language our ancestors treasured valuable concepts such as: "topial in tlahtolli" the legacy of our word, "to-pializ" what is our responsibility to preserve, "yuhcatiliztli" action that leads to exist in a certain manner, "Toltecáyotl" set of Toltec institutions and creations.

“Were our grandfathers, our grandmothers,
our great grandfathers, our great grandmothers,
our great great grandmothers, our ancestors.
Their story repeated as a speech,
was left for us and came to inherit it
to those that now live,
to those that came from them.
Will never lose it,
will never forget,
what they came to do,
what they came to assert,
their black ink, their red ink,
their name, their history, their memories.
So in the future
will never die, never be forgotten,
forever will keep it
we, their children.”

}}

(Fernando Alva Ixtlilxóchitl) ^[10]

The Anahuac civilization had in their lingua franca, the Nahuatl, words which reveal the depth of their thinking and systematized wisdom.

For example: "amoxcalli" library; "tonalámatl" day counting and lineage book; "xiuhámatl and tlacamecayoámatl" book of the years and lineages; "teoámatl" book of divine things; "cuíca-ámatl" book of songs; "lemic-ámatl" book of dreams; "amoxohtoca" follow the book path; "altehuehuehtkahtolli" ancient words of the people; "huehuehtlahtolli" testimony of the ancient word.

From the last one, the following is a fragment of words from a mother to her daughter:

"Now my little girl, dove, little woman, you have life, you are born, you've come, and you’ve fallen out of my heart, my chest." Because he has forged you, molded you, made you, your father shaped you slim, your Lord. Hopefully you will not wander suffering on earth. Will you live next to people, along with people? Because in hazardous, in dangerous places, life is difficulty. So, concede a little to people, make them deserve their fame, their honor, their warmth, their sweetness, their flavor, our Lord." (Miguel León Portilla. 1991)

In the second eccentric circle, knowledge has been guarded—transmitted in stones and books. Indeed, wisdom was transmitted by "writings and drawings in leather, stones, paper or in imposing constructions". This form of knowledge has been almost eternal and universal to all civilizations, but knowledge needs to be read—interpreted, and is no longer direct and "pure", since it has to be deciphered or decoded. As an example we can mention pyramids, steles, codices and frescoes. In the three hundred colony years, all this wisdom and science, was persecuted by spaniards because it represented the very demon. In the 19th century became, to some illustrious visitors "Antiquities, primitive and curious" that were looted and destroyed with impunity. In the 20th century they began to consider them with an "aesthetic and artistic value", only as an instrument to generate foreign currency from tourism, especially in the second half of the 20th century.

"The interest of the study of archaeological sites orientations is precisely the fact that this constitutes a different calendar principle from what is represented in steles and codices. It is undoubtedly a principle alien to western thought. The "writing" used in this case, is the architecture and its coordination in the natural environment. A codex system is embodied in the landscape: hills and other natural elements, or also with artificial markers in form of symbols or buildings built in these places." (Johanna Borda. 1991) ^[11]

However, all the engravings, sculptures, reliefs, frescoes, codex paintings, vases, and textiles, contain a high philosophical value. Indeed, our ancestors iconography is still present today, while we, their children cannot rediscover it, and not only to know the symbols meaning, but what is essential; embody them!, to build a better Mexico. These symbols are still there: crafts, decoration and some symbols, which because they are there we are not interested or we do not pay enough attention. The most prominent example is the national shield, representing the esoteric Toltecáyotl symbol and that professor Laurette Séjourné in her wonderful book "Thought and religion in ancient Mexico" presents it in a dazzling and clear way.^[12]

The third knowledge cycle, people have guarded—transmitted in "religions". The most important people’s knowledge is structured in a religion, so that it is easily accessible, the masses can govern their lives with the ethical and moral principles based on the wisdom that allow them to live in harmony, guide their existence towards higher consciousness levels, and thereby achieve spiritual transcendence.

To achieve an approximation to the ancient Mexico religion, first requires knowing the wisdom of the first knowledge circle, then trying to untangle the puzzle made by the Aztecs during the postclassical period through changes and transgressions by Tlacaelel^[13] to the Toltec legacy. As well as those made by the spaniards during colonial times, through their biased written texts. And recently, by foreign researchers through their Eurocentric and Marxist vision, in which from four ceramic pieces (tepalcates) and a "class struggle", they intend to decipher an ancestral legacy of spiritual nature, which deals with the prodigious mystery of human existence.

The Toltec classical period religion, which was the most filtered Olmec creation and refined and spread throughout Cem Anahuac by the Toltecs, producing thousands of years of harmony where there were no wars, human sacrifice, nor Lordships^[14]. Most of the spirituality and mysticism of native peoples and peasants of contemporary Mexico are more deeply rooted in concepts of sacred and divine, with which the Toltec taught to live in balance and harmony to the peoples of ancient Mexico.

The philosophical thought.

The philosophical knowledge of ancient Mexico is to date the most denied knowledge. The 16th century conquerors and colonizers asserted that the ancient grandparents were not human beings; but that they were animals with which the invaders justified their dehumanized treatment. To date the dominant culture does not accept that natives think and are able, by themselves, to initiate a social movement such as the EZLN. To accept that there was a large and sophisticated knowledge of the human being, of the world and the universe, would equate to recognize by the colonizers of yesterday and today, that one of the greatest human injustices would have been committed, because one of the World’s six most important and ancient human civilizations has been denied and tried to destroy.

"After 1519 a vast majority of new influences passed through indigenous life. The Habsburgs imperialism took their incentive from peninsular traditions and neglected regional adaptations. The Valley was never "headquarters" for the Spanish, except in the most circumstantial way. The Spaniards established their colonial capital in the Valley, but decidedly connected by road with Veracruz and then by sea to Seville. They almost never adopted the indigenous clothing styles or in construction design of houses. Instead, they exaggerated their own Spanish styles, as if to deny their provincial status. The indigenous civilization "Culture" had for them, in the best cases, an exotic appeal. The Spanish consumed products from the chinampas, but ignored the chinampas farming methods until the 18th century." (Charles Gibson. 1967)^[15]

The researcher examined the attitude of the Spanish colonizer, in not recognizing any value to the wisdom and the millenary knowledge of the defeated civilization. The colonizing culture only saw the tip of the iceberg of the Anahuac civilization knowledge, and built over it a flimsy blind and predatory structure. However, what supports the contemporary Mexican society undoubtedly is the knowledge generated over eight thousand years, which represents the vast base of the iceberg that is under water. It cannot be denied that in the last five hundred years, not only European knowledge and that from around the world has been added. But at the same time, it can no longer be denied the existence of knowledge inherited from the ancient grandparents and its undisputed continuity. In the "cultural information gene bank" that exists in every cell of the Mexicans, there are eight millennia of experience and human wisdom saved.

To deny the millenary and complex philosophical thought scaffolding of ancient Mexico, would be like thinking that a mammal could live without a bone system. To reduce a poorly understood religion, to a handful of unconnected legends and myths and to a bunch of misunderstood deities, mistakenly called "prehispanic gods", the sophisticated and filtered Toltecáyotl thought, is the greatest cultural crime in mankind history, because it has been maliciously attempted to make believe that the Cem Anahuac did not possess a filtered and sophisticated knowledge of the universe, of the human being, life and its spiritual significance. Of equal magnitude and value as other contemporary civilizations such as China and India.

9. RELIGION.

Religion in ancient Mexico occupied a central and prominent place of life for all Anahuac inhabitants. In part by ancestral mysticism and spirituality; and partly because the social system was totally immersed in the moral and ethical religious values of Cem Anahuac. All activities: family life, government, agriculture, health, education, art, sport, etc. was intricately linked to religious aspects. As any ancestral religion, ours sought the transcendence of the spiritual "self" beyond death. The eternal life from consciousness.

“Where will I go?
Where will I go?
The path of the Dual God.
is by fate your house at the place of the gaunt?
Perhaps inside heavens?,
or the place of the gaunt is only here on earth?
...
Is it for a fact we live on earth?
not forever on earth: just a little here.
even if it is jade, it breaks,
if its gold it breaks,
even if it is quetzal feathers, they tear off,
not forever on earth: just a little”.
(Mexican folk songs)

To understand ancient Mexico, it is highly recommended to understand the ways of life and values of people called "indigenous" that until today jealously maintain millenarian values and spiritual principles, engendered since the agriculture invention, eight thousand years ago and in essence seek to get humans closer to the sacred and divine, the transcendent and immeasurable.

"Finally we reach the worship of God in an ideal self-chosen form. Hindus have represented God in countless ways and, they claim, it is appropriate. Each representation is not more than a symbol pointing to something beyond, and as none diminishes the true nature of God, a full range is needed to complete the figure and manifestations aspects of God... As we have seen, life goals are to transcend the smallness of the finite being. This can be accomplished by identifying oneself with the transcendental absolute that resides deep in one's self or displacing interest and affection towards the personal God that feels as an entity different to our own." (Huston Smith. 1997)^[16]

All civilizations and their cultures point in their top vertex to achieve the transcendence of our material—carnal shape to a luminous—spiritual eternal life. Prepare for physical death and be spiritually reborn for an eternal life; this has been the challenge of all conscientious human beings in mankind history. This perennial challenge has shaped all civilizations and cultures of the world, as well as religions.

"...men is the beginning of the world creation and responsible for its preservation and development towards perfection. Over this concept builds himself and builds the world around. This is how was built the culture that of which, until today, we are exclusive heirs." (Ruben Bonifaz Nuño. 1992)

The supreme divinity.

To our ancestors there was only a single representation of the supreme divinity, it was invisible and impalpable, had no name and no one had created it. In ancient Mexico did not exist the Judaea-Christian concept of "God" and this is why many mistakes developed from the times of Hernán Cortez up to our colonized contemporary Mexico researchers. The ancient Mexican supreme divinity conception is closer to the Hindu than the Christian. Maintaining the basic principle that the supreme divinity is inaccessible and unknowable to human beings, the

1. Romero Murguía, María Elena. Nepoualtzitzin contemporary Nahua Mathematics. DGCP/CNCA. Méx. 1988
2. Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
3. The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE.
4. The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar or the Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words “Inter gravissimas”. The reformed calendar was adopted later that year by a handful of countries, with other countries adopting it over the following centuries. The motivation for the Gregorian reform was that the Julian calendar assumes that the time between vernal equinoxes is 365.25 days, when in fact it is about 11 minutes less. The accumulated error between these values was about 10 days when the reform was made, resulting in the equinox occurring on March 11 and moving steadily earlier in the calendar. Since the equinox was tied to the celebration of Easter, the Roman Catholic Church considered that this steady movement was undesirable.
5. The Codex de la Cruz-Badiano or Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis (Latin for "Little Book of the Medicinal Herbs of the Indians") is an Aztec herbal manuscript, describing the medicinal properties of various plants used by the Aztecs. It was translated into Latin by Juan Badiano, from a Nahuatl original composed in the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco in 1552 by Martín de la Cruz that is no longer extant. The Codex is also known as the Badianus Manuscript, after the translator; the Codex of the Cruz—Badiano, after both the original author and translator; and the Codex Barberini, after Cardinal Francesco Barberini, who had possession of the manuscript in the early 17th century.
6. Pharmacology. Part of medical sciences, related to medical compounds.
7. Alfredo Federico López Austin (born in Ciudad Juárez, México March 12, 1936) is a Mexican historian of uncommon originality who wrote extensively on the Aztec worldview and on Mesoamerican religion. As an academic teacher, he has inspired generations of students, but his influence extends beyond the boundaries of academic life.
8. Augustus Le Plongeon. Archaeological Communication in Yucatán. Worcester: Press of Charles Hamilton, 1879. North American Archaeologist of French origin that discovered the Chac Mol.
9. Peter Tompkins (April 19, 1919 in Athens, Georgia — January 23, 2007) was an American journalist, World War II Office of Strategic Services (OSS) spy in Rome, and best-selling occult author.
10. Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl (b. between 1568 and 1580, Texcoco—1648, Mexico City) was a Novohispanic historian. A Castizo born between 1568 and 1580, Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl was a direct descendant of Ixtlilxochitl I and Ixtlilxochitl II, who had been tlatoque (rulers) of Texcoco. He was also the great-great-grandson of Cuitláhuac, the penultimate Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan and victor of la Noche Triste.
11. Borda, Johanna. Arqueoastronomía y Etnoastronomía en Mesoamérica. UNAM. Méx. 1991.
12. See page 112 of the cited book.
13. The Aztec Cihuacoátl that conducted the philosophical and religious reform of the Toltec philosophy and created a new mystic—materialistic—warrior ideology.
14. Government form under which a “Señor or Señora” had political, economic and religious control over the people and predetermined territory. But that did not have a Kingdom characteristic.
15. Charles Gibson (1920–1985) was an American ethno historian who studied the Nahua peoples of colonial Mexico. His most significant works are Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century (1952) and The Aztecs under Spanish Rule (1964).
16. Huston Cummings Smith (born May 31, 1919 in Suzhou, China) is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions (originally titled The Religions of Man) remain a popular introduction to comparative religion.