What MUSEO DEL BARRIO HAS TO SAY ABOUT OUR SPIRITUAL HERITAGE
Tau My Relatives
I was reviewing the text of the MUSEO DEL BARRIO page on Taino spiritual tradition and I thought it might be interesting to comment on it.
Below I have quoted a segment of the statement on the museum's webpage:
"Pre-Columbian cultures perceived the world and everything in it as alive with supernatural power, including features of the landscape - mountains, caves, rivers, trees, and the sea - as well as the souls of animals and people. The earth was a thin interface between the watery depths and the expanse of the heavens - a flat disk floating in the vast cosmos of water and stars. In the center of its surface, an imaginary circular hole, known as the fifth direction, connected the earth to the sacred spaces above and below it. The fifth direction was part of a vertical opening - a supernatural shaft - that went from the bottom of the sea through the earth and into the center of the heavens. Many pre-Columbian societies associated the fifth direction with the ceiba - the World Tree - whose roots grew from the depths of the sea and whose branches supported the heavens. The ceiba is still regarded as sacred in Mesoamerica, South America, and the Caribbean.
The spirits that presided over the cosmos included a creator and many others associated with rain, wind, the sea, human fertility, and the successful growth of crops. At the beginning of time, these spirits blanketed the cosmos with invisible layers of geometric designs - symmetrical motifs that covered the faces and bodies of people, animals, communities, the earth, the heavens, and the sea. These designs - the cosmic tissues of connectedness that united the universe - could be "seen" only by caciques and shamans during cohoba ceremonies. Illness, bad crops, and natural disasters such as hurricanes were caused by destructive spirits that ripped holes in the geometric fabric of the world.
The Taíno believed they were descended from the primordial union of a male "culture hero" named Deminán and a female turtle. Similar creation stories persist among contemporary societies in Venezuela and the Guianas. Images of turtles and figures with turtle attributes are omnipresent in Taíno art because, in their mythology, the wife of Deminán - Turtle Woman - was the ancestral mother, and the Taíno traced their kinship relations through. Dualism and the unity of opposites are important themes in pre-Columbian art, ideas that were expressively depicted by the Taíno. Deminán himself wears a female turtle carapace on his back and thus represents the union of male/female and father/mother in the same figure. The theme of the duality is further illustrated by beautiful ceramic vessels that combine symbols of life and death and images of male and female fertility.
Like other pre-Columbian cultures, the Taíno venerated their ancestors. The dead were usually buried under their houses, but caciques and other high-ranking nobles were given special funerary rites. After exposure to the elements, their skulls and long bones were cleaned and preserved in carved wooden urns or large calabash gourds hung from the rafters of houses. Although the souls of the dead resided in the otherworld, they returned to earth at night and were dangerous to the living. Night-flying creatures such as owls and bats were regarded as their messengers. Many objects made by the Taíno bear images of skulls, bats, and owls, reflecting their connection to the realm of the spirits and the ancestors".
The reference of the cosmos as structured in the form of a three-layered geometric entity is related to the illustration in our own Caney Spiritual Circle website page
As clearly demonstrated in the illustration the ancient Taino image of the Cosmos was a spherical structure divided into three layers the top layer was the Turey (heavens or sky) the middle layer was the Ku (eath-plane or middle world) and beneath it all was a third layer known as Koa-Bay (the Underworld). The three layers of the cosmic geography were connected by a central axis that could be imaged as a "hole" which led down from the earth-plane into the underworld or up into the sky-realm. This hole could be perceived as a cave. Another perception of this central conduit that connected the three realms was a huge spirit-tree whose roots were in the watery underworld and whose branches where in the sky. This tree was imaged as a ceiba tree and we in the Caney Circle believe that the tainos associated it with the Milky Way Galaxy as do the Mayas. We also associate this central conduit to a divine reptile, such as a snake or a crocodile whose head is below in the Underworld and whose tail is in the sky. This imagery also appears in Maya tradition, illustrated by the annual Spring Equinox occurrence at the Maya site of Chicchen Itza where the pyramid of the Feathered Serpent is illuminated by the sun on that day in such a way as to create a special light-show visual effect that illustrates a serpent with its tail at the very top of the pyramid descending down the steps of the structured and ending in the carved stone snake-head faces at the bottom of the pyramid. It is intersting to note that in a way reminiscent of the concept of the Taino cosmic tree having its roots in the watery realm of Koa-Bay, the yearly light-show at Chicchen Itza has the snake head facing directly at a special water-filled cenote sink-hole which to the ancient Mayas represented the watery underworld realm of Xibalba. Like the Taino association of Koa-Bay and the abode of the Dead, so the Mayas also associated Xibalba with the Dead.
The museum website states that the Taino view of the cosmos coincided perfectly with similar beliefs in other Mesoamerican traditions, including that of the Mayas. We in the Caney Circle see this connection as very important evidence that ancient Taino and Maya tradition were very closely related in certain aspects. Our current work stresses this relationship as we follow the Mayan Calendar very carefully, carry out Maya-style oracular readings as taught to us by Maya teachers from the highlands of Guatemala, and interpret both the traditional Long Count Cycle and its year 2012 prophecy as well as the Maya Venus cycle with its meaningful message for us as humans.
Taino Ti
Miguel
I was reviewing the text of the MUSEO DEL BARRIO page on Taino spiritual tradition and I thought it might be interesting to comment on it.
Below I have quoted a segment of the statement on the museum's webpage:
"Pre-Columbian cultures perceived the world and everything in it as alive with supernatural power, including features of the landscape - mountains, caves, rivers, trees, and the sea - as well as the souls of animals and people. The earth was a thin interface between the watery depths and the expanse of the heavens - a flat disk floating in the vast cosmos of water and stars. In the center of its surface, an imaginary circular hole, known as the fifth direction, connected the earth to the sacred spaces above and below it. The fifth direction was part of a vertical opening - a supernatural shaft - that went from the bottom of the sea through the earth and into the center of the heavens. Many pre-Columbian societies associated the fifth direction with the ceiba - the World Tree - whose roots grew from the depths of the sea and whose branches supported the heavens. The ceiba is still regarded as sacred in Mesoamerica, South America, and the Caribbean.
The spirits that presided over the cosmos included a creator and many others associated with rain, wind, the sea, human fertility, and the successful growth of crops. At the beginning of time, these spirits blanketed the cosmos with invisible layers of geometric designs - symmetrical motifs that covered the faces and bodies of people, animals, communities, the earth, the heavens, and the sea. These designs - the cosmic tissues of connectedness that united the universe - could be "seen" only by caciques and shamans during cohoba ceremonies. Illness, bad crops, and natural disasters such as hurricanes were caused by destructive spirits that ripped holes in the geometric fabric of the world.
The Taíno believed they were descended from the primordial union of a male "culture hero" named Deminán and a female turtle. Similar creation stories persist among contemporary societies in Venezuela and the Guianas. Images of turtles and figures with turtle attributes are omnipresent in Taíno art because, in their mythology, the wife of Deminán - Turtle Woman - was the ancestral mother, and the Taíno traced their kinship relations through. Dualism and the unity of opposites are important themes in pre-Columbian art, ideas that were expressively depicted by the Taíno. Deminán himself wears a female turtle carapace on his back and thus represents the union of male/female and father/mother in the same figure. The theme of the duality is further illustrated by beautiful ceramic vessels that combine symbols of life and death and images of male and female fertility.
Like other pre-Columbian cultures, the Taíno venerated their ancestors. The dead were usually buried under their houses, but caciques and other high-ranking nobles were given special funerary rites. After exposure to the elements, their skulls and long bones were cleaned and preserved in carved wooden urns or large calabash gourds hung from the rafters of houses. Although the souls of the dead resided in the otherworld, they returned to earth at night and were dangerous to the living. Night-flying creatures such as owls and bats were regarded as their messengers. Many objects made by the Taíno bear images of skulls, bats, and owls, reflecting their connection to the realm of the spirits and the ancestors".
The reference of the cosmos as structured in the form of a three-layered geometric entity is related to the illustration in our own Caney Spiritual Circle website page
As clearly demonstrated in the illustration the ancient Taino image of the Cosmos was a spherical structure divided into three layers the top layer was the Turey (heavens or sky) the middle layer was the Ku (eath-plane or middle world) and beneath it all was a third layer known as Koa-Bay (the Underworld). The three layers of the cosmic geography were connected by a central axis that could be imaged as a "hole" which led down from the earth-plane into the underworld or up into the sky-realm. This hole could be perceived as a cave. Another perception of this central conduit that connected the three realms was a huge spirit-tree whose roots were in the watery underworld and whose branches where in the sky. This tree was imaged as a ceiba tree and we in the Caney Circle believe that the tainos associated it with the Milky Way Galaxy as do the Mayas. We also associate this central conduit to a divine reptile, such as a snake or a crocodile whose head is below in the Underworld and whose tail is in the sky. This imagery also appears in Maya tradition, illustrated by the annual Spring Equinox occurrence at the Maya site of Chicchen Itza where the pyramid of the Feathered Serpent is illuminated by the sun on that day in such a way as to create a special light-show visual effect that illustrates a serpent with its tail at the very top of the pyramid descending down the steps of the structured and ending in the carved stone snake-head faces at the bottom of the pyramid. It is intersting to note that in a way reminiscent of the concept of the Taino cosmic tree having its roots in the watery realm of Koa-Bay, the yearly light-show at Chicchen Itza has the snake head facing directly at a special water-filled cenote sink-hole which to the ancient Mayas represented the watery underworld realm of Xibalba. Like the Taino association of Koa-Bay and the abode of the Dead, so the Mayas also associated Xibalba with the Dead.
The museum website states that the Taino view of the cosmos coincided perfectly with similar beliefs in other Mesoamerican traditions, including that of the Mayas. We in the Caney Circle see this connection as very important evidence that ancient Taino and Maya tradition were very closely related in certain aspects. Our current work stresses this relationship as we follow the Mayan Calendar very carefully, carry out Maya-style oracular readings as taught to us by Maya teachers from the highlands of Guatemala, and interpret both the traditional Long Count Cycle and its year 2012 prophecy as well as the Maya Venus cycle with its meaningful message for us as humans.
Taino Ti
Miguel
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