The Milky Way – Path to the Otherworld
All over the ancient Americas, from Chile to Alaska, the Milky Way was seen as the path to the otherworld. Join Ed as he explains his evidence for that assertion.
SHOW NOTES
Here’s my 1994 paper on the Milky Way: https://www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/milkyway.pdf
An Amazon link to Maya Cosmos: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0688100813/qid=1120939989/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1?v=glance&s=books
William Romain’s Milky Way Papers on Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/91172765/Crossing_to_the_Land_of_the_Dead_Earthen_Causeways_at_Cahokia_and_the_Milky_Way_Path_of_Souls
Hi ED….Happy New Year. I have been looking forward to you newest podcast episode, but for some reason it will not open on my computer…even though all of the previous ones will still do so…is there some glitch preventing access? Hope to be able to continue to listen to your wonderful educational stories.. Best !
There was a glitch, but I just fixed it. Thanks for letting me know and happy new year!
Ed,
I loved this episode! The concept of the Path of Souls that is so widespread among American indigenous cultures has always fascinated me.
I think your hypothesis about the recurring multiple burials at one time being linked to a need to wait for the “right time” each year when souls could enter the Path hits close to the mark. In the book “Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms”, there is a whole chapter written by George E. Lankford on the Path of Souls and what we can extrapolate about it based on the iconography of Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (Mississippian) cultures as well as modern ethnographic studies among their descendants. In it he shows evidence for a belief that a portal existed for entering the Path of Souls (the Milky Way). This portal was in the palm of the Hand constellation (what we know as Orion), and in the iconography it was shown as a down-hanging hand with an ogee in the palm. Lankford relates the widespread belief among many tribes that when a person dies and their soul separates from the body, the soul must make a journey to the West to the edge of the earth-disk where the sun sets. In order to enter the Path of Souls, the soul must then make a great leap from the edge of the earth-disk into the portal of the Hand constellation in the sky. To quote Lankford, “The portal in the Hand must be entered by a leap at the optimum time, which is a ten-minute window which occurs once each night from November 29, when the Hand vanishes into the water in the West just at dawn, to April 25, when the Hand sinks at dusk not to be seen again for six months.”
Throwing out my own half-baked hypothesis here:
Perhaps a belief existed among some SECC peoples that the bones of an individual should not be interred until their soul had had the chance to attempt to enter the Path of Souls. If this were the case, then the bones of anyone who died between late April to late November would need to be reserved for burial until the winter/spring months during which their soul would have had the opportunity to finally make the “leap”. Maybe there was a specific time during the winter/spring months when all of the bones of those who had died in the summer/fall months would be ceremonially interred together. It would be really interesting if soil samples could be taken from some of these multiple burial deposits to see if pollen grains could be recovered that might indicate what time of year the burials occurred.
Great ideas Daphne! Lankford is a king, thanks for making me aware of his chapter in that book. I love your idea about the reasons to keep the bones before interment. I think bundling practices might also be related. Its gross, but I bet forensic entomology could determine if there were seasonal burial episodes. But with the recently increased prohibition on analyzing human remains, that will likely never happen.
Thank you for fixing the glitch….!!! Great as always…
Fascinating idea about delayed burials, waiting for the path to align.
Thanks Larry!
Another great podcast. A couple thoughts:
1: I appreciate your discussion of the procession and using the math to accurately link to the dates of buildings’ alignment. Do you remember Moises’ ideas about the linkage between the Palenque palace Northwest courtyard corners and solstice alignments between both the temple of the inscriptions and the temple of the Foliated Cross? The mayan serpent bar hypothesis makes a lot of sense, the symbolism is rich and I hope it turns out to be right. Your discussion was spot informative and not too nerdy.
2: I was witness to a Balinese delayed-internment cremation ceremony in 1988 for a more earthly reason: The Balinese waited several years until 3 wealthy residents’ families could afford to stage the parades, feasts, and solemn ceremonial group cremation, all three sets of remains were disinterred and anointed and consumed together. A natural cremation takes hours, an indelible experience including the smell of the disinterred dearly beloved.
Really great input here! Thanks for your encourage and good example from Bali. I got you thinking on this one – which is my primary goal with my podcast. Like Schele always said – the paradigm shifting ideas will come from outside of field. Thanks for listening!
Very thoughtful discourse. Thanks to all