Galaxia Remolino

  
The Arc of the Covenant

text, rock art photos, and maps by Gary A. David
Copyright © 2001-2011. All rights reserved.
From the book Eye of the Phoenix
Email: garydavid52@hotmail.com

The Galactic Spiral

Located from our perspective near Alkaid (the tip of the handle of the Big Dipper) Photo courtesy of NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute

Gazing into the heart of a spiral galaxy, we sense a familiar path, a journey taken long ago, resonating from another lifetime perhaps. We are awed by the vibrant colors that the Hubble space telescope beams back. Despite the high-tech clarity of these images, a primordial urgency rises to greet us. If we stare long enough, the pinwheel of stars entrances our sensibilities until we enter a golden realm of déjà vu, traveling back to the ultimate Source. It is the Tibetan mandala, the Navajo sand painting, and Dante's Mystic Rose all rolled into one.

Our own Milky Way drifts through space like a bioluminescent starfish. Technically called a barred spiral galaxy, it is estimated to be over 100,000 light-years across and 1000 light-years thick at the outer edges. The elegant theories of modern astronomers place a mysterious black hole at the center of most galaxies, including our own. As the ultimate manifestation of the devouring Hindu goddess Kali (Sanskrit for "black"), nothing escapes this juggernaut's "event horizon," or rim-- analogous to Kali's necklace of skulls. Suns and planets, comets, galactic dust, gravity, even light-- all are subject to its voracious attraction. To the Maya this dark heart was known as Hunab K'u, the Only Giver of Movement and Measure, represented by the stepped fret or spiral.1 Located upon the star road of the Milky Way in the direction between the zodiac constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpius, our own Great Mystery beckons.

Merely one among incomprehensibly vast multitudes, the solar system where we live is poised on the inner edge of a sidereal arc, a dozen or so of which form our celestial spiral. This local arc is known as the Orion Arm.


The Earth Spiral

Double-spiral design on ceramic bowl. Serrated edge represents clouds. Four-mile Ruin, Arizona c. A.D. 1380 Jesse Walter Fewkes, Twenty-second Annual Report Bureau of American Ethnology, 1900-1901

Many examples of the painted spiral exist in ancestral puebloan pottery from the American Southwest. In particular, the whirlpool or double-spiral motif represents the "gate of Masau's house." 2  One of these gates is located near the Sipapuni at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the portal through which the Hisatsinom 3 emerged from the past Third World to the present Fourth World. The Hopi periodically journey to this sacred area to gather ritualistic salt. Therefore, one of their names for the Grand Canyon is Öngtupqa, literally "Salt Canyon." Masau'u (also spelled Masau or Masaw) is the Hopi god of war, death, fire, the Underworld, and the earth, but he is also god of transformation. He was present when the Hisatsinom emerged upon the surface of the earth and began to make their migrations; he was there again when they finished them after many centuries. With his dibble stick and sack of seeds, Masau'u is also the humble agrarian deity who lives in balance with the earth, providing a paradigm of purity and simplicity. It is Masau'u with whom the Hopi established their divine Covenant.

On a naturalistic level the spiral represents water, an indispensable element, especially for a desert existence. (See the photo of a woman at Acoma pueblo balancing upon her head a ceramic jar with a spiral design.) The presence of a spiral petroglyph (in Hopi known as potave'yta) can mean that a water source is or was nearby. One of the major Hopi shrines is called Potavetaka (literally, "spiral nest"), or Point Sublime on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Here again we see the spiral motif --an icon of passage or transcendence-- associated with the canyon that the Hopi consider their Place of Emergence. In addition to water, the spiral can refer to the whirlwind or "dust devil," a sometimes malevolently destructive force in nature. On the other hand, whirlwinds frequently precede rain, so they can be viewed as propitious.

Stylized spiral petroglyph with "pueblo" symbol at the center. Near Homol'ovi Ruins State Park, Arizona.

In rock art the spiral connotes migration across the surface of the earth, especially if it is adjacent to footprints carved in the stone. In this context a spiral signifies the number of rounds, or pasos 4, a clan made as it journeyed though the centuries toward its ultimate goal of the sacred Center of the World, what the Hopi call Tuuwanasavi, namely the three Hopi Mesas. While a Muslim's circumambulation of the Kaba in the holy city of Mecca may take a dozen hours, the Hisatsinom/Hopi circumambulatory migration around their axis mundi took a dozen generations, but probably many more. During this time the Ancient Ones built pueblo villages, lived there for a number of generations, then moved on when Masau'u instructed them to do so.

Petroglyph of lightning above spiral at Tsankawi Mesa, New Mexico. Drawing by Dawn Senior

In general, the spiral found in both rock art and ceramics may simply connote motion, with a clockwise spiral denoting ascension and a counterclockwise spiral denoting descension. 5  (Was it not Jung who stated that clockwise motion represents the conscious, while anticlockwise motion signals the unconscious?) According to author Ani Bealaura, the spiral is manifested in the upper and middle worlds in a direction opposite to that of the underworld. "The right hand, deocil, or clockwise motion in Celtic belief represents the emerging, growing, material manifestation of energy. This is the direction in which one would cast the circle of protection and send energy into the environment. It is also used to banish unwanted energies. The left hand, widdershin, or counter clockwise motion represents the inward turn and to draw energy into material manifestation. It is the principle of grounding energy. It is also used to take the inner journey of gaining insight and enlightenment, and takes one to the 'underworld' or 'dreamtime'. It is also related to seeking Cerridwen's Cauldron of Inspiration." 6 The mythological poet Robert Graves claims that the Celtic god Bran (the Greek Cronos and the Roman Saturn, whom we have identified with the Hopi Masau'u) was associated with the alder, whose buds are set in a spiral pattern. This, he says, is "a token of resurrection. 7. Graves also recalls the Celtic designation for the megalithic site of Newgrange in Ireland as the Spiral Castle. "In front of the doorway of New Grange there is a broad slab carved with spirals, which forms part of the stone henge. The spirals are double ones: follow the lines with your finger from outside to inside and when you reach the centre, there is the head of another spiral coiled in the reverse direction to take you out of the maze again. So the pattern typifies death and rebirth..." 8  John Frayne, an artisan of Celtic jewelry, states that spiral of opposing directions refer to solstice suns: "A loosely wound, anti-clockwise spiral represented the large summer sun. A tightly wound, clockwise spiral represented their shrinking winter sun." 9

Noon on summer solstice, triangle of light enters spiral. Homol'ovi, Arizona

One counterclockwise spiral petroglyph located at Homol'ovi, Arizona may well represent the Pleiades constellation, due to its relative position to other images on the rock panel. In effect, it forms part of an ancient star map of stone. But like many spiral petroglyphs across the Southwest, including the famous one at Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon  10, this spiral is first and foremost a solstice marker. At noon on the first day of summer, a small triangle of light precisely intersects the center of the spiral, verifying for agricultural and ceremonial purposes the longest day of the year. If one stumbles across a spiral petroglyph, there is a good chance that it functioned as well as a boundary marker, helping the Hisatsinom to make geodetic sense of this expansive and starkly beautiful desert landscape.

Spiral petroglyph at V-Bar-V Heritage Site, Verde Valley, Arizona. This tight spiral is reminiscent of the coiled plaques that the Hopi weave from yucca fibers.

The spirals woven into the plaques made by Hopi women (primarily those of Second Mesa) symbolize the path we take in life's journey, and the adversities we face along the way. From Techqua Ikachi Newsletter, # 21:

"This is a coil basket symbolizing the road of life. It is called "Boo-da", meaning some great test which we will experience during our journey. Hopi tradition says we started our travel from the center or beginning of life, when life was perfect. But soon we began to face new obstacles. Small groups of ambitious minded men wanted to change their ways away from the original path. There were only small groups at first, but with time they increased to great numbers. Those who wanted to keep to their original ways became fewer and fewer. Since mankind has lost peace with one another through the conflict because of the new ways, the Great Spirit, the Great Creator has punished the people in many ways. Through all of this there was always a small group who survived to keep the original ways of life alive. This small group are those who adhere to the laws of the Creator, who keep the spiritual path open, out from the circle of evil. According to our knowledge, we are not quite out of the circle. The men with ambitious minds will decrease, while the people of good hearts, who live in harmony with the earth, we will increase until the earth is rid of evil. If the Hopi are right, this will be accomplished and the earth will bloom again. The spiritual door is open, why not join the righteous people?" 11