The Mayan people of Mesoamerica where avid star gazers who strived to understand the cosmos as a way of understanding their creation. Throughout Central America ancient observers known as Shaman, began looking at the heavens for answers to the age old riddle of where do we come from? This question lead this mathematically advanced civilization to arrive at conclusions that would have marveled the great European stargazers like Galileo. The Mayas, like many other ancient people, noticed a peculiarity with the motion of the planet Venus’s rotation. It is the only planet visible to the naked eye that has both a retrograde motion and one of the brightest as a stars in the sky. This special quality of Venus lead the Mayans to develop myths and stories, that would eventually lead them to the mythical explanation of their creation.
The Mayan people had many names for this planet. The first and most important one of these names is, nok ek (red star), followed by; sastal ek (bright star) and xux ek (wasp star). This star was the object of worship for the entire Mesoamerican culture. In the Mayan vocabulary this planetary deity is depicted by the serpent god Kukulkan, the god who inspired fear and awe amongst the people of ancient Yucatan. Kukulkan was depicted as half jaguar and half deity in their mythology. His legend, which was well known throughout the region, was in many ways similar to the planet Venus. That is to say that Venus disappears 8 days every 260 days as a star, for the Mayans, that was contrary to the celestial order. This demonstrated its superiority as the god Kukulkan who rose in the in the east and disappeared in the west, only to reappear in the east as Venus the morning star.
This legend, later adopted up by the Aztecs, foretold the coming of the Spanish who they misunderstood for gods, and proceeded to become royal subjects to the crown. To the Mayan, Venus was both a good and bad star, that is to say that this celestial object could not only bring the gods of corn and water together but also make them tide their resources to the more powerful god of Venus. This actual act of tiding their resources would happen exactly when the planet would disappear for 8 days. During this time the Maya believed that by performing ritual sacrifices, they could appease the gods and make them not cast disease upon the land. This was thought to be a way to pay their debt and thus compensate the gods for interceding on their behalf for the return of Venus. The Venus star was also monumental to the regulation of sacred warfare.
Only during the disappearance of Venus could the priests of wage wars of religion. This group of sacred warriors were thought to be selected by the Venus god Kukulkan and thus only this elite group of warriors would wage war. Pictures of wars depicted in Bonampak and Cacaxtla in Mexico depict these battles showing these warriors dressed in ceremonial Venus garments, that even the women of these warriors wore. The most recent Transit of Venus occurred on 5-6 June 2012. No further transits will be visible until 2117. In astronomy, a ‘transit’ occurs when a smaller body passes in front of a larger one. A Transit of Venus happens when Venus is seen in silhouette against the bright face of the Sun. Although Venus, the Earth and the Sun roughly line up every 584 days, the alignment is not usually precise. Venus’ orbital motion usually takes it “above” or “below” the Sun as seen from Earth (for the same reason, the Moon does not block out sunlight – causing a solar eclipse – every month).
On some rare occasions, the alignment is close enough that Venus blocks out some of the light from the Sun, causing a Transit of Venus. There have only been seven transits of Venus since the telescope was invented in 1610. On average, Transits of Venus happens every 80 years or so. However, this average figure is very misleading, because transits occur in a “pair of pairs” pattern that repeats every 243 years. First, two transits take place in December (around Dec 8th), 8 years apart. There follows a wait of 121 years 6 months, after which two June transits occur (around June 7th), again 8 years apart. After 105 years 6 months, the pattern repeats. Prior to the last transit on 8 June 2004, no living person had seen a Transit of Venus (the previous transit was on 6 December 1882). The last Transit occurred on 5-6 June 2012, but only the final stages was visible from the UK.
The entire event was seen from eastern Asia and Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and the north-western parts of North America. The next transit of Venus after that will not take place until 2117, so 2012 was the last chance in most people’s lifetimes to witness this celestial event. Krishna, the eighth avatar of God Vishnu is worshiped as a supreme God in Hinduism. Born in northern India (around 3,228 BCE), Krishna’s life marks the passing of the Dvapara age and beginning of the Kal yuga (which is also considered as the current age in the year 2024). Krishna is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one of the most popular and widely revered among Hindu divinities. Krishna’s birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Krishna Janmashtami according to the lunisolar
Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar.
The name “Krishna” originates from the Sanskrit word Krishna, which is primarily an adjective meaning “black”, “dark”, or “dark blue”. The waning moon is called Krishna Paksha, relating to the adjective meaning “darkening”. The name is also interpreted sometimes as “all-attractive”. As a name of Vishnu, Krishna is listed as the 57th name in the Vishnu Sahasranama. Based on his name, Krishna is often depicted in idols as black- or blue-skinned. Krishna is also known by various other names, epithets, and titles that reflect his many associations and attributes. Among the most common names are Mohan “enchanter”; Govinda “chief herdsman”, Keev “prankster”, and Gopala “Protector of the ‘Go'”, which means “soul” or “the cows”. Some names for Krishna hold regional importance; Jagannatha, found in the Puri Hindu temple, is a popular incarnation in Odisha state and nearby regions of eastern India.
The earliest text containing detailed descriptions of Krishna as a personality is the epic Mahabharata, which depicts Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu. Krishna is central to many of the main stories of the epic. The eighteen chapters of the sixth book (Bhishma Parva) of the epic that constitute the Bhagavad Gita contain the advice of Krishna to Arjuna on the battlefield. During the ancient times that the Bhagavad Gita was composed in, Krishna was widely seen as an avatar of Vishnu rather than an individual deity, yet he was immensely powerful and almost everything in the universe other than Vishnu was “somehow present in the body of Krishna”. Krishna had “no beginning or end”, “filling space”, every Hindu god except Vishnu was seen as his manifestation, including Brahma, “storm gods, sun gods, bright gods”, light gods, “and gods of ritual.”
Other forces also existed in his body, such as “hordes of varied creatures” that included “celestial serpents.” He is also “the essence of humanity.” Krishna is represented in the Indian traditions in many ways, but with some common features. His iconography typically depicts him with black, dark, or blue skin, like Vishnu. However, ancient and medieval reliefs and stone-based arts depict him in the natural color of the material out of which he is formed, both in India and in southeast Asia. In some texts, his skin is poetically described as the color of Jambul (Jamun, a purple-coloured fruit). Krishna is often depicted wearing a peacock-feather wreath or crown and playing the bansuri (Indian flute). In this form, he is usually shown standing with one leg bent in front of the other in the Tribhanga posture. He is sometimes accompanied by cows or a calf, which symbolise the divine herdsman Govinda.
Alternatively, he is shown as a romantic young boy with the Gopîs (milkmaids), often making music or playing pranks. According to Hindu legends, Krishna was born on 8th dark night of the Hindu month Shravan in 3228 BCE in the Mathura, Uttara Pradesh. He is said to have lived for 125 years, 8 months, and 7 days. According to Hindu mythology his death is recorded in this manner; “Mistaking the sleeping Krishna for a deer, a hunter named Jara shot an arrow towards Krishna’s foot that fatally injures him”. Shravan is the fifth month of the Hindu calendar. In India’s national civil calendar, Shravan is the fifth month of the year, typically beginning in mid to late July and ending in late August. In the Tamil calendar, it is known as Āvani and is the fifth month of the solar year. This brief history of the Hindu god Krishna is nothing sort of revolutionary.
In the preceding text, we see the transits of Venus taking place in the months of December and June in pairs separated by 105, and 121 years. Krishna, who is the embodiment of the planet Venus, is said to have a blue throat from absorbing the poison released when the Hindu gods churned the celestial ocean by attaching a giant serpent to a pole. It was from this ocean that all the Hindu gods came into being according to their mythology. Here, Venus is the great serpent that creates the Hindu pantheon. In Sumerian mythology, it was a great serpent or dragon called Tiamat that created the gods and then went to war with the pantheon as told in the Enuma Elish we have covered. The Hindu legend states that Krishna spent 125 years on Earth before he was killed in his deer form, this is very revealing as we know from Greek legend that the two main animals associated with Venus, are the serpent and the deer. By now it should be crystal clear to you that the “birth and death of Krishna” are nothing more than the cycles of Venus, here lauded as the greatest god in Hindu legend. Venus is the great serpent deity known throughout the ages in many forms, with the animals sacred to her remaining constant in every legend told no matter what the culture of her worshippers. One little known fact of Venus is that it too like Mars it’s constant companion, is referred to as a red planet of fire, war, and destruction. Venus was the Feathered Serpent, a prominent supernatural deity found in many Mesoamerican religions. It is still called Quetzalcoatl among the Aztecs, Kukulkan among the Yucatec Maya, and Q’uq’umatz and Tohil among the K’iche’ Maya. Venus is closely related to Huitzilopochtli the solar and war deity of sacrifice in Aztec religion. He was also the patron god of the Aztecs and their capital city, Tenochtitlan. He wielded Xiuhcoatl, the fire serpent, as a weapon, thus also associating Huitzilopochtli with fire.
