Interpretation by: Michael Krapek, ©10/2008

Terra Cotta Earthenware Jaguar Shield, circa Ad.700

Zapotec, Mt. Alban, Mexico♈

The Ah-Kinª

The preponderance of Jaguar artifacts in Pre-Columbian Central American  was puzzling for years until the links were made connecting this enigma with ancient Egyptian models.  The cult was identified with the priestly class, although post modern interpretation would call them much more than that.

In both African and Mesoamerican theaters, the spotted robe symbolized the status of the Shaman because it was seen as presenting a range of Gnowledge of the Universal.  Sun spot activity, believe it or not, was interwoven into the cosmology of these cults, because they perceived this to be the paramount cause of all sorts of earthly events, from weather changes to fertility.  This astounding knowledge was not appreciated until the work of both artist Jose Arguelles and mathematician Maurice Cotterell exposed it.

The Badge of Awareness

One of the daunting tasks of my interpretations of artifacts is in identification of the various aspects of any scene.  I admittedly choose them for the challenge, and some are open to broad analysis, but this image was full of a sort of Shaman’s bag of tricks.  First is the Solar Jaguar Head Dress, beneath which is the Brujo himself, made up like the speaking parts of the cat. This means he gives voice to the Sun.  His knowledge is backed by the visionary tools of the trade, first with Sacred Peyote, the Universal Awareness link.  The shield is ringed with 12 curious textile shells, a psychotoxin, and capped with the poison dart tree frog, (13 being the number of a harmonic round, and a solar polarity shift.☉) These psychotoxins are also psychotropic when controlled.  Four races is similar to the Four Faces of God from Angkhor, Cambodia, up to the Solar Lord’s handling of the Venomous Coral Cobras representing the “Churning of the Milky Oceans.”   The scene is topped with Quetzal feathers and surrounded by two great Rainbow Vision Serpents, whose tails are adorned with spirit mushroom caps.  This Shield represents an individual who was the great intellectual Einstein of his world,

and probably ours.

Credits:

♈Lost History of Aztec and Maya by: Charles Phillips and David M. Jones, p.178

☉The Maya Factor by: Jose Arguelles

ªThe Mayan Prophecies, The Lost Tomb of Viracocha and The Tutankhamun Prophecies by: Maurice Cotterell

*Title from lyrics in “The Soft Parade” by: Jim Morrison and The Doors

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