BUTTERFLY COCOON. At this Acatzingo cave, Simons writes that at the entrance yet below "an arrow decorated with a feather and plume..." is a "butterfly cocoon."

These same motifs or "cocoons" are inside the Chicomoztoc cave. They are enveloped in white cloth and tied to the back of warriors. They contain a feature that is U-shaped with a series of parallel lines; the tapering abdomen of a butterfly with its corresponding striations. There are no wings or posterior legs. This seems to indicate the pupa of the insect which has the same markings and tapering structure of an abdomen. Suggesting perhaps, the metamorphosis of a butterfly preparing to regenerate, to take flight as it emerges from the pupal shell.

The butterfly served as a preColumbian life\death symbol. Its cocoon might represent an enclosure, such as a mortuary bundle, or a cave where lay bones of the dead awaiting some form of metamorphic transformation.

Sahagún (1952, III) relates that warriors who died in battle and inherited "the home of the sun, in heaven" were believed to return to earth as butterflies, hummingbirds, grasshoppers. Observe another cave/shrine located at Ixtiyucan near Nopalucan. Note the decapitated grasshopper outside its entrance.

In "Twenty Sacred Hymns of the Nahuas," it talks about death and a kingdom for the dead. There is mention of brave warriors who inherit a glorious post-mortal existence. And of Itzpapalotli, a goddess identified as a black (obsidian) butterfly.

Where are you going? Where are you going? To the holy war, to the divine waters, There the pupae of the men, our mother Itapapálotl, in the field of battle!

Thompson (1950) cites the Historia de los Mexicanos por sus Pinturas and an Indian mother (Cicimime or Ciuateteo) who died in childbirth; and to children who died afflicted with diseases. He explains that in a religious ceremony, "...they were propitiated with offerings, particularly of corn cakes in the shape of butterflies."

A native informant says that los abuelos (the grandfathers) saw the growth of insects as mirroring a cosmic "life cycle" of birth, aging, death, and rebirth. The idea is that insects suffer external changes but do not lose their identity. A maggot is transformed into a bee; an ugly grub becomes a May beetle; a grasshopper progresses from a bug into a large insect with gorgeous wings; the distinctive body of a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. Especially the grasshopper and butterfly provide an example of transition, their successive stages of form symbolic of regeneration. A question was asked, "can this process be compared to a catholic resurrection?" Surprisingly, some native beliefs point to reincarnation.

Most of my informants are illiterate. Except for educational programs on television, they have no exposure to the sciences. Their native tongue is Nahuatl. Accordingly, they think in symbols which are based in nature: the earth and corn milpas, caves below and the sky above, sources of water, the flora, fauna, ecology in general (Mesoamerican cosmology). Logically, they are not conventional in their interpretations. Asked to inspect this pictorial glyph, some have a mental image of a two-dimensional, anthropomorphic figure, a human silhouette.

This figure is within the cave but facing an open door. A rounded face, a solar deity pictured as a human face within a sun-burst of wavy prongs. He is wearing a brown, high-domed helmet with a white, ornamental plume.

Seler ( 1904) wrote that Quetzalcoatl, as the morning star, was portrayed as a face decorated with a headband and feather crown. Below the face is a stylized rib cage. At its center are dots, characteristic of a segmented spinal column or vertebrate. Presumedly dead, the human silhouette does not extend his arms forward to grasp a draped cloth. Yet at each side of his rib cage is a piece of arched, white linen.

A human thorax, as death-related imagery, appear in two Mexican codices. In the Nuttall codice, the rib cage is shown with a hill sign. In the Colombino, a rib cage is depicted with a frieze. Smith (1973) reasons that because "...the two signs are shown in the same context, they are known to be the same sign."

Note the reed arrow in rib cage.

Apart from a butterfly cocoon or human rib cage with its segmented spinal column, another theory focuses on the turtle. More particularly, its exoskeleton (carapace or shell) and axial skeleton consisting of the skull, vertebrae, and ribs within the costar plates of its shell.

Turtle (carapace) shell Ribs fused with plates of the shell Skull & lower jaw (mandible) Front legs (humerus, radius, ulna)

About Mesoamerican caves and cosmology, Bassie-Sweet (1991,1996) says that the surface of the earth was frequently depicted or referred to as a turtle. Moreover, the turtle lives in water in association with waterlilies, marsh grass, and reeds. It is an appropriate manifestation for a wind god, or variant of Quetzalcoatl: creative force that produced watery mist at the mouth of caves, forming clouds and rain giving fertility to the land.

The first image of a turtle was seen at the Creation (Schele 1993:80). It was the "Beginning," hence a function of time. Meanwhile, the Maize God or First Father was reborn from the cracked carapace of a turtle. This place of origin was the Belt of Orion. The gods then made a hearth where the first fire of Creation could be started. Stars in Orion (Rigel, Saiph, Alnitak) are identified with stones of the hearth (Tedlock 1985:261). On this subject, Jose Fernández (1996) writes,

Orion was represented as a turtle in the sky (Thomp-son 1971:116; Lounsbury 1982:166; Schele 1992:134) and named ac ek "turtle star" (Roys 1965:66; Lamb n.d.:5). It was regarded as the place of creation in Classic Maya cosmology. Orion appears as a turtle constellation in the Paris (Kelley 1976:48) and Madrid codices (Schele 1992:140), as a deity (GII/God K) in Kelley (1976:98), as "three stones" or "three stars" at Bonampak (Lounsbury 1982:167), and in the Madrid and Dresden codices (Kelley 1976:86,120), and as a carapace, or cleft of birth and rebirth (Schele 1992:123), in the Codex Nuttall and the Selden Roll (Milbrath 1988:159).

In connection with the Acatzingo mortuary cave, a transit survey was done on an east/west axis. Now called the "Cholula Alignment," it is a spatial pattern with an azimuth of 97.9 degrees. This line incorporates both geologic features and archaeological landmarks. Starting from the east, it proceeds in a westerly direction to intersect an archaeological site at Loma Chichipico (Old Quecholac), the Acatzingo mortuary cave, the summit of Cerros Santa Rosa, the top of Cerro Totoltepetl, the great pyramid at Cholula (its foundations date to the preClassic era), preClassic ruins on Zapotecas hill, the cleftsummit of Tecajete, the circular-shaped, stepped mound Sitio Andrea, a small hill Teotzin, and the pyramidal shaped hill Teoton.

After our survey, a comment by Nowell Morris (physicist) was not expected. He wrote (1995) that Epsilon Orionis (Alnilam) in the late preClassic period with a "...star rise azimuth of 97 deg 50' = 97.83 is a near perfect fit to the azimuth of the Cholula line - 97.92 degrees."

Anticipating a skeptical reply, the report adds, "So," you say, "there are a lot of stars! There is bound to be one that would come close."

He continues, "Well, that's true but consider the star. This is not just any star.

This is the center star in Orion's Belt and possibly the most central star to the whole constellation. If I were to guess some heavenly bodies on which these (Cholulan) people might align a city, monument, or funerary temple, I should put Orion high on the list."

Morris concludes, "Further, notice that Orion's Belt had a helical rise on June 18 to June 24 about 500 B.C. This is real magic because the star had its helical rise at the summer solstice. Picture the ancient sun priest standing on Teoton (or the Acatzingo mortuary cave) watching in the predawn for the first reappearance of Orion on the same day that the sun reaches its solsticial position. Major synchronicity! Add to this the fact that Orion culminated near the winter solstice and you have another magic factor..."

Here are associations with pictorial elements that depict mortuary caves, astronomical measurements, and calendar dates. Is it possible that MC2 locative glyphs represent a turtle linked with a reed (Acatl) calendar sign? In her book about caves for ritual use, Stone (1995:22) explains that as the turtle shell portrayed a terrestial image of the earth, it also served to "integrate space with cyclical concepts of time." She also cites Taube (1988a), who showed that the turtle shell was often combined with hieroglyphic references to the twenty-yeark'atun cycle.

Death-related imagery. Deceased person mounted on a turtle shell (Madrid 71b, adapted from Lee 1985).

Several mortuary caves share an astronomical pattern of 97-98 degrees. Examples are at Acatzingo, Ixtiyucan Teoton, and Chiconautla hill. These caves are located on a topographic navel, a radial center where the zenith sunrise line intersects the stellar Alnilam (center star in Orion's Belt) Astral line.