by Freddy Silva
Hawaiian folklore is likewise filled with stories of the Menehune from the islands of Molokai and Kauai, legendary people with magical powers who were able to control the forces of nature. Like their counterparts elsewhere, they were known for their ability to miraculously build temples of stone overnight.38
Such innate abilities of the antediluvian gods are affirmed in the Popol Vuh. "They were endowed with intelligence; they saw and instantly they could see far, they succeeded in seeing, they succeeded in knowing all that there is in the world. When they looked, instantly they saw all around them, and they contemplated in turn the arch of heaven and the round face of the earth. The things hidden in the distance they saw all without first having to move; at once they saw the world, and so too, from where they were, they saw it. Great was their wisdom; their sight reached to the forests, the lakes, the seas, the mountains, and the valleys."39 These individuals worked many miracles,40 but alas their magical abilities led to a number of them developing arrogance and abusing their gifts, ironically leading to their demise,41 when their folly ran foul of the tolerance of greater gods who pressed the reset button and unleashed a cataclysm.42
A sage from Kumari Kandam would agree with the above account from Central America, because the same descriptions, the same events, the same issues, and the same final outcome are recorded throughout the Vedas.
Tiki from New Guinea, and Hiva Oa in the Marquesas. Although stylized depictions, the thin lips, bulging eyes and elongated skulls are characteristics described by cultures who came in contact with flood sages.
12. PEOPLE OF THE SERPENT
Early Roman chroniclers refer to an ancient people living in the western Iberian Peninsula as Lusitanii, the People of Light. Physical traces of their existence are now scant, but they live on in legends which paint them as autonomous, highly religious people who followed the ways of nature and harnessed its magical qualities, the knowledge of which they shared throughout the region, hence their depiction as traveling gods. They constructed impressive stone temples and were said to have been unusually tall.
This land is today called Portugal, and aside from the Morbihan region of Brittany, it possesses some of the oldest stone circles, dolmens and passage mounds in Europe, some tentatively dated to 5300 BC, based on the lower habitation layer of accumulated debris. Realistically they are likely to be far older. The mountainous north became the Lusitannii center of operation, a region where one comes across anomalous structures such as carved granite boulders near the village of Panoias. One is the size of a house and has had its top incised with square and circular holes, some with bevelled edges that look like slots for inserting upright slabs, not unlike the technique employed at Göbekli Tepe. The boulders feature a series of deep, rectangular tanks; shallow and perfectly level ledges connect each feature without any sign of tool marks. On the side, steps cut in relief are impractically high for people of this region who tend to be rather short.
I have seen almost a dozen similar structures in Peru, three in and around Saqsayhuaman and Quillarumyioc alone, their ledges astronomically aligned, with features illustrating certain creation myths as well as Mysteries teachings. The wear on the steps at Panoias attests to their great antiquity, yet there is little indication as to the purpose of such hillside monuments. Aside from the obvious visual connection it is impossible to prove any further link between Panoias and Peru, although, ironically, when the Portuguese dictator Salazar invented an artificial folk identity to galvanize the Portuguese in the 1940s, he copied the traditional dress patterns and colors of indigenous Peruvians. Perhaps he inadvertently channelled an ancient connection!
Panoias megaliths bear a strong resemblance to those in the Andes. particularly in Saqsayhuaman (middle), and Sumba, Indonesia.
Like the stone boats of Japan’s antediluvian gods, the enigmatic boulders may be the handiwork of the People of Light, who may themselves have been the progeny of a far older group — the Shining Ones, as the name implies — who fled across the Atlantic in search of high ground. Portugal, after all, is conveniently the first dry land east of the Açores, the first landfall being a mountain called Sintra.
The Greek historian Strabo describes in his Geographica a people of different appearance living around Sintra, specifically on a promontory extending from the mountain for a considerable distance out to sea. Strabo may have been relying on a far older source because that promontory collapsed into the Atlantic thousands of years before his time, taking with it a citadel. Such a large piece of land could only have disintegrated through the action of some titanic force, perhaps the same wall of water that afflicted the Maltese islands in the Mediterranean, after all Sintra and Malta would have shared the same trajectory of waves originating in the central Atlantic; they also share the same geology, both are underpinned by vast subterranean tunnels, and sit on delicate fracture zones. Additionally, a deep layer of sand stretches forty miles from Sintra and into central Portugal, evidence of a massive tsunami that smashed the region in prehistoric times.
Trekking among the eucalyptus groves of Sintra is one of life's unique pleasures. By its very location adjacent to the Atlantic, the mountain creates its own cool microclimate, handy for days when temperatures on the surrounding plains force one to seek the shelter of shade or a café. Colossal moss-covered granite boulders lie everywhere, discarded like crumbs on a giant's dinner plate.
One of Sintra's summits is connected by a honeycomb of underground galleries to another hill thirty-five miles away, to the point where the sea is able to penetrate these inland caverns, leading Arab chroniclers to describe Sintra as a hollow mountain.1 Although a good number are of volcanic and sedimentary origin, other cavities have been purposefully carved by human hands. According to a former caretaker of the Moorish castle on one such summit, Sintra is a big subterranean city criss-crossed with miles of underground tunnels, one linking the castle with a Capuchin monastery three miles away.2
Sintra takes its name from the Mesopotamian lunar goddess Sin. Lunar cults have practiced here since 7000 BC,3 with human activity already established between 8000 – 10,000 BC.4 Whoever these people were they certainly had a flair for the dramatic. During one of many visits, I came across a local legend of a passage linking the east-west spine of the mountain, each entrance forming a portal to the Otherworld. It was impossible to pass up such a tempting opportunity, so I spent two days clambering through boulders, undergrowth and mist to be rewarded with the sight of the remains of a large passage mound on the western edge of the mountain, its earthen canopy long since washed away by the ocean-driven rain that typically pours here, its stones almost blending with the bedrock, and further dislodged by earthquakes, for Sintra lies on a highly volatile subduction plate. Perched high on a ridge, the entrance features an unobstructed view of the equinox sunset over the Atlantic — obviously the gods were romantics — so I hazarded a guess that the exit would fall along the same alignment to the east, to face the sunrise.
Passage mound in Sintra, home of the People of the Serpent.
It did, at another megalithic passage mound conveniently located inside the entrance to the grounds of Pena Palace four miles away. Standing inconspicuously amid the overgrown ferns and still resembling a dolmen, it is easily overlooked by thousands of visitors unless they forego the taxi ride and leg it up the steep footpath. The connecting tunnel, claimed to link the two sites, has long since been blocked with rubble from thousands of years of seismic activity.
A week rummaging through Sintra leaves you in no doubt that the people described by the Greek commentators were comfortable working on a megalithic scale, and did so on a mountain that, to all intents and purposes, functions in isolation to its surrounding territory, much like an island. In remote times the region was known as Promontorio Ofiússa (Promontory of the Serpent), its residents being the Ofiússa (People of the Serpent).5 Furthermore, the Portuguese coast appears in legends and traditions as the cradle of a royal or sacred bloodline descended from an antedi
luvian race, with Lisbon itself founded by Ophiusa, literally Serpent Woman, and like the Anunaki of Mesopotamia, she was portrayed as half-human half-fish.6 Strabo, it seems, was on the right track.
The association with serpents has nothing to do with the worship of snakes per se. The serpent or dragon refers to the entwining telluric currents of electricity and magnetism that flow along and through Earth and space. Since these forces are invisible to the eye, the serpent was adopted as the animalistic metaphor to visually express their movement. It is one of the oldest culturally shared symbols. However, there is also a second layer of meaning. Anyone who sensed, controlled or manipulated such forces was considered a serpent priest, a magi (magician), or sorcerer (one who works with the source). These sages were also symbolically associated with an amphibian creature, the newt — ewte, to coin its etymological origin, which means 'resplendent mind' — thus anyone who works with Earth energies also develops numinous qualities. One of the last cults to embody these principles was the Druid, whose titles were enumerated thus: "I am a Druid; I am an architect; I am a prophet; I am a serpent.”7
The writer and spiritualist Paul Brunton made an erudite observation about telluric forces and the qualities of people who personified them: "The serpent is self-moving; it is unassisted by hands, feet or external limbs. So too is the Creative Force entirely self-moving as it passes from form to form in its building of a whole world or a single creature... [its symbolism] stood for the working of the Force which freed the soul of man during initiation, a force which slowly crept through the body of the entranced initiate almost exactly like the slow creeping of a snake."8
Magicians? Earth energy? Special powers? This should all be familiar territory by now. Etymology and symbolism aside, there is no surviving evidence of these People of the Serpent having come to Iberia overland from the east via Europe. What if their point of origin was from the west, across the water from Atitlán or what remained of it? Let’s see if a connecting thread exists on the other side of the Atlantic that might improve our understanding of the antediluvian gods.
KAANUL, A SERPENT BY ANY OTHER NAME
The earliest foreigners in Yucatan were the Itzá sages who arrived on boats from the east following the loss of Atitlán. They were generally referred to as Kaanul— literally People of the Serpent — led by the magician priest Itzamna, whose title was Serpent of the East. In time their progeny, the Maya, also came to refer to themselves as People of the Serpent; their secondary title, Descendents From Cosmic Wisdom, offers a clue to the knowledge they inherited from the Itzá.9
As we already know, Yucatan has three central flood heroes: Itzamna, K’uKuulKaan and Quetzalcoatl. All three individuals arrived in modern-day Coatzelcoalcos from across the Atlantic on a boat “with sides that shone like the scales of serpent skins.”10 Up until now their overlapping attributes have led many to believe they are one and the same entity. However, the responsibility of a large-scale reconstruction of their original homeland in this region couldn't possibly have fallen upon the shoulders of one person alone. As Indian texts state, "there were many Seven Sages," so I am inclined to follow the common sense hypothesis that these were three separate individuals in charge of three brotherhoods, each linked to the same institution and race. The description of Quetzalcoatl is not dissimilar to that of Itzamna: a tall, white man with broad forehead, large eyes and flowing beard, dressed in a long white robe reaching to his feet. He condemned the killing of things except for fruits and plants, taught people the use of fire for cooking, how to build houses, and demonstrated that couples could live together. He introduced writing and the calendar, taught the secrets of masonry and architecture, mathematics, metallurgy, medicine, divination (dowsing), astronomy and the measure of the Earth, and agriculture, specifically the introduction of domesticated corn, the staple of this region. He was a patron of the arts, and a peacemaker who, when addressed on the subject of war, plugged his ears with his fingers. To these qualities can be added civilizer, founder of laws, cities and temples.11
K’uKuulKaan. Labnah, Yucatan.
The Maya know exactly where their wisdom comes from and the qualities of the gods who provided it: “In truth, they were admirable men... They were able to know all, and they examined the four corners, the four points of the arch of the sky, and the round face of the earth.”12 These People of the Serpent were specialists in their fields. K’uKuulKaan's companions are described as “two were gods of fish, two others gods of agriculture, and a god of thunder.”13 And according to the Popol Vuh, “they were not men... they were giants.” After spending ten years establishing laws, temples and administrative buildings at the temple city of Mayapan, K’uKuulKaan is said to have joined a raft of serpents, and together they set sail towards the rising sun and returned to where they'd originated,14 implying there may have been parts of Atitlán still above the sea after the flood, ostensibly today’s Açores. In any event, they were compelled to live in seclusion from humans, much as they had done before their arrival.
Itzamna as a wise, and bearded, old man. Chichen Itzã.
But not everyone returned. K’uKuulKaan and his sages left Itzamna and company to journey inland towards Guatemala to erect the temple cities of Tikal and Palenque, which were referred to as Serpent Cities in homage of founders such as Nohoch-Itz-Tzaab (Great Face of the Rattlesnake), the astronomer priest responsible for the original Pyramid of K’uKuulKaan at Chichen Itzá. In turn, Chichen Itzá’s original name Uuc Yabnal (Seven Great House) pays homage to the seven Kaanul priests as well the Pleiades.
A tall stela in the temple of Ek Balam shows a ruler surrounded by a feathered serpent, identifying him as a member of the Kaanul dynasty, According to the Troano Codex this divine bloodline had already run for 16,000 years by the time the Spanish arrived in the sixteenth century, implying that either the dynasty was already established in Yucatan before the flood, or it originated in Atitlán itself. Ek Balam’s main building contains 106 chambers, one of which features a doorway surrounded by thirty-three large teeth and elaborate images, all in stucco. Among them are seven An-Hel (Beings of Creation), each winged figure representing an original Itzá flood teacher. The approach to this stepped rectangular structure is marked by a building romantically named Structure X whose original footprint appears to be aligned to the spring equinox in the era of 7000 BC.
When the Balam (Jaguar) wisdom keepers arrived from the Pacific — for the same underlying reason as the Itzá — their teachings overlapped, whereupon future Maya masters of the city of Palenque took on combined Mu'ul-Atitlán titles such as Lord Kaan Balam.
Two Itz shown as winged An-Hel, a possible precursor of angel. Ek Balam, Yucatan.
The serpent emblem became synonymous with future individuals who personified the traditions of the original People of the Serpent. They adopted the names of these gods and became an example to others,15 hence there have been many K’uKuulKaan — an honorary title meaning 'feathered serpent'. "The title is in allusion to a spiritual mastery in science and spirituality," explains Miguel Angel Vergara. "KuKuul represents the feathers, the sacred spiritual knowledge of the cosmos; Kan represents science, technology, mathematics, astronomy, geometry. When the two practices are harmonized, the initiate takes on the composite name."16
The same practice was followed in Egypt and the Middle East.
The lineage of the People of the Serpent was still active throughout Guatemala well into the 8th century. Temple cities such as Holmui carried the snakehead emblem of the royal house, although by historical times the clans had descended into feuding families whose warring and bickering bore little resemblance to the ethics of the original lineage17— ironically the kind of behavior that once led the creator gods to flood the Earth 11,000 years ago, according to the myths. An altar dated 544 AD at Guatemala’s La Corona site suggests the Kaanul dynasty of Snake Kings acted like its namesake in slowly squeezing the life out of the rival kingdom of Tikal. It even depicts the ruler Chak Took Ich’aak attempting
to conjure two gods from a shaft in the form of a snake.18
SERPENTS IN THE EAST
We now have a clearer picture of the lineage of wisdom keepers who escaped Atitlán to found new homelands east and west of the Atlantic. However, this is only half the story. The progenitors of the Olmec are said to have arrived in Central America from the sunken Pacific island of Mu’ul, as did a tribe in Arizona, who now provide a further link to the Pacific and beyond.
The Hopi were originally defined by a number of separate yet interconnected clans, one being the Snake Clan. One narrative describes how Hopi ancestors lived in or close to Patowahkacheh (Great Water). Somewhere on this ocean lay an island where the original Snake People once lived; nearby was a second island belonging to Koyanwuhti, the goddess of wisdom. The story involves a young man who goes on an adventure to these islands and marries a beautiful maiden, and although on one level the tale appears to depict the allegorical path of an initiate, it also commemorates actual events from long ago, for the Snake Clan is very real, forced as it was to sail eastwards from an island in the Pacific consumed by the flood. Following a considerable period of migration, the clan settled at Kawestima in Arizona (today known as Betatakin), where they were known as Hisat-Sinom. It was a home they shared with unusual beings called katcisam; this will be of great importance later. Finally they moved to Walpi, a Hopi village on First Mesa, Arizona.19 What is fascinating is the linguistic trail linking their story to the central Pacific, for example, the Hopi word tsu'a (snake) is the same as the Samoan sua.20 Therefore it is likely that, in addition to Atitlán, the People of the Serpent had a base in the East.
