To this day the Cherokee consider the pine to be one of their most sacred trees, and it is their custom to look to the Pleiades to pray.
The Pleiades star system is also prominent in one of the most treasured and famous Cherokee prophecies, the Prophecy of the Rattlesnake, a sign in the heavens that is evolving toward the end of the Cherokee calendar in the year 2012. Needless to say, it’s no coincidence that the Cherokee and Mayan calendars end in the same year. It’s simply the result of the northern migration of the Mayans and the Aztecs from Central and South America to settle in the United States. But the heart of the Prophecy of the Rattlesnake is rooted in the wisdom and teachings of the ancient Cherokee elders.
Just as all cultures interpret the stars and their movement into zodiac systems and prophecies, the Cherokee see a zodiac of their own, ancient and cherished, the story of eternity, or Time Untime, written across the face of the universe. The universe itself is made of crystal, and four rawhide ropes hang from it to suspend the great island known as Earth. While the outline of the heavens retains its shape in the sky, there is movement within the Cherokee zodiac that makes it seem alive, breathing and transforming itself to foretell the fate of Earth against the backdrop of the eternal cycle of life.
There are thirteen constellations in the Cherokee zodiac, most of them designs of animals. And prominent among them is the Constellation Rattlesnake, in which a prophecy is written. The Rattlesnake has a head, and the tip of its tail is the revered Pleiades system. Between the head and the tail is a body that twists and slithers in a kind of sidewinding movement. There are fifty-two scales on its mouth, the number fifty-two being an essential part of the very sophisticated Cherokee calendar. The outline of the Rattlesnake remains stationary, but various forms and shapes that appear and disappear on the snake itself are read as signs of the past, present, and future of the universe.
From July 16 to 22, 1994, astronomers around the world were mesmerized as more than twenty fragments of a comet called Shoe-maker-Levy 9 collided with the planet Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, a phenomenon predicted in the Cherokee calendar. In their mythology, these comet fragments were actually an attack on Jupiter by the fingers of a fearsome, bloodthirsty witch named Spearfinger. Spearfinger was forty feet tall, had skin made of stone that no weapon could penetrate, and brandished a long, razor-sharp finger with which she could stab her victims in the back, remove their livers without leaving a single mark, and eat them in one gulp. Whether it was a fragmented comet crashing into Jupiter or a cruel assault by Spearfinger, this spectacle was considered to be a sign for the Cherokee nation to wake up from its complacency and become vigilant.
This collision with Jupiter was also prophesied to wake Orion, the celestial hunter, who would resume his pursuit of the maidens of the Pleiades, while Jupiter and Venus would do battle against each other, signalling the time of the Cherokee UKU’s, or high priests. In the years 2004 through 2012, a phenomenon is foreseen in the heavens in which feathers will appear on the head of the Rattlesnake. Its glowing eyes will open. It will grow wings, hands, and arms, and its hands will hold a bowl of blood. The seven rattles of its tail will resemble the roots of a tree, “the Pleaides Tree of the Beginning.” This will correspond to the transit of Venus, a very rare alignment of Earth, Venus, and the sun in which it appears from Earth as if Venus is crossing the face of the sun. A Venus transit occurred on June 8, 2004, and astronomers predict it will happen again on June 5-6, 2012.
And it’s in the year 2012 that the Cherokee calendar, like the Mayan calendar, comes to an end.
To some ancient Indian civilizations of South America, “the end” marks the coming of Quetzalcoatl, the God of Creation, often depicted as a feathered Serpent much like the feathered Rattlesnake the Cherokee watch for in the night sky as a sign that the end is near.
To the Cherokee, “the end” in the year 2012 signifies that all will be reborn.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120