by
Damien F. Mackey
“Formal religious practice centered around the pharaohs (Egypt) or kings (Mesoamerica). In both religions the god of the sun was widely favored.
For example Ra in Egypt and Huitzilopotchli (also god of war) by the Aztecs”.
Raymond Meester
Charles William Johnson has written (1990) this fascinating article:
Linguistic Correspondence:
Nahuatl and Ancient Egyptian
http://www.earthmatrix.com/linguistic/nahuatl.htm
In our more detailed analyses of the possible correspondence among words of the ancient Egyptian language and nahuatl and maya, we have seen that some word-concepts are almost exactly the same in phonetic values.
Furthermore, the maya glyphs and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs share extremely common designs in similar/same word-concepts.
Today, the idea of linguistic correspondence among the Indo-European languages is a widespread fact. From the still unknown Indo-European mother language it is thought came Sanskrit (and the contemporary languages of Pakistan and India); Persian; and Greek, Latin (and many contemporary European languages). The correspondence of similar/same words among the Latin languages is quite visible, with Spanish words, for example, resembling those of French, Italian and Portuguese. English resembles the Teutonic ones, such as, German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages.
On the other hand, no apparent linguistic correspondence has been observed between ancient Egyptian and languages such as nahuatl or maya, at least to any significant scholarly degree. In the aforementioned essay, we have examined numerous correspondences between word-concepts (and some glyphs) between the ancient Egyptian language and the maya system. The word for day name in maya is ahau, which means place or time in ancient Egyptian. Hom is ballcourt in maya; hem means little ball in ancient Egyptian. Ik means air in maya ; to suspend in the air is ikh in ancient Egyptian. Nichim signifies flower in maya; nehem means bud, flower in ancient Egyptian. And so on, for hundreds of word-concepts that we have examined in the comparison of these two languages.
When similar kinds of linguistic correspondences were perceived by William Jones, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, between Sanskrit and other languages, such examples were sufficient to convince scholars that all of those languages probably came from a mother tongue, the Indo-European language. Today, when linguistic correspondence is observed between the ancient Mesoamerican languages and ancient Egyptian, scholars are unwilling or hesitant to accept the idea that the same laws of linguistics may apply. The reason for this is quite simple: there is no historical basis for considering the possibility that the peoples of these different languages had any physical contact among themselves. Physical contact among the peoples who descended from the Indo-European family is established by historical data. There is no obvious historical data to think that the peoples of ancient Mesoamerica and the peoples of ancient Egypt ever met or came into physical contact with one another.
Nevertheless, historical data aside for the moment, let us examine some of the obvious examples of linguistic correspondence between nahuatl and the ancient Egyptian language.
One very obvious characteristic of the nahuatl language is the extensive use of the letter "l" in most of the words, either as ending to the words or juxtaposed to consonants and vowels within the words. One of the very apparent characteristics of the ancient Egyptian language is the almost total absence of the use of the letter "l" within most of its word-concepts. The letter "l" appears as an ending of words only a handful of times in E.A. Wallis Budge's work, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary.
It would appear that this very dissimilar characteristic between these two languages would discourage anyone from considering a comparative analysis of possible linguistic correspondence between these two very apparently distinct idioms.
However, as we eliminate the letter "l" from the nahuatl words, the remaining phonemes (listed in brackets) resemble the phonemes and morphemes of ancient Egyptian in many cases. Let us offer only a few of such examples to consider a possible linguistic correspondence between these two fascinating systems of human speech.
Nahuatl Egyptian
canoe ACAL [aca-] AQAI boat (page 139b from Budge's work cited above)
reed ACATL[acat-] AQ
AKHAH-T reed (139b)
reed (8a)
a well AMELLI [ame-i] AMAM place with water in them, wells (121b)
house CALLI [ca-i] KA house (783a)
serpent
...
COATL [coat-]
....
... KHUT
...
... snake (30b)
....
...
Linguistic correspondence between nahuatl and ancient Egyptian appears to represent a smoking gun; that is, a trace of evidence that these two peoples did enjoy some kind of contact between themselves ages ago. The fact that we have no real evidence of said contact, or that we have been unable to find any such evidence, should not serve as the basis for denying the possibility of that contact. To attribute all of these similarities in sound, symbol and meaning to mere happenstance seems to be a very unscientific way of resolving an annoying issue. To admit the possibility of physical contact between these cultures has implications for our own interpretation of history and the aspect of technological development of our societies. Such fears are unfounded, given the already obvious fact that our technical know-how could probably not reproduce and build something as majestic as the Great Pyramid.
[End of quote]
It is probably as a result of the evolutionary view of things - according to which human beings sprang up from lower animal forms, all in their various places - that anthropologists and historians have been unable to make the obvious connections between cultures of similar types, that shared language characteristics, pyramid building technology, and hieroglyphics, to name just a few common features.
The wise King Solomon’s (Senenmut’s?) view of human origins was quite different from this, and far more enlightened, I (Damien Mackey) believe (Wisdom 2:23):
“For God created man to be immortal,
and made him to be an image
of his own eternity.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Cassaro has brought together a list of some most compelling parallels between ancient Egypt and the Mayan civilisation, which latter I would consider also to have been entirely a BC (and not an AD) phenomenon.
I would not accept some of Cassaro’s dates as given below, nor, perhaps, some of his interpretations of symbols.
And I would completely throw out any notion of the “independent invention” that he seems to favour: https://grahamhancock.com/cassaror4/
The Ancient Egyptians and Mayans: Ten Unexplained Parallels
by Richard Cassaro
….
Published 14th April 2019 …
A series of mysterious and uncanny architectural, artistic, and religious parallels connect the ancient Maya and Egyptian civilisations. Some of these parallels have been noted and proclaimed by nineteenth century scholars; others have been discovered in the past several decades. Over the past twenty-five years of research into ancient civilisations, I’ve uncovered and explained many such parallels, and have come to believe that these parallels are more than mere coincidences.
Such close parallels are enigmatic, even problematic, as the Maya and Egyptians sprung up independently on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean (pre-classic Maya in the Yucatan c. 2000 BC vs. dynastic Egyptians in Africa c. 3150 BC). The two cultures don’t appear to have been in contact, as there are no records of trade, war, or communication between them. How, then, can we explain the similarities?
Faced with this enigma, many Victorian-era scholars and archaeologists believed that the Maya and Egyptians were children of the same mother culture—an advanced civilisation so old that memory of its existence has been lost to time. Such theories went out of vogue well over a century ago, but I believe that this rejection was premature, for reasons outlined in my latest book and reviewed briefly here.
….
Ever since my first back-to-back research trips to Egypt (1996) and Mexico (1997), I’ve been discovering, researching, and presenting profound cultural parallels shared by ancient civilisations worldwide.
The Maya/Egyptian parallels are among the most striking.
Some of these parallels were recognised by Victorian and pre-Victorian era scholars and writers like Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, Edward Herbert Thompson, Augustus Le Plongeon, Ignatius Donnelly, and Zelia Nuttall. Many of these scholars credited Plato’s lost continent of Atlantis with being the source of the similarities. Other parallels I’ve discovered through my own original research and investigation.
The Victorian-era idea that the lost continent of Atlantis was the source of the parallels (i.e., a theory called “diffusion”) has fallen out of favour with scholars over the past several decades. As a result, nineteenth century ideas have been shelved in favour of a new theory called “independent invention,” which holds that ancient inventions, such as pyramid construction, naturally occurred in more than one place at the same or different times. As the Paul McCartney/Michael Jackson duet “Ebony and Ivory” put it, “people are the same wherever you go.” This “independent invention” theory has notably been maintained by modern scholars like Kenneth Feder, professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University.
….
Are the following “10 Mayan & Egyptian Parallels” evidence that a sophisticated Golden Age civilisation—now almost completely forgotten—once existed in the ancient past, and was a kind of “Mother Culture” to the world´s first “known” cultures, like the Egyptians and Maya?
10 – Parallel Pyramids & Stone Serpents
Both the Maya and the Egyptians built pyramids. In fact, both cultures didn’t just build pyramids, they built similar “step pyramids” (i.e., pyramids with a series of steps leading upward toward the apex), as we can see here.
What’s more, there is clear evidence that both Egypt’s and Mexico’s “step pyramid” builders engaged in a kind of “serpent cult.” Because of its ability to shed its skin, the serpent symbolises regeneration and rebirth—concepts shared by both the Egyptians and Maya. We´re told by scholars that these concepts figured prominently in their metaphysical beliefs of eternal life, and life after death. With this in mind, it is especially interesting to note that not only did both the Egyptians and Maya build similar “step pyramids,” but they also crafted similar “stone serpents,” which are visible within sight of their parallel step pyramids. We can see examples of this in the photo below:
What are the chances that two unrelated civilisations separated by the Atlantic Ocean would have come up with not only “step pyramids,” but also adjacent or nearby stone serpents?
By itself, this “step pyramid/stone serpent” parallel is interesting, but certainly not dispositive or definitive proof of a direct link between the two civilisations. But there’s more, much more.…
9 – Similar Elongated Skulls
The parallel Mayan/Egyptian phenomenon of elongated skulls and cranial deformation has been known to scholars for centuries. Among both the Maya and the Egyptians, the practice seems to have been performed to differentiate the elite from the lower classes.
The earliest descriptions of cranial deformation among the Maya were reported by Spanish chroniclers in the 16th century. In 1843, the American explorer John L. Stephens published Incidents of Travel in Yucatán, describing an artificially deformed skull that he found during one of his excavations. The nineteenth century archaeologist Augustus Le Plongeon (1826 – 1908), in his book Queen Moo and The Egyptian Sphinx, described the practice among the peoples of the Mayan cities of Copan and Palenque. Popular authors like Ignatius L. Donnelly (1831 – 1901), in his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, elaborated on Le Plongeon’s analysis.
According to an article written by a series of doctors entitled “A Look at Mayan Artificial Cranial Deformation Practices: Morphological and Cultural Aspects,” which was published in December 2010 in the journal Neurosurgical FOCUS, the Mayan practice of cranial deformation served to differentiate the elite from the common classes:
“Induced deformation of the cranial vault is one form of permanent alteration of the body that has been performed by human beings from the beginning of history as a way of differentiating from others…High-ranking Mayan families of the Classic period differentiated themselves from the lower classes with their head shape. This social hierarchy can be seen in pottery, figurines, drawings, monuments, and architecture, where characters with oblique deformation are dominant.”
—A Look at Mayan Artificial Cranial Deformation Practices: Morphological and Cultural Aspects.
The idea that the Mayan elite practiced cranial deformation is interesting because the Egyptian elite also seem to have performed a skull elongation technique, possibly for the very same reason of differentiating themselves from the lower classes or common people. Shown in the example above is a statue of an elongated skull from Egypt’s Amarna Period, the era of the reign of Akhenaten (1353-1336 BCE) [sic].
The skull is described by scholars as belonging to the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenophis IV, also known as Akhenaten. Artwork featuring Akhenaten’s daughters, Nofernoferuaton and Nofernoferure, with elongated skulls (c. 1375-1358 BC) is repeated in other pieces of Amarna art.
Do the elongated skulls of both the Egyptian and Mayan “elite” point to a connection between the two civilisations?
There is also evidence of real-life cranial deformation in Egypt, as described in a report titled “The Sociopolitical History & Physiological Underpinnings of Skull Deformation,” published by the Department of Neurological Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. Interestingly, the report calls for more attention to be given to the “sociopolitical implications” of the practice. The report abstract states the following:
“In this report, the evidence, mechanisms, and rationale for the practice of artificial cranial deformation (ACD) in ancient Peru and during Akhenaten’s reign in the 18th dynasty in Egypt (1375-1358 BCE) are reviewed. The authors argue that insufficient attention has been given to the sociopolitical implications of the practice in both regions.”
— The Sociopolitical History & Physiological Underpinnings of Skull Deformation,” Columbia University College.
Admittedly, the idea that both the Mayan and Egyptian elite practiced cranial deformation to perhaps differentiate them from the lower classes does not directly connect the two civilisations.
However, the fact that the pyramid-building Egyptians and Maya both practiced this strange technique is certainly provocative and indicates the possibility of a connection.
8 – Parallel Corbeled Vault Arches
The corbel arch was used in both Mayan and Egyptian architecture. A corbel arch (also called “corbeled” or “corbelled arch”) is an arch that uses the so-called “corbeling” construction method to span a space or void. A corbeled arch is constructed by offsetting successive courses of stone (or brick) in such a way that they project towards the archway’s centre from each supporting side, until the courses meet at the archway’s apex. The gap at the apex is then bridged with a flat stone.
The work of pioneering nineteenth century archaeologist and intrepid explorer Augustus Le Plongeon has largely been discredited because of its diffusionist basis. Le Plongeon insisted that the parallel corbeled arch was evidence that the world’s first cultures were children of a much older civilisation named Atlantis. Le Plongeon believed that the universality of the corbel arch in antiquity was strong evidence of shared wisdom across the Atlantic Ocean.
The scholar Lawrence G. Desmond, after receiving his PhD in anthropology and archaeology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, carried out archaeological research in Mexico and Guatemala for more than forty years. He is regarded as a leading scholar in the field of Maya archaeology. While expressing some reservations about Le Plongeon’s over-active imagination in an article chronicling Le Plongeon’s “downfall,” Desmond nonetheless appreciated the significance and essential correctness of Le Plongeon’s ideas regarding the corbeled arches shared by the Maya and Egyptians. Desmond credits Le Plongeon for pointing out parallels that (until now) have not yet been sufficiently explained:
“…Augustus Le Plongeon, a pioneering Mayanist, renowned for having made the earliest thorough and systematic photographic documentation of archaeological sites in Yucatan…
…
for Le Plongeon, the most important evidence of cultural diffusion was the Mayas’ corbelled arch. The arches…he believed, had proportions that related to the “mystic numbers 3.5.7” which he stated were used by ancient Masonic master builders…Those same proportions, he also noted, were found in tombs in Chaldea and Etruria, in ancient Greek structures and as part of the Great Pyramid in Egypt… He was basically on the right track methodologically, and he did make a number of intriguing observations and analogies…”
—Lawrence G. Desmond, Augustus Le Plongeon: A Fall From Archaeological Grace.
7 – Similar Hieroglyphic Writing
The Egyptians and Mayans both used hieroglyphs, consisting of pictographs or symbols, to express meaning in written language.
Mayan writing, which is often described by scholars as the most sophisticated writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas, was dubbed “hieroglyphics” (or hieroglyphs) by early eighteenth and nineteenth century European explorers, including Augustus Le Plongeon, who noticed its similarity to Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Egyptian hieroglyphs consist of phonograms, which are placed at the beginning of words to represent sounds, whereas ideograms are used to represent objects or ideas. Mayan hieroglyphs consist of pictographs written in neat blocks that include phonograms and ideograms.
Is it possible that Mayan and Egyptian glyphs both evolved from the same “proto-language” or that perhaps one of them may have in fact served as an origin for the other?
Obtaining a satisfactory answer to that question depends on the successful decryption of Maya writing, which has been made vastly difficult by the bonfires of the sixteenth century christian Conquistadors [sic], who regarded the precious and irreplaceable Mayan scrolls as the work of the devil.
Mackey’s comment: On this, see e.g. my article
6 – Similar Scenes & Motifs
There are many similar scenes and motifs that link the Mayan and Egyptian civilisations, too many to list all of them here. For purposes of this discussion, I’ve narrowed down to three particularly powerful motifs:
(A) the Smiting Scene
(B) the Initiation Scene
(C) the Twin Serpent Motif.
(A) PARALLEL SMITING SCENE
To be clear, this is not a Mayan/Egyptian parallel, but an Aztec/Egyptian one. However, the smiting scene is depicted on Mayan artefacts as well.
When I first recognised this parallel motif in the late 1990s, I found it discouraging. Why? Because at the time, it seemed to me to convey barbarism. More precisely, the barbaric cruelty of a warlike people did not seem consistent with the metaphysically advanced and peaceful citizens (possible descendants of a highly evolved Golden Age mother culture) that I believed may have formed the bulk of Mayan and Egyptian society.
However, as I continued to study this parallel “Smiting Scene” (Egyptologists call it a Smiting Scene, but Mayan scholars have no term for it), I became convinced that the scene does not depict the actual slaughter of one’s enemies. For a people as spiritual as the Egyptians to have created tens of thousands of Smiting Scenes (which appear abundantly in Egyptian culture, including on jewellery, furniture, amulets, and even on the walls of temples) did not seem in keeping with their high spiritual values.
I came to believe instead that the scene could convey a metaphor—the slaying of one’s ego or inner demons, which is the real enemy of a spiritual seeker.
In other words, the scene conveys a formula for slaughtering the physical animal nature of man (i.e., controlling or mastering the ego), which, as I explained in my 2011 book, Written in Stone, was a central doctrine in the ancient Egyptian religion and indeed in all of the world’s ancient religions.
(B) PARALLEL INITIATION SCENE
Another interesting Maya / Egyptian parallel is visible in scenes that depict what look like initiation or baptism rituals. John L. Sorenson, emeritus professor of anthropology at Brigham Young University (BYU) wrote:
“…two ritual scenes are juxtaposed…one from Egypt… [and one] from the Codex Borgia…Mexico…dated shortly before the Spanish Conquest but surely it was based on earlier pictorial documents. While the two scenes differ in style, they share significant motifs. Shown are streams of water in the Mexican case and of ankh signs in the Egyptian scene, both of which in the respective traditions signified “life.” They are being poured by ritual officiants (divinities) positioned on either side of a central figure.
The poured streams cross above his head. The Egyptian rite represented has become known as “the baptism of Pharaoh”… Over fifty years ago some of the corresponding characteristics of the two were pointed out to William F. Albright, the noted Syro-Palestinian archaeologist. He called the resemblance between the two scenes “most extraordinary” (personal communication, June 23, 1954) and continued that if the Mesoamerican scene had come from Mesopotamia “one would have to assume some connection” with Egypt.”
—John L. Sorenson, A Complex of Ritual and Ideology Shared by Mesoamerica and the Ancient Near East.
It is difficult to state with certainty what this parallel scene meant to the Egyptians and Maya. Did it have the same meaning for both cultures? The Egyptian scene has become known among scholars as the “baptism of Pharaoh,” because they are inclined to believe that it might have been a purification ritual.
Did the Mayan scene hold the same meaning? It is also possible that the symbolism shown here expresses the idea of initiation. Traditionally, the concept of initiation serves to reorient the individual away from his lower materialistic “animal” self. He is reoriented, instead, toward his higher “spiritual” Self and toward a more spiritual way of looking at the world. Water serves to cleanse, and it therefore appears possible that this parallel scene may depict a kind of initiation through cleansing, an idea that was apparently shared by both the Egyptians and Maya.
(C) PARALLEL TWIN SERPENT MOTIF
Another Mayan and Egyptian parallel is visible in the Twin Serpent motif. So-called “serpent bars,” depicting a serpent with twin heads and no tail, adorn the lintels of some Mayan temples, such as the Nunnery at Uxmal. Mayan statues and reliefs depict serpent bars in the hands of kings and priests. An example of this is depicted in the book, Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America by Mesoamerican archaeologist Herbert Joseph Spinden (1879–1967). Spinden published the following drawings of Mayan serpent bars:
Note the similarity that these Mayan “serpent bars” share with the Egyptian Aten symbol, which adorns the lintels of some Egyptian temples, like Trojan’s Kiosk at Philae. Both the Mayan “serpent bar” and the Egyptian Aten symbol depict double-headed serpents connected back-to-back, facing opposite directions of left and right.
In the first example provided, we see Aztec symbolism showing the same “joined” twin serpent motif or double-headed serpent motif. Interestingly, we see essentially the same symbolism in Egypt, where a giant solar Aten symbol (which I believe signifies the soul/source) crowns the middle between the serpents.
5 – Human Jaguars (Maya) & Human Lions (Egyptians)
The Egyptians and Maya both created art and architecture depicting human beings transforming into, or having transformed into, felines. For the Egyptians, the feline was the lion; for the Maya, the feline was the jaguar. Side-by-side comparisons of an Egyptian sphinx (a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion) with what Mesoamerican scholars describe as the “were-jaguar” (as in “werewolf”) reveal many commonalities. The term “were-jaguar” is derived from Old English were, meaning “man”, and jaguar, a large member of the cat family prevalent across Mesoamerica.
What exactly did this feline transformation theme on opposite sides of the Atlantic mean?
Researchers and philosophers have sought to decipher the meaning of the mysterious and colossal Sphinx statue that was buried in the desert sands for centuries before it was dug up and polished off in the early 1800s. Most contemporary Egyptologists, like Dr. Mark Lehner and Dr. Zahi Hawass, believe that the Sphinx was carved out of an outcropping during the reign of King Khafre, c. 2500 BCE ….
Damien Mackey’s comment: The Sphinx was much later than this.
See e.g. my article:
Sphinx of Giza and Egypt’s so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom
(6) Sphinx of Giza and Egypt’s so-called 'Middle' Kingdom | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Richard Cassaro’s article continues:
….
It is well-known that sphinxes have been found among many ancient civilisations, not just the Egyptians and Maya. These civilisations include cultures in India, Phoenicia, Syria, China, Greece, Thailand, Japan, Sumer, and Sri Lanka. Egyptologists don’t yet seem to have “cracked the code” of the Sphinx, as they have not given any clear and decisive definition explaining exactly what the hidden meaning is behind this massive statue. This hidden meaning seems to be embodied not just in the Great Sphinx, but also in countless smaller sphinx statues depicting Egyptian kings and pharaohs in lionised form:
….. Just as Egypt’s pharaohs were depicted as lions, Mesoamerican (Olmec, Maya, Aztec) kings and rulers were depicted as jaguars. We can see this in the following examples:
Dr. Nicholas Saunders, Senior Lecturer, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, School of Arts, University of Bristol, explains:
“The jaguar is America’s largest and most powerful cat, and for more than three thousand years it has been Mexico’s most enduring symbolic animal.
The jaguar’s image…prowls the art of most ancient Mexican civilizations, from the Olmec to the Aztec…the jaguar was identified with sorcery and magic, and regarded as the spirit-helper of shamans and sorcerers, as well as the most dazzling symbol of priests and kings…In pre-Columbian times, before the Spanish arrived, animal and human features were often combined to create what we regard as fantastical creatures possessing supernatural strength and magical powers. No surprise then that the kings and rulers of the Aztecs, the Maya, and earlier civilizations adorned themselves with jaguar skins, skulls, fangs and claws. Carvings, paintings or statues of humans wearing jaguar clothing or appearing to be half-human, half-jaguar, are more than simple artistic images – they represent fundamental ideas and beliefs of the Aztecs and their predecessors……
Among the Classic Maya (AD 250-800), the jaguar’s brilliantly-coloured pelt was used as royal clothing for dynastic warrior-kings, and as a covering for royal thrones – some of which were carved in the shape of a feline, as at the Maya cities of Palenque, Uxmal, and Chichén-Itzá……Classic Maya rulers believed that using the jaguar’s name gave them prestige, and so there are examples where it has been attached to a king’s royal title. Similarly in death, archaeological evidence from Uaxactún and Kaminaljuyu in Guatemala, and Altun Ha in Belize reveals that Maya kings were buried with the animal’s skin, claws, and fangs.”
—Dr. Nicholas Saunders, The Jaguar in Mexico.
As demonstrated above, the Egyptians, in funerary monuments and public statuary, depicted their pharaohs as transforming or having transformed into feline sphinxes. Most Egyptologists believe that the colossal Egyptian sphinx on the famous Giza Plateau outside Cairo represents the Pharaoh Khafre.
….
Given the fact that Egypt’s pharaohs depicted themselves as sphinxes (i.e., half man half feline creatures), what are the chances that ancient Mayan kings and rulers also depicted themselves as half man and half feline creatures? Can this be mere coincidence?
Or does this parallel iconography on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean reveal some type of unexplained link between the Maya and Egyptians? How did “human-into-feline-transformation” become a cherished motif among both Maya and Egyptian kings?
4 – Parallel Third Eye Symbolism
For almost two decades, I’ve been pointing to the presence of Third Eye symbolism across the ancient world because I believe that the ancient art of “awakening the Third Eye” was a kind of universal religion that flourished in Antiquity, as-yet unrecognised by scholars.
There is ancient evidence of the Third Eye in Hinduism, where the Third Eye is symbolized by a dot on the forehead above and between the two eyes.
This Third Eye dot, called “bindi” / “bindu,” “urna” and “trinetra,” is visible on images of the Buddha, gods, and bodhisattvas.
Is it possible that this same Third Eye symbol was known among ancient cultures outside Asia? I believe the answer is yes.
On the left, we see two so-called “Chac” masks encoded in Mayan architecture. They are stacked on top of each other, and each mask wears a giant circular stone on the forehead. The stone is in the same position as the Hindu “bindi dot,” which in India symbolises the Third Eye, a state of awakening and enlightenment.
On the right, in Egypt, the solar “aten” symbol crowns the forehead. In my opinion, the aten is a symbol of the soul / source. Shown here in the position of the Third Eye, the message is clear. According to ancient Hindu tradition, the act of awakening the Third Eye means awakening the eye of the soul and seeing the soul or source within.
“The third eye (also called the mind’s eye, or inner eye) is a mystical and esoteric concept of a speculative invisible eye which provides perception beyond ordinary sight.”
— Richard Cavendish, ed. (1994). Man, Myth and Magic – Volume 19.
Incredibly, and despite the fact that few scholars are willing to seriously entertain such a notion, the ancient Third Eye tradition of the Eastern hemisphere seems to have been a major cultural force in the Western hemisphere. As I explained in Written in Stone, we find a very Asian-like pattern of Third Eye symbolism among cultures that evolved and flourished in present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica and even the United States. These cultures include the Olmec, Toltec, Maya, Zapotec, Aztec, Inca, pre-Inca, and Mississippian cultures. For an overview of my research into the Third Eye among the ancient Egyptians, please read my article “Third Eye in Ancient Egypt”.
3 – Parallel “Back-to-Back” Lions/Jaguars
The Maya and Egyptians both used the same “back-to-back” jaguars (Maya) and lions (Egyptians) motif. On the left, we see a statue in front of the Governor’s Palace at Uxmal, Mexico, depicting twin Mayan jaguars back-to-back. On the right, in the comparative image above, is a famous Egyptian “hieroglyph” or “god” or “motif” called Aker, depicting back-to-back twin lions.
“Aker appears as a pair of twin lions, one named Duaj (meaning “yesterday”) and the other Sefer (meaning “tomorrow”)…When depicted as a lion pair…a sun disc was put between the lions; the lions were sitting back-on-back.”
—Pat Remler, Egyptian Mythology, A to Z.
….
The idea of an “eternal present” moment or the “eternal now” moment is a central concept in Eastern spiritual teachings and occult philosophy. It goes by the name “non-duality,” and we find it in Advaita Vedanta, Ch’an Buddhism, Zen, Taoism and Sufism.
“The Asian idea of nondualism developed in the Vedic and post-Vedic Hindu philosophies, as well as in the Buddhist traditions.”
—Sanghamitra Dasgupta and Dilip Kumar Mohanta, Indian Philosophical Quarterly # 25.
There is a symbol in Mayan art and iconography that is similar to the Egyptian Aker Lions hieroglyph. This Mesoamerican counterpart depicts the image of twin jaguars and twin jaguar-like humans. Like the Aker lions in Egypt, the Mesoamerican jaguars are facing opposite directions, which, in my opinion, indicates that they symbolise duality. In some cases, not only are the jaguars lying back-to-back (close together and facing opposite directions) just like in Egypt, but they are also lying in such a way that their physical bodies are enmeshed. This gives the impression that their duality has been united, and they have combined into a single being—a double-headed jaguar.
Did this “twin jaguar” symbol have the same meaning among the Maya as the Aker Lions symbol among the Egyptians?
Based on this symbolism, one could argue that Egypt’s Aker Lions symbol signifies the unification of opposites into the centre principle, the Aten or sundisk, which I believe symbolises the soul.
….
2 – Parallel Tau Cross
….
For the Maya and Egyptians, the Tau was no insignificant object.
They used it in their art, architecture, funeral rituals, ceremonies, on their altars and thrones, in their jewellery, and they depicted themselves and their gods holding the symbol on statues and reliefs, as shown in the images above.
More commonly known in Egypt as the “ankh,” the T cross is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic ideograph symbolising “life” in the sense of the “eternal life” or spiritual life of the soul. The ankh has a loop handle, partly disguising the T and Tau cross. However, the Egyptian ankh is no less a letter T than the Maya T cross. We should keep in mind that its Latin name, crux ansata, means “cross with a handle.”
In 1994, the uncovering of T-shaped stone pillars among the world’s oldest dated megaliths at the famous archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe provided stunning confirmation that the Tau cross played a major role among the most ancient civilisations around the world.
Interestingly, Göbekli Tepe’s T-shaped pillars are giant abstract images of the human form. Arms and hands are visible on the megaliths, as if uniting the T with the human body, as shown in the image above:
“The characteristic element of Göbekli Tepe’s architecture are the T-shaped pillars. In the older Layer III (10th millennium BCE) the monolithic pillars weigh tons and reach heights between 4 m (pillars in the stone circles) and 5.5 m (central pillars). The T-shape of the pillars is clearly an abstract depiction of the human body seen from the side. Evidence for this interpretation are the low relief depictions of arms, hands and items of clothing like belts and loincloths on some of the pillars.”
—Oliver Dietrich, The Tepe Telegrams.
Incredibly, the Egyptian Tau cross was sometimes personified—depicted with arms and legs.
That Gobekli Tepe’s T-shaped pillars and ancient Egypt’s Tau cross were both anthropomorphised provides compelling evidence of a possible, even likely, connection between the two cultures. ….
1 – Matching Triptych Temples
I researched the ruins of Triptych Temples all over the ancient world—and most pronouncedly among the pyramid cultures—in the late 1990s, and, as demonstrated in my 2011 book Written in Stone, these temples all celebrate the same universal religion (Perennial Philosophy) of non-duality that was shared across all of antiquity.
The pyramid-cultures all built “Triptych” three-door temples, with a wider and taller middle door than the two flanking it. The abundant occurrence of the Triptych across the ancient world is not a random coincidence. The Triptych represents more than merely an architectural element; the Triptych is the chief symbol of an advanced universal religion (perennial philosophy) that was once shared globally in antiquity, mainly by the pyramid cultures.
In my books, I have shown how the twin outer doors of Triptych Temples symbolise duality, or the “pairs of opposites”; the centre door symbolises the unity of the twin outer doors or the “balance of duality” (i.e., non-duality).
Egyptologists and Mayanists recognise that the concept of non-duality (also called the “balance of opposites”) formed an essential feature of core wisdom-teaching among the ancient Egyptians and the Maya. ….
[End of article]
Somewhat similarly we read this piece (2021) at (I do not accept the inflated BC dates):
https://raymondmeester.medium.com/egypt-vs-mesoamerica-d3fc3ef03c62
Egypt vs. Mesoamerica
10 similarities between both Ancient civilizations
Ancient Egypt is often compared to Mesopotamia. Two cultures that we call the birth of civilization. Egypt developed around the Nile river and Mesopotamia between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Both show remarkable advances in agriculture, trade, and government. They also developed highly complex writing systems, religions, and art.
There are, of course, various other ancient civilizations such as the Indus Valley (from 3300 B.C.), China (from 1600 B.C.), and the ancient Greeks (from 2700 B.C.) [sic] They all contributed to our own culture we know today.
At certain points in time, these civilizations came into contact with each other, either through trade or war. Eventually, they all influenced each other.
The Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec, developed completely independently [sic]. They originated from the people who crossed the Bering Strait 30,000 years ago and slowly moved south.
In Mesoamerica, they evolved from hunter-gatherers to complex civilizations with societies similar in complexity to ancient Egypt. Actually some traits of Ancient Egypt and the Mesoamerican cultures are so similar that it’s interesting to compare these two societies.
….
10 Comparisons
You might say that it’s impossible to compare Egypt and Mesoamerica because their history, civilization, and other factors are so different. But precisely because they developed so differently, with different circumstances, that’s why it’s so interesting.
1. Gold
In Egypt one of the greatest art artifacts was found in 1925. The mask of Tutankhamun. It weighs more than 10 kilo and large parts are of high-karat gold. Despite the fact that many tombs have been looted, a number of treasures were still saved. The precious metal was mined in Nubia (which comes from the Egyptian word for gold).
The precious metal was in many Mesoamerican cultures just as important. Though the emergence of gold metalwork in Central America occurred relatively late, around 800 AD it developed its own techniques and artwork. Two civilizations with the same value for gold.
Gold in Ancient Egypt | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Egypt is a land rich in gold, and ancient miners employing traditional methods were thorough in their exploitation of…
www.metmuseum.org
The secrets and significance of gold in Mesoamerica | GLINT - The Global Currency
From zoomorphic masks to the secrets of lost metallurgy, how and why did gold become such an important representation…
glintpay.com
2. Pyramids
Both Egypt and Mesoamerica made significant pyramids that still amaze us today. Long scolars [sic] thought that pyramids in Mesoamerica had only a function as a temple, but later research suggests that it mainly has been used in a burial function for kings. Just like it did for pharaohs.
The Great Pyramid of Giza has a height of 139 meters. The Mesoamerican are mostly smaller and contain on the top statues of gods. Still the temple of the sun of the Aztecs has a height of 71 meter.
3. Polytheistic gods
Both Egypt and Mesoamerica had an important role for religion. Both where polytheistic with a variety of gods. Both were very fluent in honouring gods. There are mostly endless number of gods and their popularity and ranking changed over time. Both cultures also believed that this god needed to be praised and worshipped in order to have good harvests and enough food supply for their people to survive.
Formal religious practice centered around the pharaohs (Egypt) or kings (Mesoamerica). In both religions the god of the sun was widely favored. For example Ra in Egypt and Huitzilopotchli (also god of war) by the Aztecs. Below are the major gods of Egypt and the Aztecs:
4. Warriors
In Egypt as well as Mesoamerica there was an admiration and worship towards hunting animals. Often gods or rulers appear in these forms. Important forms in Egypt are the falcon, bull, cats and lions. In Mesoamerica also the falcon was worshipped as well as the jaguar. Often jaguar skins were worn by royals or elite warriors. In Egypt, people were sometimes represented as a sphinx (half human, half animal).
Mesoamerican and Egyptian warriors
5. Pay for Death
In Egypt the Book of the Dead is a series of spells that guides a deceased person to the afterlife. There is no canonical version of it. No version is the same. At first the spells were only used for royalties, but later had a more widespread usage. The spells should have helped the deceased to enter the underworld.
The Maya has also a book of the dead (The ceramic codex). The Maya dead were laid to rest with maize placed in their mouth. Maize, highly important in Maya culture, is a symbol of rebirth and also was food for the dead for the journey to the otherworld. Similarly, a jade or stone bead placed in the mouth served as currency for this journey.
Thus both need to pay with religious objects to get to the ‘other side’.
6. Calenders [sic]
Both civilizations had calendars. One for everyday life and one for religious purposes. The Egyptians first had a lunar calendar, but later switched to a solar one. July 19th was the Egyptian new year. That was the date that Sirius reappeared on the eastern horizon after a 70-day absence, and the date the Nile began to flood.
Mesoamaerican societies like the Zapotec, Maya, Mixtecs and Aztecs, used a highly complex system of calendars. Most of these cultures used a 260 day and a 365 day calendar. The first was more ritual and second for everyday life. Special significance was when both calendars completed (The so-called Calendar Round) every 52 years. This often marked a new beginning often accompanied by a fire ceremony.
7. The role of the king
In Egypt the king was called a pharaoh and among the Aztecs the king was called Huey Tlatoani. Here we take the Azetcs ruler as an example, though Maya and other mesoamerican civilzation may used different practices for their rulers.
Both the pharaoh and tlatoan were the ultimate power in the land. Assisted by priest, nobles and the military. As head of the army they were given a leading role during war times. The tomb of Tutankhamun contained body armor, bows and folding tools appropriate for military campaigns. He was expected to lead the army. Among the Aztecs this was not different. During times of war, the Tlatoani would be in charge of creating battle plans, and making strategies for his army.
The Pharoah was recognized by his scepter, crowns and various headdresses. The Tlatoani is known by a feather crown which is seen in the museum in Vienna of king Moctezuma II. The last surviving crown from the Aztec empire. Often also Jaguar attributes and scepters were kings attributes in Mesoamerica.
8. Columns
In Ancient Egypt there were several columns erected. They were called Tekhenu by their builders and later obelisks (from Greek). Ancient obelisks are monolithic, which means that they are made from one stone. In Egypt the obelisk were standing in pairs at the entrance of a temple. They symbolized the sun god Ra.
In Mesoamerica often, so-called Atlantean figures were created. These are carved stone support columns that portrayed Toltec warriors. The Tula figures are the most famous, but later Maya and Aztecs created similar columns. They also created stelae, originally for mythological scenes, but later mostly to glorify the king and his deeds. Egyptian and Mayan columns often use hieroglyphic texts on the pillar.
9. Astronomy
Living in populated areas with its bright light, you don’t think a lot about the stars. For most ancient civilizations this was very different. Studying the night sky was serious business. It was used for their calendars and many other things. In Egypt for example structures like Pyramids were often aligned with the stars. They were also used in fixing dates for religious festivals, determine the hours of the night and lunar phases.
The Mayan astronomy was often more accurate in the calculating of years. They, too, had a religious aspect for determine religious festivals (there even was a special calendar for it). There is also proof for alignment of buildings with celestial objects. The Mayan astronomers studied the sun and moon, the planets and other astronomical phenomena. Amazing that this was completely done with naked-eye observations.
10. Writing
Both Egyptians and Aztecs use hieroglyphic texts. The Egyptian hieroglyphs consist of around 1000 characters. The writing system emerged artistic tradition where symbols were found on for example pottery. Scientist think it’s plausible that the Egyptian derived the concept from Sumerian writing.
The Mesoamerican didn’t have this luxery. [sic] The writing systems developed gradually from older civilizations (like Olmecs) to more complex one like the Mayas. Around 15 Mesoamerican writing systems are currently known. Technically they are not really hieroglyphs. Maya writing used logograms complemented with a set of syllabic glyphs (like Japanes writing). Maya writing was mistakenly called “hieroglyphics” by early European explorers.
….
