The Seventh Macaw
Updated: Nov 10, 2022
Part XI | Itzamna | The Mayan Empire
Davy Jones roamed their Pirate Cemetery on Madagascar's eastern coast, whistling "Frère Jacques" and looking for “Brother John” (Abraham), hoping that Itzamna's (or possibly his wife's) remains would reveal information about the mysterious disease that had spread from the Mayan Empire all the way to Armenia and the Phantom City.
“In the Kʼicheʼ language, “coban” means “between clouds,” [1] Abraham's tall figure appeared out of the mist, startling the fearsome pirate out of his reverie.
“The city of Coban is the origin of this disease and it has a mysterious past. The vine-like roots of the Indian coral tree [2] at the abandoned temple of Coban are truly frightening and consume their victims down to the bone.
Hundreds of years ago, the Mayan sky deity Itzamna, [3] allowed himself to be poisoned by someone who eventually became his wife. A local curandero {4} offered Itzamna a cure he had prepared himself, and asked the king if he wanted to try the compound he offered in a small bowl.
Unfortunately, Itzamna and his wife were responsible for poisoning hundreds of people over the years, both inside and outside the Mayan civilization, with disastrous consequences, including the poisoning of the Armenian king, Zahhak.
As a result of his poisoning, Itzamna, the Mayan creator deity, also known as a “Principal Bird Deity,” was transformed into an arrogant demon known as the Vucub-Caquix [5] or the Seventh Macaw {6}, later defeated by the Hero Twins of a Kʼicheʼ-Mayan myth preserved in an 18th-century document, entitled ʼPopol Vuhʼ [7] and ultimately used in a Cherubim called “Proginoskes.” [8]
Abraham continued, "I originally created the Cherubim with the feathers of a scarlet macaw and the eyes taken from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Since that time, two more individuals were added and the Vucub-Caquix is the seventh. Due to the nature of their crimes, the Cherubim is intended as a punishment. It seems the cure, oddly enough, are only the freshest leaves of the Indian Coral Tree, the exact same tree whose roots produce the toxic, snake-like vines.”
~
Notes
[1] Coban
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobán
[2] Tiger's Claw or the Indian Coral Tree
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrina_variegata
[3] Itzamna
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itzamna
[4] (image)
Principal Bird Deity and worshipper, Classic period, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
[5] Vucub Caquix
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vucub_Caquix
[6] Seven Macaw or Vucub Caquix (image) by Gibger Ilustraciones
https://www.facebook.com/Gibger/posts/581288472224788/
[7] Popol Vuh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh
The Popol Vuh is a foundational sacred narrative of the Kʼicheʼ people from long before the Spanish conquest of the Maya. It includes the Mayan creation myth, the exploits of the Hero Twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué, and a chronicle of the Kʼicheʼ people. The Kʼicheʼ people are one of the Mayan peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, as well as areas of Belize , Honduras and El Salvador.
[8] A Wind in the Door
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wind_in_the_Door
The Ruins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ruins_(novel)
Seven Macaw (image)
https://www.worldhistory.org/image/2423/seven-macaw-or-vucub-caquix/