The Pacal / Moon Connection

by Michael Berry

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note: this is a letter to researcher and author John Anthony West who said the Pacal / Moon image resemblance is certainly remarkable, his reply to the letter was ;now this is VERY interesting.


There is an extensive Glyph text below the Palace House Tablet where this image derives. No definitive translation has been published yet but the words FACE and Jewell/Moon are present in the glyph text. Pacal was not associated with the Moon at all until I found this relationship in 2004 using other images of the lunar formation and an artists rendition of Pacal's image to demonstrate the connection. John Hoopes, Univ. of Kansas who did the former rendition suggested to me in Aug. or Sept of 06 that the Lunar Eclipse would have significant meaning to the Maya as the Moon turned a Blood Red color. He proffered that there might be a connection in the glyph text with dates coinciding with a lunar eclipse in Pacal's time. DR. Coe wrote me in Dec. 07 that the sculptor's at Palenque may have used the Lunar Formation as a template to create Pacal's image on the Palace House Tablet, likely with Pacal's approval. A sort of personality cult and a confirmation of his becoming a GOD by right of his Visage on the Moon.


The image of Pacal can be viewed from 1st qtr. Moon to early Wane of the Full Moon, approximatly one third of every month. My intent with the eclipse image was for a rather more dramatic effect vs. a black and white lunar image or the Moon in daylight that also reveals the Pacal formation, see attachment titled erace. DR. Coe also commented to me that "I will never look at the Moon again without thinking of Pacal"

I liken this image to the cover art of one of your books that depicts a gold Egyptian medallion(?) that appears to me to be a rather accurate rendering of the African Continent. The premise of my hypothesis is that Pacal's Headdress, a very important factor in Mayan iconography is an almost map-like copy of the Lunar Formation, note the inverted V at the tip of the Headdress, the crown-like roundels at the top, the trailing flora at the back, even the chin strap or ear-tubes are present in the Buddah-like image on the tablet and on the Moon.

As you have often written regarding your own and DR. Schoch's and Graham Hancock's views on Egyptian and other ancient civilization's, the academic establishment is reluctant at best to even consider much less accept any new interpretation contrary to doctrine. I've noticed a thaw in attitude since DR. Coe has said that the Lunar image of Pacal is just "too striking to be due to chance". DR. Manuel Aguillar, a Mayan art authority affirmed to me that the Cenote's (sinkholes) of the Yucatan would act as a low level magnifier of overhead celestial objects. That in conjunction with other know astronomical devices as well as the widespread Mayan use of psychotropic plant compounds may well explain this raising of the bar in Mayan Astronomy.

Among the most intriguing thing about Pacal's image on the Moon is that once one memorizes the Pacal image on the Moon, it rather jumps out quite obviously when viewing any photo of the Moon. It is a permanent and also the Darkest area of the Moon visible, not a trick of shadow. As I wrote DR. Mary Miller, it would seem anathema to all that is known of Mayan astronomy that this Lunar phenomenon was overlooked and not recorded by the Maya. To me it is a form of Visual Magic that can be seen anywhere on Earth and yet missed until now.

A relationship to Pacal's enigmatic Sarcophagus Lid is a major reason I initially met with stonewalled rejection of the Pacal image. I knew about the 1960's Chariot's of the God's controversy regarding the LID, the suggestion that Pacal appeared to be in a 60's style space capsule and that his rather peculiar position in the LID image resembled an astronaut.


What I found quite by chance is that Apollo 11 did land within the Pacal Lunar formation, at or near the very focal point of that image, his eyeball. This of course is mere co-incidence, however, when I overlaid Pacal's LID profile over the Lunar Formation of Pacal by aligning the Headdresses, Pacal's EYEBALL is precisely on Tranquility Base.




What Carl Jung called Synchronicity or (meaningful coincidence) the discerning of order out of seeming chaos , a metaphor for the Supernatural may give credence to this 40 yr old controversy. Jung described an incident with a dying friend holding a Scarab talisman and a Beetle flying in the room with them as one example. As for Pacal as an astronaut, there is one Singular Event in all of human history that always was considered the Impossible Dream, Man going to the Moon. Given that the Maya were immersed in the Supernatural to a degree not seen in other ancient civilizations and the realization that Pacal's Visage on the Moon is the place where that event took place, I proffer that a priesthood that had refined the art of visionary experience may have seen the event and recorded it within the many religious themes recognized in Pacal's Sarcophagus Lid. The hopes and dreams of a large collective of humanity was focused on that event in 1969 and it remains humankind's finest hour, something we understand as technology but to the Maya would seem a Magic spell. Focusing thought on that image of Pacal in the Moon while under the influence of Shamanistic compounds may have elicited a vision across time, something the Maya would have found to be profoundly important and Holy in it's own right. There are also parts of Pacal's Headdress from the Palace Tablet within the field of his Sarcophagus Lid.

I've laid out a synopsis of my hypothesis or I might say two separate ideas regarding Pacal, either one of which stirs the imagination. I have told DR. Coe that the image of Pacal in the Moon is one of those superlative examples from antiquity that has a spellbinding effect when realized, something worthy of the ubiquitous coffee table book or a National Geographic.  

These ideas are aesthetic and yet earthbound, within the realm of recognized belief. Some things were meant to be found. How do we impart a message across time? 

Sincerely,

Michael Berry
pacalmoon@yahoo.com



*** “In no way has DR. Coe or anyone else commented regarding the LID Apollo controversy.”***