one and seven

i'm going to attempt to explain why one and seven were used multiple times in Popol Vuh. this may end up being less painful than i had imagined, but we'll see.
i know you all are as riveted as i am.

ok. well first there's some shit to explain.
...some background knowledge that is necessary.
let's see.
the mayan calendar cycles through 13 days. each are numbered.
when you get to thirteen, you start over again from one.
i guess that can somewhat be compared to a week.
then if that's a week, then a month consists of 20 days.
where each day consists of its own name.

so if that didn't make much sense (which it probably didn't since it's not very comparable to weeks and months), i'll spell it out.

it goes a bit like this:

1 Kej
2 Q'anil
3 Toj
4 Tz'i'
5 B'atz'
6 E
7 Aj
8 Ix
9 Tz'ikin
10 Ajmak
11 No'j
12 Tijax
13 Kawuq
1 Junajpu
2 Imox
3 Iq
4 Aq'ab'al
5 K'at
6 Kan
7 Kame

so there. it goes to 13, then the numbering starts over again.
but the names continue til there are 20.
so after 7 Kame, the naming would start over again, but at 8.
so 8 Kej, 9 Q'anil, 10 Toj would follow.

this sequence would continue until 1 Kej comes around again, which would be after 260 days (13 x 20).

theories for why this length of time is picked are:
1) its the length of time after one is truely sure they are pregnant (missed period) and
2) it's the growth cycle of given species of corn.

this cycle interlinks with that of venus' which is a 584-day cycle.
the 20 names repeats 29 times with 4 names left over.
so the venus cycle "will always begin 4 days later than the previous cycle", as explained by the Popol Vuh translator, Dennis Tedlock.
and since 20/4 = 5, then only 5 names will ever begin the venus cycle:
Junajpu, K'at, Q'anil, E, and Ajmak. every fourth name.

damn. getting deep here...
venus does 4 things over its cycle.
it appears as the morning star, disappears as the morning star, appears as the evening star, and disappears as the evening star.

after 5 cycles of this process, which comes down to eight, 365-day years, and 99 lunations, the names start over, but to repeat the cycle at the beginning, at 1 Junajpu, the 5-period cycle must repeat 13 times.

now you're asking, "why the fuck are you telling me all this?"
well, i'm getting to that.

the 5-period cycle runs through the numbered days 13 times like this:
1, 8, 2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 7.

notice the beginning and ending numbers: 1 and 7!

now you're asking how this ties in to everything.

well. if you sound out Junajpu, the named day that begins the cycle, like it were a spanish word, you'd come up with Hunahpu, the name of one of the twins!

and apparently Death translates as Kame, the last name in the twenty-name system. if you remember One and Seven Death were One and Seven Hunahpu's adversaries, and later on also with their their twin sons, Hunajpu and Xbalanque.

so if you start with a given name at 1, the next time venus will be in that same location will be after those 13 cycles of the 5 venus stages, and end on 7.
so basically 1 and 7 is just an abbreviation for a life cycle.

now this gives a whole new meaning to the story!
its now more symbolic in astronomical terms.

the story itself represents the 4 stages that venus goes through (morning, gone, evening, gone).
the ball game played by One and Seven Hunahpu -- the appearance of the morning star on their day.
their sacrifice by One and Seven Death -- the appearance of the evening star on their day.

when the twins are brought to life through the Blood Maiden who went to the place where Seven Hunahpu's skull was wedged in the tree -- the return of the morning star on the original day, with Hunahpu's name being used again (answering my other question why there were two of those guys).

the five cycles of venus are also represented in the story.
* 5 test houses. (remember? dark, razors, cold, jaguar, bat)
* 5 times Hunahpu's head got cut off. (i don't think i told you about all of them)

if you remember there were other characters with numbers in their name.
One Monkey and One Artisan, these were the older brothers of Hunahpu and Xblanaque. i guess they both can be interchangably translated as the day B'atz'.
in the 780-day cycle of mars (3 x 260), 1 B'atz' seems to be the focal point of the cycle.

in other mayan mythology the brothers of the sun and venus was transformed into a monkey and "becomes and unspecified planet that is probably Mars."
that kinda seems to fit what's going on here. the twins' brothers were turned into monkeys.
maybe Hunahpu and Xblanaque translate to sun and venus.

intriguing shit.
it's amazing to see how well intuned people of the past were with their environment. but i guess if you don't have much but a blanketed sky of stars to entertain you at night, you'll eventually pick up trends. especially when agricultural success is dependent on that knowledge of trends.

btw, if anyone followed this, i applaude you.
i also want to thank Tedlock for adding the comments part of the book.