Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Mayan Calendar

By  Howard Teich, Ph.D. Rudolph first appeared in a 1939 booklet written by Robert L. May and published by Montgomery Ward. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer with a glowing red nose. He is popularly known as “Santa’s 8th Reindeer and is the lead reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve, bringing gifts to children who have been good. The luminosity of his nose is so great that it illuminates the team’s path through inclement winter weather. Rudolph’s glowing red nose made him a social outcast. The other reindeer harassed him mercilessly and excluded him from their fun because of this unusual trait. However, one Christmas Eve Santa Claus was having difficulty making his flight around the world because it was too foggy. When Santa went to Rudolph’s house to deliver his presents he noticed the glowing red nose in the darkened bedroom and decided it could serve as a makeshift lamp to guide his sleigh. He asked Rudolph if he would lead the sleigh for the rest of the night. Rudolph agreed, and was rewarded with recognition and acceptance amongst his fellow reindeer for his heroics that helped Santa Claus. Christmas is about love and fertility. Whether

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Mayan Twin Heros : Hunahpu and Xbalanque

Hunahpu and Xbalanque By Four Arrows (aka Don Jacobs) All cultures have twin hero myths and most have one twin who is a “solar,” more aggressive and direct twin and the other is a “lunar” twin, more passive and reflective. In Western culture, the solar twin often kills the lunar twin or the lunar twin becomes unimportant in the culture. Cain and Able, Romulus and Remus, Jacob and Esau, Hercules and Iphecules, etc. In Indigenous twin hero stories, the two twins also represent these polar dualities, but they work as complementary pairs. Examples are many, such as the Navajo myth with Mexico origins about Child Born of the Water (Lunar) and Monster Slayer (Solar). The twins help one another to fight the monsters that symbolically keep us from being in balance, recognizes human relationship with complete natural world of which we are part. The Mayan Twin Hero Myth is a story to know and honor in preparation for the end of the particular calendar in which their twin heroes, Hunahpu and Xbalanque are depicted. Hunapu (Blowgun Hunter-Solar) and Xbalanque (Hidden Sun-Lunar) were trying to make a garden but every time they clearedaway the underbrush, the forest animals put it back again.

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