Was Venus Crossing the Sun a Warning?
A fascinating Native American legend warned about the significance of Venus crossing the sun. June 5, 2012, was a very busy day. So I was saddened that with all the busyness I had forgotten to watch that day's passage of Venus across the sun. Then something amazing happened. Before retiring I resumed my reading of L. Taylor Hansen's Hansen’s He Walked
the Americas.
This is a collection of legends from numerous tribes in the Americas of visitations from a Fair God who had wounds in his hands, healed the people, taught them, and left twelve disciples to lead them after he left.* He also gave them warnings. The first warning was that there would be a wicked people and priesthood, called the “Sacrificers,” who would take them over if they did not keep his Father’s commandments. He called this “The Cycle of the Sacrificers.”
The second Warning was that in the very distant future, because of their sins and the sin
of human sacrifice, there would be bearded white men with long rods that killed from a distance who would come. They would take over all their lands. He also told them precisely when this would occur. On June 5th, I was sobered by reading the following from pages 125 -130 of Hansen’s book, “The Prophecy of Tula.”
“Mark you well, for there shall be portents. A strange star shall cross the heavens, and all the people looking upward, as the time grows ever closer, shall remember tonight and the words of Kate-Zahl [Quetzecoatl]. To one another, they shall whisper: “I fear the time has come upon us. Woe unto the Sacrificers.” “The year is that of Te-Tec-Patl. When the dawn star,
Cit-lal-pol…[Venus] crosses the sun for its thirteenth crossing, … then will you know this Cycle [of the Sacrificers] has ended….”(Emphasis added). Remember this date! It is the Time of Warning. With the binding date comes the retribution. Stand with me in the Year of Te-Tec-Patl. Look across the Sunrise Ocean. Three ships come like great birds flying. They land. Out come men in metal garments, carrying rods which speak with thunder and kill at a distance.
These men are bearded and pale of feature.”
Continuing, I next read “The Calendar Stone,” pp. 131-133. This explains that the great Aztec Calendar, found on a boulder eleven feet across, three feet thick, and weighing over twenty-four tons, really was the ancient Toltec Calendar (p. 131). Generally the Toltecs are dated as far back as 300 A.D. It is their calendar which the people used to follow the prophecies of their Fair God. Hansen, at the end of this chapter says casually, “Incidentally, speaking of the Toltec Calendar Stone, Cortez arrived in the year Te-Tec-Pal as prophesied so long before in Tula by the Prophet." Remember that was the year Venus crossed the sun in its 13th crossing.
On page 185, Hansen adds details from other legends of what happened at this time. “For centuries the people had watched the calendar pass around from circle to circle. From each inner circle to the next outer circle it went. As predicted, the Sacrificers came back [they had been there before the time of the coming of the Fair God]; even as He [the fair God] had
caused it to be inscribed. Always it drew nearer to the Time of Warning. As that date approached, the Emperor Moctezoma decreed that [the Calendar Stone] be taken down and buried. He changed the calendar. [He put up another smaller calendar without this warning date]. Thus he reasoned that he had erased the fateful prediction of long retribution against the
Sacrificers. In whispers the people still remembered. The bloody sacrificing was continuing in all the temples, even in [The Fair God’s] temple in Colula.
“Then came the year when He had told them to expect the Bearded Pale Ones …The people were frightened. They had not forgotten.
“Finally a day came during the Year of Retribution, when the Bearded Ones were sighted. And of all days, it came on the Feast Day Sacred to the Prophet! [Histories say Cortez arrived on Holy Thursday, which would be the time of Passover]. Flashing across the Broad Land with obsidian mirrors came the fateful message: ‘The Bearded Pale Ones are landing. They are dressed in metal and carry rods which kill at a distance.’”
“Here in this Mayan city [Merida] the Sacrificing Priesthood decided to try to reverse destiny. They remembered a long- neglected religion, and an almost forgotten altar. They tunneled down to His [The Fair God’s] altar in mad haste….They prayed night and day, but we know that their efforts were for naught. The Spanish marched in and took the city now deserted by the panic-stricken people. Who would defend it? No one but a fool. This is the true story of the Mayan temple.”
Many legends indicate that the Fair God warned the people that if they forgot Him and followed the wicked priesthood who would initiate human sacrifice, the whole land would come under the power of a people from the East who were white and wore beards and carried guns. The legend says the Fair God told them the conquering would occur in the year that Venus crossed the sun, in its 13th cycle.
As I continued my reading I came to additional legends in pages 167-172. The Fair God spoke more of the future to those living in Mesoamerica. He warned that those white men who came to their lands bearing guns were interested only in gold and in weapons. He prophesied that for this reason their dominion would only last for five cycles of Venus passing across the Sun (p. 167-170). Then would come the Destruction. The Venus cycle is around 100 years. So this last crossing of the Sun should have been the end of the 5th cycle from the time that the Spanish arrived in the Americas.
The Fair God said that another sign that the end is nearing is that His Father’s Temple will be uncovered. (This could mean by excavation, but it could doubly mean that His Father’s temple will be reestablished in those lands. Many Temples to God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ have indeed been built in Mexico by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). He also said that the Final Destruction meant that the old heaven and earth would be swept away and there would be a new heaven and a new earth ( p. 171). And finally, he said this would be followed by a beautiful time of peace and a great Golden Age of Learning (p. 172).
The Lord through modern revelation speaks of many signs preceding Christ’s return, including that there will be “signs in the Heavens” in the last days (Doctrine and Covenants 29:14; 45:39-42; 68:10-11; 88:93).
What the recent passing of Venus across the sun should do for us is to cause us to look more closely at those signs and warnings which the scriptures and our modern prophets have given us in clarity. Basically they tell us to repent and to be prepared at all times. This is the clearest and most cogent warning of all.
(Hansen gathered her collections of amazingly consistent legends from several sources, including Hubert H. Bancroft, Five Volumes of Antiquities, Native Races, etc., D. Appleton Co., 1875, and from personal interviews.)
A fascinating Native American legend warned about the significance of Venus crossing the sun. June 5, 2012, was a very busy day. So I was saddened that with all the busyness I had forgotten to watch that day's passage of Venus across the sun. Then something amazing happened. Before retiring I resumed my reading of L. Taylor Hansen's Hansen’s He Walked
the Americas.
This is a collection of legends from numerous tribes in the Americas of visitations from a Fair God who had wounds in his hands, healed the people, taught them, and left twelve disciples to lead them after he left.* He also gave them warnings. The first warning was that there would be a wicked people and priesthood, called the “Sacrificers,” who would take them over if they did not keep his Father’s commandments. He called this “The Cycle of the Sacrificers.”
The second Warning was that in the very distant future, because of their sins and the sin
of human sacrifice, there would be bearded white men with long rods that killed from a distance who would come. They would take over all their lands. He also told them precisely when this would occur. On June 5th, I was sobered by reading the following from pages 125 -130 of Hansen’s book, “The Prophecy of Tula.”
“Mark you well, for there shall be portents. A strange star shall cross the heavens, and all the people looking upward, as the time grows ever closer, shall remember tonight and the words of Kate-Zahl [Quetzecoatl]. To one another, they shall whisper: “I fear the time has come upon us. Woe unto the Sacrificers.” “The year is that of Te-Tec-Patl. When the dawn star,
Cit-lal-pol…[Venus] crosses the sun for its thirteenth crossing, … then will you know this Cycle [of the Sacrificers] has ended….”(Emphasis added). Remember this date! It is the Time of Warning. With the binding date comes the retribution. Stand with me in the Year of Te-Tec-Patl. Look across the Sunrise Ocean. Three ships come like great birds flying. They land. Out come men in metal garments, carrying rods which speak with thunder and kill at a distance.
These men are bearded and pale of feature.”
Continuing, I next read “The Calendar Stone,” pp. 131-133. This explains that the great Aztec Calendar, found on a boulder eleven feet across, three feet thick, and weighing over twenty-four tons, really was the ancient Toltec Calendar (p. 131). Generally the Toltecs are dated as far back as 300 A.D. It is their calendar which the people used to follow the prophecies of their Fair God. Hansen, at the end of this chapter says casually, “Incidentally, speaking of the Toltec Calendar Stone, Cortez arrived in the year Te-Tec-Pal as prophesied so long before in Tula by the Prophet." Remember that was the year Venus crossed the sun in its 13th crossing.
On page 185, Hansen adds details from other legends of what happened at this time. “For centuries the people had watched the calendar pass around from circle to circle. From each inner circle to the next outer circle it went. As predicted, the Sacrificers came back [they had been there before the time of the coming of the Fair God]; even as He [the fair God] had
caused it to be inscribed. Always it drew nearer to the Time of Warning. As that date approached, the Emperor Moctezoma decreed that [the Calendar Stone] be taken down and buried. He changed the calendar. [He put up another smaller calendar without this warning date]. Thus he reasoned that he had erased the fateful prediction of long retribution against the
Sacrificers. In whispers the people still remembered. The bloody sacrificing was continuing in all the temples, even in [The Fair God’s] temple in Colula.
“Then came the year when He had told them to expect the Bearded Pale Ones …The people were frightened. They had not forgotten.
“Finally a day came during the Year of Retribution, when the Bearded Ones were sighted. And of all days, it came on the Feast Day Sacred to the Prophet! [Histories say Cortez arrived on Holy Thursday, which would be the time of Passover]. Flashing across the Broad Land with obsidian mirrors came the fateful message: ‘The Bearded Pale Ones are landing. They are dressed in metal and carry rods which kill at a distance.’”
“Here in this Mayan city [Merida] the Sacrificing Priesthood decided to try to reverse destiny. They remembered a long- neglected religion, and an almost forgotten altar. They tunneled down to His [The Fair God’s] altar in mad haste….They prayed night and day, but we know that their efforts were for naught. The Spanish marched in and took the city now deserted by the panic-stricken people. Who would defend it? No one but a fool. This is the true story of the Mayan temple.”
Many legends indicate that the Fair God warned the people that if they forgot Him and followed the wicked priesthood who would initiate human sacrifice, the whole land would come under the power of a people from the East who were white and wore beards and carried guns. The legend says the Fair God told them the conquering would occur in the year that Venus crossed the sun, in its 13th cycle.
As I continued my reading I came to additional legends in pages 167-172. The Fair God spoke more of the future to those living in Mesoamerica. He warned that those white men who came to their lands bearing guns were interested only in gold and in weapons. He prophesied that for this reason their dominion would only last for five cycles of Venus passing across the Sun (p. 167-170). Then would come the Destruction. The Venus cycle is around 100 years. So this last crossing of the Sun should have been the end of the 5th cycle from the time that the Spanish arrived in the Americas.
The Fair God said that another sign that the end is nearing is that His Father’s Temple will be uncovered. (This could mean by excavation, but it could doubly mean that His Father’s temple will be reestablished in those lands. Many Temples to God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ have indeed been built in Mexico by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). He also said that the Final Destruction meant that the old heaven and earth would be swept away and there would be a new heaven and a new earth ( p. 171). And finally, he said this would be followed by a beautiful time of peace and a great Golden Age of Learning (p. 172).
The Lord through modern revelation speaks of many signs preceding Christ’s return, including that there will be “signs in the Heavens” in the last days (Doctrine and Covenants 29:14; 45:39-42; 68:10-11; 88:93).
What the recent passing of Venus across the sun should do for us is to cause us to look more closely at those signs and warnings which the scriptures and our modern prophets have given us in clarity. Basically they tell us to repent and to be prepared at all times. This is the clearest and most cogent warning of all.
(Hansen gathered her collections of amazingly consistent legends from several sources, including Hubert H. Bancroft, Five Volumes of Antiquities, Native Races, etc., D. Appleton Co., 1875, and from personal interviews.)