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The Cydonia Institute Vol. 10 No.
2 ◘
The HiRISE Face Reveals a Hidden Owl
by George J. Haas
November 2007 (Revised 2011)
One
of the first surprises noticed in the 2001 MOC image of the Cydonia Face (E03-00824)
was the presence of a flailing tongue1 seen
on the Feline side of the Face (Figure 1).
Figure
1
Feline side of the Face on Mars with
the tongue highlighted.
MOC E03-00824 (2001)
Note the crowned tongue within the
boxed area
Enhancement
by The Cydonia Institute
The formation of the tongue was confirmed in the
2007 HiRISE image (PSP-00323402210) and is
fully realized in the duplicated presentation where we are able to see its
facial features in more detail (Figure 2). Again the new image reveals the
tongue to be fashioned as an elaborately constructed avian head with a
decorative horn-tipped crown. Besides the crown, the tongue includes two large
eye orbits surrounded by feathery contours and a sharp beak that creates an
owl-like face.
Figure
2
Crowned Tongue (2007)
Detail of duplicated perspective of the Feline side of the Cydonia Face.
HiRISE
(PSP-00323402210)
Enhancement
by The Cydonia Institute
When the Crowned Tongue is viewed in
relationship to the overall shape of the zigzag mane formation, the tongue
emerges as the crowned head of a horned owl as the lower chin and beard
elements transform into the owl’s body including a set of wings and tail
feathers2 (Figure 3).
Figure 3
Horned Owl (2007)
Detail
of duplicated perspective of the feline side of the Cydonia Face.
HiRISE
(PSP-00323402210)
Enhancement by The Cydonia
Institute
As we have demonstrated previously the humanoid
and feline sides of the Face have a direct relationship to a set of masks found
on the First Temple at Ceros Mexico.3 We found that the humanoid side represents
the First Lord mask on the temple, while the feline mask represents the Jaguar
Sun.4
According to tradition, when the creature known as Jaguar Sun journeys down
below the horizon into the Underworld he takes on the alternate aspect of the
Nighttime Sun. Once in the Underworld he joins his avian companion the horned
owl at the temple
of God L (the death god).
Just such a scene of this mythical reunion is illustrated in the Codex Borgia5 (Figure 4). Notice the
horned owl and the jaguar leaving an Underworld
Temple as a death skull
with a large tongue blade protruding from his mouth hovers above them. Looking
again at the at the feline side of the Cydonia Face (Figure 1) note the totemic
image of a horned owl conflated within its
mane and beard reaffirming the jaguar’s spiritual transformation between the
upper and lower worlds as the Jaguar Sun and the Nighttime Jaguar.
Figure 4
Horned owl and jaguar in the underworld
Codex Borgia, page 24
Within the walls
of the Tetitla Palace
located at the Aztec site of Teotihuacan,
Mexico there
are several mural paintings of owls6 depicted in frontal views with outstretched wings
(Figure 5). Notice the round feathered head and the dark mask around the eyes7 and droplets of blood flowing from the beak. The
body has a set of flat prominent tail feathers
and exaggerated claws. When examined next to the Horned Owl observed on the
Feline side of the Cydonia Face, the comparison with the Tetitla owl is quite
revealing (Figure 5).
Figure 5
Owl comparison
Left: Owl - Tetitla
Palace, in Teotihuacan.
Right: Horned Owl – detail of the Feline
side of the Cydonia Face
Just as the Horned Owl is only
half an image, placed within the mane feature of the Feline side of the Cydonia
Face, the extreme bilateral symmetry of the owl painting at Tetitla has led
some archeologist to suggest that many of the avian creatures depicted at Teotihuacan
may be the creation of a fusion between two half profiles.8
Footnotes
1. George J. Haas
William R. Saunders, The Cydonia Codex: Reflections from Mars, (Berkeley: Frog Lid, 2005),
pp. 277 -279.
2. George J. Haas
William R. Saunders, The Martian Codex: More Reflections from Mars,
(Berkeley: Frog Lid, 2009), pp. 31 -33.
4. George J. Haas
William R. Saunders, The Cydonia Codex: Reflections from Mars, (Berkeley: Frog Lid, 2005),
p. 24, Fig 1.127.
5. The Codex Borgia
is a Mesoamerican manuscript consisting of 39 pages that were written sometime
before the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
The codex was brought to Europe during the
early Spanish Colonial period and rediscovered in 1805 among the effects of
Cardinal Stefano Borgia. The Codex Borgia is presently housed in the Apostolic
Library located in the Vatican.
6. Arthur
G. Miller, The Mural Painting of Teotihuacán. Washington, D.C.:
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1973, p 138. Also see - A Ramble Around Teotihuacan,
A Guided Tour by Richard A. Diehl, March 14, 2011. http://archaeology.about.com/b/2011/03/14/teotihuacan-walking-tour.htm.
7. The owl depicted on the mural at Tetitl may
represent a spectacled owl, which gets its name from the pattern of white feathers
around its eyes. The spectacled owl is a large
tropical owl found in southern Mexico.
8. Sejourne, Laurette, El Quetzatlcoatl en Teotihuacan. Cuadernos
Americanos, Vol. 138, No. 1, 1965, p. 147.
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The HiRISE Face Reveals a Hidden Owl
