Following The Milky Way Path of Souls

Abstract

Cahokia was a major Native American city on the east side of the Mississippi River, across from the modern-day city of St. Louis, Missouri. Cahokia flourished from c.1050 AD to c.1250. In this paper archaeoastronomic and ethnohistoric data along with computer simulations are used to explore the idea that the Cahokia site axis and the Rattlesnake Causeway were intentionally aligned to the Milky Way. It is proposed that this alignment accounts for the peculiar 5° offset of the site from the cardinal directions. Following Sarah Baires, it is suggested that Rattlesnake Causeway was a terrestrial metaphor for the Milky Way Path of Souls used by the deceased to cross to the Land of the Dead. Rattlesnake Mound at the end of the Causeway is suggested as a portal to the Path of Souls. According to ethnohistoric accounts, the Land of the Dead was guarded by a Great Serpent – suggested here as visible in the night sky as either the constellation Serpens or that of Scorpius.

In Search of the St. Louis Mound Group: Archaeoastronomic and Landscape Archaeology Implications

“…Peale documents the existence of a terrace -79 feet (24.1 m) in length, extending from the east side of the Big Mound. Similar low platforms attached to large mounds are sometimes found at other Mississippian sites (e.g., Monks Mound at Cahokia, Mound A at Angel (see Romain, 2021a;Romain & Herrmann, 2022). Figure 13a shows an enlarged detail of Peale's representation of the Big Mound with its lower platform or terrace.…”

Early Maya E Groups, the Milky Way, and creation

“…At other times, it may have been a cosmic or world tree (wakah chan; north-south) or a canoe heading to the watery underworld of death. Comparable concepts-world tree, canoe, river, path to the realm of the dead (Maya Xibalba)-can be found in other cosmologies (e.g., Gullberg et al 2020;Martín-López and Giménez Benítez 2008;Romain 2021).…”

“…The Milky Way, the star-studded white band majestically wheeling across the night sky, must have been an awesome sight to earthly viewers before its glow was dimmed by today's ubiquitous electric light pollution. Ancient and modern peoples the world over have pondered this spectacle (Gullberg et al 2020; Romain 2021), interpreting it metaphorically as a path, a road, a river, spilled liquid, and so on. For Mayanists, although the Milky Way and associated imagery—such as skybands—have long fascinated art historians, there has been little consideration of possible physical representations in architecture.…”

“…This rift consists of dust clouds between the arms that obscure many stars and prompts imaginative perceptions. Many peoples envision dark and light areas of the visible galaxy as significant animals in their earthly—especially riverine—environments (e.g., a shark, serpent, emu, kangaroo, llama) and embellish them in their creation myths and cosmologies (Gullberg et al 2020; Romain 2021). Among indigenous New World cultures, the Milky Way may have been identified as a path to the otherworld in a pan-hemispheric concept linked to deep and ancient traditions of shamanism (Barnhart 2003).…”

Observations Concerning the Milky Way, Serpent Mound, Newark and Mound City Earthworks

“…Horn 1982, 1984;Romain 2015b). Less well-known is that several earthworks are aligned to the Milky Way (Romain 2009(Romain , 2015a(Romain , 2015b. Arguably, these Milky Way-aligned earthworks incorporate aspects of the Path of Souls story.…”