Aug 9, 2016

66: East - West

Read this article first. http://io9.gizmodo.com/medieval-skeleton-found-dangling-from-the-roots-of-a-fa-1730495084

In Ireland a skeleton has been found as the result of an uprooted tree. Now I’m not suggesting the link to Maori burying the dead and planting trees over them because this 1000 year old skeleton was under a tree only 200 years old. he was buried in an East-West orientation

What intrigued me was that, as with most Celtic burials, the skeleton was in the East/West position…in the same manner the Wairau bar skeletons. And I’m not suggesting the Wairau Bar people were Celtic because they are not. It’s just that the same burial pattern existed here with what is acknowledged (so far) as the earliest arrivals.

If this is a worldwide habit, it says something doesn’t it. But it appears that only Christians and Jewish cultures follow this practice. Their belief was that east is where the son-rise comes from an in other cultures east is where all life comes from - sunrise, new day, end of darkness stuff.

The east and west burial custom was practiced by the ancient Greeks, and by the natives in some districts of Australia, although the latter people as a rule regarded the west as the abode of departed spirits, and therefore buried their dead facing that quarter.

The native Samoans and Fijians follow the same custom, believing that if the dead are buried with head east and feet west, the body at the resurrection would be in a position to walk straight onward to the abiding-place of the soul.

According to Schoolcraft, the Winnebago Indians buried their dead in a sitting posture with the face west, or at full length with the feet west, in order that they may look toward the happy land in the west. Other Indian tribes, notably the Indians of Kansas, practised this custom.

It was the Peruvian custom to bury the dead huddled up in a sitting posture with their faces turned toward the west, and in the funeral ritual of the Aztecs there is found a description of the first peril that the shade encountered on its journey to the abode of the dead, which they believed was illuminated by the sun when night enveloped the earth.

On the contrary, the Yumanas of South America were accustomed to bury their dead in a sitting posture facing the east, as they believed that in the east was the home of their supreme deity, who would one day take unto himself all true believers in him. The Guayanos have a similar belief and custom.

The modern Ainus of Yezo bury their dead lying robed in white with heads to the east, because that is where the sun rises.

The mediæval Tartars raised a great mound over their graves, and placed therein a statue with its face turned eastward.

In Wales the east wind is called the "wind of the dead men's feet," and the eastern portion of a churchyard was always regarded as the most honoured part. South, west, and north were next in favour, in their order, and suicides were buried with their heads to the north, as, in taking their own lives, they had forfeited the rights of the orthodox to a burial with face to the east. In rural parts of England it was the custom in ancient times to remark at the funeral service: "The dead ay go wi’ the sun."

Even in our own country we see a survival of the universal belief in the proper orientation of a deceased person. Examination shows that the headstones in the old burial-grounds of Plymouth, Concord, and Deerfield, face the west, so that, at the resurrection, the dead will rise to face the Son of Man as He comes from out the east with great power and glory.

The subject of orientation is an extremely interesting one, and plays a prominent part in many of the customs and practices of the present day. In acknowledgment of the divinity of the Sun the Pagans turned to the east in prayer, and so constructed their temples that even the buildings themselves should pay homage to the rising sun.

p. 272

We learn from Josephus that as early as Solomon's time the temple at Jerusalem was oriented to the east with great care. It was open to the east, and closed absolutely to the west.

In ancient Mexico the inhabitants faced the east when they knelt in prayer, as their brother worshippers did in the far east, and though the doors of their temples faced westward, the altar itself was situated in the east. Even the Christianised Pueblo Indians face the east when rising, a survival of their ancient Sun worship.

The Sun chief of the Natchez Indians of Louisiana always smoked toward the Sun each morning.

The Comanche Indians, when about to take the warpath, present their weapons to the Sun, that their deity may bestow his blessing upon them.

The ancient cave temples of the Apalachees of Florida faced eastward, and on festival days the priest waited till the rays of the sun had entered the temple before beginning the ceremonial chants.

The ceremony of orientation was unknown in primitive Christianity, but it developed within its first four centuries.

In South India the dead were placed in an east west position

Guam facing east

Cambodia east or west but not north or south

In all of this there is no record of east west burials in any of the lands Maori were supposed to come from, yet at the Wairau bar the dead (said to be first arrivals from Hawaiiki) are buried in away unknown where they were supposed to come from. Why is this? There are only two reasons. 1. They were here long before Maori arrived and were not first arrivals of the Maori 2. They were taught a new custom by those already here.