As a young man, I live for a short time in the arid countryside of New Mexico, in the southwestern United States. From that glorious summer:
Molly and I weren’t planning on staying the winter, so we weren’t building a house. Instead, we built a bed on the environment itself, with a height of one hundred meters at the head of the bed. We hang a clear plastic sheet on top to keep out the rain. At night, we would lie in bed and look out at the edge of the maze. Thunderstorms will come upon us in the night. From our beds we could see them coming for miles. They would come closer and closer, with lightning bolts and growls, then hit us in a wave of sound and rain and light colliding. We would lie in bed under clear plastic and drink in the fury of the storm.
Ahhh, the madness and sweet folly of youth… Molly, wherever your life may have led you, you have my deep thanks. But I digress.
Today I stumbled across the most amazing and insightful Twitter thread from someone “Oldeuropeanculture”. The theme is a graceful representation of the intersection of animals, people, and climate in the American Southwest. The theme author’s website is here, well worth a visit. Original theme, recreated below, is here. Aside from a little tweaking and typos, this is all his work.
w.
Topic: Horned Serpent petroglyph, Barrier Canyon, Utah, USA… Photo by Brian C. Lee.
In this topic, I will explain why the “mythical” horned snake of the American Southwest Indian tribes is not myth at all. It really is… an intricate animal calendar marker.
The Horned Snake is a hybrid animal, with the body of a rattlesnake and the horns of desert bighorn sheep…
So all about what? Well, let’s first consider the myth of the horned serpent.
Horned snakes are said to be guardians of water and are associated with rain, thunder, and lightning. Its wavy curves represent flowing water… and its depictions are most commonly found on river canyon walls… Pic by udink.
Sooo… Rattlesnake-Bighorn sheep cross to guard the country… Why? What does it mean? To understand this, we need to look at the climate in the Southwestern United States and the annual life cycles of rattlesnakes and bighorn sheep…
Here’s a chart of the climate of Arizona… The spike you see in July/August/September is monsoon… Only the most important annual event, the one that helps corn farming (and life) have doable in Arizona… And the rest of the Southwest…
In this lesson On the Indian “god of agriculture and rain” Hopi, I explained that he had great sheep horns… because the mating season of these wild sheep, characterized by fierce fights, coincides with Southwest monsoon season…
And so the bighorn sheep became an animal calendar marker for the Southwest Monsoon season:
When will the rain come father?
When the big sheep started banging on my son’s head… Now shut up and go to sleep… 🙂
Finally, this animal calendar marker has become divine. And we end with the Rain God with the giant sheep’s horns… The one to whom everyone can pray… It’s hard to pray to a sheep.
So this deals with the horned part of the horned serpent, myths involving rain, thunder and lightning, guardians of flowing water… BTW, lots of gorges where the horned snake petroglyphs are found to be dry, except during the monsoon season.
So, let’s take a look at the rattlesnake’s reproductive life cycle… as animal landmarks often mark the mating and birthing periods of the animals depicted.
In the American Southwest, rattlesnakes are active between March/April and October/November.
But they are most active during the monsoon season (July/August/September). In just a few short months, they need to molt (at least once), give birth, find a mate, mate…
This makes July/August/September the most likely time to get rattlesnake…
I don’t think this will go unnoticed by the local hunter/gatherers/corn farmers…
Soooo… Monsoon storms come when the big sheep and rattlesnakes start to mate/give birth. What do you think? Is this why in the Southwestern United States we find “horned snakes” as guardians of water associated with rain, thunder, and lightning?
I think so…
BTW, the horned snake from the original tweet is just part of a larger petroglyph, depicting a “spirit” (???) with a horned snake (guardian, water bearer) on one side and a face other is the sun. Is the opposing force??? Selected by flickr.com/photos/rlngstr…
This petroglyph is one of many made during the ancient period (6000 BC – 100 BC)… Here is another from that period. I love the horned snake with the water sprayed hand…
Oh, and there is another “soul” (???) there…
Apparently, no one knows what these “tailed” “ghost”-like creatures might be. Well, the monsoon rains brought with it “horned snakes”, which looked like this… hmmm… “ghosts” like creatures with “tails”???
Consider this petroglyph, also from ancient times (from Thompson, Utah). Compare this image with the image above of monsoon clouds spewing water over arid ground…
In the middle of this panel is this horned guy, with what looks like a Bighorn sheep’s horn. Just like our friend Hopi, Alósaka, the rain god and Bighorn sheep seed, whom I mentioned earlier…
The guy with the horns from Utah also has no legs and looks like one of those…
Which seems to have a name: microbursts… or… rain bombs… Like this spectacular name…
Like I said, a most profound topic. It is relationships, concepts, and images like these that are why I really love studying climate.
My best wishes to everyone, rattlesnakes, big sheep, humans and all creatures big and small.
w.
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