Evidence of the Gods (10 page)

We know the Native American Hopi rock drawings were both markings for fellow tribes and history books for their own people. The first world, Hopi tradition teaches, was Toktela. Literally Toktela means “infinite space.”
¹²
This first world had been inhabited by only Taiowa, the creator. The ancestors had made contact with various worlds until they found their home on this planet. The supreme law was
you shall not kill any brother
. If over the course of time differences occurred between Hopi, the opposing parties separated and went off in separate directions in search of new hunting grounds. But each party kept to the ancient laws and, on its long marches, marked the rocks with inscriptions that could be read by their fellow tribesmen and women. Thus, these rock drawings are nothing other than messages to other Hopi who might pass at some later time. (Incidentally, the same thing was practiced by the ancestors of the Mormons.) Such messages might be, for example, “We have dug a well…. Deadly scorpions live here…. We have seen the gods.” These drawings had the same value for the Native Americans of the time as the wall newspapers in China today. In 1982, when I was taking photographs at a Hopi rock massif not far from the hidden Hopi settlement of Oraibi in Arizona (
Image 81
), a Native American on a horse suddenly appeared and told me in no uncertain terms to stop. He even demanded that I hand over the films. Thankfully, White Bear, one of the Hopi elders, was with me and calmed down his young fellow tribesman. I was—White Bear said—one of the initiates.

The rocks are full of engravings—there must be thousands of them. (
Images 82
–
85
) Often they are positioned at a height of several meters. The artists must have built scaffolding or descended the walls on ropes. The highlighted
Image 86
is called “The Starblower” by the Hopi.

Images 87
and
88
both show the same motif, one of them highlighted. Beings from other worlds? The suspicion is confirmed in
Images 89
and
90
. An extraterrestrial and a UFO shape? And of course, in Hopi art, we also find art figures with rays and antennalike structures on their heads, as well as
kachinas
, which have been immortalized in stone. (
Image 91
) According to Hopi tradition, the kachinas were the heavenly teachers of their ancestors.
¹³

Today, kachinas are made in the form of wooden dolls and sold to tourists. The aim is to remind people of the former teachers, who promised to return one day. I have shown pictures of kachina dolls several times in previous books. Why again? Please compare the kachina dolls with the rock drawings. (
Images 92
–
95
) Something that was laboriously entrusted to the rock thousands of years ago is presented today much more simply in wooden form. The ancient motif remains the same. Kachinas were the teachers from the stars, and they were represented in a uniformly similar way around the globe—even in Val Camonica above the small town of Capo di Ponte in South Tyrol, Italy. There the rock drawings may be small compared to those in the Sahara or Australia, yet they fit just as much into the worldwide merry-go-round of the gods.
Image 96
shows two figures with “haloes,” just like at the bottom in
Image 97
. Archeologists interpret the figure as a “dancer.” In
Image 98
, the “star with the planets” in the upper left corner of the picture stands out. Identical depictions can be admired on Sumerian cylinder seals.