La Llorona in the Stones, and the Water Distribution design of the Ancients.
I encountered the design in my own backyard. I picked up a female figure that made her way through the design as it described her life and her contributions to the survival of the human species. It has not been easy to enlighten folks who minds are already set, but I have made some good headway. My most recent discovery took some convincing. It is the story that includes a walk to the cliffs off the shore of Terceira Island. I have worked with the Portuguese in understanding what Lithic Literature has to offer. I have included below an article from the newspaper that describes my efforts. It is in Portuguese of course and I have translated it in a previous article.
https://medium.com/@karolabryant/the-crone-and-the-stone-94fca705635f
The local folks refer to this smaller monument a hop and a skip from the top of the caldera over looking Ribeirinha, as the weeping woman. I did find a female that matures in place. She also presents her offspring as a proper Madonna. She appears to be beside a spring bathing, drinking and washing her hair. At a point you could say she appears to be mourning over her loss and what was a spring, is instead tears 😢 . I can step up the image to a more recent expression of the Pieta and have a recent publication that brings in the Renaissance art .
During my stay on the Azores, I spent a lot of time working up on the rim of the caldera. I approached the top from many angles from my rental apartment in the town of Ribeirinha to the rim to study the stones. Here I am looking down to the shore from my rental. My apartment is a point on a line straight between the top the rim and the shore cliffs. You can follow the path of water from the top of the caldera to the cliffs below.
The map below has an arrow showing the direction and approximate location of the path.
I made an effort to follow the path of the water on one of my excursions up to the rim.
I was able to trace the water up to this ancient spring that was dressed with ancient masonry. When I turned around, I could see the path of the water as it made its way down the path of least resistance flow right past my apartment. I have found that following the water will also expose the stones. I figured if I followed the path of the water down to the sea, it would also give me the path of the earlier humans, and from looking at this early manmade spring, they were definitely here. The Stone Age bridge work shown below is not far from the spring and uses the same stone age architecture.
The trip down to my apartment is a wonder run juggernaut style. There is a main road that runs along the coast partly seen and heard from my bedroom window. My plan was to cross the main street and follow the water.
From above you can easily predict the path of least resistance as the water carves its way.
This pathway started right across the street from my rental and took me straight up without having to see another human. It was just me and the stones.
Below is a little map that I found helpful when trying to explain where I was when learning to get around town.
Below is an arial view of the actual location. You can see the groin form from above. I am thinking it is a manmade groin created to calm the waves coming from the SW for a possible boat landing. I am so happy to have this opportunity to see this for myself and share with you.
After getting across the main route and I started my way down towards the cliffs the whole mood changed. In many ways I felt more human at a basal level. Although the town itself was old, the area I was entering was designed by humans at an even earlier time.
The patch of bamboo is a good indication of human occupation. Bamboo was an important resource for tools, weapons, weaving, as well as protection from predators, especially from above. It attracted other prey looking for the protection the the bamboo patch enhancing hunting opportunities. Bamboo is also waterproof and practical for utensils, housing, and water vessel construction. With some simple cutting tools you could design anything you needed in a bamboo patch.
I continued down the ravine, passing ideal pools and waterfalls for washing and bathing all under the umbrella of the bamboo patch. The water torrents from the storm the night before had exposed the artifacts used by these earlier inhabitants.
Below I have minimally highlighted the larger version of the Venus, whom I have begun to notice as a pattern echoing the Pleiades star cluster which I will cover in a following article. The artifact is the same as the one pictured above in the collection and it is lovely.
Please take a moment to process the female elephant handler in red and elephant forms in black. The elephant and her handler are an ancient team of civil architects that hold the key to a practical water distribution design applicable to most geographical incline.
The elephant was already trumpeting its arrival on the beautiful scraper from the stream above. As I step on to the ledge, the stone groin expends out before me. The October sea waves come in from the SW. I looked around from a bird’s eye view and you can follow my path to the sea. You can see the bamboo which was used for cover and resource for tool making. I believe the ancient civil engineers used the water system described in the design used by Lithic literature. This is how the design ends up on the landscape! A reminder of the elephants capacity to change the landscape and create waterholes and highways as they forage for food and water. The swimming elephant is well documented and if supported by their human handlers they could work together to cover longer distances. We also are well aware that elephants are the natural landscape architects as they create highways and waterholes for all.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/elephants-africa-tale-trunk/11391/
You can spot her down below. I musts say, I was there all by myself, and I was a little scared. The ocean is a mysterious place and the ocean at this time out in the middle of the Atlantic can be unpredictable.
The old fishermen would have been upset to see me taunting the ocean. I wish I had walked around the other side and taken pictures from more angles. The water was rough and I kept imagining a sudden rogue wave slamming me suddenly. I am still trying to make out if it is basalt or actually black obsidian.
The elephant is not a new finding in Lithic Literature.
It is the lovely maiden that landed on an elephant and kept it alive by keeping its trunk above water. It means that if you missed the ferry, you still have a chance of making it if you can meet up with an elephant. The elephant can swim a very long time, and with some extra support from a caring human being, together they could navigate. This idea was reinforced by the sculpture sitting just below on the shore of what appears to be a boat landing.
As always the more you look the more you see. Now that you have an idea of how to follow the human mark on the stones, we can jump down and start exploring the real star of this documentation.
This piece of volcanic rock is a masterpiece. It does not disappoint. The large cat warning is clear in red as it leaps on the human form in a horizontal position below the large cat. If you are a stone reader you can catch the head of the wolf cocked back at the pinnacle of the design as it starts to howl or, a lion with a glorious mane and powerful growl.
The horse below in yellow appears and can be seen as a threat to the reclined human as it stomps its hooves.
Relax a moment, getup and stretch, have a cup of tea. Now lets find the elephant story. I have added a link to a video of how an elephant feels like in the water.
What I believe is going on here is the allocation of water to drinking, washing and finally sewage. The flow of sewage can then be used for crops as fertilizer.
While visiting the Terceira Island I was able to visit the La Llorona stone and take a photo of my own which is a slightly different angle. I have highlighted the elephant once again. The algae has added its color green to the waterflow to better illustrate the design.
The elephant present in the design is repeated as a symbol of the water flow for human habitation. It does not necessarily mean that elephants were actually here but that the people that arrived here used the knowledge provided in Lithic Literature to engineer a water system. A water system to sustain a community with fresh potable water, washing and bathing with clean run off for ranchers and then finally fertilizer for the crops. Please take a good look at the placement of the elephant I have highlighted in white in the image below.
The water loving elephant is facing to the left. As the elephant dispenses the water with its trunk the human figure below reaches up. The water flows over the elephants back for further distribution. Below, I have highlighted some of our plant friends. If you take your gaze down to the human form on the lower right, the human is watering the seedling.
I am going to end this article here, but the story continues. I am feeling more confident that I understand the design to create my own masterpiece. I am not a great artist and it probably will be a struggle, but I know it is part of the process. I have one more article to tease out of the stones before I start my painting, and then I will stream of my progress as I paint. I would like to give thanks to Toriocamp del Vaquero who has provided moral support in this incredible venture.
As always I add a stone from my Maine garden. Can you find the water distribution design below?♥️🍵
Thank you so much for looking♥️🍵.
