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Hopi elder Oswald “White Bear” Fredericks (1905–1996) served as the main advisor for Frank Waters’ Book of the Hopi. As a member of the currently dominant Bear Clan, White Bear possessed a comprehensive knowledge of his tribe’s history — a lineage that he traced back many thousands of years.

From Third to Fourth Worlds

Hopi elder White Bear’s account of Kásskara, the original Hopi motherland in the Pacific, may force a change in our perceptions of Atlantis and ancient history generally.

Archaeological convention insists that it was the thawing of the northern ice sheet that allowed the first immigrants to cross the Bering land bridge and venture into North America. While this may be partly true, White Bear said that this influx of humanity arrived thousands of years after the Hopi ancestors first appeared. When the ancestors had reached North America, an impenetrable ice sheet lay over the continent, its southern boundary near today’s Canada–USA border.

Further confounding conventional anthropologists, the Hopi maintain that their ancestors came not from the north but from far south!

To recap some details covered in previous instalments of this series (see part 1, part 2, part 3), Atlantis, which the Hopi call Talawaitichqua, or Land of the Morning (or Eastern) Sun, had declared war on Kásskara. Clearly the aggressors, the Atlanteans employed some very sophisticated technologies, including spacecraft, which they had not invented but acquired from the “otherworldly” beings known as Kachinas, who had left a few of them behind when they departed.

White Bear said that in ancient times when the Third World was created, the people of Atlantis associated with Kachinas, but the Kachinas left the Atlanteans after they’d become malicious.

The Atlanteans’ plans for conquest were dramatically thwarted, however, when a series of powerful earthquakes submerged their lands as part of a major global upheaval.

Kásskara was also sinking, but more slowly, allowing some of the groups a chance to flee. White Bear explained that while the Hopi progenitors shared a common relationship through Kásskara, not all Kásskarans would become Hopi. This is an important distinction.

White Bear revealed that as Kásskara was sinking into the Pacific Ocean, the Hopi ancestors migrated to South America via a series of islands, Easter Island being the only one on their route still above water. The Kachinas guided and protected these immigrants, each group having a Kachina assigned to it, helping the people locate islands on their journey to the west coast, mainly to what we today know as Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

The Kachinas were spiritual and physical entities. White Bear stressed their physicality, noting that the Kachinas flew in “flying shields” (spacecraft), which indicates that they had physical forms.

The Kachinas directed refugees to Táotoóma, known as Tiwanaku in today’s Bolivia, which at that time was closer to sea level. White Bear said Táotoóma was the first city built in Toowakachi, the Fourth World. It was constructed under the supervision of the Kachinas, whose scientific knowledge vastly exceeded that of the Earth people. The new Fourth World location had been developed over many years, and the migrations took place in three stages.

Many years later, after Táotoóma was destroyed in a massive earthquake, the Hopi ancestors began to migrate into Central America under the guidance of the Kachinas [See more details in part 3.]

Mysteries School at Palatquapi

When the Hopi ancestor clans were still migrating through South America into Central America, long before the Clan of the Bear settled at Oraibi in today’s Arizona, USA, many of the clans expressed a wish to reunite. White Bear recounted that they’d remembered the destruction of their first city, Táotoóma, and wanted to live again in harmony with the great mind, Taiowa. They had disobeyed their Creator, lost their way spiritually and scattered in all directions. The Kachinas, however, persuaded them to return to the right path.

‘Palenque’ by Daniel Armesto, CCBYSA3.0

Those of the chiefs who could still make use of their third eye (the brow chakra, associated with the pineal gland and spiritual insight) gathered the clans in order to create an educational centre to promote advanced spiritual knowledge. White Bear said that this centre had been established in a great city founded by the Hopi ancestors. Called Palatquapi, it was created at the site we know today as Palenque in southern Mexico. This institution taught the basics of life on Earth, such as how the divine spirit manifests into form. The students were grounded in the awareness that the physical state is a glorious, yet usually imperfect, reflection of the original divine essence.

White Bear described the mystical school’s unique structure.

“On the ground floor, young people learned the history of their clans and that of the previous world. The upper floors were the most important. On the second floor, the pupils were educated in all that relates to the plan of life. They learned everything about Nature that surrounds us, through both theoretical and practical teaching — how flowers grow, where insects come from, and how the birds, reptiles, mammals and sea creatures develop. Here, pupils were urged to use their third eye.”

“They also learned about the chemical elements on which our life is based. The body is composed of elements that come from the Earth. If we do not obey the laws, we suffer, not only psychologically, but physically. The diseases that strike the human body are caused by the fault of people themselves.”

“Apart from studying, the pupils also grew food for the community. The food of the spirit was complemented with food for the body. This way, young people had great esteem for all that surrounded them. They learned, according to the order established by the Creator, that they could use plants and the animals for their food and to build their houses. They had permission to use them, but they were to request them through prayer so that they would acknowledge that what they took was a gift. This way, they did not upset Nature’s balance. They accepted the gifts, and the life that surrounded them remained such as it was. Still today, each Hopi will request and thank; that is important, and our people should always do it. This second phase was, in fact, the true beginning of their studies, and all this knowledge accompanied them throughout their lives.”

“On the third floor of the building were the young people who had passed the first two stages of education. They were between 12 and 20 years old. Before reaching the third stage, they had exposure to various people, mentalities and thoughts. They were ripe enough to make their own observations and experiments. At this point, they had to learn about the human body, the spirit and our divine origin. Initially, they dealt with the head. The Creator gave us a marvellous instrument: the brain. There, all the thoughts coordinate with the physical aspect of the human being.”

“The pupils also studied the structure of the spirit and how the Creator acts on humanity and all that exists in the universe. He who knows everything perfectly no longer experiences any language barriers. He can communicate with the plants, the animals and each creature of our world. That constituted a part of what was taught on the third floor—to harmonise this marvellous spirit with that of God, as you say, or with our Creator, as our people say.”

Hopi spirituality has a unique perspective on sound and speech, as White Bear related:

“The sound waves that we produce affect not only those who listen to us but the entire universe, and for this reason, speech must be harmonious. In that way, we praise the Creator. This is why the Hopi in their ceremonies use song to praise Nature and the elements that surround them. All that we say is continuously recorded, but everything that a human being says during his life does not take more room than a pinhead.”

“Everything that was said during the Third World is kept in a cave somewhere in South America. My grandmother spoke to me about it one day, but she also said that nobody knows the location of this cave anymore.”

Relations between the Clans

White Bear added to his previous statements about the clans of the Hopi ancestors.

“The clans that started from Palatquapi built many cities. Some ruins of these cities were later found, and more will be discovered in the future. This way, there will be more evidence of our traditions.”

“The capital of the Clan of the Bow was the great capital centre at Tikal [in today’s Guatemala]. There was found a sculpture of a stone head with a snake in its mouth. It portrays the Saaviki divinity. Yucatán [in southeastern Mexico] was populated by the very powerful Clan of the Snake. There, too, many cities were built. Chichén Itzá was its capital. On many rocks, a serpent with feathers is visible.”

“The chiefs of these clans had left Palatquapi because they wanted to reign, and soon they felt themselves as strong as the leader of Palatquapi. So eventually there was dissension and another war. The Clan of the Snake and the Clan of the Bow — the parts of these clans that had left Palatquapi — fought each other. Finally, as a consequence of the wars, the cities were destroyed.”

“The continual attacks against the divine laws had caused such a perversion of the social order that people no longer wanted to live there. In this degraded atmosphere nobody could correctly fulfil their religious obligations. They could only leave again in migration.”

“Some of these clans settled here in Shongopovi, then in Oraibi, and finally in Hotevilla-Bacavi [all in Navajo County, Arizona],” White Bear said. “This is why, still today in Hotevilla-Bacavi, we celebrate the feathered serpent.”

Hopi Ancestor Symbolism

White Bear felt impelled to convey to us important information about the symbolism of the Hopi and their ancestors.

“When we settled in South America, we started to document our presence. We expressed our historical and spiritual knowledge through symbols. We do it still today because we inherited these symbols from our fathers and we understand the figures and lines. We know what they mean and can express ourselves through these symbols,” White Bear explained.

“We left our symbols everywhere we lived or migrated to. One can find the evidence of our knowledge in all of South America up through North America — in drawings, ceramics, buildings, and so on. People say that we did not have writing. But the symbols are precisely our writing, and these are the messages which are present everywhere on the two continents and which are not yet destroyed.”

“We wrote our symbols on rock because it is not easy to destroy them over time. We decorated our ceramics with symbols, and we still use them today. Each time that we abandoned a provisional settlement during our migrations, our children broke all the ceramics in the village and left them as a legacy. Ceramics cannot be destroyed. One can break a ceramic item, but the pieces always remain. Other people and future generations will come and will find them, and they will know that we were there before them,” White Bear said.

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“Then there are the buildings and the ruins. If one pays attention to some characteristic signs, one can find them everywhere from South America to here. For example, there are circular and square towers. The round tower is the female symbol; the square tower the male symbol. The ‘T-form’ or ‘keyhole’ is very important. We have used it since the First World. This form is a symbol for the plan of the Creator. This is why the foundations of our kivas incorporate this T-form.”

“And as I speak about the kivas, I want to add some other symbolic meanings found in these constructions. The lower floor represents the First World, the upper floor, the Second World, and the entire construction from the back to the front represents the Third World. The elevated platform on the flat roof represents our current world, the Fourth World. Now you can understand why the kivas are so important to us.”

“Naturally, there are the large buildings of the past. The references to the multiple worlds are evident. So much symbolism and knowledge are expressed through them, in the number of floors within the pyramids and the number of doors in the roofs of the buildings: the three worlds of the past, the Fourth and current world, and the Fifth World, and in total the seven worlds which humanity must cross. Even the nine worlds are mentioned, these other two worlds belonging to the Creator.”

“Consider the sculptures and the positions of the buildings. We could write a book about the significance of the discoveries in the Central and South American ruins. All these things have a significance, and the history is registered everywhere. We are people having a spiritual orientation, and the historians and the archaeologists must realise that they initially will have to understand us before being able to explain the ruins,” White Bear advised.

“Today we carry these symbolic figures with us — or, rather, in us, not in a material form, but in a more subtle way. For example, during a ceremony when the Kachinas dance in the village square, they form their groups at only three places to show the three worlds which we crossed. They cannot form a fourth group since the Fourth World is not finished.”

“I must also mention the songs that we sing during the ceremonies. Such a song comprises five stanzas, which means that we will go into the Fifth World. As you see, the Hopi know exactly where they are located in the plan of the Seven Worlds — between the Third, which was destroyed, and the Fifth, the next world that we must reach. We know that we are in the Fourth World, located in the middle of seven worlds which we must cross. We do not need to say it because everything is expressed symbolically in our ceremonies.”

“All the symbolism used by the Hopi points out the truth to us that we learned a long time ago. But only we Hopi know and fully understand this symbolism; no other tribe can approximate our understanding, even if many of them use Hopi symbols now. They only see the outside and do not really understand them. If you see our symbols somewhere in South America, in Central America or here in North America, realise that we still know what they mean today.”

“And do not forget that the knowledge of the Hopi is even wider. Know that our voices, even without sound, are recorded in the atmosphere and are indestructible! Rocks and ruins can disappear one day, but what we say and what occurs in our hearts on a higher level will never be destroyed,” White Bear assured.

“I spoke to you much about our history, the history of the Hopi people. I know it may not correspond to your current beliefs. Naturally, the scientists will want to correct us as they always do! They do not understand us, and therefore cannot understand our history and our opinions. But we Hopi recognise in the events of today the same things as happened towards the end of the Third World. We see what occurs in the world—corruption, and killing, and we know that we are on a path towards destruction!”

“We can avoid this terrible end if we return to the path of the Creator, but I do not believe it will happen. The next great catastrophe is not that far away—only a few years. That must seem strange to you in your world, but we know it. We Hopi know it.”

 


 

Postscript: To “make this life beautiful and clean again”

Thomas Banyacya of  Kykotsmovi Village, Hopi Nation (Arizona)

 After World War Two, Thomas Banyacya was one of four Hopis (along with Dan Evehema, Dan Katchongva, and David Monongye) who had been appointed by Hopi elders to reveal certain teachings and prophecies to the general public. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were understood to represent fulfillment of a specific Hopi prophecy that described “a gourd full of ashes” that would fall from the sky, killing life on land and in the sea.

In November 1995, the Sacred Land Film Project followed Thomas to the Whole Life Expo in Las Vegas where he made two, hour-long presentations over two days:


The Sacred Land Film Project also recorded Mr. Banyacya on top of Third Mesa in Hopiland making the following comments:

“When [we] have a ceremony, [we] offer this prayer to these four sacred mountains —we send [spiritual energy] to the edges (four directions). That’s how we keep it in balance. White people don’t understand this kind of thing. They’re only into their money and job and a good time. They don’t care about land. They want to sell and buy and destroy everything. That’s what the old people say [the white people] are going to do. They got a sweet tongue and will take everything from you – make you believe a lie when he tell you right in front of you. He knows how to give you one thing and take something else away from you quicker.

So [the elders] told us, “When they do that, someplace they’re going to start to suffer terrible things, like earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes – upheavals in the land – tidal waves.  We have not [been able to] correct wrong things from happening. That’s why we went to the United Nations – to give all the foreign governments a chance to do something with their laws. [Full speech text here]

In the first and second worlds, the people did nothing, so it’s up to the people in the fourth world since we are the caretakers of Mother Earth; we are the ones who are supposed to make corrections and make changes. Of course, you are voters, taxpayers. You are supposed to do something, but if you don’t, nature is going to really take over.

This is where we are right now. We can either bring about a third world war, and destroy ourselves, or disturb nature so much, nature will act so strongly so there’s no way to survive.

But if we find this to be true, we can correct it, stop this wrongdoing, and make this life beautiful and clean again.


 

A version of this article has also been published by NEXUS magazine, September 2017

 

Shawn Hamilton is a teacher and reporter in California. He began his teaching career in Taiwan in 1989 when large rallies were supporting the protesters at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. He returned to the relative calm of the United States and took a teaching position in Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles, in time for the rioting that occurred there, sparked by an unpopular court decision.
Hamilton moved to Sacramento where he taught college classes part-time and covered the capitol as a reporter for Pacifica Radio’s KPFA in Berkeley. He received a Project Censored award in 2011.
As a teenager, Hamilton was introduced to Oswald “White Bear” Fredericks by his high school anthropology teacher, and he became intrigued by native cultures. The experience led to his traveling to Meta Tantay, the camp of Shoshone healer John “Rolling Thunder” Pope in Nevada. While attending Humboldt State University in the California redwoods a few years later, Hamilton took classes in Native American Studies and began participating in ritual sweat lodge ceremonies on the Eel River. He said these experiences changed his life.
Shawn Hamilton can be reached at [email protected]
For more information, visit his website: http://theswillbucket.com/

10 thoughts on “Legacy Of Kásskara: Hopi History, Spirituality And Symbolism”

  1. Shawn Hamilton says:

    I invite readers to see the section entitled, “Postscript: To ‘make this life beautiful and clean again’ that follows the article. It features Thomas Banyacya of Kykotsmovi Village, Hopi Nation (Arizona) and includes some excellent footage provided by The Sacred Land Film Project https://sacredland.org/

  2. Rampagingoldknee says:

    Fascinating read Shawn! What strikes me is the level of specificity and overall congruence White Bear’s comments and explanations. It all forms a clear, detailed history, and it also questions the definition of history. If history is the written record of human past, then White Bear’s explanation of their symbolism as being a form of writing implies that the historical human record is much older than generally understood.

  3. Rampagingoldknee says:

    …congruence of White Bear’s comments…

  4. Shawn Hamilton says:

    It’s so obvious to me at this point in my life and studies that for several thousand years humanity has been systematically lied to about its origins and historical past. I believe the deception has been intentional and served the selfish interests of powerful institutions. I’ve mentioned the Catholic Church and Freemasonry in past writings, but there are others.

    An odd thing occurred as I was writing this series:

    This material involves ancient spaceships and energy-based weapons of mass destruction, and other improbable manifestations of the human mind that today many of us can’t even imagine the ancients as having possessed. According to the conventional view, such ideas of ancient technology and competence seem ridiculous and impossible and weird, yet as I have been reporting this Hopi history, it has increasingly felt as if I’m relating history even more plausible than most of the historical tales I learned in school.

    I have to remind myself sometimes that the average person will likely perceive this paradigm-busting material as madness, yet to me it seems so natural and sane!

  5. Kelly says:

    Hopi know. We must listen.

  6. Bridget Bucknell says:

    Thank you Hopi.
    I send positive thouhts for all of humanity to see and change.

  7. Nikola Hecht says:

    what I dont understand… the reason for diferent races?

  8. Shawn+Hamilton says:

    In his essay “The Lowest Animal” Mark Twain notes that “the human race is of one distinct species. It exhibits slight variations (in color, stature, mental caliber, and so on) due to climate, environment, and so forth; but it is a species by itself, and not to be confounded with any other.”

    Twain was anticipating the more modern idea that there really is no such thing as race —an idea detailed in articles such as National Geographic’s “There’s No Scientific Basis for Race—It’s a Made-Up Label” https://tinyurl.com/yxcvk55g

  9. DebraAnn Palmer says:

    If it’s up to man to correct mistakes before self destruction we are doomed.

  10. Kennan Seaman says:

    Fascinating articles all! Thank you!

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