Quetzal: His Nature and Deeds

Quetzal and Quetzalcoatl

In progress

Quetzal and the Seraphim

Quetzal is a saraph, that is, one of the seraphim, "flying fiery serpents" (saraph uwph saraph) in Isaiah 14:26 and 30:6 in the King James Version of the Bible.  The following is the definition of saraph according to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance: 

saraph (saw-rawf') burning, i.e. (figuratively) poisonous (serpent); specifically, a saraph or symbolical creature (from their copper color):--fiery (serpent), seraph. 

But of course saraphs are also angels as in Isaiah's use of the word in chapter 6:   

¹In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. ²Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. ³And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. ⁴And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. ⁶Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: ⁷And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. (KJV)   

So, Quetzel is an angel. Actually, he is a fallen angel, a demon, since during his conversation with Remora he tells the Adam and Eve story as related in the Chrasmological Writings and reveals the inhumi's intent among humanity: 

"A-man and Wo-man like rabbits in a garden. The--what do you call them?...The cobra persuaded Wo-man to eat fruit from his tree, miraculous fruit whose taste conferred wisdom...It is all in the Writings. Or nearly all. A god called Ah Lah barred Wo-man and her husband from the garden...We seem to have lost sight of Ah Lah, by the way. I can't recall a single sacrifice to him. No one ever asks why the cobra wanted Wo-man to eat his fruit...In order that she would climb his tree, Patera. The man likewise. Their story's not over because they haven't climbed down."  

So the inhumi are to be identified with the serpent in the Garden of Eden -- and of course in the Book of Revelation, Satan himself is identified as that serpent (Rev. 20:2) (but not as much as one would think -- see Midas of Urth).

Quetzal and Jesus 

In Numbers 21 there is another saraph. Here the Israelites are again discouraged and grumbling against God and Moses. So God sends among the people "fiery serpents (saraph nachash; "venomous snakes" in the NIV) which bite them. God tells Moses to craft a seraph, a fiery serpent, and raise it on a pole -- the commentators usually explain this as a bronze or brass serpent ("fiery" referring to its color). Whoever looked this saraph was healed.  

In John 3:14, this saraph is identified as a type or pre-figurement of Jesus on the cross. Quetzal does die by impalement from a needler wound at a "t-cross" in the tunnels. Furthermore, as the Prolocutor, Quetzal is equivalent to the Pope in the Catholic Church, who is doctrinally equivalent to Jesus. But by the time Quetzal enters the story, he is the false Prolocutor since the position has already been given to Incus. 

So Quetzal is false Christ, an Anti-Christ. But there is danger for wolves to impersonate the Good Shepherd for as the Outsider tells Silk: "When a demon mimics a god, it can not help in some ways becoming like a god." Just so, Quetzal is killed protecting his flock from Trivigaunte soldiers (that is, lions or at least the children of lions) as he tries to "shepherd" his flock to Green, a hellish world of inhumi demons -- for Hell is the Heaven of the Anti-Christ.

A satyr with a thyrsus

1. Quetzal, the inhume Prolocutor, copies Dionysus' effeminate upbringing in that he wears make-up (he says) "like a woman" to pass as human. Quetzal does not make his appearance in the Long Sun story until after Scylla gives the position to Incus (a woman augur passing as a man). Thus, the first time we meet Quetzal in the Prolocutor's palace (Caldé of the Long Sun, chapter 1), he is living in a "woman's quarters"
   
2. Quetzel’s serpentine form represents Dionysus' Serpent epiphany. 
   
3. Quetzal carries a "baculus: a staff that symbolizes authority. It is also a nasty wooden mace; a club with a large knot on the end. Because it was cheaply made or bought, it was used by medieval conscripted soldiers and was capable of taking out even armored adversaries. Basically, it is a carved version of a thysrus.  

A bacillus is a small bone in the penises of certain large mammals, referencing the Dionysus’ orgasmic celebrations. 

Finally, the word "baculus is similar to "bacchus" (the Roman name for Dionysus). The words differ in only two letters which look similar as well: "ul" for "ch". 

One wants to presume that the word inhuma is merely “inhuman” shortened just as “bios” and “chem” are short for “biochemical” and “chemical” and “Stoney” is Chenille’s shortened nickname for Corporal Hammerstone. But that is a red herring because actually “inhuma” is not short for inhuman. They have both have two syllables. "Inhuma" in place of “inhuman” saves only writing the letter “n”. "Inhuma" in this sense is the sort of made-up, future-sounding name that is frequently used in science fiction literature, but anyone familiar with the Wolfe’s Sun Series’ will recognize that such a usage is totally out-of-place here.

Inhuma is also the Spanish word for “inhume" which means “to place in a grave or to bury." This implies the vampirish nature of the Inhumi, but that was almost certainly an addition after Wolfe had already decided on the word.

Primarily, inhuma  is a Carajas Indian word (with some Portuguese influence in the pronunciation) for the Kamichi or Unicorn Bird. The word “inhuma" survives today in the names of many towns along the Amazon. The Brazilian inhuma (Anhima, Palamedea, cornuta) is about 85 cm long. Often it is domesticated and kept with poultry which it defends against birds of prey – just as Quetzal shepherded the Vironese through the tunnels under Viron to save them from the Trivigaunte. It has a small thorn concealed in each wing just as the inhumi have a retractable pair of hidden fangs. And it has a single horn-like ornament in the middle of its forehead. The tupi-guarani name for it is “na'um” which means "black bird" (hear that Oreb?) due to the black feathers of its body back, although the its crown breast and wings' upper feathers are white (the white headed one?). It is endangered because the Carajas and villagers have hunted it, believing its horn has magical properties. 

But what does a chickenish bird like the Anhima have to do with the powerful and mysterious Inhumi of the Whorl? Well, another name for the Brazilian inhuma is "Horned Screamer", and one of Dionysus' appellations is "Iacchus" which means "the Screamer". This is the connection between Dionysus and the Unicorn Bird -- this is the "horn" of Dionysus.

Dionysus = “the horned god Iacchus” = Horned Screamer = Inhuma

The Circles Under Silk's Eyes

“On the men's cheekbones two little circles were cut; they were the size of a the rim of a twelve-bore cartridge and showed up black against the skin, as though they had been branded. This used to be a universal mark throughout the tribe, but it is disappearing. I remember a theory of Dr. Carlos' that Caraja meant 'Four Eyes'; the etymological derivation was plausible, and now those scars, sketching the eyes in duplicate, made the name seem a likely one” 
Brazillian Adventure, chap. 15

Silk also draws circles on his cheek when he is perceiving something — as though the very act empowers him with extra insight.

Silk nodded while his right forefinger drew small circles on his cheek. "I see". Exodus of the Long Sun, pg 126 

Silk paused, his forefinger tracing circles on his cheek. "You're emotionally involved. Oreb senses it, and so do I.” Ibid pg 174

Silk’s forefinger drew small circles on his cheek,… “I see.” Ibid pg 246

It is revelatory then that Fleming mentions the definition of "caraja" as "four eyes," since a "four-eyes" is a name for someone who wears glasses. Silk wears his spectacles exactly once (during the exorcism at Orchid's brothel) and bemoans their loss after the crash of the floater. His eyesight is frequently referred to as myopic, although like Helios he is all-seeing, making acute observations (consider his attention to detail at Orpine's murder).

Quetzal and Moses

Into this morass, Wolfe steps in and declares order -- the demon-Dionysus shall be the demon-Moses -- the founders of two religions that Tacitus claims are "diametrically opposed." Dionysus is educated and Moses is taught the Law on the same mountain according to Sharpe. Just as Moses led the Israelites to the Jordan River within sight of the Promised Land, but was disallowed to cross over with them, so Quetzal leads them to through the Vironese tunnels to the landers that will take them across the divide of space to their colonies. Like the original Moses, Quetzal is dies on the near side of the divide as the people cross over.

"[Alexander] subsequently pictured himself on his coins with two horns. He appears in the Koran as Dhul Karnain, 'the two-horned'. Moses was also 'two-horned', [due to a supposed mistranslation of Exodus 34:29-30 in the Vulgate] and in Arabian legend 'El Hidr, the ever-young prophet', a former Sun-hero of Sinai, befriended both Moses and Alexander 'at the meeting place of two seas'. To the learned Gwion, therefore, a banner borne before Alexander was equally a banner borne before Moses; and St. Jerome, or his Jewish mentors, had already made a poetic identification of Alexander's horns with those of Moses."

If Quetzal is Moses, who then is Alexander? The answer is Typhon. Note the following reference to Typhon by Chenille while possessed and fully controlled by Kypris: 

"And he came to rule the whole--whorl. Our whorl, bigger than this. So fast. All in a few years. No one could believe it." 

This is an unmistakable parallel to Alexander the Great. 

Finally, according to Sharpe, the Egyptian god Kneph was " the Wind, or Air, or Breath of our bodies, [he] was supposed to be the god of Animal and Spiritual Life. He has the head and horns of a ram." Likely, Ammon-Ra's depiction with a ram's head was a subsummation of Kneph by Ammon. Pas is also a wind god, since his most accurate manifestation is considered to be a whirlwind or tornado. Also, "Typhon" is the bitter south wind as mentioned in Acts 27:13, from which we get the word "typhoon." So Quetzal and Pas are the "two horned-ones" rather than the "two-horned ones" that were the original Moses and Alexander.

Quetzal and Alchemy

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